Edna Ferber was supposedly inspired to write her 1952 bestseller Giant when she stayed at the Shamrock Hotel in Houston and met its owner, Irish immigrant turned Texas oil man Glenn McCarthy, the alleged inspiration for the character of Jett Rink.

Several Hollywood studios made offers for the film rights, but Ferber went with producer-director George Stevens because he promised to remain faithful to the novel. Although he did not really stick to that promise, he gave Ferber a role on the production team and enlisted her for an uncredited re-write on the script for Giant.

Stevens, former Paramount Pictures head Henry Ginsberg and Ferber formed Giant Productions in 1953 to produce the film and quickly found a home at Warner Bros. None of them took an upfront salary for the film, working instead for a percentage of the profits.

Stevens's first choice to play Leslie Benedict was Grace Kelly, but she was so heavily booked he turned to Elizabeth Taylor, whom he had previously directed in A Place in the Sun (1951). Knowing Kelly was getting all the hot roles at MGM, Taylor had campaigned vigorously for the chance to play Leslie. MGM agreed to loan her to Warner's in exchange for $175,000 and James Dean, whom they wanted to play Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956).

Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and William Holden all expressed interest in playing Bick Benedict, but Stevens cast Rock Hudson after seeing him as a gunfighter who ages over 30 years in The Lawless Breed (1953). In return for approving the loan to Warner Bros., Hudson's home studio, Universal, forced him to extend his contract another four years. In addition, Hudson's agent, Henry Wilson, took advantage of his client's signing by securing roles for two other actors he represented, Jane Withers and Fran Bennett.

Stevens wanted to cast Alan Ladd, the star of Shane (1953) as Jett Rink, but Ladd's wife, agent Sue Carol, advised against his accepting the second male lead. Stevens also considered Robert Mitchum and Montgomery Clift for the role.

Dean was eager to appear in Giant for the chance to work with Stevens and to share billing with top Hollywood stars Taylor and Hudson. He made friends with Stevens's assistant Fred Guiol, which gave him an excuse to visit Stevens's offices during breaks in work on East of Eden (1955). It was seeing his first starring performance, however, that convinced Stevens to cast the sensitive actor, even though the character in the book was described as a tougher type.

When Taylor became pregnant with her second child by husband Michael Wilding, production had to be pushed back three months. That gave Warner Bros. time to cast Dean in his most iconic film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

According to Hudson, Stevens did most of his direction of the actors before filming started, in meetings to help them understand their characters and by involving them in production decisions. One day he took Hudson to the production shop where the massive Victorian house at Reata was being built. Most of the house was just lumber at that point, but Stevens asked him what color the house should be. Hudson thought about the Victorian era, then said "Tan with brown trim, I guess." Stevens immediately told the production crew to paint it that color.

As part of his direction of Hudson, Stevens took him to screenings of films starring Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy and pointed out the performance elements he wanted to see in Bick.

Wanting to emphasize the height of the Benedict mansion, the oil wells and Rink's hotel, Stevens chose not to work in the new Cinemascope format. Giant is one of the few '50s epics not filmed in that process.

Gary Cooper happened to be at Warner Bros. the day Mercedes McCambridge was doing hair and makeup tests. When he got a look at the brand new Stetson she was supposed to wear in the film, he said, "You mean to sit there and tell me that a Texan woman who spends most of her waking hours in the middle of hundreds of head of cattle would be caught dead in that stupid store hat?" He called a wardrobe man he had worked with, and gave McCambridge an old hat he had worn in other films. It even had his name in the band. When McCambridge noticed the water stains, she asked if it had been rained on. "Nope," he replied. "Peed on a lot! That's what makes it such a fine Texas hat. No self-respecting rancher wears a hat that his horse hasn't peed on!"

Three days before shooting was scheduled to start on Giant, Dean was entered in an auto race in Palm Springs. When Stevens found out, he put his foot down and insisted the actor not be allowed to race until after production was finished.

by Frank Miller