My Giant

My Giant
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Lehmann
Written by	Billy Crystal David Seltzer
Starring	Billy Crystal Kathleen Quinlan Joanna Pacula Gheorghe Muresan
Editing by	Stephen Semel
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	10 April 1998 (US) 12 February 1999 (UK)

My Giant is a 1998 comedy drama film starring Billy Crystal^[1], and NBA player Gheorghe Muresan in his only film appearance. Crystal also co-wrote the story.

Synopsis

A huckster named Sammy (played by Crystal) travels to Romania on business. After a disappointment, he crashes his car and is rescued while unconscious by an enormous Romanian man named Max (Muresan), close to 8 feet tall.

Once he wakes up and interacts with Max, he sees potential stardom in him. Sammy attempts to broker his introduction into the movies. In doing so he exploits Max's desire to visit a long-lost paramour, Lilliana, in Gallup, New Mexico. First, Max obtains the role of a villain in a movie, but he is so drunk that he vomits on the protagonist. However, the scene is included in the movie.

One day, Sammy talks to Steven Seagal about including Max as a villain in one of his movies, convincing him that he needs a different kind of villain. At first Seagal rejects him because there was another actor who would take that role, but he changes his opinion after listening an extract of a Shakesperian play done by Max.

Suddenly, after some medical exams, Max is diagnosed with heart disease, which is incurable by a transplant because Max's heart is so big, so Sammy decides to find Lilliana, until he finally finds her while she was talking to her friends, so he tries to convince her to meet Max again, but she rejects the invitation negligibly. Then, Sammy convinces his wife to take the role of Lilliana and after some words, Max asks her for a kiss.

Sammy eventually decides to return Max home to Romania, he refuses to come back but finally he enters the house and meet his parents again, after they left them when he was born. Sammy ends up watching Max's first filmed scene in a cinema with his family.

Background

The story was inspired by professional wrestler André the Giant, whom Crystal had met during the filming of The Princess Bride. Steven Seagal appeared as himself.

Cast

Actor	Role
Billy Crystal	Sammy Kamin
Gheorghe Muresan	Maximus Zamfirescu
Kathleen Quinlan	Serena Kamin
Joanna Pacuła	Liliana Rotaru
Zane Carney	Nick Kamin
Dan Castellaneta	Partlow

Trivia

In an episode of the TV series Friends, Chandler, who is hiding Monica in his suite, uses watching My Giant as an excuse to try and stop Joey from using the hotel room to sleep with a bridesmaid, only to discover that Joey loves the movie and wants to come into the room to watch it. Later in the episode. Joey talks to Chandler about his acting skills compared to the giant's.

In the episode You May Now Kiss the... Uh... Guy Who Receives of Family Guy, Lois Griffin visits a priest to help her overcome her fear of gay marriage. After watching a film about homosexuals, the priest suggest they watch My Giant. Lois says "Oh, God no".

References

1. ^ International Movie Database