<P> While traveling through the Southern United States in around 1998, Martin McDonagh came across a couple of accusatory billboards about an unsolved crime, which he described as "raging and painful and tragic (sic)". The billboards highlighted the incompetence of police work and deeply affected McDonagh; he said that the image "stayed in my mind (...) kept gnawing at me" and presumed that they were put up by the victim's mother . This incident, combined with his desire to create strong female characters, inspired him to write the story for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri . McDonagh discussed the creative process, saying that it took him about ten years to "(decide) that it was a mother who had taken these things out . It all became fiction (...) based on a couple of actual billboards". </P> <P> The character of Mildred was written with Frances McDormand in mind, and likewise the character of Dixon was written specifically for Rockwell . McDormand initially felt that she was older than the character as it was written, and suggested that Mildred instead be Angela's grandmother; McDonagh disagreed, feeling that it would change the story too much . McDormand's husband Joel Coen persuaded her to take the part regardless . McDormand took inspiration for her character from John Wayne; and Rockwell, wanting to make his character "the exact opposite" of Mildred, took inspiration for his character in part from Wayne's co-star in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Lee Marvin . </P> <P> Principal photography began on May 2, 2016, in Sylva, North Carolina, and ran for 33 days . Allison Outdoor Advertising of Sylva built the actual billboards, which were put in a pasture near Black Mountain, North Carolina because that location was better . Most of the time the billboards were covered because people in the area found them upsetting . David Penix of Arden, North Carolina bought the billboards and used the wood for a roof in Douglas Lake in Tennessee, though the messages are no longer in order . Town Pump Tavern in Black Mountain, which had appeared in The World Made Straight, was used as a set and was closed for three days during filming . A pool table and booths were added . The bar's actual sign appeared in the movie . </P> <P> The musical score was written by Carter Burwell, who had also supplied the score for McDonagh's films In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths . As well as Burwell's score, the film features songs by Joan Baez, Monsters of Folk, Townes Van Zandt, and the Four Tops . </P>

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