<P> Tom Hanks once stated in an Actor Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter that "...I wanted to examine the concept of four years of hopelessness, in which you have none of the requirements for living--food, water, shelter, fire and company". But it took six years to put together the alliance that would actually examine that . (Hanks) only had a third of (the story), and (screenwriter) Bill Broyles only had a third of it, (director) Bob Zemeckis came along and provided that other third . Hanks also went on to say "I had that original idea . I was reading an article about FedEx, and I realized that 747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day . And I just thought, "What happens if that goes down?" </P> <P> The film's shooting occurred between 1998 and 2000, but was not shot consecutively . Hanks gained 50 pounds (23 kg) during pre-production, for the purpose of making his transformation more dramatic . After a majority of the film was shot, production was halted for a year so that he could lose the weight and grow his hair and beard to look like he had been living on the island for years . During the year - long hiatus, Zemeckis used the same film crew to make another film, What Lies Beneath . </P> <P> Cast Away was filmed on Monuriki, one of the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji . It is in a subgroup of the Mamanuca archipelago, which is sited off the coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island . The island became a tourist attraction following the film's release . After Chuck's return, it is identified by Kelly as being "about 600 miles south of the Cook Islands," but there is actually no land between the southernmost Cook Islands of Mangaia and Antarctica . </P> <P> The film essentially begins and ends in the same location, on the Arrington Ranch in the Texas Panhandle south of the city of Canadian, Texas . </P>

What island did they film cast away on