Sleepers is a 1996 American legal crime drama written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson. It arrived with a true-story claim, a fast-tracked production, and a cast that included Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon and Dustin Hoffman. Here are eight things you may not know.
Kevin Bacon did not meet De Niro
As they had previously worked together on Diner, Kevin Bacon was approached by Barry Levinson to play Sean Nokes. He did not read the book until after he accepted the role. Due to the logistics of filming, Bacon did not meet De Niro or Dustin Hoffman until the film’s premiere in Venice.
The movie rights sold for $2.1 million
Lorenzo Carcaterra first submitted a manuscript of his book Sleepers to Ballantine Books, which immediately attracted interest from multiple film companies. Ultimately, Propaganda Films managed to obtain the movie rights for $2.1 million at an auction in February 1995.
Levinson was on board days later
Barry Levinson was attached as director mere days afterward and opted to write the screenplay himself. Brad Pitt was cast alongside Robert De Niro in July 1995, and filming began the following month, in August 1995.
The book was timed to the cast
In response to the fast pace of the production process, Ballantine scheduled the book to be released around the same time that De Niro and Pitt were cast, in August 1995. The first words spoken in the film are: “This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood.”
The true-story claim was challenged
When the film was released, there was controversy about how much of the novel claimed to be a true story and how much had been invented by Carcaterra. The truthfulness and factual accuracy of the film — and the book on which it is based — were challenged by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church and School in Manhattan and by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, among others. Carcaterra has acknowledged that most details in the book were fictionalized but maintained that the events described in the book actually occurred.
Casting swaps changed two roles
Emilio Estevez was cast as John Riley but was already involved in three movies that year. Sandra Bullock was cast as Carol Martinez but was already involved in the movie A Time to Kill and was thus replaced by Minnie Driver.
A strong opening and split reviews
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $12.3 million from 1,915 theaters in the United States and Canada, debuting atop of the box office. Sleepers grossed $53.3 million domestically and $112.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $165.6 million.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 62 reviews. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.” Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A–”. Critics praised the performances of De Niro, Hoffman, Bacon and the young cast, as well as the cinematography and production design. However, multiple critics said the film loses focus in its second half.
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: “Sleepers wants to do something impossible — merge the mournful, drenched-in-shame emotions of child abuse with the huckster gamesmanship of a contraption like The Sting.” Steve Davis of The Austin Chronicle wrote: “What a more interesting film this would have been had Levinson found a way to integrate the past and the present so that one informed the other.”
The 4K edition has a date
The film was released on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD on April 1, 1997, and on Blu-ray on August 2, 2011. The film was also released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on April 21, 2026.
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Facts from Wikipedia: Sleepers (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.