The first draft of The Mighty screenplay was 127 pages long.
Obviously, to end up with a movie less than 100 minutes long, several scenes were cut from the screenplay and film.
Below are descriptions of seven major sequences deleted from The Mighty, as well as the original excerpts from Charles Leavitt's screenplay.
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Leavitt's first draft contained a rather long opening sequence that was very faithful to the first chapter of the novel Freak the Mighty. In these scenes, we learn that Max and Kevin have encountered one another earlier in their childhoods, first in day care, then in elementary school. Some of Max's voice-over in this sequence was retained in the final film, but much of it was cut from the script, especially the portions that elaborated on the poverty, desperation, and domestic abuse in Max's Cincinnati neighborhood. (Note that in this draft, Gram and Grim are on welfare in order to raise Max.)
Leavitt's first draft also includes a scene lifted almost word-for-word from the novel: the scene where Kevin and his mother Gwen move into the neighborhood down the street from Max's home. The final film changed it so that Max and Kevin are next-door neighbors, and the move-in takes place off screen.
This must have been a wonderful scene, but I guess they had to delete it from the movie to speed up the first act of the story. This scene takes place just after Kevin offers Max five dollars to take him to the Riverfest fireworks. In the final film, that scene immediately cuts to Max and Kevin already at the Riverfest. In this deleted scene, we see Gwen's reaction to learning the identity of Kevin's new best friend. (If you look closely at the Riverfest scene in the film, you'll notice that Max is wearing the "Zombie" tee-shirt described in this deleted scene.)
The image to the left was taken from the trailer for the movie, but it was originally from this deleted scene. Notice that in the final film, there is only one short scene taking place in Kevin's room (when Gwen finds his "I Will Explain" note). However, two scenes taking place in the room were filmed, then cut from the film. This is the first. In it, we get a clearer picture of Kevin's medical condition when Max discovers his collection of medications. We also see a great example of how powerful their imaginations have become.
While watching the final cut of the movie, you may have noticed a rather abrupt change in tone about two-thirds of the way through the story. The whimsical scene where Kevin first takes Max to the "biogenetics lab" is immediately followed by a dark scene where a depressed Max shoots hoops in the rain, then has a minor nervous breakdown because he thinks he's just like his father. The reason for the sudden shift in tone is because this sequence was deleted. In it, we see the toll that Kevin's hospitalization has taken on his mind and attitude. He begins to resent having to be carried around by Max. The sequence ends with Kevin actually striking Max, which explains Max's depression in the rainy basketball scene. The trailer for the movie contained a brief shot from this sequence, where Kevin falls while trying to walk. Also, Rodman Philbrick mentions the filming of this scene in his journal from the set of the movie. (You can find a link to that on the interviews page.)
Although Leavitt's first draft remains remarkably faithful to the novel, one major departure was the scene where Max is kidnapped by his father. In the first draft, Blade and the Doghouse Boys are paid by Kenny Kane to lure Max into an alley, where he is abducted. The scene also introduces the personal computer subplot that concludes with the deleted scene at the end of this page. Ironically, in the final movie, the filmmakers went back and staged the kidnapping scene almost exactly like it was in the novel.
This is the second deleted scene taking place in Kevin's room. Didn't you find it odd that in the final movie, Kevin gives Max a Christmas gift, but Max has nothing to give his best friend? In this scene, which was originally the first scene in the Christmas dinner sequence, we see that Max has helped Gwen pick out a gift for Kevin: a personal computer. A couple of shots from this scene were in the movie's trailer.
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