The Black Stallion/Production

Filming took place in Gearhart & Nehalem in Oregon and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It took two years for the film to be completed.
After it was done, United Artists shelved it for another two years, but Francis Ford Coppola (the father of composer Carmine Coppola) was able to make sure the movie reached theaters.
The beach and island scenes were filmed in Sardinia, Italy and the race scenes were filmed at the Fort Erie Racetrack in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada.
An Egyptian Arabian race horse named El Mokhtar was the producers' first choice to portray the Black Stallion, but his owners declined the offer. He would later appear in the sequel The Black Stallion Returns.
A champion Arabian stallion named Cass Ole was featured in most of the scenes in the movie and another Black Stallion named Fae Jur was the main double for Cass Ole. During the running, swimming and fighting scenes, two other stunt doubles were used in the film. 
For the movie, Cass Ole had to wear hair extensions to make his mane look like a wild horse's mane. He also had white markings on his legs and forehead & the white needed to be covered with a black hair dye to transform him into the Black Stallion.
The cobra scene took two days to film because it refused to spread its hood for the longest time. During filming, Kelly Reno was separated from the cobra by a pane of glass.
A sequence in the film that made everyone apprehensive was when the Black stomps and kills a cobra that was threatening Alec. A group of snakes were flown in from Milan with a handler who assured the filmmakers that they had been milked of their deadly venom. Just to be on the safe side, a special serum was kept on hand, but as it turned out, it didn't have to be used.
The last segment on the shooting schedule was the shipwreck scene, which was filmed at the Cinecitta Studios in Cinecitta, Rome, Lazio in Italy and took three weeks to film. The two portions of the ship (which was an actual-size deck and stern) were designed & assembled by art director Aurelio Crugola and lasted three months. The stern was set on a platform in the tank that had cables attached to pull it in the water as it sinks. 
Category:Production