History Trivia / TheAvengers1998

** Roger Lloyd Pack filmed scenes as a professor working on the Prospero Programme during an opening sequence which was deleted from the final print. He can still be glimpsed in the trailer.

* CreatorChosenCasting:
** Jeremiah Chechik and producer Jerry Weintraub cast Creator/RalphFiennes as John Steed after seeing ''Film/TheEnglishPatient''.
** Creator/UmaThurman was the dream choice to play Emma Peel of both Weintraub and screenwriter Don [=MacPhearson=]. In fact, Weintraub approached her about the role before it was offered to anyone else.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Plans to make a feature film of ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' date back to 1987 when producer Jerry Weintraub bought the rights to the series. Screenwriter Dave Rogers, who had written several episodes of the series, attended a meeting where he advised the producer on the series' style and Weintraub briefly enticed Creator/MelGibson, who was a fan of the series, to play John Steed. Gibson's casting was leaked to the press, with the Australian newspaper ''The Sunday Mail'' reporting that he would play the role like his hero, Creator/CaryGrant and that he had bought the rights to the series. Gibson denied that he had bought the rights and said that he would never consider playing Steed, as he thought that Creator/PatrickMacnee was perfection. In 1989, Weintraub hired Sam Hamm, fresh off the huge success of ''Film/Batman1989'', to write the script. Hamm completed a script, but Weintraub Entertainment suffered a number of flops and so the funding for the film became scarce. In September 1990, the company declared bankprupcy, Weintraub resigned from his own company and became a producer for Creator/WarnerBros, whom he convinced to back the film having produced three movies for them. Creator/DavidFincher told ''Starlog'' in 1993 that Weintraub had asked him to write and direct the film, but declined due to creative differences - Fincher wanted to shoot in black and white and hoped to cast Creator/CharlesDance as Steed, having worked with him on ''Film/Alien3''. Meanwhile, Hamm's script featured the first meeting between Steed and Emma Peel. However, wanting to create something that would appeal to a nineties audience, he revised the characters, giving them completely different backgrounds and personalities, but retaining the names. This was exactly what Warner Bros. didn't want, so he was paid off in the summer of 1993 and Don [=McPhearson=], a fan of the series, was brought in. Beginning in January 1994, they spent five months crafting a new script. Weintraub once again hoped to cast Gibson as Steed, with Creator/SharonStone as Mrs. Peel (he'd just produced ''Film/TheSpecialist'', which she co-starred in). The planned shooting date of Feburary 1995 came and went and production still hadn't begun. Then Creator/NicholasMeyer was brought in to direct. He promptly re-wrote [=MacPhearson=]'s screenplay, but Warner Bros. disliked his new script and rejected it, so Meyer left the project. [=MacPhearson=] was then brought back to write another draft. Jeremiah Chechick was brought on as director in October 1995, the film was finally given the green light in Feburary 1996 and production finally started on June 1997.