History Trivia / TheFly1986

** The original Charles Edward Pogue screenplay draft (viewable on the Collector's Edition/Blu-Ray releases along with Cronenberg's rewrite) was '''very''' different, and closer to the original short story/1958 film in many ways. The lead characters, named Geoff and Barb, were a married couple -- he a scientist, she a painter who specialized in RomanceNovel covers. Geoff was so much of a HotScientist that Barb modeled the heroes on the covers after him, with the horror of his resultant mutation coming more from [[BeautyToBeast the loss of his looks]] (with his appearance becoming, in effect, the "185-pound fly" that Seth jokes about in the finished film) than his mind until the final third. The principal antagonist was Dewitt, a CorruptCorporateExecutive whose main concern upon learning of Geoff's situation was seizing control of the teleporter from him with the help of Geoff's colleague/friend Harry, who was nursing a crush on Barb that she was tempted to give into as the situation deteriorated. (The finished film's Stathis is a more aggressive, complex version of Harry, while Dewitt is in hindsight a precursor to Anton Bartok, the sequel's straight-up villain). In this version, the climax had Geoff destroy Dewitt and then himself along with his machine, aided by Barb. Barb also ended up pregnant, but unlike Veronica [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion never considers abortion]], deciding that Geoff will live on through their child -- with the NightmareSequence turning out to be a fake-out final shock before the closing reveal that the child is human.

** Former Music/RoxyMusic vocalist Bryan Ferry originally composed and sang a song called "[[https://soundcloud.com/bryanferry/help-me-full-version Help Me]]" at Creator/MelBrooks and Stuart Cornfield's commission, which was originally going to be played over the movie's closing credits. However Creator/DavidCronenberg, despite liking the song, felt that it was inappropriate to the film itself, particularly when put up against Howard Shore's operatic score. After screening it to Brooks and Cornfield, they all agreed that the song didn't mesh with the film, resulting with the song being played only in the film's bar scene and not being included in the movie's soundtrack album, making the song extremely rare (its sole CD release was as part of his 1988 GreatestHitsAlbum ''The Ultimate Collection'', and even then it was only the radio edit). Even so, a VideoFullOfFilmClips [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ1ou28DMEw exists and was given airplay on MTV]]; it downplays that trope by mostly focusing on Ferry, with a short montage of clips coming near the end.

* ImageSource: SlowTransformation

* QuoteSource
** SplitPersonalityTakeover
** WasOnceAMan

* VideoSource: BodyHorror

** Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss and Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon''[[/note]] turned it down. Executive producer Mel Brooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan. Producer Stuart Cornfeld's first choice was Creator/JohnMalkovich, but they couldn't get past his agent, who saw the project as beneath Malkovich. Second choice Creator/WilliamHurt turned it down. The most common reason actors didn't want to do the film, or at least had reservations about it, was the prospect of working under heavy prosthetic makeup. The script reached Jeff Goldblum because he was represented by the same talent agency as the other actors, not because anyone had him in mind, but as soon as he read it and made his case to the filmmakers they realized he was ''exactly'' who was needed.
** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern and Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh were considered, but the producers wanted an unknown.[[note]]Geena Davis had only appeared in three films prior to this, having mostly worked in television up to that point.[[/note]] And, as Cronenberg noted at a 2018 retrospective screening, Geena Davis being comparable in height to Jeff Goldblum was also a key factor! Cronenberg was ready to cast her after her first reading, but producer Stuart Cornfeld wanted to consider a few more actresses first. Cronenberg mentioned in an interview with Serge Grunberg that "I was having to audition a TV actress that Stuart insisted I audition, Shelley...I forget her name, who was sort of big at the time. And it was a disaster." This was most likely Shelley Long, who had just left ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' at the height of its popularity for movies.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Downplayed. While there's a lot aesthetically marking it as a 1980s film -- video cameras (Beta ones at that), audio and video cassettes, EightiesHair, Veronica and Stathis both being smokers, etc. -- the plot wouldn't have to be changed all that much to incorporate modern technology, or even changes in journalism (i.e. the rise of online media over print). Steven Benedict's podcast suggests that the '''reviews''' from 1986-87 have become this because so many critics interpreted the film as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis or illicit drug addiction, rather than the general metaphor for aging and death that Cronenberg intended.

** Scripted, but never filmed, was a segment meant to have followed the deleted monkey-cat scene: A homeless lady screams after interrupting Brundlefly as he feeds out of an open dumpster. Brundlefly seizes the bag lady and disintegrates her face with his vomit drop. Before he finishes feeding on the woman's corpse, Brundlefly's humanity emerges for a moment, just long enough to contemplate the horror of his sub-human existence.

* ProductionPosse: Many recurring Cronenberg collaborators turned up here.

** Finally, this is the ''first'' film that Cronenberg's sister Denise designed costumes for; she would fill the same duty for all of his films thereafter.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge and/or potential claustrophobia of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, ''wanted'' the challenge. He was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', ''and'' he saw it as an opportunity to play a genuine romantic lead for a change (while ''Film/IntoTheNight'' had a TokenRomance and ''Transylvania 6-5000'' gave his character a romantic subplot, here the love story is vital).

* EnforcedMethodActing: Creator/GeenaDavis was genuinely grossed out while filming the scene where Seth's ear falls off.

* DeletedScene: Several sequences were filmed but cut from the final release; most appear on the non-VanillaEdition releases as standalones and/or as part of the making-of documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'':

* TroubledProduction: It wasn't an especially ''painful'' one, but dealing as it did with -- among ''many'' other things -- the first contracted director (Robert Bierman) dropping out in the wake of his daughter's death and being replaced at the last possible moment by Cronenberg, Cronenberg doing a complete rewrite of the script, a real-life couple playing romantic leads, a special effects crew whipping up everything in a ''third'' of the time it normally would get to do so to meet a very short production period (it started shooting in December '85 for an August '86 release date locked down by Fox), and several big scenes not surviving the test screening phase, this movie went through a lot to become the success story it was. Full details can be found on [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroubledProduction/Film0ToL the trope subpage]].

** A second remake was in the works, to be directed by Todd Lincoln, produced by Fox Searchlight, and was to be released in 2006. In fact, on the ''Screen Drafts'' podcast episode covering the Cronenberg filmography guest critic Drew McWeeny explains that multiple writers were approached to try their hands at a remake over the course of a decade, but Fox Searchlight finally gave up when no one could get a handle on it, likely because this version is a ToughActToFollow.

* FocusGroupEnding: FOUR different epilogues were shot and tested, all involving a DreamSequence in which a human baby with butterfly wings emerges from a chrysalis as a counterpart to the maggot baby NightmareSequence. They were: 1) Veronica and Stathis are a couple again and she's carrying ''his'' child rather than Seth's (this is the epilogue in the shooting script), 2) Veronica and Stathis are a couple but she is not pregnant, 3) Veronica is single and not pregnant, 4) Veronica is single and visibly pregnant, meaning she's keeping Seth's child. NONE of them went over well. As the retrospective documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses, the stop-motion work on the "butterfly baby" wasn't of a piece with the film's other effects, and even the cast and crew didn't want endings 1 or 2 because they cheapened the love Seth and Veronica shared. But the ultimate reason the movie ends where it does, according to Creator/DavidCronenberg, was because test audiences were so devastated by Seth's death that they weren't in the mood for a hopeful epilogue immediately afterward.

* MissingTrailerScene: Some promotional materials include photos/clips from the deleted "monkey-cat" reel, which are quickly recognizable to fans because Seth's appearance in that sequence is unique -- he still has the hair he did in the WallCrawl scene, but the rest of him is closer to his final humanoid form.

%% * ReferencedBy: In a review for ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' by the Palm Beach Post, where the reviewer gives the film the same 1 star rating as the former.

** It was also a major stepping stone, though less obviously so, for Creator/GeenaDavis. Prior to this film she was best-known if at all for television work, mostly comedy at that -- this was her fourth film role and first lead.[[note]]A bonus clip from the ''Fear of the Flesh'' documentary has her recounting how, during the long hours spent preparing Goldblum's makeup, she would read books to him -- one of which was Anne Tyler's just-published ''The Accidental Tourist''. She knew that there were already plans for that novel to get [[Film/TheAccidentalTourist a film adaptation]], and she was ruing that there was no hope for ''her'' getting the juicy role of Muriel...but not only did she do so come 1988 (her sixth film, with the major hit ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' in between), she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it![[/note]]

** A second remake was in the works, to be directed by Todd Lincoln, produced by Fox Searchlight, and was to be released in 2006.
** Scripted, but never filmed, was a segment meant to have followed the deleted monkey-cat scene: A homeless lady screams after interrupting Brundlefly as he feeds out of an open dumpster. Brundlefly seizes the bag lady and disintegrates her face with his vomit drop. Before he finishes feeding on the woman's corpse, Brundlefly's humanity emerges for a moment; just long enough to contemplate the horror of his sub-human existence.
** Between ''those'' two scenes, there was an interlude in which Seth went {{Roofhopping}} through the city as a temporary, happy escape from his troubles, but this never made it to the filming stage, likely because the filmmakers didn't have the money/effects resources for it with so much of the rest of the movie effects-reliant. (In the finished film, it's implied that Seth does this to follow and abduct Veronica.)

** Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss and Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon''[[/note]] turned it down. Executive producer Mel Brooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan. Producer Stuart Cornfeld's first choice was Creator/JohnMalkovich, but they couldn't get past his agent, who saw the project as beneath Malkovich. Second choice Creator/WilliamHurt turned it down. The most common reason actors didn't want to do the film, or at least had reservations about it, was the prospect of working under heavy prosthetic makeup. The script reached Jeff Goldblum mainly because he was represented by the same talent agency as the other actors, not because anyone had him in mind, but as soon as he read it and made his case to the filmmakers they realized he was ''exactly'' who was needed.
** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern and Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh were considered, but the producers wanted an unknown.[[note]]Geena Davis had only appeared in three films prior to this, having mostly worked in television up to that point.[[/note]] And, as Cronenberg noted at a 2018 retrospective screening, Geena Davis being comparable in height to Jeff Goldblum was also a key factor in her being cast! In fact, after her first reading Cronenberg was ready to cast her, but producer Stuart Cornfeld wanted to consider a few more actresses first. Cronenberg mentioned in an interview with Serge Grunberg that "I was having to audition a TV actress that Stuart insisted I audition, Shelley...I forget her name, who was sort of big at the time. And it was a disaster." This was most likely Shelley Long, who had just left ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' at the height of its popularity for movies.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Geena Davis was genuinely grossed out while filming the scene where Seth's ear falls off.
** In the cafe scene, Davis's silent, surprised reactions to Seth's rambling, increasingly frantic monologue from "Listen, not to wax messianic" onward are real because that half of the speech was not in the shooting script -- David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum came up with it the night before shooting. This also means the reactions of the waiter in the background when Seth calls for him are genuine.

%% * ReferencedBy: In a review for ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' by the Palm Beach Post, oddly enough, where the reviewer gives the the same 1 star rating as the former.

** Musician [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Ferry Bryan Ferry]] originally composed a song called "[[https://soundcloud.com/bryanferry/help-me-full-version Help Me]]" at Creator/MelBrooks and Stuart Cornfield's commission, which was originally going to be played over the movie's closing credits. However Creator/DavidCronenberg, despite liking the song, felt that it was inappropriate to the film itself, particularly when put up against Howard Shore's operatic score. After screening it to Brooks and Cornfield, they all agreed that the song didn't mesh with the film, resulting with the song being played only in the film's bar scene and not being included in the movie's soundtrack album, making the song extremely rare (its sole CD release was as part of his 1988 GreatestHitsAlbum ''The Ultimate Collection'', and even then it was only the radio edit). Even so, a VideoFullOfFilmClips exists and was given airplay on MTV; it downplays that trope by mostly focusing on Ferry, with a short montage of clips coming near the end.

* MissingTrailerScene: Some promotional materials included photos/clips from the deleted "monkey-cat" reel, which are quickly recognizable to fans because Seth's appearance in that sequence is unique -- he still has the hair he did in the WallCrawl scene, but the rest of him is closer to his final humanoid form.

** Aafter his tryst with Tawny, Seth is often clutching the left side of his abdomen for the next few minutes; some time later when he has figured out how to WallCrawl Seth reveals to Veronica that there is a bizarre growth there and jokes "Oh, look at this. What's this? I dunno." The payoff to this scene was part of the infamous "monkey-cat" DeletedScene that was slotted between Veronica telling Stathis about her pregnancy and her NightmareSequence: Seth, alone in TheMadnessPlace and having just created and slain a hybrid baboon-cat creature with his telepods, is on the roof of the warehouse when a sudden pain from the growth causes him to tumble off. Managing to slide down the wall and land on an awning, he is horrified to see an insect leg emerge from the growth — so he ''bites it off''. In the finished film's climax, the right-side counterpart to the severed leg emerges upon his OneWingedAngel transformation (meaning he was ''supposed'' to have six limbs, just like a fly).

** Finally, this is the ''first'' film that Cronenberg's sister Denise designed costumes for; she would fill the same duty for all of his films from this point onward.

** Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon''[[/note]], Creator/JohnMalkovich (producer Stuart Cornfeld's first choice), and Creator/WilliamHurt (Cornfeld's ''second'' choice) turned it down. Executive producer Mel Brooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan. The most common reason actors didn't want to do the film, or at least had reservations about it, was the prospect of working under heavy prosthetic makeup.

** Early in his transformation, Seth can be seen clutching the left side of his abdomen, around where his stomach is. Later, while climbing on the wall, he shows off a hernia-like bulge in that area and asks Ronnie what she thinks it could be. This was to tie in to the deleted monkey-cat scene, in which an insect leg bursts out of Seth's abdomen and he bites it off. During his final transformation, another leg bursts out of his right side and this bitten-off one would have given him six appendages like a fly.

** There were also short scenes cut for pacing and conversations that ran longer in the original workprint. Just about all of these turn up in the DVD extras.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge and/or potential claustrophobia of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, ''wanted'' that challenge. He was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', ''and'' he saw it as an opportunity to play a genuine romantic lead for a change (while ''Film/IntoTheNight'' had a TokenRomance and ''Transylvania 6-5000'' gave his character a romantic subplot, here the love story was vital).

* ChristmasRushed: 20th Century Fox locked in an August 1986 release date; principal photography only started in December 1985. Normally Chris Walas's team would have about six months to create special effects for a film of this sort; on this film they had ''two''. This may or may not have helped the film's box office in the end, because Fox's scheduling meant it arrived right on the heels of its big summer release for '86, ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', which appealed to a similar demographic.

** There were also short scenes cut for pacing, and conversations that ran longer in the original workprint. Just about all of these turn up in the DVD extras.

** In the cafe scene, Davis's silent, surprised reactions to Seth's rambling, increasingly frantic monologue from "not to wax messianic" onward are real because that half of the speech was not in the shooting script -- David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum came up with it the night before shooting. This also means the reactions of the waiter in the background when Seth calls for him are genuine.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/JeffGoldblum and Creator/GeenaDavis met on the set of ''Transylvania 6-5000'' and were in a relationship by the time he accepted the role of Seth. He turned to her for help in learning lines, and she was impressed by the script and especially the part of Veronica, so he recommended her to the filmmakers and despite initial doubts about casting an actual couple, her readthrough ended up winning her the part. All accounts have it that they were '''very''' committed to making their characters' evolving relationship work on film -- no easy task given that they were already in love, and Cronenberg even had to advise Davis in [[GotMeDoingIt not sounding too much like Goldblum]]! This also affected how the scenes between Veronica and Stathis played out, making them pricklier than they would have otherwise been. (''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses how Goldblum tended to hang about the set when they were being shot, fussing over how ''that'' relationship might come across on screen as too competitive with Seth and Veronica's, and at one point had to be asked to leave. After all, there had to be ''some'' conflict in the LoveTriangle!) Goldblum and Davis made one more film as a couple, ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'', were wed in the middle of that shoot in 1987, and divorced in 1990.
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/JeffGoldblum. So much so that [[Series/SiskelAndEbert Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert]] actually said he was snubbed an Oscar nomination for Best Actor because of the Academy's [[SciFiGhetto refusal to consider horror]] when working out candidates. While the international blockbuster ''Film/JurassicPark'' truly made him a household name seven years later, this was the film that proved to the world just how talented an actor who had mostly played supporting/ensemble roles up to that point really was, and Seth Brundle remains one of his signature characters to this day.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In the famous climax of the 1958 film, the fly with Andre's head was shrieking ''"Help me!"'' as it was about to be devoured by a spider; in this version, Seth moaning "Help me...please help me" is a plea for emotional support from his lover as he faces the prospect of further metamorphosis and eventual death.