Line #6 Trivia/KingdomOfHeaven


1	* ActingForTwo: The 1500 members of the Moroccan military doubled up to play soldiers of both the Christian and Muslim armies
2	* AllStarCast: Much like ''Film/{{Troy}}'' and ''Film/{{Alexander}}'', the film has a number of notable actors and actresses from North America and Europe portraying real-life historical figures such as Creator/OrlandoBloom, Creator/JeremyIrons, Creator/BrendanGleeson, Creator/LiamNeeson, Creator/EdwardNorton, Creator/MichaelSheen and Creator/DavidThewlis.
3	* AwesomeDearBoy: Orlando Bloom had just finished ''Troy'' and was reluctant to do another historical epic, but signed on once he heard it was a Creator/RidleyScott film.
4	* BackedByThePentagon: King Mohammed VI of Morocco, where the movie was filmed, is a good friend of Creator/RidleyScott and personally provided the movie with around 1500 military personnel and equipment.
5	* CaliforniaDoubling: Huesca, Spain stands for France, Seville stands for Jerusalem, and Morocco stands for any exterior shot in the Holy Land.
6	* CastTheExpert:
7	** Capitalizing on the fact that part of the film was shot in Huesca, Spanish craftsmen and artisans were brought in to build part of the sets, as the kind of slate roofs, thatching and stone dry-walling used in the Middle Ages is still used in rural Spain. The same was done with the villages of Ibelin, shot in Morocco, where local craftsmen helped to build the sets. (Note, however, that many of the castles and kasbahs seen in the film are completely real locations in Spain and Morocco, with some of them actually ''predating'' the real life Kingdom of Jerusalem.)
8	** Many of the film's knights and soldiers were played by real soldiers from the Moroccan Army.
9	** For the soundtrack of key scenes, director Scott sought out the work of Luis Delgado, a Spanish musician that specializes in Arab-Andalusian music.
10	* CastTheRunnerUp:
11	** Marton Csokas auditioned for Balian, but was rejected. He would play the role of Guy de Lusignan.
12	** Edward Norton was actually the first choice for Guy. Upon reading the script, he asked to play King Baldwin instead.
13	** Creator/MichaelSheen auditioned for the role of Baldwin IV before being cast as the priest.
14	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Latin America, the film is simply known as ''Cruzada'' ("Crusade").
15	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: An article incorrectly described the film as pandering to UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden, and it was later found out that the journalist hadn't even seen the screenplay. After the screenplay was leaked, another article claimed that the film depicted Muslims as stereotypically stupid, backwards-thinking and unable to think in complex forms. These allegations made King Mohammed VI of Morocco worry for Ridley Scott's safety, so he provided him with four bodyguards. Ironically, when the movie was released, Scott received many letters of thanks from Muslim groups for the even-handed depiction of the religion.
16	* CreatorBacklash: Creator/RidleyScott has gone on record that he disowns the theatrical version and much prefers his Director's Cut.
17	* DuelingWorks: Came out within a year of three other historical battle epics that were following-up on the success of ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''. Its competitors being ''Film/{{Troy}}'', ''Film/KingArthur2004'', and ''Film/{{Alexander}}''.
18	* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/OrlandoBloom gained twenty pounds of muscle for his role as Balian.
19	* ExecutiveMeddling:
20	** The reason the theatrical cut was so much shorter than the Director's Cut. Fox wanted a ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' style action movie with a romance subplot, rather than the political drama Scott and co created. On top of that, they thought audiences wouldn't be able to handle a 3 hour film, disregarding high grossing films like ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. The theater-released version was panned, yet the Director's Cut was critically acclaimed as one of the best movies of the year.
21	** Ridley Scott wanted the character of Sibylla to become a nun at the end of the film but the studio insisted it end with her and Balian ending up together.
22	** Creator/RidleyScott used the cue "Valhalla/Viking Victory" from ''Film/The13thWarrior'' for this film. Slightly controversial, given the director's turbulent relationship with ''The 13th Warrior'''s composer, Music/JerryGoldsmith, when they worked together on ''Film/{{Alien}}'' and ''Film/{{Legend 1985}}'' that saw Scott cutting off a large part of Goldsmith's music on the former and re-using parts of Goldsmith's earlier score from ''Freud''; while simultaneously throwing out Goldsmith's entire score in favor of Tangerine Dream's music for the latter. Bitter and upset by the rejection, Goldsmith never spoke to Scott again even unto his passing as a result of this.
23	* FakeBrit: The American Edward Norton gives Baldwin a [[TheQueensLatin British accent]]. The Irish Brendan Gleeson does likewise with Reynald. The Scottish Kevin [=McKidd=] plays the "English Sergeant" with no attempt to hide his native accent.
24	* FakeNationality:
25	** Saladin is played by Ghassan Massoud, who is Syrian, and the real man was Kurdish.
26	** French characters are played by English actors including Creator/OrlandoBloom and Creator/MichaelSheen, the Irish Creator/LiamNeeson, the American Creator/EdwardNorton, and the Danish Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau.
27	** As mentioned, the 'English Sergeant' is played by the very Scottish Kevin McKidd, who does not change his accent.
28	** Odo, referred to exclusively in dialogue as "the German," is played by Finnish strongman Jouko Ahola.
29	** Sudanese born English actor Alexander Siddig plays Persian historian Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani.
30	* FollowTheLeader: Was a part of a wave of films inspired by the success of Creator/RidleyScott's prior historical battle epic ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', with this film's marketing getting a lot of mileage out of highlighting the connection. Then again you can trace this trend's lineage back to ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' and even further if one wishes to ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' which led to contemporary interest in Medieval adventure/epic films.
31	* MethodActing: Eva Green read ''The Crusades Through Arab Eyes'' and went to the Arab Institute in Paris to familiarise herself with "both sides of the argument".
32	* PlayingAgainstType: At the beginning of her career, Eva Green was often typecast as a FemmeFatale, and later on would often play very dark characters, a lot of them witches or {{Action Girl}}s. Here she plays Sibylla as TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask, who is more political and romantic rather than aggressive or eccentric.
33	* StarMakingRole: While she had already made a splash in her home country France with her film debut in ''Film/TheDreamers'', this is the film that brought Creator/EvaGreen to the attention of Hollywood, leading her to being cast in the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/{{Casino Royale\|2006}}''.
34	* ThrowItIn:
35	** During filming of the siege scene, one of the towers caught fire for real and burned down. Ridley Scott liked the authentic look of it and left it in the film.
36	** When Balian realizes the Hospitalier has mysteriously vanished, his horse does a little jump, as if it was surprised and startled too. This was actually a random reaction by the animal, not a scripted event, and was left in because it fitted the scene.
37	* TroubledProduction:
38	** ''Kingdom of Heaven'' originally began as a Creator/RussellCrowe vehicle called ''Tripoli'', a period film about the 19th century Barbary Wars. Although Creator/KeanuReeves ended up replacing Crowe, screenwriter William Monahan (''Film/TheDeparted'') had a script written, Scott signed on to direct, 20th Century Fox greenlit it, sets and art assets were being made, and then things went nowhere. After two attempts at getting it off the ground, Monahan began writing ''Heaven'' after ''Tripoli'' fell apart, and Scott took it because he had always wanted to do a movie about the Crusades. (There was a token attempt to revive the ''Tripoli'' project in 2019, but it went nowhere again.)
39	** The film was pretty much hit with ExecutiveMeddling from the start, with the execs being very uncomfortable with the length of the script and the subplot of Creator/EvaGreen's Princess Sybilla's son, who briefly ruled Jerusalem after King Baldwin (Creator/EdwardNorton) dies. In Scott's words on the 4 disc DVD set, he mentioned that studio heads said that the plot "went off on a tangent". The studio demanded Monahan to write two different versions of the script, one with and without the kid, and Scott and company shot the former.
40	** Filming was actually pretty smooth, save for an instance in which Creator/OrlandoBloom came down with the flu and suffered some hand injuries.
41	** Creator/JeremyIrons' character's name went from Raymond to Tiberius to avoid confusion with Creator/BrendanGleeson's Reynauld, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools which may not have been a bad thing]].
42	** When filming wrapped up, Fox was bothered by the length of the cut that Scott had presented them (around 186 minutes) and forced him to cut the film down to a measly 145 running time, exercising the plot about Sybilla's kid, among many other scenes. Their reasoning was that audiences couldn't handle a three hour film, disregarding successful long movies such as the studio's own ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' and ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. They also [[MisaimedMarketing mismarketed the film]], making it seem more like ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace set in the Crusades]], rather than the Drama that was made. This backfired, resulting in poor box office returns and mediocre reviews (though it did fare better in international markets).
43	** Luckily, the film found new life on video in the form of the Director's Cut, which restored the original running time and as a result, received much better reviews than its theatrical version.
44	* UncreditedRole: Creator/EdwardNorton asked not to be credited as King Baldwin, as he spent his screentime behind a mask. However, his name was put back in the video releases of the film.
45	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
46	** Creator/PaulBettany and Creator/GoranVisnjic auditioned for Balian.
47	** Creator/RussellCrowe was supposed to cameo as Richard I but couldn't make it due to a scheduling conflict. Creator/IainGlen plays him instead.
48	** The first draft of the script opened directly after the shipwreck. Screenwriter William Monahan had wanted to open with the death of Balian's wife, but feared it would make the movie too long. When Ridley Scott came on board, he told Monahan not to worry about length and thus the film opens with the death.
49	** Many ideas in the finished film were incorporated from another project Ridley Scott had first put into pre-production called ''Tripoli''. The project was falling apart around the time the ''Kingdom of Heaven'' script came along, so Scott opted to work on the latter instead.
50	** Alternate endings were filmed, two of which featured Balian arriving back in France alone. As noted above, Sibylla's planned fate was to become a nun to atone for her sins of adultery and murder, but the studio insisted she end up with Balian.
51	** Music/HansZimmer was originally attached as the film's composer but was replaced by Harry Gregson-Williams.
52	* WordOfGod: Ridley Scott and writer William Monahan felt that David Thewlis's character, called only the Hospitaller was an angel on a mission from God. The director's cut makes this more apparent.

Context Trivia / KingdomOfHeaven