* ActorInspiredHeroism: The character of Sherman [=McCoy=] was made more likable and sympathetic than the book when Creator/TomHanks was cast (at the time, he hadn't quite broken out as a dramatic actor yet and was known for comedic roles).
* AllStarCast: In a weird way, this may have actually contributed to the film's failure. The characters in the novel are almost uniformly self-serving, amoral, and unsympathetic. The filmmakers chose to cast actors like Creator/TomHanks, Creator/MorganFreeman, and Creator/BruceWillis, whom audiences then found some of the most likable actors in Hollywood.
** Exemplified in ''Series/SiskelAndEbert''[='=]s review of the film:
--->'''Creator/RogerEbert''': You know, one of the--in a movie that is filled with so many disappointments, the biggest disappointment for me was the Bruce Willis character.
--->'''Creator/GeneSiskel''': Absolutely!
--->'''Roger Ebert''': They really--they ''really'' missed a chance here. I mean, ''why'' do they get so tied up with the notion that they have to fill up a movie with stars that they don't look at a book and see who this drunken, British, freeloading, little guy was? And why not get somebody who can play that fascinating character instead of having a big lump of-of dead space there, taking up so much screen time?
* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $47 million. Box office, $15 million.
* CreatorBacklash:
** Creator/BrianDePalma hated the judge's final CharacterFilibuster, known as "The Decency Speech," which Tom Wolfe included in the original ''Magazine/RollingStone'' serial but deleted from the book version. De Palma found it boring, but everyone including the studio wanted it since without it, the film had no real ending or conclusion. Creator/MichaelCristofer had to reincorporate it into his screenplay hastily primarily because the "Sword of Justice" sequence that takes place outside the courtroom after Sherman is freed and takes a sword from the statue and starts swinging it at the reporters was filmed and deleted from the final cut of the film. This scene acted as the resolution and gave Creator/MorganFreeman's role a little more power than what was in Wolfe's novel.
** Incidentally, Morgan Freeman considers this film the one major nightmare of his career. He recalled that being in the film was like being on an aeroplane that you knew was going to crash.
* CreatorCouple: Creator/TomHanks' wife, Creator/RitaWilson, came to visit him in New York while she was pregnant and spend time with him for a weekend since he was not shooting and he had missed her. Creator/BrianDePalma had just reconceived the film's opening sequence which involved a one shot steadycam entrance featuring Peter Fallow and needed an actress to play the role of the woman who Willis meets to bring him into the building after he arrives at the Winter Garden. De Palma really wanted her to play the part and offered it to her on the spot. After thinking about it, she accepted it, to De Palma's delight.
* CreatorKiller: Creator/BrianDePalma's career never fully recovered from the film's failure; his best-regarded effort since is ''Film/CarlitosWay'' while his most commercially successful effort after is ''Film/MissionImpossible1996''.
* DeletedScene:
** A SwordFight between Sherman [=McCoy=] and Peter Fallow was shot for the end of the film, but unused.
** A courthouse scene showing a riot in slow-motion had been shot at the Essex County Courthouse in Newark but was omitted from the film following negative reaction from test screenings.
* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/KimCattrall dieted for over two months to slim down to a size four to play the emaciated Judy [=McCoy=].
* ExecutiveMeddling: De Palma has actually {{Jossed}} this as the main reason for the creative failure of the film:
-->"The initial producers, once we had cast [Tom] Hanks, moved on and went over to Creator/ColumbiaPictures, so I was sort of left to my own devices and pursued ways in which I thought I could make this movie more commercial and keep some edge of the book... I thought we were going to get away with it, but we didn't. I knew that the people who read the book were going to be extremely unhappy, and I said, 'Well, this is a movie; it isn't the book.' And I think if you look at the movie now, and you don't know anything about the book, and you get it out of the time that it was released, I think you can see it in a whole different way."
* FocusGroupEnding: The original script ended cynically with the supposed victim of the hit-and-run walking out of the hospital, suggesting that the whole scenario was concocted. That ending did not test well with audiences and was dropped.
* HostilityOnTheSet:
** According to the book ''The Devil's Candy'', Creator/BruceWillis was "generally disliked by most of the cast and crew [due to his ego]." On one occasion, Willis, Creator/BrianDePalma, and Creator/TomHanks were going over a scene to view their performances. Willis was bragging about how his work on ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}'' helped him to adapt on screen to material like this. Hanks, always mild-mannered, looked at the screen and looked at Willis' face on screen and stated "Where's that shit eating grin" and then again stated "There it is, shit eating grin right there on screen". Willis had pretty much alienated his co-stars as well as the cast and crew, working only hanging out with his entourage that consisted of his longtime stylist Josee Norman, his double Randy Bowers and his bodyguards.
** At one point, De Palma became very irritated with Creator/MorganFreeman and how he was handling his scenes. He felt that Freeman was more concentrated and worried about his upcoming Shakespeare in the Park performance in ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' rather than reading the script, studying his lines for the big "decency speech" which closed the scene after Sherman [=McCoy=] was free to go. He was also not happy that Freeman was not getting enough rest to put his best efforts into his role, which also personally irritated him.
* HypotheticalCasting:
** Creator/TomWolfe wanted Creator/ChevyChase to play Sherman [=McCoy=].
** Following the film's failure, Creator/BrianDePalma conceded that Creator/JohnLithgow would have been a better choice for [=McCoy=], "because he would have got the blue-blood arrogance of the character".
* LifeImitatesArt: Many modern readers think the book is a fictionalization of the Crown Heights race riot, but that riot was actually in 1991, four years after the book came out.
* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/BrianDePalma and Creator/BethBroderick briefly dated as a result of making this movie.
* StarDerailingRole: This '''nearly''' was the case for Creator/TomHanks, so much so that he took a 19-month break from acting in order to re-evaluate his career decisions as well as spend time with his family. It also didn't help that his previous movie had been the similiarly unsuccessful ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano''. A year and a half later, Hanks returned to acting and redeemed himself with films like ''Film/ALeagueOfTheirOwn'', ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'', and ''Film/ForrestGump''.[[note]]The latter two earned Hanks two back-to-back Oscars, making him only the second man to win consecutive Oscars for lead performances.[[/note]] Of course, [[Film/Apollo13 the]] [[Franchise/ToyStory rest]] [[Film/SavingPrivateRyan is]] [[Film/CastAway history]].
* TroubledProduction: As documented in Julie Salamon's 1991 book ''The Devil's Candy'', it became a cautionary tale on how ExecutiveMeddling and ego clashes can lead to a widely reviled adaptation. It was a filming experience that Creator/MorganFreeman said was like being on a plane that you knew was going to crash.
** Given the original novel was a [[BlackComedy dark satire]] revolving around a racially charged TabloidMelodrama of intentionally JerkAss characters, the film raised some eyebrows when it was announced as a big-budget drama with an AllStarCast and Creator/BrianDePalma directing. Given the budget and scope of the film, ExecutiveMeddling took hold quickly.
** When De Palma's choices for the role of Peter Fallow (who was English in the book) turned it down, the studio signed on Creator/BruceWillis solely on his recent star power. The studio also got concerned over the racial politics after Creator/SpikeLee publicly denounced the film's planned ending as racist,[[note]]He had to apologize for this publicly, since he effectively spoiled the film before shooting had even began.[[/note]] resulting in Creator/AlanArkin being replaced by Creator/MorganFreeman and several script changes. Sherman [=McCoy=] was made more sympathetic when Creator/TomHanks landed the part.
** Large sums of money were spent on elaborate cinematography. Second unit director Eric Schwab spent $80,000 on a five-camera shot of an airplane landing in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity just to capture a once-a-year sunset against a runway at JFK Airport.[[note]]Salamon dedicates an entire chapter in ''The Devil's Candy'' to this shot because of how troublesome it was, and Schwab won a bet that the shot ended up in the final film ''at all''.[[/note]] The film's opening title sequence was almost as expensive, to say nothing of the amount of money and effect spent on the nearly five-minute-long [[TheOner tracking shot]] that opens the film.
** Willis, fresh from his StarMakingRole on ''Film/DieHard'', brought an ego to the production that alienated most of the cast and crew. He spent most of his time with his entourage and constantly bragged about his work, causing even the usually mild-mannered Tom Hanks to snap at him. While filming Creator/AlanKing's death scene, Willis got frustrated over the slow pacing and, without consulting De Palma, took over the scene to film it to his liking. This caused a good deal of tension between Willis and De Palma, even though De Palma eventually agreed with how Willis handled the scene.
** And there were tensions between Creator/MorganFreeman and De Palma, as De Palma thought he was looking past the film and not putting his best effort in. And Creator/MelanieGriffith left the production for two weeks and then came back with a boob job, requiring her already finished scenes to be reshot.
** Ultimately, the film was a critical and financial failure, [[BoxOfficeBomb making less than $16 million against its $47 million budget]] as critics took it to task for its heavy-handed satire and miscast actors. It was the beginning of a downturn in De Palma's career. Tom Hanks took a break from acting partially because of this failure, and Morgan Freeman considers it an OldShame.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/MikeNichols planned to direct the film and he wanted to cast Creator/SteveMartin as Sherman [=McCoy=], but the studio felt that Martin was too old. Also considered were Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/TomCruise, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/JonVoight.
** Creator/UmaThurman as Maria Ruskin. Creator/TomHanks got on well with Thurman in the screen test phase, but privately thought she wasn't ready for a role like this, and she wasn't the name that Creator/MelanieGriffith was at the time. Creator/MichellePfeiffer also turned it down, while Creator/RobinWright tested for it.
** Creator/JohnCleese as Peter Fallow. In the novel, Fallow is British.[[note]]In [[https://www.avclub.com/john-cleese-1798213244 a 2008 interview]], Cleese noted that while he thought De Palma was a fine thriller director, he didn't see him as cut out for comedy.[[/note]] Creator/JackNicholson also passed on it, while Creator/DanielDayLewis was considered.
** Creator/KristinScottThomas personally screen-tested for the role of Judy [=McCoy=], but when invited to Los Angeles to test with Hanks, she happened to be on vacation with her children and couldn't make it. De Palma didn't forget her when casting ''Film/MissionImpossible1996''.
** Creator/WalterMatthau originally was offered the role of the judge but demanded a fee of $1 million. The producers balked at meeting his price and signed Creator/AlanArkin instead for a modest $150,000. Then complaints about the book negatively stereotyping black people resulted in a RaceLift and recasting. Creator/JoelGrey and Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos were also considered.
** Creator/StevenSpielberg was briefly considered as a director due to its influence with the studio; according to many insiders and Julie Salamon's book, he always gets the chance to see all the scripts sent at Warner. His personal friend Creator/BrianDePalma got the job and Spielberg even visited the set created for the movie in Los Angeles. Creator/AdrianLyne was asked to direct, but declined in favour of ''Film/JacobsLadder''.
** The film's original opening, as conceived by Eric Schwab, was to have been a jewel case made of crystal reflecting against a backdrop that would have faded into a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which would've introduced Peter Fallow as the man of honor. This had to be scrapped when the museum backed out due to the controversy the film had been garnering. Schwab and De Palma had to come up with another solution, which became the film's opening in the final cut. De Palma had set it up as a one-shot deal where a drunken Fallow goes through slapstick-styled follies as he heads to the Winter Garden and his moment of glory.
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