History Trivia / DickTracy

* FollowTheLeader: Although Beatty's development of the film had been in the works as long as Tim Burton's ''Film/Batman1989'', it still retained a lot of elements that drew comparisons since ''Batman'' was released a year earlier. Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' noted that they both contained: "a loner hero, a grotesque villain, a blond bombshell, a marketable pop soundtrack and a no-mercy merchandising campaign." That also didn't factor in the Art Deco-insipired set design, the original working script being worked on by Tom Mankiewicz (both films would basically discard them), and Danny Elfman as composer (and Travers noted that his ''Tracy'' score was incredibly similar to his one for ''Batman'').

** Creator/JackNicholson was originally offered the lead role, and he seriously considered it, being a lifelong fan of the comic strip. However, he turned it down, being already committed to his role in ''Film/Batman1989''. Creator/RobertDeNiro refused the role for fear of being typecast as a grim, hardened tough guy similar to his Travis Bickle character in ''Film/TaxiDriver''. Creator/BruceCampbell, an avid fan of the comics, lobbied hard for the title role. However, Creator/WarrenBeatty thought Campbell was "too TV like" and was turned down. Couple years later, Campbell tried to adapt the comic book character to TV, but Beatty (who owned the rights to the character) declined unless he'd play the role. Other candidates included Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/MelGibson, Creator/PaulNewman, Creator/RobertRedford, Creator/GeorgeCScott and Creator/TomSelleck.

** Also, Creator/JamesCaan as Spud Spaldoni, considering the pair's history in Film/TheGodfather. An added joke is that they're minor antagonists to each other in this film, after previously playing brothers.

* ReferencedBy:

** In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', Emporio's ghost room has a portrait featuring Dick Tracy.
** From a couple of [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Warner Bros. cartoons]]:
*** In "Porky Pig's Feat" after Daffy Duck plants his face deep within the hotel manager's face, he quips "Hey, look! A Dick Tracy character! Pruneface!"
*** In the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "Knights Must Fall," after Bugs makes Sir Pantsalot smash his head in, he says "Look at the new Dick Tracy character...Accordion Head!"
*** "Farm Frolics" has a dog retrieving his master's newspaper, taking it out back and reading the comics section. The dog tells us "I can hardly wait to see what happened to Dick Tracy!"
*** "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" is one big reference to Dick Tracy. From the cartoon centered on Daffy dreaming that he is "Duck Twacy", to a showdown with a huge assortment of strangely-designed villains with odd names that would fit Tracy's rogue's gallery (88 Teeth, Double-Header, Jukebox Jaw, etc) to the one-off gag of tiny bomber planes using the actual Flattop's flat head as an airstrip, there are references a plenty in this short.

* ReferencedBy: In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', Emporio's ghost room has a portrait featuring Dick Tracy.

* ThrowItIn: The main reason that so many comic strip characters are features in the film, and sometimes in alternate roles, (Flattop and Itchy being Big Boy's co-dragons, as an example) was because Creator/WarrenBeatty was a big fan of the comic and wanted to include as many faces as he could should the film not receive a sequel.

* FollowTheLeader: Although Beatty's development of the film had been in the works as long as Tim Burton's ''Film/Batman1989'', it still retained a lot of elements that drew comparisons since ''Batman'' was released a year earlier. Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' noted that they both contained: "a loner hero, a grotesque villain, a blond bombshell, a marketable pop soundtrack and a no-mercy merchandising campaign." That also didn't factor in the Art Deco-insipired set design, the original working script being worked on by Creator/TomMankiewicz (both films would basically discard them), and Danny Elfman as composer (and Travers noted that his ''Tracy'' score was incredibly similar to his one for ''Batman'').

** Mutrux and Linson eventually took the property to Creator/ParamountPictures, who began developing screenplays. Steven Creator/StevenSpielberg was asked to direct and he brought in Creator/UniversalPictures to co-finance. Universal then put Creator/JohnLandis forward as a candidate for director, courted Creator/ClintEastwood for the title role, and commissioned Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. to write the screenplay. Cash and Epps' simple orders from Landis were to write the script in a 1930s pulp magazine atmosphere and center it with Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice as the primary villain. For research, Epps read every comic strip from 1930 to 1957. The writers wrote two drafts for Landis; Max Allan Collins, then-writer of the Dick Tracy comic strip, remembers reading one of them:
-->It was terrible. The only positive thing about it was a thirties setting and lots of great villains, but the story was paper-thin and it was uncomfortably campy.

* ActorAllusion: The introduction of CanonImmigrant Gruesome to the strip featured many references to him resembling Creator/BorisKarloff (who played him in the film ''Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome''), up to Gruesome actually taking the role of Jonathan in a production of ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace''!

* DevelopmentHell: The film switched studios, writers, and directors multiple times, especially since Beatty refused to make the film [[DarkerAndEdgier realistic and gritty]], and eventually helmed the film himself. Beatty hoped to make a sequel, but Disney had no interest after the film didn't pull the kind of numbers ''Film/Batman1989'' did despite an all-out marketing blitz. The film rights to the property have been in legal battle for the last twenty years as Beatty and The Tribune Co. have continued to try to stake their claim to it, with Beatty finally winning in March 2011. He hopes to finally make a follow-up to the film, but has not indicated when he would begin pre-production or a script (and it really doesn't help that the expensive flop ''Town and Country'' in 2001 [[CreatorKiller kept him off the big screen]] for fifteen years).

** The film went through a very long development process with many incarnations including a musical version in the early 1970s with Music/SonnyBono as Dick Tracy and Music/{{Cher}} as Tess Trueheart. Ryan O'Neal also sought to play Tracy in the early 1980s.
** At one point, Creator/JohnLandis was set to direct with Creator/ClintEastwood in the title role. He hired Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. to write the screenplay. His orders to the writers were to do the screenplay for the film centered on Big Boy Caprice as the main villain, and in a 1930s atmosphere. But Landis, after an on-set accident on ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', left the project.

** Beatty originally wanted Creator/BobFosse to direct, but Fosse turned him down. Creator/MartinScorsese was also a fan of the comic strip and considered directing at one point, but he lost interest and chose to make ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''. Creator/WalterHill was set to direct during pre-production. But he left after disagreements with the studio and Beatty. And at one point, Creator/StevenSpielberg was offered the director's chair. Creator/TimBurton was offered the job at one point but had to turn it down to focus on ''Film/EdwardScissorhands''.

* FollowTheLeader: Although Beatty's development of the film had been in the works as long as Tim Burton's ''Film/Batman1989'', it still retained a lot of elements that drew comparisons since ''Batman'' was released a year earlier. Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' noted that they both contained: "a loner hero, a grotesque villain, a blond bombshell, a marketable pop soundtrack and a no-mercy merchandising campaign." That also didn't factor in the Art Deco-insipired set design, the original working script being worked on by Tom Mankiewicz (both films would basically discard them), and Danny Elfman as composer (and Travers noted that his ''Tracy'' score was incredibly similar to his one for ''Batman'').

* DirectedByCastMember: The film was directed by Creator/WarrenBeatty, who also played Dick Tracy.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Three times. Rick Fletcher, who replaced Chester Gould as artist, died in 1983, and writer Mike Kilian died in 2005. Probably the most tragic instance came in 1986 with the premature death of John Locher, who was in the process of taking over the strip's art duties from his father.

* DawsonCasting: While Tracy's age is never stated in the film, his date of birth is 1909 and the date on the deed of the Club Ritz (visible only in freeze-frame) is dated 1938, making him a 29-year-old character played by 53-year-old Warren Beatty.