Trivia / Jupiter Ascending

• Actor-Shared Background: Jupiter and Mila Kunis are both immigrants from former Soviet countries. Jupiter from Russia and Mila from Ukraine. Moreover, Mila is Jewish and Jupiter's implied to be. Both also speak Russian.
• All-Star Cast: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton, Vanessa Kirby, and Terry Gilliam.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $175 million. Box office, $43,110,000 (American), $181,900,000 (worldwide).
• The Cast Show Off: Downplayed. Mila Kunis is fluent in Russian and speaks a couple of sentences in it towards the end of the film.
• Chronically Killed Actor: Averted. This is one of the notable films in which Sean Bean's character doesn't die.
• Creator Backlash:
  • In an interview with The AV Club, Eddie Redmayne admitted that he gave a bad performance in the film.
  • A fan on a Reddit AMA asked Channing Tatum what the film was about. He responded "Good question, I have the same one myself." He also refused to promote the film in any way leading up to its release.
  • Mila Kunis was asked a similar question, along with why she chose to do the film, on The Late Late Show segment "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" ("Truth or Dare" with stomach churning foods). She made a half-hearted attempt at answering the question before choosing to take the forfeit and eating a cow's tongue.
• Creator Killer: The Wachowskis themselves have stated that the failure of this film and Cloud Atlas means they may never be able to make a big budget film ever again...so they went and did a Netflix series....which got canceled due to Troubled Production and going overbudget. Seems both were final nails in the coffin of their careers, with their production offices closing down in 2018. However, Lana did come back to direct The Matrix Resurrections…which was also a massive Box Office Bomb.
• Dueling Movies:
  • With Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Both are Genre Throwbacks to the extravagant, gleefully camp Space Operas of old.
  • With another female-centered Space Opera released the same year: The Force Awakens. No duel has been so one-sided since Delgo went against Avatar.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Channing Tatum had to wear a mouthpiece that changed the shape of his lower jaw — with the result that he couldn't close his mouth while he had it in. He also dyed his hair blond.
• Fake Russian: The very Irish Maria Doyle Kennedy plays Jupiter's mom, a Russian immigrant.
• Fan Community Nicknames: Fans of the film are called "Ascendants."
• Playing Against Type:
  • Eddie Redmayne first got famous for playing naïve or dorky vulnerable characters, so it's quite different to see him as an evil, hammy space emperor.
  • Douglas Booth as well to a lesser extent, who hasn't fully been typecast, but has mostly done period dramas as coming-of-age boys. An evil playboy like Titus is also different.
• Playing with Character Type: Though he's moving out of it, for a while Sean Bean was typecast as villains. Here he's a mole but one that's fully justified in doing so and makes a Heel–Face Turn. Also he doesn't die which he usually does even if he isn't the villain.
• Production Posse: Some of The Wachowskis folks from Cloud Atlas, actors Doona Bae and James D'Arcy, have unspecified roles while Atlas cinematographer John Toll is taking roles as DP once again.
  • Doona Bae and Tuppence Middleton both appear in Sense8, also by the Wachowskis.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally scheduled for July 2014, but two months before its intended release, Warner Bros. pushed it back to February 2015 so as to give the production crew enough time to work on the film's visual effects.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The film was completed in 2013 but wasn't released until two years later in 2015, with Warner Bros. claiming it was done to give the Wachowskis more time to do the effects and the Wachowksis not using that extra time to do re-shoots, instead leaving it in stasis until Warner Bros. finally decided to release it.
• Star-Derailing Role: Surprisingly averted. This film didn't do anything to hurt Eddie Redmayne's post-Oscar buzz nor were Channing Tatum or Mila Kunis all that damaged by its failure. It helps that Redmayne's performance was seen as the best part of the film and Kunis and Tatum managed to give surprisingly good performances.
• Trailer Delay: The trailer promised a July 2014 release date, but a month before its intended release, it was bumped ahead to February 2015 due to the filmmakers believing that the special effects wouldn't be finished before then.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally Natalie Portman was cast as Jupiter Jones. After she dropped out, Rooney Mara was considered for Jupiter but ultimately Mila Kunis got cast.
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt was considered for a role but it's unknown which role exactly. Most likely Caine or one of the Abrasax siblings.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • Mila Kunis says that the main reason Jupiter is stuck cleaning houses is because she's too lazy to get a different job.
  • Eddie Redmayne says Balem speaks with a rasp because a wolf-man ripped out his larynx (but hasn't said whether it was Caine).

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