Spared by the Cut: Inverted in many productions. Roderigo is apparently killed off by Iago in the penultimate scene, but a brief line by Cassio later implies that he was Only Mostly Dead. The line is easy to miss, and many productions cut it altogether, making it appear that Roderigo is dead after all.
Sidney Poitier might have helped his acting career by forestalling his positive discrimination backlash in the 1960s if he had accepted an offer to play the title character for a TV movie adaptation. Christopher Plummer (who later played the role on Broadway to much acclaim opposite James Earl Jones) would have served as his Iago.
James Earl Jones was the director's first choice for The BBC's 1981 TV version, but the British actors' union objected strongly to casting an American in such a high-profile role. In the end, the part went to Anthony Hopkins, with the character presented as being of Arabic, rather than African, descent.
No Budget: They couldn't find a financial backer for the project, so the budget was very low.
The Other Darrin: Most of the cast carried over from the original stage production. The exceptions were Anthony Nicolls - who replaced Martin Boddey as Brabantio - and Robert Lang replacing Michael Rothwell as Roderigo.
Recycled Set: As Laurence Olivier's regular backers for his Shakespeare films were dead by The '60s, he had to use enlarged duplicates of the sets in his original staged version.
