Trivia / Quintet

• All-Star Cast: Of an international variety with Paul Newman (American), Vittorio Gassman (Italian), Bibi Andersson (Swedish), Fernando Rey (Spanish) and Brigitte Fossey (French).
• Box Office Bomb: Made less than a million dollars on an $8 million budget.
• Defictionalization: Kenner planned to make a Real Life version of the game. It never came out. At least one filmgoer made their own Quintet board and sent pictures of it to Altman.
• Troubled Production: The screenplay went through four writers and at least one complete story reconceptualization. To enhance the mystery of the project, Altman closed the set and ordered the actors not to talk to the media about the film, which probably led the entertainment press to be skeptical about it from the start. Filming took place in Montreal in the dead of winter, at an abandoned Expo 67 pavilion. The dilapidated state of the building and the strong winds forced the crew to actually weld the set to the building's interior. To maintain the frozen atmosphere of the setting, the crew hosed it down daily. But there also had to be plenty of heaters standing by to prevent the equipment from freezing up. After putting on their makeup and costumes, the actors had to go to a specially chilled trailer to acclimate themselves to the set's temperatures. Altman went overbudget and the studio took the film away for the final cut.
• What Could Have Been: After Altman created the concept, his original plan was just to produce, and bring in others to write and direct. He offered the film to Walter Hill, but things didn't work out.

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