Trivia / Searching for Bobby Fischer

• Acclaimed Flop: Despite receiving good reviews from critics and an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, it only made $7,266,383 against a $12 million budget.
• Adaptational Villainy: Jonathan Poe is portrayed as Josh's single-minded rival who has done nothing but eat, sleep, and breathe chess from an early age, and is set up as a warning of what Josh might become if he devotes his life to the game. The person Jonathan was based on, however, was Jeff Sarwer, who, while coming from an usual and troubled background, was an overall well-adjusted kid who claims not to have taken his loss to Waitzkin that personally, stating it was just another game for him. As an adult, Sarwer would say that his personality as a child was so different from his onscreen counterpart that there was no point in being offended at the negative portrayal.
• California Doubling: While the Washington Square Park games were all shot on location, and there were some other scenes shot in New York City, most of the movie was shot in Toronto.
• Cast the Expert: Max Pomeranc, who played Josh, was in real life a chess prodigy. Many of the other chess players in the movie were played by real chess players.
• Production Posse: Ben Kingsley, of course, went on to appear later that year in Schindler's List, written by Steve Zaillian.
  • In addition, Dan Hedaya, William H. Macy, and Tony Shalhoub all appeared in A Civil Action, also written and directed by Zaillian.
• What Could Have Been: Ice-T was first offered the part of Vinnie.