Trivia / Solar Crisis

• Direct to Video: In Britain and many other territories, unsurprisingly.
• International Co Production: Japanese/American co-production, being specific. This was one of various attempts by Japanese production companies at making a big-budget production for the American market, including Virus (1980) and Farewell, Jupiter.
• Troubled Production: The film began shooting in November 1989 with an announced budget of $30 million. At first, production went fairly smoothly aside from some minor conflicts between scientific advisor Richard J. Terrile and the production crew. It wasn't until much later that things got out of control, with the budget eventually ballooning to well over $43 million. When Solar Crisis opened in Japan in 1990, it underperformed massively despite the presence of such recognizable names as Charlton Heston, Peter Boyle, and Jack Palance as well as production design by renowned concept artist Syd Mead and a score by Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre. This prompted the producers to order extensive recuts and rewrites in the hopes of securing an American distributor, resulting in a choppy, disjointed end product. In the end, the film's production woes led to director Richard Sarafian taking his name off the credits and retiring from the film business.

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