Trivia / The Pink Panther (2006)

• Cast the Runner-Up: Kevin Kline was a candidate to play Inspector Clouseau. He wound up playing Inspector Dreyfus.
• Development Hell: The reboot was in the works since the turn of the millennium.
• Executive Meddling: The movie was originally much racier, including more scenes for Xania where she would've slept with Clouseau. Then Sony took over MGM and decided to make the film more family-friendly, resulting in many scenes being either re-shot or cut entirely.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The teaser trailer features Inspector Clouseau using the glass breaking device he got from Agent 006. This scene is not in the final film.
• The Other Darrin: Kevin Kline played Dreyfus in the first entry, but was replaced with John Cleese in the second.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ivan Reitman was originally going to direct, but chose not to, staying on as producer.
  • Among those considered to take over as Clouseau were Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and Robin Williams.
  • Jackie Chan was considered for the part of Clouseau's Chinese assistant, Cato Fong. But the filmmakers decided they didn't want to use a politically incorrect character, and replaced Cato with the Frenchman Ponton. It is unknown why they did not simply re-imagine Cato as a French policeman of Chinese heritage.
  • Gérard Depardieu was the second choice for the role of Ponton.
  • In the early stages, Paul Giamatti was considered for the role of Dreyfus and there were even plans for a running gag that would have had the Pink Panther animated character worked into the actual story by having him appear as Dreyfus' madness-induced hallucinations.
  • The animated opening was originally CGI, until the team decided to scrap it and went for a traditionally animated one in the same vein as previous films instead. You can see the original planned opening here.
  • Bipasha Basu was first approached for the role of Sonia, but she refused it. The role was later taken by Aishwarya Rai.

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