History Trivia / Brazil

* ExecutiveMeddling / TroubledProduction: Oh, where do we begin? To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from its original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Creator/TerryGilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

** Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/RebeccaDeMornay, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JoannaPacula, Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KathleenTurner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Barkin.

* WorkingTitle: ''1984 and a 1/2'', ''TheMinistry''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/RebeccaDeMornay, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JoannaPacula, Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/EllenBarkin, Creator/KathleenTurner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Barkin.

* WorkingTitle: ''1984 and a 1/2''.

* StarMakingRole: The first notable role by Creator/JonathanPryce, who you likely know from ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', ''LiveActionTV/GameOfThrones'', or ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''.

* StarMakingRole: The first notable role by Creator/JonathanPryce, who you likely know from ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'' or ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/RebeccaDeMornay, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JoannaPacula, Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/EllenBarkin, Kathleen Turner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Barkin.

* StarMakingRole: The first notable role by Creator/JonathanPryce, who you likely know from ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'' or ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''.

* ReCut: There are at least three different versions - the original 142 minutes European release, a shorter 132-minutes prepared by Creator/TerryGilliam for the American release and the "Love Conquers All" version.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/RebeccaDeMornay, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JoannaPacula, Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/EllenBarkin, and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Barkin.

* CreatorCameo: Co-writer Charles [=McKeown=] plays Harvey Lime.
** The hands seen manipulating Tuttle's tools belonged to Creator/TerryGilliam, not Creator/RobertDeNiro. He's also the smoker in the Shangri-La tower who bumps into Sam.

* CreatorCameo: Co-writer Charles McKeown plays Harvey Lime.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/RebeccaDeMornay, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JoannaPacula, Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KellyMcGillis, Creator/EllenBarkin, and he even considered Music/{Madonna}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Barkin.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Oh, where do we begin? To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from its original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Gilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** The porter at the Records Department desk is played by Gordon Kaye who played Rene in Series/AlloAllo.
** [[BridgetJones Bridget Jones's Dad]]/[[HarryPotter Professor Slughorn]] does [[{{Squick}} interesting things with his client's faces.]]
** Ash from ''Film/{{Alien}}'' is Sam Lowry's boss in the Department of Records, Mr. Kurtzmann.
** Mister Warrenn, the IR man with the dozen interns following him, would go on to [[Series/HouseOfCardsUK have a run as a pretty unscrupolous British Prime Minister]].
** Dr Jaffe is actually [[Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses the British guy]] [[Film/HotFuzz who stars]] [[Film/MoulinRouge in everything]] [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic but whose name nobody can remember]](Jim Broadbent).
** Mr Helpmann ''is'' [[Film/DeathAtAFuneral Uncle Alfie]] at a slightly younger (and less rude) age, as well as [[Series/GameOfThrones Maester Eamon]].

** Dr Jaffe is actually [[Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses the British guy]] [[Film/HotFuzz who stars [[Film/MoulinRouge in everything]] [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic but whose name nobody can remember]](Jim Broadbent).

** Dr Jaffe is actually [[Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses the British guy]] [[Film/HotFuzz who stars in everything]] [[Film/MoulinRouge but whose name nobody can remember]](Jim Broadbent).

* ExecutiveMeddling: Oh, where do we begin? To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from it's original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Gilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

** Ash from Alien is Sam Lowry's boss in the Department of Records, Mr. Kurtzmann.

* HeyItsThatGuy: The porter at the Records Department desk is played by Gordon Kaye who played Rene in AlloAllo.

* BigNameFan: It's the favorite movie of a certain DougWalker.

** [[BridgetJones Bridget Jones's Dad]]/[[HarryPotter Professor Slughorn]] does [[Squick interesting things with his client's faces.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: Oh where do we begin? To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from it's original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Gilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

* ExecutiveMeddling: To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from it's original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Gilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

* ExecutiveMeddling: One of the most high-profile cases of a director fighting with executives to release the film he had envisioned. Gilliam took it to the point of releasing a newspaper ad calling out the studio. The book ''The Battle For Brazil'' was released, detailing the episode.