Trivia / Gnomeo and Juliet

• All-Star Cast: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Hulk Hogan, Dolly Parton, Jim Cummings, Ozzy Osbourne…
• Channel Hop: The sequel will be released by Paramount and MGM, as opposed to Touchstone.
• The Danza: Dolly Gnome.
• Development Hell: Greenlit by Disney executives in the late '90s as basically a vehicle to show off Elton John's music catalog, the movie had a notoriously troubled in-house development; specifically, the animators had absolutely no idea how to make the film work. It crawled along until 2006, when Disney's leadership changed and Pixar's John Lasseter (who was placed in charge of Disney's animation studio) was given a briefing on the films that the studio had in development. When they got to Gnomeo, Lasseter bluntly asked "Wait, why exactly are we making this?" No one in the room could give him an answer, so the film was cancelled. In 2007 the film rights were transferred to Starz Animation, who made the movie that we have today.

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• Playing Against Type: Ozzy Osbourne as possibly the cutest little faun you'll ever see.
• Sequel Gap: Sherlock Gnomes, announced just a year after the first film's release, will not be released until over seven years after the first Gnomeo, an extraordinarily long gap for a non-nostalgia/legacy-based sequel to a children's film.
• Stunt Casting:
  • Hulk Hogan plays the guy in the Terrafirminator commercial.
  • Dolly Parton as Dolly Gnome, the female gnome who announces the lawnmower races.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ewan McGregor and Kate Winslet were attached to star as Gnomeo and Juliet when the movie was initially announced.
  • Adam Sandler was considered to voice Gnomeo.
  • Neve Campbell and Anna Faris were considered to voice Juliet
  • Tina Fey, Angelina Jolie and Nicki Minaj were considered to voice Nanette.
  • Jeff Bridges and Robert Downey Jr. were considered to voice Featherstone.

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  • Gary Oldman and James Woods were considered to voice Lord Redbrick.
  • Billy Crystal was considered to voice Benny.
  • Eddie Redmayne was considered to voice Tybalt.

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