Trivia / I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

• Completely Different Title: Since the English title is a play on words related to a phrase used in marriage vows in countries where English is the dominant language, non-English markets often got slightly altered titles to keep the wordplay intact. Some countries went a bit further though. Finland retitled the film You May Kiss the Groom, Norway used Good Days and Bad Days - Chuck and Larry, Germany became The Master of the Master, Slovenia called the film A Fireman in Front of the Altar, Japan used Chuck and Larry - Strange Fake Marriage!?, but probably the most amusing is the Vietnamese title, which simply translates to Same-Sex Marriage.
• Creator Backlash: Screenwriter Alexander Payne disowned the finished film, saying that Adam Sandler changed too much of his and Jim Taylor's script from a tasteful Black Comedy about homophobia into something "offensive, homophobic, and generally stupid." He even unsuccessfully attempted to get his name removed from the credits.
• Creator Couple: Adam Sandler's wife Jackie appears as the school teacher when Larry goes to his daughter's career day.
• DVD Commentary: By Dennis Dugan, Adam Sandler and Kevin James.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Adam Sandler rewrote much of the screenplay himself after signing on, much to Alexander Payne's dismay.
  • Chuck and Larry originally kissed in the courtroom scene. The MPAA threatened to give them an R-rating unless they subverted it.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The original script was planned as more of a Black Comedy with more sincere socio-political commentary on homophobia and gay marriage. After Adam Sandler signed on, he rewrote it to downplay all of the social commentary and be more of a generic buddy comedy.
• Real-Life Relative: Steve Buscemi was actually a New York City Firefighter before he became an actor. His brother is an actor, Michael Buscemi, who plays a firefighter — "Higgy" in the credits, "Higgins" on his uniform.
• Wag the Director: Dan Aykroyd approached Adam Sandler and respectfully requested to change some of his lines. Sandler thought the material Aykroyd came up with was hilarious, so he was allowed to do so.
• What Could Have Been: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's are credited on the movie as writers because they wrote a version of the script that was itself a rewrite of an earlier screenplay by Barry Fanaro (best known for writing 125 episodes of The Golden Girls), titled Flamers. The version by Payne and Taylor was originally a more serious and tasteful Black Comedy about homophobia with socio-political commentary, and an article in Vulture from the time of the film's release discusses more of the Payne and Taylor iteration of the screenplay. They wrote it to make money and not as a directorial project, and would later admit it wasn't their best work, but the Sandler version horrified Payne. Some of the notable elements that changed from this version include:
  • It was originally Larry that got together with Alex, as he chose pursuing love in spite of his grief and what it could do to their legal case.
  • Larry's son was not the walking pile of uncomfortable gay jokes used in the final film, but a teenager and aspiring figure skater who was dealing with his own sexuality, faced bullying over it, and rebelled against his father's fake marriage.
  • The men were supposed to proudly kiss on the courthouse steps... rather intimately given the stage directions. Even Sandler wanted to actually have them kiss in the movie but Executive Meddling from the MPAA stopped that.
  • When the film was first publicly announced as I Now Pronounce You Joe and Benny in 1999, Tom Shadyac was attached to direct, with Will Smith and Nicolas Cage or James Gandolfini as the leads. Budget issues resulted in this version falling through.
  • At one point, the film was considered for a Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson vehicle.
• Working Title: I Now Pronounce You Joe and Benny during the Tom Shadyac version, and Flamers was the title of the original screenplay.

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