Trivia / Margin Call

• Absurdly Short Production Time: The film was shot in 17 days, compared to your average movie being shot in several months.
• All-Star Cast: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, and Stanley Tucci. Heck, they even got Mary McDonnell to play Spacey's ex-wife in the last scene of the movie.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Most of the big name actors in the cast agreed to act in the film for scale pay because they thought the script was that good.
• Deleted Scene: The home media release of the film includes a pair of sequences chopped out from the final cut: a scene where Sullivan runs into an ex-girlfriend while walking the streets of New York in the early morning (presumably cut for being a Contrived Coincidence that didn't add anything to the increasing tension of the third act), and Tuld attempting to "motivate" several traders with a much more downbeat speech before the trading day begins.
• Fake American: Simon Baker, not always convincingly. A bit of an unusual choice since the firm is international and the head is a British man, meaning there's no real reason Jared couldn't be Australian like Baker. Averted with Jeremy Irons and Paul Bettany, who both play Englishmen.
• No Budget: Filmed on a $3 million budget, it made over $19 million and 90% of the film was shot in on a single floor. Part of the reason the budget was so low was that when the film was pitched, potential investors wanted the ending to be Tuld arrested and Rogers and Sullivan quitting. According to Chandor and Quinto, when the film was sold for distribution, the sale alone made back the production budget. They also said that when the actors signed onto the project, they liked the script so much that they agreed to SAG's minimum pay scale instead of their usual pay quotes.
• Playing Against Type:
  • It's not often you see Kevin Spacey playing one of the most moral and sincere people in the room.
  • In a lesser sense, you have Aasif Mandvi playing a no-nonsense lawyer and Simon Baker playing a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• Production Posse: The film is produced by Zachary Quinto's production company, Before the Door. The film's success would then lead them to produce Chandor's next films, All Is Lost and A Most Violent Year.
• Write What You Know: The director's father was an investment banker and he had spent some time in the industry himself. Coincidentally, the film came out the same time the Occupy Wall Street protest movement took place, helping the movement gain steam.

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