Trivia / One for the Money

• Ability over Appearance:
  • Debbie Reynolds makes a far more elegant Grandma Mazur than the "soup chicken" described in the novels, but captures the character's zaniness and zest for life. Janet Evanovich claimed to love the new take on the character and said she'd write Grandma more like Debbie's interpretation if she could do it all over again.
  • Irish Jason O'Mara doesn’t really call to mind the Italian Joe Morelli of the novels and even those involved with the film openly admitted this, but he was cast largely based on the strength of his chemistry with Heigl.
• Blooper: The Kittanning Citizen’s Bridge in Pennsylvania doubles as the Lower Trenton Bridge. The sign “Trenton Makes, The World Takes” is split over two spans on the actual bridge, but was condensed onto a single span for the movie due to different proportions. However, an illustration showing the actual two-span sign can be seen in the bail bond’s office.
• Box Office Bomb: Grossed only $36 million on a $40 million budget.
• California Doubling: The movie takes place in Trenton, New Jersey, but was filmed in Pittsburgh. One press release claimed this was because Pittsburgh resembled Trenton as it did in 1994, the year the book was published. Which makes no sense, as the setting was updated to the 2010s. Tax Credits were main reason Pittsburgh was chosen.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Morelli’s police file identifies his age as 32, like his book counterpart. Jason O’Mara turned 38 during production.
  • Bookwise, Lula is established to be around 30, Stephanie’s age. Sherri Shepherd was 43 at the time.
• Dyeing for Your Art: The famously blonde Katherine Heigl dyed her hair brown during production, but ultimately wore a brunette wig because her own hair lacked the curliness and volume Stephanie's hair called for. Due to its delayed release, Heigl’s hair was back to blonde by the time she did the promotional rounds.
• Flip-Flop of God: When first released, Janet Evanovich claimed to love the film, that she wanted to be “hands-off” regarding production, and actually called it an improvement over her novel. Years later, her reaction has become much more tempered; while still appreciating the work that went into it and Katherine Heigl’s performance, she now says she was never asked to take part in production and did not emotionally connect with the final film, finding the production “lacking”.
• Saved from Development Hell: The film languished there since 1994 when Tri-Star first optioned it.
• Stillborn Franchise: Any plans to adapt the other Stephanie Plum novels were cancelled following this movie's critical and box office performance.
• Throw It In!: Jason O’Mara adlibbed Morelli’s line, “We’re ancient history, like the pyramids, baby!”
• Uncredited Role: Karen McCullah Lutz and Kristen Smith did uncredited work on the screenplay.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In 2002, years before the film came along, producer Wendy Finerman oversaw a pilot for a proposed Stephanie Plum television series, which starred Lynn Collins as Stephanie and Tyler Christopher as Joe Morrelli. Some insiders opined the end result was dreadful, so the project was never picked up or broadcast, causing Finerman to pursue a film adaptation instead.
  • Reese Witherspoon was circling the project for a few years before Katherine Heigl landed the part of Stephanie.
  • Cristina Aloe was first cast as Connie before the role went to Ana Reeder.
  • According to Heigl, the initial cut didn’t feature Stephanie’s narration. It was added in afterwards in an attempt to capture more of the book’s narrative touches.