Trivia / Reds (1981)

• California Doubling: The film was mainly shot in England, where none of it takes place. As a result of Beatty being denied permission to film in the U.S.S.R., the Russia scenes were shot in Finland, with Helsinki doubling for Petrograd (present-day St. Petersburg, Leningrad at the time of filming). The scenes set in Baku, Azerbaijan were shot in Spain.
• The Cast Showoff: The poem that Jack Nicholson gives Diane Keaton was a real poem that he had actually written for her.
• Copiously Credited Creator: Produced, co-written and directed by, and starring Warren Beatty.
• Creative Differences: At one point, Director of Photography Vittorio Storaro nearly quit the project when he and Warren Beatty clashed over the use of the camera. Storaro wanted a dynamic fluid movement, while Beatty wanted static shots. Finally, a compromise was made between the two men. The film would open with static shots, and as it progressed, more camera moves are added. This style had similarly been applied to another film, that being Network. Yet by 2011, Beatty described the process with Storaro this way: "There's no greater cinematographer. We were in total agreement and had continual conversations."
• Dawson Casting: Although Warren Beatty was forty-four-years-old when he made the film, his character John Reed only lived to be thirty-two.
• Doing It for the Art: Gene Hackman appeared in the film for nothing as a favour to Warren Beatty.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Warren Beatty lost thirty pounds while making this movie.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: The film was conceptualized in 1966, the script was first put together in 1969, and it took an additional 12 years to make it to theaters. Part of this was due to the sheer length of time needed to gather all the interview footage used, which was being shot as early as 1971. Another, bigger part was the fact that the film's controversial subject matter made it difficult to find a financer; Warren Beatty would eventually get the money he needed after the success of 1978's Heaven Can't Wait, which gave him enough clout to get Reds off the ground.
• Production Nickname: The crew gave the picture joke titles similar to those of other movies due to the high stress of its production, included "The Longest Day" and "The 39 Takes".
• Romance on the Set: Averted. It was rumored that Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton were having an affair. This turned out to be false. As Jack himself said, in reference to Keaton being Warren Beatty's girlfriend at the time, "I'm not gonna sleep with my best friend's girl. I'm not an asshole".
• Uncredited Role:
  • Manning Redwood as a U.S. Customs officer.
  • Elaine May and Robert Towne both did uncredited work on the script.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Julie Christie was originally cast as Louise Bryant, but she decided she didn't feel right for the role and dropped out.
  • John Lithgow was considered by Beatty for the lead role of John Reed for a short time. This was because Lithgow physically resembled Reed. Beatty eventually decided that he would play the part of Reed.
  • Sam Shepard and James Taylor were considered for the role of Eugene O'Neill.
  • The Russian singer-songwriter and actor Vladimir Vysotsky was interested in being in the film, so a few months before principal photography began, he filmed a 30-minute-long audition tape addressed directly to Beatty, though apparently the tape never made it to him. Even if it had, it's likely he would have been forbidden by the Soviet Union from participating, or he could have died before filming any scenes, as he did in July 1980.
• Working Title: The first screenplay for this movie was written in 1969 under the original script title of Comrades. It was simply known as The John Reed and Louise Bryant Story while in production.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: According to Edward Herrmann, Warren Beatty would sometimes shoot without a finished script.
  Warren Beatty is mysterium tremendum. We never saw a script. We could have been shooting Casablanca for all we knew.

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