Trivia / The Grand Budapest Hotel

• All-Star Cast: Seriously, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, F. Murray Abraham, Harvey Keitel, Mathieu Amalric, Léa Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban and Bill Murray in one film. Although to be fair, most qualify only as cameos.
• Defictionalization:
  • Honestly it would have been a crime if L'Air de Panache hadn't been made real.
  • There is also a guide for Mendl's Courtesan au Chocolat.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Wes Anderson had all the male cast members grow their head/face hair in the months leading up to production, and then they were each stylized once they arrived on set.
  I think we certainly have the maximum supply of mustaches in this film.
• Inspiration for the Work: The use of cimbalom in the score by Alexandre Desplat was inspired by the main theme of The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Vladimir Cosma.
• International Coproduction: This was an American-German-British co-production of Wes Anderson's American Empirical Pictures (US), Indian Paintbrush (US), Neunzehnte Babelsberg Film GmbH (Germany) and Grand Budapest Limited (UK). The film was funded by the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as well as Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Gustave, a snarky-but-lovable Anti-Hero Jerk with a Heart of Gold, is a far cry from the villainous roles that Ralph Fiennes is best known for.
  • Conversely, Adrien Brody, known for playing Deadpan Snarker, The Eeyore, or misfit-type roles, plays one of his few out-and-out villains as Dmitri.
  • The technical precision of everything Kovacs says is quite an, uh, departure from Jeff Goldblum's, eh, u-usual manner of speaking. Yeah.
  • Although it's not a large role, the makeup-slathered, elderly, and almost entirely comedic Upper-Class Twit Madame D. is a huge departure from the younger, cold, icy, and androgynous dramatic roles that Tilda Swinton usually plays.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: One that George Clooney has a cameo during the shootout was eventually debunked.
• Production Posse: Many of the main actors in the film have appeared in previous Wes Anderson films. The "Secret Society of Crossed Keys" montage seems almost completely intended to pack more familiar faces into the running time. Several of the actors who played Khaki Scouts (child actors at the time) in Moonrise Kingdom even get bit parts.
• Promoted Fangirl: Saoirse Ronan was a big fan of Anderson's work before receiving the opportunity to be in the film.
  "When I heard he was going to send me the script to read, I genuinely thought it was a joke or there was something more to it, because I really am a huge fan of his and it was the first time I was such a massive fan of someone and wanted to work with them so much for quite a while and then actually got to. So, that was exciting to me."
• Referenced by...: The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" features a ponified M. Gustave as a hotel clerk, a lobby pony resembling Zero, and the hotel itself resembles the Grand Budapest Hotel.
• Underage Casting: Tilda Swinton, 52 at the time of filming, portrays an 84 year-old woman buried under tons of makeup.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Johnny Depp was originally considered for M. Gustave H.
  • Angela Lansbury was originally cast as Madame D. She had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the stage production of Driving Miss Daisy.
  • Vincent Cassel and Jean Dujardin were considered for Serge X.

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