The Killing TV series:
- Actor Allusion:
- Bullet, a character that interacts with Holder in season 3 looks conspicuously like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)'s Lizbeth Salander. Joel Kinnaman (Holder) had a silent cameo in that.
- Jewel Staite's first line is commenting on Holder's "Serenity" tattoo. "Sounds like a stripper's name."
- Channel Hop: From AMC to Netflix.
- Playing Against Type: Jewel Staite, best known for playing sunny, good-hearted Kaylee on Firefly, plays considerably-less lovable District Attorney.
- Star-Making Role: For Mirielle Enos, whose best known role at the time was in Big Love.
The Film
- Breakthrough Hit: For Stanley Kubrick.
- Cast the Expert: Kubrick cast a professional wrestler, Kola Kwariani, as the crook hired to start a fight as a diversion. The fight is very pro wrestling style.
- Doing It for the Art: Stanley Kubrick took no fee for directing the film.
- Executive Meddling: The narration was added at the studio's insistence. Stanley Kubrick hated the idea and thus makes much of the information that the narrator provides false or mistaken.
- Referenced by...: "The Killing" is the title of the second chapter of Chicken Police.
- The 1996 collaboration between musicians John Zorn and Eugene Chadbourne, In Memory of Nikki Arane, is a named after a character from The Killing, who is also featured on the cover.
- Screwed By The Studio: The film was effectively dumped by United Artists, premiering as the second half of a double feature; Richard Fleischer's Bandido was the main film.
- What Could Have Been:
- Frank Sinatra expressed interest in this project, but production rights were granted to Stanley Kubrick first.
- Victor Mature and Jack Palance were considered for John Clay.
- Working Title: Clean Break and Bed of Fear.
