Trivia / The Player

General

• Similarly Named Works: In addition to the American film and series, The Player is the title of a 2021 Chinese series and a 2021 Thai series. There's also the similarly-titled South Korean series Player.

The 1988 Book/1992 Film

• Career Resurrection: This film marked Robert Altman's great comeback as a successful director, after directing a whole decade of minor films (though later on, some of them became cult classics).
• Defictionalization: Attempted; according to Michael Tolkin, a production company tried to have him option a real life version of Habeas Corpus.
• Deleted Role:
  • Scenes with Jeff Daniels playing golf in a surgeon's gown at a hospital, and Patrick Swayze showing off karate moves were filmed, but cut.
  • A scene with Tim Robbins and Peter Gallagher having lunch was cut from the movie. The scene featured cameos by Franco Nero, Tim Curry, Martha Plimpton, Richard D. Zanuck, Richard Edson, and Seymour Cassel.
• Doing It for the Art: Julia Roberts, among others, did her cameo for nothing. Also, Cher wore a red dress for her cameo appearance, even though she never wore red in real life, just because Altman asked her to.
• Playing Against Type: Brion James, who, as one website put it, usually played "a deliciously rough-edged thug or unrefined clod," as dapper studio chief Joel Levison.
• Recycled: The Series: There was a pilot made for a series based on the movie in 1997, with Patrick Dempsey as Griffin Mill, but it didn't get picked up and has fallen into utter obscurity.
• Recycled Set: The interior of Griffin Mill's office is the same as used in Barton Fink.
• Self-Adaptation: Michael Tolkin wrote the screenplay based on his novel.
• Technology Marches On: Made in an era when a brick-sized mobile phone was a status symbol, only a select few had phones in their cars (and holding a phone up to your ear to talk as you drive was perfectly legal), and the really high-powered executives had in-car fax machines.
• Throw It In!:
  • The cameo stars improvised their lines.
  • In the scene where Tim Robbins (as Griffin) stops to say hello to Burt Reynolds in the restaurant, Reynolds improvised the scene, not knowing anything about Griffin, but manages to know he's an "asshole" (which, since he's a Hollywood studio exec, is a fair assumption to make).
  • Malcolm McDowell verbally attacks Griffin, which Tim Robbins stated he was not prepared for. It shows in Griffin's reaction.
  • The scene where Griffin gets questioned at the Pasadena police station wasn't in the script and was largely brainstormed by the actors before filming, with Whoopi Goldberg taking the initiative in coming up with individual ideas.
• Wag the Director: The sex scene between Griffin and June is shot from the neck up because Greta Scacchi refused to shoot a nude scene after Robert Altman asked.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Chevy Chase was interested in starring in the film but Warner Bros. passed on him. Chase's father, Ned, published the novel on which the film is based.
  • At one point, Robert Altman was considering John Travolta for the lead.
  • Joan Cusack was Altman's first choice for the lead Pasadena detective but wasn't available. Whoopi Goldberg then successfully lobbied for the role.
  • Sydney Pollack played Griffin's lawyer Dick Mellen, but Altman originally tried to get Blake Edwards (who directed another famous Hollywood satire, S.O.B.) to take the part.
  • Sidney Lumet (who'd helmed the thematically-similar Network) was interested in directing.

The 2015 Series

• Billing Displacement: Philip Winchester has top billing in the show's credits while promotional material alternates between giving Winchester and Wesley Snipes top billing.
• Fake Nationality: Korean Will Yun Lee plays a Chinese national in the fifth episode.
• The Other Marty: Cara Buono played Ginny in the original pilot. Daisy Betts took on the role and reshot Ginny's scenes in the broadcast pilot after it was decided to expand the role.
• Screwed by the Network: Minimal advertising compared to other fall season shows from NBC, and then had its episode order cut to 9 instead of the initial 13. Not officially canceled yet, but definitely screwed by the network.
  • Officially canceled. Right after airing the final produced episode. Which ends on a cliffhanger.
• What Could Have Been: Word of God is that season 1 would have ended with the reveal that Alex Kane wasn't the only Player.
• Working Title: It was briefly known as "Endgame" when the show was being produced.

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