Trivia / The Replacement Killers

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $30 million. Box office, $19,204,929.
• Executive Meddling: During production, Columbia Pictures felt that Antoine Fuqua was struggling to deliver suitable material, and ordered a studio executive to be present during most of the filming to ensure that their money was being well spent. This angered Fuqua, and made things tense between him and Columbia. Debra Hill, a veteran producer, was called in by Columbia to cool things down. Chow Yun-fat stood by Fuqua the whole time, and told the producers to trust him and his vision. The troubles didn't end after the production wrapped. When Fuqua delivered his initial cut, Columbia began testing the film. Test audiences struggled with the notion of a less-than-pure hero, and the bi-racial relationship between John Lee and Meg Coburn. They also had issues with most of the other characters' backstories, so Columbia called in action editor Richard Francis Bruce to tighten up the film. All romantic elements between Chow and Sorvino were removed, along with most of the characters' motivations.
• What Could Have Been: The film was initially set up at Columbia as a starring vehicle for Chazz Palminteri. The Chinese mafia element in the original script was actually the more conventional Italian mafia.
• Written-In Infirmity: Prior to the start of filming, Mira Sorvino had blown out her voice from screaming in reshoots of Mimic; Antonine Fuqua liked the effect and asked her to keep it, which required Sorvino to yell prior to each day's shoots to burn out her voice.

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