Trivia / Wired

• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $13,000,000; Gross: $1,089,000.
• Creator Backlash: Michael Chiklis auditioned for the film without having read the full script because he had admired John Belushi and wanted to pay homage. He wound up hating it just as much as Belushi's friends and family did and profusely apologized to all of them for the inaccurate portrayal of the man.
• Creator Killer:
  • Director Larry Peerce was relegated to television for the rest of his career, while screenwriter Earl Mac Rauch hadn’t written a script since.
  • Averted with Michael Chiklis, who found enough success with The Commish a few years later to be able to put Wired behind him. However, he did state that he felt effectively blacklisted from Hollywood for a few years after the film flopped and was unable to find roles in that time.
• Disowned Adaptation: Pretty much everyone who knew John Belushi personally, including his widow Judith, brother James, and best friend Dan Aykroyd, hated the film for its inaccurate portrayal of the man and made their feelings known in the media. Aykroyd has refused to work with anyone who was involved with the film's production, and J.T. Walsh was fired from the Aykroyd film Loose Cannons after one day on the set (though accounts differ on whether Aykroyd ordered Walsh's firing or if the filmmakers realized that Aykroyd wouldn't be happy about Walsh's casting and decided to pre-empt any trouble). They have, however, forgiven Michael Chiklis since he hated the film just as much as they did and was apologetic.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film only saw a VHS release that's since fallen out of print, and it's never been released on DVD or Blu Ray.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: With the exceptions of Dan Aykroyd, Judith Jacklin, Bob Woodward, and Cathy Smith, nobody that knew John Belushi allowed their names to be used in the film, resulting in figures like Lorne Michaels and John Landis going either unnamed or using a different name. In fact, no Saturday Night Live sketches were allowed to be recreated in the film, forcing production to make up their own fictitious ones.

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