History Trivia / Rollerball

* FakeNationality: Chinese actor Creator/BurtKwouk plays a Japanese doctor.

* FakeNationality: Ethnically Chinese actor Burt Kwouk (of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' fame) plays a Japanese doctor.

* UncreditedRole: Creator/DavidGriffin as a man collecting coats.

* CaliforniaDoubling: The Energy Corporation is based in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, Texas. However, shooting for the film took place in Europe, with the then-recently built BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany being portrayed as the Energy Corporation's headquarters. Other scenes were shot in Hampshire, England.

* DeletedRole: Matilda Szydagis made her acting debut in this film, but her part ended up on the cutting room floor.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decision to have a private detective wiretap the phone of one of his producers ultimately completely destroyed his directing career. [=McTiernan=] wanted to get dirt on the producer in the event he was badmouthing the studio to blackmail him into moving along with his vision of the film, and then later lied to the FBI about it by claiming that it was only about his divorce proceedings at the time, and that there was no discussion of wiretapping. Ultimaetly, when he finally faced the music, in an attempt to prevent his ranch from being taken away, he filed for bankruptcy. [=McTiernan=] has not had any film roles ever since.

* TroubledProduction: Anyone who's seen the original script says it was very good, but Creator/JohnMcTiernan disliked it and ordered multiple rewrites. Principal photography took place in 2000, but after uniformly negative test screenings the studio ordered reshoots. The film was then heavily cut for a more family-friendly rating.

* CreatorKiller: The remake was a serious blow to director Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decorated career before it was torpedoed entirely by his arrest for lying to the FBI a short few years later.

** Following the negative test screenings, Creator/{{MGM}} ordered massive re-shoots and re-edits to be done on the film in the summer on 2001. Shortly after the test screenings, MGM appointed a new head of marketing and distribution, Robert Levin, who convinced Creator/JohnMcTiernan to let go of the summer release date. This would give the studio more time to devise a better marketing strategy and allow [=McTiernan=] to do re-shoots and to re-edit the film for a PG-13 rating, in an attempt by studio to get wider audience to see the film. The release date was then pushed again from August all the way to February of 2002, due to all the post production work causing delays. [=McTiernan=] shot two weeks of additional footage in fall of 2001 to clarify certain scenes, especially the film's ending, and also cut down the violence and nudity.
** Around 30 minutes were cut out of original rough cut of the film and entire ending was re-shot and changed. Some of the cuts were made because MGM thought that movie was "Too Asian". In original ending, Petrovich gets killed by Sanjay and Jonathan and Aurora take the plane ride back to US, during which Jonathan says that he will continue playing the Rollerball game in US, and how he is part owner of the game.
** The original score by Brian Transeau was also removed because it sounded "Too Arabic" and was replaced with new score by Eric Serra. Also, some of the other music was changed or removed from the first cut of the film.

* MissingEpisode: Some of the scenes that were cut for PG-13 rating, but were never put back even in later DVD and Blu-Ray so called R rated versions of the film, include a lot more blood in all the Rollerball scenes and parts like skulls getting smashed, bones getting broken, teeth flying out... The scene where Aurora is topless and walks towards Jonathan in the locker room originally didn't have a shadow over her (this was added in post production to cover her up for PG-13 rating), their sex scene was also longer, and so was their conversation while they are laying down in sauna. Some of the other similar edits that were done on more graphic scenes in the film include digitally replacing blood spurts with sweat.
* ReleaseDateChange: Following negative test screenings, the release date was pushed forward from May to 13 July of 2001 by Creator/{{MGM}} in order to test the movie again, hoping that they would find the right audience for it.

** The infamous night vision sequence was actually a re-shot version of the scene. After realizing that they shot original version of the scene to look too dark, the filmmakers had to return and re-shot the entire sequence, delaying the movie's release for six months. But due to the budget issues this scene couldn't be finished properly so it was decided to add green visual tint to the scene to make it look like it's night vision, even though it makes no sense for why would this scene have that look.

* StarDerailingRole: Chris Klein and Creator/RebeccaRomijn never really recovered from the remake's poor box office take. The latter being nominated for a Razzie for her role didn't help much, but she ''did'' manage a CareerResurrection in the form of ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', which managed to become the first TV series that she starred in to have continued beyond its first season, given that all of her previous shows only lasted for a season (with the notable exception of ''Series/UglyBetty'', in which she was series regular for the first two seasons before departing in the third episode of season three).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/KeanuReeves was originally intended to play Jonathan Cross. Creator/NicolasCage was offered the role, but he turned it down to be in ''Film/TheFamilyMan''. Creator/RussellCrowe was also considered.

** In the middle of all this, the director hired a private investigator to put a wiretap on the phone of one of the producers, for which felony he would later serve several months in a federal prison. The end result was critically panned (3% on Website/RottenTomatoes) and earned just over a third of its budget.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Robert Lee (a.k.a. Taro in ''Series/MindYourLanguage'') has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as an Energy Corporation executive.

** Following the negative test screenings, Creator/{{MGM}} ordered massive re-shoots and re-edits to be done on the film in the summer on 2001. Shortly after the test screenings, MGM appointed a new head of marketing and distribution, Robert Levin, who convinced Creator/JohnMcTiernan to let go of the summer release date. This would give the studio more time to devise a better marketing strategy and allow McTiernan to do re-shoots and to re-edit the film for a PG-13 rating, in an attempt by studio to get wider audience to see the film. The release date was then pushed again from August all the way to February of 2002, due to all the post production work causing delays. [=McTiernan=] shot two weeks of additional footage in fall of 2001 to clarify certain scenes, especially the film's ending, and also cut down the violence and nudity.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Creator/JohnMcTierman's decision to have a private detective wiretap the phone of one of his producers ultimately completely destroyed his directing career. [=McTiernan=] wanted to get dirt on the producer in the event he was badmouthing the studio to blackmail him into moving along with his vision of the film, and then later lied to the FBI about it by claiming that it was only about his divorce proceedings at the time, and that there was no discussion of wiretapping. Ultimaetly, when he finally faced the music, in an attempt to prevent his ranch from being taken away, he filed for bankruptcy. [=McTiernan=] has not had any film roles ever since.

* DisownedAdaptation: William Harrison has said that he never saw the remake, let alone interested in it. It was even disowned by Creator/JohnMcTiernan himself, the film being butchered by heavy editing due to ExecutiveMeddling, which completely altered its message.

* MissingEpisode: Some of the scenes that were cut for PG-13 rating, but were never put back even in later DVD and Blu-Ray so called R rated versions of the film, include lot more blood in all the Rollerball scenes and parts like skulls getting smashed, bones getting broken, teeth flying out... Scene where Aurora is topless and walks towards Jonathan in the locker room originally didn't had shadow over her (this was added in post production to cover her up for PG-13 rating), their sex scene was also longer, and so was their conversation while they are laying down in sauna. Some of the other similar edits that were done on more graphic scenes in the film include digitally replacing blood spurts with sweat.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Creator/JohnMcTierman's decision to have a private detective wiretap the phone of one of his producers ultimately completely destroyed his directing career. [=McTiernan=] wanted to get dirt on the producer in the event he was badmouthing the studio to blackmail him into moving along with his vision of the film, and then later lied to the FBI about it by claiming that it was only about his divorce proceedings at the time, and that there was no discussion of wiretapping. Ultimaetly, when he finally faced the music, in an attempt to prevent his ranch from being taken away, he filed for bankruptcy. [=McTiernan=] has not had any film role ever since.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: John McTierman's decision to have a private detective wiretap the phone of one of his producers ultimately completely destroyed his directing career. McTiernan wanted to get dirt on the producer in the event he was badmouthing the studio to blackmail him into moving along with his vision of the film, and then later lied to the FBI about it by claiming that it was only about his divorce proceedings at the time, and that there was no discussion of wiretapping. Ultimaetly, when he finally faced the music, in an attempt to prevent his ranch from being taken away, he filed for bankruptcy. McTiernan has not had any film role ever since.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/KeanuReeves was originally intended to play Jonathan Cross. Creator/NicolasCage was offered the role, but he turned it down to be in ''Film/TheFamilyMan''.

** Creator/SylvesterStallone was considered for Johnathan E.

* CaliforniaDoubling: In the original 1975 film, the Energy Corporation is based in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, Texas. However, shooting for the film took place in Europe, with the then-recently built BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany being portrayed as the Energy Corporation's headquarters.

* FakeNationality: Chinese-British actor Burt Kwouk (of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' fame) plays a Japanese doctor.

* StarDerailingRole: Chris Klein and Creator/RebeccaRomijn never really recovered from the remake's poor box office take. The latter being nominated for a Razzie for her role didn't help much but recovered with a CareerResurrection in ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', which managed to become the first TV series that she starred in to have continued beyond its first season, given that previous TV shows she starred in only lasted for a season (with the notable exception of ''Series/UglyBetty'', in which she was series regular for the first two seasons before departing in the third episode of season three).

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Tokyo fans are supposed to be chanting "Ganbare Tokyo!" (頑張れ 東京; roughly meaning "Hang in there, Tokyo"). While the phrase is grammatically correct and perfectly appropriate to the context, it's pronunciation is nigh-incomprehensible to a native speaker. The actual word is pronounced ɡã̠mba̠ɾe̞, with an 'e' as an 'set', however the extras pronounce it closer to 'gun-bear'.
* BoxOfficeBomb: The remake was this. Budget: $70 million. Final box office tally: $25,852,764.

* CreatorKiller: The remake was a serious blow to director Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decorated career before it was torpedoed entirely by his arrest for lying to the FBI a short few years later.
* DisownedAdaptation: William Harrison has said that he never saw the remake, let alone interested in it. It was even disowned by Creator/JohnMcTiernan himself, the film being butchered by heavy editing due to ExecutiveMeddling, which completely altered its message.
* FakeNationality:
** Chinese-British actor Burt Kwouk (of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' fame) plays a Japanese doctor.
** Frenchman Creator/JeanReno as Kazakh Alexi Petrovich in the remake.
* StarDerailingRole: Chris Klein and Creator/RebeccaRomijn never really recovered from the remake's poor box office take. The latter being nominated for a Razzie for her role didn't help much but recovered with a CareerResurrection in ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', which managed to become the first TV series that she starred in to have continued beyond its first season, given that previous TV shows she starred in only lasted for a season (with the notable exception of ''Series/UglyBetty'', in which she was series regular for the first two seasons before departing in the third episode of season three).

* TroubledProduction: The remake. Anyone who's seen the original script says it was very good, but the director disliked it and ordered multiple rewrites. Principal photography took place in 2000, but after uniformly negative test screenings the studio ordered reshoots. The film was then heavily cut for a more family-friendly rating. In the middle of all this, the director hired a private investigator to put a wiretap on the phone of one of the producers, for which felony he would later serve several months in a federal prison. The end result was critically panned (3% on Rotten Tomatoes) and earned just over a third of its budget.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The scene where drugged-up party-goers shoot up some magnificent trees with a futuristic rocket gun is disturbing enough. But just imagine how it would've been if they'd followed the original scripted idea, where they took turns shooting a ''dog''...

* FakeNationality: Frenchman Creator/JeanReno as Kazakh Alexi Petrovich in the remake.

* CreatorKiller: The remake was a serious blow to director Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decorated career before it was torpedoed entirely by his arrest for tax evasion a short few years later.

* CreatorKiller: The remake was a serious blow to director John [=McTiernan=]'s decorated career before it was torpedoed entirely by his arrest for tax evasion a short few years later.
* DisownedAdaptation: William Harrison has said that he never saw the remake, let alone interested in it. It was even disowned by John [=McTiernan=] himself, the film being butchered by heavy editing due to ExecutiveMeddling, which completely altered its message.

* StarDerailingRole: Chris Klein and Rebecca Romijn never really recovered from the remake's poor box office take. The latter being nominated for a Razzie for her role didn't help much but recovered with a CareerResurrection in ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', which managed to become the first TV series that she starred in to have continued beyond its first season, given that previous TV shows she starred in only lasted for a season (with the notable exception of ''Series/UglyBetty'', in which she was series regular for the first two seasons before departing in the third episode of season three).

* DisownedAdaptation: William Harrison has said that he never saw the remake, let alone interested in it. Actually, it was even disowned by John [=McTiernan=] himself, the film being butchered by heavy editing due to ExecutiveMeddling, which completely altered its message.