History Trivia / Stalker

* TroubledProduction: Working on the film wound up literally killing many of the people involved. How so?

* TroubledProduction: The film was such a troubled production that one of its crewmembers described the experience as "the mirror of a hellish trip" which wound up literally killing many of the people involved. How so?
** Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in Soviet-occupied Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. At one point, Tarkovsky asked Rerberg to do a special effect that he had seen in an Creator/IngmarBergman film, even going so far as to build a special studio for the task, only to erupt at Rerberg for not nailing the effect. Accounts vary as to whether Tarkovsky fired Rerberg, or Rerberg walked out of the production.
** Tarkovsky's wife Larisa [[WagTheDirector convinced him]] to cast her as the wife of the protagonist. However, she turned out to be so difficult on set that the crew derisively nicknamed her "[[ThePrimaDonna the empress]]." Rerberg eventually persuaded Tarkovsky to recast the role with Alisa Freindlich, which angered Larisa.
** When the footage was sent back to Moscow to be processed, the film laboratory -- unfamiliar with the experimental [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak 5427]] film stock that Tarkovsky had flown in from America -- botched the process, which resulted in the footage having a darkened green tint. Tarkovsky managed to convince Mosfilm to completely reshoot the film as a two-part work to be released a month apart.
** Tarkovsky hired a new cinematographer named Leonid Kalashnikov for the reshoot, and moved to a new shooting location after the original location had been damaged by an earthquake. Unsatisfied with Kalashnikov's performance, Tarkovsky replaced him with yet another cinematographer, Alexander Knyazhinsky, and set about completely reshooting the film for a ''third'' time. This version became the final product, which is reportedly bears little resemblance to what Tarkovsky shot with Rerberg.
** The new location, an abandoned hydroelectric power station, sat across the river from a chemical factory; the "snow" in one scene was actually airborne pollutants from said factory which caused female crewmembers to break out in allergic rashes. The cast and crew were in close contact with (and in some cases were literally knee-deep in) a miasma of toxic chemicals, and many of them -- including Tarkovsky, Larisa, and actor Anatoly Solonitsyn -- later contracted fatal illnesses as a result.

* TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}} with cinematographer Creator/GeorgyRerberg, using an experimental filmstock from [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak]]. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, as Tarkovsky had used American Kodak stock and the lab workers were unfamiliar with how to develop the film, and Rerberg left the production by simply walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Creator/{{Mosfilm}} to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart -- the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Creator/RashitSafiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reports of some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.
** The Creator/StrugatskyBrothers had to write ''thirteen'' versions of the script until they nailed the one which satisfied both them and the director.

* TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}} with cinematographer Creator/GeorgyRerberg, using an experimental filmstock from [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak]]. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, and Rerberg left the production by simply walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Creator/{{Mosfilm}} to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart -- the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Creator/RashitSafiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reports of some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.

** The storyline featured more locations such as the Swamps[[note]]which would be completely rebuilt for ''Clear Sky''[[/note]], Dead City[[note]]the main base of the Mercs faction, and where the player would have found Doctor being held captive[[/note]], reintroduced in ''Lost Alpha'' mode, Darkscape[[note]]A location bridging the gap between the Dark Valley and Cordon, which was originally planned to be part of a vehicle escape sequence from X-18. When vehicles were cut, this sequence was cut along with the map. Rebuilt for ''Lost Alpha'' mode again[[/note]], and Generators/War Lab[[note]]intended to be the source of the Zone's emissions, whose story role was merged with Chernobyl in the full game. Both were back in ''Lost Alpha'' and the War Lab map would be also reused as X-8 in ''Call of Pripyat''[[/note]]. Much of this was axed due to THQ [[ExecutiveMeddling demanding a more linear, story-driven game upon being shown a version with much of this present]], forcing GSC to hastily cut the game down. Thankfully, the community has created a number of mods that restore much of this cut content back into the games.

** The storyline featured more locations such as the Swamps[[note]]which would be completely rebuilt for ''Clear Sky''[[/note]], Dead City[[note]]the main base of the Mercs faction, and where the player would have found Doctor being held captive[[/note]], Darkscape[[note]]A location bridging the gap between the Dark Valley and Cordon, which was originally planned to be part of a vehicle escape sequence from X-18. When vehicles were cut, this sequence was cut along with the map[[/note]], and Generators/War Lab[[note]]intended to be the source of the Zone's emissions, whose story role was merged with Chernobyl in the full game. The War Lab map would be reused as X-8 in ''Call of Pripyat''[[/note]]. Much of this was axed due to THQ [[ExecutiveMeddling demanding a more linear, story-driven game upon being shown a version with much of this present]], forcing GSC to hastily cut the game down. Thankfully, the community has created a number of mods that restore much of this cut content back into the games.

** What became ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' started as ''Oblivion Lost'', and was originally intended to be a sci-fi game in a futuristic setting.
** Early builds featured such things as larger maps, player-drivable vehicles, a "faction wars" system that involved dynamic warfare between the factions[[note]]which would be officially implemented in the ''Clear Sky'' expansion[[/note]], dynamic emissions, and more. Much of this was stripped down or removed when the developers had serious technical issues making all this work, as well as other gameplay elements interfering with these features.
** More mutant enemies such as Cats, hostile Crows, "Proper" Zombies, A freakishly long-armed mutated zombie called the "Izlom", etc were planned, but cut from the game. The Burer and Chimera mutants in ''Call of Pripyat'' were originally intended for ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' as well. As most of them lasted long enough into development that their assets were left in the game's files, there's several mods to readd them.
** The new weapons added into ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat'' were originally built for ''Shadow of Chernobyl''. Among other cut weapons were several fully-automatic handguns, a number of sub-machine guns, a [[GatlingGood minigun]], and a number of unique variants of existing weapons.
** At one point, the developers bragged that the AI was so complex and human-like, it could beat the game ''on its own'', and had to be toned down significantly to prevent the game from being unwinnable. However, some have started to doubt that the bit about the AI beating the game was ever true, and may have simply been a wish of the developers that was never realized.
** The storyline featured more locations such as the Swamps[[note]]which would be completely rebuilt for ''Clear Sky''[[/note]], Dead City[[note]]the main base of the Mercs faction, and where the player would have found Doctor being held captive[[/note]], Darkscape[[note]]A location bridging the gap between the Dark Valley and Cordon, which was originally planned to be part of an escape sequence from X-18. This sequence was cut along with the map[[/note]], and Generators/War Lab[[note]]the true source of the Zone's emissions, whose story role was merged with Chernobyl in the full game. The War Lab map would be reused as X-8 in ''Call of Pripyat''[[/note]]. Much of this was axed due to the publisher [[ExecutiveMeddling demanding a more linear, story-driven game upon being shown a version with much of this present]], forcing GSC to hastily cut the game down. Thankfully, the community has created a number of mods that restore much of this cut content back into the games.

** More mutant enemies such as Cats, hostile Crows, "Proper" Zombies, A freakishly long-armed mutated zombie called the "Izlom", etc were planned, but cut from the game. The Burer and Chimera mutants in ''Call of Pripyat'' were originally intended for ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' as well. As most of them lasted long enough into development that their assets were left in the game's file, there's several mods to readd them.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Due to the aforementioned DevelopmentHell, ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' underwent a massive number of changes during development. Early builds featured such things as player-drivable vehicles, a faction wars system, more mutant enemies (Cats, Burers, "Proper" Zombies, etc), an expanded storyline with more locations such as the Swamps, Dead City (the main base of the Mercs) and Generators/War Lab (the source of Zone's emissions, whose story role was merged with Chernobyl in the full game). GSC was forced to cut much of this for various reasons, including their publisher [[ExecutiveMeddling saying they wanted a more linear, story-driven game upon being shown a version with much of this present]]. Several elements would later be used in ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat'', and the community has created a number of mods that restore much of this cut content back into ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' itself.

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Series/{{Nikita}} is now an LAPD detective.
** [[Series/ThePractice Bobby Donnell]] is now an NYPD detective transferring to the LAPD.
** Charles Grey left Series/TheUnit to be a cop who later went off the deep end.

!!{{Film}}

!![[VideoGames Video Game]]

!!TV Show

!!Film

* ProductionPosse: Anatoly Solonitsyn, one of Tarkovsky's frequent collaborators, appeared as the Writer.
* TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg, using an experimental filmstock from [[Creator/EastmanKodak Kodak]]. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, and Rerberg left the production by simply walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Mosfilm to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart--the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Rashit Safiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reports of some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.

!!Video Game

!!Film

* TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg, using an experimental filmstock from Kodak. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, and Rerberg left the production by simply walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Mosfilm to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart--the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Rashit Safiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reports of some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.

** TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg, using an experimental filmstock from Kodak. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, and Rerberg left the production by simply walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Mosfilm to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart--the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Rashit Safiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reports of some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.
*** The Creator/StrugatskyBrothers had to write ''thirteen'' versions of the script until they nailed the one which satisfied both them and the director.

** TroubledProduction: Tarkovsky spent a year shooting the film in Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg, using an exerimental filmstock from Kodak. The two argued constantly over the script, with Rerberg constantly pressing for rewrites. It was later discovered that all the footage sent back to Moscow had been improperly processed at the laboratory, and Rerberg left the production by simly walking out of the screening room and never coming back. Tarkovsky managed to convince Mosfilm to start all over again as two-part film but with half the budget, with each part being released a month apart--the film is usually seen nowadays as a whole, with an interval. Production designer Rashit Safiullin claims the final version was very different to the original footage, but other crew members who worked on both shoots claim they were almost identical. There are reorts that some footage (either from the first or second shoot, it's not clear) being destroyed by fire, and some claim Tarkovsky actually shot the film three times. Other problems included having to recreate the remains of the troops sent into the Zone with only five tanks when the original shoot had twelve, and the fact that some of the locations were polluted with Toxic waste; the "snow" in one scene was actually an irritant chemical spewed out of a chemical works across the river. Many of the cast and crew, including Tarkovsky himself, later contracted cancer as a result. In addition, Tarkovsky actually had members of the crew ''physically paint'' the landscapes because he wanted the grass, trees and bushes etc. to look a specific way.
*** StrugatskyBrothers had to write ''thirteen'' versions of the script until they nailed the one which satisfied both them and the director.

** StrugatskyBrothers had to write ''thirteen'' versions of the script until they nailed the one which satisfied both them and the director.

* TroubledProduction: The original print of the movie was destroyed in a fire, forcing Andrei to shoot the whole thing all over again. [[NoBudget That's the reason]] why he had to abandon a more lavish production (like the one he did with his earlier ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'') and retool the film into a more cerebral and looser adaptation of the novel.

* * TroubledProduction: The original print of the movie was destroyed in a fire, forcing Andrei to shoot the whole thing all over again. [[NoBudget That's the reason]] why he had to abandon a more lavish production (like the one he did with his earlier ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'') and retool the film into a more cerebral and looser adaptation of the novel.