History Trivia / TheNegotiator

* CastTheRunnerUp: The nitial plan was to have Creator/KevinSpacey as the hostage taker and Creator/SylvesterStallone would have been the opposing negotiator. Stallone backed out, and the former decided he wanted to play the other part. Creator/SamuelLJackson was recast in his place.

* InMemoriam: The film is dedicated to JT Walsh, who played Niebalm. He died before its release.

* CastTheExpert: It's somewhat appropriate to have Samuel L. Jackson as a hostage taker, given that in 1969, while he was a college student at Morehouse College, he was one of several students to take the Morehouse College Board of Trustees hostage in order to force them to change the curriculum and governance. He ended up getting convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony.
* EnforcedMethodActing: Kevin Spacey fed his lines to Samuel L Jackson for the scenes with their over-the-phone conversations. This helped the latter with his reactions.

* MissingTrailerScene: The trailer included a shot of Sabian talking into his radio saying, “Now, you’re going to have deal with both of us.” This line isn’t in the actual movie, presumably because Sabian telegraphing aligning with Danny would have ruined his chances to help Danny escape.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Initial plan was to have Kevin Spacey as the hostage taker and Sylvester Stallone would have been the opposing negotiator. Sylvester Stallone backed out, and the former decided he wanted to play the other part. Samuel L Jackson was recast in his place.
** The original ending was to have a Mexican standoff with over a hundred cops pointing guns at [[spoiler: Danny and Sabian]] in a train station. Kevin Spacey felt that was too cliched a situation, and it was changed.

* InMemorium: The film is dedicated to JT Walsh, who played Niebalm. He died before its release.

* CastTheExpert:It's somewhat appropriate to have Samuel L. Jackson as a hostage taker, given that in 1969, while he was a college student at Morehouse College, he was one of several students to take the Morehouse College Board of Trustees hostage in order to force them to change the curriculum and governance. He ended up getting convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Initial plan was to have Spacey as the hostage taker and Sylvester Stallone would have been the opposing negotiator.
** And we must all surely thank The Powers That Be that they decided to recast those roles in the way they did!

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Sideways}} Paul Giamatti]], [[Film/{{Pleasantville}} J.T. Walsh]], and [[Film/MenInBlack Siobhan Fallon]] (you know, the redheaded chick with the droning voice that has made a career of "Hey, it's that girl!" roles) as the hostages, [[Series/{{CSI}} Paul Guilfoyle]] as the detective whose murder sets the plot in motion. David Morse, who plays the gung-ho SWAT captain Beck, has made a living out of playing no nonsense police and military figures. (See his roles as Major Baxter in ''Film/TheRock'' and Brutus Howell in ''Film/TheGreenMile'' for starters.)

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Initial plan was to have Spacey as the hostage taker and Sylvester Stallone would have been the opposing negotiator.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Sideways}} Paul Giamatti]], [[Film/{{Pleasantville}} J.T. Walsh]], and [[Film/MenInBlack Siobhan Fallon]] (you know, the redheaded chick with the droning voice that has made a career of "Hey, it's that girl!" roles) as the hostages, [[Series/{{CSI}} Paul Guilfoyle]] as the detective whose murder sets the plot in motion.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Sideways}} Paul Giamatti]], [[{{Pleasantville}} J.T. Walsh]], and [[Film/MenInBlack Siobhan Fallon]] (you know, the redheaded chick with the droning voice that has made a career of "Hey, it's that girl!" roles) as the hostages, [[Series/{{CSI}} Paul Guilfoyle]] as the detective whose murder sets the plot in motion.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Sideways}} Paul Giamatti]], [[{{Pleasantville}} J.T. Walsh]], and [[Film/MenInBlack Siobhan Fallon]] (you know, the redheaded chick with the droning voice that has made a career of "Hey, it's that girl!" roles) as the hostages, [[{{CSI}} Paul Guilfoyle]] as the detective whose murder sets the plot in motion.