Trivia / A Boy and His Dog

• Creator Backlash:
  • Harlan Ellison loved the movie except for the last minute. Even though Vic kills Quilla and feeds her to Blood in the original story as well, Ellison treated the ending with a somber tone as opposed to the movie, which played it for a laugh. Ellison accused director L. Q. Jones of being a sexist redneck for approaching it as he did. Although part of the dedication for the 2018 compilation novel Blood's A Rover is to L.Q. Jones - giving him "an affectionate hug[...]for the movie".
  • Ellison came to regret the misogynistic tone of the ending, especially after Joanna Russ privately took him to task for it.
• Dawson Casting: Don Johnson was 25 when he played the role of 18-year old Vic.
• Reality Subtext: During the writing of his story, Ellison was reeling from a bitter divorce and the death of a beloved dog (Ahbhu, who found his way into the story as one of Blood's ancestors); it shows.
• Stillborn Franchise: According to Cult Movies 2, a sequel was planned called A Girl and Her Dog, but the dog died shortly after the movie's release.
• Saved from Development Hell: Ellison always intended this story to be a chapter in a larger novel called Blood's a Rover. Plans to finally finish the novel in 2014 were quashed by Ellison's debilitating stroke. A compilation "novel", bringing together the published stories and a final act (written for a proposed television pilot) that only exists in script form was finally published in 2018 - released only a few days after the author's passing.
• What Could Have Been:
  • James Cagney was considered for the voice of Blood, but the idea was dropped because Cagney's fame would have been a distraction from the character.
  • Robert Ryan was set to play Lou; He read the script and loved it, and even offered to dock his usual salary to help loosen the budget. Sadly, terminal health issues popped up with him before filming, forcing him to drop out.

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