Trivia / 1492: Conquest of Paradise

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $47 million. Box office, $11,089,907.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: The soundtrack by Vangelis completely outshined and outlived the film, to the point where people are confused it was a soundtrack to some movie and not a stand-alone concept album.
• Completely Different Title: Known in France as 1492: Christophe Colomb (1492: Christopher Columbus).
• Creator Killer: Downplayed. It didn't completely kill Ridley Scott's career, but he didn't direct another movie for four years and it wasn't until Gladiator that he regained momentum, eight years later.
• Duelling Movies: With Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, which came out the same year and is, obviously, about the same guy and his first voyage to The Americas.
• Fake Nationality:
  • The French Gérard Depardieu as the Italian (specifically Genoese) Christopher Columbus.
  • Out of the entire main cast, Beatriz and de Marchena are the only Spanish characters played by actual Spaniards. The rest are mostly Americans, along with a Canadian and an Afrikaner. Ironically, Columbus' brother Giacomo is played by Fernando Guillén Cuervo...who's Spanish.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Almost literally. For a long time, outside of the standard VHS print, the film didn't receive a physical release in the United States until it finally made its DVD and Blu-ray debut from Kino Lorber in June 2017.
• Meaningful Release Date: One of several movies (along with, among others, the live-action Christopher Columbus: The Discovery and the anime The Adventures of Christopher Columbus) released in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the voyage.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Sigourney Weaver wore a wig, as she'd shaved her hair off for Alien³.
• Referenced by...: In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Koichi is struggling to open a lock that requires the year Columbus discovered the new world, he mentions that he once heard about Conquest of Paradise but never watched it since he considered the length too long.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone were approached to direct.
  • Hans Zimmer was originally chosen to compose the music for the film until Ridley Scott decided to approach Vangelis.
  • Gérard Depardieu suggested Sylvia Kristel for the role of Queen Isabel in the hopes of securing her a comeback. Producers insisted for someone more "bankable" so Sigourney Weaver was cast instead.
• Working Title: Columbus.

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