Trivia / Hard Eight

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $3 million. Box office, $222,559.
• Executive Meddling: Attempted, but outside of one instance, failed. Paul Thomas Anderson recounts that Rysher Entertainment repeatedly tried to change the plot for commercial reasons, but Anderson refused on most grounds. They eventually compromised on Rysher having complete control of the title (changing the film's title from Sydney to Hard Eight) and marketing of the film in exchange for Anderson having complete creative control over the film itself.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: According to Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman improvised his scenes, including most of the craps scene.
• Production Posse: Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, and Melora Walters all went on to appear in Paul Thomas Anderson's next two movies, Boogie Nights and Magnolia.
• Publisher-Chosen Title: Why the film is called "Hard Eight" instead of "Sydney" like it was originally intended. It was either this and control of marketing or meddling with the film itself.
• Real-Life Relative: Paul Thomas Anderson's father, Ernie Anderson, who died one year after this movie was released, has a brief cameo as the man standing in front of John when the matches in John's pocket catch fire.
• What Could Have Been: The original shooting script included a different ending, where the audience discovers that Jimmy had betrayed Sydney, and given his name (and John's and Clementine's) to the man who was being held hostage in the motel. The man tracks down Sydney outside the same highway coffee shop where he met John, and shoots him three times, killing him. It's not known whether this scene was ever actually filmed.
• Working Title: Sydney.

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