Trivia / Le Mans

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $7.6 million. Box office, $5.5 million.
• The Cast Showoff: Steve McQueen shows off his skills on the racetrack.
• Creative Differences: Original director John Sturges quit during production due to disagreements with McQueen. Sturges wanted to make a film with a more conventional script that focused on the relationships of the racers and concluded in typical Hollywood fashion with an upbeat ending, while McQueen was more interested in making a racing documentary and he insisted on using very little dialogue in the film, making the cars the stars of the picture.
• Creator Killer: Since the film was such a labor of love for him, its failure hit Steve McQueen hard. It led to the collapse of his first marriage and his business empire. Not only did he not bother attending the premier, but he never raced again.
• Dueling Dubs: The film has been dubbed in Czech twice. The first dub was released on VHS in 2004. In 2009, a second dub was produced in-house for Czech Television.
• Troubled Production: The 2015 documentary Steve McQueen: The Man & Les Man revealed how problematic the production was. Steve McQueen himself called the production "a bloodbath".
  • Cinema Center Films (which had not previously been involved in the filming process) took over the production after a few months and suspended production for two weeks (even giving Robert Redford a call to see if he would replace McQueen). Cinema Center Films considered shutting down the film completely, but eventually struck a deal with McQueen, in which he gave up his salary, his percentage of any profits and his control of the film, in order to get it finished.
  • The original director John Sturges, who had worked with McQueen on The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape, quit the film after numerous disagreements with the star, saying "I am too old and too rich to put up with this shit." McQueen fell out with writer Alan Trustman and fired him and McQueen's producer Robert Relyea fell out with McQueen and television director Lee H. Katzin took over.
  • During filming several accidents occurred. Derek Bell was one of the drivers involved in a near fatal accident. The Ferrari 512 he was driving suddenly caught fire whilst getting into position for a take. He managed to get out of the car just before it was engulfed in flames and suffered minor burns. David Piper was the second driver involved in a major incident. He had to have his leg amputated as a result.
  • Offscreen, a major accident occurred involving Mario Iscovich, his personal assistant, and starlet Louise Edlind in which McQueen crashed their car going too fast in the rain, missed a curve and rolling several times in a field. Steve didn't want to call an ambulance because of publicity and tried to steal a car from a farmhouse. The owner came out screaming in French, holding a shotgun and then fired into the air. Steve was very paranoid that Louise would ruin the production. Mario took the blame for the accident, even though he wasn't driving and left the film without a job.
  • During this time, McQueen became increasingly paranoid as a result of finding out he was on Charles Manson's kill list. It led him to pursue a license to get a gun to protect himself. His marriage to Neile Adams McQueen was falling apart as well. She was having an affair with Maximilian Schell. When he found out, McQueen offered him a part in the film (possibly in the hopes of running him off the road), but Schell wisely refused.
  • At one point, the crew went on strike due to long working hours.
  • The film's propmaster Dalton Watson recalled:
    There was nothing positive to say about the 106-minute motion picture at the time we started making it in June 1970. Six months later when filming mercifully ended, there was no wrap party, no toasts, no grand farewells; everyone just quietly went away, thanking God their ordeal was finally over.
• Wag the Director: Steve McQueen was the one who called the shots on the film, particularly after John Sturges' departure.
• What Could Have Been: McQueen originally wanted Diana Rigg for Lisa Belgetti, but she was unavailable. Joanna Lumley auditioned, but she was too tall next to him. Maud Adams was also considered and also deemed too tall.
• Working Title: 24 Hours of Le Mans, Day of the Champion.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Hal Hamilton exclaimed, "We had the star, we had the drivers. We had an incredible array of technical support, we had everything. Except a script." Haig Altounian, Steve's chief mechanic, said, "We were winging it."

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