Trivia / Lions for Lambs

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Tom Cruise agreed to star because he had always been a huge fan of Robert Redford, ever since Ordinary People.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $35 million. Gross, $15,002,854 (domestic), $63,215,872 (worldwide).
• Directed by Cast Member: Robert Redford appeared in the movie as well as directing it.
• Dueling Works: With Rendition. Both were prestige films critical of (real and perceived) US foreign policy under George W. Bush, starring Meryl Streep. Rendition was about the concept of extraordinary rendition, extrajudicial kidnappings of civilians; Lions was about the military intervention in Afghanistan. Lions made far more money ($63.2m vs. $27m), and while most critics disliked both films, Rendition received more favorable reviews (47% on Rotten Tomatoes vs 27%), with Lions making many "worst of the year" lists. Despite being overt Oscar Bait, neither received any nominations for any industry award.
• Fake American: Andrew Garfield in his film debut started his long trend of affecting an American accent for the role.
• Genre-Killer: Along with Rendition mentioned above, Redacted and Stop-Loss the next year, this marked an end to the perceived commercial viability of films about the Iraq War. The Oscar wins for Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker weren't enough to revive it.
• The Red Stapler: If you had gone to an optician in 2007/2008 and asked for "A pair of glasses like Meryl Streep wears in Lions for Lambs," then they would have been able to sell you the exact model.
• What Could Have Been: Matthew Michael Carnahan was first considering making the story a stage play, but the helicopter scenes motivated him to make it a film instead.

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