Trivia / Lord of Illusions

• Actor-Inspired Element: The tattoo on D'Amour's back was included after Scott Bakula researched the character.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $11 million. Box office, $13.3 million.
• Channel Hop: The picture started out as a Polygram Filmed Entertainment production, under the guidance of Steve Golin and Sigurjon Sighvatsson. When Polygram encountered financial woes, the film was sold off to MGM/UA, who were looking for films to release under their newly re-established United Artists banner.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Argentina: Master of Darkness
  • Bulgaria: The Wizard
  • Greece: The Lord of Hell
  • Hungary: Appearance Kills
  • Mexico and Peru: The Master of Terror
• Copiously Credited Creator: Written, directed and co-produced by Clive Barker.
• Creator-Chosen Casting:
  • Clive Barker picked Famke Janssen's photo out of the hundreds of initial submissions and declared, "This is Dorothea." She remained the only choice, although the filmmakers auditioned dozens of actresses for the part.
  • Barker considered Scott Bakula to be the perfect casting for D'Amour in both appearance and manner.
• Executive Meddling: On seeing Clive Barker's cut, MGM decided that it was too long and there was too much time spent on dialogue scenes that occur in-between scenes involving death or horror elements. MGM insisted on removing roughly twelve and a half minutes from the film and Barker conceded as long as a director's cut could be released later.
• Self-Adaptation: Clive Barker adapted his own short story "The Last Illusion".
• Spared by the Cut: Nix's pet mandrill was supposed to have a gory death scene (Swann was supposed to shoot it), but this scene never made it to the final film because the makeup effects department couldn't get the "stunt mandrill" (a mechanized puppet) to work properly.

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