Trivia / Meteor

• All-Star Cast: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda.
• Box Office Bomb: Made back merely half of its budget of $16 million.
• Creator Backlash: The majority of the cast hated the film, most notably Natalie Wood. Sean Connery also had nothing nice to say of this film, and was deeply embarrassed to have been a part of it.
• Creator Killer: For American International Pictures.
• Fake Russian:
  • The casting of Natalie Wood was (almost) a rare aversion and was actually culturally appropriate. She was born in America but her parents were Russian immigrants, and she spoke Russian fluently.
  • Brian Keith's performance is convincing enough for some viewers to conclude that he was a fluent Russian speaker, though this claim appears unverified.^note At the time of the film's release, Keith said that he worked with a language coach in preparation for his role, although there are anecdotes about him having some command of Russian dating back to his military service. Wood praised Keith's strong command of the language, though noting that he couldn't disguise his American accent.
• Uncredited Role: Simon Cadell as the BBC News reporter.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Donald Pleasence was originally cast as Dr. Alexi Dubov, but had to drop out due to his commitment to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • Peter Cushing, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, John Mills and Ralph Richardson were considered for Sir Michael Hughes.
  • John Williams was the film's original composer.

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