Trivia / Son of the Pink Panther

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $25 million (not counting marketing costs), $28 million (counting them). Box office, $2,438,031.
• Cast Incest: Roberto Benigni's wife Nicoletta Braschi played his character's sister.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Blake Edwards cast Roberto Benigni after seeing him in Down by Law and Johnny Stecchino.
• Creator Killer: The film performed so poorly that Blake Edwards ended up retiring from filmmaking until his passing in 2010. It was also the last film that Henry Mancini scored before his death in 1994.
• Deleted Role: Bill Wallis is credited in the end title but is nowhere to be seen in the film.
• Deleted Scene:
  • There was scrapped scene (possible a prologue) involving Clouseau himself, who walks into a building that promptly explodes, presumably killing him.
  • A lengthy scene involving the celebration of "Clouseau Day" was cut after being filmed.
• Deleted Role: Andy Scourfield is billed as "Clouseau's Ghost" in the credits despite no such character appearing in the film. He initially would have appeared after Jacques escapes his captors, only to get knocked out and hallucinate seeing the ghost of his father.
• Direct to Video: The film went straight-to-video in a number of markets and territories including both the UK and Australia.
• Executive Meddling: The original director's cut had clocked in at 115 minutes, but MGM chopped it down to 92-93 minutes before release.
• Franchise Killer: Instead of reviving the franchise as hoped, it just finished it off and there wouldn't be another Pink Panther movie until the series was rebooted in 2006. Even so, this film remains the end of the original series of films.
• Milestone Celebration: The film was released on the thirtieth anniversary of the original film.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • A very brief moment from the trailer shows Dreyfus on the floor with Jacques fumbling with his leg cast as Dreyfus shouts "Nincompoop!".
  • In a making-of featurette, after Gambrelli is left behind at the crossway, he is shown struggling to mount his bike.
• The Other Darrin: Claudia Cardinale replaces Elke Sommer, who played Maria Gambrelli in A Shot in the Dark. Confusingly, Cardinale had previously played the Princess in The Pink Panther (1963).
  • Also, as a result of André Maranne's retirement from acting in 1991, Dermot Crowley took over the role of Francois.
• Role Reprise: Herbert Lom reprises the role of Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Cato, ten years after Curse of the Pink Panther. Graham Stark reprises the role of Professor Balls fifteen years after Revenge of the Pink Panther.
• Sequel Gap: The film was released 10 years after Curse of the Pink Panther.
• Star-Derailing Role:
  • Barely avoided with Roberto Benigni, who got a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst New Star for his role as Jacques Gambrelli. He had the good grace of Life Is Beautiful salvaging his international reputation four years later.
  • Herbert Lom retired from acting before his passing in 2012.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Blake Edwards' first choice for the role of Gambrelli was Kevin Kline, who bailed after panning the script. Ironically, Kline would go on to portray Dreyfus in the reboot movie 13 years later.
  • Rowan Atkinson, who was previously considered for Clifton Sleigh in Curse of..., was also considered for Gambrelli. He declined out of respect for Peter Sellers, whom he saw as irreplaceable.
  • Gérard Depardieu was then cast as Gambrelli, but was removed following Giancarlo Parretti's hostile takeover of MGM. After Parretti was arrested and his creditors took over MGM, the studio briefly considered bringing him back, but contractual obligations to 1492: Conquest of Paradise and controversy over rape allegations against him put an end to that idea.
  • Bronson Pinchot was interested in playing Gambrelli, but the studio passed on him following the failure of Blame It on the Bellboy.
  • Had the studio been unable to secure Benigni, Tim Curry would've been cast as Gambrelli. Promo images of Curry portraying an early version of the character were even taken during pre-production.
• You Look Familiar: Claudia Cardinale, who played the Princess in The Pink Panther (1963), plays Maria Gambrelli from A Shot in the Dark.

---