Trivia / The Cider House Rules

• Creator's Favorite: John Irving named Melony as one of his favorite characters to write in any of his novels, admitting that it hurt to remove her from the screenplay.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Known as L'oeuvre de Dieu, la part du Diable (meaning The work of God, the share of the Devil) in French. The work of God referring to the births, the share of the Devil referring to the abortions. The title isn't completely inaccurate, either, and actually fits the book's themes better than The Cider House Rules does, as the abortions Dr. Larch preforms are referred to as 'the Lord's Work' by the characters, and the orphans whose lives are left up to fate reflect just how crippling the abortion laws are.
  • It is also titled Gottes Werk, Teufels Beitrag (God's Work, the Devil's Contribution) in German.
• Creator Cameo: John Irving appears in two short scenes as a character described in the script only as "the disapproving stationmaster." Irving includes this incident in his making-of memoir My Movie Business, where he describes, with some amusement, how it felt to play a character whose sole trait was silent disapproval. He also admits that, having offered constant criticism of the choices in the adaptation, he was probably given the role because the one thing the director knew Irving could accurately portray was disapproval.
• Fake American: Michael Caine as Dr. Wilbur Larch.
• Hostility on the Set: Charlize Theron revealed that she didn't get on with Tobey Maguire, though they did reconcile years later.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Edward Norton, Ryan Phillippe, Paul Walker and Mark Wahlberg were considered for the role of Homer Wells.
  • Liv Tyler was considered for the role of Candy Kendall.
  • At one point, Matthew Broderick and Max von Sydow were announced as the leads for this movie.
  • Michael Winterbottom was once set to direct, but pulled out, due to his impatience with the lengthy development process.

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