Trivia / The Stunt Man

• Channel Hop: The film was originally made at Columbia Pictures. When they rejected the script, Richard Rush then bought the film rights back from them and shopped the film to other studios, to no avail. Funding for the picture finally came from Melvin Simon who had made a fortune in real estate. It was released through 20th Century Fox.
• The Danza: Stunt coordinator Charles Bail as "Chuck."
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: The film has frequently being publicized as taking nine years to get to the screen. However, Rush has said on the website for The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man, that the picture took ten years to make from inception to release, seven years to finance it and then three years to release it.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The old hotel complex seen in the film is the Hotel del Coronado. The hotel had been well known for its appearance in Some Like It Hot.
• Inspiration for the Work: More like "Inspiration for the Performance." Peter O'Toole based his performance of the director on his experience working with director David Lean on Lawrence of Arabia.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: The opening scene with the dog licking its genitals was shot multiple time and after a while the dog in question refused to repeatedly lick its genitals so the trainer had to apply peanut butter to the dog's testicles and sheath by rubbing it on. This encouraged the dog to lick it off and allowed the scene to be shot multiple times.
• Real-Life Relative: The original stuntman 'Lucky' (the one who crashed and disappeared) was played by Steve Railsback's real-life brother.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The film was shot in 1977 with post-production conducted in 1979. The picture had trouble getting distributed that the production company leased a theater in Seattle in order to get it released at all. Then, 20th Century Fox picked it up and released it in 1980.
• Throw It In!:
  • The screen door was supposed to be pre-cut a bit more to allow Cameron to bust through it quickly, but Steve Railsback became stuck. His yelling at the cops "Don’t shoot!" was improvised in character as he struggled to push his way through. Rush sees it as humanizing the action hero
  • Peter O'Toole read the script a few years before the film was made and told Richard Rush, "I read the screenplay and if you don't give me the part, I will kill you." Eli Cross (O'Toole's character) says a similar line in the movie.
• Troubled Production: Richard Rush suffered two heart attacks during the production. The film was completed in 1978 but it took two years to find a distributor. The studio had no idea how to market it because it didn't fit easily into one particular genre. Peter O'Toole would later famously quip that the film wasn't so much released as it escaped.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ryan O'Neal originally was slated to play the lead, but dropped out. Jeff Bridges and Martin Sheen lobbied for the role.
  • Sean Connery and George C. Scott were considered for Eli Cross.
  • François Truffaut was considered to direct.
  • Richard Rush initially planned to open the film flying over an expansive forest before coming to settle on a cafe, but the cafe he liked best was nowhere near a forest.

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