Trivia / Tiny Tiptoes

• Billing Displacement:
  • Peter Dinklage is given prominent focus in the trailer and is played up to be a major part of the plot (likely because of his popularity given the then-recent release of The Station Agent). In the actual film, he is given little screentime, his character is confusingly-written, and seems to show up in only a handful of scenes to drive home a point about how much dwarves are prejudiced.
  • The DVD box art lists Matthew McConaughey first with Gary Oldman getting a coveted "And Starring" credit, while the opening credits are the reverse.
• Dawson Casting: In the film, Steven and Rolfe are stated to be twin brothers, despite the fact that Rolfe looks at least a decade older than Steven (and that Oldman is eleven years older than McConaughey in real life).
• Deleted Scene: There was an entire subplot cut from the movie where Steven had a relationship with a blonde firefighter trainee (played by Dana Sesson, who appears in the final film as one of the two trainees Steven invites to Jerry Robin's party), as shown in production photos. It was removed from the original cut after the director was fired, and hasn't been seen in any form since then.
• Direct to Video: Due to Executive Meddling and poor initial reception, the film was never released theatrically and instead went straight to DVD.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Zig-Zagged. Casting Peter Dinklage as a dwarf makes perfect sense. Casting Gary Oldman, not so much.
• Executive Meddling: According to various sources (including an unconfirmed Reddit post), the film ran into significant problems after production completed, as executives found the original cut (which only screened in its entirety at a handful of screenings) ridiculous and had it significantly cut down, alongside the firing of director Matthew Bright. As a result, the film feels choppy and disjointed - several plot points become missing arcs due to characters disappearing.
• Money, Dear Boy: If this Reddit post from a supposed member of Oldman's production company is to be believed, Oldman did the film in the first place because he had already sunk a lot of money into Nil by Mouth (his directorial debut) and took on any indie film role that met his payrate.
• Old Shame: To the point that none of the cast members from the film have gone on-record to discuss it, with the exception of Dinklage, who stated that although the original cut of the film was "gorgeous", it was bastardized by executives and the final cut ran counter to the message the original director wanted to portray. McConaughey refers to the film by name in his biography, Greenlights, but only as part of a string of films lumped into a weaker portion of his career (that being his infamous "rom-com" phase).
• Troubled Production: Based on interviews with Bright and various online posts, the film was fraught with problems from the very beginning.
  • According to behind-the-scenes accounts on Reddit, the film was only pushed into production because Gary Oldman was looking to recoup his investment in his directorial debut, Nil by Mouth, by helming a slew of smaller projects. Bright wrote the script when he was 18, and 30 years later, his stepfather gave it to John Langley (the creator and producer of FOX Television's long-running reality show, COPS). Though Bright had no idea who Langley is, and they conversely had no idea about some of the bizarre high-concept ideas Bright wanted to make into films, they put his script into production.
  • Things got off to a bad start immediately when Kate Beckinsale was hired. She agreed to forego her usual salary (having just starred in Pearl Harbor) and act for SAG minimum wage ... under the condition that she be allowed to wear a "lucky hat" she owned, which ended up looking ridiculous on-screen. Langley's wife attempted to tell Bright to forbid her from wearing the hat, but he relayed that he couldn't because it would drive the film's budget sky-high. This led to immediate friction between the producers and Bright.
  • According to Bright, the Langleys pulled support on him midway through production, and he was forced to finish the film while dealing with unhappy actors and crew. Once filming wrapped, he put together a rough cut but control of the film was taken away from him, and it was re-edited behind his back. Bright then attempted to take his name off the film — while he was able to remove his writer's credit, he couldn't remove the director's title because he wasn't a member of the Screen Actors' Guild.
  • Things finally came to a head at a screening of the film during the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Bright was invited onstage to talk about the movie, and wasted no time slamming the Langleys for their Executive Meddling during the shoot (to the point that the Langleys tried to rush the stage to stop him). Additionally, Bright claimed in an interview afterward that Oldman was well-aware of what he did and put him up to it, paying for his ticket to the event. Regardless, the ensuing cut was laughed out of the festival, and the film was released Direct to Video a few months later.

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