15 Truths About ‘The Truman Show’
[via Mental Floss]
Released on June 5, 1998, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show is often credited with predicting the reality television phenomenon that would begin in earnest two years later with Survivor. Here are 15 things you might not know about the Oscar-nominated film:
1. IT WAS ORIGINALLY TITLED THE MALCOLM SHOW AND WAS MUCH DARKER IN TONE.
In May of 1991, screenwriter Andrew Niccol presented a drama titled The Malcolm Show to his then-manager, which he envisioned as a paranoid drama set in Manhattan, with Gary Oldman in the title role.
2. THE PLOT IS SIMILAR TO A MOVIE AND TWO EPISODES OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Critics compared The Truman Show to Paul Bartel’s 1968 short film The Secret Cinema, which starred Amy Vane as a secretary who doesn’t know that her life is being filmed and shown to her duplicitous friends and family in private screenings. The Secret Cinema was played before showings of Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run in 1969 and remade into a 1986 episode of Amazing Stories. Niccol said he had never heard of the film or the episode in question when he wrote The Truman Show. Niccol’s screenplay was also compared to two episodes of The Twilight Zone: “A World of Difference” and “Special Service.”
3. JIM CARREY TOOK A PAY CUT TO PLAY TRUMAN BURBANK.
Instead of his then-standard $20 million paycheck, Carrey accepted $12 million for his dramatic acting services.
4. ED HARRIS WAS A LAST-MINUTE REPLACEMENT FOR DENNIS HOPPER.
Hopper was supposed to play Christof, but he was either fired or left due to “creative differences” two months into filming (different versions of the story abound). Harris met Weir on set on a Thursday, worked on another project in New York for four days, then started work as Christof on a Tuesday. He would end up winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and scoring one of the film’s three Oscar nods.
5. HARRIS AND CARREY NEVER MET DURING FILMING.
Carrey finished filming before Harris was brought in.
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