Trivia for
An American Werewolf in London (1981) More at IMDbPro »

• All the songs in this film have "moon" in the title.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [John Landis] [SYNW] the porno film showing when David meets Jack and his zombie friends. A poster for the film appears in the London Underground when the man is killed.
  
  
• At the close of the credits is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (as Lady Diana Spencer). It was included because during the scene when David is trying to get arrested he shouts "Prince Charles is gay." The film was shot months before the preparations for their July 1981 wedding.
  
  
• John Landis originally wanted three other songs to add to the soundtrack: Cat Stevens wouldn't allow "Moonshadow" to be used because he had stopped allowing his secular music to be licensed for films following his conversion to Islam; Bob Dylan wouldn't allow his version of "Blue Moon" to be used in an R-rated film, as he had just begun his brief conversion to Christianity; and Elvis Presley's version of "Blue Moon" proved unavailable due to the ongoing lawsuits involving his estate.
  
  
• The legal disclaimer in the closing credits reads, "Any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or undead is coincidental". This was also placed at the end of another John Landis project: Thriller (1983) (TV), which was reportedly inspired by (and held several allusions to) this film.
  
  
• David Naughton was reportedly cast because John Landis had seen him in a television commercial for Dr. Pepper.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [John Landis] appears briefly near the end of the film. He is the bearded man who gets hit by a car and thrown through the plate glass window in Piccadilly Circus.
  
  
• In 1997, the movie was re-recorded as a Radio drama by Audio Movies Limited for BBC Radio 1 in England. It was broadcast during Halloween that year, in short snippets throughout the day. Brian Glover, John Woodvine and Jenny Agutter reprised their roles from the movie.
  
  
• Studio executives hoped John Landis would cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of David and John Belushi as Jack. John Landis refused.
  
  
• John Landis wrote the screenplay for this film while he was a gofer on the Kelly's Heroes (1970) shoot.
  
  
• John Landis came up with a film following an incident while shooting Kelly's Heroes (1970) in the countryside of Yugoslavia. While driving along a country road with a colleague, Landis encountered a gypsy funeral. The body was being buried in a massively deep grave, feet first, while wrapped in garlic, so as he would not rise from the dead.
  
  
• The scene when the werewolf runs riot in Piccadilly Circus was filmed at that busy intersection when police stopped the normal traffic and the public. Everyone took their places, it was filmed with multiple cameras and it was all cleaned up within the half hour. It was the first time in many years that filming had been allowed in Piccadilly Circus, due to lingering resentment over an unannounced smoke bomb which director Michael Winner set off while filming a scene for The Jokers (1967/I), after which he sped off in a taxi with the film magazine while other members of the crew were arrested; however, John Landis' cordial experience in working with the Chicago police on The Blues Brothers (1980) helped overcome official reluctance to approve the filming, especially as he had completely worked out a plan, using a scale model of the area, whereby traffic would be minimally disrupted.
  
  
• When trying to call home, the telephone number that David Kessler gives the operator (516-472-3402) contains a Long Island, New York area code. It is also an unusual case where an actual phone number is used.
  
  
• The London Underground station used in the film is Tottenham Court Road. It was refurbished in the late 1980s. The platform with the train arriving and departing is the northbound Northern Line platform. This is NOT Aldwych station as previously reported.
  
  
• The tube station used in the film is Tottenham Court Road, Northern Line branch. The sign for Tottenham Court Road can clearly be seen in some shots.
  
  
• The location filming of the front of Alex's flat and surroundings was filmed on or around Lupus Street in Pimlico, London ('Lupus' is the Latin for 'wolf').
  
  
• Humphrey Bogart can be seen in two posters in Alex's apartment. There is one for Casablanca (1942) on the front wall in the living room, and there's a black-and-white solo shot of Humphrey Bogart in the kitchen.
  
  
• The episode of "The Muppet Show" (1976) playing on TV during David's nightmare sequence is indeed a real episode but the portion shown on TV was never shown in the US. This is why it has been considered a fake episode and why Miss Piggy and Kermit are credited.
  
  
• At the very end of the film, an advertisement for Universal Studios is shown along with a suggestion to "Ask for Babs". This is a reference to a "Where are they Now" item featured towards the end of Animal House (1978), another film by John Landis.
  
  
• The wolves used in the London Zoo scene were kept privately by Roger Palmer in the UK and appeared in several TV programmes and in adverts. Roger went on to found the UK Wolf Conservation Trust which keeps wolves to this day.
  
  
• Because of this film, makeup and industry technological contributions became recognized by the Academy Awards in 1981. Makeup artist Rick Baker was the first to receive an Oscar in the new category. William Tuttle was the first makeup effects artist to receive an Oscar (being an honorary one) for his work on 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).
  
  
• This is the first film to earn the Academy Award for Best Makeup. That category was created in 1981.
  
  
• The final look of the werewolf beast was based on make-up creator Rick Baker's dog Bosko.
  
  
• When David calls home to speak to his family, he speaks to his sister Rachel. During the conversation, they talk about their brother Max. Max and Rachel are the names of Director John Landis' children.
  
  
• David Naughton reported that the "hospital bed in the forest" scene was the most difficult/painful one. Back then, they use glass contact lenses.
  
  
• In an interview with Mick Garris on Take One, John Landis stated that in a preview, he included a scene in which you saw more of how the three bums in the junkyard were killed. People reacted so strongly, and loudly for the rest of the preview, that he was afraid that people would miss some of the key plot points at the end of the film. He added that he felt it was a bad idea because it might have made the movie stand out more.
  
  
• John Landis has reported that when he was approving a high-definition DVD version in the mid-2000s, he was taken aback by how gory the film actually was.
  
  
• John Woodvine was cast at short notice after the first two choices left the project.
  
  
• The total duration of composer Elmer Bernstein's original score for the film is a total of seven minutes much to the surprise of film music aficionados who have wanted for a release of this music for years. The music is more in the vain of transitional orchestral cues in between the pre-recorded songs featured throughout the film to give the film more dramatic weight where needed.
  
  
• The scene inside the subway (or train) while the commuter is running from the werewolf one of the movie posters on the wall is Dance Craze (1981), the documentary of the British ska music scene that was going on at the time the move was filmed.
  
  
• The hospital scenes where David was brought to after he was attacked by the werewolf, were filmed in a disused hospital. Room 21, Floor 4, Princess Beatrice Hospital, in London. Now used as a homeless clinic.
  
  
• Miss Piggy/Yoda-Creator/Voice Talent Frank Oz plays Mr. Collins of the American embassy, who attempts in vain to console David. His voice is also heard later, during the Muppet Show.
  
  
• The Werewolf Howl that was used for the film, was a combination of a actual wolf and an elephant, it was also said it was played backwards by the producer 'George Folsey Jr'. in the "Beware The Moon" documentary. Director John Landis also stated on the "Beware The Moon" Documentary that the Howl was a combination of 7 or 8 different animals.
  
  

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