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Spoilers (1)
In the original script the name of Quid's dog was suppose to be Bosco. However when Stacy Keach told Richard Franklin that Bosco was actually a chocolate drink in America the name of the dog was changed to Boswell.
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The story that Quid tells Hitch while camping is actually the true story of that particular filming location. The camp scene was shot at a ruined old telegraph station that used to serve an Australian town that was destroyed by a plague of rabbits many years earlier.
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Originally the climax of the film was supposed to be somewhat more elaborate about re-introducing the characters of Frita, Sneezy Rider, and Captain Careful. Originally during the chase through the streets of Perth, Sneezy Rider and Frita were supposed to be randomly wrecked by Quid's truck, the motorcycle sliding under the trailer in an elaborate stunt. Then Captain Careful was supposed to re-appear towing a new boat only for Quid to destroy that boat too. However pressure to wrap the shoot forced these scenes to be cut from the film.
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This film has frequently been compared to Hitchcock's Rear Window, which isn't just coincidence. Director Richard Franklin gave writer Everett De Roche a copy of the 'Rear Window' script while working on their previous film Patrick. After reading the script De Roche suggested to Franklin that the open highways of the Australian outback would be an ideal place for a similar suspense story. He then proceeded to write 'Roadgames'.
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Richard Franklin and Everett De Roche developed the character of Quid with Sean Connery in mind for the part. Of course the films budget wouldn't allow it.
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Originally an Australian actress was cast for the role of Hitch, but the producers pushed for an American actress to be cast instead. Franklin then visited friend John Carpenter on the set of The Fog where he met Jamie Lee Curtis and later thought of her for the role of Hitch.
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With a budget of 1.8 million Australian dollars, Roadgames was, at the time, the most expensive film to be made in Australia.
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The American distributors wanted Richard Franklin to cut the 360 degree pan shot of Quid talking on the phone in the roadhouse. They felt the shot was too long and added nothing to the story. Franklin, however, refused to cut the shot.
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The nickname of Jamie Lee Curtis' character 'Hitch' is a homage to director Alfred Hitchcock, whose films inspired Roadgames.
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The Executive Producer billed in the opening credits is named Bernard Schwartz. This is Jamie Lee Curtis's father Tony Curtis real name.
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Jamie Lee Curtis said she felt a certain amount of hostility and prejudice while on set, being one of the two "token Americans". One of the crew members even approached her and asked, "What is it like putting Australians out of work?"
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Spoilers
The film's ending, where the severed head falls into the mop bucket, was an afterthought. The distributors wanted the film to have a more shocking conclusion, so the production went back to shoot the final scene at the butcher's shop. Richard Franklin however, dislikes this ending, feeling that it was too tasteless.
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