Trivia for
Field of Dreams (1989) More at IMDbPro »

• The studio built the baseball diamond on an actual farm in Dyersville, Iowa. After the filming was completed, the family owning the farm kept the field, and added a small hut where you could buy inexpensive souvenirs. As of 1990, visitors were free to come to the field and play baseball as they please.
  
  
• In the novel, instead of seeking fictional author Terrance Mann, Ray Kinsella seeks real-life 60's author J.D. Salinger. In 1947, Salinger wrote a story called "A Young Girl In 1941 With No Waist At All" featuring a character named Ray Kinsella.
  
  
• In W.P. Kinsella's novel, protagonist Ray Kinsella is reunited with his identical twin brother, Richard Kinsella (a subplot that was discarded for the movie).
  
  
• The article the Chisolm[sic] newspaper publisher shows to Ray and Terrance is written by Veda Ponikvar. Ms. Ponikvar was a long-time writer (and eventually editor-in-chief) for the Chisholm Free Press.
  
  
• W.P. Kinsella, author of the original novel, was asked to write a review of the movie for a Canadian periodical. He gave it four stars out of five for two reasons: he didn't think the character of Mark was villainous enough, and he didn't think that Gaby Hoffmann (Karin) looked like she could be Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan's child.
  
  
• During filming, Iowa was in the middle of a drought, and the cornfields surrounding the diamond had to be given lots of extra water in order to grow tall enough for the actors to disappear into the stalks. As a result, the corn grew too fast for the Costner shots. In the one scene where corn is above his shoulders, he is walking on an elevated plank.
  
  
• Thousands of pallets of green grass were brought in to make the baseball field, but due to the haste in planting because of the shooting schedule, the grass was not able to grow appropriately and died. In order to keep the grass green, the production crew painted the grass.
  
  
• Then unknown, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are among the thousands of extras in the Fenway Park scene, and are uncredited. Over a decade later, when Phil Alden Robinson welcomed Affleck to the set of The Sum of All Fears (2002), Affleck said, "Nice working with you again." Robinson asked, "What do you mean 'again'?" and Affleck explained the connection.
  
  
• When Ray visits 1972 Chisholm, Minnesota in search of Moonlight Graham, The Godfather (1972) is playing at the local movie theater.
  
  
• After the movie was completed test audiences didn't like the name "Shoeless" Joe Jackson because they said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called director-screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson to tell him that "Shoeless Joe" didn't work, and the studio changed the title of the film to "Field of Dreams". When Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author of the book, and told him the "bad" news, but apparently he didn't care, saying that "Shoeless Joe" was the title the publishing company gave the book. Kinsella's original title was "Dream Field".
  
  
• When Ray asks "Shoeless" Joe Jackson what he likes about about playing baseball, Shoeless Joe responds "the thrill of the grass", the title of W.P. Kinsella's 1985 book of short stories about baseball.
  
  
• Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Ray Kinsella but turned it down.
  
  
• Archibald "Moonlight" Wright Graham was a real baseball player. On 29 June 1905, with the New York Giants, he played one Major League Baseball game. Five days later, he quit his dream of being a pro ball player to become a doctor.
  
  
• In 1991, Hawaii's House of Representatives filed House Resolution 95 to plead the case for "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's reinstatement. Among the reasons given was a quote given by James Earl Jones's character in the movie that "grasps the essence of an American tradition, baseball." Among those receiving a copy of the House Resolution were Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams writer-director), Charles Gordon and Lawrence Gordon (Field of Dreams producers), and cast members Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, and James Earl Jones.
  
  
• Burt Lancaster starred in three made-for-TV films after this movie, but this was his final role in a motion picture released theatrically.
  
  
• The shot of the line-drive knocking over the bag of baseballs next to Kevin Costner was sheer luck off the bat of Ray Liotta.
  
  
• The first day of shooting was the town hall scene. Amy Madigan was nervous about screaming in front of such a large group of people the first day.
  
  
• Fenway Park wanted too much money for additional shots, so the moment where Terrence orders his hot dog and a beer was actually shot in Iowa.
  
  
• Several deleted scenes include Ray getting his hearing checked; Ray buying baseball equipment; Ray getting lost on the way to Fenway with Terrence; and Ray and Terrence watching batting practice.
  
  
• Burt Lancaster was unaware that Timothy Busfield was part of the cast, and had him fetching water and chairs before realizing Busfield was going to be in the scene with him.
  
  
• The line, "Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch," originally didn't include "Dad". Audiences were disappointed in the lack of acknowledgement of father and son, and the word "Dad" was looped in during post-production.
  
  
• "The Final Shot" was a big community event, enlisting 1,500 volunteers to drive for the last scene. For only a brief time could the headlights and also the blue of the sky be shown in one shot. The first take was too bright. On the second shot the lighting was perfect, but the camera f-stop was messed up. Just before the third and final shot, the director realized that as with any heavy traffic, most of the cars weren't moving. They would just look like lights on posts. He relayed a quick instruction through the local radio station: flash your high beams on and off. Though the cars are not moving, this simulated the appearance of lights passing behind obstructions to perfect effect.
  
  
• W.P. Kinsella and J.D. Salinger, on whom the character Terence Mann is based, were friends. In fact, Salinger accompanied Kinsella to Chisolm, Minn. in 1975 in search of Moonlight Graham, who had died 10 years earlier. Kinsella said he chose Graham's character for his book "Shoeless" Joe Jackson because he was intrigued by his nickname when he came across it while thumbing through the Baseball Encyclopedia.
  
  
• The movie's line "If you build it, he will come." was voted as the #39 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
  
  
• Sheila McCarthy and Reba McEntire both auditioned for the part of Annie.
  
  
• The Cracker Jack baseball cards shown in the beginning of the film are based on real baseball cards produced in 1914 and 1915. However, the actual set does not include cards of Babe Ruth or obviously Lou Gehrig. There is, however, a "Shoeless" Joe Jackson card very similar to the Jackson card shown in the film, which has become very popular with collectors since the film's release.
  
  
• According to supplementary material on the DVD edition of this film, shortly before shooting began, the actor who played Ray Kinsella's father, Dwier Brown, was notified that his father unfortunately pass away. Immediately after the funeral, he traveled directly from the funeral to filming in Iowa for the scene. He stated that although the emotion was too fresh and painful, it had an effect on how he eventually played his scene with Kevin Costner.
  
  
• Final film of Anne Seymour.
  
  
• When "Shoeless" Joe Jackson is giving young Archie "Moonlight Graham" advice on hitting we can see that the bat Graham is using is a "Louisville Slugger" Jack Clark model. Jack Clark was a fairly prominent player from the 1970's and 80's.
  
  
• The movie was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time" by Premiere.
  
  
• Gaby Hoffmann's first film.
  
  
• When they hold up the Terence Mann book that is going to be banned in the school auditorium, it has the same cover design as the first edition of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel "On the Road" (the novel thought by many to have spawned the 60s).
  
  
• Ranked #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
  
  
• According to an AFI top 100 quotes list, 'The Voice' is that of Ray Liotta.
  
  
• The director has said that his greatest regret about this film is that he never used any African-American baseball players. The use of African-American players might have compromised the historical accuracy of the film since no African-American players were known to have played Major League baseball until until 1947 - the year Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
  
  
• Ray Liotta spent months learning how to throw and hit as a left-handed player (he is naturally right-handed). But when it came time for his baseball scenes, the director told him that since he was playing a 'ghost' anyhow, accuracy was not important. So he played right-handed even though "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was known to be a lefty. When the film came out, baseball historians cried foul. He has since said in interviews that his biggest regret about the breakthrough role was that he didn't stand up for himself and demand to play left-handed.
  
  
• "Shoeless" Joe Jackson remarks about Ty Cobb's desire to play at the Field of Dreams (1989), "None of could stand the son of a bitch when he was alive, so, we told him to stick it." However, towards the end of the real Shoeless Joe's life, Ty Cobb came into his liquor store in South Carolina and asked Jackson whether or not he knew him.
  
  
• The owners of the site of the baseball field in Iowa canceled their 20th anniversary event due to the economic turn down and donated the money raised for it to a local food bank (2009).
  
  
• During the "search for Terry" scene, Ray can be seen driving up Huntington Avenue in Boston, and in fact at one point, he's just a matter of a few blocks from the very site where the very first World Series was played between the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903, which were played on what they at that time referred to as the "Huntington Avenue Grounds."
  
  
• The famous line "If you build it, he will come" was featured in a Daily Telegraph (UK) article on the 10 most misquoted film phrases. It's often misquoted as "If you build it, they will come."
  
  

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