Trivia for
Mulholland Dr. (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• Originally filmed in 1999 on a budget of $8 million as a made-for-TV pilot, new scenes were filmed one year later on a $7 million budget given by the French film studio Studio Canal to wrap up the open ending which had been left unresolved in the original version so that a TV series could follow.
  
  
• The limo that transports Rita/Camilla Rhodes has the license plate 2GAT123. The same California license plate also appears in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), L.A. Story (1991), Traffic (2000), Pay It Forward (2000), "Two and a Half Men" (2003), S.W.A.T. (2003), Go (1999) and Crazy/Beautiful (2001).
  
  
• When Rita and Betty go to the Sierra Bonita apartment complex, the name next to #17 is L.J. DeRosa - a member of the art department on the film, Laura J. DeRosa.
  
  
• Betty claims to be from Deep River, Ontario. This is the name of the apartments in Blue Velvet (1986), which David Lynch also directed.
  
  
• David Lynch's 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller: - Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits. - Notice appearances of the red lampshade. - Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again? - An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident. - Who gives a key, and why? - Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup. - What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio? - Did talent alone help Camilla? - Notice the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies. - Where is Aunt Ruth?
  
  
• Lynch cast TV soap actresses for many of the female roles. By coincidence, 'Naomi Watts (I)' (Diane/Betty), 'Melissa George' (Camilla Rhodes), and Elizabeth Lackey (Carol) were all in the Australian series "Home and Away" (1988).
  
  
• The film is dedicated to Jennifer Syme, a young actress whose story is startlingly similar to that of the character of Betty - but who in fact died after the bulk of the film was completed.
  
  
• Cameo: [Angelo Badalamenti] the soundtrack composer appears as the espresso-drinking movie exec at the beginning of the film.
  
  
• Cameo: [Cori Glazer] the script supervisor is playing the blue-haired lady.
  
  
• Cameo: [Charles Croughwell] the stunt coordinator is playing the vacuum man.
  
  
• The Region 1 DVD of the movie does not feature "chapters"; attempting to "skip" to the next scene or chapter takes you to the "DVD" logo animation at the very end of the movie after all the credits and ratings and so forth. Director David Lynch requested this himself, as he has done on previous releases, such as The Straight Story (1999). By allowing the film to be on one chapter, Lynch believes people will be more inclined to view the feature in one sitting, as intended. Robert Zemeckis also used this idea on his laserdisc release of Forrest Gump (1994).
  
  
• The set of reels that was distributed to the movie theaters included a computer written, photocopied note from David Lynch himself giving special instructions to the projectionists worldwide. Specifically, he didn't want the movie to be centered vertically on the screen but rather to "allow more overhead" as the term in projectionist's slang, that is to let the top part of the frame be more visible than the bottom part. This is because the film was originally made for TV, with an aspect ratio of 1:1,78 (or 16:9) in mind - without the projectionists' manual correction, the aspect ratio of the theatrical release (1:1,85) would have resulted in heads being cut of at the top of the silver screen. Lynch also asked to raise the volume of the theater's sound system by 2 decibel when the film was playing. The note ended with the words "Your friend, David Lynch".
  
  
• On the way to audition for her part as Camilla Rhodes/Rita, Laura Harring was in a minor car accident.
  
  
• Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2001 (#01)
  
  
• Adam Kesher smashing the producers' car windshield in with a golf club is a reference to the famous 1994 incident where Jack Nicholson did the same. Nicholson's nickname is "Mulholland Man".
  
  
• The Cowboy has no eyebrows. This was done to give the character a more subtle, disturbing appearance.
  
  
• Although commonly mistaken for "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Jan Vermeer, the painting inside the apartment of Betty's aunt is actually a painting by Guido Reni entitled "Beatrice Cenci".
  
  
• Ann Miller's last full length movie.
  
  
• David Lynch initially resisted Studio Canal's offer to provide additional funds to complete the TV pilot as a feature film. Lynch's battles with ABC network executives had left him with a negative feeling about the project and the director felt he had run out of ideas for the storyline. When Lynch finally agreed to revisit the film, much to his horror he found that all the sets had been destroyed, and all of the costumes and props had been released by ABC (normally all sets, props and costumes for a possible TV series are carefully cataloged and stored for future use). Lynch claims this setback actually proved a blessing in disguise, however, when it finally generated new ideas about how to proceed with filming, and the director was able to come up with a satisfying conclusion to the story.
  
  
• David Lynch first came up with the idea for the story in the early 1990s, when his television show "Twin Peaks" (1990) was still on the air. Would the show have continued for a third season, Lynch would have entered into talks with ABC to spin-off the character of Audrey Horne, who would have survived her being trapped inside an exploding building in the Season 2 cliffhanger. The character(s) that Naomi Watts plays was originally intended to be Audrey; David Lynch has never revealed if Audrey would have had the same fate as Naomi Watts' character(s) in the film.
  
  
• ABC executives rejected the original pilot version of the film because, they thought Naomi Watts and Laura Harring too old to be television stars, among other reasons.
  
  
• Of the 17 tracks featured on the Mulholland Dr. CD, only track ('Diane & Camilla') is omitted from the film's soundtrack.
  
  

• SPOILER: When he talks to Adam Kesher, the Cowboy says: "You will see me one more time, if you do good. You will see me two more times, if you do bad.". Justin Theroux said in an interview that since he didn't have the entire script, but received the pages day by day, he asked David Lynch if the Cowboy would appear again in the film. According to him, Lynch's answer was: "I don't know. We will find out together.".
  
  
• SPOILER: According to the most widely accepted interpretation of the film, Camilla Rhodes is killed under mysterious circumstances on Mulholland Dr. Melissa George (who plays one version of Camilla in the film), also plays a character in the film The Limey (1999) also killed under mysterious circumstances on Mulholland Dr.
  
  

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