Trivia

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Heath Ledger were contenders to play Satine and Christian. Other possible Christians included Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ronan Keating. Other possible Satines included Renée Zellweger, Natalie Mendoza, Sharleen Spiteri, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Tim Wheeler, of the rock band Ash, auditioned for the lead role of Christian, which led him to write the track "Orpheus". Courtney Love auditioned for Satine, and allowed Baz Luhrmann to use Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in the opening sequence, a rare case of allowing her late husband Kurt Cobain's work to be used in film or TV.

Both Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor wore harnesses for the scenes on the elephant as they were standing 60ft off the ground.

Filming was halted for two weeks in November 1999 after Nicole Kidman fractured two ribs and injured her knee while rehearsing a dance routine for the film. Many of the scenes where she is seen only from the chest up, including "A real actress!", were shot while she was in a wheelchair.

The Paris landscape was digitally produced and the two longest visual effects shots to date that appear in this film.

The stage for "Spectacular Spectacular" was especially reinforced to hold the weight of a galloping horse for a scene where the evil Maharaja rides across the stage. The scene was abandoned but the white horse still appears fleetingly in one shot.

The movie's plot is an amalgam three operas/operettas. A young writer with Bohemian friends, falling in love with a terminally ill girl, is from Great Performances: La bohème based on Henri Murger's novel "La Vie de la Boheme". A courtesan learning that love can also be true and idealistic, comes from La traviata based on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel Camille, which also involves terminal illness. Finally, the plot line of the writer who travels to the "under-world" of the Moulin Rouge to find his love and tries to take her back to the "upper-world" comes from Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld" based on Greek mythology--a movement from this opera's overture becomes the "pitch" song for Spectacular Spectacular.

This movie was launched in Australia to an audience of just 250 people in a small country town called Taree, 200 miles north of Sydney. Baz Luhrmann grew up just outside of Taree where his family owned a gas service-station. The 250 tickets were sold at a local pharmacy.

A scene establishing the "Gothic Tower" as a bordello was cut. It involved dancers in S&M gear performing Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm", "Warm Leatherette", and "Pull Up to the Bumper".

The majority of the Can Can dancers at the Moulin Rouge have a specifically designed 'persona', most of them based on different male fetishes. The full list of names of the Can Can dancers and their 'persona' is as follows: Antoinette - Based on the famous French Queen, Marie-Antoinette. Arabia - Based on Arabian courtesan garb. Babydoll - Dressed in Infant Clothing (Often mistook for Bo Peep) Chinadoll - Dressed in Chinese silks. Dominatrix - Self explanatory. French Maid - Self explanatory. Garden Girl - A hippie/bohemian/earthy seeming girl. Gypsy - Self explanatory. Harlequin - Based on a court jester's diamond patterned costume. Historic - Based on the Statue of Liberty. Juno - Dressed as an Angel. Liberty - Dressed in 'Napoleonic' garb. Mome Fromage - Dressed in candy/cake/confectionery type colors and fabrics. Nini Legs-In-The-Air - Costume decorated with windmills, as the character is said to have the best legs in the Moulin Rouge and is always showing them off, waving her legs around, likening her legs to a windmill. Dances in the center. Pearly Queen - Decorated in sophisticated clothing; pearls, furs, jewels. Petite Princess - A dwarf woman in a princess costume. Polka Dot- a spirit of winter with evergreen trees drawn on her dress. Schoolgirl - Self explanatory (strongly resembles Gigi or Madeline). Spanish - Dressed in a flowing, veiled Spanish costume. Tarot - Costume is decorated with various imagery from tarot cards. Tartan - Costume is a full traditional Scottish Garb, with the skirt designed to look like a kilt. Tattoo - Dancer is covered entirely from the neck down in tattoos. Travesty - Cross-dresser, upper half is of an upper-class man; top hat, tuxedo, and bow tie. Dances with Nini. Urchin - Dressed as a poor street girl (strongly resembles Eponine from Great Performances: Les Misérables in Concert); bowler hat, patchwork costume.

Originally, the green fairy was going to be a long-haired muscle man with a giant sitar and Ozzy Osbourne was hired to provide the vocals. Eventually it was changed to the current "Tinker Bell" incarnation, played by Kylie Minogue, but Osbourne still gives voice to the fairy's guttural scream when it turns evil.

The blood that Satine (Nicole Kidman) coughs up is really a mixture of red food coloring, corn syrup and water.

The song "My Way", made popular by Frank Sinatra, was considered to be performed by The Duke for the film, but this never developed. However, The Duke still repeatedly yells, "My way!" during the finale.

The production was over-running in its shooting schedule and had to be out of the Fox Studios in Sydney to make way for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones - which also featured Ewan McGregor. This necessitated some pick-up shots being filmed in Madrid.

In the "Like a Virgin" number, Jim Broadbent's voice is dubbed by an opera singer, mimicking Broadbent's own vocal performance. The floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola so the dancers wouldn't slip. This segment, Richard Roxburgh's favorite experience from the production, took a week to film.

Stereophonics' lead singer Kelly Jones says he was approached about playing a part in the movie but turned it down.

Chosen as the opening film at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Moulin Rouge (Red Mill) dancers really wore split knickers under their dresses, a technical point that the film-makers chose not to follow in order to obtain a PG-13 rating.

During Satine's trapeze entrance, blue light was used due to Nicole Kidman's pale skin tone, the director found that the blue light made her almost "glow" and therefore stood out during the scene.

Courtney Love has gone on record calling losing the role of Satine to Nicole Kidman one of the biggest disappoints of her career and made no secret of her resentment against Kidman. Director Baz Luhrmann characterized the difference between the two actresses in a Vanity Fair article by saying "Courtney is fire and Nicole is ice." This prompted Love to remark that Kidman was "a puddle" and dedicate the song "Miss World" (a song about a self-loathing beauty queen) to Kidman on her 1999 tour with her band Hole.

Nicole Kidman had to be replaced in the film Panic Room because of injuries she suffered while filming this film.

During the performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", the chorus of "Material Girl" is sung. In the original music video for "Material Girl", Madonna re-enacted Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

An enormous elephant statue in the garden, bought from a theme park, housed an Arabic nightclub and an opium den.

The Elephant medley contains parts of several famous and not-so-famous love songs. These include "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles, "I was Made for Loving You" by KISS, "In the Name of Love" by U2, "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston, "Silly Love Songs" by Paul McCartney, "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, "Heroes" by David Bowie, and "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton.

Tara Morice:  the female lead in Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom briefly appears as a prostitute in the opening sequence.

Some of Toulouse-Lautrec's lines in the scene after Satine rejects Christian are taken from his letters.