Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
Tony Scott was originally slated to direct the original in the 1980s, but the studio balked because he had not had any hits and they felt he was not accomplished enough to pull off the project.
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Antoine Fuqua was offered the chance to direct the movie, but he was already busy with production on King Arthur.
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Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Bruce Willis were offered the role of Creasy. They have all previously worked with director Tony Scott.
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Denzel Washington was cast in this film because of a trip to a doctor. He ran into director Tony Scott in the waiting room of a medical office and the two men started chatting. Scott had not seen Washington in person since they worked together on Crimson Tide. Scott happened to see Dakota Fanning in I Am Sam the night before and seeing Washington made Scott think using of the two actors together.
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Creasy's quote about arranging a meeting between the kidnappers and God is similar to a quote falsely attributed to General Norman Schwarzkopf. It is not clear whose work the original quote is, which goes: "It's God's responsibility to judge 'Osama bin Laden'. It is our responsibility to arrange the meeting."
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In A.J. Quinnell's novel Dakota Fanning's character in Italy was named Pinta. After director Tony Scott's changed the film's setting to Mexico and discovered that "Pinta" is Mexican slang for "whore", he had the name changed to "Pita" and made her full name Lupita.
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Dakota Fanning's first day of shooting was for the scene where Creasy takes Pita to school for the first day.
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The kitchen scene between Creasy and Pita where she asked him about concubines were mostly ad-libbed by both actors. It started when they "accused" each other of smiling.
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Dakota Fanning was missing her front teeth during filming. The film-makers debated whether they should add fake teeth on her and even made them for the actress. In the end, they decided not to use them.
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The zebra in Pita's house belonged to the real owner of the house. It is a real stuffed zebra. There were also leopard skin rugs around the house.
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Writer Brian Helgeland was not really keen on writing a movie he probably would not end up directing, so the producers told him that Tony Scott was working on another project that he might shoot instead of Man on Fire. In the end, that other project didn't end up getting made, and Scott ended up directing.
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Writer Brian Helgeland first saw the original Man on Fire when he was renting videos in the late-'80s. He walked in to the video store where Quentin Tarantino was working, and asked what was good. Tarantino recommended Man on Fire.
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Two sex scenes were filmed but then cut. One was between Creasy and Lisa and the other between Lisa and her husband.
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The guy cleaning the window of the car, early in the movie when Creasy drives Pita back from school wears director Tony Scott's faded red baseball hat.
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When Creasy reads the address of Aurelio Sanchez on the piece of paper, you can see that the street name is 'Via Appia'. This street doesn't actually exist in New-Mexico, but it obviously refers to the ancient Via Appia road in Rome. Heavy criminals used to be crucified by the side of that road, to make a statement towards society and especially towards other criminals.
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Denzel Washington plays the role Scott Glenn portrayed in Man on Fire. Washington and Glenn co-starred together in Training Day and Courage Under Fire.
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Interesting name: John Creasey (with the second "e") was a popular and prolific British writer of crime and detective fiction, the original creator of The Baron and Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard (filmed more than once, most notably with Jack Hawkins as Gideon in Gideon of Scotland Yard.
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The kidnappers first names in the movie, Daniel and his brother Aurelio, are the actual first names of real life Mexico City kidnappers in the late 90s, Daniel and Aurelio Arizmendi Lopez, the infamous "Ear Loppers".
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Radha Mitchell had three bodyguards protecting her when she was in Mexico for filming. She said they were hired after her driver was carjacked at gunpoint in Mexico City.
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The mountain seen at the site where Creasy was exchanged for Pita is called Volcán Popocatepetl.
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"The Voice" lives in apartment 26D Via Appia. Via Appia is also the road in Italy where the 6,000 rebel slaves that followed Spartacus were crucified.
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Spoilers
Christopher Walken was originally chosen for the role of Samuel Ramos's lawyer, Jordan Kaufus, but Walken wanted to play the role of Rayburn to break away from playing the role of bad guys.
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