Did You Know?
Leonardo DiCaprio spent a day with Jane Russell to hear her memories and impressions of Howard Hughes. She was very impressed with DiCaprio's visit and told him that Hughes was a quiet yet extremely stubborn man who always got his way in the end.
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Michael Mann was originally going to direct the film, but having directed back-to-back biopics The Insider and Ali, he decided to produce instead, and offered the script to Martin Scorsese.
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This is the first feature film that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company "Appian Way" is involved with.
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Martin Scorsese designed each year in the film to look just the way a color film from that time period would look. Achieved mainly through digitally enhanced post-production, Scorsese recreated the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor. Watch in particular for the scene where Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets Errol Flynn (Jude Law) in the club. Hughes is served precisely placed peas on a plate, and they appear blue or turquoise - just as they'd have looked in the primitive two-strip Technicolor process. As Hughes ages throughout the film, the color gets more sophisticated and full-bodied.
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Barry Pepper was due to play Howard Hughes's chief engineer, Glenn Odekirk, but due to prior commitment and scheduling conflicts with the film Ripley Under Ground, he had to drop out.
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Also in preparation for his role as Howard Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio spent some time with an actual OCD patient named Edward. He advised him on a number of different aspects of the condition, in particular the tendency to repeat sentences over and over as in the scene where Hughes repeatedly asks to see the blueprints for the Hercules.
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Production was delayed in October 2003, when wildfires in southern California burned several sets.
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Gwyneth Paltrow was originally signed on to play Ava Gardner but dropped out. She was replaced at the last minute with Kate Beckinsale.
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Freckles were painstakingly painted onto Cate Blanchett's face, arms, and chest to make her resemble Katharine Hepburn.
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Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn makes her the first performer to win an Oscar for playing a real-life Oscar winner (Hepburn won a record 4).
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Cate Blanchett felt that accurately reproducing Katharine Hepburn's distinctive upper class New Englander accent was crucial to her portrayal of this Hollywood icon. She did daily voice exercises with the film's voice coach Tim Monich (with whom Blanchett had worked previously on The Talented Mr. Ripley), and also studied Hepburn's early films and documentaries about her to learn her mannerisms.
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Acting debut of singer Gwen Stefani. Martin Scorsese was looking for someone to fill the role of Jean Harlow when he noticed Stefani appearing on a Vogue cover poster in New York.
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Martin Scorsese requested that Cate Blanchett watch all of the first 15 films of Katharine Hepburn to learn her mannerism and her poise.
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Nicole Kidman was also considered for the role of Katharine Hepburn. When the scheduled start date was delayed by several months, Cate Blanchett became available after finishing filming The Missing. Martin Scorsese claims that Blanchett had always been his first choice.
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In preparation for her role as Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett learned to play tennis and golf and took cold showers, something Hepburn is known for.
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Many had tried to produce a Howard Hughes biopic before this. Among the failed attempts are:
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- 1. A companion piece to Reds planned by actor-director Warren Beatty.
- 2. John Malkovich and partner Russell Smith attempt in 1993.
- 3. The adaptation planned by Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes who wanted Johnny Depp in the lead.
- 4. A Brian De Palma-directed biopic with Touchstone which fell through because of the $80 million price tag.
- 5. In January 2000, it was announced that Milos Forman was to direct a biopic with Edward Norton as Hughes and a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.
- 6. In January 2002, Jim Carrey tried to start the project with Castle Rock Productions but it didn't get off ground soon enough to beat this movie into production.
The film's prints are coming from a digital intermediate. This digital master has been digitally grain reduced from start to finish. As a result many moving textures (especially human skin) look smeared and very unnatural, like bad quality video watched on a slow LCD monitor.
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The hangar in which the real-life Howard Hughes partially built his famous "Spruce Goose" airplane was also used for the construction of many of the full-scale models used in Titanic, in which Leonardo DiCaprio also starred.
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The film's wide release date in the United States, 24 December 2004, would have been Howard Hughes' 99th birthday.
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Four of the miniature airplanes used in creating the effects for the film are now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, home of the real Howard Hughes HK-1 "Spruce Goose". Models on display include two of the biplanes from the Hell's Angels sequence, most of the XF-11 model, and the motion-control "Spruce Goose". The "Spruce Goose" model is remarkably detailed, and even includes scale puppets of Howard Hughes and Dr. Fritz.
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Director Martin Scorsese originally wanted to shoot the film in Academy ratio, 1.33:1, the same ratio as films of the period and indeed all films up until about 1954. Unfortunately, he found that modern theaters are generally not properly equipped to show anything but Flat 1.85:1 or Scope 2.35:1 films. He therefore focused instead on making each portion of the film look like it was made using the color film stock available at the time.
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The original screenplay was inspired by the book "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" by Peter Harry Brown and Pat Broeske.
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The film's winning of the Best Cinematography Oscar has been attributed to the unique use of period color palette. The two and three-strip palette that is seen in the film was accomplished by the use of the LUT - 3D Look Up Table - graphics processor. It was designed by Joshua Pines, R&D VP of Technicolor Digital Intermediates. The processor was slipped into the digital projector and thus allowed filtering and applying the two / three color look into the negative.
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In his speech at the Golden Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio revealed that Michael Mann had a hand in writing the film's screenplay.
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Alan Alda avoided watching newsreel footage of the real Senator Owen Brewster. Alda felt that public figures did not speak or behave naturally in front of the newsreel cameras and he wanted his performance to be more natural.
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Howard Hughes' Los Angeles home in the film was actually the home he lived on Muirland Drive.
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Two scenes were filmed aboard the retired ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, permanently berthed in Long Beach, CA, to take advantage of the vessel's still-extant 1930s Artdeco interiors. The "Hell's Angels" wrap party was filmed in the ship's Observation Bar. The scene introducing the H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose") scale model to the military was shot in the former First Class main lounge, now called the "Royal Salon." The real "Spruce Goose" was on display in a domed hangar adjacent to the Queen Mary from 1980-1992.
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The real Howard Hughes was still married to Ella Botts Rice during the production of Hell's Angels and would have been balancing romantic involvement with Evelyn Brent and Billie Dove.
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Cameo
Anne V. Coates:
appears as one of Howard Hughes' editors putting together the initial cut of Hell's Angels.
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Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright:
each appear as vocalists at the Coconut Grove nightclub during different eras. Loudon Wainwright guest starred in M*A*S*H which starred Alan Alda.
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Director Cameo
Martin Scorsese:
in a tuxedo and slicked hair, pulling a woman from behind Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he walks the red carpet with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). Scorsese also provides the voice of the projectionist Hughes talks to in the screening room.
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