Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
Nicole Kidman was told not to twitch her nose in public until after the film was released, but did after much pestering from Jonathan Ross on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
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Joan Plowright was originally cast as Aunt Clara, but had to pull out. By Kristin Chenoweth's recommendation, the role was given to Carole Shelley; the two had costarred in the Broadway production of "Wicked". Shelley took a week off appearing in the show to film her scenes.
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Jim Carrey was approached to play Jack Wyatt/Darrin Stephens, but had to decline because of other commitments.
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Before Nicole Kidman was cast as Samantha, Jennifer Aniston, Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Drew Barrymore, Kim Basinger, Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Kristin Davis, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Teri Hatcher, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Lisa Kudrow, Alyssa Milano, Julianne Moore, Brittany Murphy, Tatum O'Neal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, Alicia Silverstone, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Reese Witherspoon and Renée Zellweger were also considered.
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Kristin Chenoweth's part was written specifically for her, because Nicole Kidman very much enjoyed her performance as Glinda in the Broadway musical "Wicked."
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While the old Columbia lot house from the television show was not used in the movie, the house exterior on the sound stage was labeled 1164. The normally accepted address for the Stephens' was 1164 Morning Glory Circle, Westport, Connecticut.
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When Aunt Clara's bag drops from the chimney, a whole bunch of doorknobs fall out of it. This is in reference to the original series in which Aunt Clara collected doorknobs.
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Some deleted and alternate footage appears in the movie's trailer:
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- In Bed Bath & Beyond there's an exchange between Nigel and Isabel in which he says, "But you're a witch." To which she replies, "I know, but I'm not gonna be one anymore."
- Footage of Jack in an arctic movie is displayed full screen not within a TV set like in the film.
- Footage of the new animated "Bewitched" opening credits are shown on a TV set, not full screen like in the film.
- The dialog between Jack and Isabel outside of the café is different.
- There's some extra shots during the Bed Bath & Beyond checkout scene: Isabel's hand in her shopping cart, then a close-up of the credit card swiping machine while the cashier pushes a button on the cash register in the background to bring up the total displayed on the machine.
After Isabel tells Jack that she's a witch, he asks, "Am I gonna get pregnant? Because I cannot get pregnant right now!" Endora cast a spell causing Darrin to feel the same pregnancy symptoms that Samantha was feeling in an early episode of the original series, Bewitched.
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The 'Bewitched (1964)' theme that we hear about halfway through the film, complete with lyrics, sounds like Frank Sinatra but it was actually a 1964 recording done by Steve Lawrence who was known for his uncanny impersonation of Sinatra.
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When they play "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" at the party, the roses on the table are Judy Garland roses.
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In one scene, Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) is on Inside the Actors Studio, being interviewed by James Lipton. Ferrell is known for doing an imitation of James Lipton and parodying Inside the Actors Studio on Saturday Night Live.
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The house that Isabel rents was chosen by director Nora Ephron because it had belonged to friends of her parents and she visited it many times as a child. By pure coincidence, those friends were Larry Berns and his wife, Sandra Gould, who played the second, better-known Gladys Kravitz. Alice Pearce, the first Gladys Kravitz, died after the second season and was replaced with Gould. Ephron claims in the DVD commentary that she didn't realize this until after the movie was made.
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When Uncle Arthur (in the form of his actual character from the show, materialized briefly in the real world) wants to drive Jack somewhere, Jack brings up an episode where Uncle Arthur was a bad driver. Uncle Arthur replies that it really wasn't him, that he's a good driver. Uncle Arthur was originally played by Paul Lynde, and before Uncle Arthur was a character on the show, Paul Lynde guest starred as a driving instructor with anxiety problems. Therefore, it wasn't Uncle Arthur he referred to but another character played by Paul Lynde.
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Hanging on a mirror in Isabel Bigelow's dressing room is a picture of the late Elizabeth Montgomery - the original Samantha Stevens from the Bewitched TV series.
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The original TV series on which is based, Bewitched premiered on the ABC television network on 17 September 1964 and ended on 25 March 1972.
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The feature film was originally planned as a traditional TV-to-film remake directed by actor/director Ted Bessell (Donald on That Girl). The film property was in pre-production with producer/director Penny Marshall's team at Paramount in the mid-1990s. Marshall first hired former Laverne & Shirley staff writer Monica Johnson to come up with a script. Eventually, Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) took a crack at the story, as did Broadway playwright Douglas Carter Beane. His 1996 stage reading cast Melanie Griffith as Samantha, and was supposed to be a vehicle to revive Griffith's career. After the sudden and unexpected death of Mr. Bessell from an aortic aneurysm on October 6, 1996, all Bewitched feature film plans were halted, until Penny Marshall later teamed with producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick's Red Wagon Entertainment at Sony/Columbia Pictures.
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For the Latin American Spanish version, in the scenes where appear inserts of the original TV series, the sound you hear is form the original Spanish dubbing that was done in Mexico during the seventies.
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When Penny Marshall was attached to direct in 1993, her cast was to include Meryl Streep as Samantha Stephens, Barry Humphries in his Dame Edna Everage persona as Endora, Robin Williams as Uncle Arthur, 'Shelley Winters' as Gladys Kravitz and Jerry Seinfeld and 'Billy Crystal' alternating scenes as Darrin Stephens, in a nod to the role being recast midway through the original series' run.
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Spoilers
In a similar circumstance in which 3 of the main characters (Isabel, Nigel and Iris) are witches and 1 (Darryl) is not, 3 members of the main cast (Nicole Kidman, Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine) are Academy Award winning actors while the other (Will Ferrell) is not.
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