Sorcerer

Director William Friedkin initially wanted Steve McQueen to star in the film. McQueen accepted the part, but on one condition--he wanted a co-starring role for his then wife, Ali MacGraw. Friedkin would not accept his conditions, and McQueen dropped out of the film. Friedkin later went on record, regretting not accepting McQueen's conditions. He tried to get Clint Eastwood or Jack Nicholson, but neither wanted to travel at that time. He stated that casting Roy Scheider in the lead was the worst casting decision he has ever made. Although he felt Scheider is a good actor who did a great job, he is only interesting in a film as a "second or third banana, he's not a star." Amidou, who played the Arab Kassem/"Martinez", was Friedkin's only real first choice--all the other actors were "fourth, fifth and even sixth choices."

When Sorcerer is attempting to cross the dilapidated wooden bridge, a shot of the outermost log falling away is used twice.

The only opening credits at the beginning of the film are the studios' names followed by the film's graffiti style font title. Although by the late 1990's it was quite common to not have credits at the beginning of a film, in 1977 it was very unusual.

The European version of the film was re-edited and shortened by CIC, the European distributor, without director William Friedkin's permission. The prologue sequences set in New York, Paris, Vera Cruz and Israel that show what happened to the main characters and why they had to flee to South America, were changed to flashbacks running throughout the film.

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