The Bonfire of the Vanities - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Bonfire of the Vanities or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Bonfire of the Vanities

[toni]

Morgan Freeman claims he knew during filming that the movie would be a commercial disaster. He likened it to a series of mishaps leading up to a plane crash.

[victoria]

Dave Grusin and Brian DePalma both personally spotted the film judiciously in 2 hours and 45 Minutes with the assistance of DePalma's editors David Ray and Bill Pankow. The main emphasis was the final half of the film which included Morgan Freeman's speech, the Sword of Justice scene, which was cut from the film, Peter Fallow's gala celebration and Henry Lamb's waking up from his hospital bed and leaving, which was also cut from the film. Grusin would state afterwards that "it was the quickest spotting session he'd ever done." He also liked the movie saying "It's really surprising. I'm in shock!"

[frances]

The 330-second Steadicam shot of Peter Fallow arriving at the Palm Court of the Winter Garden was a tour de force for operator Larry McConkey. He had to track backwards, get on a golf cart, ride it for 380 feet, get off of it, track backwards 234 feet, get into the elevator, get out, and track for another 250 feet.

[miriam]

Steven Spielberg was briefly considered as a director due to his influence with the studio, who according to many insiders and Julie Salamon's book, always gets the chance to see all the scripts sent at "Warner." His personal friend Brian De Palma got the job and Spielberg even visited the set created for the movie in Los Angeles.

[violet]

Tom Hanks was chosen to play the lead as he was considered "likeable" by the producers and would dampen the negativity of the character he would play, Sherman McCoy, thus hopefully improving the movie's commercial chances. The casting of Hanks was widely criticized at the time, according to "The Devil's Candy", as he was considered a light comedian. Though he had recently received an Oscar nomination for Big (1988) he had yet to prove himself as a dramatic actor. Hanks hoped this would be his chance to prove himself in drama, but he would have to wait until Philadelphia (1993) to make his mark as a "serious" actor.

[eli]

The restaurant scene where Alan King dies right on Bruce Willis was intended to be more of a slapstick affair. But the pace of the scene was way too slow and much to Willis' liking who got completely frustrated and took over the scene without consulting Brian DePalma, who was irritated and had a talk with him after the scene was over in private. DePalma agreed with his ideas, but told him that he should've talked to him about before doing what he did in front of the cast and crew. DePalma went with Willis' idea and he was not happy because everything had be compromised between them.

[bernice]

While filming in the Bronx for the accident scenes, there were real protesters on location throwing eggs and bottles at the crew while the set up the shots. Some even went up to the rooftops of the nearby buildings just to do this.

[jessie]

According to the book "Devil's Candy", Bruce Willis was "was generally disliked by most of the cast and crew (due to his ego)." While filming a scene in which Alan King's character dies, Willis challenged the crew to move the scene along faster, allegedly because the set was very hot. Although Brian De Palma called out Willis to discuss the incident, the scene ended up considerably shorter and simpler than originally intended.

[ethel]

This film is the second time that a Tom Wolfe novel has been adapted for the big screen. The previous one was The Right Stuff (1983).

[harry]

The film opened in 1,373 theaters on December 21, 1990., the same weekend as the Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy "Kindergarten Cop" for Universal which had grossed 8 million dollars and only grossed 3.1 million with it's final box office total being only 15.4 million as compared to the films' Forty Million dollar budget.

[jeffrey]

The courtroom scenes were shot between 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM for a good solid week and more in Jamaica, Queens and at one point Brian DePalma had to head back to Manhattan for the next morning's shoot.

[ivan]

Peter Fallow's apartment was actually set on the Warner Bros. lot and was amongst the other parts of the film shot in Los Angeles starting June 12th, 1990.

[nina]

It was Peter Fallow who set everything in motion with Sherman through misinformation and he's also the one who ends Sherman's plight by helping him anonymously by exposing Maria after finding out the truth from Sherman himself on the train.

[ken]

Tom Killian is based upon Edward Hayes. Critics have suggested Christopher Hitchens or Anthony Hayden-Guest as the basis for Peter Fallow, though Guest and Hitchens have both noted the former shares more similarities with the character.

[toni]

Kristin Scott Thomas personally screen-tested, for Brian De Palma, for the role of Judy McCoy, but when invited to Los Angeles to test with Tom Hanks, she happened to be on vacation with her children, and couldn't make it. De Palma didn't forget her, when casting Mission: Impossible (1996).

[duane]

Melanie Griffith left production and came back with a breast augmentation.

[willard]

In the film, Bronx District Attorney and New York mayoral candidate Abe Weiss stay that he hopes the city's black voters see him as the "first black District Attorney of Bronx County." In November 1988, two years before the film was released Judge Robert T. Johnson was elected the first black district attorney of the Bronx. He held the position until December 31, 2015.

[claude]

At one point during the shoot, Brian DePalma was so stressed out and frustrated that during one of lunch breaks he went and bought himself a Walkman and classical music to help him relax. He would be seen behind the camera wearing headphones trying not to think about what he was filming.

[kim]

Mentioned by Sophia Petrillo on Golden Girls. Sophia's line goes "I'm 94 years old, I've seen everything, twice. Except Bonfire of the Vanities, woof." - a jab at the films poor reviews.