Maverick - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[kristina]

Final film of Denver Pyle.

[albert]

Jodie Foster's character is named Annabelle, which is also the name of her character in the Disney film Freaky Friday (1976)(although there the name was spelled Annabel).

[violet]

This was the second time Jodie Foster and James Garner appeared in the same movie. The first was One Little Indian (1973).

[kenneth]

Actress Lauren Schuler Donner, who played the role of Mrs. D., Bathhouse Maid, is a respected producer and is married to Richard Donner, one of the producers of this film. She has appeared in only two movies, this and Lethal Weapon 3, both featuring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and both films were projects for which Richard Donner was a producer.

[kyle]

Mel Gibson assumes the title character originated by co-star James Garner in Maverick (1957) and a slew of miscellaneous episodes from related television series.

[russell]

Annabelle keeps calling Bret, "Bert." This is a reference to an episode of the television series, in which a girlfriend of Bret's kept calling him Bert.

[alyssa]

The steamship "Lauren Belle" is named for producer Lauren Shuler Donner, wife of Richard Donner. She also appears as the bathhouse maid. Zane Cooper (James Garner) calls her "Mrs. D" as she is leaving.

[riley]

The band playing in the background on the riverboat is Restless Heart.

[lena]

The first film released on Kodak's EXR 2386 polyester print stock.

[kristen]

This film is loaded with cameos by famous country singers, such as Carlene Carter (playing a waitress on the riverboat), Hal Ketchum (bank robber), Vince Gill (spectator at the poker game), Clint Black (gambler who gets thrown off the boat for cheating), Waylon Jennings and Kathy Mattea (two people with guns on the riverboat).

[charlie]

The film marks the first time Roy Huggins is credited on-screen for creating the TV series Maverick (1957). It was Warner Bros. Television policy in the 1950s to avoid having to pay creator royalties; in this case, Warners changed the episode order so the official premiere - and therefore, the series - was based on a studio-owned book instead of Huggins work.

[nina]

Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster became close friends after the making of this film. She was also considered to play Gibson's love interest again in Conspiracy Theory (1997), but she turned it down to make Contact (1997), and the role went to Julia Roberts. Both Mel and Jodie still love to play poker. They worked together again on The Beaver (2011), which was directed by Foster.

[jesus]

When Maverick is heading to the stage coach, he passes a stand selling Tacco's as a bell tolls in the foreground - a nod to Taco Bell.

[ava]

Paul Brinegar, the stagecoach driver who dies "on the road", was also the character Wishbone the cook on the television series Rawhide (1959), which starred Clint Eastwood as "Rowdy Yates".

[jeffrey]

Vilmos Zsigmond: The film's cinematographer appears as landscape painter Albert Bierstadt.

[camila]

After Bret Maverick escapes from his botched hanging, he is shown plodding through the desert, dragging a tree limb behind him as the sand swirls around him. This mirrors a situation from The Road Warrior (1981), when The Gyro Captain is chained to a log by Max, also played by Mel Gibson, and forced to find his way out of the desert.

[tammy]

Gary Ross had been brought in to re-write the scenes involving The Magician, a character played by Linda Hunt, which were ultimately cut out of the movie after test screenings.

[brent]

Steve Kahan (the dealer during the poker tournament) also plays Mel Gibson's (Martin Riggs') captain in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise. Gibson's character is a constant irritation for Kahan throughout. As an inside joke, near the end of the tournament you see Kahan give Gibson a terse handshake (barely acknowledging his presence) before quickly exiting the table. This happens right after Gibson's character knocks out the last player before reaching the final table. In actuality, Kahan got stuck in his chair, and as he stands up, his chair comes with him. His handshake with Gibson is cut short, because he wants to remove the chair. Notice Gibson's expression as he chokes back a laugh, just before the film cuts to a different shot. Both Gibson and Kahan also appeared in Conspiracy Theory (1997).

[kim]

Many of the cards used in the movie contain letters (A, K, Q, J) or numbers (2-10) denoting their value. Playing cards of this time period did not have letters or numbers. They only displayed the correct number of the suit's symbol or a picture of the facecard.