Kingdom of Heaven - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[ken]

Saladin was virtually forgotten by Muslim history until recently. His name was kept alive by European historians and novelists, who saw him as a heroic and honorable enemy in the Crusade stories. His appearance in popular adventure stories by the likes of Sir Walter Scott, made Muslims re-evaluate the long-forgotten Saladin in the nineteenth century, although they largely maintained the westernized, romantic, and largely fictitious character of western literature, including keeping him as an Arab hero, even though he was a Kurd. In the twentieth century, he has become a huge historical figure in Islam, mainly because of what his conquest of Jerusalem now represents for anti-Zionists.

[jessie]

King Mohamed VI of Morocco is a friend of Ridley Scott, and personally provided the production with a detachment of 1,500 military personnel and equipment; often these personnel depicted both Christian and Muslim armies, with simply a change of costume, and a shift in location between scenes.

[veronica]

There were about fourteen thousand costumes created for the extras, and 650 different flag designs.

[mathew]

This film stars two actors who were in Batman franchises: Liam Neeson, who starred in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Jeremy Irons, who starred in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

[beth]

It is implied in the Theatrical and Extended Cuts that the Bishop of Jerusalem is on the side of the Templars. This is proven in the deleted scenes of the Extended Cut which shows a scene where Balian arrives at the Crypt and confronts the Bishop and the remaining Templars in Jerusalem along with the Master Templar. A fight then breaks out where the Bishop orders the Templars to kill Balian, which ends with Balian and his men triumphant. This also explains why the Bishop is so easily cowed by Balian and his knights during scenes after Hattin.

[maureen]

The Battle of Hattin, where the majority of the Army of Jerusalem under Guy and Raynald's command is utterly slaughtered, is never shown on film. The only scenes shown to indicate it has happened are the scenes showing the Saracen Army in Hattin marching on the exhausted Army of Jerusalem and, of course, the extensive aftermath sequence where Saladin executes Raynald but spares Guy de Lusignan.

[lena]

There are approximately 800 visual effects shots in the theatrical cut of the film. There are roughly 1,500 in the Director's Cut.

[frances]

Pope Urban III was said to have died from shock when he heard about the Battle of Hattin, depicted in the film.

[norma]

The reason Jeremy Irons' character was renamed Tiberias (as opposed to his 'real' name, Raymond III of Tripoli) was because the studio felt audiences would get confused with two major characters both having names beginning with R (the other being Raynald de Chatillon (Brendan Gleeson), and so they ordered writer William Monahan to change the name of one of them.

[leo]

At any given time during production, there were seven different departments working separately, as off-shoots of the Props Department: the Smalls Department (kept all the small props together), the Drapes Department (made anything involving fabrics), the Dyeing Department (aged props as needed), the Paint Department (painted the props), the Model-making Department (made anything that could not be built to scale), the Leather Department (made anything of leather), the Woodwork Department (made all the furniture and wooden props), and the Metal Work Department (made all metal props).

[terry]

The filming of the siege of Jerusalem took twenty-one days. In real-life, the siege itself lasted only thirteen days.

[violet]

Ridley Scott's first project at Fox since Alien (1979).

[scarlett]

The screenplay originally began with Balian (Orlando Bloom) awakening after the shipwreck. Screenwriter William Monahan had wanted to begin the story with the death of Balian's wife in France, but had feared that that would make the screenplay too long. When Ridley Scott became interested in the project, he told Monahan not to worry about length, and to begin the screenplay where he wanted to begin it.

[norma]

The little toy soldier on the horse prop, seen in the extended version, now belongs to Lisa Ellzey, who keeps it on her office desk.

[tamara]

Production Designer Arthur Max, Set Decorator Sonja Klaus, and Costume Designer Janty Yates all visited the Salles des Croisades in the Musée National du Château de Versailles for inspiration about the period in which the film is set. The paintings found there became vital in helping the filmmakers design the flags, banners, horse dressing, costumes, etc. Max also used the work of Jean-Paul Jérôme and Paul Gustave Doré as inspiration in designing the film's sets.

[carla]

Balian of Ibelin really existed but he was neither a bastard born in France nor a blacksmith; he was, in fact, a legitimate nobleman born in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

[brent]

The shipwreck sequence was the last scene to be added before the film's release. Since it is too expensive to build one ship from scratch, only to destroy it, Ridley Scott opted to use a combination of outtakes of the siege of Jerusalem, shots of Balian with his attire digitally altered, a CGI model of a ship, archive footage of a heavy sea storm, and outtakes from his own earlier film White Squall (1996). The creation of this "non-existent scene" is explained in detail on the four-disc Director's Cut DVD.

[carla]

The flag budget for the film was 250,000 dollars. In total, 1,200 flags, comprising 650 separate designs, were made in Spain, England, Morocco, and India.