The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[bernice]

Screenwriters Donna Powers and Wayne Powers hadn't seen the original The Italian Job (1969) before agreeing to write the script for the remake. After that, they only watched it once. This was on purpose, because they didn't want to copy the movie but wanted to make their own, albeit inspired by the original one.

[amber]

For enhancing his body height, Mark Wahlberg used shoes with lifts throughout the movie. However, in the opening introduction scene with Donald Sutherland, and the two basketball scenes with Jason Statham and Seth Green, he used normal shoes.

[duane]

The screenwriters actually have a friend nicknamed Handsome Rob.

[michele]

Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron had previously worked together in The Yards (2000).

[gabriel]

F. Gary Gray and cinematographer Wally Pfister worked together to develop a visual style for the film before production began. They viewed car commercials and magazine photographs, as well as chase sequences from The French Connection (1971), Ronin (1998), and The Bourne Identity (2002) as visual references. Pfister wanted "dark textures and undertones and strong contrast"; he collaborated with production designer Charlie Wood on the color palette, and the two would confer with Gray on their ideas.

[ivan]

For the scene in which an armored truck falls through Hollywood Boulevard and into the subway tunnel below, Wally Pfister set up seven cameras to capture the vehicle's 30-foot (9.1-meter) drop.

[miriam]

The white MINI used in the film was custom painted "Pepper White" (off white) with a matching roof, which was not a color combination available for the car at the time. From 2001-04, you could only buy MINIs with white roofs. It wasn't until 2005 that you could get a white, black or body-colored roof.

[amber]

The Metro tunnel set was so huge that it wouldn't fit in any soundstage in Los Angeles. It was built in the hangar where the first Space Shuttle was assembled. They used every inch available in that hangar.

[melinda]

While Charlie Croker's line "You ready to create the biggest traffic jam in the history of Los Angeles?" appears in the trailer, it doesn't appear in the theatrical release.

[charlie]

During the end of the final chase scene, the helicopter pilot did actually fly under the freeway overpass.

[cameron]

F. Gary Gray says he cried from laughing so hard from Seth Green's improvised lines while doing his impression of Jason Statham as Handsome Rob hitting on Becky.

[lonnie]

Paramount was generally happy with the film's box office performance on its first run but had the release expanded from only 64 screens to well over 1,400 of them in late August 2003 because it wanted the movie to cross the $100 million "blockbuster" mark; within a few weeks, the nine-figure mark was attained and Paramount then began scaling back the release for the rest of September, with it leaving theaters altogether by October.

[wesley]

Mark Wahlberg's character is named Charlie Croker, the same as Sir Michael Caine's character in the original The Italian Job (1969). Charlize Theron's character Stella Bridger has the family name of Bridger, the same as Noël Coward's character in the original.

[carla]

This was Wally Pfister's first experience using the Super 35 format since Paramount preferred that the film not be shot in the anamorphic format, despite his wishes to do so. However, F. Gary Gray still wanted a widescreen aspect ratio, just like the original, so they chose to shoot the film in the Super 35 format for a 2.39:1 aspect ratio.

[francisco]

Three hundred cars were used to simulate the traffic jam at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, which was taken over by the production crew for a week.

[bessie]

The Venice authority allowed the crew to go over the speed limit for the boat chase sequence.

[jessica]

Kings Island (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Canada's Wonderland (Toronto, Ontario) opened "The Italian Job: Stunt Track" attraction in May 2005. Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia) added the ride in summer 2006. The ride is based on the chase sequence of the 2003 film. The ride is a heavily themed roller coaster, in which the coaster trains are scaled MINI Cooper S convertible models.

[bessie]

In an early version of the screenplay, the original heist was supposed to happen on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea, but the producers moved it to Venice so it actually took place in Italy.

[riley]

Mark Wahlberg was originally interested in the role of Steve Frazelli, but F. Gary Gray thought he was perfect for Charlie.