According to Bruce Dern, who talked about the movie on The Projection Booth podcast in 2016, there were suppose to be 2500 extras in the film for the pageant scenes. Since it was really important that the same faces show up in the audience in every scene for consistency, the filmmakers came up with an idea to give away five Cadillacs each day of the three-day pageant shoot to five lucky extras. Each extra would get a ticket in the morning and by the end of the day they'd get to enter the Cadillac lottery. This not only made sure that the same people would return each day, but 7000 additional people showed up to play extras and try to win the cars. Since they didn't need that many extras, the filmmakers decided to charge the extras 25 dollars to let them be in the movie and play the Cadillac lottery. Dern concludes the anecdote by amusingly stating that this was the only time in his career that he saw a movie making money directly off the people who worked for the movie.
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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Edward Norton chose his wardrobe to make his character a little quirky.
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Filming on location posed some challenges. The opening heist sequence in Venice, Italy, was strictly monitored by the local authorities, due to the high speeds at which the boats were driven (which were over the legal speed limit). The frigid temperatures at Passo Fedaia, in the Italian Alps, created problems during production: "The guns would jam, and if you could imagine not being able to walk 40 feet with a bottle of water without it freezing, those are the conditions in which we had to work," F. Gary Gray remarked. Pedestrians had to be allowed to use the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard between takes. Also, scenes which took place on freeways and city streets, were only filmed on weekends.
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In interviews, Jason Statham said that in addition to the stunt driving course they all received, he got two days' driving tuition from Damon Hill, the British ex-world champion Formula 1 driver. However, all of the cast members acknowledged that Charlize Theron was easily the best driver among them.
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A MINI Cooper with two steering wheels was used for some of the shooting, in order for a stunt driver to actually drive the car while one of the actors performed in front of the camera. This unusual car is now a part of the MINI factory tour in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England.
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Mark Wahlberg said that driving a MINI Cooper is "like driving a really high-powered go-kart."
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
The Italian Job - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts
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