The Man Who Fell to Earth - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Man Who Fell to Earth or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Man Who Fell to Earth

[lonnie]

Candy Clark was the first actor to be cast.

[jim]

According to costume designer May Routh, David Bowie was so thin that some of his outfits were boys' clothes.

[stephanie]

James Mason was originally considered for the part later taken by Buck Henry.

[jessie]

Candy Clark, with a large black hat strategically pulled low over her face, played Thomas Jerome Newton in one scene while David Bowie was ill and unavailable to work the day it was shot.

[lonnie]

David Bowie said of this film in Kurt Loder's article "Straight Time" published in the 12th May 1983 edition of 'Rolling Stone' magazine: "I'm so pleased I made that [movie], but I didn't really know what was being made at all". Further, in the article "Bowie at the Bijou" published in the April 1982 edition of 'Movieline' magazine, Bowie said: "I just threw my real self into that movie as I was at that time. It was the first thing I'd ever done. I was virtually ignorant of the established procedure [of making movies], so I was going a lot on instinct, and my instinct was pretty dissipated. I just learned the lines for that day and did them the way I was feeling. It wasn't that far off. I actually was feeling as alienated as that character was. It was a pretty natural performance. ... a good exhibition of somebody literally falling apart in front of you. I was totally insecure with about 10 grams [of cocaine] a day in me. I was stoned out of my mind from beginning to end". Moreover, in the same article, Bowie said of his relationship with director Nicolas Roeg: " . . . we got on rather well. I think I was fulfilling what he needed from me for that role. I wasn't disrupting . . . I wasn't disrupted. In fact, I was very eager to please. And amazingly enough, I was able to carry out everything I was asked to do. I was quite willing to stay up as long as anybody".

[ava]

The picture was temporarily scored with music from Pink Floyd's album "The Dark Side of the Moon".

[harry]

The 39th screenplay Paul Mayersberg had written, and the first of his to be physically produced.

[bryan]

Candy Clark was romantically involved with director Nicolas Roeg at the time she starred in this film.

[camila]

David Bowie worked on a soundtrack for the film that was rejected. Many of the ideas he had for the soundtrack would later be utilized in his 1977 album 'Low'.

[kyle]

The film was shot around June, July, and August 1975.

[violet]

The production shoot for this picture was scheduled to run eleven weeks.

[miriam]

The film is referenced in Philip K Dick's book "Valis".

[christina]

Mick Jagger was also considered for the part of the alien.

[victoria]

In total, Candy Clark spent 96 and a half hours in the make-up chair during the extent of the film's shoot.

[liam]

James Sallis, writing in the The Boston Globe, describes "The Man Who Fell To Earth" as a Christian parable, not only about the corruption of an innocent being, but as being highly critical of the 1950s conventionalism which Tevis grew up with, along with environmental destruction and the Cold War.

[kenzi]

Apparently, David Bowie was unable to work on the movie for two days because he had drunk some "bad milk". Bowie saw "some gold liquid swimming around in shiny swirls inside the glass". According to the 'Bowie Golden Years' website, Bowie is "still to this day unsure of what actually happened. No trace of any foreign element was detected in tests though there were six witnesses who said they had seen the strange matter in the bottom of the glass. Already in an extremely fragile state, Bowie felt the whole location had 'very bad Karma'".

[elmer]

The number of basic patents that Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) had was nine. The amount of money that he was tipped to be able to earn in three years was US $300 million.

[richard]

One of two 1970s movies where David Bowie plays an alien / an extraterrestrial. The other picture was as Ziggy Stardust in the concert film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1979).

[ken]

While filming at an old Aztec burial ground in the New Mexico desert, the production had to deal with a boisterous "Hells' Angels" motorcycle gang camping nearby.