Trivia for
Man on Fire (2004)

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• Tony Scott was originally slated to direct the original in the 1980s, but the studio balked because he had not had any hits and they felt he was not accomplished enough to pull off the project.
  
  
• Michael Bay was offered the chance to direct this movie.
  
  
• Antoine Fuqua was offered the chance to direct the movie, but he was already busy with production on King Arthur (2004).
  
  

• Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Bruce Willis were offered the role of Creasy. They have all previously worked with director Tony Scott.
  
  
• Marlon Brando was the original choice to play Rayburn.
  
  
• Denzel Washington was cast in this film because of a trip to a doctor. He ran into director Tony Scott in the waiting room of a medical office and the two men started chatting. Scott had not seen Washington in person since they worked together on Crimson Tide (1995). Scott happened to see Dakota Fanning in I Am Sam (2001) the night before and seeing Washington made Scott think using of the two actors together.
  
  
• Creasy's quote about arranging a meeting between the kidnappers and God is similar to a quote falsely attributed to General Norman Schwarzkopf. It is not clear whose work the original quote is, which goes: "It's God's responsibility to judge Osama bin Laden. It is our responsibility to arrange the meeting."
  
  
• Just before Creasy walks into the Rave Club, the song, "Juice," by Growling Mad Scientists can be heard. The song contains samples from Requiem for a Dream (2000). It's Christopher McDonald's character Tabby Tibbons saying, "We got a winner!"
  
  
• In A.J. Quinnell's novel Dakota Fanning's character in Italy was named Pinta. After director Tony Scott's changed the film's setting to Mexico and discovered that "Pinta" is Mexican slang for "whore", he had the name changed to "Pita" and made her full name Lupita.
  
  
• Henry Bean worked on screenplay revisions.
  
  
• Dakota Fanning took piano, swimming, and Spanish lessons for her role.
  
  
• Dakota Fanning's first day of shooting was for the scene where Creasy takes Pita to school for the first day.
  
  
• A couple of Mercedes S-class were bought and utterly destroyed during filming.
  
  
• The kitchen scene between Creasy and Pita where she asked him about concubines were mostly ad-libbed by both actors. It started when they "accused" each other of smiling.
  
  
• Dakota Fanning was missing her front teeth during filming. The film-makers debated whether they should add fake teeth on her and even made them for the actress. In the end, they decided not to use them.
  
  
• Dakota Fanning had a "stunt-burper" because she couldn't do it.
  
  
• The zebra in Pita's house belonged to the real owner of the house. It is a real stuffed zebra. There were also leopard skin rugs around the house.
  
  
• The actor who played Aurelio didn't speak English at all.
  
  
• Writer Brian Helgeland was not really keen on writing a movie he probably would not end up directing, so the producers told him that Tony Scott was working on another project that he might shoot instead of Man on Fire. In the end, that other project didn't end up getting made, and Scott ended up directing.
  
  
• Writer Brian Helgeland first saw the original Man on Fire (1987) when he was renting videos in the late-'80s. He walked in to the video store where Quentin Tarantino was working, and asked what was good. Tarantino recommended Man on Fire (1987).
  
  
• Two sex scenes were filmed but then cut. One was between Creasy and Lisa and the other between Lisa and her husband.
  
  
• Denzel Washington's watch is a Casio Pathfinder 227.
  
  
• The guy cleaning the window of the car, early in the movie when Creasy drives Pita back from school wears director Tony Scott's faded red baseball hat.
  
  
• When Creasy reads the address of Aurelio Sanchez on the piece of paper, you can see that the street name is 'Via Appia'. This street doesn't actually exist in New-Mexico, but it obviously refers to the ancient Via Appia road in Rome. Heavy criminals used to be crucified by the side of that road, to make a statement towards society and especially towards other criminals.
  
  

• SPOILER: Christopher Walken was originally chosen for the role of Samuel Ramos's lawyer, Jordan Kaufus, but Walken wanted to play the role of Rayburn to break away from playing the role of bad guys.
  
  

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