Half-Assed Internet Research
Box office and contract; screenplay origins; credits; cameos; sailboat; dialogue; song; mugshot; traders; career counts; trading rule; money clip; profanity; restaurant; Italian broadcast
In the discussion (20)
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:48Read transcript
- The film reportedly stayed in the box-office top ten for 17 weeks. — Chris Ryan
- Paramount reportedly rewarded Murphy with a $25 million five-film contract and financing for a production studio. — Bill Simmons
- Writer Timothy Harris’s experience with two wealthy, cheap tennis partners reportedly inspired the Duke brothers. — Bill Simmons
- Commodity research included the Hunt brothers and Silver Thursday; familiar orange juice and pork bellies helped make the trading story accessible. — Bill Simmons
- The Prince and the Pauper is noted as a possible influence rather than a firmly documented adaptation. — Bill Simmons
- The budget is corrected from $50 million to $15 million, with $120.6 million gross and fourth place for 1983 reported. — Bill Simmons
- The performer playing Penelope is described as a model with only this film and Manhunter credited, later marrying a biology professor and related to Ansel Elgort; these are reported biographical claims. — Bill Simmons
- Harris reportedly received competing claims that Russo or Katzenberg originated the idea once the film became successful. — Bill Simmons
- Esposito is identified in the jail scene and Falco as the disgusted salmon witness. — Bill Simmons
- The ending’s 56-foot sailboat is reported still in the Caribbean, with the Virgin Islands identified. — Bill Simmons
- Murphy reportedly changed stereotyped dialogue; Murphy and Landis opposed the studio’s attempt to remove the Kools-on-the-rug line. — Bill Simmons
- The quartet song is described as an American Civil War song; its title is rendered “Orelia” in the transcript. — Bill Simmons
- Louis’s mugshot number matches Jake Blues’s number in The Blues Brothers. — Bill Simmons
- Actual traders were used in the exchange scenes. — Bill Simmons
- The veteran actors’99th and 100th film claims prompted Murphy’s joke that the three collectively made 201 films. — Bill Simmons
- A 2010 commodities restriction is reported as the Eddie Murphy rule. — Bill Simmons
- The money-clip fumble reportedly happened unintentionally. — Bill Simmons
- Ameche reportedly agreed to say the final profanity only once because of religious convictions. — Bill Simmons
- A Philadelphia Westin restaurant was named Winthorpe and Valentine. — Bill Simmons
- The film is reported as an annual highly watched Italian Christmas Eve broadcast. — Bill Simmons
