The Fly - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[dustin]

David Cronenberg: [disease POV] Brundle describes his condition from the "disease's" viewpoint, saying its "purpose" or its "want" is to "turn him into something else."

[lonnie]

While working at Fox, it was Scott Rudin's suggestion to Stuart Cornfeld that they hire David Cronenberg as director. Cornfeld agreed and after Mel Brooks had written an eloquent letter to the bosses at Fox, they agreed. Cronenberg's asking salary at the time was 750,000 dollars. Brooks, Cornfeld, and Fox, countered with an offer of 1 million dollars, which sealed the deal.

[phyllis]

Stathis's melting hand effect was created by sculpting the mutilated hand, then building up an intact hand on top of it out of gelatin. The gelatin was then melted using stage lights and a hair dryer, and filmed at low speed. Chris Walas essentially recreated the same effect he had used earlier for Toht's melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

[dustin]

In the bathroom scene, as Seth's gradual transformation into Brundlefly begins, Seth has lesions on his face. Lesions is a skin condition that is related to HIV/AIDS. The film was released during the dawn of the AIDS epidemic and the film had been so by many as a metaphor for the disease and the film deals with even more basic issues that everybody can identify with.

[riley]

It was Geena Davis' idea that David Cronenberg cameo as a gynaecologist.

[tom]

James Woods turned down the role of Seth Brundle.

[darrell]

Stathis is both the antagonist and the protagonist and is very much an anti-hero. Stathis rejects Ronnie's recorded interview with Seth about the Telepod and accuses Seth of conning Ronnie. Stathis insults Seth referring him as Ronnie's "playmate". Stathis's jealousy and arrogance gets the worst of him as he follows Ronnie when she leaves Seth's warehouse and follows her to the clothes shop and crudely remarks that Ronnie is interested in Seth's genitals and Stathis makes a vile threat to expose the Telepods in a magazine article by posting a package containing Seth Brundle on the cover and the story about the Telepods, which forces Ronnie to leave and confront Stathis. But, despite his jealousy, Stathis becomes concerned for Ronnie when she tells Stathis she's pregnant and sets out to save Ronnie and kill Seth with a loaded shotgun. In The Fly II (1989) Stathis whom has become a bitter drunken recluse tells Martin and Beth that Seth stole his girl. Ronnie and Stathis were in a relationship and had broken up prior to Ronnie meeting Seth at the Bartok party.

[lena]

Scripted, but never filmed, was a segment meant to have followed the deleted monkey-cat scene: A homeless lady screams after interrupting Brundlefly as he feeds out of an open dumpster. Brundlefly seizes the bag lady and disintegrates her face with his vomit drop. Before he finishes feeding on the woman's corpse, Brundlefly's humanity emerges for a moment; just long enough to contemplate the horror of his sub-human existence.

[charlie]

David Cronenberg met with some opposition when he announced that he wanted to cast Jeff Goldblum in the lead role. The executive at Fox who was supervising the project felt that Goldblum was not a bankable star, and Chris Walas felt that his face would be difficult to work with for the make-up effects. Both, however, deferred to Cronenberg's judgment. Cronenberg himself later had reservations when Goldblum suggested Geena Davis, his girlfriend at the time, for the other lead role, as he did not want to have to work with a real-life couple. Cronenberg was convinced after Davis's first reading that she was right for the role. Producer Stuart Cornfeld suggested that they audition more actresses saying that it's the "script that is brilliant". Cornfeld relented after "nobody else even came close".

[amber]

An early treatment for a sequel, written by Tim Lucas, involved Veronica Quaife dealing with the evils of the Bartok company. Brundle's consciousness had somehow survived within the Telepod computer, and the Bartok scientists had enslaved him and were using him to develop the system for cloning purposes. Brundle becomes able to communicate with Veronica through the computer, and he eventually takes control of the Bartok complex's security systems to gruesomely attack the villains. Eventually, Veronica frees Brundle by conspiring with him to reintegrate a non-contaminated version of his original body. David Cronenberg endorsed the concept at the time. Geena Davis was open to doing a sequel (and only pulled out of The Fly II (1989) because her character was to be killed off in the opening scene), while Goldblum was not (although he was okay with the cameo), and this treatment reflects that. However, a later treatment written by Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat was used as the basis for the final script, written by Frank Darabont. Mick Garris also wrote a treatment, with elements incorporated into the final film.

[edgar]

When David Cronenberg agreed to direct, it was on the condition that he be allowed to work with his regular group of collaborators, including Editor Ronald Sanders, Production Designer Carol Spier, Director of Photography Mark Irwin and Composer Howard Shore.

[miriam]

Early designs of the teleportation pods resembled glass showers or phone booths.

[jessie]

The scene in which Seth breaks Marky's arm in the bar almost didn't happen. Chris Walas and his crew kept putting development of the effect on hold to focus on more difficult ones. The prosthetic arm piece and bone was made within a few days, as soon as they realized they were almost out of time.

[phyllis]

While filming the finale, the puppeteers under the floor would get bored and start gluing pictures to John Getz's real foot, or place it in oatmeal. Getz fondly recalls that he should have realized, being unable to move, that he was a perfect target.

[ken]

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Laura Dern were considered for the role of Veronica Quaife, but the producers wanted an unknown.

[melinda]

Before production on the film could begin, the original director Robert Bierman had to pull out of the film due to the death of his daughter whom had been killed in a tragic accident and production was halted for 3 months and Robert Bierman decided not to do the film due to the film's dark film subject matter and Robert Bierman was replaced by David Cronenberg.

[bessie]

The design of Brundle's Telepods was inspired by the engine cylinder of Cronenberg's Ducati 450 Desmo.

[melinda]

The infamous cat-monkey scene where Brundlefly fuses a cat and the remaining baboon and then beats it to death with a lead pipe was cut following a Toronto screening. According to producer Stuart Cornfeld the audience felt that there was no turning back for Seth and they lost all sympathy for his plight, which caused the rest of the film to not play as well. In Cornfeld's own words: "If you beat an animal to death, even a monkey-cat, your audience is not gonna be interested in your problems anymore".

[kristina]

Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue wrote the first draft of the script. When David Cronenberg was hired as director, one condition was that he be able to rewrite the script to his satisfaction. Cronenberg substantially altered the characters (and their names), the dialogue, and much of the plot. However, key details from Pogue's script (the fusion of man and fly and details of the metamorphosis) were retained.