FILM 1327: FIELD OF
DREAMS
TRIVIA: After the movie was completed
test audiences didn't like the name "Shoeless" Joe Jackson because they
said it sounded like a movie about a bum or hobo. Universal called
director-screenwriter Phil Alden
Robinson to tell him that "Shoeless Joe" didn't work, and
the studio changed the title of the film to "Field of Dreams". When
Robinson heard the news of the change, he called W.P. Kinsella, the author
of the book, and told him the "bad" news, but apparently he didn't
care, saying that "Shoeless Joe" was the title the publishing company
gave the book. Kinsella's original title was "Dream Field".
The studio built the baseball
diamond on an actual farm in Dyersville, Iowa. After the filming was completed,
the family owning the farm kept the field, and added a small hut where you
could buy inexpensive souvenirs. As of 1990, visitors were free to come to the
field and play baseball as they please.
The movie's line "If you build
it, he will come." was voted as the #39 movie quote by the American Film
Institute (out of 100).
Thousands of pallets of green grass
were brought in to make the baseball field, but due to the haste in planting
because of the shooting schedule, the grass was not able to grow appropriately
and died. In order to keep the grass green, the production crew painted the
grass.
Then unknown, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are among the
thousands of extras in the Fenway Park scene, and are uncredited. Over a decade
later, when Phil Alden
Robinson welcomed Affleck to the set of The Sum of All Fears
(2002), Affleck said, "Nice working with you again." Robinson asked,
"What do you mean 'again'?" and Affleck explained the connection.
J.D. Salinger, on whom the
character Terence Mann is based, was very offended by the fictional portrayal
of himself in W.P. Kinsella's
novel "Shoeless Joe", upon which the film is based. His lawyers said
that they would be "unhappy if it [the story] were transferred to other
media," so the studio created the character of Terence Mann.
Moonlight Graham's one-game
baseball career is not as rare as might be suspected. In fact, there are nearly
1,500 players whose entire Major League career consisted of just one game.
The last cinema film of Burt Lancaster. He was 74
at the time of filming.
Gaby Hoffman's first feature film
performance.
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