Trivia for
Big Fish (2003)

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• Steven Spielberg was attached to this project and wanted Jack Nicholson to star, but dropped out due to his full schedule, soon after which Tim Burton signed on.
  
  
• Ewan McGregor was cast as Young Ed Bloom when producers noticed the striking similarity between him and pictures of a young Albert Finney, who plays Senior Ed Bloom.
  
  
• While in the plane, Edward Bloom is reading an English translation book. It is titled "English to Asian".
  
  

• The Banjo Man is played by Billy Redden who played the boy playing the banjo in Deliverance (1972).
  
  
• When William and Edward are driving through town on the way to the river, they pass a movie theater that is playing the movie Identity (2003) (with John Cusack).
  
  
• The breakfast machine that Young Ed Bloom shows off at the science fair is the same machine used in Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985),
  
  
• Young Edward Bloom is seen wearing a tie featuring a graphic reminiscent of the spiral hill of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Tim Burton picked it out of the tie selection the costume designer offered him.
  
  
• Young Edward becomes a traveling salesman for a company that sells hands with metal tools as fingers, all held together by a plastic base. The crew were aware that people would draw connections between it and Edward Scissorhands (1990), and therefore purposely did not include scissors in the design.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [music] Danny Elfman score
  
  
• In the middle of the lettered board in the bank that Norther Winslow robs reads "ROMANS 12:1-2." This refers to the passages in the Bible that says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
  
  
• While Spectre is a fictional town, the ZIP Code shown on the deed to Jenny's house is real. 36104 is one of the ZIP Codes for Montgomery, Alabama.
  
  
• The television commercial shown while the older Ed Bloom is eating pancakes is, in fact, an actual commercial for Larry Puckett Chevrolet in Prattville, Alabama.
  
  
• When Young Edward first visits Spectre, the camera pans upwards and we see shoes hanging from a wire above the city. On the left-hand side hangs a pair of ruby slippers, a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1939).
  
  
• Even though Young Edward lands in Korea, the ventriloquist and his puppet speak in Tagalog (language of the Philippines) while the Siamese twins and Edward speak in Cantonese (a Chinese dialect). The soldiers who pull the ventriloquist off the stage speak Mandarin Chinese (language of mainland China and Taiwan) while the other soldiers speak in Korean.
  
  
• When Ed Bloom is being given the key to the city, the marching band is playing "The Victors", fight song of The University of Michigan and Bloomington High School North, Indiana.
  
  
• The scenes at Auburn were originally supposed to be shot on location on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, but the school officials asked for script approval and the production didn't have time to wait so they filmed the scenes at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama instead.
  
  
• When Edward Bloom arrives home from the Korean War in his dress uniform the patch on his shoulder shows that he was assigned to the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, known as the Rakkasans.
  
  
• The company that makes the "Handi-Matic" is Confederated Products. This is a reference to the pyramid scheme ambush at the strange dinner that Adam and Zack invited to in the movie Go (1999), which was also written by 'John August' .
  
  
• The twins played by Ada Tai and Arlene Tai previously appeared as extras in Ed Wood (1994) (they're standing by Vampira when Ed Wood first meets her at a party).
  
  
• Joseph Campbell's book, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" appears in this film. It is shown first on a sleeping Edward Bloom (before being picked up and placed on the nightstand by Josephine) and then later it's still on the nightstand during a scene between Ed and Will. Daniel Wallace is an outspoken fan of Campbell's.
  
  
• When Josephine asks for Ed Bloom's permission to take his picture she holds a cult rangefinder camera, the Leica M6.
  
  
• The town of Ashton, Alabama is actually Wetumpka, Alabama and Prattville, Alabama combined.
  
  
• The joke with the elephant defecating while Edward daydreams was unscripted. The filming crew found it hilarious, and quickly zoomed out to get the whole thing.
  
  
• The door to the vault used in the bank robbery scene is the same that was used for the vault which was used to hold the batsuit in Burton's earlier movie Batman (1989).
  
  
• When Norther Winslow shows his half finished poem to Edward, (Grass so green / Skies so blue / Spectre is really great!) the handwriting is director Tim Burton's.
  
  
• The two portraits on the walls in the bank scene are actually of the founders of Bishop-Parker Furniture Co., Montgomery, Alabama. Several props were purchased there. The buyer noticed the portraits and thought they would pass as old bankers.
  
  
• When young Edward Bloom is singing in the church and his voice breaks, that single note that we hear is actually Ewan McGregor singing.
  
  
• When Young Edward and Karl are leaving Ashton, the local Movie Theater is showing the movie From Here to Eternity (1953).
  
  

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