Trivia for
Reds (1981) More at IMDbPro »

• The first film to use the ENR variable silver retention development process developed by Ernesto Novelli Rimi at Technicolor Rome. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro would go on to play with shades of color shooting Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) and Dick Tracy (1990).
  
  
• Warren Beatty began filming interviews with the "witnesses" in the early 1970s.
  
  
• The scene where Gene Hackman tells Jack Reed that Louise Bryant no longer works for him, took exactly 100 takes to shoot. Hackman vowed that he would not shoot a 101st take and he did not.
  
  
• To date, this is the last movie to receive Oscar nominations in each of the four acting categories. No film in the ceremonies since 1982 has achieved this feat.
  
  
• In the mid-1980s, ABC wanted to telecast an edited version of the film. Star and producer Warren Beatty refused to allow an edited version to be shown, so that version was never aired.
  
  
• The poem that Jack Nicholson gives Diane Keaton was a real poem that he had actually written for her.
  
  
• Warren Beatty had always envisioned long-time love, Julie Christie in the role of Louise Bryant. She had escorted him on all of his trips to Russia while writing the film. He planned it to be "their film" and Christie always agreed. When Beatty was finally ready to film, Christie backed out, claiming the role should be played by an American.
  
  
• Over 130 hours of footage were shot, about 40 times more than the final cut of the film. It takes 2 days for everyday shooting dailies (shot in Europe except for London scenes) to reach editors Dede Allen and Craig McKay. This was accomplished by having a courier on standby round the clock. The courier would take the dailies to the Technicolor Lab in Rome for the special processing and would reach Los Angeles (where post-production is done) at the end of next day.
  
  
• At one point, Vittorio Storaro nearly quit the project when both him and Beatty clashed over the use of camera. Storaro wanted a dynamic fluid movement while Beatty wanted static shots. Finally, a compromise was made between the two men: the film would open with static shots and as it progresses, more camera moves are added. This style is similarly applied to another film, Network.
  
  
• The role of Eugene O'Neill was always intended for Jack Nicholson. According to Warren Beatty, he believed that Nicholson was the only person who "could take her girl" (Diane Keaton) away from him.
  
  
• Warren Beatty lost 30 pounds and suffered laryngitis after completion of the movie. This partially explains why he did not make any press interviews for the film. At that time, he was recovering at his friend Jerzy Kozinski's house - which he was sharing.
  
  
• [June 2008] Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Epic".
  
  
• This is the film that was showing on British National TV the night Princess Diana was killed in Paris. As the final credits rolled, an announcement was broadcast that she had been seriously injured in a car crash.
  
  
• While filming on location in Finland, Warren Beatty encountered several problems with the local authorities. It turned out that Finnish authorities had been asked by the Soviet Union to make shooting this film as difficult as possible, which, in order to keep good relations with their much larger neighbor, they agreed to do.
  
  
• The last Academy Award Best Picture nominee to date to receive nominations in all four of the acting categories.
  
  

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