Trivia for
Get Shorty (1995)

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• Miguel Sandoval plays a Colombian drug lord named "Escobar." In Clear and Present Danger (1994) he played a Colombian drug lord named "Escobedo."
  
  
• Cameo: [Harvey Keitel] Plays Ray Barboni (Dennis Farina's character) in the movie-within-a-movie.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Barry Sonnenfeld] A hotel doorman (top hat, red tunic, etc.) greeting David Paymer as he exits a limo.
  
  

• Ernest 'Chili' Palmer, a friend of Elmore Leonard's whom the character "Chili Palmer" was named after, has a small role in the movie as one of Ray Barboni's friends.
  
  
• John Travolta says to Rene Russo "you can't turn him [Martin Weir] into Mel Gibson. Rene Russo worked with Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), and after this film in Ransom (1996) and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).
  
  
• Studio Executives' first choice to direct the picture was Quentin Tarantino. Two years later, Tarantino would direct another film based on an Elmore Leonard book, Jackie Brown (1997).
  
  
• Michael Keaton, 'Bruce Willis (I)', Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman all turned down the role of Chili Palmer. While Danny DeVito was Barry Sonnenfeld's first choice for the role of Chilli Palmer because of his natural charisma, he could not fit it into his schedule so he ended up playing the smaller role of Martin Weir instead.
  
  
• John Travolta initially declined an offer to be in this movie, but was convinced by Quentin Tarantino to do it.
  
  
• Cameo: ['Penny Marshall'] Plays the director of the movie-within-a-movie.
  
  
• Jimmy Cap (Alex Rocco) appears in the movie lying on a massage table, in exactly the same pose as Moe Green (Rocco again) is in when he is shot in The Godfather (1972)
  
  
• According to Elmore Leonard, movie star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), is based on Leonard's own dealings with Dustin Hoffman.
  
  
• When shown as an in-flight movie on some airlines, the dialogue was altered to describe a train wreck, even though the crash investigation was clearly happening in an airport hangar.
  
  
• This was veteran character actor Vito Scotti's last film.
  
  
• In the book, Harry Zimm tells Chili Palmer that he wanted to cast Gene Hackman as the lead in his new film. Hackman, of course, portrays Harry Zimm in the film.
  
  

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