Trivia for
Zodiac (2007/I)

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• Screenwriter Shane Salerno optioned the Robert Graysmith book "Zodiac" when he was just nineteen years old and developed it with Graysmith for several years before selling it to Disney's Touchstone Pictures in a seven figure deal. Salerno wrote several drafts of the screenplay before multiple administration changes at Touchstone derailed the project about the mysterious San Francisco serial killer, Zodiac.
  
  
• Being edited using Final Cut Pro.
  
  
• The role of Linda Ferrin was initially played by Bijou Phillips. Her scenes needed to be re-shot but Phillips was not available due scheduling conflicts, so the role went to Clea DuVall.
  
  

• Ione Skye appears in this movie in an uncredited cameo. "Hurdy Gurdy Man", by her father, Donovan, is used prominently in the soundtrack.
  
  
• The cipher mailed to the Chronicle in the movie was actually mailed to the Examiner.
  
  
• Philip Baker Hall had also previously starred in The Zodiac (2005), another film adaptation of the Zodiac Killer. He played Frank Perkins.
  
  
• Scenes of Dave Toschi and Robert Graysmith watching Dirty Harry (1971) were filmed inside the Mann National Theatre in Westwood, CA. The garish color schemes of the movie theater were not added by the art department. The very retro interiors of the theater have remained unchanged since 1969, when the National was first built. Interestingly, "Zodiac" played at the Mann National Theatre in mid March of 2007. Thus, moviegoers watched other moviegoers occupy their seats - on the National's trademark large screen.
  
  
• Director David Fincher's attention to detail is so great that, if one listens closely, there is a reference to the then-forthcoming The Rolling Stones free concert at the Altamont Speedway on the radio as Robert Graysmith drives his son to school. Coincidently, it was Melvin Belli's recommendation to The Rolling Stones to hold this particular concert.
  
  
• Was sent to theaters under the name "Gemini".
  
  
• The cab scene on Washington and Cherry Streets in San Francisco could not be entirely shot in San Francisco due to filming restrictions and the opposition of the neighborhood residents. So, a set of the intersection, including the street, apartments and crime scene was constructed at Downey Studios just outside of Los Angeles, California. Backdrops of San Francisco were digitally inserted to complete the scene. Only a few seconds of actual footage shot in the original crime scene location remains in the scene.
  
  
• The Warner Bros. and Paramount logos used at the start of the film are almost identical to the ones used by the respective studios in 1969, with the most notable change being on the Paramount logo, where "A Gulf+Western company" now reads "A Viacom company", to better reflect Paramount's current status.
  
  
• Robert Graysmith and Paul Avery were not actually friends. Their relationship is fictionalized for the film.
  
  
• Dave Toschi in real life was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's performance in Bullitt (1968). In the film, they remark how his specialized holster is like McQueen's in Bullit.
  
  
• Variety reported on 6 July 2005 that Gary Oldman had signed to portray attorney Melvin Belli in "Zodiac." On 14 February 2006, Gary Oldman's management company, The Douglas Management Group, issued a statement that a story in the Hollywood Reporter indicating that Mr. Oldman was filming "Zodiac" was not true, that "Mr. Oldman is not in the film 'Zodiac' and never was." However, in an interview on 2 March 2007 with Cinematical, "Zodiac" author Robert Graysmith stated, "Now we had Gary Oldman at one point, to play Melvin Belli. He went to a lot of trouble, they had appliances, but just physically it wasn't going to work, he just didn't have the girth."
  
  
• 110-day shoot.
  
  
• Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2007 (#05, tied with "La France")
  
  
• When George Bawart is showing Michael Mageau pictures to see if he could identify the Zodiac, the picture to the right of Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), is Bob Stephenson, the actor who played the Zodiac when he shot Paul Stine.
  
  
• Zodiac's confirmed [as of yet] first murder on Lake Herman Rd. was excluded from the film on the basis that there was no surviving victim to corroborate details. In the spirit of accuracy, the crew decided to not include the Lake Herman killings and to instead begin with the July 4th crime, considered to be his second action of murder.
  
  
• This film plays homage to Dirty Harry (1971), whose foe Scorpio was obviously based on the Zodiac murderer. Another fictional policeman also encountered a foe called Scorpio around this time-in the Robert Graysmith book, they note that around the time of the Zodiac murders, the police investigated a possible connection to Dick Tracy strip, as Dick Tracy faced a Zodiac themed gang directed by a mastermind called Scorpio.
  
  

• SPOILER: When Robert comes face-to-face with Arthur Leigh Allen in the hardware store, the music playing is 'Baker Street' by Gerry Rafferty. As this is Robert's "Sherlock Holmes" moment, this can hardly be coincidental.
  
  

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