Trivia for
Inkheart (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Brendan Fraser was Cornelia Funke's personal choice for the role of Silvertongue, as he was her inspiration for the character. She even dedicated the second novel of the trilogy to him and sent him a signed copy. The producers originally wanted a bigger Hollywood star but on the insistence of Funke they gave in and accepted him in the role.
  
  
• Paul Bettany's wife, Jennifer Connelly, appears as Dustfinger's wife.
  
  
• The exterior scenes were shot in Italy, where the story takes place, while most of the interiors were shot in England.
  
  
• The film's release was delayed several times. Indeed, it was originally to come out for Christmas 2007, which was pushed back to March 19th 2008 before finally premiering in Germany on December 11th 2008, and a day later in the UK.
  
  
• The Italian Riviera Film Commission helped to find an abandoned and suitably spooky town to serve as Capricorn's lair.
  
  
• Though the original novel was written in German, author Cornelia Funke didn't want a German adaptation of it, or of any of her works for that matter, as she herself states that she is "not a fan of the German way of acting".
  
  
• When writing the novel, Cornelia Funke envisioned the character of Dustfinger as somewhere between Viggo Mortensen and Daniel Day-Lewis
  
  
• Cornelia Funke's main issue with selling the rights to her novel was how much influence she would have over the film's casting, which she eventually solved by acting as producer.
  
  
• Cornelia Funke and her family moved from Hamburg, Germany to Los Angeles, USA in May 2005 after Funke decided to be one of the movie's producers
  
  
• Before executive producer Mark Ordesky secured the rights of the Inkworld trilogy for New Line, Cornelia Funke was hesitating between him, David Heyman (producer of the Harry Potter movies and I Am Legend (2007)), Lorenzo di Bonaventura (producer of Transformers (2007) and Stardust (2007)) and Deborah Forte (producer of The Golden Compass (2007) and Tuck Everlasting (2002)), with Ordesky and Heyman being the main contenders. As a result of her constant hesitation and indecision, Ordesky gave Funke the nickname Cornelia Flakey.
  
  
• Cornelia Funke visited the film's British set several times, to the great joy of director/producer Iain Softley, who was proud of seeing Funke's pleasure at seeing her words come to life.
  
  
• Director/producer Iain Softley said he wanted to do the film because it was a story that opened a door between the real world and our imagination.
  
  
• In an early scene at Aunt Elinor's, a toolkit is seen next to Brendan Fraser. It is the same toolkit Rick (Fraser) gives to Evie (Rachel Weisz) in The Mummy (1999).
  
  

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