Trivia for
Changeling (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, also known as the Wineville Chicken Murders.
  
  
• Twice in the film, Angelina Jolie's character "Christine" says: "Never start a fight, but always finish it". This is the same quote that Captain John Sheridan says his father always told him in the 90's sci-fi series "Babylon 5" (1994) which writer J. Michael Straczynski also wrote. Likewise, Attorney Hahn's description of how his daughter's absence continues to affect him daily is nearly identical to the way Sheridan describes grappling with his wife's death.
  
  
• Shipped to some theaters under the name "Nomad". (In the Star Trek original series episode "Star Trek: The Changeling (#2.3)" (1967), from 1967, the name of the space probe was Nomad.)
  
  
• There is a roadside café named "Bummy's" which appears early on in the film. This is possibly in memory of Clint Eastwood's long time collaboration with Production Designer Henry Bumstead, who passed away in 2006. His nickname was "Bummy".
  
  
• Both Hilary Swank and Reese Witherspoon lobbied for the role of Christine Collins. Clint Eastwood cast Angelina Jolie at the suggestion of Executive Producer Ron Howard, who noted that Jolie's "look" would fit best with the time period.
  
  
• Ron Howard planned to direct the film himself, until scheduling conflicts dictated otherwise. He then decided to serve as Executive Producer.
  
  
• J. Michael Straczynski first learned of the story of Christine Collins from an unnamed source at Los Angeles City Hall. The source had stumbled across case files regarding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders among other discarded documents scheduled for destruction. Straczynski took the files himself and became obsessed with the case, doing extensive research over the course of a year. Virtually every event depicted in the film appears as cited in legal documents, with dialog often taken verbatim from court transcripts. Straczynski wrote his first draft of the screenplay in only eleven days.
  
  
• Clint Eastwood agreed to direct the same afternoon he read the script.
  
  
• The New York premiere of the movie was Angelina Jolie's first public appearance after she gave birth to her twins Vivienne and Knox.
  
  
• Some scenes were filmed at a train station in San Bernardino, CA during the 2007 California brush fires. The whole set was thick with fire smoke.
  
  
• Cameo: [Dominick Dunne] The true crime writer is seen briefly in a non-speaking part of a jurist in the trial scenes.
  
  
• French visa # 121 685.
  
  
• This marks the first time since The Eiger Sanction (1975) that _Clint Eastwood_ has directed a film for Universal Pictures. It is also the first time Eastwood has worked outside in any capacity outside of Warner Brothers Pictures (with the exception of television) since In the Line of Fire (1993).
  
  
• The first cut ran 50 minutes longer. It includes two major scenes shot but removed. The first subplot is a long roof chase where Northcott (Jason Butler Harner) eludes capture from the Mounties. Another major deleted sequence is where after Christine returns from the mental institution, Briegleb (John Malkovich) brings men to protect her as he believes that she was in danger from the LAPD.
  
  

• SPOILER: At the film's end we are told that the Chief of Police, James E. Davis, was demoted following the Collins debacle. However, the film fails to mention that far from being his comeuppance, this was merely a temporary setback in Davis' career. Two years after his demotion he was reappointed Chief of the LAPD, continuing to serve in this capacity until 1939.
  
  
• SPOILER: The hanging scene at the end appeared to be filmed in part of the old Alcatraz prison. The man running the execution is Jim Quillen, former inmate at Alcatraz and now author of books about his stay at the famous prison. He is uncredited in the film.
  
  

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