DIRECTED BY: Brian Helgeland

WRITTEN BY: Donald E. Westlake (novel), Brian Helgeland (screenplay)

MEL GIBSON AS: Porter

GENRE: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, Comedy

TAGLINES:

- No more Mr. Nice Guy.

- Get ready to root for the bad guy.

- Get ready to cheer for the bad guy.

PLOT SUMMARY:

What was supposed to be a routine robbery turns into a double cross when Porter’s wife (Maria Bello) and his best friend (Gregg Henry) shoot him and leave him for dead. But things take a turn for the bizarre when Porter (Mel Gibson) recuperates seeking revenge for the money he was swiped out of. Only to learn that the money is now in the hands of a crime organization. He’s determined to get the money back and his many encounters include his less than likable ex-partner, a sniveling crook, two corrupt cops, a brutal dominatrix, and one very lethal crime boss. –IMDB

RELEASE DATES:

1999 February 5 (United States)
1999 February 17 (Belgium)
1999 February 26 (Italy, New Zealand)
1999 March 4 (Australia, Netherlands)
1999 March 5 (Norway, Portugal, Spain)
1999 March 9 (Philippines)
1999 March 11 (Germany, Hong Kong, Israel)
1999 March 12 (Switzerland, Thailand)
1999 March 18 (Austria, Singapore)
1999 March 19 (Sweden, Turkey)
1999 March 24 (Kuwait)
1999 March 25 (Argentina)
1999 March 26 (Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Iceland, United Kingdom)
1999 March 27 (South Korea)
1999 March 31 (France)
1999 April 3 (Indonesia)
1999 April 16 (Denmark, Estonia)
1999 April 22 (Hungary)
1999 May 6 (Slovakia)
1999 May 15 (Japan)
1999 May 27 (Czech Republic)
1999 July 16 (Poland)

BOX OFFICE GROSS:

United States: $81,526,121
International: $80,100,000

FILMING LOCATIONS:

Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, USA.

TRIVIA:

- Thirty percent of the film was re-shot when Brian Helgeland was replaced as director.

- For release in Australia, the U.S. tagline “Get ready to root for the bad guy” was changed to “Get ready to CHEER for the bad guy” because, as Mel Gibson himself pointed out, in Australia “to root” is slang for “to have sexual intercourse”.

- Almost all of the telephones in the movie (even the one in the limousine) are rotary, not touch-tone.

- One major addition to the movie after Brian Helgeland left included ‘Kris Kristofferson’ ’s character of the main villain. The re-shoots resulted in a delay of almost one year, because Mel Gibson was committed to Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) right after principal photography ended.

- While the identity of the person assigned to direct the re-shoots of the film following the departure of Brian Helgeland was originally unknown, Mel Gibson revealed in a Hong Kong newspaper interview that that person was production designer John Myhre.

- Porter uses a Smith & Wesson Model 27 357 Magnum with a four-inch barrel and custom wood grips.

- Porter’s first name is never revealed; even his wife and then subsequent girlfriend call him Porter. When asked about Porter’s first name in the movie, Resnick pauses and then replies, “I don’t know. He never called himself anything but Porter.”

- Sally Kellerman is the original voice of Bronson in Brian Helgeland’s Director’s cut of the picture and is never seen. For the theatrical cut, Bronson is played by Kris Kristofferson for all the re-shot scenes.

- The restoration of the Director’s Cut took place in 2005. Most of the original elements of the film were not preserved, so Editor Kevin Stitt and Director Brian Helgeland had to make do with what was preserved from the original film stock and had to reassemble the film that way without the use of Avid film editing. At the same time, the blue tint in which the theatrical version looked visually was removed for more vivid color tones and contrast, but still preserving some of the grittiness of the theatrical cut.

- Music editor Scott Stambler was involved in the theatrical cut, and was brought in to try and reedit Chris Boardman’s music from that version of the film into the Director’s cut. When it was decided by director Brian Helgeland that music simply didn’t match the tone of his film, he asked Stambler to write a new original score for his film which was recorded in late Feburary 2006

- Director Brian Helgeland was fired from the film two days after he’d won his Academy Award for L.A.Confidential.

- Deborah Kara Unger broke two ribs in the scene where Mel Gibson beats the hell out of her which is now restored in the Director’s Cut. She was stated that she was having fun flying around and getting slammed into things and did one too many.

- Brian Helgeland cast Maria Bello after an endless search led him to a stack of videotape auditions for the defunct 1990’s update of “Superman”. After offering the role to her, Bello turned it down saying that “the role wasn’t for her” He wanted her to be in the movie so badly that he literally hounded her for two weeks before she finally agreed to do the film.

- The bar where Val meets Stegman is called Varrick’s. This is a reference to Walter Matthau’s crime thriller Charley Varrick (1973), which was an influence on Payback.

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