Trivia for
The Jackal (1997) More at IMDbPro »

• At age 91, just months before his death, Fred Zinnemann, director of the original The Day of the Jackal (1973), on which this film is based, fought with Universal to change the title of the film. He said the original had stood the test of time and did not want the remake to have the same title.
  
  
• The "Hotel Porvoo" is the old town hall (it's nowadays a museum) in Porvoo. The "Porvoo Post Office" is a furniture restoring service.
  
  
• Edward Fox is rumored to have rejected a cameo role (possibly the Leslie Phillips role, Woolburton).
  
  
• Sean Connery, Liam Neeson and Matthew McConaughey all turned down roles.
  
  
• Before Bruce Willis was cast, Richard Gere was offered the role of The Jackal. He turned it down and instead asked if he could play the hero.
  
  
• Bruce Willis asked for the scene where the Jackal kills a gay man to be re-shot so it was more obvious that he was being killed due to the fact that he knew too much (having seen The Jackal on a news report) rather than because he was gay.
  
  
• After the filming of this movie, Bruce Willis and Richard Gere reportedly vowed to never work with each other again.
  
  
• Average Shot Length = ~5.1 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~5.2 seconds.
  
  
• "Endtrack" by Massive Attack, the song that plays over the end credits, is actually an alternate remix of their song "Dissolved Girl".
  
  
• Frederick Forsyth, who wrote the novel "The Day of the Jackal", insisted his name be taken off the credits of this film, which is why it is billed as "based on the screenplay".
  
  
• Both Richard Gere and Diane Venora worked with language coaches to develop their accents.
  
  
• Because Richard Gere and Bruce Willis filmed many of their scenes separately, they would often ask each other "How's your movie going?" when they'd see meet.
  
  
• This is the final theatrical film to star Sidney Poitier.
  
  

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