Trivia for
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Heath Ledger were contenders to play Satine and Christian.
The movie was shot largely at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, with no location filming at all.
Both Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor wore harnesses for the scenes on the elephant as they were standing 60ft off the ground.
Both Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor wore harnesses for the sceneson the elephant as they were standing 60ft off the ground.
Various tricks were used to make John Leguizamo's (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) legs appear shorter. Some shots are of his stand-in who was of the correct height, while in others he walked on his knees in special leg braces and wearing blue socks so that his lower legs could be digitally removed.
Filming was halted for two weeks in November 1999 after Nicole Kidman fractured two ribs and injured her knee while rehearsing a dance routine for the film. Many of the scenes where she is seen only from the chest up were shot while she was in a wheelchair.
The necklace worn by Nicole Kidman was made of real diamonds and platinum and was the most expensive piece of jewelry ever specifically made for a film. The Stefano Canturi necklace was made with 1,308 diamonds, weighing a total of 134 carats, and was worth an estimated US$1 million.
The Paris landscape was digitally produced and the two longest visual effects shots to date appear in this film.
The wardrobe department created three hundred costumes and, at one point, eighty people were employed for this task.
The stage for "Spectacular Spectacular" was especially reinforced to hold the weight of a galloping horse for a scene where the evil Maharaja rides across the stage. The scene was abandoned but the white horse still appears fleetingly in one shot.
This is the third part of Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain" trilogy which includes Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Romeo + Juliet (1996).
Tim Wheeler, of the rock band Ash, auditioned for the lead role of Christian which led him to write the track "Orpheus".
"Come What May" was written by 'David Baerwald' for Romeo + Juliet (1996) but not used. In Moulin Rouge, it is newly written for the stage show by Christian. However, it is the only completely original song in the entire film.
The plot of the movie essentially derives from three operas/operettas. The plot line of a young writer with Bohemian friends who falls in love with a sick girl that eventually dies is from "La Bohème". (Baz Luhrmann directed a stage production of Bohème in Sydney as well as a Broadway production in New York.) The plot line of a courtesan who learns that love can also be true and idealistic comes from "La Traviata". Finally, the plot line of the writer who travels to the 'under world' of the Moulin Rouge to find his love and tries to take her back to the 'upper world' comes from "Orpheus in the Underworld" which is an adaption of the ancient Greek 'Orpheus and Eurydice' myth. "La Traviata" is based on Alexandre Dumas' "Camille", while "La Boheme" is an adaptation of Murger's "La Vie de la Boheme".
The large red "L'amour" sign seen on Christian's building was part of the set of Baz Luhrmann's production of 'La Bohème' for the Australian Opera. It also appeared in Romeo + Juliet (1996).
Richard Roxburgh plays The Duke, who finances a play by the bohemians, the self-labeled "Children of the Revolution", which is also the title of a song on the soundtrack. Roxburgh also starred in the film Children of the Revolution (1996).
The film is dedicated to Baz Luhrmann's father, Leonard, who died just as filming was about to begin.
This movie was launched in Australia to an audience of just 250 people in a small country town called Taree (200 miles north of Sydney). Baz Luhrmann grew up just outside of Taree where his family owned a service (gas) station. The 250 tickets were sold at a local pharmacy.
The "placeholder" name of the Duke (Richard Roxburgh) during the writing of the script was Count Von Groovy.
A scene establishing the "Gothic Tower" as a bordello was cut. It involved dancers in S&M gear performing Grace Jones's "Slave to the Rhythm".
According to an interview with Craig Pearce on the DVD extras, an early draft of the script had the Count seducing both Satine and Christian and then hooking them on morphine.
Cameo: [Tara Morice] the female lead in 'Baz Luhrman' 's Strictly Ballroom (1992) briefly appears as a prostitute in the opening sequence.
During the Can-Can dance scene you can see that three of the female dancers have specific theme costumes. One appears to be Little Bo-Peep, one is dressed as a French Revolutionary, and one is dressed as Madeline from the Bemelmans book of the same name.
Renée Zellweger was next in line after Nicole Kidman to play Satine. Sharleen Spiteri was also a finalist.
So that the dancers didn't slip on the wooden floor during the "Like a Virgin" sequence, the floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola.
Nicole Kidman actually wears a wig throughout the movie.
Originally, the green fairy was going to be a long-haired muscle man with a giant sitar, and Ozzy Osbourne was hired to provide the vocals. Eventually it was changed to the current "Tinker Bell" incarnation, played by Kylie Minogue, but Osbourne still gives voice to the fairy's guttural scream when it turns evil.
Cat Stevens would not license his song "Father and Son", which was the first musical number in the original script, because of his current religious beliefs. He objected to the sexual content in the film. The scene featuring "Father and Son" was to have been between Christian and his father in his father's office, with all his father's employees joining in for the chorus. This was to be the segue into his leaving home for Paris. The scene is included in the complete script on the Special Edition DVD.
The blood that Satine (Nicole Kidman) coughs up is really a mixture of red food coloring, corn syrup, and water.
Kylie Minogue recorded other songs for use, including "Physical" (originally recorded by Olivia Newton-John).
The song "My Way" (made popular by Frank Sinatra) was considered to be performed by The Duke for the film, but this never developed. However, The Duke still repeatedly yells, "My way!" during the finale.
100 to 150 people at any one time assisted in the construction of the set to the Moulin Rouge.
The real Moulin Rouge really did have an enormous elephant constructed in its garden which housed an Arabic nightclub and an opium den. It was bought from a theme park.
The production was overrunning in its shooting schedule and had to be out of the Fox Studios in Sydney to make way for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). This necessitated some pick-up shots being filmed in Madrid.
Real Moulin Rouge dancers of the time wore split knickers under their dresses, a technical point that the film-makers chose not to follow in order to obtain a PG-13 rating.
The real Harold Zidler was obsessed with electric light, hence one of the reasons he was seeking financial backing, to help fund this addiction.
In the scene where all the gentlemen throw their hats up in the air, all the hats were suspended on fishing wire.
John Leguizamo did the entire climactic scene from a squatting position to give him greater mobility in his role. Consequently he had to endure several weeks of physical therapy afterwards.
In the "Like a Virgin" number, Jim Broadbent's voice is dubbed by an opera singer, mimicking Broadbent's own vocal performance. This segment took a week to film.
Jim Broadbent took two-and-a-half hours every day to be fitted into his fat suit.
Stereophonics' lead singer, Kelly Jones says he was approached about playing a part in the movie but turned it down.
Jake Gyllenhaal auditioned several times for the part of Christian, but was ultimately deemed too young to play opposite Nicole Kidman.
Singer Ronan Keating auditioned for the role of Christian.
Nicole Kidman was in a wheelchair with a cast on her leg from a smashed knee when Satine says, "A real actress!"
The word "love" and its variations (loved, loves, loving, lover and lovers) appears in this film 143 times.
Courtney Love was seriously considered for Nicole Kidman's role as Satine but was the director thought she didn't fit well with the movie. Nevertheless, she allowed Luhrman to use Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in the opening sequence, even when she rarely lets anyone use her late husband's (Kurt Cobain) work in film or TV.
John Leguizamo was originally considered for the role of The Argentinean.
Chosen as the opening film at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
The owner of the Moulin Rouge was actually Charles Zidler; his name was changed to "Harold" so it could replace "Harry Winston" in Satine's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
The song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" mentions four jewelers
Tiffany, Cartier, Black Starr & Frost - Gorham, and Harry Winston. Winston was not in business when the movie was set, and Black Starr & Frost had not yet merged with Gorham. Both names were removed from Satine's performance of the song.
Some of John Leguizamo's speech in the scene after Satine rejects Christian is taken from Lautrec's own correspondence.
Several images used in the nightclub scenes (i.e. clowns, men in tuxedos with tutus) are taken from Toulouse-Lautric's paintings of the Moulin Rouge and other seedy locations.
In original drafts of the script Satine had a three-year-old child and the story was told in flashbacks told by Christian to the child.
