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The
Italian job was actually the first movie Troy
kennedy Martin wrote, whose brother, Ian, later on, created The
Sweeney! |
The
building where Croker briefs his men is actually shot in a building in
Vauxhall, London, which is actually where Lord Archer used to live, in the
penthouse suite. |
Michael
Caine did not have a drivers licence at the time of making the film.
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The Turin
traffic jam in the square - sorry, 'Piazza' - was done for real! They
blocked the exits with a canteen van and a camera vehicle and filmed from
the tallest building possible so they could not be seen. The Italian
Police turned a blind eye to what was going on as Turin was practically
run by Gianni Agnelli - owner of the car maker Fiat amongst other things
- who gave the crew the run of the place as he was 'a friend of a friend'
of one of the chief executives. |
The French
stunt team, L'Equipe Remy Julienne, arranged the stunts for the film (he
has also done many of the Bond films to this day) with the Minis needing
very little preparation apart from Mini-lite alloy wheels and extended
sump guards for jumps and sliding down stairs. |
The
British Motor Corporation charged trade price for most of the Minis bought
for the film, yet if they had used Fiats, Agnelli would have supplied as
many as they wanted for free but thankfully the director Peter Collinson
insisted that they used Minis (it wouldn't have been the same would it?).
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An
Italian Job remake (by F. Gary Gray - director of "The
Negotiator") is to be released in May 2003, see the News
section. It will be a "high-octane"
action movie, with a much harder edge than the original and be set in
Italy and Los Angeles (of all places!!?) and starring Mark Wahlberg as
Croker and of course the new Mini. Typical, they take an
absolute classic and remove all the things that made it so good in the
first place. Which means it'll probably be a stinker like Get Carter 2000,
it just isn't right. We can only hope...
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The
Aston Martin that was pushed off the cliff by The
Mafia was actually an Alfa Romeo with a look-alike body shell (by an
Italian coachbuilder) as the
director did not get a good camera shot first time round. (The car you see
getting its roof smashed is an Aston).
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Michael
Caine can be heard singing on "Getta
Bloomin' Move On" which he had a part in creating when he talked
to Quincy Jones over lunch one day.
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One
of the minis apparently did a 360 degree turn in the tunnel section
(actually then under construction Birmingham / Coventry / Tithebarn sewer)
but they didn't get it on camera - and apparently wrote off a mini trying
several times to repeat it.
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The
minis and other equipment were transported to location using the coach
in the film
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