Kingdom of Heaven

• Add to Netflix Queue
• Buy DVD from Amazon
• Rent from Blockbuster

• William Monahan (II) was brought to the attention of Ridley Scott by Scott's associate, Lisa Ellzey during filming of Scott's previous film Matchstick Men with a script titled Tripoli, intended to be a Russell Crowe vehicle. Ridley Scott would work on Tripoli in the evening after shooting Matchstick Men during the day. He and his team would then have story meetings all weekend. Indeed, Tripoli had effectively gone into preproduction. All the department heads had been appointed, Branko Lustig was working on a production schedule and budget, the major roles were being cast, design and artwork was bring done, models were being built, locations had been chosen. Indeed, some of the set was actually being built. The film was even greenlit twice, but on both occasions, things fell apart. It was around the time of the second collapse that William Monahan (II) delivered his Kingdom of Heaven script. Scott had always wanted to make a Crusades movie, and much of the ideas and metaphors from Tripoli were incorporated into Kingdom.
• King Mohamed VI of Morocco, is a friend of director Ridley Scott and he personally provided the production with a detachment of 1500 military personnel and equipment; oftentimes these personnel depicted both Christian and Muslim armies in the film, with simply a change of costume and a shift in location between scenes.
• When Sibylla shows Balian the rings she wears and explains where she got each of them, she points to one particular ring and says that this one came from France and that she's never been there. In reality, Eva Green was born and raised in Paris.
• The set used for the Kerak courtyard was actually shot on the northern wing of the Jerusalem set. By shooting at the opposite side, the production managed to save about $5 million.