Romancing the Stone

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Romancing the Stone Trivia

Director Robert Zemeckis asked Danny DeVito to shoot a special promo for the movie. It was to be filmed on a Malibu beach, next to a tall cliff. For the promo, DeVito was strapped into a harness and hoisted fifty feet in the air by a huge crane. When he was in the air, DeVito discovered that there was a house on top of the cliff, with a swimming pool terrace outside. A woman in a bikini was lying on a deck chair next to the pool. She jumped up and began screaming at DeVito, yelling that he was a "peeping Tom", and that she was going to call the police. In a panic, DeVito yelled for the film crew to bring him down at once. The film crew told him that the crane had jammed, and DeVito was left hanging in the air with the screaming woman throwing things at him from the top of the cliff. A few minutes later, the woman told DeVito that he was being filmed for a segment of the TV show, "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes".
The treasure map that is integral to the movie was designed by puzzle columnist Dr. Crypton.
DIRTRADE(Robert Zemeckis):[citation]: At the beginning of the movie, when Joan Wilder has finished the book, she prepares "dinner" for her cat. This scene resembles a well-known commercial for cat-food.
Alan Silvestri was hired to do a temporary score for the film, but director Robert Zemeckis liked his work so much that he kept him on as composer.
When Jack is rummaging through his destroyed Jeep he throws out a couple of magazines including the July 1983 issue of Playboy before finding the picture of his dream yacht.
Both Sylvester Stallone and Christopher Reeve turned down the role of Jack T. Colton, before Michael Douglas accepted the part.
The Rolling Stone that Jack finds in the dead pilot's bag is the September 9, 1982 edition, featuring Elvis Costello on the cover.
The Eddy Grant song "Romancing the Stone" did not feature prominently in the film (the guitar solo can be heard in the background of the scene where Joan and Jack enter the house of her "fan," Juan) and was not included on the soundtrack album. Although he was commisioned to write the song for the movie, the filmmakers chose not to use it. When the movie was released and proved to be a big hit, Eddy released the song on his own. One of the video clips of the song, however, makes prominent use of footage from various scenes from the film.
The stunt double for Kathleen Turner who did the actual mud slide scene was Jeannie Epper who was also the stunt body double for actress Lynda Carter on the "Wonder Woman" (1975) television series.
The phrase "Romancing the Stone" is a piece of jewelers' jargon, referring to a step in preparing a gem for use in jewelrey.
The scene in which Joan Wilder offers to pay Jack T. Colton in traveler's checks and he asks if they are American Express is a reference to the American Express commercials featuring Karl Malden, who previously co-starred with Michael Douglas in The Streets of San Francisco.
According to Kathleen Turner's memoirs Michael Douglas originally offered the role of Joan to Debra Winger. They met at a Mexican restaurant to discuss it but, according to Douglas, she ended up biting him. She didn't get the part.
The white car driven by Ralph is a RENAULT 4L. Wich in Colombia back then it was the highest selling car in the country and it was known as the "faithful friend" (El amigo fiel) in the TV commercials for the car.
Studio executives were so sure this film would flop that Robert Zemeckis was pre-emptively fired from directing Cocoon. It turned out to be such a success that Zemeckis was able to go forward on his own project, Back to the Future.
Reports of kidnappings in Colombia forced the location shoots to be done in Mexico.
Manuel Ojeda was cast as Zolo based on a previous role in the film Green Ice (1981).
Director trademark: panning across part of a room with a loudly ticking clock to a ringing phone (also found in Back to the Future and Amazing Stories Book Two: Go to the Head of the Class).
The water taxi Joan Wilder rides to meet Ira is named "The Orca," which is also the name of Quint's boat in Jaws. Jaws director Steven Spielberg produced director Robert Zemeckis' previous film, Used Cars. Zemeckis also co-wrote Spielberg's 1941 which features a "Jaws" parody.
In the English version of the film, Gloria speaks of "Macy's" as the department store where Joan gets sick. The German edition of this movie says "Bloomingdale's" instead of "Macy's". Gloria says "Bloomingdale's" on the English audio of the DVD.