Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Useless Trivia & Interesting Facts
Tonight’s feature film at Starlight Outdoor Cinema is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which was released on June 11th, 1986 & was directed by John Hughes. While Hughes only directed 8 films before dying at the age of 59, he helped create the ‘teen movie’ wave of the ‘80’s that included The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles & Weird Science. He also wrote more than 50 movies including the first 3 Home Alone movies, 101 Dalmations, the Miracle on 34th St remake & National Lampoon’s Vacation. Hughes was born in Lansing, MI & spent the first 12 years living in Grosse Pointe, but located most of his films in Chicago, including Ferris Bueller’s. In fact, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club & Sixteen Candles all take place at the fictional Shermer High. Hughes used a 1 line pitch to studio heads at Paramount to set the movie up, telling them “the movie is about a kid who takes a day off of school, but that’s all I know so far.” He then went back & wrote the script in 6 days.
Hughes always professed that he wrote the part of Ferris for Matthew Broderick to play, but casting directors at one point considered John Cusack for the part & Anthony Michael Hall (from 16 Candles) believed that the part was really written for him. Jennifer Gray, who plays Ferris’ sister actually began dating Broderick during the filming & the 2 got engaged & planned to marry, before breaking up. The actors who play Ferris’ parents, however, did end up getting married in real life & had 2 kids, but didn’t name them Ferris or Jeanie. Alan Ruck, who plays best friend Cameron was 29 years old when they shot the film, while Broderick was 23. At one point John Candy auditioned for the part of Cameron, but was turned down because he was too old. He was 35. Molly Ringwald (Breakfast Club & Sixteen Candles) wanted to play Ferris’ girlfriend, but Hughes told her the part was too small. He actually wanted someone older than Broderick to play the part, but Mia Sara, the actress who ultimately got the part was 5 years younger than Broderick & the only main actor who was actually in high school when the film was shot. Charlie Sheen, who plays the police station bad boy, was recommended by Jennifer Gray after the 2 played together in Red Dawn. Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to get the strung out look of his part & was supposed to have a much longer back story to explain the character. All that remain in the final movie are a few oblique references to his family’s name, Volbeck. The family Ferris’ mom is showing around is named Volbeck & the tow truck that tows Rooney’s car is from Volbeck Wrecking Service.
The famous 1963 Ferrari 250 California Spider that is at the center of the film is actually one of the rarest cars ever made. In 2008 one of them was auctioned off for nearly $11 million dollars. At the time of filming if they had destroyed one it would have cost more than $300,000, so Hughes had 3 cheap replicas made for all the shooting. One of the replicas, which survived the shooting was sold for $235,000 in 2013. Cameron’s Red Wings jersey was a gift from Wings legend Gordy Howe, after Hughes, a huge Wings fan from his days in Detroit, indicated he wanted it to be in his film.
Fans of the film have determined that Ferris’ actual skip day was June 5th, 1985 because the Cubs game that Rooney sees on the TV was taken from a real game played between the Cubs & the Braves on that date. The game that Ferris, Cameron & Sloane actually attended was a game played on September 24th, 1985 between the Cubs & the Montreal Expos, who happened to have similar uniforms to he Braves. The parade in the film was an actual parade in Chicago that took place in September of 1985 & producers entered a float in the parade, but never told parade organizers what the float was for. What they couldn’t capture during the actual parade was shot the next day after filmmakers put out a notice on Chicago radio stations for crowds to recreate the parade. Jennifer Gray was so excited to be in the scene & not miss the fun that she can be seen in disguise with a big wig on asking for an autograph. The Beatles song “Twist & Shout” was approved for use by Paul McCartney, but after hearing the final version in the film he was disappointed because he thought there was too much brass. Broderick couldn’t do most of the planned choreography for the songs in the parade because he had injured his knee shooting the scenes running through backyards.
2 months before the film opened the actors & studios executives watched a preview of the final film & everyone believed it was going to bomb because no one laughed. Hughes & his editor (Paul Hirsch) then spent 2 weeks re-cutting the entire film into the version that was released. Although the film opened at #2 for the week, Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School was number 1, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off went on to be the #10 Box Office movie of the year. In 2014, in fact, it was added to the National Film Registry due to its “cultural, historic & aesthetic significance” & will be preserved forever along with other classic films. Here, then, is the classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Nuggets
-Ruck & Broderick previously starred on Broadway in Biloxi Blues, playing similarly aged characters.
-Ben Stein’s iconic role was supposed to be played off screen, but was expanded due to Stein’s unique presence & delivery. Hughes had Stein improvise on a subject he had a lot of knowledge, so Stein chose supply side economics. Having been a script writer for presidents Nixon & Ford he was well versed on the subject.
-Emilio Estevez turned down the role of Cameron.
-Robert Smith of The Cure wrote an instrumental piece for the museum, but Hughes never used it.
-the random shot of the construction works during the parade scene was captured by Hughes cameras & put into the final film.
-The Bueller family house is actually in Ong Beach, California & was used for 10 days of shooting, with the family living in the house the entire time. Filmmakers did have to reimburse the family $1,000 after leaving the fridge unplugged & allowing food to spoil because it was making too much noise during shooting.
Tonight’s feature film at Starlight Outdoor Cinema is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which was released on June 11th, 1986 & was directed by John Hughes. While Hughes only directed 8 films before dying at the age of 59, he helped create the ‘teen movie’ wave of the ‘80’s that included The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles & Weird Science. He also wrote more than 50 movies including the first 3 Home Alone movies, 101 Dalmations, the Miracle on 34th St remake & National Lampoon’s Vacation. Hughes was born in Lansing, MI & spent the first 12 years living in Grosse Pointe, but located most of his films in Chicago, including Ferris Bueller’s. In fact, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club & Sixteen Candles all take place at the fictional Shermer High. Hughes used a 1 line pitch to studio heads at Paramount to set the movie up, telling them “the movie is about a kid who takes a day off of school, but that’s all I know so far.” He then went back & wrote the script in 6 days.
Hughes always professed that he wrote the part of Ferris for Matthew Broderick to play, but casting directors at one point considered John Cusack for the part & Anthony Michael Hall (from 16 Candles) believed that the part was really written for him. Jennifer Gray, who plays Ferris’ sister actually began dating Broderick during the filming & the 2 got engaged & planned to marry, before breaking up. The actors who play Ferris’ parents, however, did end up getting married in real life & had 2 kids, but didn’t name them Ferris or Jeanie. Alan Ruck, who plays best friend Cameron was 29 years old when they shot the film, while Broderick was 23. At one point John Candy auditioned for the part of Cameron, but was turned down because he was too old. He was 35. Molly Ringwald (Breakfast Club & Sixteen Candles) wanted to play Ferris’ girlfriend, but Hughes told her the part was too small. He actually wanted someone older than Broderick to play the part, but Mia Sara, the actress who ultimately got the part was 5 years younger than Broderick & the only main actor who was actually in high school when the film was shot. Charlie Sheen, who plays the police station bad boy, was recommended by Jennifer Gray after the 2 played together in Red Dawn. Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to get the strung out look of his part & was supposed to have a much longer back story to explain the character. All that remain in the final movie are a few oblique references to his family’s name, Volbeck. The family Ferris’ mom is showing around is named Volbeck & the tow truck that tows Rooney’s car is from Volbeck Wrecking Service.
The famous 1963 Ferrari 250 California Spider that is at the center of the film is actually one of the rarest cars ever made. In 2008 one of them was auctioned off for nearly $11 million dollars. At the time of filming if they had destroyed one it would have cost more than $300,000, so Hughes had 3 cheap replicas made for all the shooting. One of the replicas, which survived the shooting was sold for $235,000 in 2013. Cameron’s Red Wings jersey was a gift from Wings legend Gordy Howe, after Hughes, a huge Wings fan from his days in Detroit, indicated he wanted it to be in his film.
Fans of the film have determined that Ferris’ actual skip day was June 5th, 1985 because the Cubs game that Rooney sees on the TV was taken from a real game played between the Cubs & the Braves on that date. The game that Ferris, Cameron & Sloane actually attended was a game played on September 24th, 1985 between the Cubs & the Montreal Expos, who happened to have similar uniforms to he Braves. The parade in the film was an actual parade in Chicago that took place in September of 1985 & producers entered a float in the parade, but never told parade organizers what the float was for. What they couldn’t capture during the actual parade was shot the next day after filmmakers put out a notice on Chicago radio stations for crowds to recreate the parade. Jennifer Gray was so excited to be in the scene & not miss the fun that she can be seen in disguise with a big wig on asking for an autograph. The Beatles song “Twist & Shout” was approved for use by Paul McCartney, but after hearing the final version in the film he was disappointed because he thought there was too much brass. Broderick couldn’t do most of the planned choreography for the songs in the parade because he had injured his knee shooting the scenes running through backyards.
2 months before the film opened the actors & studios executives watched a preview of the final film & everyone believed it was going to bomb because no one laughed. Hughes & his editor (Paul Hirsch) then spent 2 weeks re-cutting the entire film into the version that was released. Although the film opened at #2 for the week, Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School was number 1, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off went on to be the #10 Box Office movie of the year. In 2014, in fact, it was added to the National Film Registry due to its “cultural, historic & aesthetic significance” & will be preserved forever along with other classic films. Here, then, is the classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Nuggets
-Ruck & Broderick previously starred on Broadway in Biloxi Blues, playing similarly aged characters.
-Ben Stein’s iconic role was supposed to be played off screen, but was expanded due to Stein’s unique presence & delivery. Hughes had Stein improvise on a subject he had a lot of knowledge, so Stein chose supply side economics. Having been a script writer for presidents Nixon & Ford he was well versed on the subject.
-Emilio Estevez turned down the role of Cameron.
-Robert Smith of The Cure wrote an instrumental piece for the museum, but Hughes never used it.
-the random shot of the construction works during the parade scene was captured by Hughes cameras & put into the final film.
-The Bueller family house is actually in Ong Beach, California & was used for 10 days of shooting, with the family living in the house the entire time. Filmmakers did have to reimburse the family $1,000 after leaving the fridge unplugged & allowing food to spoil because it was making too much noise during shooting.
