Trivia for
The Blue Bird (1976)

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• No bluebirds could be readily found, so several thousand pigeons were hand-dyed blue for the climactic scenes.
  
  
• Both Katharine Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine dropped out of the production before shooting began.
  
  
• James Coco, originally cast as Dog, couldn't eat Russian food; the only local fare he could stomach was bread and butter. He wound up gaining so much weight his costume no longer fit, he suffered a gall bladder attack and eventually had to be replaced by George Cole. Coco later said, "They tell us [the movie] will finish by August, but not by August of what year. I understand Elizabeth [Taylor] is having Christmas cards printed."
  
  

• Irwin Kostal, the composer for the American half of the production, clashed with the Soviet composer, Andrei Popov. Popov wanted jazz for the score; Kostal wanted "Volga boatmen music".
  
  
• In an interview, director George Cukor recalled that during filming he received complaints from several English-speaking members of the Russian crew about star Jane Fonda. Their complaint was that instead of letting them do their jobs, she would follow them around quoting passages from Karl Marx and wanting to engage the technicians in discussions about them. They told Cukor they were already Communists, that Fonda didn't have to convert them, and if she persisted in her behavior the whole crew would go on strike. The producers spoke to Fonda and got her to stop.
  
  
• Award-winning cinematographer Jonas Gritsius was replaced by 'Freddie Young (I)' when it was discovered that he had never before shot a film in color and had no idea what he was doing.
  
  
• According to actress Cicely Tyson, director George Cukor accused her of jinxing the film by using voodoo magic. Relations between Tyson and Cukor eventually deteriorated to the point where, when Tyson would arrive on set in the morning, she would ask--referring to Cukor--"Is he dead yet?"
  
  
• There were so many production problems, foul-ups and hard feelings during the shooting of the film in Russia that eventually director George Cukor and producer Edward Lewis spoke to each other only through their lawyers.
  
  

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