Trivia for
Der amerikanische Freund (1977) More at IMDbPro »

• Seven movie directors are in the cast of this film, all of them (by design) playing criminals.
  
  
• Wim Wenders tried to acquire film rights for a variety of Patricia Highsmith novels, only to find that all rights had been sold at the time. Highsmith was informed of Wenders' willingness, and she offered him an unpublished manuscript of "Ripley's Game".
  
  
• Wim Wenders originally considered John Cassavetes for the role of Ripley.
  
  
• Patricia Highsmith initially disliked Wim Wenders' film because Ripley's character didn't match her intentions. Only after she saw the film at a regular screening did she admit that Wenders had captured the essence of Ripley.
  
  
• This film adapts 'Ripley's Game' (published in 1974). Released 17 years after the previous Ripley film (Plein soleil (1960) with Alain Delon, an adaptation of 'Ripley's Game' published in 1955), this film's timeline largely stays true to that of the books; twenty years passed for Ripley in the books, and since Alain Delon and Dennis Hopper were both born in 1935, the character ages 17 years in the films.
  
  
• This German film, a 1977 adaptation of 'Ripley's Game', follows Plein soleil (1960), a 1960 French adaptation of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' with Alain Delon. The next Ripley movie came out in 1999, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) with Matt Damon, and the next Ripley film after that came Ripley's Game (2002). IN much the same way that Dennis Hopper played Ripley at seventeen years older than Delon (both men born in 1935), John Malkovich (born 1953) took the role from Matt Damon (born 1970).
  
  

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