Trivia for
Runaway Jury (2003) More at IMDbPro »

• This is Gene Hackman's and Dustin Hoffman's first film together. At the Pasadena Playhouse they were classmates and were both voted "Least Likely to Succeed".
  
  
• This movie is based on the early 1990s John Grisham novel, but in the book the trial was about a large tobacco company.
  
  
• One of the jurors is named "Lydia Deets" and is portrayed as a goth girl, an obvious reference to Winona Ryder's character "Lydia Deitz" in Beetle Juice (1988).
  
  
• In the novel, the lawsuit is filed against a tobacco company. This screenplay was in development for several years and, after the release of The Insider (1999), all subsequent scripts involved a lawsuit against a gun manufacturer. Although, the movie contains various references to tobacco.
  
  
• Other notable actresses auditioning for the role of Marlee included Bridget Moynahan and Amanda Peet.
  
  
• TheGameTrader is an actual store in the Espalanade Mall right outside of New Orleans.
  
  
• The voice on the radio at the very beginning is Morning show host Rod Ryan. He was at one time based in New Orleans on his own show on The End. At the time the film was released on DVD, he had moved to Houston were he still broadcasts in the morning.
  
  
• Nick and Marlee meet in a voodoo shop where the Creole shopkeeper only speaks French. The movie conveys the image of the City still being mostly French speaking, but the French-only speaking Creole population in New Orleans is practically extinct.
  
  
• During the argument with Dustin Hoffman in the men's room, Gene Hackman disparagingly mentions "Truth, Justice, and the American way". This is part of Superman's slogan. Hackman played Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor, in several Superman movies.
  
  
• This is the 10th movie starring both John Cusack and Jeremy Piven.
  
  
• The much anticipated washroom scene between Fitch and Rohr was not in the original script. It was written while the rest of the movie was being filmed, and was finally shot on a single day at the very end, weeks after both Hackman and Hoffman had finished their other work. It was the first time that Hackman and Hoffman had ever interacted on screen even though they had been friends since 1956.
  
  
• After being in development for several years, director Alfonso Cuarón became attached to direct and co-write the film. He ended up leaving the project a few months after that.
  
  
• In 1997, Edward Norton was originally cast in the role of Nicholas Easter with Joel Schumacher directing. Sean Connery and Gwyneth Paltrow were cast in the roles of Fitch and Marlee, respectively. But when Schumacher dropped out of the project and it was delayed, the actors moved on to other projects. The project was revived in 2001 when Will Smith was in talks to play Nicholas Easter with Jennifer Connelly as Marlee and 'Mike Newell (I)' directing. But Smith dropped out and the project was again stalled.
  
  
• 'Naomi Watts (I)' was offered the role of Marlee but turned it due to scheduling conflicts.
  
  
• The bathroom scene in Runaway Jury (2003), where Roar confronts Finch is the first ever dialog in a movie between Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. It was added when someone on the crew found out that the two, though they had been friends for 50 years, had never starred in a movie together.
  
  

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