10 Fun Facts About V FOR VENDETTA
I know I'm a day late with this V For Vendetta fun facts list since the 5th of November was yesterday, but better late than never! This was such an amazing film, and it's one of my favorite from the Wachowskis, who wrote and produced it. They were such big fans of the graphic novel, that they actually had a script written for the movie before they started developing The Matrix. This is also one of those flicks that I never get tired of watching. It just has such a great and engulfing story that gives the audience food for thought. There are a ton of underlying meanings in the story. I've been enjoying doing these fun facts lists because I always tend to learn something new about a film, and that is true with V For Vendetta as well. So here are ten fun facts that you may or may not know about V For Vendetta.
- When filming the fight at the Victoria Station, the stunt-men involved literally moved in slow motion on set while David Leitch, who was Hugo Weaving's stunt double, moved in real time. That made it seem he was moving much faster then the Fingermen secret police. It was also shot at 60fps to slow the Fingermen down even more. Then at the end of the fight in the train station, when V stumbles against the wall, trying to get back to Evey, V leaves a bloodstain in the shape of a V.
- The secret police are called Fingermen in the story because the New Order was set up as the model of the human body. "The Chancellor was the Head; the television station BTN was the mouth; visual and audio surveillance were the Eye and the Ear; Inspector Finch was part of The Nose, the police force, and Creedy's secret police were the Hand."
- James Purefoy was originally cast as V, and he filmed some scenes that are in the movie before he was replaced by Weaving four weeks into production. Weaving just dubbed over Purefoy's performance. Purefoy left due to creative differences, and director James McTeigue had this to say when asked if he could tell the difference of the two actors in the movie: "Can I tell the difference? Yeah. Can the audience tell? I doubt it." Now I'll be looking for it the next time I watch the movie!
- When shooting the scene where V emerges from Larkhill walking through fire, the stunt double Chad Stahelski had to literally walk through real fire. To accomplish this feat he had a special fire resistant gel and wore a g-string. Stahelski's body temperature also had to be lowered before the scene was shot, and it was three below zero the night of the shoot. The fire resistant gel he had to put on had also been freezing throughout the night.
- "During the introduction of V to Evey, starting with 'Voila' and ending with 'coincidence', the character uses words that begin with 'V' 48 times. Also, the total number of v's in the statement is 55."
- There is a domino scene in the movie where V tips over black and red dominoes to form a giant letter V. That set up included 22,000 dominoes, and took four professional domino pros 200 hours to set it up.
- "V wears a mask in the guise of Guy Fawkes who is most famous for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which he was placed in charge with executing due to his military and explosives experience. The plot, masterminded by Robert Catesby, was a failed attempt by a group of provincial English Roman Catholic conspirators to kill King James of England and VI of Scotland, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in one swoop by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during its State Opening."
- Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, and Bryce Dallas Howard all were considered for the role of Evey. The filmmakers made the right choice casting Natalie Portman though. She was awesome. She even said she was looking forward to shaving her head.
- "There is a duality in the movie between V and Evey. As it is shown at the beginning of the movie, V was created through fire (laboratory fire scene), signifying destruction and vengeance in contrast with this, later on in the movie (rooftop scene), Evey is reborn through water signifying rebirth and forgiveness. The movie ends with V's death, symbolizing the end of suffering and vengeance, leaving room for Evey. And so vengeance dies leaving room for forgiveness and destruction yields in front of rebirth."
- Even though the graphic novel was created by Alan Moore, he rejected all money and credit for the movie because of his past negative experiences with adaptations of From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore ended up giving all of the money he would have received to the artist who worked on the comic with him.
Thanks to Imdb for the info. Below you'll find the original trailer for the film.