Braveheart (1995): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Mel Gibson came across the script and even though he liked it, he initially passed on it.
• The story is inspired by Blind Harry's 15th century epic poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace and was adapted for the screen by Randall Wallace.
• Gibson and editor Steven Rosenblum initially had a film at 195 minutes, but Sherry Lansing, who was the head of Paramount at the time, requested Gibson and Rosenblum to cut the film down to 177 minutes.
• Producer Alan Ladd Jr. initially had the project at MGM-Pathé Communications when he picked up the script from Randall Wallace.
• Development on the film initially started at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) when producer Alan Ladd Jr. picked up the project from Wallace, but when MGM was going through new management, Ladd left the studio and took the project with him.
• In 1997, a 12-foot (3.7 m), 13-tonne (13-long-ton; 14-short-ton) sandstone statue depicting Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart was placed in the car park of the Wallace Monument near Stirling, Scotland.
• Braveheart premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 18, 1995, and received its wide release in U.S. cinemas six days later.
• Braveheart grossed $75.5 million in the United States and Canada and $133.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $209.0 million, against a budget of $53–$72 million.
• Gibson eventually gained enough financing for the film, with Paramount Pictures financing a third of the budget in exchange for North American distribution rights to the film, and 20th Century Fox putting up the other two-thirds in exchange for foreign distribution rights.
• The score was composed and conducted by James Horner and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
• It is Horner's second of three collaborations with Mel Gibson as director.
• The website's consensus reads: "Distractingly violent and historically dodgy, Mel Gibson's Braveheart justifies its epic length by delivering enough sweeping action, drama, and romance to match its ambition."
• Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle felt "at times the film seems an obsessive ode to Mel Gibson machismo."
• Despite initially declining, Gibson eventually decided to direct the film and to star as Wallace.

Source: Wikipedia

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