GoodFellas (1990): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• The film was shot on location in Queens, Upstate New York, New Jersey and parts of Long Island during spring and summer 1989, with a budget of $25 million.
• Tommy's mother's painting of the bearded man with the dogs was painted by Nicholas Pileggi's mother and based on a photograph from the November 1978 edition of National Geographic magazine.
• Joe Pesci did not judge his character, but found that scene in which he kills Spider hard to do until he forced himself to feel the way Tommy did.
• Goodfellas is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy.
• In 2014, WhatCulture included Joe Pesci's role in top "10 Most Convincing Movie Psychopath Performances".
• When released, the film grossed $47 million against a budget of $25 million and received widespread acclaim.
• Director Martin Scorsese was chosen as the year's best director in 45 of the 80 ballots.
• Goodfellas is ranked No. 92 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list, published in 2007.
• In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed Goodfellas as the fifteenth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.
• Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; he and Pileggi later changed the title to Goodfellas.
• According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came from rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted.

Source: Wikipedia

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