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Published 23:00 IST, June 28th 2020

Brad Pitt turned down lead role in a film for 'Spy Game'? Know more trivia

Brad Pitt and Robert Redford starrer Spy Game is an action and spy drama flick directed by Tony Scott. It released in the year 2001. Check out the film's trivia

Reported by: Riddhi Adsul
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Brad Pitt and Robert Redford starrer Spy Game is an action and spy thriller film directed by Tony Scott. The storyline premises around a retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir who recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors. Spy Game was a blockbuster hit, it reportedly grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from film critics. Check out the film's trivia and lesser-known facts - 

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Intriguing Trivia and Lesser-known facts about Spy Game

  • According to reports, the director Tony Scott requested more money to film the rooftop scene in Berlin to rent a helicopter for an aerial scene. However, the producers refused. Scott believed that the scene was important and rented the helicopter with his own money.
  • Brad Pitt turned down the lead role in The Bourne Identity (2002) in order to star in this film.
  • According to IMDB reports, some parts of the film were supposed to be shot in Israel. But due to the sudden escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (in September-October 2000) the film's location was moved to Morocco. The location was also changed due to the requirements of the actors' insurance companies. 
  • Lead Robert Redford was confused by Tony Scott's use of helicopters to shoot the intimate conversation on the roof. But later, when the actor saw the scene, he was fascinated by how dynamic it made the scene. 
  • Reportedly, Tony Scott dedicated Spy Game to his mother. His brother Ridley Scott also did the same with Black Hawk Down (2001).  

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  • In one of the scenes, the filmmakers re-created Vietnam in the one lush areas they could find in the Moroccan mountains.
  • Filmmakers of Spy Game were worried that the audience would lose sight of Bishop's dilemma if they didn't see him. So they used the same torture footage three times to keep Brad Pitt's face in the movie. 
  • Kimberly Paige, playing the part of Sandy at the embassy in Berlin, is the wife of the former US ambassador to Hungary, the location where the Berlin scenes were filmed.
  • In an older interview, Brad Pitt joked that his hair in the flashbacks looks like a "Don Johnson mullet" from the '80s.
  • Spy Game was called as an associate piece to Robert Redford's Three Days of the Condor (1975). 

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The trailer of Spy Game 

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Updated 23:00 IST, June 28th 2020

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