Hang on tight and get ready for a wild ride – because on Aug. 21 and 24, the classic 1991 action-adventure THELMA & LOUISE is returning to movie theaters for two days only.
- Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri says the story came to her “in a flash” and she saw that, “through a series of accidents, they would go from being invisible to being too big for their world to contain”
- Thelma & Louise was Callie Khouri’s first produced screenplay
- George Clooney auditioned for the role of J.D. five times
- Brad Pitt had unsuccessfully auditioned for Backdraft before Ridley Scott saw him audition for J.D.
- Brad Pitt said he first became familiar with Ridley Scott when he was 15 years old and snuck in to a movie theater to see Alien
- Geena Davis says that she had her agent call Ridley Scott every week for a year before he agreed to consider her for one of the leading roles
- Initially, Geena Davis wanted to play the role of Louise, and had prepared for it – but in their first meeting with Susan Sarandon, both Davis and Ridley Scott say they knew she was Louise
- Thelma & Louise takes place on the road from Arkansas to the Grand Canyon – but was filmed entirely in California and Utah
- The “Grand Canyon” in the movie is actually Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah
- The Oklahoma City motel where Thelma and Louise encounter J.D. still stands – in downtown Los Angeles: It’s the Vagabond Inn at 3101 S. Figueroa St.
- Five identical 1966 Thunderbirds were used in production
- Ridley Scott says the visual style of the film was strongly influenced by the still-life paintings of John Register
- Thelma Dickerson’s birthday is November 27, 1956 – while screenwriter Callie Khouri’s real birthdate is November 27, 1957
- Charlie Sexton performs two songs in the film, “Tennessee Plates” and “Badlands,” and has a cameo as the lead singer in the band playing in the bar
- Geena Davis planned to use a body double for her sex scene with Brad Pitt, but when she saw models being interviewed, she decided to do the scene herself
- Susan Sarandon says of her driving experience: “I got so sick of that car – it took me weeks to stop driving like a maniac!”
- Although the film was shot out of order (as are most films), the final scene shot was the final scene in the movie: the car going off the cliff
- Producer Mimi Polk Gitlin said that the agreement with the film’s distributor specifically forbade changing the script’s ending
- In addition to Callie Khouri’s Oscar-winning screenplay and nominations for Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, Thelma & Louise was nominated for Best Director, Best Editing and Best Cinematography
- Although he had directed such classics as Alien and Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise marked the first Oscar nomination for Ridley Scott
- Thelma & Louise is one of only four films in which two lead performers were nominated as Best Actress; the others are All About Eve (1950), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), and Terms of Endearment (1983)
- Thelma & Louise was a box-office hit, grossing $45 million in the U.S. (on a budget of $16.5 million)
- Thelma & Louise has become a pop-culture touchstone, and the countless references to it include lyrics in the song “Today 4 U” in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent
- Thelma & Louise was featured on the cover of Time Magazine on June 24, 1991 – exactly one month after its release
- The American Film Institute has named Thelma Dickerson and Louise Sawyer to the list of 100 top film heroes. Together, they rank 24 … two spots above Superman
Aug. 21 and 24, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. (local time) daily.
For tickets, information and a full list of participating theaters, visit fathomevents.com.
