Daredevil (film) Trivia

Vin Diesel (who was also approached for the role of Bullseye), was considered to portray Daredevil before him, but he opted to take a role from another film. Colin Farrell was also considered until Affleck signed. Other contenders for the role of Daredevil were Matt Damon, Edward Norton and Guy Pearce. Ben Affleck originally was in the running to play Bullseye, but he eventually was slated as the title role instead.

For the role of Elektra, many actresses were looked into with considerations including Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, and Katie Holmes. A short-list was eventually made, giving the choices of Jennifer Garner, Jolene Blalock, Mía Maestro and Rhona Mitra, with Garner finally becoming the actress to land the role. Neve Campbell was originally considered for the role of Elektra.

The Daredevil writers and artists referenced in the film: Stan Lee: Daredevil co-creator makes his cameo as the man whom young Matt Murdock stops from crossing the street. Wrote Daredevil (1964-1969). Kirby (Lab assistant played by Kevin Smith): Comic book artist Jack Kirby (assorted Daredevil covers in 1964-1968). Father Everett: Shares his name with Bill Everett, Daredevil's co-creator (drew first issue of Daredevil in 1964, then assorted covers between 1966 and 1972). Jose Quesada (the acquitted rapist) shares his last name with Joe Quesada, the editor in chief of Marvel Comics, as well as the one-time artist of Daredevil (1998-2000). Colan (a boxer that won a bout that Jack Murdock fell asleep while watching), a reference to Gene Colan, another Daredevil artist (1966-1974). John Romita (the boxer that Jack Murdock is supposed to dive against): Father and son artists Johnny Romita (John Sr.) (1966) and John Romita Jr. (1988-1990). Kane (a thug): Named after Gil Kane, Daredevil cover artist between 1971 and 1978. Miller, Mack and Bendis (three other boxers that Jack Murdock previously "won" matches against), a reference to Frank Miller, writer/artist (1979-1983), David Mack, one of the artists (1999-2001), and Brian Bendis, the current writer of Daredevil, as of the time of the film's release (1999-present). Kevin Smith wrote some Daredevil comics (see Daredevil Visionaries: Kevin Smith), and he plays the lab assistant Kirby.

The character Elektra was created for the daredevil comic book by writer/artist Frank Miller.

At the end of the final confrontation with the Kingpin Daredevil says, "Justice is served." This is the catch phrase of another Marvel comic character, the enigmatic vigilante Scourge, who would use the same line after murdering Marvel villains.

Daredevil made his first appearance in a Marvel comic in 1964.

Ben Affleck was cast as Daredevil because Kevin Smith suggested him to the director, Mark Steven Johnson.

The film was originally due to be filmed in Montreal but, because of a Canadian entertainment industry strike, 20th Century Fox had it filmed in Los Angeles.

Ben Affleck was virtually blind as he had to wear heavy-duty contact lenses which blocked out most of his vision.

In their big fight scene, Jennifer Garner accidentally kicked Ben Affleck so hard in the head that he briefly blacked out.

The Shadow World effects took the better part of a year to be designed.

Matt and Elektra's playground fight took four days to shoot.

If you look closely at Colin Farrell in his opening scene in the pub, you'll see that his neck and the top of his chest are peeling. This is not a skin condition that is characteristic of Bullseye, rather it is Colin Farrell's sunburn. He had just returned from a holiday in Mexico on a boat.

Colin Farrell had never ridden a motorcycle before his assassination of Elektra's father scenes.

When Daredevil's cane is being examined in the morgue, it's a digital creation as the real prop was delivered in the wrong colour.

In the reprised scene when Matt is sitting in the coffee shop at the end, only to look up when a woman enters and he thinks it might be Elektra returned, the actress who takes the place of Jennifer Garner is her stand-in.

Make-up artists gave David Keith a more pronounced brow, a broken nose and a cauliflower ear to suggest his boxing past.

This was the first time that a sound effect was added to the opening Marvel logo. It has been used ever since on other productions.

Getting Daredevil's costume right was one of the hardest aspects of the production and took approximately 7-8 months.

Colin Farrell had his bullseye applied in make-up every day. If he sweated too much, it would start to bubble.

In the comics, Bullseye wears a blue and white costume. This wasn't used in the film in keeping with its realistic tone.

Although the characters Daredevil and Spider-Man coexist in the comics, it was decided that all obvious references to the latter character had to be removed since the licenses were given to separate film companies. This includes the decision that The Kingpin (a Spider-Man enemy) would never appear in the Spider-Man film franchise, and the character Ben Urich (a reporter who is a colleague and occasional professional partner of Peter Parker in the comic) would not work for the Daily Bugle. Michael Clarke Duncan would nonetheless reprise the role of Kingpin for the animated "Spider-Man" (2003) series.

Jennifer Garner wore green contact lenses over her brown eyes for her role as Elektra.

In the comics, the Kingpin is white, but in the movie he is played by an African-American, Michael Clarke Duncan. The studio was convinced to use Duncan after several white wrestlers gave poor screen tests.

The titles in the beginning of the film for the major players are building windows, which become Braille, which then become Roman letters of the players' names. The minor players and production staff go from Braille to Roman.

The woman on the answering machine is Claudine Farrell, Colin Farrell's sister. She was also in the pub scene when we first see Bullseye, and was Colin's assistant during the movie

The Braille writing on the charm/pendant spells "Elektra".

Daredevil used a "digital intermediate" where the entire film is digitally scanned into a computer before being printed out to a negative for release printing and distribution on film.

In 2003, this became the lowest grossing movie to make over $40 million on its opening weekend.

The rat in the opening sequence is entirely computer generated, the result of a real one not moving appropriately during filming.

While Daredevil co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the movie, he is also, like other Daredevil creators, given a verbal mention as "Mr. Lee", the client who pays his legal bills in fish.

The Braille lettering at the top of the DVD main menu says: "Daredevil Main Menu".

According to Gary Foster, Avi Arad and Mark Steven Johnson, the recently released Director's cut DVD of this feature was in fact the originally intended theatrical release until the very last minute, when they decided to make the changes necessary to please Twentieth Century-Fox to get the film a PG-13 rating.

The love scene between Matt and Elektra after the rainstorm and the confession booth scenes were added at the last minute after director Mark Steven Johnson had re-cut the film to ensure a PG-13 rating, calling them coverage shots of his original intentions.

The first time Colin Farrell had been able to use his own Irish accent in an American movie.

At the morgue, Kirby (Kevin Smith) writes in his laptop on the Modern Morgue website, "I'll drop you like a three year old corpse's testicles if you..."

The DVD shows an animatic which was an intended sequence of Daredevil jumping over trucks and cars to reach (presumably) Kingpin's office. However, it was deemed to complex, and therefore too expensive to shoot.

The opening scene where Bullseye is playing darts was filmed at Ye Olde King's Head Pub in Santa Monica. Appropriately enough, the board on which he is playing is the "A-list" board, reserved for better players.

During Daredevil's voice over in the closing scenes, he refers to himself as "a guardian devil." Guardian Devil is the title of a Daredevil graphic novel, written by Kevin Smith. Also, as these words are spoken, Daredevil is shown upside-down in mid-air, with his baton strings surrounding him, mimicking the cover of one of the issues of the comic that made up the abovementioned storyline.

In a deleted subplot, a policeman was to commit perjury on the stand. While Daredevil's sense allow him to detect perjury (since people's hearts tend to beat faster when not telling the truth, and heightened senses allows one to detect the heart beating faster), the policeman's perjury receives a false negative for the simple reason that the policeman had a pacemaker in his heart, which regulated his heartbeat. A similar incident happened in Daredevil#184, where a man with a pacemaker also received a false negative.

Matt Murdock's breakup phone message from "Heather" is a reference to Heather Glenn, Murdock's girlfriend during Frank Miller's first run on the Daredevil comic book. Murdock and Heather broke up near the end of that run.

Cuba Gooding Jr. wanted the lead role but was not approached.

The success of Spider-Man (2002) prompted 20th Century-Fox to raise the budget from $50 million to $80 million. It made back the bulk of that ($70 million) in just ten days.

20th Century-Fox first acquired the rights to Daredevil from Marvel in 1997. Chris Columbus was initially attached to direct. The following year Marvel was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, so Fox let the option slide. Disney then expressed an interest in the character, but that didn't pan out. Mark Steven Johnson realized his life's ambition in 1999 when Marvel assigned the rights to Sony and he was hired to write the screenplay. However, the following year, Sony put the project in turnaround. It was picked up by New Regency with Fox distributing, but Johnson found himself having to (successfully) re-pitch himself for the writing/directing gig.

The character of "Turk" (mentioned by Coolio in the director's cut) is a reference to the comic book, where he is a re-appearing character (mostly during Frank Miller's run).

Originally this was going to be a relatively low-budget film of roughly $50 million. However, during shooting in the summer of 2002, another film about a Marvel Comics character, Spider-Man (2002), became a spectacular success and the director was soon asked by 20th Century-Fox executives to enhance the film's visuals and his budget was raised to approximately $80 million to accomplish that.

A subplot with a character played by rapper Coolio was removed, primarily to make the film shorter and get it a PG-13 rating. However, Coolio was featured in trailers for the film.

According to the DVD commentary on the theatrical release version of Daredevil, Dwayne Johnson's (aka "The Rock") cousin is in the bar fight scene. He is the one who says to Quesada, "Hey, boss. Who the hell is that?"

The core storyline was based on Frank Miller's story arcs. The introduction/flashback was taken from his graphic novel "Daredevil: Man Without Fear," and many of the sequences follow John Romita Jr.'s art work shot-for-shot. The later parts of the story cum Elektra Saga can be found in Miller's "Visionaries Volume 2".

The character of Bullseye was created by comic book writer Marv Wolfman for Daredevil #131.

Michael Clarke Duncan was often put on lifts or boxes to make him tower over everyone else, particularly in his scenes with Ben Affleck, who is 6'2".

The film was originally envisioned as R-rated with nudity and hard violence.

Michael Clarke Duncan was required to gain an additional 40 pounds to his already hefty frame to play The Kingpin.

"Guy with Pen in Head" is played by Frank Miller, who was instrumental in the Death of Elektra storyline in the Daredevil Comics. He appears in the scene where Bullseye takes a motorcycle, prior to killing Natchios. This is stated in the Director's Commentary.

Italian Carlo Carlei was at one time attached to direct.

Patrick Wilson auditioned for a role in this film.

'Jennifer Garner' noted that the costume would be different as Elektra often wears red satin, but in the film she wears black leather. Garner explained "the red would never have worked for hiding a harness, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but you have to protect your skin a little bit. They throw me around so much on the rooftop I got cut through the leather, so imagine if I hadn't had anything."

When Michael Clarke Duncan was cast, he weighed 290 pounds. He was asked to gain 40 pounds for the role in order to fit the physique of Kingpin. In order to do this, he would lift weights for 30 minutes a day, and power-lifted with one or two reps a day, as well as eating whatever he wanted.

In November 2006, Ben Affleck stated that he would never reprise the role, having felt "by playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero... Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn't want to do again soon."

Bullseye's motorcycle is a Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster.

Michael Clarke Duncan is the third actor with a three-part name to play Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. John Rhys-Davies portrayed the character in the 1989 made-for-TV movie The Trial of The Incredible Hulk and Roscoe Lee Browne did Kingpin's voice in the 1996 "Spider-Man" cartoon from Fox.