Where to watch Crash (2004)

Trivia & production notes

• Paul Haggis was carjacked at a Blockbuster Video on Wilshire Boulevard in February 1991 while driving home from The Silence of the Lambs premiere, an experience that directly inspired him to write Crash.
• Haggis intended Crash to challenge liberals' belief that America had achieved a post-racial society, not simply to criticize racists.
• Haggis and Robert Moresco wrote the first draft of Crash in 2001 shortly after Haggis was fired from the TV series Family Law.
• Producer Bob Yari offered Haggis $7.5 million to make Crash as a film on the condition that he could assemble an ensemble cast of major stars.
• Don Cheadle was the first actor cast and also became a producer, which helped attract other established names to the project.
• Brendan Fraser's casting as the district attorney was the final piece that got the film green-lit.
• Heath Ledger's departure from the cast cost the film roughly $1 million in budget due to reduced international appeal.
• To compensate for budget constraints, Paul Haggis took out three mortgages on his house, the cast accepted pay cuts and deferred salaries, and he minimized exterior shots and reused locations.
• Haggis suffered a heart attack during filming but refused medical advice to replace himself as director, delaying production for a week.
• Mark Isham composed the original score, which was released in two versions: a complete iTunes release with cues in film order and an edited commercial CD release in suite form.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Crash (2004 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.