Trivialidades for
Empire of the Sun (1987)

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• "Suo Gân", the movie's theme song, is a lullaby sung in Welsh. Director Steven Spielberg chose it after casting Welsh actor Christian Bale as Jim. It was sung by James Rainbird.
  
  
• Col. Marshall (Tom Danaher) was a Marine night fighter pilot in the Pacific in WWII and was credited with shooting down the last Japanese bomber of the war. He also flies one of the Japanese "Zeros" in the movie.
  
  
• David Lean originally wanted to direct.
  
  

• Some sources say Jean Anderson is in the film but she is not in this project
  
  
• In a BBC radio interview, Robert Stephens said most of his part was deleted
  
  
• Paul McGann said in a magazine interview that most of his part was cut.
  
  
• Mark Rylance was offered a part.
  
  
• The last feature film of Ralph Michael.
  
  
• Christian Bale was picked for the role of Jim out of more than 4,000 who auditioned. Steven Spielberg had seen Bale in the miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) (TV) and Amy Irving, who starred in it, personally recommended Bale to Spielberg, her husband at the time. Spielberg had not thought much of Bale in "Anastasia", but cast him in the role of Jim after he auditioned.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg had planned a long, continuous shot when Jim was standing on top of the building at the prison camp, watching the American planes bomb the airfields. The shot was very complicated and would require a single take. He gave instructions to Christian Bale to get excited, jump up and down, and run around on the rooftop as the planes passed and the bombs went off. However, Bale became nervous as the stunts began, and didn't do much of anything. Since most of the explosions had been used up on this shot, Spielberg (after having some soft, fatherly words with the young Bale) improvised with several shots from different close-up angles, eventually getting Bale to give a more excited performance.
  
  
• Tom Stoppard's script was originally written for director Harold Becker.
  
  
• It was David Lean who first suggested Nigel Havers for the role of Dr. Rawlins.
  
  
• Eric Flynn, who plays a British POW, was actually a POW as a child in a Japanese camp.
  
  
• The shot of Jim's parents tucking him in bed is directly lifted from the Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom from Fear". Jim's father even holds a newspaper like the father in the painting. The main difference is that in the painting there are two children in bed.
  
  
• Cameo: [J.G. Ballard] the author played the part of a guest in the masquerade party scene. However, only a quick glimpse of him can be seen in the final cut.
  
  
• The Japanese Zero fighters are in fact American-built Harvard trainers modified to look like the Zero.
  
  
• The portion of the film set in the internment camp was significantly cut down from what was filmed. Many actors had their roles nearly turned into cameos, including Miranda Richardson.
  
  

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