Bright Lights, Big City

Top 10 Fun Facts

1. The movie was originally pitched to Columbia Pictures as "The Graduate, with a little bit of The Lost Weekend." If only they could have attached Dustin Hoffman and Jane Wyman to star.
2. Jay McInerney adapted his own novel into the first draft of the screenplay - which was then promptly re-written by Joel Schumacher, who was initially attached to direct. That version of the script languished in development purgatory, and Schumacher left the project - capturing twenty-somthing angst instead in St. Elmo's Fire.
3. Tom Cruise was offered first refusal on the role of Jamie Conway. Guess it worked out well for Michael J. Fox that Cruise refused first.
4. After the project jumped studios from Columbia to United Artists, the plan became to film the Manhattan-based story in Toronto and cast a little known actor named Charlie Sheen.
5. Plan C: Michael J. Fox finally came on board, giving the studio enough confidence to up the budget and move the production to New York City.
6. The filmmakers shot two different endings: one truer to the novel, and another one (to please the studio) with a more upbeat resolution. Sadly, neither of them involved Christopher Lloyd showing up in a time-traveling DeLorean.
7. If you're shocked by all the on-screen drug use by one Mr. Alex P. Keaton, have no fear - it's actually a prop called "milk sugar." Which we hope isn't slang for cocaine.
8. Take that, Andrew McCarthy! In Newsweek, film critic David Ansen wrote, "Bright Lights isn't an embarrassment, like Less Than Zero." Back-handed compliments totally count as positive reviews.
9. Roger Ebert had considerably nicer things to say, calling Michael J. Fox's drunken monologue "the best thing he has ever done in a movie." Although to be fair, Doc Hollywood was still a good three years away.
10. Happy ending: despite the fact that she had already played his girlfriend on Family Ties, Michael J. Fox began dating his future wife Tracy Pollan after they worked together on this film.

Cast

Crew