FILM · 1999 · USA
Summer of Sam
19 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (19)
- #001
Spike Lee faced considerable negative feedback from family members of the victims, many of whom did not want a film made that would in any way glorify the killer. As a result, the script had to be reworked to focus on the community rather than on the killer himself. "Son of Sam" was reportedly the original working title.
- #002
Adrien Brody broke his nose during the film's climactic final fight scene, in which his character Richie is brutally beaten by his friends.
- #003
According to Mira Sorvino, she hated shooting the club sex party scene and found it "depressing."
- #004
In the script Richie was the lead character and Vinny a secondary one, but Spike Lee enjoyed John Leguizamo's improvisation so much that he ultimately gave him more screen time. The scene in which Vinny spills coffee on Gloria was one of Leguizamo's many improvisations.
- #005
About two minutes of footage, mostly from the club sex scene, was cut from the film in order to secure an R rating instead of an NC-17.
- #006
In the 142-minute film, the word "fuck" is spoken 435 times, an average of 3.06 times per minute.
- #007
Michael Imperioli was originally set to play Richie but had to leave due to a scheduling conflict with The Sopranos (1999). He appears in the film only briefly, as "Midnight."
- #008
An Italian flag is painted on the wall of the beach club where Vinny and his friends hang out. The flag was painted there by the production before filming and has remained there to this day. The neighborhood is in fact more Irish/German than Italian.
- #009
At the start of the film, Vinny and his friends go to a disco called Başak. There was in fact no nightclub there, but the exterior was painted to look like one. The Başak sign remains painted on the same building to this day.
- #010
Danny Aiello was originally supposed to play Eddie.
- #011
Sarah Michelle Gellar was originally cast as Ruby.
- #012
During filming, unhappy neighborhood residents left racist and anti-Spike Lee messages near or around the production equipment.
- #013
Spike Lee spent months trying to persuade Leonardo DiCaprio to take the role of Ritchie. Benicio Del Toro was also initially considered for the lead.
- #014
Idina Menzel was cast as Richie's girlfriend. Her scenes were cut before the final release.
- #015
The punk rock band playing at CBGB as Joey T (Michael Rispoli) and Brian (Ken Garito) search for Richie (Adrien Brody), L. E. S. Stitches, is a real band founded in 1994 in New York's Lower East Side. The "L. E. S." in the name stands for "Lower East Side."
- #016
Spike Lee says the photo of the boy holding the autographed Mickey Mantle baseball is real and comes from Spike's own collection.
- #017
In his Blu-ray commentary (as of 2020), director Spike Lee claimed that Summer of Sam (1999) was the first film The Who granted permission to release their 1971 single "Baba O'Riley" for. Lee claimed he wrote a letter to the band to secure the sync rights for using the song in his film.
- #018
At the start of the film, Vinny and Donna dance to Machine's song "There But For the Grace of God." The song also appeared in the 1997 LGBT film Kiss Me, Guido (1997), which starred Jennifer Esposito, who plays Ruby in this film.
- #019
Spike Lee, the director and Lee's older brother, plays local TV reporter John Jeffries, a resident of the Bed Stuy section of Brooklyn, New York, who conducts an interview after Son of Sam commits his first murder in Brooklyn. Summer of Sam (1999) is the 8th Spike Lee Joint in which he appears.
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