FILM · 1985
Transylvania 6-5000
22 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
The film was financed by Dow Chemical Company in order to spend the company's frozen funds in Yugoslavia (money that could not be spent outside its country of origin).
- #002
Jeff Goldblum suggested Ed Begley Jr. to director Rudy De Luca for the role of Gil Turner, and Begley suggested Michael Richards for the role of Fejos.
- #003
The young girl who played Elizabeth's daughter Sara Grdjan was a local Croatian actress who did not speak English. She had to be taught to deliver her lines phonetically.
- #004
Director Rudy De Luca saw 40 women for the role of Odette. He liked Geena Davis and knew she had won the part of Odette when she used an appealing Bela Lugosi accent.
- #005
One minute after his audition began, Michael Richards won the role by falling and sliding across the floor. The producers tried to persuade the director not to find him too crude.
- #006
Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis met for the first time on this film. They would go on to star together in two more films, The Fly (1986) and Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). They were married from 1987 to 1991.
- #007
The animal found among the bushes is actually writer/director Rudy De Luca. He filmed that scene with his pants down and his bare backside visible, but it was edited to secure a PG rating.
- #008
Rudy De Luca first wrote this for television with Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari after watching Bosom Buddies (1980). De Luca even met with Scolari. The production company rejected Hanks's option because they had never heard of him. They later also turned down Paul Reiser for the same reason.
- #009
Although the scene in Jack's room is a masterful shot lasting nearly two and a half minutes, Ed Begley Jr. and Jeff Goldblum were told to work out their own blocking (stage movement).
- #010
The film premiered in United States theaters on November 8, 1985, released by New World Pictures. Against a budget of 3 million dollars, it grossed 7,196,872 dollars in North American box office receipts.
- #011
The title is a pun on Glenn Miller's 1940 hit song "PEnnsylvania-6-5000," the title used on the sheet music. On disc records it is shown as "PEnnsylvania Six-Five Thousand." That title was the telephone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, the venue at his home at the time. The hotel closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and was demolished in 2023. The name had previously been used for the Bugs Bunny animated short Transylvania 6-5000 (1963).
- #012
Reviewing this film for Entertainment Tonight (1981), Leonard Maltin gave it one of his shortest reviews ever: "'Transylvania 6-5000' stunk. I'm Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight."
- #013
Because of the 30-day shooting schedule and snow falling on the first day, most of the Croatians were cast immediately before the scene they were to appear in.
- #014
The film's cast includes one Oscar winner, Geena Davis, and two Oscar nominees, Jeff Goldblum and Carol Kane.
- #015
It was first released on Blu-Ray on February 11, 2020.
- #016
The Lawrence Malbot subplot, complete with a gypsy fortune teller, is a direct parody of Lon Chaney Jr.'s classic Wolfman (Lawrence Talbot) from The Wolf Man (1941).
- #017
The film had a very small release in the United Kingdom in 1987, consisting of one or two prints shown in London cinemas. It was then largely forgotten until it shortly afterward went to home video. In later years, after Geena Davis became better known, the video was re-released on VHS by a different company and with different video cover artwork.
- #018
Dick Shawn was considered for the role of Malavaqua.
- #019
Geena Davis and Jeffrey Jones appeared together in Beetlejuice (1988) and Stuart Little (1999).
- #020
The film's premiere took place on DVD in the United States in 2004, released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.
- #021
Michael Richards appeared in several episodes of St. Elsewhere (1982), which starred Ed Begley Jr.
- #022
Jeff Goldblum was set to play a man who transforms into a mutant insect in The Fly. Ed Begley Jr., meanwhile, was to play an insect that transforms into a man in Meet the Applegates.
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