This is Gene Hackman's and Dustin Hoffman's first film together. At the Pasadena Playhouse, they were classmates, and were both voted "Least Likely to Succeed."
The much-anticipated bathroom scene in this movie, where Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) confronts Fitch (Gene Hackman) is the first dialogue in a movie between Hoffman and Hackman. It was written while the rest of the movie was being filmed, after someone on the crew found out that the two, though they had been friends since 1956, had never starred in a movie together. It was finally shot on a single day at the end, several weeks after Hackman and Hoffman had finished their other work.
According to Dustin Hoffman when he and Gene Hackman filmed the last of their scenes, Hackman said to Hoffman "Let's get drunk."
While the notion of infiltrating a jury in the manner of Nicholas Easter is obviously intriguing, various systems exist to prevent it. For example, in most jurisdictions (including New Orelans), prospective jurors are required to have permanently resided within that jurisdiction for at least one year prior to selection.
In 1997, Edward Norton was originally cast in the role of Nicholas Easter with Joel Schumacher directing. Sean Connery and Gwyneth Paltrow were cast in the roles of Fitch and Marlee, respectively. But when Schumacher dropped out of the project, and it was delayed, the actors moved on to other projects. The project was revived in 2001 when Will Smith was in talks to play Nicholas Easter, with Jennifer Connelly as Marlee, and Mike Newell directing. Smith dropped out and the project was again stalled.