I just watched the 2004 remake of the 1925 original version of The Phantom of The Opera, and let me tell you I had emotions and "the feels" everywhere. It's now an obsession. However, there are so many wild and crazy facts about this movie that you probably didn't know! Let me inform you on a few of those.
*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***
1. The scene where there is a doll in Phantom's lair is supposed to look like Emmy Rossum (Christine Daaé). Turns out-- IT IS EMMY. The production crew made a mask of her face, but after putting in the fake eyes it didn't look like her at all. Leave it to Emmy to save the day! She suggested that she would stand as the mannequin. The makeup crew made her look like a wax doll and she stood very, very still for this scene.
2. Phantom (Gerard Butler) speaks only 14 lines. The rest of his lines are are sung.
3. The chandelier in the opera house weighed 2.2 tons, cost $1.3 million, and was provided by Swarovski. For the high risk scenes there was a stunt double and there was a third chandelier created that was fully equipped with electricity and lighting for the opening scene.
4. Charlotte Church and Anne Hathaway were considered for the role of Christine Daaé.
5. Emmy Rossum (Christine Daaé) filmed this movie very young unlike her co-stars, both whom she kissed. She was 16 at the time of shooting while Patrick Wilson (Raoul) was 30, and Gerard Butler (Phantom) was 34.
6. At the end of the Masquerade scene, Raoul briefly enters a circular chamber full of mirrors. This is a reference to the original Phantom of the Opera novel, in which the Phantom used the mirrored chamber as a torture chamber to drive victims insane.
7. Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler had never seen the musical before getting their roles.
8. The makeup and prosthetics for Phantom took four hours to be fitted on Gerard Butler.
9.The white half-mask worn by Phantom sold on eBay for £6,450 ($8499.49 in US dollars).
10. Joel Schumacher wanted realism with the movie, so they destroyed the theatre by having a real fire in the theatre fire scene.
11. The sweeping camera angles during “All I Ask of You” made it necessary to shoot multiple takes of the kiss between Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson. Emmy Rossum had to ice her lips between takes to prevent them from swelling.
13. The music is played and performed by a 105 piece orchestra.
14. In April 2004 an audience of the stage version of “The Phantom of the Opera” in London were asked to stay behind at the end and record the sound effects for the chandelier crash in the movie.
15. At the end of the film, Christine’s gravestone gives her date of birth as 1854. The main story takes place in 1870, which means Christine is 16 during the events at the Opera House. Emmy Rossum, the actress who played her, was 16 when filming started.
