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Trivia: Filmmaker and actor Harold Ramis wanted to direct the film as he was a big video game fan and especially a big "Super Mario" fan (even putting a reference to Mario in "Ghostbusters 2"). He took a meeting with the producers but ended up passing on the project, as he had a bad feeling about it.

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Trivia: Michael Keaton and Arnold Schwarzenegger were reportedly both considered for the role of Koopa, but both turned it down.

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Trivia: Directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel were reportedly widely despised by the cast and crew, who found them arrogant, difficult and unpleasant. Morton reportedly once even poured scalding hot coffee on an extra, burning them, because he wanted their costume to look dirtier. It came to a head one day when co-star Dennis Hopper had enough of their attitude and spent over three hours screaming at Morton and Jankel, berating them over and over and refusing to shoot his scene.

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Trivia: Among the actors considered for the role of Mario were Danny DeVito and Tom Hanks. DeVito was reportedly interested but wouldn't commit as no script had been written yet. And Hanks was also interested, but was considered a risk at the time due to several high-profile flops, so he was taken off the project.

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Trivia: The "fungus" that the king coughs up when he turns back into a human is actually just Rice Crispy cereal he was holding in his hand.

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Trivia: Harold Ramis, a fan of the video-games, was originally interested in writing and directing, but a deal was never reached.

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Trivia: The film went notoriously over schedule and over budget. For example, Dennis Hopper was only supposed to be on-set for five weeks... but due to production troubles, he ended up being on-set over fourteen weeks.

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Trivia: Stars Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper were reportedly all furious while making the movie, as the script was constantly being changed (to the point it bore no resemblance to the one they signed up for) and the two directors were reportedly extremely difficult to work with. Hoskins and Leguizamo reportedly combated their fury by often getting very, very drunk during filming.

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Trivia: Barry Morrow, the writer of "Rain Man," wrote a draft for the film that went unused. It was noted that his draft strayed very far from the source material, and was reportedly a low-key drama about the relationship between the two brothers that was described as being very much like his script for "Rain Man." When producers asked him to write a more adventurous script like the video-games, he refused, and was booted from the project.

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Trivia: Due to the film's notorious reception among fans and audiences, Nintendo refused to make another live-action Hollywood film until the release of "Detective Pikachu" 26 years later.

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