Ewan McGregor was Danny Boyle's first choice to play the part of Richard. The studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio and cast him before Boyle could intervene. While McGregor blames the studio, he has reportedly not spoken to Boyle since.
During filming, a boat accident endangered the life of several crew members, including director Danny Boyle and Leonardo DiCaprio. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.
The phrase "Sutra cu putovati mnogo milja biciklom" uttered by Sonja (played by Serbian actress Zelda Tinska) in the movie, is Serbo-Croat for "Tomorrow I will travel many miles on a bicycle."
When Richard and Francoise swim out to the glowing plankton and start kissing they are in deep water, when they rise to the surface they are able to stand.
Richard: The only downer is, everyone's got the same idea. We all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check in to somewhere with all the comforts of home, and you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?
Why does Daffy go crazy and why doesn't he go back to the beach?
A
Ok, so after watching and enjoying the movie, I started to think about the intriguing character of Daffy. I can see that once he is back in civilization he probably started to go crazy just as well as Richard did when he went there to buy rice. "cancer, parasites..." But one thing that wasn't clear is why Daffy had to leave the beach and why didn't he go back there, since he clearly still thought of it as paradise. Instead of going back, he kills himself. I wonder what the theory to that might be.