Wag the Dog

Wag the Dog (1997)

Timing: 1:37 (97 min)

6.956/10
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7.585/10
51723

7.1/10
93000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 20

Actors and characters

Release date

1997-12-25

Country

United States

Production

New Line Cinema, Tribeca Productions, Baltimore Pictures, Punch Productions

Genre

Comedy, Drama

Budget

$15 000 000

Revenue

$64 256 513

Website

Director

Barry Levinson

Actors

Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, David Koechner
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Barry Levinson, Michael De Luca, Ezra Swerdlow, Claire Rudnick Polstein

Operator

Robert Richardson

Composer

Mark Knopfler

Artist

Christopher Tandon

Audition

Debra Zane, Ellen Chenoweth

Editing

Stu Linder, Bonnie Weis
All team (209)

• The film is based on Larry Bainhart's book "American Hero".
• "Wag the Dog" is a term used by American political strategists to describe a method of covering up a scandal by artificially creating a new, attention-grabbing problem capable of distracting the public from the original scandal.
• Dustin Hoffman based his character, Stanley Motss, on Hollywood producer Robert Evans.
• The back of director Barry Levinson can be seen in a cameo during the opening scene on the film set.
• The role of Winifred Ames was originally written for a man.
• The film features an interview with James Belushi, who claims to be Albanian. In reality, Belushi is the son of Albanian immigrants.
• The name of Schumann's drug, “Prozalium,” is a combination of the names of the drugs “Prozac” and “Valium.”
• The phrase “Don't change horses midstream” was the slogan of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential campaign during the American Civil War.
• Conrad’s phrase, “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow,” is a quote from WWII General George S. Patton.
• The scene where tied shoes hang on telephone and electrical wires was filmed on East Capitol Street, a few blocks from the Capitol. The film crew forgot to take several pairs of shoes, and they continued to hang there for several years.
• The phone number for the talk show—(800) 555-0199—appears in many films and television shows because it is the only number starting with the digits “(800) 555” reserved by telephone companies as a permissible “dummy” for such entertainment industry needs.
• Members of the RCC Marching Tigers participated in the funeral scene with a military band.
• Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman filmed without an advance—Hoffman and Levinson made this film during a break from producing 'Sphere' (1998).
• During the filming of the movie, Hoffman, De Niro, and Levinson met with the then-President of the United States, Bill Clinton. “So, what is this movie about?” Clinton asked De Niro. De Niro looked at Levinson, hoping for an answer. Levinson, in turn, looked at Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one left to pass the buck to, later recalled: “Well, I just started tap dancing. I don’t even remember what I said.”
• The computer game The Sims Medieval features a reference to this film—in the quest “Deception,” the king needs to distract attention from his advisor’s affair with a foreign princess, and he can choose between a fake epidemic and a fake war.