In my review of the new Shout Select collector’s edition Blu-ray of The Wizard, I not only extolled the virtues of the film but also touched on the variety of special features on the 2-disc set. With multiple featurettes, audio commentary and more, there’s plenty of new behind-the-scenes info available for fans. Here are just a few of the gems I discovered:

1. The film was written very quickly – in only three weeks – because the studio was worried about an impending writer’s strike. They hired David Chisholm, who was under contract at the time, to pen the script since he was used to fast-paced TV writing.
2. Not only was star Fred Savage fresh off the The Wonder Years‘ set, but so too was producer Ken Topolsky and most of the crew.
3. Director Todd Holland admits he was not a gamer and that it was a foreign world to him, but he pitched his inexperience in that arena as an asset to the studio so he could make The Wizard accessible for gamers and non-gamers alike.
4. Were you jealous of all the Nintendo products? Nintendo gave each of the producers one of their brand-new Game Boy handhelds, but Christian Slater was given one by a producer who couldn’t figure out how to use it.
5. Young Luke Edwards took issue with the wardrobe process and hated his clothes so much that he would cry in the dressing room. His character’s new clothes he wears once they arrive in Reno were to appease the frustrated Edwards. He now apologizes for his behavior to the costume department.
6. Most of the shots of the three main kids walking away from camera were actually photo doubles because strict child labor laws meant they could only work for six hours per day. The crew would try and have adult scenes ready to shoot for the remainder of each day of filming. (It wasn’t explicitly stated, but I have a suspicion that when the bounty hunter mistakenly “caught” the wrong boys because they looked so similar from behind, that those were the photo doubles used elsewhere in the film.)
7. At the Video Armageddon final contest, the large screens they’re playing on are all rear-projected screens because there were no televisions that large at the time.
8. The film utilized former Nintendo gameplay counselors to play most of the games shown throughout the film. However, the systems had to be connected to a special contraption that converted the gameplay to film. Otherwise, audiences would have seen the familiar scan lines you see when you film a television and the frame rates don’t match.
9. In an almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, one of Lucas’s goons at the end of the movie is a very young Tobey Maguire.
10. The original script’s ending was very different and featured Haley (Jenny Lewis) leaving with her share of the money to take back to her dad, and Jimmy (Luke Edwards) throwing the lunchbox he carried throughout the film in the river. That didn’t sit well with director Todd Holland, so he rewrote the final scene in one night and they shot it the next day.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this Blu-ray for review purposes. All opinions are my own.