Working titles for the film were The Cannonball Trophy and Cannonball. The film is often referred to as Cannonball Run, although the correct title is The Cannonball Run.
       In the opening credits, actor Norman Grabowski is listed as Norm Grabowski. His full name is used in the end credits.
       End credits include the following written statement: “The Producers wish to thank Governor George Busby of the sovereign state of Georgia and Ed Spivia, Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Industry & Trade.” End credits also include the following written acknowledgement: “ Behind The Green Door ©1973 Jartech Inc., with permission of Mitchell Brothers Film Group.”
       Production notes in AMPAS library files stated that the film was based on the “Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash,” a “no-holds-barred transcontinental race.” The race, created by writer Brock Yates, was held five times between 1971 and 1979, and was named to honor driver Erwin “Cannonball” Baker, who set a 1933 cross-country record of fifty-three hours and thirty minutes. In an interview in the Nov 2002 Car and Driver, Yates noted that he used incidents from the races as material for the film, including the use of an ambulance and a fake patient. The film’s director, Hal Needham, accompanied Yates in the ambulance during the final Cannonball race in Apr 1979. Yates’s wife, Pamela, was the “patient” and a radiologist named Lyle Royer played the role of the “doctor.” The ambulance driven by Burt Reynolds’ team in the film is the ambulance Needham and Yates drove in the actual race.
       In the Car and Driver interview, Yates stated that he had written the script for Steve McQueen, and an item in the 17 Jan 1980 DV noted that McQueen was being considered for the starring role. The 17 Apr 1980 DV, however, reported that Burt Reynolds had been signed to star, and, according to the 30 May 1980 DV, Reynolds would receive $5 million for his role. The 13 May 1980 DV reported that Paramount Pictures was planning to file a law suit against The Cannonball Run, Golden Harvest Productions and Twentieth Century-Fox for persuading Reynolds to film The Cannonball Run instead of the Paramount picture Paternity (1981, see entry) which he was contracted to film next. Reynolds would still star in Paternity, but it filmed after The Cannonball Run. The 14 May 1980 DV noted that the filmmakers extended an “olive branch” to Paramount by shutting down the The Cannonball Run production for the weekend so Reynolds could film additional footage on Paramount’s Rough Cut (1980, see entry). The 2 Jun 1980 DV reported that Paramount filed their suit against Twentieth Century-Fox and Golden Harvest Productions.
       The 6 May 1980 HR listed the film’s budget at $13 million. Items in the 14 May 1980 DV and the 30 May 1980 DV reported the film would finish filming on location in Atlanta, GA, on 25 May 1980 and then would shut down for three weeks to allow director Hal Needham time to finish editing Smokey and the Bandit II (1980, see entry), also starring Reynolds. Principal photography for The Cannonball Run resumed on 16 Jun 1980 in Los Angeles, CA. An item in the Nov 1980 South Bay added that the final scenes for the film were shot at the seaside Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, CA.
       The 16 Jun 1980 Box reported that a $50,000 AC Shelby Cobra sports car and an $85,000 Ferrari Boxer automobile were damaged when a camera crane fell on them during production.
       The 21 May 1980 Evening Outlook reported that Twentieth Century-Fox would distribute the film domestically, but the international distribution had not been set up. During production, the filmmakers rushed footage to international film distributors at the Cannes Film Festival in an effort to generate international sales.
       According to the 17 Jul 1980 HR, Twentieth Century-Fox planned to release the film on 23 Jun 1981. Items in the 27 May 1981 HR and the 28 May 1981 HR noted the film’s premiere on 18 Jun 1981 was a fundraiser, sponsored by First Pacific Bank, to benefit the John Wayne Cancer Clinic at UCLA Medical Center. The 11 Jun 1981 HR reported the film would open in 1, 682 theaters on 19 Jun 1981, and would be the largest opening-to-date for a first-run release.
       The 24 Jun 1981 LAT reported that the film’s opening weekend gross of $11,765,654 was the third largest weekend opening to date. The 29 Jun 1981 DV noted the film’s seven day gross was $18,857,225 and the 30 Jun 1981 DV reported a ten day gross of $27,098,640. An article in the 10 Jul 1981 LAT stated the film had grossed $37,535,551 in two and a half weeks. The 1 Jul 1981 DV noted the film grossed $2,255,000 in its first seven days in Canada, setting a boxoffice record.
       An item in the 4 Feb 1985 DV reported that Roger Moore filed a lawsuit against Eurasia Investments Limited and Golden Harvest International Ltd. Moore’s contract for The Cannonball Run entitled him to five percent of the film’s net profits, and the suit, citing accounting discrepancies, claimed that Moore was owed $134,209.60 in profit participation.
       On 25 Jun 1980, uncredited stuntwoman Heidi Von Beltz was injured in a stunt car crash during production of The Cannonball Run. Von Beltz, a passenger in the car, was left a quadriplegic. As tracked in articles in the 20 Jan 1983 Var, the 13 Aug 1984 DV, and the 26 Jun 1985 Var, Von Beltz filed a $35 million lawsuit, claiming the car had mechanical problems and no seat belts. Twenty-four of the original suit’s defendants, including producer Albert S. Ruddy, executive producer Raymond Chow, and Reynolds, were dropped from the suit after Von Beltz received a Workers’ Compensation claim. The 14 Jun 1986 LAHExam noted that Von Beltz’s $1.5 million workers’ compensation claim was the largest-to-date in the U.S. Needham filed a cross-complaint, claiming that the former defendants should also be required to pay a share of any settlement, and claiming that the production company’s refusal to indemnify him in the lawsuit violated his contract which protected him from third party personal injury claims. The 26 Jun 1985 Var article reported that Von Beltz’s attorneys rejected an offer to settle the case. Although Needham’s representatives denied that a “firm offer” was made at the settlement conference, Von Beltz’s attorney, David Sabin, claimed that Needham offered to pay Von Beltz $15,000 per month, tax free, for the rest of her life. According to an article in the 11 Apr 1986 DV, the defense team made a motion to move the start of the trial to 19 May 1986 because Needham was directing Body Slam (1986, see entry). Judge Jack Goertzen denied the motion because the statute of limitations was about to expire, and Judge Howard Thelin was assigned the case.
       Articles in the 28 Apr 1986 DV, the 29 Apr 1986 DV, the 30 Apr 1986 DV, and the 2 May 1986 DV covered the two main issues of the now $42.5 million law suit against Needham and his loan-out company, Stuntman Inc. The first issue concerned Needham’s negligence, with Von Beltz’s team claiming that, as the director, Needham was responsible for accidents that happened during filming, and that he knew the car was defective. Needham’s team countered that Von Beltz’s accident was caused by driver error and he was not liable for someone else’s mistake. Needham also asserted that it is not the director’s job to inspect stunt cars, and that he had trusted members of the crew to handle the car’s repairs. The second crucial issue of the case was whether Needham and Von Beltz were co-employees on the film. California’s labor codes prohibited co-employees from suing one another for injuries that occur on the job; those claims were settled through Workers’ Compensation. Von Beltz’s team asserted that Needham was hired through his loan-out company, and therefore was not a co-employee. An article in the 9 May 1986 DV reported that a mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a verdict, and the 22 May 1986 DV noted that jury selection had begun in the retrial. Articles in the 14 Jun 1986 LAT, the 18 Jun 1986 DV and the 30 Jul 1986 DV tracked the outcome of the trial in which the jury awarded Von Beltz $4.5 million. The jury’s initial award was $6.5 million, but the jurors decided that Von Beltz was thirty-five percent negligent for participating in the stunt without seat belts, and reduced the compensation accordingly. Von Beltz’s settlement was voided, however, because she had already received $5.8 million in settlements and Workers’ Compensation, and, under California law, those amounts were subtracted from the settlement. Von Beltz’s request for a new trial was denied, and Superior Court Judge Philip Jones upheld the ruling to void Von Beltz’s award, and also upheld the jury’s decision that she was thirty-five percent responsible for the accident. An article in the 15 Mar 1989 Var reported that the California Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s ruling that Needham and Stuntmen Inc. were liable for Von Beltz’s injuries, and that Needham and Von Beltz were not co-employees because he had been hired through his loan-out company.
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