Random Trivia For This Title: - Hank AzariaHank Azaria had previously worked with Ben StillerBen Stiller in Mystery Men. Azaria also made cameo appearances in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Along Came Polly, both of which also starred Stiller.
- Director Shawn LevyShawn Levy told a National Public Radio interviewer that once the Smithsonian Institution agreed to lend their name to the film, their curators were very helpful and willing to share information about the real-life characters represented in the movie, but Levy had more trouble with the intellectual property-holders for the fictional characters represented. For instance, for a scene in which Darth Vader interacts with the pharaoh played by Hank AzariaHank Azaria, there was a person on the set who came from LucasFilm and whose job it was to observe all scenes filmed that involved Darth Vader and to tell the filmmakers what Vader would or wouldn't do.
- It's the ninth film with Ben StillerBen Stiller and Owen WilsonOwen Wilson after The Cable Guy, Permanent Midnight, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, Starsky & Hutch, Meet the Fockers and Night at the Museum.
- The first movie ever filmed in the Smithsonian Institution.
- The following actors appear in both this movie and The Office and/or The Office: Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais, Mindy KalingMindy Kaling, Amy AdamsAmy Adams, Craig RobinsonCraig Robinson, and Ed HelmsEd Helms.
- The Smithsonian does host a giant squid exhibit, but this was forgone for a giant octopus in the film. For some reason, however, the film's marketing in Japan (where the difference between a squid and an octopus is common knowledge) consistently referred to the octopus as a "squid," even though it is never directly identified as either animal in the film.
- Reese WitherspoonReese Witherspoon was originally set to play Amelia Earhart.
- Hank AzariaHank Azaria modeled his voice and the lisp after Boris KarloffBoris Karloff from his performance in the original 1932 version of The Mummy. Karloff had a small but noticeable lisp.
- Clint HowardClint Howard, Ron HowardRon Howard's brother, appears as a flight commander in the Aeuronautic Center. He did the same role in Apollo 13, directed by his brother.
- Amy AdamsAmy Adams hated having to wear the skin tight pants that her character wore because it showed off her behind.
- Hank AzariaHank Azaria filmed test scenes (some of which are on the DVD) of his character Kahmunrah with various accents including American Southerner (from Alabama) and English Cockney, before settling on an upper-class British accent marred by a humorous lisp.
- Near the end of the movie, Larry and Jed notice that Amelia Earhart has flown off in the wrong direction. Later, when Larry meets the human lookalike, she asks for help getting to the miniature room because she gets lost. This is a reference to [?] Amelia Earhart's last known flight where she disappeared, not having any idea where she and her navigator, [?] Fred Noonan, were at.
- Thomas LennonThomas Lennon and Robert Ben GarantRobert Ben Garant, the authors of the film, play Wilbur Wright & Orville Wright.
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