That Thing You Do: Theatrical Cut [1996]

Random Trivia For This Title:

• The waitress character played by Rita Wilson is named Marguerite. Wilson's birth name is Marguerita Ibrahimoff.
• Tom Hanks claimed that he wrote the script while on the promotional tour for Forrest Gump due to his boredom doing non-stop interviews.
• Adam Schlesinger, the bassist of Fountains of Wayne, penned the title song in response to a contest being held by the studio. Their song won, being used in the movie. The movie was released shortly after their first album.
• Tom Hanks's writer-directorial film debut. Film debut of Tom Everett Scott. Tom Hanks was initially opposed to hiring Scott because of Scott's strong resemblance to a younger Hanks. He was finally convinced by his wife, Rita Wilson, who thought Scott was cute.
• U Thant (oo-'tant), whom Guy mentions in the hotel coffee shop, was the Secretary General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971.
• The characters Jimmy Mattingly (played by Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny Haise (played by Steve Zahn) of The Wonders have the same last names of the two astronauts Ken Mattingly and Fred Haise in the movie Apollo 13, which Tom Hanks starred in.
• The FFA (Future Farmers of America) loaned strictly member-only jackets so the state science fair would look more authentic.
• According to Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron was the first actress to audition for her part and the first person to be cast in the movie.
• Including full versions, alternative versions, live versions and snippets, the song "That Thing You Do" is heard eleven times in the movie.
• Parallels with The Beatles:
  • Original band name (The Oneders) is a play on words involving music nomenclature (The Beatles).
  • First hit ({Please Please Me} for The Beatles) was a sped-up version of a slow ballad.
  • In The Beatles' first appearance on [The Ed Sullivan Show]: {Episode #17.19}, a shot of John Lennon was accompanied by the caption, "Sorry Girls, He's Married". In this film it's Mattingly who's shown with the caption, "Careful Girls, He's Engaged" during their national TV debut.
  • Both acts first reached fame after replacing their original drummer.
  • Each group loses its original bass player (The Beatles' original bassist ^[?] Stu Sutcliffe died and The Wonders' bassist joined the Marines.
  • Last-minute, temporary replacement: The Wonders' bassist had to be replaced after he disappeared; during part of The Beatles' 1964 world tour, drummer ^[?] Jimmy Nicol had to sit in for Ringo Starr, who was undergoing an emergency tonsillectomy.
  • In the extended cut it's shown that the group's manager, Mr. White, has a boyfriend. The Beatles' manager, ^[?] Brian Epstein, was also gay.
  • When The Wonders are running to their cars in Wisconsin to catch a plane to "the coast," Faye (Liv Tyler) gets mistaken for a female fan, and is stopped by the police from following the band. A similar incident happened when The Beatles were traveling to see ^[?] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While running to board a train, John Lennon's then wife, ^[?] Cynthia Lennon, was stopped because she was mistaken for a female fan. Unlike the film's version, no one came back to retrieve Cynthia before the train left the station.
  • Before The Beatles struck fame in the UK, they were forced to change the drummer ^[?] Pete Best to Ringo Starr. Before getting their first fame (playing {That Thing You Do!} at the contest), the group was forced to replace the drummer Chad and Guy had to step in.
• Steve Zahn was best man at Tom Everett Scott's wedding.
• Steve Zahn is an accomplished singer/guitarist. He played guitar and sang in both this movie and Saving Silverman.
• The four actors playing The Wonders rehearsed as a band for eight weeks to get the feel of performing - but most of their performances in the film were dubbed by other musicians.