40 Fun Facts About Ladyhawke

In Ladyhawke, the Bishop's curse turns the knight Navarre into which animal every night?

A wolf is Navarre's shape from dusk until dawn, a part shared on set by four black Siberian animals named Akeela, Kollchek, Levi and Sasha.

In Ladyhawke, which rare event in the sky lets the cursed lovers face the Bishop together as humans?

A solar eclipse fulfils the monk Imperius's riddle about day and night arriving at once, a prophecy Navarre had dismissed as a drunkard's talk.

Which actor plays the fast-talking thief Phillipe Gaston, who escapes the dungeons of Aquila in Ladyhawke?

Matthew Broderick played the thief a year before his title role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off made him a household name.

Which actress plays Isabeau, the noblewoman who spends her days as a hawk in Ladyhawke?

Michelle Pfeiffer was singled out by Variety, whose review judged her perfect as the tale's enchanting beauty.

Which actor plays Etienne of Navarre, the knight who rides with a hawk in Ladyhawke?

Rutger Hauer got the part only after the original leading man walked out during rehearsals.

Which director of The Omen and Lethal Weapon made Ladyhawke and later married its producer, Lauren Shuler?

Richard Donner spent years chasing finance for the film and came close to making it twice before two studios agreed to share the cost.

Ladyhawke's castles and mountain meadows were filmed on location in which European country?

Italy supplied the castle of Torrechiara near Parma and the high Apennine meadow of Campo Imperatore, a main outdoor location not far from the real city of L'Aquila.

Ladyhawke's studio promoted the film as based on what, a claim its writer said broke Writers Guild rules?

An old legend was the publicity line, but writer Edward Khmara said he invented the story himself, and the Guild won him a small payment in compensation.

Which animal nickname does the young pickpocket Phillipe Gaston go by in Ladyhawke?

The Mouse is the thief's nickname, and he lives up to it by wriggling out of the Bishop's dungeons shortly before he is due to be executed.

Which American star was first cast as the knight Navarre in Ladyhawke but quit during rehearsals?

Kurt Russell had been cast opposite the film's leading lady, and his late exit sent the role to a Dutch actor instead.

Which element of Ladyhawke is often mocked as out of place in its medieval setting?

The soundtrack blends an orchestra with synthesizers and rock rhythms, and the review site Filmtracks ranks it among the most widely mocked in film history.

Ladyhawke's director chose composer Andrew Powell after hearing which rock band while scouting locations?

The Alan Parsons Project had used Powell as its arranger and conductor, and Parsons himself produced the music for the film.

The thief Phillipe Gaston's wisecracking asides throughout Ladyhawke are addressed to whom?

God hears the thief's muttered comments all through the story, and the New York Times praised how close those wisecracks came to an ageless kind of comedy.

How does Phillipe Gaston escape the dungeons of Aquila just before his execution in Ladyhawke?

Through the sewers is the way out and, days later, the way back in, when Phillipe swims the drains again to unlock the cathedral doors for Navarre.

Which young actor was first offered the thief's role in Ladyhawke, before Dustin Hoffman was also approached?

Sean Penn was the first choice for the pickpocket, and when a second offer also went nowhere the director settled on a younger rising star.

What is the name of the stallion ridden by the knight Navarre throughout Ladyhawke?

Goliath was played by a circus stallion called Othello, who held his own opposite the film's human stars.

John Wood, Ladyhawke's villainous Bishop, had played Professor Falken in which 1983 thriller about a military computer?

WarGames had already put Wood on screen with the young actor who plays Ladyhawke's thief, so the two met again as enemies.

In Ladyhawke, which signal is Imperius told to treat as proof that Navarre has failed to kill the Bishop?

Church bells would mean failure, so Navarre asks the monk to end the hawk's suffering if they ring, and they do ring while he is still fighting.

Which actor, later a famous Spider-Man villain, plays Cezar, the hunter hired by the Bishop in Ladyhawke?

Alfred Molina, the future Doctor Octopus, had made his film debut only a few years earlier as Indiana Jones's treacherous guide.

Which actor, famous on British television as Rumpole of the Bailey, plays the monk Imperius in Ladyhawke?

Leo McKern, an Australian by birth, plays the monk whose drunken slip of the tongue first told the Bishop about the lovers.

Ladyhawke was photographed by Vittorio Storaro, who won his first Oscar for shooting which Vietnam War epic?

Apocalypse Now brought Storaro his first Academy Award, and even Time Out's lukewarm review of Ladyhawke called it always beautifully photographed.

Uncredited Ladyhawke co-writer David Peoples had earlier co-written which science-fiction film of the early 1980s?

Blade Runner gave Ladyhawke a second link, because its replicant leader was played by the actor who went on to become the knight Navarre.

The actress who plays Isabeau in Ladyhawke had broken through as Elvira Hancock in which 1983 crime film?

Scarface was her breakthrough, even though its director at first refused to audition her after seeing Grease 2.

Ladyhawke's director released which other 1985 adventure film, made from a story by Steven Spielberg?

The Goonies followed Ladyhawke into cinemas the same year, swapping cursed lovers for a gang of children hunting pirate treasure.

Ladyhawke was named Best Fantasy Film by which annual honours for science fiction, fantasy and horror?

Saturn Awards voters also honoured Nanà Cecchi's costumes, giving the film two wins from its four nominations.

Ladyhawke's two Academy Award nominations both recognised which part of the filmmaking craft?

Sound earned the film nominations for both its mixing and its effects editing, though it won neither prize.

Navarre's stallion in Ladyhawke made which horse breed, then numbering under 100 in America, suddenly popular?

Friesian horses were barely known to Americans until the film, and the stallion who played the part is often credited with igniting interest in the breed.

Which Hugo Award-winning author of The Snow Queen wrote the novelization of Ladyhawke?

Joan D. Vinge read the screenplay, thought it looked like fun and put the word out that she wanted the job, and the publisher that won the rights hired her on its science fiction editor's advice.

In Ladyhawke, what wounds the hawk during an ambush, forcing Phillipe to carry her to the monk Imperius?

A crossbow bolt strikes the bird, and when Phillipe later picks the lock on the monk's room he finds a wounded woman lying in her place.

Isabeau, the cursed noblewoman of Ladyhawke, is the daughter of the count of which French region?

Anjou gives Isabeau her full title, just as her lover Etienne takes his name from the old Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre.

How does the hunter Cezar die in Ladyhawke after Isabeau finds him stalking the transformed Navarre?

Caught in his own trap is the hunter's fate, because Isabeau shoves him into one of the devices he had laid for her lover.

From what danger does Phillipe rescue the transformed Navarre in Ladyhawke, getting his chest clawed in the process?

Drowning under ice nearly claims the animal when a frozen surface gives way, and the scratches Phillipe suffers later stop Navarre from attacking him.

Which officer of the Bishop's guard does Navarre finally kill in the cathedral duel in Ladyhawke?

Marquet holds the command that once belonged to Navarre, so the cathedral duel pits the old leader of the Bishop's men against the new.

Which medieval French poet, jailed by a bishop at Meung, inspired the thief Phillipe in Ladyhawke?

François Villon wrote bitterly about his months in that bishop's prison, and writer Edward Khmara said the episode was used in the original story.

Writer Edward Khmara said the idea for Ladyhawke came to him during which activity on a Hollywood YMCA roof?

Jogging on that rooftop gave him the image of two lovers who take human form only at opposite times of day.

Ladyhawke co-writer Tom Mankiewicz was best known for his scripts about which long-running film hero?

James Bond films such as Diamonds Are Forever made his name, and he had already reworked the Superman script for the same director.

Rocca Calascio, the ruined fortress of Imperius in Ladyhawke, later served as a location for which other medieval film?

The Name of the Rose used the same mountaintop ruin a few years later, as did the George Clooney thriller The American.

The two trained birds that play Isabeau's daytime form in Ladyhawke were which kind of hawk?

Red-tailed hawks called Gift and Spike II shared the part, and Spike II was later renamed after the film itself.

Why does the Bishop of Aquila place his curse on Isabeau and Navarre in Ladyhawke?

She had spurned him, and when the jealous Bishop learned that Isabeau and Navarre were secretly in love he turned to dark powers for revenge.

In Ladyhawke, Navarre tells Phillipe that hawks share which trait with the animal he becomes at night?

They mate for life, Navarre says, a pointed remark made just after Phillipe admits his own feelings for Isabeau.