Burt Lancaster impressed the originally skeptical Luchino Visconti by letting it be known that he had read the book and lobbying for the part. Fox asked Visconti to choose between Anthony Quinn, Spencer Tracy, and Lancaster. Visconti made up his mind after seeing _Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)_. Lancaster later appeared in Visconti's _Conversation Piece (1974)_.
Darryl F. Zanuck, whose studio put up financing for the film, did not want Burt Lancaster to wear a mustache. Zanuck, himself, wore a mustache.
Warren Beatty flew to Rome to meet Visconti with the possibility of playing Tancredi but turned it down. He later told his publicist that Visconti had been 'begging him' to star in the movie.
Luchino Visconti wanted Laurence Olivier for the title role but his producers insisted on a movie star with clout at the box office and thus, Burt Lancaster was cast.
Luchino Visconti wanted to cast Nikolai Cherkasov as Prince Salina (apparently, he saw the Russian actor in Sergei M. Eisenstein's movies, "Ivan the Terrible" and "Alexander Nevsky"). But Cherkassov refused for unknown reasons. Burt Lancaster later told to film critic Roger Ebert: "They wanted a Russian, but he was too old. They wanted Olivier, but he was too busy. When I was suggested, Visconti said, 'Oh, no! A cowboy!' But I had just finished 'Judgment at Nuremberg,' which he saw, and he needed $3 million, which 20th Century-Fox would give them if they used an American star, and so the inevitable occurred. And it turned out to be a wonderful marriage".
Horst Buchholz turned down the role of Tancredi.
According to Fulco della Verdura, the director's close friend, Luchino Visconti's affection for Alain Delon initially caused some favoritism. "He was the only actor to have a dressing room; poor Burt Lancaster stood around for hours waiting." Visconti was homosexual.
Although Claudia Cardinale's dialogue was dubbed by Solveyg D'Assunta, her voice can still be heard in some scenes, in particular when her and Alain Delon run around the empty house; her deep and hearty laugh being quite distinctive.
Director Luchino Visconti was disappointed that the producers of the film insisted on casting Burt Lancaster in the lead role, because he felt he was not right for the part. This caused tension between the two during the first few weeks of filming. Visconti's harsh treatment toward Lancaster eventually led to the actor publicly confronting him on the set. Visconti was so impressed with the passion and sincerity that Lancaster displayed during his tirade that the two developed a close and amicable relationship for the rest of the filming process.
Finnish censorship visa # 67807 delivered on 17-1-1964.
French visa # 26716.
Italian censorship visa # 39917 delivered on 26-3-1963.
Marlon Brando was considered for the role of Prince Salina.
Re-released in France in July 1980.
Such was Luchino Visconti's attention to detail that Claudia Cardinale had a period embroidered handkerchief tucked into her purse, a prop that was never seen on camera.
The failure of the American version was not helped when Fox complicated matters by not releasing it in Technicolor like the Italian version, but in the inferior, but cheaper, DeLuxe color process.
The film was shot over eleven of the hottest weeks of the year. Toward the end of the schedule, Burt Lancaster took time out to pick up his Best Actor's prize for Birdman of Alcatraz at the Venice Film Festival.
The painting that the Prince (Burt Lancaster) comments on in the ball scene is Greuze's 'Death of the Just Man'.
The title "Il Gattopardo" literally translates from Italian as "The Serval". In France, the film was released as "Le Guépard" ("The Cheetah"), and in UK and USA as "The Leopard". The serval, the cheetah and the leopard are in fact three different species of felines.
While the film was photographed in Technicolor's large format Technirama wide screen system, 20th Century-Fox changed the credit on their prints to reflect it was in CinemaScope and Color by DeLuxe.