The inspiration for “Tropic Thunder” goes back to 1987, when I had a small part in Spielberg's “Empire of the Sun.” At that time all my actor friends were doing Vietnam films like “Platoon” and “Hamburger Hill” and going off to fake boot camps for two weeks. Then during interviews they would say, “This boot camp was the most intense thing I have ever experienced in my entire life and we really bonded as a unit and a group”–Ben Stiller

For inspiration, I¬íve looked to the naturalistic world cinema of the 1950¬ís, and an approach that values subtle yet conflicting emotions above frantic action and the overt fears and pleasures that tend to drive many current films. It includes subtle romance, gentle humor, and heartbreaking tragedy ¬ñ but it should not be depressing. Instead, we concentrate on the Japanese idea of “mono no aware,” which is difficult to translate, but involves finding peace with life's imperfections–Director Chris Eska

Alex Proyas¬í affinity for Asimov¬ís stories dates back to his childhood: ¬ìWhen I was about ten years old, I used to read a lot of science-fiction and Asimov was one of the authors that I enjoyed very much. I was a real fan of the science fiction genre and I, Robot was one of the few books that I always thought would be really cool to make into a movie. When you¬íre young, you dream about this stuff and I wanted to make films from a pretty early age. So, I dreamed about turning this into a movie one day.”

In 2003, the song “Beer For My Horses,” a duet by beloved country music stars Toby Keith and Willie Nelson hit the charts at #1 and stayed there for 6 weeks, becoming one of Keith's biggest and most indelible hits. The song unfolded a riveting tale–that of a group of fine citizens saving a damsel in distress from evil criminals and returning to celebrate justice in freewheeling, down-home style–with “whiskey for the men and beer for the horses” at the local saloon.