Synopsis

A disgraced television reporter sees a chance to revive his career when a fired museum security guard takes hostages during a desperate attempt to reclaim his job. As the standoff attracts national attention, the reporter manipulates the crisis into sensational live coverage, while the gunman becomes increasingly unstable and the media frenzy threatens to turn a tragic mistake into a national spectacle.

Factoids & Trivia

• The screenplay was first acquired by Universal in 1994 before the project moved to Warner Bros. through the turnaround process.

• The story was originally planned for Madison, Wisconsin. It was relocated to a fictional Northern California town, but the title remained because "Mad City" refers to Madison as well as the film's broader portrait of collective hysteria.

• The film was influenced by Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951), another media satire about a reporter exploiting a human crisis for professional gain.

• Although the story is set in the fictional town of Madeline, much of the production was filmed in San Jose, with additional shooting in Los Angeles and New York City. Downtown San Jose's St. James Square stood in for the area surrounding the museum.

• The production had an estimated $50 million budget but earned roughly $10.5 million domestically, making it one of Warner Bros.' notable commercial disappointments of 1997.

• Research for the television-news scenes included observing local news operations. One detail incorporated into the film was an anchorman's use of simple facial symbols on scripts to indicate the emotional tone of each story.

• The American Humane Association monitored the production under its "No Animals Were Harmed" program. A dog appears briefly in a scene involving a reporter interviewing the hostage-taker's mother.