A 6 Aug 1992 HR news item stated that screenwriters Martin Donovan and David Koepp first pitched the idea for Death Becomes Her to Universal Pictures, and the studio signed on to develop the screenplay. Robert Zemeckis then received the screenplay from Universal, and, after he was attached as director, the film was cast. Producer Steve Starkey likened the process to the “classic studio system” and Zemeckis described it as “rare” for the times, stating that screenplays were usually in turnaround or had at least one actor attached by the time they were sent to him.
       Kevin Kline was initially cast as “Dr. Ernest Menville” but fell out of the project, allegedly because Universal refused to pay his requested salary of $3 million. Although Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges were both considered as replacements, Bruce Willis was eventually hired. Army Archerd’s 7 Apr 1992 DV “Just for Variety” column stated that the three principal actors, Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Willis, as well as Zemeckis and Steve Starkey, agreed to take lower salaries than usual in exchange for profit participation. The budget for the film was $40 million.
       Shooting began 9 Dec 1991, according to a 10 Dec 1991 HR production charts listing, with a two-week hiatus around Christmas, as stated in a 7 Aug 1992 HR “Hollywood Report” column. The last day of principal photography was 9 Apr 1991, but a new ending was shot over three days in mid-Jun 1992, as reported in a 22 Jun 1992 Var brief, after Zemeckis decided that the original ending “was not consistent with the rest of the film.” According to production notes from AMPAS library files, filming locations in the vicinity of Los Angeles, CA, included: the Wilshire Ebell Theatre; a beach house in Malibu; Universal Studios; Bistro Gardens restaurant in Studio City; Rodeo Drive and Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills; and Paramount Studios. The mansion belonging to Ernest and “Madeline Ashton” was built on a soundstage in Culver City, CA, and production designer Rick Carter fashioned the home in a style partly inspired by Hearst Castle. As stated in the 7 Apr 1992 DV, one scene was scheduled to be filmed in Switzerland.
       According to production notes, at least sixteen people worked on the makeup team. Willis spent three hours daily being made up to look older, and, for the portion of the story in which her character, “Helen Sharp,” weighs an extra 200 pounds, Hawn wore a fat suit made of a material -- developed especially for the film by prosthetics designers Lance Anderson and his son, David Anderson -- called “flabbercast,” a substance that resembled “jello.” For the scene depicting Madeline’s physical transformation after she drinks the magic potion, Streep’s makeup artist and hairstylist, Roy Helland, knelt behind the actress and manually pushed up her breasts with his hands to simulate her breasts lifting on their own, as stated in a 17 Aug 1992 People item.
       The film’s extensive special effects required the use of “miniatures, computer graphic techniques, digital technology and blue screen work,” according to production notes. A Nov 1992 issue of Cinefex stated that several animatronic puppets were designed by special body effects designers and creators Tom Woodruff, Jr., and Alec Gillis, including eight puppets made to resemble Madeline in different states of physical distortion. For the mangled version of Madeline that reanimates after Ernest pushes her down a flight of stairs, a “rod puppet” was created that could unfold and re-form itself. To achieve the special effect wherein Madeline moves around while her neck is twisted so that her head faces the wrong way, Streep wore a blue bag over her head and walked around the room backward. Streep’s face was later shot against a bluescreen, while the actress was swiveled in a chair to match the movements of her body. According to Cinefex, Streep’s skin was very sensitive, which limited the amount of prosthetics used and necessitated more bluescreen work. Another effects-heavy sequence in which Helen is shot in the abdomen and, later, walks around with a large hole through her midriff required a headless dummy that was rigged with explosives to simulate the gunshot. To portray Helen’s body being propelled into a fountain after the gunshot, a stuntwoman was filmed “recoiling from the blast” and “being thrown thirty feet in the air.” Hawn’s head was later added to the footage of the dummy using a technique referred to by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as “match-move.”
       A 9 Aug 1992 LAT news item reported that the actress Tracey Ullman worked two days on set, playing the role of a bartender and girlfriend to Ernest, but she was later cut out of the picture, along with six or seven other actors with speaking roles, due to changes in the story. In the unused scenes, Ullman’s character ran away to Europe with Ernest in a happy ending, but Zemeckis decided the sequence was “too saccharine” and replaced it with a much darker ending depicting Ernest’s funeral.
       In its opening weekend, the film took in $15.2 million in box-office receipts, as reported in the 6 Aug 1992 HR news item. Overseas, Death Becomes Her set a box-office record in Taipei, earning $269,310 in two days and marking the “biggest opening ever” for overseas distributor United International Pictures, whose previous top-selling releases in Taipei were Ghost (1990, see entry) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, see entry). According to a 7 Dec 2012 Var online news item, the film took in $58 million in domestic box-office receipts and earned $149 million worldwide.
       Critical reception was mixed, with praise largely aimed at the film's special effects. The film received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, by Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang, Doug Smythe, and Tom Woodruff, Jr. In addition, Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.”
       The 7 Dec 2012 Var online news item announced that Bravo Television was pairing with Zemeckis to create an hourlong television drama program based on Death Becomes Her, with Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, and Jackie Levine set to executive produce.
      End credits include the following acknowledgements: “Footage courtesy of The Arsenio Hall Show and Paramount Pictures Corporation; ‘The Beaver’ footage licensed from Aims Media.”