FILM 1863: THE LAWNMOWER MAN

FILM 1863: THE LAWNMOWER MAN

TRIVIA: New Line Cinema had obtained the rights to the Stephen King short story "The Lawnmower Man", and the producers also had an unrelated script called "Cyber God". They simply placed King's title on the production of "Cyber God". King was furious at this abuse of his name, and he sued the studio to have his name and title removed from the film and promotion. They refused, until the studio was ordered to pay ten thousand dollars and full profits.

The scene where the cop (Troy Evans) says that the missing piece of the dead man is in the bird bath, is the only thing in the movie that was taken from Stephen King's short story.

The eight minutes of computer generated effects took seven people eight months to complete on a budget of five hundred thousand dollars.

Several of the symbols Jobe (Jeff Fahey) sees flying at him, during his first VR treatment, are demon evocation seals taken from the infamous Key of Solomon.

It was discovered through FBI tapes that this was former Waco cult leader David Koresh favorite movie

Dr. Angelo's line "I've decided to take my work back underground", was used as a sample in the intro track for the Music For The Jilted Generation album by The Prodigy. 

In the podcast/show How Did This Get Made...episode #149

FILM 1852: THE MEG

FILM 1852: THE MEG

TRIVIA: In real life, Jason Statham is an expert swimmer. In the 1990 Commonwealth Games, he represented England in diving. Footage of him competing can be found online. Most of the shots of him in the water are real. A stunt double was used for more hazardous shots.

In the book, the megalodons are pure white, almost luminescent, from living in an environment with virtually no light. This coloring proved too difficult to render in CGI while still looking realistic, so the megalodons were colored like great white sharks.

Eli Roth was attached as director before being replaced by Jon Turteltaub. Roth left due to creative differences with the studio, namely that he wanted the film to maintain both its R-rating and a $150 million budget. It was also rumored that Roth, on top of writing and directing, also wanted to play the lead role of Jonas, but the studio believed he did not have the star power.

The film is based on the book "MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror," the first book that author Steve Alten ever published.

The Meg (2018) was filmed in New Zealand.

The name of the boat at the end of the film is "Charlotte." This is also the name of the ship that the character Benjamin Franklin Gates searches for in National Treasure (2004), which was also directed by Jon Turteltaub.

Featured on Episode #196 on the podcast "How Did This Get Made?".

FILM 1845: OVER THE TOP

FILM 1845: OVER THE TOP

TRIVIA: Years later, Sylvester Stallone explained why he agreed to appear in this movie, saying, "Menahem Golan kept offering me more and more money, until I finally thought, 'What the hell - no one will see it!'"

John Wetton, lead singer of the rock group Asia, sang "Winner Takes It All" for the movie, but after performing the song, it was felt that his voice wasn't "mean" enough, so the song was offered to Sammy Hagar, whose version ended up being the one on the soundtrack. Hagar did a music video to promote the song and the film which featured both Zumwalt and Stallone.

David Engelbach was appalled at the changes made to his script. He remarked that his original draft wasn't nearly as dumb as the final film and that it was more about truck driving and arm-wrestling than it should have been. He recalled having tears in his eyes upon seeing the film.

Rick Zumwalt was paid 10,000 USD to shave his head for the film. He liked it so much he never went back to having hair.

FILM 1842: ZARDOZ

FILM 1842: ZARDOZ

TRIVIA: According to John Boorman, Sean Connery had a very hard time finding work after Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Boorman was allegedly able to hire Connery for $200,000.

John Boorman made this film after his project to film J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" was canceled.

The opening sequence is an introduction added by John Boorman, at the request of 20th Century Fox executives, to help the audience understand the film.

The Irish government initially refused to allow the production team to import prop guns because of terrorist attacks occurring at the time.

Radio spots (available on the DVD) were narrated by Rod Serling.

Reportedly, Charlotte Rampling looked forward to her sex scene with Sean Connery, then was disappointed when it was over and done with so quickly.

Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth filmed scenes with the lens wide open, fog filters on the camera, and smoke machines on set to achieve a diffused, impressionistic look. It worked on first-generation prints, but when the film was duplicated for release the image quality was so bad it was almost unusable. The studio forbade any cinematographers from using that process on future films.

This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in John Wilson's book "The Official Razzie® Movie Guide."

Burt Reynolds, a big box-office star at the time, who had previously worked with John Boorman on Deliverance (1972), was the first choice for the lead role of Zed. He bowed out due to illness.

Director Ben Wheatley is a huge fan of the movie.

FILM 1833: GODZILLA

FILM 1833: GODZILLA

TRIVIA: In a television interview, Matthew Broderick said that the entire cast were given wet suits to wear underneath their costumes while filming in Hawaii. He was upset because his wet suit zipped up in the back, which made it difficult to put on every day. One day during a break in filming, he was talking with co-star Hank Azaria, who had his shirt off, revealing a wet suit that zipped up in front. Broderick remarked, "Oh, your wet suit zips up in front." Puzzled, Azaria replied, "They ALL zip up in front." Broderick had been putting his wet suit on backwards every day. 

Fruit of the Loom lost their license to sell any Godzilla-related apparel when they leaked images of Godzilla on the Internet in November of 1997. What Fruit of the Loom didn't know was that the images they were given were unique fakes released by the studio as part of an effort to see which companies they could trust to not leak images to the public, as the studio intended to keep Godzilla's appearance a secret until the film opened.

Mayor Ebert and his assistant Gene are spoofs of the late film critics Roger Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel (who would pass away less than a year after the film's release). This is in response to the duo giving negative reviews to Emmerich and Devlin's earlier films Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996). The film also co-opted the duo's trademarked "Thumbs Up" gesture from their various television shows by depicting Mayor Ebert's campaign as "Thumbs Up for New York!" and Gene later disapproving of his decision to exploit the disaster by giving him a thumbs down. When the actual Siskel and Ebert reviewed the film on their show, it received two thumbs down and Gene Siskel commented on being spoofed in the film; he said it was "petty" and asked the filmmakers "if you're going to go through the trouble of putting us in a monster movie, why don't you at least take advantage of having the monster either eat or squash us". The duo would later name the film as one of their worst films of 1998.

Halfway through a screening, Kenpachirô Satsuma, who played Godzilla from 1985-1995, walked out, saying "It's not Godzilla. It doesn't have the spirit."

This movie features more Simpson voice actors than any other project besides The Simpsons (1989) itself: Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer and Nancy Cartwright. The Simpsons and its creators are huge Godzilla fans and Godzilla, and his roar is used quite frequently in the show.

The film created quite a backlash among the fan base of the original series. The fans conceived a nickname to distinguish this film from the original: G.I.N.O., which is an acronym for "Godzilla in Name Only," indicating their dislike for it.

The policeman seen during Godzilla's arrival is the same policeman (both played by same actor) seen suddenly leaving his patrol car in the middle of an intersection in Independence Day (1996).

Dean Devlin aggressively defended the movie on internet message boards, at times telling the Godzilla fans "to hell with you" if they had a negative opinion over it. The official Godzilla message board was shut down soon thereafter due to all the heated arguing. Years later, Devlin has admitted to recognizing the movie's faults and apologized to the fans in various interviews.

Matthew Broderick's character's name is Dr. Niko Tatopoulos. Godzilla's designer and supervisor is Patrick Tatopoulos.

When this modern remake was first conceived in 1990, James Cameron was originally offered the chance to direct. When he passed, Tim Burton was connected for a few years, with Joe Johnston's name bandied about for some time also. Paul Verhoeven was going to direct but he passed on the project. Then Jan de Bont was attached and set to direct, but his budget for the film, estimated at $150 million, was higher than the studio was willing to pay. After he was let go, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin came in.

Due to the tight deadlines and likely because the monster's look was to be kept secret, the movie wasn't given test screenings. The studio later deemed this a mistake, since this had meant that none of the movie's faults could be fixed for the theatrical release. This was one of the reasons behind the movie's grandiose promotional campaign, since the execs expected the movie to fail without sufficient marketing push.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Roland Emmerich: [44] Cab in final chase sequence is cab MN 44.

FILM 1817: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII

FILM 1817: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII

TRIVIA: First collaboration between writer/director Andy Sidaris and actor Rodrigo Obregón, who would appear in almost every one of Mr. Sidaris' subsequent films.

There is a scene where a poster of Malibu Express (1985) is shown in a wall. The movie is a reference to Andy Sidaris' previous movie.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Andy Sidaris: Whitey the TV director.