FILM 2008: THE HAPPENING

FILM 2008: THE HAPPENING

TRIVIA: The movie was shot completely in sequence.

M. Night Shyamalan's first R-rated film.

Mark Wahlberg admitted that he regrets working on this movie, but said, "You can't blame me for wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn't playing a cop or a crook."

Director M. Night Shyamalan's first film in which he does not physically appear for a cameo. He is the voice of "Joey," who calls Alma a few times throughout the movie. The audience never sees him, nor learns of his fate.

Bystander apathy is a real psychological phenomenon, with a strong theoretical and evidential base.

The film's tagline, "We've sensed it. We've seen the signs. Now...it's happening," referring to M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed The Sixth Sense (1999), Signs (2002), and The Happening (2008).

Mark Wahlberg's line "Be scientific, douchebag" was improvised.

FILM 2003: THE ITALIAN JOB

FILM 2003: THE ITALIAN JOB

TRIVIA: In interviews, Jason Statham said that in addition to the stunt driving course they all received, he got two days' driving tuition from Damon Hill, the British ex-world champion Formula 1 driver. However, all of the cast members acknowledged that Charlize Theronwas easily the best driver among them.

During production, Charlize Theron got two speeding tickets while driving in her own car, both for going more than 40 miles per hour over the speed limit. She said that after filming driving so fast, she just couldn't get her speed down to drive home.

Two electric-powered MINI Coopers and one MINI Cooper S had to be specially built for the film, since gasoline-powered vehicles are not allowed to operate in Los Angeles' all-electric subway system for safety reasons.

When the film performed surprisingly well at the box office, there were rumors of a sequel while the film was still showing in theaters. An early script had it set in Brazil and it was called "The Brazilian Job" with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, and Seth Green attached to reprise their roles, but the sequel fell apart after key people at Paramount Pictures left by the end of 2004, and rough drafts of the script proved unsatisfactory. However, Wahlberg said as recently as 2015 that a sequel was still a possibility.

Edward Norton made it clear that his participation in this film was a result of contractual obligation, not choice. He had signed a three-movie deal with Paramount, of which Primal Fear (1996), his breakthrough movie, was the first. He kept dismissing scripts for the other two films of the deal, until Paramount coerced him into accepting a role in this film. Norton did not hide his misery on the set, clashing with the crew throughout it, and when the producer handed out gifts to the cast over the movie's surprisingly strong box office performance, Norton returned the gift with a note stating "Give this to someone you actually like - or someone who actually likes you."

Lyle (Seth Green) claims he was the creator of Napster, the first online file-sharing service for music, and that it was stolen by his college roommate, Shawn Fanning. In the flashback of Lyle sleeping and his roommate taking a disk out of the PC that has Napster on it, his roommate is portrayed by the real Shawn Fanning, the legitimate creator of Napster. When Fanning steals the disk in the scene, the bottom of a Metallica poster can be seen on the wall. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was famously a very vocal critic of Napster, and Metallica filed a lawsuit against the service for copyright infringement and racketeering.

The beautiful woman in Lyle's house at the end of the movie is played by Kelly Brook, Jason Statham's real girlfriend at the time the film was shot.

The Venice authority allowed the crew to go over the speed limit for the boat chase sequence.

32 MINI Coopers were used throughout the shooting.

While the thieves are spying on Steve in his home, Sir Michael Caine can be seen on the large screen television in a clip from the original The Italian Job (1969).

The NetCom Cable van shows the phone number 1-800-555-0199. This is the same number used by Al Pacino in The Insider (1999) and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty(1999) (albeit with different area codes).

Screenwriters Donna Powers and Wayne Powers hadn't seen the original The Italian Job(1969) before agreeing to write the script for the remake. After that, they only watched it once. This was on purpose, because they didn't want to copy the movie but wanted to make their own, albeit inspired by the original one.

F. Gary Gray cast Mark Wahlberg after seeing him in Boogie Nights (1997).

FILM 1948: PLANET OF THE APES

FILM 1948: PLANET OF THE APES

TRIVIA: Mark Wahlberg joined the film after meeting with Tim Burton for only five minutes. He was so anxious to work with Burton that he agreed to play any part. Wahlberg dropped out of the role of Linus in Ocean's Eleven (2001) to do this film.

Michael Clarke Duncan had sprained his ankle during filming, and was forced to go to the hospital in his full gorilla make-up.

In order to star in the film, Tim Roth declined the role of Professor Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Ari in this film, would go on to play Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter franchise.

One of the things Rick Baker enjoyed doing was making himself up as an ape and scaring people at a drive-in theater showing the original Planet of the Apes (1968).

Tim Burton said that he would rather jump out of a window than direct a sequel to this film.

In an interview with MTV, while comparing this film with Rise of the Planet of the Apes(2011), Mark Wahlberg blamed 20th Century Fox for screwing the film up, saying, "I haven't seen it yet, but I heard it was pretty damn good. Well, ours wasn't. It is what it is. Ours wasn't. They didn't have the script right. Fox Studios had a release date before Tim Burton had shot a foot of film. They were pushing him and pushing him in the wrong direction. You have to let Tim do his thing."

During filming, Tim Roth held a grudge against Charlton Heston, due to his associations with the National Rifle Association. He said, "It was very difficult for me. On one level, there's the man, and he's my dad. But on the other level, the whole NRA thing is what it is now. I'm so against it, very vocally so. But it was inappropriate for the workplace. If I'm going to talk to him, I'll talk to him outside the workplace. So it was just two guys in make-up doing a scene." Roth later claimed he would not have appeared in the film had he known he would be sharing a scene with Heston.

WILHELM SCREAM: From Tival during the final battle.

FILM 1924: THE OTHER GUYS

FILM 1924: THE OTHER GUYS

TRIVIA: The idea of teaming up of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg had been gestating since The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007), where Will had been viciously insulting other actors as part of a bit, but became extremely polite to Mark.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Adam McKay: Dirty Mike.

FILM 1754: TED 2

FILM 1754: TED 2

TRIVIA: According to the DVD commentary, Seth MacFarlane witnessed Justin Bieber walk out of a screening of this movie, after Morgan Freeman insults Ted, comparing him to Bieber.

Guy's lover is played by Michael Dorn, best known for his role as Worf on Star Trek: the Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). During the Comic-Con scene, he cosplays as this character.

Stephen Collins had a major cameo. He was replaced after a child sex abuse video confession.

When Sam is playing the guitar, and singing in the countryside, all the little animals gather round to listen. The song and chord structure is very similar to the scene from ¡Three Amigos! (1986), when, Chevy, Steve, and Martin sing the cowboy lullaby "Blue Shadows on the Trail".

The Harrison Ford movie Ted makes a reference to is called 'Regarding Henry'.

FILM 1622: PATRIOTS DAY

TRIVIA: The casting call for extras for the film resulted in a line stretching the entire quarter-mile length of Braintree Street in Allston.

First feature film scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that isn't directed by David Fincher.

The films script was merged by two separate scripts. One was called "Boston Strong" and focused more on the action/thriller side of the story. Another was titled "Patriots Day" which was more of a factual drama. The final script was a mix of the two which would have the film be both factually correct and would have some tense action to keep the audience involved and entertained.

After David Ortiz's speech the Boston Red Sox went on to win the World Series that year in 2013.