FILM 1956: A SIMPLE FAVOUR

FILM 1956: A SIMPLE FAVOUR

TRIVIA: The gin used in the martinis shared by Anna and Blake's charaters is Aviation (American) Gin, a company owned by Blake Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds.

One of the reasons that Blake Lively wanted Emily to wear suits was because she wanted to differentiate Emily from the character she played on "Gossip Girl." Both characters are women in fashion from the Upper East Side. "I wanted it to be a very different look and vibe," she says.

Blake Lively wanted to create an iconic look for her character. She drew inspiration from Paul Feig's style in real life - "the buttoned up, three piece suit, bow tie, pocket square, cuff link wearing version."

The most prominent part of the soundtrack consists of French songs from the '60s.

In an interview, Anna Kendrick recalled the scene where Stephanie goes to Emily's house as being particularly fun to film. She says, "we found a way to kind of flirt with each other that was really fun, even though the things we're saying don't necessarily have that element."

Director of photography John Schwartzman was inspired by the "brightly lit, poppy colors" of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet." He says, "The idea was to not try to hide things in the shadows on this movie. Let's put it all out there in plain sight and let the audience figure out all the information."

The theme that screenwriter Jessica Sharzer was most interested in exploring was how society often forces women to choose one role to play in life, then penalizes them for breaking out of that role. "I like that this story looks at how different women decide between career and children."

Costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus researched real mommy vloggers on Instagram for inspiration in creating Stephanie's look. The sweater that she wears with the pom poms was inspired by one vlog that was very "This is how you DIY kitty cats on your collar," as Kalfus puts it. (Stephanie actually does wear cats on her collar earlier in the film when she gets in touch with Sean in London.)

In order to help the audience feel as though they were really following Stephanie's vlogs, director of photography John Schwartzman chose to re-film the vlog scenes as they played back on a very high-resolution monitor. The technique allowed him to incorporate the detailed texture of the pixels on screen.

Director Paul Feig worked with Linda Cardellini, who plays Diana Hyland, on "Freaks and Geeks". He was thrilled to get another chance to work with her after 17 years.

The director of photography, John Schwartzman, previously worked on major motion pictures like "The Rock," "Jurassic World," and "Pearl Harbor." Schwartzman went to film school with Feig, but this is the first time they have worked on a film together.

FILM 1621: THE ACCOUNTANT 

TRIVIA: While for movie effect the script calls out the repeated use of the number '3' as an indicator of fraudulent numbers, the theory behind fraudulent number detection is known as Benford's law. The law states that in numbers such as account transactions the probability of a number occurring naturally drops as one moves from smaller numbers to the larger numbers following a logarithmic scale. This law has been successfully used to detect fraudulent accounting transactions.

The paintings featured in the story are: "Woman with Parasol and Child" by Renoir, 1874, "A Friend in Need" (Dogs Playing Poker) by Cassius Coolidge, 1903, and "Free Form" by Jackson Pollock, 1946.

Anna Kendrick based her character on her mother, a real accountant who went over the script and explained the math to her daughter.

Ben Affleck has stated that this is one of his top 5 personal favourite performances. This list also includes Batman in the DCEU, Holden McNeil in Chasing Amy (1997), Tony Mendes in Argo (2012), & Chucky from Good Will Hunting (1997).

In the hotel room, Dana reveals that in order to get the money to buy a Vera Wang gown, she taught herself how to play blackjack and to count cards to determine the chance to win a hand. In real life, Ben Affleck is known to be such a cunning poker and blackjack card player that he was barred from several casinos not because he cheats but because of his well-known habit of card-counting - legit but too much for them.

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2011 Blacklist, a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

The martial art mainly on display is a variety of malay Silat as also seen in The Raid movies.

While it might seem odd for a strong box filled with gold and other valuables to include a copy of "Action Comics #1" (1938) comic book, in fact this issue is valued at over $4 million dollars in mint condition.

This was originally envisioned with Mel Gibson starring, with Joel Coen and Ethan Coen directing.

Throughout the film, Ben Affleck's character recites the rhyme "Solomon Grundy" to calm himself down. In the DC comics, Solomon Grundy is a zombie whose "life" is structured around this rhyme.

FILM 1533: END OF WATCH

TRIVIA: As part of their training, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña spent five months doing 12-hour ride-alongs with on-duty LAPD officers. During Gyllenhaal's first ride-along, he witnessed a murder.

The scene where Janet and Brian are singing in the car during a road trip was unscripted. Jake Gyllenhaal and Anna Kendrick were driving around with the director in the back seat filming different scenes for the movie. At one point between takes, 'Hey Ma' by Cam'ron came on the radio and Gyllenhaal and Kendrick started to sing along and the director began to secretly film them. Both Gyllenhaal and Kendrick were completely unaware that the moment had been caught on camera until they watched the movie at a screening.

Most of the crude banter between Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña was improvised by the two.

The word "fuck" is used 326 times, making it seventh in the all time profanity list. (It has since been pushed down to number 9 – see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_that_most_frequently_use_the_word_%22fuck%22)

After Taylor and Zavala pull over the male in the pickup who tries to shoot Zavala, Taylor holds up four fingers to Orozco when she asks, "Are you good?" This is often used by police to signal "Code Four," meaning "I'm okay; no additional assistance needed at this time."

In the beginning briefing sequence, as the officers get out to their cars, everyone keeps yelling out, "Faster, BOOT" in reference to the rookie officer Sook. In Law Enforcement lingo, "BOOT" is term for a rookie or new officer.

In the trailer when they are speaking Spanish before they drink they say "Arriba, abajo, al centro, y padentro" which loosely translates as "up, down, to the center and inside".

FILM 1506: MR. RIGHT

After a going through a painful break up, a woman meets a man who appears to be perfect for her. However, as their relationship develops, she learns that he is a former hit-man. Their new, but genuine relationship is tested even further as they try to save each other after his dark past comes back to haunt him.

Film 868: Pitch Perfect

Trivia: One of the movie's lines refers to being "pitch slapped." Kelley Jakle competed on The Sing-Off with the Backbeats, and one of their opponents was Pitch Slapped.

The role of Gail was originally written for Kristen Wiig but she declined due to scheduling conflicts. Elizabeth Banks, one of the film's producers, eventually took the role.

Brittany Snow said that Rebel Wilson improvised most of her lines and would go on 20 minute tangents that would have the whole cast and crew in stitches.

During the Riff-Off, Ester Dean sings S&M, which was co-written by her.

'Anna Kendrick' said on the David Letterman Show that she learned her audition song "You're Going to Miss Me When I'm Gone" performed with the plastic cup from a viral video. It was incorporated into the movie after the producers learned she already knew how to do it.