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 1846: WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

FILM 1846: WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

TRIVIA: John Travolta took the role at Quentin Tarantino's urging.

Desmond Nakano, who is Japanese-American, created the film in part because of how we felt that to both American whites and blacks, he was "them". He also tapped into the disorienting feeling he felt when he visited Japan, saying that "for so long I had been different, it felt wrong to be the same."

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.

FILM 1814: CHOPPING MALL

FILM 1814: CHOPPING MALL

TRIVIA: The film was allowed to shoot at a real California mall as long as they did not damage any facilities and had removed any traces of their presence before the mall opening time of 9AM. While the mall's head of security didn't like the filmmakers and was constantly accusing them of causing disrepair, the mall's owner was supportive of the film and made sure the production was able to complete its work on schedule.

The book Gerrit Graham's character is reading is "They Came from Outer Space" which was edited by the film's director, Jim Wynorski. One of the stories in the collection is "The Racer" which was filmed as Death Race 2000 (1975) featuring Mary Woronov.

Filmed in Sherman Oaks Galleria, the same mall used in Commando (1985). Most notably when near the elevators. Both films would've been filmed around the same time. But due to budget constraints, Chopping Mall (1986) was filmed after close of business. 

FILM 1779: HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN

FILM 1779: HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN

TRIVIA: The part of Sam Hell was written with Tim Thomerson in mind, but New World demurred. Daniel Stern was strongly pushed by New World, but Stern wanted certain aspects of the character changed. Finally it came down between Roddy Piper and Ed Marinaro. Kizer and Jackson selected Piper.

Kristi Somers spent three hours in make-up each day for her role as Arabella. Moreover, it took a half hour to remove all of the make-up at the end of the day.

The last film to be shot at the Indian Dunes movie ranch before it was completely plowed under for a housing development.

FILM 1777: NOTHING BUT TROUBLE

FILM 1777: NOTHING BUT TROUBLE

TRIVIA: Based on Dan Aykroyd's personal experiences. In 1978, he was pulled over for speeding in a rural town in the Northeastern United States. The police officer took him to the local Justice of the Peace in the middle of the night for a trial.

This film only made approximately 8.5 million dollars, but the budget was estimated at forty million dollars.

Roger Ebert famously hated the movie so much that he refused to write a review for it after giving it one of his most emphatic "thumbs down" reviews ever on Siskel & Ebert(1986). On the show, Ebert said that when he went to a weeknight showing of the film in 1991, the theatre was almost abandoned except for him, a few lone adults, and several teenagers who were making loud, rude comments at the screen; Ebert famously went over to the teens and asked them to be even louder so he didn't have to listen to the terrible movie anymore.

This is the only film directed by Dan Aykroyd.

The police badges, seen in the revolving frames on both sides of the Shire Reeve's bench, are actual badges from Dan Aykroyd's personal collection.

Tupac Shakur's film debut. He briefly appears as one of the members of the former hip-hop group Digital Underground. In the end credits, he is billed as "2 Pac Shakur".

What inspired this movie, was one day Dan Aykroyd imagined his friend John Candy in drag, and burst with laughter, for several weeks, every time he imagined that image, he would burst out with laughter, so Aykroyd decided to write a movie, where Candy would play a woman, he thought of a plot later.

FILM 1116: THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU

TRIVIA: David Thewlis has vowed never to watch the finished product of the film, it was such a negative experience making it. He skipped its opening premeire.

Fairuza Balk tried to escape the production but was caught on the airport and sent back to the set.

Val Kilmer frustrated director John Frankenheimer so much, that, after shooting Kilmer's last scene in the movie, Frankenheimer is alleged to have said: "Cut. Now get that bastard off my set."

After being fired by the studio, original director Richard Stanley was rumored to have prevailed upon the makeup crew to turn him into one of the background mutants, so that he could at least keep tabs on the making of his dream project. He supposedly did not unmask himself until the wrap party.

Richard Stanley had spent four years developing the project, only to be fired after four days.

Val Kilmer was originally cast as the film's lead but wanted his commitment to the project reduced after being served divorce papers by his then wife Joanne Whalley. This lead to him switching roles with Rob Morrow, originally cast as Montgomery, the Doctor's assistant. Morrow left the film after director Richard Stanley was fired, leading to David Thewlis being cast; ironically, Thewlis was one of the people Stanley originally wanted in the film.

Ron Perlman's character (Sayer of the Law) is blind, so Perlman had lenses put over his eyes so he actually played the role blind.

This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

Ron Perlman accepted his role so he could star with his idol Marlon Brando. He was originally scheduled to shoot for three weeks and ended up staying for four and a half months when several of Val Kilmer's original lines were given to his character.

Marlon Brando wore a small radio receiver to aid him remembering his lines. Co-star David Thewlis claimed "He'd be in the middle of a scene and suddenly he'd be picking up police messages and Marlon would repeat, 'There's a robbery at Woolworths'."