FILM 1625: MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

TRIVIA: Tim Burton aimed to use as few digital effects as possible; "It was nice to shoot on location, to be connected to a place, and geography, while having people actually floating, as opposed to doing it all digitally".

The house where the children live, is an actual house. It's called "Torenhof", and can be found near Antwerp, Belgium.

Ransom Riggs' novel was partly inspired by otherworldly vintage photographs, one of them being a cover-shot of a levitating girl. The author collected these at flea markets, included them in the book, and later showed them all to Tim Burton, before filming began.

DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Tim Burton): [stop motion]: The two dolls that Enoch created, are filmed with stop-motion, something used in almost all of Tim Burton's films.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Tim Burton: Man on amusement park ride.

FILM 1498: 12 YEARS A SLAVE 

TRIVIA: The tree where Solomon sees several men being lynched was actually used for lynching, and it is surrounded by the graves of murdered slaves.

In order to better portray an alcoholic, Michael Fassbender had his makeup artist paint his mustache with alcohol so that the other actors would react naturally to the smell, as they would to a man who had been drinking heavily.

Director Steve McQueen had been toying with the idea of writing a script about slavery, featuring a black man who had been born free and was later forced into slavery, but McQueen was struggling with the script until his wife found Solomon Northup's biography and gave it to him. Shocked that he had never heard of Northup before, he decided to adapt the book instead.

At first, Chiwetel Ejiofor turned down Steve McQueen's offer to play the leading role of Solomon Northup, but then realized he had to get over his initial fear of taking on what McQueen thought would be the role of the actor's lifetime. Ejiofor prepared for his role by immersing himself in the Louisiana plantation culture and learning how to use and play the violin.

Steve McQueen's daughter told him to hire Sarah Paulson, after viewing her audition tape, because she found her scary.

On location, shooting in Louisiana took only thirty-five days with one camera, which prompted amazed laughter from an audience of Directors Guild peers, including interviewer Kathryn Bigelow, for the startlingly efficient direction of Steve McQueen.

Brad Pitt responded to criticism that his casting in a brief heroic role was self-indulgent, given that he was one of the producers of the film. Pitt claimed that he did not insist on being cast in the part, and that it was simply easier to secure funding for the picture if he was in it.

Four years after he was freed, Solomon Northrup of "12 Years a Slave" disappeared. To this day, historians still do not know what happened to him.

12 Years a Slave (2013) is the first film from a black director to win the Academy Award for Best Picture; second film in a row, following Argo (2012), to win Best Picture and a screenplay Oscar without the Best Director Oscar; fifth film with a numbered-title to win Best Picture, following It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956); twelfth movie to win Best Picture with only three Oscars, a list that includes Casablanca (1942), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Godfather (1972), Rocky (1976), Crash (2004) and Argo (2012).

FILM 1311: INHERENT VICE

TRIVIA: According to director Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon "have their own language and short hand" with each other. While their natural rapport helped to show the chemistry between their characters, this led to Anderson having to constantly remind them to stop chatting so that they could film.

Reese Witherspoon filmed all of her scenes in four days. Director Paul Thomas Anderson loved working with her so much that he and Joaquin Phoenix, who famously worked with Reese in Walk the Line (2005), began talking with Witherspoon about possibly changing the story so that her character would be around more. However, ultimately the actress convinced the two that it wouldn't be a good idea, something that in retrospect Anderson agrees with.

This film is the first adaptation of any of Thomas Pynchon's novels to be produced for the screen. Paul Thomas Anderson's script for the film reportedly has the blessing of Pynchon himself.

Paul Thomas Anderson reportedly went about adapting the book by typing it up word for word, then proceeding from there.

First film collaboration between Paul Thomas Anderson and his partner of thirteen years, Maya Rudolph.

In one of the scenes featuring Petunia Leeway (portrayed by Maya Rudolph), the Minnie Riperton song "Les Fleur" can be heard playing on the soundtrack. Minnie Riperton is the mother of Maya Rudolph. Additionally, the song was co-written by her father, songwriter Dick Rudolph.

The look of the movie was inspired by a few reels of improperly stored film that Paul Thomas Anderson had kept in his garage for nearly 15 years. Only a few shots actually used the aged film, however, as it was too risky to rely on the damaged film stock.

Fueled by comments Josh Brolin gave to the New York Times, rumors persist that notoriously reclusive author Thomas Pynchon makes a cameo appearance somewhere in the film, which would be the first time Pynchon has been willingly publicly photographed since the late 1950's. The most common theories are Pynchon appears as one of the following: the patient being served soup by a shaky patient in the Chroskylodon Institute (this is actually an actor named Charley Morgan), a dentist in the scene at Golden Fang Headquarters, or the man who passes by the window behind Doc and Coy as they talk at the Spotted Dick party.

Doc's look was inspired by a photo of Neil Young from 1970, the year in which the film is set. Young also has 2 songs featured in the movie, and director Paul Thomas Anderson has stated that Young's film Journey Through the Past was an inspiration for the feeling he wanted to achieve in Inherent Vice.

At Dr. Blatnoyds office a narrator is telling about a law firm called Voorhees-Krueger, a homage to characters of Friday the 13th (Jason Voorhees) and Nightmare of Elm Street (Freddy Krueger).