FILM 1725: BATMAN RETURNS

TRIVIA: Michael Keaton was alleged to have earned eleven million dollars for reprising his role as the Caped Crusader. The Warner Brothers executives were very uneasy with this. However, Director Tim Burton stated that he personally believed Keaton deserved it.

Michelle Pfeiffer went through sixty catsuits during the six month shoot, at a cost of one thousand dollars a piece.

The first film made in Dolby Digital.

The production wanted to use King Penguins, but the only tame ones in captivity were at a bird sanctuary in the Cotswolds, deep in the English countryside. So the birds were flown over to the States in the refrigerated hold of a plane, they were given their own refrigerated trailer, their own swimming pool, with half a ton of fresh ice every day, and had fresh fish delivered daily straight from the docks. Even though the temperature outside frequently topped one hundred degrees, the entire set was refrigerated down to thirty-five degrees. The birds also had an around-the-clock bodyguard. Clearly the birds enjoyed the experience as, following their stint in Hollywood, most of them had mated and produced eggs, the sure sign of a contented penguin.

Burgess Meredith, who played The Penguin on Batman (1966), and in Batman: The Movie (1966), was asked to play the Penguin's father in the opening of the film, but illness prevented him from it.

Warner Brothers had to constantly submit new Catwoman posters for various cities, as many of the bus stop ads were being stolen. It got so bad, that police officers had to patrol bus stops in order to catch perpetrators before they could break the Plexiglas containers. Today, the large scale Catwoman bus ads are worth a great deal of money.

When asked during a 2007 talk show appearance if she ever felt nostalgic and put on the cat suit to amuse her husband, Michelle Pfeiffer stated that once filming was over, she never wanted to see the costume again for as long as she lived.

Annette Bening was cast as Catwoman, but was replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer when she became pregnant. Pfeiffer's three million dollar salary was two million dollars more than was offered to Bening.

The final Christmas ball scene is quite symbolic: since it is a masquerade party all the guests are in disguise. The only two guests there who actually aren't wearing masks are Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. This implies that their real personalities are Batman and Catwoman respectively, and that their public appearance without a costume is just a disguise for society.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: (Tim Burton): [music]: Music by Danny Elfman.

When Bruce Wayne meets Selina Kyle for the first time at Schreck's office, he says that they've met. When Selina asks how they met, he says "I'm sorry. I mistook me for someone else", in which she corrects him by saying "You mean you mistook me". Despite Selina's correction, Bruce is actually referring to the night he saved her from the clown with the stun gun as Batman, and was referring to his superhero ego. That's why he told her that they've already met, but mistook himself for somebody else (Batman) instead of her.

https://society6.com/studio/blog/making-modern-pop-art-with-seattle-artist-mike-force-c1o?utm_source=society6&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1292&c_aid=020917_news_a&c_crid=artist_mikeforce&c_xid=020917&utm_content=020917_news_a

FILM 1560: SUICIDE SQUAD

TRIVIA: The majority of the cast and crew got the tattoo "SKWAD" in honor of this film. The tattoos were even applied by some of the cast members, Margot Robbie and Will Smith.

Tom Hardy was originally cast as Rick Flag but dropped out to due The Revenant (2015). Hardy had previously played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), who was a former member of the Suicide Squad in the comic books. Hardy later expressed his regret at leaving the role, given he did not want to lose the work.

To try and find the perfect Joker laugh, Jared Leto publicly tried different laughs in New York City and Toronto to see which ones made people the most uncomfortable.

In May 2016, Warner Bros. announced that Margot Robbie would be producing and reprising her role as Harley Quinn in an upcoming Untitled Harley Quinn Project. Not much has been revealed about the project, but it is rumored to be focused on the female heroes and villains of the DC Universe.

Jared Leto got so immersed in playing The Joker that he wouldn't break out of character on set even when he wasn't filming. He even sent his fellow cast members "Joker-like" presents: a live rat to Margot Robbie and bullets to Will Smith, a soiled Playboy magazine to Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and a dead hog, anal beads and used condoms for the whole crew. Scott Eastwood commented that Leto frightened him at times with his behavior, and Smith mentioned that he actually never met the real Leto.

Ryan Gosling was sought out first for the role of The Joker. He reportedly turned down the role because he did not want to sign on for a multi-picture deal that the studio was requiring.

Ben Affleck is the first actor to portray Batman in two movies helmed by different directors. He is also the first actor to portray Batman in two different movies within the same year.

Viola Davis read M.E. Thomas' autobiography "Confessions of a Sociopath" to prepare for her role as Amanda Waller.

FILM 1299: THE LEGO MOVIE

TRIVIA: The term "Master Builder" is actually an official designation by the Lego Company; per their website, "LEGO® Master Builders are the highly-trained and super-creative builders who design all of the official LEGO sets. Other LEGO Master Builders create giant, detailed sculptures out of LEGO bricks for LEGOLAND® Parks and special events all around the world."

The word "Lego" is never spoken in the movie.

Lord Business is president of Octan, a fictional gas station brand that first appeared in 1992 and has since been featured in numerous Lego sets.

In order to add more realism to the movie, the Lego bricks have scratches, fading, and even fingerprints to make the movie look like someone was manipulating real bricks in a stop-motion fashion. The Bricks are also affected by their locations, with the bricks in The Old West realm being more dusty and faded from the sunlight.

Benny, AKA the "1980-something space guy", a Minifigure from LEGO's classic Space line, has a broken helmet and a worn-out, scuffed logo on his suit, similar to how many real-life Space Minifigures look after being used. The helmet is even shown to be cracked at the same spot where the real-life LEGO piece would usually break.

With the exception of unique pieces for the characters in the film (i.e: President Business's hair and evil helmet) every Lego piece in the movie actually exists and can be used in sets.

The creators deliberately tried to make the movie feel like stop-motion, and avoided making the computer-generated effects look too obvious. This was done to make the movie look like it contained real Lego.

After the first "Everything is Awesome" sequence, the title card that says "5 Hours Later" in Lego is a photograph of real Lego, and one of the few non-CGI Lego shots in the movie. The ending credits are also real Lego animated by stop-motion.

Morgan Freeman stated that the Batman in this film is his favorite incarnation of the character of all time.

The numbers seen with the pieces when Master Builders were assembling their free form models are the official Lego Element ID's (or part numbers) for each of the components used in each of the models.

In Emmett's apartment, there is a poster for a movie called "Macho and the Nerd" which is the Russian title for a previous Phil Lord and Christopher Miller movie, 21 Jump Street (2012).

When in the Octan tower, Wyldstyle goes off and tells them to wait for her signal. When she gives it, it's the "Super Secret" signal from Team America: World Police.

FILM 1245: BATMAN FOREVER

TRIVIA:  Jim Carrey's original idea - to shave a question mark into his scalp - had to be scotched as he was due in court to finalize his divorce.

While Tim Burton was still slated to direct the film, Micky Dolenz was considered to play The Riddler. After Burton dropped out, Robin Williams was offered the role by Warner Brothers, but refused due to being bitter about being used as "bait" to lure Jack Nicholson to commit to play the Joker in Batman (1989).

It has been reported that personality clashes between Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey during filming annoyed director Joel Schumacher to the extent that he stated he would never again work with either of them. However, he later worked with Carrey on The Number 23 (2007).

In the original Batman (1989), District Attorney Harvey Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams. Williams accepted the role with the knowledge and expectation that Dent would eventually become Two-Face: he reportedly had a clause put into his contract reserving the role for him in any sequels, which Warner Bros. had to buy out so they could cast Tommy Lee Jones.

William Baldwin was reported to be considered for the role of Batman. Other names considered for the part before Val Kilmer was cast included Daniel Day-Lewis, Kurt Russell, Alec Baldwin, Ethan Hawke, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp.

This film marks the first appearance of Arkham Asylum in a live action Batman film.

Mark Wahlberg was considered for the role of Robin.

Tim Burton said "I always hated those titles like Batman Forever. That sounds like a tattoo that somebody would get when they're on drugs or something. Or something some kid would write in the yearbook to somebody else. I have high problems with some of those titles."

Cameo: En Vogue:  The legendary R&B group appear as street walkers who appear after Dick steals the Batmobile and takes it for a joyride.