FILM 1867: THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

FILM 1867: THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

TRIVIA: The spray can that Liev Schreiber uses to cut through the chain-link fence is supposed to be a real-life CIA chemical spray known as "Ice Piss". When asked if a real can of Ice Piss could be acquired for the scene, the technical advisor said "I don't want to go to prison!"

Ben Affleck was on the set of Pearl Harbor (2001) when he was offered the role of Jack Ryan. His co-star Alec Baldwin, who played Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990) persuaded Affleck to take the role. Affleck also contacted Harrison Ford to receive his blessing before taking the role.

When Ben Affleck first arrived on the set, he told Director Phil Alden Robinson, "Nice working with you again". Robinson said, "What do you mean 'again'?" Affleck explained that when Robinson was filming the scene in Boston's Fenway Park for Field of Dreams(1989), he and Matt Damon were among the thousands of extras.

Matt Damon had a cameo as a waiter, but it was cut from the final film.

Morgan Freeman played a ranking member of James Cromwell's Presidential administration. In Deep Impact (1998), the roles are reversed.

FILM 1856: CHANGING LANES

FILM 1856: CHANGING LANES

TRIVIA: A day after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Director Roger Michell had the World Trade Center towers digitally removed from the opening main title sequence in the film. In the DVD commentary, he admitted that it was a mistake to erase them, and make it appear as if they did not exist. During the re-editing of the film, Michell reinserted them as a tribute.

It was Samuel L. Jackson's choice for his character to wear a purple hat. Jackson's characters often feature the color purple: Mr. Glass wears purple clothing in Unbreakable(2000) and Glass (2019); and Mace Windu has a purple light-saber in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

In order to attract a wider audience, the theatrical trailer was arranged in such a way as to make the film look like a high octane thriller, as opposed to the rather slow moving drama it actually was. This move was heavily criticized for misleading moviegoers.

FILM 1825: FORCES OF NATURE

FILM 1825: FORCES OF NATURE

TRIVIA: About a year after the release of the movie, Sandra Bullock actually did survive a plane crash when the corporate jet she was a passenger in skidded off the runway at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming airport. She was not injured in the crash.

David Strickland's last film.

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

TRIVIA: Ben Affleck was virtually blind, as he had to wear heavy-duty contact lenses, which blocked out most of his vision.

This is the first time Colin Farrell ever used his own Irish accent in an American movie.

As a fan of the character, Ben Affleck made a point of reading every single comic book that featured Daredevil as preparation for his role.

Although Ben Affleck is a fan of the character, acting him out was such an unpleasant experience that, in November 2006, Affleck stated that he would never reprise the role, having felt "by playing a superhero in 'Daredevil', I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me, and something I wouldn't want to do again soon." It is believed that the Daredevil costume was very uncomfortable to wear. However, in 2013 Affleck accepted an agreement to play Batman, starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

Michael Clarke Duncan was often put on lifts or boxes, to make him tower over everyone else, particularly in his scenes with Ben Affleck, who is 6'4". The same thing was done for Duncan in The Green Mile (1999).

Stan Lee disliked the film, because he felt the film was "too tragic".

The film pays homage to numerous "Daredevil" writers and artists: Stan Lee: Daredevil's original creator makes his cameo as the man who young Matt Murdock stops from crossing the street. Wrote Daredevil (1964-1969). Kirby, the lab assistant played by Kevin Smith (see final item): Comic book artist Jack Kirby (assorted Daredevil covers in 1964-1968). Father Everett: Bill Everett, Daredevil's original artist (drew first issue of Daredevil in 1964, then assorted covers 1966-1972). Jose Quesada (the rapist): Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, and artist of Daredevil 1998-2000. Colan (a boxer): Gene Colan, another Daredevil artist 1966-1974. John Romita (the boxer, against whom Jack Murdock is supposed to dive): John Romita Sr., Sr. was a Daredevil artist in 1966, and John Romita Jr. was a Daredevil artist 1988-1990. Kane (a thug): Gil Kane, Daredevil cover artist 1971=1978. Miller, Mack, Bendis (other boxers): Frank Miller, writer and artist 1979-1983, David Mack, artist 1999-2001, and Brian Michael Bendis, writer of Daredevil beginning 1999, and was still doing so when the film came out. Kevin Smith, author whose Daredevil work is collected in "Daredevil Visionaries: Kevin Smith", appears as the lab assistant Kirby, named for another artist mentioned above.

Ben Affleck was cast as Daredevil because Kevin Smith (appearing here as Kirby the lab tech) suggested him to Writer and Director Mark Steven Johnson. Smith, who directed Affleck in four films from the "View Askewniverse" series, and would later reunite in Jersey Girl (2004), also wrote at least one of the comic books, on which this movie is based.

Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, Katie Holmes, Mía Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Jolene Blalock, and Neve Campbell were considered for the role of Elektra.

Michael Clarke Duncan and Ben Affleck appeared in Armageddon (1998).

FILM 1772: REINDEER GAMES

FILM 1772: REINDEER GAMES

TRIVIA: In October 2007, Charlize Theron said in an interview in Esquire magazine that "Reindeer Games" was her least favorite of all her films. She said: "That was a bad, bad, bad movie. But I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn't lying to myself - that's why I did it."

According to Danny Trejo, the reason Vin Diesel was replaced in the role that Donal Logue wound up playing was because Diesel was offered a starring role in The Fast and the Furious (2001). Diesel wisely went with The Fast and the Furious (2001), and was discharged from this movie.

John Frankenheimer's last feature-length, theatrically distributed film.

Originally planned for a Christmas 1999 release, but delayed until February 2000 after a poor test screening in mid 1999.

The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, and Isaac Hayes; and one Oscar nominee: Gary Sinise.

DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK: [people falling through ice]: A crucial moment of drama in this film.

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 1420: GOOD WILL HUNTING

TRIVIA: After the 2014 death of Robin Williams, the Boston Public Garden park bench where he and Matt Damon had their conversation scene, became an impromptu memorial site for the actor with people leaving flowers, quotes and various items at the bench. A petition has been passed around to erect a statue in Williams' memory near the bench.

The scene where Sean and Will are in his office, and Sean starts talking about his dead wife and her farting antics. These lines were ad-libbed by Robin Williams, which is probably why Matt Damon is laughing so hard. If you watch the scene carefully you can notice the camera shaking, probably due to the cameraman laughing as well.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck found a clever way to choose the right studio for their script: the story goes that on page 60 of the script, they wrote a completely out-of-nowhere sex scene between Will and Chuckie. They took it to every major studio, and nobody even mentioned the scene. When they met with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, he said, "I only have one really big note on the script. About page 60, the two leads, both straight men, have a sex scene. What the hell is that?" - Damon and Affleck explained that they put that scene specifically in there to show them who actually read the script and who didn't. As Weinstein was the only person who brought it up, Miramax was the studio chosen to produce the film.

Casey Affleck ad libbed most of his lines. This frustrated Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant during filming - but they later admitted that Casey's improvised lines were much funnier and better than what had been originally written for him.

Matt Damon's personal favorite movie of his own.

Minnie Driver's character Skylar is named after Damon's girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein, who left Damon for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich before filming began. Damon and Driver became romantically involved during production.

Gus Van Sant painted the picture that hangs in Sean Maguire's (Robin Williams) office.

The job interview Will sends Chuckie on is for a company called Holden & McNeil. Ben Affleck's character in Chasing Amy (1997) was Holden McNeil.

When Will (Matt Damon) and Sean (Robin Williams) meet for the first time in Sean's office, Will recommends that Sean read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". As a boy, Matt Damon was Zinn's neighbor and provided the voice for the CD recording of that book.

To date this is the film with the highest US box office gross with Kevin Smith's name attached to it. All his own films that he has written and directed have not grossed more than $35 million at the US box office.

FILM 1219: GONE GIRL

TRIVIA: Ben Affleck postponed directing a film in order to work with David Fincher. "He's the only director I've met who can do everybody else's job better than they could," states Affleck. On set one day, Affleck changed the lens setting on a camera an almost indiscernible amount, betting a crew member that Fincher wouldn't notice. "But goddammit if he didn't say, 'Why does the camera look a little dim?'"

Gillian Flynn, author of the novel the film is based upon, wrote the screenplay with a different ending to keep readers interested in the film version, and viewers from getting spoiled.

In order to figure out his character, Ben Affleck researched and studied several men who were accused and convicted of killing their wives. He paid particular attention to Scott Peterson.

Ben Affleck would constantly sing 80s songs in between takes. Impressed, Tyler Perry decided to start a game that ended up lasting the entire duration of filming. Perry would start to sing the most random song he could think of to see if Affleck would start singing along. According to Perry, Affleck knew all of the words to every single song Perry threw at him, even ones by Barbra Streisand

Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Abbie Cornish and Julianne Hough were considered for the role of Amy Dunne.