FILM 2004: OCEAN'S TWELVE

FILM 2004: OCEAN'S TWELVE 

TRIVIA: The Night Fox's mansion is on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. The name of the city overlooking Lake Como is Bellagio. The city and the lake were the inspiration for the design of the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, site of the heist in Ocean's Eleven (2001).

While on production in Rome, Brad Pitt and George Clooney were not allowed back into the hotel because the doorman thought they were vagrants after the actors were caught in a rain storm while jogging.

George Clooney was 42 years-old at the time of filming the scene in which the other actors guess his age.

Six of the Ocean's Twelve have won Oscars: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Casey Affleck.

The drysuits used by the gang were custom made for the production in two weeks by husband-and-wife team Gareth and Tina Roberts of Gryphon Watersports in Staffordshire, England. Only one of the ten suits ordered had to be fully functioning and waterproof, but the tight deadline still meant that the couple had to work round the clock to get the suits ready in time for the shoot in Amsterdam.

Five cast members also guest starred on Friends (1994-2004) including Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis and Elliot Gould

FILM 1762: SNATCH

FILM 1762: SNATCH

TRIVIA: Brad Pitt, who was a big fan of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), approached director Guy Ritchie and asked for a role in this film. When Ritchie found Pitt couldn't master a London accent, he gave him the role of Mickey the Gypsy.

When Guy Ritchie told Brad Pitt that he would be playing a boxer, Pitt became concerned because he had just finished shooting Fight Club (1999) and did not want to play the same type of role again. Pitt took the role anyway because he wanted to work with Ritchie so badly.

Brad Pitt's character and indecipherable speech was inspired by many critics' complaints about the accents of the characters in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Guy Ritchie decided to counter the criticisms by creating a character that not only couldn't be understood by the audience but that also couldn't be understood by characters in the movie.

Every mistake that Sol, Vincent and Tyrone make were inspired by various late-night TV shows about real-life crimes gone horribly wrong.

The producers couldn't afford enough extras for the boxing match sequences. Whenever a camera angle changed, the extras had to move around to create an impression of a crowded house.

When Vinny and Sol are sitting outside Brick-Top's Bookies, about to give him the diamond, the man that approaches the car is not really Bullet-Tooth Tony, it was a look-alike. Vinnie Jones didn't show up for shooting that day because he was in jail for fighting the night before.

The role of Brick Top was originally offered to Sean Connery. Connery liked the script and was curious to see Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), so producer Matthew Vaughn hastily arranged a screening for him at extreme short notice. Connery duly turned up and watched the film, before emerging with his judgment: "That is a good film", he said, "and (in a stage whisper) you're not going to be able to afford me." Cue Alan Ford.

During the opening credits, the Hasidic-clad diamond thieves are discussing the Virgin Mary. This is a reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992), where during the opening scene the thieves are discussing the Madonna song "Like a Virgin".

The pub where Bullet Tooth Tony is accosted by Sol and company is the same Pub used in Shaun of the Dead (2004). The Winchester, as it was known, is where Shaun and his friends took refuge from the flesh eating zombies.

Brick Top is seen to be involved in dog fighting, at one point torturing a dog. In real life, Alan Ford is a vegetarian and animal rights activist.

Director Cameo: Guy Ritchie: In the back of the bar when we are first introduced to Doug The Head. Ritchie is the man reading the newspaper.

FILM 1629: SLEEPERS

TRIVIA: Author Lorenzo Carcaterra has claimed that his book on which the film is based was a true story of his childhood. When the New York legal community went on record stating that no cases resembling the events of his book could be found in any court records, Carcaterra refused to discuss the discrepancy. It is generally believed that his book was almost 100% fiction. Carcaterra's school attendance records show he could not have been in prison for as long as he said, and that he could not have been in prison at the dates given for certain events in the book.

The code name "Edmund" that is used in the paper to notify Michael that he needed to contact Shakes is the name of the main character, Edmund Dantes, from "The Count of Monte Cristo".

During filming both Brad Renfro and Joe Perrino wore colored contact lenses so they would have the same colored eyes as Brad Pitt and Jason Patric who played the characters as adults.

The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt; and one Oscar nominee: Minnie Driver.

Billy Crudup and John Slattery were reunited in Spotlight (2015), which also revolves on similar themes of abuse.

FILM 1464: THE BIG SHORT

TRIVIA: After meeting with Dr. Michael Burry, the character he would play in the movie, Christian Bale asked to have Burry's cargo shorts and T-shirt, which he then wore in the movie. Bale later said he hoped Burry would make it to the L.A. premiere, "because I really want to sit next to him and see if he's going to punch me in the fucking face."

Author Michael Lewis revealed in an interview that Paramount, the studio distributing the film, allowed director and screen writer Adam McKay to make this film only if he agreed to make a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004).

The quotation that appears on screen, "'Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.' -Overheard at a Washington, D.C. bar" was in fact written by director and co-writer Adam McKay after unsuccessfully searching for the perfect quotation to use for that segment of the film.

Co-writer and director Adam McKay said the studio was worried that the "heroes" of Michael Lewis's book were flawed: "The studio was like, 'Shouldn't they be more likable?' It's like, 'No, heroes are dirty. Martin Luther King had affairs. Gandhi was a bit of a horndog. We're all dicks. Let them be dicks.' "

The cast includes three Oscar winners (Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and Marisa Tomei), and three Oscar nominees (Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt). Pitt has an Oscar as a producer, but not as an actor.

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Film 908: Moneyball

Trivia: When Steven Soderbergh was still supposed to direct, he cast Brad Pitt and Demetri Martin in the lead roles and had already shot interview scenes with baseball players Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry to be included in the film.

Despite suggestions in the movie that Scott Hatteberg was a bad-fielding first baseman, he ended the year with a fielding percentage (.994) higher than the league average for his position (.993).

Bill James, noted as the statistical influence for the main characters' analysis, is regarded by many to be the father of sabermetrics. This study of advanced baseball statistics is named after the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), an organization to which James and other sabermetrics pioneers belong. The film puts a heavy emphasis upon on-base percentage (OBP), though concepts like on-base-plus-slugging-percentage (OPS), now a widely-accepted measure of a player's hitting ability, are not mentioned. Concepts like runs created (RBIs plus runs scored), ERA+ and others widely used by statisticians are also not mentioned, perhaps owing to their increased acceptance in the years since the events portrayed in the film.

The Oakland A's set the new American League record for consecutive wins, with 20. The all-time Major League record is 26, set by the New York Giants in 1916, including one tie. Without ties, the record belongs to the 1935 Chicago Cubs (21 straight wins).

First baseball movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (Oscar) since Field of Dreams twenty-two years earlier.

Cameo: Spike Jonze:  as Alán, the socially awkward partner to Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt's) ex-wife in the film.