FILM 2003: THE ITALIAN JOB

FILM 2003: THE ITALIAN JOB

TRIVIA: In interviews, Jason Statham said that in addition to the stunt driving course they all received, he got two days' driving tuition from Damon Hill, the British ex-world champion Formula 1 driver. However, all of the cast members acknowledged that Charlize Theronwas easily the best driver among them.

During production, Charlize Theron got two speeding tickets while driving in her own car, both for going more than 40 miles per hour over the speed limit. She said that after filming driving so fast, she just couldn't get her speed down to drive home.

Two electric-powered MINI Coopers and one MINI Cooper S had to be specially built for the film, since gasoline-powered vehicles are not allowed to operate in Los Angeles' all-electric subway system for safety reasons.

When the film performed surprisingly well at the box office, there were rumors of a sequel while the film was still showing in theaters. An early script had it set in Brazil and it was called "The Brazilian Job" with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, and Seth Green attached to reprise their roles, but the sequel fell apart after key people at Paramount Pictures left by the end of 2004, and rough drafts of the script proved unsatisfactory. However, Wahlberg said as recently as 2015 that a sequel was still a possibility.

Edward Norton made it clear that his participation in this film was a result of contractual obligation, not choice. He had signed a three-movie deal with Paramount, of which Primal Fear (1996), his breakthrough movie, was the first. He kept dismissing scripts for the other two films of the deal, until Paramount coerced him into accepting a role in this film. Norton did not hide his misery on the set, clashing with the crew throughout it, and when the producer handed out gifts to the cast over the movie's surprisingly strong box office performance, Norton returned the gift with a note stating "Give this to someone you actually like - or someone who actually likes you."

Lyle (Seth Green) claims he was the creator of Napster, the first online file-sharing service for music, and that it was stolen by his college roommate, Shawn Fanning. In the flashback of Lyle sleeping and his roommate taking a disk out of the PC that has Napster on it, his roommate is portrayed by the real Shawn Fanning, the legitimate creator of Napster. When Fanning steals the disk in the scene, the bottom of a Metallica poster can be seen on the wall. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was famously a very vocal critic of Napster, and Metallica filed a lawsuit against the service for copyright infringement and racketeering.

The beautiful woman in Lyle's house at the end of the movie is played by Kelly Brook, Jason Statham's real girlfriend at the time the film was shot.

The Venice authority allowed the crew to go over the speed limit for the boat chase sequence.

32 MINI Coopers were used throughout the shooting.

While the thieves are spying on Steve in his home, Sir Michael Caine can be seen on the large screen television in a clip from the original The Italian Job (1969).

The NetCom Cable van shows the phone number 1-800-555-0199. This is the same number used by Al Pacino in The Insider (1999) and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty(1999) (albeit with different area codes).

Screenwriters Donna Powers and Wayne Powers hadn't seen the original The Italian Job(1969) before agreeing to write the script for the remake. After that, they only watched it once. This was on purpose, because they didn't want to copy the movie but wanted to make their own, albeit inspired by the original one.

F. Gary Gray cast Mark Wahlberg after seeing him in Boogie Nights (1997).

FILM 1649: THE BLUES BROTHERS

TRIVIA: A world-record--at that time--103 cars were wrecked during filming. This feat was exceeded two years later, when 150 cars (and a plane) were crashed for H.B. Halicki's The Junkman (1982). That record in turn held for two decades, until over 300 cars were wrecked during the filming of The Matrix Reloaded (2003).

During filming one of the night scenes, John Belushi disappeared and could not be located. Dan Aykroyd looked around and saw a single house with its lights on. He went to the house and was prepared to identify himself, the movie and that they were looking for Belushi. Before he could, the homeowner looked at him, smiled and said, "You're here for John Belushi, aren't you?" The homeowner then told them Belushi had entered their house, asked if he could have a glass of milk and a sandwich and then crashed on their couch. Situations like this prompted Aykroyd to affectionately dub Belushi "America's Guest."

John Belushi was nicknamed "The Black Hole" on the set, as he went through hundreds of pairs of sunglasses during production. He would do a scene and then lose the pair before filming the next one.

Carrie Fisher became engaged to co-star Dan Aykroyd during this shoot shortly after he saved her from choking by applying the Heimlich maneuver.

Some of the performers were not used to lip-syncing to their pre-recorded songs, the standard procedure for movie musicals. James Brown ended up singing his number live with a recorded backing (the rest of his choir was lip-syncing). John Lee Hooker's performance of "Boom Boom" was recorded live at Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. Aretha Franklin's performance is cut together from many, many takes, using the parts where her lip-syncing was actually in sync.

When recording the soundtrack for the movie, Cab Calloway was needed to record his hit "Minnie the Moocher" in better quality than his original album. When he came into the studios he was prepared to do his new disco version that was just released. Of course, the filmmakers wanted nothing to do with this and asked for the original version, which Calloway reluctantly gave them.

The young woman in the choir at The Triple Rock Church is R & B singer Chaka Khan.

At the Bob's Country Bunker gig, Jake introduces "Stand By Your Man" by saying it's a favorite of the horn section. The horn section doesn't play in the song.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: John Landis: the state trooper driving the second car, the one that shows up after the first car calls for backup, that chases the Bluesmobile through the shopping mall.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: John Landis: [filmmakers] Appearances by directors Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: John Landis: [SYNW] a billboard advertising the fictional horror movie "See You Next Wednesday" is seen during the Good Ole Boys chase.

FILM 1539: THE FRENCH CONNECTION

TRIVIA: The car crash during the chase sequence, at the intersection of Stillwell Ave. and 86th St., was unplanned and was included because of its realism. The man whose car was hit had just left his house a few blocks from the intersection to go to work and was unaware that a car chase was being filmed. The producers later paid the bill for the repairs to his car.

The early scene where Doyle and Russo chase down a drug dealer with Doyle dressed in a Santa Claus suit is based on a real-life tactic used by Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. While on stakeouts in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Egan and Grosso discovered drug dealers could easily spot undercover cops, and would often flee the scene before the cops could arrest them. One Christmas, Egan came up with the idea of dressing in a Santa Claus suit, figuring the dealers would never suspect Santa Claus of being a cop. As depicted in the film, Egan walked the neighborhood streets as Santa Claus, singing Christmas carols with local kids. When he saw a deal going down, Egan sang "Jingle Bells" as a signal to his partners to move in and make the arrest. The tactic worked beautifully, and Egan and his partners made dozens of Christmas arrests over several years.

The scene where Doyle and Russo chase down the dealer near the beginning and Gene Hackman shouts out his famous question "Did you ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?" is based on actual "good cop/bad cop" interrogations by the real "French Connection" detectives, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso according to William Friedkin in the DVD commentary. Grosso would gingerly ask a suspect direct questions about his crimes, then Egan would always butt in and yell unusual questions like the Poughkeepsie one. The suspect would get so rattled by Egan's offbeat questioning that he felt more comfortable answering Grosso's, thus, tending to eventually incriminate himself.

According to William Friedkin, the significance of the straw hat being tossed onto the shelf of the rear window in Doyle and Russo's car was that at that time it was a universal signal in New York City that the undercover cops in the car were on duty.

In at least one glimpse of the Manhattan skyline (as the car is being unloaded from the cargo ship), you can see the first of the World Trade Center towers under construction.

According to William Friedkin on his DVD commentary, the scene where Weinstock's chemist tests the heroin's purity uses actual heroin, and not flour or cornstarch or some other commonly used substitute.

Al Copeland named his restaurant chain, Popeye's Mighty Good Fried Chicken, after Popeye Doyle, Gene Hackman's character in the film The French Connection (1971). The chain that grew from the one restaurant became Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken.

William Friedkin credits his decision to direct the movie to a discussion with film director Howard Hawks, whose daughter was living with Friedkin at the time. Friedkin asked Hawks what he thought of his movies, to which Hawks bluntly replied that they were "lousy." Instead Hawks recommended that he "Make a good chase. Make one better than anyone's done."