FILM 1960: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

FILM 1960: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

TRIVIA: Completing the animation for the film required up to 180 animators, the largest crew ever used by Sony Pictures Animation for a film.

It was announced shortly after Stan Lee's death, at age 95, that he had recorded a cameo for the film and that it would be his final voice-acting role. Lord and Miller felt it was important that Lee was given a bigger moment compared to previous Marvel films because he was "so integral to the spirit of this movie," and considered his role "extra meaningful" following his death.

This film was dedicated in memory of Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, who died on July 6, 2018, while this film was finishing production. However, this was not the only dedication, as a month before the film was released, Stan Lee died on November 12, 2018. The film was dedicated to both of Spider-Man's creators.

When Miles first visits Uncle Aaron's apartment, the television is playing the television show Community (2009) (Season 2, Episode 1 "Anthropology 101"). The beginning of that episode shows Donald Glover's character Troy getting out of bed wearing Spider-Man pajamas. This was a reference to an unsuccessful 2010 online campaign to get Donald Glover a chance to audition for the lead role in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Miles Morales co-creator Brian Michael Bendis describes that image of Glover in the Spider-Man pajamas as one of the major inspirations for the creation of the character and the character's design. Additionally, Glover appeared as another version of Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), in which he makes brief reference to his nephew. Glover also voiced Miles Morales in Disney's "Ultimate Spider-Man" cartoon series.

One of the many ways the Imageworks team paid tribute to old comic books through the visual style was to imitate the imperfections of offset printing.

There are many small details in Miles' universe that set it apart from ours, such as using "PDNY" in place of "NYPD," and instead of Chance the Rapper wearing a "3" hat, he has a "4" on it (evident from a poster in Miles' room).

This was stand-up comedian John Mulaney's first theatrical film role.

With Lily Tomlin playing Aunt May, all four actresses to play her in a theatrical film have been Academy Award nominees, after Rosemary Harris, Sally Field and Marisa Tomei. Tomlin was nominated for Nashville (1975).

Daniel Pemberton followed the ambitious lead of the "Spider-Verse" animation by developing an equally intricate score. After all the musical elements had been recorded, they were recorded onto vinyl and then re-scratched into the mix. Pemberton says, "I got a DMC World Scratch champion DJ to scratch all the parts in."

Brian Michael Bendis, who created the comic book version of Miles Morales, credits three things that inspired him to make Miles African-American: his two adopted black children, Barack Obama becoming president, and Donald Glover wearing Spider-Man pajamas on an episode of the TV show "Community."

The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Film.

FILM 1928: GLASS

FILM 1928: GLASS

TRIVIA: Samuel L. Jackson said of working with James McAvoy on the movie, "As good as I like to think I am or what I do and how I do it, watching somebody transform characters in front of your eyes and have an argument with four different people is pretty amazing."

James Mcavoy based one of his twenty-three multiple personalities on a young Saoirse Ronan, whom he worked with in the film Atonement (2007).

While promoting the movie at the 2018 Comic-Con, writer and director M. Night Shyamalan noted that the film was "a once-in-a-lifetime movie in that Disney arm Buena Vista International, which owns the rights to Unbreakable (2000), and Split (2016) studio Universal Pictures, agreed to team for the film." He continued saying, "I don't think this will ever happen again, where two studios had two IPs they completely owned, and I said, 'Can we make a sequel to both, and you guys share it?' and they said 'Yes.'"

Sarah Paulson accepted her part without reading the script, even though her role was originally written for a man, for the opportunity to work with director M. Night Shyamalan. 

When David Dunn is taken into the mental hospital, the first camera feed seen is labeled H20. David's weakness is water which hints that the hospital is dangerous to him.

Although Disney owns the rights to Unbreakable (2000), director M. Night Shyamalankept the rights to any potential sequels to himself, so that the studio could not make one without his involvement. Such was his desire for creative control that he co-financed Glass (2019) by mortgaging his house.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: M. Night Shymalan played a customer at the Dunn Security store and recognized David Dunn as a former security guard at the stadium and credits him for putting him on a good path. In Unbreakable (2000), Shymalan cameoed as a drug dealer whom David has a run in with.

FILM 1896: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

FILM 1896: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

TRIVIA: Tom Holland was not allowed to read the script for this movie, since he revealed too many secrets for Spider-Man Homecoming (2017). In one of the promotional videos for the movie, several of its cast members are in an interrogation room refusing to reveal any spoilers, and Holland's mouth is conspicuously taped shut.

Mark Ruffalo revealed that he was given a fake script due to his habit of accidentally spoiling past Marvel movies. He jokingly claimed in an interview that the fake script was better than the real one.

Thor confirms that "Groot" is a language that can be learned and spoken, as he took it as an elective in school on Asgard. This explains why only Rocket was originally able to understand Groot, and the other Guardians had to learn over time. This also confirms that Groot understands English (and likely other languages) but is only able to speak "Groot".

This became the fourth movie to gross over two billion dollars worldwide, after Avatar(2009), Titanic (1997), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) telling Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to cut it out with the pop culture references is quite hypocritical, as Stark often pokes fun at other characters by calling them by movie titles or character names. In Avengers Assemble (2012), Stark called Loki Reindeer Games (2000), Rock of Ages (2012), and Shakespeare in the Park(1995), he called Thor Point Break (1991), and he called Hawkeye "Legolas". In Captain America: Civil War (2016), he called Bucky The Manchurian Candidate (2004). In Spider-Man Homecoming (2017), he called Peter Parker "Crockett", as a reference to Miami Vice(1984). In this movie, he scorned Ebony Maw by calling him "Squidward", and he called Star Lord Flash Gordon (1980).

The French dub has Tony use "Voldemort" as an insult to Ebony Maw in place of "Squidward". This is likely because Squidward's French name, "Carlo", was too ordinary for audiences to get the joke, and for the joke to work. The same applies to Squidward's German name, "Thaddäus".

Rocket carrying around a stolen eye is a callback to a running gag in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as he has always been obsessed with prosthetic body parts.

At one point in the movie, Thanos (Josh Brolin) asks The Collector (Benicio del Toro), "Where is the stone?" The same line was said by Benicio del Toro in the opening scene of Snatch (2000).

On April 26, 2018, the day before it got a wide release, it received enough votes to take the number two spot on IMDb's Top 250 with a 9.2 out of 10, a record for a Marvel movie.

The cast features three Academy Award winners, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio Del Toro, and William Hurt, and seven nominees, Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin, and Samuel L. Jackson.

There is a deleted scene with an appearance by Happy Hogan in the park.

When Thor tells the Guardians of the Galaxy about The Avengers, Mantis mentions the actor Kevin Bacon, Peter Quill's hero, and Thor says "He might have joined". Kevin Bacon played the Marvel supervillain Sebastian Shaw, antagonist of the X-Men, in X-Men: First Class (2011).

CAMEO: Stan Lee: The comic book writer who co-created most of the characters featured in this movie is featured here as Peter Parker's school bus driver. In addition, this movie also contains remnants from Stan's past cameos: Tony Stark uses the flip phone that Stan delivered to him in Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Thor still sports the haircut that Stan gave him in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). 

FILM 1894: HULK

FILM 1894: HULK

TRIVIA: Creating the Hulk in CGI was one of the most complex tasks Industrial Light & Magic had ever undertaken at that time. The computer model used 12,996 texture maps, and required 1,165 muscle movements and one hundred layers of skin. It took the combined work and efforts of about one hundred eighty ILM technicians (sixty-nine technical artists, forty-one animators, thirty-five compositors, ten muscle action animators, nine CG modellers, eight supervisors, six skin painters and five motion-capture wranglers), over two and a half million hours, and one and a half years for him to be effectively created and portrayed in the film. With all of that work, some of the public complained that the Hulk looked too fake, comparing him with Shrek (2001).

Edward Norton was approached to play Bruce Banner, but turned it down, as, despite being a fan of the Hulk, he didn't like the script. He later accepted the role in The Incredible Hulk (2008).

A lot of the microbiology work we see on-screen is real, and is the work of Director Ang Lee's wife.

According to the animators at Industrial Light & Magic, the Hulk weighs 3,452 pounds (1,565.8 kilograms), and can exert fourteen tons of pressure per square inch. His skin is ten times as strong as Kevlar. His chest measures seventeen feet and four inches (5.3 meters), his waist twelve feet and ten inches (3.3 meters), his foot four feet and three inches (1.3 meters), and his neck six feet and nine inches (2 meters). If he wore shoes, they would be (U.S.) size eighty-seven. He can move at a top speed of three hundred miles (four hundred eighty-three kilometers) per hour, and cross three to four miles (4.8 to 6.4 kilometers) in a single jump.

Nick Nolte had his hair grown wildly for this movie when he was arrested on drunk driving charges and photographed for his now infamous mug shot.

Ang Lee performed the Hulk using motion-capture technology.

Ang Lee employed the split-screen technique to cinematically mimic the panels of a comic-book page. This required many takes of one scene, which was draining for Eric Bana. It took him four takes to film Banner's first Hulk transformation, and by the time of its completion, he was on the verge of collapse.

This film holds the record for largest second weekend box-office drop for a film that opened at number one, with a 69.7 percent drop.

When the first transformation of Banner into Hulk occurs, the color of the Hulk is either gray or greenish-gray. This is an homage to the first appearance of the Hulk, when he was actually gray in his debut comic (May 1962). The publisher couldn't do gray very well, so Stan Lee changed the color to green, simply because green hadn't been used much by other characters. From the second transformation, he maintains his prominent emerald hue.

CAMEO:Lou Ferrigno: (At around twelve minutes) As a security guard. 

CAMEO: Stan Lee: (At around twelve minutes) The creator of the Hulk (1962) appeared as a security guard. Lee ad-libbed his lines.

FILM 1795: THOR: RAGNAROK

FILM 1795: THOR: RAGNAROK

TRIVIA: Sir Anthony Hopkins had decided against returning as Odin, but upon reading the story, he changed his mind.

Thor's "friend from work" line about the Hulk was suggested to Chris Hemsworth by a Make-A-Wish child who paid a visit to the set on the day the scene was filmed.

Taika Waititi based Korg's character on Polynesian bouncers: "We wanted to change the idea of what a hulking guy made of rocks could be. He's huge and heavy, but with a light soul, and he's funny and friendly."

This marks the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that The Hulk is not voiced by Lou Ferrigno, but by Mark Ruffalo. Ferrigno voiced Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (2008), Avengers Assemble (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Taika Waititi appears in this film as Korg. Waititi is the second Marvel film Director to have a major role in his own film, after Jon Favreau (who directed the first two Iron Man films, and appeared as "Happy" Hogan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).

Chris Hemsworth plays Thor in the film, while his older brother Luke Hemsworth plays Thor in a play within the film. Their younger sibling Liam Hemsworth was considered for the role of Thor.

Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" appears in the film, and the trailer. This is noteworthy, because Led Zeppelin is known for very rarely licensing out their music for use in feature films, television series, or video games. The majority of other films that have had Led Zeppelin music are related to rock journalist Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Almost Famous), making this one of the few films to feature Zeppelin music that in no way involves Crowe. School of Rock is another.

Taika Waititi described the film as a "1970s and 80s science fiction fantasy, the most 'out there' of all the Marvel movies." He cited Big Trouble in Little China (1986) as a major influence on the film: "It's a fun adventure film that has big stakes, but also has a breakneck speed and takes you on a crazy adventure."

In the comics, the Grandmaster has blue skin. Taika Waititi decided against applying blue on Jeff Goldblum, because he felt Goldblum was a good enough actor to not need it, and because Goldblum had already played a blue-colored character in Earth Girls Are Easy(1988).

The retirement home in New York City is named "Shady Acres", the same name as the retirement home where Stan Marsh's grandfather lives in South Park (1997), and the same as the psychiatric institute in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), which was a play on that film's director Tom Shadyac.

CAMEO: Stan Lee: comic-book writer who co-created Thor and the Hulk, appears as the barber who cuts Thor's hair.

FILM 1517: MYSTERY MEN

TRIVIA: According to Ben Stiller in an interview on Late Show with David Letterman (1993), he and Greg Kinnear got into a heated argument on the set. Afterwards, Stiller tried to be released from the film.

Tom Waits' odd hand gestures when explaining the psychofrakulator were the result of him writing his dialogue on his fingers and reading the words as he went along.

A number of the sets used in the film are the same sets used in Batman Forever (1995).

The Mystery Men were the supporting cast of an underground superhero comic book called the Flaming Carrot. Mr. Furious and the Shoveler were the only ones from the comic to make it into the movie. Captain Amazing was created as a replacement for the Flaming Carrot, who was felt to be too bizarre to bring to the silver screen.

The Bowler's stream-of-consciousness monologue in support of independent filmmaking at the conclusion of the film was originally not intended to be included in the finished print. Janeane Garofalo was instructed by director Kinka Usher to say whatever came to her mind at the time (Usher simply wanted to use up some excess film.) Usher liked her performance so much he edited it into the final print.

CAMEOS: Michael Bay (noted action director) and Riki Rachtman, (former host of MTV's Headbangers Ball (1987)) as two of the Frat Boys. Bay asks "can we bring the brewskies?".

According to Hank Azaria, the cast argued constantly with each other over the comedic tone of the film.

As the team enters Dr. Heller's amusement park workshop, creepy music is heard. This is not just incidental music, but turns out to be Dr. Heller practicing on a 'waterphone', the strange cylindrical device with steel wires he can briefly be seen holding. The waterphone is primarily used in the motion picture industry in the composition of creepy incidental music.

In an odd parallel, Tom Waits actually creates curious machines from junk and hardware store purchases, in the same way that his character (Dr. Heller) does. Waits' machines are musical, and one is 6-stringed steel dumpster.

A subtle reference to William Shatner: once, while recording lines for the video game Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993), Shatner pronounced "sabotage" strangely and was asked twice to repeat the line. He finally blurted, "Don't tell me how to act - it sickens me!" In Mystery Men (1999), this line is repeated by Ben Stiller. Later, Janeane Garofalo says to Stiller, "You say 'sabotage', I say 'saboTAGE'," another Shatner quote from the Star Trek recording session.

Ricky Jay's character tells Captain Amazing, "I'm a publicist, not a magician." Jay is in fact a well-known magician.

In a 2011 interview with A.V. Club, Hank Azaria claimed that during production Kinka Usher declared "I'm going back to commercials when this is done. I've had enough. I'd much rather do my cool little one-minute shorts that I make than deal with all this nonsense."

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FILM 1344: THE DEATH OF "SUPERMAN LIVES": WHAT HAPPENED?

TRIVIA: Jon Schnepp had crowd-source funding to finance the film.

FILM 1237: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

TRIVIA: The soundtrack album "Awesome Mix, Vol. 1" reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, the first film soundtrack ever to reach number one without a single original song.

Vin Diesel recorded all of his "I am Groot" lines in several different languages, including Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French so that they could use his real voice in the film around the world.

The mid-credits scene where Groot dances to "I Want You Back" was animated using footage of James Gunn dancing privately to the song.

Drax's comment about Groot's ability to release "fireflies", "When did you learn to do that?" is an inside joke, as Groot has never shown this ability in the comic books.

Chris Pratt cites heroes Han Solo and Marty McFly as influences on his performance as Star-Lord.

Prior to release, Bill Mantlo, the comic book writer who created Rocket Raccoon and has been permanently institutionalized since a crippling traffic accident in 1992, was granted a private screening by Marvel Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures. According to his brother, Michael Mantlo, Bill was pleased with the adaptation (which credits him by name as the character's creator) and considered the occasion a happy day for himself and his family.

Rocket Raccoon was modeled on a raccoon living in the UK named Oreo.

James Gunn compared the Avengers and the Guardians to music bands: "The Avengers are like the Beatles, but the Guardians are like the Rolling Stones!"

Benicio Del Toro described the Collector as "Liberace in outer space."

Nathan Fillion is the blue alien that Groot picks up by the nostrils during the escape scene in the Kyln.

Adam Sandler, David Tennant, Sharlto Copley, Jim Carrey and H. Jon Benjamin were considered to voice Rocket Raccoon.

London's Millennium Bridge can be seen during the the Battle of Xander.