FILM 1884: THE HUNTING GROUND

FILM 1884: THE HUNTING GROUND

An exposé of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families.

FILM 1797: JACK REACHER

FILM 1797: JACK REACHER

TRIVIA: Coincidentally, the source novel, "One Shot" by Lee Child, specifically references (though not by name) the film A Few Good Men (1992), which starred Tom Cruise. In the novel, Reacher reflects upon a line of dialogue spoken by Jack Nicholson's character.

Rosamund Pike was pregnant with son Solo during the shooting for this film.

Robert Duvall's character is seen using empty .38 special cartridge cases as ear plugs. This goes back to the 1950s. Since he was an old timer, he would have done this.

Jai Courtney and Josh Helman had so much trouble with the American accent required for their roles, that several planned scenes were scrapped, and many of Courtney's lines were dropped from the sides.

Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman, Vince Vaughn, Jamie Foxx, and Will Smith were considered for the role of Jack Reacher before Tom Cruise was cast.

Reacher asks Helen "Drop me at the auto parts store". When she says "Which one?" he explains that he wants the one that "stands out in your mind as *the* auto part store". In the next sequence, the actual auto part store sign is visible: it is called "DeFault Auto Parts".

CAMEO: Lee Child: The film's source novelist as a Police Desk Sergeant, and the cop that gives Jack Reacher his personal belongings back when he leaves jail.

FILM 1757: THE POST

FILM 1757: THE POST 

TRIVIA: In all of the scenes depicting President Nixon on the phone in the Oval Office, Nixon's actual voice is heard from White House tapes. 

In scenes involving the Pentagon Papers, the actual Daniel Ellsberg's original documents were used as genuine props, including the pages that were scattered over the floor of Benjamin C. Bradlee (Tom Hanks)' home.

In his memoir, the real Daniel Ellsberg claimed that walking out of RAND with the Pentagon Papers (and returning them) over the course of months was a calculated risk, since he had never had his bag checked by security, but he did not know for sure if it was not policy to do so.

Steven Spielberg wanted to have his film released as quickly as possible given the parallels between its theme and the burgeoning political 'fake news' climate in the U.S. According to Meryl Streep, the physical shoot started in May (2017) and finished at the end of July (2017) and Spielberg had it cut two weeks later, an unprecedented feat. The gestation from script to final cut lasted a modest 9 months.

Never having previously collaborated with director Steven Spielberg in a director/actor capacity, Meryl Streep was flabbergasted to learn that Spielberg never rehearses with his actors. Co-star Tom Hanks was well aware of this idiosyncrasy but decided, in gleeful anticipation of a 'diva' reaction, not to tell Streep. Despite her initial shock, Meryl and Steven got along extremely well during the shoot with Spielberg being so impressed with her character transformation, he had difficulty restraining himself from constantly complimenting her every take on set.

Benjamin Bradlee (Tom Hanks character) in real life had a son named Ben Bradlee Junior who is depicted in the film Spotlight (played by John Slattery). The film is based on the true story about about the Boston Globe newspaper uncovering a major scandal.

The Post is dedicated to Nora Ephron, once married to Carl Bernstein who with Bob Woodward uncovered the Watergate scandal in 1972 as reporters for The Washington Post.

Tom Hanks has a connection with both of the film's main characters' real-life individuals. Hanks actually personally knew Ben Bradlee (who Hanks portrays in the film), and he met Kay Graham (who Meryl Streep portrays in the film) the day before she died.

Coincidentally, Benjamin C. Bradlee and wife Sally Quinn were Long Island neighbors of Steven Spielberg for many years, and they knew each other socially.

With this film, his fifth collaboration with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks broke his tie with Harrison Ford to be the actor that Spielberg has directed the most times. Ford has also been directed by Spielberg five times, but his scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was cut from the final film.

Michael Stuhlbarg is in three of the movies nominated for best picture Oscars: The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, and The Post, but he was not nominated himself.

The Post marks the 28th collaboration between Williams (composer of the film's score) and Spielberg. The score uses a combination of both orchestral and sparse, light electronic elements throughout.

FILM 1465: SPOTLIGHT

TRIVIA: The real Walter Robinson said: "My persona has been hijacked. If Michael Keaton robbed a bank, the police would quickly have me in handcuffs".

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2013 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", director Tom McCarthy said that they built a large set to depict many of the Boston Globe offices where parts of the story takes place. When the reporters depicted in the movie first visited the set, they gravitated to the desks where they had been sitting during the writing of the "Spotlight" piece, and many of them started to re-arrange the items on their desks to the they had been at the time.

The one thing that Michael Keaton was afraid of when he accepted the role was the Boston accent. After watching a video footage of the real Walter Robinson he was surprised that Robinson didn't have that much of a Boston accent.

The real Michael Rezendes said "Watching Mark Ruffalo reenact five months of my life was like looking into a fun house mirror."

Tom McCarthy cited The Verdict (1982) and Sidney Lumet's style direction in that film as influence of this project.

Matt Damon was considered for the role of Michael Rezendes which went to Mark Ruffalo.

When Rachel McAdams tells Neal Huff that she will have to postpone the interviews with the survivors, a TV in the bar is broadcasting a Penn State game, and Joe Paterno appears on screen. The longtime Penn State football coach was fired in 2011 after he failed to report sexual abuse of young boys by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno died of lung cancer 2 months later. On October 9, 2012, Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

FILM 1431: BLOW OUT

TRIVIA: Quentin Tarantino stated in an interview that this film is his favorite Brian De Palma movie. In fact, Tarantino cast John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (1994) because he liked his performance in this movie so much.

In the French version, John Travolta's voice was dubbed by Gérard Depardieu.

The use of a split-focus diopter lens is evident in several scenes, in particular the sound recording scene and the hospital scene. The split-focus lens is attached to the main lens, and it affects only the left or right portion of the main lens' view. This changes the focal distance of part of the image, allowing objects at two distances (in the foreground and background) to be in sharp focus.

The idea of a man discovering a crime by listening to a recording is a reinterpretation of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up (1966), but using sound instead of photographs.

Brian De Palma got the idea for the story while doing the sound mix on his previous movie, Dressed to Kill (1980).

John Travolta and Nancy Allen had previously starred in Carrie (1976).

FILM 1356: VERONICA MARS

TRIVIA: Funded in large part by a campaign on Kickstarter.com, breaking all of the site's records up to April, 2013. Some of the accomplishments were:

Fastest project to reach $1 million.
Fastest project to reach $2 million.
All-time highest-funded project in FILM category.

Third highest-funded project in Kickstarter history.

Most project backers of any project in Kickstarter history.

At the police department, Leo (Max Greenfield) comments that he heard a rumor that Veronica was working for the FBI, to which she replies "another life maybe.." A trailer for the canceled 4th season of the show was released by director Rob Thomas showing Veronica's first few days with the FBI.

In the film, the latest Lotto numbers are shown in several different web-based views (along side the main thing being viewed). The Lotto numbers displayed are actually the final Kickstarter dollar amount that was raised to fund the production.

When Mac comes to Veronica's house and they try to guess her new job, Veronica's dad guesses "clubbing baby seals." Tina Majorino, who plays Mac, starred in the seal movie "Andre" in 1994.

The film's many Kickstarter supporters included detective novelist Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition, whose family were huge fans of the TV series. Collins frequently includes Veronica Mars on his list of the greatest private detective TV shows of all time.