I love the detail on these ceramic animals…

FILM 1922: BIRD BOX

FILM 1922: BIRD BOX

TRIVIA: John Malkovich would talk to the birds on set, and the cast said he had a bizarre connection with them. He would be able to tell them to move their feet and they would.

This marked the fifth time actress Parminder Nagra played the role of a medical doctor, following ER (2003-2009), Alcatraz (2012), Fortitude (2015-), and Five Feet Apart (2019).

The film immediately sparked a 'Bird Box challenge' where people (often children) would have to cross a distance while blindfolded, both indoors and outdoors. When videos started to appear on social media of people bumping into objects and hurting themselves this way, Netflix issued a statement to discourage viewers from taking this challenge.

FILM 1899: ANNIHILATION

FILM 1899: ANNIHILATION 

TRIVIA: Due to a poorly received test screening, David Ellison, a financier at Paramount, became concerned that the film was "too intellectual" and "too complicated," and demanded changes to make it appeal to a wider audience, including making Portman's character more sympathetic and changing the ending. Producer Scott Rudin sided with Garland in his desire to not alter the film, defending the film and refusing to take notes. Rudin had final cut.

Oscar Isaac filmed this movie and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) on adjacent studio lots. He had the same trailer for both films and would often film scenes for both movies on the same day.

Director Alex Garland decided not to reread the novel "Annihilation." Instead, he decided to adapt it "like a dream of the book."

During the lecture, Lena describes the cells in the video presentation as "cervical cancer" from a "31-year old patient." These are most likely HeLa cells, an immortalized cell line derived from a cervical cancer taken from Henrietta Lacks. The cells are widely used in Biomedical research, and the story of how cells from a patient biopsy were derived without her consent or knowledge is shown in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks(2017). The movie is based on the book of the same name, and Lena is reading a copy of the book when she sits on the couch with Kane.

FILM 1768: EVOLUTION

FILM 1768: EVOLUTION

TRIVIA: David Duchovny turned down a role in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) to appear in this movie.

Initially written as a serious science-fiction thriller, Ivan Reitman hired David Diamond and David Weissman to re-write the project as a comedy. The original writer, Don Jakoby, actually enjoyed the changes so much, he continued working on the film alongside the other writers.

Shot in December, DreamWorks asked the locals to delay putting up their Christmas decorations. Following the shoot, DreamWorks paid the city employees overtime to light up the town in time for Christmas.

The placement of the element selenium in Head and Shoulders shampoo is technically correct. Though regular Head and Shoulders shampoo does not have any of the element, Head and Shoulders Intensive Treatment Shampoo actually does consist of approximately 1% selenium sulfide.

In certain point Orlando Jones's character tells David Duchovny to call the government, but he answers "No government, I know those guys". This is a reference to his character in The X Files.

FILM 1696: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

TRIVIA: In the film, the works of Sutter Cane are occasionally quoted. Most if not all of these quotes are actually taken directly from several H.P. Lovecraft short stories with some adaptations to fit them into the film story. Most notably, in the scene where Styles reads to Trent as he gazes into the abyss--her speech lifts much of its description, including such elements as "the illimitable gulf of the unknown" from the last few paragraphs of Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls." In an earlier scene as well, Trent reads a line verbatim from Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark," in reference to the black church being "the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe."

The Sutter Cane character is clearly based on John Carpenter's friend Stephen King, even referencing King's New England roots, with Hobb's End filling in for King's Castle Rock. Carpenter directed a film version of King's Christine (1983). Additionally Michael De Lucahad previously written the screenplay for the King adaptation The Lawnmower Man(1987). However, the characters say that Sutter Cane is even more popular than Stephen King.

Robot Monster (1953), which Sam Neill is watching at the end of the movie, is one of director John Carpenter's favorite monster movies as a kid.

BOOK 154: THE RABBIT BACK LITERATURE SOCIETY: PASI ILMARI JÄÄSKELÄINEN

A highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author 'She came to realise that under one reality there's always another. And another one under that.' Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her? Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light... In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.

(Information from http://www.goodreads.com)

FILM 1541: THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

TRIVIA: The triffids inspired the E.T. plants of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

In an interview, producer Bernard Glasser said that in order to satisfy a British government requirement that productions shot in British have a certain percentage of British executives, George Pitcher, a retired film executive, was hired as basically a "frontman"; although credited as producer, he had no actual authority over the production.

Kieron Moore and Janette Scott were only added to the cast when it was discovered on completion of filming that there was only 57 minutes of good usable footage available . The whole lighthouse sequence, directed by the veteran Director of Photography Freddie Francis, was only added on to help extend the movie's running time.

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