FILM 1869: TITANIC

FILM 1869: TITANIC

TRIVIA: The elderly couple seen hugging on the bed while water floods their room were the owners of Macy's department store in New York, Ida and Isidor Straus, both of whom died on the Titanic. Ida was offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused so that she could stay with her husband, saying, "As we have lived together, so we shall die together." There was a scene filmed that depicted this moment but was cut from the final version. It was Mrs Straus' who originally said "Where you go, I go" that inspired Rose's same line in the film.

After finding out that she had to be naked in front of Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winsletdecided to break the ice, and when they first met, she flashed him.

James Cameron went on the dives to the real Titanic himself, and found it an overwhelming emotional experience to actually see it. He ended up spending more time with the ship than its living passengers did.

Due to the long theatrical run of the movie, Paramount had to send out replacement reels to theaters that had literally worn out their copies. 

The first film to be released on video (DVD/VHS) while it was still being shown in theaters.

At $200 million, the movie cost more than the Titanic itself. The cost to construct the ship in 1910-1912 was £1.5 million, equivalent to $7.5 million at the time and about $120 to $150 million in 1997 dollars.

With her nomination for Best Supporting Actress at age 87, Gloria Stuart became the oldest person to ever be nominated for an Oscar.

Was #1 at the U.S. box office for a record fifteen consecutive weeks, from 19 December 1997 to 2 April 1998.

A recent investigation showed that if Titanic had hit the iceberg head-on, she would have survived. Though damaged she would not have sunk and would have reached New York -- maybe a day or two late.

This was the first film to be nominated twice for an Academy Award, for the portrayal of the same character: Kate Winslet received a Best Actress nomination for her role as Rose and Gloria Stuart received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her portrayal of the older Rose. The next time this happened was with the movie Iris (2001), which also starred Winslet.

The first Best Picture Academy Award winner to be produced, directed, written, and edited by the same person (James Cameron).

James Cameron was adamant about not including any song in the film, even over the closing credits. Composer James Horner secretly arranged with lyricist Will Jennings and singer Céline Dion to write "My Heart Will Go On" and record a demo tape which he then presented to Cameron, who responded very favorably and included the song over the closing credits. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. 

In the scene in the beginning where the captain orders full-speed ahead and the shot moves down into the boiler room, the set was really just about three boilers but the film makers had huge mirrors installed to visualize a great big long room. (In this scene you can see workers shoving in coal, and about 20 feet down the room you can see the mirror image of the workers).

One of three films to win a total of 11 Academy Awards, the others being Ben-Hur (1959) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).

Was the highest grossing film in box office history with a worldwide gross of US$1.8 billion until it was surpassed by Avatar (2009). Both films were directed by James Cameron.

Real Beluga caviar was used in the first class dining room sequence. After sampling it, Jonathan Hyde said he "made an acting decision on the spot that Ismay was a big eater."

The first movie to gross a billion dollars.

In a recently-completed investigation by Tim Maltin, he reveals that the reason the iceberg was not seen was due to a "cold water mirage." This is the opposite of a desert mirage. The multiple layers of cold and warm air cloaked the iceberg. Normally the iceberg could have been seen as far as 12 miles, giving Titanic 30 minutes to avoid. This is revealed in his e-book "Titanic: A Deceiving Night" and his Smithsonian documentary "Titanic's Final Mystery." This also explains why the Californian failed to receive the distress message "Come at once; we are sinking" that crew on Titanic signaled with Morse lamps.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #83 Greatest Movie of All Time. This was one of the newest entries on the list (from films which were released between 1997 and 2005).

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: James Cameron: [perfect cut] Several dissolves between the Titanic on the seabed to the Titanic of the past, and the dissolve from the young to the old Rose.

FILM 1835: 2012

FILM 1835: 2012

TRIVIA: The doomsday theory sprung from a non-Mayan Western idea, not a Mayan one. Mayans insisted that the world would not end in 2012. The Mayans had a talent for astronomy, and enthusiasts found a series of astronomical alignments they said coincided in 2012. Once every six hundred forty thousand 640,000 years, the sun lines up with the center of the Milky Way galaxy on the winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon. The last time that happened was on December 21, 2012, the same day the Mayan calender expired. The modern doomsday myth was bolstered by several ostensibly scientific reasons for a disaster, including a pole shift, the "return" of Planet X or the Sun's sinister counterpart Nemesis, a galactic, planetary, or other celestial alignment, global warming, global cooling, a massive solar flare, or a new ice age. None had any basis in respected science. For example, the "galactic alignment" between the sun, Earth, and galactic center happens every December. The best alignment was reached in the 1990s, and was accompanied by its own set of doomsday theories. Alignments since then have been increasingly poor.

Banned in North Korea, because 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of First Great Leader Kim Il-Sung. Several people were arrested for watching pirated copies of the film.

The great disasters of the "galactic alignment" in 2012 were supposed to have occurred on December 21st, the day of the solstice. The filmmakers decided to move those events up a few months, to midsummer. This relieved them of having to decorate the sets for the winter holidays.

When Jackson (John Cusack) goes to pick up the Russian oligarch's boys, the mansion, to which he drives up, is the Fleur de Lys estate in the Bel Air and Beverly Hills area. At one hundred twenty-five million dollars, it was one of the most expensive real estate listings in the country.

The character Jackson Curtis is the real name of 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) backwards. Executive Producer, co-Writer, and Director Roland Emmerich is a big fan of rapper 50 Cent, and wanted to name his lead character after him.

Charlie Frost's animation about the end of the world heavily references the animated Internet meme, "The End of ze World", which centers around the idea that humanity will kill itself as a whole before any natural disaster would ever have the time to destroy it.

In an interview in USA Today, Roland Emmerich said that this will be his final disaster film, "I said to myself that I'll do one more disaster movie, but it has to end all disaster movies. So I packed everything in." He ended up doing several more, including Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).

Roland Emmerich told MTV the cover-up name for this film was "Farewell Atlantis", which is the title of lead character Jackson Curtis' book.

Seth Rogen turned down the role of Adrian Helmsley.

John Cusack and Amanda Peet appeared in Identity (2003) and Martian Child (2007).

The character of Charlie Frost seems loosely based on David Johnston and Harry Glicken, volcanologists killed in the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Johnston was able to broadcast, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" as a warning before he died. Glicken was considered so eccentric and disorganized, that he was only ever offered temporary positions by the U.S. Geological Survey, despite his incredibly thorough research on Mount St. Helens.

A television shows an Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike as the Governor of California explaining the situation. The real-life Arnold ended his term in 2011, and the events in this movie took place near the end of 2012.

FILM 1819: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

FILM 1819: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

TRIVIA: 20th Century Fox invited a group of scientists to preview the film, to test their reactions to the science used in the film. None of the scientists were impressed with what they saw, although most conceded that the movie was enjoyable nonsense.

The river crossing scene was actually filmed on the US-Mexico border, and the extras really were crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico.

The consultation by NASA scientists was requested before the filming of the movie, but NASA stated that the events in the film were too ridiculous actually to occur, and hence denied the request. NASA sent a memo out to all of its employees stating that they were not allowed to comment on the likelihood of the events portrayed, but later rescinded this restriction.

In 2008, Yahoo! Movies listed the film as one of the Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies.

Two library-bound survivors ask whether they should burn the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose "The Antichrist" states in its preface: "Only the day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously." Part of this line provided this movie's title.

When the camera pulls away from the Earth after the astronaut exclaims "the air is so clear" the image of the Earth is a modified version of the "Blue Marble" picture created by Robert Simmon. The Blue Marble picture is comprised of thousands of satellite photos, and some of the clouds are duplicated. The Apple iPhone uses the Blue Marble picture as the default wallpaper.

FILM 1769: LEFT BEHIND

TRIVIA: Left Behind author Tim Lahaye makes a cameo appearance in a scene riding the escalator in the mall.

The end credit song, I Wish We All Were Ready, was from another rapture based series called A Thief in the Night, made in 1972 and released by Mark IV Pictures.

A planned sequel was launched on the crowd funding site Indiegogo but due to the poor reception of this film the project was a colossal failure, not even managing to reach 20% of its $500,000 goal

Film 1066: The Impossible

Trivia: Many of the extras are actual survivors of the tsunami.

The real family that the main characters are based on are in fact Spanish but living in Japan at the time of the Tsunami.

The family on which this story is based upon were present during the whole shooting process. They were giving tips, especially 'Maria Belon' who is portrayed by Naomi Watts. The whole family also attended the film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2012.

Film 954: Date Night

Trivia: In all of Mark Wahlberg's scenes, he is shirtless. His scenes were carefully filmed at specific angles to avoid showing a tattoo of Bob Marley that he has on his left shoulder.

In the scene where Tina Fey's character is preparing for bed, she is shown wearing a "University of Virginia" T-shirt. Tina Fey graduated there in 1992.

Despite the fact that his character's minimal apparel is a running joke throughout the movie, there is a dedicated wardrobe assistant to Mark Wahlberg listed in the end credits.

The name of the strip joint where the Fosters go to meet the DA (The Peppermint Hippo) is a based on a famous chain of gentlemen's clubs called The Spearmint Rhino.

As Taste and Whippit are leaving their apartment, Taste says "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat". This is a reference to a quote from the movie Heat. William Fichtner, who plays District Attorney Frank Crenshaw, was in Heat.

The erotic dance between Steve Carell and Tina Fey was improvised but to make them feel awkward in character, director Shawn Levy shouted obscure phrases to them while behind the camera.

Film 869: Flight

Trivia: Olivia Wilde and Dominique McElligott were considered for the role of Nicole.

Reunites Denzel Washington and John Goodman, who worked together in Fallen. It also reunites Washington with Don Cheadle, who worked together in Devil in a Blue Dress.

Robert Zemeckis' first live-action movie since Cast Away.

According to producers Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke (during a Q&A session with the Producers' Guild on October 18th, 2012), the primary airplane in the film is a pastiche of several existing commercial airliners so as to not ID a particular plane or airline in the film. Also, no promotional consideration was paid by any of the alcohol brands featured in the movie; they decided to feature beer, wine and hard liquor brands for one shot only so as not to "endorse" any of them.

When the audience is first introduced to John Goodman's character, he's listening to "Sympathy For The Devil". This song also appeared in Fallen which also starred him and Denzel Washington.