FILM 1865: WAR OF THE WORLDS

FILM 1865: WAR OF THE WORLDS

TRIVIA: During the filming of the underwater scenes (where the ferry capsizes), director Steven Spielberg played a prank on Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing the dramatic music from Jaws (1975) (also one of Spielberg's films) through the massive underwater speakers on the sound stage.

The tripod design for the alien machines is based on H.G. Wells' original description from his book, including the heat rays at the ends of arms. The "red weed" is also from the novel, as is the alien "need" for humans.

When the aliens are investigating the junk in the basement, one of them plays with a bicycle wheel. This is a reference to the original book; the main character observes that, with all the advanced technology the aliens possess, they do not use any wheels, and wonders if the alien life form had skipped the invention of the wheel.

Due to Steven Spielberg's last minute post-production work, he had to drop out of a scheduled appearance with Tom Cruise to promote the film on The Oprah Winfrey Show(1986). This was the episode of Cruise's highly publicized "couch jumping" incident.

An actual out-of-use Boeing 747 was bought to be used as the crashed plane.

Before David Koepp was hired, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise asked J.J. Abrams to write the script. But, he had to turn it down, as he was working on the pilot for Lost(2004) at the time.

In 2005, the plane crash set was featured in Universal Studios Hollywood's public Studio Tour. The wreckage was located only a few feet from the infamous Psycho (1960) house and Bates Motel sets.

The opening voiceover monologue paraphrases and updates the first paragraph from H.G. Wells' novel. For example, "nineteenth century" is changed to "twenty-first century".

Tom Cruise's sixth consecutive film to break the 100 million dollar barrier domestically since 2000, and his thirteenth movie to break that barrier in total.

After her actions in the film, Dakota Fanning's character was voted 'most useless thing to have in an apocalypse' by MTV

Ray drives a rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT-350H, black with gold stripes. 1,001 were produced in total, with around 800 being produced in the black and gold color scheme. Also known as the "Rent-A-Racer", it was available for rent at Hertz for seventeen dollars per day, and seventeen cents per mile. An original example sold at auction in 2006 for 180,900 dollars, and since a crane driver would be unlikely to own such a valuable car, it's probably one of the many replicas which have subsequently been made, worth a fraction of that.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Steven Spielberg: [fathers] The main character is a divorced father whose children are angry at him, mirroring Spielberg's experience with his absentee father.

FILM 1669: ELLE

TRIVIA: The initial plan was to produce the movie in the United States, but there were problems finding a female lead. Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Julianne Moore and Diane Lane were offered the role, but they all passed on the opportunity. Marion Cotillard and Carice van Houten were also considered. According to Paul Verhoeven, most actresses immediately rejected the part as soon as they had read the script, instead of waiting for a few days, which is normal. One of the actresses said she felt uncomfortable because of things that had happened to her in the past, one didn't give any reasons but just said, 'certainly not'. Verhoeven relocated the shoot of Elle to France after being turned down by Hollywood actresses. Verhoeven revealed that Isabelle Huppert read the book, called up the writer and the producer and said she wanted to do the movie. When they were discussing it, she brought up Verhoeven's name. Huppert chose Verhoeven, not the other way around. Verhoeven told The Guardian that the only American actor who would have been game, he thinks, is Jennifer Jason Leigh, "she would have had absolutely no problem, She's extremely audacious. But she's an artistic presence and we were looking for names", he said.

Paul Verhoeven's first French-language film.

Before the production began, Paul Verhoeven went to a Dutch language institute to learn French, in order to better communicate with the cast and crew. He said it was simply necessary, because according to tradition, making a French movie should be done with an all-French crew. He initially spoke English with them, but this didn't work efficiently. Fortunately, Verhoeven had once been to a French school in his youth, so he picked up the language quickly.

Based on the novel "Oh..." by Philippe Djian.

Film 1032: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Trivia: Throughout the years, Sam Peckinpah (who appears briefly in the film as the meter reader) claimed that he had done work on the script ranging from modifications to major overhauls. Those who worked on the film claimed that if Peckinpah had made any changes to the script, it was limited to a few lines of dialog. Peckinpah's claims became so inflated that the actual writer, Daniel Mainwaring, threatened to file an official complaint with the Writers Guild of America, so Peckinpah backed down. When Peckinpah died in 1984, many of his obituaries still carried the claim that he had rewritten the screenplay for this film.

Producer Walter Wanger wanted a Winston Churchill quotation as a preface, with Orson Welles doing the narration. When they couldn't persuade him, Wanger tried to enlist science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. He declined as well.

Don Siegel was very against the optimistic outcome of the movie, but the decision to give hope to the audience was forced upon him by the studio. Most people dislike the ending, agreeing with Siegel's original intention to end the film with Miles trying to warn people of the alien invaders, in vain.

Screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring had brushes with Hollywood witch-hunts, which lends credence to the theory that the film is an unconscious metaphor against McCarthyism. Something Dana Wynter agreed with, although she didn't recall the mention of any political statements on-set. Kevin McCarthy believed the film to be an attack on "Madison Avenue" attitudes. Siegel joked that the pods represented the front office.