FILM 1971: MINDHUNTERS

FILM 1971: MINDHUNTERS

TRIVIA: The primary reason the film was able to be done on such a modest budget was due to a generous tax break from the Dutch government.

Val Kilmer's next role was as the infamous porn legend John Holmes in Wonderland(2003). In order to secure Kilmer's participation, he was allowed to grow out his hair during the filming of this movie. 

The studio did not cast any character as a lead. Director Renny Harlin wanted no dummy characters or obvious victims and established a sense that "anyone could die at any moment" in the film.

A large part of the movie was filmed on the location where the Dutch anti riot police (Mobiele Eenheid) is trained. It's a fake village where riots are simulated. There are still some traces of the movie. For instance, there still hangs a large poster on a wall, as can be seen in the movie.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Renny Harlin: a mannequin holding a phone in a phone booth late in the film.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Renny Harlin: [Finland] When the others leave Vince and Gabe alone in the basement room, Finland's flag is seen on the wall

FILM 1915: LILO & STITCH

FILM 1915: LILO & STITCH

TRIVIA: The name "Lilo" means "Generous One" and its origin is Hawaiian. It can also be interpreted as "Lost" and this would give the song title "He Mele No Lilo" a loose translation as "Lullaby of the Lost". The name Nani means "Beautiful" in Hawaiian.

Disney promoted this movie with a series of trailers inserting Stitch into some of its "classic" titles. Examples: 

The Little Mermaid (1989): Stitch surfs a wave that crashes down on Ariel.

Beauty and the Beast (1991): Stitch causes the chandelier to fall during the ballroom scene, nearly smashing Belle and the Beast

Aladdin (1992): Stitch steals Princess Jasmine from Aladdin during the "A Whole New World" magic carpet ride.

The Lion King (1994): Stitch takes Simba's place on Pride Rock during the "Circle of Life" opening.

Hawaii-born cast members Jason Scott Lee and Tia Carrere helped the writers with dialog and accents.

Although it uses computer-colored (but hand-drawn) digital cels instead of hand-painted ones, this was the first Disney animated feature to use watercolor-painted backgrounds since Dumbo (1941). A conscious effort was made to give the film a warmer, more old-fashioned look than most other modern Disney films: this film does not use the "Deep Canvas" technique used in Tarzan (1999), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), or Treasure Planet (2002); it only contains about five shots which use either a "multiplane camera" or "3D camera" effect; and the use of tone mattes (shading/shadows on the characters) was kept to a minimum.

Like the live-action monster movie that appears briefly, photographs of Elvis Presley are real pictures and not animated drawings.

Most of the license plates in the film (the fire engine, gas tanker, and Nani's Beetle - but only at the end, not at "blue punch buggy" - plus one in Lilo's room) are A113. The same as Mrs. Davis's plate number in Toy Story (1995), Mater's plate number in Cars (2006), and also used in many other Disney and Pixar films. It is a reference to a room number at California Institute of the Arts, where many of the animators at those two companies received their educations. The fuel truck in the volcano has the license number "A113". A113 was the room for the animation department at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts; the room now houses graphic design classes). During the 1970s, directors John Musker and Ron Clements, in addition to Disney/Pixar animation executive John Lasseter and Pixar director Brad Bird, studied animation in room A113. "A113" labels are hidden in many Disney and Pixar films.

After completing this film, director Chris Sanders's next project for Disney was Bolt(2008). When John Lasseter took over as head of animation at Disney, he dismissed Sanders, who then moved on to DreamWorks Animation.

Since Lilo's parents died in a car accident, where rain made the road more treacherous, it is possible the reason she wants to appease Pudge by feeding him peanut butter sandwiches and cleaning his grove for him is because she believes he controls the weather, and that if she continues to treat him in such a manner, a similar accident to the one that killed her parents won't happen again.

FILM 1826: KING KONG

FILM 1826: KING KONG

TRIVIA: Grossed ninety thousand dollars its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time.

The success of this film is often credited for saving R.K.O. Pictures from bankruptcy.

Merian C. Cooper's first vision for the film, was of a giant ape on top of the world's tallest building, fighting airplanes. He worked backward from there, to develop the rest of the story.

King Kong's roar was a lion's roar and a tiger's roar combined and run backwards, but slowly.

At around eighty minutes into the film, a man (LeRoy Mason) standing in line to see Kong complains to his lady companion, "These tickets cost me twenty bucks." At presumably ten dollars per ticket, this would have been a tremendous cost in Depression-wracked 1933. By contrast, a ticket to see the 1933 New York Yankees, which featured Babe Ruthand Lou Gehrig, or to this movie itself, would have been about 35 cents.

The one flaw that remains in the animation is the way Kong's fur seems to be moving constantly, showing where the animators had to grab the figure to move it. Though the animators would brush the fur constantly to hide their work, it still shows up in the finished film. Many other filmmakers who have used the same technique actually admire this flaw, because it shows that the work was done by skilled artists using their hands.

Executive Producer David O. Selznick left R.K.O. midway through production of this film. Selznick's last act of business at R.K.O., and probably his biggest contribution to the film, was to write a memo changing the name of the production from "Kong" to "King Kong".

The "Old Arabian Proverb" opening the film, was actually written by Merian C. Cooper.

Although many film historians insist that a spider pit scene was never shot, much less previewed, at least three production stills do exist showing the miniature ravine complete, with at least one spider and a crab creature, both of which are menacing miniature sailors. There was one person who claimed to have seen the first preview screening who said that the spider pit scene was in it, and the audience laughed at large bug-eyes on a spider model. He felt that this unintended laugh was the reason the scene stopped the film, and was cut.

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

FILM 1817: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII

FILM 1817: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII

TRIVIA: First collaboration between writer/director Andy Sidaris and actor Rodrigo Obregón, who would appear in almost every one of Mr. Sidaris' subsequent films.

There is a scene where a poster of Malibu Express (1985) is shown in a wall. The movie is a reference to Andy Sidaris' previous movie.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Andy Sidaris: Whitey the TV director.

FILM 1686: THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS

TRIVIA: After meeting on the set of this film in September 2014, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender announced they were dating in December 2014. 

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander revealed that Derek Cianfrance made them live together on set for six weeks.

Prior to filming in Stanley, the historic wharf was rebuilt with a rustic edge. Locals of Stanley adopted the 1920s look prior to filming and hereby many men grew beards for their roles as extras.

The book The Light Between Oceans, on which this movie is based, contains three coincidental links to previous films of Michael Fassbender. First, his character Tom travels on the ship SS Prometheus: Fassbender starred as android David in Prometheus (2012). Second, Tom's wife, Isabel, is given a gramophone record, Bach's Goldberg Variations, as a gift: this piece of music was the soundtrack to the jogging scene in Fassbender's film Shame (2011). Finally, in Frank (2014), towards the end of the movie, Fassbender's Frank walks into a bar, where Maggie Gyllenhaal is singing the song "I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper". Fassbender's character in The Light Between Oceans, Tom, is a lighthouse keeper.

Both lead actors, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, previously played artificial-intelligence characters in Prometheus (2012) and Ex Machina (2015), respectively.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/51639669/untitled

FILM 1531: THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR: SATAN CAME TO EDEN

About a series of unsolved disappearances on the Galapagos Island of Floreana in the 1930s.

BOOK 142: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO: ALEXANDRE DUMAS

TRIVIA: The original work was published in serial form in the Journal des Débats in 1844. Carlos Javier Villafane Mercado described the effect in Europe:

The effect of the serials, which held vast audiences enthralled ... is unlike any experience of reading we are likely to have known ourselves, maybe something like that of a particularly gripping television series. Day after day, at breakfast or at work or on the street, people talked of little else.

George Saintsbury stated: "Monte Cristo is said to have been at its first appearance, and for some time subsequently, the most popular book in Europe. Perhaps no novel within a given number of years had so many readers and penetrated into so many different countries." This popularity has extended into modern times as well. The book was "translated into virtually all modern languages and has never been out of print in most of them. There have been at least twenty-nine motion pictures based on it ... as well as several television series, and many movies [have] worked the name 'Monte Cristo' into their titles." The title Monte Cristo lives on in a "famous gold mine, a line of luxury Cuban cigars, a sandwich, and any number of bars and casinos—it even lurks in the name of the street-corner hustle three-card monte."

A swashbuckler in the tradition of great literary heroes, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas—born Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie—certainly epitomized the “self-made man” characterization that made the titular Count such a winning figure. Born in the French colony of Saint Domingue to an enslaved African mother, Thomas-Alexandre followed his nobleman father back to mainland France, pursuing formal education and military enlistment. Ultimately seizing a position as a general, Thomas-Alexandre still holds the distinction of being the highest-ranking person of color in a Continental European army. 

Although Dumas never outright confirmed that his Count of Monte Cristo characters Eugénie Danglars and her music teacher Louise d’Armilly were sexually and romantically involved, his allusions on the topic were enough to stir the ire of some conservative publishers of the era. Contemporaneous English-language translations of the novel deleted scenes showcasing the characters’ intimate relationship—including one featuring the pair lying in bed together—which would only reappear in English-language translations 150 years later.

Due to the cunning duplicity of Dumas’ hero Edmond Dantès, his name has become a popular alias throughout pop culture. Some figures have even adopted the moniker as a nom de plume, notably one renowned screenwriter. Although Dantès is the name attributed to scripts for the films Beethoven, Maid in Manhattan, and Drillbit Taylor, they were each written by teen flick icon John Hughes. 

FILM 1388: JURASSIC PARK III

TRIVIA: According to an interview with William H. Macy, the actor said the film's animatronic Spinosaurus had a 1,000-horsepower motor and that creature could turn its head at twice the force of gravity, with the tip of its nose moving at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour.

The establishing wide shot of the dig site was actual footage filmed in early summer 2001 of Jack Horner's excavation, which contained several large Tyrannosaurs and some Hadrosaurs.

The Spinosaurus was the largest animatronic ever built. It weighed 12 tons and was operated by hydraulics. This allowed it to operate while completely submerged in water.

When the paleontologists enter the bar for dinner with the Kirby's, you can see a Jurassic Park (1993) pinball machine in the background.

After the Spinosaurus' attack on the airplane, Grant asks Billy how he would classify the animal. Billy's first inclination is to say the dinosaur is a Suchomimus or Baryonyx, due to the large snout. This is a joke meant for many fans of the film who, when the new movie's logo was first revealed, said the exact same thing Billy did. Many long pages on the message boards of fan pages and the official page were dedicated to this debate.

Mirroring the latest palaeontologic finds that were made at the time, feathers were added onto various parts of the Velociraptor males, most noticeably on the top of their head. More recent finds suggest that raptors were indeed covered in feathers, a fact most members of the general public still find hard to digest. However the type of feather they used in the movie is incorrect: real raptors had the same kind of feathers as modern birds, and these covered their entire body, save for the tip of their snout.