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 1500: ANOMALISA

TRIVIA: This film was crowd-funded through Kickstarter.com.

With the exception of the two leads, every character (male or female) is voiced by Tom Noonan.

The first R-rated animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

The classic movie the protagonist puts on TV, reenacted with puppets, was originally supposed to be Casablanca (1942), but the production could not to afford to license it so it was changed to My Man Godfrey (1936), which was in the public domain.

FILM 1463: THE HATEFUL EIGHT 

TRIVIA: After the script leaked online, Quentin Tarantino did not want to make the film. But after they did a brief reading of the script in L.A. the cast were stunned and got excited for the film and with Samuel L. Jackson persuading him to do this film, Tarantino accepted.

Quentin Tarantino announced in 2015's Comic-Con that Ennio Morricone would compose the score for the film. Tarantino remarked that it would be the first western scored by Morricone in 40 years. Tarantino had previously used Morricone's music in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012). Morricone also wrote a brand new song, Ancora Qui, for the latter. Despite alleged tensions between the two, Tarantino decided to have Morricone on board to write new and original music for the movie. This will be the first film by Tarantino to use mainly an original musical score. Most of Tarantino's previous films have used mainly source music, with only a few cues of original score written for the film.

Despite being their sixth collaboration as actor and director, this is the first time that Samuel L. Jackson receives top billing in a film directed by Quentin Tarantino.

For the most part, the roles of Major Warren, John Ruth, Oswaldo and Joe Gage were written with Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen in mind. The role of Daisy Domergue was less specific and many actresses were considered, before Jennifer Jason Leigh was cast. Quentin Tarantino said: "Daisy became one of the most interesting characters because she's on the page, but she's not on the page; an actress literally needs to invest in playing that character from beginning to end. They have to get you to that last chapter. It had to be an actress I could trust, and also a performer you enjoy watching her character work. When Jennifer came in she was very impressive in the reading, but what really got me was I'd just starting watching a bunch of her movies. I had a whole Jennifer Jason Leigh film festival. I watched one and I couldn't wait to put the next one in, she was such an entertaining actress, especially about that time in the 90s, like eXistenZ (1999) Georgia (1995) and especially Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994). Those movies were built around her. Her performance was the center of the movie, and everything was built around that, and that's what was needed for Daisy."

Reunites Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh 24 years after they both appeared in Backdraft (1991), though they had no scenes together in that film. Coincidentally, both their dads Bing Russell and Vic Morrow had co-starred 50 years earlier in the TV series Combat!: Odyssey (1965).

Composer Ennio Morricone said in an interview that he accepted Quentin Tarantino's request to score the film because he liked the movie's script, and because Tarantino gave him full freedom in the composition. Morricone said he considers The Hateful Eight an adventure movie rather than a Western, and as a result, tried to make the music sound completely different from his famous Western scores. He based the music on the feelings that the script evoked in him, rather than composing music for specific scenes. Because Morricone had only about a month to produce his score, he added several pieces of music that he had originally written for The Thing (1982), some of which had never been used. Morricone finally gave Tarantino five pieces of music, which he could use in the movie as he pleased.

Director Cameo: Quentin Tarantino:  Voice of the narrator.

Director Trademark: Quentin Tarantino:  [Red Apple Cigarettes]  When Jody asks Minnie to roll him a cigarette she tells him that she uses "Red Apple" tobacco. Red Apple cigarettes appear in multiple Tarantino films. Also Bob the Mexican smokes "Manzana Roja" which is also Spanish for Red Apple.