FILM 1954: SIXTEEN CANDLES

FILM 1954: SIXTEEN CANDLES

TRIVIA: John Hughes' directorial debut.

Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald initially disliked each other, so John Hughes took them to a record store and they bonded after they found out they like the same music. One of the groups they liked was The Rave-Ups which Molly scribbled on Samantha's notebook.

Of all the films Molly Ringwald made with John Hughes, she said, "I had the most fun on Sixteen Candles."

Molly Ringwald almost lost the part of Samantha Baker to Ally Sheedy, her future co-star in The Breakfast Club (1985).

Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall were both 16 years old when this movie was released.

The movie's Costume Designer begged Molly Ringwald not to wear the hat she wore in the beginning of the movie. Ringwald insisted. After the movie was released, teenage girls started wearing their hats tilted back like that.

Michael Schoeffling was so shy during his audition, it almost cost him the job. But Producer Michelle Manning said, "He was so stunning and dreamy, that we cast him."

Haviland Morris didn't want to do the shower scene, because the point was that she had bigger breasts than Sam and Randy, which she didn't. So they had a body double for her.

Jim Carrey auditioned for the role of Ted "The Geek".

The movie's line "Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?" was voted as #86 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

John Hughes cast Molly Ringwald after seeing her headshot. Inspired by Ringwald's appearance, he put it up over his desk and wrote the film just over a weekend, with her specifically in mind for the lead role.

John Cusack and Joan Cusack's roles were essentially consolation prizes. They were prominently cast in The Breakfast Club (1985), with John cast as Bender, and Joan set to play Allison. But Universal thought that John Hughes' script for this film was more commercial, and therefore should be made first.

When Ginny, Sam's sister, sits down in the church scene, she does so next to Agnes Belushi, mother of John Belushi and Jim Belushi. The Reverend is played by Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murrays older brother.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK(John Hughes): [The Beatles]: Ted Farmer sings "Birthday" to Sam in the auto shop.

In late 2003, USA Network announced that a made-for-television sequel, to be called "32 Candles", was being planned, showcasing the original characters sixteen years after the original film. It was unknown at the time of the announcement, whether any of the original cast members would be involved with the project, but that turned out to be unimportant, since the announced new film was never made.

The German title of the film, "Das darf man nur als Erwachsener", translates to "One may do that only as an adult".

Based on his performance as another father character in Breaking Away, Paul Dooley was offered his role in this film but turned it down as he felt the character was just a stock Dad character without much development. Dooley said it's typical if you turn down a role, you get offered more money but turned it down again, due to the character's development. John Hughes called Dooley personally and told him that he wrote a scene with Dooley and Ringwald's character, which became an iconic moment in the film. Dooley said later on, he'd have viewers come to him and tell him that they wished he were their father, based on the scene.

In an article published in Salon, Amy Benfer considers whether the film directly condones date rape. After the party scene, Jake tells Ted that his girlfriend Caroline is "in the bedroom right now, passed out cold. I could violate her ten different ways if I wanted to." He encourages Ted to drive her home saying "she's so blitzed she won't know the difference." When Caroline and Ted wake up next to each other in the car, Caroline says she's fairly certain they had sex though neither of them remember it. Amy Benfer writes "The scene only works because people were stupid about date rape at the time. Even in a randy teen comedy, you would never see two sympathetic male characters conspiring to take advantage of a drunk chick these days."

When Sam sees her grandparents for the first time, the theme song from The Twilight Zone (1959) is playing. Her grandfathers, played by Edward Andrews and Max Showalter, starred separately in two different episodes.

High Fidelity is one of my favourite films and John Cusack is one of my favourite actors… my boyfriend refuses to watch this film with me as it’s his ‘break up’ film, which sucks because I would love to watch it with someone else who can quote every line – and he still quotes it to me always! 

How cool is it that someone bought one of these prints and got John Cusack to sign it! And he said it was cool – so even though I wasn’t there I am super excited about that!

There’s only one of these small prints left and then I’m discontinuing this print so if you like it this is your last chance to own one… 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/240944231/high-fidelity-john-cusack-movie-poster?ga_search_query=high&ref=shop_items_search_1

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.

How cool is this! Someone bought a print from my etsy shop and got John Cusack to sign it and he liked it! I couldn’t be more excited!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/125405677/high-fidelity-john-cusack-movie-poster

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ClaireHefferDesign

FILM 1403: LOVE & MERCY

TRIVIA: The real Wilson reported having a mild dissociative experience while watching the film. He started to believe that Paul Giamatti was the actual Eugene Landy and felt "absolutely in fear" for several minutes.

During the Q&A at the film's premier at SXSW '15, Brian Wilson stated that his favorite scene in the movie was the intimate scene between Cusack and Banks, reflecting a happy moment between his real life wife and himself.

The studio scenes were improvised in a live, unrehearsed pseudo-documentary style with two 16mm handheld cameras. Dano, who once played in a band, was really directing the actors on how to play their instruments, who themselves were also real life musicians. While these scenes were mostly unscripted, Dano directly quoted some lines spoken by Wilson from the original session tapes.

Atticus Ross's original score, composed almost entirely from original Beach Boys multi-track recording stems, was inspired by the Beatles' experimental sound collage "Revolution 9" and Danger Mouse's Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up "The Grey Album".

A third era which focused on Brian Wilson's infamous bed period in the 1970s was considered, but ultimately discarded, leaving some of his most troubled years to the viewer's imagination. When asked who would have filled the third Wilson role, Pohlad responded that he had considered Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Dano alternates throughout the film between singing for real and lip-syncing to original recordings of Wilson's singing.

FILM 1146: THE BAG MAN

A criminal bides his time at a seedy motel, waiting for his boss after killing several men and making away with a mystery bag.

Film 1001: Grosse Pointe Blank

Trivia: The director/producer originally planned to shoot the high school scenes at Grosse Pointe South High, but did not get permission from the school board. They felt that it would be inappropriate to show someone graduating from Grosse Pointe's school system to become a hit man.

The goon stalking Martin Blank is 'Benny "The Jet" Urquidez', a world-champion kickboxer who was also John Cusack's kickboxing instructor.

Martin's invitation to his high school reunion, which is tucked into the mirror as he gets ready, requires attendees to Dress to Kill.

When talking to the prospective home-buyers, Martin says he has always felt "kind of temporary" about himself. This is the same thing Willy Loman says he feels when talking to Ben in "Death of a Salesman."

When John Cusack first goes round to Minnie Driver's house she says, "You can't come in," in a Jamaican accent. This is a reference to the song which is playing in the background - "You're Wondering Now" by The Specials, which starts off with a knock at the door followed by one of the band saying the same thing in the same (albeit more authentic) accent.

Benny Urquidez's character's name, Felix La PuBelle, is pronounced the same way as "poubelle," which is the French word for garbage can.