FILM 1922: BIRD BOX

FILM 1922: BIRD BOX

TRIVIA: John Malkovich would talk to the birds on set, and the cast said he had a bizarre connection with them. He would be able to tell them to move their feet and they would.

This marked the fifth time actress Parminder Nagra played the role of a medical doctor, following ER (2003-2009), Alcatraz (2012), Fortitude (2015-), and Five Feet Apart (2019).

The film immediately sparked a 'Bird Box challenge' where people (often children) would have to cross a distance while blindfolded, both indoors and outdoors. When videos started to appear on social media of people bumping into objects and hurting themselves this way, Netflix issued a statement to discourage viewers from taking this challenge.

FILM 1561: THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK 

TRIVIA: There was a real masked prisoner at La Bastille, but rather than a twin brother, more recent conspiracy theories have him being Louis XIV's biological father. The official story of Louis' conception was that King Louis XIII, long separated from Queen Anne, was going to his hunting lodge and had packed stuff that he would need. It started raining and since the Queen had the only bed suitable for the King they slept together, conceiving the heir. The conspiracy theory is that Cardinal Richelieu convinced the Queen to have an affair with a "sperm donor," who then was sent off to Canada, but later returned to France and tried to extort money for his silence. The motive for the plan was that Richelieu feared that civil war would break out if the King died childless to be succeeded by his foolish brother Gaston. But the sperm donor theory is just hearsay and probably not true. Queen Anne might have had an affair, but she and Richelieu did not work together because they hated each other. Louis XIV also resembled Louis XIII enough to ensure to most people that he was a true biological son.

Each of the four Musketeers are played by actors with different nationalities. Jeremy Irons is English, John Malkovich is American, Gérard Depardieu is French and Gabriel Byrne is Irish.

Aramis' statement, "I am a genius, not an engineer," is a pun in the original French ("Je suis un génie, pas un ingénieur").

Film 993: Con Air

Trivia: The Las Vegas scenes were filmed at the legendary Sands Hotel immediately prior to its demolition in late 1996. When the production team heard about the city's intentions to raze the historic landmark, they immediately scheduled a multiple camera setup to take advantage of the rare event, which is what you actually see in the movie.

The song "How Do I Live" was nominated for both an Oscar as Best Original Song and a Razzie as Worst Original Song. It did not win either award.

While "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd is playing in the background, Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi) says: "Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash." On October 20, 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashed. It was the model Convair 240.

In reference to the credit "In Memory of Phil Swartz", Phil Swartz was an effects specialist who was killed during the making of this movie, when a rigged plane fell and crushed him.

The film was called "Les Ailes de l'Enfer" (The Wings of Hell) in France. "Con" in French is a slang word for a vagina and, as in most languages, is also used as a (very strong) derogatory epithet.