FILM 1946: SLEEPY HOLLOW

FILM 1946: SLEEPY HOLLOW

TRIVIA: Johnny Depp adopted Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder, Ichabod Crane's horse in this movie, when he heard it was going to be put down.

It was only after being cast as The Headless Horseman, that Christopher Walken admitted to Director Tim Burton that he actually did not know how to ride a horse.

Johnny Depp initially found the idea of Christina Ricci being his love interest in this movie, to be rather odd, seeing as he's known her since she was nine-years-old.

Historically, Ichabod Crane was a very unattractive man. Johnny Depp offered to add prosthetics to his face to make himself look ugly, but Director Tim Burton wanted to base the character on Crane's more unattractive personality traits, his reported squeamishness and eccentricity.

This movie was almost entirely shot with a blue filter. So, for the blood to appear red, the liquid used had to be bright orange.

(At around fifty-seven minutes) At the start of filming the three-way axe battle with Ray Park, Johnny Depp, and Casper Van Dien, Van Dien broke the index finger of his left hand. Although it was extremely painful, he carried on without telling anyone, as he didn't want his part cut short.

The cast and crew often said "The feeling one had walking around Sleepy Hollow's sets, and in particular the town at Lime Tree, was almost as if you were walking around the inside of Tim Burton's head."

Michael Gough came out of retirement to play Notary Hardenbrook.

Tim Burton included scenes as an homage to Disney's animated version of the Sleepy Hollow tale (featured in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)). These include the scene in which Ichabod Crane crosses the covered bridge and hears the frogs underneath croaking "Ichabod" and "Headless Horseman", the following chase sequence where Ichabod is run down and unhorsed, apparently by The Headless Horseman, and the moment in the climactic chase scene in which Ichabod runs into a tree limb, and, thrown through the air, ends up landing on the Horseman's horse backwards.

Director Tim Burton says the movie was inspired by the Gothic horror movies of Mario Bava and Hammer Film Productions. Burton brought Hammer veteran Michael Gough out of retirement for a small role, and recruited Sir Christopher Lee, a veteran of both Hammer and Bava's movies, for a cameo.

This is the first adaption of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that doesn't involve the actor playing the Headless Horseman having to conceal his head in the cloak, thanks to advancement in technology. The head of the actor was covered with a blue mask, that was deleted by means of computer graphics. The collar was also created with CGI, to match the flow of the robe.

The Western Wood was built on a soundstage, so everything, including the weather and light, could be controlled.

Crane's final line in this movie, "the Bronx is up, but the battery's down" is in reference to the song "New York, New York".

Christopher Walken (The Headless Horseman) played a schoolteacher in The Dead Zone(1983), in the beginning of which he tells his class to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Johnny Depp's third collaboration with Tim Burton.

Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken appeared in Nick of Time (1995).

Ichabod's mother in the flashbacks, played by Burton's then-wife Lisa Marie Smith.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK (Tim Burton): (distorted female face): The Crone's Medusa-like appearance.

FILM 1940: ED WOOD

FILM 1940: ED WOOD 

TRIVIA: This film cost more to produce than all of Edward D. Wood Jr.'s films put together.

Martin Landau's Academy Award for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi marked the first time in Oscar history that a performer in any category won for playing a movie star. A decade later, Cate Blanchett won a "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" Academy Award for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator(2004).

Initially, Bela Lugosi, Jr. didn't want to see the film because he thought it wouldn't portray his father correctly, but upon further persuasion, he saw the film, and agreed that Martin Landau honored his father in the performance. The two later became friends.

Tim Burton said that he was drawn to the story because of the similarities between Edward D. Wood Jr.'s relationship with Bela Lugosi, and his own friendship with Vincent Price late in the actor's life.

Unhappy with Vincent D'Onofrio, Tim Burton had his voice dubbed by Maurice LaMarche.

The first film by Tim Burton to not feature Danny Elfman's music score.

Johnny Depp said that his characterization of Edward D. Wood Jr. was a mixture of "the blind optimism of Ronald Reagan, the enthusiasm of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz(1939), and Casey Kasem."

Martin Landau's face had to be painted unnaturally white in order for the black-and-white film stock to record it properly.

One story claims that the producers decided to make the film in black and white because no one could decide how Bela Lugosi should look filmed in color. 

Johnny Depp developed a love-hate relationship with angora sweaters. He jokingly told MTV that he learned too much about women's clothing while making the film. Because angora sheds profusely, Depp joked that in certain scenes, he may have "inhaled more angora than oxygen."

In order to imitate Bela Lugosi's voice and mannerisms, Martin Landau watched approximately 35 Bela Lugosi movies, and purchased Hungarian language tapes. With the tapes, he would "literally practice the language and see where the tongue would go." When Hungarian-born director Peter Medak saw the film, he called Landau to praise him. Medak said that Landau's accent sounded spot-on, because, "You are not an actor trying to do a Hungarian accent, you're a character trying not to do (one)."

John Breckinridge originally had very little dialogue. His role was greatly expanded when Bill Murray was cast.

Director Tim Burton's favorite of his films.

During the bar scene with Wood, Orson Welles complains that the finances keeps falling through for his Don Quixote picture. In August 2000, Johnny Depp took part in filming The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), with Terry Gilliam directing. After years of delays the film was finally released in 2018.

The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Patricia Arquette and Martin Landau; and two Oscar nominees: Bill Murray and Johnny Depp.

Rick Baker was very concerned about the casting of Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, seeing how they didn't share any similar facial features. Baker, being a very big fan of Lugosi and who had known Tim Burton before the film, persured the job as makeup designer fearing that a lesser makeup artist would do too much. Baker designed and created subtle appliances that would alter Landau's features to make him more resemble Lugosi (a set of a ears, a nose, a chin, and an appliance to cover the fullness of his upper lip) that Ve Neillwould apply on a daily basis. Landau, Baker, and Neill would all eventually win Academy Awards for their work.

FILM 1938: EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

FILM 1938: EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

TRIVIA: The idea for the movie was inspired by a drawing Tim Burton had done when he was a teenager. The drawing depicted a thin, solemn man with long, sharp blades for fingers. Burton stated that he was often alone and had trouble retaining friendships. "I get the feeling people just got this urge to want to leave me alone for some reason, I don't know exactly why."

Winona Ryder dropped out of The Godfather: Part III (1990) to appear in this film. Reportedly, it was Johnny Depp who actually convinced her to do so.

Edward says only 169 words in the film.

The role of The Inventor was written specifically for Vincent Price.

Vincent Price's role was intended to be larger, but the veteran actor was very ill with emphysema and Parkinson's disease, so his scenes were cut to a minimum.

Tim Burton has never intended to make a sequel as he said it would rob the film of its "Purity".

The entire story is meant to be seen through Edward's eyes, which is why the neighborhood looks so "fantastical."

Although Tim Burton said this isn't his greatest film, he said it is his favorite of all his films, and the score is Danny Elfman's favorite of all his soundtrack compositions.

Johnny Depp had to lose a reported 25 pounds for the role of Edward Scissorhands.

Johnny Depp stated that he "cried like a baby" when he first read the script.

The little blonde boy on the Slip 'N Slide, at the beginning of the film, is Nick Carter of The Backstreet Boys. Though uncredited in the film, Carter himself has confirmed this in several interviews.

O-Lan Jones arranged and actually played the organ music her character Esmeralda performs on-screen.

Edward's hair is based on Robert Smith of The Cure's hair.

This film marks the first time that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp worked together. They ended up becoming good friends since this film.

Gary Oldman was offered the title role, but he turned it down.

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder dated throughout filming of this movie, and became engaged during the same year (1990).

Alan Arkin (Bill) says when he first read the script, he was "a bit baffled. Nothing really made sense to me until I saw the sets. Burton's visual imagination is extraordinary".

Tim Burton hired Caroline Thompson, then a young novelist, to write the Edward Scissorhands screenplay as a spec script. Burton was impressed with her short novel, First Born, which was "about an abortion that came back to life". Burton felt First Born had the same psychological elements he wanted to showcase in Edward Scissorhands. "Every detail was so important to Tim because it was so personal", Thompson remarked. She wrote Scissorhands as a "love poem" to Burton, calling him "the most articulate person I know, but couldn't put a single sentence together".

During the scene where Edward is cutting the neighborhood ladies hair, the song playing is from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Johnny Depp would later go on to play Sweeney Todd in another collaboration with Tim Burton.

When Peg looks in her rear view mirror at Edward's castle for the first time, the castle she sees is a small study model from the art department, held up on a C-stand.

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

Caroline Thompson wrote Peg based off her own mother, who used to bring home strangers. She based the women in the neighborhood off people she grew up around.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Tim Burton: [music] Music by Danny Elfman.

https://www.instagram.com/lera_kiryakova/

FILM 1438: BLACK MASS

TRIVIA: Johnny Depp said that this is his favorite out of all the films he has done.

In order to ensure that Johnny Depp's performance was true to the actual Whitey Bulger, Scott Cooper hired some of Bulger's old associates as consultants to the film with each of them praising Depp's performance by simply saying, "That's Whitey."

In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003), Johnny Depp stated that he picked up his Boston accent for the film from hanging out with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

Despite filming a substantial amount of scenes as Catherine Greig, Sienna Miller's part was cut for pacing reasons.

Guy Pearce was originally cast as Billy Bulger but dropped out of the project for undisclosed reasons.

On its opening weekend, Black Mass grossed $22,769,179. 10% of that gross came from the Boston area alone.

Johnny Depp's fourth role playing a real-life gangster. He portrayed John Dillinger in "Public Enemies," Donnie Brasco in "Donnie Brasco," and George Jung in "Blow".

Cult icon Mark Mahoney was cast as "Mickey Maloney" without reading or auditioning for the role on the strength of his performance in Blood Ties. The famous Venice Beach tattooer, scenester and owner of the Shamrock Social Club was "audacious, to say the least" (according to executive producer James Packer) in regards to the renumeration he demanded for his relatively minor role. Director Scott Cooper insisted that an agreement was to be reached with Mahoney - partly because he was frustrated by constant difficulties securing then loosing then (in the most part) re-securing key cast members, and partly because "the amount of money he demanded and the manner in which he demanded it was in someways the best audition I've ever seen!...it reminded me why I wanted him for the part in the first place!" Cooper allegedly quipped on set. In his downtime during shooting Mahoney would set up and put a shamrock tattoo on any member of the cast and crew who wanted one.

FILM 1286: FOR NO GOOD REASON

Johnny Depp pays a visit to Ralph Steadman, the renown artist and the last of the original Gonzo visionaries who worked alongside Hunter S. Thompson.

FILM 1267: TUSK

TRIVIA: Quentin Tarantino was offered the role of Guy Lapointe, but turned it down saying he dug the script and "couldn't wait to watch Michael Parks let loose his internal Kraken," but he had no interest in acting at the moment.

The first film in Kevin Smith's Canada-based trilogy. The second film will be Yoga Hosers (2015), based on Smodcast episode #288. The final installment will be Moose Jaws (2016).

The idea for the movie came during the recording of "SModcast 259: The Walrus and The Carpenter." Smith with his longtime friend and producer Scott Mosier discussed an article featuring a Gumtree ad where a homeowner was offering free room and board if the lodger agreed to dress as a walrus. The hosts spent almost an hour of the episode reconstructing and telling a hypothetical story based on the ad. Smith then told his Twitter followers to tweet "#WalrusYes" if they wanted to see their hypothetical turned into a film, or "#WalrusNo" if they didn't. The vast majority of Smith's followers agreed that the film should be made. The post turned out to be a prank by Brighton poet and prankster Chris Parkinson, a fan of Smith who hoped to get in touch with him. Kevin Smith eventually hired Parkinson as a producer.

Kevin Smith and Johnny Depp's daughters play clerks. Clerks. (1994) launched Kevin Smith's career as a movie director and script writer.

Wallace's ringtone is from the Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman podcast "Hollywood Babble-On." The song is actually a fan-made song created using Garman's impression of Al Pacino.

In Teddy and Ally's room, where they miss phone calls from Wallace, a framed picture of Kevin Smith's Dog, Shecky, is on the wall.

Ponder rock, where Howard Howe gets stranded, is a reference to the podcast "Smodcast #224: Ponder Rockin' with Emo-Kev", posted September 16, 2012. Kevin and Scott talked about a cassette tape Kevin found in which he dictated his banal thoughts when he was 19 years old.