FILM 1919: FIRST MAN

FILM 1919: FIRST MAN

TRIVIA: Neil Armstrong's sons Mark and Eric say First Man is the most accurate portrayals of their father and mother Janet.

Some of the voices heard in the film are actual recordings from the space program. For example, when Apollo 11 lands on the moon, the reply from Houston is the original. It's the voice of astronaut Charles Duke, who had the job of communicating with Apollo 11 during the landing. Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) says "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle Has Landed", then Charlie Duke says "Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

Actor Ryan Gosling first discovered Armstrong's love of the theremin during his background research with Armstrong's family and friends. He brought it to Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz's attention, who later chose to include the strange instrument in the score.

Ryan Gosling suffered an injury while filming one of the many shuttle sequences. His partner Eva Mendes told him to go to the hospital after noticing the bizarre behavior of his passionately ranting to her about national doughnut thieves. It was later discovered he had suffered a concussion and Mendes had unknowingly saved his life.

Damien Chazelle was particularly attached to making his film as authentic as possible. This care for detail was maintained, until it came to the reproduction of the space capsules. He and chief designer Nathan Crowley agreed that no ship would be enlarged by more than 10%, even if it sacrificed the comfort of the actors. This also caused complications for framing. The solution was to create a decor that fit in several detachable parts. In fact, the technicians had to break the seats in two to be able to integrate the cameras with the capsule.

Armstrong's famous quote as he stepped on the moon is the subject of historical controversy. The movie quotes accurately what was heard on Earth and in all recordings: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong later revealed that he intended to say "... one small step for [A] man ..." and that he thought he did, but all efforts to extract this from the recording, even with electronics, have been inconclusive.

Pablo Schreiber plays Jim Lovell, another pilot of the Gemini program and Apollo programs, a character that audiences have already met in Apollo 13 (1995) as played by Tom Hanks.

American flag controversy: On August 31, 2018, it was reported that the film would not include a scene of Armstrong and Aldrin planting the American flag on the Moon. Florida Senator Marco Rubio described the omission as "total lunacy". Chazelle responded with a statement, saying: "I show the American flag standing on the lunar surface, but the flag being physically planted into the surface is one of several moments (...) that I chose not to focus upon. To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no. My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America's mission to the Moon." Following the film's below-expectations opening of $16 million, some analysts speculated that the flag controversy was in part to blame. 

Jon Bernthal was cast but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Christopher Abbott.

FILM 1787: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

FILM 1787: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

TRIVIA: As the production could do nothing about inquisitive crowds watching them while they were filming in Rome, they actually set up a phony second unit a little further away, hired several girls in bikinis and several older women dressed as nuns and pretended to be filming takes for the film, while the main unit got on with their business largely undisturbed.

After the success of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Simon Pegg was asked whether he was going to be pursuing a career in Hollywood, to which he laughed and replied "It's not like I'm going to be in Mission: Impossible III".

With a budget of one hundred fifty million dollars, this is the most expensive movie ever undertaken by a first-time feature film director.

J.J. Abrams' directorial debut on a feature film.

Special Effects Technician Steven Scott Wheatley sued Paramount Pictures, and Tom Cruise's production company for gross negligence, after the pyrotechnics in a stunt in which he was involved, went wrong, and he was engulfed in a ball of flame. Wheatley suffered third-degree burns over sixty percent of his body.

Ethan Hunt makes references to Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is a lake in the South Island of New Zealand, which Tom Cruise visited while in New Zealand filming The Last Samurai(2003). He liked the place so much that he included it in this film.

One of the five percussionists in the orchestra which did the film's score was Emil Richards, who thirty years ago played bongos on the original Mission: Impossible (1966) theme.

To promote the film, Paramount rigged 4,500 randomly selected Los Angeles Times vending boxes with digital audio players which would play the theme song when the door was opened. The audio players did not always stay concealed, however, and in many cases came loose and fell on top of the stack of newspapers in plain view, with the result that they were widely mistaken for bombs. Police bomb squads detonated a number of the vending boxes and even temporarily shut down a veterans' hospital in response to the apparent "threat". Despite these problems, Paramount and The Los Angeles Times opted to leave the audio players in the boxes until two days after the movie's opening.

Tom Cruise and Phillip Seymour Hoffman previously appeared together in Magnolia(1999).

" Mission Impossible Iii "was Tom Cruise's eighth movie in a row to gross over $100m domestically.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: J.J. Abrams: The director can be seen in the hospital when Ethan is looking for his wife. He is also the voice on the phone talking about a free trip to Mexico.

FILM 1357: SUNSHINE

TRIVIA: Danny Boyle found working on a sci-fi project so exhausting, he vowed never to make another one again.

Danny Boyle was so impressed with Michelle Yeoh's audition, that he told her that she could choose any part in the script and he would give it to her - he was even prepared to change the gender if she had chosen a male character. She ultimately decided on Corazon, the biologist.

The distinctive golden color of the space suits was intended to make them memorable to sci-fi fans. The character "Kenny" from South Park (1997) was used as a design reference for the funnel-shaped helmet. A small number of suits and helmets were built as wearable costumes, so the actors could experience the claustrophobia and react appropriately.

The book "Moondust" by Andrew Smith, a collection of accounts of the men who had walked on the moon, was required reading for all cast members.

Actual sounds received from space that were captured by a Midwestern university were incorporated into the sound design.

Cillian Murphy worked with leading physicist Brian Cox to learn all about advanced physics. This included touring the CERN facility in Switzerland and learned to copy physicists' mannerisms. Murphy ended up copying some of Cox's personal idiosyncrasies, such as his frequent hand movements. The actor also studied Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic The Wages of Fear (1953) to have an understanding of the type of suspense that Danny Boyle was attempting to create. Murphy has claimed that his involvement in Sunshine (2007) converted him from agnosticism to atheism.

Danny Boyle's third partnership with Alex Garland, after The Beach (2000) and 28 Days Later... (2002).

FILM 1303: LADY VALOR: THE KRISTIN BECK STORY

In "Lady Valor", former U.S. Navy SEAL Christopher Beck embarks on a new mission as Kristin Beck as she lives her life truthfully as a transgender woman. In 2011, after 20 years of service on SEAL Team 1, she retired from service though continued to hide her true identity while working for the United States Government and the Pentagon. In 2013, a year and a half after retirement, Kristin came out publicly through LinkedIn and confirmed her true identity on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 taking many friends and family by surprise. While many people have been supportive, some in the some in the public have expressed more bigotry than she ever expected. After a lifetime of service, Kristin has learned that her fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness did not end on the battlefield.

On This Day…

Apollo 13 was launched on this day in 1970.

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command Module depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.