FILM 1775: THE WRAITH

FILM 1775: THE WRAITH

TRIVIA: The black car featured in the movie was a real-life technological wonder, the Dodge M4S. A joint effort of the Dodge Division of Chrysler Motors and PPG Industries, one of the highly sophisticated PPG Pace Cars for the PPG-CART Indy Car World Series. The M4S was designed and constructed at an estimated cost of $1.1 million, and featured performance and technology to match that lofty figure. The innovative body design was developed in the Chrysler studios, while PPG developed the finish - a special bronze pearl paint job formulated just for this car. The M4S was powered by a Chrysler 2.4-liter four-cylinder one-of-a-kind engine that exceeded 194 mph. According to Gary Hellerstein, transportation coordinator for this film, a total of seven versions of the M4S were needed for filming. The original, on loan from Dodge, was used for close-ups and details. Two more "drivers", consisting of perfectly detailed bodies on dune buggy chassis, were used for stunt driving chores. There were four "shells", empty bodies on bare, towable frames, that were sacrificed in various crash scenes.

While filming a chase sequence shot on a mountainside outside of Tuscon, a crew member was killed and another was critically injured. According to supplementary material on the DVD a camera car was overloaded and overturned. This was the only serious accident during the filming.

Dedicated to the memory of Bruce Ingram, who worked on the film as an assistant cameraman. He was the single person killed when the camera car overturned.

Johnny Depp, who was then dating Sherilyn Fenn, was present during filming and was living in the film crew's hotel with Fenn.

No explanation is given for the unusual metal bar body attachments that disappear after a kill, though some fans believe these are similar to support braces given people who've gone through severe physical trauma.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 star Felicia Day has stated this is her favorite bad movie of all time, and would love to feature it on Mystery Science Theater 3000 someday.

When police are chasing Packard Walsh and The Wraith at the end of the movie, at background can be seen a rainbow. It was purely incidental.

FILM 1544: BEING EVEL

The real story behind the myth of American icon Robert 'Evel' Knievel and his legacy.

Film 969: The Place Beyond the Pines

Trivia: Much of the filming for this movie was done on location in Schenectady, New York. The title comes from the name of the city of Schenectady, which is the Mohawk word for "beyond the pine plains."

According to Ryan Gosling, all his bank robbery scenes were done in one take.

According to director Derek Cianfrance, he met with Ryan Gosling at his agent's home in 2007 while working on Blue Valentine. He asked Ryan Gosling (paraphrased), "You've done so much already, what is there in life you haven't done that you want to do?" Ryan Gosling responded that he has always wanted to rob a bank. "What has kept you from robbing a bank?" Being arrested. "And how would you go about robbing a bank?" Ryan Gosling described robbing a bank on a motorcycle because it is fast and agile, and the helmet would conceal his identity, then stashing the motorcycle in the back of a truck because the police would be looking for the motorcycle. Derek Cianfrance responded that he was actually writing a screenplay about a bank robber in exactly that way, and he felt that Ryan Gosling was meant to play this role.

Director Derek Cianfrance claims that he would not have made the movie without Bradley Cooper cast as Avery Cross. In fact, he drove 5 hours to Toronto to meet with Cooper in person to convince him to take the role. Cianfrance says he did write the role for Cooper - "a guy who's paraded around as a hero but inside feels corrupted."

In the opening track shot scene, several assistant directors actually appear on the fairground wearing Dr. Seuss hats. They were instructed to distract the extras into not looking at the camera and at a shirtless Ryan Gosling walking into the a circus tent. The shot was conceived by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt who wanted to have it as a way to teach the audience watching the movie.

Two months before filming, Andrij Parekh, who shot Blue Valentine, refused to do the film largely because of the Globe of Death stunt in the opening. According to Derek Cianfrance, Parekh spoke to him on the phone saying he refused to do the film because he had dream that he would be killed during filming. This nearly became a reality though as during the filming of the stunt, cinematographer Sean Bobbitt was nearly killed but was instead knocked unconscious when a motorcycle landed on top of him despite wearing heavy protection gear and helmet after filming the second take of the stunt inside the cage.

Derek Cianfrance shot 22 takes of Ryan Gosling performing the stunt of speeding the motorcycle past the intersection before 36 cars crashed into one another. Cianfrance originally wanted a stunt double to do it but could not hide the stuntman. He also noted that for each take until Gosling finally got it right, he chewed his shirt in nervousness until there was a hole in it by the time the stunt was over.

Robin tells Luke "If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder." In many scenes, Luke is seen wearing a T-Shirt with artwork from the Metallica album, "Ride the Lightning."