FILM 1866: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

FILM 1866: JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK

TRIVIA: Cobie Smulders performed all of her own stunts in this movie.

The film is based on the eighteenth "Jack Reacher" series novel by source novelist Lee Child. "One Shot," the basis of the first film Jack Reacher (2012), is the ninth book, which means this movie is not necessarily a direct sequel in terms of the book series.

CAMEO: Lee Child: source novelist plays a TSA agent who is seemingly ambivalent to the fact that Jack (Tom Cruise) does not really match the stolen ID he is using to board the plane. This is a nod to Child's support of the "controversial" casting of the diminutive 5'7" tall Cruise as Child's 6'5 tall," 250lb weighing, and 50-inch wide-chested character of Jack Reacher. Despite a lot of fan backlash at the casting of Cruise, Lee responded: "Obviously, Cruise doesn't match the physical description of Reacher in the books, but the movie is not going to match the book anyway."

FILM 1506: MR. RIGHT

After a going through a painful break up, a woman meets a man who appears to be perfect for her. However, as their relationship develops, she learns that he is a former hit-man. Their new, but genuine relationship is tested even further as they try to save each other after his dark past comes back to haunt him.

FILM 1337: BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS

TRIVIA: In a June 2008 interview with The Guardian, Abel Ferrara, who directed and co-wrote the original Bad Lieutenant (1992), said that finding out his movie was being remade was "a horrible feeling", "like when you get robbed", and that those involved in this remake "should all die in hell". He also wondered how Nicolas Cage "can even have the nerve to play Harvey Keitel", and called screenwriter William M. Finkelstein an idiot. Herzog responded that he had never seen the original and had never heard of Ferrara.

Nicolas Cage claims that he was never under the influence of anything throughout filming, in contrast to Leaving Las Vegas (1995) in which he got genuinely drunk to play an alcoholic.

According to the Werner Herzog, 2,400 cans of decaf coffee had to be used to make the water appear to be river water in the jail scene. They first attempted to use a paint, but it proved to be toxic, then the production team used regular coffee, but the actor absorbed it through his skin.

FILM 1181: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

TRIVIA: As the film progresses, the set of the Kowalski apartment actually gets smaller to heighten the suggestion of Blanche's increasing claustrophobia.

Vivien Leigh, who suffered from bipolar disorder in real life, later had difficulties in distinguishing her real life from that of Blanche DuBois.

Vivien Leigh had already played Blanche in the first London production of the play, under the direction of her then-husband, Laurence Olivier. She later said that Olivier's direction of that production influenced her performance in the film more than did Elia Kazan's direction of the film.

Vivien Leigh, who was only 36 at the time of filming, had to be made up to look older.

Despite giving the definitive portrayal of Stanley Kowalski, Marlon Brando said he privately detested the character. However, it should be added that Brando was an eccentric character who loved misleading people and playing pranks.

As of 2014, it is one of only two films in history to win three Academy awards for acting. The other is Network (1976).

Film 995: The Princess and the Frog

Trivia: The alligator character in the film is named Louis in honor of jazz great Louis Armstrong, who was nicknamed 'Dippermouth', 'Satchelmouth' and 'Satchmo'.

Animator Bruce W. Smith described Dr Facilier as "the love child of Peter Pan's Captain Hook and 101 Dalmatians's Cruella DeVil."

The animation style was influenced primarily by Lady and the Tramp (for the city scenes) and Bambi (for the bayou scenes). Those films were, in the directors' opinion, "the peak of animation in the classic Disney animation style."

Aladdin's flying carpet can be seen on the right during one of the city shots.

Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Tyra Banks were all considered for the lead role. Keys and Banks personally lobbied the studio for the part.

Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), requested that Tiana be left-handed, because Rose herself is left-handed.

When Louis is describing Mama Odie in the swamp he pulls some Spanish moss down around his head and leaves his snout sticking out. This mirrors an almost identical scene in Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" when the Mad Madam Mim pulls her hair down over her face just before she transforms into an alligator.

Book 81: A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which appeared in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.

Trivia: As outlined in the introduction to a later revised edition, the book would never have been published if Toole's mother had not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript left in the house following Toole's 1969 suicide at age 31. Thelma Toole was persistent and tried several different publishers to no avail.

Thelma repeatedly called Walker Percy, an author and college instructor at Loyola University New Orleans, demanding he read it. He initially resisted; however, as he recounts in the book's foreword:

...the lady was persistent, and it somehow came to pass that she stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript. There was no getting out of it; only one hope remained—that I could read a few pages and that they would be bad enough for me, in good conscience, to read no farther. Usually I can do just that. Indeed the first paragraph often suffices. My only fear was that this one might not be bad enough, or might be just good enough, so that I would have to keep reading. In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so good."

The book was published by LSU Press in 1980. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

While Tulane University in New Orleans retains a collection of Toole's papers, and some early drafts have been found, the location of the original manuscript is unknown.

There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and direct an adaptation, starring John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but Belushi's death prevented this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the lead, both of whom died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a curse to the role.

Director John Waters was interested in directing an adaptation starring Divine as Ignatius when Divine was alive.

British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to adapt Toole's book for the screen. He was sent to New Orleans by Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation.

John Goodman, a longtime resident of New Orleans, was slated to play Ignatius at one point.

A version adapted by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to be directed by David Gordon Green, was scheduled for release in 2005. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother. A staged reading of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as his mother, Paul Rudd as Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Greene, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy.

Various reasons are cited as to why the movie has yet to be filmed. They include disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a "mystery". A 2007 Cracked.com article titled "The 10 Most Awesome Movies Hollywood Ever Killed" had the version starring Ferrell at #1, and paraphrased him saying that "it's the movie everyone in Hollywood wants to make, but no one wants to finance".

There is currently a version in negotiation with director James Bobin and potentially starring Zach Galifianakis.

In an interview, Steven Soderbergh remarked "I think it’s cursed. I’m not prone to superstition, but that project has got bad mojo on it."