FILM 1917: HALLOWEEN

FILM 1917: HALLOWEEN 

TRIVIA: Jake Gyllenhaal helped convince Jamie Lee Curtis to reprise her role of Laurie Strode for the film. Jake Gyllenhaal is a family friend of Curtis' and is dubbed by her as an unofficial godson.

The role of Allyson, Laurie's granddaughter, became somewhat of a coveted role. Multiple popular actresses including Lucy Hale and Emma Roberts met with Danny McBride to personally talk about the movie. However, the studio decided that they wanted to go back to the roots of the first movie and cast an unknown actress, similar to how Jamie Lee Curtis was cast in the original.

As with the original Halloween (1978), Michael Myers is listed in the credits not as "Michael Myers", but "The Shape".

The film's producer is Malek Akkad, who is the son of Moustapha Akkad, the producer of the original 1978 "Halloween." Moustapha Akkad was murdered, along with his daughter Rima (Malek's sister), in the terrorist bombing of an Amman, Jordan hotel in 2005. Jamie Lee Curtis has recounted how the first person whom she saw when she came to the set for the first day of filming the 2018 film was Malek, whom she remembered as a 7 year-old child visiting the set during production of the original film. She added that seeing Malek for the first time since his father's death immediately brought her to tears.

On the tv, a newscaster can be heard describing the events of the original film as "the babysitter murders". This was originally the title Carpenter wanted for Halloween (1978). It was only changed to Halloween after the producer Irwin Yablans thought up the idea and to release it near Halloween. The rest is history.

While the film ignores all previous sequels and reboots, it pays homage to all Halloween films, as had been intended by co-Writer Danny McBride.

Jamie Lee Curtis revealed to Chris Hardwick on his podcast that she performed the sounds of the baby crying when Michael walks through the house after slaughtering the resident with a hammer and grabbing a butcher's knife from the kitchen.

FILM 1832: POPCORN

FILM 1832: POPCORN

TRIVIA: The title "Popcorn" was linked to an element in the story. This element was removed before the final cut. The producers and distributor liked the title so it was kept.

The reason that the teenagers listen only to reggae music is that this film was actually shot in Jamaica.

The "Dreamland Theatre" shown in the film is actually The Ward Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica.

After three weeks of shooting, Amy O'Neill was replaced by Jill Schoelen. Schoelen has said that she did not have much interaction with the cast since many of the scenes had already been filmed with O'Neill and in most cases just needed to make quick re-shoots with Schoelen.

While the film flopped in cinemas, it has since become a classic among horror fans, largely due to it's homage to William Castle, who is known for creating theater gags such as the ones depicted in Popcorn.

The character of "Lanyard Gates" was very loosely inspired by eccentric Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins.

FILM 1782: DEADPOOL 2

FILM 1782: DEADPOOL 2

TRIVIA: The sequel was announced 3 days before the release of Deadpool (2016).

Ryan Reynolds personally offered Rob Delaney the role of Peter after seeing him in Catastrophe (2015).

In one scene, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) refers to Cable (Josh Brolin) as One Eyed Willy; 'bring it on, One Eyed Willy'. One Eyed Willy was the pirate character in The Goonies (1985) starring Josh Brolin.

It was announced in October 2016 that Tim Miller would not be returning as director for this sequel. He decided not to return due to creative differences with lead actor Ryan Reynolds during pre-production. Miller later stated that he left the sequel because he "didn't want to make some stylized movie that was 3 times the budget", and wished to create the same kind of film that made the first one a success.

Brad Pitt met with the director to discuss the part of Cable, but couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts.

In the trailer, Deadpool remarks about the effects on Cable's arm not being done, saying it's "not as difficult as removing a mustache." This is a reference to how Justice League(2017) had to remove Henry Cavill's moustache for re-shoots.

FILM 1621: THE ACCOUNTANT 

TRIVIA: While for movie effect the script calls out the repeated use of the number '3' as an indicator of fraudulent numbers, the theory behind fraudulent number detection is known as Benford's law. The law states that in numbers such as account transactions the probability of a number occurring naturally drops as one moves from smaller numbers to the larger numbers following a logarithmic scale. This law has been successfully used to detect fraudulent accounting transactions.

The paintings featured in the story are: "Woman with Parasol and Child" by Renoir, 1874, "A Friend in Need" (Dogs Playing Poker) by Cassius Coolidge, 1903, and "Free Form" by Jackson Pollock, 1946.

Anna Kendrick based her character on her mother, a real accountant who went over the script and explained the math to her daughter.

Ben Affleck has stated that this is one of his top 5 personal favourite performances. This list also includes Batman in the DCEU, Holden McNeil in Chasing Amy (1997), Tony Mendes in Argo (2012), & Chucky from Good Will Hunting (1997).

In the hotel room, Dana reveals that in order to get the money to buy a Vera Wang gown, she taught herself how to play blackjack and to count cards to determine the chance to win a hand. In real life, Ben Affleck is known to be such a cunning poker and blackjack card player that he was barred from several casinos not because he cheats but because of his well-known habit of card-counting - legit but too much for them.

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2011 Blacklist, a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

The martial art mainly on display is a variety of malay Silat as also seen in The Raid movies.

While it might seem odd for a strong box filled with gold and other valuables to include a copy of "Action Comics #1" (1938) comic book, in fact this issue is valued at over $4 million dollars in mint condition.

This was originally envisioned with Mel Gibson starring, with Joel Coen and Ethan Coen directing.

Throughout the film, Ben Affleck's character recites the rhyme "Solomon Grundy" to calm himself down. In the DC comics, Solomon Grundy is a zombie whose "life" is structured around this rhyme.

BOOK 157: MOBY DICK: HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previous whaling voyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written".

"Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.

Dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius", the work was first published as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title in New York in November. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight and some important, are seen between the two editions. The London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions, as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as "Moby Dick", with no hyphen. About 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.

The novel has been adapted or represented in art, film, books, cartoons, television, and more than a dozen versions in comic-book format. The first adaptation was the 1926 silent movie The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore, in which Ahab kills the whale and returns to marry his fiancée. The most famous adaptation was the John Huston 1956 film produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury. The long list of adaptations, as Bryant and Springer put it, demonstrates that "the iconic image of an angry embittered American slaying a mythic beast seemed to capture the popular imagination", showing how "different readers in different periods of popular culture have rewritten Moby-Dick" to make it a "true cultural icon".

FILM 1578: THE FIRST WIVES CLUB 

TRIVIA: In an interview, Bette Midler mentioned that all three main cast members wanted to make a sequel, but the studio was not agreeable, as they viewed the success of this film as a "fluke". Midler also said that just before the movie opened, she was told it would not do very well because the film was competing against action movies with male stars such as Bruce Willis. This film opened at number one and out-grossed those action movies.

Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton were all born within 45 days of each other, and celebrated their 50th birthdays together while filming this movie.

Doctors created Goldie Hawn's simulated collagen treatment by injecting her lips with a harmless saline solution. Though temporary, Hawn later remarked in interviews that the experience was quite painful and that it had discouraged her from ever getting collagen for real.

Timothy Olyphant's screen debut.

During her acceptance speech after winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for "The Silver Linings Playbook" in 2013, Jennifer Lawrence remarked, "Oh what does it say? It says 'I beat Meryl!'" in reference to a line from this film. Unfortunately, many of the viewers (and fellow celebrities) did not get the reference and criticized Lawrence for her seemingly insensitive comment.

The cast features six Oscar winners, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Maggie Smith, Marcia Gay Harden, J.K. Simmons, and Eileen Heckart; three Oscar nominees, Bette Midler, Stockard Channing, and Rob Reiner; Emmy winner Sarah Jessica Parker; six Emmy nominees, Bronson Pinchot, Debra Monk, Dan Hedaya, Kate Burton, Stephen Collins, and Victor Garber; and Golden Globe nominee Heather Locklear.

FILM 1529: WILD TALES

TRIVIA: This is the seventh film from Argentina to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the third in a row with Ricardo Darín as a leading star (after Son of the Bride (2001) and The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)).

The site of the bridge, in which the tale "The Strongest" was filmed, is actually the 60th kilometer on the route between Cafayate and Salta, as the character in the tale mentions. This place has become a kind of a tourist attraction nowadays, as can be seen in Google Street View at coordinates (-25.730669,-65.6967926).

During the credits at the beginning, each main actor of each tale is identified with a wild animal. In the director's case, it is a fox. Szifrón said that this was because his father had liked foxes a lot, and had used to watch lots of documentaries about them. He also felt identified with that picture, more specifically with the fox's gaze, as the job of a director is in the gaze.

Damián Szifrón, the writer and director of the film, wrote most of the tales in his bathtub. He actually said: " The bath is a great place". He even lit some candles and poured himself a drink.

Selected by Time as one of the best films of 2014.