FILM 1766: INSOMNIA

TRIVIA: As of 2017, this is the only film directed by Christopher Nolan in which Nolan does not have an official writing credit - even though he wrote the final draft of the screenplay himself.

Although primarily known for comedic roles, this is one of two thrillers in which Robin Williams starred in the same year. The other was One Hour Photo (2002).

Will Dormer's name comes from the French and Spanish word "dormir" - to sleep.

Insomnia (2002), Dunkirk (2017) and Following (1998) are the only movies directed by Christopher Nolan that are not listed in IMDb's Top 250 as of 2018. His other 7 movies are among the best 250 movies ever made as voted by IMDb users.

This film stars three Academy Award winners: Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams.

FILM 1726: JUMANJI

TRIVIA: According to author Chris Van Allsburg, the word "jumanji" is Zulu for "many effects," which alludes to "the exciting consequences of the game" as mentioned in the film.

The Jumanji game board was very popular throughout the years, to the point where a screen used board was sold in 2014 for 60,800 dollars.

During a guest appearance on Clive Anderson All Talk (1996), a UK chat show, Robin Williams told a story about filming the scene where Alan wrestles a crocodile. He said that in one take he got a little carried away and thumped the crocodile with his elbow, forgetting that there was a man inside the suit. He heard a voice inside the crocodile yell "Hey!" in protest.

Scarlett Johansson auditioned for the role of Judy Shepherd.

There are 110 spaces in the board game.

The dual casting of Jonathan Hyde as both Alans father and the villanous Van Pelt is similar to the custom in adaptations of Peter Pan, with Mr. Darling and Captain Hook being played by the same actor. Robin Williams played a grown up Peter Pan in Hook (1991)

FILM 1439: ALADDIN

TRIVIA: During the course of recording the voices, Robin Williams improvised so much they had almost 16 hours of material.

Because Robin Williams ad-libbed so many of his lines, the script was turned down for a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination.

The Genie's celebrity impersonations are (in order): Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ed Sullivan, Groucho Marx, William F. Buckley, Señor Wences, Robert De Niro, Carol Channing, Arsenio Hall, Walter Brennan, Mary Hart, Ethel Merman, Rodney Dangerfield, Jack Nicholson, and Peter Lorre. For release in India, Disney replaced the game show host with a cricket commentator.

Scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) forced Patrick Stewart to turn down the role of Jafar. He has said in interviews that this is his biggest regret.

While filming this movie, Robin Williams frequently received calls from Steven Spielberg, who at the time was working on Schindler's List (1993). He would put him on speaker phone so he could tell jokes to the cast and crew to cheer them up. Some of the material that he used was material that he was using for this film.

During script and storyboard development, the writers were already considering Robin Williams for the role of the Genie but had not approached him for the project. In order to convince Williams to do the role, Eric Goldberg animated the Genie doing several minutes of Williams's stand-up routines, including parts from his album 'Reality... What A Concept', and screened it for him. Williams was so impressed that he signed almost immediately.

To capture the movement of Aladdin's low-cut baggy pants, animator Glen Keane looked at videos of rap star M.C. Hammer.

In the preview screenings for the movie, nobody applauded after the big song numbers. The animators wanted applause and so somebody stuck the Genie with an "Applause" sign at the end of "Friend Like Me". The joke worked and the sign was kept for the movie.

On what came to be known among the Aladdin animators as Black Friday, then Disney head Jeffrey Katzenberg told the team to scrap virtually everything they'd been working on for months and start all over again. He also refused to move the film's release date. Directors John Musker and Ron Clements were able to completely turn around the film's new plot and screenplay in just eight days.

This was the first major animated film which was advertised on the strength of having a major movie star providing one of its voices (Robin Williams). This has since become the norm with animated features.

Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd and Ian McKellen were considered for the role of Jafar.

Though loosely based on the original short story from Arabian Nights, many plot elements are created just for the film: Jafar's desire for Jasmine, framing Aladdin for a crime and having him imprisoned, Aladdin meeting another prisoner (actually Jafar) who helps break him out of prison and tells him of a hidden treasure, Aladdin using the treasure (the lamp) to falsely portray himself as a prince, and to take revenge on Jafar. These plot elements are all quite similar to the plot of Alexandre Dumas père's novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. Appropriately, the novel itself makes reference to the Arabian Nights several times: the treasure of Monte Cristo is compared to that of Ali Baba, the cave in which it is hidden is compared to the one in Aladdin, and the protagonist Edmond Dantes at one point calls himself Sinbad the Sailor.

The color design of the film was inspired by old Persian miniatures and Victorian paintings of the Middle East.

During the "Whole New World" sequence, Aladdin and Jasmine fly over future settings of Hercules and Mulan.

FILM 1420: GOOD WILL HUNTING

TRIVIA: After the 2014 death of Robin Williams, the Boston Public Garden park bench where he and Matt Damon had their conversation scene, became an impromptu memorial site for the actor with people leaving flowers, quotes and various items at the bench. A petition has been passed around to erect a statue in Williams' memory near the bench.

The scene where Sean and Will are in his office, and Sean starts talking about his dead wife and her farting antics. These lines were ad-libbed by Robin Williams, which is probably why Matt Damon is laughing so hard. If you watch the scene carefully you can notice the camera shaking, probably due to the cameraman laughing as well.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck found a clever way to choose the right studio for their script: the story goes that on page 60 of the script, they wrote a completely out-of-nowhere sex scene between Will and Chuckie. They took it to every major studio, and nobody even mentioned the scene. When they met with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, he said, "I only have one really big note on the script. About page 60, the two leads, both straight men, have a sex scene. What the hell is that?" - Damon and Affleck explained that they put that scene specifically in there to show them who actually read the script and who didn't. As Weinstein was the only person who brought it up, Miramax was the studio chosen to produce the film.

Casey Affleck ad libbed most of his lines. This frustrated Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant during filming - but they later admitted that Casey's improvised lines were much funnier and better than what had been originally written for him.

Matt Damon's personal favorite movie of his own.

Minnie Driver's character Skylar is named after Damon's girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein, who left Damon for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich before filming began. Damon and Driver became romantically involved during production.

Gus Van Sant painted the picture that hangs in Sean Maguire's (Robin Williams) office.

The job interview Will sends Chuckie on is for a company called Holden & McNeil. Ben Affleck's character in Chasing Amy (1997) was Holden McNeil.

When Will (Matt Damon) and Sean (Robin Williams) meet for the first time in Sean's office, Will recommends that Sean read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". As a boy, Matt Damon was Zinn's neighbor and provided the voice for the CD recording of that book.

To date this is the film with the highest US box office gross with Kevin Smith's name attached to it. All his own films that he has written and directed have not grossed more than $35 million at the US box office.