FILM 2014: LOST RIVER

FILM 2014: LOST RIVER

TRIVIA: First film written and directed by Ryan Gosling.

Matt Smith filmed his scenes during his break away from playing The Doctor on Doctor Who. He had to shave his head for the role of Bully and wore a wig for the last episodes of Doctor Who which were filmed later on.

Thomas McDonald, the actor who plays 'Skip' (the man leaving the area near the beginning of the film), is/was a real life resident of the now sparsely populated shooting location in Detroit.

When Ryan Gosling sent a text to Johnny Jewel (who created much of the film's soundtrack), outlining the influences and intended vibe of the film, Johnny's reply was "dark goonies. cool."

During one scene in the club, a woman can be seen wearing a large skull mask. This mask was originally worn by one of the circus gang motorcycle riders in the film Batman Returns (1992). It was pulled from the basement of the Warner Bros. props department for use in this film.

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.

https://www.booooooom.com/2017/08/24/illustrator-spotlight-rory-kurtz/

FILM 1613: LA LA LAND

TRIVIA: According to composer Justin Hurwitz, all the piano performance featured in the film was first recorded by pianist Randy Kerber during pre-production. Ryan Gosling then spent two hours a day, six days a week in piano lessons learning the music by heart. By the time filming had begun, Gosling was able to play all the piano sequences seen in the film without the use of a hand double or CGI.

Emma Watson turned down the role of Mia due to scheduling conflicts with Beauty and the Beast (2017), while Ryan Gosling turned down the role of the Beast in that film to appear in this one. Coincidentally, both are musicals.

The audition scene, where the casting director interrupts Mia's emotional performance to take a phone call, was actually inspired by one of Ryan Gosling's auditions in real life.

Won seven Golden Globes, more than any other movie ever.

John Legend, singer and pianist, had to learn how to play the guitar for his role.

The express lane freeway ramp used for the opening number, Another Day Of Sun, is the same stretch of freeway as used for the iconic "bus jump" sequence from Speed (1994), where a 50-foot section of the ramp was digitally removed using CGI to create the gap the bus must jump over.

The line in the film said by Sebastian (Ryan Gosling): "That's LA. They worship everything and they value nothing.", was actually added in by Ryan himself, when he heard his real life girlfriend, Eva Mendes, mention it as a "joke".

Films that were inspirations/influences and screened for the cast/crew include: Singin' in the Rain (1952), Top Hat (1935), An American in Paris (1951), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Swing Time (1936), The Band Wagon (1953), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and even 8 1/2 (1963) for the film's opening traffic number.

Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz came out with the idea of the film during their senior year at Harvard University in 2010 with Hurwitz writing the musical tracks and Chazelle on dialogue. Initially they found two financial backers and a producer for a budget of $1 million. However the demand for a lot of script changes made them to drop the project off. After Whiplash found critical success, the project was resurrected with the studio increasing the budget to $30 million; this allowed the filmmakers to rent the Griffith Observatory for filming (a full day rental there costs $10 thousand).

The crew had a limited time window of 30 minutes within two days to film the dusky purple twilight Hollywood Hills dance sequence. According to Damien Chazelle, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling managed five takes per day, where after each take, they would go back to the starting point with the assistants wiping their sweat before starting the dance routine again.

The phrase "pisi-kaka" that Ryan Gosling says twice is Hungarian for pee and feces. Meaning that it is not important. Ryan Gosling spent 5 months living in Budapest, Hungary whilst filming the sequel to the 1982 Sci-fi film Blade Runner.

FILM 1564: THE NICE GUYS

TRIVIA: The project was initially proposed as a TV series but was re-tooled as a film after the pilot seemed to be going nowhere.

One of the film's nods to The Rockford Files (1974) is the yellow pages ad for Holland March's detective agency. It is almost a complete copy of the ad used for Jim Rockford. Like Jim Rockford, March keeps his gun in a cookie jar.

During March's opening monologue about the downturn of society, a porno theatre in the background is playing "Bang Bang Kiss Kiss," a play on Shane Black's earlier film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005).

In the elevator scene, the same music plays in the background as in the elevator scene in The Blues Brothers (1980)

Jack Kilmer is the son of Val Kilmer. Shane Black directed Val in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005).

FILM 1464: THE BIG SHORT

TRIVIA: After meeting with Dr. Michael Burry, the character he would play in the movie, Christian Bale asked to have Burry's cargo shorts and T-shirt, which he then wore in the movie. Bale later said he hoped Burry would make it to the L.A. premiere, "because I really want to sit next to him and see if he's going to punch me in the fucking face."

Author Michael Lewis revealed in an interview that Paramount, the studio distributing the film, allowed director and screen writer Adam McKay to make this film only if he agreed to make a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004).

The quotation that appears on screen, "'Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.' -Overheard at a Washington, D.C. bar" was in fact written by director and co-writer Adam McKay after unsuccessfully searching for the perfect quotation to use for that segment of the film.

Co-writer and director Adam McKay said the studio was worried that the "heroes" of Michael Lewis's book were flawed: "The studio was like, 'Shouldn't they be more likable?' It's like, 'No, heroes are dirty. Martin Luther King had affairs. Gandhi was a bit of a horndog. We're all dicks. Let them be dicks.' "

The cast includes three Oscar winners (Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and Marisa Tomei), and three Oscar nominees (Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt). Pitt has an Oscar as a producer, but not as an actor.

FILM 1286: MURDER BY NUMBERS

TRIVIA: Ryan Gosling threw up as he filmed the murdering scenes.

The characters Richard Haywood and Justin Pendleton are loosely based on real-life murderers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold.

The title refers to the song "Murder by Numbers," written by 'Sting' and Andy Summers and performed by The Police, about planning the perfect murder.

Ryan Gosling was in a relationship with Sandra Bullock, having met on the set (May 2002-July 2003).