FILM 1911: BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH

FILM 1911: BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH

TRIVIA: A Black Mirror (2011) interactive film, in which the viewer chooses the plot direction multiple times. Although the listed running time is 90 minutes, this is approximate depending how long the viewer decides to keep watching. The total amount of footage included to make all of the film's possible variations work is 5 hours 12 minutes 13 seconds, as revealed by the film's BBFC classification.

The fax sounds you hear at the end of Bandersnatch on Stefan's headphone translates to a QR code. That leads you to a website where you will find one of the games that's being shown in the movie.

In Colin's apartment there is a poster for Philip K. Dick's 'Ubik': a sci-fi story that deals with themes of free will and death much like Bandersnatch.

A poster that reads "METL HEDD" with a dog-like figure can be seen, a reference to the Black Mirror episode Black Mirror: Metalhead (2017), in which a woman is chased by robotic dogs after the unexplained collapse of human society.

FILM 1842: ZARDOZ

FILM 1842: ZARDOZ

TRIVIA: According to John Boorman, Sean Connery had a very hard time finding work after Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Boorman was allegedly able to hire Connery for $200,000.

John Boorman made this film after his project to film J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" was canceled.

The opening sequence is an introduction added by John Boorman, at the request of 20th Century Fox executives, to help the audience understand the film.

The Irish government initially refused to allow the production team to import prop guns because of terrorist attacks occurring at the time.

Radio spots (available on the DVD) were narrated by Rod Serling.

Reportedly, Charlotte Rampling looked forward to her sex scene with Sean Connery, then was disappointed when it was over and done with so quickly.

Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth filmed scenes with the lens wide open, fog filters on the camera, and smoke machines on set to achieve a diffused, impressionistic look. It worked on first-generation prints, but when the film was duplicated for release the image quality was so bad it was almost unusable. The studio forbade any cinematographers from using that process on future films.

This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in John Wilson's book "The Official Razzie® Movie Guide."

Burt Reynolds, a big box-office star at the time, who had previously worked with John Boorman on Deliverance (1972), was the first choice for the lead role of Zed. He bowed out due to illness.

Director Ben Wheatley is a huge fan of the movie.

BOOK 150: THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS: JOHN WYNDHAM

TRIVIA: The story has been made into the 1962 feature film of the same name, three radio drama series (in 1957, 1968 and 2008), and two TV series (in 1981 and 2009). It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952, and in 2003 the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

According to director Danny Boyle, the opening hospital sequence of The Day of the Triffids inspired Alex Garland to write the screenplay for 28 Days Later (2002).

In an homage to the story, the game "The Simpsons: Tapped out" offers a variety of crops on Cletus's farm, such as tomacco and GMO potatoes, and every crop specifies how many game dollars it costs to plant it, how long it takes to grow, and its reward in game dollars and experience points. But for the crop "triffids" the only reward promised is "the end of humanity".

BOOK 110: FRANKENSTEIN: MARY SHELLEY

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

Science fiction author Isaac Asimov coined the term Frankenstein complex for the fear of robots.

Frankenstein or Franken- is sometimes used as a prefix to imply artificial monstrosity as in "frankenfood", a politically charged name for genetically manipulated foodstuffs. The Franken- prefix can also mean anything assembled haphazardly from originally disparate elements, especially if those parts were previously discarded by others—for example, a car built from parts salvaged from many other cars. For many years Eddie Van Halen played a guitar built in such a manner which he called the "Frankenstrat".

In 1971, General Mills introduced "Franken Berry", a strawberry-flavored corn cereal whose mascot is a variation of the monster from the 1931 movie.

"Frankenstein" is the name of a character in the 1975 movie Death Race 2000 and its 2008 remake Death Race. The first incarnation was portrayed by recently deceased veteran actor David Carradine and the second by Jason Statham.

George A. Romero's 1985 film Day of the Dead features a scientist conducting experiments on zombies nicknamed "Frankenstein."

The hit song China in Your Hand by the British rock band T'Pau employs the story of Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley's writing of it, in its role as a classic cautionary tale.

In David Brin's science fiction novel Kiln People, defective golems that become autonomous are called "frankies".

Mewtwo of the Pokémon franchise has been likened to Frankenstein's monster in regards to being born through an artificial means and discontent with the fact.

Stitch, the main protagonist of Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise, was somewhat influenced by the monster, as he was created by a scientist from miscellaneous alien DNA. Unlike Shelley's monster, however, his intentions were initially evil until he discovered an inner loneliness, causing him, and eventually his creator, to turn from crime to justice. Throughout the franchise, Stitch also demonstrates the monster's herculean strength and childlike curiosity.

In season 3 of Beast Wars Megatron clones Dinobot, making a Frankenstein's monster out of the clone by transmetallizing him with the Transmetal Driver and adding the half of Rampage's mutant spark he cut out earlier. The result was an extremely mutated Transmetal II minion under the influence of his "half-brother's" evil.

In 2006, the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived listed Dr. Frankenstein's Monster (sic) at #6.

The California Medical Association, in a rather humorous gesture, chose Halloween 2006 to announce that Dr. Richard Frankenstein had been elected president of the organization.He had previously been president of the Orange County Medical Association in 1995-1996.

Frankenstein is a character in the Korean web-comic manhwa Noblesse. He, like that of the actual character Frankenstein, is a scientist, but the similarities end there. Through his research he has gained immortality and immense power. He now serves the most powerful of all vampires, the Noblesse.

Pop artist Eric Millikin created a large mosaic portrait of Frankenstein's monster out of Halloween candy and spiders as part of his "Totally Sweet" series in 2013.

The character Professor Franken Stein from Soul Eater is based loosely off Frankenstein's monster.

FILM 1192: JODOROWSKY'S DUNE

The story of cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's ambitious but ultimately doomed film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel.