FILM 1356: VERONICA MARS

TRIVIA: Funded in large part by a campaign on Kickstarter.com, breaking all of the site's records up to April, 2013. Some of the accomplishments were:

Fastest project to reach $1 million.
Fastest project to reach $2 million.
All-time highest-funded project in FILM category.

Third highest-funded project in Kickstarter history.

Most project backers of any project in Kickstarter history.

At the police department, Leo (Max Greenfield) comments that he heard a rumor that Veronica was working for the FBI, to which she replies "another life maybe.." A trailer for the canceled 4th season of the show was released by director Rob Thomas showing Veronica's first few days with the FBI.

In the film, the latest Lotto numbers are shown in several different web-based views (along side the main thing being viewed). The Lotto numbers displayed are actually the final Kickstarter dollar amount that was raised to fund the production.

When Mac comes to Veronica's house and they try to guess her new job, Veronica's dad guesses "clubbing baby seals." Tina Majorino, who plays Mac, starred in the seal movie "Andre" in 1994.

The film's many Kickstarter supporters included detective novelist Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition, whose family were huge fans of the TV series. Collins frequently includes Veronica Mars on his list of the greatest private detective TV shows of all time.

VERONICA MARS

On March 13, 2013, cast members Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni, and Ryan Hansen, and showrunner Rob Thomas all appeared in a video posted to the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter that challenged fans of the TV show (which had been canceled in 2007) to pledge $2 Million to fund (or help fund) a feature film project based on the show. The project broke a Kickstarter record when it made more than $1.3 million in about six hours; the entire amount was raised and surpassed in under eleven hours.

Both actresses Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter were stars on the also iconic TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon, a declared fan of "Veronica Mars," also had a cameo in an episode.

The sticker of the black circle with the bananas in the middle on Veronica's locker is the album cover of The Dandy Warhols, the album the feature's the theme song 'We Used to Be Friends'.

The network told Rob Thomas in advance that season 3 was probably going to be the last of the show, so he could have the opportunity to wrap up the series. Thomas got so angry at them that wrote the season finale as an anti-finale. In retrospect, he has said he doesn't regret it because they could not have made the movie if the show had had a proper ending.

Entertainment Weekly included Veronica Mars in its "25 Greatest Cult TV Shows Ever" list at position #13 in the September 29, 2009.

Paul Rudd was originally considered to play Vinnie Van Lowe.

Many participants in Veronica Mars (2004) went on to help make Party Down (2009): Party Down creator Rob Thomas was the creator of Veronica Mars; Party Down creators John Enbom and Dan Etheridge were producers on Veronica Mars; and Party Down creator Paul Rudd was a Veronica Mars guest star. Party Down regulars Ken Marino and Ryan Hansen were also Veronica Mars regulars. Party Down regulars Jane Lynch and Adam Scott were Veronica Mars guest stars. Party Down guest stars Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Alona Tal, Ed Begley Jr., Daran Norris, Ryan Devlin, and (Veronica herself) Kristen Bell were all Veronica Mars regulars. And Party Down guest star Joey Lauren Adams was a Veronica Mars guest star.

FILM 1163: BONNIE AND CLYDE

TRIVIA: The characters Eugene Grizzard and Velma Davis (played by Gene Wilder and Evans Evans) are based on Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone of Ruston, Louisiana. On the night of April 27, 1933, Darby and Stone were briefly kidnapped by the Barrow gang, who had stolen Darby's car. After driving around Ruston for several hours, Darby and Stone were released unharmed. During the drive, when Darby mentioned that he was an undertaker, Bonnie Parker remarked, "Well, maybe you'll work on me someday." A year later, Darby did just that. He was one of the undertakers who worked on Bonnie Parker's body after she and Clyde Barrow were killed in the roadside ambush near Gibsland, Louisiana, in May, 1934.

The real Blanche Barrow sued Warner Brothers over the way she was depicted in the film. In reality, Barrow was the same age as Bonnie Parker, arguably better looking than her, she was not a preacher's daughter and had married Buck knowing full well that he was an escaped prisoner and twice divorced.

Roger Ebert had only been a film critic for six months when he saw this film and hailed it as the first masterpiece he had seen on the job.

During one of the bank robberies, Buck Barrow (Gene Hackman) does a leap over the tellers' cage. This was a stunt routinely pulled by John Dillinger, who in turn learned it from watching Douglas Fairbanks in the "Zorro" movies.

Michael J. Pollard didn't realize in eating scenes that you don't actually eat all the food because of the possibility of repeated takes. Sure enough, he soon regretted it in the scene in which the outlaws kidnap a couple and eat their lunch in the car. By the 12th take, Pollard was feeling decidedly ill, having had to eat 12 whole hamburgers.

Bonnie's family reunion scene was shot through a window screen to give it a hazy, nostalgic effect.

Heavily influenced by the French New Wave directors, mainly through its rapid shifts of tone and its choppy editing.

Before deciding to play the role himself, producer Warren Beatty's first choice for the role of Clyde Barrow was musician and composer Bob Dylan, who resembled the actual Barrow more strongly than Beatty.

When Warren Beatty was on board as producer only, his sister Shirley MacLaine was a strong possibility to play Bonnie. But when Beatty decided to play Clyde himself, for obvious reasons he decided not to use MacLaine.

Warner Brothers had so little faith in the film that, in an unprecedented move, it offered its first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross instead of a minimal fee. The movie then went on to gross over $50 million.

Debut of Gene Wilder.

When scouting for locations, production designer Dean Tavoularis was delighted to see that a lot of the smaller Texas towns hadn't changed much from the 1930s.