FILM 1960: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

FILM 1960: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

TRIVIA: Completing the animation for the film required up to 180 animators, the largest crew ever used by Sony Pictures Animation for a film.

It was announced shortly after Stan Lee's death, at age 95, that he had recorded a cameo for the film and that it would be his final voice-acting role. Lord and Miller felt it was important that Lee was given a bigger moment compared to previous Marvel films because he was "so integral to the spirit of this movie," and considered his role "extra meaningful" following his death.

This film was dedicated in memory of Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, who died on July 6, 2018, while this film was finishing production. However, this was not the only dedication, as a month before the film was released, Stan Lee died on November 12, 2018. The film was dedicated to both of Spider-Man's creators.

When Miles first visits Uncle Aaron's apartment, the television is playing the television show Community (2009) (Season 2, Episode 1 "Anthropology 101"). The beginning of that episode shows Donald Glover's character Troy getting out of bed wearing Spider-Man pajamas. This was a reference to an unsuccessful 2010 online campaign to get Donald Glover a chance to audition for the lead role in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Miles Morales co-creator Brian Michael Bendis describes that image of Glover in the Spider-Man pajamas as one of the major inspirations for the creation of the character and the character's design. Additionally, Glover appeared as another version of Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), in which he makes brief reference to his nephew. Glover also voiced Miles Morales in Disney's "Ultimate Spider-Man" cartoon series.

One of the many ways the Imageworks team paid tribute to old comic books through the visual style was to imitate the imperfections of offset printing.

There are many small details in Miles' universe that set it apart from ours, such as using "PDNY" in place of "NYPD," and instead of Chance the Rapper wearing a "3" hat, he has a "4" on it (evident from a poster in Miles' room).

This was stand-up comedian John Mulaney's first theatrical film role.

With Lily Tomlin playing Aunt May, all four actresses to play her in a theatrical film have been Academy Award nominees, after Rosemary Harris, Sally Field and Marisa Tomei. Tomlin was nominated for Nashville (1975).

Daniel Pemberton followed the ambitious lead of the "Spider-Verse" animation by developing an equally intricate score. After all the musical elements had been recorded, they were recorded onto vinyl and then re-scratched into the mix. Pemberton says, "I got a DMC World Scratch champion DJ to scratch all the parts in."

Brian Michael Bendis, who created the comic book version of Miles Morales, credits three things that inspired him to make Miles African-American: his two adopted black children, Barack Obama becoming president, and Donald Glover wearing Spider-Man pajamas on an episode of the TV show "Community."

The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Film.

FILM 1894: HULK

FILM 1894: HULK

TRIVIA: Creating the Hulk in CGI was one of the most complex tasks Industrial Light & Magic had ever undertaken at that time. The computer model used 12,996 texture maps, and required 1,165 muscle movements and one hundred layers of skin. It took the combined work and efforts of about one hundred eighty ILM technicians (sixty-nine technical artists, forty-one animators, thirty-five compositors, ten muscle action animators, nine CG modellers, eight supervisors, six skin painters and five motion-capture wranglers), over two and a half million hours, and one and a half years for him to be effectively created and portrayed in the film. With all of that work, some of the public complained that the Hulk looked too fake, comparing him with Shrek (2001).

Edward Norton was approached to play Bruce Banner, but turned it down, as, despite being a fan of the Hulk, he didn't like the script. He later accepted the role in The Incredible Hulk (2008).

A lot of the microbiology work we see on-screen is real, and is the work of Director Ang Lee's wife.

According to the animators at Industrial Light & Magic, the Hulk weighs 3,452 pounds (1,565.8 kilograms), and can exert fourteen tons of pressure per square inch. His skin is ten times as strong as Kevlar. His chest measures seventeen feet and four inches (5.3 meters), his waist twelve feet and ten inches (3.3 meters), his foot four feet and three inches (1.3 meters), and his neck six feet and nine inches (2 meters). If he wore shoes, they would be (U.S.) size eighty-seven. He can move at a top speed of three hundred miles (four hundred eighty-three kilometers) per hour, and cross three to four miles (4.8 to 6.4 kilometers) in a single jump.

Nick Nolte had his hair grown wildly for this movie when he was arrested on drunk driving charges and photographed for his now infamous mug shot.

Ang Lee performed the Hulk using motion-capture technology.

Ang Lee employed the split-screen technique to cinematically mimic the panels of a comic-book page. This required many takes of one scene, which was draining for Eric Bana. It took him four takes to film Banner's first Hulk transformation, and by the time of its completion, he was on the verge of collapse.

This film holds the record for largest second weekend box-office drop for a film that opened at number one, with a 69.7 percent drop.

When the first transformation of Banner into Hulk occurs, the color of the Hulk is either gray or greenish-gray. This is an homage to the first appearance of the Hulk, when he was actually gray in his debut comic (May 1962). The publisher couldn't do gray very well, so Stan Lee changed the color to green, simply because green hadn't been used much by other characters. From the second transformation, he maintains his prominent emerald hue.

CAMEO:Lou Ferrigno: (At around twelve minutes) As a security guard. 

CAMEO: Stan Lee: (At around twelve minutes) The creator of the Hulk (1962) appeared as a security guard. Lee ad-libbed his lines.

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

TRIVIA: Ben Affleck was virtually blind, as he had to wear heavy-duty contact lenses, which blocked out most of his vision.

This is the first time Colin Farrell ever used his own Irish accent in an American movie.

As a fan of the character, Ben Affleck made a point of reading every single comic book that featured Daredevil as preparation for his role.

Although Ben Affleck is a fan of the character, acting him out was such an unpleasant experience that, in November 2006, Affleck stated that he would never reprise the role, having felt "by playing a superhero in 'Daredevil', I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me, and something I wouldn't want to do again soon." It is believed that the Daredevil costume was very uncomfortable to wear. However, in 2013 Affleck accepted an agreement to play Batman, starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

Michael Clarke Duncan was often put on lifts or boxes, to make him tower over everyone else, particularly in his scenes with Ben Affleck, who is 6'4". The same thing was done for Duncan in The Green Mile (1999).

Stan Lee disliked the film, because he felt the film was "too tragic".

The film pays homage to numerous "Daredevil" writers and artists: Stan Lee: Daredevil's original creator makes his cameo as the man who young Matt Murdock stops from crossing the street. Wrote Daredevil (1964-1969). Kirby, the lab assistant played by Kevin Smith (see final item): Comic book artist Jack Kirby (assorted Daredevil covers in 1964-1968). Father Everett: Bill Everett, Daredevil's original artist (drew first issue of Daredevil in 1964, then assorted covers 1966-1972). Jose Quesada (the rapist): Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, and artist of Daredevil 1998-2000. Colan (a boxer): Gene Colan, another Daredevil artist 1966-1974. John Romita (the boxer, against whom Jack Murdock is supposed to dive): John Romita Sr., Sr. was a Daredevil artist in 1966, and John Romita Jr. was a Daredevil artist 1988-1990. Kane (a thug): Gil Kane, Daredevil cover artist 1971=1978. Miller, Mack, Bendis (other boxers): Frank Miller, writer and artist 1979-1983, David Mack, artist 1999-2001, and Brian Michael Bendis, writer of Daredevil beginning 1999, and was still doing so when the film came out. Kevin Smith, author whose Daredevil work is collected in "Daredevil Visionaries: Kevin Smith", appears as the lab assistant Kirby, named for another artist mentioned above.

Ben Affleck was cast as Daredevil because Kevin Smith (appearing here as Kirby the lab tech) suggested him to Writer and Director Mark Steven Johnson. Smith, who directed Affleck in four films from the "View Askewniverse" series, and would later reunite in Jersey Girl (2004), also wrote at least one of the comic books, on which this movie is based.

Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, Katie Holmes, Mía Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Jolene Blalock, and Neve Campbell were considered for the role of Elektra.

Michael Clarke Duncan and Ben Affleck appeared in Armageddon (1998).

FILM 1587: DOCTOR STRANGE 

TRIVIA: Before becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange received training at an Eastern monastery. Benedict Cumberbatch spent his gap year volunteering as an English teacher at a Buddhist monastery in Darjeeling, India. He had stated that the experience was very profound and influential on his life, and sought to draw from this experience in preparing for the role.

Doctor Strange's creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko based his appearance on Hollywood actor Vincent Price; the character even bears the middle name of Vincent.

According to Kevin Feige, the concept of magic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is inspired by The Matrix (1999) and the fantasy works of Stanley Kubrick and Hayao Miyazaki: "Have you watched the Cosmos (1980) series? That's magic, the quantum physics. If somebody knew how to tap into that stuff, what's the difference between that and magic? You don't get into it in Harry Potter, but if a scientist went to Hogwarts he'd find out how some of that stuff is happening! We're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but there will be some of that, particularly for a character like Doctor Strange, who goes from a man of science to a man of faith and who traverses both worlds. And sometimes there won't be an answer! Sometimes he'll want an answer - 'How is this happening?' - and nothing."

In 1992, Wes Craven was set to direct. Later in 2001, David S. Goyer was going to write and direct. In 2008, Guillermo del Toro was brought on as director. In 2014, Mark Andrews, Jonathan Levine, Nikolaj Arcel, Scott Derrickson and Dean Israelite were on the shortlist to direct. In the end, Derrickson was officially announced to helm the film.

Cinematographer Ben Davis cites the Disney experimental film Fantasia (1940) as a visual influence on the film: "It has a very psychedelic grounding, and most of the work is about other dimensions."

FILM 1509: AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON 

TRIVIA: Scarlett Johansson was pregnant during filming of this movie so many of her scenes were scheduled early in filming before she began to show. To help hide her pregnancy later in filming, three stunt doubles were hired. This caused a lot of confusion among the other actors since, according to them, all of the stunt women looked very similar to Johansson. Chris Evans stated that it got to the point where he would say hello and start a conversation with one of them, only to realize midway that the person he was talking to wasn't Johansson. Ultimately, some scenes used CGI to hide Johansson's belly.

Because Ultron was 8-9 feet (2.4 - 2.7 meters) tall, the 5-foot 10-inch (1.77 meter) James Spader had to wear an antennae-like contraption made out of a thick piece of wire with two red balls attached to the top that went up his entire back and 3 feet above his head. This was done so that the actors that shared scenes with him would have a reference point for where his eyes would be; the two red balls represented the placement of Ultron's eyes. Elizabeth Olsen stated that this was actually distracting because Spader would be giving an intense performance and out of instinct she would look at him rather than the balls representing his eyes. Much to everyone's amusement, whenever this happened, Aaron Taylor-Johnson would yell, "Red balls! Look at his balls, Lizzie!" at her in order to get her to look in the right direction.

James Spader was Joss Whedon's first and only choice for the role of Ultron, because of his "hypnotic voice that can be eerily calm and compelling while also being very human and humorous".

Aaron Taylor-Johnson was asked to lose weight (muscle mass in particular) because he looked too strong to portray a runner, who is usually trim.

The trailer was viewed 34 million times on YouTube in the first 24 hours after it was released. This broke the record that was previously held by Iron Man 3 (2013).

The addition of Quicksilver to the cast sparked wide discussion over the direction of the character who is also slated to appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Quicksilver had been discussed previously as a potential character in both X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and The Avengers (2012), but legal complexities over the license to the character resulted in his omission from both films. However, in May 2013 both Marvel and Fox Studios announced a resolution to the previous legal issues, and that Quicksilver would appear in this film as well as an X-Men sequel, though under certain parameters: no allusion to his relations to the X-Men or Magneto (the character's father) can be made in an "Avengers" film, and no reference to Quicksilver's membership in the Avengers can be made in an "X-Men" film; the rights agreement between Fox and Marvel even goes so far as to stipulate the character cannot be referred to as a "mutant" in any Marvel film. Additionally, the day after Fox announced Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Marvel and Fox entered into a legal standoff over provisions of the rights agreement for the character, including the issue of whether Peters would be allowed to portray Quicksilver in any other film outside the "X-Men" franchise, necessitating a second actor to play Quicksilver in any Marvel film, resulting in two different versions of the same character appearing in two competing film series.

"Marvel Ultimates" comic is famous for featuring a controversial incestuous story-line between Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. According to Elizabeth Olsen, while this particular aspect would not be overtly present in the film, she and Aaron Taylor-Johnson "played around" with certain parts of it: "Every time you see an image of them, they're always holding each other's hand and looking over each other's shoulder. They're always so close, it's almost uncomfortable. Aaron and I have been playing a little bit with those kinds of images just for ourselves."

Cameo [Stan Lee]: A veteran at the Avengers' party, who takes a drink of Thor's ale. Lee has said this is his favorite cameo to date.

Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (1978) and its subsequent three TV specials, and he voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (2008) in which he also played "security guard" - he also played a security guard in Hulk (2003). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.

Paul Bettany (the Vision) is good friends with co-star Stellan Skarsgård (Dr Selvig). In fact, Bettany and his wife Jennifer Connelly named their firstborn child Stellan, after Skarsgård.

When Tony Stark tries to lift Thor's Hammer he jokes saying "I'm re-instituting prima noctis". Primae Noctis was, allegedly, a law in Late Medieval Europe by which a feudal lord could claim the "first night" (implying the night subsequent to her wedding) with any bride in his dominion, in order to have sexual relations with her. This practice was depicted in Braveheart (1995).