FILM 1827: THE SHADOW

FILM 1827: THE SHADOW 

TRIVIA: Sam Raimi originally wanted to adapt and direct this film, but was denied the rights to it.

Tim Curry and Sir Ian McKellen previously appeared together on stage in Amadeus, as the title character and as Salieri, respectively.

The billboard of the "Smoking man" is a parody of a real one that actually blew "smoke" rings. The original was for Camel cigarettes, whose motto was "I'd walk a mile for a Camel!" The "Llama" cigarette motto parodies this with "I'd climb a mountain for a Llama!"

Bob Kane had cited The Shadow as a major influence behind Batman.

Peter Boyle plays a Taxi Driver. He also played a Taxi Driver in "Taxi Driver", 1976.

FILM 1782: DEADPOOL 2

FILM 1782: DEADPOOL 2

TRIVIA: The sequel was announced 3 days before the release of Deadpool (2016).

Ryan Reynolds personally offered Rob Delaney the role of Peter after seeing him in Catastrophe (2015).

In one scene, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) refers to Cable (Josh Brolin) as One Eyed Willy; 'bring it on, One Eyed Willy'. One Eyed Willy was the pirate character in The Goonies (1985) starring Josh Brolin.

It was announced in October 2016 that Tim Miller would not be returning as director for this sequel. He decided not to return due to creative differences with lead actor Ryan Reynolds during pre-production. Miller later stated that he left the sequel because he "didn't want to make some stylized movie that was 3 times the budget", and wished to create the same kind of film that made the first one a success.

Brad Pitt met with the director to discuss the part of Cable, but couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts.

In the trailer, Deadpool remarks about the effects on Cable's arm not being done, saying it's "not as difficult as removing a mustache." This is a reference to how Justice League(2017) had to remove Henry Cavill's moustache for re-shoots.

FILM 1560: SUICIDE SQUAD

TRIVIA: The majority of the cast and crew got the tattoo "SKWAD" in honor of this film. The tattoos were even applied by some of the cast members, Margot Robbie and Will Smith.

Tom Hardy was originally cast as Rick Flag but dropped out to due The Revenant (2015). Hardy had previously played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), who was a former member of the Suicide Squad in the comic books. Hardy later expressed his regret at leaving the role, given he did not want to lose the work.

To try and find the perfect Joker laugh, Jared Leto publicly tried different laughs in New York City and Toronto to see which ones made people the most uncomfortable.

In May 2016, Warner Bros. announced that Margot Robbie would be producing and reprising her role as Harley Quinn in an upcoming Untitled Harley Quinn Project. Not much has been revealed about the project, but it is rumored to be focused on the female heroes and villains of the DC Universe.

Jared Leto got so immersed in playing The Joker that he wouldn't break out of character on set even when he wasn't filming. He even sent his fellow cast members "Joker-like" presents: a live rat to Margot Robbie and bullets to Will Smith, a soiled Playboy magazine to Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and a dead hog, anal beads and used condoms for the whole crew. Scott Eastwood commented that Leto frightened him at times with his behavior, and Smith mentioned that he actually never met the real Leto.

Ryan Gosling was sought out first for the role of The Joker. He reportedly turned down the role because he did not want to sign on for a multi-picture deal that the studio was requiring.

Ben Affleck is the first actor to portray Batman in two movies helmed by different directors. He is also the first actor to portray Batman in two different movies within the same year.

Viola Davis read M.E. Thomas' autobiography "Confessions of a Sociopath" to prepare for her role as Amanda Waller.

FILM 1517: MYSTERY MEN

TRIVIA: According to Ben Stiller in an interview on Late Show with David Letterman (1993), he and Greg Kinnear got into a heated argument on the set. Afterwards, Stiller tried to be released from the film.

Tom Waits' odd hand gestures when explaining the psychofrakulator were the result of him writing his dialogue on his fingers and reading the words as he went along.

A number of the sets used in the film are the same sets used in Batman Forever (1995).

The Mystery Men were the supporting cast of an underground superhero comic book called the Flaming Carrot. Mr. Furious and the Shoveler were the only ones from the comic to make it into the movie. Captain Amazing was created as a replacement for the Flaming Carrot, who was felt to be too bizarre to bring to the silver screen.

The Bowler's stream-of-consciousness monologue in support of independent filmmaking at the conclusion of the film was originally not intended to be included in the finished print. Janeane Garofalo was instructed by director Kinka Usher to say whatever came to her mind at the time (Usher simply wanted to use up some excess film.) Usher liked her performance so much he edited it into the final print.

CAMEOS: Michael Bay (noted action director) and Riki Rachtman, (former host of MTV's Headbangers Ball (1987)) as two of the Frat Boys. Bay asks "can we bring the brewskies?".

According to Hank Azaria, the cast argued constantly with each other over the comedic tone of the film.

As the team enters Dr. Heller's amusement park workshop, creepy music is heard. This is not just incidental music, but turns out to be Dr. Heller practicing on a 'waterphone', the strange cylindrical device with steel wires he can briefly be seen holding. The waterphone is primarily used in the motion picture industry in the composition of creepy incidental music.

In an odd parallel, Tom Waits actually creates curious machines from junk and hardware store purchases, in the same way that his character (Dr. Heller) does. Waits' machines are musical, and one is 6-stringed steel dumpster.

A subtle reference to William Shatner: once, while recording lines for the video game Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993), Shatner pronounced "sabotage" strangely and was asked twice to repeat the line. He finally blurted, "Don't tell me how to act - it sickens me!" In Mystery Men (1999), this line is repeated by Ben Stiller. Later, Janeane Garofalo says to Stiller, "You say 'sabotage', I say 'saboTAGE'," another Shatner quote from the Star Trek recording session.

Ricky Jay's character tells Captain Amazing, "I'm a publicist, not a magician." Jay is in fact a well-known magician.

In a 2011 interview with A.V. Club, Hank Azaria claimed that during production Kinka Usher declared "I'm going back to commercials when this is done. I've had enough. I'd much rather do my cool little one-minute shorts that I make than deal with all this nonsense."

FILM 1433: ANT-MAN

TRIVIA Originally the film was meant to focus on the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym. However, the filmmakers deemed Pym as having a too family-unfriendly history (Pym developed several split personalities, one of whom abused his girlfriend Janet) and instead decided to focus on Pym's successor Scott Lang, with Pym becoming a mentor and supporting character.

Paul Rudd stated in an interview with New York Times columnist Tom Riddle that he purchased a massive ant farm and watched how the ants worked together. He was so inspired by them that he decided to keep the farm after the filming was complete.

Director Edgar Wright, a big fan of Ant-Man, proposed the film to Marvel in 2003, describing it as "an action-adventure comedy; a cross-genre action and special effects bonanza." He had been developing the movie since then, shooting a test reel, hiring the cast, and was close to begin shooting the movie. However, in 2014, he dropped out due to 'creative differences' between him and Disney, which had bought out Marvel Studios 5 years prior.

Posters for "Pingo Doce," the Brazilian soda company Bruce Banner worked for in The Incredible Hulk (2008), can be seen in the San Francisco scenes.

The laser sounds fired from Yellowjacket's suit are the same sound as the main gun on an AT-AT being fired in the Star Wars movies. Disney of course owns Marvel and Star Wars.

According to Michael Douglas, the costume for Paul Rudd had to be altered because of his muscles. Rudd had gone on an extensive training and workout regimen in order to build the proper muscle size for a superhero, but Rudd had become so muscular, they had to soften his costume up.

Scott Lang suggests calling the Avengers to assist. In the comics Ant-Man was an original Avenger.

When Paul Rudd told his 9-year-old son he was going to be Ant-Man, his son said, "Wow, I can't wait to see how stupid that'll be."

Darren Cross jokes that the concept of a shrinking human sounds like a "tale to astonish." Ant-Man made his debut in the comic "Tales to Astonish" #27 (Jan. 1962).

Garrett Morris who portrays a cab driver in the film appeared as Ant Man in a Saturday Night Live (1975) sketch when Margot Kidder guest hosted. The sketch was a superhero cocktail party. When Ant-Man arrives, he's given a hard time by the other, more popular superheroes.

Stan Lee makes a cameo in the movie as the bartender who says a woman looks "stupid fine."

FILM 1344: THE DEATH OF "SUPERMAN LIVES": WHAT HAPPENED?

TRIVIA: Jon Schnepp had crowd-source funding to finance the film.

FILM 1299: THE LEGO MOVIE

TRIVIA: The term "Master Builder" is actually an official designation by the Lego Company; per their website, "LEGO® Master Builders are the highly-trained and super-creative builders who design all of the official LEGO sets. Other LEGO Master Builders create giant, detailed sculptures out of LEGO bricks for LEGOLAND® Parks and special events all around the world."

The word "Lego" is never spoken in the movie.

Lord Business is president of Octan, a fictional gas station brand that first appeared in 1992 and has since been featured in numerous Lego sets.

In order to add more realism to the movie, the Lego bricks have scratches, fading, and even fingerprints to make the movie look like someone was manipulating real bricks in a stop-motion fashion. The Bricks are also affected by their locations, with the bricks in The Old West realm being more dusty and faded from the sunlight.

Benny, AKA the "1980-something space guy", a Minifigure from LEGO's classic Space line, has a broken helmet and a worn-out, scuffed logo on his suit, similar to how many real-life Space Minifigures look after being used. The helmet is even shown to be cracked at the same spot where the real-life LEGO piece would usually break.

With the exception of unique pieces for the characters in the film (i.e: President Business's hair and evil helmet) every Lego piece in the movie actually exists and can be used in sets.

The creators deliberately tried to make the movie feel like stop-motion, and avoided making the computer-generated effects look too obvious. This was done to make the movie look like it contained real Lego.

After the first "Everything is Awesome" sequence, the title card that says "5 Hours Later" in Lego is a photograph of real Lego, and one of the few non-CGI Lego shots in the movie. The ending credits are also real Lego animated by stop-motion.

Morgan Freeman stated that the Batman in this film is his favorite incarnation of the character of all time.

The numbers seen with the pieces when Master Builders were assembling their free form models are the official Lego Element ID's (or part numbers) for each of the components used in each of the models.

In Emmett's apartment, there is a poster for a movie called "Macho and the Nerd" which is the Russian title for a previous Phil Lord and Christopher Miller movie, 21 Jump Street (2012).

When in the Octan tower, Wyldstyle goes off and tells them to wait for her signal. When she gives it, it's the "Super Secret" signal from Team America: World Police.