FILM 1991: SNOWPIERCER

FILM 1991: SNOWPIERCER

TRIVIA: This is based on the French graphic novel "Le Transperceneige". Bong Joon-ho discovered the comic in late 2004, during pre-production of The Host (2006), and was fascinated by the concept of people struggling on the train for survival.

The drawings in the tail section of Snowpiercer were illustrated by Jean-Marc Rochette, the original comic artist of the graphic novel Le Transperceneige.

Sir John Hurt's character's name, Gilliam, is an homage to Terry Gilliam, a director whose filmography includes similarly bleak science fiction, fantasy, and end-of-the-world titles, such as Brazil (1985), Twelve Monkeys (1995), and The Zero Theorem (2013).

Jamie Bell's character, Edgar, was named after Director Edgar Wright.

Writer and Director Bong Joon-ho explained that the protein block was made by combining seaweed, tangle, sugar, and gelatin. Jamie Bell hated it, while Tilda Swintonliked it.

There was no additional lighting used while filming the torchlight fight scene.

Mason's appearance, cold demeanor, and deadpan delivery in this movie are an intentional nod to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Widely considered as one of the forerunners of neo-liberalism, Thatcher is famous, and often despised, for her aggressive cuts to social programs, harsh policies towards working classes in the U.K., and the end of the welfare state system.

The song "Midnight, the Stars, and You" was also played in The Shining (1980).

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 1503: ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

TRIVIA: There was some action in the film at first. But when Jim Jarmusch was asked to add more he instead removed all of it.

According to the script, Eve is 2000 years old and was the druid matriarch of a Celtic tribe. Adam is 500 to 600 years old. Jim Jarmusch decided that Adam and Eve would be aware of each other's true age so he argued they have no reason to state it in the film, but simply informed the actors of the age of the characters. In an extended version of the nude scene, shown in the DVD special features, Adam & Eve do talk about her druidic connections.

The white dwarf Eve mentions to Adam while driving across the city is the star called BPM 37093, also known as Lucy (named after The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds). Its nucleus is in a cooling down process, which makes the star core pulsate like a giant gong.

Eve books a flight for herself and Adam under the names "Daisy Buchanan" and "Stephen Dedalus," main characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," respectively. Stephen Dedalus also appears as the sidekick in Joyce's "Ulysses." In Joyce's final novel "Finnegans Wake," there is a famous recurring poem with the line "riverrun past eve and adam."

Some of the many pictures on Adam's wall include portraits of Richard Wagner, Jean Michel Basquiat, Max Ernst & Dorothea Tanning, Marcel Duchamp, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton, Christopher Marlowe (who is also represented by the John Hurt character in the film), William Blake, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, William S. Burroughs, Oscar Wilde, Mary Wollstonecraft, Naomi Klein, Susan Sontag, Samuel Beckett, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Arthur Rimbaud, John Keats, Charles Baudelaire, Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi, Sitting Bull, Black Elk, Geronimo, Joe Strummer, Bo Diddley, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Henry Purcell, Nicholas Ray, Claire Denis, Aki Kaurismäki, Luis Buñuel, Robby Müller, Fritz Lang, Bruce Lee, Buster Keaton, Rodney Dangerfield, Harpo Marx and Hedy Lamarr as well as numerous musicians whom Jim Jarmusch has worked with on various films including Tom Waits, Neil Young, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Iggy Pop, and RZA.

One of the books that Eve packs for her trip to Detroit is a catalog of Jean Michel Basquiat's work. Jeffrey Wright (Dr. Watson) played the title character of the movie Basquiat (1996).

All the actors playing vampires wore wigs that were a mix of human, yak and goat hair in order to make them look more wild.

Among the books Eve packs for her trip to Detroit are the play "Endgame" by Samuel Beckett, "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, and "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace.