FILM 1750: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

FILM 1750: THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

TRIVIA: Frances McDormand was hesitant to take the role when it was offered, but was eventually convinced by her husband, Joel Coen: "Because at the time he gave it to me I was 58... I was concerned that women from this socioeconomic strata did not wait until 38 to have their first child. So we went back and forth and we debated that quite for a while, and then finally my husband said, 'Just shut up and do it.'"

Martin McDonagh wrote the screenplay with Frances McDormand as the lead role in mind.

Sam Rockwell wore padding to make his character appear chubbier.

The town where the movie is filmed is actually a small mountain town in western North Carolina called Sylva.

McDonagh was inspired to write the movie after seeing billboards about an unsolved crime while traveling "somewhere down in the Georgia, Florida, Alabama corner".

First feature film directed by Martin McDonagh not to star Colin Farrell.

Upon winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her role in the film, Frances McDormand became the first actress to win two awards in the category; she had previously won her first award in the category in 1997 for Fargo (1996).

There are several allusions to Don't Look Now (1973). Not just the storylines of both films being about parents grieving the death of a daughter. The film Dixon's mother is watching on telly about "the dead girl" is Don't Look Now; we hear a few brief notes from Pino Donaggio's score. Red is the key colour in both films: the eponymous billboards are bright red and the agency guy is called Red. Both films have a dwarf, a useless priest and hopeless cops, a nasty fall and a massive knife, children left to play alone by water, a kids' toy bobbing in water.

FILM 1696: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

TRIVIA: In the film, the works of Sutter Cane are occasionally quoted. Most if not all of these quotes are actually taken directly from several H.P. Lovecraft short stories with some adaptations to fit them into the film story. Most notably, in the scene where Styles reads to Trent as he gazes into the abyss--her speech lifts much of its description, including such elements as "the illimitable gulf of the unknown" from the last few paragraphs of Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls." In an earlier scene as well, Trent reads a line verbatim from Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark," in reference to the black church being "the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe."

The Sutter Cane character is clearly based on John Carpenter's friend Stephen King, even referencing King's New England roots, with Hobb's End filling in for King's Castle Rock. Carpenter directed a film version of King's Christine (1983). Additionally Michael De Lucahad previously written the screenplay for the King adaptation The Lawnmower Man(1987). However, the characters say that Sutter Cane is even more popular than Stephen King.

Robot Monster (1953), which Sam Neill is watching at the end of the movie, is one of director John Carpenter's favorite monster movies as a kid.

BOOK 161: DOWNTOWN OWL: A NOVEL: CHUCK KLOSTERMAN

Written by Chuck Klosterman, first published by Scribner in 2008. It is the author's first all-fictional publication.

In October 2012, Gettin' Rad Productions, the production company owned by Adam Scott and his wife, Naomi Scott, optioned the movie rights to Downtown Owl. “It’s lovely and moving and funny. We just thought it’s a really great story about people that I relate to but also small enough that it would make a good first film out of the gate for us," Adam Scott was quoted in The Hollywood Reporter. However, no further updates on the film project have been released since then.

Film School Rejects writer Neil Miller said, "This book is rich with unique and interesting characters and situations that would be perfect matches for a Coen-esque romp through 1983 rural North Dakota."

http://www.booooooom.com/2015/11/25/illustrator-spotlight-jon-mcnaught/

There’s an element to this story that is quite delightful but it also has the makings of an epic horror movie. Nagoro is a small village in the mountains of southern Japan, now home to three times as many life-sized scarecrows as people. The dolls are being made by 65-year old Tsukimi Ayano, who moved back to Nagoro after years of being away to take care of her father. Ayano has slowly replaced residents, who’ve either moved away or died, with a whimsical scarecrow.

The 35 remaining residents are now vastly outnumbered by the dolls and living in what has to be the most surreal village during the day, and pretty much my worst nightmare at night.

http://www.booooooom.com/2014/12/11/life-sized-scarecrows-tsukimi-ayano-outnumber-people-3-1-dying-japanese-village/

FILM 1291: YOJIMBO

TRIVIA: Akira Kurosawa told Toshirô Mifune that his character was like a wolf or a dog and told Tatsuya Nakadai that his character was like a snake. Inspired by this direction, Mifune came up with Sanjuro's trademark shoulder twitch, similar to the way a dog or wolf tries to get off fleas.

Akira Kurosawa challenged his assistant directors to come up with an image for the film to let Sanjuro know he was entering a bad town. He shot down all of their ideas, since all of them had already been done. Kurosawa himself then came up with the idea of the dog carrying the human hand.

"Yojimbo" means "bodyguard" in Japanese.