FILM 1387: JURASSIC WORLD

TRIVIA: There is a statue of the character John Hammond, the founder of the InGen genetic company and Jurassic Park. Colin Trevorrow explained this is to specifically honor Sir Richard Attenborough who played the role in Jurassic Park (1993) & The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Attenborough had spoken in the past of possibly making another appearance in the franchise but his failing health made it highly uncertain. Unfortunately, Attenborough passed away August 24th, 2014. Hammond is implied to have died prior to the events of the movie, evidently writing Attenborough's death into the franchise as well.

New Orleans has an abandoned Six Flags theme park which has been used for other film productions in the past. Jurassic World created a 300-foot by 200-foot Main Street and Boardwalk in the amusement park's abandoned parking lot. They shot on the set for two and a half weeks.

The first Jurassic Park film to not have animatronic dinosaurs created by Stan Winston, as he passed away in 2008. Instead the animatronics were created by effects studio Legacy Effects, a company formed from Winston's former workshop staff. One of the shops in Jurassic World, Winstons, is named in Stan's honour.

"Indominus Rex" means "Fierce/Untamed King" in Latin, after the hybrid dinosaur's erratically destructive and murderous nature.

Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm can be spotted on the cover of a book that is read by Zara (Katie McGrath) on the monorail ride in to the park. A copy of the same book, titled "God Creates Dinosaurs" is later shown on Lowery's (Jake Johnson's) desk in the control room when he is first introduced. A book by Malcolm about his first trip to Jurassic Park was mentioned in both The Lost World and Jurassic Park III.

When Zach and Gray find the main building of the original Jurassic Park visitors center, it is decaying and overrun with vines. There's a lot hidden within this scene, including the "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" banner that fell after the T-Rex's final attack, as well as the bones of the staged Dino-fight. There's also the back-lit painting of a raptor, just like the one behind which a Raptor stalked Lex and Tim. Gray also plays with the night-vision goggles that were featured in the T-Rex sequence.

Colin Trevorrow came up with the idea of featuring Mosasaurus, the film's main marine reptile which you see in the trailer. He pitched the idea to Spielberg of having the Mosasaurus feed on a shark in front of bleachers filled with park guests. Spielberg loved the idea of the Mosasaurus eating the shark but suggested that when the animal grabs the shark that the whole bleacher section submerge underwater using a hydraulic system so that the audience will be able to see the Mosasaurus feeding underwater. The moment where the Mosasaurus soaked 200 extras in the bleacher section was Colin Trevorrow's favourite moment of shooting.

The Jeep #29 that the kids repair and drive away from the original visitors center is the same one ridden in by Hammond and Genarro in the original film. The Jeep #18 that Owen and Claire hide behind is the one ridden in by Grant, Sattler and Malcolm when they first arrive on the island in the original film.

After Jurassic World becoming the third highest grossing film of all time, Jurassic World 2 was announced for 2018.

There will be LEGO sets based on the film, making it the third time Chris Pratt has been portrayed in LEGO, with the other two being The LEGO Movie (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). The Owen figure even uses the same headpiece as Star-Lord.

Originally Grey and Zach were to be hiding from three dilophosaurs in the same spot Dennis Nedry got stuck and lost the dino embryo's, and Zach, and Grey would find the Embryos in the same spot it was hidden.

During the scene in the film where the Velociraptors chase after Zach and Gray in the back of the van, the soundtrack playing is the from "The Forest Explodes" a theme from the Raptor levels in the 1997 video game The Lost World: Jurassic Park (which Michael Giacchino also composed the soundtrack for).

The character Lowery in the control room wears the same glasses as Nedry from the the first film.

Beginning of film shows Christmas holiday stuff in the home of the boys. No further mention of the holidays was made during the film.

CAMEO: Jimmy Fallon:  Himself. It's an homage to the cameo he makes in the Universal Studios tram tours. He discusses similar safety instructions and also uses the same type of humor in both.

In the movie Dr. Wu says to Masrani that nothing in the park is natural and if it was that the dinosaurs looked way different. Although it is now widely held that some dinosaurs had feathers, most of the Jurassic Park fans don't want dinosaurs with feathers in the movies - research learned that 93% of them prefer the dinosaurs as they are portrayed in the movies.

FILM 1359: LIFE OF PI

TRIVIA: Suraj Sharma never intended to audition for the film. He went to a casting call to support his brother, and beat out more than 3,000 hopefuls for the lead role.

The shot from overhead of Pi sleeping on the tarp, with Richard curled up in the boat and the fish swimming underneath them, replicates the best known cover of the book that the film is based on.

Suraj Sharma, was never in the boat with a live tiger. Most of the tiger shots were very high-tech CGI. Only a few scenes, like the tiger swimming in the water, included a real tiger.

Ang Lee hired Steven Callahan as a "nautical consultant." In 1982, Callahan survived 76 days adrift on a rubber lifeboat in the Atlantic after his sailboat sank.

The name Richard Parker has previously been associated with shipwrecks. 1) In the Edgar Allan Poe novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket", published in 1838, Richard Parker is a member of a group of shipwrecked sailors who resort to cannibalism. 2) In 1884, a ship called Mignorette sank in the ocean. Four people survived, including a cabin boy named Richard Parker, who was subsequently killed and eaten by the other three survivors.

First movie in 7 years to receive the Oscar for Best Director without winning the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. The previous movie was Brokeback Mountain (2005), also directed by Ang Lee.

Pi is on the lifeboat for 227 days. A good approximation for the number pi is 22/7.

The Vfx studio "Rhythm & Hues" won an Academy Award for this film. This was two weeks after they declared bankruptcy. Main reason was, that there where much substance changes, without paying the extra work (what seems to be normal in this business). Ang Lee did not even mention the Vfx-team at the Oscars. Most of the Work in this film was made by this team. There is also a short documentation about this, named Life After Pi (2014).

The Japanese cargo ship's name, Tsimtsum, is a Hebrew word used by 16th-century Kabbalist Isaac Luria to denote God's "contraction" of Himself from the world at Creation. In the novel, the adult Pi mentions doing a college thesis on Luria's theories about creation. In the movie, he mentions teaching a course on Kabbalah.

Tobey Maguire was originally cast as the Writer. Though he filmed his scenes, he was later replaced by Rafe Spall. Ang Lee thought Maguire was too famous for such a small role, and would have been distracting.

Author Yann Martel said he was inspired by a book review of Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar's 1981 novella Max and the Cats, about a Jewish-German refugee who crossed the Atlantic Ocean while sharing his boat with a jaguar.

At one point Jean-Pierre Jeunet was attached to write the film.

Director Cameo: Ang Lee:  A ship crewman in line just before Pi's mother, receiving his food tray from the cook.