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 1731: KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

TRIVIA: The film's cast includes five Oscar winners: Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, and Elton John.

Third film of 2017 to feature the song 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by John Denver. The other films to feature the song are Alien: Covenant (2017), and Logan Lucky (2017) (which also stars Channing Tatum). The director, Matthew Vaughn, was shocked when he found out about how popular Denver and his songs had become in 2017 films, with him saying he "...wrote John Denver into the script two and a half years ago thinking 'No one really talks about John Denver anymore.'"

This marks the third time that actor Bruce Greenwood has played the United States President. He previously played President John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days (2000) and a fictitious U.S. President in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007). Greenwood can never actually run for President in real life because he was born in Canada.

The robot dogs, Bennie and Jet, are a reference to Elton John's song "Bennie and the Jets."

Mark Strong, who plays Merlin, provides the voice-over for Vue Cinemas in the UK and Ireland with regards to cinema etiquette. Exclusively for "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" screenings, he delivers the etiquette message in character as Merlin, reminding audiences to switch off their phones in his own unique style.

On the Statesmans' plane, a bottle of Born and Bred Vodka can be seen on the bar. Channing Tatum is the owner of this vodka brand.

First film that Colin Firth and Jeff Bridges have appeared in together. They have twice competed with each other for the Best Actor Academy Award. In 2009, Bridges won for Crazy Heart (2009), while Firth was nominated for A Single Man (2009). In 2010, Firth won for The King's Speech (2010), while Bridges was nominated for True Grit (2010).

The original subtitle was The Golden Triangle, named after the area that borders Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. However, when the film was test screened three times, the filmmakers found out that no one in the test audience had heard of the area's geography nor the history with that title. It was then decided to change the word Triangle to Circle.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/andy-warhol

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 1547: MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

TRIVIA: Jeff Nichols wrote the film as a reflection on becoming a father.

Jeff Nichols' fourth film to feature Michael Shannon.

At a point in the movie, Jaeden Lieberher asks "What is Kryptonite?". His father in this film is played by Michael Shannon who recently played General Zod in "Man Of Steel".

One of the government code words Adam Driver's character mentions is "red saber." Driver is well known for portraying the red lightsaber-wielding Kylo Ren in Star Wars Episode VII.

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).