FILM 1992: EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE

FILM 1992: EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE

TRIVIA: The name of this film came from a quote from the court judge on Bundy's trial. He quoted, "The crimes were extremely wicked, shockingly evil, vile, and the product of design to inflict a high degree of pain."

There was once a petition in 2016 from fans to cast Zac Efron as Ted Bundy in the upcoming biography movie. Former lawyer of Ted Bundy agrees that Efron actually bears a resemblance to the serial killer.

When Ted is asking Liz if he ever laid a hand on her or raised his voice the film neglects the instances from the past where he was controlling and odd One one occasion he pushed Liz into a lake during an argument. The film also neglects to mention his constant stealing.

FILM 1944: HOT COFFEE

FILM 1944: HOT COFFEE 

How the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit and similar cases were exploited as part of a right wing crusade to weaken civil justice.

FILM 1935: THE FAVOURITE

FILM 1935: THE FAVOURITE

TRIVIA: Olivia Colman gained 2.5 stone (16 kg. or 35 lbs.) to play Queen Anne.

Costume designer Sandy Powell intentionally used anachronistic fabrics. Laser-cut lace and vinyl was used for many courtiers' clothes. The servants' dresses and britches are made from denim recycled from thrift store jeans from throughout England. Queen Anne's dressing gown is made from a chenille blanket that Powell found on eBay.

Kate Winslet was originally cast, but dropped out.

The wigs had their own trailer.

The film was shot mostly with available sunlight or practical lighting, such as candles and fireplaces. Robbie Ryan kept backup lighting equipment on stand-by, but used very little additional light, mostly due to unseasonably warm weather during filming.

Most of the costumes and wigs were made from scratch. The budget was very tight, so renting them was not feasible. The early 18th century is rarely depicted on film, so few costume houses had much appropriate stock available. Clothes and wigs were custom built, then deconstructed and re-used in other scenes.

This is the first time Yorgos Lanthimos directed a film in which he is not the screenwriter and nor is his regular partner, Efthymis Filippou.

Costume designer Sandy Powell had to divide her duties between this film and Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Fortunately, both productions used adjacent workspaces at Pinewood Studios.

Winston Churchill was born in the palace Queen Anne built for Sarah Churchill in 1874, 166 years after the movie takes place. The Churchill family continued to live in Blenheim Palace for 300 years.

According to makeup designer Nadia Stacey, Nicholas Hoult named all of his wigs. His main wig was Barbara (or, more frequently, Babs). The orange wig he wears when he watches courtiers throwing pomegranates at a nude Tory is Lulu. Another was named Hattie. Hoult also became very attuned to how Harley might wear beauty spots, depending on the situation or the message his character was trying to convey. "Nick and I would sit every day and look at the scene and say, 'We should do it here now because you're going to see the Queen,'" said Stacey. "We really played with that."

This is the second film that Rachel Weisz and Nicholas Hoult have starred in together. The first was About a Boy (2002).

FILM 1913: MOLLY'S GAME

FILM 1913: MOLLY'S GAME 

TRIVIA: Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut.

It's widely believed that "Player X" is based on Tobey Maguire.

Molly Bloom told Aaron Sorkin that she wanted Jessica Chastain to play her.

Molly Bloom is banned from Canada because she pleaded guilty to a federal crime in the United States. She was granted a 48-hour pass to visit Canada for the movie's premiere at TIFF. Ironically, the film was shot in Canada.

All of the extras in the card games are professional poker players. First-time director Aaron Sorkin wanted realism, right down to the way players handled cards during games.

According to Molly Bloom, the most money she'd ever seen lost in a card game session in one night was $100 million. The losing player settled the debt the following day.

Since this was his directorial debut, Aaron Sorkin often called his friend David Fincher for shooting tips. They'd previously collaborated on The Social Network (2010). He also found Kevin Costner supportive during the shoot (Costner has directed three movies including Dances with Wolves, for which he won a Best Director Oscar).

CAMEO: Aaron Sorkin: one of the underground poker players.

FILM 1901: STRIPTEASE

FILM 1901: STRIPTEASE 

TRIVIA: Demi Moore was called back to re-shoot some scenes, and had to wear a wig since she had already shaved her head for G.I. Jane (1997).

Demi Moore was paid $12.5 million for this film, a record fee for an actress at the time. The film was more popular in overseas theaters than in American theaters.

Underwent last minute editing when preview audiences laughed at the wrong parts.

Burt Reynolds was not originally actually sought by the production for the part of politician Dave Dilbeck. Reynolds wanted the part badly and so contacted Castle Rock studio head Rob Reiner personally and went to Miami, Florida to audition. He took a pay cut considerably lower than to what he had received during the heyday of his career.

The little girl who plays Demi Moore's daughter in the movie is actually her real life daughter, Rumer Willis.

Demi Moore had no fewer than eight assistants on the film - one for make-up, a hairstylist, a costumer, a personal assistant, a personal trainer, a motion trainer and two security personnel.

A "loop group" in New York City recorded the background voices for various scenes. The actors are included in residual payments.

Coincidentally, bit player Frances Fisher (Donna Garcia)'s real-life daughter Francesca Eastwood dated Harry Morton, who also dated Demi Moore and Rumer Willis.

CAMEO: Michael Jordan: Appears as himself as a patron in the strip club in the scene where Erin Grant (Demi Moore) meets Lt. Al Garcia (Armand Assante) after one of the dancers says "Michael Jordan is at table 8" in original theatrical. The name in this line was changed and Michael Jordan's name is uncredited.

FILM 1860: A WOMAN'S FACE

FILM 1860: A WOMAN'S FACE

TRIVIA: Director Cukor wanted Anna's recital of her life story to be done in a tired, mechanical fashion, so he had Crawford repeat the multiplication tables over and over until he got the monotonous tone he was looking for. Then, he rolled the cameras.

This was originally an MGM project lined up for Greta Garbo, but she retired from films so MGM rushed Joan Crawford into the role.

Based on the movie "En kvinnas ansikte" from 1938 where Ingrid Bergman plays the lead role of Anna.

FILM 1856: CHANGING LANES

FILM 1856: CHANGING LANES

TRIVIA: A day after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Director Roger Michell had the World Trade Center towers digitally removed from the opening main title sequence in the film. In the DVD commentary, he admitted that it was a mistake to erase them, and make it appear as if they did not exist. During the re-editing of the film, Michell reinserted them as a tribute.

It was Samuel L. Jackson's choice for his character to wear a purple hat. Jackson's characters often feature the color purple: Mr. Glass wears purple clothing in Unbreakable(2000) and Glass (2019); and Mace Windu has a purple light-saber in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

In order to attract a wider audience, the theatrical trailer was arranged in such a way as to make the film look like a high octane thriller, as opposed to the rather slow moving drama it actually was. This move was heavily criticized for misleading moviegoers.

FILM 1808: ERASER

FILM 1808: ERASER

TRIVIA: The company name "Cyrez" was originally "Cyrex", but the real-life company Cyrix complained. The movie had been shot, but all dialogue was dubbed and company logos were digitally altered during post-production.

Director Chuck Russell and Producer Arnold Kopelson had a rocky relationship during the entire production. The only reason the film was able to go forward and ultimately be completed, was that Arnold Schwarzenegger got along with each man separately, and was able to negotiate schedules and logistics at a point where the two men refused to speak to each other.

Vanessa Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger have titles. She was Miss America, and he was Mr. Olympia.

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He's won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And how can the justice system ignore the prosecutor's record and keep Flowers on death row?

MY VERDICT: I loved listening to this podcast but it made me angry. It made me angry because it just didn’t seem fair. This seemed to be your usual case of someone convicted on not enough evidence but it goes much deeper than this. It doesn’t seem like it should be allowed that when someone wins an appeal against their conviction they should have to stay in prison if the DA says he’ll just try again. Why does the DA not face some kind of punishment when he was found to be in the wrong – why do only the defendants suffer? 

This podcast team does some deep, deep investigating. Finding documents long thought lost and collating information on cases going back decades to crate stats that don’t get recorded or checked, but should. 

I would recommend this podcast but prepare to feel dismayed in large doses.

Their website is also very well put together: https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-two

And if you haven’t listened to the first season, I would highly recommend that too, it’s not the same story so you don’t need to listen in a particular order. 

FILM 1796: THE DELIBERATE STRANGER

FILM 1796: THE DELIBERATE STRANGER

TRIVIA: According to Ann Rule in an updated edition of her true crime novel about Ted Bundy, "The Stranger Beside Me", after "The Deliberate Stranger" first aired on TV, the real Bundy started to receive hundreds more love letters per day. Rule concluded that many of these women who sent Bundy love letters were actually writing them to Mark Harmon, or imagining that Bundy was more like Harmon than he actually was.

The real Ted Bundy continued to claim he was innocent until shortly before his execution in 1989. Bundy provided details of the murders even as he was walked to the electric chair.

Ted Bundy, who was still on death row and appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme court when "The Deliberate Stranger" premiered on TV, refused to watch the movie.

Robert Hays was first sought out for the role of Ted Bundy due to his striking resemblance to Bundy. Hay's rejected the role due to moral issues with the script and respect for the victims families.

Jeannetta Arnette as Mrs. Ritcher is based on Ted Bundy biographer Ann Rule (The Stranger Beside Me), who, fifteen years older, worked with Bundy at a Crisis Center as he (in this movie and real life) listened compassionately to her marital problems. She remained his supporter until the Florida Trials, but still kept in touch.

FILM 1783: CRIMINAL LAW

FILM 1783: CRIMINAL LAW

TRIVIA: First use of an American accent in a cinema movie by English actor Gary Oldman.

In 1992, real Canadian serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka changed their legal name to "Teale" after the serial killer in this film.

One of three cinema movies featuring Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon. The movies are Criminal Law (1988), JFK (1991), and Murder in the First (1995).

According to the Turner Classic Movies website, the "film was released in one city [for (only) one day] in the USA (on) November 11, 1988".

BOOK 185: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME: ANN RULE

BOOK 185: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME: ANN RULE

The Stranger Beside Me is a 1980 autobiographical and biographical true crime book written by Ann Rule about the serial killer Ted Bundy, whom she knew personally before and after his arrest for a series of murders. Subsequent revisions of the book were published in 1986, 1989, 2000, and 2008.

MY VERDICT: This book is simply amazing. It’s well written and continuingly interesting but the most astounding thing about it is it’s very existence – all the things that had to come into place to make this book happen. The fact that Ann Rule, as a true crime author, was commissioned to write a book about a series of murders and then slowly discovered that the murderer was a man she knew as a friend is something that you wouldn’t believe in a film script. But truth is stranger than fiction. 

When I first heard about this book I had assumed that Ann Rule knew Ted Bundy in passing, that they’d worked in the same building taking calls from those in need, maybe they exchanged a few words. The truth is that they considered each other friends, they went to parties together, they had lunch together, they spoke about themselves and their personal problems. How shocked would you be if someone you knew this way turned out to be a brutal murderer? And for so long she believed that he couldn’t have done it. Ann Rule expresses all her emotions bare on the page and this is scattered among details of Ted’s life and Ted’s crimes. It’s fascinating from start to finish and although the order maybe could have been a little less disjointed, (it starts with his escape to Florida) which in my opinion should have been more chronological (especially with the notes at the start and finish of the book) it’s still easy to follow and you do feel like you’re taken on a journey through the life, crimes and relationships of a real serial murderer.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime.

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1 

Convicted Season 1 told the story of Richard Nicolas and his conviction for the murder of his two year old daughter, Aja. It explored the question "What if he didn't do it?".

MY VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast, despite the horrific nature of the crime itself. The podcast is well narrated, well structured and you felt that you were given all the necessary information on the case. It’s not a case to be solved but rather the podcast asks the question – was this person, Richard Nicolas, given a fair trial? I believe he wasn’t. There’s instances of information given as scientific fact that is misinterpreted and this itself seemed to be what the whole prosecution depended the guilty verdict upon.

This podcast does share a lot of similarities with the case in Serial. In fact Richard Nicolas and Adnan Syed shared a defence attorney and were housed in the same prison. However there are also lots of differences. The shows creator Brooke Gittings is not a journalist, she’s a social worker, her style is more informal, and despite this she does a brilliant job. She keeps an open mind and gives you information, like what it’s like to visit someone in prison, that you wouldn’t necessarily get from other true crime podcasts. There’s also a lot of information missed from the likes of serial, like what comes next, the exhausting amount of legal proceedings that one has to go thorough to appeal a conviction and attempt to get a new trial. 

This podcast had me hooked from the start and was deeply engaging. I would recommend to anyone who was a Serial fan.

FILM 1754: TED 2

FILM 1754: TED 2

TRIVIA: According to the DVD commentary, Seth MacFarlane witnessed Justin Bieber walk out of a screening of this movie, after Morgan Freeman insults Ted, comparing him to Bieber.

Guy's lover is played by Michael Dorn, best known for his role as Worf on Star Trek: the Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). During the Comic-Con scene, he cosplays as this character.

Stephen Collins had a major cameo. He was replaced after a child sex abuse video confession.

When Sam is playing the guitar, and singing in the countryside, all the little animals gather round to listen. The song and chord structure is very similar to the scene from ¡Three Amigos! (1986), when, Chevy, Steve, and Martin sing the cowboy lullaby "Blue Shadows on the Trail".

The Harrison Ford movie Ted makes a reference to is called 'Regarding Henry'.

FILM 1716: THE WRONG MAN

TRIVIA: The scene where Henry ("Manny") Fonda is taken to prison was filmed in a real prison. As he is led to his cell , you can hear one of the inmates yell out "What'd they get ya for, Henry??", and a bunch of other prisoners laughing.

Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of his usual cameos, standing in a restaurant as Manny sits, but decided on using a narrated prologue instead.

Although based on a true story, Alfred Hitchcock deliberately left out some of the information that pointed to Manny's innocence to heighten the tension.

This marked the only time Henry Fonda worked with director Alfred Hitchcock. Fonda's close friend James Stewart worked with Hitchcock 4 times.

In the opening scene, it shows Manny (Henry Fonda) playing his bass viol. Seated at the piano, next to him is the pianist/conductor who tags the final note played. This is in reality Betnard Herrmann, the composer and conductor for many Hitchcock movies and many other Hollywood films of that era.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.