FILM 1784: C.H.U.D.

FILM 1784: C.H.U.D.

TRIVIA: "C.H.U.D." is an acronym for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller", but it also means "Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal", as one can (barely) read on the crates full of toxic materials.

In 2011, as an April Fool's Day joke, the Criterion Collection, the USA's most prestigious distributor of home video, announced that it was releasing a special-edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc of the film with spine number 573. It was later assigned to The Music Room(1958). C.H.U.D. did however receive a special edition Blu-ray release from Arrow Video in 2016.

This film's two main actors, John Heard and Daniel Stern, would later go on to play roles in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

Film debut of Kim Greist.

FILM 1756: THE SHAPE OF WATER

FILM 1756: THE SHAPE OF WATER

TRIVIA: When "The Shape of Water" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, the screening was held in the Elgin Theatre. The interior scenes of the theater in the film were shot in the Elgin Theatre, so as the audience was watching the film, they were seeing the same theater on screen that they were sitting in.

Director Guillermo del Toro said about Sally Hawkins, "Not only was she the first choice, she was the only choice. I wrote the movie for Sally, I wrote the movie for Michael [Shannon]... Sally is - I wanted the character of Elisa to be beautiful, in her own way, not in a way that is like a perfume commercial kind of way. That you could believe that this character, this woman would be sitting next to you on the bus. But at the same time she would have a luminosity, a beauty, almost magical, ethereal."

Guillermo Del Toro wrote lengthy backstories for each of the major characters, some of them allegedly running over 40 pages long. After casting the roles, he offered them to the actors and said they could choose to utilize or ignore the backstories for their own character. The actors responded differently, with Richard Jenkins saying he ignored the backstory, stating "the only thing that matters is what happens on screen", while Michael Stuhlbarg said he read the backstory voraciously and found it helpful in his performance.

The creature design is heavily inspired by the film The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Michael Shannon's character even says they picked it up in a river in South America, which is the setting of The Creature from the film.

One day after completing her demanding underwater scenes for this film, Sally Hawkins had to fly to London, England, to begin production on Paddington 2. Only to find out she would have to shoot underwater scenes for that film on the first day of filming.

The last name of the main character Elisa Esposito is of Italian origin, and is given to children who were abandoned or exposed.

After seeing the trailer, Kevin Smith tweeted, "Seeing something as beautiful as this makes me feel stupid for ever calling myself a 'Director.'"

One of Octavia Spencer's favorite things about the screenplay was the fact that, by letting the main couple be mute, most of the dialogue comes from a black woman and a closeted gay man. In real life, they would both have experienced oppression during the 1960s setting of the film.

Most of the characters were written with the actors in mind. Octavia Spencer said her character was reminiscent of a collaboration between her roles in The Help (2011) and Hidden Figures (2016), and that she "would have played the desk if Guillermo del Torohad asked me to."

The poem in the film is by the Persian poet Rumi : "Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love, it humbles my heart, for you are everywhere."

Despite visual similarities, director Guillermo del Toro denied that this film has any connections to Hellboy (2004).

FILM 1682: ALIEN: COVENANT 

TRIVIA: This movie contains a scene where a toy bird drinking water (named, aptly, a "drinky-bird") is visible. In the opening scene of Alien (1979), there is such a toy bird shown on board the Nostromo's bridge.

This was the first "Alien" film to be released after the death of H.R. Giger. Giger inadvertently designed the original "Alien" looks and environments in his "Necronomicon" book, which led to Ridley Scott hiring him as Art Director for the film (and franchise). Giger essentially gave birth to the entire "Alien" look that we all know.

Walter breaks the pattern of the androids' names proceeding in alphabetical order (Ash, Bishop, Call, David). There is another pattern to their names, however. "D" is the fourth letter of the alphabet, and "W" is the fourth-to-last. The characters are named for David Giler and Walter Hill.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/04/porcelain-animals-ellen-jewett/

BOOK 150: THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS: JOHN WYNDHAM

TRIVIA: The story has been made into the 1962 feature film of the same name, three radio drama series (in 1957, 1968 and 2008), and two TV series (in 1981 and 2009). It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952, and in 2003 the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

According to director Danny Boyle, the opening hospital sequence of The Day of the Triffids inspired Alex Garland to write the screenplay for 28 Days Later (2002).

In an homage to the story, the game "The Simpsons: Tapped out" offers a variety of crops on Cletus's farm, such as tomacco and GMO potatoes, and every crop specifies how many game dollars it costs to plant it, how long it takes to grow, and its reward in game dollars and experience points. But for the crop "triffids" the only reward promised is "the end of humanity".

Film 1004: Creature from the Black Lagoon

Trivia: Ingmar Bergman watched this film every year on his birthday.

Ricou Browning, a professional diver and swimmer, was required to hold his breath for up to 4 minutes at a time for his underwater role as the "Gill Man." The director's logic was that the air would have to travel through the monster's gills and thus not reveal air bubbles from his mouth or nose. Thus, the costume was designed without an air tank. In the subsequent films, this detail was ignored and air can be seen emanating from the top of the creature's head.

Jenny Clack (University of Cambridge) discovered a fossil amphibian, found in the remnants of what was once a fetid swamp and named it Eucritta melanolimnetes - literally "the creature from the black lagoon".

Originally produced in 3-D.