FILM 1838: END OF DAYS

FILM 1838: END OF DAYS

TRIVIA: Arnold Schwarzenegger's first film since Batman & Robin (1997). The reason for the gap was because of his heart surgery after playing Mr Freeze; the studios were anxious about whether or not they could insure him, and despite attempts to convince them he was in perfect health, he couldn't get any work until End of Days (1999). Even then, he was amazed when insurance people and executives from Universal came to the set just to watch him, to see if he was still up to the action scenes. They asked Schwarzenegger if he enjoyed this kind of punishment, but he said he was used to it. After the first week of shooting, the insurance guys backed off and not long after, the film offers started rolling in again.

Was the last movie to be pressed in the laserdisc format in the United States.

Father Kovak says to Jericho Cane that "Satan's greatest trick was convincing man he didn't exist". This quote from the French poet Charles Baudelaire also appears in The Usual Suspects (1995), also featuring Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Pollak.

The role of Jericho Cane was originally written for Tom Cruise, but he instead chose to work on Magnolia (1999).

Arnold Schwarzenegger's youngest daughter visited the set the day Arnold was tied to a cross and lifted over the alley. A photo of the visit exists in Schwarzenegger's biography "Total Recall" .

FILM 1104: THE NINTH GATE

TRIVIA: The two booksellers Corso encounters in Toledo are actually the same actor, José López Rodero. Writer/director/producer Roman Polanski used a motion capture rig to use the same actor twice. The same man appears again later, playing two workmen cleaning out the bookstore. Rodero was an assistant director and production manager, not a professional actor. He was hesitant to accept these multiple parts.

The Don Quixote that Corso buys at the beginning of the film is the very famous Joaquin Ibarra edition, published in 1780, which is generally considered as the best and most beautiful one. He also mentions the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice, 1499) printed by Francesco Colonna, dubbed "the most beautiful book ever printed". You can take a look at its amazing illustrations on the net.

The New York sequences were shot in Paris as Roman Polanski could not set foot into America because he was still wanted for his 1977 sex crime charges. The exterior locations were redressed with American-related details and the skyscraper seen in the opening and in Balkan's office were Translite material taken from Manhattan.

The film has a different title from its source novel, "The Club Dumas", because the novel centers around a secret society obsessed with serialized novels, such as those written by Alexandre Dumas père.