FILM 1433: ANT-MAN

TRIVIA Originally the film was meant to focus on the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym. However, the filmmakers deemed Pym as having a too family-unfriendly history (Pym developed several split personalities, one of whom abused his girlfriend Janet) and instead decided to focus on Pym's successor Scott Lang, with Pym becoming a mentor and supporting character.

Paul Rudd stated in an interview with New York Times columnist Tom Riddle that he purchased a massive ant farm and watched how the ants worked together. He was so inspired by them that he decided to keep the farm after the filming was complete.

Director Edgar Wright, a big fan of Ant-Man, proposed the film to Marvel in 2003, describing it as "an action-adventure comedy; a cross-genre action and special effects bonanza." He had been developing the movie since then, shooting a test reel, hiring the cast, and was close to begin shooting the movie. However, in 2014, he dropped out due to 'creative differences' between him and Disney, which had bought out Marvel Studios 5 years prior.

Posters for "Pingo Doce," the Brazilian soda company Bruce Banner worked for in The Incredible Hulk (2008), can be seen in the San Francisco scenes.

The laser sounds fired from Yellowjacket's suit are the same sound as the main gun on an AT-AT being fired in the Star Wars movies. Disney of course owns Marvel and Star Wars.

According to Michael Douglas, the costume for Paul Rudd had to be altered because of his muscles. Rudd had gone on an extensive training and workout regimen in order to build the proper muscle size for a superhero, but Rudd had become so muscular, they had to soften his costume up.

Scott Lang suggests calling the Avengers to assist. In the comics Ant-Man was an original Avenger.

When Paul Rudd told his 9-year-old son he was going to be Ant-Man, his son said, "Wow, I can't wait to see how stupid that'll be."

Darren Cross jokes that the concept of a shrinking human sounds like a "tale to astonish." Ant-Man made his debut in the comic "Tales to Astonish" #27 (Jan. 1962).

Garrett Morris who portrays a cab driver in the film appeared as Ant Man in a Saturday Night Live (1975) sketch when Margot Kidder guest hosted. The sketch was a superhero cocktail party. When Ant-Man arrives, he's given a hard time by the other, more popular superheroes.

Stan Lee makes a cameo in the movie as the bartender who says a woman looks "stupid fine."

FILM 1239: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

TRIVIA: Billy Boyd's singing scene largely came about because Philippa Boyens went for a night out at a karaoke bar with the younger male cast members and she was very struck by the quality of his voice. Remembering that Denethor asks Pippin to sing him a song when Faramir heads off to war, she resurrected the lyrics from the novel and Boyd himself came up with the tune for it.

Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he "killed" every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.

Since John Rhys-Davies suffered constant rashes from wearing the Gimli make-up, the make-up department gave him the opportunity to throw his Gimli mask into the fire on his last day of pick-up photography. He didn't hesitate a moment to grab and burn it.

The dead oliphaunt carcass used in this film is reportedly the largest prop ever built for a motion picture. According to members of the prop department, director Peter Jackson still thought it could have been bigger.

While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without Mortensen's realizing it.

Miranda Otto had to undergo numerous fittings to finally settle on a helmet that disguised her face yet revealed enough of it so that the audience would know who she was.

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Film 804: Captain America

Trivia: Jon Favreau was originally chosen by Marvel Studios to direct this film (which he intended to make as a buddy comedy), but he chose to direct Iron Man. Nick Cassavetes, was also considered to direct this film, and had been set as a director for Iron Man in December 2004.

Despite being "The First Avenger", it is the last solo Avenger film to be released before the team-up film, The Avengers.

Sam Worthington and Will Smith were in early talks for the role of Captain America. Later on Garrett Hedlund, Channing Tatum, Scott Porter, Mike Vogel, Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans, Wilson Bethel, John Krasinski, Michael Cassidy, Chace Crawford and Jensen Ackles were on the final shortlist for the role. Kellan Lutz, Ryan Phillippe and Alexander Skarsgård carried out auditions, but ultimately the role went to Chris Evans.

Alice Eve, Gemma Arterton and Keira Knightley were considered for the role of Peggy Carter. Emily Blunt turned down the role.

Hugo Weaving based the Red Skull's accent on renowned German filmmakers Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Originally cameo appearances were planned in the film for James Logan Howlett (Wolverine) and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), who were present during World War II (Logan was a soldier and Lensherr was a prisoner of war). These cameos were scrapped due to rights issues.

Hayley Atwell based her performance as Peggy Carter on Ginger Rogers: "She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards and in high heels."

Stanley Tucci took the role of Dr. Erskine because the role enabled him to use a German accent, which he always wanted to do.

Most of the shots were done by an L.A. company called LOLA that specializes in digital "plastic surgery." The technique involved shrinking Chris Evans in all dimensions. They shot each skinny Steve scene at least four times; once like a normal scene with Evans and his fellow actors in the scene, once with Evans alone in front of a green screen so his element could be reduced digitally, again with everyone in the scene but with Evans absent so that the shrunken Steve could be re-inserted into the scene, and finally with a body double mimicking Evans's actions in case the second technique were required. When Evans had to interact with other characters in the scene, they had to either lower him or raise the other actors on apple boxes or elevated walkways to make skinny Steve shorter in comparison. For close-ups, Evans's fellow actors had to look at marks on his chin that represented where his eyes would be after the shrinking process, and Evans had to look at marks on the tops of the actor's head to represent their eyes. The second technique involved grafting Evans's head onto the body double. This technique was used mostly when Evans was sitting or lying down, or when a minimum of physical acting was required.

The Captain America comic book shown in the movies bears the cover of the actual Captain America #1 released in 1941.