FILM 2013: MOVIE 43

FILM 2013: MOVIE 43

TRIVIA: The movie was filmed over a span of four years. Production took so long because filming had to be done around the actors' busy schedules. The segment with Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman was the first to be filmed, and producer Charles B. Wessler used it to secure the financing for the rest of the movie. He called in a lot of favors to get as many high-profile actors as possible for the other short films, most of them willing to work for a few days on something unconventional. However, almost none of the actors knew completely what the other segments were about, or how the full movie would be. When it came out, none of the major actors wanted to promote it.

Anton Yelchin originally played a necrophiliac, in a segment called The Apprentice (2014), directed by Steve Baker and Damon Escott. The segment was removed, due to the highly offensive subject matter.

Not screened in advance for critics, because Rouge Pictures was afraid of bad reviews making audiences miss the film. The film was ultimately considered as one of the worst films ever made.

Colin Farrell was originally cast as The Leprechaun.

Sam Rockwell was originally attached to reprise his role as Batman in the superhero segment (which was intended to be a sequel to the short film Robin's Big Date (2005)) but pulled out to do Seven Psychopaths (2012) instead.

Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts play a married couple in this movie. At the time, they were married in real life.

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 1751: BATTLE OF THE SEXES

FILM 1751: BATTLE OF THE SEXES

TRIVIA: In 1973, Billie Jean King was 29 and Bobby Riggs was 55. At the time of filming, Emma Stone was 28 and Steve Carell was 54.

Emma Stone was initially cast as Billie Jean King, but scheduling issues forced her to pass on the role. Brie Larson was ultimately tapped to replace Stone. After a few months, Larson dropped out. After Stone's schedule was cleared, she was able to take back the role.

Emma Stone put on 15 pounds of muscle for this film.

The film sugarcoats the tragic love affair with Marilyn. What was private until 1981 became public when Marilyn sued King by invoking the palimony law nearly destroying King's career. It would take years from then for King to rebuild what she'd lost.

Five of the supporting cast members are sketch comedy veterans. Steve Carell was a writer and cast member of The Dana Carvey Show (1996). Sarah Silverman and Tom Kenny were cast members of Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995). Fred Armisen was a cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) and a cast member/writer/producer of Portlandia (2011). Chris Parnell was a cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975).

FILM 1613: LA LA LAND

TRIVIA: According to composer Justin Hurwitz, all the piano performance featured in the film was first recorded by pianist Randy Kerber during pre-production. Ryan Gosling then spent two hours a day, six days a week in piano lessons learning the music by heart. By the time filming had begun, Gosling was able to play all the piano sequences seen in the film without the use of a hand double or CGI.

Emma Watson turned down the role of Mia due to scheduling conflicts with Beauty and the Beast (2017), while Ryan Gosling turned down the role of the Beast in that film to appear in this one. Coincidentally, both are musicals.

The audition scene, where the casting director interrupts Mia's emotional performance to take a phone call, was actually inspired by one of Ryan Gosling's auditions in real life.

Won seven Golden Globes, more than any other movie ever.

John Legend, singer and pianist, had to learn how to play the guitar for his role.

The express lane freeway ramp used for the opening number, Another Day Of Sun, is the same stretch of freeway as used for the iconic "bus jump" sequence from Speed (1994), where a 50-foot section of the ramp was digitally removed using CGI to create the gap the bus must jump over.

The line in the film said by Sebastian (Ryan Gosling): "That's LA. They worship everything and they value nothing.", was actually added in by Ryan himself, when he heard his real life girlfriend, Eva Mendes, mention it as a "joke".

Films that were inspirations/influences and screened for the cast/crew include: Singin' in the Rain (1952), Top Hat (1935), An American in Paris (1951), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Swing Time (1936), The Band Wagon (1953), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and even 8 1/2 (1963) for the film's opening traffic number.

Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz came out with the idea of the film during their senior year at Harvard University in 2010 with Hurwitz writing the musical tracks and Chazelle on dialogue. Initially they found two financial backers and a producer for a budget of $1 million. However the demand for a lot of script changes made them to drop the project off. After Whiplash found critical success, the project was resurrected with the studio increasing the budget to $30 million; this allowed the filmmakers to rent the Griffith Observatory for filming (a full day rental there costs $10 thousand).

The crew had a limited time window of 30 minutes within two days to film the dusky purple twilight Hollywood Hills dance sequence. According to Damien Chazelle, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling managed five takes per day, where after each take, they would go back to the starting point with the assistants wiping their sweat before starting the dance routine again.

The phrase "pisi-kaka" that Ryan Gosling says twice is Hungarian for pee and feces. Meaning that it is not important. Ryan Gosling spent 5 months living in Budapest, Hungary whilst filming the sequel to the 1982 Sci-fi film Blade Runner.

Film 1022: The Amazing Spider-Man

Trivia: In this film Spider-Man uses artificial devices to shoot webs, inspired from the original comics where he possessed similar devices for his webbing (only later would he gain the superhuman ability to shoot webs). Marc Webb explained the web-shooters were a creative decision to showcase Peter's intellect: "We wanted to emphasize that these are things that Peter Parker made and that he is special himself even if he feels like he's an outsider."

Ashley Greene, Mia Wasikowska, Scout Taylor-Compton Teresa Palmer, Amber Heard, Dianna Agron, Brooklyn Decker, Imogen Poots, Lindsay Lohan, Emma Roberts, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Anna Kendrick, Ophelia Lovibond, Sara Paxton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Georgina Haig, Hilary Duff and Dominique McElligott were considered for the role of Gwen Stacy, but were beaten out by Emma Stone. It is interesting to note that one of the other names--Mary Elizabeth Winstead--had played Gwen Grayson (named for Gwen Stacy) in the superhero spoof Sky High.

This is the first "Spider-Man" film to not feature Spider-Man's perennial love interest Mary-Jane Watson (in Sam Raimi's three films played by Kirsten Dunst). Instead, Peter Parker's original girlfriend Gwen Stacy appears (who had been played by Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3).

To prepare for his role as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield studied the movements of spiders and tried to incorporate them as much as he could: "Parker is a boy/spider in terms of how he moves, and not just in the suit."

After Denis Leary was cast, his friend Jeff Garlin, a Spider-Man fan, said "I knew you would get the part." To which Leary replied "Why? Because I'm such a great actor?" Garlin then said, "no, because you look just like Captain Stacy."

Andrew Garfield requested that the song "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory be played when filming the otherwise silent scene in which Peter goes into the web harvesting room with the spiders.

Before filming, Rhys Ifans researched his role by meeting several real handicapped people (who have missing limbs). He also spent one month performing his daily activities using only his left hand - it includes tying a tie. There script has small snippet written where Connors ties a tie but it was not filmed as it was too time consuming.

Michael Fassbender was originally considered for the role of Dr Curt Connors; he eventually went on to play Magneto in X-Men: First Class. His Inglourious Basterds co-star Christoph Waltz was later rumored to be attached to the part.

Cameo: Stan Lee:  The man in the library unaware of the events going on behind him.

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