FILM 2022: AMERICAN ANIMALS

FILM 2022: AMERICAN ANIMALS

TRIVIA: This is a true story about college students who stole a priceless book from Transylvania University, which is located in Lexington, Kentucky. Though the movie was filmed in North Carolina.

During filming the actors were not allowed to meet their real life counterparts because the director feared they would sympathise and/or play them in a certain light.

The movie was filmed in the Davidson College Library during the week of Spring Break of 2017. Through the chaos of equipment, actors, extras, and all the technical people it takes to make a movie, the library staff continued to perform their jobs. Some of the staff were asked to submit their head shots to be cast in the film which resulted in one person being asked to be in the film. However, it was inconvenient for staff to take the time away from their jobs to be in the film, so, therefore, no staff person was in the film. But, if you look closely in the shots filmed in the library, there are offices with their blinds down. Staff are behind those blinds working diligently making sure the library still functioned.

John Waters named this film second among his top ten favorite films released in 2018.

Darren Keith revealed Warren asked him for help with the heist as well but he denied the offer in hopes of pursuing his acting career.

PODCAST: LAST SEEN

PODCAST: LAST SEEN

The heist of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is something like the holy grail of art crime. This podcast will look at why not a single artwork has been recovered....

MY VERDICT: I enjoyed this podcast but I did think it was a little long. It’s a breath of fresh air to listen to a series that’s got a true crime subject that doesn’t involve murder. 

FILM 1981: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

FILM 1981: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

TRIVIA: Alex Rocco, who plays bank robber Scalise, was a former member of the notorious The Winter Hill Gang that operated out of Boston, Massachusetts. Moreover, Rocco introduced Robert Mitchum to Howie Winter, who was the second boss of The Winter Hill Gang, to help Mitchum research his role as Eddie Coyle.

Peter Boyle found it very difficult to draw a glass of tap beer for his part of a bartender. Director Peter Yates arranged for a correctly-filled glass to be available for Boyle below the camera line. Unseen by the camera eye, Boyle then switched glasses.

The entire film was shot on location.

Robert Mitchum gained weight for his role as Eddie Coyle.

FILM 1959: WIDOWS

FILM 1959: WIDOWS

TRIVIA: This was Steve McQueen's first feature film that did not have Michael Fassbender in the cast.

According to Steve McQueen, Colin Farrell and Robert DuVall improvised many of their scenes.

The West Highland terrier featured in this film also appeared in Game Night (2018).

The film is based on the 1983 British TV series Widows (1983).

Ann Mitchell was also in the original British TV series.

FILM 1857: OCEAN'S EIGHT

FILM 1857: OCEAN'S EIGHT 

TRIVIA: Debbie Ocean speaks German as part of her cover. Sandra Bullock spent most of her childhood in Nuremberg, Germany and is fluent in the language. She holds dual citizenship in both Germany and the United States.

Anne Hathaway replaced Jennifer Lawrence in this film, while Lawrence replaced Hathaway in Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

This film opens in the same way as Ocean's Eleven (2001), with an Ocean being asked what they will do when they leave prison during their parole hearing.

The eight main cast has won four Oscars, two Emmys, nine Grammys, six Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, and 10 SAGs combined.

The music that was playing as the team enter the Met Gala, "Lara's Theme" (Somewhere, my Love), was also the music that Sandra Bullock's character, Gracie Lou Freebush, plays on the water glasses in Miss Congeniality (2000).

FILM 1822: THE HURRICANE HEIST

FILM 1822: THE HURRICANE HEIST

TRIVIA: In the trailer, viewers are told that the heist is planned during the monstrous hurricane that is pushing 600 miles per hour. The Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane on Jupiter that can fit two Earths in it, is also a 600-mile-per-hour storm. The highest sustained wind speed ever recorded in a hurricane on Earth is 190 miles per hour.

In the early 1990s, Sylvester Stallone was attached to star in a similar project to this film, called "Gale Force," about an ex-Navy SEAL who defends a seacoast town from a gang of modern pirates during a hurricane. David Chappe had written the script and Renny Harlinwas going to direct. Carolco Pictures had a $40 million budget for the film, but creative disagreements over the script and concerns about cost forced Carolco to scrap the film and make Cliffhanger (1993) instead.

FILM 1740: LOGAN LUCKY

FILM 1740: LOGAN LUCKY

TRIVIA: The film was distributed by cutting out studios, in order to have creative control and make money directly from the film itself. Accordingly, for this atypical distribution, Steven Soderbergh raised the budget by selling off foreign distribution rights, and then sold everything except the movie showing up in a movie theater in order to pay for advertising and prints of the movie (for example, selling post-theatrical rights to the likes of HBO, Netflix, Video-On-Demand, television, and airplanes). By following these two steps, Soderbergh was able to sidestep a Hollywood studio, and had creative control the entire time (for instance, the trailers that dropped earlier this summer were by his design, as was the poster and the entire marketing plan). Also, according to Soderbergh, under this set-up, the box-office bar for success is lower. With nearly everything prepaid, and no hefty distributor fees coming off the top, even a modest fifteen million dollar opening would be a win.

Several NASCAR drivers have cameos in Logan Lucky. Ryan Blaney as the Cake Delivery Boy and Kyle Larson as the Limo Driver. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch as West Virginia State Troopers. Brad Keselowski and Joey Lagano as the Security Guards. As well as Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip.

Katherine Heigl was originally cast, but dropped out, due to pregnancy. She was replaced by Katie Holmes.

Riley Keough, who plays Mellie, is Elvis Presley's granddaughter--daughter of Elvis & Priscilla's child Lisa Marie.

One of the two 2017 movies featuring Channing Tatum and the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. The other one being Kingsman: The Golden Circle(2017).

FILM 1733: THE VAULT

Two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother. But this is no ordinary bank.

FILM 1701: BABY DRIVER

TRIVIA: In an introduction from Edgar Wright, he revealed that there was little to no CGI or green screen used to film the car chase sequences. The driving is all practically done.

The tracking shot in the beginning of the movie where Baby gets coffee took 28 takes. The 21st take is the one used in the movie.

Whenever Edgar Wright had Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey in the same shot, he would whisper to a colleague: "Double Oscar shot!"

The extensive collection of sunglasses and iPods that Baby owns were not bought by him; they were taken from cars he stole. In an interview, Edgar Wright said: 'If he has been stealing cars since he was 12, the main thing he would have inherited from these stolen cars are people's sunglasses and iPods.'

According to Edgar Wright, each script sent to the main actors that are wanted for their respective roles includes an Ipod that contains list of songs that is to be played (arranged in specific order) while reading a particular scene for the movie in order to emphasize the tone.

Edgar Wright had been sitting on this idea for a film for many years. His first use of it was a music video he directed for British electronic duo Mint Royale and their track "Blue Song". The video stars Noel Fielding as a music-loving getaway driver for a group of bank robbers, one of whom is Wright's regular Nick Frost. A clip from the video is featured in the film when channels are being flipped through on the television in Baby's apartment.

On the first day of filming, Jamie Foxx watched Jon Hamm on the monitor and uttered to himself "he handsome."

In almost every scene where no music is playing, you can hear a slight ringing in the background (the sound of Baby's tinnitus).

Barbra Streisand's experience with tinnitus was the basis for a scene in the movie where Jamie Foxx's character is required to say, "Do I look like I know a f*cking thing about Barbra f*cking Streisand?" Knowing Barbra is close friends with Jamie in real life (who knew?), Edgar was worried about how she would react. Jamie's response to Edgar's worries was "Barbra's gangsta." In 2016 Jamie Foxx sang a duet with Streisand on her ENCORE album.

When Baby is flipping through the channels near the beginning of the film, several lines of dialogue from different movies can be heard ("you are so beautiful," "how's that working out for you?" and "we're partners. There's nothing that matters to me more than our friendship"). Each one of these lines appears later in the film as a line of dialogue.

The first R-rated movie to be given permission to show footage from a Disney film (Monsters, Inc. (2001)). Pete Docter, the director of "Monsters, Inc.", is given a 'special thanks' credit as a result.

The opening credits use a one take shot of Baby walking to buy coffee and then walking back, reminiscent of the famous opening of Shaun of the Dead (2004), where Shaun walks to the shop and then back home in one shot (which is later repeated once the zombie outbreak has begun).

Edgar Wright started to work on this film in 1995, but didn't finish the script until 2011, and the film until 2017. However, he received the advance for it in 2007. He introduced the world premiere of the film at SXSW by thanking his producer for not suing him for this.

FILM 1185: THE KILLING

TRIVIA: Initial test screenings were poor, citing the non-linear structure as the main problem. Stanley Kubrick was forced to go back and edit the film in a linear fashion, actually making the film even more confusing. In the end, it was released in its original form, and is often cited as being a huge influence on other non-linear films like Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994).

The narration was added at the studio's insistence. Stanley Kubrick hated the idea and thus makes much of the information that the narrator provides false or mistaken.

The location where John Clay (Sterling Hayden) proposes the deal to Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani) is a mock-up of the 42nd Street Chess and Checker Parlor in New York City. Director Stanley Kubrick was a regular chess player there, as was Kola.

Kirk Douglas was so impressed with this film that he sought out the director for his next project, Paths of Glory (1957).

Stanley Kubrick initially wrote a script outline. He then asked Jim Thompson to flesh it out with dialog.