FILM 1847: WILD WILD WEST

FILM 1847: WILD WILD WEST

TRIVIA: Will Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix (1999) to star in this movie, being a fan of the television series. He later said this was the worst decision he made in his career.

The film underwent costly re-shoots in an attempt to inject some humor after it was found that test audiences weren't sure if it was supposed to be a comedy.

Though a box-office failure in the U.S. (it managed to turn a profit overseas), it's commonly joked that the only reason the film earned any money at all is because unaccompanied minors would buy tickets to this film, then use them to sneak into screenings of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and American Pie (1999).

Belle was originally cast with, and filmed with British actress Phina Oruche. Reportedly, the chemistry needed for the bathtub love scene wasn't there. The scene was recast and re-shot with Garcelle Beauvais. However, Oruche was not told, and found out she was no longer in the film at the premiere in Los Angeles.

Kevin Smith has said that the giant spider was producer Jon Peters' idea for the later-abandoned "Superman Lives" project with Nicolas Cage and Tim Burton.

Wild Wild West is featured in episode 257 of the "bad movie" podcast, We Hate Movies.

FILM 1573: JOY

TRIVIA: Joan Rivers is portrayed in this film by her real life daughter Melissa Rivers.

Despite earlier reports, this movie is not a biography of Joy Mangano. Annie Mumolo's original script was based on Mangano, an Italian-American inventor and entrepreneur known for inventions such as the self-wringing Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers. She is the president of Ingenious Designs, appears regularly on US television shopping channel HSN, and holds more than 100 patents. When David O. Russell came onto the project, he added many more supporting characters and interwove Mangano's original biography with stories of other women changing their lives. Russell admitted he was in no hurry to meet Mangano in real life during filming because he wanted to make the movie his own way. He only spoke to Mangano on the phone. Joy's last name is never mentioned in the film, and she is not a native of Smithtown, NY, on Long Island's north shore.

The fourth collaboration between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. They previously starred together in Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013), and Serena (2014).

Except for Neil Walker, none of the principals' last names are ever stated.

Isabella Rossellini and Diane Ladd co-star in this film and also co-starred in Wild at Heart.

Film 931: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Trivia: The external appearance of Flint's laboratory is modeled after Wardenclyffe Tower, which was Nikola Tesla's laboratory for wireless transmission experiments.

This was the first Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation film to have an altered logo sequence. When the Columbia Pictures logo appears, a banana hits the Torch Lady and knocks her out of the image. During the Sony Pictures Animation logo sequence, dark clouds uncover the end of the logo.

Near the end of the film when character Earl Devereaux jumps through a tortilla chip, a giant letter T is left behind, representing the voice actor Mr. T.

The door lock on Flint's laboratory is operated by a 1970s 'Simon' game.

In one scene, a rainbow of little colored bite-sized candies ends in children's mouths. This is a reference to Skittles, a fruity bite-sized candy whose slogan is "Taste The Rainbow".

Flint's e-mail address is flockwood@flinternet.com. At the time of the movie's release, going to Flinternet.com would redirect you to the movie's official website.

The island on which the town of Swallow Falls (later Chewandswallow) is located corresponds to the real-life geographic location of Bermuda. This is implied at the beginning when the island is said to be under the first "A" in Atlantic, as Bermuda is the only island in the West Atlantic north of the tropics. It is later confirmed on a weather map towards the climax of the movie, when the weather storm is clearly seen to originate several hundred miles of the coast of the Carolinas.

Bill Hader (Flint), Andy Samberg (Baby Brent), and Will Forte (Joe Towne) were all cast members of Saturday Night Live together for several seasons before this film.

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett planned to produce and star in the film during the early development stages.

On This Day…

John Walker sold the first friction match on this day in 1827.

Two and a half years after Walker's invention was made public, Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date, Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer than 250 sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827.[2] Already comfortably well off, he refused to patent his invention, despite being encouraged to by Michael Faraday and others, making it freely available for anyone to make. He received neither fame nor wealth for his invention, although he was able to retire some years later. The credit for his invention was attributed only after his death.