FILM 1851: THE VILLAGE

FILM 1851: THE VILLAGE

TRIVIA: Joaquin Phoenix made a wooden walking stick for Bryce Dallas Howard during the 19th-century preparation the actors participated in before the film. He engraved the name of her character, Ivy, on the walking stick.

Director M. Night Shyamalan put the entire cast through a 19th century "boot camp" in order for them to get a good feel for the time period.

The director cast Bryce Dallas Howard without an audition after seeing her perform on stage.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Judy Greer, who played sisters Ivy and Kitty, would later play sisters again in Jurassic World (2015).

The role of Lucius Hunt was written for Joaquin Phoenix.

Kirsten Dunst was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard after dropping out to star in Elizabethtown (2005). Dunst and Howard later appeared together in Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The film is included on the film critic Roger Ebert's "Most Hated" list.

Second collaboration between Joaquin Phoenix, Cherry Jones, and M. Night Shyamalan after previously working together on Signs (2002).

FILM 1833: GODZILLA

FILM 1833: GODZILLA

TRIVIA: In a television interview, Matthew Broderick said that the entire cast were given wet suits to wear underneath their costumes while filming in Hawaii. He was upset because his wet suit zipped up in the back, which made it difficult to put on every day. One day during a break in filming, he was talking with co-star Hank Azaria, who had his shirt off, revealing a wet suit that zipped up in front. Broderick remarked, "Oh, your wet suit zips up in front." Puzzled, Azaria replied, "They ALL zip up in front." Broderick had been putting his wet suit on backwards every day. 

Fruit of the Loom lost their license to sell any Godzilla-related apparel when they leaked images of Godzilla on the Internet in November of 1997. What Fruit of the Loom didn't know was that the images they were given were unique fakes released by the studio as part of an effort to see which companies they could trust to not leak images to the public, as the studio intended to keep Godzilla's appearance a secret until the film opened.

Mayor Ebert and his assistant Gene are spoofs of the late film critics Roger Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel (who would pass away less than a year after the film's release). This is in response to the duo giving negative reviews to Emmerich and Devlin's earlier films Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996). The film also co-opted the duo's trademarked "Thumbs Up" gesture from their various television shows by depicting Mayor Ebert's campaign as "Thumbs Up for New York!" and Gene later disapproving of his decision to exploit the disaster by giving him a thumbs down. When the actual Siskel and Ebert reviewed the film on their show, it received two thumbs down and Gene Siskel commented on being spoofed in the film; he said it was "petty" and asked the filmmakers "if you're going to go through the trouble of putting us in a monster movie, why don't you at least take advantage of having the monster either eat or squash us". The duo would later name the film as one of their worst films of 1998.

Halfway through a screening, Kenpachirô Satsuma, who played Godzilla from 1985-1995, walked out, saying "It's not Godzilla. It doesn't have the spirit."

This movie features more Simpson voice actors than any other project besides The Simpsons (1989) itself: Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer and Nancy Cartwright. The Simpsons and its creators are huge Godzilla fans and Godzilla, and his roar is used quite frequently in the show.

The film created quite a backlash among the fan base of the original series. The fans conceived a nickname to distinguish this film from the original: G.I.N.O., which is an acronym for "Godzilla in Name Only," indicating their dislike for it.

The policeman seen during Godzilla's arrival is the same policeman (both played by same actor) seen suddenly leaving his patrol car in the middle of an intersection in Independence Day (1996).

Dean Devlin aggressively defended the movie on internet message boards, at times telling the Godzilla fans "to hell with you" if they had a negative opinion over it. The official Godzilla message board was shut down soon thereafter due to all the heated arguing. Years later, Devlin has admitted to recognizing the movie's faults and apologized to the fans in various interviews.

Matthew Broderick's character's name is Dr. Niko Tatopoulos. Godzilla's designer and supervisor is Patrick Tatopoulos.

When this modern remake was first conceived in 1990, James Cameron was originally offered the chance to direct. When he passed, Tim Burton was connected for a few years, with Joe Johnston's name bandied about for some time also. Paul Verhoeven was going to direct but he passed on the project. Then Jan de Bont was attached and set to direct, but his budget for the film, estimated at $150 million, was higher than the studio was willing to pay. After he was let go, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin came in.

Due to the tight deadlines and likely because the monster's look was to be kept secret, the movie wasn't given test screenings. The studio later deemed this a mistake, since this had meant that none of the movie's faults could be fixed for the theatrical release. This was one of the reasons behind the movie's grandiose promotional campaign, since the execs expected the movie to fail without sufficient marketing push.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Roland Emmerich: [44] Cab in final chase sequence is cab MN 44.

FILM 1826: KING KONG

FILM 1826: KING KONG

TRIVIA: Grossed ninety thousand dollars its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time.

The success of this film is often credited for saving R.K.O. Pictures from bankruptcy.

Merian C. Cooper's first vision for the film, was of a giant ape on top of the world's tallest building, fighting airplanes. He worked backward from there, to develop the rest of the story.

King Kong's roar was a lion's roar and a tiger's roar combined and run backwards, but slowly.

At around eighty minutes into the film, a man (LeRoy Mason) standing in line to see Kong complains to his lady companion, "These tickets cost me twenty bucks." At presumably ten dollars per ticket, this would have been a tremendous cost in Depression-wracked 1933. By contrast, a ticket to see the 1933 New York Yankees, which featured Babe Ruthand Lou Gehrig, or to this movie itself, would have been about 35 cents.

The one flaw that remains in the animation is the way Kong's fur seems to be moving constantly, showing where the animators had to grab the figure to move it. Though the animators would brush the fur constantly to hide their work, it still shows up in the finished film. Many other filmmakers who have used the same technique actually admire this flaw, because it shows that the work was done by skilled artists using their hands.

Executive Producer David O. Selznick left R.K.O. midway through production of this film. Selznick's last act of business at R.K.O., and probably his biggest contribution to the film, was to write a memo changing the name of the production from "Kong" to "King Kong".

The "Old Arabian Proverb" opening the film, was actually written by Merian C. Cooper.

Although many film historians insist that a spider pit scene was never shot, much less previewed, at least three production stills do exist showing the miniature ravine complete, with at least one spider and a crab creature, both of which are menacing miniature sailors. There was one person who claimed to have seen the first preview screening who said that the spider pit scene was in it, and the audience laughed at large bug-eyes on a spider model. He felt that this unintended laugh was the reason the scene stopped the film, and was cut.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

FILM 1801: COLOSSAL

FILM 1801: COLOSSAL

TRIVIA:Anne Hathaway was in the second trimester of her pregnancy while filming the movie.

Was hit by a lawsuit in May 2015, claiming it had too many similarities to Godzilla (2014).

FILM 1784: C.H.U.D.

FILM 1784: C.H.U.D.

TRIVIA: "C.H.U.D." is an acronym for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller", but it also means "Contamination Hazard Urban Disposal", as one can (barely) read on the crates full of toxic materials.

In 2011, as an April Fool's Day joke, the Criterion Collection, the USA's most prestigious distributor of home video, announced that it was releasing a special-edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc of the film with spine number 573. It was later assigned to The Music Room(1958). C.H.U.D. did however receive a special edition Blu-ray release from Arrow Video in 2016.

This film's two main actors, John Heard and Daniel Stern, would later go on to play roles in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

Film debut of Kim Greist.

FILM 1774: ANACONDA

FILM 1774: ANACONDA

TRIVIA: During the filming of one scene the controls for the animatronic Anaconda shorted out, causing it to completely lose control. Some of the footage is included in the movie.

The CGI for the Anacondas cost $100,000 a second. 

This film is listed among the 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide.

Strong language was dubbed with (for example, using 'freaking') in order to get a PG-13 rating. Not only do the ADR'd lines have a slightly different sound to the rest of the dialogue, but the actors' lips do not match the new dialogue when they speak.

Contains two allusions to Ice Cube's musical career. His first line of dialogue is "Today is a good day," referring to his 1992 hit "It Was A Good Day." There is a scene of him listening to Mack 10's song "Foe Life," which he co-wrote.

Anaconda was not filmed in the Dominican Republic. The majority of the river scenes were filmed on the Rio Negro, in the vicinity of Manaus, Brazil. The remainder were filmed at the Los Angeles Arboretum.

FILM 1771: A QUIET PLACE

FILM 1771: A QUIET PLACE

TRIVIA: Actress Millicent Simmonds has been deaf since infancy due to a medication overdose. This was the second film she starred in, with Wonderstruck (2017) being her first.

The bathtub scene with Emily Blunt was done in one take. According to John Krasinski, who is also Blunt's co-star and husband in real-life, as soon as he said, "Cut," Blunt immediately fell out of character and asked the crew, "What's everyone having for lunch?"

Bryan Woods and Scott Beck's original screenplay contained only one line of dialogue.

Actor-director John Krasinski has said that the single greatest compliment he received regarding the film, was in a tweet from the master of the horror story himself, Stephen King: "A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work. Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera's eye open wide in a way few movies manage" (6 April 2018). 

In the opening scene, most of the shelves in the grocery store are cleared off, but the chips are completely untouched because they would make too much noise to open and eat.

Bryan Woods and Scott Beck's screenplay was named one of the ten best scripts of the year on Tracking Board's 2017 Hit List, an annual list voted on by industry professionals.

During filming, the crew avoided making noise so diegetic background sounds (e.g., the sound of rolling dice on a game board) could be recorded; the sounds were amplified in post-production.

It was initially intended to leave the American Sign Language un-subtitled, believing the audience would understand the emotional subtext of what was going on--the first trailer notably does not translate the signing. However while editing the early sequence where Regan argues with her father regarding her hearing aides, it was decided by the filmmakers that the sequence would have to be translated, so then the whole movie's use of ASL became subtitled.

FILM 1753: LAKE PLACID

FILM 1753: LAKE PLACID

TRIVIA: Sheriff Keough's "big gun" was a fake gun made specifically as a prop for this movie. They even gave it a fake name, calling it a "Light Weight Forward Area Air Device Unit" which itself is a pretty good parody of military jargon. It was not an M-203 grenade launcher, which fires 40mm grenades. The "grenades" shown with the gun were a good deal smaller than 40mm.

Betty White's character is told that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) would be interested to learn of her alleged mistreatment of her cows. In reality, Betty White is a major on-air spokeswoman for PETA.

Oliver Platt's character is named Hector Cyr. There is a real life Cyr Plantation in Aroostook County, Maine, where this movie takes place.

While the film is supposed to be in Maine, there are no scenes filmed in Maine.

A typical flatbed truck in the United States is around 48-53' in length and 8'6" across meaning the crocodile on the flatbed at the end would be at least around 45' long.

FILM 1625: MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

TRIVIA: Tim Burton aimed to use as few digital effects as possible; "It was nice to shoot on location, to be connected to a place, and geography, while having people actually floating, as opposed to doing it all digitally".

The house where the children live, is an actual house. It's called "Torenhof", and can be found near Antwerp, Belgium.

Ransom Riggs' novel was partly inspired by otherworldly vintage photographs, one of them being a cover-shot of a levitating girl. The author collected these at flea markets, included them in the book, and later showed them all to Tim Burton, before filming began.

DIRECTOR_TRADEMARK(Tim Burton): [stop motion]: The two dolls that Enoch created, are filmed with stop-motion, something used in almost all of Tim Burton's films.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: Tim Burton: Man on amusement park ride.

FILM 1586: TROLL HUNTER

TRIVIA: The film contains several references to old Scandinavian folklore. For example, the goats on a bridge and a troll under it are a reference to the "Three Billy Goats Gruff". At one point Thomas mentions an eating competition, a reference to the story "Askeladden".

The movie contains several characters played by Norwegian comedians: Otto Jespersen (the troll hunter), Knut Nærum (the power plant supervisor), Robert Stoltenberg (the Polish bear supplier), and Hans Morten Hansen (Finn, the troll hunter's boss) are all high profile comedians.