FILM 1900: BROADCAST NEWS

FILM 1900: BROADCAST NEWS

TRIVIA: Albert Brooks revealed that when he first read the script, the scene where Aaron does a weekend broadcast simply noted "Something bad happens to Aaron on the air." Albert was watching CNN, when a reporter he'd never seen before (and hasn't seen since) began sweating badly. Albert phoned Writer and Director James L. Brooks at three in the morning, and stated that Aaron HAD to start sweating profusely.

Jack Nicholson was not paid for his role, at his own request.

John Cusack is credited as "Angry Messenger". During the staff firings, a young man yells "sons of bitches!", and angrily throws a messenger bag to the office floor. We don't see the character's face, but the voice sounds like Cusack's.

James L. Brooks wrote this movie especially for Debra Winger, but she was forced to turn it down because she was pregnant with her son Noah Hutton. Before casting Holly Hunter as a replacement, Brooks considered Sigourney Weaver, Judy Davis, Elizabeth McGovern, Christine Lahti, and Elizabeth Perkins.

Marc Shaiman and Glen Roven, who played News Theme Writers, are real-life composers, who have also done television jingles. Shaiman, after doing this movie, went on to score major motion picture films, and has since been nominated for five Academy Awards.

The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year to not be nominated for Best Director.

First theatrical film in four years for James L. Brooks, whose previous film was Terms of Endearment (1983), which won five Academy Awards including Best Picture. Albert Brooksand Jack Nicholson appeared in this movie and Terms of Endearment (1983). At least eighteen members of cast and crew worked on both of these movies. Also, both of the movies were Oscar nominated in numerous categories, with this movie and Terms of Endearment (1983) receiving seven and eleven Academy Award nominations, respectively.

The movie was selected to be included in TIME Magazine's Best Films of the 1987 year list.

Jane Craig was inspired by CBS News Producer Susan Zirinsky. Before filming began, Holly Hunter spent time job shadowing Zirinsky to see how things worked in a real newsroom. Hunter also cut her hair into a "bob" style haircut to resemble Zirinsky.

When Jennifer is sent to Anchorage, Alaska, to report on bodies that had been found, after being buried by a serial killer, that was the Robert Hansen case. He would hunt women after raping them . Eventually convicted of seventeen murders.

William Hurt (Tom Grunick) is less than eight years younger than Stephen Mendillo, who played his father.

Brother and sister John Cusack and Joan Cusack are listed in the film's cast list for this movie. This film is one of ten cinema movie collaborations of the siblings (to date, June 2015).

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

FILM 1803: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

FILM 1803: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

TRIVIA: Frank Wills, the security guard who discovered the break-in at the Watergate complex, plays himself.

The two lead actors memorized each other's lines so that they could both interrupt each other in character. This unsettled a lot of the actors they were playing opposite, leading to a greater sense of verisimilitude.

One scene involving Robert Redford on the phone is done in a continuous six-minute single take with the camera tracking in slowly. Towards the end Redford makes a mistake - he calls the phone caller by the wrong name - but as he stays in character it simply appears genuine and this was the take used in the final cut.

To prepare for their roles, actors Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman hung out in the Washington Post newsroom for several weeks, observing reporters and attending staff meetings. Once, when Redford was standing in a hallway, a group of high school students came through on a tour of the newspaper offices. The students immediately started taking pictures of Redford with their pocket cameras. At that point, Bob Woodward walked by. Redford told the students, "Wait a minute! Here's the real Bob Woodward, the guy I'm playing in the movie! Don't you want to take a picture of him?" The students said no, and walked on. Hoffman also recalled that he had been asked by the paper's science reporter to fetch a new typewriter ribbon. Due to Hoffman's long hair and casual dress, the science reporter had mistaken him for a copy boy. 

The film introduced the catchphrase "follow the money", which was absent from the book, or any documentation of Watergate.

The telephone number that Robert Redford dials for the White House is the real number of the White House Switchboard: 456-1414.

Washington Post boss Katherine Graham, who was initially very apprehensive about the film using the paper's name, loved the film and later wrote a letter of praise and approval to star and co-producer Robert Redford.

Actress Jane Alexander's Oscar nominated performance for Best Actress in a Supporting Role runs for only around just over eight minutes in total screen-time.

Chris Carter often quotes this movie as one of his bigger inspirations for The X-Files(1993), wherein a prominent character used the Deep Throat codename. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the names on Woodward and Bernstein's list of CREEP employees is "Scully."

Robert Redford's first choice for the role of Carl Bernstein was Al Pacino.

This feature film contains twenty-five telephone conversations in which audiences are privy to both sides of the dialogue exchange.

The film cast includes five Oscar winners: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Martin Balsam and F. Murray Abraham; and five Oscar nominees: Jack Warden, Hal Holbrook, Ned Beatty, Lindsay Crouse and Jane Alexander.

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

Robert Redford actually met Richard Nixon. When he was 13, Redford was presented an award for athletic prowess by the man who would go on to be President. Even then, Redford said he found the man to be rather creepy.

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

SEASON ONE & TWO

The Untold Story

The phone hacking scandal that closed News of the World was big, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  At the bottom of that iceberg of 'dark arts' - hacking, burglary, bugging, and bribing bent cops - is the body of Daniel Morgan. 

It’s been described by an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police as “one of the most disgraceful episodes in the entire history of the Metropolitan Police Service.” 

Over the three decades since Daniel was killed, five failed police investigations and an ongoing panel inquiry, his has become the most investigated murder in British history.

The story moves from back streets of London, through the highest echelons of Scotland Yard, to the offices of Rupert Murdoch's best selling newspapers, to the doors of Number Ten Downing Street. 

If you haven't heard this story, ask yourself, why? 

MY VERDICT: I listened to both seasons straight after one another and I binged the whole thing pretty quickly. That was a problem, as the second season does go back over a lot of the information from the first. However this was my problem and not something that the makers of ‘Untold’ can be blamed for.

The podcast is very well made and the story is fascinating. There is so much more to this story than a straight forward whodunit, probably because all involved are pretty sure they know who was responsible for the murder of Daniel Morgan, instead we delve into a world of underhand tactics by not only private investigators but also the police and the media. 

I would thoroughly recommend this podcast and found it refreshing to hear a story based in England, it meant a little more to me to know the places and people involved than the predominately American podcasts I had listened to in the past, and it’s nice to hear an English voice for a change. Even if you’re not from England, I think the storytellers give a good enough description of things that even those unfamiliar with newspapers like The News of the World will still be able to follow. However, be warned, there is a lot of information to digest, a lot characters to remember and after five full investigations a whole lot to process, hopefully with more to come this will all be worth it.

http://www.untoldmurder.com

FILM 1667: CHRISTINE

TRIVIA: The film's warm 'yellow' tinge and muted coloration was a trend in the 1970's. Because Christine takes place in the early Seventies this effect was chosen on purpose to make the film appear more authentic. This effect used to be naturally caused by lighting and the type of film stock used (often Ektachrome, a popular Kodak 16mm stock), but in the digital age the effect is usually added in after filming by using computer filters and overlays to create a nostalgic "vintage" look.

The owner of the company that cut the film's trailer, Robert "Smitty" Smith at In Sync Advertising, was an actual intern at WXLT-TV who knew and was friends with Christine Chubbuck. He sought out the job when he found out about the film and saw it at Sundance; incidentally, the creators had tried to seek him out for interviews during the research phases, but were unable to locate him due to the ubiquity of his name.

Despite her standoffish demeanor portrayed in the film, the real Christine Chubbuck was known on television as a cheerful woman, particularly fond of children to the point where she volunteered outside of work to do puppet shows for mentally handicapped kids. Only her closest family members really knew the extent of her depression.

BOOK 176: PLEASE DON'T COME BACK FROM THE MOON: DEAN BAKOPOULOS

Please Don't Come Back from the Moon (2005) was his debut novel, about fathers in Maple Rock, Detroit abandoning their families under a strange compulsion to go to the moon. It is narrated by the young Mikey, a would-be writer, whose father feels the same desire to leave. The New York Times said it "deftly weld[ed] magic realism with social satire". Entertainment Weekly gave it a B- saying it turned into a very conventional coming-of-age story. People gave it 3.5/4.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/20/zara-has-been-accused-of-ripping-off-an-independent-artists-designs-6017687/

FILM 1483: WAG THE DOG

TRIVIA: After this film started production and before its release, US President Bill Clinton became involved in a sex scandal and threatened military action against Iraq.

During the filming of Wag the Dog (1997) Dustin Hoffman, his co-star Robert De Niro and director Barry Levinson had an impromptu meeting with President Bill Clinton at a Washington hotel. "So what's this movie about?" Clinton asked De Niro. De Niro looked over to Levinson, hoping he would answer the question. Levinson, in turn, looked over to Hoffman. Hoffman, realizing there was no one else to pass the buck to, is quoted as saying, "So I just started to tap dance. I can't even remember what I said."

"Why change horses midstream?" was originally a campaign slogan for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

The talk show phone number, (800) 555-0199, is common to many films and television shows because this is the only number that has been reserved by the phone company as an allowable "fake" 800 number for media usage.

Conrad's line, "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow," is a quote from WWII General George S. Patton.

The scene in which shoes laced together are hanging from telephone and electric wires was shot on East Capitol Street a few blocks behind the U.S. Capitol. The production crew left several pairs of shoes behind and they remained hanging on the wires for years.

The character of Winifred Ames was originally written for a man.

Motss' claim "there is no Academy Award for producing" is (technically) incorrect, since the Academy Award for Best Picture has always been given to the main producers of a film.

It was filmed in 28 days, during a pause in other Barry Levinson's movie, Sphere (1998).