FILM 1896: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

FILM 1896: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

TRIVIA: Tom Holland was not allowed to read the script for this movie, since he revealed too many secrets for Spider-Man Homecoming (2017). In one of the promotional videos for the movie, several of its cast members are in an interrogation room refusing to reveal any spoilers, and Holland's mouth is conspicuously taped shut.

Mark Ruffalo revealed that he was given a fake script due to his habit of accidentally spoiling past Marvel movies. He jokingly claimed in an interview that the fake script was better than the real one.

Thor confirms that "Groot" is a language that can be learned and spoken, as he took it as an elective in school on Asgard. This explains why only Rocket was originally able to understand Groot, and the other Guardians had to learn over time. This also confirms that Groot understands English (and likely other languages) but is only able to speak "Groot".

This became the fourth movie to gross over two billion dollars worldwide, after Avatar(2009), Titanic (1997), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) telling Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to cut it out with the pop culture references is quite hypocritical, as Stark often pokes fun at other characters by calling them by movie titles or character names. In Avengers Assemble (2012), Stark called Loki Reindeer Games (2000), Rock of Ages (2012), and Shakespeare in the Park(1995), he called Thor Point Break (1991), and he called Hawkeye "Legolas". In Captain America: Civil War (2016), he called Bucky The Manchurian Candidate (2004). In Spider-Man Homecoming (2017), he called Peter Parker "Crockett", as a reference to Miami Vice(1984). In this movie, he scorned Ebony Maw by calling him "Squidward", and he called Star Lord Flash Gordon (1980).

The French dub has Tony use "Voldemort" as an insult to Ebony Maw in place of "Squidward". This is likely because Squidward's French name, "Carlo", was too ordinary for audiences to get the joke, and for the joke to work. The same applies to Squidward's German name, "Thaddäus".

Rocket carrying around a stolen eye is a callback to a running gag in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as he has always been obsessed with prosthetic body parts.

At one point in the movie, Thanos (Josh Brolin) asks The Collector (Benicio del Toro), "Where is the stone?" The same line was said by Benicio del Toro in the opening scene of Snatch (2000).

On April 26, 2018, the day before it got a wide release, it received enough votes to take the number two spot on IMDb's Top 250 with a 9.2 out of 10, a record for a Marvel movie.

The cast features three Academy Award winners, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio Del Toro, and William Hurt, and seven nominees, Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin, and Samuel L. Jackson.

There is a deleted scene with an appearance by Happy Hogan in the park.

When Thor tells the Guardians of the Galaxy about The Avengers, Mantis mentions the actor Kevin Bacon, Peter Quill's hero, and Thor says "He might have joined". Kevin Bacon played the Marvel supervillain Sebastian Shaw, antagonist of the X-Men, in X-Men: First Class (2011).

CAMEO: Stan Lee: The comic book writer who co-created most of the characters featured in this movie is featured here as Peter Parker's school bus driver. In addition, this movie also contains remnants from Stan's past cameos: Tony Stark uses the flip phone that Stan delivered to him in Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Thor still sports the haircut that Stan gave him in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). 

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

FILM 1815: DAREDEVIL

TRIVIA: Ben Affleck was virtually blind, as he had to wear heavy-duty contact lenses, which blocked out most of his vision.

This is the first time Colin Farrell ever used his own Irish accent in an American movie.

As a fan of the character, Ben Affleck made a point of reading every single comic book that featured Daredevil as preparation for his role.

Although Ben Affleck is a fan of the character, acting him out was such an unpleasant experience that, in November 2006, Affleck stated that he would never reprise the role, having felt "by playing a superhero in 'Daredevil', I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero. Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me, and something I wouldn't want to do again soon." It is believed that the Daredevil costume was very uncomfortable to wear. However, in 2013 Affleck accepted an agreement to play Batman, starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

Michael Clarke Duncan was often put on lifts or boxes, to make him tower over everyone else, particularly in his scenes with Ben Affleck, who is 6'4". The same thing was done for Duncan in The Green Mile (1999).

Stan Lee disliked the film, because he felt the film was "too tragic".

The film pays homage to numerous "Daredevil" writers and artists: Stan Lee: Daredevil's original creator makes his cameo as the man who young Matt Murdock stops from crossing the street. Wrote Daredevil (1964-1969). Kirby, the lab assistant played by Kevin Smith (see final item): Comic book artist Jack Kirby (assorted Daredevil covers in 1964-1968). Father Everett: Bill Everett, Daredevil's original artist (drew first issue of Daredevil in 1964, then assorted covers 1966-1972). Jose Quesada (the rapist): Joe Quesada, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, and artist of Daredevil 1998-2000. Colan (a boxer): Gene Colan, another Daredevil artist 1966-1974. John Romita (the boxer, against whom Jack Murdock is supposed to dive): John Romita Sr., Sr. was a Daredevil artist in 1966, and John Romita Jr. was a Daredevil artist 1988-1990. Kane (a thug): Gil Kane, Daredevil cover artist 1971=1978. Miller, Mack, Bendis (other boxers): Frank Miller, writer and artist 1979-1983, David Mack, artist 1999-2001, and Brian Michael Bendis, writer of Daredevil beginning 1999, and was still doing so when the film came out. Kevin Smith, author whose Daredevil work is collected in "Daredevil Visionaries: Kevin Smith", appears as the lab assistant Kirby, named for another artist mentioned above.

Ben Affleck was cast as Daredevil because Kevin Smith (appearing here as Kirby the lab tech) suggested him to Writer and Director Mark Steven Johnson. Smith, who directed Affleck in four films from the "View Askewniverse" series, and would later reunite in Jersey Girl (2004), also wrote at least one of the comic books, on which this movie is based.

Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Lucy Liu, Jessica Alba, Katie Holmes, Mía Maestro, Rhona Mitra, Jolene Blalock, and Neve Campbell were considered for the role of Elektra.

Michael Clarke Duncan and Ben Affleck appeared in Armageddon (1998).

FILM 1509: AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON 

TRIVIA: Scarlett Johansson was pregnant during filming of this movie so many of her scenes were scheduled early in filming before she began to show. To help hide her pregnancy later in filming, three stunt doubles were hired. This caused a lot of confusion among the other actors since, according to them, all of the stunt women looked very similar to Johansson. Chris Evans stated that it got to the point where he would say hello and start a conversation with one of them, only to realize midway that the person he was talking to wasn't Johansson. Ultimately, some scenes used CGI to hide Johansson's belly.

Because Ultron was 8-9 feet (2.4 - 2.7 meters) tall, the 5-foot 10-inch (1.77 meter) James Spader had to wear an antennae-like contraption made out of a thick piece of wire with two red balls attached to the top that went up his entire back and 3 feet above his head. This was done so that the actors that shared scenes with him would have a reference point for where his eyes would be; the two red balls represented the placement of Ultron's eyes. Elizabeth Olsen stated that this was actually distracting because Spader would be giving an intense performance and out of instinct she would look at him rather than the balls representing his eyes. Much to everyone's amusement, whenever this happened, Aaron Taylor-Johnson would yell, "Red balls! Look at his balls, Lizzie!" at her in order to get her to look in the right direction.

James Spader was Joss Whedon's first and only choice for the role of Ultron, because of his "hypnotic voice that can be eerily calm and compelling while also being very human and humorous".

Aaron Taylor-Johnson was asked to lose weight (muscle mass in particular) because he looked too strong to portray a runner, who is usually trim.

The trailer was viewed 34 million times on YouTube in the first 24 hours after it was released. This broke the record that was previously held by Iron Man 3 (2013).

The addition of Quicksilver to the cast sparked wide discussion over the direction of the character who is also slated to appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Quicksilver had been discussed previously as a potential character in both X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and The Avengers (2012), but legal complexities over the license to the character resulted in his omission from both films. However, in May 2013 both Marvel and Fox Studios announced a resolution to the previous legal issues, and that Quicksilver would appear in this film as well as an X-Men sequel, though under certain parameters: no allusion to his relations to the X-Men or Magneto (the character's father) can be made in an "Avengers" film, and no reference to Quicksilver's membership in the Avengers can be made in an "X-Men" film; the rights agreement between Fox and Marvel even goes so far as to stipulate the character cannot be referred to as a "mutant" in any Marvel film. Additionally, the day after Fox announced Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Marvel and Fox entered into a legal standoff over provisions of the rights agreement for the character, including the issue of whether Peters would be allowed to portray Quicksilver in any other film outside the "X-Men" franchise, necessitating a second actor to play Quicksilver in any Marvel film, resulting in two different versions of the same character appearing in two competing film series.

"Marvel Ultimates" comic is famous for featuring a controversial incestuous story-line between Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. According to Elizabeth Olsen, while this particular aspect would not be overtly present in the film, she and Aaron Taylor-Johnson "played around" with certain parts of it: "Every time you see an image of them, they're always holding each other's hand and looking over each other's shoulder. They're always so close, it's almost uncomfortable. Aaron and I have been playing a little bit with those kinds of images just for ourselves."

Cameo [Stan Lee]: A veteran at the Avengers' party, who takes a drink of Thor's ale. Lee has said this is his favorite cameo to date.

Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (1978) and its subsequent three TV specials, and he voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (2008) in which he also played "security guard" - he also played a security guard in Hulk (2003). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.

Paul Bettany (the Vision) is good friends with co-star Stellan Skarsgård (Dr Selvig). In fact, Bettany and his wife Jennifer Connelly named their firstborn child Stellan, after Skarsgård.

When Tony Stark tries to lift Thor's Hammer he jokes saying "I'm re-instituting prima noctis". Primae Noctis was, allegedly, a law in Late Medieval Europe by which a feudal lord could claim the "first night" (implying the night subsequent to her wedding) with any bride in his dominion, in order to have sexual relations with her. This practice was depicted in Braveheart (1995).

FILM 1471: DEADPOOL

TRIVIA: A 3 minute test reel was shot in January 2012 in an attempt to convince the heads of the studio to move forward with the movie. On August 1st 2014, the footage was released to the public, and based on the overwhelmingly positive response from fans, the film finally began production. The footage was so popular that part of it was recreated for the actual film.

Ryan Reynolds has said that Deadpool will be the last comic book character he will ever portray. However, he is open to Deadpool sequels and/or cameos.

In the trailer and in the film, Wade Wilson requests, "Don't make the super suit green- or animated!" This is a reference to Ryan Reynolds' previous role as the DC superhero Green Lantern (2011) in which, as stated, the green suit was a special effect rather than an actual costume for Reynolds to put on. This is also a crude reference to that film's director Martin Campbell whom he didnt get on with.

In an interview, writer Rhett Reese stated that Negasonic Teenage Warhead wasn't always intended to be in the film. Other X-men such as Cannonball were considered, but they eventually used Negasonic Teenage Warhead because they "liked her name better".

Throughout the film Deadpool accuses the studio of not having enough money to pay for several elements in the movie. In fact, Fox Studios cut seven million dollars out of the film's budget at the last minute, necessitating several rewrites. Items cut from the film included a motorcycle chase between Wade and Francis, the addition of more named villains, and several action sequences. In the latter instance, the fights were scaled down by having Deadpool forget to bring his ammo and gun bags.

FILM 1292: BIRDMAN

TRIVIA: The movie was largely shot inside Broadway's St. James Theatre - Michael Keaton and the rest of the cast had to adapt to Alejandro González Iñárritu's rigorous shooting style, which required them to perform up to 15 pages of dialogue at a time while hitting precisely choreographed marks.

There are only sixteen visible cuts in the entire film.

During the press conference in Riggan's dressing room, he says that he hasn't played Birdman since 1992. That's the same year Batman Returns (1992), the last Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, was released.

Martin Scorsese can be seen in the audience when Michael Keaton is walking to the stage in his underwear after he walks through Times Square.

According to Alejandro González Iñárritu, he had dinner with director Mike Nichols in New York two weeks before he began shooting the movie. Iñarritu told Nichols of his plan for how he was going to shoot the movie as one long take. Nichols predicted it would be a disaster because not having the ability to use cuts in editing would inhibit the opportunities for comedy. Inarritu said the meeting didn't deter him, but was instead helpful in raising his awareness level of the difficulty of what he was about to do.

The carpet visible within a number of back stage corridor scenes is the same iconic, hexagonal carpet used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980).