TUESDAY’S TRIVIA TIDBITS.
Welcome back to Tuesday’s Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I will be posting weekly and info that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…
1: The iconic picture of Sean Connery as James Bond holding his Walther PPK pistol is, in fact, not entirely true. The weapon he is holding in the photo is just an air pistol. The real Walther PPK never showed up for the photo shoot so Connery had to make do with the air gun instead.
2: Before Andrew Garfield was announced for the lead part in “The Amazing Spiderman“, Taylor Lautner, Josh Hutcherson, Robert Pattinson, Jamie Bell, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Alden Ehrenreich, Zac Efron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Xavier Samuel, Jim Sturgess, Anton Yelchin and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were also considered to play the lead role.
3: In an early draft of “The Big Lebowski” script, The Dude’s source of income was revealed. He was an heir to the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube. It was Joel Coen’s idea to drop this and never say.
4: After “The Lord Of The Rings“, eight of the nine members of the Fellowship got a small tattoo of the word “nine” spelled out in Tengwar, which is the Elvish script created by writer J.R.R. Tolkien. They got it at a tattoo parlor in Wellington, New Zealand, to commemorate the experience of the movie. The ninth member, John Rhys-Davies, declined and sent his stunt double in his place. Elijah Wood’s tattoo is on his lower stomach. Sean Astin and Billy Boyd have the tattoo on their ankles (to commemorate all those hours in the hobbit feet). Orlando Bloom, who plays the archer elf Legolas, has his on his forearm. His tattoo is visible during a fight scene in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl“. Ian McKellen’s is on his shoulder. Dominic Monaghan’s is on his shoulder. And the eighth member, Sean Bean, has his tattoo on his right shoulder. Viggo Mortensen has his tattoo on his left shoulder. It is visible on some pictures from the movie “Eastern Promises”
5: Before “Carlito’s Way“, film producer Elliott Kastner filed a lawsuit against Al Pacino for allegedly backing out of a deal to star in a film as Carlito Brigante with Marlon Brando as Davie Kleinfeld (the Sean Penn role). The suit was eventually dropped.
6: Joaquin Phoenix was offered the role of Derek Vinyard in “American History X” but found the subject matter of the film distasteful and passed on the project. Edward Norton then took on the role and gained a second Academy Award nomination for his work.
7: In “Casino“, Robert DeNiro always held his cigarettes the same distance from the lit end so that their lengths never appear to change. This was to avoid the continuity problems that accompany a chain-smoking movie character.
8: Both Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman were trained at the Pasadena Playhouse. During their time there, they were voted “Least likely to succeed” but proved them wrong in 1967 when they got their big breaks: Hackman in “Bonnie and Clyde” and Hoffman in “The Graduate“.
9: Vivien Leigh, who suffered from bipolar disorder in real life, later had difficulties in distinguishing her real life from that of Blanche DuBois, the character she played in “A Streetcar Named Desire“.
10: Before Keanu Reeves was cast in “Speed“, various actors were offered the role of Jack and reportedly turned it down: George Clooney, Stephen Baldwin, William Baldwin, Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Keaton, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Jeff Bridges. The film was originally written with the intention that Bridges would play Jack and Ellen DeGeneres would play Annie (Sandra Bullock’s role). DeGeneres was initially chosen because the role of Annie was going to be a comedic role opposite the serious role of Jack.
So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box.
See you next Tuesday…
(For earlier editions of Trivia Tidbits click here.)
MARKED MOVIES 
November 20, 2012 at 12:21 pm
Film companies really do sling pretty much anyone’s name in the hat when considering people for roles! Jeff Bridges in Speed? Daniel Radcliffe and Taylor Lautner as Spiderman? Really glad sense saw through!
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November 20, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Yeah, apparently Bridges was the front runner for Speed around that time. We’re talking about 20 years ago so Bridges would still have been at reasonable age to fill the role. He could have done it but Reeves wasn’t too shabby either and after Point Break it more or less established him as a good action star.
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November 20, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Good point, I think I’m imagining Bridges doing it now, rather than back when he was a lot more sprightly!
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November 20, 2012 at 12:44 pm
As always, pleasure to read and great to see Bobby D up there. I know someone will be pleased with the Keanu news too……..don’t encourage her man. LOL 🙂
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November 20, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Haha! I always try for a little Bobby D but felt that Reeves hadn’t appeared for a while and a certain someone would be pleased to see it. 😉
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November 20, 2012 at 11:11 pm
I wonder who you talking about? Great trivia, very clever with the cigarette. Ok so I am please to see Keanu there brightened up my day lol. Can’t imagine the film with anyone else. Would of been a completely different film with Ellen. When I was younger I watched Speed a lot. Looking forward to next week.
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November 20, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Nice to see you drop by Carly. I have no idea who Tyson is talking about. Honest! 😉 Yeah, DeGeneras would have changed the film entirely. I like her but it just wouldn’t have worked. I can, however, see Bridges pulling it off. Either way though, both Reeves (or “Chuck” as I now like to call him) and Bullock do a fine job.
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November 21, 2012 at 12:00 am
I don’t know how you do this blog on your iPhone! There’s a few errors in my previous comment thanks to spell check. I am also a fan of Sandra she’s been in some good films. I enjoyed their second venture together – lake house.
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November 21, 2012 at 12:13 am
I often get spelling mistakes when using my phone. Most of my writing is done on the notepad first though. I then check it over there and then copy and paste to an actual blog post. If I didn’t do that then there would be mistakes all over the place.
Can’t say i’m bullock’s biggest fan. The Lake House was a decent concept but not really my cup of tea i’m afraid. It has holes bigger than my socks have and that’s saying something.
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November 20, 2012 at 1:11 pm
It’s really interesting how both Hackman and Hoffman were trained at the same place and made breakthroughs in the same year.
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November 20, 2012 at 1:37 pm
It is that man. There was also a little more info I had on them both but I’ll save that for another post.
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November 20, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Great info as usual.
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November 20, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Thanks Vinnie. Always nice to see you stop by.
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November 20, 2012 at 3:41 pm
My week is now complete with my Tuesday fix from Marked Movies.
I didn’t really care for the feminine new Peter Parker but could you EVEN IMAGINE Michael Cera in the role????
“Hi Lizard, hee hee, I’m like, oh my, so gonna, oh, yeah, well, yeah, heh heh, gonna shoot you with this, heh, web.”
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November 20, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Thanks as always for your enthusiasm sir. I couldn’t agree more on Cera. I’m just not his biggest fan at all. I find him extremely irritating.
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November 20, 2012 at 4:41 pm
I thought he was awesome – when his thing first came around – on Arrested Development but now that’s his only thing and it’s time to move on….
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November 20, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I don’t think Cera is able to do anything else. Sooner or later, he’ll disappear altogether. Much I don’t really think is such a bad thing.
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November 20, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Lots of interesting trivia once again Mark, a lot here I didn’t know about. Connery’s holding just an air pistol??! What what?? 🙂
I had no idea Vivien Leigh is bipolar, I heard that Catherine Zeta Jones suffers from that too, but maybe not as severe.
I always love trivia on Keanu, and glad that he ended up getting the role in SPEED. Love him in that!
P.S. Stop by for music break later today Mark, I think you’ll enjoy it 😉
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November 20, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Thanks Ruth. Yeah, I just found out about the air pistol myself the other day. Apparently it was up for auction in London over the last day or so. Some American copies of the photo had it airbrushed out but the original was indeed an air gun.
Vivian Leigh was also news to me but like yourself I’d heard that Zeta Jones suffered.
It would have been interesting seeing Bridges in Speed but give “Chuck” his due. It was a good role for him.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for your post Ruth. Thanks for stopping by, as always. 🙂
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November 20, 2012 at 5:23 pm
I felt like ‘Chuck’ looked so fresh in that role, I mean there’s barely any Asian actors in Hollywood, granted he’s only HALF Chinese but it’s still nice to see a bit of diversity. Plus I LOVE Sandra Bullock and their banter is fun to watch.
Btw, that trivia about Hoffman and Hackman is so hilariously ironic. ‘Least likely to succeed??’ Well, who gets the last laugh now! 😀
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November 20, 2012 at 5:40 pm
I have to admit, I’m not that bog on Bullock but in Speed she was very appealing. They were a good match.
Yeah, the Hackman Hoffman deal wa interesting wasn’t it? There’s more between them both but I’ll leave that for a later post.
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November 20, 2012 at 4:58 pm
D’oh!! Bond, busted! LOL
Sad about Vivien Leigh, huh? 😦
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November 20, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Yeah, busted! Apparently that air pistol went for 200,000 or something similar in a recent auction. Sorry, to burst that bond bubble man.
Leigh was news to me also. That must have been a nightmare for the poor woman. Thanks for checking Fogs! 🙂
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November 20, 2012 at 8:37 pm
That’s a really cool fact about Speed. I would still love to see Albert Brooks and Ellen Degeneres star in a crime movie from Nicholas Winding Refn
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November 20, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Haha! Thanks man! That’s an interesting idea you’ve came up with there. “Driving Nemo” perhaps? 😉
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November 20, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Some seriously fascinating facts this go around! 4 is my favorite I think.
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November 20, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Thank you dear. Yeah, I thought #4 was common knowledge? Glad it’s not though and I’m still able to part wisdom 😉
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November 20, 2012 at 10:53 pm
It probably is but I hate those movies so I didn’t know about it. And I think it’s pretty cool. 🙂
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November 20, 2012 at 11:31 pm
You what?… You hate Lord of the Rings?… What?!
Those are classic pieces of modern cinema. How can you hate those movies? 😉
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November 21, 2012 at 1:27 am
Just not my thing. I’m not a big Tolkien fan in general and I tried the first movie and not even beer made it better for me so I didn’t watch any of the others.
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November 21, 2012 at 7:50 am
I found that the first one took a while to get going but once it did, it was excellent. I take your not looking forward to The Hobbit then?
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November 21, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Not at all. 😉 Didn’t much care for the book either.
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November 21, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Aww man! The Hobbit is classic stuff. How can you say that..? 😉
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November 21, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Sorry but Tolkien is NOT for everyone. Just like how I love Anais Nin and Jack Kerouac and totally dig on Nietzsche but they aren’t for everyone. 😉
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November 21, 2012 at 6:58 pm
True! True! Each to their own, I say. 😉
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November 20, 2012 at 10:35 pm
I still need to see The Amazing Spider-Man, so it’s a bit unfair for me to judge, but somehow I suspect JGL would make a better Peter Parker than Andrew Garfield.
It’s a wise thing Joel Coen scrapped the Dude’s source of income. The heir to the Rubik’s cube probably has a pretty good living — which would diminish the difference between the Dude and the other Lebowski.
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November 20, 2012 at 11:30 pm
I agree on both accounts Morgan. I haven’t seen the new Spiderman yet, so can’t comment on who I would prefer and The Dude just wouldn’t be The Dude if he was wealthy. If anything he’d more more well off than The Big Lebowski. The Rubik’s cube has been going strong for years.
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November 21, 2012 at 2:22 am
Great stuff! This is one of my favorite features. It’s hard to imagine Joaquin Phoenix as the lead in American History X. I can understand his being scared off by the subject matter. The curb stomp scene alone would’ve scared me off the role. 🙂 It’s all good — Edward Norton was brilliant in the movie.
I agree that The Dude shouldn’t be the Rubik’s Cube heir; as others have said, it would’ve changed the character too much. The Dude is just The Dude. He doesn’t need loads of money. Just a nice rug that ties the room together. 😉
BTW, did you know there is a Church of the Latter Day Dude? Apparently the founder calls himself the Dudely Lama. Believe me, I couldn’t make this stuff up. 😉 In case you didn’t already know about this, I thought it might be potential Tuesdays Trivia fodder.
http://eclecticbooksandmovies.blogspot.com
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November 21, 2012 at 7:54 am
Thanks you very much for the enthusiasm. Glad you’re still enjoying it.
As much as I like Phoenix, I can’t see past Norton in American History X. He was outstanding.
Totally agree on the Rubik’s cube as well. You summed it up perfectly about The Dude… all needed was a his rug back! 😉
As for the church of the latter day Dude. I did know about that and I’m already ordained as a Dudeist Priest. 😉 I never thought about including it in a trivia section before though. I might just do that in future. Thanks for the recommendation. 😀
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November 21, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Are you really a Dudeist priest? I’m not always good at telling whether people are joking especially online. 😉 If so, you have absolutely got to post about that. — Steph
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November 21, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Yeah, in all honesty I am. There’s not a lot to it though. There’s a little thing on the Internet that you fill out and they show a certificate with your name on it once you’re ordained. I think it’s more just for fun. You should check it out.
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November 21, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Great stuff as always. Especially liked the LOTR bit. Keep them coming Mark!
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November 21, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Thank you sir! It’s getting harder every week but there’s still plenty of stuff out there to keep plucking away.
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November 21, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Oh wow, Cera as The Amazing Spiderman would turn this movie into hilarious comedy, which actually might have been better than what we eventually got 🙂
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November 21, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Admittedly I haven’t seen the film yet Sati but I can’t imagine Cera doing it at all. I’m really not a fan of his. Thanks for stopping by again. 🙂
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November 22, 2012 at 11:27 am
Despite being a huge fan of the series I didn’t know about the tattoos. I’ve never ever considered having a tattoo myself, since I think most tattoos grow ugly overtime. But if I had been in the cast I would definitely have gone for it. I would probably have put it in an invisble spot though.
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November 22, 2012 at 11:38 am
I have to admit I’m a bit of a sucker for tattoos. I find them very addictive. Once you start it’s hard to stop.
Having one of the fellowship would be great though wouldn’t it? I might just get myself one anyway. When I used to go to festivals with my friends we would all assume a lord of the rings character. Luckily I was Aragorn (or Strider as it was close to my second name) Good times 😉
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November 23, 2012 at 6:22 am
Great facts as always, Mark! My favorite was #4. 9 is so sad. Also, love to hear which actors were considered for a very famous role. Those are always very interesting.
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November 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Thanks Fernando. If you enjoy what actors were considered for major roles then I’ll try and include that more regularly. I enjoy those ones myself.
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November 23, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Thanks, Mark!
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November 28, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Awesome stuff, as always!
I love the Lebowski one, of course but I would REALLY have liked to see Phoenix in American History X.
Now I just need to catch up to this week’s trivia!
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November 28, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Phoenix could have been good in that role Andy but Norton was sublime though. He was completely commanding and unlucky not to win the Oscar.
So you’re playing catch-up then? Haha. I know how it is bro. Things get a little hectic at times. It’s hard to keep on top of it all. No worries though, the post will be there when you find the time. Thanks for checking in man.
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November 28, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Yeah, I love Norton in that role I would just love to see what kind of intensity Phoenix could have brought to it.
I took a few days off for Thanksgiving and that spiraled into close to a week of falling behind in my blog reading. I’m getting through it, but then I’m leaving for a week on Saturday…So I’m fucked, basically. Haha, oh well.
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November 29, 2012 at 1:46 am
Yeah, I see what you mean. Phoenix is a very fine actor and it’s a role he probably could have done well.
Unfortunately, I’ve had to miss some people’s stuff of late. There’s just not enough time to get through it all. I always make a point of trying to spread some time to everyone but I may miss some who’ve posted a number of times. At the moment I’ll pick out the ones I can contribute a little something to. It’s hard to keep up man.
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November 29, 2012 at 3:12 am
It’s practically a full-time job.
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November 29, 2012 at 3:16 am
Totally.
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November 29, 2012 at 4:00 pm
I hear ye man! All work and no play… Except, it’s never dull 😉
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January 30, 2014 at 11:47 pm
The eight one made me laugh tonnes
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