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: As part of their training for “End Of Watch“, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña spent five months doing 12-hour ride-alongs with on-duty LAPD officers. During Gyllenhaal’s first ride-along, he witnessed a murder.
2: Michael Madsen was offered the role of Sgt. Horvath in “Saving Private Ryan“. He turned it down, recommending friend Tom Sizemore for the part instead. Madsen was also originally cast as Michael Cheritto in “Heat” but was ultimately replaced (for unknown reasons) by Sizemore again.
3: David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct “Return Of The Jedi“. He turned it down because he believed it was “Lucas’ thing.” He went on to direct “Dune” instead.
4: “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid” – According to screenwriter William Goldman, his screenplay originally was entitled “The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy.” Both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman read the script at approximately the same time, and agreed to do it, with McQueen playing the Sundance Kid. When McQueen dropped out, the names reversed in the title, as Newman was a superstar.
5: In the scene where Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard argue in the street in “The King Of Comedy“, three of the “street scum” that mock Bernhard are Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, and Paul Simonon, members of the British punk rock band, The Clash.
6: Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules in “Pulp Fiction” was originally written to have a gigantic afro, but a crewmember obtained a variety of afro wigs and one jheri curl wig. Quentin Tarantino had never thought about a jheri curl wig, but Jackson tried it on, Tarantino liked it, and it was kept.
7: Alfred Hitchcock originally envisioned the shower sequence in “Psycho” as completely silent, but Bernard Herrmann went ahead and scored it anyway, and upon hearing it, Hitchcock immediately changed his mind. Hitchcock was so pleased with the overall score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer’s salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, “33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”
8: Aaron Eckhart, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen and Thomas Jane were considered for the role of Leonard Shelby in “Memento” before Guy Pearce got the part. Christopher Nolan’s first choice was Alec Baldwin.
9: The title of “Alien” in Hungarian was “The 8th passenger: Death“. Consequently, the title of it’s sequel “Aliens” was: “The name of the planet: Death“.
10: Steven Spielberg considered directing the film “Three Amigos!” but chose to do “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” instead. He has said in interviews his choices for the roles of the Three Amigos were Steve Martin for Lucky Day, Bill Murray for Dusty Bottoms (ChevyChase’s role) and Robin Williams for Ned Nederlander (Martin Short’s role).
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 
December 4, 2012 at 11:33 am
Again some nice facts. Didn’t know about a lot of them and nice one about Samuel L. Jackson’s wig. It also shows that Gyllenhaal has done the work, I thought it was an amazing performance.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Thanks Nostra. I’d heard of Jackson’s wig a while ago but sometimes these little bits of info escape your mind sometimes.
Totally agree on Gyllenhaal. The work that he put in, paid off.
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December 4, 2012 at 11:50 am
Love the Hungarian titles for the Alien films 🙂 Would make a good topic – foreign title variations, I’m sure there are some belters out there.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Thanks Chris. I liked those ones as well. I remember Henry – from The FilmFellas site – doing a post that dealt with loads of them. I forget a lot of them now but he delivered better ones than that.
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December 4, 2012 at 11:56 am
Nice to see Madsen getting a mention! Sam Jackson, De Niro, its been a good Tuesday Trivia! Well played Celtic 🙂
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December 4, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Thanks to the Kop! 😉 Glad to be of service my friend. The mighty Celtic eh? Who’d have thunk it? 😉
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December 4, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I didn’t know about Jackson’s wig and that Spielberg was supposed to direct The Three Amigos. I heard that one about David Lynch directing Return of the Jedi before. Good trivia as always.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Thanks man! The one that was new to me was Spielberg and the Three Amigos. I have good memories of that film but that would have been interesting nonetheless
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December 4, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for the trivia. Most I did not know.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for dropping by Victor. Glad to hear that you enjoyed them. 🙂
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December 4, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Man I love these.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Cheers 🙂 – Cheers 🙂 – Cheers 🙂 My friend. Glad you’re still getting your kicks from them.
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December 4, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Great trivia, the End of Watch one is interesting.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Thanks Vinnie. It just goes to show how committed Gyllenhaal can be sometimes. It’s shows in his overall performance.
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December 4, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Love it, man!!
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December 4, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Thanks man! 😉
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December 5, 2012 at 2:29 am
I still have the next assignment in hand but not viewed….
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December 5, 2012 at 9:53 am
No rush man! Just let me know when you’re nearly there. I have other write-up’s to finish off anyway. 🙂
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December 4, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Great set of trivia again Mark. As I just saw Hitchcock, I knew about that bit about the shower scene. I think Hitch made a good decision to keep that iconic score, it made it even more terrifying!
Tom Sizemore is an interesting character. I had the pleasure of seeing him pretty close during Q&A at TCFF, but I was too chicken to ask him a question, ahah. He must be thankful to have a friend like Madsen who continually give him his job, ahah. Madsen seems like a trouble maker, as I think he could’ve been a much more successful actor with all the opportunities presented to him.
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December 4, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Totally agree on the Psycho score Ruth. Hitchcock made a good call to keep it.
Man that would have been cool to be around Sizemore. I’ve always been a fan of his. It’s funny you reckon Madsen is the troublemaker though. I’ve always thought it was Sizemore. Still, Madsen has knocked back so many good roles for one reason or another. He’s made some very poor choices over the years.
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December 5, 2012 at 5:51 pm
He seems like a friendly guy. There were certainly plenty of opportunities to approach him as he was waiting for his pick-up car in front of the hotel and he doesn’t have his ‘people’ around him y’know. I wish I had muster up the courage to say something. I was gonna ask him about his experience working w/ Kathryn Bigelow on Strange Days with that wig on, ahah.
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December 6, 2012 at 8:45 am
Haha. Yeah, nice wig! He’s appeared briefly in a couple of Bigelow’s films beforehand – Blue Steel and Point Break. Haven’t seen him for a while though. I hope he’s not falling into obscurity, I always liked Sizemore.
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December 4, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Awesome post as usual. So many great “What ifs” in this series.
I knew that about Lynch and Jedi. LOL. Can you imagine? 😀
I’m glad the Butch and Sundance thing didnt work out for McQueen, that movie is great as it is. I think McQueen was awesome of course, but… I cant see the movie having the same charm if it was him. 😦
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December 4, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Thanks Fogs. You’ve just reminded me about that Lynch one you suggested for me last week. I’ll note it down for next weeks (and give you a little mention again, of course) 😉
Lynch and Jedi does seem strange though doesn’t it? Still… not much stranger than Dune.
I’m glad about Butch and Sundance as well. I was never that keen on McQueen to be honest. I like Redford though. Great partnership with Newman.
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December 5, 2012 at 5:26 am
Awesome facts. Loved #1 and #8 😉
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December 5, 2012 at 9:55 am
Good stuff man. I did say I’d put in a few “casting” ones for you 😉
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December 5, 2012 at 7:43 pm
Thanks, man! 🙂
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December 5, 2012 at 9:07 am
Nice one Marky Mark. I still hold out hope of seeing a David Lynch Star Wars movie…
I’ll tell you this though: I can’t quite picture Bill Murray and Robin Williams singing My Little Buttercup, can you?!
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December 5, 2012 at 9:57 am
Cheers Ryan. Now that Disney is doing further Star Wars adventures, Lynch may get his chance yet 😉
Oddly, I can see Murray and Williams singing My Little Buttercup. LOL. classic scene that one!
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December 5, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Great trivia post, as always! Reading that the performers actually spent a great deal of time doing ride-alongs makes me really want to see End of Watch. Authenticity is missing from most police movies.
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December 6, 2012 at 8:36 am
Thanks Steph. The rapport between Gyllenhaal and Pena is certainly worth the effort they put in. It’s a good film, if only for the two of them.
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December 6, 2012 at 4:12 pm
So glad they ended up using music in Psycho, can’t imagine that scene without it!
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December 6, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I can’t either Sati. It’s one of cinema’s most iconic scenes and that’s thanks to the music as well.
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December 9, 2012 at 6:49 pm
David Lynch Star Wars! Now that I would love to see. Imagine a David Lynch Disney film…that was Star Wars.
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December 9, 2012 at 11:17 pm
That would be quite something wouldn’t it? If Dune is anything to go by though, I think Lynch should stay away from sci-fi. 😉
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December 9, 2012 at 11:44 pm
forgot to say, I learned an amazing wee bit of trivia at Edinburgh Zoo the other day. The sounds that ‘Chewbacca’ makes are taken from real Sun Bears…. you can have that one for free.
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December 10, 2012 at 10:39 am
Nice bit of info there man. I may include this in a later post. My one for tomorrow is already compiled. When I use it, i’ll give you a little mention. I do that with everyone that offers me a little tidbit that I use. Cheers 🙂
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January 31, 2014 at 11:43 am
4 and 7 are my favourites. Pyscho and Jaws are the two most famous scores for sure.
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January 31, 2014 at 11:59 am
No doubt about it. When you think of film scores those two pop into your mind straight away. Love that Hitchcock paid out on that too.
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July 13, 2016 at 3:05 am
Having read this I believed it was rather enlightening. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this content together.
I once again find myself personally spending a lot of
time both reading and posting comments. But so what,
it was still worth it!
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