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 with most of Stephen King’s stories, “Stand By Me” contains connections to other books he has written. Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland’s character) later re-appeared in the book “Needful Things“, although he does not appear in the film. The dog Chopper is compared to “Cujo“.
Characters are familiar with Shawshank Prison, from “The Shawshank Redemption“. Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman’s character) was actually first mentioned in King’s first book, “Carrie“, in which Carrie destroys a gas station he once worked at.
2: Al Pacino turned down the role of Ron Kovic’s (Tom Cruise) father in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July“. Some years earlier another version of the film was proposed with Pacino as Kovic with William Friedkin directing.
3: Production on the film “Barry Lyndon” was moved from Ireland to England after Stanley Kubrick received word that his name was on an IRA hit list for directing a film featuring English soldiers in Ireland.
4: Before Anthony Hopkins was cast as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs“, the considerations were: John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, and Robert DeNiro. Jeremy Irons actually turned down the offer.
5: John Singleton’s Best Director Oscar nomination for “Boyz N The Hood” at the age of 24 makes him the youngest director to ever receive such an accolade, beating Orson Welles by a good 2 years.
6: Ellen Burstyn received a permanent spinal injury while filming “The Exorcist“. In the sequence where she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, a harness jerked her hard away from the bed. She fell on her coccyx and screamed in pain.
7: Robert Mitchum turned down the role that eventually went to Tony Curtis in “The Defiant Ones“. Mitchum, a real-life veteran of a Southern chain gang, didn’t believe the premise that a black man and a white man would be chained together and said that such a thing would never happen in the South. Over the years this reason was corrupted to the point where many people now believe Mitchum turned down the role because he didn’t want to be chained to a black man, an absolute falsehood. Curtis repeated the inaccurate story in his autobiography, but later recanted after Mitchum’s real reason was explained to him.
8: Clint Eastwood wore the same poncho through all three “Man with No Name” movies- “A Fistful of Dollars“, “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly” without a replacement or ever getting it cleaned.
9: The original cut of “The Town” that Ben Affleck screened for producers was 4 hours long. After realizing that the film would never appeal to wide audiences, he cut the film down to 2 hours and 50 minutes in three days. After screening that version, the studio and producers loved it but knew that it was still too long. Affleck eventually had to cut beloved footage and personal favorite scenes to make the film work. The film then went through more change at a studio standpoint when they wanted the film at no more than 2hours and 10 minutes. Eventually, Affleck cut the film down to 2 hours and 8 minutes, ultimately trimming action sequences, character development and dialog. Affleck, while happy with the theatrical cut, stated that an Extended Cut will be featured on the DVD and BluRay with deleted scenes on top of that. He also stated that, while the theatrical cut of “The Town” is a close adaptation of ‘Prince of Thieves‘ (the novel which it is based on), the extended cut is a mirror of the novel, staying more true to the book.
10: “American Beauty” has many references to the Vladimir Nabokov novel “Lolita“. “Lester Burnham” (Kevin Spacey’s character) is an anagram for “Humbert learns”. Prof. Humbert was the main character from the novel and film adaptations.
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 
March 12, 2013 at 12:22 pm
Another fantastic TT post! Well done!
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March 12, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Thank you sir! Always nice to hear that you enjoy them. 🙂
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March 12, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Great trivia as always. That’s a really interesting fact about the Dollars trilogy.
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March 12, 2013 at 1:49 pm
Thanks man! I enjoyed that one with the poncho as well. I knew Eastwood used the same one but I didn’t know that he never washed it.
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March 12, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Nice list, Mark! I LOVE the American Beauty one, having just finished reading Nobokov’s Lolita! I’ll have to watch the film again now, for sure 🙂
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March 12, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Georgina! That’s perfect timing on the American Beauty one then? Glad to be of service! 😉 In all honesty, it’s one I have to revisit as well. I loved that film and it will be a new experience looking for all the references.
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March 12, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Christopher Lloyd as Lecter?? The humanity!!
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March 12, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Haha. Can you imagine? “Great Scot, Clarice!” LOL
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March 12, 2013 at 1:59 pm
LOL!!!!
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March 12, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Great trivia, American Beauty one is very interesting.
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March 12, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Cheers Vinnie. I like the American Beauty one as well. I can see an influx of people wanting to see it again now. – myself included.
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March 12, 2013 at 3:09 pm
LOL. The one that jumps out at me this week is Patrick Stewart as Hannibal Lecter. 😀
I ate his liver with some fava beans and a cup of earl grey tea! Engage!
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March 12, 2013 at 6:26 pm
LOL! I can see that working Fogs! Strangely I can see most of them working. Maybe not Christopher Lloyd though. 😉
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March 12, 2013 at 4:44 pm
4 hours of the Town???? Bring it on!
Another great Tuesday posting Mark.
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March 12, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Cheers Chris! I could go a four hour version of that myself. I really liked The Town.
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March 12, 2013 at 4:51 pm
8 for 10! I’ll get there Mark! As always though, great great job.
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March 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Getting closer Nick. You’re keeping me on my toes, man. I need to keep digging deep. Cheers!
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March 12, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Nice work, as always.
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March 12, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Thanks man. Glad to see you stopping by.
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March 12, 2013 at 4:57 pm
So is that 4 hour cut of The Town available anywhere? I would love to see that.
I could picture all those actors playing Lecter especially William Hurt.
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March 12, 2013 at 6:35 pm
As far as I’m aware, it hasn’t been released yet Adam. I hope Affleck sticks to his word and does go ahead with it. I’d watch that no bother
I can see Hurt doing that as well. Lloyd is the only one I struggle with. Although he was quite good in Cuckoo’s Nest as a mad man.
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March 12, 2013 at 5:12 pm
Nice one! Like the Stand By Me tidbits in particular as it’s one of my favourite films.
I didn’t enjoy the final edit of The Town so I’m not sure I’m going to be going in for the director’s cut if it ever surfaces!
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March 12, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Glad to hear it man. I love Stand By Me as well. It’s a great little film.
I did like The Town. I thought it was really good and would love to see more. 4hrs of that could be quite special for me. 😉
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March 12, 2013 at 8:40 pm
Always love reading these 😀
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March 12, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Glad to hear it Tim. Always a pleasure to see you stop by. 🙂
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March 12, 2013 at 9:16 pm
Hey Mark, I nominated you for a few LAMMYs, including one for Best Recurring Feature for this one 😀
Lots of interesting ones I didn’t know before. WOW, The Town’s original cut was 4 hrs long?? I like that one but I think I prefer Gone Baby Gone and ARGO.
There’s definitely something LOLITA-ish about American Beauty, especially in regards to Mena Suvari’s character.
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March 12, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Hey Ruth! That’s very kind. Thank you so much. I always appreciate your support and that the biggest compliment you could give.
Yeah, I really liked The Town ad I would watch a 4hrs version. I find it hard to separate Affleck’s film’s into my favourites. I love them all.
No doubt about Lolita references in American Beauty but I’d didn’t know that there were hidden ones as well. The one about Lester’s name was new to me.
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March 12, 2013 at 9:32 pm
My pleasure Mark, well you deserved it man, your blogis awesome!
Yeah, I certainly look forward to more from Affleck, he’s definitely one of my fave directors now.
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March 12, 2013 at 9:39 pm
Thanks again Ruth. You do not too badly yourself 😉 I also put your name name forward for a few.
Yeah, Affleck has certainly proven his worth. He’s officially became a director to get excited about.
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March 13, 2013 at 5:28 pm
yep, another great TTT post. I love these Mark, thank you for keeping them going!
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March 13, 2013 at 8:11 pm
Thanks for dropping in T. And thanks for the consistent compliments. Always appreciated my friend.
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March 13, 2013 at 8:01 pm
As good as Hopkins was as Lecter I bet Irons would create amazing performance too!
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March 13, 2013 at 8:14 pm
I think Irons could definitely have pulled that off too. Most of the choices there could have I think. I’ll bet Irons is kicking himself for turning it down though. Thanks a lot Sati 🙂
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March 14, 2013 at 11:27 am
Good stuff as usual Mark. I’d never thought of American Beauty and Lolita together for some reason. I don’t know why considering the subject matter! Two Kubrick mentions this week, I’m being spoiled! 😉
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March 14, 2013 at 1:33 pm
Cheers Chris. I must have remembered subconsciously about Kubrick. It wasn’t intentional but sometimes when someone states a preference, I tend to include them more. It’s happened with a few people. This time it was your turn. 😉
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March 14, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Honoured! Ha! In that case, this is me subtly telling you i like pictures of Jennifer Lawrence. Tyson’ll back me up…
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March 14, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Haha! You chaps and your Lawrence infatuations. Noted!! 😉
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March 14, 2013 at 2:30 pm
I now want to see that long cut of The Town, is it already available?
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March 14, 2013 at 2:33 pm
As far as I’m aware it’s not been released yet. Certainly not in the UK but I’m eager to see it myself.
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March 16, 2013 at 2:24 am
Hahah! You know I’d love to see Jack Nicholson as Hannibal Lecter!!! 😀
Have you seen the spinal tap scene from The Exorcist? It’s not much more graphic than the rest of the film, but it was one of four scenes that only made its way to “The Version You’ve Never Seen.” Needless to say, I’ll take a wild guess–based on the Exorcist tidbit–that Ellen Burstyn had it removed. 😉
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March 16, 2013 at 11:08 am
Nicholson was have made a great Lecter. 😉
I don’t think I have seen the spinal tap Exorcist bit, I’m intrigued though. Sounds like I need to check that out. That’s a film that’s definitely on my rewatch list anyway.
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March 16, 2013 at 1:46 pm
It’s the same version that has the infamous crabwalk scene that wasn’t in the movie, but diehard fans still discussed it from time to time because it was in the novel. I’d also recommend the novel, if you haven’t read it, because it’s just as effective.
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March 17, 2013 at 4:00 pm
I have seen the crab walk scene before. I think it was on tube tube or something but it is a film I should see again. I probably should read the book as well but I normally avoid reading the book of a film I’ve already seen. I much prefer reading the book first so I can imagine the characters and events myself.
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March 16, 2013 at 8:58 pm
Saturday’s Trivia Tidbits! lol
Great info here, man. Loved all 10.
Also, very cool new header!
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March 17, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Sunday’s tidbits response! Lol
Always nice to see you stop by Fernando.
Yeah, new header, man. Thanks to my good pal Chris at Filmhipster. His work is brilliant stuff.
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March 18, 2013 at 6:22 am
Great post! I never would’ve guessed that Lester Burnham was an anagram. I like your new header too.
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March 18, 2013 at 3:07 pm
Lester’s name was a surprise to me as well. There are many references but this one was new to me.
Yeah, bit of a revamp on the header by good pal Chris. It was about time I got something done. I think it looks much better. Thanks!
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February 27, 2014 at 4:26 pm
[…] Marked Movies had another great edition of Tuesday’s Trivia Tidbit featuring a few things I never knew about my favorite film American Beauty. [TUESDAY’S TRIVIA TIDBITS.] […]
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