MARKED MOVIES

Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Before Tom Hanks made the character of “Forrest Gump” a household name, both John Travolta and Bill Murray were considered for the part. Travolta admits it was a mistake to turn down the role. However, the author of the story always pictured John Goodman as the ideal Forrest Gump.

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It has been some time my Trivia Tidbit enthusiasts but it’s a pleasure to welcome you back for more little movie facts. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related factoids that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: When Richard Nixon was elected President he compiled an “Enemies List” – a list of potential political opponents, of which, actor Paul Newman found himself to be on it. He was #19 for his anti-Vietnam views. Newman said that being on Nixon’s enemies list was “…the highest single honour I’ve ever received. Who knows who’s listening to me now and what government list I’m on”.

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It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve cut short my recent blogging hiatus to come back and offer up some special Trivia Tidbits after the sad passing of Robin Williams. Suffering from depression for most of his life it just shows how such an illness can overcome a person. Sadly at age 63 he took his own life. As it’s 2014, here’s 14 ways of shedding some light on a great talent from both ends of the dramatic and comedic scale.

1: Early in his career, Williams told a reporter that he was born in Scotland. His original press releases indeed listed Scotland as his place of birth. He admitted that he was “under the influence” at the time of saying this. He was really born in Chicago.

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Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Although widely known as “Rocky“, this isn’t, in fact, the character’s actual name. His real name is Robert Balboa – this was seen in a rough script from the second film. He took the nickname from real-life boxer Rocky Marciano.

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Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Much of Michael Mann’s “Heat” was based on a real-life confrontation between Chicago cop Chuck Adamson (renamed Vincent Hanna in the film and played by Al Pacino) and the real Neil McCauley (played by Robert DeNiro). Adamson was a retired police officer whom director Mann had been working with off and on since the film “Thief” in 1981. They later worked together on two of Mann’s TV shows “Miami Vice” (1984) and “Crime Story” (1986). According to Chuck Adamson (and confirmed by Michael Mann), McCauley was a professional robber whom he had frequently crossed paths with. Events such as the scene between Hanna and McCauley in the coffee shop and the warehouse sting where McCauley got tipped off that the cops were around due to an officer making a noise really happened. In real life, Neil McCauley was killed during the robbery of a grocery store (similar to the bank heist shootout in the film) by Adamson’s team who were tipped off to the robbery.

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Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Leonardo DiCaprio has stated that the characters of Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) from “True Romance” and Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) from “Tombstone” were the main influences on his performance as Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained“.

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Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…

1: Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Steve Buscemi and Michael Douglas were all originally offered roles in Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City“. Douglas was offered the role of Hartigan (played by Bruce Willis), Buscemi was offered the part of Junior (played by Nick Stahl) when he became the Yellow Bastard, and Dafoe and Walken were both offered the role of Senator Roark (played by Powers Boothe).

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Film: THE MASTER
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson

Setting the scene: Escaping from an upstairs party, FREDDIE QUELL (Joaquin Phoenix) is invited into the suite of LANCASTER DODD (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in order to sample some of Freddie’s homemade alcohol. Both men are just getting to know one another but Freddie is interested in joining “The Cause” – a cult, faith-based organisation of which Dodd is the charismatic leader (or Master). To test Freddie’s commitment, Dodd suggests that he goes through a series of questions known as ‘informal processing’.

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Sati over at the always interesting and visually stunning blog Cinematic Corner has came up with a great idea for her first Blogathon. It leaves a lot of room for choices but the rules are fairly simple in that we are asked to choose a minor character that we love and why we would like to see them take the leading role in a film. What would that film then be like? For further information stop by Sati’s blog here and get involved. And now I invite you to…

“Sit down… grab yourself an eggroll. We got everything here from a diddle eyed Joe to a damned if I know.“…

And by that, I’m talking about Gary Oldman’s marvellous character from Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino’s

“True Romance“.

It ain’t white boy day, is it? Naw man, it ain’t white boy day – it’s

DREXL SPIVEY.

Drexl is a pimp who’s also involved in the narcotic’s business with a high ranking gangster known as Blue Lou Boyle. He has scars on his face and one of his eye’s has seemingly lost it’s sight. Added to which, he’s a white man with dreadlocks who believes himself to be a black Rastafarian. Drexl is a merciless brutal killer and a man with whom you do not fuck. As he was once the pimp of Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette), he is confronted by Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) which results in being the catalyst for a crime spree involving mobsters, police and Hollywood producers.

What’s not to be interested in when we are first introduced to Drexl? The scars are on his face and dress sense are enough to grab your attention. In the space of 10 minutes screen time, Oldman really brings this character alive and makes a lasting impression. Despite an abundance of talent in True Romance, Drexl is, without doubt, the most memorable character. So much so, that he’s simply not in it enough. In a prequel to the film, the possibilities would be endless when incorporating Tarantino’s criminal underworld. We’d witness the rise of Drexl from his younger years as a viscous street hood and hired-gun under the guidance of L.A. crime bosses Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). His viscousness would eventually invite the attention of dogged and equally sadistic police detective Jack Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore). Scagnetti would bring Drexl to justice with him serving an 8 year sentence in San Quentin prison where he would befriend Vic Vega (Michael Madsen). Once released, he would again go back to his old habits and become involved in the sex and drug trade before his involvement with Blue Lou Boyle (Robert De Niro) and his eventual confrontation with Clarence (Christian Slater).

As if that’s not enough, Gary Oldman had already stated in an interview that he would love to do a film on Drexl Spivey.

Mark Walker

Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits where this week I have a special Oscars trivia post just to get you in the mood for the big day on Sunday. So without further ado, let’s just dive right in…

1: According to legend, the name ‘Oscar‘ was given to the statuettes by Margaret Herrick, the Academy’s librarian. The statuette, reportedly, looked like her uncle Oscar.
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