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: According to a biography of Jack Nicholson, producer Robert Evans suggested Nicholson to Roman Polanski for the part of Guy Woodhouse (played by John Cassevetes) in “Rosemary’s Baby” but, after their meeting, the director stated that “for all his talent, his slightly sinister appearance ruled him out“.
2: During the filming of “The Hurt Locker“, three, four or more hand-held super 16mm cameras were used to film scenes in documentary style. Nearly two hundred hours of footage was shot at a 100:1 shooting ratio – a higher ratio of expended film than the notorious Francis Ford Coppola epic, “Apocalypse Now“.
3: For the first four days of production on “The Dark Knight“, Christopher Nolan put cast and crew under a movie boot camp comprising eight films whose tone he wanted to emulate. In chronological order, these were: “King Kong“, “Citizen Kane“, “Cat People“, “Stalag 17“, “Black Sunday“, “A Clockwork Orange“, “Heat” and “Batman Begins“.
4: When the rights for “Life Of Pi” were optioned in 2002 several directors had been attached to direct including M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón and Jean-Pierre Jeunet before Ang Lee took over.
5: Screenwriter Nora Ephron, who was married to “Goodfellas” writer Nicholas Pileggi, used Henry Hill’s experiences in witness protection as the basis for the Steve Martin comedy “My Blue Heaven” – released only a month after Scorsese’s film. In some ways, it could be considered a tenuous sequel.
6: Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to achieve a suitably wasted look for his cameo as a drugged-up felon in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“. (There’s no evidence to suggest he was drinking tiger blood, though) 😉
7: In “Aliens“, Hicks was originally played by James Remar, but Michael Biehn replaced him a few days after principal photography began, due to “artistic differences” between Remar and director James Cameron. However, Remar still appears in the finished film – but wearing the same armor, and shot from behind, it’s impossible to tell the difference between the two actors.
8: Billy Crystal was originally offered the role of Woody in “Toy Story” and he accepted. After Tom Hanks expressed a desire to voice the role, they offered Crystal a future role in a Pixar film that they would tailor to his talents. Crystal told them to “do what’s best for your movie and don’t forget me when something good comes around.” They didn’t and offered him the role of Mike in “Monster Inc.”
9: Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” was intended to be a much darker drama called “Anhedonia” (named after the psychological condition of being unable to experience pleasure). One subplot later became the basis for Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery“.
10: Throughout the films of John Landis are posters of fictional film “See You Next Wednesday“. The director uses the in-joke from an unfilmed screenplay he wrote as a teenager. We finally see the film – a British porno – in “An American Werewolf In London“.
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 