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“.
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).
Director: Lars von Trier.
Screenplay: Lars von Trier.
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LeBeouf, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Jean-Marc Barr, Connie Nielsen, Mia Goth, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Udo Kier, Michael Pas, Jesper Christensen, Saskia Reeves, Caroline Goodall.
“Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I’ve always demanded more from the sunset. More spectacular colours when the sun hit the horizon. That’s perhaps my only sin.”
When provocateur Lars von Trier released the magnificent “Dogville” in 2003 and followed it up with “Manderlay” in 2005, I was very eager to see him complete his USA: Land of Opportunities trilogy. Unfortunately, the third instalment “Wasington” never came to fruition. He did, however, venture into another trilogy – focusing on depression. The gruelling and unforgettable “AntiChrist” was the first, followed by the restrained and meditative “Melancholia“. Now, von Trier completes this outstanding trilogy in style.
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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Director: Spike Jonze.
Screenplay: Spike Jonze.
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pratt, Portia Doubleday, Steve Zississ, Bill Hader.
Voices: Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cox, Spike Jonze, Kristen Wiig.
“Love is a form of socially acceptable insanity”
After bringing the warped and surreal works of Charlie Kaufman’s “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” to the screen, director Spike Jonze carved himself a reputation for the off-beat. However, a misjudged adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story “Where The Wild Things Are” followed and I have to admit that doubts were raised about his abilities. I wondered how much of Jonze was in his earlier films or did he actually need Kaufman in order to construct something of substance? On the evidence of “Her“, though, it’s apparent that Jonze is the real deal and fully capable of crafting his own original work.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée.
Screenplay: Craig Borten, Melissa Wallack.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Denis O’Hare, Steve Zahn, Michael O’Neill, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne, Kevin Rankin, J.D. Evermore.
“Let me give y’all a little news flash. There ain’t nothin’ out there can kill fuckin’ Ron Woodroof in 30 days”
There has been no better or more consistent actor over the last few years than that of Matthew McConaughey. It’s a fact! From someone who started a bright early career and worked with the likes of such quality directors as Richard Linklater, John Sayles, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, he soon drifted into the dreaded rom-com territory that’s no better than drifting into obscurity altogether. His reputation wasn’t amounting to his early promise and it seemed he would never recover. So when did it all go right for him then? Well, in 2011, he got back in tow with Linklater to do “Bernie” and followed that up with dark and blisteringly brave performances in William Friedkin’s “Killer Joe“, Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike“. It didn’t stop there, though. He continued his solid work in Jeff Nichols’ “Mud” and a brief but excellent role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf Of Wall Street” before finally delivering this awards laden performance in “Dallas Buyers Club“. The resurrection of his career is complete and McConaughey’s work has now, rightfully, gained the respect of critics and viewers alike.
MARKED MOVIES 