Movie Trivia: The Silence of the Lambs
Gene Hackman originally wanted to direct and write the screenplay for the movie based on the novel. He was also going to play Dr. Lecter himself. But time passed and he lost interest; Jonathan Demme picked it up and wanted Michelle Pfeiffer to play Clarice Starling. She, however, thought it was too dark. Of course, all three roles that were replaced – director, actor and actress – won Academy Awards.
Warner Brothers really didn’t care for the original title, which happened to be Beetlejuice. They suggested House Ghosts, which Burton hated, so he retaliated with the equally horrible Scared Sheetless, just to annoy them. He was mortified when they loved it and considered using it.
Air equals gravity in movies (again)
No WAY. Air = gravity. No air = no gravity. How clearer could it be? This also happened in the movie Wall-E and I posted about it then. Basically, many people think that if there is no air there is no gravity. It sort of makes sense – if you are in space, there is no air and no gravity. Except that there IS gravity in orbit. And what about the moon? There is no air there, but clearly there is gravity.
Top 278 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With “Pants”
I find your lack of pants disturbing.
Chewie and me got into a lot of pants more heavily guarded than this.
You came in those pants? You’re braver than I thought.
Governer Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s pants.
Tell that to Jabba. If you’re lucky he might only take your pants.
A Brief History of Stop-Motion Animation
O’Brien’s work inspired his young assistant Ray Harryhausen who followed in his footsteps by creating sequences and films that further blended stop-motion model/puppet animation with live-action footage. One of his finest pieces of work was the sequence in Jason and the Argonauts featuring a fight with seven skeletal warriors who are all performed via stop-motion animation. Not too shabby for 1963.
Here’s a shocker – the film wasn’t shot in Punxsutawney at all. Instead, Woodstock, Illinois was used. Punxsutawnians (I don’t know if that is what citizens of Punxsutawney are really called or not) were very upset by this at first, but later understood that perhaps their beloved town wasn’t quite Hollywood-worthy. For instance, the Punxsutawney had no town square, whereas Woodstock’s town square made for a very iconic, small-town feeling. Several scenes from Planes, Trains and Automobiles was also filmed in Woodstock.
Jerry O’Connell (Vern) had never really acted before – he had just one commercial under his belt. When he auditioned, he recognized Rob Reiner and said, “Aren’t you the guy on channel 5?” At the time, the local channel 5 had been airing reruns of All in the Family at the time and Jerry recognized Rob as Meathead.
(BTW, John Lennon’s cover of this song is pretty good)
Diandra writes about social networks at Cocktail Party Physics, in it really is a small world
This reminds me that according to the Oracle of Bacon and some simple math, I have a Bacon number of three, sort of. Back when I was in high school, the local TV station (WRGB Channel 6) must have been desperate to fill some news time, because they schlepped a few doors down the road to the high school and interviewed some of us. I was interviewed by Ernie Tetrault, the news anchor (though he got my name wrong — the name that appeared onscreen was “Tim,” and I was recognized by a teller at the bank the next day. “OMG, you’re Tim Swanson!” Fame is so fleeting*) Ernie Tetrault has Bacon number of 2, as he was in the movie Sneakers (as a news anchor) with Stephen Tobolowsky, who was in a movie with Kevin Bacon (Murder in the First).
*but this allows me to say “There some who call me … Tim”
Movie Trivia: The Princess Bride
Billy Crystal specified that his character’s makeup should look like a cross between Casey Stengel and his grandmother. Rob Reiner had to leave the room every time Billy had a scene, because he would laugh so hard he would ruin the take otherwise. Mandy Patinkin says, “God’s honest truth,” that despite all of his risky fencing scenes, the only injury he sustained during the whole movie was bruising a rib from holding in his laughter during Billy Crystal’s scenes.
