Trivia: This film has both the final acting role for Ian Holm, who played the older Bilbo, and the final live-action role for Christopher Lee, who played Saruman. (His only roles after were voice-overs.) Holm passed away in 2020, while Lee passed away in 2015.
TedStixon
7th Jan 2023
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
7th Jan 2023
Mimic (1997)
Trivia: Director Guillermo del Toro's father was kidnapped and held for ransom for two months around the time the movie was made and released. Despite this, del Tor has half-jokingly, half-seriously said that working with Bob and Harvey Weinstein was the worst thing that ever happened to him, as they were rude and kept asking him to change the movie in different ways. He quipped that he at least knew what the kidnappers wanted (money), whereas he had no clue what the Weinsteins wanted out of the film.
28th Dec 2022
Gremlins (1984)
Trivia: Key Luke actually had to wear old-age makeup to play Mr. Wing despite being about 80 years old at the time, as he looked significantly younger than he actually was. Zach Galligan once asked him how he maintained his looks at his age, and Luke simply replied "No fried food."
28th Dec 2022
Gremlins (1984)
Trivia: When Billy is running to work with Barney at the beginning, you can't see it, but Barney actually has a piece of fishing line attached to his collar being held by Billy's actor. The dog kept running away when they'd shoot the scene, so they had to make an "invisible leash" for him. If you look, you can see the dog suddenly speed up a few times... that's because the line started pulling his collar.
28th Dec 2022
Gremlins (1984)
26th Dec 2022
Scream (1996)
Trivia: The first major theatrical film scored by Marco Beltrami, who had previously only worked on small indie and television projects. Wes Craven and the studio wanted a new sound for the movie's score, and hired Beltrami based on a sample he provided. Beltrami ironically had never even seen a horror movie before, so he didn't approach the materially traditionally. Beltrami has since become an incredibly popular and prolific composer, with well over 100 credits to his name.
26th Dec 2022
Scream (1996)
Trivia: In what was then an odd move, the film was released around Christmas, with producer Bob Weinstein taking a gamble that horror fans wouldn't have anything else to watch, so they'd go see it. The movie underperformed its opening weekend, grossing only $6 million. However, strong reviews and excellent word of mouth caused ticket sales to spike in the following weeks, and it remained in the top-10 for over two months, eventually becoming a massive sleeper hit and grossing $100 million domestically.
26th Dec 2022
Scream VI (2023)
Trivia: Kirby is the first character in the franchise to return alive after being supposedly "killed off." Her character was last seen gasping in a pool of blood in "Scream 4," and was loosely implied to have died. However, director Wes Craven loved the character and purposely avoided showing her dead body to make her death slightly ambiguous, in case they wanted to bring her back. A small blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg in the fifth film confirmed Kirby in fact survived.
26th Dec 2022
Scream VI (2023)
Trivia: This is the only "Scream" movie that doesn't feature series star Neve Campbell. Campbell decided not to return due to a contract dispute, feeling the pay she was being offered by the studio was insultingly low given her history with the series. Her castmates and the directors supported her decision. Almost exactly one year to the day after "Scream VI" was released, Campbell confirmed that she would return for the seventh film, with her contract dispute having been settled in the meantime.
25th Dec 2022
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Trivia: The scene in which Wanda gets angry and screams "Stop it!" at her variant's children was real. The boys were throwing things at her for part of the scene, and accidentally smacked Elizabeth Olsen hard in the face, hurting her. But they didn't realise they hurt her and kept throwing things. Seconds later, she reflexively screamed "Stop it!", legitimately terrifying them. She immediately felt terrible about snapping at them, but it worked for the scene - it was the take used in the final movie.
21st Dec 2022
Darkman (1990)
Trivia: The construction site where the climax takes place was a real 3-story set. Due to the budget, the actors often didn't have safety wires. Co-star Colin Friels actually fell from the top and broke his femur during filming. Ever the professional, he came back to set as soon as he got out of the hospital.
21st Dec 2022
Darkman (1990)
Trivia: Supposedly, the studio didn't understand the film, and cut many vital scenes before locking the picture. The weekend after "Darkman" was locked, director Sam Raimi, his producer and his editors (allegedly) broke into the studio, added back in about 10 minutes of scenes the studio had deleted, and had this new restored version mastered and prints made from it. The studio heads were furious when they found out, but had no choice but to use it, since the first screenings were only 2 days later.
21st Dec 2022
Darkman (1990)
Trivia: According to composer Danny Elfman, when Darkman is splashed by water from a passing car after escaping the hospital, that was him throwing water at Liam Neeson with a bucket. Elfman had never met director Sam Raimi, and visited set to interview for the job of scoring the movie. The second Elfman got to set, Raimi introduced himself, told Elfman he loved his work and wanted him to score the film... then said "Let's get to work!" and asked him to throw a bucket of water at Neeson.
21st Dec 2022
Darkman (1990)
Trivia: The studio really wanted Julia Roberts for the role of Julie, but she had just broken up with star Liam Neeson, whom she briefly dated. They did hold an audition together and were cordial with one-another, but Roberts had her agent politely turn the offer down, since she felt too awkward and sad working with an ex so soon after the relationship ended.
21st Dec 2022
Darkman (1990)
Trivia: When Eddie Black is listing off his three points, when he gives his second point, pay attention to Ted Raimi as the camera moves forward. He glances offscreen (presumably at a crew-member or the director), realises he's on-camera, looks surprised, and quickly looks back forward, pretending like he didn't just look at something off-screen. Technically not a mistake, since you could argue he was looking at something in the scene, but it's clear he made a slight flub, so it's amusing to look for.
17th Dec 2022
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Trivia: The movie came about partially thanks to the "Super Nintendo World" theme parks. As the Nintendo World parks were to be situated in Universal Studios theme parks, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto met many Universal executives, including Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, to discuss the park's creation. Miyamoto felt Meledandri was a kindred spirit due to their similar creative processes and began talking with him about making a new Mario movie. Within a few years, the project was greenlit.
17th Dec 2022
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
28th Nov 2022
Enchanted (2007)
Trivia: Writer Bill Kelly's first draft of the script was written in the mid-90's as a cynical, R-rated raunchy comedy. There were many adult scenes, such as Giselle accidentally becoming a stripper and meeting Robert at a boozy bachelor party. Kelly and director Kevin Lima reworked the script into a more family-friendly homage/parody to classic Disney films when it finally went into production after being stuck for nearly a decade of development hell.
23rd Nov 2022
The Fifth Element (1997)
Trivia: The film was one of the first movies Sony released on the high-definition Blu-ray format in 2006. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray was considered a disaster due to a poor remaster that looked essentially indecipherable from the standard-def DVD. It was so widely hated that a year later, Sony released a replacement Blu-ray with a new HD remaster, and offered free copies to anyone who bought the original release. Thankfully this second Blu-ray was widely praised for its (much) better picture quality.
22nd Nov 2022
The Fifth Element (1997)
Trivia: It has been speculated by some that Ruby Rhod's name was derived from the natural elements Rubidium and Rhodium... two elements which are both classified as "Period 5" elements, which would fit perfectly with the title "The Fifth Element." This theory has never been confirmed or denied by the cast or crew.