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Trivia: The mini-series was originally going to be directed by "Night of the Living Dead" director George A. Romero, who intended for it to be ten hours long. Romero had to bow out, and the mini-series was substantially edited down to a more palatable and cheaper four hours. (With commercials).

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Trivia: Co-star John Ritter was a huge Stephen King fan, and was reportedly a little miffed that the "turtle" from the original novel was not referenced in the movie.

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Trivia: If you look closely, there are some odd and off-kilter pieces of furniture and decoration in adult Stan's home. This was done on purpose, to subtly imply something was "off" about him since his encounter with "it."

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Trivia: Jarred Blancard, who played young Henry Bowers, was very much the polar opposite of his savage character. For example, he absolutely hated having to call his co-star Marlon Taylor the "n-word," and was very uncomfortable saying it. He would frequently and profusely apologize to Taylor before and after every take when he had to say.

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Trivia: A live-action American remake has been in the works since the 1990's. It has repeatedly been postponed due to budgetary concerns.

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Trivia: At the time, the film had a record budget for an animated film in Japan, coming in at around $10 million US dollars. (Though its budget has since been surpassed by a number of other films).

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Trivia: "Akira" is something of a rarity for 80's Japanese anime films because the voices were recorded ahead of time and the animation was made to match the voices. At the time, the animation usually came first and the voice actors would try to match it.

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Trivia: The film was comprised of 160,000 still images. At the time, it used a record 327 different colors - many of which were created specifically for the film. Part of the reason it used so many colors was because a lot of the film takes place at night, which requires a completely different set of paints.

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Trivia: Kanye West has called "Akira" one of his favorite films, and even included references to it in the music video for his song "Stronger."

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Trivia: The sequence involving black circles at the very end of the film (right before the line "I am Tetsuo!") was actually just a quick animation and color-gradient test the animation team did that was never intended to be part of the movie. The director decided to include it in the final cut.

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Trivia: Musetta Vander portrays Sindel, the mother of Kitana. In real life, Vander is only four years older than Talisa Soto, who plays Kitana.

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Trivia: The actress who plays Mileena was actually the stunt double for Kitana in the first film. This is pretty ironic, as the character Mileena is a clone of Kitana in the video-game lore.

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Trivia: "Mortal Kombat" co-created Ed Boon has called "Annihilation" the worst thing to come out of the overall franchise.

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Trivia: Originaly, Sheeva was meant to have a larger presence in the film, and was even going to have a two-on-one fight scene with Liu Kang and Raiden. Unfortunately, last minute budget cuts meant that most of her scenes had to be scrapped. This explains her limited screentime and rather abrupt, unceremonious death.

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Trivia: Actor and stunt performer Steve James was reportedly cast (or at very least was the favorite pick) for the part of Jax, which was originally meant to be a larger role. Tragically, he passed away from cancer nine months before filming started. The part ended up going to Gregory McKinney.

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Trivia: The producers desperately wanted the techno and electronic dance music featured in the film, but reportedly many record companies fought against it and turned down the project. One record company even suggested that instead of techno and EDM, Janet Jackson should provide most of the music, and that it should all be pop based. The producers persisted, and it eventually worked out - they got the music they wanted and the soundtrack album ended up going platinum.

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Trivia: Reportedly, Tom Cruise happened to be near the set one day, and wandered over to see what they were shooting. A medic who worked for the crew reportedly got in Cruise's face and refused to let him pass. The cast and crew were both mortified but also highly amused when they found out what happened later on.

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Trivia: After defeating Baraka, Johnny Cage quips the word "Toasty!" This is a reference to an Easter-Egg from the video-game series, in which sound designer Dan Forden would appear in the corner of the screen and say "Toasty!" in a high-pitched voice. (The word came from Forden playfully taunting his friends at video-games. He used to say things like "You're toast!" or "I predict toast!" when he was doing well. It eventually morphed into the catchphrase "Toasty!").

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Trivia: The vampiric woman who snarls at Johnny is a cameo appearance by Nitara, a character from several of the games.

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Trivia: In one scene, two people are trying to break anvils with their hands. This is a reference to the "Test Your Might" mini-games from the original video-game.

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