The Trick That Fooled Winston Churchill – Revealed
Today we have a magic trick famous for fooling Winston Churchill who had the magician repeat it 6 times!
Source: Bits and Pieces.
Source: Bits and Pieces.
Category: Celebs
Source: Bits and Pieces.
The Poster and Trailer for “Warrior” (Based on the Writings of Bruce Lee) is Here!
Bruce Lee fans probably know that Lee tried to sell a tv series about a Chinese warrior in the old west. Although the series never sold, the Kung Fu tv series was sure close… and sadly Bruce Lee didn’t get the lead, David Carradine did.
Thanks to Cinemax, Warrior, based on the writings of Bruce Lee is coming soon. Today we have the poster and first trailer. If I had Cinemax, I’d tune in.
“The Dirty Dozen” Gets the Cinephilia and Beyond Treatment!
The Dirty Dozen is a classic. If you agree, then you’re going to want to check out Slaughterhouse Twelve: Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen at Cinephilia and Beyond.
Click on the link and you’ll find…
- Nunnally Johnson & Lukas Heller’s screenplay for The Dirty Dozen
- OPERATION DIRTY DOZEN: A behind-the-scenes video on the making of The Dirty Dozen
- Rare behind-the-scenes photos
- and much more!
The “Master of Dark Shadows” Trailer is Here!
If you’re of a certain age, then the photo above of Jonathan Frid as Barnabus Collins will bring back a lot of great memories. Frid became a cult hero playing a vampire on a soap opera called Dark Shadows.
What’s interesting is that Dark Shadows started out as a typical soap opera. Because the series was facing cancellation, Curtis decided he had nothing to lose and brought in a vampire! Ratings soared and the series spawned two movies, comic books, novelizations, trading cards and more.
Watch Walt Simonson Draw Ragnarok!
Thanks to SYFY Wire we can watch and listen to legendary artist, Walt Simonson as he draws Ragnarok!
Albert Einstein Trivia
Lucas Reilly and Mental Floss present 19 Things You Might Not Have Known About Albert Einstein. Here are three of my favorites…
4. NOBODY KNOWS EINSTEIN’S IQ.
Einstein’s IQ was never tested, though that hasn’t stopped people from guessing. Lots of websites claim the physicist’s IQ was 160, but there’s simply no way of verifying that claim. “One fundamental problem with the estimates I’ve seen is that they tend to conflate intellectual ability with domain-specific achievement,” Dean Keith Simonton, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis told Biography. For all we know, Einstein’s aptitude in arenas outside of physics might have rivaled that of an average Joe.
6. FASHION WAS NOT EINSTEIN’S STRONG SUIT.
Einstein hated wearing socks and was immensely proud of the fact that he didn’t have to wear them while giving lectures at Oxford in the 1930s. His antipathy apparently stemmed from a childhood realization: “When I was young I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock,” Einstein reportedly said. “So I stopped wearing socks.” As an adult, he typically wore an undershirt, baggy trousers held by rope, and a pair of (occasionally women’s) sandals.
18. EINSTEIN WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR YODA.
Yoda’s face was partly modeled after Einstein’s. According to Star Wars special-effects artist Nick Maley, “A picture of Einstein ended up on the wall behind the Yoda sculptures and the wrinkles around Einstein’s eyes somehow got worked into the Yoda design. Over the course of this evolutionary process Yoda slowly changed from a comparatively spritely [sic], tall, skinny, grasshopper kind of character into the old wise spirited gnome that we all know today.”
Sly Stallone’s Next Movie & TV Projects
The photo above comes from Sly Stallone’s Official Instagram and is one of a series of photos from the set of Sly’s next film, Rambo V: Last Blood.
Sly has several films in development and is busier than ever. Here’s what’s in the works:
- Hunter: Sly is set to star in the adaptation of James Byron Huggin’s best-selling novel of the same name. This is the film Stallone fans have been hoping for, since the novel’s release as it was written with Sly in mind. The film will be part of Sly’s Balboa Productions.
- Samaritan: is set to star Stallone in the tale of a young boy who learns that a superhero who disappeared years ago may still be alive. MGM and Balboa Productions will team for this one.
Sylvester Stallone and Balboa Productions have also acquired the rights to…
- Ghost: My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent by Michael McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo for a movie adaptation.
- A untitled film written by retired Army Ranger Max Adams.
- Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon for television.
- Second Son based on the bestselling novel by Charles Sailor, also for television.
Source: ComingSoon.
“Year of the Dragon” Trivia
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 28 Things We Learned from Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
8. While set primarily in New York City, much of the film was shot in North Carolina including the sequences on the streets of Chinatown. They recreated streets with attention to detail up to and including the angled grade of their Mott Street — the “main” street in NYC’s Chinatown — which is not actually flat. They took plaster casts of curbstones and recreated the grade for authenticity, something he says most NYC reproductions on film don’t achieve. “If you look at Ragtime, it’s flat, and that’s why it doesn’t look like New York [City]. It’s a very rocky little island.” He’s proud of their accomplishment as it even fooled Stanley Kubrick. The legendary director was given a screening in London where he told Cimino that “Chinatown looks so great.” Cimino told him the truth, and after a little bit of back and forth Kubrick realized he’d been duped. “If you can fool Kubrick, who had the best eye in the world, you can fool anyone.” The sets have been reused in dozens of films in the years since.
12. He feels Lone and Mickey Rourke compliment each other well and achieve his goal of confusing “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” He says the bad guy is attractive and likable, the good guy is neither of those things, and viewers are ultimately forced to like the good guy because of what he does.
18. He credits Clint Eastwood with his career. Cimino’s debut as writer/director, 1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, only got made thanks to Eastwood’s belief in him. The contract gave Eastwood the right to fire him after the first three days of shooting, and thankfully he never felt compelled to do so.
Peter Tork – R.I.P.
Peter Tork died today after a long battle with cancer at the age of 77.
Born Peter Thorkelson on February 13, 1942, Peter was, of course, better known as Peter Tork a member of The Monkees.
The Monkees [Peter, along with Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Michael Nesmith] took the world by storm in 1966. The group was hand-picked by Screen Gems in an effort to create a tv show about a group of young musicians. Lightning struck and the group not only had a hit tv series but became one of the biggest selling bands of the 60’s. In 1967, The Monkees sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined. The Monkees even appeared in a feature film called Head that was co-written by Jack Nicholson!
I was a huge Monkees fan like many kids my age [7]. I collected their albums, trading cards, comic books and magazines. I had a model of The Monkeemobile. I even followed The Monkees after Peter, then later Mike, quit the band. Sadly, I never got to see them perform live when they reunited for several reunion tours.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Peter’s family, friends and fans.
Grzegorz Domaradzki’s “Game of Death” Poster!
Grzegorz Domaradzki is an amazing artist and graphic designer as you can see from his Game of Death poster. Check out a bigger version by clicking on the photo above.
Source: Movie Poster Movement.
Jack Benny in “Casablanca”
Fans of Jack Benny and/or Humphrey Bogart probably know that they appeared together on an episode of The Jack Benny Show. But for years there has been a rumor that Jack Benny made an uncredited cameo appearance in Casablanca.
BookSteve’s Library takes a look at the rumor, finds newspaper articles and contests indicating that Benny did make an appearance in Casablanca and comes up with a conclusion that may surprise you. If this interests you, check out Jack Benny in Casablanca.
Rambo by Kyle Frink
Once a week Joblo.com posts Awesome Art We’ve Found Around the Net.
I always enjoy seeing what JoBlo has found because with each post they list the artist’s name and a link to more of his/her art. That’s where I saw this Rambo poster by Kyle Frink. Click on the pic above to see a bigger version.
The Impact of The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
On February 9, 1964, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In this age of hundreds of channels, the internet and celebrities having personal access to multiple social media outlets, it may be difficult to understand the impact that the Beatles performing on Ed Sullivan’s show had for those not alive during that time.
I was five. My mother got me out of bed to watch. We weren’t alone, as nearly 40% of the US population had tuned in.
Stacy Conradt presents 10 Facts About The Beatles’s ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ Debut, Here are three of my favorites…
THE BAND DIDN’T COME CHEAP …
Much like The Tonight Show today, being asked to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s was a huge honor for up-and-coming (and established) artists in the 1960s. The publicity generated from an appearance on the show was enough for most talent to say yes. But The Beatles would only agree to appear if the show covered their travel expenses and paid them a $10,000 fee (which would be just over $80,000 in 2019 dollars). Sullivan and his producers agreed, but only if The Beatles would commit to making three appearances. They had a deal.
BUT THEY ENDED UP BEING A RELATIVE BARGAIN.
Though forking over travel expenses and an appearance fee wasn’t the norm for The Ed Sullivan Show, it ended up being a great deal for the program, and proof that Beatlemania was just as thriving in America as it was in the UK. It’s been estimated that close to 74 million people—40 percent of the country’s population at that time—tuned in to watch The Beatles play.
ONE OF THE MONKEES WAS ON THAT NIGHT, TOO.
Davy Jones was also on The Ed Sullivan Show that night, but not as part of The Monkees. Jones was performing with the cast of Broadway’s Oliver! Jones played the Artful Dodger, first in London then in New York, and ended up being nominated for a Tony for the role.
Steranko’s Concept Art for “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
What we’re looking at above is extremely rare concept paintings for Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Jim Steranko. I’d love to see a book of Steranko’s movie concept art (Dracula, Raiders, etc.), but then again, who wouldn’t?
Click on the photo above to see a larger version.
Source: Cool Comic Art
Steranko on Twitter: @iamsteranko
Snake Plissken: The Made & Unmade Movies and More
When John Carpenter and Kurt Russell developed the character of Snake Plissken for Escape from New York, they knew they had a winning character. Russell enjoyed playing Snake, Carpenter had plans for many future adventures, and most importantly fans loved Snake Plissken.
Snake (Kurt and Carpenter) returned for Escape from LA. Although not as well-received as EFNY, Escape from LA was not going to be the final adventure for our one-eyed anti-hero. Next up was to be Escape from Earth. Sadly, that film never left the launching pad.
But Snake Plissken didn’t fade away. There were plans for future films, a tv series, comics (that did happen) and video games. Kieran Fisher at Film School Rejects discusses them all in his article The Snake Plissken Sequels We’ll Never Get to See. Since you’ve read this far, my guess is you’ll enjoy it.
