Vin Diesel – Breakdancing Instructor?!?
Vin Diesel — before he was Riddick, before he was Dominic Toretto, before he was Groot — he was a breakdancing instructor!
17 Action-Packed Facts About “Crimson Tide”
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 17 Action-Packed Facts About Crimson Tide. Here are three are my favorites…
2. QUENTIN TARANTINO WAS AN UNCREDITED WRITER.
Though Michael Schiffer earned the film’s sole screenplay credit (based on a story by Schiffer and Richard P. Henrick), Tarantino contributed some words to the script as well. He wrote the scene in which members of the crew talked about their favorite submarine movies. Tarantino and Tony Scott had worked together two years earlier, when Scott directed Tarantino’s script for True Romance.
3. DENZEL WASHINGTON CONFRONTED TARANTINO ON THE SET.
Washington was very open with his anger about Tarantino’s use of racial slurs. The Pulp Fiction writer-director’s request that they have their argument privately was reportedly denied by Denzel. In a 2012 interview with GQ, Washington said that he has since apologized to Tarantino, and pointed out that his own daughter had just acted in Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
14. HACKMAN ACCIDENTALLY PUNCHED WASHINGTON.
Though Hackman insisted to Larry King that it was an accident, he said it made things tense.
Mike Zeck Talks About His Artist’s Edition and More!
Mike Zeck is getting the Artist’s Edition treatment and that book is going to be sweet. CBR.com recently caught up with Mike to discuss his artist’s edition and more.
Eric Beetner Interview!
If you enjoy crime fiction then you’re probably already a fan of Eric Beetner… and you know about S.W. Lauden’s interview with him.
Take the Action Movie Tagline Quiz
Why not take the Action Movie Tagline Quiz. While you can’t beat me on the number correct, you probably can beat my time!
Michael Karas’ Minute and a Half Video Puzzle
You have to watch this video three times to discover the secret. The first “video puzzle” by Michael Karas.
Source: Mark Evanier.
John Ridley and “American Crime”
I discovered John Ridley through his novels. He’s an amazing writer.
Ridley is probably best known as the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave.
Ridley is also the creative genius behind the series American Crime. The series is unlike anything on television. The emotions are so raw, so real, that it was hard to watch some episodes. But I’m glad I did. What a ride!
If you tuned in to the series or want to know more about it, why not check out Anna Lisa Raya’s interview with John Ridley?
Source: Deadline.
10 Times Art Imitates Life in Coppola’s “The Godfather”
David Hunter and Flickchart The Blog present The Annotated Godfather: 10 Times Art Imitates Life in Coppola’s Classics. Godfather fans and history buffs alike will enjoy this piece.
Here are three are my favorites [click over to the article for full details of each]…
1. “Make Him An Offer He Can’t Refuse”: Johnny Fontane and Frank Sinatra
2. “Jack Dempsey’s joint”: Crooks and Crooked Fighters
4. “I’ve loved baseball ever since…”: The 1919 World Series
Arnold Schwarzenegger Interview
Eric Kohn of Indiewire recently interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger about his career, how he picks projects and more. It is worth a read.
27 Things We Learned from George Miller’s “The Road Warrior” Commentary
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 27 Things We Learned from George Miller’s The Road Warrior Commentary. Here are three are my favorites…
3. For as much as the film is known for its vehicular action, Semler says they simulated a lot of travel too. “If you can see the road moving behind, we’re moving. If you don’t see anything moving behind, we’re not moving.”
16. Miller loves the bit with the mechanic (Steve J. Spears) in the swing evaluating the truck the engine and the blond guy repeating it much louder. It wasn’t planned, and the pair just started doing it on their own. “This is nice,” says Semler. Miller agrees saying it’s one of the lighter moments in the movie. On that same topic the duo count how many times Max smiles throughout the film, and they get as high as three.
22. The compound explosion was so big that they had to notify airlines in advance in case of any jets passing overhead.
Robb Pratt’s Animated “Flash Gordon” Classic
I dig everything about Robb Pratt’s animated tribute to the classic Flash Gordon and would love to see more!
Awesome Japanese “Road Warrior” Poster
If you like the Japanese Road Warrior poster above, then click here to see a larger version.
Source: 41 Strange.
15 Epic Facts About “Gladiator”
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Epic Facts About Gladiator. Here are three are my favorites…
1. STEVEN SPIELBERG GREENLIT THE MOVIE AFTER ASKING THREE QUESTIONS.
Screenwriter David Franzoni received a three-picture deal with Dreamworks SKG after writing the script for Amistad. During a “surprisingly brief” pitch meeting with Spielberg for what would become Gladiator, Franzoni told the Writers Guild of America that the director “really had three basic questions. My gladiator movie, it was about ancient Roman gladiators—not American, Japanese, whatever else? Yes, I said. Taking place in the ancient Coliseum? Yes. Fighting with swords and animals to the death and such? Yes. Great, let’s make the movie.”
10. CROWE WASN’T THRILLED WITH THE SCRIPT (OR LACK THEREOF).
While appearing on Inside the Actors Studio, Crowe said that only 32 pages of the script were completed when shooting commenced. Co-writer William Nicholson recounted how Crowe once told him, “Your lines are garbage but I’m the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good.” Initially, Crowe didn’t care for the now-famous line “And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next,” but repeatedly failed to ad-lib anything better.
13. JOHNNY CASH WAS A FAN OF THE FILM.
Before he was hired to play the legendary singer in Walk the Line, Phoenix recalled to The Guardian how he once met Johnny Cash by pure coincidence, and how he “started quoting to me the most sadistic dialogue from Gladiator with obvious relish.”
Eight Bizarre Facts About Rod Serling and “The Twilight Zone”
Jake Rosen and Mental_Floss present Eight Bizarre Facts About Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone. Here are three are my favorites…
2. The Episode That Won an Oscar
When Serling’s budget for the series tightened in the fifth and final season, he decided on an unusual cost-cutting measure: the writer paid $10,000 (by some accounts, $25,000) for the rights to broadcast An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a French short based on the Ambrose Bierce story about a Confederate sympathizer who escapes the hangman’s noose at the end of the Civil War. No dubbing was needed: the short was virtually silent, and its haunting cinematography was a perfect fit for the show. The year prior, it had won an Oscar for Best Short Subject. Bierce’s story was also adapted into an episode of the other popular anthology of the day, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, marking the only time the two series used the same source material.4. Six Dimensions
When Serling recorded his famous opening narration for the pilot episode in 1959, he began by intoning that there was “a sixth dimension” to explore. A CBS executive heard it and asked the writer why he had skipped a fifth dimension—weren’t there only four? Serling, puzzled, hadn’t really considered it. “Oh,” he said. “Aren’t there five?” The narration was re-recorded before any angry letters from physicists poured in.8. God Complex
Though he spoke fondly of Serling through his entire career, Zone teleplay writer Richard Matheson (“Steel,” “The Invaders”) found one mandate puzzling: According to Matheson, only Serling could use the word “God” in his teleplays. It was off-limits to the rest of the writing team. “I used to get ticked off at Rod because he could put ‘God’ in all his scripts,” Matheson said. “If I did it, they’d cross it out.” Matheson never asked, and was never told, the reason behind the rule. Chalk it up to a mystery worthy of The Twilight Zone.
15 Things You Might Not Know About “The Green Mile”
Michael Arbeiter and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Might Not Know About The Green Mile. Here are three are my favorites…
2. BRUCE WILLIS HELPED CAST A STARRING ROLE.
The character John Coffey’s unique blend of imposing stature and gentle demeanor made casting the part a tricky task. Luckily, Bruce Willis had the right man for the job. Upon hearing of the casting search for the character, Willis was sure his friend and Armageddon costar Michael Clarke Duncan was a perfect fit for the role. Willis used his A-list pull to contact Darabont and suggest his greenhorn friend for the film.7. DUNCAN WASN’T ACTUALLY THAT TALL. At 6 feet 5 inches tall, Duncan was a large man by anyone’s measure. However, he was practically average height on the set of The Green Mile, alongside costars David Morse (6 feet 4 inches) and James Cromwell (6 feet 6 inches). Blocking tactics gave Duncan the appearance of towering over his costars.
13. THE GREEN MILE WAS THE HIGHEST GROSSING STEPHEN KING MOVIE.
While The Shining claims the longstanding cult esteem and The Shawshank Redemption might top the lot in basic cable omnipresence, the somewhat less heralded The Green Mile that managed to hit an impressive $136.8 million in domestic ticket sales and $286.8 million worldwide.
