15 Infamous Facts About “The Three Amigos”

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Anna Green and Mental_Floss present 15 Infamous Facts About The Thrree Amigos.  Here are three of my favorites… [Beware of Spoilers!]

6. JOHN LANDIS’S FAVORITE MOMENT WHILE SHOOTING WAS AN ARGUMENT WITH CHEVY CHASE.
Landis told Movies.com, “Probably the funniest moment for me when shooting was when I had the Three Amigos on horseback in the desert and I was shooting while they were wearing those ridiculous outfits and after having been shooting for three weeks, Chevy objected to a line of dialogue and he said, ‘I don’t think I should say this.’ And, remember, Chevy plays a character named Dusty Bottoms. So I said, ‘Well, why not?’ He said, ‘Because my character would have to be a moron to say this.’ All I could think was, What movie has Chevy been making? So I said, ‘OK, I’ll give it to Marty because it’s a laugh.’ Then Chevy said, ‘I’ll say it!’ It’s one of my favorite moments with an actor.”

7. SEVERAL FILMS THAT CAME OUT AFTER ¡THREE AMIGOS! SHARED ITS PREMISE.
Like ¡Three Amigos!, films like Galaxy Quest (1999) and Tropic Thunder (2008) have featured movie stars accidentally ending up in real danger. Vulture outlined the many similaritiesbetween Tropic Thunder and ¡Three Amigos!, which include everything from similar catchphrases and movie star cameos (Tom Cruise plays Jewish film producer Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder while Joe Mantegna plays Jewish film producer Harry Flugleman in ¡Three Amigos!) to characters eating bats when they’re short on food. Galaxy Quest meanwhile featured a group of washed up sci-fi stars who end up cavorting with real aliens.

Referring to the spate of movies that borrow from the ¡Three Amigos! premise, John Landis said, “They completely ripped it off! The first Pixar movie about the ants, A Bug’s Life, took the same plot. It’s amazing how often the plot has been used. If Galaxy Quest weren’t so funny, it would probably bother me more.”

13. STEVEN SPIELBERG ALMOST DIRECTED THE FILM.
Spielberg considered making the film in the early 1980s with Martin, Robin Williams, and Bill Murray as the leads. Ultimately, he decided to make E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) instead.

15 Smart Facts About “The Big Bang Theory”

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Garin Pirnia and Mental_Floss present 15 Smart Facts About The Big Bang Theory.  Here are three of my favorites… [Beware of Spoilers!]

2. IT TOOK TWO PILOTS FOR THE SHOW TO GET PICKED UP TO SERIES.
The show filmed two different pilots, because CBS didn’t like the first one but felt the show had potential. The first pilot began with a different theme song and featured Sheldon, Leonard, and two female characters, including a different actress playing what would become the Penny role. Chuck Lorre thought the initial pilot “sucked” but is open to having the unaired pilot included as part of a DVD.

5. SHELDON PROBABLY DOESN’T HAVE ASPERGER’S.
Because of Sheldon’s anti-social nature, viewers have often assumed that Sheldon has Asperger’s syndrome. But Prady has stated that “We write the character as the character. A lot of people see various things in him and make the connections. Our feeling is that Sheldon’s mother never got a diagnosis, so we don’t have one.”

Parsons himself isn’t totally sure, though. “Asperger’s came up as a question within the first few episodes. I got asked about it by a reporter, and I had heard of it, but I didn’t know what it was, specifically,” he told Adweek in 2014. “So I asked the writers—I said, ‘They’re asking me if Sheldon has Asperger’s’ and they were like, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ And I went back and I said, ‘No.’ And then I read some about it and I went, OK, well, if the writers say he doesn’t, then he doesn’t, but he certainly shares some qualities with those who do. I like the way it’s handled … This is who this person is; he’s just another human.”

10. WIL WHEATON GOT THE “EVIL WIL WHEATON” GIG THROUGH TWITTER.
Wheaton, who plays a “delightfully evil version” of himself on the show, tweeted about The Big Bang Theory. Wheaton told Larry King, “I was talking on Twitter about how much I loved the show and how I thought it was really funny.” One of the show’s executive producers, Steven Molaro, saw the tweet and told Wheaton to let him know if he wanted to come to a taping. A few days later Wheaton received an email from Bill Prady’s assistant about appearing on the show. “I just thought the email was a joke from one of my friends, so I just ignored it,” Wheaton said.

When Wheaton realized that the email was legit he phoned up Prady, who explained they wanted a nemesis for Sheldon. “It’s always more fun to be the villain,” Wheaton said. Even though the character has evolved into Sheldon’s ally, Wheaton said, “I still call him Evil Wil Wheaton.”

17 Fascinating Facts About “Apocalypse Now”

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Sean Hutchinson and Mental_Floss present 17 Fascinating Facts About Apocalypse Now.  Here are three of my favorites… [Beware of Spoilers!]

6. COPPOLA LITERALLY PUT EVERYTHING HE HAD INTO THE MOVIE.
The director invested $30 million of his own money into the project to get the budget to the amount required to execute his vision. That total included the valuations of his house and his winery, which he signed over to Chase Bank as collateral on the amount. The interest rate for the amount began at seven percent, but when production ended it was up to 29 percent. If the movie tanked, Coppola faced financial ruin, which understandably made the filming process fairly stressful. Coppola suffered an epileptic seizure while shooting, had a nervous breakdown, and allegedly threatened to commit suicide at least three times.

8. HARRISON FORD APPEARS IN A (TECHNICALLY) PRE-STAR WARS ROLE.
Coppola hired a young actor named Harrison Ford to appear as Colonel Lucas (a nod to George), one of the military officers who gives Willard his orders to assassinate Kurtz. Ford had previously appeared in Lucas’ American Graffiti and Coppola’s The Conversation, but was still relatively unknown when the filming of Apocalypse Now began in 1976.  He would later become a megastar after appearing as Han Solo in Star Wars when it was released in 1977.Apocalypse Now, which was shot before Star Wars, was released afterwards. Ford was apparently so nervous when shooting his scenes that Coppola added a story beat for his character to drop his dossier about Kurtz as a way to incorporate the then young actor’s anxiety into the scene.

5. HARVEY KEITEL WAS FIRST HIRED TO PLAY WILLARD.
Coppola held exhaustive audition sessions for his primary cast, but the part of Willard proved to be a problematic one for Coppola. He first offered the part to actor Steve McQueen, who turned down the role because he didn’t want to shoot in the jungle on location. Al Pacino, James Caan, and Jack Nicholson all turned down successive offers from Coppola until he gave the role to Harvey Keitel. Coppola fired Keitel six weeks into production because he thought the actor’s performance wasn’t as introspective as he needed for the character. So he called Martin Sheen, who had previously auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather and passed on Apocalypse Now because he was shooting The Cassandra Crossing in Rome.

11 Clever Moments of Movie Foreshadowing You May Have Missed

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Rudie Obias and Mental_Floss present 11 Clever Moments of Movie Foreshadowing You May Have Missed.  Here are three of my favorites… [Beware of Spoilers!]

1. PSYCHO (1960)
After Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) checks into the Bates Motel, she overhears the motel’s owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), get into an argument with his mother, who is emotionally abusive toward him. Nevertheless, Norman defends her when Marion suggests that their relationship might be toxic. Norman explains that his mother is “as harmless as one of those stuffed birds.” The line foreshadows the film’s twist when it is revealed that Norman killed and taxidermied his mother.

4. TOTAL RECALL (1990)
Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 science fiction film Total Recall is full of clever clues that keep audiences guessing as to whether Doug Quaid’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) adventure as a secret agent on Mars was real or merely a memory implanted into his brain. One of the biggest hints comes at the beginning of the film, when Quaid visits Rekall and one of the engineers tells him that he will experience “blue skies on Mars.” At the end of Total Recall, the Red Planet is terraformed and there is now a blue sky on Mars.

5. RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs follows a small group of criminals brought together to pull off a diamond heist. But when the police show up in the midst of the job, it’s clear that one of the men is an informant. The criminals are unknown to each other and are only referred to by colorful aliases (i.e. Mr. White). However, if you pay close attention to the opening scene, you can figure out that Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is the police informant who set up the rest of the gang.

During the breakfast scene, when Joe (Lawrence Tierney) leaves the table to pay the bill, everyone contributes a dollar for the waitress’ tip—everyone except for Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), who refuses to tip based on principle. When Joe comes back to the table, he notices that the tip is short and asks who didn’t contribute. Without hesitation, Mr. Orange rats out Mr. Pink.

Additionally, when Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) rushes to the hideout after the heist-gone-wrong, there’s an orange balloon following his car, which is a nod to the fact that Mr. Orange is after him.

Max Allan Collins’ Interview: Nate Heller, Batman, Quarry, Wild Dog and More!

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Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite novelists.  Collins’ Nathan Heller historical novels are buy-as-soon-as-they-come-out must reads.

Collins discusses…

  • the soon to be released trade for Wild Dog [co-created with artist Terry Beatty]
  • Ms. Tree [also co-created with Terry Beatty]
  • the upcoming Quarry tv show [based on Collins’ hitman Quarry novels]

“Lookinglass” aka “The Frankenstein Code” Trailer is Here!

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Lookinglass has been through a couple of name changes.  It was originally called The Frankenstein Code.

I like The Frankenstein Code title  but understand why it was changed — it sounds like a horror movie.  Of course since the series was inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the title wasn’t too much of a stretch.

At any rate, a rose monster by any other name and all that, the trailer for Lookinglass is below and looks interesting enough to be added to my list of shows to watch.

17 Things You Never Knew About “The Shawshank Redemption”

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Hollywood.com presents 17 Things You Never Knew About The Shawshank Redemption.   Here are three of my favorites…

3. Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, and even Robert Redford were considered for the part of Red, who is a middle-aged Irishman in the original story… Darabont had Freeman in mind all along because of his presence, demeanor, and, of course, that voice.

16. When the cut-out hiding space for his digging tool was discovered in Andy’s Bible, it’s clear the book is open to Exodus.

Shawshank Redemption
Columbia Pictures

The word literally means “to escape or depart.”

5. The mugshot of Red attached to his parole papers looks just like a young Morgan Freeman for a reason: it’s Freeman’s son, Alfonso in the photos.

Shawshank Redemption
Columbia Pictures

Alfonso Freeman also appears in the film as a convict yelling, “Free fish! Free fish today!”