Category: Movies

Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Giant Facts About Shrek. Here are three of my favorites…

4. CHRIS FARLEY WAS THE ORIGINAL SHREK.

Farley was not only cast in the title role, but he had actually completed recording somewhere between 80 to 95 percent of his dialogue before he passed away in 1997. In the version of the film Farley worked on, Shrek was a teenage ogre who didn’t want to go into the family business and had aspirations of becoming a knight.

12. THE MOVIE WAS SCREENED BY DREAMWORKS AND DISNEY LAWYERS TO AVOID POSSIBLE LAWSUITS.

Shrek was considered by some to be a series of jabs at Disney, with its general cynicism toward the traditional fairy tales that Disney had presented in movie form since 1937, Farquaad’s castle resembling Disneyland, and Farquaad’s diminutive stature possibly a reference to an infamous quote by Katzenberg’s former Disney boss Michael Eisner about his hatred of the former employee in a lawsuit. While there was no legal action, some Radio Disney affiliates did not allow Dreamworks to buy ad time to promote Shrek.

5. NICOLAS CAGE TURNED DOWN THE LEAD ROLE BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO BE AN OGRE.

Dreamworks executives considered Tom Cruise and Leonard DiCaprio for Shrek, until Katzenberg offered Nicolas Cage the part. Cage told the Daily Mail that he turned the role down because “I just didn’t want to look like an ogre.” Though, upon reflection, Cage realized that “Maybe I should have done it looking back.”

Sean Hutchinson and Mental_Floss present 25 Facts About Jaws for Its 40th Anniversary.   Here are three of my favorites…

4. THERE’S NOT A LOT OF JAWS IN JAWS.

The shark doesn’t fully appear in a shot until one hour and 21 minutes into the two-hour film. The reason it isn’t shown is because the mechanical shark that was built rarely worked during filming, so Spielberg had to create inventive ways (like Quint’s yellow barrels) to shoot around the non-functional shark.

12. ROBERT SHAW WASN’T THE FIRST CHOICE TO PLAY QUINT.

When actors Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden—the first and second choices to play the grizzled fisherman Quint, respectively—both turned Spielberg down, producers Zanuck and Brown recommended English actor Robert Shaw, whom they had previously worked with on 1973’s The Sting.

14. GREGORY PECK FORCED A SCENE TO BE CUT FROM THE MOVIE.

In early drafts of the screenplay, Quint was originally introduced while causing a disturbance in a movie theater while watching John Huston’s 1958 adaptation of Moby Dick. The scene was shot, but actor Gregory Peck—who plays Captain Ahab in that movie—owned the rights to the film version of Moby Dick and wouldn’t let the filmmakers on Jaws use the footage, so the sequence was cut.

Ben Rawson-Jones and Digital Spy present 9 Important Lessons from Cannon Films Documentary. Here are three of my favorites…

1. FAO Casting Directors – Beware ‘That Stone Woman’!

When looking for a lead actress to cast opposite Richard Chamberlain in the 1985 Indiana Jones knock-off King Solomon’s Mines, producer Menahem Golan proclaimed “I want that Stone woman!” So Sharon Stone was duly given the role. Beyond being hated and soaked in urine on set everything looked great for the future Basic Instinct leg-crosser… until Golan watched the movie and was horrified.

It turns out he was after Kathleen Turner from Romancing the Stone. Oops.

3. Danger! Dolph Dialog!

“You gave that guy lines?”

That was reportedly Sylvester Stallone‘s reaction when he paid a random visit to the Masters Of The Universe set and spotted his Rocky IV nemesis Dolph Lundgren playing the lead role of He-Man. Sly had a point – the movie bombed. Monologues were certainly kept to a minimum for Dolph when the Rambo legend signed him up for his Expendables franchise.

Michael Arbeiter and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Might Not Know About Total Recall.  Here are three of my favorites…

5. THE QUAID/HAUSER CHARACTER WENT THROUGH AN IMAGE OVERHAUL.

Producer De Laurentiis’ initial vision of the film’s hero Douglas Quaid (originally named “Quail”)/Carl Hauser was decidedly more in line with Dick’s short story: A schlubby office drone who dreams of a more exciting life. With this characterization in mind, his first choice for the part was Richard Dreyfuss. Over time, the desired machismo of the film’s leading man increased, prompting suggestions like William Hurt (courtesy of Cronenberg) and Patrick Swayze.

7. TO GET THE PART, SCHWARZENEGGER LED ANOTHER COMPANY TO BUY THE MOVIE.

Schwarzenegger saw an opportunity when De Laurentiis’ production company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. The actor convinced Carolco Pictures, with whom he had recently worked on Red Heat, to purchase the rights to Total Recall.

8. SCHWARZENEGGER HAD AN UNUSUAL AMOUNT OF CONTROL OVER PRODUCTION.

The coveted role of Quaid was not the only thing Schwarzenegger won in the transaction: In addition to being welcome to recruit the director of his choice (as a big fan of RoboCop, he picked Paul Verhoeven), Schwarzenegger maintained authority over all creative aspects of the film, script, production, and even elements of distribution.

For instance, Schwarzenegger took issue with the portrayal of the movie in its TriStar Pictures studio trailer, demanding that the company create and release a preview that better represented Total Recall. Furthermore, when the actor was dissatisfied with the middling public awareness conjured by the movie in the weeks leading up to release, he convinced Carolco to invest more and more money into marketing until virtually everyone had heard of Total Recall.

Eric D. Snider and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Might Not Know About Con Air.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. It was director Simon West’s first film, but you’d probably seen his work before.

In fact, you’ve probably seen at least one thing West directed against your will. The Englishman directed many TV commercials for A-list companies like McDonald’s and Pepsi. Before that, he made the video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the first few seconds of which have been viewed by anyone who’s ever been Rickrolled.

2. The transport system the movie is about was pretty new at the time.

The Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (or JPATS) was formed in 1995. It combined and simplified systems that were previously run by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and was immediately nicknamed “Con Air.” Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg tagged along on a few flights for research purposes, and evidently survived the experience. Though he did note that “it was very unsettling, and a bit terrifying.”

12. The Las Vegas climax was originally set at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Bruckheimer said one version of the script had the plane crashing into the White House. “I said the guys would really rather crash into Las Vegas,” Bruckheimer said—which makes more sense anyway, as Vegas is much closer to the plane’s starting point of Oakland.

Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 50 Things We Learned from The Rundown Commentary with Peter Berg and the Rock.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cameo wasn’t planned, but when he joined Johnson for lunch on set one day Berg was able to “twist his arm” into making a brief appearance. “He flew himself to New Jersey,” says Berg. “And met with the Jamoans,” adds Johnson.

13. Both men express their love for Walken with Berg pointing out that he’s just as much of an entertaining genius off camera. Like Lucking, Walken also apparently scared Scott on occasion. “He kept walking up to Seann,” recalls Berg, “looking at him and kind of getting up close and saying ‘Do you steam? I love to steam. Do you want to steam?’”

23. Johnson says the two parts of the film most mentioned to him in public are the “Option A, option B” bit and Travis’ “Thunder and Lightning” shtick. Berg agrees and shares that he was — surprise — at a high school football game in Texas the week before and witnessed the cheerleaders having a playful “Thunder and Lightning” fight. “Were they paying attention to the game?” asks Johnson.

Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Might Not Know About Thelma & Louise. Here are three of my favorites…

3. GEORGE CLOONEY AUDITIONED FIVE TIMES TO PLAY J.D.

Clooney was on the short list for the role that eventually went to Brad Pitt, and became his big break. “The funniest thing is, I didn’t watch that movie for a long time,” Clooney admitted during a Q&A at the Telluride Film Festival. “I was really stuck doing a lot of bad TV at that time. And I had auditioned and auditioned, and it got right down to Brad and I, and he got it. And I just couldn’t watch that movie for a couple of years … When I saw it, I thought actually that was the right choice. [Brad] was really good in it…”

4. BRAD PITT WAS PAID $6,000 FOR HIS WORK IN THE FILM.

That was in 1991. Just five years later, he earned $10 million for his work in Barry Levinson’s Sleepers.

8. HOLLY HUNTER, FRANCES MCDORMAND, JODIE FOSTER, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, MERYL STREEP, AND GOLDIE HAWN WERE ALL CONSIDERED FOR THELMA OR LOUISE.

In its early stages, Khouri pictured her movie as a low-budget affair, with Hunter and McDormand as the leads. (In what was probably a coincidence, Hunter and McDormand knew each other from when they were roommates at the Yale School of Drama.) With Ridley Scott as producer, Foster and Pfeiffer were attached, but eventually moved on to do other work. Streep and Hawn met with Scott, with Streep wanting either Thelma or Louise to survive the movie.

Michael Arbeiter and Mental_Floss present 15 Things You Might Not Know About Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. SPIELBERG MADE LAST CRUSADE TO APOLOGIZE FOR TEMPLE OF DOOM.

After the masterpiece of spirited adventure that was Raiders of the Lost Ark, some critics and audience members felt betrayed by the grim and gruesome sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Director Steven Spielberg was hardly a defender of the movie—in 1989 he admitted, “I wasn’t happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom.“

Spielberg’s involvement in a third Indiana Jones film sprang from his desire to apologize to viewers for the series’ disappointing second outing, and to revive the earnest spirit of the original. He rehired supporting stars Denholm Elliott and John Rhys-Davies to double down on the Raiders ambiance.

7. A RENOWNED PLAYWRIGHT SECRETLY PENNED THE INDY/HENRY MATERIAL.

Since the relationship between Indy and his estranged father, played by Sean Connery, provided the emotional meat of the story, Spielberg and Lucas hired a ghostwriter to bolster the gravity of the characters’ interactions. Celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard contributed the bulk of the Jones boys’ material but didn’t receive a writing credit.

6. SPIELBERG WAS AFRAID THE MOVIE WOULD REMIND PEOPLE OF MONTY PYTHON.

Last Crusade’s eventual screenwriter Jeffrey Boam held onto the Holy Grail element despite Spielberg’s uncertainty about how it might be received. His apprehensions came from the association of the sacred cup with the 1975 comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “Of course, I was worried that people would hear ‘Holy Grail,’ and they would immediately think about a white rabbit attacking Monty Python,” Spielberg told Entertainment Weekly. “My first reaction was to say, ‘Everybody run away! Run away!’”