Movie Trivia: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Johnny Depp is everywhere lately, isn’t he? Public Enemies is in theaters now, the trailer for Alice in Wonderland was just released, and now it’s been announced that he is going to be starring in Dark Shadows. I love Johnny Depp (and Tim Burton), so I’m thrilled about all of this. In fact, it made me want to revisit another one of their collaborations.
Check out the costumes the kids are wearing during Willy’s Halloween flashback – three of them are wearing costumes that look like Lock, Shock, and Barrel, Oogie Boogie’s evil helpers in A Nightmare Before Christmas. You have to look quick though – they run by at the very beginning of the scene from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen.
When the gang is riding down the chocolate river just after they see the “Whipped Cream” room, they pass a room labeled “Jelly Beans.” If you pause it and go into slo-mo, you’ll see that the next room is labeled “Beetle Juicing.”
If you love bad puns, you’ll love this one – you probably remember the scene where the group is touring the factory and they make a brief stop at the secretary, who is also an Oompa Loompa played by Deep Roy. The title plaque on her desk says “Taste Accountant.” It’s a silly little reference to the phrase, “There’s no accounting for taste.” Apparently, there is!
In the edible meadow scene, the tube that vacuums the chocolate up from the lake is stuck into a flying saucer-looking thing, which is because it is. It’s actually one of the saucers from Burton’s Mars Attacks.
People who were considered for the role of Willy Wonka: Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, John Cleese, Robert DeNiro (can you imagine?!), Michael Keaton, Marilyn Manson, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, Patrick Stewart, Ben Stiller, Will Smith and Robin Williams.
A bunch of famous T.V. dads were considered for the role of Mike Teavee’s dad – Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson), Tim Allen (Tim Taylor), Ed O’Neill (Al Bundy), Bob Saget (Danny Tanner), and Ray Romano (Ray Barone), among others.
Some of the other buttons in the Glass Elevator: Fragile Egos, Spewed Vegetables, Root Beer Googles, Nice Plums, Secretarial Poodles. Heart-Shaped Lungs, People Poo and Blackberry Sausages.
When Willy and the kids are checking out all of Wonka’s various candy-making rooms, they pass one with a bunch of pink sheep. “I don’t want to talk about it,” Wonka remarks. This is a reference to Ed Wood, another Burton and Depp collaboration – real-life director Ed Wood had a thing for wearing pink angora sweaters.
The actress who plated Grandma Georgina said she had her pick of which grandma to play. After reading the whole script, she picked Grandma Georgina because she’s the one who gets to kiss Johnny Depp. I like the way that lady thinks.
Willy Wonka’s cane is filled with Nerds candy.
The little boy who played Augustus Gloop wore a fat suit for the role.
A bunch of people saw the similarities between Willy Wonka and Michael Jackson after the movie came out. Tim Burton begged to differ. “Michael Jackson likes children; Willy Wonka can’t stand them. To me that’s a huge difference.” Depp agreed and said that his inspiration was somewhere between Howard Hughes in his later years and Mr. Rogers.
Martin Scorsese almost directed the film, but ended up doing The Aviator instead.
Mr. Bucket works for a company that makes Smilex toothpaste, which you can see early on when it shows a shot of him taking the misshapen toothpaste caps from the assembly line. “Smylex” is also the name of the poison the Joker releases on the city in the Burton-directed Batman.
The squirrels in the Nut Room scene are real – at least, 40 of them are. The animals were trained every day for nearly three months so that the close shots in that scene would look realistic. It also provided reality for the kids instead of forcing them to work with a green screen and CGI.
Johnny Depp ad-libbed the line where he’s talking to Mike Teavee about the types of people who would want to have long hair and slips into jive talk. To be exact, it’s “It’s in the fridge, daddy-o! Are you hip to the jive? Can you dig what I’m layin’ down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin, soul brother!” The first time he did it, the actor who plays Mike looked at him like he was nuts and said, “That’s not in the script.”
Deep Roy is the one who suggested that the Augustus Gloop dance scene be like a big Bollywood musical scene.
The chocolate river was originally going to be CGI, but they tried that and Burton didn’t like the way it looked. So after testing nine different chocolates for their color, 192,000 gallons of it were used to make a real chocolate river. It looks great, sure, but apparently after a couple of weeks it started to smell quite bad.
Johnny Depp tested out Wonka’s slightly lispy, aloof voice on his daughter while they were playing Barbies. She liked it, so he went with it.
What do you like better – this version or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Gene Wilder version?
Have a movie suggestion, or just want to read my babble? I’m on Twitter.
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Movie Trivia: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Just in case you haven’t had enough of Harry Mania this week, I thought we’d travel back to when the whole movie craze started. Enjoy, Muggles!
Other actors who auditioned for the role of Harry: William Moseley, who eventually got the role of Peter Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia. Liam Aiken also auditioned and later went on to star as Klaus in another hit based on a hugely popular children’s book – Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Cody Linley was in fifth grade when he auditioned for the role of the Chosen One, but obviously didn’t make the cut. He is probably best known now for portraying Jake Ryan, Miley Stewart’s sometimes-love interest on Hannah Montana.
According to NotStarring.com, M. Night Shyamalan turned down directing the movie because he preferred to devote his time to Unbreakable. It’s likely – he has also expressed interest in directing the final film, saying his version would be exceptionally “dark and twisted.”
Rupert Grint, AKA Ron Weasley, got the part when he sent in a video of himself rapping about why he was perfect for the role.
Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore until his death in 2002, almost didn’t take the part. His granddaughter changed his mind, insisting that she would never speak to him again if he didn’t take the part.
Hagrid’s portrayer, Robbie Coltrane, was the only actor J.K. Rowling insisted on. Well, not insisted on, but suggested. Director Chris Columbus asked her if she had any actors in mind for any of the characters and, according to her, she said “RobbieColtraneforHagrid” all in one quick breath. Robbie Coltrane says the producers called him and said, “You’re playing Hagrid, and we’re having no arguments about it.” Luckily, he was already a fan of the books from reading them to his son and immediately agreed to the part.
Rik Mayall, whom children of the early ‘90s will remember as Drop Dead Fred, was cast as Peeves the Poltergeist. Sadly, his scenes were eventually cut from the film.
Gringotts Bank can be found on the Strand in London; it’s called the Australia House and it masquerades as the building for Australian muggles’ state and federal government agencies in the U.K.
It’s rumored that Rosie O’Donnell offered to play the part of Molly Weasley for free because she loved the books so much. She was turned down because J.K. Rowling very strongly wanted the cast to be primarily British.
Daniel Radcliffe has to wear contact lenses to portray Harry because his eyes are actually blue. Seems like a minor detail, but as any fan knows, Harry’s green eyes end up playing an important part in the series. However, sometimes the lenses bothered his eyes and the color had to be added by computer after the scenes were filmed.
Drew Barrymore, a Potter fan, was supposed to have a cameo in the film, but it was cut after the first draft of the script.
Three different birds portray Harry’s Snowy Owl, Hedwig. Their names are Gizmo, Ook and Sprout, but the one with the most screen time is Gizmo.
Steven Spielberg had his hat in the ring to direct, but ended up choosing A.I. with Haley Joel Osment instead. There was a rumor that Spielberg wanted to make a Toy Story-esque movie with Osment as the voice of Harry and that idea alienated him from the rest of the team who was already on board to do the movie. Producer David Heyman insists that wasn’t the case, however.
Check out the portraits on the moving staircase – one of them is Anne Boleyn. She was beheaded because of her attempts to use sorcery on Henry VIII (that was his excuse, anyway), so her likeness on the wall at Hogwarts is quite appropriate.
In a bit of foreshadowing, one of the trophies in the trophy cabinet (it’s to the right of the Quidditch trophy) called “Service to the School” is engraved with the name “Tom M. Riddle.”
The actor who ended up playing Professor Lupin, David Thewlis, auditioned for the part of Professor Quirrell. I’d say he got the better deal, wouldn’t you? And completely unrelated to the movie, Thewlis is in a relationship (and has a baby) with Anna Friel, better known to people in the U.S. as Chuck from Pushing Daisies. Also, he turned down the role of Simon Gruber in the Die Hard: With a Vengeance, which would have made him the onscreen brother of Alan Rickman, who played Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard.
The movie’s budget was an astronomical $125 million, but it made that back many times over: the worldwide gross was $976,475,550.
Daniel Radcliffe’s voice changed while they were filming, but the movie was shot in sequence so it just gradually gets deeper throughout the film instead of being at different octaves here and there.
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Movie Trivia: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Did you guys hear that Indiana Jones 5 is apparently in the works? Are you all as horrified as I am? If you’re like me and hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a passion, then you prefer to dwell on the classics – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, and yes, even Temple of Doom. Here’s some trivia to remind you of the good times.
The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980.
You’ve probably heard the rumors, and yes, they’re true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’ dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas’ two biggest series.
“Indiana Smith?” Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better.
According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make.
Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.
The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito – he was Spielberg’s first choice – but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from BlogCDN.
Indy’s leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new – and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife.
The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat.
Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain…
There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn’t want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina’s chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.
The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from FanPop.
The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars.
The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone – reports vary on whose idea it was – suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would.
Harrison wasn’t the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.
During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck.
Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn’t afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway – if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass.
Some of the sound effects weren’t fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.
Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from TheShadyCat.
The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot.
Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a “quick and dirty” feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a “Heil Hitler” gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite moments in the movie.
Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to “1138” in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You’ll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It’s subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – “Ein, ein, drei, acht.”
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Movie Trivia: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
I have a feeling I’m going to get mixed responses to this movie trivia post – either you love the stupidity (genius?) of Bill and Ted or you hate it. Me… I love it. I had a massive crush on Keanu Reeves back in his Ted days (which I then revived during his Speed days). Anyway, enjoy the trivia. San Dimas High School Football Rules!
Bill and Ted were originally “Bill, Ted and Bob.” The writers of the movie, UCLA students Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, used to do improv comedy and one of their bits was about a trio of stoners who talked about current events even though they really had no idea what was going on. The third comedian who played Bob lost interest in the whole thing, and thus Wyld Stallyns were born.
In one of the early scripts, Rufus was a 28-year-old sophomore in high school whose van traveled through time. The van idea was thought to be too similar to the DeLorean in Back to the Future, so the phone booth concept was used instead.
The phone booth was given away in a Nintendo Power magazine contest. A kid in Mississippi became the proud owner. Photo from ErrorMacro.com.
Before the actors were chosen, Bill and Ted were supposed to be kind of unpopular guys who got made fun of in school. But the director loved Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves and knew they were perfect for the parts, so the roles were adjusted a little bit to make them regular guys who were pretty likable.
At first, the idea was for Keanu Reeves to play Bill and Alex Winter to play Ted. Neither one of them had a problem with switching roles. The writers didn’t meet the actors who were going to play the title characters until the first day of filming. Right before filming started, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon went to eat at a McDonald’s near location and saw a couple of guys eating there and remarked to each other that those guys should have played Bill and Ted. When they showed up to the set later, they discovered that “those guys” were playing Bill and Ted – it had been Winter and Reeves at McDonald’s.
Originally, the characters Bill and Ted went back and “borrowed” were a little bit different: they included Charlemagne (”Charlie Mangay) and Babe Ruth. Apparently some scenes were actually filmed of Bill and Ted going to prehistoric San Dimas and meeting some cavemen.
The director wanted ZZ Top to play The Three Most Important People in the World, but ultimately decided that rock stars were too hard to work with.
At one point, Bill reads the history assignment to Ted, explaining that the point was to figure out how historical figures would feel about San Dimas, 1988. Do a little lip-reading in this part: Alex WInter actually says “1987,” because that’s when it was filmed. But by the time the film was released (there was a bit of a delay when the film’s first distributor went bankrupt), it was 1989. The line had to be redubbed.
If you’ve ever wondered what’s on Bill’s t-shirt under that vest, here you go: it’s the cover for Van Halen’s “Why Can’t This Be Love” single.
Photo from AlexWinterFansite.com.
Joan of Arc was played by Jane Wiedlin, the rhythm guitarist for the Go-Go’s.
Most of the movie was filmed in Arizona, including the exteriors of the high school, the Circle K scene and the scene were Napoleon goes down the waterslides at Waterloo. The mall scenes were filled overnight at the Metrocenter in Phoenix.
Maybe Ted isn’t as dumb as he appears to be – at the end, after Napoleon finishes up his talk about how much he supposedly loved the waterslides at Waterloo, Ted says, “I don’t think it’s gonna work.” If you check out the maps Napoleon was gesturing to, you’ll see that Napoleon was mapping the Russian invasion, which ended terrible for the little guy.
Photo from BacktotheEighties.Net.
In the movie, Bill and Ted say that Eddie Van Halen would compete Wyld Stallyns. After it was released, Eddie said he would have gladly joined if asked.
A scene was cut near the end where the guys attend prom with the princesses. That’s how the film was supposed to end, but it was decided that the garage ending would keep the focus on Bill and Ted’s music and Wyld Stallyns instead of on the prom.
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Movie Trivia: Mary Poppins
I’m kind of a Disney freak, so it’s hard for me to pick one favorite Disney movie. But Mary Poppins is definitely in my top five – it’s such a classic. And there’s no shortage of trivia about it, so I had to pick some of my favorites. If you want more, I suggest buying the 45th anniversary DVD – it’s packed full of behind-the-scenes information, deleted bits, commentary and pop up facts. But in the meantime, this should tide you over!
After being rejected by P.L. Travers for more than 20 years, Walt finally paid a visit to P.L. in person to convince her to let him make her books into a movie. It was the personal visit that convinced her – she described Walt as the friendly old uncle type who hypnotized you with his gold pocket watch. Not exactly a compliment, but she gave him the rights nonetheless.
Mary Martin, Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury were considered for the role of Mary Poppins. Casting directors saw Julie Andrews singing Camelot’s “What do the Simple Folk Do” on the Ed Sullivan Show and immediately knew that they had to have her for Mary Poppins. They told Walt, who flew out to New York to see Julie sing her part on Broadway, and that was that. Andrews still had to pass muster with P.L. Travers, though, but it didn’t end up being a problem – Travers adored her.
Travers wrote to Walt Disney to suggest Karen Dotrice for the role of Jane Banks, but Walt had already cast exactly that actress in the part. At least they agreed on one thing!
Julie Andrews almost didn’t take the role – she was actually holding out for the Eliza Doolittle part in My Fair Lady that eventually went to Audrey Hepburn. Andrews had played the part on Broadway and loved it. Audrey may have played Eliza, but Julie Andrews was so brilliant in Poppins that she beat Audrey for both the Best Actress Golden Globe and Academy Award.
The actors who played Jane and Michael had already starred in a movie together - The Three Lives of Thomasina – and went on to do another one together post-Poppins: The Gnome-Mobile.
Matthew Garber was afraid of heights, so the crew paid him an extra dime every time he had to go up on the wires for the scenes where the kids are floating in the air. But they weren’t always on wires – Disney didn’t want people to look at the scene and go, “Oh, they clearly used wires for that,” so sometimes wires were used, sometimes teeter totters were used, and sometimes they flipped the set on its side or upside down and filmed that way.
Next time you watch the movie, check out the queue of nannies lined up to interview for the nanny position – a bunch of them are actually men.
When the kids look surprised at all of the stuff Mary Poppins pulls out of her carpet bag, that was genuine shock. They couldn’t see what was being fed to the bag from under the table, so when she pulled hat stands and huge potted plants out of that regular-sized bag, the kids were completely stunned.
Dick Van Dyke freely admits that his cockney accent was awful and in fact kind of gets a kick out of it.
Lots of the actors played multiple roles: Dick Van Dyke played Bert, of course, and also played Old Mr. Dawes the banker. Other than the title role, Julie Andrews also provided her own whistling accompaniment when Mary Poppins sings with the robin during “Spoonful of Sugar” and was also one of the Pearly ladies in “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” David Tomlinson, AKA Mr. Banks, was also the voice of Mary’s umbrella when it talked and one of the jockeys in the animated horse race scene. In addition, he dubbed the voice for Admiral Boom’s first mate.
A bunch of songs were deleted from the movie. A few include “The Chimpanzoo,” which you can now hear on the 2004 special anniversary edition DVD; “Practically Perfect,” which ended up being the music for “Sister Suffragette”; “Admiral Boom” which was to be Admiral Boom’s theme song; and “Measure Up,” which Mary Poppins was going to sing while measuring the kids with her magical tape measure. One song was actually repurposed for Bedknobs and Broomsticks and was called “The Beautiful Briny” in it.
Elsa Lanchester, who played the childrens’ former nanny Katie Nanna, was previously best-known for her role as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Mary Poppins’ sets often ended up being used for other Disney productions. One episode of The Wonderful World of Color featured a haunted house, which was actually the Banks house covered with cobwebs and dust.
The Bird Woman is played by Jane Darwell, whom Walt Disney cast after remembering her amazing performance as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. He made sure she was given the full-out star treatment and was brought to the set in a limo and treated with great respect. It was to be her last film performance.
The “Chim-Chim Cheree” and”Step in Time” sequences are my favorites, I think. The background of the London rooftops is actually matte paintings done on glass. The “smoke” staircase was actually made out of sponge because it was assumed that if you were walking on smoke, it would have a bouncy feeling to it. The “Step in Time” dance had to be filmed twice because the film the first version was on got scratched. And I guess I’m not alone in loving the “Step in Time” scene – Walt enjoyed it so much he would come to watch the daily dance rehearsals and told the choreographers to go nuts and have fun with the steps.
Every member of the crew – not the cast, mind you, the crew – asked for a copy of the soundtrack.
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Movie Trivia: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
I haven’t seen the original Ocean’s Eleven (blasphemy, I know), but I know I like this one quite a bit, even though it’s not the type of movie I would normally gravitate toward. Before we get to the trivia, we’ll do a quick cast recap:
Danny Ocean – George Clooney
Rusty Ryan – Brad Pitt
Frank Catton – Bernie Mac
Reuben Tishkoff – Elliott Gould
Virgil Malloy – Casey Affleck
Turk Malloy – Scott Caan
Livingston Dell – Eddie Jemison
Yen – Shaobo Qin
Saul Bloom – Carl Reiner
Linus Caldwell – Matt Damon
Basher Tarr – Don Cheadle
Tess Ocean – Julia Roberts
The casinos all gave the cast and crew more or less free reign of when and where they could shoot in the casinos. The exception, of course, were the money vaults and any behind-the-scenes corridors and things like that. Those were shot on a soundstage. It was a particularly big deal that Caesar’s Palace allowed them to film a scene depicting a robber being shot directly in front of their place (during the flashback scenes of previous Vegas heists at the beginning). Steven Soderbergh credited this entirely to Jerry Weintraub’s Vegas connections.
Carl Reiner accepted his role just five days before the first scene with his character was scheduled to be shot. Alan Arkin was supposed to play Saul but had to drop out at the last minute.
Brad Pitt is wearing a very large ring shown prominently in the scene where Rusty cons the young stars. He later mentioned that it was given to him by his wife and making sure it was caught on camera was his little to wink to her. At the time, his wife was Jennifer Aniston.
Matt Damon was such an adept pickpocket that the part near the beginning where he steals the wallet from a man on the el actually had to be slowed down so viewers could catch what he was doing.
Shaobo had never acted before. He didn’t speak much English but was very adept at understanding when his lines were and had a natural knack for timing (according to Steven Soderbergh).
Rusty Ryan is always eating because, basically, Brad Pitt thought it would be funny and appropriate – since these guys are always on the go in the movie, he thought that they would probably be eating on the go as well. It became a running joke to pick out and incorporate food for each of his scenes.
The directors, set designers and writers all purposely stayed away from obvious Rat Pack and Sinatra references. They wanted the movie to stand on its own and didn’t want to make the characters complete cliches.
The movie’s whole premise – that casinos have to keep enough money in their vaults to cover every chip currently in play on the floor – is a lie. In reality, casinos try very hard to keep the amount of extra cash in their vaults down to a minimum.
It’s commonly believed that Ben Affleck has a little cameo somewhere in the movie – after all, his best friend and brother were two of the Eleven. Although he did come to set, he is never actually in the movie. Director Steven Soderbergh and Producer Jerry Weintraub have cameos, though. Soderbergh is part of the group that bombs the vault at the beginning and Weintraub talks with Saul before Saul goes to talk with Terry Benedict.
This tidbit is lifted directly from TV Guide, but it’s too interesting to not include: When Rusty runs through the list of scams the group is going to have to pull, the names he gives them aren’t just random. The quote: “Off the top of my head, I’d say you’re looking at a Boeski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.”
And the explanation from Steven Soderbergh:
“First of all, [screenwriter] Ted Griffin and I completely made the terms up. We felt we had to come up with some funny, Damon Runyon-esque turns of phrase that weren’t arbitrary we did sit down and think them out. So, Carl Reiner is the Boesky, as in Ivan, the powerful, rich magnate, inside kind of guy. Jim Brown is the confrontation Bernie Mac has with Matt Damon the ‘don’t mess with me or you’re in for it’ moment. The two Jethros are Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, the idea being ‘we’re going to need gear heads, car fanatics…some people who are total hillbilly under-the-hood guys.’ A Leon Spinks is the disruption of the boxing match: A sporting event with some controversy to it that’s what Leon Spinks means to me. The Miss Daisy association is driving; that was the SWAT van, a ruse involving transportation. The Ella Fitzgerald is the tape of the fake vault, which they’re going to play back and have [Andy Garcia's character] Benedict think it’s live. ‘Is it live, or is it Memorex?’”
There are at least a couple of points in the movie where Steven Soderbergh didn’t want to meticulously arrange 11 actors, so he gave them the freedom to go where they wanted within the shot and do what they thought their characters would do. The first is when Danny Ocean is explaining the whole scam to them – Soderbergh told the actors to just position themselves wherever they wanted to in the room. The second is at the end when they are all standing in front of the Bellagio reveling in their accomplishment. He told them all to wander away from the fountain as they felt it was appropriate and gave them no timeframe or order to work with.
Warren Beatty, Ralph Fiennes and Michael Douglas were all considered for the part of Terry Benedict. Ewan McGregor was considered for Basher, Don Cheadle’s character. Mark Wahlberg was originally supposed to play Linus, Matt Damon’s role.
When Brad Pitt plays the doctor that come to the rescue of ‘Lymon Zerga,’ he’s wearing a wig that Mike Myers used to rehearse for Austin Powers. Brad was so unrecognizable when he put the wig and the glasses on, he wandered around the casino for a good 20 minutes just enjoying his anonymity.
Julia Roberts only spent two weeks on set.
Speaking of Julia, watch for her name in the credits. Her credit reads, “And introducing Julia Roberts as Tess.”
Don Cheadle was originally not listed in the credits. When asked why, he said that some things went down on the set behind the scenes that he didn’t like, so he told the producers to just take his name off. But it must not have been too bad – he appeared in both Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen.
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Movie Trivia: Clue
I took to Twitter to ask for suggestions on my latest movie trivia post but made the stipulation of no ‘80s movies. I think I’ve done too many of them lately. But then skyesblue said, “I’d vote Clue, but you vetoed that,” and I was hooked, just like that. I love me some Curry – Tim Curry, that is, and Madeline Kahn was beyond wonderful as always. So, Clue it is, and I promise no ‘80s movies next week.
First, a quick reminder of who’s who:
• Professor Plum – Christopher Lloyd
• Mrs. White – Madeline Kahn
• Mrs. Peacock – Eileen Brennan
• Miss Scarlet – Lesley Ann Warren
• Colonel Mustard – Martin Mull
• Wadsworth – Tim Curry
• Mr. Green – Michael McKean
When moviegoers purchased their ticket to see the movie, they also received a slip of paper just like the one that you use to keep track of the people, places and weapons in the game.
Jane Wiedlin of the GoGos played the Singing Telegram Girl. She was also Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Tim Curry says each of the principal cast only received $100,000 for the film, and they all had teeny-tiny trailers. So there were definitely no ego-trippers among them.
Clue was the first movie ever based on a board game, but it’s certainly not the last – Universal Pictures signed a deal with Hasbro last year to develop films based on Monopoly, Candy Land, the Ouija Board, Battleship and Magic: the Gathering. Stretch Armstrong was also included in the deal.
And, brace yourselves, there’s actually another Clue in the works. It was announced in February that Gore Verbinski has signed on to make another version of the board game-based movie for Universal. Ugh. Although… Johnny Depp as Wadsworth…? Anyone…?
Check out the floor in the Hall – it’s no coincidence that it looks an awful lot like the parquet floor on the original Clue game board.
It looks like an awesome old Gothic Mansion, doesn’t it? It’s quite convincing. But nearly all of the scenes were shot on a soundstage, except for those in the ballroom and the driveway gate scene. Sadly, the mansion used for the driveway scene burned down, so picture-hunters can’t even pose next to the big gate.
To make the set look authentically mansion-y, 18th and 19th century furniture and décor was borrowed from all over the place, including the estate of Theodore Roosevelt.
Each character drives a car the color of their name.
Keep your eye on Tim Curry whenever he’s in a scene with Eileen Brennan – he said he could barely hold a straight face around her becuase she was so hysterical. This is especially evident, he says, in the scene where she says “Hold out the gun.” He claims his shoulders are actually shaking from trying to hold in his laughter.
The movie took about two and a half months to make.
Three different endings to the movie were shot, and all of them were used! Imagine the confusion if a friend went to one theater and you went to another – “Wasn’t that great when it turned out that Mr. Boddy was actually the Butler?” “What do you mean, Mr. Boddy was the Butler?” OK, that probably wouldn’t have happened… it was well known that there were three endings, and newspaper listings even told you when each ending would be shown. The DVD shows you all of them, but you can also tell it to pick a random ending for you. The part where the movie splits into the three different endings is right after Wadsworth cuts the power.
Here are the endings:
• Ending A: The killer? Miss Scarlet. Yvette the maid used to work for her as a call girl and helped her murder Mr. Boddy and the cook. Miss Scarlet killed the rest of the victims herself. But, she’s busted: Wadsworth secretly works for the FBI and reveals himself just as the police show up to escort her to jail.
• Ending B: The killer? Mrs. Peacock, who single-handedly killed everyone. Again, Wadsworth the FBI agent busts her, and although she escapes by holding the survivors at gunpoint, the police are waiting when she gets outside.
• Ending C, my personal favorite: The killer? Everyone. But Wadsworth isn’t Wadsworth – he’s really Mr. Boddy. The man everyone thought to be Mr. Boddy (you know, the corpse) was actually the butler. Wadsworth had been working with each of these people in his extortion scheme and figured they would all kill each other off if given the right circumstances, and they did… except for Mr. Green, who is the undercover FBI agent this time, and he kills Wadsworth and has the rest of the guests arrested.
• Ending D, which was scripted and shot but never released: Wadsworth admits that he killed Mr. Boddy, and now he has killed all of them, too: he poisoned everyone. Except the police show up and disarm Wadsworth, who then goes through the whole exhausting confession that he already gave to the guests, running around the house and reenacting the whole scenario. When he tells the part about meeting Col. Mustard at the front door, he steps outside and locks everyone in, then makes off in the police car… except there’s an angry German Shepard in the back seat.
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Movie Trivia: Big Fish
I missed last week’s Movie Trivia because I was on vacation, so I figured I’d make up for it today by doing a Tim Burton double feature. First up? Big Fish. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about William, a son (Billy Crudup) coming to terms with his relationship with his dying father (Albert Finney), who is prone to telling tall tales. William spends the movie sorting through his dad’s legends, trying to figure out which ones are real and which ones are just the products of an overactive imagination. His mom is played by Jessica Lange, and the younger versions of his parents are played by Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman.
The movie was based on a 1998 book by Daniel Wallace called Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions.
There’s a parallel between the movie and what was going on in Burton’s own life at the time – his father had died two years earlier and his mother died just one month before he accepted the directing job. He said that filming the movie and thinking about father-son relationships and death was really cathartic for him.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Jack Nicholson was the first choice to play Edward Bloom – both the older and younger versions. They were going to use computers to make him look younger so he could play the younger Edward. Burton has said that it became clear who to cast when he came across the pairing of Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney because the two of them seemed to have some sort of a spiritual connection that would be perfect for the movie.
Steven Spielberg was originally slated to direct as of 2000, but as the script went through several re-writer, Spielberg became engrossed in other projects. By the time the third draft was done, the directing job ended up in Burton’s hands.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Matthew McGrory, who played Karl the Giant, was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the the largest feet in the world – size 29.5. Sadly, Matthew passed away in 2005. He was 7′6″ and only 32 years old at the time of his death.
The banjo player that you see when Ed first walks into Spectre is the same actor who played the banjo-playing kid in Deliverance.
When we see Steve Buscemi’s (Norther Winslow) poem about Spectre – “Grass so green/skies so blue/Spectre is really great! – that’s actually Tim Burton’s handwriting.
Somewhat surprisingly, Tim Burton hates the circus and is afraid of clowns. I knew there was a reason I liked him.
The guy who plays “Colossus” in the first circus scene is actually a circus performer.
In the book, the town of Spectre was depicted as incredibly dark and creepy. Tim Burton put his own spin on this and compared his version of Spectre to Burbank – it may look idyllic and sweet (and rather technicolor), but there’s something sinister lurking just beneath.
Alison Lohman was cast as Sandra Templeton Bloom because Tim Burton loved her silent movie-esque looks and felt that she was able to convey a whole range of emotions even when she was just standing still.
The part where the elephant takes a massive crap was, obviously, not scripted. Instead of calling that take a loss, Ewan McGregor just acted through it. The cast and crew thought the take with the elephant pooing in the background was hilarious, so it was kept in the final cut.
Ewan McGregor really did get to hang out in a cage with a lion when he filmed the scenes of him performing menial tasks around the circus. He also really learned Cantonese for the scene where he talks to the conjoined twins. I mean, just a couple of lines of Cantonese, but still…
Tim Burton has a very brief cameo – literally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it situation. When the ringleader (Danny DeVito) and Edward Bloom burst out of his trailer because Calloway is morphing into a werewolf, keep your eye on the clowns that immediately scatter from their card-playing table. One of them is Tim.
Speaking of which, in case you’re wondering, that’s really Danny DeVito in the buff. No stunt doubles were required.
Another brief cameo: the author of the book, Daniel Wallace, can be seen as Sandra’s professor at Auburn.
If Sandra’s fiance (and Edward’s rival) looks familiar, I’d be willing to bet it’s because you know him as a slightly scruffier character: Roy on The Office. Poor dude is always getting his fiance stolen!
In the scene where Sandra opens the window to find Edward standing there in a field of daffodils that he planted for her, you’re really looking at daffodils. They weren’t digitally added in later. Tim Burton explains that his crew spent an entire weekend digging and planting and replanting when they didn’t look right, but he felt that it was extremely important to the reality of the scene.
Check out Jessica Lange’s outfit at the end of the movie during the funeral scene. Her character, Sandra, is the only one dressed in red. This is supposed to be symbolic of the fact that she was quirky and individualistic and the perfect match for Ed Bloom, who wouldn’t want her to be dressed in mourning black anyway.
Eddie Vedder composed “Man of the Hour,” the song that runs during the credits, after watching an early screening of the movie and adoring it. He apparently went home and wrote the music, had a demo for the band the next day and recorded it with them five days later.
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Movie Trivia: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Number two on the Burton double feature – The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know; it’s neither Halloween nor Christmas, but I think this is one you can watch year-round.
Nightmare dates all the way back to 1980. Burton worked on Fox and the Hound and the Black Cauldron and then started working on his own animations such as Frankenweenie and Vincent – Nightmare was in that group of projects he worked on.
By popular demand, a bullet about Henry Selick. Selick was, in fact, the director of Nightmare. Due to his prior commitments to Batman Returns, Burton wasn’t able to spend as much time on set as he would have liked and hired newbie director (although industry veteran) Henry Selick to do the job. The movie was (and still is) billed as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas because studio heads were convinced that the movie wasn’t going to do well, but attaching Burton’s name to it might give it a better chance at the box office. You might know Selick’s from his latest amazing stop-motion picture, Coraline, which he also directed.
You know the voices of the characters; you just don’t know you do (or maybe you do). Jack’s speaking voice is done by Chris Sarandon, who is Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride. Sally is voiced by the legendary Catherine O’Hara, who has been in everything from SCTV to Home Alone and Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. If Dr. Finklestein sounds familiar, I bet you’re also a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation fan: he was the cigar-smoking, toupee-wearing Uncle Lewis. The Mayor of Halloween Town is voiced by Glenn Shadix, Otho from Beetlejuice, and if you listen closely, you’ll notice that Lock is voiced by Pee Wee himself – Paul Reubens.
Tim Burton has said that Jack Skellington is one of his favorite characters largely because he so deludes himself into thinking that he’s going something wonderful and great without thinking about how his actions would impact others.
Jack Skellington has cameos in other Burton movies and Selick movies, if you’ve got eagle eyes . In Beetlejuice, his head is on top of Beetlejuice’s carnival-type hat near the end of the movie, and in James, he can be spotted as one of the pirate skeletons James comes across.
Danny Elfman says the composing songs for this movie is the easiest job he has ever had. This was news to me – he used to be in the band Oingo Boingo. At the time Nightmare came around, the members of Oingo Boingo were starting to go their separate ways; he wasn’t sure what was going to come next. Reflecting this, he simply wrote Halloweentown songs as if they represented Oingo Boingo – the past and what he had always known – vs. Christmastown, which was new and fresh and exciting.
The NAACP became upset with the makers of the movie because they felt that the movie’s chief villain, Oogie Boogie, was made to use “blackspeak” while the heroes of the film used “whitespeak.” Director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman say that it had nothing to do with race; they had simply based his singing voice on Cab Calloway because they liked the style and tonal quality. I, for one, am inclined to believe them – Danny Elfman has been influenced by Cab Calloway since his Oingo Boingo days when the band was doing covers of his songs.
Oogie Boogie used to look a lot different. Burton’s original drawings portrayed him as a pillow-sized baddie, which wasn’t too intimidating. When they upgraded him to a larger-than-life sack o’ bugs, suddenly a lot more bugs were needed in order to animate the scene where he unravels and all of his insects come pouring out. So, any time anyone had any downtime on set, they were tasked with making a bunch of Oogie bugs to use for that scene.
Greg Proops from Whose Line is it Anyway? voices a bunch of minor characters in the movie – the sax player in the band, a red devil and the harlequin demon among them.
There was talk of a sequel for a while. Obviously it has been quite the cash cow for Disney, so around 2001 they started buzzing about making a computer-animated sequel. Tim Burton managed to talk them out of it, saying that it was really best the way it was and “Jack visits Thanksgivingworld” or something similar just wouldn’t have the same impact and would also cheapen the first film.
Just as Jack shows up in other Burton movies, other Burton movies show up in Nightmare. A cat from Vincent can be seen in the beginning knocking over a trash can; the snake in the movie looks suspiciously like the Sandworms from Beetlejuice; one of the toys Jack hands out is an evil duck on wheels which is just like the Penguin’s vehicle of choice in Batman Returns.
Vincent Price was originally slated to be the voice of Sandy Claws. Unfortunately, Vincent had just lost his wife and had a very sad quality to his voice that wouldn’t read right during his recording. They ended up not using him and he died not too long afterward.
Tim Burton has said that he felt a little subversive in designing the Nightmare characters the way he did. Coming from Disney, he had to draw the big “wet drippy eyes” that Disney characters are famous for. Quite a few of the characters in Nightmare either have big black voids for eyes, like Jack does, or have eyes that are sewn shut or are otherwise mangled. Burton said that not having eyes to convey emotion and expression was challenging and felt that if they would be able to accomplish emotive characters without eyes, it would be a real achievement.
The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland has transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday featuring Jack and Sally every year since 2001. I’ve yet to see this for myself, but I hope to someday soon – the pictures look amazing.
Photo from DoomBuggies.com.
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Movie Trivia: Heathers. What's Your Damage?
Ah, Heathers. As a dark humor lover and a girl who totally resents her high school experience, I think this movie is fantastic. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think the trivia is pretty interesting whether you’re a die-hard fan of the film or not. Grab a Diet Coke and some Corn Nuts (BQ, of course) and enjoy!
Oh, and a quick Heather Recap as requested in the comments: Heather Chandler is the blonde Alpha-Female (Kim Walker), Heather Duke is the brunette (Shannen Doherty) and Heather McNamara is the ditzy cheerleader (Lisanne Falk).
New World Pictures was floundering when this movie was made. Apparently there was so little money at the company that some weeks they were unable to take out ads to promote their movies in the paper. Heathers didn’t even get an ad in the L.A. Times.
The night they shot the scene where Christian Slater and Winona Ryder play a little strip croquet, Winona was in a hurry because she was trying to make the premiere of Beetlejuice.
Heather Duke’s Moby Dick book was supposed to be Catcher in the Rye, but they couldn’t get the clearance for it. Catcher in the Rye makes a lot more sense when you think about it, right?
Westerburg High was actually Corvallis High School (Studio City, I think). The interiors, anyway. The exteriors were shot at John Adams Middle School.
Writer Daniel Waters had originally had Stanley Kubrick in mind to direct because of his shooting style and the film’s length (the original script was more than three hours long). Also, Dan Waters was only 24 when he had his script made into this fabulous movie, which makes me feel like a complete loser.
A real Heather – Heather Graham – was cast as Heather McNamara, but her parents wouldn’t let her take the part because they thought the language and the content were too risque.
The writer got his inspiration for the note forged from the hot jock to the fat Martha Dumptruck from his sister – apparently she and her friends used to pull that trick on their fellow high school students.
Winona Ryder turned 16 on the set of this movie. Christian Slater was 19.
Kim Walker, the actress playing Heather Chandler, was actually Christian Slater’s girlfriend at the time.
The kitchens in the houses of Heather Duke and Heather Chandler are the same kitchen. The crew couldn’t afford to make two different kitchen sets, so they just used the same one and dressed it differently.
Two really strange coincidences: Kim Walker died of a brain tumor in 2001. Her character, Heather Chandler, says the line, “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?” The year before, Jeremy Applegate, who played Peter Dawson, killed himself. In the movie, his character declares that he will never kill himself.
The frat house scene was shot at a real frat house at UCLA.
The movie uses the Doris Day song “Que Sera, Sera.” Not the Doris Day version, obviously, but the song she was known for nonetheless. Doris Day wouldn’t let her version be used because of the profanity in the movie. Oddly enough, producer Denise Di Novi is the daughter of Gene Di Novi. Gene was a musician who worked with Doris Day on multiple occasions, and he said that when he was recording with her, she implemented a strict swear jar rule and made all of her musicians abide by it.
The scene of the cow tipping date that Heather McNamara and Veronica have with Kurt and Ram was shot in Griffith Park, which is where the Hollywood sign is located. The “cow” that was tipped, by the way, was just some cowhide stretched over sawhorses.
Brad Pitt read for Christian Slater’s part, but everyone felt he was too cute and too nice for the role.
Ich Luge means “I’m Lying” in German, so when J.D. says that he’s using “Ich Luge” bullets on Kurt and Ram, he’s actually telling you what’s going to happen.
Speaking of Kurt and Ram, the scene where they meet Veronica in the woods was supposed to be shot at night. Since Winona was underage, though, they could only have her work so many hours a day and only so late into the day. They applied for an exception but were refused, and so the scene was shot as if it was supposed to take place at dawn (it was really mid-afternoon).
There are a lot of feet/leg shots in the movie is for the same reason. When they really needed to shoot a scene but were out of hours for Winona for the day, they just shot her double walking down a hall (or the like).
In the scene where Winona burns her palm with the cigarette lighter and Christian grabs her hand and lights his cigarette off of her skin, Winona was holding a heating element with wires running up her sleeve. She had to be careful not to burn herself during the scene, and Christian Slater really did light his cigarette out of her hand.
Westerburg High is named after Paul Westerberg of the Replacements.
Renee Estevez played Betty Finn, Veronica’s old best friend before she got into The Heathers. Renee is Martin Sheen’s daughter (and Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez’ sister, obviously). Also, Veronica Sawyer and Betty Finn represent two of the most amazing friendships of all time, according to writer Daniel Waters. Veronica and Betty are the best friends (frenemies, really) from the Archie comics, and Sawyer and Finn are the last names of Tom and Huckleberry (respectively).
Shannen Doherty was apparently very difficult to work with even back then. The director kept saying, “She was very professional,” and the writer and producer were both snorting and laughing every time he said it. “So was Mussolini,” was Dan Waters’ response, at one point.
Veronica Sawyer always wears a monocle when she writes in her diary just to show a level of pretentiousness. It’s never really referenced in the actual movie, but it’s there just to show that although Veronica might be rebelling against the whole teen girl hierarchy, she’s still part of it.
At the funeral during the dream sequence, everyone in attendance is wearing 3-D glasses. They were originally supposed to be wearing real sunglasses, but were replaced by 3-D glasses for two reasons: to parody the famous photo and because they were a lot cheaper than real sunglasses.
There’s an alternate ending that wasn’t used because it was considered just too over-the-top. It’s on the DVD extras, though, if you’d like to see it. And if not, I’ll just tell you about it: After Veronica shoots J.D. in the boiler room, he dies. Veronica walks outside, much like she does in the regular ending, but when she turns around, we see that the bomb is strapped to her chest. The screen goes dark and Veronica says “Boom.” Then it cuts to the school prom with a banner that says “What a waste, oh the humanity.” People from different cliques are all mingling and getting pictures taken together. The end.
Do you have a movie you’d like to know some behind-the-scenes info on? Leave me a Tweet and let me know!
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Movie Trivia: Stand By Me
I didn’t intentionally mean to pick another Rob Reiner film for this week’s movie trivia post, but when RiderAng suggested Stand By Me, I knew immediately that I needed to dig it out of our DVD cabinet.
Don’t worry, though, I’m not in a rut: I think we’re going to visit the Coen Brothers next week. But for now, enjoy the Stand By Me trivia.
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