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Miracle (2004)

• • Directed by Gavin O’Connor
    • The Accountant
    • The Way Back
    • Warrior
    • Pride and Glory
  • Starring Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, and Noah Emmerich.
  • Box office of 64 million on a budget of 28 million.
  • Trivia
    • Kurt Russell took a pay cut, so the 800-1000 extras used as the fans at the hockey game could enjoy a full hot meal instead of a brown-bag lunch.
    • While Al Michaels joined the film to recreate commentary for the games, Gavin O’Connor decided to use the last ten seconds of Michaels’ original “Do you believe in miracles?” call in the film because he felt he couldn’t ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus, they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamless as possible.
    • Over 280 miles of film were shot, more than any other Disney movie.
    • More than 4,000 men auditioned for only twenty roles on the U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team in the movie.
    • Herb Brooks died in a car accident during principal photography of this film. A dedication is made for him before the ending credits.
    • This film is considered to be one of the most accurate depictions of true events, including dialogue. According to the actual 1980 USA team, the only inaccuracies in the film include Herb Brooks attending a Christmas party with the players and giving them nicknames. They also said that Brooks’ language had to be toned down immensely to maintain the film’s PG rating.
    • In real life, the “Herbies” after the Norway game did not end with Mike Eruzione saying he played for the United States of America. They instead ended with Mark Johnson’s frustration of having to do the Herbies, where he smashed his stick against the glass
    • Former players of the 1980 U.S. team said they were pleased with the film and thought for the most part it was accurate, but the one complaint they had was how Herb Brooks was shown to be friendly with the players. “Herb wasn’t going to holiday parties with players and he wasn’t coming up with cute nicknames for them,” said one former player. “We respected him, but I wouldn’t say that we liked him,” said another former player about Brooks.
    • To avoid confusion during filming, Kurt Russell referred to the hockey players cast as Team USA exclusively by their corresponding characters’ names or nicknames, not their real names. For the most part, the Team USA actors maintained this policy among themselves also.
    • Michael Mantenuto got into a fight with another player, who picked on him and other guys on the ice, during tryouts. He apologized to Gavin O’Connor afterwards, to which Gavin responded, “No, that was good.” Michael ended up winning the part of Jack O’Callahan, the defenseman dubbed “the first one to drop his gloves”.
    • The day that Herb has the players skate back and forth over the ice (after the tie with Norway) is known as “Herbie’s Day” by the cast.
    • Stand-in goalie for the character of Jim Craig was former Edmonton Oilers’ goalie Bill Ranford.
    • Herb Brooks was a former U.S. Olympic player in 1964 and 1968.
    • Kurt Russell is right-handed, but he used his left hand in the movie, because Herb Brooks was a lefty, and this attention to detail shows how deeply Russell got into his role and how closely he studied Brooks to BECOME Herb Brooks for this film, rather than just being an actor playing a hockey coach named Herb Brooks for the film.

First Blood (1982)

• Directed by Ted Kotcheff
  • Weekend at Bernie’s
  • Wake in Fright
• Starring Slyvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, and Richard Creena.
• Box office of 125 million on a budget of 15 million
• Trivia
  • The large piece of rotten canvas that Rambo finds in the woods and cuts into a makeshift coat was in fact not a movie prop, but a real piece of rotten canvas found by the film crew during the movie’s production. Since there was only one piece, Sylvester Stallone joked about how the canvas became a treasured prop on the set. After filming ended, Stallone kept the rotten canvas and still has it in his possession to this very day.
  • Many of the extras who appeared throughout the film were local townsfolk who were recently left unemployed when a nearby mill had ceased operations, and they were more than happy to have the cast and crew of the film there to provide them work opportunities.
  • Sylvester Stallone accidentally broke the nose of Alf Humphreys (Lester) during the jail escape scene by elbowing him in the face, which is why he is seen wearing a band-aid throughout the rest of the film. Coincidentally, this is what Rambo does to a policeman in the novel during the exact same scene.
  • A plot point that was present in the novel but absent from the film was the primary reason behind Teasle’s resentment and contempt toward Rambo, which was that Rambo was a veteran of the Vietnam War, which gained a lot of attention, whereas Teasle was a veteran of the Korean War, which most people had all-but-completely-forgotten at this point in time.
  • After watching a rough cut of the film, which was about three hours long, Sylvester Stallone and his agent claimed that the film was so bad that it made them sick. Stallone also feared that the film would kill his career, and he attempted to buy all the footage and destroy it. When he couldn’t do that, he suggested that the producers cut much of his part and let the rest of the characters tell the story. After heavy edits, the film was cut down to 93 minutes and set a precedent for future action movies.
  • David Morrell, the author of original novel, stated that he prefers this film over his novel.
  • Sylvester Stallone and the producers wanted to make Rambo a different character in the film that he was in the book. They didn’t want him to be a psychotic cold blooded killer like he was in the book, and decided to make him a man who was lost, and didn’t know what to do with his life, and was a victim of circumstance.
  • The actress who played Delmar Barry’s widow/mother (it is not made clear which she is) was surprisingly never credited for her small but vital speaking role, nor has ever been identified to date.
  • Al Pacino was considered for the role of John Rambo, but turned it down when his request that Rambo be more of a madman was rejected.
  • “First Blood” was Sylvester Stallone’s first non-Rocky movie which didn’t bomb.
  • To check to see how realistic the wound on his arm was, Stallone went to a local hospital over a lunch break with the movie wound still on his arm, blood still pumping through the hidden tube underneath. He even left the makeshift, sewing job Rambo does on his wound for the nurses to see. Naturally, they were freaking out about this. Stallone just asked for Tylenol or some form of pain reliever, to which the nurses told him he was the “toughest man we’ve ever met.”
  • After Kirk Douglas pulled out due to script differences at the last minute after being cast as Colonel Trautman, the producers rushed to replace him. They tried Rock Hudson first, who was recovering from open heart surgery and turned it down. They then offered it to Richard Crenna, who accepted the Friday before filming began the following week. Crenna had to ask the script supervisor constantly to feed him his lines until he was able to get caught up with memorizing the part.
  • James Garner turned down the lead role. A veteran of the Korean war with two Purple Hearts, Garner did not want to play a man who comes home from war and starts fighting cops.
  • The only image in existence that shows Kirk Douglas as Colonel Trautman is a promotional artwork created by Drew Struzan. He worked on it before filming began and while Douglas was still set to star in the movie.
  • Chuck Norris said in an interview that the makers of Rambo at one point brought up the possibility of him playing Rambo.
  • In the novel, Rambo doesn’t use a first name and is just referred to as Rambo. Sylvester Stallone decided to make Rambo’s first name John.
  • Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Paul Newman, Nick Nolte, Ryan O’Neal, and John Travolta were all considered for Rambo.
  • George Miller was asked to direct.
  • In the final scene when Rambo has an emotional breakdown with Col. Trautman, the story he tells Trautman about his friend and fellow Baker teammate Danforth (involving the ’58 Chevy Convertible and the wired shoe box that blows up, mortally wounding him) was actually a true story told to Sylvester Stallone by a Vietnam War veteran who had had a similar traumatizing experience during the war.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

• Directed by Stanley Kubrick
  • Strangelove
  • 2001 Space odyssey
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Shinning
  • Full Metal Jacket
• Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, and Marie Richardson
• Box Office of 162 million on budget of 65 million
• Trivia
  • Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman signed open-ended contracts. They agreed to work on this project until Stanley Kubrick released them from it, however long that turned out to be
  • Stanley Kubrick died just four days after presenting Warner Bros. with what was reported to be a final cut of the film, after a legendarily long shoot. His friends and family, as well as the cast and crew of the film, all claimed that Kubrick’s death was completely unexpected and that he never seemed to be in poor health while making the film.
  • Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman spent so long living in the UK, due to the prolonged shoot, that their 2 children acquired English accents.
  • The film is notoriously known for its secrecy during production and the secrecy even divided the two main stars, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. To exaggerate the distrust between their fictional husband and wife, director Stanley Kubrick would direct each actor separately and forbid them to share notes. In one painful example, for just one minute of final footage where Alice makes love to a handsome naval officer-an imaginary affair that haunts Bill over the course of the film-Kubrick demanded that Kidman shoot six days of naked sex scenes with a male model. Not only did he ask the pair to pose in over fifty erotic positions, he banned Cruise from the set and forbade Kidman to assuage her husband’s tension by telling him what happened during the shoot.
  • When it was announced that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would be making the film with Stanley Kubrick, Vincent D’Onofrio (who played Leonard “Private Pyle” Lawrence in Kubrick’s previous film Full Metal Jacket (1987)) had this open advice for them: “Rent a house or apartment, because you’re going to be in England for a while.”
  • The password “fidelio” (from the Latin root “fidelis” meaning “faithful”) is the title of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera. In the opera, Fidelio is a woman who disguises herself as a man to save her lover.
  • Paul Thomas Anderson made a visit to the set, where he offered Tom Cruise the role of Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia (1999).
  • The thirteen-and-a-half minute billiard room scene between Tom Cruise and Sydney Pollack took about three weeks of filming with nearly 200 takes. The greeting scene at the party early in the picture took only two hours with around sixteen takes. Cruise claimed that Pollack might have ironically been too prepared for the billiard scene, himself being a director, and when he arrived on-set with ideas of how the scene could be blocked, Kubrick then pressed him to perform it a different way each take.
  • Alan Cumming, who played the hotel clerk, remarked in a later interview that Kubrick had assumed he was American. This was due to the fact that in his audition tapes he had given such a faultless American accent Kubrick assumed he was American. It wasn’t until they met for the first time on set that Kubrick realized Cumming was Scottish.
  • Kubrick regarded Eyes Wide Shut as his best work.
  • Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh originally played Victor Ziegler and Marion Nathanson. Keitel left the long production due to his obligations to another project and the part had to be re-cast. When Leigh’s scenes needed to be re-shot, she was not available due to a scheduling conflict with eXistenZ (1999). Consequently, Sydney Pollack and Marie Richardson were hired to play the roles.
  • Vinessa Shaw’s one scene as Domino was supposed to take only two weeks of shooting. Due to Stanley Kubrick’s infamous perfectionism, she stayed on the production for two months.
  • Harrison Ford was Stanley Kubrick’s first choice for the lead at an earlier time in development.
  • Tom Cruise was required to do 95 takes of just walking through a door.
  • Alan Cumming auditioned for the tiny part of a hotel clerk six times.
  • At Victor’s party, Bill Harford is being led away by two models. When he asks where they’re going, one of them replies, “Where the rainbow ends. Don’t you want to go where the rainbow ends?” Later, Bill rents a costume and mask from Rainbow Fashions. Rainbow is the name of a Masonic organization. “Where the Rainbow Ends” is the name of a morality play by Clifford Mills and John Ramsay.
  • Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Domino.
  • British author and conspiracy theorist David Icke described in a magazine interview the Freemasonic mansion sequence as being a “mild, mild version” of what really goes on in ‘Elite’ Society.

Trading Places (1983)

• Directed by John Landis
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Schlock
  • Coming to America
  • Animal House
  • Three Amigos
  • American Werewolf in London
• Starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, and Don Ameche
• Budget of 15 million and Box office of 90 million
• Trivia
  • In 2010, as part of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act, which was to regulate financial markets, a rule was included which barred anyone from using secret inside information to corner markets, similar to what the Duke brothers tried to do in the movie. Since the movie inspired this rule, it has since become known as the Eddie Murphy Rule.
  • Eddie Murphy later admitted that on the floor of the commodities exchange in the final scene, he only followed the script; he had no idea what was going on, as he found commodities trading incredibly confusing.
  • This was Ralph Bellamy’s ninety-ninth film, and Don Ameche’s forty-ninth. This was Eddie Murphy’s second film, and he joked: “Between the three of us, we’ve made one hundred fifty movies!”
  • Several funny moments in the film came about by accident. Mortimer Duke (Don Ameche) having trouble catching the money clip wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but the actors kept going with it and not breaking character, so it was kept in the movie. Ophelia’s “Swedish” disguise came about because Jamie Lee Curtis couldn’t do the correct Austrian accent.
  • Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche “cheerfully admitted” they were unfamiliar with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd’s work. The two also said that Murphy and Aykroyd acknowledged that they were unfamiliar with Bellamy and Ameche.
  • According to John Landis, Jamie Lee Curtis was a hard sell to Paramount, because she had only done horror films and wasn’t known for comedy.
  • Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer Duke (Don Ameche) always wear matching suits and tie patterns, only Randolph wears a bow tie and Mortimer a necktie.
  • This movie was filmed immediately after the Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) accident, where Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter crashed during production. John Landis was later tried and acquitted of manslaughter, the first time in history that a Hollywood director was charged for a death which had occurred on-set.
  • (at around 1h 6 mins) R&B legend Bo Diddley appears as the pawnbroker who buys Louis’s watch.
  • The number given to Dan Aykroyd (Louis Winthorpe III) in his mug shot, 74745058, is the same number given to John Belushi (Jake Blues0 in The Blues Brothers (1980). Aykroyd did this as a tribute to Belushi who had died the year previous.
  • The original title was “Black and White”, but John Landis hated it, and offered $100 to anyone who came up with a better title, which became Trading Places.
  • After Richard Pryor dropped out of the project early on, Gene Wilder pulled out soon after when he heard that Eddie Murphy said he would do the film but not with Wilder, as he didn’t want to be seen as copying Pryor’s style. However, the script still was being written at that point with Pryor and Wilder in mind, so some of the dialogue written for Pryor was instead given to Murphy. This is particularly noticeable in the street begging scenes near the beginning of the film (as Murphy was far too young to be a Vietnam veteran).
  • This movie is infamous for hitman/spy Paul Gleason getting raped by a gorilla.

Batman Returns (1992)

• Directed by Tim Burton
  • Batman
  • Beetlejuice
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Big Fish
  • Sleepy Hollow
  • Mars Attacks
• Starring Michael Keaton, Michelle Pheiffer, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Walken.
• Budget of 80 million and Box office of 260 million.
• Trivia
  • Burgess Meredith, who played the Penguin on Batman (1966) and in Batman: The Movie (1966), was asked to play the Penguin’s father in the opening of the film, but illness prevented him from it.
  • Danny DeVito remained in character between takes.
  • At least fifty percent of the Warner Bros. lot was taken up with Gotham City sets.
  • The production wanted to use King Penguins, but the only tame ones in captivity were at a bird sanctuary in the Cotswolds, deep in the English countryside. So the birds were flown over to the States in the refrigerated hold of a plane. They were given their own refrigerated trailer and swimming pool with half a ton of fresh ice every day, and had fresh fish delivered daily straight from the docks. Even though the temperature outside frequently topped one hundred degrees, the entire set was refrigerated down to thirty-five degrees. The birds also had an around-the-clock bodyguard. The birds clearly enjoyed the experience as, following their stint in Hollywood, most of them had mated and produced eggs, the sure sign of a contented penguin.
  • Danny DeVito was advised by friend Jack Nicholson, aware of his own financial success with Batman (1989), to take the role of the Penguin.
  • When asked during a 2007 talk show appearance if she ever felt nostalgic and put on the cat suit to amuse her husband David E. Kelley, Michelle Pfeiffer stated that once filming was over, she never wanted to see the costume again for as long as she lived.
  • In an interview for television, Stan Winston told a little anecdote about how his crew were collecting the mechanical penguins after a day’s shoot, and found one of the live penguins snuggled up asleep against a mechanical one.
  • Danny DeVito, whose make-up as the Penguin took three hours to be applied every morning, removed one of the cabinets in the make-up trailer and put in a LaserDisc machine and a television. While they were putting on the make-up, he brought in his favorite movies and watched them in the mirror.
  • On Catwoman: Her Many Lives (2004), Michelle Pfeiffer said that her Catwoman costume was vacuum sealed once she was fitted into it for scenes, so she actually had only a short amount of time to perform before she would have to have it opened or she could become lightheaded and pass out. She also admitted that when she first was learning to use the whip, she accidentally cut her trainer’s face with it, at which he acted as a complete gentleman and continued with their training.
  • According to casting director Marion Dougherty, Tim Burton was reportedly uncomfortable with casting Christopher Walken as Max Shreck. When she asked him why, he said, “Because that man scares the hell out of me.” However, the decision must have ultimately grown on Burton, as Walken was cast again in Sleepy Hollow (1999). He was also cast to play Brainiac in the aborted Superman Lives project.
  • Several modifications were made to the Batsuit, including the color scheme and chestplate logo. At the request of Michael Keaton, a zipper was also added to the pants.
  • (at around 1h 30 mins) Danny DeVito refused a stand-in for the scene where the Penguin gets pelted with rotten food by an angry mob.
  • Michael Keaton was alleged to have earned $11 million for reprising his role as Batman. The Warner Bros. executives were very uneasy with this. However, director Tim Burton stated that he personally believed Keaton deserved it.
  • Annette Bening was cast as Catwoman, but was replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer when she became pregnant. Pfeiffer’s $3 million salary was $2 million more than was offered to Bening.
  • Tim Burton and Michael Keaton prefer this film to the first one. Keaton said that the sequel “spoke to me more” and that he greatly enjoyed filming.
  • Neither Tim Burton nor Michael Keaton had been signed up in advance for a sequel. Burton came on-board only after the script met all of his demands (he hadn’t been entirely happy with Batman (1989)’s screenplay), while Keaton only agreed to do the second film after a serious hike in salary, and Burton’s assurance that it would be mostly a stand-alone movie rather than a direct sequel.
  • A Penguin action figure based on his comic book counterpart was released as part of Kenner’s line of figures based on the film, as Danny DeVito’s image of the character was deemed too scary for kids. The figure in fact was a repaint of the Penguin action figure released in 1980s Super Powers Collection toy-line by Kenner (the original one had a blue suit, whereas the one released to promote the film has a black suit).
  • Michael Keaton revealed that his favorite scene was when his character smiles at the Tattooed Strongman after putting the bomb on him.
  • David Bowie, who had been previously considered to play the Joker in Batman (1989), was the first choice for the part of Max Shreck before Christopher Walken was cast. Bowie turned down the role in favor of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). In addition, the role of Max Zorin in A View to a Kill (1985), also played by Walken, was initially offered to Bowie.
  • The set for the Penguin’s decrepit underground lair, at the abandoned Gotham City Zoo, was filled with 500,000 gallons of water and a simulated ice floe island.
  • The final shot of the film, in which Catwoman is seen looking at the Bat-signal, was added as an afterthought, only weeks before the film opened. The shot had to be filmed on a weekend, less than a day after conception, with a double for Michelle Pfeiffer. That single shot cost $250,000.
  • To accomplish the scene with the bird in Catwoman’s mouth, the bird was gradually and carefully prepped for the scene, starting with teaching the bird to fly out of closed, cupped hands and then fly from the hands to his cage. Gradually the bird was placed into the open mouth of the trainer. Eventually the trainer closed his lips for a second, then opened his mouth and the bird flew to his cage. The trainer did not close his lips tightly but kept them open slightly. When the scene was done with Michelle Pfeiffer, the scene was shot in cuts. With the cameras rolling, the trainers backed the bird into the actress’ mouth. The bird was in her mouth for one or two seconds; then she opened her mouth and the bird flew to his cage. The bird that was used was a finch. When Catwoman first reaches into the cage to take out the bird, a fake bird was used. She pulled out the fake bird and popped it into her mouth. Then the camera cut to the part where the real bird was placed in the actress’ mouth. The cat lying on the bed during this scene was tethered to a soft cotton string.
  • Max Shreck foreshadows two things: one that turns out to be especially ominous (“I wish I could hand out world peace, and unconditional love… wrapped up in a big bow”) and one that foreshadows his own death (“I am the light of this city…”).
  • Paul Reubens, Diane Salinger: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) stars reunite briefly at the beginning of the film as the Penguin’s parents, Tucker and Esther.
  • Benny Urquidez: One of the clowns slapping the man on the head before Batman grabs him is Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, legendary karate pioneer and kickboxing champion. He helped train the eight other clowns who battle Batman hand to hand in the street.

 American Psycho (2000)

• Directed by Mary Harron
  • I shot Andy Warhol
  • The Notorious Bettie Paige
  • Charlie Says
• Based off Novel by Bret Easton Elis
• Starring Christian Bale, Wilem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, and Reese Weatherspoon.
• Budget of 7 mil box of 34.3 Mil
• Trivia
  • During the shooting of the film, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he began to speak in his native English accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way as an accent for another film. They had thought he was American throughout the entire shoot.
  • During production, Christian Bale followed the morning routine that his character Patrick Bateman describes toward the beginning of the film.
  • Christian Bale was warned by many that it would be career suicide for him to play the lead in a film like this. This only made him more eager to take the part, inspired by Nicolas Cage in Vampire’s Kiss (1989). Fortunately for him, the opposite turned out to be true. Bale’s role in the movie was considered a breakthrough performance, and enabled him to shift his career from supporting roles to leading man status in the decades to come. This finally culminated in roles in the Batman and Terminator franchises, wide critical acclaim, as well as several movie awards nominations – including an Oscar win.
  • Ewan McGregor was subsequently offered the role of Patrick Bateman, but declined after Christian Bale personally urged him to do so.
  • The single biggest cost on the film was purchasing the rights to the various songs used throughout.
  • Christian Bale insisted on getting Bret Easton Ellis’s approval for his portrayal before filming and arranged a meeting. Bale showed up to the meeting dressed and groomed as Bateman, even introducing himself as “Patrick Bateman”. After 10 minutes Easton Ellis begged Bale to stop, because his hands were shaking and he could not take it anymore. Easton Ellis has said this was the single creepiest moment of his life.
  • During his big chainsaw scene, Christian Bale would happily (literally) hang out between takes wearing nothing but a sock over his penis and some tennis shoes.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio was asking $21 million to play the lead, forcing the film’s budget up to $40 million. When he quit, and Christian Bale resumed the role, the budget went back down to a more reasonable $7 million. With a box office take in excess of $34 million, the film proved successful.
  • Whitney Houston refused to allow any of her songs to be used in the film.
  • Johnny Depp expressed an interest in playing the lead role.
  • Christian Bale’s moonwalk with an ax, when he’s about to murder one of his work colleagues, was improvised.
  • There are several deleted scenes that never made it to the final cut of the film. These scenes include:
  • Patrick trying and failing to seduce Evelyn into sex and having a discussion as to why she doesn’t completely go for Timothy Bryce.
  • Patrick and Courtney having sex but get interrupted due to concerns of not properly practicing safe sex.
  • Kimball crossing paths with Patrick at a club and having a brief conversation.
  • Patrick and his friends having a conversation while riding in a limousine.
  • While at a club, Timothy Bryce is extremely uncomfortable for some unknown reason to where he tells Patrick that he’s leaving, jumps over a banister, and runs out of the crowded club as Patrick looks on.