Interesting facts about films

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There are 1500 cuts in the film "300", and about 1300 involve some sort of visual effect.

The 300 movie, filmmakers used bluescreen 90% of the time, and greenscreen for 10%. They chose blue because it better matched the lighting paradigm (green would have been too bright) and because red garments (a la spartan capes) look better when shot over blue.

In film 300 there was one day of location shooting, which was for the horses that were shot for the 'approaching Sparta' scene.

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"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" movie had two interesting working titles: "The Hundred Year Winter" and "Paravel." Signs in Auckland that directed extras and crew to the sets had "Paravel" written on them.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe": Georgie Henley's reaction to Mr. Tumnus at the lamppost is genuine. She had not seen her cast mate James McAvoy in his costume before the scene was filmed, so her screams and reaction were real. Georgie's first reaction to the snowy world of Narnia is also genuine--she was carried into the set blindfolded to make her first entrance, and her wide-eyed, delighted reactions to it all are entirely her own.

In Poseidon, there was only one day of exterior filming done on the entire shoot. It was to get footage of Josh Lucas jogging that was eventually composted into the opening CG shot of the ship.

The wine that Richard Dreyfuss orders in Poseidon, Romanee-Conti, is the same wine that William Holden gave Robert Vaughn in "The Towering Inferno".

While filming Poseidon, many members of the crew and cast came down with minor infections due to being in dirty water for so many hours a day.

Robert De Niro read for the parts of both Sonny and Michael Corleone for "The Godfather" film. Coppola decided that he wasn't right for the role of Sonny, and already had Pacino in mind for Michael. De Niro was almost cast in the role of Carlo, the husband of Connie, as well, before given the small part of the traitor Paulie. With Coppola's blessing, De Niro backed out of the part in order to take the part in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" (1971 movie) abandoned by Pacino in order to play Michael.

Paramount's original idea about "The Godfather" was to make this a low-budget gangster film set in the present rather than a period piece set in the 1940s and 1950s.

In one afternoon's Casino Royale film shooting, three Aston Martin DBS cars valued at $300,000 each were destroyed for the car roll sequence.

- The Casino Royale movie is the first James Bond film approved by Chinese censors.

- In Casino Royale, the perfume bottle in Vesper's bag is Melograno by Santa Maria Novella.

- The Wedding Date movie was originally suposed to be called "Something Borrowed"

- The Wedding Date filmmakers tried to use artificial flowers as often as possible because Debra Messing is allergic to real flowers.

- Lara Dutta was offered a role in Matrix Reloaded film as well as The Matrix Revolutions (2003), but turned the part down because she didn't like the script.

- The script for the Matrix Reloaded movie (while in production) was code-named The Burly Man. The Burly Man is the title of the script Barton Fink is working on in the film Barton Fink (1991). While shooting the freeway sequence, the directors watched rushes etc. in a vehicle referred to by the crew as the Burly Van.

- In Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby film, when they were at an actual racetrack to get audio clips, director Adam McKay apparently didn't need to prompt the audience for one scene. When Sacha Baron Cohen's character Jean Girard was introduced as a driver from France driving the Perrier car, the entire crowd started booing on their own.

- For Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby film, The race cars were housed in a warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, that formerly held the Interstate Brands Corporation plant, owner of Wonder Bread. As the cars were wrecked, pieces were given to a local shopping center to display.

- The name of the cinema in "The Popcorn Kid" film is the Majestic Theatre.

- During filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the cast and crew had to be evacuated to Los Angeles because of Hurricane Wilma.

- In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, In order to get an actual surprised reaction, the small kissing scene between Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann was cut out of Orlando Bloom's script.

- Rolling Stone Keith Richards was set to make a cameo appearance as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, but Richards had to pull out of the project due to his commitment with the Rolling Stones world tour. Johnny Depp had previously said that his performance as Jack Sparrow was based on Richards.

- El Mariachi film initially cost $7000 to make. Director 'Rodriguez, Robert' raised $3,000 of the $7,000 by volunteering to be a human "laboratory rat". He was used to test a cholesterol reducing drug. Paid $100 a day for 30 days, he wrote most of the script while locked in the lab. Peter Marquardt was a fellow "rat", but could not speak Spanish. He delivered his lines from card held in his hand or out of shot. Most of the $7,000 was spent on film for the camera. The version seen in most cinemas has had approximately $1 million of post-production work and promotion behind it.

- Rodriguez claims the other El Mariachi actors were "innocent" passers by. He gave them lines as and when they were needed.

- El Mariachi film sound was recorded with an ordinary cassette recorder and mike. The sequence with the pit bull terrier was shot specifically so that Rodriguez could synchronize the sound with the picture later.

- In "13 Going on 30" film, the scenes on Jenna's 13th birthday were shot twice with two different wardrobes. In the movie trailer young Jenna is wearing a multicolored top and has her hair down but in the movie she is wearing a blue top and her hair is up.

- In Australia, the "13 Going on 30" film title was changed to "Suddenly 30" because distributors thought audiences would misunderstand the original title.

- The word "actually" is spoken 22 times in the film by various characters in Love Actually, film.

- In Love Actually, film, The actress Anne Reid was in the film until her scenes were deleted.

- Rowan Atkinson's character in Love Actually film, was originally going to be an angel and disappear after helping Thomas Sangster's character, Sam, get past airport security.

- The Pink Panther movie teaser trailer features Inspector Clouseau using the glass breaking device he got from Agent 006. This scene is not in the final film.

- In Pink Panther (2006. film) Jackie Chan was considered for the part of Clouseau's assistant, Kato.

- In Pink Panther (2006. movie) Kevin Spacey and Mike Myers were considered for the role of Inspector Clouseau.

- Actress Valérie Lemercier played the role of Frénégonde de Pouille/Béatrice de Montmirail in the original "Les visiteurs" (another actress was cast in this role for the sequel). She has a small uncredited cameo as the mother of a boy who is watching television instead of doing his homework. When Godefroy and Jacquouille, disguised as two "flics" walk past her house, she convinces them that they must come scold her son and scare him so that he will return to his homework. It is a brief scene, about midway through the film.

- 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.

- France's Culture Ministry has granted permission for the Da Vinci code film crew to film inside the Louvre.

- In the Da Vinci code story, Robert Langdon's publisher is called Jonas Faukman. Jonas Faukman is an anagram of Dan Brown's real life publisher, Jason Kaufman.

- Da Vinci code Author Dan Brown named main character Robert Langdon after John Langdon, a close friend and typography master who worked with Brown on an ambigram logo for another of his books, "Angels And Demons".

- All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

- David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.

- In the movie "Casablanca" Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam."

- The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella".

- the Abyss - Most of the distant shots of the submarines are models, filmed in smoky air, not in water. The bubbles are animated.

- The Birds - Tippi Hendren was actually hit by one of the birds in one scene.

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK came under CIA surveillance for his use of uranium as a plot element in Notorious (1946)

- ALFRED HITCHCOCK's first feature project – Number 13 – lived up to its name and was never completed!

- In the movie "Toy Story", the carpet designs in Sid's hallway is the same as the carpet designs in "The Shining."

- Dooley Wilson appeared as Sam in the movie Casablanca Dooley was a drummer - not a pianist in real life. The man who really played the piano in Casablanca was a Warner Brothers staff musician who was at a piano off camera during the filming.

- Indians go out to the movies 3 billion times a year - much more than any other nation.

- In the original movie "101 Dalmatians" there are exactly 6,469,952 spots on all 101 Dalmatians as they are shown in 113,760 frames of the film combined.

- The story of Mulan had been told in China for almost 1,500 years before Disney decided to make it into an animated movie.

- Actress Debra Winger helped to perform the voice of E.T. in the movie "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" (1982).

- King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie.

- In the movie "The Wizard Of Oz" Toto the dog's salary was $125 a week, while Judy Garland was $500 a week.

- India's movie industry, Bollywood, is the largest in the world producing over eight hundred movies a year. Hollywood only produces half of this number in a year.

- The movie "Cleopatra" cost $44 million to make in 1963. The same movie would now cost $300 million to make taking inflation into account.

- The ruby red slippers in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" were sold off at an auction for $660,000.

- In the 1960 movie "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock, chocolate syrup was used to show the blood in the shower scene.

- For the 1939 movie "Gone With the Wind" 1,400 actresses were interviewed to play the part of Scarlett O'Hara.

- The movie "Chicken Run" made in 2000 had the most plasticine used in an animated movie. They used 2,380 kg of plasticine for the movie.

- Actress Michelle Pfeiffer was the first choice to play Clarice Starling in the movie "Silence of the Lambs". She turned down the role because she found it too scary.

- The original movie poster for the 1943 movie "The Outlaw" which portrays actress Jane Russell sold for more than $82,200 at Christie's auction house.

- The sketch that Jack drew of Rose wearing the famous necklace in the blockbuster movie "Titanic" was really drawn by director James Cameron. The hands that we see drawing the sketch are really Cameron's. Cameron was also responsible for all the other sketches that were in Jack's sketchbook.

- During the making of the the movie "Fight Club" actor Brad Pitt chipped his tooth. However, he did not get his tooth capped until after the movie was done filming as he thought it would look better chipped for his character.

- The first toilet being flushed in a motion picture was in the movie "Psycho" .

- In the 1977 movie "Star Wars" actress Jodie Foster was George Lucas' second choice to play the part of Princess Leia.

- Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan once wore a Nazi uniform while acting in a film during his Hollywood days. The name of the movie was "Desperate Journey" which was filmed in 1942.

- The longest acceptance speech in the history of the Oscars was by Greer Garson in 1942. She received an Oscar for Best Actress for the movie Mrs. Miniver, and her speech was five minutes and 30 seconds long.

- The spider used in the 2002 movie Spider-Man was a Steatoda spider, not a black widow. The spider was given anaesthesia, and was then painted blue and red.

- One of the Bond girls in the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only" used to be a man.

- For the movie "Tootsie" actor Dustin Hoffman thought of the title. His mother used to call him that as a child.

- Actor Richard Gere was considered to play the role of John McClane in the movie Die Hard. Bruce Willis played the part instead.

- Reserves from the Irish army were used as extras in the movie "Braveheart".

- For the blockbuster movie "The Terminator", O.J. Simpson was considered to play the role of the Terminator, but producers did not choose him as they thought he would not be taken seriously.

- Actor John Travolta was offered the role of Billy Flynn many times for the movie "Chicago". Richard Gere ended up playing the role.

- Actress Grace Kelly's movies are banned in Monaco by order of Prince Ranier.

- In the movie "Babe", the piglet was played by over 30 different piglets they outgrew the part so quickly during the production of the film.

- The longest Hollywood kiss was from the 1941 film, "You're in the Army Now". It lasted for three minutes and three seconds.

- The A.A. Milne character of Winnie the Pooh made his animated film debut in 1966 in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

- The first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar for best picture was Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991.

- Outside London, Liverpool is the most filmed British city, and was used to film more than 140 films in 2002.

- Bruce Lee was so fast, that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That is the opposite of the norm.