Movie Trivias

The last installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise will be split into two, and shown a year apart. The people behind the movie came to this decision after talks with JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, in order to give more justice to the story of the Boy Who Lived. Filming though, will be continuous, and will be shot as if everything were one film, in order to achieve better continuity for the story.

In casting news, Rhys Ifans is a confirmed member of the cast, but there is no news yet on who he will be playing, although numerous rumors are pointing to him playing Xenophilus Lovegood, the father of Luna Lovegood. The role of Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore’s brother will not be played by Jim McManus anymore, but by Ciaran Hinds. Emma Thompson will also not be returning as Professor Trelawney.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: Movie Trailer - Click here for funny video clips
The movie is a very enticing one due to the utter complexity of the needed special effects, with Benjamin growing younger as opposed to older as with the rest of the cast. Some trivia’s that may have not been known, the film was initially considered for Tom Cruise as the lead instead of Brad. The producers of the film also kept in close communication with Levi’s for authentic clothes that were period authentic for the character played by Brad. The film was also the second to film in the flood-ravaged lands of New Orleans which was also for one very obvious reason, tax discounts from the state. The movie had been planned and prepared for as early as 1994. The aging process took four hours for Pitt for the early scenes and four hours for Cate Blanchett for her aging scenes as the film was ending.
The story also had a very colorful past for it was initially bought by Ray Stark in the late 70’s, and then by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall for Amblin. The later two eventually detached from Spielberg taking the rights with them as they formed their own production firms, with the film’s rights finally being brought by Erick Roth who vowed to commit to the film upon his father’s death in 2002.

Hailed as one of the most memorable and accurate epic war movies of all time, the gory and accurate opening scenes of the invasion was so accurate veterans broke in tears prompting the Defense Department’s office of Veterans Affairs to put up a toll-free 800 number for counseling. The movie was hailed as too violent and gory that many countries wanted the film’s graphic scenes cut. Spielberg stood firm opting not to release the film in countries that wanted editing. He also insisted that the film be released uncut even if review boards issue cuts and revisions in accordance with ratings.
There are many unknowns about the film, one of the best is that it was the last (very last) film edited using traditional cut and pasting of the film negatives. Known as linear editing, the scenes are viewed, literally cut and taped together which results in a master negative from which the actual film rolls are made from. The actors all received a few weeks of boot camp except Matt Damon so their resentment of him not getting battered and bruised would show in the film. The opening invasion scene also showed two actual landing crafts that were used on D-Day. The two German Tiger tanks seen in the final battle were actually Russian T-34 tanks made to look like them.

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• Brad Pitt was originally slated to play the role of Tommy Williams.
• The exteriors of the prison were shot at the Mansfield State Reformatory, located in Ohio.
• Renovation was needed to be done before the filming because the penitentiary was in such poor condition. But they had to shoot the interiors on a sound stage because it was way a lot cheaper than renovating the prison’s interiors.
• The movie was voted No.1 Must See Movie of all time by Capital FM, London
• The movie also ranked 1st as the top Movie of All Time, this time by Empire Magazine.
• A dedication to Allen Greene can be seen at the end of the movie, Allen Greene was Frank Darabont’s close friend. Greene died just before the movie’s completion because of complications from AIDS.
• Stephen King wrote the original novella citing that the film was the culmination of his childhood memories from prison movies that he watched back then.
• Tom Hanks was slated to play Andy Dufresne but could not make it because he was having schedule conflicts with Forrest Gump.
• Kevin Costner turned down the role , which in the end, was a big regret for him.

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• Star Rob Brown auditioned as an extra for this movie. Citing he needed the money to pay for his $300 mobile phone bill. Gus Van Sant got to look at him and invited him to play the role of Jamal and eventually handed the role to him having seen his natural ability in acting.
• The character of Robert Crawford is actually based on a real life Robert Crawford. He teaches history at a private school outside Boston.
• The movie that Forrester was watching when Jamal came to the apartment was The Big Heat, a film in 1953, starring Glenn Ford.
• While Jamal was checking out Forrester’s data at a school’s computer, the data he was actually reading was Sean Connery’s real life data.
• Cameo: Matt Damon appears as a lawyer. He starred Gus Van Sant’s hit film, Good Will Hunting in 1997.

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Did you know that Harrison Ford who is famously known as Indiana or Henry Jones Jr., was not the first choice of Lucas in casting the film? Originally, Spielberg suggested Ford but Lucas resisted the idea since he had already cast the actor in three of his movies.

During the intensive process of casting, Lucas and Spielberg auditioned many actors, and finally cast then little-known Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones. However, shortly after pre-production CBS refused to release Selleck from his contractual commitment, forcing him to turn down the role. Less than three weeks before principal photography began Spielberg suggested Ford again and Lucas finally gave in to cast him in the role.

Indiana Jones is among the most popular film ever made. This have become a legendary part of film history along with it, is Harris Ford who portrayed the role.

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Anime fanatics gone “banzai!” as a new piece of Shojo anime masterpiece just reached Philippine T.V.’s shores and is currently a hit among otakus. It is a crazy mix of romance, comedy, friendship and pure hardcore silliness that will surely tickle the anime-lover kid in you.

The story revolves around Sunako Nakahara, a not-so-typical female protagonist that is actually a fan of the dark and creepy things instead of the usual sweet and fair stuff you see in most stories. That’s twist enough but there’s more: she actually has to live in a big mansion with four super handsome guys until she becomes a “real” lady.

Yes it sounds as if it’ll be super romantic and all, but believe me, it’s more of light, innocent fun than whatever you’re probably thinking of. Actually, it’s stress-relieving to watch, take me for my word.

It’s now airing at TV5 every Mondays to Thursdays at 6:30 pm and every Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00-6:00 pm. Try and watch it!

We all know of screen names our favorite stars use in their films and other public functions, but many maintain an umbrella of anonymity as their real names are as far as Paris is from America to their screen names. Jodi Foster, was born Alicia Christian Foster with the Jodi part coming from her family nick-name. Same as her, Natalie Portman was born Natalie Herschlag and changed it at the age 21 when she was discovered using Portman (which happens to be her grandmother’s middle name). In another hitch, Nicholas Cage is related to well-known director Francis Ford Copolla (he is his nephew). He changed his name in order to make it on his own independent of his famous Uncle of sorts.

Western movies come out during staggered installments all throughout the year but movies in Asia come out several times a year and is where most of the technologies you have in the West are based. Hard to believe, the next time you watch a movie take a look at the credits and you will surely see Chinese or Chinese Americans in the stunt department and coordination areas. The best stunt coordinators are Chinese and they have the guts to prove it. Most of these coordinators were former stunt men themselves giving them the best understanding of the trade. They mostly come from the red trousers or a famous Asian stunt group that is very well known for their daring and very well coordinated action sequences. Even the extensive use of body harnesses and wires in complicated stunts is derived from and an improved form of Asian stunt technology. Today, cinema in the Asian theaters compete side by side in the markets outside the said geographic area and they are quite good to tell you frankly.

Box office top-notcher Iron Man is one of the biggest movies with the highest gross income on its opening weekend of 2008. The creation of this successful superhero film took about 18 years to develop, starting with Universal Studios buying the rights of Iron Man’s development on the big screen. Due to its low budget, the production was not pushed through, instead the rights were transferred to 20th Century Fox in 1996. A year after, actors such as Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage expressed their interest in playing the main character Tony Start who was later on portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. Quentin Tarantino was then approached in 1999, asking if he could direct the movie. Then, New Line Cinema eventually acquired the rights from Fox, and after a long process of preparations and transfers, the rights were finally given back to Marvel Studios, and they had to work again from scratch in producing this big film.