Random Movie Facts

The people over at the NME website have compiled a list of 100 Random Movie Facts. And since I love being random and movies its a perfect list for me. Here are some highlights. (For the full list follow this link HERE)

-Disney turned down the chance to make Back to the Future claiming the mother/son relationship was too risqué.

-The idea for the poster for The Usual Suspects came before any script or story. 

-Dan Akroyd's original script for Ghostbusters was set in a future where Ghostbusters were everyday figures of society like paramedics and firemen.

-Stanley Kubrick would reportedly call Stephen King at 3am to ask him questions about The Shining. According to King, one famous exchange had the director ask the author, “Do you believe in God?”. When he replied in the affirmative Kubrick yelled “I knew it!” and slammed the phone down. 

-Robert Ludlum, the creator of the Jason Bourne series, died while the first Bournefilm was in post-production.

-Fight Club and Choke author Chuck Palahnuik can be glimpsed ever so briefly in the final scene of the latter. He's sitting next to Sam Rockwell on the plane.

-Courtney Love insists that the role of the heroin dealer, Lance, in Pulp Fiction was offered to Kurt Cobain. Tarantino has steadfastly refuted this claim, saying he never even met the late Nirvana singer.

-The many parts turned down by Sean Connery include roles in The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Indy IV and Blade Runner. 

-Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Cruise? Cusack? Carrey? Depp? All were considered for the part of the hooky playing teen.

-Speaking of stunts, Alan Rickman was dropped a second early to get his true reaction to falling from the Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard. 

-The sirens heard in the casino scene in Swingers were police on their way to stop the film makers who were shooting without a permit. 

-In order to credibly portray a rock band, the members of Stillwater in Almost Famous rehearsed for four hours a night, five nights a week, for six weeks.

-The lights over the facehugger eggs in Alien were provided by Roger Daltrey and The Who. The band were rehearsing the laser show next door to Ridley Scott's set. 

-The name of the band isn't mentioned once in The Beatles' first feature, A Hard Day's Night.

-Alred Hitchcock's Psycho was the first American film to show a toilet flushing.

-The Dark Knight made more money in its first six days in the US than Batman Begins made in its entire domestic run. 

-Within 3 days of release The Hunger Games has become the highest grossing film for production company Lionsgate.

-While Titanic holds the record for consecutive weeks at the top spot (15), E.T. beats it by one in total weeks at Number One.

-When Mark Zuckerberg posts his art essay question on Facebook during The Social Network his alias can be seen as one Tyler Durden.

-The real Frank Abagnale Jr. appears in Catch Me If You Can as the French policeman who arrests Leo. 

-Christoph Waltz, the man who won an Oscar for playing the Jew Hunter in Inglorious Basterds, has a son who is a rabbi.

-After 90 minutes of knob jokes, arguments about the untimely demise of construction workers on the Death Star and one act of necrophilia, Kevin Smith's Clerks ends with Dante simply clocking off his shift. However the original ending saw him meet his maker at the hands of an armed gunman. He wasn't even supposed to have been there. 

-An original ending for the classic serial killer film Seven saw Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) shooting John Doe (Kevin Spacey). This was followed with the cringeworthy kiss off line, “I'm retiring”. In a move that may well re-establish your faith in a God the scene was storyboarded but never filmed.

If you have made it through this entire list you are a movie nerd like me. Congrats.