Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Things You Didn't Know About......

Movies!

Performance
-Anita Pallenberg replaced the pregnant Marianne Faithfull
-The sex scenes between Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg really upset fellow Stones member Keith Richards because Anita and him were going out at the time.
-Keith was so angry about Mick and Anita doing the sex scenes together that he refused to play on the track Memo from Turner.

The English Patient
-Ralph Fiennes burn make up took 5 hours every day
-Naveen Andrews and Kevin Whately had to learn how to ride motorcycles for the movie.

The Godfather
-Mafia boss Joe Columbo, the leader of one of the "5 Families of New York" and his organization the Italian American Civil Rights League started a campaign to stop the movie.
-In the scene where the horse's head was in the bed, a real horse's head was acquired from a dog food factory and placed there. Actor John Marley's screams of horror were real as he did not know that a real head was going in.
-Al Pacino wore a foam latex facial appliance that covered his entire left cheek and was covered with makeup to give it the look of bruising, to simulate the bruises Michael gets after he gets his jaw broken by Captain McCluskey.
-A majority of Francis Ford Coppola's relatives appeared in the movie:
     1. Sister Talia Shire plays Connie Corleone
     2. Mother Italia Coppola serves as extra in restaurant
     3. Father Carmine Coppola as piano player in mattress sequence
     4. Sons Gian-Carlo Coppola and Roman Coppola can be seen as extras in the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo at the funeral
     5. Daughter Sofia Coppola is the baby Michael Rizzi holds in the baptism
-A young Sylvester Stallone auditioned for the role of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi, but did not get the role.
-Al Pacino's maternal grandparents emigrated from Corleone, Italy to the US just like Vito Corleone.
-Many of the actors cast were not Italian: Marlon Brando is of Dutch descent, James Caan is German and Jewish, Abe Vigoda is Russian-Jewish, and he fough tooth and nail for Al Pacino, who had obvious Italian looks

Sleepy Hollow
-The town of Sleepy Hollow was built from the ground up in 3 months
-Goldeneye, the horse that played Gunpowder in the movie was adopted by Johnny Depp when he heard it would be put down
-Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel, were reportedly real people
-Casper Van Dien is in real life related to the Van Tassels
-Tim Burton says the gothic nature of the movie was inspired by Hammer Productions movies. Hammer Productions is a movie studio out of England that specializes in horror movies
-In Washington Irving's story, Ichabod Crane was a schoolteacher who came to Sleepy Hollow and ran afoul of the resident specter, the Headless Horseman.
-There are approximately 18 decapitations in the movie

Up
-Russell is Pixar's first Japanese-American character voiced by an Asian-Americana actor, Jordan Nagai
-The Fenton's Ice Cream Parlor in the movie really exists and has 2 locations; Oakland, Calif. and Vacaville, Calif.

The Forbidden Kingdom
-This movie marks the first time that martial artist Jackie Chan and martial artist Jet Li ever worked together
-Before filming, the entire cast went through a dialog run. Because the majority of the cast listed English as their 2nd language

Gran Torino
-There were open casting calls for Hmong people in Hmong communities in Detroit, Michigan, Saint Paul, Minnesota and Fresno, Calif. Only Doug Moua had acted before.
-Clint Eastwood encouraged the Hmong actors to ad-lib in Hmong
-There is a Hmong gang member with a tattoo on his chest. It's of the Chinese character for Family

Prizzi's Honor
-For the role of Charley Partanna, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Reeve, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Ryan O'Neal, John Travolta, Jon Voight were all considered
-Film debut of Stanley Tucci

In the Heat of the Night
-Frequently cited as Sidney Poitier's favorite of all films he's done
-Due to the murder of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., the presentation of Best Picture Oscar was postponed from April 8, 1968 to April 10, 1968

The Flower Drum Song
-Actor Jack Soo's first film
-Actress Miyoshi Umeki, while appearing to by shy, is actually known for her sense of humor.

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