TedStixon

26th Dec 2022

Scream VI (2023)

Trivia: The first "Scream" movie without series star Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott. Campbell decided not to return due to a contract dispute, feeling the pay she was being offered by the studio was insultingly low given her history with the series. Her castmates and the directors supported her decision. Campbell has not ruled out a return to the franchise in the future though, stating that if she liked the script and was being offered a fair paycheck, she'd be open to playing Sidney once again.

TedStixon

25th Dec 2022

General questions

I remember seeing a sketch show in the US in the late 90's or early 2000's. There was a sketch that was parodying James Bond where the villain was going to kill the Bond character, but realised Bond always had an out for everything. (Ex. "I can't feed you to alligators because you'll just run across their heads like a bridge!" etc.) At the end, the villain got so frustrated, he just killed himself by grabbing onto an electrified panel. Does anyone know what sketch show this is from?

TedStixon

Answer: I found my answer. Evidently it's a skit by Hale and Pace, an English comedy double-act, and it's on YouTube if you search "Hale and Pace Bond." Some of their skits were shown in the US in the 90's as part of the "Ohh, Nooo! Mr. Bill Presents..." comedy show, which was a show that aired comedy skits and shows they licensed from overseas, and were introduced by the character "Mr. Bill." (A little man made out of clay who would comedically be injured and squashed in every episode while screaming "Oh nooo!"). That's where I saw it.

TedStixon

Answer: I don't know about a sketch, but in an episode of "The Simpsons," a character Frank Grimes gets so frustrated that Homer is so dumb but yet archives so much acclaim, becoming an astronaut, winning a Grammy and becomes friends with celebrities. He sets Homer up to fail, but yet wins an award. Frank throws a tantrum, doing dumb things like Homer but ends up electrocuting himself. There have also have been several episodes spoofing James Bond.

Definitely not that. This was a live-action sketch show specifically parodying James Bond.

TedStixon

Trivia: The scene in which Wanda gets angry and screams "Stop it!" at her variant's children was real. The boys were throwing things at her for part of the scene, and accidentally smacked Elizabeth Olsen hard in the face, hurting her. But they didn't realise they hurt her and kept throwing things. Seconds later, she reflexively screamed "Stop it!", legitimately terrifying them. She immediately felt terrible about snapping at them, but it worked for the scene - it was the take used in the final movie.

TedStixon

21st Dec 2022

Darkman (1990)

Trivia: The construction site where the climax takes place was a real 3-story set. Due to the budget, the actors often didn't have safety wires. Co-star Colin Friels actually fell from the top and broke his femur during filming. Ever the professional, he came back to set as soon as he got out of the hospital.

TedStixon

21st Dec 2022

Darkman (1990)

Trivia: Supposedly, the studio didn't understand the film, and cut many vital scenes before locking the picture. The weekend after "Darkman" was locked, director Sam Raimi, his producer and his editors (allegedly) broke into the studio, added back in about 10 minutes of scenes the studio had deleted, and had this new restored version mastered and prints made from it. The studio heads were furious when they found out, but had no choice but to use it, since the first screenings were only 2 days later.

TedStixon

21st Dec 2022

Darkman (1990)

Trivia: According to composer Danny Elfman, when Darkman is splashed by water from a passing car after escaping the hospital, that was him throwing water at Liam Neeson with a bucket. Elfman had never met director Sam Raimi, and visited set to interview for the job of scoring the movie. The second Elfman got to set, Raimi introduced himself, told Elfman he loved his work and wanted him to score the film... then said "Let's get to work!" and asked him to throw a bucket of water at Neeson.

TedStixon

21st Dec 2022

Darkman (1990)

Trivia: The studio really wanted Julia Roberts for the role of Julie, but she had just broken up with star Liam Neeson, whom she briefly dated. They did hold an audition together and were cordial with one-another, but Roberts had her agent politely turn the offer down, since she felt too awkward and sad working with an ex so soon after the relationship ended.

TedStixon

21st Dec 2022

Darkman (1990)

Trivia: When Eddie Black is listing off his three points, when he gives his second point, pay attention to Ted Raimi as the camera moves forward. He glances offscreen (presumably at a crew-member or the director), realises he's on-camera, looks surprised, and quickly looks back forward, pretending like he didn't just look at something off-screen. Technically not a mistake, since you could argue he was looking at something in the scene, but it's clear he made a slight flub, so it's amusing to look for.

TedStixon

Factual error: There is absolutely no way the university would have the authority to have the church torn down by a demo team when Dave and Pearce find them doing just that. Nowhere near enough time has passed for eminent domain laws to have been enacted. It often takes a year or more just for these things to go to trial, and there's a good chance the university would lose the case anyways.

TedStixon

Trivia: The movie came about partially thanks to the "Super Nintendo World" theme parks. As the Nintendo World parks were to be situated in Universal Studios theme parks, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto met many Universal executives, including Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, to discuss the park's creation. Miyamoto felt Meledandri was a kindred spirit due to their similar creative processes and began talking with him about making a new Mario movie. Within a few years, the project was greenlit.

TedStixon

Trivia: Will be released almost exactly thirty years after the original live-action "Super Mario Bros." movie. This movie is set to be released in April, 2023, while the original movie was released in May, 1993.

TedStixon

28th Nov 2022

Enchanted (2007)

Trivia: Writer Bill Kelly's first draft of the script was written in the mid-90's as a cynical, R-rated raunchy comedy. There were many adult scenes, such as Giselle accidentally becoming a stripper and meeting Robert at a boozy bachelor party. Kelly and director Kevin Lima reworked the script into a more family-friendly homage/parody to classic Disney films when it finally went into production after being stuck for nearly a decade of development hell.

TedStixon

23rd Nov 2022

The Fifth Element (1997)

Trivia: The film was one of the first movies Sony released on the high-definition Blu-ray format in 2006. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray was considered a disaster due to a poor remaster that looked essentially indecipherable from the standard-def DVD. It was so widely hated that a year later, Sony released a replacement Blu-ray with a new HD remaster, and offered free copies to anyone who bought the original release. Thankfully this second Blu-ray was widely praised for its (much) better picture quality.

TedStixon

23rd Nov 2022

The Fog (1980)

Question: I recently bought the Scream Factory Blu-ray. During the opening with the old man telling the kids the spooky story, there's a moment where it cuts from a wideshot to a closeup, and it looks like there's a weird, random zooming effect added that's only about five frames between the wide and closeup shots (between the lines "drew towards land" and "Suddenly, out of the night"). Is that part of the original movie, or is that just some sort-of defect on the disc? It just looks out of place.

TedStixon

22nd Nov 2022

The Fifth Element (1997)

Trivia: It has been speculated by some that Ruby Rhod's name was derived from the natural elements Rubidium and Rhodium... two elements which are both classified as "Period 5" elements, which would fit perfectly with the title "The Fifth Element." This theory has never been confirmed or denied by the cast or crew.

TedStixon

Trivia: Gozer is actually played by three different actresses. Shohreh Aghdashloo provides Gozer's voice. Emma Portner portrays the spectral version of Gozer that appears when Gozer is not "whole." And an uncredited Olivia Wilde plays Gozer in its "human form" in a cameo appearance.

TedStixon

Trivia: This is the first movie in which Steve Whitmire took over the role of Kermit the frog after the death of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets and Kermit's original voice-actor. Whitmire was incredibly nervous about voicing the iconic character. The night before he started recording his lines, he had a dream where he bumped into Henson's spirit in a hotel lobby, and Henson reassured him everything would be OK. He woke up from the dream energized, taking it as a sign things would work out.

TedStixon

10th Nov 2022

Spawn (1997)

Continuity mistake: After the birthday party, when Clown and Spawn are in the alley, Al gets up and walks away and Clown follows. You can see two extras in the background walking away from them. When it cuts to the next shot (an extreme wide shot), suddenly the extras are much, much further back than they just were. (You can use the dilapidated car in the background for reference... in the first shot they are in front of it, but in the next, they're behind it).

TedStixon

Trivia: In the basement there's a painting of a man. This is effects artist John Carl Buechler in a weird sort-of cameo. In the painting, there's also one of the monsters from the "Ghoulies" movies, which is hidden as an easter-egg. The painting is a reused prop from another film Buechler worked on, "Troll."

TedStixon

10th Nov 2022

Spawn (1997)

Continuity mistake: When Clown farts in the alley and pulls out his underwear, his hand goes from his side to behind him instantly between cuts. (He starts to reach back in the first shot, but his hand is still at his side, and instantly in the next shot it's all the way behind him).

TedStixon

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