Questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

These are questions relating to specific titles. General questions for movies and TV shows are here. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

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Question: I recently read in a magazine that Lisa Kudrow had to wear a wig for an entire season because of a dramatic haircut that would not suit her character. Is this true and if so which season?

Answer: In Season 6 Lisa Kudrow had a short bob, and as this would not suit her character (couldn't possibly have a short-haired hippy) so they added hair extensions to the end of her hair. Her real haircut at the time was shown in The One That Could Have Been, part 1 (and 2). In Season 9 episodes she wore a wig, as she dyed her hair brown for her part in the movie 'Wonderland'.

Answer: If you look at the clip when Lisa Kudrow won her best supporting actress in 1998 she has a mousey blonde short bob.

Question: Was the film always intended to be in black-and-white? If not, roughly when was the decision made? And what was the reason, was it artistic, to get an elderly feel to it or to take focus off blood and gore?

Answer: Documentary footage of this era was in B&W, this gave the movie a more authentic feel and was intentional from its inception.

Answer: To Spielberg, the black and white presentation of the film came to represent the Holocaust itself. Spielberg stated, "The Holocaust was life without light. For me, the symbol of life is color. That's why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black and white."

Question: I don't understand the part where Foxxy is talking to Austin through that guy. How does she do it, or is it just a gag?

Answer: It's a gag. I suppose she 'rehearsed' it with the guy, but when the guy hurts his finger and Foxxy says "Ow!" that is obviously a gag.

Hamster

Question: Is there any reason why Samuel Jackson's character got a purple light saber? I know bad Jedi used to have red and good Jedi blue or green, but what about purple?

Answer: Sam L. Jackson asked Lucas if he could have a purple saber, and Lucas said yes (so the story goes at least). I suppose Jackson just wanted to be different. It could also possibly be explained in-universe that Mace Windu uses a fighting style that borders dangerously close to the dark side (it's in the starwars.com databank if you wish to look it up), so his saber is a mix of Blue (light side) and Red (dark side) to signify this.

Gary O'Reilly

Question: Who or what exactly is the Frenchman?

Answer: The Frenchman, aka The Merovingian is an old and powerful program from an older version of the Matrix. He exists in exile and appears to be the most powerful program there. He manipulates other programs, people, and the Matrix to, as the Oracle states, gain more power.

Chosen answer: "I'm Into Something Good." It's the second song listed in the music credits, and if you don't read all the credits you miss a good part of the gags in the movie.

"I'm Into Something Good" is played during the scenes where Frank is going out with Jane. The song the person is asking about is this song. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn-MlISDsNs.

Answer: The opening song during the credits is the theme song from the 1982 TV series "Police Squad!" The Naked Gun movies are based on the short lived TV series.

Bishop73

Chosen answer: It's the Main Title music, composed, as was the rest of the score, by Elmer Bernstein.

Question: In the Chamber, right before the Basilisk blasts out of the water, Tom Riddle says something about Lord Voldemort returning. As he says this, he holds out a hand in front of him and stares at it. Is there a reason for this?

Susan Kirk

Chosen answer: As it states in the film Tom Riddle is Voldemort; as he was at school, and he put the memory of himself into the diary. Whilst in the chamber he is taking the life out of Ginny Weasly to bring himself back and get voldemort back to full power again. So as he pulls the power out of Ginny he is becoming more than a memory and therefore solid - this is why he is looking at his hand, he's watching himself become solid and real again.

em

Show generally

Question: In the UK at least, new box sets have just been released of all 10 series (3 discs per box). Does anyone know if these are double sided or single sided discs? The original DVDs were double sided, which always seemed stupid.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: They are double sided. Four episodes per side on 3 discs gives 24 episodes which equal one season.

tw_stuart

Question: How where the flying ball shots in the beginning done? I know it could be a helicopter, but some of the shots go through branches etc. Not too easy with a helicopter.

manthabeat

Chosen answer: Computer animation.

JamesP

Question: Anyone know why the clone army is so small? I think the Kamino-guy says there are 200,000 ready and a million more on the way. China's army is almost twice that size. For a galactic war, troop counts in the billions would be necessary. And just one of those droid factories could probably pump out hundreds of thousands in a week.

Answer: Generally speaking, as technology improves, the actual size of an army in terms of manpower goes down. The clone army has not been constructed to fight a war on the galactic scale - it's more intended to be an elite fighting force for putting down planetary scale insurrections. The droid armies would certainly have numerical superiority, but they would lack tactical flexibility, plus have at least one potential flaw (as exposed in the Phantom Menace) - the clones can take advantage of that and should be able to defeat considerably larger forces.

Tailkinker

Question: Where is the film set and where can I read up about the true story?

Answer: The film was inspired by an incident at St Crispin's Reef, a dive site on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, when Tom and Eileen Lonergan was left behind by their diving boat after an error was made during the headcount. They were never seen again. More information can be found at http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200310/200310_mysteries_2.html.

Tailkinker

Question: Why is this film called Attack Of The Clones? The clones didn't attack, they were an army of the Republic. They were defending the Jedi order, they retaliated when the Jedi were fighting, or did I miss something?

Answer: They still attacked on Geonosis. An attack doesn't have to be a first strike. The point of the title is that Clones are starting to be used in war.

Jon Sandys

Show generally

Question: After just a few series Tommy's girlfriend Stacey left the show. Does anyone know why?

Answer: She left with her new boyfriend to go to a English college.

Answer: All of the singing that Hilary Duff did in the film is her own. This is stated in the credits of the songs she did.

moviemogul

Question: There are numerous mentions of the fact that Depp based his performance as Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards. But I'm sure I saw an interview/making-of programme where he said that Jack Sparrow was a combination of two real-life 'characters'; one was Keith Richards, and try as I might, I can't remember the other one. Did anyone else see this? Who was the other inspiration for Jack Sparrow? (It may have been another actor e.g. Orlando Bloom talking *about* Johnny Depp's influences etc.).

Answer: On Disc 3, Johnny explains, "Take something as solid as Keith Richards and combine it with Pepé Le Pew... I felt... he would resemble a modern day Rastafarian..." Pepé Le Pew is a Looney Tunes cartoon character, based on Charles Boyer's romantic character, Pepé Le Moko. Pepé Le Pew, however, is a romantic amorous cartoon skunk and he has a huge flaw - his 'odor', which he emits in a grand way.

Super Grover

Question: What does Tom Cruise's character say to the owner of the jazz place after he shoots him in the head ?

Answer: It's been a while since I saw the movie, but he said something along the lines of: "[Miles Davis] dropped out of Julliard after six months and found a bar on 57th street, where he met Charlie Parker, who mentored him for three years."

Answer: Dropped out of Julliard after less than a year and tracked down Charlie Parker on 52nd St, who mentored him for the next three years.

No Thanks - S4-E9

Question: Marie teaches Debra to make something called Canopys (I'm not even sure that's how you spell it). Can someone tell me what Canopys are and give me the correct spelling? I assume it's some sort of Italian appetizer or dish.

rstill

Chosen answer: A Canapé is a cracker or a small, thin piece of bread or toast spread with cheese, meat, or relish and served as an appetizer.

umathegreatstationarybear

Question: Does Legolas have an age? I've read somewhere that it's 2931, but did Tolkien ever record one? Also, now that I'm on that subject, what is Aragorn's age? Did Tolkien record THAT as well?

Answer: There is no record of when Legolas was born. But it is commonly believed that Arwen is the last Elf born in Middle-Earth, and she is 2,777 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. So Legolas is older than that. Aragorn was born (according to the timeline in the appendix to "Lord of the Rings") in year 2931 of the Third Age, 87 years before the War.

Twotall

Answer: I've read it is when Sam calls his father to tell him the sewer has backed up into the school, she is supposedly standing at his elbow with a sweater pulled up over her nose and mouth.

T Poston

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