Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During a September 2017 interview on the BBC 4 Today programme, legendary comedian and comic filmmaker Mel Brooks was asked if he thought he could make some of his most famous films (such as "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Young Frankenstein") in today's over-sensitive, thin-skinned political climate. Brooks replied: "Maybe Young Frankenstein, but never Blazing Saddles, because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. It's OK not to hurt the feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behavior."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime actor Michael Keaton seems permanently attached to winged superhero roles. Keaton began the superhero phase of his career in 1989 as "Batman" in the original film and its first sequel. Keaton was nominated for an Academy Award for 2014's "Birdman," playing a washed-up actor who was once a flying superhero movie star. In "Spiderman: Homecoming," Keaton plays the high-flying villain Adrian Toomes (aka "Vulture").

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Producer/screenwriter/director John Boorman deliberately chose renowned stage actors Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren to play the sorcerer Merlin and the sorceress Morgana, knowing very well that Williamson and Mirren hated each other in real life (because of a disastrous stage production of Macbeth they worked on, years earlier). Boorman anticipated real friction, tension and anger between the two actors, which was the effect he wanted onscreen. On the contrary, the experience of working together in "Excalibur" completely changed Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren into the best of friends.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When "Auto Focus" debuted, Bob Crane's son, Scotty Crane, complained loudly that the film was completely inaccurate and misleading. Scotty said that, while his father had been a lifelong sex-addict who recorded and photographed sex acts as far back as 1956, he was not a church-goer (as depicted in the film), he never tried S&M (as depicted in the film), and that he only started socializing with John Henry Carpenter in 1975, long after the Hogan's Heroes TV series ended, just 3 years before the unsolved murder that took Bob Crane's life. The film jumbles all of these events out of chronological order, omitting factual events while fabricating pure fantasy events for no other reason than to sensationalize Crane's troubled life and death.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The original 1961 story by Polish sci-fi writer Stanisław Lem was about the utter futility of attempted communications between humans and intelligent extraterrestrial species, because humans and aliens would have no common physical or psychological frame of reference for any attempted communication. For example, in the book, human scientists study the ocean planet Solaris for many decades without ever deciphering what they think are intelligent, changing patterns on the planet's fluid surface. They attempt to provoke a response from Solaris by firing X-rays at the planet, and the planet responds by reaching into the minds of the scientists and creating physical manifestations of their most guilty and painful memories. This has a traumatic effect on the baffled scientists, of course, and they have no idea what kind of communication they have established. Ultimately, the human scientists realise that the intelligence of Solaris is so vastly different from human intelligence, no meaningful interspecies communication is possible. This is a common theme in other works by Stanislaw Lem.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Throughout its long run on American television, M*A*S*H employed "canned laughter" (recorded audience laughter used to punctuate humorous lines of dialogue and comedic antics). However, the producers deliberately omitted the canned laughter in every surgery scene, even when the jokes were still flying thick and fast.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Jamie Farr (who played the cross-dressing Corporal and later Sergeant Maxwell Klinger) really did serve in the U.S. Army in Japan and Korea for two years, starting in 1955. When he joined the M*A*S*H television series in the 1970s, Jamie Farr wore his actual U.S. Army dog-tags in every appearance.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Both the rocket pistol and the cigarette rocket featured in the movie were real-life weapons. The arms manufacturer that created these gadgets paid for their product placement in the film with the intention of later marketing the weapons to the military and intelligence communities. Unfortunately, the rocket pistol and cigarette rocket proved too expensive, too clumsy, and too unreliable for field use, and the manufacturer ceased production two years later.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: "The Box" was based on a short horror story entitled "Button Button" by prolific and legendary sci-fi author Richard Matheson. Matheson's original story was first published in a 1970 issue of Playboy Magazine. He adapted his own story for the screen in a 1985 episode of the new "Twilight Zone" TV series, but it was significantly rewritten after he submitted it. Matheson was so angered by the Twilight Zone rewrite that he refused to allow his real name in the episode credits and instead used his pseudonym, "Logan Swanson."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Ever since "Planet Terror," a common misconception among some fans is that lead actor Freddy Rodriguez is related to film maker Robert Rodriguez (probably due to the fact that Robert is known for casting family members in his films). However, Robert and Freddy aren't related at all. Robert Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1968, of Mexican descent. Freddy was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1975, of Puerto Rican descent.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In reality, Adolf Hitler ordered his commanders and troops to stand down and allow Allied forces to escape at Dunkirk. The German General von Blumentritt is quoted as saying "He (Hitler) then astonished us by speaking with admiration of the British Empire, of the necessity for its existence, and of the civilisation that Britain had brought into the world...He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknowledge Germany's position on the Continent." But the exact reason for the order remains unknown.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the Watchmen timeline, Rorschach's polymorphic head mask was supposed to be a commercialized offshoot of Dr. Manhattan technology. It was a double-layered, temperature-sensitive fabric that changed patterns in response to fluctuating body heat, and it was originally intended to be marketed in the garment industry. That is where Walter Kovac (Rorschach) discovered the fabric, when he worked for a dressmaker in his youth. He privately used samples of the fabric to create his own head mask. Unfortunately, the novelty fabric was a commercial failure in the Watchmen timeline, which is why we don't see it used anywhere else in the Watchmen film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the real Deepwater Horizon oil spill, actor Kevin Costner offered his services, claiming that a small company he bought from the U.S. Department of Energy could clean up 90% of the oil in a week, using poorly-tested technology. His offer was accepted, despite zero evidence that the technology ever worked; and it failed miserably, of course.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Given that Clint Eastwood has composed much of the music for his films over the last 25 years, it's not surprising that the soundtracks of "Hereafter" and "Unforgiven" are incredibly similar, if not interchangeable.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: After Charlie Sheen performed brilliantly in such highly-acclaimed Oliver Stone films as "Platoon" and "Wall Street," film maker Stone had a face-to-face meeting with Sheen to discuss him starring in "Born on the Fourth of July." Charlie Sheen came away from the meeting confident that the lead role belonged to him. However, after several weeks, Charlie Sheen was stunned and infuriated to learn (from his brother, Emilio Estevez) that Oliver Stone had chosen Tom Cruise for the lead role. Stone never even bothered to call Sheen with the news.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While rumors of many deaths and strange events surrounding The Exorcist's production were largely fabricated and/or sensationalized for publicity purposes, two of the film's actors did in fact die before the movie was released. The character of Burke Dennings was killed in the film, and the actor who played him, Jack MacGowran, died of influenza shortly after completing his role. Likewise, the character of Mary Karras (elderly mother of Fr. Damien Karras) died in the film, and the actress who portrayed her, Vasiliki Maliaros, also died of natural causes shortly after completing her role.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actress Eileen Dietz doubled for Linda Blair in many of the film's possession sequences, including the infamous projectile-vomiting scene. Dietz, however, received no screen credit for her work, and she later unsuccessfully sued Warner Brothers and the film makers for puking credits.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: 18-year-old actress Sarah Holcomb started her movie career in 1978's "Animal House" (playing Clorette DePasto, the mayor's 13-year-old daughter) and ended her movie career two years later in 1980's "Caddyshack" (playing the fiery Maggie O'Hooligan). Holcomb actually appeared in five films during her two-year career, which came to an abrupt end due to severe schizophrenia brought about by cocaine addiction. Holcomb was institutionalized and never returned to acting. Today, at age 58, Holcomb lives a quiet, reclusive life under an assumed name somewhere in Connecticut.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Brent Spiner performed the majority of his scenes alone, with no other principal actors on the set. In fact, Spiner is digitally inserted into some scenes where he appears with other principal actors.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: On a budget of only $3 million, the producers offered actor Donald Sutherland a choice of $35,000 cash for 2 days work or 2% of the film's box office gross. Because nobody in the cast or crew believed that "Animal House" would be a hit, Sutherland opted for the $35,000 cash. As it happened, the $3 million comedy went on to gross over $141 million at the box office. Meaning that Sutherland would've made $2.8 million if he had chosen 2% of the gross.

Charles Austin Miller