Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The marine biologist, Hooper, was an unlikable character in Peter Benchley's novel. In the book, Hooper had an affair with Chief Brody's wife, and Hooper was appropriately eaten alive by the Great White at the end. Steven Spielberg originally intended to follow the Benchley novel and allow Hooper to be eaten inside the shark cage. As it happened, Spielberg fell in love with some accidental footage of a real Great White thrashing wildly with an empty shark cage; in fact, he loved that shot so much, the scene was rewritten on-the-fly to allow Hooper to escape the cage and survive.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Its teaser trailers are, for the most part, out-take footage that doesn't actually appear in the episodes. For example, in the scene in which ShadowMoon and Mr. Wednesday first meet aboard the airliner, the teaser trailer uses completely different camera shots and different performances from the actors. In the actual episode, the camera shots and performances for the same scene are noticeably different.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In Michael Crichton's original novel, John Hammond was a rather unlikeable character and was eaten alive by a swarm of Compsognathus dinos near the end. However, Steven Spielberg wanted to make John Hammond a more personable, sympathetic character in the first movie, allowing him to survive into sequel films. Therefore, John Hammond was spared. Nonetheless, the imagery of a person being swarmed and eaten by Compies was irresistible to Spielberg, and so the heavy character Dieter Stark was chosen as deserving victim of the lethal Compy attack in the second movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Jason Statham not only performs the majority of his own movie stunts and fight scenes, but he is highly trained in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu and is considered as skilled as most MMA fighters.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Indiana Jones could have escaped the rolling ball of rock by simply standing still, because the boulder started out about 15 feet over his head. Even if the boulder ended up blocking the entrance, there are several shafts of sunlight visible throughout the tunnel, indicating several potential points of escape.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Christopher Lambert could barely speak any English when he was chosen for the lead role in this film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Moira and Bill Davidson are strolling in the pasture, they pause to admire a beautiful mare that is posing for them, and Bill offers the horse something to eat from the palm of his hand (sugar cubes or some other treat, presumably, but it's not visible). However, the horse does not react to the treat nor eat anything that Bill offers, because the actor's hand was actually empty. The trained horse was obeying cues from her trainer, off-camera, and only her trainer carried the real treats.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Strangely, when "Patton" was first released, the most controversial scene in this film was that in which General Patton shoots a pair of mules that are blocking a bridge and dumps their carcasses over the side. While the true fate of the two animals is still unknown (were they actually shot, were they anesthetized, were they poisoned, were those real carcasses thrown from the bridge?), the fact is that no actual animal cruelty appears onscreen. Rather, in distinct cuts, Patton draws his revolver, gunshots are heard, two dead mules are seen in the roadway, followed by a wide, distant shot of the carcasses as they are tossed from the bridge. Any actual shooting or cruelty was, therefore, only inferred by the audience. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested the scene loudly in the press, but they did so with absolutely no evidence of animal cruelty in this scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Although Adrian Brody was officially the star of "Hollywoodland," his character (private detective Louis Simo) was a completely fictional role in the movie. Virtually all of the other characters in the film are based on real people, but there never was a Louis Simo, and he's not based on any actual person (s). George Reeves' mother did hire an attorney and a detective agency in real life; however, "Hollywoodland" director Allen Coulter said that the character of Louis Simo wasn't even partially based on anyone in real life.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Charlton Heston first arrives at the Flatiron Ranch, some ranch hands recognize the pack-horse that Heston is leading, and they call the horse by name: "Bright Eyes." A year later, Heston appeared in the first "Planet of the Apes" movie, where he himself is nicknamed "Bright Eyes" by Dr. Zira.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Charlton Heston is shot in the throat and captured by the apes. During his healing in captivity, Dr. Zira nicknames him "Bright Eyes," because of his obvious intelligence. A year earlier, when Charlton Heston appeared in the western "Will Penny," Heston's pack-horse was also named "Bright Eyes" in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the boardroom of the Very Big Corporation of America, the company's holdings are listed on the wall in the background. It is a repeating list of names, some which are Monty Python puns, inside jokes and references to other scenes in the movie. The listed names are: Acme Construction Company; Payne, Bickers and Dogood Ltd.; Stn. Pendons Ltd.; V. Rich and Son; Doneys (Florence) ; Mirage Land Co.; Arctic Geo. Lab Co.; Liver Donors Inc.; World Wide Wine Corp.; Universal Amalgamations Ltd.; Consolidated Steel Co.; Micro Computer Inc.; Moonscape Products Ltd.; Rubber Goods Incorporated; D.Odgey Enterprises Ltd.; Money Factor Printers Ltd.; Better Plastics Corps.; D.Crepid Holdings; Super Big Ltd.; Space Propulsion Lab; Interstellar Travel Corp.; Dawking's Mining Co.; Lange and Sons (International) ; Cooper's (Purveyors) ; Dickinson Kincain Association; The All Enveloping Co. Ltd.; O.Verpaid Associates Ltd.; E. Normons and Sons; A. Maze and Lee Huge; Horace Mann and Yure Ltd.; R. Devious Inc.; Wakefeld and Daughter; Vast Holdings (Europe) Ltd.; Phil Thevich Consortium; Fastness and Vast Co. Ltd; Star Bright Merchandise Org.; X. Tortion World Wide Ltd.; Cartwright Tutorials; Black and White Picture Co. Ltd.; R. J. McArthur Parks Ltd.; Walker, Walker and Jones Bros.; Data Travel and Experiments.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Early on, Terry Jones spent almost the entire movie budget solely on the production of "Every Sperm is Sacred" without telling Terry Gilliam or the other Pythons.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: As Jones and his father prepare to escape aboard the zeppelin, they walk past two men who are reading newspapers (one man on either side of the doorway). The two newspaper-reading men are George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Charles Austin Miller

The Bicameral Mind - S1-E10

Trivia: Dolores tells William: "They say great beasts once roamed this world, as big as mountains, but all that's left of them is bone and amber." This is a general allusion to dinosaurs, of course; but, more specifically, it's a tip-of-the-hat to "Jurassic Park," by author Michael Crichton, who also wrote The Original "Westworld." The theme of most of Crichton's science fiction was human shortsightedness resulting in scientific nightmares. Crichton's "Westworld" and "Jurassic Park" are virtually identical stories about scientific amusement parks running amok.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Probably the most impressive visual effect in this film is when Corso consults the twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Ceniza (rare book experts). Both Ceniza twins were played by actor José López Rodero in the subtle and entirely convincing digital effect sequence. The only flaw was that the elderly twins had identical facial wrinkles, which never happens with real-life twins. Beyond that, José López Rodero additionally played the two nameless workmen that Corso encounters at the end of the film, meaning that Rodero played four digital-effect roles in this movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime Hollywood film composer Leonard Rosenman scored a stirring title theme for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and it was well-received as an original Star Trek theme at the time (1986). However, the Star Trek IV title theme was actually a note-for-note recycled piece from the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated film, "The Lord of the Rings," which Leonard Rosenman also scored. The victory fanfare in the Lord of the Rings' final battle scene is virtually the same music as Star Trek IV's title theme.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime Hollywood film composer Leonard Rosenman scored the soundtrack of this 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated film, which was not a particular box office success. Seven years later, Leonard Rosenman recycled portions of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack when he also scored the soundtrack of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"; in fact, Star Trek IV's stirring title theme music is the same music as Lord of the Ring's final battle fanfare, note-for-note.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: One puzzling point for newcomers to "Hellboy" through the cinema was the scene in which Hellboy rhetorically asks John Myers, "You know what'll kill me, don't you?" The question is left open and unanswered for the rest of the movie (and it remains unanswered in "Golden Army," as well). Long-time readers of Mike Mignola's comics, however, have known for years that the only thing that can kill Hellboy is ripping his heart out of his chest. This is precisely what happened in the 2011 Hellboy comic entitled "The Storm and the Fury," when the dragon-witch Nimue unexpectedly ripped out Hellboy's heart, killing him on the spot and sending his soul back to Hell.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actor Billy Redden (who portrayed the inbred hillbilly banjo player) actually could not play the banjo at all. Despite training for the film, Redden's hand movements simply weren't convincing, so a local musician was hired to hide behind Redden and portray the left-handed fingerplay in complex banjo-picking shots. We only see the briefest snippets of Redden handling the banjo with his own two hands; however, when the iconic "Dueling Banjos" scene reaches a fever pitch, the left hand seen working the banjo frets is that of the real musician hiding behind Redden.

Charles Austin Miller