Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While "The Mothman Prophecies" is a work of sensational fiction only loosely based on a few unrelated facts, it is odd that the film makers chose to actually reduce the number of people killed in the Silver Bridge collapse. In real life, 46 people lost their lives in the Ohio River that night, while only 36 were killed in the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The Ghostbusters theme, "composed" by Ray Parker Jr., was directly ripped off from the song "I Want A New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News. In fact, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker for intellectual property theft (settled out of court). Premiere Magazine later featured an article in which the film makers admitted to using the song "I Want a New Drug" as temporary background music in many scenes. They said that they made an offer to Huey Lewis to write the main theme for the movie, but Huey Lewis declined. The filmmakers then provided Ray Parker Jr. with finished film footage (including the Huey Lewis song in the background) to aid Ray Parker in writing an original theme song, which apparently he couldn't do.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The theme music of "Re-Animator" is a deliberate adaptation of the theme music from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 movie, "Psycho," originally composed by Bernard Hermann. In the Millennium edition DVD of "Re-Animator," composer Richard Band said that his "Re-Animator" score is a tribute or homage to Bernard Hermann's "Psycho" score; this fact was supposed to be noted in the "Re-Animator" credits, but was accidentally omitted, leading to more than a little confusion and controversy among fans for decades.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Walt Disney died of lung cancer in the mid-1960s, his last written words were "Kurt Russel," alluding to a Disney actor who was only a young teenager at the time. Kurt Russel went on to become a prominent actor in film in his adult years.

Charles Austin Miller

The Ensigns of Command - S3-E2

Trivia: Due to a noisy aqueduct on the set, they had to go back and overdub virtually all of the dialogue in the pumping station scenes on the planet's surface. This is most apparent with the character of colony leader Gosheven, who was portrayed by guest actor Grainger Hines. After filming was completed, a schedule conflict prevented Hines from participating in the overdubbing sessions, so another actor rather mechanically voiced Gosheven's lines. The incongruous overdub was so obvious and so unflattering to Grainger Hines that he requested his name be dropped from the episode credits, and so it was.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Yul Brynner, The Man in Black, has only 9 lines of dialogue throughout the movie, only 32 words. In the first saloon scene, Brynner intentionally bumps Richard Benjamin and says, "Sloppy with your drink"; after some silence, Brynner says to the bartender, "Get this boy a bib"; a few moments later, Brynner taunts again, "He needs his momma"; Benjamin finally summons the courage to speak, and Brynner replies, "You say something, boy?" Benjamin says Brynner talks too much, and Brynner challenges, "Why don't you make me shut up?" Whereupon, the two men square off for a duel, and Brynner finally says, "Your move." Later, about half-way through the film, when the Man in Black invades their hotel room, Richard Benjamin overhears Yul Brynner say the line "Not a word" to James Brolin. Even later, Brynner challenges Benjamin and Brolin in the street: Brynner first says, "Hold it," and shoots Brolin dead; Brynner then smiles at Benjamin and says, "Draw."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Both director Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke originally chose Jupiter as the Discovery's destination, and production of the Jupiter sequences and elaborate special effects were already finished ("in the can") when Kubrick abruptly decided to change the destination to Saturn. Kubrick thought Saturn with its rings would be more visually exciting than the Jupiter footage that he had already finished, so he ordered his special effects team to begin work on the Saturn effects. At the same time, Arthur C. Clarke changed the destination to Saturn in his "2001" novel that he was writing concurrent with the movie's production. Stanley Kubrick was well known for making such sudden and costly changes in the middle of production, but money wasn't really an issue; in fact, when Kubrick showed MGM studio heads and investors his early special effects footage, they were so awestruck that they all agreed to pay any price for the finished film. The real reason that Kubrick didn't go to Saturn was the protest of his exasperated special effects team, who had spent an enormous amount of time and effort on the already-completed Jupiter footage and had stretched their ingenuity to the point of exhaustion. The FX artists and technicians were extremely proud of their work and argued against simply discarding it to the cutting room floor. Kubrick, in typical fashion, abruptly dropped the Saturn idea without a second thought and stayed with Jupiter. (Strangely enough, Arthur C. Clarke still thought Saturn was a better destination, so he kept it in his novel, which published shortly after the movie premiered).

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: According to actor Malcolm McDowell, director Stanley Kubrick was concerned that the Droog attack on F. Alexander and his wife would become just another dark, cruel and violent scene in a movie that was already full of dark, cruel and violent scenes. Kubrick wanted the Alexander home invasion to stand out as genuinely horrifying, but he was at a creative impasse. After Kubrick shut down production for several days to ponder the problem, he thought of Alex dancing during the attack. Malcolm McDowell suggested dancing (and singing) along to "Singin' in the Rain," as it was the only song to which he knew all the words.

Charles Austin Miller