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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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."

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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).

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Trivia: This feature-length stop-motion project has been in some form of production for thirty years. Phil Tippet started work on it after making "RoboCop 2," but nearly abandoned it after CGI became popular, fearful that people wouldn't accept it. He was encouraged to continue, and slowly pieced it together before finally premiering it in 2021.

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Trivia: John Leguizamo admitted to accidentally urinating in the Clown suit one day, because it took too long to take off, and he couldn't hold it any longer.

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Trivia: Michael Jai White really enjoyed being set on fire for the stunt where his character Al is initially killed, albeit for a silly reason. As a precaution behind the scenes to prevent burns, his body was covered in a gel that had been cooled in ice for four days straight. He was absolutely freezing, since his body was literally ice-cold. Once he was lit, the heat warmed the gel a little, making him slightly more comfortable. White quipped that he was willing to do more takes to literally warm up.

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Trivia: Production had to begin before the animatronic suits were finished, and they were never properly completed due to the rushed schedule. This is a big part of why the Garbage Pail Kids look so lousy and unnatural... they are missing a lot of the movement and articulation they were meant to have, which would have made them more lifelike.

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Trivia: Several members of the cast and crew have openly stated that they were embarrassed by the way the movie turned out, due to it having a reputation as one of the worst movies ever made.

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