TedStixon

15th May 2018

Return to Oz (1985)

Trivia: Along with "The Black Cauldron", "Return to Oz" was one of the first films to use Disney's then-new "Walt Disney Pictures" logo featuring a rainbow appearing over a white castle, set over a blue background. The logo and other close variants were used for most of Disney's releases until 2006, when they were officially retired.

TedStixon

15th May 2018

Return to Oz (1985)

Trivia: Fairuza Balk (Dorothy) actually almost never wore either the Ruby Slippers or even her regular black shoes, except in certain shots where they were necessary. Any shot where her feet are not visible, she was usually barefoot. She found her black shoes intolerably uncomfortable, so the director allowed her to walk around without them most of the time and would only film her from the waist-up when possible. Additionally, the "rubies" on the Ruby Slippers kept falling off due to the hot stage-lights melting the adhesive material the "rubies" were attached to, so they only had her wear them in closeups or wideshots for short periods of time.

TedStixon

15th May 2018

Return to Oz (1985)

Trivia: Dorothy's room at Dr. Wolly's electroshock therapy clinic is "31." (A reference to the day the holiday Halloween falls on.) "31" is also the number of the case Mombi's "original head" is located in when Dorothy later travels to Oz. This is in keeping with the tradition of aspects of Dorothy's "real world" being mirrored in the land of "Oz" - a concept introduced in the original 1939 Judy Garland film.

TedStixon

15th May 2018

Return to Oz (1985)

Trivia: Disney had little confidence in the film, and thus it was given little promotion, and quietly bombed at the box office, earning back less than half of its $28 million budget. The film however later gained a large cult following after being released on video.

TedStixon

Trivia: Minor spoilers. It was revealed in a behind-the-scenes interview that Anthony Daniels, who plays the droid C-3PO in every "Star Wars" movie to date, will have a small role in "Solo", but not as his trademark character. As 3PO has no role in the film's story, Daniels will reportedly cameo as the suit-actor for one of the other Wookies seen in the film, alongside Chewbacca. This will make Daniels the only actor to ever appear in every theatrical "Star Wars" movie. (Not counting the made-for-TV "Ewok Adventure" films).

TedStixon

Trivia: The film was originally set to be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and filming was nearly completed when they left the project due to creative differences. Lord and Miller reportedly had creative clashes with the producers and writers, and wanted to make the film much more light and comedic than originally envisioned. The decision for the two to leave was reportedly an amicable one between Lord, Miller and the producers. Shortly after, Ron Howard was hired to take over the project.

TedStixon

12th May 2018

Magic Funhouse! (2016)

Trivia: This web series was originally meant to be based more blatantly around the seven deadly sins, with each of the seven main characters meant to represent one of them.

TedStixon

12th May 2018

Magic Funhouse! (2016)

Trivia: Created by famous (and infamous) YouTube creator Brandon Rogers, this scripted series was created for the paid streaming platform Fullscreen. The series was unfortunately cancelled after the end of its second season, as Fullscreen opted to shut down its streaming service.

TedStixon

11th May 2018

The Avengers (2012)

Trivia: The first movie to ever gross over $200 million domestically in its opening weekend. (And somewhat coincidentally, it was released almost exactly ten years to the day after "Spider-Man" - the first movie to gross over $100 million in its opening weekend, and also based on a Marvel property).

TedStixon

Trivia: Kevin Spacey originally starred in the film. However, after sexual harassment allegations were leveled against him, most of his scenes were re-filmed with Christopher Plummer, costing the production almost $10 million. Spacey reportedly only appears in the finished film in one scene, and even then, only in wide-shots where his face can not be made out.

TedStixon

7th May 2018

Silent Hill (2006)

Trivia: Rose's husband Christopher is named after director Christophe Gans. Writer Roger Avery, knowing how personal the film was to Gans, thought it would be fun to name a character after him. He simply added an "r" to "Americanize" his name.

TedStixon

7th May 2018

Silent Hill (2006)

Trivia: Director Christophe Gans originally didn't want any men in the film whatsoever, as he wanted the movie to be heavily inspired by witchcraft, which is traditionally viewed as being somewhat more feminine. Writer Roger Avery also half-jokingly-half-seriously suggested in an interview that Gans has a "thing" for American women, and wanted to make a film with nothing but women from the US and Canada. The male characters were added into the film as a studio-note, as executives felt it was a bit odd that there were no men in the early drafts of the script.

TedStixon

7th May 2018

Silent Hill (2006)

Trivia: As a behind the scenes goof, the set decorators labeled one of the storefronts on set "M.T. Rooms" - aka "Empty Rooms." A joke about the fact that the majority of the buildings visible are basically just for show with nothing inside.

TedStixon

7th May 2018

Silent Hill (2006)

Trivia: In order to show Rose's progression as a character and her increasing desperation, her clothing slowly changes color throughout the film - going from a standard wardrobe of warm colors to a dark, almost blood-red by the time the film is over. Clothing in dozens and dozens of subtly different hues was crafted for the film, with the actress frequently changing wardrobe several times a scene. The changes are so subtle, that they're near-impossible to notice in any given scene.

TedStixon

Trivia: While "A Cold Day in Hell" was filming, Kevin Bacon, who co-starred in the original film, was working on a pilot for a "Tremors" TV-series, as he had long wanted to return to the franchised, but wanted to to move it to episodic television. Unfortunately, shortly before this film was released, the series was passed on by the intended network. Around the same time, co-star Michael Gross announced that Universal was already interested in producing a seventh film, should this sixth film be successful.

TedStixon

Trivia: There's a running gag about Burt wearing a new hat, and how it throws everyone off. And it's true - this is the first film in the series where he isn't seen wearing an Atlanta Hawks hat at some point. (Instead he wears a Chicago Cubs hat). According to the documentary on the Blu-ray of the original Tremors, Burt wore an Atlanta Hawks hat in the first movie because the production had been given a large stock of them, and thus a Hawks hat became a staple of Burt's costume throughout the franchise. Michael Gross himself, however, is from Chicago, and in 2016, between the production of the 5th and 6th movies, the Cubs won the World Series (as mentioned in this film). Thus, Gross, a producer on the films, switched to the hat of his favorite team to honor the championship.

TedStixon

Trivia: The baby's name, "Pubert," was actually the original intended name for Pugsley when the comic was turned into a sitcom in the 1960's. Comic creator Charles Addams pitched the name, but it was rejected as it sounds like a number of other words including "puberty" and "pubic." (Which were quite taboo at the time.) The name was finally used thirty years later in this movie for the Addams new baby.

TedStixon

Trivia: A third film in the series was planned after the previous film became a huge hit with audiences. Unfortunately, this sequel only managed to pull in about half of the original's box-office in domestic markets, and shortly after release co-star Raul Julia became seriously ill and passed away after suffering from a stroke. As a result of these two developments, the third film was cancelled and instead, children's media company Saban later "rebooted" the series with the film "The Addams Family Reunion" and a television series entitled "The New Addams Family." Though "Addams Family Reunion" is often cited as the "third" film in the series, it actually has no connection to the plot of the prior films and was produced and distributed by a different studio.

TedStixon

Trivia: The story behind this film is quite strange. While the theatrical rights to the series was owned by Paramount whom produced the 1991/1993 films, due to a contractual loophole the children's media studio Saban managed to secure the home-video rights - allowing them to make this unrelated direct-to-video film so long as it wasn't shown in theaters. Director Dave Payne was brought in, and wanted to make a quirky, dark kids movie that was tonally similar to the films of the Cohen Brothers, except set in the "Addams Family" universe. Instead, Saban vetoed all of his ideas, and instead forced him to make a carbon-copy of the other films, despite being unrelated, except they also demanded that all of the dark humor be removed, in order to make the film appeal exclusively to children under 12.

TedStixon

Trivia: Despite being unrelated, this movie does have two cast members from the 1991 and 1993 "Addams Family" theatrical films. Carel Struycken as hulking butler "Lurch" and Christopher Hart, whom portrays the living-hand "Thing." Struycken was brought in simply because he was one of the only actors who was big enough to play the character, while Hart was actually neighbors with director Dave Payne, and agreed to reprise the role in this reboot as a favor.

TedStixon

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.