Jack Goldstein - The Amazing Book of Movie Trivia

Title Page

The Amazing Book of Movie Trivia

Jack Goldstein

Publisher Information

Published in 2015 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The right of Jack Goldstein to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2015 Jack Goldstein

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All facts contained within this book have been researched from reputable sources. If any information is found to be false, please contact the publishers, who will be happy to make corrections for future editions.

Introduction

Did you know that the dog who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz earned more money for the film than any of the munchkins did? Or that three quarters of the women James Bond has slept with have tried to kill him? Would you be surprised to find out that censors in New Zealand cut The Muppet Movie because (according to them) it featured scenes of gratuitous violence? And who would have thought that Jack Nicholson was a strong contender for the role of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs ?! If you enjoy going to the movies, then youll love this book that contains over three hundred amazing facts about your favourite flicks. Organised into sections as diverse as cameos, props, costumes, stunts, original endings, bad decisions and many more, this is the perfect addition for any film fans bookshelf.

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Film Titles

1. It was only after Paul Newman was cast in the role of Butch for the film The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy that the order of characters in the title was changed (obviously to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ).
2. The original title of Scream was Scary Movie.
3. Like many films, Airplane! has different titles in different countries. In Brazil it is called Tighten Up Your Seatbelt, The Pilots Gone! , whereas in Germany it is The Incredible Trip on a Crazy Airplane .
4. In China, Final Destination is called The Death God Comes .
5. Paramount Pictures insisted that quote marks be put around the crocodile in Crocodile Dundee , so that potential audiences would not think the main character was an actual crocodile.
6. The original title of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was Teenie Weenies.
7. In Brazil, distributors tried to capitalize on the success of Back to the Future by naming Michael J Foxs next movie (which we know as Teen Wolf ) Boy From the Future.
8. The working title for E.T. was actually A Boys Life.
9. Ghostbusters was allegedly originally going to be called Ghost Smashers.
10. Halloween was originally called The Babysitter Murders.

Star Wars

1. Star Wars was in fact originally called The Star Wars
2. In The Empire Strikes Back , if you look carefully, youll see both a potato and a shoe fly past the camera in the asteroid scene.
3. If Carrie Fisher hadnt been available, George Lucas had Jodie Foster down as second choice for the role of Princess Leia.
4. Episode II had a rather tongue-in-cheek working title Jar Jars Big Adventure.
5. Darth Vader only has twelve minutes on screen during the first Star Wars Film ( A New Hope ). Despite this, most people would say he is the character that made the biggest impression on them.
6. Alec Guinness absolutely hated Star Wars , saying that the dialogue was a load of rubbish. He even once said that killing off Obi Wan Kenobi was his idea.
7. Vader is actually the Dutch word for father.
8. Every single clone trooper featured in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is CGI.
9. James Earl Jones (who voices Darth Vader) was so convinced the film would be a flop that he initially refused to allow his name to be used in the credits.
10. In the original script for The Star Wars , Luke Starkiller (yes) punches fourteen-year-old Princess Leia in the face.

Cameos

1. Tim Burton - whose films often have a rather dark and macabre feel - appears as a corpse in Danny DeVitos 1992 film Hoffa .
2. In Catch Me If You Can , the French policeman who arrests Leonardo DiCaprio is in fact the real Frank Abagnale Jr.
3. Stan Lee - creator of some of the greatest comic book characters of all time - has a cameo in every film that stars one of his creations.
4. Alfred Hitchcock is famous for having cameo roles in his own films; it can be quite fun to try and spot his often not-so-subtle appearances whilst watching one of his masterpieces.
5. Ron Jeremy appears in Ghostbusters , in the scene where the containment unit explodes.
6. Cate Blanchett is the actress who plays Nicholas Angels girlfriend in Hot Fuzz - although as she is only shown wearing a lab-suit, face mask and goggles, youd be pretty hard-pressed to figure out it was her!
7. Also, at the beginning of Hot Fuzz , we see a flashback in which Nicholas Angel is stabbed in the hand by a crazed Santa. The man behind the beard? Renowned director Peter Jackson.
8. In perhaps one of the hardest-to-spot cameos, Glenn Close plays a bushy-bearded pirate in Hook - its not that the cameo is brief, rather that the make-up is so good you would never guess who is behind it!
9. Rock star Ian Brown turns up in Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban you see him very briefly in the leaky cauldron... and yes, he is reading Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time.
10. Characters from Disney films often have cameos in other Disney films. For instance, Boo shows Sully a Nemo toy in Monsters Inc ; Belle, Pumba and Magic Carpet can be seen in one scene from The Hunchback of Notre Dame , a poster for Mulan is on the wall in one scene from Lilo and Stitch , the tea set from Beauty and the Beast is on a table in Tarzan , Beast is one of the figurines the Sultan stacks in Aladdin ... and so many more!

Money

1. It only took three days for The Hunger Games to become Lionsgates biggest grossing film ever at that time.
2. The budget for American Graffiti was exactly $777,777.77 - it was delivered on time and cost exactly that figure.
3. The Titanic cost $7 million to manufacture. The movie Titanic cost $200 million.
4. Peter Sellers was paid $1 million for his role in Doctor Strangelove ; this was over half of the films entire budget.
5. The least successful Harry Potter movie still made around $100 million more than the most successful Twilight film.
6. The wedding scene in Napoleon Dynamite was actually filmed after the movie was picked up by the distributor. That single shoot cost more than the rest of the entire movie.
7. In addition to his fee, to thank Robin Williams for his work as the Genie in Aladdin , Disney sent him a Pablo Picasso painting.
8. Despite only costing $15,000 to make, Paranormal Activity has grossed over $200 million, making it one of the best movie investments ever.
9. At the time of writing, the Saw franchise is the most successful horror series, grossing almost $1 billion worldwide.
10. Although it is considered to be one of the greatest films ever, The Shawshank Redemption was only the 51 st highest grossing film of its year, well behind flicks such as the critically-panned Street Fighter.

General Facts

1. At the time of writing (and according to IMDB) the worst ever film is 1985 flick Final Justice.
2. Whilst filming Schindlers List , Steven Spielberg regularly got Robin Williams to call the crew and tell jokes to cheer them up. Williams was filming the part of the Genie from Aladdin at the time, and some of the jokes he told made it into the movie (obviously Aladdin , not Schindlers List ...)