I actually suck at trivia. Let's go with some movie trivia, most of which I've gathered listening to my mother's film nerd boyfriend.

Night at the Museum is a movie about the American Museum of Natural History, and The Thomas Crown Affair has the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a major setting and plot device. Neither of these movies got to use the actual museums as sets; they were refused and had to make sets of their own, although some scenes of the 'MET' in the latter actually were filmed in the New York Public Library.

In The Devil's Advocate, a scene takes place on the roof of a building in downtown Manhattan. One would naturally assume this is bluescreened all to hell, but it is actually filmed on location. No one tried to push Keanu Reeves off the ledge, regrettably.

Also in The Devil's Advocate, a NYC real estate tycoon is accused of killing his wife. Donald Trump found this highly amusing, and the scenes of the tycoon's gaudy, opulent apartment are shot in Donald Trump's gaudy, opulent apartment.

In Jaws, the actors had a difficult time with many of their lines because they burst out laughing at the mechanical shark whenever they saw it. The mechanical sharks, for their part, repeatedly broke down, and Spielberg called them 'the great white turd'. There was much surprise when audiences turned out to be scared shitless of the ridiculous thing.

For Jurassic Park, Spielberg originally wanted the velociraptors to be 10 feet tall, but no one would let him do this since they're not actually that size. During filming, a breed of raptor was found that is, in fact, 10 feet tall.

Whee Godfather trivia!
-When it was decided Al Pacino would be playing the part of Michael, he was already contracted to be in another film. Certain disreputable 'connections' were rumored to have played a part in his being released from the contract.
-The horse's head is real.
-The scene where Sonny beats up Carlo on the street has a grossly fake looking punch in it, but actually resulted in two broken ribs.
-In the Godfather II, when the mother dies, she originally refused to be shot in the coffin because she believed it would put a hex on her. (Real greaseball stuff.) The woman in the coffin is Francis Ford Coppola's own mother.
-Al Pacino wanted much more money than he was offered to come on for part 3, but agreed to the original offer when Coppola threatened to start the movie with Michael's funeral.
-The scenes of Sicily are shot in a town called Savoca. My father grew up there and frequently went to the bar that's shown in the movie. (Okay not trivia but pretty damn cool, I say.)

Okay, Godfather not your flavor? Lord of the Rings!
-David Bowie wanted the part of Elrond.
-All the languages used in Lord of the Rings are actually the languages Tolkien wrote.
-All the actors who played roles as the nine that left Rivendell together have tattoos of a 9 somewhere on their bodies. Even McKellen.
-The actor that played Gimli, a dwarf, was the tallest of the actors in the fellowship.
-Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn. You've seen The Vampire Lestat right? Then you understand my .
-The song Pippin sings to Denethor was written by Billy Boyd, the actor that played him. Viggo Mortensen also wrote for himself the song Aragorn sings when he's crowned.

That Jesus Christ's middle name was not H?

His last name wasn't Christ, for that matter and "Jesus" is the Greek version of his name - none of his disciples, much less his relatives called him that way.

People actually drive better after having one drink than they do when they have no drinks.

I wonder where this comes from - I imagine the idea is that it relaxes the nerves, or something. I doubt that safety-officals would agree, though. I also wonder what kind of drink it means - lets have a drink of absinth and go to drive!

-All the actors who played roles as the nine that left Rivendell together have tattoos of a 9 somewhere on their bodies. Even McKellen.

Except John Rhys-Davies, the actor of Gimli, if I remember correctly - I believe that his short-stunt got the honour, instead.

Well, if I can't spout trivia off the bat, at least I can correct other people's trivia.

Uh. Let's see.

...damn. I usually have tons of nonsense up my sleeves. I'll come back.

I did enjoy reading the tidbits, though.

Oh, here's one that I can't give evidence for, but I am an eyewitness to it:

Some people actually think that the movie "National Treasure" was based on the truth.

I kid you not. Or at least they did.

Here's a fun little movie fact.  In the movie Princess Bride the actor (can't remember his name for the life of me) who played Inigo Montoya was too drunk to do the scene where Inigo, Fezzik, and Vizzini kidnap Buttercup in the guise of lost circus performers.  If you look closey you can see that Inigo is actually a cardboard cutout. I kid you not!

EDIT
link for the picture...not that high quality though
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c397/ … ride02.jpg

Last edited by Toulouse (01-02-2007 08:40:11 PM)

Toulouse wrote:

Here's a fun little movie fact.  In the movie Princess Bride the actor (can't remember his name for the life of me) who played Inigo Montoya was too drunk to do the scene where Inigo, Fezzik, and Vizzini kidnap Buttercup in the guise of lost circus performers.  If you look closey you can see that Inigo is actually a cardboard cutout. I kid you not!

EDIT
link for the picture...not that high quality though
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c397/ … ride02.jpg

I lol'ed my pants. That's hollywood ingenuity.

For the Sex Pistols first concert in Manchester, every member in the audience became famous except for the mailman. 
He stayed a mailman
(Yay for 24 Hour Party People, it's a good movie)

All of these little tidbits are amazing, expecialy the Princess Bride one.  I always thought that sceene seemed kinda off...

Last edited by Iris (01-03-2007 02:22:25 AM)

You heard right?

A flying fish can leap out of water to a height of twenty times its own length and travel a distance equal to three football fields before landing. (Or maybe it should be called watering?)

This is turning out pretty well I think, I was hoping that when someone sprouts out some odd trivia, that it will stir up discussion and arguement.

I remembered some.

If you cut some species of starfish in pieces , each piece will become a starfish... well actually that is the way they reproduce

A starfish has two stomachs and takes out one to eat it's prey then takes it in again

Atila died while having sex, as a friend say he didn't come... he was gone

Personal_IceQueen wrote:

Barbie was based off a german sex doll named Lilli. ( I always knew she was a "career girl.')

Really? O.o

Personal_IceQueen wrote:

Barbie was based off a german sex doll named Lilli. ( I always knew she was a "career girl.")

Crikey! That tidbit of information tainted my childhood somewhat but it makes you wonder if the Bratz dolls are based on something equally as suspect.

Now thats a face that only a mummy lioness could love.

Volkswagon Bug = The only good thing to come out of Nazi germany, that and shows like Hogan's Heroes and maybe the SS uniforms which makes for great suited fetish wear *hehe*