Moviefone Editorial

Author: Todd Gilchrist

17 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About ‘Wizard of Oz’

Warner Bros.

Few films that are 80 years old hold up as well as “The Wizard Of Oz,” but looking back at the deeply troubled production, it was a classic that almost didn’t happen. Multiple versions, changing directors, marathon production days, injuries on set and the logistical complications of shooting in Technicolor all threatened to stop the movie in its tracks. But the film has justifiably gone on to be not just a technical benchmark or a memorable family adventure but multigenerational touchstone and a true classic that exemplifies the persistence and dedication of Hollywood to create real and lasting movie magic. To commemorate its 80^th anniversary, as well as its upcoming 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release on October 29th, Moviefone delved into the complicated history of the film that the cast and filmmakers endured to get this adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s iconic novel not just to the screen but into the hearts and minds of moviegoers for years to come.

1. Although previous attempts were made to adapt L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” including by director Larry Semon in 1925, production began on what would become a cinematic classic only after MGM saw the success of Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and recognized the commercial possibilities of adapting popular children’s stories.

2. The original outline for the film written by director and producer Mervyn LeRoy’s assistant William H. Cannon dramatically toned down the magical elements of Baum’s source material, after other fantasy films had performed poorly in theaters. For example, the Scarecrow was a real man who was so unintelligent that the only job he could get was scaring crows, and the Tin Woodman was a criminal whose demeanor softened after committing crimes so heartless that he was sentenced to live in a tin suit.

3. Subsequently, LeRoy enlisted multiple teams to work on drafts of the adaptation, which was a fairly common process in Hollywood at the time. The teams did not know about one another’s work. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allen Woolf eventually wrote the version that would become the final film, but only after director Victor Fleming revised the script during filming, and actors Jack Haley and Bert Lahr contributed dialogue for some of their scenes.

Warner Bros.

4. Re-framing the story as an elaborate dream Dorothy experiences in order to ensure that audiences understood what happened, initial plans for the film included contemporary detail that the producers hoped would resonate with audiences, such as a song entitled “The Jitterbug” referring to a trendy dance move. This was later dropped, as was a post-Oz scene (that was never filmed) where Hunk/Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) announces that he is leaving for agricultural college and promises to write Dorothy, hinting at a possible romance between the two as she gets older.

5. Bolger was originally cast not as Scarecrow but Tin Man, until he successfully convinced producer LeRoy to give him the role he really wanted. Buddy Ebsen, originally cast as Scarecrow, didn’t object, and actually worked with Bolger to master the character’s “wobbly walk.”

6. After actress Gale Sondergaard turned down the role of Wicked Witch when producers shifted the character from someone more calculating and glamorous, like the queen in “Snow White,” MGM cast Margaret Hamilton just three days before shooting began.

7. After Frank Morgan was cast as Professor Marvel/The Wizard of Oz, the wardrobe department went in search of coats for him to wear that communicated “shabby gentility.” After the production acquired a coat from a local secondhand shop that would fit the bill, Morgan later discovered that the coat actually belonged to author Baum, when he found a tag in the pocket with his name on it. (This rumor may or may not be true; Baum biographer Michael Patrick Hearn insists that the author’s family denied seeing the coat. But it has become a longtime part of the lore of the film.)

8. Another long-held rumor that has been since proven demonstrably untrue is the notion that an extra, possibly a Munchkin, committed suicide on set and their body can be seen hanging in the background of the scene where Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow sing “We’re Off to See The Wizard.” In fact, the shape in the background is a crane stretching its wings – they were allowed to roam the set to create the appearance of mysterious creatures wandering through Oz. In subsequent versions of the film, editors colored the bird bright pink to ensure that this “urban legend” does not persist.

Warner Bros.

9. Ten days into filming, Buddy Ebsen was hospitalized for a reaction to the aluminum powder makeup that he wore, and he was forced to leave the role. Jack Haley didn’t learn until later abut the reason he was brought in to replace him, believing that Ebsen had simply been fired.

10. Filming began on October 13, 1938 under the guidance of Richard Thorpe, who was replacing Norman Taurog. He was later replaced by George Cukor, who didn’t actually shoot any scenes but served as a “creative advisor” after completing “Gone With the Wind.” He left on November 3, 1938 when Victor Fleming took over. Although Fleming adopted Cukor’s approach (which the producers said they were happy with), the production was still difficult because of the technological demands of using Technicolor, which required lighting that heated the set to upwards of 100 degrees, and makeup processes that required long hours for the cast and crew.

11. In the Munchkinland scene where the Wicked Witch disappears in a burst of flame and smoke, Hamilton suffered third-degree burns during the second take when the fire was set off too soon, igniting the copper-based face paint she was wearing. She did not return to work for three months while recovering. She later refused to shoot a scene in which the Witch “flies” on a broomstick billowing smoke, and when stand-in Betty Danko performed the scene, she was perhaps unsurprisingly injured when the smoke mechanism malfunctioned.

12. On February 12, 1939, Fleming was hired away from the production to replace Cukor on “Gone With the Wind.” King Vidor was hired to finish the sepia-toned Kansas sequences, but chose not to make his contributions to the film know to the public until after Fleming’s death in 1949 out of respect for his friend and colleague.

13. Special Effects Director Arnold Gillespie constructed the tornado out of a 35-foot muslin stocking connected to a steel gantry that he could manipulate to make it look like it was moving across the soundstage. The rest of the effects, such as the debris and dirt, were achieved using small models and hoses shooting compressed air.

Warner Bros.

14. The Cowardly Lion’s 90-pound costume was made both of foam latex and real lion skin and fur. The Tim Man’s costume was made of leather-covered buckram, but in a nice twist the “oil” used to lubricate his joints was chocolate syrup. Jell-O powder was used to change the color of the horses in the “Welcome to Emerald City” sequence. Unfortunately, asbestos was used to generate some of the special effects in the film, including the constant burning of the witch’s broomstick and the fake snow that makes Dorothy fall asleep in the poppy field.

15. After filming, the film began a long arduous post-production process. Herbert Stothart had to compose the film’s background score, while A. Arnold Gillespie had to perfect the various special effects that the film required, including many of the rear projection shots. The MGM art department also had to create the various matte paintings for the background of many of the scenes.

16. The Technicolor process presented some enormous challenges for the filmmakers during production, requiring numerous reshoot and changes during post-production. The shot where Dorothy emerges out into Munchkinland had to be reshot using Judy Garland’s sepia-painted stand-in backing out of frame so that the transition from “black and white” to color could be achieved.

17. In order to get the film cut down to a suitable length, MGM briefly insisted that the filmmakers cut “Over the Rainbow” from the film. LeRoy, producer Arthur Freed and Victor Fleming fought to keep it in, and were right to do so not only did it win the Best Song of the Year Academy Award, but it became synonymous with the film and eventually with Garland herself.

August 28, 2019
15 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About ‘Natural Born Killers’

Warner Bros.

At the time it was released, “Natural Born Killers” was considered one of the most controversial movies ever made. Based on a story by then-newcomer Quentin Tarantino, the film unapologetically depicted a pair of serial killers and the media blitz that they attract, turning upside down the relationship between real and on-screen violence with a brutal satire that only someone like Oliver Stone had the commercial and creative muscle to pull off. Today it remains a galvanizing look at the way that media controls and exploits real-life tragedy for ratings, while also serving as an absolutely singular triumph of technique. As the film celebrates its 25^th anniversary, Moviefone looks back at the unique and sometimes troubled production, remembering a time when major studios took big chances with ambitious filmmakers on stories that didn’t merely transport audiences but challenged them to examine and reconsider the world around them.

1. Quentin Tarantino sold producers Jane Hamsher and Don Murphy an option for his “Natural Born Killers” script for $10,000 after he was unable to direct the film himself for $500,000. When Oliver Stone signed on, he, David Veloz and associate producer Richard Rutowski heavily overhauled Tarantino’s script, which is why he retains only Story By credit on the film.

2. Stone initially wanted to make a gritty, violent action film that offered a logistical reprieve after the challenges of his film “Heaven & Earth.” But a number of high-profile court cases that dominated the news during that time (including the O.J. Simpson case and the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident) prompted him to transform the would-be road movie into a commentary about the dangerous role of the media in Americans’ daily lives.

3. Although many real-life murderers and serial killers inspired different aspects of the story and characters, Stone was perhaps most strongly influenced by Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie & Clyde,” and in particular the film’s then-innovative editing techniques, which used footage from different cameras shooting simultaneously at different speeds.

4. Tom Sizemore revealed that Stone would play African tribal music at high volumes in between takes in order to keep up a level of manic energy on set.

Warner Bros.

5. Cinematographer Robert Richardson broke his finger and a replacement cameraman cut his eye shooting the scene where Mallory runs into the wire mesh and knocks herself out. Juliette Lewis also broke Sizemore’s nose in the scene where she slams his character Jack Scagnetti into a wall.

6. Coca-Cola was reportedly furious to discover what the movie was about after their famous commercial featuring the polar bears was used twice prominently as cutaways.

7. In the scenes involving rear projection, the background footage was shot prior to principal photography, edited together and projected live at the location behind the actors and actresses.

8. The scene where Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory are apprehended at the drug store was purposely filmed in a way to evoke the Rodney King incident.

9. Oliver Stone used more than 150 rattlesnakes, some real and others fake, for the scene where Mickey and Mallory walk through the field of snakes. Since the scene was filmed at night, the snakes were colder and therefore more sluggish — if not sleeping — and therefor less dangerous to the actors.

10. Ashley Judd appears in a deleted scene as a sorority girl who is the only survivor of one of Mickey and Mallory’s killing sprees. Mickey questions her on the stand before stabbing her to death with a pencil.

Warner Bros.

11. The prison riot was shot at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois. Eighty percent of the inmates there were detained for violent crimes, but they were allowed to participate in the riot scenes with rubber weapons.

12. Stone and Richardson use eighteen different film formats on screen throughout the film.

13. Shooting of the film only took 56 days, but editing it took another 11 months. The finished film features almost 3000 cuts, which is almost four time as many as average.

14. The film was banned in several foreign countries upon its initial release, including in Ireland. The bans were later lifted.

15. The film became a lightning rod for controversy after author John Grisham helped bankroll a court case against Stone and the filmmakers when a young woman named Sarah Edmondson and her boyfriend dropped acid and went on a shooting spree after watching the film. Although the case was initially dropped on the grounds that filmmakers are protected by First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, an appellate court overturned the ruling; Hollywood held its breath for more than four years to see whether the court would find the filmmakers responsible for inciting violence. But the case was fully dismissed in March of 2001.

August 27, 2019
9 Essential Takashi Miike Films Everyone Has to See

Media Blasters

Since his debut in 1991, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has directed more than 100 theatrical, video and television productions. The sheer volume of material demands a certain amount of diversity in terms of subject matter, but few artists have traversed so many different genres as Miike, whose work includes period dramas, crime films, horror, family friendly material, and much more. Even if he’s not well-known commercially in the United States, he’s one of the world’s most well-renowned filmmakers, as much because of his versatility as his prolificness. To celebrate Miike’s 59^th birthday on August 24, Moviefone wanted to offer a brief primer on his work – some of his notable projects, that run the gamut from delightful to deeply disturbing – in case you’re curious where to start watching.

‘Audition‘ (1999)

Lionsgate

Miike had been working for eight years when he released the first film that would become for him a worldwide calling card. This adaptation of the 1997 novel by Ryu Murakami follows a widower who stages phony auditions to find a new wife, only to fall for a young woman with a mysterious background and past traumas that erupt into shocking violence. This tremendously controversial film won festival awards and critical condemnation, but demanded that the world pay attention to his work.

‘Visitor Q’ (2001)

Two years later, Miike directed the sixth and final part of the straight-to-video Love Cinema series, a low budget sex comedy shot on the then-newer digital video format that he utilized to create a fascinating juxtaposition between documentary-style filmmaking and wild and bizarre story elements. Featuring prostitution, incest, sexual assault and necrophilia, this film is definitely not for everyone, but it showcases his wild and unpredictable approach to subject matter and storytelling.

‘Ichi the Killer‘ (2001)

Media Blasters

In the same year, Miike directed this adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto’s manga series of the same name, about a sadistic and twisted young man who hunts down members of rival yakuza gangs while being pursued by a brutal, masochistic mob enforcer. He’d already tackled lots of yakuza films by this point in his career, but Miike once again broke out of the Japanese market thanks to his acclaimed source material and the often shocking portrayals of violence he translated to the screen.

‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’ (2001)

Shochiku

This third film (of a total of eight) Miike made in 2001 takes his work in yet another direction with a musical comedy horror story about a family of failures who buy a run-down house atop Mount Fuji with the hopes of turning it into a bed and breakfast, only to meet with one hilariously tragic loss after another. The film’s surreal approach includes dream sequences, sing-along scenes and stop-motion animation.

‘One Missed Call’ (2003)

Toho

This film was just one of those that catalyzed the explosion of popularity in Japanese horror and led to the mass migration of those films being remade or reinvented for Western audiences. The story of a young woman who receives a call from herself from three days in the future, Miike adapts Yasushi Akimoto’s novel of the same name, exploring urban legends while generating a lot of really unique suspense.

‘Sukiyaki Western Django‘ (2007)

Sony Pictures

Miike achieved a new level of cult success with the release of this wild, anachronistic western that reinvented the spirit of the Japanese samurai-influenced spaghetti westerns in an actual Japanese setting. The story of a nameless man who helps a prostitute take revenge on warring gangs of outlaws, the film combines a wild variety of influences and techniques into an exhilarating, action-packed epic.

‘Thirteen Assassins’ (2010)

Toho

Miike once again garnered exceptional reviews across the globe for this period epic about a group of warriors who team up during the era of feudal Japan to kill the brutal leader of an evil clan before he can be installed into power. Miike has always been a skilled technician, but this film’s polish evoked the work of Chinese contemporaries like Zhang Yimou, as well as Japanese forebears like Akira Kurosawa.

‘Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai’ (2011)

Shochiku

Miike was nominated for Cannes’ Palme D’Or for this 3D remake of Masakai Kobayashi’s 1962 film “Harakiri,” the story of a masterless samurai who declares his intention to commit suicide in hopes of restoring his honor. Ryuichi Sakamoto, who helped compose the music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor,” provided the score.

‘Blade of the Immortal‘ (2017)

Magnet

After dozens upon dozens of films exploring similar subject matter, Miike continues to inject stories of samurais, violence and honor with a beautiful, brutal, unique resonance. In this adaptation of the manga by Hiroaki Samura, Miike tells the story of a highly skilled samurai who unexpectedly becomes immortal after a deadly battle. He subsequently recognizes that battling evil forces is the only way to regain his mortality.

August 26, 2019
18 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About ‘Inglourious Basterds’

Universal

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has perhaps understandably stoked a lot of discussion about its portrayal and reimagining of not just certain events (like the tragic murder of Sharon Tate) but many of the myths upon which Tinseltown is based. But ten years ago, writer-director Quentin Tarantino created his first film in which fiction and real-life history were skillfully blended into “Inglorious Basterds,” an operatic alternative timeline where a small group of American soldiers and a vengeance-seeking French projectionist unknowingly team up to kill Adolf Hitler and stop World War II overnight. In honor of its anniversary (and its eight Academy Award nominations, the most yet for any of his films) Moviefone takes a look back at the lore and the legends that inspired Tarantino to create this unforgettable war movie.

1. Quentin Tarantino’s movies often seem to gestate for a long time before he puts them on the page – and eventually, on screen. He first began thinking about “Inglourious Basterds” while making “Kill Bill Vol. 1” and “2” but didn’t revisit it until after “Death Proof” because he was coming up with what he deemed a satisfying ending.

2. Perhaps even moreso than in his other films, Tarantino’s character names were inspired by actors and filmmakers that he loves. Aldo Raine’s (Brad Pitt) name is a composite of real-life WWII veteran Aldo Ray and “Rolling Thunder” character Charles Rane, while the name he gives at the end of the movie, Enzo Gorlomi, is the birth name of original “Inglorious Bastards” director Enzo G. Castellari. General Ed Fenech (Mike Myers) was named after giallo actress Edwige Fenech. Omar Ulmer (Omar Doom) got his surname from Edgar G. Ulmer, a German expressionist filmmaker. The name of Wilhelm Wicki (Gedeon Burkhard) was inspired by directors Georg Wilhelm Pabst (“The White Hell of Pitz Palu”) and Bernhard Wicki (“The Longest Day”). Sergant Hugo Stiglitz’ (Til Schweiger) name came from the eponymous Mexican b-movie actor. Sergeant Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) uses the alias Antonio Margheriti, the Italian director of “Cannibal Apocalypse.” And Shoshanna Dreyfus’ (Melanie Laurent) last name come from his friend and former collaborator Julie Dreyfus (“Kill Bill Vol. 1”) who plays a small role in the film as translator Francesca Mondino.

3. Their stories are completely different, but Tarantino sought Enzo Castellari’s blessing after deciding to name his film after “The Inglorious Bastards,” eventually purchasing the film’s remake rights. Not only did he cast the director as a General yelling “fire!” just like he did in his own film (this time pointing out the fire in the theater) but he also cast “Bastards” star Bo Svenson as an American Colonel. Although Castellari was cut from the film, he repaid Tarantino by naming his 2010 film “Caribbean Basterds.”

Universal

4. Though her name was invented by Tarantino, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) was inspired by several real-life actress-turned-agents, in particular Marlene Dietrich, who didn’t serve overseas but made recordings for the Office of Strategic Services’ Morale Operations Branch.

5. Tarantino revealed that Schweiger had categorically refused to don a Nazi uniform for a role before this film, and only agreed to do so for “Basterds” because he got to wear it while killing them.

6. Quentin Tarantino personally offered Rod Taylor the role of Sir Winston Churchill, in what would be the actor’s final role. Tarantino is a huge fan of Taylor’s film “Dark of the Sun,” and in the scene in which Hickox (Michael Fassbender) is talking to Stiglitz while he sharpens his knife, the theme to that film is playing.

7. Meanwhile, Samm Levine, who plays Pfc. Hirschberg, actually had two roles in the film, including a painter in the background of Adolf Hitler’s introductory scene.

8. To play Shoshanna, Melanie Laurent worked as a projectionist for several weeks at Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the character’s theater was loosely based on the Vista Theatre in Silverlake where Tony Scott filmed exteriors for the “Street Fighter” marathon in “True Romance.”

9. While tackling the main film, Tarantino hired Eli Roth to direct “Nation’s Pride.” Enlisting his brother Gabriel with a second camera, the Roths were able to get 130 camera set-ups in just two days. The entire film they shot runs about five and a half minutes, but it’s meant to be a collection of various scenes from a longer film rather than a coherent narrative unto itself.

10. Tarantino makes a voice cameo in “Nation’s Pride” as an American soldier who says “we must destroy that tower!” He also appears in dummy form as the first German to be scalped in the film.

Universal

11. Filmmaker Tom Tykwer translated the parts of the script that were to be in German. However, Tarantino did not learn his dialogue in the various foreign languages in which the lines were performed and directed those scenes intuitively.

12. Tarantino was meticulous in creating period-accurate posters for “Nation’s Pride,” including a German censor approval stamp and design elements common to that era.

13. He also drew upon real historical events in order to provide interesting motivations and details about his characters. When Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) tells Francesca (Julie Dreyfus) never to mention Lilian Harvey’s name, it’s because the real actress fled Nazi Germany in 1939 after helping a Jewish choreographer, Jens Keith, escape to Switzerland.

14. Meanwhile, the second marquee at Shoshanna’s theater advertises “Le Corbeau,” a film produced during the Nazi occupation of France that famously featured hidden anti-Nazi messages that censors failed to detect.

15. Tarantino somewhat infamously confessed to being the one to personally strangle Diane Kruger during von Hammersmark’s death scene, in order to achieve the “authentic” look he wanted from her on camera.

Universal

16. According to the “Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe,” Lieutenant Aldo Raine is the grandfather of Floyd, the pothead on the couch in “True Romance” played by Brad Pitt. Meanwhile, Donny Donowitz (Roth) is the father of “True Romance” character Lee Donowitz, the producer who made “Coming Home in a Bodybag.”

17. Christoph Waltz won an Academy Award for playing Colonel Hans Landa, in what was his first American film after working for 30 years in Germany. He remains the only actor thus far to win an award for acting in a Tarantino film. What’s more, he would perform the feat twice, when he won again for “Django Unchained.”

18. To this day, Tarantino refuses to explain why he intentionally misspelled the name of the movie in its title, suggesting that to do so would undermine it as an artistic flourish.

August 21, 2019
16 Things You (Probably) Never Knew About ‘The Abyss’

20th Century Fox

By the standards of 2019 special effects, “The Abyss” feels like an absolutely unimaginable accomplishment. James Cameron conceived, built and directed a film that mostly takes place underwater, using groundbreaking, proprietary technology not just to complete its special effects but to showcase the actors’ performances and record their dialogue while fully submerged. At the time of its release, it was viewed as a curio and to a commercial misfire (it was the only film of Cameron’s to not open at #1 at the box office). But 30 years later, it remains one of his signature achievements, in terms of the boundary-pushing logistics that went into bringing it to life, and secondarily, in being a lynchpin in Industrial Light & Magic’s ascendance to the top of the industry as a purveyor and provider of special effects.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film has cultivated its own legend over the years, collecting anecdotes and recollections from cast and crew members who struggled to fulfill James Cameron’s vision. But proof of “The Abyss”’ impact on film history (and the director’s own legacy) only continues to grow. On its 30^th anniversary, Moviefone looks back at the complicated, often contentious production that led to one of cinema’s most ambitious and influential works.

1. James Cameron first conceived the premise of “The Abyss” when he was 17, after attending a presentation by Francis J. Falejczyk, the first diver to breathe fluid through his lungs.

2. Cameron went through many drafts of the script in the years after finishing “Aliens,” during which time he interpolated the idea of remote operated vehicles (inspired by a National Geographic film) and developed the character of Lindsey based on his then-partner Gale Anne Hurd. Hurd and Cameron separated during pre-production of the film and divorced in February 1989, two months after completing principal photography.

20th Century Fox

3. Cast and crew alike trained in underwater diving in the Cayman islands to prepare for the film, 40 percent of which would be shot underwater. Ever an innovator, Cameron and his company developed experimental technology that allowed the filmmaker to interact with the actors and record their dialogue live on tape.

4. Cameron chose Gaffney, South Carolina as the location of the shoot after Duke Power officials abandoned a $700 million power plant that could house the volume of water and the production infrastructure needed for the filmmaker to execute his vision. Holding 7.5 million gallons of water, the 55-foot-deep vessel was the biggest fresh-water tank in the world. A second tank one third as big gave the production a second tank to use for pick-up shots and sequences.

5. Principal photography was delayed after the tank sprang a leak on the first day of shooting, forcing the production to hire dam-repair experts to stop 150,000 gallons per minute from rushing out.

6. Cinematographer Mikael Solomon shot scenes with three cameras protected by specially designed, watertight housings. Cameron wanted to see the actors’ faces in the underwater suits and be able to hear their dialogue, so he enlisted Western Space and Marine to design helmets that wouldn’t fog or otherwise obscure their faces, and then added microphones that would provide crystal-clear audio.

7. The fluid breathing system that the rat is subjected to in the film does actually exist and has been tested thoroughly on animals. However, Ed Harris did not actually breathe the fluid, although there were sequences in which he had to hold his breath in a helmet full of fluid while being towed beneath the surface of the tank.

20th Century Fox

8. In order to expedite shooting and maintain the safety of the cast and crew, actors performed scenes at just 33 feet and rarely for more than an hour at a time, eliminating the need for them to decompress in between scenes or sequences. The production additionally hung actors from hoses where they could breathe pure oxygen to help avoid decompression sickness.

9. Few stunt people were used during shooting. For example, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio actually held her breath in order for Harris to drag her underwater. The scene where Catfish (Leo Burmester) fires a machine gun into the water was accomplished using live rounds and extreme safety precautions.

10. The production as a whole was grueling for the cast and crew, owing partially to Cameron’s dictatorial style but just as much to the logistical complexities of shooting a film that takes place primarily underwater. Even Cameron acknowledged, “I knew this was going to be a hard shoot, but even I had no idea just how hard. I don’t ever want to go through this again.” The shoot eventually went on for six months, subjecting everyone to six-day, 70-hour weeks.

11. Production went $4 million over budget and took 140 days to shoot. Harris reportedly refused initially to help promote the film; he did participate in the press tour, but has generally declined to discuss its making in subsequent years. Mastrantonio echoed Harris’ sentiments, saying, “The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun to make is not one of them.”

12. Industrial Light & Magic made its name creating the “water tentacle” after Phil Tippett referred Cameron to them to provide computer-generated visual effects. For what amounted to 75 seconds of computer graphics, ILM worked for six months, photographing the set comprehensively to recreate it in a computer and composite the animation into each frame. In fact, this was one of several sequences so demanding to complete that the film’s release was delayed by more than a month.

20th Century Fox

13. Miniatures were used extensively to complete sequences with the mini-submarines. Shots like the one where the subs explore the wreckage of the sunken nuclear sub were accomplished using miniature screens inside each model to project movies of the actors.

14. The movie’s legendary Special Edition was a restoration of the original cut Cameron prepared for the film, but chopped down mercilessly (and without studio interference) to create the theatrical cut. Unsure of whether or not the visual effects would be done for his original ending, in which a tidal wave threatens the shores of countries across the globe, Cameron elected to remove the sequence and maximize the emotional impact of the rest of the story.

15. For financial reasons, the “Deepcore” rig set was never dismantled after production wrapped. After the power plant was drained, it remained at the location until 2007, when it was demolished.

16. Much to this reporter’s consternation, the film has never been released on Blu-ray or even in anamorphic widescreen on DVD. Cameron was reportedly working on a 4K version of the film, but thus far it has never, ahem, surfaced.

August 9, 2019
‘The Kitchen’ Leftovers: 15 More Movies You Didn’t Know Were Comic Book Adaptations

In an era where superheroes dominate the moviegoing landscape, it’s easy to forget how many comic books there are that don’t focus on them. There are, of course, thousands of comic books produced every year, much less since the birth of the medium, that explore a wide variety of subjects. Unsurprisingly, filmmakers often find these books and thrill at their dramatic possibilities on screen, leading to adaptations that don’t feature Infinity Gauntlets or Guardians of the Galaxy.

This week, Andrea Berloff’s “The Kitchen” arrives in theaters, a big-screen version of Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle’s Vertigo miniseries of the same name. To commemorate the film’s opening, we dug back through the last few decades to find some other adaptations that you may not know were adapted, inspired or otherwise derived from comic books and graphic novels.

‘Sheena’ (1984)

Columbia Pictures

The 1980s was a clearing house for movies about remote, “primitive” cultures and the men and women who navigated them. This Tanya Roberts film, effectively a female reimagining of “Tarzan” (itself adapted in 1981), was inspired by W. Morgan Thomas’ 1930s character of the same name, but writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. (the 1966 “Batman”) proved the wrong guy to translate this particular legend to the screen (it features a truly shocking amount of T&A for a PG-rated movie).

‘Weird Science’ (1985)

Universal Pictures

In the same year that he delivered one of his most nuanced portraits of teenage life, “The Breakfast Club,” John Hughes also directed this horny teen comedy about two geeks who try to design the perfect woman. Inspired by a story from the EC Comics series of the same name, whose rights producer Joel Silver acquired for the filmmaker. (Silver would go on to create the hugely successful “Tales from the Crypt” TV series, based on EC Comics, as well as the one-season oddity “Perversions of Science,” based on similar material.)

‘Timecop’ (1994)

Universal Pictures

Mark Verheiden, showrunner of DC’s “Swamp Thing,” helped adapt his own comic book of the same name for Jean-Claude Van Damme and director Peter Hyams in the early 1990s. The story of a police officer who uses illegal time-travel technology to find and stop the people responsible for his wife’s murder before it happens, this sci-fi thriller remains one of Van Damme’s better films from the period.

‘Ghost World’ (2001)

United Artists

Documentarian Terry Zwigoff transitioned into features with this brilliant adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ deadpan chronicle of aimless high school graduate Enid (Thora Birch), her friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) and the middle-aged loser, Seymour (Steve Buscemi) they befriend.

‘Road to Perdition’ (2002)

DreamWorks

As a follow-up to his Oscar-winning “American Beauty,” Sam Mendes directed this adaptation of Max Allan Collins’ graphic novel about a mob enforcer (played with uncharacteristic brutishness by Tom Hanks) on the run with his young son after his former bosses put a price on his head.

“American Splendor” (2003)

Fine Line Features

If you didn’t know this one was based on a comic book, you probably should have, especially since directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini skillfully weave the material of Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner into the fabric of this story about the author and his endeavors to find and audience.

“Oldboy” (2003)

Show East

Park Chan-Wook’s benchmark 2003 film owes as much to Greek myth as to comic books, but few audiences are as familiar with either of those materials as they are with his unforgettable adaptation of the Japanese manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. To be fair, there are certainly a few sequences (such as the hammer fight) that were conceived exclusively for the screen, and some of its biggest twists were not in the books, but the movie’s brutal sensibilities were certainly shaped by that source material.

“A History of Violence” (2005)

New Line Cinema

Based on a 1997 graphic novel of the same name (part of the same line that gave us “Road to Perdition”), David Cronenberg directed this idiosyncratic, character-driven thriller about a small town diner owner (Viggo Mortensen) whose violent past complicates his idyllic present after he bloodily dispatches two robbers.

“Surrogates” (2009)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Jonathan Mostow directed this film starring Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike about an FBI agent investigating murders in a dystopian future where people experience life through idealized surrogate bodies. Based on the 2005-06 comic book series of the same name, the movie fails to adequately explore the moral implications of its premise, and relies on lackluster action to keep audiences engaged.

“Whiteout” (2009)

Warner Bros.

Dominic Sena directed this isolated thriller starring Kate Beckinsale, based on the eponymous 1998 graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. The story follows a Deputy Marshal desperate to get back to the United States before a winter storm hits the South Pole, only to become embroiled in a murder mystery. Trust us, it sounds a lot cooler than it actually is.

“RED” (2010)

Summit Entertainment

Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner created the comic book series this action franchise is based on, about retired black-ops agents, led by Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), who return to the field after discovering they’ve been targeted for assassination by the CIA. Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren have lots of fun in a genre that’s typically earmarked for actors and actresses half their age.

“Tamara Drewe” (2010)

Sony Pictures Classics

Though the source material itself reworked Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crowd,” director Stephen Frears directly adapted Posy Simmonds newspaper strip-turned-graphic novel for this pastoral comedy. The story concerns a young journalist (Gemma Arterton) who returns to settle old affairs in her remote English town, only to become ensconced in local melodrama after she becomes involved with a rock & roll drummer (Dominic Cooper) and a crime novelist (Roger Allam).

“Blue is the Warmest Color” (2013)

Criterion

Director Abdellatif Kechiche won the Palme d’Or (and courted significant controversy) with this three-hour adaptation of Julie Maroh’s graphic novel of the same name, about two young women who embark on a passionate love affair at a pivotal moment in both young women’s lives. The graphic sex sequences garnered most of the attention, but the movie’s sophistication and sensitivity are what set it apart.

“The Death of Stalin” (2017)

IFC

Even history is based on comic books, occasionally: Armando Iannucci directed this adaptation of a French graphic novel about the comically bleak power struggle that gripped Soviet leaders after the death of political revolutionary Joseph Stalin.

“Wilson” (2017)

Fox Searchlight

Another Daniel Clowes adaptation, Craig Johnson directed this film about a neurotic middle-aged man (Woody Harrelson) who reconnects with his estranged wife (Laura Dern) and meets his daughter (Isabelle Amara) for the first time, proving once again that great graphic drama can be mined from even the most seemingly mundane of subjects.

August 8, 2019
No Twists, Only Discoveries: What Makes ‘The Village’ Shyamalan’s Most Underrated Movie

Disney

After more than 20 years and almost a billion and a half dollars at the box office, the only twists and turns more surprising than ones at the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie are those in the filmmaker’s career. His breakthrough films “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable” earned him instant prestige and impossible-to-meet accolades but just a few years later he was branded a hack and a has-been. After mounting a comeback and bankrolling his own films, Shyamalan rekindled mainstream interest in his work, although even this has led to further unexpected ups and downs.

All of this is to say, Shyamalan has endured his share of hits and misses, certainly commercially, but critically as well. He is a polarizing figure, and his work is sharply divisive. But just as his most beloved films are perhaps not as impeccable as once believed, neither are his failures as ineffective or flat-out bad as critics have claimed. “The Village,” at the time reduced to another mystery with a maudlin third-act twist following too closely in the footsteps of his previous work, remains perhaps his most under-appreciated work, which with the benefit of 15 years’ distance, can be properly seen as a remarkable meditation on grief, fear, and ultimately, hope in the face of generational trauma.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody and a then virtually-unknown Bryce Dallas Howard, the film explores a remote and mysterious 19^th-century Pennsylvania community called Covington where resident live in constant fear of nameless monsters that live in the surrounding woods. Lucius Hunt (Phoenix), poised to become a leader for the village’s next generation, develops a curiosity about the larger world after asking for permission to visit nearby communities for medical supplies. But when Lucius is critically injured by Noah (Brody), a developmentally-disabled young man jealous of his burgeoning relationship with Chief Elder Edward Walker’s (William Hurt) blind daughter Ivy (Howard), the young woman is permitted to venture into the woods to seek medicine and first aid. She is only allowed to go on her journey after learning the village’s real secret: the monsters are the Elders themselves, dressed up in costumes and meant to protect themselves and the residents from real external dangers.

Disney

Shyamalan tips his hat to audiences early in the film with this news — much of the movie’s advertising was built around the notion of “Those We Don’t Speak Of,” so it felt at the time like he was uncovering his trademark “twist” early in order to subvert expectations, and/or to get them out of the way. But what that choice does is deepen the mystery around the village (why exactly are the Elders so protective of their community, or perhaps, fearful of the outside world?) that eventually drives the emotionality of what started as a suspenseful monster movie. Ivy’s vulnerability alone in the woods would have been unbearable to watch (especially after her two sighted guides abandon her) but her choice to forge ahead alone gives her agency and dimensionality, especially after she encounters, well, a few things that she cannot explain.

The first is another person who’s not a part of her village. Since she is blind, she does not realize that she’s arrived at a guard tower that protects their village from the modern world, and the staff there is initially as surprised to see her emerge from the woods as she is to arrive in their presence. This, somewhat unfairly, was pegged as Shyamalan’s second “twist .“ After deceiving and dazzling audiences in his earlier films, the thought was that he was trying to top himself, or at least maintain his reputation for pulling the rug from beneath them. But I never considered the information that everything is taking place Right Now to be altogether surprising; though the Elders adhere strictly to a code and lifestyle of a bygone era, they do not seem like actual people of a bygone era. As a result, this information, parceled out at the right time, further deepens our curiosity about what is going on back in Ivy’s community and why it is so insulated from the world.

The second surprise Ivy encounters is, apparently, one of those creatures that her father had earlier told her did not exist is hot on her trail. We later learn that Noah, the disabled boy who nurses a crush on her, discovered one of the monster costumes, put it on, and followed Ivy into the woods. Despite her terror, she tricks him into falling into a deep hole where he dies. She does not know it’s him. But the momentary existence of something we were told is a fabrication upends the viewer’s orientation, and complicates our willingness to believe the elders.

Disney

The guard tower unearths most of the important information that is germane to the “plot” — Covington exists in a no-fly zone, a community built and designed to shield its members, and their descendants, from the grief of their normal lives. But this is only brought full circle when we witness the Elders open their “black boxes,” which contain mementos of their past lives, and in particular, signifiers of the losses they create the village in order to escape. Particularly in a more immediate post-9/11 landscape, this sort of isolation and self-protection may have seemed a little too on the nose; but in subsequent years, that notion feels surprising prescient, at least in terms of the intellectual and emotional silos constructed by many in the years since to protect themselves from unwanted ideas, beliefs or thoughts.

But Ivy’s return to the village, triumphant and whole, conjures as much a sense of reassurance as it does a provocative question: how will the Elders maintain control upon this insular community now that she has found others outside of it? This is a world whose mythology is coming apart, and it takes only a skeptical young follower to start pulling at its fraying edges. But they are untarnished by the trauma of their parents and guardians, and Ivy is proof that they can survive even the immediate dangers of the creatures that haunt the woods around the village. “The Village” resonates most strongly because it shows how one generation can endure unimaginable pain, and how the next can help heal it. This is what makes the movie’s real revelations thematic and not narrative. The revelations serve not as a twist, but a discovery.

July 30, 2019
Baby, I’m A Star: 19 Things You Didn’t Know About Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’

Warner Bros.

On July 27, “Purple Rain” turns 35. A product of its era, it’s easy to look back at director Albert Magnoli’s rock & roll melodrama — not to mention the film’s treatment of women — and just see a star vehicle that is roundly “problematic,” at least by contemporary standards. But Prince’s breakthrough film combined his true-life story with Hollywood myth-making in a way that has earned it a deserved spot in the pop culture firmament, propelled by the late star’s irresistible charisma and a soundtrack that holds up as vividly today as it did three-and-a-half decades ago.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the process of getting it made (and creating an iconic, career-defining work for Prince) is a story as full of as many twists and turns as the one that ended up on screen. On its anniversary, Moviefone takes a look back at the tumultuous journey that led to “Purple Rain.” We’re getting into the bitter truths, harsh realities and desperate acts of faith that have become inextricable, and essential, part of its cinematic and musical legend.

1. “Purple Rain” was originally conceived as “Dreams” for Prince’s manager, Bob Cavallo, by screenwriter William Blinn (TV’s “Fame”).

2. After seeing an early cut of “Reckless,” Cavallo offered James Foley the job of director on the film via Foley’s editor Albert Magnoli. Foley passed after reading the script, but after some spirited conversations with Magnoli (and a breakfast meeting where the editor explained why Blinn’s script was terrible) Cavallo offered him the chance to direct.

3. Before Magnoli would agree, he visited Prince in Minnesota, where he pitched an alternate idea to the performer that mesmerized him. Without realizing it, Magnoli had effectively told the story of his own upbringing. This became the story of “Purple Rain.”

4. In early conversations about the story, Magnoli insisted that Prince had to be vulnerable on screen. More specifically, he had to be slapped around by Clarence Williams III, who plays his father. When Prince asked why, Magnoli explained “everybody wants to take a swing at a rock star.”

5. Prince recorded 100 songs to be used in the film. Magnoli chose a handful but told Prince they still needed a ballad to bring all of the film’s themes together. While rewriting the script based on input from the singer and his bandmates, Magnoli attended a Prince concert where he played “Purple Rain,” and the two agreed on the spot not only to use the song but to re-name the film because of it.

Warner Bros.

6. Vanity, then Prince’s protégé, was originally intended to play his love interest. But after being cast in Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which was later beset by problems, controversies and delays, she was forced to drop out. Apollonia was discovered after the producers had an open casting call; unlike many of the actresses she went up against for the role, she showed up in loose-fitting, conservative clothing, and Prince and the production team loved that.

7. Magnoli accepted the job of rewriting and then directing the film in June or July of 1983. He rewrote the script in August after finishing editing on “Reckless,” for “Purple Rain” to go into production in November of the same year in Minnesota, with the plan for it to be released the next summer.

8. Starting with $1 million in funds to develop the movie, Magnoli helped shop the concept around to various distributors. David Geffen passed, reportedly telling the producers that Prince would never be as big of a star as Michael Jackson. Richard Pryor’s company also reportedly was in the running to distribute it.

9. In a disastrous first meeting with Warner Brothers, studio executives liked the project but asked if John Travolta could play Prince’s role in the film. In spite of this, the filmmakers went with Warner Brothers after the studio agreed to bankroll the film for $7 million, a much higher number than Magnoli and the rest expected.

10. The filmmaker anticipated that it would be cold in Minneapolis during the winter shoot, but had no idea just how cold. As a result, a “blowtorch brigade” was enlisted to melt snow drifts as tall as eight feet high in order to shoot exteriors like Morris Day’s emergence from his apartment into his car.

11. For the scene in which Apollonia “purifies” herself in a lake that she doesn’t know isn’t Minnetonka, Magnoli shot only one take where she plunged into Minnesota waters. Taking mercy on her, he relocated the remainder of the shots to Los Angeles.

Warner Bros.

12. Although the band went through weeks of rehearsal, Magnoli shot all of the musical scenes in just seven days at Minneapolis’ First Avenue, a venue that plays itself in the film.

13. Prince was moved by Magnoli’s intimate portrait of what ended up being a fictionalized version of his own life story. They worked closely together to draw out similarities between his own experiences and those of his character, The Kid. But when time came to shoot the scene where The Kid has a vision of hanging himself after his father attempts to commit suicide, Prince perhaps understandably struggled through that scene.

14. Magnoli shot another sex scene with Prince and Apollonia in a barn. Although it was cut from the film, it appears briefly in the music video for “When Doves Cry.”

15. The big irony of the film is that the plot hinges on The Kid’s inability to trust his bandmates, and as a result, to use their songs and contributions to his repertoire. Although he eventually does, triumphantly performing “Purple Rain” in the film’s final scenes, that song (and every other one) were originally written and performed by Prince and Prince alone.

Warner Bros.

16. Magnoli originally insisted that The Kid’s father dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But Warner Brothers begged him to change that aspect of the story after test screenings for the Bob Fosse film “Star 80,” based in part on the murder-suicide of Dorothy Stratten and her boyfriend Paul Snider, were severely negative. Magnoli reworked the ending so that The Kid could reconcile with his family for a more powerful emotional catharsis.

17. Speaking of “When Doves Cry,” the song was written and recorded overnight while Magnoli was in the editing room. He told Prince that he needed another song for a montage sequence leading up to the finale featuring lyrics that would reflect the plot and themes of the film, and the singer-songwriter came back the next morning with it. Bob Cavallo flipped out when he heard the song because it had no bass line, but Magnoli and Prince liked it the way it was so it was never changed.

18. After the first test screening, audience reactions were so high that Warner Brothers accused Cavallo of spiking the crowd, something the manager insisted he wouldn’t have known how to do. But after two more test screenings produced similar results, Warner put the full muscle of its marketing department behind the movie and increased the number of screens it would show on from 800 to almost 1500.

19. “Purple Rain” earned almost $70 million at the box office, propelling Prince to superstardom virtually overnight. The film also won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score, the last film to do so before the category was eliminated.

Warner Bros.

July 27, 2019
11 More Times In Hollywood: Movies To Check Out After Watching Tarantino’s Latest

Columbia Pictures

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is, like all of his earlier films, a celebration of the writer-director’s eclectic, encyclopedic influences. But rather than designing another tribute to a genre he loves, like he did in the past with Westerns (“Django Unchained”), war films (“Inglourious Basterds”) and martial arts movies (“Kill Bill Vol. 1” and “2”), the ninth film of his proposed ten-film oeuvre is a deeply personal trip down memory lane that attempts to recreate the cultural climate of his childhood, filtered through fictionalized versions of TV shows and movies whose influence bled into his soul.

As always, it becomes a fun exercise to discover — or maybe more accurately, try and figure out — what, where and how Tarantino was influenced by for the disparate and eclectic components of his characters, scenes and overall stories. But as “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” arrives in theaters, Moviefone offers a short primer, and a laundry list of key titles, that can provide fans with continued (and expanded) viewing options after the filmmaker’s latest settles into its cinematic “happily ever after.”

“Navajo Joe” (1966)

Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton was loosely inspired by Burt Reynolds, who spent several years in TV guest spot purgatory playing bit parts and villains after leaving the series “Riverboat” in 1960. Part of his eventual comeback included this low-budget Sergio Corbucci film where Reynolds played a Native American who squares off against the gang of outlaws that massacred his tribe.

“The Happening” (1967)

Columbia Pictures

Anthony Quinn and one of Tarantino’s favorites, Michael Parks (“Kill Bill Vol. 2“), star in this thriller about four hippies who kidnap a mob boss and hold him for ransom. Like others on this list a film Tarantino showed recently at his Los Angeles movie theater, the New Beverly. Its premise distantly echoes some of the details of his new film, and touches on the way that early counter-culturalists were depicted during the heyday of the hippie era.

“Lady In Cement” (1968)

20th Century Fox

Frank Sinatra starred alongside Raquel Welch in this neo-noir about a detective who discovers a woman encased in concrete at the bottom of the ocean, and must uncover the perpetrator. Seen only briefly in the film — appropriately enough as a movie trailer — films of this ilk, star vehicles that have gone largely forgotten, lend an atmosphere of verisimilitude to Tarantino’s recreation of the time period.

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)

Paramount Pictures

Mia Farrow starred in this Academy Award-winning horror movie about a young woman who discovers she may be giving birth to something unholy after her ambitious husband (John Cassavetes) makes a possibly literal deal with the devil in order to kickstart his career. Though the movie doesn’t make an appearance in “Hollywood,” Tate’s relationship with director Roman Polanski figures into the sprawling tapestry of Tarantino’s film.

“The Wrecking Crew” (1968)

Columbia Pictures

Starting in 1965, Dean Martin starred in a series of adaptations of novels about spy Matt Helm — a franchise designed to compete with James Bond, but only by parodying all of the elements that made 007 cool and popular (not to mention the same elements in the source material). Sharon Tate not only starred in this fourth film, but played by Margot Robbie in the film, Tate attends a matinee of the film in Westwood, California, where she enjoys listening to her fellow moviegoers laughing and cheering along with her bumbling exploits as a klutzy Danish woman who teams up with Helm.

“Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” (1969)

Columbia Pictures

Paul Mazursky wrote and directed this incisive comedy about two couples dealing with honesty and infidelity after one pair attends a couples retreat and tries to incorporate its lessons of complete candor into their regular lives. Another film Tarantino screened at the New Beverly, the film captures not only the films being shown in theaters at the time in which “Hollywood” is set but reflects a changing sensibility about monogamy and relationships that is mirrored in the depiction of Tate’s marriage to Polanski and her ongoing relationship with former lover Jay Sebring.

“Flareup” (1969)

MGM

Played by Timothy Olyphant in the film, James Stacy was a television star who led the 1968-70 series “Lancer,” in whose pilot DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton portrayed the villain. During the same year in which the movie takes place, Stacy starred in this seedy thriller starring Raquel Welch as a Vegas dancer trying to figure out who’s trying to kill her.

“Marlowe” (1969)

MGM

Bruce Lee had become a minor TV star by the late 1960s thanks to his role as Kato on the series “The Green Hornet” and makes an appearance as a minor character in “Once …” as Sharon Tate’s stunt choreographer on “The Wrecking Crew” and, well, we won’t get into his other big scene. Although he wouldn’t achieve international fame until after the release of “Enter the Dragon” in 1973 (and the release of his four Hong Kong films), he first gained the attention of American audiences in this adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel “The Little Sister” starring James Garner.

“Model Shop” (1969)

Columbia Pictures

Jacques Demy directed his first English-language film with this wonderfully contemplative story of an unemployed architect (played by “2001” star Gary Lockwood) who falls for an exotic, melancholy “model shop” actress (Anouk Aimee) after his girlfriend (Alexandra Hay) grows tired of his aimlessness. Demy captures late ‘60s Los Angeles like almost no one else, chronicling its endless network of streets and highways as well as a mood that anticipated but wasn’t quite ready for the countercultural forces that were bringing change.

“The Sterile Cuckoo” (1969)

Paramount Pictures

Future “Parallax View” and “All the President’s Men” director Alan J. Pakula directed this comedy-drama starring Liza Minelli as a young woman who falls for a reserved college student (Wendell Burton), and their relationship is subsequently tested by the challenges of growing up — together, and independently, as individuals. The late ‘60s became a clearing house for studios exploring relationship dynamics with sex-comedy premises, and this one was regarded as uniquely thoughtful about the changes that occur between the two people at the heart of its story.

“Billy Jack” (1971)

Warner Bros.

Although Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth was loosely inspired by stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham (“Smokey and the Bandit”), Pitt reportedly based elements of his performance on the title character from this movie, played by actor Tom Laughlin. Laughlin plays a half-Navajo Vietnam veteran who battles injustice (often violently) on behalf of other Native Americans in order to preserve peace near an Arizona college.

July 26, 2019
‘The Bourne Supremacy’ At 15: 13 Things You Didn’t Know About The Spy Sequel

Universal Pictures

When “The Bourne Identity” was released in 2002, the film marked only the third time Hollywood adapted one of Robert Ludlum’s best-selling books for the big screen. Its tremendous success opened the floodgates for other adaptations, but most importantly, Doug Liman’s film paved the way for three sequels that quite literally changed the way that audiences watched and experienced action cinema (thanks largely to director Paul Greengrass’ visceral, you-are-there style). To celebrate the 15^th anniversary, “The Bourne Supremacy” is the rare sequel that surpasses its predecessor, but it’s also a film that lingers in the minds of moviegoers as an emotionally engaging and uniquely visceral cinematic experience. Check out a few of the details of its production and release that underscore what made it so special.

1. Although Ludlum wrote two additional books in the “Bourne” series, no plan was enacted at the time of “The Bourne Identity” to make a sequel. Owing to the enormous cultural changes between 1986, when the “Bourne Supremacy” novel was written, and 2003, when the sequel went into production, screenwriter Tony Gilroy was tasked with departing significantly from the source material for his script.

2. Although Doug Liman leveled up handsomely from his previous films “Swingers” and “Go” for “The Bourne Identity,” production problems, reportedly owing to Liman’s improvisational, find-it-in-the-editing-room approach, led producers to select Greengrass as director.

3. Greengrass’ previous film was the acclaimed “Bloody Sunday,” an account of the shootings of the same name in Northern Ireland. Impressed by his immersive, febrile style behind the camera, the producers encouraged Greengrass to use handheld cameras even during big action scenes, and eschew computer-generated effects as much as possible in order to lend the film a palpable sense of realism.

Universal Pictures

4. As a juxtaposition to spy series like James Bond, Jason Bourne is presented as a well-trained but never superhuman agent. Further to that end, all of the technological devices Bourne uses to exact his revenge and stay in contact with the CIA are consumer-grade and were available for purchase at the time of the film.

5. Matt Damon reportedly knocked out actor Tim Griffin during the scene in which Bourne fights CIA interrogator John Nevins and a security guard.

6. Additionally, Bourne’s fight training includes Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do and the Philippine martial art Escrima, which uses everyday objects as weapons, such as the rolled-up newspaper in “Supremacy,” or ball-point pens in “Identity.” The style especially suits Bourne’s necessarily improvised exploration of each new space he enters.

Universal Pictures

7. Brian Helgeland (“A Knight’s Tale”) did an uncredited rewrite of Gilroy’s script where among other things he eliminated the USSR as a presence since it had fallen a decade earlier. Greengrass otherwise only used Helgeland’s ideas sparingly, but occasionally swapped out version of scenes between the two scripts in order to arrive at the version audiences saw on screen.

8. Greengrass’ shooting and editing style rapidly accelerated the number of shots in the film and the speed with which they cut from one to the next – resulting in shots with an average length of 1.9 seconds.

9. Most of the events in the film were shot in reverse order — in terms of the overall production. This mean that the Moscow chase at the climax of the film was shot first and the scenes in Goa were shot last.

10. Per a 2008 article in The Guardian, Greengrass and Damon re-conceived the ending with just two weeks to go before the film’s release and reshot it at a cost of $200,000, requiring Damon to be pulled from reshoots on “Ocean’s Twelve.” The movie subsequently tested 10 points higher with that new ending.

Universal Pictures

11. During a press screening for the film, at least one attendee vomited after the Moscow car chase because of its intensity and camerawork.

12. At the 2005 Taurus World Stunt Awards, Russian stunt coordinator Viktor Ivanov and Scottish stunt driver Gillie McKenzie were recognized with a “Best Vehicle” award for their coordination and participation in the Moscow car chase.

13. Like with its predecessor, the filmmakers were unsure at the time of their intentions to mount a third film, and shot the ending of “Supremacy” to provide emotional closure to the character, culminating in him taking responsibility for murdering the parents of a young girl. But after a third film, “The Bourne Ultimtum,” was green lit, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi took over scripting duties from Tony Gilroy to give the character new conflicts and new adventures to explore.

Universal Pictures

July 23, 2019