Bookish Goodies for your Literary Life

Napoleon Dynamite’s evocative dance was improvised! Jared Hess (director) knew that Jon Heder (Napoleon) could dance since they went to the same film school. In an interview, Hess said “I just told him to start dancing and realized: This is how we’ve got to end the film.”

Jonah Hill (Morton) admitted that he copied Eminem’s iconic alter ego, Slim Shady, in high school. “Slim Shady” is characterized by bleach blonde hair, sterling silver bling, and baggy pants. This look became a fashion trend among high schoolers in the 90s.

Mike Myers (Wayne), almost didn’t pursue the filming of Wayne’s World when the producers insisted on replacing Bohemian Rhapsody on the movie’s introduction. The copyright cost was beyond budget considering that more than half of the song will be played.

The stupendous American Pie was “not supposed” to be a blockbuster for being classified as a “B Movie.” B movies have a negative reputation for having low-budget and less publicity.

The stupendous American Pie was “not supposed” to be a blockbuster for being classified as a “B Movie.” B movies have a negative reputation for having low-budget and less publicity.

The 2006 horror animated film Monster House is the only motion capture film with an entirely original story not based on any existing source material.

Bill Skarsgard’s teeth prosthetics in It (2017) made him drool profusely that Director Andy Muschietti loved it as it adds to Pennywise’s animalistic nature.

Thailand’s mega-hit blockbuster horror movie in 2004, Shutter, explores the spectacle of capturing ghosts or collecting evidence of the supernatural in photos known as spirit photography. This trend dates back to as early as the 19th century.

The Others (2001) starring Nicole Kidman is the highest-grossing Spanish film of all time, yet it had not a single Spanish word in the dialogues.

Haley Joel Osment, the boy who delivered The Sixth Sense’s famous line “I see dead people,” got the role for one of three reasons: He was the best choice for it, he was the only boy who wore a tie in the auditions, and he impressed director M. Night Shyamalan for reading the whole script three times the night before the auditions.

Shawna Loyer plays as The Angry Princess in Thir13en Ghosts (2001). This is her first and only film.

The stop-motion sequence where the corpses disintegrate in The Evil Dead (1981) is one of the most intricate parts of the film to edit, as it took hours to make the precise cuts.

The scene where Sadako comes out of the well did not use any special effects in the original Japanese horror installation of Ringu (1998). Actress Rie Ino’o was a student of the Kabuki theatre known for exaggerating movement and jerking motions to convey emotions. During the shoot, the production filmed Ino’o walking backward and ran the scene in reverse, making Sadako’s walk seem unnatural and nonhuman.

Lupita Nyong’o in Us (2019) based her character Red’s voice on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder that causes involuntary spasms of the larynx. This is to remain in character as Red as it was stated in the script that she had not used her voice in many years. Lupita worked with an ENT specialist, a vocal therapist, and a dialect coach so as not to damage her vocal cords. Welp, that’s a Yale drama school graduate for you.

James Wan’s The Conjuring contains little to no obscenities, mostly bloodless violence, and brief depictions of vices, yet it still received an R rating solely because of its scare factor.

In The Exorcism of Emily Rose, lead actress Jennifer Carpenter spent hours in a room full of mirrors and tried out different body positions and facial expressions in preparation for her role as Emily. Talk about fervent dedication!

Jack Nicholson plauded Shelley Duvall’s performance in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 slasher The Shining. He claims it was the most difficult role he’s ever seen an actress take on, while Duvall considers it the hardest she has played in her career. She suffered from nervous exhaustion, physical illness, and hair loss throughout filming.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa wrote a novel adaptation of his blockbuster J-Horror film Pulse (Kairo), one of the most popular and finest in the genre, following the film's success in 2001.

James Wan’s 2010 horror film Insidious used thirty-three violins for the theme music.

The Creeper in Jeepers Creepers’ was played by Jonathan Breck. The film’s director, Victor Salva, was so scared of Breck’s test audition that he almost immediately cast him as The Creeper. Following the film’s huge success, Breck proclaims this is his favorite performance.

In case you missed it, actress Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Psycho lead star Janet Leigh. Ironically, Jamie’s first film to star in is Halloween (1978), also a horror movie. She went on to star the whole Halloween franchise—Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), and Halloween Kills (2021)— which spans six decades.

Ari Aster’s 2019 cult thriller Midsommar is influenced by Scandinavian mythology. Despite the plot being set in Sweden, many Swedish audiences laughed while watching the movie. Even Swedish critics claim the film as an excellent black comedy.

One of the most gruesome serial killer films to grace the screens is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But did you know its title was supposed to be “Head Cheese”? Would you still watch it the same way it was?

Sissy Spacek, the actress who played Carrie in the 1976 titular movie, slept in her fake blood-drenched prom dress for three days so as not to break continuity.

The Academy has a reputation of snubbing the horror genre, but the world was shaken when William Friedkin’s 1974 film The Exorcist garnered attention in the prestigious award-giving body with not just one, but a total of 10 astonishing nominations.

The romantic boat ride in the lake where they were surrounded by swans was almost not possible after the producers told the director that it wouldn't be possible to keep swans to stay in the lake. Unyielding, the director raised hatchlings by the lake instead so they’d be comfortable.

The film premiered in the theatre where one of its scenes was shot.

The actors had only one rehearsal. They were asked to play their grass scene where characters roll on the grass and being intimate, before they know it, the director has already left them there.

Phoenix based his laughter from videos of people suffering from pathological laughter.

Anne Hathaway almost caught hypothermia due to her open astronaut suit while filming the water planet scene. When she informed Director Nolan about it, Nolan rolled his shots.

The main characters each represent important positions in filmmaking. We have the producer (Gordon-Levitt), production designer (Page), actor (Hardy), stand-in Director (DiCaprio), and the audience (Murphy).

the automaton really works and draws George Méliés’ A Trip to the Moon and would take 46 to 47 minutes to complete the drawing.

The animated characters playing the guitar are actually playing the correct notes.

The apartment was built in a large water tank so they can easily flood the set with “sewage water” which actually was a mud facial mask.

A short Japanese story about two strangers often walking past each other in a stairwell and not exchanging words inspired the film.

It is Wes Anderson’s first film to be nominated for Best Picture and Director in his nearly twenty years as a filmmaker.

This film brought unknown Cate Blanchett to international attention, and director Shekar Kapur knew nothing about Elizabeth when he took on the project.

The‘sunken place’ is a metaphor of the marginalization of black Americans being silenced by the system.

The film was shot in super 16mm to resemble the photographic film look and feel in the 1940-50s.

The film’s success saved 20th Century Fox on the verge of bankruptcy. It was a box office hit, with a worldwide gross of $286 billion (or $2.5 B adjusted with inflation), cementing its spot in the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time as of 2020.

Miyazaki had already retired when he worked on Spirited Away. It was inspired by his friend’s daughter and he decided that he wants to make films for ten-year-old girls.

Humphrey Bogart was two inches shorter than his on-screen partner. He had to sit on cushions or stand on blocks to look taller.

Del Toro had sat next to the famed horror novelist Stephen King and heard him scream at the pale man scene during the film’s screening in New England.

The film was written with Emily Watson in mind but she backed out. The director discovered his star Audrey Tautou from a movie poster while walking down the streets of Paris, thinking who should replace Watson.

You might think that the warm, tropical climate in Mexico got Emily Blunt looking sweaty and pasty… no, it’s not that. She suffered from diarrhea while shooting this scene.