I hope you will enjoy it :)
The Lord Of The Rings saga
Russell Crowe and Daniel Day-Lewis were originally offered the role of the Aragorn but both refused. Therefore the role was proposed to not well-known Irish actor Stuart Townsend but at the last minute the director Peter Jackson concluded that he was is too young to play Aragorn. Just before the shot he replaced him with unknown to general public, Danish origin, Viggo Mortensen. It was a great decision!
In one of "The Two Towers" scene Aragorn (played by Viggo) saw a pyre of burned orcs and feared that the hobbits Merry and Pippin had been killed. Filled with rage and grief he kicked a helmet, screamed at the sky and then fell on his knees. The helmet was made of steel and doing that Mortensen actually broke two of his toes. The scream was real pain expression. Peter Jackson was so pleased with the result that the scene ended up in the film.
Take a look at the video below.
I’m so impressed with Mortensen’s acting that I have to mention one more thing. Viggo enjoyed his role so much that he took fencing lessons so he could play battle scenes in a more realistic way.
Furthermore V (as they called Mortensen on a film set) refused to play with a prop! His sword was heavy because it was made of real steel. He wanted to express real effort during battle scenes.
A choreographer and fencer who worked on “Lord of the Rings” said that V was the best swordsman he ever trained.
Sean Connery was originally offered the role of Gandalf but had never read the “Lord of the Rings” books and he said that he didn’t understand the script so he didn’t want the role.
An interesting fact is that he was offered 15% of the film’s total box office receipts.
This would give him about 400 million dollars! No one has ever been paid so much for a single role.
Sean Bean who played Boromir hates to fly and boards a plane only when there is no other way to get to a place.
Because of the fear he refused a helicopter ride to a set which was high in the mountain.
There wasn’t always possibility to take a makeup man on the set so Sean hiked up in his full character armor every day when a shot took place up in the mountains.
One thing is that armor was heavy, and the other thing - hiking took hours.
One thing is that armor was heavy, and the other thing - hiking took hours.
Did you know that Peter Jackson wanted Wojciech Kilar as "The Lord Of The Rings" music producer ? Yes, that’s true!
Unfortunately producers didn’t agree with him and Howard Shore took this job. I must say he did well…the music is magnificent!
Shore won two (!) Oscars for the best music in 2002 ("The Fellowship Of The Ring") and 2004 ("The Return of the King").
Listen to a sample of an "Uruk-hai theme":
For the production purposes, the crew built a real hobbit village in New Zealand. Now when shots are over the village is open for tourists.
If you want to see the hobbit’s place or drink beer in the story’s “Green Dragon’s” pub just go to www.hobbitontours.com and book your room :)
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan, the director, told to build a hospital near an old parking shell and blew it just to make one single scene with the Joker. It took weeks to plant charges that allow the building to collapse sequentially. It had to be done carefully because they would have only one chance to film explosion correctly. Luckily everything went smoothly.
In the scene of Joker’s interrogation both actors Ledger and Christian Bale were improvised for a while. This part of the movie is kind of brutal and the fact they improvised is really impressive. Great acting.
Fans and film critics outraged because Ledger played mostly in films for teenagers. Offering him the role was a controversial decision but his play was astonishing! Unfortunately he died of drug overdose shortly after the end of shots. After a few weeks he was awarded an Oscar posthumously. This happened for the second time it the Oscar’s history. A well played Joker changed the way fans saw his acting.
The Matrix trilogy
In the training room before the attack on Morpheus Neo rubs his nose in a characteristic way, similar to that presented by Bruce Lee. This movement was improvised by Reeves.
Wachowski brothers asked Warner for 80 million dollars for their film. Warner said no and gave them only 10 million. The directors took the money and filmed the initial stage of the film with the escape of one of main characters – Trinity. This cost the whole 10 million. Warner representatives were so impressed that they agreed to pay the rest of the amount.
Here’s that impressive scene:
As you can see, almost all of the scenes in the Matrix are light green color, as if it were being viewed through a computer monitor, and the scenes in the real world are deprived of it.
In Greek mythology, Morpheus is the god of sleep. Morpheus in the film awakes people.
Signs on computer screens, which symbolize the Matrix code are reversed letters of the Latin alphabet, numbers and katakana - Japanese alphabet characters.
"The Matrix" was the first film when the “bullet time” technique was used. By 2002, this technique had been used to create more than 20 different movies.
The technique is based on the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and processing sequence of photographs taken with a large number of cameras.
Making of bullet time:
Final result:
In this film, we can admire shooting and explosion scenes. Most of them were created through CGI, but one thing couldn’t be generated by a computer - the road. To shot the scene on a highway Wachowskis commissioned the construction of a 2.4 kilometer stretch of highway at a military base in California!
The motorway exits and the walls with the height of 5.8 meters were real. To shot this scene, General Motors offered more than 100 cars, which were completely destroyed!
Remember the scene when Neo had to decide in which world he would like to live? The real or the fake one?
If Morpheus asked you which pill would you choose? :)
"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
The Wachowskis said they would choose the blue pill…
Django Unchained
The horse, Django, is actually the horse of Jamie Foxx – an actor who played Django. The actor got it for his birthday a few years before. Tarantino's role in the film was a great opportunity to ensure that Foxx could present his skills in front of the camera.
Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Calvin Candie, did everything to evoke terror among viewers. In one scene, Candie hits the table and smashes a glass which hurts his hand.
This scene wasn’t in the scenario. DiCaprio really cut his hand, and despite the blood that dripped from the wound heavily, he didn’t stop the shot even for a moment.
Thanks to his character, he presented even greater signs of madness. Quentin Tarantino, the director was delighted.
Slaves fights shown in the film were not really a historical fact, despite what Tarantino says. He was inspired by fights presented in the book "Mandingo". In his version there is only one winner - the one who survives. The fact is that a black slave cost a lot of money and it would be uneconomical to sentence him to death in a duel.
But on the other hand, there was something like a “nigger fight”. Fights took place during annual festivals arranged by the owners of cotton plantations. Fighters couldn’t use any weapons, and the fight lasted until when one of the "owners" didn’t stop the fight.
Sources:
http://thechive.com/2014/12/10/10-real-life-injuries-that-made-their-way-into-the-movies-10-photos/
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/9-on-set-injuries-that-made-it-onto-film#3
http://www.top10hq.com/top-10-set-injuries-made-movies/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_407967
http://joemonster.org/images/vad/a25608_7.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained
http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/46997716/tarantino-s-django-unchained-fact-or-fiction-mandingo-fighting-bounty-hunters-and-more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72nK7APr6Xs
http://whatculture.com/film/10-unbelievable-last-minute-movie-casting-changes.php/5
http://screencrush.com/comic-book-movie-castings-ben-affleck-batman/
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150203042330/lotr/images/7/77/The_Return_of_the_King_Poster_01.jpg
http://www.filmweb.pl/Wladca.Pierscieni.Druzyna.Pierscienia/trivia
http://joemonster.org/art/29809/Malo_znane_ciekawostki_o_kultowym_Matrixie_
http://joemonster.org/art/28526/Zabawy_slynnych_aktorow_na_planie_
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080218173040/lotr/de/images/8/83/Aragorn.jpg
http://www.buzzfeed.com/keelyflaherty/facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-lord-of-the-rings#.eadoNr3onn
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ohmmalot/media/mood%20theme/hi%20res%20pics/sean6.jpg.html
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/indianajones/images/7/70/SirSeanConnery.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20060425224417
http://listverse.com/2015/03/02/10-ridiculous-movie-sets-created-for-a-single-scene/
https://paulmmartinblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/the_dark_knight_poster.jpg
http://www.hobbitontours.com/
http://www.hobbitontours.com/Portals/_default/Skins/MinimalExtropy/images/header/header_02.jpg
http://joemonster.org/art/29144/Nieznane_zdjecia_z_planu_Mrocznego_rycerza_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31OjOPF-ZI
http://youtu.be/xnOLhXmhkyA?t=1m15s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElOEwtx7wjA
https://youtu.be/Jrt2xoy5UHo?t=4m54s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31OjOPF-ZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKEcElcTUMk
https://youtu.be/KNrSNcaYiZg
https://youtu.be/WfrHk6xdJMw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72nK7APr6Xs
http://www.rantlifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Heath-Ledger-Oscar-Win.png
http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab29/tishchambers/VLC00004_zpscdb7107c.jpg
https://sleeplessthought.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/vlcsnap-2013-05-02-18h24m25s34.png
http://41.media.tumblr.com/deffff50afe13f5aefb20f9248d93092/tumblr_mgbx3bWuHh1qbooi8o1_500.jpg
https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/matrix_montage_html.jpg
http://www.historybanter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Django-Unchained-Still-3.jpg
Very nice presentation. A lot of fact which I haven't known yet. All of the films you described I really like. I have read that scene in Django when slave is bites by a dog is a real one but I can't find any source/proof of that...
ReplyDeleteThanks Przemek. I haven't heard about that but it's also interesting. In my opinion it's nice when not everything in movies was scripted - iimprovisation adds realism and it's nicer to watch it.
DeleteI agree, there wouldn't be so many great scenes and dialogues if it weren't to some improvisations. It remind me of polish improvised cabarets, which are great, or how they invite someone from the audience and make them part of the spectacle. It's often more funnier than original one. And its nice to watch realism as you said, like sometimes actors themselfes can't restrain from laugh ;D
DeleteSomething new at last :) Really good post. A lot of new information I wouldn't even expected. Moreover I really like all of the movies, especially LoTR. I never heard about V problems, but I've already read about Shire, you can even buy a trip to New Zeland to check it. They have their own brewary there.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this plane at the Heathrow : http://airnzhobbitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BK3R9586A-1024x682.jpg
They really know how to attract tourists :)
About DiCaprio, he is an amazing actor with even more amazing luck to oscars. Shame on the academy...
Thanks Mateusz! It's really nice to "hear" that someone enjoyed the article :) I put a lot of work to prepare it. You know what? I've heard about pub in Hobbiton called "The Green Dragon Bar" where it's possible to drink their own beer but forgot to add it :)
DeleteI share yur opinion about DiCaprio. He should be awarded an Oscar. His role in "The Wolf Of Wall Street" was excellent too.
Oh I would definitely have some of their beer in that Green Dragon Bar! It must be amazing to sit there, like in some other world :)
DeleteGreat presentation. Big thanks for a lot of facts and curosities I didn't know. Also many thanks for many videos and pictures. It makes your presentation pleasant to read. Are movies and cinema your hobby that you know such interestning and rare things about them?
ReplyDeleteThanks. I wouldn't call it as a hobby because I don't do it regularly, it's more a curiosity about films that I really really liked after watching it. Few moths after premiere I look for some interesting facts on the Internet.
DeleteWhen a scene impressed me I'm trying to find out how it was made - like "bullet time" from "The Matrix" above.
I try to only watch good movies that are not boring, present good acting or new technologies were used to create the scenes. Therefore, before I go to the cinema I read about the production. Sometimes I can't wait for a movie and look for news or rumours about production.
Ocassionally I'm checking out behind the scenes and find funny ones like this with Martin Freeman from "The Hobbit" :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grd-vYeVngg
I`ve seen all of those movies but I can`t say that they are my favorites. I really like to watch some movies based on real stories or facts than fantastic ones. For instance last time I watched American Sniper (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99k3u9ay1gs) and after I left the cinema I was really impressed. This movie engrossed me from first to last scene. When I hark up to yours favorites I need to say one thing – primary parts are better than sequels but it treats for whole cinematography. Thanks a lot for new facts about those movies and nice presentation. Moreover I think it’s a one of the longest post and abundant with many resources.
ReplyDeleteI've heard only good opinions about this movie. Trailer is stirring. Unfortunately I couldn't go to the cinema because of some reasons. Now when it's off the cinemas I can't wait to watch it at home on blu-ray. Good fimls should be watched only in good sound and video quality ;)
DeleteI’m a big fan of movies so I very often watch „making of” an “behind the scenes” clips (they are added to DVD and Blu-ray releases), so besides Sean Bean’s fear of flying I was aware of all the facts, you presented, but I enjoyed reading about those one again. On imdb or filmweb you can also find many interesting facts about movies, actors, directors etc.
ReplyDeleteInteresting facts about movies is one thing, but I really enjoy easter-eggs shown in the movies as well. An Easter egg is an intentional message, symbol or even a joke taken from other movies, games, literature or from the popculture. The latest example I can name was in Batman v Superman: Down of Justice movie trailer. At 1:21 (https://youtu.be/IwfUnkBfdZ4?t=1m21s), on the left pillar, you can see a question mark. If you are not familiar to comic books - question mark, drawn in this specific way, is a symbol of Riddler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddler), one of Batman’s enemies. Probably he won’t be shown in the movie, but I love every detail/symbol/idea given to viewers by creators.
Yes, that's also interesting. I know about hidden alien in all of South Park episodes :)
DeleteI'm not a comic book fan - despite the fact that, as you can see, I like the Batman movies ;)
Wow! For me It is the best presentation till now. I watch a lot of movies and I really like information like this. That’s very interesting to get to know how actors are chosen or how much productions like these described in your article cost and so on. So as I mentioned at first for me reading and watching that was great pleasure. Thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you enjoyed it, thanks :)
DeleteCool presentation!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite movie related fact is one that you’ve probably heard - Harrison Ford in the famous Indiana Jones scene where he is faced by a turkish ninja sword guy was supposed to fight him using an elaborate martial arts sequence. Harrison apparently wasn’t feeling well stomach-wise that week and could only think of going back to the cold embrace of his toilet so he just shot the guy. It was so it line with his character that the scene made it to the movie. You can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anEuw8F8cpE
Other awesome trivia I’ve heard this week comes from the “I was there too” podcast. They interview people who were in some of the most recognisable scenes in movie history but not as the stars but the extras, voices etc.
Apparently “Speed” was supposed to be a totally different movie when the cast was put together. It was going to be way more focused on all the other passengers, not the singular hero who saves the day. The actors came into the project thinking they will be main characters with backstories and lots of dialogue. What ended up happening was they became glorified extras. Some of them are resentful to this day:)
Also, the lady who gave voice to the creepy Exorcist girl was chugging whiskey on set and had a priest accompany her so there is also that:)
I've heard that Ford was sick and repeated this scene so many times that he has enough and ask the director if he could just shoot the guy. The director said no but he did it :)
DeleteGreat presentation! I'm a huge fan of movies and it also interest me how they are made.
ReplyDeleteIf it comes to Lord of the Rings I've heard that Viggo Mortensen's son convinced him to play Aragorn, because he was a great fan of the trilogy.
It is incredible how Mortensen was involved in the work on the set and how ambitious, stubborn that guy is. He asked Peter Jackson to change a bit the script and let him to speak more in the language of the Elves.
I didn't know that Wojciech Kilar was taken into account to make a music for the movie. I really like the whole soundtrack, but on the other hand I'm courius how it would have been with Kilar's ideas.
It's so interesting how big budget was allocated for these movies. For example Forbes has placed Matrix on the list of most expensive movies in the world. But what's suprising, the most expensive one in a history were Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. But on the list of most profitable are LOTR and the Dark Night.
I'm really really sorry for Leonadro Di Caprio bad luck for Oscars...
And now from the other side, I'm pretty impressed how much effort you put to prepare this presentation.
As I wrote before - I like such fun facts but another reason was that I wanted my article to be different than others. That's interesting what you wrote about Ford's list. I didn't know about that. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteGood job !! Gathering all this facts wasn't easy :)
ReplyDeleteMost of them I knew already but for example thing with broken toes was something new for me :) Funny fact about funny facts is that the more expensive movie is the more funny facts you can find about it ;)
Very nice and entertaining presentation, probably because I really liked every movie you mention (Django is a real masterpiece ).
ReplyDeleteAn interesting trivia is that in the movie Inception, they haven’t used computer tricks to make ‘reverse gravity’ scene. They have built full scale hotel corridor and rooms just to film this. The similar technique was used by Stanley’s Kubrick Space Odyssey. Here’s the link for the making of from Inception https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk .
While I’m at Nolan movies, the black hole showed in Interstellar is pretty accurate simulation of real black hole. The bright disc surrounding it is called Accretion Disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disc), and the reason we see it wrapped around the top of black hole, is because of the way gravity affects light.
Remember the scene with the train in the city? https://youtu.be/gQIpLBLLQoQ?t=1m15s
DeleteThe train and the car were real :)
Great movie selection right here and I really appreciate the time you took to research and comment on all of these facts!
ReplyDeleteI've got nothing more to comment - every movie has its own trivias and it is great that you've laid some of them for us here in the blog :)
Nice presentation! Very intresting trivia. Personally I'm a huge fan of movies (also Polish ones). A specially interesting facts and little-known stories. What i like to do is to watch oldies, sometimes B-movies where the top hollywood stars were taking a part in very beginning of their careers. For instance: Sylvester Stallone in Woody Allen's Bananas or Tim Robins in Top-Gun.
ReplyDeleteWow. Interesting article. You've got really good film taste :). The "Lord of rings" trilogy
ReplyDeleteare very good movies but not everyone likes them. In my opinion they are ok but not my favorites.
Unfortunately I haven't seen even single Batman's movie. I have to finally catch up. The "Django"
and "Matrix" trilogy are "must see" movies for me. This is very impressive that in 99' Matrix
has such good special effects. Can you imagine? It was created 16 years ago and still looks
really cool. I also like the substantive message of it. Did you know that in the office scene
there were two guys cleaning up windows. They were Wachowsky brothers.
Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorites film directors. I really enjoy watching his movies.
Django has nice climate, soundtrack.
Yeah fun facts but where are the questions :P ? I am a big fan of every of these movies and soundtracks and effects etc.
ReplyDeleteI really like your presentation! Many of these facts were new to me, and I have to admit that I was reading it with smile on my face:) Sean Connery as Gandalf? WHAAT?! That would be so funny! And that amount of money just put my jaw on the table.. I agree with you, that It's a good thing that these particular actors got that roles, it was great decision indeed. LoTR and Hobbit sagas are actually one of my favourite movies, and that is my dream.. ekhm no, it's a plan that in few years I move to New Zeland, because I knew that it was the place where they shoot the movies and I loved the views! Also the other movies you mentioned are great too. I wonder what do you think about movie "Intouchables", because thats one of my favourite too. The way I laughed while watching it! Basides the funny parts it touches taboo subjects like everyday life of disabled people, and how to treat them.
ReplyDeleteNice! You have written an article about all of my favorite movies. However I have already known most of the fun facts you have presented. After I watch a movie I always try to find extra information or news about it. If you check filmweb.pl website you can find a lot of interesting facts concerning all these and other films too. I really recommend to check it if you are as big movies’ fan as me. It is funny to read facts and news about a movie you have just watch and then watch it again with this knowledge. It changes the perspective of whole movie.
ReplyDelete