The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 science fiction film directed by Eugène Lourié and stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond and Cecil Kellaway with visual effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film is about an atomic bomb test in the Arctic Circle that unfreezes a hibernating fictional dinosaur, a Rhedosaurus, that begins to wreak havoc in New York City. It was one of the first monster movies that helped inspire the following generation of creature features, coining it with the atomic age.

Trivia:

Vera Miles and Paul Picerni appear in the trailer for this film, but not in the film itself.

While visiting his friend Ray Harryhausen on the set, Ray Bradbury was given a copy of the script (which was going under the working title “Monster From the Sea”) and was asked if he could possibly do some rewriting on it. After reading the script, Bradbury remarked about a scene in the story (which featured the monster destroying a lighthouse) that seemed very similar to a short story that he had published in “The Saturday Evening Post” several years earlier called “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms”. Bradbury’s story was about a dinosaur that destroys a lighthouse. The next day Bradbury received a telegram offering to buy the film rights to the story. After the sale, the films title was changed to “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms”. Years later when Bradbury had his story reprinted he changed the title to “The Fog Horn”.

The dinosaur skeleton in the museum sequence is artificial. It was obtained from storage at RKO where it had been constructed for Bringing Up Baby (1938).

The “Coney Island Amusement Park” in the film is actually The Long Beach Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. The production was able to film at the park from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

The film is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

This film (which was inspired by the successful 1952 re-release of KING KONG) was the first film to feature a giant creature awakened or mutated by a Nuclear Bomb.

Deleted Scene: The 2003 DVD release reveals one shot of the Rhedasaurus that was omitted from the final film. That shot can be found in the trailer for “The Black Scorpion” (in special features) about 1/2 through the preview. (Spoiler: The Beast is walking, breast high, toward screen right. The background shows 2 buildings; one of them with fire escapes. Superimposed title card states, “You’ve thrilled to the terror of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.”

When the radio announcer is reading the news about the monster’s rampage through New York, various shots of the city are shown, mostly with panicked citizens in the street. When the announcer mentions the situation at Times Square, the accompanying footage shows the Palace Theater, whose marquee reads “Judy Garland – Live and in Person.”

Warner Brothers bought the film from producers Hal E. Chester and ‘Jack Deitz’ for $450,000.

Before the film was sold to Warner Brothers, it contained an original music score composed by Michel Michelet. Execs at Warners felt Michelet’s score wasn’t powerful enough so they replaced it with an original score by David Buttolph.

Some film aficionados might recognize Alvin Greenman, the first character to speak after the narrator, and the first to notice the beast on on the radar. Six years earlier he played Alfred, the Macys Janitor in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). TV aficionados though might recognize the second character to speak. Playing the part of Charlie is actor James Best, best remembered for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from “The Dukes of Hazzard” (1979).

This was said to have been one of the inspirations for Tomoyuki Tanaka to go ahead and film Gojira (1954).

When the streets are being cleared once the beast comes ashore in NYC, films appearing on various theater marquees are “Detective Story”, “Come Fill The Cup” and “Across The Wide Missouri”.

During the octopus/shark sequence, some of the footage was obviously shot in an aquarium, because some of the octopus’ suckers are gripping the glass.

The Toxic Avenger is an American cult classic comedy horror film first released in 1984 by Troma Entertainment, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts. Virtually ignored upon its first release, The Toxic Avenger caught on with moviegoers after a long and successful midnight movie engagement at the famed Bleecker Street Cinemas in New York City in late 1985.

The film has generated three film sequels, a stage production, and a children’s TV cartoon.Two less successful sequels: The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie were filmed as one movie. Director Lloyd Kaufman realized that he had shot far too much footage for one movie, and reedited it into two. A third independent sequel was also released, entitled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, and a fourth sequel, The Toxic Avenger 5: The Toxic Twins, has been announced. An animated children’s TV series spin-off, Toxic Crusaders, featured Toxie as the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was short-lived and it was quickly cancelled. New Line Cinema had planned a live action movie based on the cartoon, but the deal fell through.

Trivia:

Jennifer Prichard and Robert Prichard fell in love on the set and got married.

Look for future Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei as an extra (coming out of a shower).

The violent-looking crushing of a child’s head in the movie was accomplished by injecting a melon with corn syrup and red food dye. A wig was placed on the melon and it was fitted onto a dummy. Though cheap, the effect is highly unsettling.

The scene where the seeing eye dog gets shot received the most complaints by Troma up to that time.

Patrick Kilpatrick who played Leroy (the face-painted criminal at the Mexican restaurant) quit the film after having to point a shotgun at a baby.

The fast food robber who has his arm ripped off actually only had one arm. In the scene one can see that his right arm is a prosthetic, as he never moves or uses this arm until Toxie rips it off.

The rollbar installed in the car that is wrecked off of a cliff malfunctioned, almost killing the stunt driver.

The crew reportedly ate the large sandwich that Pat Ryan lay on top of for his role as The Mayor.

Mark Torgl caught fire from the police officer’s flaming hands. You can see the fire drop on him during an overhead shot.

While shooting in Shinbone Alley, a homeless man stole a prop gun from one of the trailers and threatened the crew.

The spinning newspapers were simply newspapers placed on a spinning cheese rack.

Although Andree Maranda was dating one of the film’s main producers, she won her part through an audition.

It took four hours to get Mitch Cohen into the Toxic Avenger costume. While wearing it, he could only eat through a straw.

The head-crushing scene was based on a time when Lloyd Kaufman was backing a car out of his garage and accidentally hit his younger sister. Nobody was harmed, but the memory haunted him for years.

The seeing eye dog that was shot had been trained to glide across the floor on command and its “guts” were spaghetti covered in gray paint.

The sheep that Mark Torgl had to kiss was infested with lice, but he did not find that out until after the scene was shot.

A deleted scene, which is available on the DVD, shows Toxie throwing a Peanut Butter and Drano sandwich, smacking the face of Sara’s next door neighbor. Playing Sara’s next door neighbor is Mitch Cohen without his Toxic Avenger make-up.

The monster Melvin turns into was never actually referred to as the Toxic Avenger by any actor in the film besides the narrator. They did not have a name for the character as the film was being made. This is proved further by the kids in the film wearing t-shirts that say “I love the monster hero”.

After going behind the scenes on Rocky (1976), Lloyd Kaufman decided to make a movie in a health club with his friend Michael Herz. After reading a magazine article with the headline “Horror Film Is Dead”, Troma decided to change it into a horror movie. The film’s working title was “Health Club”, and lobby cards bearing this title can be viewed on Troma’s website.

King Kong is a film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling gorilla-like creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and opened in New York City on March 2, 1933 to good reviews. Kong is distinguished for its stop-motion animation and its musical score. The film has been released to video and DVD, and has been computer colorized. In 1991, the film was deemed “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Trivia:

• The models of King Kong built for the island scenes were only 18 inches high. When producer/director Merian C. Cooper decided Kong needed to look bigger while in New York, a new 24-inch armature was constructed, thus changing Kong’s film height from 18 feet on the island to 24 feet while in New York.
• Body count: 40.
• Special effects genius Willis H. O’Brien, who earlier used stop-motion animation of dinosaur models in The Lost World (1925), had created several dinosaur models for his unfinished production Creation (1931). Producer Merian C. Cooper sold the idea for King Kong (1933) to RKO executives in New York by showing them a test sequence using O’Brien’s models. The executives were stunned, never having seen anything like it, and green-lighted production of King Kong (1933) . O’Brien also used many of his “Creation” models in King Kong (1933) , including the T-Rex and the pteranodon (giant bird).
• The project went through numerous title changes during production, including “The Beast” (original title of draft by Edgar Wallace in RKO files), “The Eighth Wonder”, “The Ape”, “King Ape” and “Kong”.
• Both Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack had been wrestlers, and they acted out the fighting moves for the battle between the T-Rex and Kong in the effects studio, before the animators shot the scene.
• This film was successfully reissued worldwide numerous times. In the 1938 reissue, several scenes of excessive violence and sex were cut to comply with the Production Code enforced in 1934. Though many of the censored scenes were restored by Janus Films in 1971 (including the censored sequence in which Kong peels off Fay Wray’s clothes), one deleted scene has never been found, shown publicly only once during a preview screening in San Bernardino, California in January 1933. It was a graphic scene following Kong shaking four sailors off the log bridge, causing them to fall into a ravine where they were eaten alive by giant spiders. At the preview screening, audience members screamed and either left the theatre or talked about the grisly sequence throughout the subsequent scenes, disrupting the film. Said the film’s producer, Merian C. Cooper, “It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself.”
• Originally, there was supposed to be an overhead shot of Kong falling from the Empire State Building. This was accomplished by adding Kong in post-production, falling towards the ground. Real footage of the building was used, but when the producers watched the scene they realized that viewers could see through Kong, especially as he passed the darker ledges, so it was cut. This clip has made its way into documentaries on the film but, more commonly, can be found in stills of the scene.
• The trees and plants in the background on the stop-motion animation sets were a combination of metal models and real plants. One day during filming, a flower on the miniature set bloomed without anyone noticing. The error in continuity was not noticed until the film was developed and shown. While Kong moved, a time-lapse effect showed the flower coming into full bloom, and an entire day of animation was lost.
• King Kong’s roar was a lion’s and a tiger’s roar combined and run backwards.
• Close-ups of the pilots and gunners of the planes that attack Kong were shot in the studio with mock-up planes. The flight commander is director Merian C. Cooper and his observer is producer Ernest B. Schoedsack. They decided to play the parts after Cooper said that “we should kill the sonofabitch ourselves”.
• Scenes cut over the years of release and re-release: Kong chewing on the natives of Skull Island; two scenes with Kong squashing one native each with his giant foot; the brontosaurus biting and throwing the men in the water; Kong putting a New Yorker in his mouth then throwing him down to the ground; a scene where Kong climbs a building, pulls out a sleeping woman with his giant hand, examines her, and when he finds it’s not Ann Darrow, tosses her down to the sidewalk below; and, of course, Fay Wray’s clothing being peeled off. The censor committee once stated that this was at least six minutes of editing. These scenes were all restored to the actual film in 1971. Of course, we still have yet to see the famous spider pit sequence, although in the 2005 remake, we get an idea of what it was like. Also, the 2005 DVD release of the 1933 film has Peter Jackson’s recreation of that scene.
• Grossed $90,000 its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time.
• For the shots of the airplanes taking off from the strip, the pilots were paid US$10 each.
• The native village huts were left over from RKO’s Bird of Paradise (1932). The Great Wall was part of the Temple of Jerusalem set for Cecil B. DeMille’s Biblical epic The King of Kings (1927). The Great Wall set was later reused in Selznick’s The Garden of Allah (1936) and finally redressed with Civil War era building fronts, burned and pulled down by a tractor to film the burning of Atlanta munitions warehouses in Gone with the Wind (1939).
• The success of this film is often credited for saving RKO from bankruptcy.
• Kong’s “official” height (from the posters) is 50 feet. He was closer to 19 feet tall in the jungle and close to 25 feet when in New York City.
• The whole idea allegedly originated when co-director/co-producer Merian C. Cooper had a dream about a massive gorilla attacking New York City.
• Was voted the 47th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• Edgar Wallace died in Hollywood in February 1932 while working on the story for this film.
• There was more than one model of Kong used in the film. There are considerable differences between the Kong on Skull Island and the Kong in New York. For instance, the Skull Island Kong has a longer face, which the filmmakers thought made the ape look “too human”.
• In his review in The New York Times (3 March 1933), film critic Mordaunt Hall incorrectly refers to Fay Wray’s character as “Ann Redman”.
• Jean Harlow refused the lead part.
• The laserdisc edition of the film includes the first ever audio commentary.
• Merian C. Cooper was partially inspired by W. Douglas Burden, who brought the world’s first captive Komodo dragons to the Bronx Zoo in 1926. Cooper was intrigued how the once mythic, massive predators quickly perished once caged and displayed for the public.
• As a child, Merian C. Cooper lived close to an elevated train which kept him awake at night when it clattered across the tracks. This was the inspiration for the scene where Kong destroys an elevated train.
• The two-legged lizard that attacks Jack Driscoll was actually meant to be an aetosaur, a reptile from the Triassic Period. However, because of the high price of armatures (the metal skeletons for the puppets), RKO cut costs by not having hind legs made for it. As a result, the aetosaur has two forearms, no hind legs and a snakelike appearance.
• Fay Wray claimed that she personally insisted that her character be a blond, and personally chose her wig at the Max Factor shop in Los Angeles.
• Sensing a huge hit from industry buzz, MGM offered to buy the film outright from RKO for $1.072m (some $400,000 over its negative cost), figuring the little studio was reeling from losing $10+m in 1932. RKO was smart to decline the offer. The film smashed attendance records nationwide and ended up grossing $1.761m during its initial release. RKO would periodically, and extremely profitably, re-release the movie through the 1950s.
• Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in The Most Dangerous Game (1932), which also happened to star Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong.
• Art drawn for the press book associated for the original release of the film was contributed to by actor Keye Luke, who was a highly regarded illustrator before he became an actor and whose works have appeared in films themselves, such as The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
• The 2005 DVD restoration further details the risqué liberties of a 1933 pre-code film release in two scenes. The first is when Ann is on the ship’s deck while Charlie is peeling potatoes, and the second is where Denham is shooting some test footage of Ann (“Scream for your life, Ann, Scream!”). The thin material used for Ann’s dress and gown in both scenes makes it obvious that Fay Wray is not wearing a bra; a wardrobe decision that may not have made it past the Breen Code the following year.
• Executive Producer David O. Selznick left RKO midway through production of this film. But Selznick’s last act of business at RKO – and probably his biggest contribution to the film – was to write a memo changing the name of the production from ‘Kong’ to King Kong (1933).
• According to the book “David O. Selznick’s Hollywood” by Ron Haver, costume designer Walter Plunkett (later noteworthy for Gone with the Wind (1939)) worked uncredited on this film. Specifically, he designed the “Beauty and the Beast” costume that Ann Darrow wears while Carl Denham is filming her screen test.
• Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre “Fantasy” in June 2008.
• To keep in line with the use of most of the cast from The Most Dangerous Game (1932) the role of Jack Driscoll was intended for Joel McCrea. According to Fay Wray however, McCrea’s agents demanded more money so the role was given to Bruce Cabot.
• It has been said that King Kong (1933) was the first Hollywood film to use a fully symphonic musical score. As memorable and effective as the musical score was, some have made the same claim about RKO’s Bird of Paradise (1932), released earlier. (Perhaps that claim should be revised to “the first memorable film…”) Regardless, Max Steiner, composer for both films (and many later classics, including Gone with the Wind (1939) and Casablanca (1942)) was a visionary, forward thinking man.
• The character of Carl Denham was inspired by the film’s director, Merian C. Cooper. They both died on the same day.
• When describing Kong to Fay Wray, Merian C. Cooper said “you’ll have the tallest darkest leading man in Hollywood”. She thought it was Cary Grant.
• Premiered at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
• The 56-cm-high model of King Kong used in the film sold at auction in 2009 for about $203,000 (US). It was originally covered in cotton, rubber, liquid latex, and rabbit fur, but most of the covering has decomposed over the decades.
• Film debut (uncredited) of Bill Williams.

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror fantasy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently dead young couple who become ghosts haunting their former home, a quaint and quiet house on a hill overlooking the fictional town of Winter Rivers located in Connecticut. When a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City move into the house, the ghosts seek the help of an obnoxious, devious and mischievous “bio-exorcist” named Betelgeuse from the underworld in order to scare the new living inhabitants away permanently. Beetlejuice stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Sylvia Sidney and Michael Keaton as the titular Betelgeuse (the film’s title being a phonetic spelling of the character’s name).

After the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Burton was sent several scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality. When he was sent Michael McDowell’s original script for Beetlejuice, Burton agreed to direct, although Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren were hired to rewrite it. Beetlejuice was both a financial and critical success, grossing $73.33 million from a budget of $13 million. The film spawned an animated television series that Burton produced, and the unproduced Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian sequel.

Trivia:

• The receptionist in the waiting room is Miss Argentina.
• Tim Burton originally wanted Sammy Davis Jr., a favorite star of his since childhood, to play the role of Betelgeuse but studio executives didn’t like that idea at all.
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [music] music by Danny Elfman
• In the wedding scene, Lydia’s dress is a bright red. According to the old rhyme about wedding dress colors, it’s “Married in red, better off dead.”
• During the sequence where Adam and Barbara enter Juno’s office and see her speaking to a recently deceased football team, a movie theater full of ghosts can be seen through Juno’s office window. When the film was first released in theaters, the scene created the illusion that the audience were themselves being watched by the ghosts. Among the ghosts in the audience are a red skeleton and a green skeleton (identical to the ones seen in Tim Burton’s later movie, Mars Attacks! (1996)), a woman with red hair, and two men in suits and Ray-Ban style sunglasses.
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [dogs] The Maitland’s deaths are caused by a stray dog wandering around the bridge their car topples over.
• Michael Keaton spent only two weeks filming his part in the film, which lasts 17.5 minutes out of the 92-minute running time. It is Keaton’s favorite film of his own.
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [TV commercials] Betelgeuse’s TV commercial.
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [stop-motion animation] The sculptures, sandworms, and various effects.
• The original script was a horror film, and featured Beetlejuice as a winged, reptilian demon who transformed into a small Middle Eastern man to interact with the Maitlands and the Deetzes. Lydia was a minor character, with her six year old sister Cathy being the Deetz child able to see the Maitlands. Beetlejuice’s goal was to kill the Maitlands, rather than frighten them away, and included sequences where he mauled Cathy in the form of a rabid squirrel and tried to rape Lydia. Subsequent script rewrites turned the film into a comedy and toned down Beetlejuice’s character into the ghost of an Ebonics-speaking con-artist rather than a demon.
• As the Geffen logo rolls during the intro, soundtrack composer Danny Elfman is heard singing “Day-o, he say day-ay-ay-o.” This was added during post-production and is heard on the released soundtrack.
• The title character of Beetle Juice (1988) is named for a bright red star in the constellation of Orion, Betelgeuse. The studio disliked the title and wanted to call the film “House Ghosts”. As a joke, Tim Burton suggested the name “Scared Sheetless” and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.
• The only cast member who would initially commit to the project was Geena Davis. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Sylvia Sidney all said no at least once. Producer David Geffen convinced Michael Keaton’s manager to convince Michael to meet with director Tim Burton. Once Michael said yes, Tim Burton personally called Sylvia Sidney and begged her to do the movie, and he flew out to meet with Catherine O’Hara to convince her as well.
• Catherine O’Hara was a replacement for an ill Anjelica Huston as Delia. On the set she met her future husband, production designer Bo Welch.
• The original plan for the dinner party was to have the guests dance to “a song by The Ink Spots,” but Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara suggested the music be calypso.
• When Adam and Barbra are in the office, a voice on the PA systems announces the arrival of Flight 409 (“Flight 409 is arriving at Gate 3″). On October 6, 1955 United Airlines Flight 409 crashed into a mountain over Wyoming killing all passengers and crew aboard. It was the worst crash in history to that point. To this day, no one knows why it crashed.
• Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [Claymation] The Priest, Fireplace and decomposing versions of Adam and Barbra are all Claymation.
• A toy line was released in conjunction with the film, featuring action figures of most of Beetlejuice’s incarnations, Otho, Adam (whose figure featured him wearing a red baseball cap), and the Shrunken Head Man from the waiting room, whose figure was named “Harry the Haunted Hunter” and came with a detachable head showing what he looked like before death.
• Adam and Barbara are the only spirits that look “normal”, compared to the other deceased in the Netherworld.
• Juliette Lewis auditioned for the role of Lydia. Lori Loughlin, Diane Lane, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Justine Bateman, Molly Ringwald and Jennifer Connelly all turned down the same role.
• The snake scene had been filmed before Michael Keaton was cast as Betelgeuse, and the animatronic snake used bore no resemblance to the actor. After Keaton had been cast, some additional film was shot for the scene, using a stop-motion snake that looked more like Betelgeuse. This was suggested by the studio to make sure the audience knows the the snake is actually Betelgeuse and not some random monster from the afterlife.
• The number 3 is used ’3′ times: The number of times to say commands (“Betelgeuse”, “home”), the number of times to knock on the door to get to the other side, and the number of first class intersessions allotted.
• Producer Jon Peters thought of casting controversial comedian Sam Kinison as Beetlegeuse, but Kinison’s agent never told him about it.

Angel Heart is a 1987 mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. The film is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by “a devil”, and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs in New Orleans.

A highly atmospheric film, Angel Heart combines elements of film noir, hard-boiled detective stories and horror.

Trivia:

• Marlon Brando was briefly considered for the role of Louis Cyphre.
• Alan Parker offered the role of Harry Angel to Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro himself before Mickey Rourke was cast.
• Shirley Stoler was originally cast in the part of “Izzy’s Wife”, but was replaced by Judith Drake. Stoler’s voice can still be heard at the end of the scene, singing the song, “I Cried For You”.
• When Harry Angel visits Margaret Krusemark for the first time, Margaret orders her maid to bring them tea; she and the maid speak briefly in French, which Angel obviously doesn’t understand. The maid is asking “Should I bring out the best cups?” and Margaret responds “No.”
• The poem about Evangeline and her lover that everyone refers to is “Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Robert De Niro’s performance is an impersonation of Martin Scorsese.
• The old train Harry takes in to Louisiana we see pulling up in the scene change wasn’t a working train and for filming it had to be pushed in by a proper train from behind.
• Alan Parker claims that Robert De Niro’s performance as Louis Cypher was so eerie and realistic that he generally avoided him during his scenes, letting him just direct himself.
• The line “How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise” is drawn from Sophocles’ Oedipus The King.
• Johnny Favorite’s birth day is the same as director ‘Alan Parker”s (14 February).
• A reference to the movie was included in Polish metal band Hunter’s song “Armia Boga” (Pol, “God’s Army”) from the album HellWood. The song ends with a phrase in English “Welcome to my greedy Louis Cyphre’s private hell.”

Matthew Lillard

Matthew Lyn Lillard (born January 24, 1970) is an American actor. He is probably best known for his roles as Stevo in SLC Punk, Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film series, and as Stu Macher in Scream. Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Tustin, California. After high school, he was hired as an extra for Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies Go to College (1991). He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, with fellow actor Paul Rudd, and later, the theater school Circle in the Square in New York City.

Trivia:

One younger sister, Amy.

Dated Neve Campbell.

Daughter Addison Grace was born June 13, 2002 in Los Angeles.

Scooby-Doo (2002) was his 4th movie with Freddie Prinze Jr..

Essentially started his career playing the son of a sadistic killer (Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom (1994)), and then played a sadistic killer himself in Scream (1996/I).

Was classmates with Paul Rudd at American Academy of Dramatic Arts

Attended Fullerton College in Fullerton, California, for a brief time with the theater department.

As of 2004, Matthew has worked (co-starred) with actor Freddie Prinze Jr. five times: Wing Commander (1999), Summer Catch (2001), She’s All That (1999), Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004).

Second daughter, Macey Lyn, was born October 19, 2004 in Los Angeles.

Attended Foothill High School in Tustin, California.

Third child: son Liam born in April 2008.

King Kong is a 1976 American motion picture produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic King Kong, about how a giant ape is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aanYNjjoCQo]

The remake’s screenplay was written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the original movie story written by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which had been adapted into the 1933 screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose. It starred Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange, in her first movie role, playing a part similar to the one made famous in the original by Fay Wray.

Jessica Lange in King Kong 1976

Directed by
  John Guillermin

Writers
  Idea
   Merian C. Cooper and
   Edgar Wallace
  1933 screenplay
   James Creelman and
   Ruth Rose
  Screenplay
   Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Producers              
  Dino De Laurentiis … producer
  Federico De Laurentiis … executive producer
  Christian Ferry … executive producer

Cast
  Jeff Bridges … Jack Prescott
  Charles Grodin … Fred Wilson
  Jessica Lange … Dwan
  John Randolph … Captain Ross
  Rene Auberjonois … Roy Bagley
  Julius Harris … Boan
  Jack O’Halloran … Joe Perko
  Dennis Fimple … Sunfish
  Ed Lauter … Carnahan
  Jorge Moreno … Garcia
  Mario Gallo … Timmons
  John Lone … Chinese Cook
  Garry Walberg … Army General
  John Agar … City Official
  Keny Long … Ape Masked Man
  Sid Conrad … Petrox Chairman
  George Whiteman … Army Helicopter Pilot
  Wayne Heffley … Air Force General
  Forrest J Ackerman … Fleeing Extra in Crowd (uncredited)

Rick Baker as King Kong

Make Up Department
  Del Acevedo … makeup artist
  Rick Baker … makeup effects
  Jo McCarthy … hair stylist
  Rob Bottin … makeup effects

Special Effects Department
  Joe Day … special effects
  Carlo Rambaldi … special effects
  Glen Robinson … special effects
  Terry W. King … special effects technician (uncredited)
  Andrew Miller … special effects (uncredited)
  Wayne Rose … special effects crew (uncredited)

Visual Effects Department
  Lou Lichtenfield … matte artist
  Barry Nolan … photographic effects assistant
  Aldo Puccini … miniature coordinator
  Frank Van der Veer … photographic effects supervisor
  Harold E. Wellman … additional photographic effects

Frank Sinatra and Faye Dunaway

 

The First Deadly Sin is a 1980 film produced by and starring Frank Sinatra, with Faye Dunaway, David Dukes, George Coe and Martin Gabel in his final acting role.

Tagline:   He’s searching for a killer. She’s searching for a miracle …. And time is running out.

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The last of nine films produced by Sinatra and his final starring performance, as the troubled New York City cop Detective Sergeant Edward X. Delaney, The First Deadly Sin was based on a series of popular novels by Lawrence

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Sanders and was originally slated to be directed by Roman Polanski, who was dropped by Columbia Pictures after statutory rape charges were brought against him.

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Co-starring with Sinatra was Faye Dunaway as his ailing wife, bed-ridden in hospital during the entire duration of the film with a rare kidney affliction. The musical score was provided by composer and arranger Gordon Jenkins, who first worked with Sinatra on the 1957 album Where Are You?. One of the bit players was an unknown Bruce Willis who had a walk-on part, virtually unrecognizable as a hat covers most of his face.

The First Deadly Sin was the third production by Sinatra’s Artanis production company and was shot on location in New York City. It was premiered on October 23 1980 at Loew’s State Theatre in Times Square as part of a benefit for the Mother Cabrini Medical Centre.

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