Health Ledger

Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career. His work encompassed nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster’s Ball (2001), A Knight’s Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

Trivia:

He and his older sister, Kate Ledger, are named after the two main romantic characters of the Emily Brontë novel, “Wuthering Heights”.

Concentrated on drama and sports in school. When asked to choose between the two, he picked drama. Attended a private all-boys school called Guildford Grammar.

Auditioned for the part of Max on the TV show “Roswell” (1999). However, the show was originally developed for Fox and since he had already starred in “Roar” (1997), which was unsuccessful for Fox, they did not want to hire him.

Had three sisters: Catherine (Kate) Ledger, married to Nathan Buckey, and half sisters Olivia Ledger (b. 1997) and Ashleigh Bell (b. 1989).

Mother was Sally Ramshaw (daughter of John and Jackie Ramshaw) and father was Kim Ledger (son of Colin and Es Ledger). Stepfather was Roger Bell and stepmother was Emma Brown. His great-grandfather was Sir Frank Ledger, son of Edson Leger.

Named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in 2001.

Dated Heather Graham. [October 2000 - June 2001]

Was a part of the 1990 Kalamunda Field Hockey team, whose president his father Kim was from 1990 to 1992.

Was a men’s-fashion judge at the Melbourne Cup Carnival in November 2001.

Was originally set to star in Oliver Stone’s Alexander (2004) before Colin Farrell took over the role.

Was considered for the role of Kar in Bulletproof Monk (2003) but eventually turned it down. The role later went to Seann William Scott.

Dated Naomi Watts from August 2002 to May 2004.

He and Naomi Watts broke up for the 2nd time in April 2004.

Was named “the new Matt Damon” in Josie and the Pussycats (2001). They now act side by side in The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Most of his wardrobe was designed by his friend Shem.

Was of Irish and Scottish ancestry.

Starred in 3 films which screened at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. They included Brokeback Mountain (2005), The Brothers Grimm (2005) and the out-of-competition Casanova (2005).

Former fiancée Michelle Williams gave birth to daughter Matilda Rose Ledger on 28 October 2005, who weighed in at 6 lb, 5 oz.

Met Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain (2005).

Was selected in the State U17 squad in field hockey and was touted as one of the up and coming young stars, but chose to pack it in and try to make a career out of acting.

Jake Gyllenhaal is the godfather of his daughter Matilda Ledger.

Was mentored by, lived with, and was very good friends with Martin Henderson.

Invited to join AMPAS in 2006.

Was the first non-American actor to portray the Joker.

Set to star in Baz Luhrmann’s pre-WWII drama, but backed out to play The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).

Michelle Williams’ “Dawson’s Creek” (1998) co-star Busy Philipps and his Brokeback Mountain (2005) co-star Jake Gyllenhaal are his daughter’s godparents.

When he was cast as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), rumors circulated that his Brokeback Mountain (2005) cast mate Jake Gyllenhaal would be playing district attorney Harvey Dent. Instead, Jake’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes.

Dropped out of Australia (2008) to do The Dark Knight (2008).

Heath Ledger as The Joker

Was one of seven godparents of Elizabeth Hurley’s son Damien.

Called off his engagement to Michelle Williams in September 2007.

Chosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the world (#79) 2007.

Resided in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Sydney.

Was found dead in his apartment at 421 Broome Street in the SoHo neighborhood in New York City at 3:26 p.m. EST by his housekeeper and a massage therapist, finding him face down and unconscious in his bed with sleeping pills on a nearby table. [22 January 2008]

Directed three music videos for Australian artist N’fa and Ben Harper.

Was painfully shy.

First acting role was as “Peter Pan”, at age 10, at a local theater company.

Lived in Roman Way, Islington while filming his last movie ever in London in 2007.

Was very good friends with Russell Crowe.

Was considered for a role in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003).

Actor Daniel Day-Lewis made a dedication to him at the SAG Awards 2008.

Owned a pet kangaroo that was found by his mother as a child.

Favorite food was risotto.

Was good friends with Ben Harper.

He was the co-founder of record label Music Masses Co with singer Ben Harper, and directed Harper’s video for the song ‘Morning Yearning’.

The youngest actor to play the Joker in a Batman movie The Dark Knight (2008), as oppose to Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero.

In 2006, took a year off from acting to raise his daughter Matilda Ledger while his girlfriend at the time, Michelle Williams, worked.

On February 9, 2008, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penhros College in Perth, Western Australia followed by a private wake on Cottesloe Beach with his family and friends.

After his death his body was returned to Perth, Western Australia, where his body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, with his ashes to be “scattered in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, next to two of his grandparents.

Before appearing with Christian Bale in The Dark Knight (2008), the two of them both played incarnations of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. (2007). This makes Ledger the second Joker actor to share a role with a Batman actor. Previously, Cesar Romero shared the role of lawman John “Doc” Holliday with Adam West and Val Kilmer.

His favorite Australian bands and musicians were Spiderbait, Powderfinger, and Silverchair.

Was good friends with Joaquin Phoenix.

Said in 1999 that his favorite actors and directors were Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Bob Fosse, Stanley Kubrick, Katharine Hepburn, ‘Jack Nicholson’, Marcel Cann, Terrence Malick, Mel Gibson, and Meryl Streep. Later, he went on to co-star with Gibson; and play The Joker (previously portrayed by Nicholson) with his character was partly inspired by Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971); and had almost been cast in Malick’s The Tree of Life (2010).

In an interview shortly before his death, he stated that his favorite role so far in his career had been his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).

Swiss actor and filmmaker Philippe Vonlanthen worked as his Body-double and stand-in on “Roar” (1997). Filming took place in Queensland, Australia.

Played the character of Scott Irwin in the long-running Australian soap opera “Home and Away” (1988) for 10 episodes in 1997. Scott was a local bad boy who took advantage of Sally Fletcher. It is said that the producers wanted to extend his stay with the show but Heath opted not to.

His Golden Globe Award win for The Dark Knight (2008) came eleven days before the first anniversary of his death.

When actress Nell Campbell moved back to her homeland of Australia, she sold her house to Ledger in 2005.

Received his Oscar-nomination for The Dark Knight (2008) on the first anniversary of his death, January 22, 2009.

He is not only the first and only actor to be nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of the Joker, but the first and only actor to secure an acting nomination for a Batman film.

In both his first and final complete roles, he portrayed a clown.

The day after he died, he was supposed to meet with ‘Steven Spielberg’ to explore the idea of playing Tom Hayden in a movie about the Chicago 7.

Has co-starred with a Gyllenhaal sibling in his two most acclaimed roles: as Ennis Del Marr with Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain (2005), and as the Joker with Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight (2008).

Was awarded the 2009 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work as the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). This made him the first person to win a posthumous acting Oscar in this category.

His daughter Matilda Ledger will be the recipient of his Oscar for The Dark Knight (2008) when she turns 18. Up until then the statuette will be in custody of his father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger, per Academy rules.

Very first performer to win an Oscar for acting in a comic movie-adaptation.

Was a great admirer of Johnny Depp’s work. Like Depp, Ledger worked hard to avoid being typecast as a teen heartthrob early on, in the hopes of expanding his career options. Both actors enjoyed taking risky, physically unappealing roles that surprised audiences. Depp was one of the three actors who filled in for Ledger’s last unfinished role after his death, in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).

The second person to win a posthumous acting Oscar. The first was Peter Finch.

Won almost every award in which he was nominated for his performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) including the quintuple crown (a Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG, Critics’ Choice Award, and Oscar).

Is one of 8 actors to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award for the same performance. The others in chronological order are Geoffrey Rush for Shine (1996), Jamie Foxx for Ray (2004/I), Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005), Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland (2006), Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007), Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009).

THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas, from a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch. It depicts a dystopian future in which a high level of control is exerted upon the populace through omnipresent, faceless, android police officers and mandatory, regulated use of special drugs to suppress emotion, including sexual desire.

It was the first feature-length film directed by Lucas, developed from his student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which he made in 1967 while attending the University of Southern California.  The film was produced in a joint venture between Warner Brothers and Francis Ford Coppola’s then-new production company, American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971.

Trivia:

• George Lucas claims that the scene where technicians mess with THX’s nervous system, sending him into comical spasms, was drawn from his antipathy towards the doctors who treated him after his near-fatal car crash as a youth.
• The underground chase near the end was shot in a not-yet-completed segment of the BART subway system in San Francisco.
• The music playing during the end credits is the first movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244.
• Shortly after THX steals a police car, and shortly before his fellow escapee crashes the one he tries to steal, you can hear someone on the radio say, “I think I ran over a wookie back there on the expressway.”
• A scene in which THX falls into a garbage compactor and fends off a mutated rodent was cut because the monster did not look realistic. This situation was later reused in Star Wars (1977).
• The opening credits scroll down instead of up.
• George Lucas has worked the title of this film, or parts of it, in some of his other films. In American Graffiti (1973), the license plate of one car is “THX 138″. In Star Wars (1977), a reference is made to “prison cell 1138″. The cinema sound certification his company developed is called “THX”.
• This film was made as a result of George Lucas’ student film short project at USC, Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967). Having won significant praise and attention for what was, at the time, an unconventional short, Lucas was given the opportunity to direct a feature-length version starring Robert Duvall, produced by his mentor Francis Ford Coppola under his newly formed production company American Zoetrope. Zoetrope was a financial failure, as was “THX-1138″, but the attention was enough to win Lucas the opportunity to make American Graffiti (1973), the success of which paved the way for the opportunity to make Star Wars (1977).
• Director George Lucas insisted on casting the stage actor James Wheaton over Orson Welles to play the voice of “OMM” in the film.
• In the computer room near the end of the film, the lights on one computer can be seen flashing the word “TILT”.
• This was the first film for Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope.
• Officials at Warner Bros. did not like the finished film. They cut the film and reduced the marketing budget.
• George Lucas apparently named the film after his San Francisco telephone number, 849 1138 – the letters THX correspond to letters found on the buttons 8, 4 and 9.
• To provide the large number of extras required, George Lucas contacted the Synanon drug rehabilitation facility. He found many recovering drug users who were required to be shaved bald for the drug program anyway.
• To provide the voices of the unseen overseers and announcers, George Lucas contacted San Francisco-based theater group The Committee. He gave them brief character outlines, and allowed the actors to improvise all the “overheard” dialogue in the movie.
• Co-writer Walter Murch has said in interviews that George Lucas never explained the origins of the character names THX and LUH to him, but he believes that they are deliberate homonyms for sex and love – the two factors that set them apart from society.
• Publicity photos and some foreign posters and video covers feature a shot from a scene not included in the final film: The police robots approaching the dead body of the OHM priest (who SEN killed earlier) and checking for a pulse.
• For the final sequence in which THX is climbing up to the surface, it is a simple perspective trick. It is not a ladder, but re-bar embedded in concrete. The actors are actually crawling along a horizontal surface. By tilting the camera to appropriate angles, it appears that the characters are climbing upward.
• The cat-and-mouse chase scene between THX and the robot cops was apparently shot in a telephone exchange; the endless rows of electronic equipment are actually telephone switches.
• Average Shot Length (ASL) = 6 seconds
• George Lucas’s original plan was to shoot the film in Japan, but Francis Ford Coppola did not give Lucas enough money in the film’s budget to take the entire production to Japan. The film was shot in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• Some of SEN’s dialogue is taken from speeches by Richard Nixon.
• David Ogden Stiers’s film debut.
• The image of OMM in the confessional booths is a cropped image of Hans Memling’s painting, ‘Christ Giving His Blessing’, dated 1481.
• The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) features a car chase where the license plate is given as THX 375. The cinematographer on this film was Douglas Slocombe who would go on to work with Steven Spielberg, a long time friend of George Lucas.

Dracula is a 1931 United States horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Trivia:

• Universal Studios commissioned a new musical score from composer Philip Glass. It premiered at The Brooklyn Academy of Music on 26 October 1999.
• When Universal purchased the rights to the 1927 Broadway play, Lon Chaney was considered for the title role. However, Chaney died on August 26, 1930, and the role went to Bela Lugosi.
• A Spanish-language version, Drácula (1931), was filmed at night on the same set at the same time, with Spanish-speaking actors.
• Cinematographer Karl Freund achieved the effect of Dracula’s hypnotic stare by aiming two pencil-spot-lights into actor Bela Lugosi’s eyes.
• The Royal Albert Hall sequence of the movie was filmed on the same stage where The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney had been filmed.
• The large, expansive sets built for the Transylvania castle and Carfax Abbey sequences remained standing after filming was completed, and were used by Universal Pictures for many other movies for over a decade.
• Among the other actors mentioned as possible candidates for the role of Count Dracula were John Wray, Paul Muni, Conrad Veidt, Chester Morris, and William Courtenay.
• Bela Lugosi was so desperate to repeat his stage success and play the Count Dracula role for the film version, that he agreed to a contract paying him $500 per week for a seven week shooting schedule, an insultingly small amount even during the days of the Depression.
• The spider webs in Dracula’s castle were created by shooting rubber cement from a rotary gun.
• Bela Lugosi played the role of Dracula on Broadway in 1927 before touring the country with the show. The American performance of the British stage actor Hamilton Deane’s adaptation of the book was a smashing success. Soon after the play began touring Universal started to express interest in the script.
• Due to studio demands to cut costs, the film was shot in sequence.
• Similar to the prologue in Frankenstein (1931), the original release featured an epilogue with Edward Van Sloan talking to the audience about what they have just seen. This was removed for the 1936 re-release and is now assumed to be lost.
• After the death of Lon Chaney, one of the first actors considered for the title role was Ian Keith.
• While it is rumored that Bela Lugosi, could not speak English very well, and had to learn his lines phonetically, this is not true. Lugosi was speaking English as well as he ever would by the time this was filmed.
• There was no real musical soundtrack in the film because it was believed that, with sound being such a recent innovation in films, the audience would not accept hearing music in a scene if there was no explanation for it being there (e.g., the orchestra playing off camera when Dracula meets Mina at the theatre).
• Several famous elements often associated with Dracula are not visible in this film. At no point does Dracula display fangs. Also, the famous vampire bite mark on the neck is never shown either (though it is visible in the Spanish version).
• Although it was his most famous role, Bela Lugosi played Dracula only once more on screen, in the comedy Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). However, he played Dracula-like characters in movies such as The Return of the Vampire (1944) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).
• This Universal production became the most famous and successful film to pair David Manners with Helen Chandler. The pair had made two films at Warner Brothers/First National and one at Fox.
• The peasants inside the inn are praying The Lord’s Prayer in Hungarian.
• Bette Davis (who had a contract at Universal at the time) was considered to play the part of Mina Harker. However, Universal head Carl Laemmle Jr. didn’t think too highly of her sex appeal.
• The opening music to this film is from Act 2 of Swan Lake.
• In the scene where Dracula and Renfield are traveling to London by boat, the footage shown is borrowed from a Universal silent film called The Storm Breaker (1925). Silent films were projected at a different frames-per-second speed from that later adopted for sound films, accounting for the jerky movements and quicker-than-normal action of these shots.
• In the first scene, the young woman reading from the tourist book was played by Carla Laemmle, niece of Carl Laemmle, founder and head of Universal Pictures.
• When Carl Laemmle moved Universal to California in 1914, a version of “Dracula” was one of the first projects being considered. It was over fifteen years before this version was produced.
• The movie’s line “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.” was voted as the #83 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
• When Bela Lugosi died in 1956, he was buried wearing the black silk cape he wore for this film.
• Universal’s original plan was to make a big-budget adaptation of “Dracula” that would strictly adhere to the Bram Stoker novel. However, after the stock market crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, Universal chose not to risk an investment on such a sprawling film. Instead, it adapted the much less expensive Hamilton Deane stage play.
• Universal acquired the film rights to “Dracula” from Bram Stoker’s widow and the play’s writer Hamilton Deane for $40,000.
• Before he was cast as Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi acted as an unpaid intermediary for Universal Pictures in negotiating with the widow of author Bram Stoker in an attempt to persuade her to lower her asking price for the filming rights to the Dracula property. After two months of negotiations, Mrs. Stoker reportedly lowered her price from $200,000 to $60,000. This, however, further demonstrated to Universal how desperate Lugosi was to repeat his stage success as Count Dracula and secure the film role for himself.
• Apparently morose over the loss of friend and collaborator Lon Chaney and in the midst of severe alcoholism, the normally meticulous Tod Browning was said to have been sullen and unprofessional during the shoot. Among his actions were to leave set, leaving cinematographer Karl Freund to direct scenes. He would also recklessly tear pages out of the script if he felt them to be redundant.
• The original Broadway production of “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi opened at the Fulton Theater on October 5, 1927 and ran for 261 performances. Also in the original cast was Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing. These were the only two actors from the original 1927 Broadway production to repeat their roles in the film.
• Although he lived for 67 years after the film was released, David Manners (John Harker) claimed he never watched it.
• Edward Van Sloan and Dwight Frye also appeared in the horror classic Frankenstein (1931). They are the only 2 actors to have appeared in both films.
• Bela Lugosi never blinks even once throughout the film.

Ashton Kutcher

Christopher Ashton Kutcher (born February 7, 1978), best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American film actor, television actor, producer and former fashion model, best-known for playing Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That ’70s Show. He created, produced and hosted Punk’d. He played lead roles in such films as Dude, Where’s My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian and What Happens in Vegas.

He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401. and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek. He is married to actress Demi Moore. As of April 2009^[update], Kutcher is the most followed user on the social-networking site Twitter.

Trivia:

Dropped out from University of Iowa to pursue modeling. His major was biochemical engineering.

Used to have a job sweeping the floor at a General Mills plant

Won the Fresh Faces of Iowa modeling contest in 1997, sparking a modeling career in New York City.

Has a fraternal twin brother, Michael, & an older sister, Tausha

He auditioned for a role at NBC and knew he didn’t land it. As he was leaving, an executive asked him to read for a new NBC pilot called “Wind on Water” (1998). “I went and did a cold reading of the character and found out I had gotten the job but told them I had to read the script first and after reading it, decided I did not want to be a cowboy surfer. My agent had told me about a series called “Teenage Wasteland” (later renamed “That ’70s Show” (1998)) and I went in to read and told them I had to know if I had gotten the role by 3:45 that afternoon. I was supposed to tell NBC if I wanted the role on “Wind on Water” (1998) by 4:00 p.m. Luckily, I got the role on this show”. “Wind on Water” (1998) was canceled after two episodes.

Was once so poor, he donated his blood for money while attending the University of Iowa.

Lost out to Josh Hartnett for a role in Pearl Harbor (2001).

Often wears the same beaded necklace in pictures, interviews, etc.

One of Teen People Magazine’s 25 Hottest Stars Under 25. [2002]

His twin brother Michael was born with a septal heart defect.

On January 23, 2004, he went head to head with his “That ’70s Show” (1998) co-star Topher Grace at the box office as The Butterfly Effect (2004) starring Kutcher and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) both opened against one another. The Butterfly Effect (2004) won the race coming in at the #1 spot, while Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) came in at #3 just after Along Came Polly (2004).

Older sister Tausha (born 1975) has a daughter, Dakota (born 1999).

Voted #3 on VH1′s 100 Hottest Hotties.

Member of the Delta Chi Fraternity, along with Kevin Costner and Alan Heitz.

Has two toes on his left foot that are fused together, meaning they are webbed

Is ranked #35 on Premiere Magazine’s 50 Most Disturbing Moments in Movie History. Kutcher’s face is just placed there, instead of an explanation as to why.

Shares a birthday with Chris Rock.

Owns a restaurant in Los Angeles called Dolce.

Ranked #17 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s 25 Greatest Teen Idols” (23 January 2005 issue).

Lost the lead role of Drew Baylor in Elizabethtown (2005) to Orlando Bloom when Cameron Crowe decided he wanted an actor that had a solid résumé consisting of Theatre and Drama school training.

Was the first of the six primary cast members of “That ’70s Show” (1998) to receive a Razzie Award nomination. He was nominated for Worst Actor of 2004 for his roles in the films Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), Just Married (2003) and My Boss’s Daughter (2003). However, he did not win.

Tallest cast member of “That ’70s Show” (1998).

Along with Topher Grace, he chose not to renew his contract to do an 8th season of “That ’70s Show” (1998), wishing to pursue other projects.

Created the MTV show “Punk’d” (2003) with his friend Jason Goldberg.

Of mostly Irish American descent. He also has some Native American and Bohemian (the source of his surname) ancestry

Former boyfriend of Brittany Murphy

His wedding with actress Demi Moore was attended by about 100 guests, among them were Moore’s ex-husband Bruce Willis, their three children, and Lucy Liu.

Best friends with Wilmer Valderrama

Stepfather of Rumer Willis, Scout LaRue Willis and Tallulah Belle Willis

Marriage to Demi Moore is his first, her third.

His parents are Larry Kutcher (an employee of General Mills) and Diane (who worked for Procter & Gamble)

Is of Irish ancestry

While as a guest on “The View” (1997), he explained he quit smoking cigarettes for his role in The Guardian (2006/I) by reading the book, “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Allen Carr.

Has the rare distinction of being in two movies that opened on the same day in the U.S. – Open Season (2006) and The Guardian (2006/I) (September 29 2006).

Was considered for the role of Batman in Batman Begins (2005), but the role eventually went to Christian Bale.

Is a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity.

Attended the University of Iowa, as did Gene Wilder, Ben Rollins, and Mary Beth Hurt.

Wrestled in high school. In his senior year he injured himself and had to quit.

Is close friends with “Smallville” (2001) star Tom Welling whom he met when they were both modeling.

His three stepdaughters call him MOD (“My Other Dad”).

The Wolf Man is a 1941 monster horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf movie, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London.

Trivia:

• Larry Talbot’s brother’s name was John.
• In the first version of the script, Larry was not the prodigal son of Sir John Talbot, nor related to him in any way. He was an American engineer who comes to fix Sir John’s telescope, and ends up getting trapped in the werewolf curse.
• Lon Chaney Jr.’s make-up took six hours to apply, and three hours to get off.
• Larry had been away 18 years working on Mt. Wilson Observatory in California.
• The first transformation takes place with Talbot in an undershirt (although he is fully dressed in a dark shirt
  

  Lon Chaney, Jr and Evelyn Ankers

  once on the prowl). Only the feet transform on screen in six lapse dissolves. In the second transformation there are eleven shots – again of feet only. The third transformation features 17 face shots in a continuous dissolve.

• The Wolfman battled a bear in one scene but unfortunately the bear ran away during filming. What few scenes were filmed were put into the theatrical trailer.
• “Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” This quote has been listed in some sources as an authentic Gypsy or Eastern European folk saying. Writer Curt Siodmak admits that he simply made it up. Nonetheless, the rhyme would be recited in every future Universal film appearance of the Wolf Man, and would also be quoted in Van Helsing (2004). (Albeit, slightly modified, “The moon is shining bright.” rather than “The autumn moon is bright.”)
• Larry’s silver wolf-headed cane, the only known surviving prop from the movie, currently resides in the personal collection of genre film archivist Bob Burns. Burns, who was a schoolboy at the time, was given the cane head by the man who made it for the film, prop-maker Ellis Burman.
• Maria Ouspenskaya, who played the old Gypsy woman, was only six years older than Bela Lugosi, who played her son.
• According to the documentary on the Recent Wolf Man DVD collection, the script for The Wolf Man was influenced by writer Curt Siodmak’s experiences in Nazi Germany. Siodmak had been living a normal life in Germany only to have it thrown into chaos and himself on the run when the Nazis took control, just as Larry Talbot finds his normal life thrown into chaos and himself on the run once he is turned into a werewolf. Also, the wolfman himself can be seen as a metaphor for the Nazis: an otherwise good man who is transformed into a vicious killing animal who knows who his next victim will be when he sees the symbol of a pentagram (i.e., a star) on them.
• Curt Siodmak’s first draft lacked all werewolf scenes and the hallucinatory sequence.
• Dick Foran was originally cast in the role of Larry Talbot. He was replaced just one week before filming began.
• It was originally given the working title, “Destiny,” which had been the preliminary title of a number of Universal films that decade (including Son of Dracula (1943)).
• Universal, lacking a theater chain, had planned to market the film as part of a double bill (with The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942)) but feared that the public would avoid an all-horror bill after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Evelyn Ankers had a rough time on the set. Lon Chaney Jr. delighted in sneaking up on her in full makeup and scaring her senseless. In other deleted scene, a bear was to wrestle with the werewolf but broke loose, chasing the actress up into the soundstage’s rafters.
• Despite Universal’s apprehensions over the public’s appetite for horror movies following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the film became one of the studio’s top grossers in 1942.
• The silver top of Larry’s wolf-head cane was made of vulcanized rubber so none of the actors or stunt doubles would get injured if they were accidentally hit by it.
• Universal had another unproduced werewolf script originally planned as a vehicle for Boris Karloff on file but writer Curt Siodmak did not utilize any of it for his script.
• Silent film actor Gibson Gowland appears in this film as a villager present at the death of Larry Talbot. He also had been present during the Phantom’s death scene in the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925), becoming the only actor to appear in death scenes performed by both Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr.
• In this movie, we’re told that a werewolf is “a human being who becomes a wolf at certain times of the year … ‘when the wolf-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright,’” and the moon is never depicted in the film. This is the only one of the Universal series of Wolf Man films in which the full moon is never shown. In the sequel, the folklore is changed to “when the moon is full and bright.”
• Larry Talbot and his father Sir John attend church on Sunday in the village, but the doorway and steps of the village church looks more like that of a cathedral. In fact, it was a cathedral – part of the original set built for the legendary silent version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923/I), which had starred Lon Chaney Jr.’s famous father, Lon Chaney and which stood on the Universal back lot for over 20 years.
• The “wolf” that Larry Talbot fights with was Lon Chaney Jr.’s own German Shepherd.
• The first Universal picture since The Black Cat (1934) to introduce the major characters during the opening credits – and the actors playing them – with brief clips from the movie.

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional suburban midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA on Halloween. The original draft of the screenplay was titled The Babysitter Murders. John Carpenter directed the film, which stars Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, and Nick Castle, Tony Moran and Tommy Lee Wallace sharing the role of Michael Myers (listed in the credits as “The Shape”). The film centers on Myers’ escape from a psychiatric hospital, his murdering of teenagers, and Dr. Loomis’ attempts to track and stop him. Halloween is widely regarded as a classic among horror films, and as one of the most influential horror films of its era. In 2006 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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Halloween was produced on a budget of $320,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the United States, equivalent to over $150 million as of 2008, becoming one of the most profitable independent films. Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). The movie originated many clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. However, the film contains little graphic violence and gore.

Critics have suggested that Halloween and its slasher film successors may encourage sadism and misogyny. Others have suggested the film is a social critique of the immorality of young people in 1970s America, pointing out that many of Myers’ victims are sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as chaste and innocent (although she is seen smoking a joint). While Carpenter dismisses such analyses, the perceived parallel between the characters’ moral strengths and their likelihood of surviving to the film’s conclusion has nevertheless become a standard slasher movie trope.

Trivia:

• There are numerous references in John Carpenter’s movies, particularly in this film, that are taken from the area surrounding the town he grew up in – Bowling Green, KY. The performance of the film’s musical score is credited to “The Bowling Green Philharmonic.” There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The “orchestra” is actually Carpenter and assorted musical friends. In one scene the subtitle depicts the location as “Smiths Grove, IL.” Smiths Grove is actually a small town of about 600 people located 15 miles north of Bowling Green on I-65. There are also numerous references in Halloween to street names that are major roads in the greater Bowling Green area.
• As the movie was actually shot in early spring in southern California (as opposed to Illinois in late October), the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused. However, as Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter note on the DVD audio commentary, the trees are quite full and green and even some palm trees can be seen, despite that in Illinois in October, the leaves would probably be mostly gone and there would be no palm trees.
• Jamie Lee Curtis’ first feature film.
• Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a Captain Kirk (William Shatner) mask. They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes.
• The kids watch the opening of The Thing from Another World (1951) on TV. Carpenter would later re-make this film himself in 1982 as The Thing (1982).
• Halloween was shot in 21 days in April of 1978. Made on a budget of $320,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.
• According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character of Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter’s first girlfriend.
• Tommy Doyle’s name was from Rear Window (1954) and Sam Loomis’ name is from Psycho (1960).
• Inside Laurie’s bedroom there is a poster of a painting by James Ensor (1860-1949). Ensor was a Belgian expressionist painter who used to portray human figures wearing grotesque masks.
• The film takes place primarily in Haddonfield, Illinois. Haddonfield, NJ is the home town of screenwriter Debra Hill.
• The performance of Halloween’s musical score is credited to “The Bowling Green Philharmonic”. There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The “orchestra” is actually John Carpenter and assorted musical friends.
• All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode’s wardrobe. She spent less than a hundred dollars for the entire set. She shot the film while on hiatus from the sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977) (TV).
• The character of Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as a kind of weird “thank you” for the film’s overseas success.
• Tommy’s Halloween costume is an Alphan uniform from “Space: 1999″ (1975).

• The opening shot appears to be a single, tracking, point of view shot, but there are actually three cuts. The first when the mask goes on, and the second and third after the murder has taken place and the shape is exiting the room. This was done to make the point of view appear to move faster.
• The name of the sheriff is “Leigh Brackett”. Leigh Brackett was also the name of the screenwriter of Howard Hawks’ classic Rio Bravo (1959), which was the inspiration for John Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Kyle Richards, who plays Lindsey Wallace, is the sister of Kim Richards, who appeared in John Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Half of the $320,000 budget was spent on the Panavison cameras so the film would have a 2:35:1 scope. Donald Pleasence was paid $20,000 for 5 days work.
• Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down. Lee later said it was it was the biggest mistake he ever made in his career.
• Morgan Strode’s black Fleetwood (seen in the driveway when he is talking to Laurie early in the movie) belonged to director John Carpenter, while the Phelps Garage truck was owned by the company that catered for the film.
• Anne Lockhart was John Carpenter’s first choice for the role of Laurie Strode.
• None of the big studios at the time was interested in distributing the movie, so executive producer Irwin Yablans decided to distribute the film via his own company (Compass International). MCA/Universal produced and distributed the next two sequels in the early ’80s.
• Aside from dialogue, the script cites Michael Myers by name only twice. In the opening scene, he is called a POV until he is revealed at age 6. From the rest of the script on out he is referred to as a “shape” until Laurie rips his mask off in the final scene (which he never reapplies in the script). “The Shape”, as credited in the film, refers to when his face is masked or obscured.
• P.J. Soles was dating Dennis Quaid at the time of filming, so John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted to cast him in the role of Bob. Unfortunately, Quaid was busy working on another project and John Michael Graham was cast in the role instead.
• John Carpenter provides the voice of Annie’s boyfriend, Paul, whom we hear on the phone talking to Annie.
• The original script, titled “The Babysitter Murders”, had the events take place over the space of several days. It was a budgetary decision to change the script to have everything happen on the same day (doing this reduced the number of costume changes and locations required) and it was decided that Halloween, the scariest night of the year, was the perfect night for this to happen.
• When they were shooting the scenes for the start of the film (all the ones seen from Michael’s point of view) they couldn’t get the 6-year old child actor until the last day, so the movie’s producer, Debra Hill, volunteered to be Michael for any scenes where his hands come into view. This is why the nails on young Michael’s hands look so well manicured and varnished.
• The cinematography for the Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was the inspiration for the look of Carpenter’s color scheme.
• Donald Pleasence did all of his scenes in only 5 days of shooting.
• When Dr. Loomis is talking to the doctors in the empty classroom, Dr. Loomis is sitting in seat #37.
• Sheriff Brackett was named after film-noir writer Leigh Brackett.
• According to Don Post Jr., President of Don Post Studios, the famous California mask making company, the filmmakers originally approached his firm about custom making an original mask for use in the film. The filmmakers explained that they could not afford the numerous costs involved in creating a mask from scratch, but would offer Post points in the movie as payment for his services. Post declined their offer, as he received many such proposals from numerous unknown filmmakers all the time, but suggested that they repaint/refurbish the “Captain Kirk” masks eventually used in the film, which eventually was done, and which netted Mr. Post a profit of less than $100. Post later estimated, after the film became a hit, that if he had accepted the original offer for points in the film in exchange for his creation of an original mask, his profit would have run well over $100,000.
• Yul Brynner’s robot character from Westworld (1973) was the inspiration for the character of Michael Myers.
• The song that is playing on the radio when Laurie and Annie are in the car is “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult.
• This was voted the fifth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• The “Myers” house was a locale found in South Pasadena that was largely the decrepit, abandoned place seen in the majority of the film. However, as the house had to look ordinary (and furnished) for the early scenes with the young Michael Myers, almost the whole cast and crew worked together to clean the place, move in furniture, put up wallpaper, and set up running water and electricity, and then take it all out when they were through.
• Much credit for the concept must go to its producer Irwin Yablans, who had the concept originally for a horror film called “The Babysitter Murders”. Upon further research, Yablans discovered to his surprise that no previous film had been titled “Halloween” and thought it would be a great concept to set these “babysitter murders” on the holiday. With these ideas, Yablans convinced an excited John Carpenter to write and direct a film around them.
• The wealthy film producer Moustapha Akkad had admittedly little interest in this film and helped make it primarily due to the enthusiasm of John Carpenter and Irwin Yablans. However, when the film turned out to be a huge box-office smash, Akkad saw an opportunity and has since facilitated every ‘Halloween’ sequel.
• The adult Michael Myers was portrayed by Nick Castle in almost every scene, except for some pick-up shots and the unmasking scene, where he was replaced by Tony Moran. Castle was a school-buddy of John Carpenter and was thought of by Carpenter because he was tall and had what Carpenter considered an interesting walk. Castle admitted he was disappointed to not be the face shown, but understood that Carpenter wanted a more “angelic” face to juxtapose with Myers’ ghastly deeds. Castle has gone on to become a successful director.
• John Carpenter was quite intimidated by Donald Pleasence, of whom he was a big fan and who was easily the oldest and most experienced person on set. Although Pleasance asked Carpenter difficult questions about his character, Pleasance turned out to be a good-humored, big-hearted individual and the two became great friends.
• Of the female leads (all the girls are supposed to be in high school), only Jamie Lee Curtis was actually a teenager at the time of shooting.
• The long tracking shot at the beginning was inspired by the tracking shot in Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958). The shot would have been impossible to achieve on the film’s budget if it wasn’t for the recent invention of the steadicam tracking system.
• P.J. Soles says the word “totally” eleven times.
• Before Don Post became involved, Michael was going to wear a clown mask.
• Laurie remarks that she would rather go out with unseen character “Ben Tramer”. The name came from Bennett Tramer, an old college friend of director John Carpenter. The real Bennett Tramer has also had a career in the motion picture industry as a writer and producer.
• A young Jamie Lee Curtis was so disappointed with her performance that she became convinced she would be fired after only the first day of filming. When her phone rang that night and it was John Carpenter on the phone, Curtis was certain it was the end of her movie career. Instead, Carpenter called to congratulate her and tell her he was very happy with the way things had gone.
• The Halloween theme is written in the rare 5/4 time signature. John Carpenter learned this rhythm from his father.
• The scene where The Shape seems to appear out of the darkness behind Laurie was accomplished by using a simple dimmer switch on the light that slowly illuminated the mask.
• One of the characters is named “Marion Chambers”. Marion was the first name of the female protagonist of Psycho (1960), and Chambers was the last name of the sheriff in that movie.
• That Michael Myers could drive a car despite having gotten committed to an asylum at the age of six inspired many guffaws. The first movie novelization came up with a simple but effective explanation: when Doctor Loomis drove Michael to sanity hearings over the years, Michael simply watched very closely and carefully as Doctor Loomis operated the car. Remember, even if Michael sat in the back seat and there was a screen of bulletproof glass partition, Michael could still look over the Doctor’s shoulder without Loomis realizing the significance.
• According to an additional scene in the extended television version, Michael Myers’ middle name is Audrey.
• Carpenter wrote the part of Lynda for P.J. Soles after seeing her performance in Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976).
• Although Nick Castle plays the part of Michael Myers throughout the film, when his mask is removed by Laurie at the climax, another actor Tony Moran was used.
• The opening POV sequence took 2 days to film.
• Carpenter composed the score in 4 days.
• For its first airing on television, extra scenes had to be added to make it fit the desired time slot. Carpenter filmed these during the production of Halloween II (1981) against his better judgment.
• Donald Pleasence confessed to John Carpenter that the main reason why he took the part of Loomis was because his daughter Angela loved Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).
• Carpenter considered the hiring of Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock who had given her mother, Janet Leigh, legendary status in Psycho (1960).
• Carpenter’s intent with the character of Michael Myers was that the audience should never be able to relate to him.
• Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill have stated many times over the years that they did not consciously set out to depict virginity as a way of defeating a rampaging killer. The reason why the horny teens all die is simply that they’re so preoccupied with getting laid that they don’t notice that there’s a killer at large. Laurie Strode, on the other hand, spends a lot of time on her own and is therefore more alert.
• As the film was shot out of sequence, Carpenter created a fear meter so that Jamie Lee Curtis would know what level of terror she should be exhibiting.
• Debra Hill wrote most of the dialog for the female characters, while Carpenter concentrated on Dr Loomis’s speeches.
• As the film was made in spring, the crew had huge difficulty in procuring pumpkins.
• Production designer Tommy Lee Wallace picked the iconic mask in a dime store. It was a mask of Captain Kirk and cost $1.98. Wallace spray painted the eyes to change the appearance (and also to avoid the risk of litigation).
• From a budget of $325,000 the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office. In 2008 takings that would be the equivalent of $150 million, making “Halloween” one of the most successful independent films of all time.
• Prior to the movie, a book was written by Curtis Richards, and reveals more of the story behind Michael’s rage. However, the book is very rare.
• Nancy Kyes (Annie Brackett) starred in at least three other Carpenter films, one being another of the Halloween franchise; Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The others are The Fog and Assault on Precinct 13.

The Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 black-and-white science fiction film, directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Glenn Langan. The film revolves around a 60 foot mutant man produced as the result of an atomic accident.

Distributed by American International Pictures (AIP) at the top of a program double-bill with The Cat Girl, the film was followed by a sequel, War of the Colossal Beast, which appeared in 1958. The film appeared on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bB-ShV-qsU]

Trivia:

• This movie, like The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), Frankenstein, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde inspired Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to create the Incredible Hulk character.
• The line: “Why don’t you ask me what it feels like to be a freak?” is sampled in American industrial rock Rob Zombie’s song “Demon Speeding“, on the 2001 album The Sinister Urge.
• Hardcore band Madball have a song called Colossal Man, in which they refer to him as a skinhead.
• “Monsters vs. Aliens the 2009 computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures alludes to this movie when giant Susan pulls a needle from her leg and throws it , pinning a man’s foot to the ground (rather than killing him as in the original).

Halloween III: The Season of the Witch

 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 horror film and the third installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin and Dan O’Herlihy. The film is based on an original screenplay by Nigel Kneale and focuses on an evil scheme by the owner of a mask company to kill the children of America on Halloween night through a series of popular Halloween masks – a witch, a jack-o’-lantern, and a skull.

Season of the Witch is unrelated to the previous films featuring the character Michael Myers, and was intended to begin Halloween as an anthology series, releasing a new Halloween storyline every year. The only connection this movie has with the others in the series is a scene where the trailer for Halloween is on TV. Besides wholly abandoning the Michael Myers plotline, Halloween III departs from the slasher film genre which the original Halloween spawned in 1978. The focus on a psychopathic killer is replaced by a “mad scientist and witchcraft” theme. Moreover, the frequency of graphic violence and gore is less than that of Halloween II (1981), although scenes that depict the deaths of characters remain intense.

Produced on a budget of $2.5 million, Halloween III grossed $14.4 million at the box office in the United States, making it the poorest performing film in the Halloween series at the time. In addition to relatively weak box office returns, most critics gave the film negative reviews. Where Halloween had broken new ground and was imitated by many genre films following in its wake, this third installment seemed hackneyed to many: one critic twenty years later suggests that if Halloween III was not part of the Halloween series, then it would simply be “a fairly nondescript eighties horror flick, no worse and no better than many others.”

Trivia:

• The original writer of the story was Nigel Kneale but he sued the producers to take his name off the movie after seeing how violent it was.
• A milk factory was used for the setting of the Silver Shamrock factory.
• After Michael Myers died at the end of Halloween II (1981), the plan by John Carpenter was to make a new “Halloween” movie each year, each telling a different Halloween-related story. After this movie underperformed at the box office, the film-makers decided to bring Michael back to life for future sequels.
• The tagline “The night nobody comes home” is a play on the original Halloween movie’s tagline, “The night HE came home.”
• Michael Myers does appear briefly in this film, on a television advertising the original Halloween (1978). It comes near the beginning when Dan Challis is drinking in a bar.
• When Challis fills in the register at the motel office, he scans the list of names for evidence of Ellie’s father’s stay. All of the other names on the list are the names of the crew.
• The small town of Santa Mira was also the setting for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
• The voice of the operator that Challis keeps getting when he tries to call out of Santa Mira is Jamie Lee Curtis.
• The book that Marge Guttman is reading before her death in the motel room is “The Eagle’s Gift” by Carlos Castaneda.
• The music playing on the radio when Marge Guttman notices the tag on the floor was also played in John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980).
• Supposedly, part of the genesis of this film came from a comment made by film critic Rex Reed. Reed panned Halloween II (1981), saying it was so bad that, “If they make a Halloween III, I’ll turn in my press card.”
• The voice of the announcer in the Silver Shamrock commercials and radio spots is that of the film’s writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace.
• “Season of the Witch” was the original working title of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973). “Season Of The Witch” is also the name of a song by Donovan and an alternative name for the George A. Romero film Hungry Wives (1972). Also the name of an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie: Season of the Witch (2010).
• A novelization of the film was published in 1982 by science-fiction writer Dennis Etchison under the pseudonym Jack Martin. Despite the film’s commercial failure, the book became a best-seller and was even reissued two years after the film’s release, in 1984.
• Using the original molds, the skull, witch, and jack-o’-lantern masks seen in the film were mass-produced by Don Post Studios and sold in retail stores to promote the film’s release.
• ‘John Carpenter’ revealed in an interview with Gilles Boulenger (for the book John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness) that the original director for Halloween III: Season of the Witch was ‘Joe Dante’.
• Dick Warlock, the stunt man who played Michael Myers in Halloween II (1981), is credited under ‘assassin’ in the credits.
• The film’s original director, ‘Joe Dante’, approached Nigel Kneale to write the film while Kneale was temporarily living in Hollywood writing the remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) for director John Landis that was never made due to budget cost. Dante wanted a new and different story than the two previous films in the series, so he suggested Kneale write a treatment around the word Halloween. The producers liked the idea, and after Joe Dante moved on to another project, producer John Carpenter’s regular collaborator, Tommy Lee Wallace, came in as the new director. Kneale initially blamed the drastic changes to his script on executive producer ‘Dino De Laurentiis’ not understanding his dialogue when it was translated to Italian. Kneale requested his writing screen credit be removed once his comical mystery screenplay was rewritten by an uncredited Carpenter, and then later Wallace (who received sole screen credit as writer), to include more gore and simplify the story.
• Garn Stephens refused to wear the prosthetic mask during the misfire scene. So a body double was used to complete the scene.

27 x 40 Movie Poster

 

 

The Hidden is a 1987 science fiction/horror film from New Line Cinema. The film was written by Jim Kouf and directed by Jack Sholder. The cast featured Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri and Claudia Christian.

Tagline:  A new breed of criminal.

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This film received a MPAA rating of R, and was filmed in color with mono sound. The DVD version was remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. At the time it was released it was an independent film and had been produced for less than US$5 million. A sequel, The Hidden II, directed by Seth Pinsker was released in 1994.

Trivia:

The transfer of the alien from DeVries into Jonathan Miller was accomplished by stop-motion photography. During the stops, stage hands would work at stuffing the creature model into the mock head. Actor William Boyett, upon seeing the alien going into “his” mouth, was so disgusted he refused to watch and actually left the room.

Claudia Christian

27x40 Movie Poster

Village of the Giants is a 1965 science-fiction/comedy movie with many elements of the beach party film genre. It was produced, directed and written by Bert I. Gordon, and based loosely on H.G. Wells’s book The Food of the Gods. The story revolves mostly around a chemical substance called “Goo”, which causes giant growth in living things, and what happens after a gang of rebellious youngsters get their hands on it. The cast was mostly teens, or young actors playing teens, and The Beau Brummels and Freddy Cannon make musical guest appearances. The movie was a low-budget exploitation film and not a huge hit (released mostly to drive-ins as part of a double bill), but had some notable use of special effects and undoubted sex appeal, and went on to become a cult classic. The movie proved far more successful years later, when released on home video.

Tagline:  They’re 30 feet tall!

Trivia:

• In one scene one of the giants reads an issue of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” with another Bert I. Gordon film, War of the Colossal Beast (1958), in the cover.
• Exteriors were shot on the Columbia Studios backlot (now part of the Warner Bros. Backlot), the same lot as the exteriors for the TV series “Bewitched” (1964) and “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965). Many scenes were shot on Courthouse Square at Universal Studios, which doubled as Hill Valley in Back to the Future (1985).

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• Loosely based on the H.G. Wells story “The Food of the Gods”, about a substance that causes giant mutations in growing organisms. Children fed the substance become giants (capable of producing giant offspring), who choose to fight when their existence is threatened by adult authorities.
• The brand of chicken that the giant teenagers eat is a tie-in to the once-famous restaurant chain called Chicken Delight. The chain was known for home delivery of chicken and ribs, as well as it’s catchy motto: “Don’t cook tonight, call Chicken Delight.” A banner for the restaurant chain can be seen on a wall behind the adults who turn in their rifles.
• The beer that the delinquent teens drink after crashing their car is the once popular Blatz Beer.
• The fountain that Freddy Cannon sings in front of is the same one seen in the opening of “Friends” (1994).
• An alternate version of the theme music – “The Last Race” – was reused by Quentin Tarantino in Death Proof (2007).
• The “Teen Magazine” that Merrie (Joy Harmon) reads was an actual issue of the magazine published in July 1965.
• Ron Howard plays a boy genius who invents a super growth formula. He later played the same kind of role in “Land of the Giants: Genius at Work (#1.21)” (1969)
• Filmed in “Perceptovision”.

Joy Harmon