Splash is a 1984 fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge. It was the very first film released by Disney’s Touchstone Films (now known as Touchstone Pictures).

Trivia:

• The first film released under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label, which was created so the studio could release more adult-oriented fare.
• Daryl Hannah a vegetarian, refused to eat real lobster for the restaurant scene. The crew scooped out the insides of real, cooked lobsters and filled them with a thick, tofu-like paste. In an interview for ‘Biography (1990)’, Director Ron Howard said Hannah cried after each take over the deaths of the lobsters for their shells.
• Before Tom Hanks accepted the role of Allen Bauer, it had already been turned down by John Travolta and Michael Keaton.
• At the time of filming, Daryl Hannah was extremely shy about her body. According to director Ron Howard, she wore both band-aids and makeup over her nipples to conceal them.
• David Morse was considered for the lead role.
• Credited with introducing the girl’s name Madison, which has since become one of the most popular names for newborn girls in the early 21st century.
• When Madison watches television at the department store, the little boy in the toothpaste commercial is Emmanuel Lewis.
• The fountain from the movie is now on display at Disney’s MGM Studios at Walt Disney World. The mermaid fin Daryl Hannah wore is behind the bar at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney.
• The mold used to make the mermaid fountain had also been used to make the ice sculpture in Herbie Goes Bananas (1980).
• The scene at the racquetball court, where John Candy serves and the ball hits him in the head, was done in one take.
• The map from the shipwreck that Madison uses to find Allen’s home is an old map of the Province of New York. It bears the name ‘His Excellency William Tryon Esq.’ Tyron was the colonial governor of the Province of New York from 1771 to 1780.
• The “Crazy Eddie” commercial that surprises Madison was for a real electronics store. Eddie and Sam M. Antar opened Crazy Eddie in Brooklyn, NY in 1971. Their spokesman was WPIX-FM disc jockey Jerry “Dr. Jerry” Carroll, whose frenetic nonstop sales pitch was based on used car salesman Earl “Madman” Muntz. The pitch always ended with “Crazy Eddie, his prices are IN-SA-A-A-A-A-A-ANE!” The chain grew to 43 stores in 4 states. It closed in 1989 after charges of fraud and security violations.
• Jodie Foster auditioned for the role of Madison, but turned it down in order to play a character in The Hotel New Hampshire (1984).
• Rosanna Arquette auditioned for the role of Madison, but had to back out.
• Brooke Shields reportedly turned down an offer to play Madison so she could study French Literature at Princeton.
• Before Daryl Hannah accepted the role of Madison, it had already been turned down by Tatum O’Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Melanie Griffith,, Diane Lane, Kathleen Turner and Sharon Stone.
• Debra Winger reportedly wanted the role of Madison, but Ron Howard turned her down.
• While Allen is offering girls names to the mermaid before she settled on Madison, the last two he suggests are Elizabeth and Samantha. Elizabeth Hanks is Tom Hanks’s daughter and Samantha Lewes was his then-wife.
• According to Biography Channel, Bill Murray and P.J. Soles were considered for the roles of Allen and Madison, but Murray turned it down.

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