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.

We’ve gathered a list of the top five uses of pumpkin/jack-o-lantern in a movie or title.  Here are GoreMaster’s favorites for your Halloween season viewing and enjoyment! 

5.  It’s the Great Pumpkin,  Charlie Brown (1966)

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is an animated television special, based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-C2L7qR-BE]

It was the third Peanuts special (and first Halloween special) to be produced and animated by Bill Meléndez. Its initial broadcast took place on October 27, 1966, on the CBS network, preempting My Three Sons; CBS re-aired the special annually through 2000, with ABC picking up the rights beginning in 2001. The program was nominated for an Emmy award. It has been issued on home video several times, including a Remastered Deluxe Edition of the special released by Warner Home Video on September 2, 2008, with the bonus feature It’s Magic, Charlie Brown which was released in 1981.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, a retrospective book was published in 2006 entitled, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic with the entire script, never-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and interviews with the original child actors who provided the voices of the Peanuts gang.

4.  Pumpkinhead (1988)

Pumpkinhead is a 1988 supernatural horror film, combining elements of

fable, fairy tale, and morality. It was the directorial debut of noted special-effects artist Stan Winston. The film has become quite popular with horror fans for Winston’s atmospheric direction and memorable monster, and has built up a cult following in the years since its release, and is thought to be a classic of the genre.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXlcm1el1D0]

3. The Legend of Sleepy Hallow (1958)

The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, based on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (narrated by Bing Crosby). The gangly and lanky Ichabod Crane is the new schoolmaster in Sleepy Hollow. His somewhat odd behavior makes him the ridicule of the rambunctious and robust town bully Brom Bones. Despite his odd appearance, Ichabod quickly proves to be a ladies’ man charming all the eligible local ladies. Finally, however, Ichabod discovers the local town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel.  Brom decides to take advantage of Ichabod’s strong belief in superstitions. 

Brom musically tells the tale of the Headless Horseman to frighten the teacher. That Halloween night, Crane’s lonely ride home becomes exceedingly frightening because of his exposure to the possibility of encountering the ghost.

 

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHV_4DKHE0E]

 

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion

 fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from “Halloween Town” who opens a portal to “Christmas Town”. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glen Shadix.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrB9I3DM80]

The genesis of The Nightmare Before Christmas started with a poem by Tim Burton as a Disney animator in the early-1980s. With the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short subject or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton’s thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Walt Disney Pictures decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought Nightmare would be “too dark and scary for kids”. The Nightmare Before Christmas has been viewed with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2006.

1. John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978)

 

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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