Pop-up Cinema: Film Trivia
2 July 2019 / film /
To celebrate the magical Everyman open-air cinema coming to The Grove this August, we present fifteen fascinating movie facts…
1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg shot much of this movie using cameras placed at the eye-level of a child, as a way of building the connection between Elliott and E.T. – and, of course, with young viewers everywhere.
2. Isle of Dogs
Hair of the dog? Turns out the fur of the dogs in Wes Anderson’s much-loved movie was in fact alpaca wool.
3. Mrs Doubtfire
During the restaurant scene, when Mrs. Doubtfire’s teeth fall into a wine glass, the other cast-members were not told in advance what Robin Williams would do, and their reactions in the film are genuine, mirroring the shock of the crew.
4. Beauty and the Beast
Belle’s gown for the ballroom scene needed 3,000 feet of thread, 2,160 Swarovski crystals, and more than 12,000 man-hours to complete.
5. La La Land
John Legend, singer and pianist, had to learn to play the guitar for his role.
6. Pride and Prejudice
Matthew Macfadyen (who played Mr Darcy in the 2005 movie of the Jane Austen novel) has very poor eyesight. So in the famous misty morning shot, the director, Joe Wright, had to walk behind the camera waving a red flag so that Macfadyen would know where to walk.
7. Dirty Dancing
When Johnny (Patrick Swayze) and Baby (Jennifer Grey) are practising dancing and she repeatedly laughs when he runs his hand down her arm, Grey was laughing for real – it was not in the script – and Swayze’s frustration was genuine. But the director left it in the movie because it was so memorable. Likewise, the moment in the scene when she falls over was completely unplanned too.
8. Matilda
The scene where Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat chocolate cake took so long to film that the call sheet had an Infinity symbol written on the start and end times.
9. Back to the Future
The script for this much-loved movie was rejected 44 times before it was finally green-lit.
10. The Greatest Showman
Sadly in January 2017, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that its doors were closing forever, due to decreased attendance. Its last shows were in May 2017.
11. Mean Girls
Lindsay Lohan was initially cast as Regina George but ended up playing the ‘nice girl’ (Cady Heron) instead, fearing the public would base their impression of her real personality on Regina’s.
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Some 40 squirrels were trained for the scene where they pounce upon Veruca Salt (Julia Winter).
13. Bohemian Rhapsody
For his role as Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek was fitted with special prosthetic teeth to recreate Freddie’s prominent overbite. After filming wrapped, Rami kept the teeth as a memento from the shoot, eventually having them cast in gold.
14. The Blair Witch Project
This film has one of the best ‘budget to box office’ ratios of all time for a mainstream feature film. It cost $60,000 to make and generated $248 million, a ratio of $1 spent for every $10,931 made.
15. Forrest Gump
When Forrest (played by Tom Hanks) first learns to play ping-pong in the infirmary, he is told by another soldier that the secret is to ‘keep your eye on the ball’. After that moment, whenever he is shown playing ping-pong, he never blinks.
Click here to find out more about our Secret Garden outdoor cinema.
(With thanks to IMDb)
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