Dan Wilbur
“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.” -Robert Bresson, a filmmaker who definitely added a lot of detail to his movies.
My favorite is Pickpocket (1959). If you met me when that was “my favorite movie,” I apologize. Now, back to movies you’ve heard of…
16. In Monsters Inc (2001), Boo tries to give sully a Nemo Doll. Finding Nemo wouldn’t come out until 2003.
17. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983): Darth Vader’s skeleton is briefly visible from several different angles when struck by the Emperor’s lightning. Many artificial components are visible, including his mechanical right arm, a respirator, and at least 3 replacement vertebrae.
18. In BeDazzled(2001), the devil disguises herself as a teacher and gives the students a math equation to solve. This equation is actually a famously unsolvable one(for integers), known as “Fermat’s last theorem”
19. ‘Aladdin’ (1992) directors Ron Clements and John Musker put themselves in the film.
20. In the flower shop scene in ‘The Room’ (2003), Tommy Wiseau didn’t immediately notice the dog on the counter. Greg Sistero says in his book ‘The Disaster Artist’, Wiseau improvised the “Hi doggy” line, & later asked the flower shop owner, who was playing herself, if the dog was real.
Another fun fact about The Room: Wiseau adapted the script from his own play, and before deciding to make a film version, actually took the time to write the story as a novel. It’s 500 pages, and he still hopes to publish it someday. Inspiring.
21. In ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’ (2004) Bill drives a De Tomaso Mangusta. Mangusta is Italian for Mongoose, an animal renowned for its ability to kill snakes. Meanwhile, Bill is the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, codenamed ‘Snake Charmer’
22. In “13 Going on 30” (2004), Jenna’s apartment is furnished to look identical to the “30, Flirty & Thriving” article she read when she was 13.
23. In Elf (2003) the Gimbel’s manager has a “Wanda” name tag. The filmmakers hired Wanda Sykes for the role but she dropped out at the last minute. When Faizon Love came on for his scenes he chose to wear Wanda’s nametag.
24. Director Adam McKay suffered a mild heart attack during post-production of Vice(2018). He decided to include real black-and-white footage of the procedure to insert the stent in his heart, considering this to be his cameo.
25. Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (1987) – After John Candy sells shower curtain rings to scrounge up money they cut to a restaurant where a woman in the background is wearing some as earrings.
26. Comedian Chris Gethard plays an insanely weird guy at a nightclub who can’t take a hint in ‘The Heat’ (2013). At the end of the movie, he’s credited as “himself.”
That’s my personal favorite fun movie fact.
