34 Random Bits of Movie Trivia We Unearthed From A Massive Bin of DVDs in Our Mom’s Basement

Can you believe our mom was about to sell this entire batch for $1 at a garage sale?!?!
34 Random Bits of Movie Trivia We Unearthed From A Massive Bin of DVDs in Our Mom’s Basement

This dusty old Rubbermaid bin of movie facts brought back a lot of memories. Memories of having to spend almost $20 a pop for each one! Are we a little bitter that the small fortune we spent on movie facts that are now available on streaming could’ve gone toward a down payment on a house? Sure. Are we happy that we get to share them with you instead of losing them to a garage sale or library donation? Sure. 

It’s all a big mess of emotions, but your enjoyment of these random movie facts is sure to help.

The Abyss

THE SSAHW The Abyss wasn't filmed on the ocean's bottom, but in an unfinished nuclear reactor near Gaffney, South Carolina, filled with 7.5 million gallons of water. CRACKED.COM

Evil Dead 2

EVIL DEAD 2 The cabin is only a shell for exterior shots- the interior set was built in a high school gymnasium rented by the production. CRACKED.COM

Star Wars

CRACKED.COM STAR WARS You can stay at Luke Skywalker's home in Tatooine! The Lars Homestead is actually the Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata, Tunisia.

Clerks

CRACKED.COM CL RKS Quick STOP GROCERIES I ASSURE YOU WERE OPEN! DINN Clerks was shot in a grocery store where Kevin Smith was working at the time. The joke about the jammed locks was written in because they could only film at night.

Avalon 2001

VIRTUAL REALITY MOVIES AVALON 2001 THE SET DESIGN CONNECTS THE MOVIE TO 12 MONKEYS. The half steampunk, half cyberpunk VR chairs were inspired by La Jetée, a 1962 French cult film which was the base for Terry Gilliam's movie about a time- traveling Bruce Willis. CRACKED.COM

The Thirteenth Floor

VIRTUAL REALITY MOVIES THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR 1999 THE MOVIE ADAPTS AN EARLY FICTIONAL DEPICTION OF VIRTUAL REALITY. Despite coming out at a time that made it look like a cheap Matrix knockoff, the movie has genre cred, being a loose adaptation of Daniel F. Galouye's 1964 novel Simulacron-3 (which had been previously adapted as a 1973 German movie World on a Wire). CRACKED.COM

Dark City

VIRTUAL REALITY MOVIES DARK CITY 1998 THE MOVIE STARTED A TRADITION OF JENNIFER CONNELLY STANDING ON PIERS. The pier scene is the only one not shot in interior sets, and Connelly would go on to stand on even more piers in 2000's Requiem for a Dream and 2003's House of Sand and Fog. CRACKED.COM

Idiocracy

CRACKED.COM TSN E OF WT Idiocracy The movie was inspired by a trip to Disneyland. Inspiration was sparked when Mike Judge witnessed an obscenity-ridden argument between two parents waiting in line for the Alice in Wonderland ride.

The Prestige

CRACKED.COM The Prestige The screenplay took five years to write. Due to Insomnia (the movie, not the affliction), director/writer Christopher Nolan couldn't commit to writing The Prestige, so he shared writing duties with his brother Jonathan. The two would trade drafts back and forth between projects until it was finished.

Unbreakable

CRACKED.COM Unbreakable The movie had a bigger budget than the sequels. Usually sequels have larger budgets than the originals, but while Unbreakable had a $75 million budget, the budget for Split was $9 million, and $20 million for Glass. . COALITION EVIL!

Taken

Taken Liam Neeson took the role for a vacation. Neeson didn't expect the movie to blow up in popularity like it did, but liked the idea of getting to hang out in Paris while learning martial arts. It paid off more than he expected. CRACKED.COM

Training Day

KE POL ICE CE Training Day Enimem was approached for a lead role. The rapper turned down the part that eventually went to Ethan Hawke. Не ended up starring in 8 Mile the following year. CRACKED.COM

Rogue One

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story The movie was shot with old-school lenses. In order to give the movie a similar vibe to the original films from the 1970s and 1980s, director Gareth Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser used the lenses from the time for the movie. CRACKED.COM

Mugatu

Zoolander Mugatu was named after a Star Trek monster. Will Ferrell's fashion villain got his name from the mugato, a white-haired creature from an episode of the original series. CRACKED.COM

Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde Elle was named after the fashion magazine. Author Amanda Brown would spend her time reading Elle while in law school. When she came up with the story, her main character's name was obvious. CRACKED.COM

Bubba Ho-Tep

CRACKED.COM Bubba Но-Тер The film was shot in 30 days. In order to stay within the thin budget, filming the movie was economical and swift. It took around a full month to complete the Elvis vs. Mummy story.

Avalon 2001

VIRTUAL REALITY MOVIES CLASS A LEV S A LEVEL S CLASS AILE AVALON 2001 AL CLASS IT'S AN ARTSY ACTION FILM. The movie balances impressive action sequences with contemplative scenes set to opera music, and won a bunch of awards in Europe. The tone was ruined by a trash pseudo-sequel titled Assault Girls. CRACKED.COM

Coco

Coco The movie tugged the hearts of Chinese censors. While ghosts and other supernatural stuff aren't allowed in China, the country's film board was reportedly so moved by the story that they allowed the film to be shown without any cuts. GRACKED.COM

Save the Last Dance

Save the Last Dance Julia Stiles did most of the dancing herself. Stiles trained and did all of the hip-hop dances, along with most of the ballet. She did have a double do the en pointe ballet dancing, though. CRACKED.COM

The Conversation

Here's 2 Coke The Conversation Francis Ford Coppola wanted to do the movie before The Godfather. Coppola's company American Zoetrope was on financial thin ice, so he did The Godfather for the paycheck. It paid off and due to The Godfather's success, Paramount bankrolled of The Conversation. CRACKED.COM

Black Panther

CRACKED.COM Black Panther Wesley Snipes tried to get a Black Panther movie made in 1992. During the height of his popularity, Snipes helped write a script for a movie featuring him as the superhero, but couldn't get any studio's attention.

V For Vendetta

CRACKED.COM V for Vendetta The movie was almost made in the '90s. Hilary Henkin, writer of movies like Road House and Wag the Dog, wrote a script in the early '90s which the Los Angeles Times called Les Misérables meets A Clockwork Orange. It was never produced, though.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are the movie's godparents. Wilson loved Nia Vardalos' one-woman show, and through her, her husband Tom Hanks produced Vardalos' script into a movie. CRACKED.COM

The Babadook

The Babadook The movie terrified the director of The Exorcist. William Friedkin championed the Australian film, tweeting, It will scare the hell out of you as it did me. CRACKED.COM

Elf

The Elf fight between Buddy and the department store Santa was hard to film. C E C O L M E A N TA The art department worked hard to get the set dressing just right, and re-doing it was not an option - so they had to get it right on the first take. CRACKED.COM

My Best Friend’s Wedding

CRACKED.COM Nicole Richie is obsessed with My Best Friend's wedding. She dragged her sister-in-law Cameron Diaz to every Chicago location featured in the film.

Breaking Dawn

CRACKED.COM The wedding in Breaking Dawn kept being rained on. The weather was so bad that the flowers had to be replaced (sometimes hourly), and the whole thing took almost a month to make.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek wedding started small. This hit film started as a 20-minute, one-woman monologue. CRACKED.COM

The Princess Diaries

CRACKED.COM IS Princess Mia Thermopolis the first MCU character? She may very well be in the MCU, given the Stan Lee cameo in the second film.

Star Wars

You can sleep where Han and Leia had sex. Disney's Galactic Starcruiser (an interactive, $6k-a- night hotel) is canonically where Han and Leia spent their honeymoon. Ben Solo was noiselessly created in the engine room of this galactic cruiser. CRACKED.COM

A Bridge Too Far

The filming of 1971's A Bridge Too Far had a single million-dollar hour. They had an hour to shoot a scene with Robert Redford - if they didn't, they'd have to pay him a million dollars and try again in a week. Luckily for the budget, they made it. CRACKED.COM

Blackface

CRACKED.COM Blackface is still a thing in the movie stunt industry. It would be unthinkable today for a male actor to put on a wig to portray a woman, or for a white person to play a black person in blackface - but it happens among stunt performers. Both wigging and painting down have been fought for decades, but are still common.

Jaws

CRACKED.COM High-concept movie doesn't mean what you think it means. A movie isn't called high-concept because it's supposed to be deep or artsy (or because you have to be high to watch it). It just means that the premise is easily summarized, making for a concise, quick pitch. Jaws, for example, is shark terrorizes town.

Batman

Adam West tried for years to keep on playing Batman. West didn't quietly hang the batboots when his show ended in the '60s. Until the late '80s, he kept pitching increasingly deranged projects where he got to play the Caped Crusader. Не was bitterly disappointed when Michael Keaton was cast instead of him for the 1989 movie. CRACKED.COM

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