33 Random Movie Facts You Can Use To Sound Smart On Facebook/Twitter Tonight
Repost from last year with a few more fun facts, even though you should be tuning into True Detective live like a True American instead of watching millionaires kiss each other’s asses.
33 random facts about movies and actors to help you one up that jackass tonight who thinks they know everything about movies. I am that jackass.
THE FACTS:
1. The roles of Peter Veinkman, Louis Tully and Winson Zeddemore in Ghostbusters were originally written with the intent to be played by John Belushi, John Candy and Eddie Murphy.
2. The Shawshank Redemption was released in Taiwan as “1995: Fantastic” because apparently nothing in Taiwan makes any fucking sense.
3. Overrated basketball player Elton Brand produced the underrated Christain Bale war movie, Rescue Dawn.
4. The cop from Die Hard (and also the police dad in Family Matters) is gay in real life and has quite possibly the greatest name in the world: Reginald VelJohnson.
5. The Dude’s wardrobde in The Big Lebowski were Jeff Bridges’ own clothes.
6. Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandolf in LOTR even after being offered 15% of the films’ overall grossing because he “didn’t understand the script.” Connery lost out on a cool $450 million. Famous titties, indeed.
7. Woody Harrelson’s dad was a hitman for the mob and a convicted murderer. He was suspected for a time of killing JFK.
8. A Clockwork Orange and Midnight Cowboy are the only movies with a X-rating to be nominated for Best Picture, with MC taking home the heat.
9. Kiefer Sutherland has a twin sister. Woof.
10. Heath Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for a month to prepare for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight and literally became somewhat batshit from it.
11. Jim Carrey’s chipped tooth in Dumb & Dumber is real.
12. Halle Berry got a $500,000 bonus for showing her tits in Swordfish. See dem titties here.
13. Frank Oz, the dude who does the voice of Yoda, is also the voice of Miss Piggy.
14. Tom Selleck was offered the role of Indiana Jones but had to pass because his chest hair was too dominant for Magnum PI.
15. Keanu Reeves was originally supposed to play Woody Harrelson’s role in White Men Can’t Jump but was deemed too much of a spaz on the court to be a realistic player.
16. Dolph Lundgran, Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, holds a Master’s degree in chemical engineering and left a full ride at MIT to pursue acting. He still must break you.
17. Richard Dreyfuss originally turned down the role of Hooper but when his next movie came out he thought he sucked so bad that nobody would ever hire him again so asked for his part back.
18. All of Bill Murray’s lines in Caddyshack were improvised. Still proves the only good varmint puntang is dead varmint puntang. I think.
19. Mark Wahlberg was a drug dealer at age 16 approached a middle-aged Vietnamese man on the street and, using a large wooden stick, knocked him unconscious (while calling him “Vietnam fucking shit”) and left him blind in one-eye.
20. Most of the cast and crew got dysentery while shooting Raiders of the Lost Ark in a 4th world country and Harrison Ford literally shit himself while rehearsing for a fight that would’ve taken 3 days to shoot. Ford asked Speilberg if he could just shoot the guy instead. Done and done.
21. During filming of The Shining, Stanley Kubrick would reportedly call Stephen King at 3am to ask him random questions like “Do you believe in God?”.
22. James Woods fired his agent upon learning that Quentin Tarantino wanted him for a part in Reservoir Dogs in what would’ve been the most entertaining firing ever.
23. Bill Murray, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, and Pierce Brosnan were all up for the 1989 role as Batman before Michael Keaton wanted to get nuts.
24. Christian Bale based elements of his performance as Patrick Bateman on Tom Cruise after seeing him in an interview. Makes sense.
25. Vince Vaughn only did the movie Swingers as a favor to his friend Jon Favreau after they became butt buddies on the set of Rudy.
26. According to the real Henry Hill, Joe Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas was 90% to 99% accurate.
27. Daniel Day-Lewis lived in a cabin in the woods by himself living off the land for months while preparing for his role in The The Last of the Mohicans. He even carried a long rifle at all times during filming in order to remain in character and learned how to skin animals. Boss.
28. After Rocky, Sylvestor Stallone was proclaimed by critics as the next Marlon Brando. He then proceeded to make movies like Rhinestone.
29. Se7en needs get more credit in great movie conversations. That movie is a couple hot tits away from being perfect. Yes that is a fact.
30. Adrian Brody learned to play the piano literally gave up everything in his life – phone, car, house and long time girlfriend to feel the sadness needed for his role in The Pianist. He kept his nose for some reason.
31. In Boogie Nights, William H. Macy says “My wife is down there with an ass in her dick” they left that line in the movie instead of re-shooting it.
32. James Cameron and the studio originally wanted OJ Simpson to play the terminator but ultimately decided against it because they believed nobody would believe he was a killer. BOOM! Roasted, world.
33. Nic Cage almost played Superman in a ’90’s reboot of the franchise and it would have been magical. Yes, this photo is apparently real.
BONUS: Samuel L. Jackson literally badassed his way into his role in Pulp Fiction after being confused with Lawerance Fishburne:
“I sort of was angry, pissed, tired,” Jackson recalls. He was also hungry, so he bought a takeout burger on his way to the studio, only to find nobody there to greet him. “When they came back, a line producer or somebody who was with them said, ‘I love your work, Mr. Fishburne,’” says Jackson. “It was like a slow burn. He doesn’t know who I am? I was kind of like, Fuck it. At that point I really didn’t care.” Gladstein remembers Jackson’s audition: “In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. Me and Quentin and Lawrence were sitting on the couch, and he walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was scared shitless. I thought that this guy was going to shoot a gun right through my head. His eyes were popping out of his head. And he just stole the part.” Lawrence Bender adds, “He was the guy you see in the movie. He said, ‘Do you think you’re going to give this part to somebody else? I’m going to blow you motherfuckers away.’”