#reelmud

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'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.'

You ever have one of those days where you wish you could just rip your feet off at the ankles because they’re just a-howling? Sure, you’d be left with bloody stumps and that would probably suck, but maybe the pain would be less? Ok then. If removable feet are your thing, then you might have been a Hobbit in a previous fictional life. It would seem that the Hobbit feet the actors wore during filming could not be removed at the end of the day without damaging them. Hence, a special oven was running almost 24 hours a day ‘cooking’ Hobbit feet so the actors would have a new pair for every day of filming. A new pair of feet each day? Sounds like a little piece of Heaven. Even if they are bumpy, fat Hobbit feet. Did you know that Christopher Lee was the first person cast in the trilogy due in large part to his extensive knowledge of the books. He is also the only cast member to have met J.R.R Tolkien (the author) and was considered to be the resident expert of the material on the set.

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'Tell me about it, stud.'

Considered the last great musical, Grease, in its original theatrical run, made more than 100 million dollars in the U.S alone, grossing over 300 million worldwide. A grand success considering the film only cost a mere 6 million to make. Consider the movie that almost was. Instead of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John playing the lead roles, we could have had Marie Osmond as Sandy, and…..in a giant acting stretch, Mr. Henry Winkler aka ‘The Fonz’ as Danny Zuko. Worrying that he would inevitably be typecast as a street thug, Henry Winkler turned the role down. Remember that scene in the soda shop? Where Danny and Sandy argue at the juke box machine? Sandy could have saved her quarter had the Fonz been there. It’s a Hollywood tradition to hire older actors to play younger parts. If you watched any of the television shows about high school kids in the 90’s then you know that half of those actors were well in their 20’s and 30’s. For the cast of Grease, this was true as well. Travolta was 24, Newton-John was pushing it at 29 and the grandmother of them all, Stockard Channing was 34.

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'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn'

In 1939, the Hollywood Production Code (a list of things that could or couldn't be shown/said on screen), and the people that enforced it, had flagged Clark Gable's now infamous last line in Gone with the Wind as potentially volatile. Apparently, they thought damn was too street, too racy, perhaps too uncivilized. Some suggested alternatives were 'Frankly my dear, I just don't care'; 'Frankly my dear, my indifference is boundless', and then there's my personal favourite, 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a hoot'. It's to producer David O. Selznick's credit and will power that he stuck to his 'damn' guns and kept the original line. Of course, he also had to pay a 5000 fine, but I'm sure in the end, he didn't give a damn. Everyone knows that Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award. If you didn't know that, well, crack a book once in awhile Beavis. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy, and ended up taking home the award. To put that into some kind of perspective, as to its importance, Hattie was the first African American to be invited to the awards as a guest and not as a servant. A bittersweet victory for a woman who wasn't even allowed to attend the Georgian premiere of the film due to the state's segregation laws. As a matter of record, it would be another 51 years before another African American woman would win the award. (Whoopie Goldberg for 1990's Ghost)

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'Just be the ball'

Remember the scene when Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) drives a golf ball right into Carl Spackler's (Bill Murray) home? Apparently this scene did not exist in the final script and only made it to film because Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis (the director) realized that Murray and Chase did not have a scene together in the final draft. If you've seen the film (and if you haven't, what rock are you living under?) you will know that the scene is perhaps the funniest in the entire film. Oddly, this is the only scene put on film between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray.

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'There is no spoon'

Take a good look at the style A Matrix poster. Nifty isn't it? Now imagine that in place of Keanu Reeves, you would see a leather clad Ewan McGregor, and in place of Laurence Fishburne, you would see (gasp) Val Kilmer. That was the movie that almost was. Perhaps it's just me, but I can't imagine anyone else playing the doe-eyed computer hacker Neo with the same ingenuity as Mr. Ted 'Theodore' Logan himself, Keanu Reeves. Face it, Ladies and Gentlemen, no one can utter the word 'Woah' (with the possible exception of Joey 'Blossom' Lawrence) with as much mono-syllabic brilliance as Mr. Reeves. Decades after its release, The Matrix is still being discussed in hot button issue debates. Is the film too violent? Does it glamourize violence? Are we all just test tube babies drowning in goo while big metallic bees suck us dry? Should Keanu Reeves and Carrie Moss wear tight leather in every film they make? Yes. These are all very important topics for discussion, and I plead with all of you, to go home (if you are home, go to where there are actual people you can actually speak with) and talk about these things. I am especially concerned with the metallic bees. I was stung by a bee once, it was a very unpleasant experience. I'd hate to think I was merely brunch to one of them. Laurence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves and Carrie Moss all signed contracts to appear in all three films before shooting for the first one even began. Can you imagine the wheeling and dealing their agents and managers would have had to do had the first film been a complete bomb? As my favourite Keanu Reeves alter ego is wont to say with frequency, 'Bogus Dudes!'

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'You tell him I'm comin, and Hell's comin with me'

A prospector by the name of Edward Lawrence Schiefflin was lured in 1877 to the San Pedro Valley where he had heard that silver had been discovered. Braving the brutal attacks of the neighbouring Apache Indians, Schiefflin was a constant amazement to the US soldiers and other prospectors, as he seemed unaffected by the danger he placed himself in. One day a soldier confronted Schiefflin asking him why he persisted on travelling into the hills where he could easily meet his death. 'To find rocks', was his simple response. The soldier was mystified and told Schiefflin that the only rock he would end up finding out in the hills would be his own tombstone. When Ed finally found the silver score he had been searching for, he remembered this exchange and named his claim Toomstone. The story and the name seemed to stick to the town. How's that for a history lesson? I mean, did you think I was just going to go on and on about how the actors moustaches gave me nightmares? I can see how shaving daily was probably not a huge priority in the old west, but you can only see so many handlebar moustaches without wanting someone to twist the ends and laugh diabolically.

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Imagine little Harry Potter cowering in the corner of his Gryffindor dorm room, a terrified look on his face as he whispers eerily, “I see dead wizards”. There were a number of different directors who were interested in filming the famed children’s book and none more so than Steven Spielberg himself. However, a deal couldn’t be made because J.K Rowling (author) had insisted that the cast be almost entirely British, and Mr. Spielberg was very much hoping to cast Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, A.I) in the lead role. Ever wonder why the film has two titles? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone every where else? Well, here’s the why folks. The original title of the book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but when the publishing company released it in the U.S they decided that a few changes had to be made; so that American children wouldn’t be confused by British terms and slang. The title change was merely an added marketing decision as the powers that be felt that most American children wouldn’t want to read a book with the word Philosopher in the title. So they changed it to Sorcerer, hence making it more magically delicious.

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'Every man dies, not every man really lives'

William Wallace was a pretty snazzy dresser. For a man who liked to wear skirts and make up, he must have been really comfortable with his masculinity. (For the hundreds of Scots that I have just offended, I mean no ill will to you and your skirt wearing heritage. I myself have been known to, on occasion. wear a skirt. A black one. With white lace on the bottom. So there.) Here's a little known fact we can place in the file marked 'Ew'. The real Princess Isabella of France was twenty years younger than William Wallace. There is no record that the two were ever involved intimately. Well, I suppose you must take a few dramatic leaps, even in a film depicting true events. Did you know that in 1925 there was a silent Western also called Braveheart? And it was actually a remake of another silent Western from 1914 called Strongheart? To the best of my knowledge, and I cannot be 100% sure of this, having seen neither film, but there isn't a man wearing a skirt and wielding a sword in either film.