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June 30, 2024

Pop quiz: which improv-heavy Steve Carell vehicle shot over one million feet of film?

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38

THE AVENGERS ROBERT DOWNEY JR. HID SNACKS THROUGHOUT THE SET. Since he was in most of the scenes, RDJ didn't have time to grab a snack. To keep himself energized, he hid food everywhere and just had his character nibble around as he performed. CRACKED.COM — Source

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CRACKED.COM THE WRESTLER THE MOVIE WAS WRITTEN BY A FORMER ONION STAFF WRITER. Robert Siegel wrote for the satire newspaper while trying to break into screenwriting. Не has since written films like The Founder, as well as for the Pam & Tommy streaming series. — Source

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WHIPLASH THE MOVIE WAS SHOT IN 19 DAYS. It took less than three weeks to shoot the Oscar winning film. It also cost less than $3.3 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

CRACKED.COM THE SUICIDE SQUAD SUPERMAN WAS GOING TO BE THE VILLAIN. James Gunn's plans were to have the Squad go toe- to-toe with the Man of Steel. Then he changed his mind, not wanting to make the movie's connection to the rest of the DCEU even more complicated. — Source

34

METEOR MAN THIS WAS THE FIRST AFRICAN- AMERICAN SUPERHERO IN MOVIES. Creator, director, and star Robert Townsend wanted to hit every demographic imaginable with the cast, which includes James Earl Jones, Sinbad, and Don Cheadle among others. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON THIS WAS ZHANG ZIYI'S SECOND FILM. The 19-year-old didn't even have her first film appearance released before she was signed on for the Ang Lee classic. Lee chose her due to Zhang's innate cinematic charisma. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN OVER A MILLION FEET OF FILM WAS SHOT FOR THE MOVIE. Director Judd Apatow likes to record hours of improvisation, which can use up a lot of film. According to Paul Rudd, cast and crew were trated to champagne once they hit the million mark. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

CRACKED.COM NOBODY BOB ODENKIRK TRAINED FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS. In order to be convincing as a former government assassin, Odenkirk spent one and a half years at 87Eleven, an action-shooting and fight training facility. Не also went to Taran Tactical to learn how to shoot firearms. — Source

30

THE SHAPE OF WATER THE MOVIE PREMIERED IN THE VERY THEATER WHERE IT WAS SHOT. One of the main settings in the movie is a movie house, which in real life was the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, Canada. The theater hosted the Toronto Film Festival, where the movie made its debut. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Tom Hanks

87927 THE SHAWSHAWNK REDEMPTION том HANKS TURNED DOWN THE LEAD ROLE. While Hanks liked the script, he was committed to Forrest Gump. The role of Andy Dufresne went to Tim Robbins instead. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

AMERICAN PSYCHO LEONARDO DICAPRIO WAS OFFERED THE LEAD ROLE. The studio offered the part of Patrick Bateman to DiCaprio. Director Mary Herron, however, thought he was wrong for the part, and fought for Christian Bale. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

THE MARTIAN THEY ACTUALLY GREW POTATOES ON SET. In order to show the potatoes in different stages of growth, production grew the spuds themselves on the sound stage next to the one they were using. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

FESTIVAL M ПЫБ SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE LILY TOMLIN WAS THE 4TH OSCAR NOMINEE TO PLAY AUNT MAY. Rosemary Harris was nominated for her supporting role in Tom & Viv. Sally Field was nominated for Lincoln, and won for Norma Rae and Places in the Heart. Marisa Tomei won for My Cousin Vinny, and was nominated for In the Bedroom and The Wrestler. Tomlin was nominated for Nashville. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

BEWARE CRIME the CRIMSON BOLT HOOD SUPER THE MOVIE EXISTS PARTLY THANKS TO JENNA FISCHER. James Gunn kept postponing the project until Fischer, his ex-wife, encouraged him to make it and suggested her Office castmate Rainn Wilson for the lead role. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

CRACKED.COM DRAG ME TO HELL THE MOVIE WAS WRITTEN IN THE '90S AS THE CURSE. While the movie came out in 2009, Sam and Ivan Raimi wrote the script over 10 years earlier. Then Spider-Man took priority, and they couldn't give the project much attention for a long time. — Source

23

BIRDMAN THE SCORE WAS IMPROVISED. In order to keep the movie's fast and loose tone, composer Antonio Sánchez just played the jazz drums and experimented with different tempos for various scenes and scene transitions. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PARTI RICHARD PRYOR WAS SUPPOSED TO PLAY JOSEPHUS. Pryor was friends with Mel Brooks, but was unable to do the role due to being hospitalized after an accident while freebasing cocaine. The role went to Gregory Hines instead. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

GREMLINS CHRIS COLUMBUS DIDN'T EXPECT TO SELL THE SCRIPT. Columbus only wrote the screenplay as a sample of his skills for prospective employers. Then Steven Spielberg bought it, saying, It's one of the most original things I've come across in many years. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND While two of the aliens are animatronic, most are actually little girls from Alabama (as Spielberg thought that girls moved more gracefully than boys). According to actor Bob Balaban, Spielberg would shout out, Girls, stop disco dancing! CRACKED.COM — Source

19

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS THE IN THE THING The iconic title card is a direct copy of the one in 1951 original. It was shot by attaching the title to a fish tank full of smoke, and then attaching a black trash bag to that t - which was set on fire. THE ING FROM ANOTHER WORLdRACKED.COM — Source

18

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS STAND BY ME According to Kiefer Sutherland, production had to be shut down for two days after Jerry O'Connell snuck into a hippy fair and unknowingly bought some funny cookies. They found him lost and crying in a park. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS STAND BY ME Director Rob Reiner kept making the young actors cry for real. For a scene, he told River Phoenix to think of a time an adult let him down, and Phoenix became unconsolable. On another occasion, he exasperatedly yelled at all of them. Cue the waterworks. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS HE THE Stanley STATING Kubrick and legendary Hollywood graphic designer Saul Bass went through 300 ideas for the movie's poster. Apparently, Bass wasn't fond of the final poster's color, and proposed to make it red instead of yellow too dud for mools emphasis as mare CRACKED.COM — Source

15

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS POLTERGEIST Is Poltergeist an unofficial Steven Spielberg movie? There are persistent rumors that he didn't just co-wrote and produce, but was also the real director, with Tobe Hooper only setting up shots. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS POLTERGEIST JoBeth Williams did the mud scene like a pro - only to later find out those were actual human skeletons, not props. The FX artists got medical skeletons and dressed them up to look gross. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS THE GOONIES Sloth wears a Superman shirt as a reference to Superman, also directed by Richard Donner. And his Oakland Raiders shirt is a shout out to Sloth's own actor, John Matuszak, an actual NFL defensive lineman who played for the Raiders. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS THE GOONIES The child actors didn't see the pirate ship before shooting, as Richard Donner wanted to catch their genuine reaction. Too bad that their genuine reaction was to say stuff in the vein of, Holy s#!t so the scene had to be reshot. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Ghostbusters

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS GHOSTBUSTERS The juvenile joke (and kickass climax) about crossing the streams wasn't in the script. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd came up with the method to defeat Gozer at the last minute, and then changed earlier scenes to foreshadow it. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS THE GOONIES Richard Donner's flick was influenced by Errol Flynn's movies. The pirate ship was modeled after the one in 1940's The Seahawk, and the music makes heavy use of Max Steiner's score for 1948's Adventures of Don Juan. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS E.T. THE EXTRA- TERRESTRIAL Steven Spielberg considered titles like Upon A Star and The Landing. Melissa Mathison's original script was titled E.T. and Me, which is suspiciously similar of the awful E.T. knockoff Mac and Me. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS GREATEST HITS A NIGHTMARE ONELM STREET Did you know that Freddy Krueger has a greatest hits album? Is this a bigger insult to the character than that Fat Boys song? If you found this 1987 nightmare for just $1, would you buy it ironically? Because we totally would. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS GHOSTBUSTERS Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Christopher Walken were all considered to play Egon Spengler, while John Belushi, Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Chevy Chase were up for Venkman. Yes, we'd totally watch the hell out of all those versions. SPENGLER VENKI CRACKED.COM — Source

6

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS IT The miniseries was going to be directed by George Romero, who had prepared thousands of pages' worth of scripts and notes. In the end, he didn't do it due to scheduling conflicts and the heavily shortened runtime. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS FIRESTARTER This was going to be a John Carpenter movie, but Universal went with Mark L. Lester instead after The Thing's commercial failure. Now, no disrespect to Lester (he has done classics like Commando), but he's no John Carpenter. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS CARRIE Piper Laurie, who played Carrie's abusive mother, thought the movie was supposed to be a dark comedy. Director Brian De Palma had to explain to her that it was a straight horror film, not intended to cause any laughs. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS THE AMITYVILLE HORROR To get publicity for the film, the actors were told to lie to the press about spooky stuff happening on set. It was all bulls#!t, Margot Kidder said in 2005. Nothing happened, but it was funny. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS D.A.R.Y.L. The greatest accomplishment of this forgotten 1985 movie about a robot child is being acknowledged by the Duffer brothers as maybe a possible subconscious influence on Stranger Things. Leonard Maltin called it, one of the blandest movies I've seen. CRACKED.COM — Source

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STRANGER THINGS INSPIRATIONS Е.Т. THE EXTRA- TERRESTRIAL The movie was shot chronologically, with the puppeteers hidden from the cast, so the children actually developed a caring relationship with the alien. By the final scene, the kids were really saying goodbye to a beloved friend CRACKED.COM — Source

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