70 Facts About Your Favourite Movies That You May Not Know.

Everyone loves a good interesting fact or piece of trivia and the world of movies has loads of interesting snippets of info regarding some of the best loved films and characters. Read on for some of our favourites.

1. Stephen King sold the film rights for The Shawshank Redemption for just one dollar.

2. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart’s character never said the famous words “Play it again, Sam”.

3. 2006’s James Bond movie Casino Royale was the first bond film to be released in China, all the preceding films were banned by the censors.

4. Frank Sinatra, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Gere all turned down the role of John McClaine in Die Hard before it went to Bruce Willis.

5. Jodie Foster was seriously considered for the role for Princess Leia in Star Wars.

6. The studio wanted Matthew McConaughey to play Jack in 1997’s Titanic, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio

7. The original Titanic cost $7.5 million to build in 1910-12, which is around $150 million today, the 1997 movie cost $200 million.

8. Quentin Tarantino wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Samuel L. Jackson heard this, he flew to Los Angeles and auditioned again to secure the role. Calderon ended up with a small role as Paul.

9. Disney rejected the offer to make Back to the Future, as they considered the Mother/Son relationship a bit too risqué.

10. The Most used line in movies is “Let’s get out of here”.

11. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror series, with around $1 billion dollars from the box office globally.

12. The background music which plays at various times during scenes in The Dark Knight was produced by running a razor blade down a piano wire.

13. Dan Aykroyd’s original script for Ghostbusters was set in a future where Ghostbusters were everyday figures of society like paramedics and firemen. This was axed due to budget constraints and a rewrite ordered.

14. When the studio was putting together the 1989 Batman movie, Bill Murray was their first choice for the caped crusader. Once Tim Burton was brought onboard he wanted Michael Keaton.

15. During the famous lineup scene in The Usual Suspects, the actors laughing and sniggering was caused by Benicio Del Toro’s farting.

16. Back in 1982, E.T. stayed in the US box office top 10 for 10 months.

17. The cigarette that Sigourney Weaver’s character smokes in Avatar was completely done with CGI

18. For his scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to give himself a wasted look.

19. The original ending to First Blood was to have Rambo killed off, like the character in the novel on which the film is based. Stallone smelled sequel potential and so had him survive.

20. To make the Space Jockey look even bigger in 1979’s Alien, Ridley Scott filmed his children in miniature space suits walking around it.

21. Darth Vader is only onscreen for 12 minutes in Star Wars: A New Hope.

22. In Terminator 2, the scene towards the end where the T-1000 comes up behind Sarah Conner looking like Sarah Conner, was achieved using Linda Hamilton’s twin sister, Leslie.

23. In The Dark Knight, the scene where the Joker gate-crashes Bruce Wayne’s party for Harvey Dent, Michael Caine’s Alfred had lines, but it was the first time that Caine had seen Heath Ledger in full-Joker mode and completely forgot to say them.

24. Sean Connery wore a toupee during all of his performances as James Bond. In his Bond comeback “Never Say Never Again”, he wanted to ditch it, and play bond older, but the producers said no.

25. Roy Scheider improvised the famous line from Jaws; “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”.

26. Christopher Lee was a real-life British undercover intelligence agent during World War 2.

27. The Chewbacca Wookie suit for the original Star Wars movies was made from human hair.

28. The scene in Alien Resurrection where the Ripley clone makes the long-range basketball shot was done for real by Sigourney Weaver.

29. For Donnie Darko, Gary Jules’ cover of Mad World, which went on to reach the number one spot in the UK charts, was only used at the last minute when director Richard Kelly couldn’t secure the rights to U2’s MLK.

30. The Budget was so low on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, that when Natalie Portman dislocated a rib during production, they couldn’t even afford a medic. Portman gave up her trailer so one could be hired.

31. During filming on Jaws, George Lucas came to visit and for a laugh put his head inside the animatronic shark’s mouth, Spielberg quickly closed the jaws for a joke, but it backfired as George’s head got stuck.

32. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is actually a prequel to the previous Leone/Eastwood Dollars movies, with Eastwood’s Blondie gradually assembling his iconic ‘Man With No Name’ costume during the course of the film.

33. Although popular myth suggests that Marlon Brando padded his cheeks with cotton wool to play Vito Corleone in The Godfather, he did so only for the audition. Before the actual filming began, he had a mouthpiece specially created by a dentist.

34. All the actors that played the characters who formed the Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings films has a tattoo done which says ‘nine’ in Elvish, apart from John Rhys-Davis, who sent his stunt double.

35. In the 1976 classic Taxi Driver, De Niro’s iconic scene where he talks to himself in the mirror (you talkin’ to me?) was completely improvised, as the script just said: Bickle speaks to himself in the mirror.

36. The Breakfast Club was originally going to have a sequel every 10 years, following the lives of the main characters, but plans fell through due to director John Hughes and Judd Nelson hating each other.

37. James Cameron allegedly kept a nail gun with him at all times during filming on Avatar so he could nail cell phones to the wall which rang during shooting.

38. The word zombie was never actually used in Night of the Living Dead.

39. The coconut clopping was used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail out of necessity due to the production being unable to afford horses.

40. Whilst filming The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence accidentally kicked Josh Hutchinson in the head, knocking him out cold and resulting in a concussion.

41. David Cronenberg’s 2005 thriller A History of Violence was the last movie officially released on VHS.

42. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1999 End of Days was the last Laserdisc released.

44. Marlon Brando was infamously difficult during filming for Superman: The Movie, he refused to learn his lines, so they had to be written on baby Kal-El’s diaper.

45. The shock ending of Se7en was going to be changed by financiers New Line Cinema, but Brad Pitt threatened to quit if they did.

46. Steven Spielberg worked for free on Schindler’s List, claiming that any money he took would feel like “blood money”.

47. Alfred Hitchcock came under CIA surveillance for his use of uranium as a plot element in Notorious (1946).

48. In the film, Scarface, an M16 assault rifle with an M203 40mm grenade launcher attached to the barrel is Tony’s “little friend.”.

49. The iconic mask worn by Michael Myers in 1978’s Halloween was a William Shatner ‘Captain Kirk’ mask sprayed white.

50. Bill and Ted were originally going to travel through time in a van, but the filmmakers thought that it may look like there were ripping off Back to the Future, so changed it to a telephone box.

51. Mike Myers originally voiced Shrek in his native tones, but after watching the movie back, re-recorded his dialogue with a Scottish twang to it.

52. With one day left of filming on Jaws, Spielberg became convinced that the crew was going to throw him into the water as a prank, so he skipped the last day. It’s since become a tradition that he’s follows on every one of his movies.

53. Nemo actually appeared in Monsters, Inc. two years before Finding Nemo was released.

54. You can also see the shadow of Dug the dog from 2009’s Up in Pixar’s Ratatouille, which was released two years earlier.

55. The original raw footage of Apocalypse Now consisted of 1,250,000 feet of film which is over 230 hours’ worth.

56. Toy Company Hasbro denied Pixar the use of GI Joe for Toy Story when found that the GI Joe doll was going to be blown up by Sid.

57. Ed Helms’ missing tooth in The Hangover wasn’t computer generated, it’s real. An adult tooth never grew in so he wears a false one there.

58. In early drafts, the time machine in Back to the Future was supposed to be a refrigerator.

59. Will Smith was the first choice to play Neo in 1999’s The Matrix, but turned it down to make The Wild, Wild West.

60. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean due to thinking it would be a flop.

61. In Django Unchained, the scene where Leo DiCaprio’s characters cuts his hand by slamming the table was an accident, as he wasn’t meant to hit the wine glass, but Leo kept going, improvising the scene and so Tarantino kept it in the finished movie.

62. In the movie Toy Story, the carpet design found in the Hallway outside sid’s bedroom is the same seen in The Shining.

63. Don Corleone’s cat in The Godfather was a random stray that Marlon Brando has found near the set and was playing with between takes.

64. In 1979’s Alien, Ripley was originally intended to be a man, but was changed to a woman as audiences at the time wouldn’t have expected a female character to survive till the end.

65. Hitchcock’s Psycho used chocolate syrup for blood due to the film being shot in black and white.

66. All the clothes worn by The Dude in The Big Lebowski were from Jeff Bridges own wardrobe.

67. Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf (and a reported 15% of the overall gross box office) as he didn’t understand the script.

68. The Pizza Planet Truck is in every single Pixar film, except The Incredibles, though it can be found in The Incredibles video game.

69. To prepare for his role as Charles Xavier in X-men: First Class, James McAvoy shaved his head but afterwards found out that his character would have hair. He had to wear hair extensions for the first month of filming.

70. Manhattan is Woody Allen’s least favorite of the movies he has directed. He despised it so much that he offered to direct another film for United Artists, free of charge, if they kept his former project hidden away for good.