Those green symbols trailing down in The Matrix aren’t complicated algorithms. A production designer scanned symbols from his wife’s sushi cookbooks, then manipulated them to create the iconic “code.”
R2-D2 and C-3PO appear in Indiana Jones: Look closely at the scenery in Raiders of the Lost Ark and you’ll notice hieroglyphics with the robots’ likeness in two scenes.
JAWS: First of all, the line was “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” not “we’re,” as it’s often misquoted. The line wasn’t in the original script but was an inside joke among the Jaws crew, teasing the stingy producers for picking a support boat that was too small to hold the equipment. Actor Roy Scheider ad-libbed the line throughout filming, but the one kept in the final cut became one of the most remembered movie quotes of all time.
The scene in 'The Italian Job' where the chap in the cloth cap is trying to impress Charlie Croker(Michael Caine) by blowing open the doors of a van(but only succeeds in blowing the whole van up-leading to that classic line "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!") was done on a playing field in Sydenham, South London but the special effects people rigged it with a bit too much explosive, completely destroying the van and the noise could be heard for over a mile. Luckily the police weren't called or they could have been in trouble.
One possible ending of 'The Italian Job' would have been to fly a helicopter in to hook up the back and allow the bus to move forward to safety, but the company ran out of money for the budget. Another idea which could have been for a sequel was to allow the gold to fall out the back being picked up by the Mafia and then steal it back from them. One fan theory was to keep the gold in the bus, drain just enough petrol from the bus making it lighter allowing the bus to be pushed forward on the side by the gang.
It was reported that BMC who made the Mini Coopers used in the film were reluctant to give them to the studio to use and the head of Fiat was quite willing to give them Fiat 500's, as many as they needed, in return for changing the cars to Italian. It was decided that the film was so quintessentially British the Mini HAD to be used and the problem was resolved. Some of the shots done in the film were different to how the director imagined. One shot of the Minis flying over a roof should have been shot from above. Another problem the film had was with Michael Caine - at the time of the shooting of the film Caine had yet to learn to drive.
Here's a bit of trivia which took me ages to find out what the tune was called. If you've ever seen the film trailer for Pale Rider then you might wonder what on earth the music for it was and why it was used by Channel Four News as it's main theme tune. Well, the tune was composed by Alan Hawkshaw and it was only used for the trailer; I sat through the entire film right to the end and it didn't play at all. Alan has composed many tv themes and this one called 'Best Endeavours' was settled on as the theme tune to introduce the News on Channel Four television. You can find it on You Tube which is where I got it from.
TV: Computer World by Kraftwerk, the german techno-pop of the late 70's/early 80's was used as the signature tune for the 1980's BBC series 'The Computer Programme' which was presented by Chris Serle(who started off as one of Esther Rantzen's 'boys' in That's Life!) and featured clever clogs Ian 'Mac' Macnaught Davis who would explain to him all about computers including the BBC Micro and other machines. Incidentally the BBC Micro wasn't originally supposed to be sold, it was mainly created for the series but it was so popular with fans of the shows that it was eventually mass produced along with the other big seller, the ZX Spectrum created by Sir Clive Sinclair.
One of the other 'boys' from That's Life, Gavin Campbell was also an actor but his biggest film claim was playing a police inspector in the soft porn film 'The Playbirds' opposite real-life porn star but lousy actress. Mary Millington. The film mirrored something that would happen to her in later life. She was only cast because she was the girlfriend of porn mogul, David Sullivan(who is a director of West Ham United football club)
We all know movie tough guy James(Jimmy) Cagney as a rough, tough gangster type, the sort of man you'd want on your side in a fight, but in reality Cagney was quite a soft type and also a really good song and dance man. He did a fantastic song & dance routine in a film about movie mogul George M Cohan - the tune was 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'
but here it has him dancing on a long table with another legend Bob Hope in the film 'Seven Little Foys' to several tunes. It's a great sequence.
Bing Crosby film 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court' sees Bing as Hank a blacksmith bang his head and somehow wake up in Medieval England(or Hollywood's version of it) and he had a great song and dance routine with Sir Cedric Hardwicke and another movie tough guy, William Bendix.
You can find the song on YouTube but I tried to find the sequence itself but it's not available.
You know that scene in 9 1/2 Weeks with Mickey Rourke seducing Kim Basinger with various things on her body including an ice-cube. Well it is not possible to hold an ice cube in your fingers for longer than about 5 seconds before it begins to almost burn your skin. It is quite obvious that some cinematic trickery is being used, possibly some clear resin or something that looks like ice. Try it for yourself, try and hold a frozen ice-cube in your fingers for longer than 5 seconds and you'll see what I mean.
The Queens mansion seen in the first series of Arrow was the same mansion used in the tv show Smallville and was also the same mansion used in all the X-Men movies and Deadpool 1 and 2.
