Screenplay Games: Movie Newsletter Vol. 19

This is volume 19 of what we hope will be interesting bits of motion picture trivia, legend and other useless stuff brought to you by Movie Time! the board game of memorable movie quotes. This information is compiled from numerous sources and is offered to customers and supporters of Movie Time! to make their game playing more enjoyable.

If you like receiving this information, please forward it to your e-mail friends . If you prefer not to receive these offerings, just send a reply message and ask to be taken off the list.

Since we have been sending these tidbits, we have added many names to the mailing list. Therefore, we have decided to recycle some of the earlier bits of movie trivia along with the new stuff so this includes several older items with the new stuff.

Movie Trivia Time

The Marine Corps Silent Drill Team performing during the opening sequences of "A Few Good Men" was actually the Texas A&M University Fish Drill Team, one of the best military drill teams in the country.

There is a scene in "A Few Good Men" where Tom Cruise impersonates Jack Nicholson saying, "Every morning, I eat breakfast three hundred yards from four thousand Cubans who are trained to kill me." This was unscripted. After several takes of that scene, Cruise ad libbed the impersonation and it stayed in along with Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack's completely natural reaction to the character's funny moment.

It was widely reported that in a panoramic scene of the final battle of John Wayne's "The Alamo" (1960) that a yellow school bus could be seen in the background. Sources say this may have been seen in the director's cut but was not in the final released version. Some say there never was a bus, just another Hollywood legend.

Trivia & Quotes

It has been widely reported that Keith Richards was the inspiration for Johnny Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow of "Pirates of the Caribbean ". Did you know that Richards was also the inspiration for another movie character? Actually, he was part of the inspiration for the Austin Powers archenemy Dr. Evil. The pinky biting pose of Dr. Evil was inspired by a 1979 photo of Keith Richards. The rest of the character was a spoof of James Bond's nemesis Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) in "You Only Live Twice".

When we see a movie in the theater, we of course, get the finished product. This is the result of years of planning, filming, editing and testing . Sometimes the films are changed dramatically after reviews from test audiences. Here are a few changed endings:    "Fatal Attraction" originally had Dan (Michael Douglas) charged with the murder of Alex (Glenn Close) as her voice -over intoned Alex's suicidal confession. Audiences hated it because they thought Alex deserved justice so the cast and crew were called together months later to film the more dramatic ending where Beth (Anne Archer) kills Alex in the bathtub.

The original ending of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" had Newman and Redford 's title characters killed in a gruesome shootout with Bolivian soldiers. Director George Roy Hill decided instead to immortalize the characters with the famous freeze frame as they made their final charge.

Like Butch and Sundance, "Thelma and Louise" ends with a freeze frame of the stars headed for sure and sudden death at the bottom of a canyon. The original ending showed the car falling all the way to the canyon floor and smashing the ladies into little fugitive bits. Fearing a negative reaction to killing off the two likable characters, director Ridley Scott left them hanging in mid-air. The DVD includes the original ending.

More "Fatal Attraction" trivia. Barbara Hershey, Miranda Richardson and Debra Winger all turned down the role of Alex Forrest before Glenn Close accepted. Ms. Close still has the butcher knife from the film hanging in her kitchen. Anyone need a date?

More Butch and Sundance trivia. Paul Newman did almost all of the bicycle riding in the "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" scene because the stuntman kept falling off the bike. The only part that he did not do was crashing through the fence while riding backwards. Even that was not done by a stuntman. It was cinematographer Conrad Hall. And we all remember the famous jump off the cliff into the river ("Hell, the fall will probably kill you.") Newman and Redford actually did jump off the cliff at Hellgate Canyon on the Rouge River west of Merlin, Oregon but they landed on mattresses on a ledge six feet below. Finally, the stuntmen got to do their job and plunge the rest of the way to the water.

Movie Lines

    In what movie will you hear Zelda Rubinstein say, "This house is clean."?

    In what movie will you hear Daryl Hannah say, I'm just changing."?

    In what movie will you hear Myrna Loy say, " I read you were shot five times in the tabloids." and William Powell replies, "It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."?

    In what movie will you hear Helena Humann ask, "Didn't you used to be Mac Sledge?" and Robert Duvall responds, "Yeah, I guess I was him."?

To get the answers, go to www.screenplaygames.com Have fun.