# Complete BS movie trivia
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 14, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875 "2003-12-14T02:19:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/1 "2003-12-14T02:19:49Z")
Peter Jackson’s first choice to play Aragorn wasn’t Viggo Mortensen. He originally signed Bob Saget to the role, but replaced him after seeing the dailys.
The end credits to “Schindler’s List” originally had bloopers from the film.
The horse’s head in “The Godfather” was actually a zebra head painted brown.
The B&W footage from “The Wizard Of Oz” was filmed in color, then hand-painted by cheap illegal alien labor to black and white tones.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/2 "2003-12-14T02:27:49Z")
_The Day the Earth Stood Still_ originally ended with a long epilogue in which the Earth did, in fact, actually stand still, but this was cut after preview audiences found it depressing.
_Scanners_ is based in part on a long-lost but recently discovered play by Christopher Marlowe.
_Quest for Fire_ was conceived as a musical, but the actors had trouble learning to grunt in harmony so the script was reworked.
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### Author:  [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/3 "2003-12-14T02:39:34Z")
The hobbits in LOTR were given skateboards to sit on as they filmed, to save the stress on their knees.
Contrary to popular belief, no actual computerization was used in the LOTR trilogy. Gollum is a Muppet.
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### Author:  [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/4 "2003-12-14T02:42:54Z")
_It’s a Wonderful Life_ originally contained a 7 minute simulated oral sex scene between George and Mary but was cut when studio execs found it “too erotic for a holiday picture.”
A tap dance sequence was cut from _Throne of Blood_.
_Rope_ was initially envisioned by Hitchcock to be performed by little pieces of rope fashioned into puppets, but the idea was deemed “a logistical nightmare” and scrapped.
Spielberg used live ammo during the D-Day sequence in _Saving Private Ryan_, resulting in thousands of deaths.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/5 "2003-12-14T02:47:20Z")
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is, in fact, a documentary.
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/6 "2003-12-14T02:48:25Z")
Spielberg’s original title for _Schindler’s List_ was _Close Encounters of the Third Reich._
It’s well-known that the mechanical shark used in _Jaws_ was named Bruce. Less well known: its last name was Smith.
The Chief uprooted an actual sink in _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,_ and the hospital where the scene was filmed sued the production for the water damage.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/7 "2003-12-14T02:49:12Z")
_Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope_ was originally titled _Trading Places_ because of the Good and the Bad sides essentially changing places, but it was felt that this title wasn’t Sci-Fi enough.
_It’s A Wonderful Life_ was originally produced in Romania using stop action animation of tin cans and artillary shells painted up to look like people. Adolf Hitler had the producers shot and the writers escaped to America where history was made one frame at a time with stop action animation of Jimmy Stewart who had already died.
_Gone With The Wind_ was originally planned as a serial, but Clark Gable wasn’t able to commit to the four years of planned shooting.
_Gremlins_ is based on a true story.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/8 "2003-12-14T02:49:46Z")
Yoda is neither a muppet or a CGI effect, but is actually the first extraterrestrial with a Hollywood agent.
The deaths in _Saving Private Ryan_ were deliberate and part of Spielberg’s plan to keep the movie under budget.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/9 "2003-12-14T03:24:37Z")
The corpses from _Poltergeist_ weren’t recycled from _Raiders Of The Lost Ark_ as many think; they were actual corpses from an old indian burial ground. The resulting actual supernatural phenomenon was used in the film, which had to be changed to a horror movie from a documentary about moving corpses from old indian burial grounds.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/10 "2003-12-14T04:18:06Z")
Despite claims to the contrary, _This Is Spinal Tap_ was based entirely on the career of Liberace.
Tom Cruise? Robot.
Julia Roberts and Shelley Duval are, in fact, the same person.
Robin Williams enlarged his forearms for _Popeye_ by masturbating 50 times per day.
Griffin Dunne was accidentally killed by wolves during the filming of _An American Werewolf In London_ and was replaced by his twin brother, Clovis.
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/11 "2003-12-14T05:34:31Z")
One of the biggest cinematic bloopers of all time, occurs in a combat scene of the **“Green Berets”** whereby you can just see **John Wayne** in the far distance burning an American Flag and laughing hysterically. (He didn’t know the cameras were rolling.).
**Yogi Berra** was the first choice to play the **Terminator** , but he could not due to prior contractual commitments.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/12 "2003-12-14T05:55:44Z")
Bette Midler died during the filming of _The Rose_. Her appearance in _Bitches_, I mean, _Beaches_ was 100% CGI.
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### Author:  [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/13 "2003-12-14T07:10:34Z")
The visual costume effects in the film **Tron** were achieved by gluing hundreds of feet of those bendy glowsticks, in various colors, to the actors’ costumes.
Just like in every other project he’s ever been involved with, Bill Paxton’s character in the video for the Barnes & Barnes song _Fish Heads_, dies at the end. When the video was first shown on Saturday Night Live, the graphic scene of Paxton being bludgeoned to death with a rotting fish corpse was deemed too graphic by the NBC censors, and the video was trimmed by 15 seconds.
It’s a common misperception that the dinosaurs in the film **Jurassic Park** were entirely CGI effects. The sad truth of the matter is that Steven Speilburg had a large number of Gila Monsters, Iguanas, and baby Crocodiles physically altered by Costa Rican black market plastic surgeons for the film. The sadder footnote to the story is the fact that, when principle filming was completed, he simply abandoned the now deformed creatures on the island where shooting took place, to live or die on their own.
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### Author:  [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/14 "2003-12-14T08:12:47Z")
**One Hour Photo** is actually a documentary about how Robin Williams was stalking a local neighborhood family. Williams is currently receiving treatment for his obsessive behavior.
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### Author:  [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/15 "2003-12-14T11:33:57Z")
In the late 1930s Victor Fleming set out to make a depressing art house film about a little person (midget) who becomes despondent after being rejected by his lady friend and commits suicide by hanging himself. The resulting film was unreleasable but some footage was incorporated into his next film, _The Wizard of Oz._
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### Author:  [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/16 "2003-12-14T11:36:29Z")
Star Wars Episodes I and II were intended to be received as straight-up comedies. George Lucas is actually very hurt that no one seems to get the “joke”.
Actually, that would explain quite a bit.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/17 "2003-12-14T11:49:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \*
> \*\*Tom Cruise? Robot.
> \*\*
Gay robots? That must make the fundies angry.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/18 "2003-12-14T14:57:41Z")
Stanley Kubrick tried to get Mattel toys to buy the rights to the characters from _2001_, in order to market little David Bowman figurines and toy EVA pods. Mattel turned him down, but then went on to market their Major Matt Mason astronaut dolls.
_Earth VS The Flying Saucers_ was in fact commissioned by the US government as a propaganda film when it was believed that UFO aliens were about to publicly reveal themselves.
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### Author:  [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/19 "2003-12-14T15:40:06Z")
Kirsten Dunst appears totally nude in all of her movies. The clothes are added later with computer technology.
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### Author:  [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/complete-bs-movie-trivia/218875/20 "2003-12-14T15:40:13Z")
**Groundhog Day** originally was conceived as normal linear movie. Only when Bill Murray kept screwing up all his scenes of the first day did the director decide to rewrite the story as involving a single repeating day.
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