The Official "Behind The Scenes" TV/Movie Thread

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The Salton Sea (2002) Trivia

Vincent D'Onofrio purposefully mouth breathed during the entire production to create a unique timber and respective speech patterns. He then added a "nose squeak" after finding that some persons who lost their nose secondary to trauma or cancer produce a high pitch sound after completing certain sounds.

Vincent D'Onofrio purposefully developed a bad and uneven suntan, gained a significant amount of weight, bleached his hair, and wore improperly fitting skateboard apparel. When he reported to the set, he arrived in character.

Writer Tony Gayton said that the script to this movie was not written to be produced but to be a writing sample, something wild and experimental he could show producers to get work. He was very surprised when Castle Rock wanted to produce it.

Val Kilmer researched his role by spending time with drug abusers in Riverside and the greater Los Angeles area.

Warner Brothers was not comfortable with the significant drug content and the John F. Kennedy assassination sequence, and initially wanted an edited version of the film for a wide theatrical release. The scenes remained, but the film then was only given a limited theatrical release.

In order to prepare for his role, Doug Hutchison spent a month with real narcotics officers and accompanied them on drug busts.

Val Kilmer spent up to three hours a day in the makeup chair for placement of numerous fake tattoos on his arms, chest, and back.

Peter Sarsgaard grew in a mullet over a three month period for the film. During this time he also went to crystal meth anonymous meetings and various juvenile halls.

Peter Sarsgaard's character is based on a real person who was a meth user in Riverside and according to D.J. Caruso "Just wanted to be liked".

Although screenwriter Tony Gayton did not expect to sell the script, it ended up selling in three days after Gayton's agent David Saunders (APA) sent the script to original producer Ken Aguado.

Deborah Kara Unger researched her role in the film as a drug user by visiting the Riverside Recovery Center.

Director D.J. Caruso's first feature film.

The actual Salton Sea was used during the Manhattan Project to test the aerodynamics of various sized atomic bombs. No live bombs were tested.

Val Kilmer wrote of his audition for Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). The role eventually went to Matthew Modine. In this film, Kilmer co-stars with two major actors in that film, R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio.

 

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"THE SALTON SEA" INTERVIEW

WHO: Val Kilmer WHEN: April 12, 2002 WHERE: Ritz-Carlton Hotel, SF, CA

His latest film is new and interesting territory for the actor again: a slick but gritty drug culture thriller styled like a film noir throwback. In "The Salton Sea" he plays a jazz trumpeter who opens the film slumped against the wall of a burning apartment, bleeding -- possibly to death -- from a gunshot wound and trying to remember who he really is. Through genre-perfect narration he tells the story of how he got there by delving headlong into an underground world of methamphetamine addicts....

Q: I also saw you several times at the Espresso Roma coffee shop across the street from the CU campus.
A: Where I received my major inspiration for each day! Wow, that's unusual. You know, "The Salton Sea" is sort of a "Hamlet"-like story. He assumes an identity and gets lost in this world of the tweakers, looking for revenge but doesn't know what he's doing after a while. I thought about that a lot. I say "sort of" because in "Hamlet" that's the subject of the story. In this (film) it isn't.

Q: That narration in the opening scene was probably the very first thing you read in the script.
A: Just the first page gives you an idea what a ride it is, if you can imagine reading it: A guy is playing a trumpet in a room, on the floor, his stomach is bleeding, the room's on fire, there's money floating around his head -- and he doesn't seem to mind!

Q: Were you hooked immediately?
A: [Nods] I haven't done this in years, but as soon as I got to the last page, I read it from the beginning again. It's like a great book.

Q: So what do you have to do to psych yourself up for each take when you're playing someone who is so troubled and intense?
A: Well with any story, it could even be a light comedy, it should cost the creator something. That's really what I think. I've never done something that really moved me that didn't take some passion, care and blood. Not to be too grand, but I do look at (acting) as a noble profession. You're in service of telling a story. You're giving something away of your life, something you've learned. I lost my little brother and DJ (Caruso, the director) had lost his older brother, so we had this bond from the beginning (with each other and with the character). He had something to say on the subject of loss, more than just wanting to make a good movie.

Q: Of course, you really dodged a bullet with that fourth "Batman" movie.
A: Yep. (At the time) it was, "What? Has he gone nutty? Why isn't he doing it?" Once it was seen, I was redeemed. But actually, I would have done it but they rushed it. They always wait two years, but that time they went right into production, and with a movie that big, production means about eight months. They didn't even bother calling my agent to tell us, and since it's usually two years, I had just said yes to "The Saint." Then they found out in the trades and called up to say, "No! We're gonna do 'Batman' now." I said, "Well, I already said yes. You gonna pay to get me out of that one? What do you guys want me to do?" They weren't very gracious. Joel got all nutty -- Joel Schumacher (director of the third and fourth "Batman" movies). He somehow thought what I was doing had to do with how he was perceived as a director. He started saying bad things about me, which is just stupid. We can't all be the makers of "8mm."

Q: Well, I think it worked out for the best.
A: [Whispers] I know. [Then louder again] And where's George Clooney now, you know? [Laughs] OK, he's got his own jet. But that's beside the point.

Q: Is there something you enjoy particularly about playing real people? You've got Jim Morrison ("The Doors"), Doc Holliday ("Tombstone"), Elvis -- albeit a fantasy Elvis (in "True Romance")...
A: He's still Elvis! And Moses (he provided the voice for "The Prince of Egypt")...... Who else...the "Thunderheart" guy was based on a real guy.

Q: Then there's all these legendary characters like Batman, The Saint...
A: And the first play I did was based on a real terrorist. This guy had beaten the German secret police for 10 years, then he did an interview when he was so stoned he was like "I love living in Chelsea!" [Laughs] Oops!

Q: You also have a big thing for music in films. In this film you play the trumpet...
A: The piano in "Tombstone"...

Q: What can you play in real life?
A: I play one minute of Chopin on piano -- that was "Tombstone." I play 45 seconds of Miles Davis on trumpet...[Laughs]

Q: You can only play what you've learned in films?
A: I can play 30 seconds on 10 instruments!

Q: And you made a record as Nick Rivers (the rock'n'roll idol/spy from "Top Secret!").
A: It's out there, yeah. I would have liked to make a Doors record because I'm very proud of doing all that live.

Q: Well, we're out of time so one last question: How do you feel about "Top Gun" today?
A: [Laughs] I don't really think about it, to be honest. In relation to movies and/or my career, I'm proud that it's, um, one of the best movies with airplanes in it.

Q: It's a good guilty pleasure. I admit, if I'm channel surfing and it's on the Superstation, I'll actually watch it.
A: I just saw a piece of it the other day and I just remember (director) Tony Scott's enthusiasm. He would get excited about your tape recorder if he could light it right. [Leans in to my microcasette recorder on the table between us] "Oh, man! That's great! Look at it!" He'd get all descriptive about how he was going to shoot it. The guy would cry if a jet took off great. "Oh, did you see that!"

SPLICEDwire | Val Kilmer interview for "The Salton Sea" (2002)

 

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Brockmire is an American sitcom that premiered on April 5, 2017 on IFC. The show stars Hank Azaria, Amanda Peet, and Tyrel Jackson Williams, with J. K. Simmons guest starring in the third season. Azaria plays a baseball play-by-play announcer based on a character he created for a comedy web series in 2010. IFC renewed the series for a third season and a final fourth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2020.

Premise - Brockmire follows Jim Brockmire, "a famous Major League Baseball announcer who suffers an embarrassing public meltdown on the air after discovering his wife's serial infidelity. A decade later, he tries to reclaim his career and love life in a small town, calling minor league ball for the Morristown, Pennsylvania Frackers."

Hank Azaria as Jim Brockmire, an alcoholic, drug-using former Kansas City broadcaster fired in 2007 for an on-air tirade against his unfaithful wife (along with a press conference where he tries to set things right but only makes them worse). In the ten years since, he spent most of his time in Asian countries calling non-traditional sporting events, such as cock-fighting.

Amanda Peet as Jules James, the owner of the Morristown Frackers (formerly Savages), which her father originally owned, along with the town's main bar. She is competitive and will do anything to attract fans to the games.

Tyrel Jackson Williams as Charles, the Frackers head of digital media, responsible for webcasts of the games. Although talented with computers and technology, he has little athletic ability-or interest in sports (including baseball).

Hemky Madera as Pedro Uribe, a baseball player for the Morristown Frackers, as well as a former Major League all-star.

Katie Finneran as Lucy Brockmire, Brockmire's sexually adventurous ex-wife (recurring, seasons 1–2, 4).

With Joe Buck

And Bob Costas

In 2010, Azaria debuted the character of Jim Brockmire in the third episode of the Funny or Die web-series Gamechangers, entitled "A Legend in the Booth". Brockmire is a baseball play-by-play announcer who is fired after a profanity-filled breakdown while live on air after discovering his wife was having an affair. Azaria based the character's voice and broadcasting style on Bob Murphy and Phil Rizzuto and his sport coats on that of Lindsey Nelson.

Critical response - The first season of Brockmire met a positive response from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 18 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Brockmire insinuates itself as the series goes on, elevated by assured, compelling performances from Hank Azaria and Amanda Peet -- and a raw humor all its own."

Brockmire - Wikipedia

 

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Brockmire (2017) Trivia

The show is based on a "Funny or Die" sketch created by Azaria.

Brockmire's voice is Hank Azaria's impression of the "generic baseball announcer" voice that was popular when he was growing up in the 1970s.

On "The Late Show with Steven Colbert (S5/Ep 103), Hank Azaria provided photographic proof that the loud sports coat he wears in the show is the same exact coat worn by Jack Warden in "Heaven Can Wait" (1978).

Even though Hank Azaria has been a long-time baseball fan, this is his first baseball movie/show.

Hank Azaria, who plays Brockmire, has been signed by Dan Le Batard of Meadowlark Media to do a weekly podcast as Jim Brockmire for the Le Batard and friends (Le Batard AF) network. The podcast is currently released on Thursdays and features famous interviewed guests.

Season Two stadium scenes were shot at Coolray Field, home of the Atlanta Braves AAA affiliate, the Gwinnett Stripers, in Lawrenceville, GA.

The New Orleans AAA team Jim works for in season two is called the Crawdaddies, and is affiliated with Atlanta. In real life New Orleans AAA team is called the Baby Cakes and is affiliated with the Miami Marlins. The Atlanta Braves AAA affiliate is actually located in Gwinnett County, GA.

Hank Azaria, who plays Brockmire, also played Detroit sportswriter and author Mitch Albom in the 1990s movie 'Tuesdays with Morrie.'

The logo used on the hats of the Oakland team actually belongs to the Gary-Southshore Railcats of Gary, IN, who play in the American Association of Independent Baseball

 

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Hank Azaria On 'Brockmire' And Why He No Longer Performs Apu On 'The Simpsons'

DAVIES: Well, Hank Azaria, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's good to have you back. Let's start with a clip, the scene that kicked off the series "Brockmire." And I'll just kind of set it up for the audience. I mean, you're a successful big-league baseball announcer. And you always end your broadcasts by referring to your beloved wife Lucy - saying, Lucy, get supper on the stove because this ballgame is over.

AZARIA: (As Jim Brockmire) I had some time at the ballpark this afternoon to reflect upon this wonderful anniversary, as Ibanes (ph) slashes one foul to the right side. And I decided to go on home and surprise my wife Lucy with some gardenias. They're her favorite flower. Please imagine my surprise when I opened my front door to find about a half-dozen naked folks sprawled out in my living room engaged in what can only be described as a desperate and a hungry kind of lovemaking. And right in the center of it all was my - my wife Lucy. She was wearing a [expletive], and she was [expletive] our neighbor Bob Greenwald.

AZARIA: We started the series in 2017. So this was going back to 2007, when what you just heard happened. At a press conference, he's supposed to apologize, but he ends up - he's pretty much having a nervous breakdown, and he strips off his shirt. And, you know, baseball throws him out. And he just loses - he just gets lost for about a decade, 10 years. Goes off into the world drinking and drugging and sexing.....You know, he had been completely faithful and in love with his wife, which is, you know, what really - and just had a vision of her as this pure being; turns out she's this tremendously active sex addict and had been doing - having all kinds of crazy sex behind his back their whole marriage. And he kinds of turns into a crazy libertine in response, an alcoholic. And goes off - you know, calling cockfights in Manila, is where he ends up. But he called, like, a Lithuanian wife-carrying competition, which is a real thing, by the way.

.... And all kind - and then misses baseball, gets a call from a very small-time, bottom-of-the-barrel minor-league owner, baseball team owner played by Amanda Peet, named Julia James, who wants him to come and call baseball games for them back in Morristown, Penn., which is a fracking town. And the name of the team is the Morristown Frackers, and that's probably the classiest thing about the team..... And that's where Season 1 begins, really, is his journey trying to make it back to the big leagues, starting at the very bottom of the barrel.

AZARIA: And I got fascinated with this as a kid. Like, why is this the generic voice of announcers? And I started to wonder, do they always talk like this, even in their private lives? Do they come home and say, hi, honey, what is for dinner? My goodness, I am looking forward to a spirited lovemaking session later..... We absolutely worried about that. We wondered if it was really just a sketch and not something that could sustain the load-bearing - you know, the emotional load-bearing of making him just be a real person, let alone a real person that, like you said, goes to very dark places - alcoholic - truly alcoholic, drug-addicted places, where he hits a bottom and ruins people's lives and - you know, of course, in a hilarious way, Dave, many times. But no, truly, right? You've seen it.

.....But Joel saw the man's alcoholism coming to the fore and how he was - how he kind of represented baseball. And baseball kind of represented what was kind of aging and out of touch in our society, as Brockmire now is as he's been sort of exiled and trying to find his way back..... Yeah. Listen; I'm - I've been sober 13 years, and I've been in the recovery community for even longer. I first went into the Al-Anon program 10 years - 20 years ago, which is for, like, the families and loved ones of alcoholics. So I have a long history of dealing with drugs and alcoholism in others and in myself, yet, ironically, Dave, I did not mean for this series to go there. That was, again, all Joel Church-Cooper kind of seeing in this. I think I had unconsciously created quite an alcoholic character, but I didn't realize it....

AZARIA: I probably do 30 to 40 running characters that appear in the show at any given time. One of my favorites is Comic Book Guy. He is based on a fellow that lived next door to me freshman year of college who talked like this. Snake, the sort of convict dude, is kind of a combination between Jeff Spicoli from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" and another dude I went to college with (laughter).

DAVIES: You know, on "The Simpsons," you're no longer doing the voice of Apu, the guy who owned the Kwik-E-Mart. And this followed a protest campaign of sorts. There were questions raised about the fact that - you know, that you, as a white actor, were portraying this Indian stereotype at a time when there weren't a lot of well-known Indian characters in American culture. And the comedian Hari Kondabolu raised this issue and then made a documentary about it. You want to just share your thinking about how - share with us how your thinking has evolved on this?

AZARIA: Yeah, sure. I had been doing that voice for about 25, 27 years before I really heard anybody express upset with it. And one of the first things that happened was that comedian Hari Kondabolu actually tweeted at me a link to a performance he did on a late-night comedy show where he did a routine about how much he resented the voice of Apu and the character of Apu or things about it, anyway. And he said it sounded like - the voice sounded like a white guy doing an impression of another white guy who was making fun of his father. And, you know, that was really kind of the first I'd heard of that kind of upset and bristling over the role.

And then not long after that, I got reached out to by a reporter, a writer named Mallika Rao, who was doing an article for the Huffington Post. And we sort of - I talked to her about it, and we did a little bit of a deeper dive. And it - that's what really started me thinking because with Hari, it sort of felt like comedian to comedian. And my first reaction - and not so much, you know, person to person or - not that I wasn't taking it seriously, but I kind of got pretty defensive and bristled, and I looked at it from much more of a comedy perspective - like, you know, we make fun everybody at "The Simpsons" and, you know, where does this kind of thing end if you're going to, you know, have me not do the voice of this character? And I got pretty defensive about it.

And then over time, as I realized the criticism wasn't just Hari or a comedy routine but was really shared by many people in the Indian community in this country and the South Asian community, I started taking a look at it. And what I realized was, over time, after a lot of soul-searching and doing workshops and reading and talking to people, was that I had a blind spot or two when it came to this character, I think as evidenced - the best way I can express it is, I based the voice of Apu - I was imitating a lot of convenience store clerks that I heard, but it was also based on a Peter Sellers voice. Peter Sellers did a movie called "The Party."....I think it was in 1966 - where he played an Indian actor. And he's doing a pretty thick Indian accent in brownface. To me, you know, there I am - I saw this movie, and I'm a teenager, OK? I'm an aspiring mimic and comedic voice actor. And to me, there was - and I worshipped Peter Sellers. I thought he was a genius and hilarious. And to me, I didn't distinguish between his, you know, silly French Detective Clouseau accent from "The Pink Panther" movies or his weird German Dr. Strangelove accent in "Dr. Strangelove." So I mean, that's a blind spot. That's in the great show business tradition of, we make fun of everybody, and everybody's fair game, and that's fair enough.....But the character had unintended consequences for people - kids growing up in this country, Indian and South Asian kids growing up in this country had to live with that character and be called Apu in ways they didn't appreciate. And that was a lot of my journey with that character, and it took some years to figure it out, for me.

 

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[Otomofan]

I liked the first season. I remember the second season being a lot less solid, like so many second seasons of TV shows are after they use all their good ideas in season one. (Westworld, I'm looking at you.....Severance, I have a bad feeling I'm talking about you, too.)

By the third season(?) where he was sober and stayed sober, it was totally boring and I checked out. Like so many ideas, it was stretched thin to the point of snapping.

 

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The Mist

Directed and written by Frank Darabont
Based on The Mist by Stephen King
Release date November 21, 2007
Budget $18 million / Box office $57.3 million

Although a monster movie, the central theme explores what ordinary people are driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine, who after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.....Darabont has since revealed that he had "always had it in mind to shoot The Mist in black and white", a decision inspired by such films as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the pre-color work of Ray Harryhausen. While the film's theatrical release was in color, the director has described the black-and-white print (released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2008) as his "preferred version."

"The story is less about the monsters outside than about the monsters inside, the people you're stuck with, your friends and neighbors breaking under the strain." - Darabont on The Mist


Cast
Thomas Jane as David Drayton, a painter who ends up trapped in the supermarket with his son Billy
Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic who believes the mist to be the wrath of God
Laurie Holden as Amanda Dunfrey, a new teacher at the local school. She carries a Colt revolver with her at all times
Andre Braugher as Brent Norton, a big-city attorney and David's neighbor
Toby Jones as Ollie Weeks, the supermarket's assistant manager, who is experienced with guns
William Sadler as Jim Grondin, a belligerent and weak-minded mechanic
Jeffrey DeMunn as Dan Miller, who takes shelter in the market after witnessing the dangers from the mist
Frances Sternhagen as Irene Reppler, an elderly teacher and Amanda's co-worker


Critical reception - On Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. ....James Berardinelli wrote of the film: "The Mist is what a horror film should be—dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer's flinch reflex intact. ... Finally, after a long list of failures, someone has done justice in bringing one of King's horror stories to the screen. Though definitely not the feel-good movie of the season, this is a must-see for anyone who loves the genre and doesn't demand 'torture porn' from horror.".... Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote: "There's a grim modern parable to be read into the dangerous effects of the gospel-preaching local crazy lady Mrs. Carmody (brilliantly played by a hellfire Marcia Gay Harden) on a congregation of the fearful." Tom Ambrose of Empire said the film was "criminally overlooked" and "one of the best horror movies of the last few years."

The Mist (film) - Wikipedia

 

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The Mist (2007) Trivia

Stephen King says that he was genuinely frightened by this adaption of his novella. Frank Darabont described that as the happiest moment of his career.

Stephen King got the idea for the source novel when he was in a Maine market. When he noticed the front window was made of plate glass, he wondered what would happen if giant insects flew into it.

Frank Darabont agreed to make the film with Dimension only under the condition that no matter what, they wouldn't change the scripted ending. They agreed.

Frank Darabont had originally been offered $30 million by a producer to make this film, but with one crippling caveat: Darabont would have to change his planned ending, a conclusion he'd personally envisioned and nursed for 20 years. In the end, he turned to producer Bob Weinstein and made the movie for half the amount, but only after forfeiting his directorial salary.

Frank Darabont wanted Thomas Jane to play Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead (2010) after they worked together on this film.

In the pharmacy scene, when David Drayton is collecting a comic book for his son, Frank Darabont proposed to Thomas Jane that he should grab a copy of "The Punisher: War Journal" since Jane played the Punisher three years earlier. Jane declined because he had a falling out with the producers of the The Punisher (2004) franchise and decided not to return for the sequel. He instead grabs an issue of "HellBoy" as a shout out to friend Ron Perlman

In the opening shot of the film, David is painting in his room. The picture he's drawing is a design from Stephen King's Dark Tower series of the gunslinger Roland, a Clint Eastwood-like character living in a Middle-Earth-like world. Another design in the room is that of the poster of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). Carpenter also wrote and directed The Fog (1980), which shares obvious themes with The Mist, as well as Christine (1983), an adaptation of a Stephen King novel.

Jeffrey DeMunn, Melissa McBride, Laurie Holden, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Cheri Dvorak, Sam Witwer, Brandon O'Dell, Julio Cesar Cedillo, and Tiffany Morgan are all in The Walking Dead (2010), adapted to TV by Frank Darabont.

To help save time on the tight schedule, the producers and director Frank Darabont hired the camera crew from The Shield (2002) to shoot the film. This camera crew was able to move fast, due to the hectic TV production schedule. There was an "A" and a "B" unit, which cut down on production time.

Despite the setting in Maine, the film was shot entirely in Louisiana and Texas. To Frank Darabont's delight, Stephen King could not distinguish it from Maine when watching the film

The line "My life for you," spoken by Mrs. Carmody in the film, is a recurring line in other Stephen King texts, spoken by villainous characters to Randall Flagg (alias Walter O'Dim, Marten Broadcloak, etc.), the super-powered master of evil in several King stories.

Director Frank Darabont originally wanted the film shown in black and white. The two-disc DVD/Blu-ray release contains Darabont's black-and-white version on the second disc.

The Dark Tower poster being worked on by David Drayton was actually painted by Drew Struzan, an artist famous for his movie posters of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Thing (1982), Blade Runner (1982), etc. All of the posters in the studio at the beginning of the film were painted by Struzan, as was the film poster for this film.

Brent Norton's Mercedes that's been crushed by a tree was a rental that had been in an accident but was going to be repaired. The production paid to use it with the understanding they wouldn't damage it further, but miscommunication led to that understanding being ignored. They ripped upholstery, denting the body, scratching the paint, and more leading to thousands in extra bills. "That was a big f**k up," adds producer Denise Huth.

Norm is wearing a T-Shirt from WKIT Radio in Bangor, Maine. This is one of three radio stations owned by Stephen King. The artwork on this T-shirt is by Stephen King artist Glenn Chadbourne (from Maine), who has produced art for many novels and collections by Stephen King.

Shot in the eight-week hiatus of The Shield (2002) with its cinematographer, two camera operators, their editor, and the script supervisor, all of whom the director has worked with when he directed episodes of the show.

Shot in 37 days.

They had to prep the movie in eight weeks, Frank Darabont stated: "I've never prepped a movie in less than five months."

In the supermarket, Irene Reppler is reading the newspaper "The Castle Rock Times". Castle Rock is one of three fictional Maine towns (the others being Derry and Jerusalem's Lot) created by Stephen King which frequently appear in his works. It also happens to be the name of the company with which Frank Darabont made two previous King adaptations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999).

One of the big influences on the spider design was The Zanti Misfits (1963).

In the first couple of seconds of the movie when David Drayton's studio inside his house is shown, besides the posters for John Carpenter's The Thing and Guillermo Del Toro's Labyrinth of the Faun/Pan's Labyrinth drawn by Drew Struzan, there are three posters that are clear call-outs for other Stephen King books. The first (and most obvious) one that David is coloring is the one of Roland Deschain and the Dark Tower. The other two, which are very briefly shown as the camera moves to show the Dark Tower poster, appear to be of a rain-soaked little boy holding a red balloon along with a figure in a yellow overcoat like a slicker. The poster of the boy is clearly a reference to little Georgie Denbrough, one of Pennywise's countless victims in IT, while the faceless figure in the yellow overcoat could be a Low Man from Hearts of Atlantis. Both are books that have been tied into the Dark Tower universe. Also, both books have been adapted into movies.

The game Half-Life was inspired by the novella 'The Mist'. In the game, the main weapon of choice is a crowbar. When the group enters the pharmacy, one of them is using a crowbar as a weapon.

Spoiler

Frank Darabont's "controversial" ending actually comes directly from Stephen King's source material. Written in first-person, David entertains this notion in his mind as a distant possibility, noting there are three bullets and four people (Dan Miller doesn't make it to the car in the novella), but he ends his journal and leaves it in a restaurant that the survivors have sought refuge in before the car runs out of gas. Darabont felt this ending was too ambiguous and wrote the story to its finite climax, an ending that Darabont says in the DVD commentary was endorsed by King as the ending that King wished he would have thought of.

According to Cinefex magazine, Frank Darabont did not originally plan to include the giant, six-legged behemoth which walks over the car, even though this is one of the novella's most popular scenes. Several CafeFX special effects technicians convinced him to put it in the film.

The original Stephen King novel was also the inspiration for the video game Half-Life (1998), where scientists at a top-secret military base are running experiments with inter-dimensional portals and open the floodgates to its hostile inhabitants.

At the end of the film, when the rescue truck with Melissa McBride passes by David, Frank Darabont originally wanted a second truck to pass by David. This one would have been filled with various people from the market, including Jim, Bud, Mr. Mackey, and most of Mrs. Carmody's ex-followers, indicating that they were rescued safely from the store and making David realize that he and his group should have never have even left the market in the first place. Unfortunately, most of the extras and other actors had already left because their parts were finished, so Darabont had to scrap this idea.

The flamethrower at the end was constructed by the effects department out of parts purchased at Home Depot, which frightened Frank Darabont on all kinds of levels.

Originally, David and his group, while driving away from the market, were supposed to drive by the webbed, desiccated body of the Woman With Kids at Home. However, Melissa McBride's acting during the scene where she leaves the market was praised so much that it was decided to not only have her character survive, but bring her back at the end completely unscathed and with her children.

Frank Darabont originally wrote an opening scene showing the military scientist referenced to by Private Jessup accidentally opening the dimension portal that allows the creatures and the mist to enter our world. Over dinner, Andre Braugher questioned Darabont whether this scene was necessary. After thinking about it for a week, Darabont was convinced to scrap the scene, leaving the nature of the mist more ambiguous.

When Marcia Gay Harden received the script, she was resistant at first, having never done a horror film. She apparently called Braugher to talk about it and he encouraged her to take the role, saying to "View it as an actor's piece and not just a monster movie."

Darabont added the Private Jessup character to drive home the danger that Mrs. Carmody and her mob represent in the vein of "Lord of the Flies" and "The Lottery".

Darabont felt the novella's ending (the survivors drive off into the mist hoping to reach safety) was too open-ended for a film, but contrary to the belief that he simply created this new one himself, the inspiration is right there in King's tale. David in the story thinks to himself that if worse comes to worst, they have three bullets in the gun and four people in the truck. King never has them act on it, but Darabont does. "If we're gonna make a horror movie based on a Stephen King story, let's take Steve's most horrible, dour, and darkest thought and follow it out to its logical conclusion."

Although not directly stated in the movie, it is implied that the creatures entered through an extra-dimensional rift as a result of Project Arrowhead, a secret scientific project being carried out on a nearby military base. An early draft of the script written by Frank Darabont included a prologue set in the base's laboratory, providing a reasonably good idea of what the Arrowhead Project was supposed to have been and what went wrong. In the prologue, a number of civilian scientists, computer technicians, and Army personnel gather around a large object which resembles an old-fashioned diving helmet: a metal tank with thick glass windows. One of the scientists expresses some concern about running an experiment in the middle of a thunderstorm. His superior tells him to relax and orders that the device be turned on. When the machine is activated, a small point of white light (described as looking like a flashlight shining through a keyhole) appears inside the tank. Moments later, however, lightning strikes the base's electrical generator. The point of light begins to get larger and brighter. One of the scientists calls for the machine to be turned off, but a technician tells him "We can't; we're drawing [the power] right out of the sky." The scientists stand helplessly by as the portal inside the tank gets wider and wider and a white mist begins to fill the tank. Something "slithery" is then glimpsed moving inside the tank. A colonel asks the scientists how thick the glass is in the tank's windows. The scientist, sounding none too confident, tells him that it can withstand up to 40 times the pressure of our own atmosphere. Apparently, that isn't strong enough, because the windows of the tank begin to crack and finally shatter outwards, releasing the mist into the laboratory.

It was Jeffrey DeMunn's idea to have McBride's character return at the end aboard the refugee truck with her kids and other survivors.

Darabont's initial script opened with a scene in a military lab showing the accident that ultimately releases the mist, but Andre Braugher convinced him to cut it. "I'm very, very glad I did because I don't think it tonally matched and would have wound up on the cutting room floor anyway." Producer Denise Huth adds that it would have ended up being a "very expensive deleted scene."

Before David and his group leaves, Mrs. Carmody requests that Billy and Amanda be sacrificed. A popular theory by fans is that Mrs. Carmody was right and that Billy's and Amanda's deaths at the end made the mist and monsters go away (given that the mist recedes soon after David kills them).

It is never revealed what happens to Norton, we don't see what happens to them. They walk out into the mist, along with the Biker who tied the rope to his waist and went out with them to get the shotgun. All the focus is on the inside of the store, feeding the rope through the door. The biker gets killed moments later, which leads us to believe that whatever got him also killed Brent Norton and the others. Later, when some of the characters are discussing escaping, they refer to 'ending up like Norton and his group'. So the people in the film believe he was killed. Norton does not reappear again in the film.

 

[chrisstbh]

Mr Sunday Movies is good Youtube channel if you like retrospective/behind the scenes stuff for movies.

Every time a new release in a franchise is coming out they go through the whole series and talk about the movie and get into the behind the scenes dramas and fun facts etc.

I think right now they've just finished doing Godzilla. But they've got tons of franchises covered.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

( ^ Both videos above have full film spoilers inside )


Why Frank Darabont Used The Crew Of The Shield To Shoot The Mist

Frank Darabont's harrowing and faith-shaking horror film "The Mist" doesn't look like other movies...No, "The Mist" features visuals that stand apart from its contemporaries thanks to its very mid-2000s secret weapon: the film used the same shooting crew as "The Shield."....Shawn Ryan's brutal small-screen masterpiece about the seemingly endless depths of corruption in a fictionalized Los Angeles police department ran for seven seasons on FX, and during that time, it gained a reputation for visuals that matched its ruthless, kinetic energy.

The surprise partnership between one of the most talked-about shows on TV and one of the most striking and bold King adaptations to date began when Darabont directed an episode of "The Shield." According to Darabont, "The Shield" casting director Deb Aquila was a friend of his, and let Ryan know he was a fan. "He said, 'Does he want to direct an episode?'" Darabont recalls. "I said, 'Oh yeah, why not? I'd love it.'" .....While shooting the episode, a season six hour called "Chasing Ghosts," Darabont observed the many ways the show's crew was able to make the series on an accelerated timeline that was not the norm for most TV shows. "You [typically] have eight days to shoot [an episode]. 'The Shield' had seven," he told /Film. As the cinematographer for both projects, Rohn Schmidt, puts it, "everything had to be 12% faster" than usual when making "The Shield."

The crew achieved the show's breakneck production speed through a system of what Darabont, Schmidt, and star Thomas Jane say included documentary-esque lighting, improvised coverage, handheld cameras, and all-in zooms. Schmidt cites Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" as an influence on the sharp zooms, saying that Rodriguez "would start out a scene wide and then would zoom in about a third or halfway through, knowing he was not going to go back, editorially, to that wide shot." On "The Shield," a tense and fast-paced show that often asked viewers to look hard at the eyes of a criminal or corrupt cop, the strategy fit well. "We were doing the same thing. We would roll for a little while, and then when someone wasn't speaking, we would zoom in to the next lens size," Schmidt explained.

Darabont's time on "The Shield" apparently coincided perfectly with his plans for "The Mist," which by that point had a roughly $18 million budget for what was at one point envisioned as a $60 million story. After directing "Chasing Ghosts," a process Darabont describes as not much tougher than "directing traffic" thanks to the level of efficiency of all involved, he ended up nabbing Schmidt and camera operators Billy Gierhart and Richie Cantu for "The Mist." According to Darabont, "They had a hiatus coming up and I said, 'You want to come do a movie with me in Shreveport?' And they said, 'Sure.'" Just like that, the film gained the frenetic, handheld visual style that would become its signature.

Darabont also describes the improvisational style that the crew pioneered on "The Shield," saying, "They'd get in there, Billy with his steadicam and Richie sitting on a skateboard with a camera on his shoulder and just, from take to take, they'd do whatever interested them." This added a certain level of unpredictability to the shoot, as Jane's co-star Sam Witwer pointed out to /Film: "there was never a moment where you could slack off and feel relaxed because you weren't going to be on camera, because maybe it was going to be your close up."

Why Frank Darabont Used The Crew Of The Shield To Shoot The Mist [Exclusive] - /Film

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Mr Sunday Movies is good Youtube channel if you like retrospective/behind the scenes stuff for movies. Every time a new release in a franchise is coming out they go through the whole series and talk about the movie and get into the behind the scenes dramas and fun facts etc.

Appreciate the heads up on Mr. Sunday. I'll check it out for sure.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Homicide: Life on the Street

Created by Paul Attanasio
Based on Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
Starring - Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Jon Polito, Kyle Secor, Ned Beatty, Isabella Hoffman, Reed Diamond, Michelle Forbes, Max Perlich, Peter Gerety, Jon Seda, Callie Thorne, Toni Lewis, Michael Michele and Giancarlo Esposito

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police drama television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons (122 episodes) on NBC from January 31, 1993, to May 21, 1999, and was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie (2000), which served as the series finale. The series was created by Paul Attanasio and based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). Many of the characters and stories used throughout the show were based on events depicted in the book.

While Homicide featured an ensemble cast, Andre Braugher emerged as a breakout star through his portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton. The show won Television Critics Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Drama in 1996, 1997, and 1998. It also became the first drama ever to win three Peabody Awards for drama, those being in 1993, 1995, and 1997. Simon sent the book to film director and Baltimore native Barry Levinson with the hopes that it would be adapted into a film, but Levinson thought it would be more appropriate material for television because the stories and characters could be developed over a longer period of time. Levinson believed that a television adaptation would bring a fresh and original edge to the police drama genre because the book exploded many of the myths of the police drama genre by highlighting that cops did not always get along with each other and that criminals occasionally got away with their crimes.... The opening theme music was composed by Baltimore native Lynn F. Kowal, a graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Homicide's purpose was to provide its viewers with a no-nonsense, police procedural-type glimpse into the lives of a squad of inner-city detectives. As opposed to many television shows and movies involving cops, Homicide initially opted for a bleak sort of realism in its depiction of "The Job", portraying it as repetitive, spiritually draining, an existential threat to one's psyche, often glamour- and glory-free—but, nonetheless, a social necessity. In its attempt to do so, Homicide developed a trademark feel and look that distinguished itself from its contemporaries. For example, the series was filmed with hand-held 16 mm cameras almost entirely on-location in Baltimore (making the idiosyncratic city something of a character itself). It also regularly used music montages, jump cut editing, and the three-times-in-a-row repetition of the same camera shot during particularly crucial moments in the story. The episodes were also noted for interweaving as many as three or four storylines in a single episode. NBC executives often asked the writers to focus on a single homicide case rather than multiple ones, but the show producers tended to resist this advice.[10]

Despite premiering in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot, the show opened to lackluster ratings, and cancellation was an immediate threat. However, the show's winning of two Emmy Awards (for Levinson's direction of "Gone for Goode" and Fontana's writing of "Three Men and Adena") and the success of another police drama—the more sensational NYPD Blue—helped convince NBC to give it another chance beyond the truncated, nine-episode-long first season. ....The reality of Homicide's low Nielsen ratings hovered over all things, however, and always left the show in a precarious position; it also had a harder time gaining a large audience because fewer viewers are at home watching TV on Friday nights. Despite this, the network managed to keep what TV Guide referred to as "The Best Show You're Not Watching" on the air for five full seasons and seven seasons in all.

Homicide: Life on the Street - Wikipedia

Spoiler

"According to the DVD commentary by director/producer Barry Levinson, NBC was on the fence about whether to renew Homicide for a fourth season; the show was earning critical acclaim, but struggling in the ratings. Levinson claims that the network led him to believe that the show would be cancelled, and yet failed to give him a definitive answer. Levinson's decision to give the show's acclaimed regular characters minimal screen time was an act of defiance aimed at the network."

 

[MeatHookGekko]

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999) Trivia

A real-life criminal on the run from the Baltimore Police Department entered the set of Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and surrendered to the actors in uniform. This incident was later spoofed in an episode where the actors in the show chased a suspect onto the set of "Homicide" and encountered director Barry Levinson and several of their favorite actors from the show.

In 1988, Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon joined the Baltimore Police Homicide Unit as a civilian assistant in order to chronicle a year in the life of a big-city homicide squad. His extensive notes, interviews, and observations were eventually published as the book, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets." This book served as the inspiration for the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993). Much of the first and second seasons are taken from actual events recounted in the book.

Barry Levinson wanted Richard Belzer as Munch after hearing him on "The Howard Stern Radio Show". NBC suggested Jason Priestley but Levinson refused. Belzer was the last cast member hired.

Detective Munch is mentioned in Episode 5 of the BBC's crime drama "Luther": Luther instructs a subordinate to telephone "Special Victims Unit" in New York, specifically Detective Munch to garner information about the villain in the episode.

Richard Belzer has appeared as Detective John Munch in a total of 10 different series: as a regular on Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and as a guest on Law & Order (1990), The X-Files (1993), The Beat (2000), Arrested Development (2003), Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), The Wire (2002), 30 Rock (2006), and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015).

The board showing unsolved and solved cases for each detective was a real device used by the Baltimore Police Department. It was stopped when it was shown to bring down morale, but it was reinstated at the detectives' request.

Actor Yaphet Kotto declared in later interviews that he was disappointed his character Al Giardello wasn't given more focus throughout the series, even if the show creators kept praising his work in the part. "I felt like I was a beggar doing "Homicide". Begging to act. Begging for scenes. The writing was not obviously for me. It mainly focused on others. I went from a movie star playing leads to a bit player doing one line here and one line there. The rest of the week I would be hanging around Fells Point waiting to come in and do my one line. When I asked if they could write more for me to do, they'd say "You're doing great. You're the anchor of the show." "Anchor? I'm an actor, let me out!" I finally ended up writing for the show and gave myself something to do."

Richard Belzer (John Munch), Kyle Secor (Tim Bayliss), Yaphet Kotto (Lt. Al Giardello), and Clark Johnson (Meldrick Lewis) are the only actors to remain with the series for its entire run.

On several occasions, Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) teamed with Dick Wolf's Law & Order (1990) for either single or two-part crossover episodes.

Al Giardello is based on Gary D'Addario, a real-life Baltimore police homicide detective. D'Addario appears as a recurring character, Lt. Jasper. Giardello was written to be of Italian-American heritage like D'Addario, but after Yaphet Kotto was cast, Giardello's heritage was changed to part-Italian and part-African-American. Giancarlo Esposito, who joined the cast as Giardello's son in season seven, is of Italian/African-American heritage in real life.

Producers insisted that staff writers live in the Baltimore area whenever possible.

Characters were often named after grunge musicians (i.e. Layne Staley and Krist Novoselic).

Richard Belzer (John Munch) appears in 119 of the series' 122 episodes: more than anyone else. The only episodes in which he does not appear are The Damage Done (1996), The Subway (1997), and Lines of Fire (1999).

Five of Detective Steve Crosetti's cases are alluded to throughout the first three seasons, but none of the investigations appear in any given episode. Thus, the viewers never get to witness Crosetti be the 'Primary'.

Toni Lewis, who portrays Detective Terri Stivers, is married in real life to Chris Tergesen who was the music editor/supervisor on "Homicide." Chris is the brother of Lee Tergesen, whose first wife was Tanya Lewis--no relation. Lee's spouse on "Homicide" was played by Edie Falco. Both Lee's and Edie's acting careers were just starting when they appeared on "Homicide" in 1993.

The typeface used in the opening credits is Clarendon, designed by Robert Besley.

According to DVD commentaries of Season 5, Reed Diamond (Kellerman) and Max Perlich (Brodie) had a very poor working relationship and couldn't stand each other.

Yaphet Kotto and Ned Beatty died within three months of each other in 2021.

Spoiler

All of Detective John Munch's partners either retire or resign from the Baltimore Homicide Unit shortly after being partnered with him: Bolander after season 3, Russert after season 4, Kellerman after season 6, and Bayliss after season 7.

According to the audio commentary on the DVD, the writers added the plot twist about Pembleton's stroke to appease Andre Braugher, who felt that he'd explored his character to its limits, and wanted to leave the show. The character did recover much more rapidly and completely from the stroke than would have been possible in real life.

The second scene of the first episode follows Bayliss (Kyle Secor) joining Homicide. In the second-to-last scene of the last episode, Bayliss leaves Homicide.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Andre Braugher Redefined Modern TV With His Mastery of Drama and Comedy

The death of actor Andre Braugher at the age of 61 sent shock ringing through the entertainment industry. The two-time Emmy winner has left behind a mighty catalogue of work on stage and screens big and small....For the lion’s share of viewers, his legacy can be best understood through two pivotal TV roles on “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” wildly different in tone yet connected through shared themes and Braugher’s mighty presence. If any actor can be said to have changed the face of modern TV in such a short space of time, it’s Andre Braugher.

....Pembleton described his technique as being “an act of salesmanship … But what I am selling is a long prison term, to a client who has no genuine use for the product.” And boy, did Braugher sell it well. He was confident but not arrogant, because he has the goods to back it up. Blessed with one of the greatest voices of the era, Braugher’s velvety tones could command as well as unsettle. In one of the series’ most acclaimed episodes, “Black and Blue” from Season 2, Pembleton investigates the death of a small-time drug dealer who he believes was killed by a cop. The department doesn’t want him to embarrass the squad and puts pressure on him to position a young Black witness as the culprit. Furious at the obvious lies at play, Pembleton gets to work wringing a confession out of an innocent man. It’s not simply that Braugher commands the long, agonizingly drawn-out interrogation; it’s that you sense the years’ worth of pent-up frustration of a man who got into this for the right reasons and wonders what the point is anymore.....

15 years after the end of “Homicide”, he got the chance to be another TV policeman, albeit one with more punchlines. The initial choice to have Braugher play Captain Raymond Holt, the buttoned-up straight man of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (who is anything but straight), almost felt like a gimmick. How could one of television’s greatest detectives now become the stern-faced boss for Andy Samberg and company to bounce jokes off of? Yet Holt as portrayed by Braugher was anything but a cliché. Holt is controlled to the point of absurdity, yes, but he’s always in on the gag. The toughness of a Black gay police officer surrounded by goofs of surprising competence always made room for a beating heart. Braugher’s ability to keep the most stoic of expressions while delivering some of the funniest dialogue on the series felt like a minor miracle, and only made it more hilarious when he went big....The absolute precision of Holt’s language, like his refusal to use unnecessary conjunctions or ineffective acronyms, allowed Braugher to truly stretch his muscles. Why not get a Shakespearean thespian to do comedy? The Bard wrote his fair share of comedies after all, and Braugher seemed to view every word he spoke as an opportunity to elicit something special for the character. In anyone else’s hands, Holt could have been trite or insufferable. Instead, he was a person, one no more or less than Frank Pembleton....

In his final film role in “She Said”, he shone as New York Times editor Dean Baquet, facing up against none other than Harvey Weinstein in a battle of a phone call that wouldn’t have felt out of place on “Homicide.” We cannot help but crave more of Braugher in film and TV, but he was a performer who put family first. IIn an interview with Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone, Braugher said, “Being a husband and a father are, in my mind, greater accomplishments than what I play on television.”

Andre Braugher Redefined Modern TV | Commentary

Spoiler

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The Touch by Stan Bush

You got the touch!
You got the power!
Yeah!

After all is said and done, you've never walked, you've never run
You're a winner!
Got the moves, you know the street. Break the rules, take the heat!
You're nobody's fool!
You're at your best, when the going gets rough!
You've been put to the test, but it's never enough!

You got the touch, you got the power!
When all hell's breakin' loose, you'll be right in the eye of the storm!
You got the heart, you got the motion!
You know that when things get too tough, you got the Touch!

You never bend, you never break! You seem to know just what it takes
You're a fighter!
It's in the blood, it's in the will! It's in the mighty hands of steel
When you're standin' you're ground!
And you never get hit, when your back's to the wall!
Gonna fight to the end, and you're takin' it all!

You got the touch, you got the power!
When all hell's breakin' loose, you'll be right in the eye of the storm!
You got the heart, you got the motion!
You know that when things get too tough, you got the Touch!

You fighting fire with fire!
You know you got the touch!

You're at your best, when the going gets rough!
You've been put to the test, but it's never enough!
You got the touch!
You got the power!
Yeah!

You got the touch!
You got the power!

Touch!

( Stan Bush is an American singer-songwriter and musician whose most notable work includes the songs "Dare" and "The Touch" from the soundtrack to the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie, and "She's Got the Power", featured in the American voice dub of the animated series Sailor Moon. Other notable works include the songs "Never Surrender," "Streets of Siam," and "Fight for Love" from the movie Kickboxer, and "Fight to Survive" and "On My Own - Alone", the theme from Bloodsport. In 1987, Bush (and back-up band Barrage) wrote and recorded the ballad "Love Don't Lie", which became a minor MTV hit when covered a year later by House Of Lords. )

 

[MeatHookGekko]