Cool Movie Trivia

Here’s some cool movie trivia about ten of the top movies from my list of the 100 best fantasy movies of all time:

First, my Top 20 movie:
10) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates (2007)

Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood

I was born and raised in Ireland so I felt very proud of fellow Irish girl, Evanna Lynch, when I heard she’d landed the role of Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Here's some cool movie trivia about this Irish star.

Luna comes from Termonfeckin in County Louth, Ireland. She was a huge fan of the Potter novels for years before she auditioned for the role. She wrote regularly to the author of Harry Potter JK Rowling, once complaining that although she would love to act in a Harry Potter movie, this was unlikely to happen as she lived in a sleepy town where nothing ever happened.

To Evanna’s surprise (and delight), Rowling wrote back telling her not to be hard on Termonfeckin as it had a brilliant name and that she was from a sleepy town too. Evanna also expressed her fandom by naming her pets after characters from the Harry Potter series, including a cat she called Luna!

When Evanna announced her desire to audition for the part of Luna, her mother at first refused, thinking she had little to no chance of landing the role. However, her father believed in her dream and flew her to London, where Evanna beat over 15,000 finalists to get the part.

Love all things Potter-related? CLICK HERE to read about the three main Harry Potter characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione

This one comes in at No. 17 on the Top 100 Fantasy Movies list:
9) Enchanted, directed by Kevin Lima (2007)

Giselle in Enchanted movie

This movie provides us with a wealth of cool movie trivia. One of the most noteworthy things about this movie is the many tributes it plays to Disney productions and to classic fairy tales. Some of the references are more obvious than others.

Remember the scene in which the prince stabs the roof of a New York City bus with his sword? Well the bus driver’s hair is actually shaped like Mickey Mouse ears, as are the green pepper slices on the pizza that Robert and Giselle get at the Bella Notte restaurant.

The law firm where Robert works is Churchill, Harline and Smith, the surnames of the songwriters from the 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  And when Prince Edward goes looking for Giselle in Robert’s building, one of the doors he knocks on bears the number 714. That’s the area code for Orange County, home to the original Disneyland theme park.

Here's some cool movie trivia about No. 15:
8) Interview with the Vampire, directed by Neil Jordan (1994)

Kirsten Dunst Interview with the Vampire

Kirsten Dunst Interview with the Vampire

One of the most stunning aspects of this movie is the haunting portrayal of Claudia by a then 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten beat out actress Christina Ricci for the role and got to perform her first on-screen kiss, with co-star Brad Pitt.

Interview with the Vampire author Anne Rice approved so highly of the movie that she took out a two-page advertisement in both Vanity Fair and the New York Times endorsing it as "a masterpiece". 

This one comes in at No. 13:
7) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Mel Stuart (1971)

willy wonka and the chocolate factory movie cast

I can never watch this movie without having a bountiful supply of chocolate close at hand. Did you know that some of the things in the factory’s garden were actually edible, including the giant lollipops?

One thing that wasn’t edible, however, was the flower cup that Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) drank from. It was made of wax. The actor had to chew it until the end of each take and then spit it out. Yuck!

Cool movie trivia about No. 9:
6) Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton (2003)

big fish movie the giant and edward

Tim Burton is the genius behind so many of the best fantasy movies of all time. Here’s some cool movie trivia about some of Big Fish’s connections to his other movies.

Edward is the name of the main character in three of Burton's movies, Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994) and Big Fish.

In Big Fish, Edward works as a traveling salesman for a company that sells hands with metal tools as fingers, all held together by a plastic base. The filmmakers purposely avoided including scissors in the designs because they didn’t want to remind people of Edward Scissorhands.

The actors that played the twins Ada and Arlene Tai in Big Fish appeared as extras in Ed Wood, standing beside Vampira when Ed first meets her at a party.  And the door to the vault used in the Big Fish bank robbery scene is the same door that was used for the vault where the bat-suit was held in Burton’s 1989 movie Batman.

CLICK HERE to read about Tim Burton movies
CLICK HERE to read about Tim Burton characters

Some cool movie trivia about the Grinch, which comes in at No. 8 on the Top 100:
5) How the Grinch Stole Christmas, directed by Ron Howard (2000)

how the grinch stole christmas movie jim carrey

The cool movie trivia about this movie concern the creation of the world of Whoville. It took a lot more than a production team and actors to bring it to life. The makers of How the Grinch Stole Christmas used about:

6 miles of Styrofoam to build the sets
152,000 pounds of crushed marble (used for snow on Whoville’s suburbs)
11 sound stages
8,200 ornaments
2,000 candy canes!
300 props
8,000 make-up appliances
450 costumes
45 make-up artists on the busiest days

Furthermore...

It took make-up artists three hours to apply Jim Carrey’s make-up.
Carrey felt so awful in the latex suit that he had to learn torture-resistance techniques to put up with it.
Anthony Hopkins recorded all the movie’s narration in one day.

Next on the cool movie trivia list is at No. 7 on the list:
4) The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan (2008)

the dark knight movie poster

This movie for me is all about Heath Ledger, and not just because of the actor’s tragic demise. His portrayal of the Joker is absolutely gripping.

To prepare for the role, the actor lived alone in a hotel room for a month developing the character’s psychology, posture and voice. He even wrote a diary in which he explored the Joker’s thoughts and feelings.

The actor took inspiration for his performance from the characters Alex and Sid Vicious from the controversial 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. When asked why he gave Ledger the role, director Christopher Nolan replied, “Because he’s fearless.”

Now for some movie trivia about the No. 4 move of all time:
3) Edward Scissorhands (1990), directed by Tim Burton

Edward Scissorhands Vincent Price

In this film, Vincent Price portrays the only father that Edward Scissorhands ever had. Vincent plays the inventor who creates Edward Scissorhands but tragically dies before he can give him a pair of hands.

Vincent’s role was smaller than originally intended due to his poor health at the time. While filming his death scene, he passed out during one take. Tim Burton decided to use that take in the movie and it became Price's last screen appearance. The actor, who made an enormous contribution to the horror genre, died from lung cancer in October 1993.

Here’s some other cool movie trivia about the movie Edward Scissorhands:
- The movie was inspired by a drawing Tim Burton had done as a teenager.
- The first draft was written as a musical.
- Johnny Depp, who played Edward Scissorhands, had to lose 25 pounds for the role and says only 169 words throughout the movie.
- You can see some of the topiary that Edward makes at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City.

This movie comes in at No. 2:
2) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, directed by Peter Jackson (2002)

gollum lord of the rings

My favorite character in the second two Lord of the Rings movies has to be the sneaky sniveling Gollum. Here’s some cool movie trivia about how actor Andy Serkis brought that miserable creature to life.

Andy is the voice and movement behind the CGI character Gollum. He said he based Gollum's voice on the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball and Gollum’s desperation on the withdrawals heroin addicts go through when they stop using drugs. Although Andy never appears on screen in person, you can see his spittle in the scene where Gollum spits in disgust at seeing Sam cooking the rabbits, which Gollum prefers to eat raw and runny. (What discerning taste he has!)

The movie’s director Peter Jackson and producer Barrie M. Osborne actively campaigned to have Andy receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Gollum. But the Academy turned them down due to regulations that forbid an actor to be nominated if he is not physically seen on screen. What a shame!

CLICK HERE to read a Lord of the Rings summary

And finally, here's some cool movie trivia about my No. 1 fantasy movie:
1) Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro (2006)

Before making a movie, Guillermo del Toro always captures his ideas on paper by filling notebooks with notes and drawings. This, he says, is a vital part of his filmmaking process.

Did you know that before del Toro started working on Pan’s Labyrinth he left years worth of notes about it in the back of a cab? When he discovered the loss, he prepared to give up on the movie.

However, the cab driver, realizing the notebooks’ importance, tracked down Guillermo at great expense and inconvenience and returned the notebooks to him.

Guillermo interpreted this as a good omen and so went on to create this fantasy masterpiece, which is my favorite movie of all time. Thank you very much Mr Cabman!

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