With the passing of Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie), its time to take a look back at the film that put Tarantino on the map.

> Christopher Walken was offered the role of Mr. Blonde but turned it down.
> George Clooney read for the role of Mr. Blonde but was turned down.
> Tarantino considered using Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" during the ear slicing scene.
> Madonna refuted Tarantino's interpretation of "Like a Virgin" saying it was about love, not about dick.
> Samuel L. Jackson originally auditioned for Mr. Orange but was turned away. Tarantino was so impressed he brought him on for Pulp Fiction.
> The word fuck is used 252 times.
> Tarantino originally planned to film Reservoir Dogs on a budget of $30K on a 16MM. Harvey Keitel got involved as producer and helped raise the $1.5 million budget.
> Empire magazine voted it as the best independant film ever as well as the most influential film in the past 15 years.

Source: IMDB

Many people say off handed remarks about the President like, "this guy is the worst one ever," but rarely have we had anyone official back those claims up in the historical sense. Well, it seems 50 of the 415 historians recently polled said just that, outranking the perennial Presidential whipping post -- James Buchanan. Buchanan may have fumbled the country into the civil war with his borderline treasonous activity, but Bush is a winner on all fronts. Some of his stunning achievements in office so far include taking the country into an unwinnable war, alienating friend and foe alike. Bankrupting the country on heightened military spending and slashing taxation among the richest Americans. He's proved himself to be incompetent in both foreign (Iraq) and domestic affairs (New Orleans). He's mounted an attack on the core American principle of separation of church and state. Not to mention, deliberately "misleading" the American people on affairs foreign and domestic, and the list goes on. Just remember, he's got another two years to bolster his shinning resume for the historical annals. Only the passage of time can truly say if this rube is in fact the biggest loser. On the bright side, historians generally say there have been worse guys than Bush milling around the White House -- V.P. Dick Cheney seemed to come up a lot.

Source: Yahoo News

So Elizabethtown wasn't exactly all that. Time to queue up Singles again and revel in classic Crowe. Take another look at the film through these eyes:

> Nirvana was actually supposed to contribute to the soundtrack, but backed out at the last minute. An alternate title for the film was Come As You Are.
> Chris Cornell actually took two of the dummy track names off the Citizen Dick setlist and recorded songs from them ("Seasons" and Soundgarden's "Spoonman").
> Did you catch Eric Stolz as the mime? How about Tim Burton as the video date director? What about Sideways star Paul Giamatti as an extra?
> Contrary to popular belief, Singles was never meant to capitalize on the growing Seattle sound since filming was well underway when grunge was born. The film actually started production in 1984 yet kept getting delayed.

Source: IMDB

With Elizabethtown a couple weeks away, let's look at some interesting factoids from Crowe's first film the immortal Say Anything:

- Originally the Smithereens were commissioned by Cameron Crowe to write the key song to the film. "A Girl Like You" was their creation which Crowe decided reveled the entire story of the film so he opted for Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" instead. When Lloyd was holding up the boombox it was actually playing a Fishbone song.
- Kirk Cameron was almost cast as Lloyd. Robert Downey Jr. and Christian Slater were also in the running. The part of Diane almost went to Jennifer Connelly.
- The dojo featured in this film was also the Cobra Kai dojo from the Karate Kid.

Source: IMDB

> Penny Lane in Almost Famous - Brad Pitt as Russell and Natalie as Penny? Now that would have been a completely different film. Crowe originally wrote the role of Russell for Pitt, which he reportedly declined for money reasons. Hudson was first to be William's sister.
> Scarlett Johansson's role in the Horse Whisperer - Horse Whisperer is the film that first put Johansson on the map. Would she still be filling the box office seats if Portman has taken this part over starring in The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway?
> Claire Dane's Juliet in Romeo + Juliet - she auditioned for the part but was ultimately passed over due to her age. DiCaprio was 21 at the time and she was 13. Come to think of it that would look a little icky. Natalie did end up trumping Danes later for the lead in Where the Heart Is.

Source: natalieportman.com

According to Robert Carlyle, there is a Trainspotting sequel, Porno, all ready to roll cameras on. So what is the hold-up? Evidently the dark cloud hanging over its future is a long standing feud between star Ewan McGregor and director Danny Boyle stemming from casting Leonardo DiCaprio in the Beach. Concerning the prospect of taking on Begby again, Carlyle said, "I have to say I've never been approached by anyone about it. I would hope to do it again because we had a great time the last time; some friendships I made on that film have continued to this day, and that's quite rare. The opportunity to work with Danny again would be fantastic."

Source: IMDB

For some time I've heard about the connection between Poe's Haunted and Mark Z. Danielewski's novel House of Leaves. Poe's album has long been one of cornerstones of my music collection, and I just started Leaves so further research was required. It seems Mark is Poe's brother, and Haunted is a concept album hinged on the book. Within the first chapter, you have references to two of the songs on the album. The book was a national bestseller and is supposed to be freaky scary. Both works seem to stem from a box of cassette recordings from their father uncovered a few years after his death. That is one talented family. As an aside for all of you wondering what has happened to Poe, she's bound up in contractual obligations with her label, keeping her from releasing new material or touring. Hopefully she can break free soon or at least leak some stuff to the Net because we need our Poe.

Source: Inception Magazine

Oasis fans can take comfort in the release of Don't Believe the Truth. It is a return to the days the Gallagher brothers believed their own high praise that they were the greatest band in the world. What may have slipped by your notice was the Masterplan. This was an album released in 1998 gathering up their b-sides and unreleased tracks from the Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? era. The songs are every bit as good as anything offered on these albums and they just happened to slip under the radar because at the time we were so busy digesting these seminal works. Take the time to backtrack and pick up the third album while Oasis was at the top of their art.

Like most viewers, I was throughly perplexed by the cryptic ending of American Psycho (if you haven't seen it and plan to, this would be a good time to find another article). Did Bateman kill all those yuppie socialities or was his clock just short of a cuckoo bird? According to the co-writer, he really did slaughter all those people. What the rest of that mess was all about is beyond me.

Also, Gloria Steinem was a vocal critic of the Brent Easton Ellis novel and advised Leonardo DiCaprio not to take the part of Bateman. Strangely, it opened the path for her future stepson Christian Bale to be cast.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Sean Penn seems to have found a new passion in life, news reporting. He has shocked and bewildered many fans and journalist with his new role as San Francisco Chronicle's newest reporter on special assignment to cover the presidential elections in the Iranian Capital. Not only does he give you in depth coverage of current affairs, but he also tries his hand at cultural relations between opposing nations. Read more from Journal Advocate about what Jeff Spicoli has accomplished since graduating from Ridgemont High.

Some interesting thoughts on this summer's hottest films.
> Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Nicole Kidman originally signed on to play Mrs. Smith but then dropped out. Jennifer Aniston is probably still mad at her.
> Cinderella Man - This project has been in development for years, and back in 2000, Billy Bob Thornton was slotted to direct and Ben Affleck (pre J.Lo) was going to star.
> Dukes of Hazzard - The TV show was created by Gy Waldron and based on his movie Moonrunners, which was also about a pair of brothers bootlegging for their Uncle Jesse. Waylon Jennings narrated that movie, as well as every episode of the TV series.

Courtesy of Yahoo Movies

Yes my friends the favorite animal of everyone's favorite Idaho weirdo, Napoleon Dynamite, isn't just a figment of an overactive imagination. It actually exists. It is the result of a male lion getting his groove on with a female tiger. This is not to be confused with tigons which is this formula flipped. Either way you mix it, these are some pretty interesting looking cats. There is your Discovery channel lesson for the day.

Click on the following links for more information on ligers and tigons.

Here are a couple interesting factoids from A Clockwork Orange
> The actor who played Alex (Malcolm McDowell) can to this day still not go to an opticians because of the mental scarring the 'eye scene' caused him.
> The significance of the movie's title is that it is something mechanical inside of something organic, much like Alex after his "treatment."
> The writer's physical therapist, Julian, is played by David Prowse, who in Star Wars is the body of Darth Vader.
Source: http://www.jonhs.com/

When the principle animation for Shrek was finished, Mike Myers decided that the title character would be stronger with a Scottish accent. So he requested that he be allowed to redo all of his lines, which required months of additional work and cost about 4 million dollars. It was a gutsy move that, fortunately for Myers, paid off in the end.

Source: http://www.jonhs.com/

Tarantino's screenplay originally had the film told out of order ala Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. In the original script Clarence dies in the end, and Alabama goes on to work in crime meeting up with Mr. White from Reservoir Dogs.

Kahuna burgers are mentioned in Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn and in True Romance too. When Clarence (Slater) takes his first bite of the Kahuna burger, he has almost the exact same reaction as Jules (Jackson) has in Pulp Fiction when he takes a bite of Brett's burger.

Source: http://www.jonhs.com/

Is it a coincidence the Dogma spelled backwards is AMGOD, where AM stands for Alanis Morrisette, who played God in the over ambitious 1999 mis-step by Kevin Smith? The film was written by Smith before he did the ultra low-budget b/w classic Clerks but wasn't produced then for 2 reasons: 1) he knew Jason Mewes (Jay) wasn't ready because he could hardly remember his lines and 2) he knew that he would get a lot of flack from the film, which could've hurt his chances for future movie projects.

Source: www.jonhs.com

Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady," was written about Vince Neil of Motley Crue.
- www.absolutetrivia.com

So you think you know The Godfather huh Cochise? Did you know that the infamous horse head was real? The crew found the horse in a New Jersey rendering plant and had it's head packed in ice and shipped to the set. Also, the Godfather was the first movie in over twenty years in which Marlon Brando was required to audition. The studio heads wanted nothing to do with him, however they relented with the insistence of Coppola.

Johnny Depp's main reason for doing "Secret Window" was because he always wanted to play a character named "Mort." He even turned down the role of Rev. Graham Hess in "Signs," which eventually went to Mel Gibson, because "it wasn't worth it." Known for his eclectic movie choices, his reasons for choosing or not choosing a role (no matter how absurd), shouldn't be too surprising.

In a recent interview with Maxim Magazine (January 2005), Bruce Willis said he turned down the role of Terry Benedict in "Ocean's 11" for prior committments. Andy Garcia was a fine choice, but Willis would surely have brought his trademark sarcastic-swagger to the role making it much more fun and memorable.

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