Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I will be posting weekly and info that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…



1: At one point during the casting of “Platoon“, director Oliver Stone wanted Mickey Rourke to play Sgt. Barnes (the Tom Berenger role) and Nick Nolte as the experienced Sgt. Elias (the Willem Dafoe role). Both were offered the parts, and both turned it down. Rourke was also offered the role of Elias.



2: In “Eyes Wide Shut“, according to writer Frederic Raphael, the final form of Bill’s family name (Harford, as opposed to Scheuer in the original story) was inspired by a debate about Bill’s character. Raphael felt Bill should be Jewish as in the original, but Stanley Kubrick insisted Bill (Tom Cruise) and Alice (Nicole Kidman) be “vanilla” Americans, without any details that would arouse any presumptions. Kubrick said that Bill should be a bit like Harrison Ford – hence the name Harford. Ironically, Ford himself is Jewish on his mother’s side.



3: After reading the script to “Backdraft“, Jennifer Jason Leigh reportedly told director Ron Howard that she wished she was the fire because it has the best part.



4: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck‘s original script for “Good Will Hunting” was originally a thriller. The characters were the same, but instead of becoming involved with a therapist, Will Hunting became an FBI agent. There were also rumours that Kevin Smith and Robert Towne were interested in rewriting the film.



5: Paul Newman was so ashamed of his performance in the “The Silver Chalice” in 1954 that he took out a large advert in Variety, the movie industry magazine, apologising for it.



6: In Mike Nichols’s “The Graduate“, there is one shot where Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) holds Mrs Robinson’s breast. She ignores him, rubbing at a spot on her clothes. He turns and bangs his head against the wall. The breast-touching was Hoffman’s spur-of-the-moment idea and he was laughing so much he banged his head against the wall, convinced the shot would be cut. It stayed in.



7: For the German TV version of “Die Hard“, the German terrorists Hans and Karl were been renamed, as the distinctly American-sounding Jack and Charlie.



8: When he got the lead role in “Trainspotting“, Ewan McGregor was open to injecting himself with heroin, to better understand Renton’s character. He later decided against it.



9: Director Brian De Palma met Bob Hoskins over a drink in Los Angeles to discuss playing Al Capone in “The Untouchables” if De Palma’s first choice Robert DeNiro were to pass on the role. Since DeNiro didn’t say yes, Hoskins told De Palma he would do it if he were available. When DeNiro finally took the role, De Palma sent Hoskins a thank you note, and the studio paid Hoskins, who had a “pay or play” deal, $200,000. Hoskins called De Palma and asked if there were any more movies the director didn’t want him to be in.



10: In “Devil’s Advocate“, Keanu Reeves played the character Kevin Lomax. The name Lomax may be a reference to being a “Low MACH.” This is a term used to describe those people scoring below 60/100 on the MACH-IV test used by personality and social psychologists to measure “Machiavellianism” which is a measure of a person’s tendency to manipulate and deceive others for personal gain. E.g. “Low MACHs” tend to agree with the following statements (taken from the test): No. 7.) “There is no excuse for lying to someone else.” No. 11.) “Most people who get ahead in the world lead clean, moral lives.” These are precisely some of the personal moral issues faced by the character in the film.

So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box.

See you next week…

(For earlier editions of Trivia Tidbits click here.)