Welcome back to Tuesday’s 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: Bill Murray was considered and tested for the role of Sulley in “Monsters Inc.” but the director, Pete Docter, said that when the filmmakers decided to offer it to Murray, they were unable to make contact with him and took that to mean “no”.



2: Daniel Radcliffe, Shia LaBeouf, James McAvoy, Erryn Arkin and Tobey Maguire were considered for the role of Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit“. However, Peter Jackson has said that his first choice was always Martin Freeman. Freeman was initially unable to accept the role, due to scheduling conflicts with “Sherlock“, but Jackson reworked the entire shooting schedule for the Hobbit films to accommodate him.



3: According to Naomi Watts, the producers of the film “The Impossible” heard an interview on Spanish radio where the real family told their story of surviving the Tsunami and decided from then to adapt the story into a film.



4: Originally, Richard Donner directed “Superman” and “Superman II” back to back, then cut back on filming the sequel to focus on finishing the first one for a Christmas release. A clash with producers Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind over the material led to Donner being fired before he could finish filming the second one and he was replaced with Richard Lester. Donner later estimated that he had directed 80% of the sequel and saw about 50% of his work in the theatrical film.



5: To enhance the scale of the Space Jockey in “Alien“, Ridley Scott actually filmed his kids in miniature space suits.



6: “Manhattan” is Woody Allen’s least favorite of the movies he has directed. However, it was the most commercially successful film of his career. He said years later that he was still in disbelief that he “got away with it”. He disliked it so much that he offered to direct another film for United Artists for free if they kept “Manhattan” on the shelf for good.



7: Edward Norton was originally offered the role of Pvt. Ryan in Steven Spielberg’s World War II film “Saving Private Ryan” but he turned it down and it eventually went to his “Rounders” co-star Matt Damon.



8: Author William Peter Blatty once won $10,000 on the Groucho Marx show “You Bet Your Life“. When Groucho asked what he planned to do with the money, he said he planned to take some time off to “work on a novel.” The novel turned out to be “The Exorcist“.



9: Viggo Mortensen was originally cast to play John Dunbar (Kevin Costner’s role) in “Dances With Wolves“. Mortensen was also supposed to play the character in a proposed sequel called “The Holy Road“. Costner stated he didn’t want to reprise the character but the sequel has yet to see the light of day either.



10: Francis Ford Coppola was in the early stages of developing a script for a fourth “Godfather” film with Mario Puzo which was to tell the story of the early lives of Sonny, Fredo and Michael. After Puzo’s death in July of 1999, Coppola abandoned the project, stating that he couldn’t do it without his friend.

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 Tuesday…

(For earlier editions of Trivia Tidbits click here.).