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Jaws (1975)
1. A midget in a miniature cage and a real shark were used to get some shots
correct.
2. Apparently, technicians lost control of one of the mechanical sharks, and it was lost at sea.
Jay And Silent bob Strike Back (2001)
1. The medical company
that Jay and Silent Bob break into is called "Provasic". This is the name
of the "Miracle Drug" in The Fugitive (1992) which the movie goes
on to spoof.
2. The movie studio chase was originally to have the characters run through a
Spider-Man shoot. However, Sony Pictures, which held the film license for the
character, refused to allow the appearance. In response, Marvel Comics Editor in
Chief, Joe Quesada, suggested to Kevin Smith to use another Marvel Comics
character, Daredevil, instead.
3. When the jewel thieves get their pizza, the name of the pizza place is
"Marvel Pizza". The man delivering the pizza is the head of Marvel Comics
Jumanji (1995)
1. In the scene where Van Pelt enters the gun store, the music playing in the
radio is Mexico's national anthem.
Jurassic Park (1993)
1. Fred Sorenson was the pilot who flew the crew off Kaui when the hurricane hit
during production. He is the pilot who flew Indiana Jones away in the opening
scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), also directed by Spielberg.
2. William Hurt was offered the
role of Dr. Grant, but turned it down without reading the book or the script.
3. The first draft of the screenplay had Hammond left behind on the island.
4. In Michael Crichton's novel, John Hammond proudly says that the narrator on
the pre-recorded park tour is Richard Kiley. Later, Kiley was hired to play
himself in that role for the movie; possibly the only instance of a celebrity
"appearing" in a book, and then later cast as him or herself in the film
version.
5. The glass of water sitting on the dash of the Ford Explorer was made to
ripple using a guitar string that was attached to the underside of the dash
beneath the glass.
6. Director Steven Spielberg was worried that "computer graphics" meant
"Nintendo" type cartoon quality. He originally only wanted the herd of
gallimimus dinosaurs to be computer-generated, but upon seeing ILM's demo
animation of a T-rex chasing a herd of galamides across his ranch, he decided to
shoot nearly all the dinosaur scenes using this method. The animation was first
plotted on an Amiga Toaster, and rendered for the film by Silicon Graphics'
Indigo workstations.
7. Generally speaking, any shot of a full dinosaur was computer-generated, but
shots of parts of dinosaurs were of animatronics.
8. The full-sized animatron of the tyrannosaurus rex weighed about 13,000 to
15,000 pounds. During the shooting of the initial T-rex attack scene that took
place in a downpour and was shot on a soundstage, the latex that covered the
T-rex puppet absorbed great amounts of water, making it much heavier and harder
to control. Technicians worked throughout the night with blow driers trying to
dry the latex out. Eventually, they suspended a platform above the T-rex, out of
camera range, to keep the water off it during filming.
9. A baby triceratops was built for a scene where one of the kids rides it.
Special effects technicians worked on this effect for a year but the scene was
cut at the last minute as Spielberg thought it would ruin the pacing of the
film.
10. The park software is written in Pascal; a program is clearly visible in one
of the monitor close-ups on the UNIX system. The graphical interface recognized
as a UNIX system is Silicon Graphics' "3D File System Navigator".
11. In the egg-hatching scene, a new-born baby triceratops was originally
supposed to come out of the egg, but it was changed to a velociraptor.
12. The first film to use DTS digital surround sound.
13. Fred Sorenson was the pilot who flew the crew off Kauai when the hurricane
hit during production. He played "Jock", the pilot who flew Indiana Jones away
in the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), also
directed by Spielberg.
14. At the very end of the film when it says "A Steven Spielberg Film" you hear
the five notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
slightly modified.
15. Spielberg was so confident with this film that he started making his next
film Schindler's List (1993), placing post-production in the hands
of George Lucas.
16. Spielberg wanted the velociraptors to be about 10 feet tall, which was
taller than they were known to be. During filming, paleontologists uncovered
10-foot-tall specimens of raptors called Utahraptors.
17. In the shots of the gift shop, clearly visible is a book entitled "The
Making of Jurassic Park" by Don Shay and Jody Duncan. This title was published
but tells the behind the scenes story of how the film was made. Jody Duncan also
wrote "The Making Of" book for The Jurassic Park: Lost World
(1997).
18. On September 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki hit the island of Kauai, delaying
production of the film.
19. All the merchandise (T-Shirts, stuffed Dinosaurs, lunch boxes, flasks, etc.)
shown in the film were, in some part actually created to be sold with the movie.
Jurassic Park III (2001)
1. Originally, the film included Jeff Goldblum and his character, Ian Malcolm.
But a few days into filming, Goldblum injured his leg and decided to drop out,
stating that his character wasn't that important to the script.
2. The Spinosaurus was the largest animatronic ever build. It weighed 12 tons
and was operated by hydraulics. This allowed it to operate while completely
submerged in water.
3. The effects crew used 250 gallons of oatmeal to simulate Spinosaur droppings.
4. When the paleontologists entering the bar for dinner with the Kirby's, you
can see a Jurassic Park pinball machine in the background.
5. Original scripts and storyboards had a Baryonyx as the main dinosaur instead
of the Spinosaurus. Baryonyx is a close relative of the Spinosaurus and they
looked basically the same. Baryonyx was a little smaller, and did not have the
fin like the Spinosaurus did. Joe Johnston wanted a main dinosaur that would not
be confused with the T-Rex. Though the Baryonyx would have been vastly
different, the Spinosaurus had a bizarre look no carnivore had.