The Top 10 Lists

10. While filming a fight scene, Robert Maillet accidentally knocked out Robert Downey Jr..

9.  Jude Law had an early role in "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" (1991) Shoscombe Old Place. This was the series featuring Jeremy Brett, and is a favorite adaptation among Sherlock Holmes fans.

8. The set for Sherlock Holmes's home in this film was previously used as Sirius Black's home in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

7. There were rumors that Brad Pitt has been cast as Moriarty and re shoots have taken place, but the rumors were quickly denied.

6. The part of Sherlock Holmes has been previously played by Michael Caine, while Watson is played in this film by Jude Law. Law took over Caine's role in Alfie (2004) and Sleuth (2007), appearing together with him in the latter film.

5. Sienna Miller was in talks for a role before her ex-fiancé Jude Law was cast as Watson.

4.  James Downey, Robert Downey Jr.'s uncle and long time head writer of "Saturday Night Live" (1975), played Sherlock Holmes in a sketch during the same season his nephew was a cast member.

3. The outfits worn by the navvies are the same ones worn by the railway workers in "Cranford: Part One: August 1844 (#2.1)" (2009).

2. Colin Farrell was in talks to play Watson before Jude Law was cast.

1.  The first Sherlock Holmes film to reach U.S. movie theaters in over twenty years, since the 1988 comedy Without a Clue (1988) with Michael Caine as Reginald Kincaid/"Sherlock Holmes".

 

Source: Movie Trivia

10. The Blind Side

A 2009 American drama sports film written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film follows Oher from his impoverished upbringings, through his years at Wingate Christian School (a fictional representation of Briarcrest Christian School), his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, and on to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football.

The film stars Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher, Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, Oher's adoptive parents, and Kathy Bates as Miss Sue, Oher's tutor. The movie also features appearances by several current and former National Collegiate Athletic Association coaches, including Houston Nutt, Ed Orgeron, Phillip Fulmer, Nick Saban, Lou Holtz and Tommy Tuberville, and recruiting analyst Tom Lemming.

9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Also known as Ice Age 3, is a 2009 3-D computer animated film. It is the third installment of the Ice Age series, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. A sneak preview was shown in selected theaters on Father's Day in the United States. The film features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, and Chris Wedge. The story has Sid being taken by a female Tyrannosaurus rex after stealing her eggs, leading the rest of the protagonists to rescue him in a tropical lost world inhabited by dinosaurs beneath the ice. Despite mixed reviews by critics, Dawn of the Dinosaurs became the second highest grossing animated film of all time with $869.1 million worldwide. There is an attraction based on the film at Chessington World of Adventures. It is a small walkthrough involving a few interactive activities. It was available to June 18 to August 31.

8. Monsters Vs. Alien

A 2009 American computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures. The movie was the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to the film's budget.

The film was scheduled for a May 2009 release, but the release date was moved to March 27, 2009, to prevent competition with James Cameron's Avatar, which has since moved its release to December 2009. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray September 29, 2009 in North America. Monsters vs. Aliens features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Rudd.

7. Avatar

A 2009 American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi — the sapient and sentient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon — resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives.

Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote a 114-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film. In early 2006, Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora. He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned.

The film was released in traditional 2-D and 3-D formats, along with an IMAX 3D release in selected theaters. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million; other estimates put the cost at $280 – $310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing. The film is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Opening to critical and commercial success, it grossed an estimated $27 million on its opening day and made $77,025,481 in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend. Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated $232,180,000 on its opening weekend, the ninth-largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.

6. Star Trek

A 2009 science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek franchise and features the main characters of the original Star Trek television series, who are portrayed by a new cast. The film follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) before they unite aboard the USS Enterprise to combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The story establishes an alternate reality through time-travel by both Nero and the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy), freeing the film and the franchise from established continuity constraints.

Development of the film began in 2005. The production's aim was to be faithful to the Star Trek canon, modifying continuity with the time-travel storyline, and modernizing the production design of the original show. Filming took place from November 2007 to March 2008 under intense secrecy. Midway through the shoot, Paramount chose to delay the release date from December 25, 2008 to May 2009, believing the film could reach a wider audience.

Star Trek has earned high critical praise, gaining a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is the eleventh-highest-grossing film of 2009 — sixth-highest within North America — and has become the highest-grossing film in the Star Trek series and is credited by the media as a reboot of the series.

5. The Hangover

The Hangover is a 2009 American screwball comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, co-written by Jon Lucas and produced by Phillips and Daniel Goldberg. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures for Warner Bros. Pictures. It stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, and Heather Graham.

The plot follows four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning not remembering a thing and missing the groom, whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day. The film was inspired by the filmmakers' real life misadventures, and was released in North America on June 5, 2009, to critical praise and box office success.

4. The Twilight Sage: New Moon

A 2009 American romantic fantasy film based on Stephenie Meyer's 2006 novel New Moon. It is the second film in The Twilight Saga film series and is the sequel to 2008's Twilight, which is also based on Meyer's previous novel. Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel in late November 2008, following the early success of Twilight. Directed by Chris Weitz, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.

Melissa Rosenberg, who handed in a draft of the film script during the opening weekend of Twilight, returned as screenwriter for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Filming began in Vancouver in late March 2009, and in Montepulciano, Italy in late May 2009.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released on November 20, 2009 in most countries, and set domestic box office records as the biggest midnight screening with $26.3 million. This led to the biggest single day domestic gross with $72.7 million. The film also opened with the third biggest domestic opening weekend ($142,839,137). The film was voted as the "Favorite Movie of 2009" on Moviefone and was was well received by fans, but critical reception was mixed.

3. Up

A 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and is the first animated film to open the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2009.

Up is director Pete Docter's second feature-length film after Monsters, Inc., and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar's tenth feature film and the studio's first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D, and is accompanied in theaters by the short film Partly Cloudy. The film was also shown in Dolby 3D in selected theaters.

The film centers around an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an overeager wilderness explorer named Russell who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons. The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews with a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and grossed over $683 million worldwide, making it Pixar's second most commercially successful film, after Finding Nemo.

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Released on 16 July 2005, is the sixth of seven novels from British author J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.

The book sold three million copies in the first 16 hours after its release, a record at the time which was eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

A 2009 American science fiction action film, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to Transformers (2007) and the second film in the live action Transformers series. The plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons, having visions of Cybertronian symbols, and getting hunted by the Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen, who seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying all life on the planet in the process.
With deadlines jeopardized by possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, Bay managed to finish the production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008.

Although Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received mixed to negative reviews from film critics it was a box office success, achieving the highest Wednesday opening gross in history, bringing in $62 million in North America and close to $100 million worldwide; this is also the second-highest opening day gross of all time, behind only The Dark Knight's $67.8 million. It is currently the third highest-grossing film of 2009 worldwide (behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and the highest-grossing film of 2009 in the United States. In less than a month, the film surpassed the all-time earnings of its predecessor. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in USA on October 20, 2009 and on the 30th November 2009 in the UK.

Source: Wiki

10. Promotional items were shipped to cinemas under the name "Project 880".

9. Seeing the character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) convinced James Cameron that CGI effects had progressed enough to make this film.

8. Although Cameron also wrote and directed Aliens (1986) and Sigourney Weaver appears as principle star in both movies, Avatar features a totally different alien world along with unique beings, creatures, and locale.

7. A casting call was posted on the website of Mali Finn Casting in early December 2005 for the female lead. The casting call was erroneously reported to be for James Cameron's Battle Angel (2011). However, Battle Angel will be the second of the back-to-back Cameron projects with a likely 2013 release.

6. Michael Biehn was considered for the role of Col. Quaritch. He met with James Cameron three times and saw some of the 3D footage, but in the end it simply came down to the fact that Cameron didn't want people thinking it was Aliens (1986) all over again, as Sigourney Weaver had already been cast.

5. The movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI. A lot of motion capture technology was used for the CGI scenes.

4. Sigourney Weaver plays a James Cameron persona for her character in this film. Sigourney stated in an interview, "I teased him because to me I'm playing Jim Cameron in the movie as this kind of brilliant, approach-driven, idealistic perfectionist. But that same somebody has a great heart underneath. So I have to say I was always kind of channeling him."

3. Announced on June 14, 2005 in the Hollywood Reporter, James Cameron's untitled "Project 880" is a parallel project being developed alongside Battle Angel (2011). It will use the same digital-3D camera system (developed by Vince Pace) and virtual production studio (developed by Robert Legato) that Cameron will use on Battle Angel.

2. James Cameron originally attempted to get this film made in 1999 as his immediate follow-up to Titanic (1997). However, at the time, the special effects he wanted for the movie ran the proposed budget up to $400 million. No studio would fund the film, and it was subsequently shelved for almost ten years.

1. James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic (1997).

Souce: Movie Trivia

10.The first film's screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were brought back for this film. They had originally turned down writing because they had a busy schedule, but when the studio approached other writers and found their ideas unimpressive, they were convinced to return.

 

9. On July 27, 2008, Shia LaBeouf and Isabel Lucas were involved in a car crash, with LaBeouf having his hand injured and in need of surgery. Thankfully, production was delayed by only two days after the accident: Michael Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and LaBeouf recovered a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury will be written into the story, but Roberto Orci said rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot.

 

8. A Pontiac Solstice sportscar was spotted on the set during filming. This car was the alternate mode of the Autobot Jazz, who appeared in the first film.

 

7. Wheelie's robot mode pays homage to WALL·E (2008), another robot film. Both robots have elongated necks, binocular eyes and ; both are servants that eventually make their own decisions.

 

6. Shooting for the submarine scenes of the movie was conducted on the USS Topeka stationed at Point Loma Submarine Base in San Diego, CA. Some of the extras for the scenes were actual US Navy sailors.

 

5.The Autobot Arcee was originally meant to appear in the first film, but was replaced with Ironhide since the writers thought the issue of robot gender a difficult one to explain. Afterwards they thought it could just be ignored and have Arcee in the film to please her fans. However, Arcee's alternate mode was felt to be too small to do her character justice, so she was given two partners (named Chromia and Moonracer) and the trio were made Combiners.

 

4. The Shanghai Skirmish was shot at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and in Long Beach, California.

 

3. During production, Michael Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film. However, Roberto Orci confessed it had generally not been working.

 

2. From the original voice cast of "Transformers" (1984), only Peter Cullen and Charles Adler took part in the first film. However, after listening to feedback from TFans, the filmmakers elected to bring in more of the show's voice actors. In addition to Cullen and Adler, they brought back Susan Blu, Michael Bell and Rob Paulsen, and especially brought back veteran voice artist Frank Welker to reprise his role as the voice of Soundwave, the most loyal soldier to Megatron.

 

1. In an interview with Shia LaBeouf', he claimed the college scenes were part of his personal dream: "I wanted to go to college and I was going to go. I had my backpack picked out, all my cool little pump-up pencils and stuff; I was ready. And at the last minute a guy named Steven Spielberg called up and had a plan for other things. I decided to listen to Spielberg as opposed to listening to myself. But still, even though I've done these movies and I'm very fortunate and blessed to have done them, I always feel lesser, intellectually - I always feel like anytime I'm around anybody who's gone to school they have a superiority you know about them. It's just one of those insecurities I'll deal with for the rest of my life unless I go to school."

 

Source: Movie Trivia

10. Director Guillermo del Toro turned down the chance to direct this film so he could work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).

 

9. Helen McCrory had been cast to play Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), but had to back out because she was pregnant. She will play Bellatrix's sister, Narcissa Malfoy in this film.

 

8. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin has been cast as Tom Riddle, Age 11, while his uncle, Ralph Fiennes plays Lord Voldemort (formerly Tom Riddle). His parents are Martha Fiennes (Ralph's sister) and George Tiffin.

 

7. Quidditch at Hogwarts makes a grand (and much publicized) return, after being completely absent since the fourth installment.

 

6. The changing of the release date from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009 actually helped increase the number of IMAX theaters that Half-Blood Prince will be available in. The November release had only 40 IMAX theaters showing the film; that number has increase by 60 theaters for a total of 100 IMAX theaters releasing the film in July.

 

5. Director David Yates says that he hired Hero Fiennes-Tiffin to play the young Voldemort/Tom Riddle because of his resemblance to his uncle Ralph Fiennes (who plays Voldemort/Tom Riddle as an adult) but not specifically because he was the actor's nephew. He liked the dark haunted quality about the young actor.

 

4. In the movie we see a collapsing of the Millennium Bridge. This differs from the source book since the Millennium Bridge was built in 2000, and the plot of Half-Blood Prince takes place in 1996, according to J.K. Rowling. However, in the movies there are no references to which year the setting of the story takes place.

 

3. There is a scene in this movie in which Death Eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) and Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno), attack The Burrow where Harry, The Weasley's, Lupin, and Tonks are staying. This particular scene was not in the book but was made just for the movie to add excitement.

 

2. Two new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: The collapsing Millenium bridge (at the beginning of the film, and which appears in the Third Trailer) and the Death Eater attack at the Burrow (seen in the second trailer). An attack on a Muggle bridge is actually mentioned in the original opening of the book by Cornelius Fudge, but not shown.

 

1. J.K. Rowling read through the script for this film, and found a line where Dumbledore mentions a girl he had a crush on when he was younger. After reading it, she informed the filmmakers that Dumbledore is in fact gay, and that his only romantic infatuation was with the wizard Grindelwald, whom he later had to defeat in a wizard duel. She later made this information public while promoting the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

Sources: Movie Trivia, Mugglenet

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.