Question: I know that the studio chose James Cameron to direct due to the strength of his script, but why wasn't Ridley Scott offered the chance to direct? And was the studio considering a sequel before Cameron joined?
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Chosen answer: The studio was considering a sequel before Cameron was involved, but regarding directing it, Ridley Scott told "The Hollywood" in a 2008 interview, "They didn't ask me! To this day I have no idea why. It hurt my feelings, really, because I thought we did quite a good job on the first one." The studio liked Cameron's script and at that time he had enough clout to be able to insist on directing it.
Question: I've read that The Godfather has gotten 270-280 million dollars at the box office. Now I though that Jaws was the first to get 100 million. Was this statistic just in the US or did the Godfather garner this number with a re-release?
Chosen answer: The Godfather's totals mentioned above include domestic + foreign + re-releases over the years. In its initial release (and re-release after the 1973 Academy awards) it earned $85.7 million domestically. Jaws received $123 million in its initial domestic release.
Question: There is an incredibly freaky but cool voice in the trailer that sounds like a woman screaming. Is this sound heard in the film (I've watched it heaps of times but never heard it) and how was the sound effect created?
Chosen answer: The "woman screaming" sound effect was created by an instrument called the water harp. And, no, the sound effect was never heard in the film.
Question: If Snape never wanted the Philosopher's stone, why did he attempt to enter the chamber on Halloween (when Fluffy injured his leg)? Quirrell later says that Snape stopped him from trying to get the stone on Halloween, so there should have been no reason for Snape to try and get past Fluffy.
Answer: Snape was heading off Quirrell and trying to protect the stone.
Question: How come Raj has no problem speaking to his mother, but, when around other women, such as Penny, he immediately stops talking? Also, why does he have to whisper in someone's ear if he wants to ask Penny something?
Answer: Because Raj's selective mutism seems to be caused by women that Raj sees (on some sort of conscious or subconscious level) as a potential sexual partner. An attribute that wouldn't apply to either his sister or mother.
Question: Why didn't James Cameron return to direct? I know he made more than a name for himself after Aliens but I don't understand why the studio wouldn't ask him to return due to how good Aliens was. And why was a debut director (David Fincher) brought in with such a high budget? Wouldn't the producers think of choosing a more experienced filmmaker to deal with the budget and actors, considering how strong the previous films were?
Chosen answer: I did a little reading on this. Cameron was adamant at the time that if there was an Aliens 3 that he, and his then-wife, Gale Hurd, would not be part of it. He said by the time a decision could be made about a another sequel and a plot was outlined, they would already be on to other projects, and he did not want to invest that much time and effort into one film franchise. He stated that money was not an issue, but he simply wanted to move on to other creative projects. Fincher had at this point directed several successful and lucrative, big money advertisements. The producers had enough faith in him to believe he was capable of directing the third film, but not so much to give him total creative control. There has never been a "directors cut" of Alien 3, as Fincher had so little control, that he pretty much disassociated himself from the film after completion.
Question: What exactly are midichlorians?
Chosen answer: Midi-chlorians are an intelligent microscopic lifeform present in the bloodstream of all sentient beings within the Star Wars universe. The higher the midi-chlorian count present within a being's bloodstream, the more Force-sensitive they are, making them a likely candidate for Jedi (or Sith) training.
Question: I was wondering if there were any unsimulated sex scenes in the film, because some of them look very real.
Chosen answer: No. While some NC-17, non-pornographic films do feature unsimulated sex (Nine Songs and Nymphomaniac, among others), it's normally explicitly (heh) clear that it's real, rather than just seeming realistic.
Question: In the movie where the Deetz's are remodeling the house outside and all the cranes and construction guys are there, Delia is talking to one of the workers while climbing down a set of stairs. As a child, it sounded like she said "If you tell me what you do, I'll tell you why my husband farted." Obviously this is not what she says, but even now as an adult, it really does sound like she is saying that! Can anyone please tell me what she was saying? Thanks!
Answer: She says, "If you tell me what you do, I'll tell you why my husband will fire you."
Answer: She says "I'll tell you why my husband fired you."
Question: Gandalf would not give the ring to a powerful character for safekeeping, because the character was apt to forget to protect it or misplace it. The character was supposed to so powerful even Gandalf was leery of him. What was that character's name, please?
Answer: Tom Bombadil, who is not named because he's not in the films.
Question: Why wasn't Calhoun's previous husband not turned into a cy-bug after he got eaten? I thought the cy-bugs turned into anything they eat, or at least something like it?
Answer: While the Cy-Bug may have turned into Calhoun's fiance, it would not matter as she fired upon it, and killed it. Another issue is, he never existed. It was just a back story. The character never lasts beyond that.
Answer: We never see the cyborg after her fiance was eaten. Just a shot of her firing away.
Question: This question is also related to Saw II: when Cecil Adams is in his trap, I have a question about that scene. In Saw 2, we see that John tries to commit suicide after he knows he has a brain tumor, but the point is that I really don't understand if that suicide scene happens before or after Cecil's death. Because if the suicide was before, I don't see why he would want to die if he's getting a son and if it's after, I don't find that he looks like someone who already 'killed' someone. Can you help me?
Answer: Stuff happens in the following order: Jill gets pregnant, Cecil makes her lose the baby, john and Jill break up because of it and his resulting change of character, John gets Cancer on top of all that, John tries to kill himself and survives, John vows to "rehabilitate" other people, he decides to start with Cecil.
Answer: John's suicide attempt happens far before the events of the films and even before Jill got pregnant. After he survived he now finds out that human life is a privilege and seeks to 'help' those who have disregard for their lives. Cecil was chosen because he was a patient at Jill's health clinic who frequently had outbursts and lashed out. John knows he had a perfect 'patient' and so began his first test.
Question: Just before Bond gets get on the cable car, there is a brass band wearing full costume animal outfits, a grey rabbit, pink chicken, red monkey, spotted dog. What is the song they are playing and which band is it?
Question: The tour guide, Mary Beth, is revealed to be La Muerte and the elderly security guard is revealed to be Xibalba. The museum scene appears to take place in the United States while the story, the majority of the film, obviously takes place in Mexico. If the museum is in the United States, then why would La Muerte and Xibalba go to such a country and disguise themselves as U.S. Citizens?
Chosen answer: Probably their goal is to tell as many people around the world as possible about Manolo and co.'s story so that they will continue to be remembered.
Answer: Maybe they just wanted to share the story and have people remember the heroes of San Angel.
Question: Is Grifter supposed to be the Flashpoint time line version of Robin? And if so, which Robin in particular?
Chosen answer: No. Grifter is Cole Cash. A character originally created for Wildstorm, a comic company that later became an imprint of DC.
Question: Why was Rattlesnake Jake scared of the Hawk? He would have no trouble shooting it down (like he did with the bats).
Answer: It also was the fact that Jake had a fear of hawks. When he spotted one fake or real he would just hide without thinking. Metal beak also didn't think like the other animals. She had a primal mindset which would scare all the other animals.
Question: I thought the old vampire told Vlad that if he drank blood during the 3 days, the old guy would be released from the cave and Vlad would take his place there forever. So how come at the end, after Vlad gave in and drank blood, becoming a vampire forever, he didn't have to stay in that cave?
Chosen answer: Actually, what the master vampire told Vlad is that he will return to mortal after three days if there is no feeding. If Vlad does feed, he will become a new vessel for the dark power, a new offering to the dark. Nothing was said that Vlad would be trapped in the cave but rather a scourge on the Earth. It is true that if Vlad feeds, the master vampire would be set free. After that, the master vampire can take revenge on the one who turned him. A new game of revenge would then be played between him and Vlad.
That's kind of weird because I remember the Master Vampire saying the same thing about Vlad staying in the cave forever too.
Question: For the DVD release, the cover has the words LIVE DIE REPEAT in large letters while EDGE OF TOMORROW is in a very small print. Why? Was there a title change?
Answer: Warner Brothers decided to re-brand the film due to its poor performance at the box office. They felt the title let it down and hoped the new name (using the tagline) would help DVD sales.
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Answer: It really was all down to James Cameron having already written the script and proving himself capable of directing with 'The Terminator.' It was just a quicker, easier, and almost certainly cheaper decision to let him direct his own script rather than get someone else, even Ridley Scott. While the producers had wanted to make an 'Alien' sequel almost immediately, at the time the head of 20th Century Fox didn't want to pursue it fearing it would be seen as an obvious cash-in and flop. When a new executive at the studio came in a couple years later, the project was put back on track, and I believe Cameron was the first to be approached to write the script.
TonyPH