All Movie Talk, Episode 1
Show contents, with start times:
- Director Spotlight: Christopher Nolan (1:12)
- Trivia Question: Franchise With Future Stars (15:03)
- Industry Trend: Cliffhangers (16:19)
- Top 6: Romantic Movies That Aren't Sappy (28:22)
- DVD Preview: October 2006 (44:00)
- Closing: Trivia Answer, Preview of Next Week (54:54)
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Show Notes:
Intro
People who use the metric system don't eat Quarter Pounders.
Director Spotlight: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan's films:
There is a trailer for The Prestige that we think is pretty cool.
Mulholland Dr. may or may not make sense. But Brian De Palma is definitely a Hitchcock rip-off artist.
Industry Trend: Cliffhangers
The condensed version of our timeline:
- Jaws came out in 1975 and burned up box office records. Three years later in 1978, it was released again but called Jaws 2 (technically they changed a few things but it's basically the same movie). The film world was changed and the cash-in sequel was solidified as acceptable practice.
- In 1977, Star Wars was released. It would make more money than anything. In 1980, The Empire Strikes Back comes out and sets up one of the first big movie cliffhangers.
- The first Superman movie came out in 1978. Most of Superman II (1980) was filmed at the same time.
- Back to the Future in 1985 ends with a cliffhanger and makes a ton of money. The studio then allows director Robert Zemeckis to film BTTF 2 and 3 at the same time. They will be released in 1989 and 1990, respectively.
- In 1999 The Matrix is a surprise hit. In a move taken from the Back to the Future playbook, Warner Bros. films both Matrix sequels at the same time. They are released only a few months apart, in May and November of 2003.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in the Lord of the Rings series, is released in 2001. All three movies were filmed at the same time and were released a year apart.
- Disney scored a big hit in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and followed it up with the (now standard) "film two at once" trick for parts two and three.
- Eragon, a movie to be released Dec. 15 of this year, is advertising itself as the "first chapter of the Inheritance Trilogy." A trailer is available.
Top 6: Romantic Movies That Aren't Sappy
Top 5 lists come from High Fidelity, and we do one more as an homage to a famous gag from This Is Spinal Tap.
See our separate Top 6 post for more info about our picks.
DVD Preview: October 2006
Sam's Picks:
Stephen's Picks:
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