TCTTS said:

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The moment in LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) where Bond steps across a row of crocodiles was real.
Crocodile farm owner Ross Katanga (whose own father had been eaten by a crocodile) did the stunt.
He succeeded on his 5th attempt.

Absolutely mental.

pic.twitter.com/UVW35rDmNW

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) July 2, 2021

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How he made those jumps with his giant brass balls banging against each other is beyond me.

Here's another one from the Tao of Screenwriting....

https://thetaoofscreenwriting.quora.com/?__ni__=0&__tiids__=32572065&__filter__=all&__nsrc__=notif_page&__sncid__=16746630681&__snid3__=23583339057#anchor

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JJ Abrams made an impact on the final cut of John Carpenter's Escape From New York when he was a teenager.

Abrams' father took him to a test screening of the film before its release. After the screening, Carpenter wanted to discuss the film. Some kid in the back of the audience raised his hand and asked what had happened to the character of Maggie, played by Adrienne Barbeau.

The fate of her character was only implied when she was hit by a car.
Because of this note, Carpenter got a small crew together, had Barbeau get back into her wardrobe, and shot a quick insert shot of her character being dead and covered in blood. The scene was shot in John Carpenter's garage.
Who was the kid? JJ Abrams.
Barbeau told her story to Variety:

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"J.J. raised his hand afterward and asked John, 'What happened to Maggie?' I guess he didn't think it was clear enough that she died when the car hit her. So a short while later, John and I got together with a very small film crew, and we went into our home's garage and shot that final image of Maggie covered in blood. I got back in my costume and makeup, roasted another turkey for my hair, laid down on the floor of the garage, and they poured blood all around me and shot that last scene of dead Maggie."

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But wait, it gets better.
Abrams told NPR of the story of his father's contribution to the final cut of the film.

Quote:

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"So I'm sitting there in this theater and John Carpenter starts this film and there was a whole opening sequence where the main character, Snake Plissken, is robbing a bank and he ends up getting caught, and the movie plays and the whole thing, it was magical, like it was amazing. And the movie was over and John Carpenter said, you know, okay, I want to talk about the movie. And what I learned was just by watching him be open to any criticism. And it was just incredible watching him take notes that were sometimes easy and understandable, other times huge, and he knew he had a movie that at the time was problematic in certain ways and he was trying to fix it. And I remember my dad raised his hand. I was like ooh, God. What? Just dont... And he said yes. You know, my dad said cut the opening for the movie. And I thought, I'm leaving. I am out. So mad that I'm here. I am so humiliated. And John Carpenter said, what do you mean? And my dad said Snake Plissken is a more imposing character, he's more of a mythic character if you don't see him get caught. That when you meet him he's already held and you know. And I thought this is just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. God, I wish he hadn't said that. And in the final movie John Carpenter cut it out and that whole sequence is not in the film."

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Haha would that be because they didn't want tobruin his image of hardass gangster? I wish someone would pay me millions for not doing something. I cant even get millions for doing something.

Another tidbit from The Tao of Screenwriting:


Why is the 1987 vampire movie classic called The Lost Boys?




It's taken from Peter Pan and his "lost boys" that were able to stay young in Neverland forever. But it goes deeper than that.

It all started with a screenplay in the latter 1980s called Lost Boys, which was being pitched as Goonies with Vampires (The Goonies was a box office smash hit in 1985).

James Jeremias wrote the script (with Jan Fischer) while he was working as a grip on movie sets.

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"I had read Anne Rice's 'Interview With The Vampire' and in that, there was a 200-year-old vampire trapped in the body of a 12-year-old girl. Since Peter Pan had been one of my all-time favorite stories, I thought, 'What if the reason Peter Pan came out at night and never grew up and could fly was because he was a vampire?'"

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At the time, the story's lost boys were all pre-teen characters. They were kids. And the two brothers dealing with the vampires were pre-teen kids as well. And so were the Frog brothers, who were listed in the script as eight-year-old vampire-fighting twins.

Hence, it was being pitched as Goonies with Vampires.

Jeremias said:

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"It was about that time in life before sex rears its ugly little head."

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The script sold to a Warner Brothers-affiliated company for $400,000. When the company went bankrupt, WB had the script and quickly hired The Goonies director Richard Donner (RIP) to direct.

Donner wanted to make all of the characters older.

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"He wanted to make the boys older. He said, 'Old enough to drive,' but what he meant was, 'Old enough to ****.'"

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Donner was going to hire Fischer and Jeremias to rewrite the script, but they were under contract for another project for Paramount. So Donner brought in screenwriter Jeffrey Boam.

But then Donner was offered the chance to direct Lethal Weapon, which was a hot action buddy cop script in Hollywood written by a new hot screenwriter, Shane Black. Donner opted to go that route and, instead, took on Executive Producer duties for what was now called The Lost Boys (they added the the to the title).

Joel Schumacher (RIP) was brought on board to direct. He initially declined, not wanting to take on a Goonies with Vampires-type project. So he had the script sexed up a bit by making the lost boys in their later teen years (appearance-wise). And also made the other characters a bit older as well. He wanted the vampires to look like a rock band.

So from the inception of the concept, we went from this



to this



to this



And it was good.

TCTTS said:

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Literally zero chance that is an accident

Will Smith tells the story about how he declined being Neo in the The Matrix!

He even re-enacted how bad the Wachowskis’ pitch was when he first heard it. 😂😭

(Via @Todd_Spence)pic.twitter.com/VzDCkEvdB9

— The Undefeated (@TheUndefeated) August 20, 2021

Instead.......I made wild wild west

When early teaser logos didn’t quite nail it. pic.twitter.com/ajio6zMl2Q

— Charles de Lauzirika (@Lauzirika) August 23, 2021