Things You May Not Know About Your Favorite Christmas Movies, Part 8
Christmas is just 14 days away, so instead of the usual 12, we present 14 pieces of movie trivia you may not know about some of your favorite Christmas movies.
Among the movies for this round, and the last round of the year, we have a horror movie that directly resulted in the creation of parent groups against movies, Dolph Lundgren in a widely underappreciated sci-fi classic, and the extremely disappointing conclusion of a beloved holiday trilogy.
‘I Come in Peace’
- In the scene where Lundgren’s character breaks up a convenience store robbery, the actor playing one of the robbers missed his mark, ended up too close to Lundgren, and was legitimately knocked out by Lundgren’s spinning heel kick.
- Matthias Hues had to perform all of his own stunts as the production couldn’t find a stuntman big enough to double the 6’5” Hues.
Triumph ReleasingTriumph Releasing ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’
- Though believed by some to be a fabrication of the movie, the Dickens family did have a pet raven, which is said to have been the inspiration for ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe, who was a friend of Charles Dickens.
- 87-year-old Christopher Plummer is the oldest actor to play Scrooge on screen.
‘The Santa Clause 3’
- David Krumholtz was not available to reprise his role of Bernard, the head elf, due to his commitments on the television show ‘Numbers’. However, his character does appear in the novelization.
- Though it premiered in an age of DVDs being released within months of the film’s premier, this wasn’t released on home video until just over a year after it hit theaters.
‘The Holiday’
- Dustin Hoffman’s cameo in the movie was not planned. Hoffman was driving past the Blockbuster Video where they were filming and decided to stop by to see what was going on. As he knew the writer/director Nancy Meyers, she wrote a quick role for Hoffman.
- The film was written specifically with all four lead actors in mind.
Sony PicturesSony Pictures ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’
- Released the same weekend as ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, and even beat 'Nightmare' its first weekend due to being released in more theaters.
- The parents group ‘Citizens Against Movie Madness’ was founded to protest the movie, resulting in a 45% revenue drop its second week in theaters, and being shelved for a year.
TriStar PicturesTriStar Pictures ‘The Ref’
- The original ending of the film had Denis Leary’s character being arrested to show a life of crime leads nowhere. The ending was changed after test audiences reacted negatively to it, a change director Ted Demme says he regrets making.
- The film debut of Oscar winning actor J.K. Simmons.
‘Surviving Christmas’
- The production was reportedly troubled as the film was completed without a full script, and Ben Affleck’s stand-in bashing the experience in his book, Dreams That Die: Misadventures in Hollywood.
- The film was originally meant to be released for Christmas 2003, but was pushed back to the 2004 holiday season as to not complete with another film starring Ben Affleck. It was then rushed to a home release only two months after its theatrical premier.
DreamworksDreamworks
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