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Issue Date: November 5, 2006
18 things you didn't know about 2006's holiday movies
You can scarf down the turkey, smooch under the mistletoe and carol till the cows come home, but it won't be the holidays unless you see a holiday movie -- or 18. Here's a collection of fun facts and trivia on the season's biggest releases.
By Jamie Malanowski
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (Nov. 3) The film not only called for a North Pole full of elves, but it also specified dozens of occupational categories for them, including architect elves and yoga elves. But whatever jobs they had, they were all the same from the ankles down: They all wore red rubber Crocs clogs.
Volver (Nov. 3) At the start of production on this warm family drama, Penelope Cruz gave the director, Pedro Almodóvar, a special gift: a coffee-table book that she made called "Pedro and Me." It covered their entire working relationship, with photos taken on location, during publicity tours and at lunches with Billy Bob Thornton and Salma Hayek. The text was a collection of their e-mails.
A Good Year (Nov. 10) Russell Crowe closed each week's filming of this romantic comedy with a party for the cast and crew that included good food, good French wine, good music (often from Crowe's own band) and enthusiastic games of boules, similar to lawn bowling.
Harsh Times (Nov. 10) One key gunfight between Christian Bale and four thugs in this crime drama was shot over two days in 2005 when Los Angeles happened to receive record amounts of rainfall. "The scene looks great on film," director David Ayer says. "But what you can't see is the misery of the crew. Everyone was drenched, and the cameras kept shorting out."
Stranger than Fiction (Nov. 10) In one scene in this comedy about a man who finds his life being narrated by a voice only he can hear, Will Ferrell and Tony Hale discuss going to space camp over a meal. The filmmakers decided to have the two men eat the strangest foods that could be obtained. Among the exotic delicacies on their plates: pickled fern fronds, seaweed, bamboo, lychee nuts and pickled daikon.
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (Nov. 17) The band got a lot of support from the rock community for this Jack Black comedy. Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf make cameos (Loaf sings in a film for the first time since "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"), and for a scene in the fictitious Rock 'N' Roll History Museum, legends Eddie Van Halen and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick loaned guitars.
Happy Feet (Nov. 17) In motion-capture animation, performers must stand extremely still at the start of each take so the cameras and computers can locate them in the  space. When noted tap dancer Savion Glover began work on this comedy set deep in Antarctica, director George Miller kept hearing a small but distinct 'b-b-b-b-b-r-r-r-r-r' noise when Glover was waiting in the still position. "It sounded like a tiny machine gun, and we could not figure out where it was coming from," Miller says. "We looked at Savion, who was motionless. But as soon as he started dancing, the sound was gone." Later, Glover admitted he was the source of the sound. "He'd actually been tapping with foot movements so tiny no one could see them -- even up close, under powerful lights!" Miller says.
Casino Royale (Nov. 17) Authorities in Venice granted producers permission to sail James Bond's yacht, called Spirit 54, along the Grand Canal between the Accademia and Rialto bridges. No one can remember exactly the last time a pleasure yacht sailed in the Grand Canal, but it's believed to have been several centuries ago.
The History Boys (Nov. 21) During a break in shooting this movie at a school in England, James Corden and some of the other young actors were playing soccer when a teacher approached and ordered them to help her dismantle the set from the school play. "We all looked at each other, bemused," Corden says. "Then she yelled, 'Come on!' So we went." As the boys were cleaning up, the teacher asked why no one in the group had tried out for the school play. "I asked her if she'd seen 'The History Boys' when it was on stage in London," Corden says. "She replied, 'I thought the play was superb, but I'm not sure if the boys in it really looked or behaved like schoolboys.' "
Déjà Vu (Nov. 22) The first scene actress Paula Patton filmed in this thriller called for co-star Denzel Washington to rescue her. "I reached around his neck," she recalls, "and poked him in the eye." Washington graciously forgave the young actress, who, on the second take, promptly poked him in the eye again. "We're going to have do something about this," said Washington, who began working with Patton on a move that would keep her fingers away from his face. Just then, director Tony Scott ran over to praise and reassure his performers: "I love the way you poke him in the eye," he told Patton.
Deck the Halls (Nov. 22) In this comedy about two neighbors who compete to have the most splendiferously lit Christmas decorations, the lights on just one of the houses consumed 2.5 million watts of power in a single day (an average home uses about 15,000 watts a day). The display was so bright that it began attracting airplanes, the noises from which disrupted the filming.
The Nativity Story (Dec. 1) To bolster authenticity, the cast members of this film about the birth of Jesus were taught how to milk goats, press olives and grapes, make bread and cheese, use period-appropriate tools and build a home.
Blood Diamond (Dec. 15) On location in Mozambique for this film about the diamond trade, the production was moved by the poverty that surrounded it. Not only did the crew vote to give up a week's per diem to help build a well and classroom in one village, but when filming was completed, the cast and crew distributed many of their personal belongings -- as well as much of the production's props and costumes -- directly to orphanages and homes for the sick and disabled. The construction crew voluntarily used leftover materials to make desks and chairs for the orphanages.
Eragon (Dec. 15) After lovingly growing a beard for five months to prepare for his role of Murtagh, a mysterious stranger who rescues the young hero Eragon, Garrett Hedlund was asked to shave it off before his first scene. Turned out director Stefen Fangmeier wanted Murtagh to be clean-shaven.
Dreamgirls (Dec. 15) Is Jamie Foxx a compulsive entertainer? "Between takes, he would just grab the microphone and go," says Jennifer Hudson, who plays Effie in the film. "And at the wrap party, he played DJ and called out people and told them what dance moves to do."
We Are Marshall (Dec. 22) McG, the director of this fact-based film about a tragic Marshall University plane crash, is also a former placekicker. At an exhibition game at the West Virginia school, McG made kicks of 20, 25, 30 and 35 yards, donating $1,000 to the school for each. He later offered to donate $20,000 if he could make a 40-yarder, but his three efforts went wide. McG made the donation anyway.
The Good Shepherd (Dec. 22) In writing this screenplay about the CIA, Eric Roth did painstaking research into Skull and Bones, the famously secret society, at Yale, where many original CIA agents went to college. Roth extracted information from a friend who was a Bonesman. "He would never really tell me information," Roth says, "but I would tell him stories I'd heard about the club, and he'd say, 'That's 90% true,' or 'That's about 35% true.' " Deciphering this information could be more entertaining than the film.
Perfume (Dec. 27) For this thriller about murder and obsession set in 18th-century Paris, the film crew took over Barcelona's Gothic Quarter and proceeded to take it back in time. Massive latex constructions stretched over houses to cover up electric cables and modern window frames, and a 60-man "dirt unit" spread desiccated fish, old meat and other detritus over the square. The garbage, the stench of which smelled for miles, had to be cleaned up every day. No wonder perfume was a hot commodity then.
Cover photographs by Robert Sebree for USA WEEKEND
Styling by Lynne Bugai; grooming for Rooney: Juanita Lyon, Celestine
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COMEDY FOR THE AGES
In an exclusive event, two generations of mischief-makers, Mickey Rooney and Sacha Baron Cohen, compare notes on what makes people laugh.
By Steve Pond
They're separated by a half-century and at least a foot in height, but Mickey Rooney and Sacha Baron Cohen both know a few things about making audiences laugh. The Brooklyn-born Rooney, 86, has been a comic ("Strike Up the Band"), a serious actor ("Boys Town") and a song-and-dance man ("Sugar Babies"). London-native Baron Cohen, 35, burst onto the scene in 2003 with HBO's acclaimed series "Da Ali G Show," and more recently, stole the show in the hit movies "Madagascar" and "Talladega Nights."
At a time of year when Hollywood starts pressing its tuxedos, the two men are rolling out high-profile comedies. This weekend marks the debut of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a raucous phony documentary with Baron Cohen as a clueless Kazakh TV reporter who comes to America and becomes obsessed with Pamela Anderson. Next month comes "Night at the Museum," a Ben Stiller comedy in which Rooney plays a pugnacious guard at a museum where the exhibits come to life. Rooney and Baron Cohen met for the first time at our photo shoot in Los Angeles, where they compared notes on comedy.
Baron Cohen: Mickey, I hear you just worked with a friend of mine, Ben Stiller.
Rooney: Yes, I did this movie, "Night at the Museum." [I play] a strange kind of duck. He was never a professional boxer, but that's what he wanted to do. So he talks like one. He's always saying, "Don't get tough with me, I went 11 rounds with ..." He's a feisty guy.
What comics or films inspired you?
Baron Cohen: As a child, my dad made us watch American shows he loved growing up, everything from "Sgt. Bilko" to Sid Caesar's Your "Show of Shows."
Rooney: Did you watch the Sid Caesar comedy hour?
Baron Cohen: That was fantastic.
Rooney: Sid's a wonderful man. And what about The Texaco Star Theater? Milton Berle was hilarious. They called him Mr. Television.
What makes you laugh these days?
Rooney: Robin Williams is funny sometimes. Ben Stiller is funny. But it's not like the old days. They've got all these situation comedies now where a guy comes in the door, says, "Honey, I'm home," and the laugh track comes on. TV was different years ago. You were genuinely entertained. My wife and I still enjoy it, but the news is all, pardon the expression, bad.
Baron Cohen: I think that sometimes bad news can actually help comedy, particularly satirical comedy. When things are difficult in the world, and there is a political system where those in power are not very popular, I think the conditions are ripe for great satire. So, for instance, in this country, the success of "The Daily Show" probably has a strong correlation with the unpopularity of the government right now.
Are there certain things that are always funny?
Baron Cohen: Obviously, I don't have the perspective that Mickey has got, but there are things in my lifetime that have been consistently funny. The character of the idiot is always funny. That's a character that can be amusing to people in many cultures.
Rooney: I think you're right.
Borat is certainly that kind of character, but his jokes are improvised rather than being written in advance.
Baron Cohen: My humor is comic characters that exist in the real world. By necessity, it relies almost totally on improvisation because one person doesn't realize they're in a comedy sketch. In the Borat movie, everyone is real apart from Borat and his producer. So by necessity you have to improvise.
Rooney: That must be very difficult.
Baron Cohen: The interesting thing, actually, is how much the real person, who doesn't know he's in a comedy sketch, behaves and says the lines like you'd expect somebody to in a comedy sketch.
There's a scene in Borat that has something in common with one of your movies, Mickey. In your little-known 1972 film called "Pulp," there's an amusing scene where you primp in front of a mirror wearing only tighty whities.
Rooney: Well, it struck you as funny, but it didn't strike the public as funny. I wish it had.
Baron Cohen: [Laughs.]
The scene could be a more modest counterpart to one in Borat where Sacha is dashing around a hotel room totally naked.
Rooney: [to Baron Cohen]: You what?!
Baron Cohen: Umm ... It's a long story.
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Web Bonus: 20 movie tidbits
By Jamie Malanowski
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Nov. 3) During filming, Sacha Baron Cohen infuriated audience members at a Roanoke, Va., rodeo by singing the Kazakhstan "national anthem" to the tune of the U.S. national anthem. After the performance, some irate rodeo fans approached a van carrying several crew members, who then fled, escaping what could have been an ugly situation.
Flushed Away (Nov. 3) In creating the story of a pampered pet that's sent down the toilet into the bustling world beneath the streets of London, the animators in L.A. encountered a strange problem. Because "low-flow" toilets are so prevalent in Southern California, they had no model to work from. They asked colleagues in England to videotape a toilet flushing in a local pub and send it to L.A. for reference.
The Return (Nov. 10) Sarah Michelle Gellar and the production endured more than its share of unexpected hardships while filming this supernatural thriller in Austin. First, the set was overrun with red ants, which became a constant source of pain and irritation. Then the weather became uncooperative, with sudden temperature shifts that saw the thermometer plunge from 80 F to 35 F. Bad news for the crew, who came from L.A. and had packed only cutoffs and flip-flops. Good news, we think, for the local North Face outlet.
For Your Consideration (Nov. 17) Director Christopher Guest's long-standing interest in ventriloquism manifests itself in this film about the effects of Oscar buzz. One of the characters is a weather woman who is also a ventriloquist.
Bobby (Nov. 17) Martin Sheen isn't surprised that the assassination of Bobby Kennedy made an indelible impression on his son, director Emilio Estevez. Sheen, who plays an East Coast socialite in this film about the night RFK was shot, remembers that it was Emilio, then only 6, who awoke his family, then visiting relatives in Ohio, and conveyed the terrible news.
The Fountain (Nov. 22) For scenes that take place in the 16th century in this drama that spans centuries, the filmmakers recruited Mayans from Guatemala and brought them to the set in Montreal. The Mayans had never been in cold weather, and when they disembarked the plane, they were stunned to see their breath.
Turistas (Dec. 1) The actress shown begging for her life in the opening scene of this Josh Duhamel thriller set in Brazil was an actual kidnaping victim. She was held for ransom for two weeks before police located her. She was rescued after a gunfight.
The Good German (Dec. 8) Director Steven Soderbergh wanted to make this film set in postwar Germany look like Casablanca and other classic films of the 1940s. Getting this look right involved filming on sound stages and back lots. Soderbergh's production team members re-created a bombed-out Berlin on the back lot of Universal, but when they needed a place that looked like the city of Potsdam, where the Allies held a key postwar conference, they found that they had to go on location -- all the way to Pasadena, Calif.
The Holiday (Dec. 8) When Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and the rest of the cast and crew presented Eli Wallach with a cake to celebrate his 90th birthday on the set, the veteran actor reminisced that he also had celebrated his 44th birthday on the very same studio lot. He was filming The Misfits, and in attendance were Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.
Unaccompanied Minors (Dec. 8) Although director Paul Feig wore a suit and tie every single day, this film about kids who create their own Christmas holiday was a very playful shoot. An especially good time was had while filming the downhill snow chase in Snowbasin, Utah. The actors rode up the hill on snowmobiles and then, again and again, down the hill in a canoe.
The Pursuit of Happyness (Dec. 15) One of the scenes in this drama required star Will Smith to solve a Rubik's Cube, so he hired two 16-year-old "experts" to teach him tips. It worked: Smith was the only member of the cast and crew who could conquer the cube.
Home of the Brave (Dec. 15) Postproduction on this film about returning Iraq war veterans was all but complete when director Irwin Winkler ran into Sheryl Crow, with whom he'd worked on De-Lovely. He told her about the film, and she asked to come to a screening. Crow was so moved that she asked to write a song. "Usually you hear that, then you don't hear anything for three weeks," says producer Rob Cowan. "But Sheryl wrote the song overnight and recorded it a week later." The track, Try Not To Remember, plays over the closing credits.
Charlotte's Web (Dec. 20) You can't use make-up to show a pig aging, so the production needed a pen full of pigs to show Wilbur at the various moments of his life. Trainer Larry Payne, who calls himself "head of the pig department," says that at one point he had 25 pigs on the set in various stages of growth. In total, 47 pigs were called upon to play Wilbur.
Night at the Museum (Dec. 22) Veteran troupers Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney kept the cast loose by ceaselessly singing show tunes. One would start and the other would follow, and as soon as the song ended, one or the other would go off again.
Curse of the Golden Flower (Dec. 22) On the day the crew shot an important scene showing the solemn Chong Yang ritual, which involves the entire Chinese royal family, the production managers repeatedly instructed crew members to turn off their cellphones. In the middle of a take, sure enough, a phone rang. The offender was a lady affectionately called The Real Empress, the wife of the film's star, Chow Yun Fat. Mr. Chow led the teasing.
Rocky Balboa (Dec. 22) Executive producer Irwin Winkler keeps a memento of the first Rocky film, which he also produced, in a prominent place in his home: a copy of a New York Times review which panned the film, paired with the Oscar statuette he received when the film was named Best Picture of 1976.
Notes on a Scandal (Dec. 25) During a key scene in this film about a teacher who has an affair with one of her students, Cate Blanchett angrily dumps the contents of Judi Dench's underwear drawer onto the floor. Dench objected that the drawer contained ugly gray underwear and energetically argued that just because a woman lived alone didn't mean that she couldn't have colorful panties. In the end, some nice pastels were substituted.
Miss Potter (Dec. 29) Serendipitously, when this film about children's book author Beatrix Potter was being filmed in England, a statue of the writer was being unveiled, and star Renee Zellweger was able to attend the ceremony.
Factory Girl (Dec. 29) As this film about Edie Sedgwick, one of the people who frequented Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1960s, was being shot in Shreveport, La., some people who used to work and hang out at the real Factory visited the set. After seeing how authentic the set looked and how much actor Guy Pearce resembled Andy Warhol, many were moved to tears.
Breaking and Entering (Jan. 19) Several years ago, director Anthony Minghella wrote a play about a couple who find their home ransacked, but instead of things being taken, things had been added that pointed to the fractures in their relationship. Later, while in Romania scouting locations for Cold Mountain, Minghella kept getting calls that his London flat has been broken into. (It happened on eight separate occasions.) This baptism of burglary led Minghella to return to this idea and use it "to talk not just about a relationship but also about London, the city I live in and love."
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