Five Fascinating Film And TV Facts #5

From the real life Simpsons to Mel Gibson as the Terminator and painted spiders to the Pythons secret donor

Radio Times
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On May 5, 2015
1

Money (That's what I want)

Many consider Life of Brian to be the zenith of the Pythons' comedic career, but the film very nearly didn't happen at all. A funding crisis sidelined the project until, at the last minute, Beatle George Harrison swept in to save the day, donating £3 million to the project.

2

A secret twist

No one was more shocked than cinema goers when Elizabeth Swan smooched Captain Jack at the climax of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Except for Orlando Bloom that is. The scene was intentionally left out of his script by producers to achieve a true shocked response from the actor.

3

A work of art

The story goes that Spiderman gained his arachnid abilities when bitten by a radioactive or genetically modified black widow spider. Both the comics and films stick to this story, but not everything is as it seems on screen. In the 2002 film, the spider we see is actually of the steatoda species. It was apparently anaesthetised and then painted red and blue by designers.

4

Passion of the Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger is now completely synonymous with the role of the time-travelling titan, but he wasn't actually first in line to play the Terminator. Producers reportedly initially asked Mel Gibson, but he turned it down. Disgraced American footballer OJ Simpson was apparently considered too, but the studio worried he wouldn't be taken seriously enough as he was too nice…

5

The Groen-sons?

There have been 571 Simpsons episodes since the show's inception in 1989, and Matt Groening has overseen nearly every single one. He got the idea for the main characters from his own family, Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Patty were actually named after his real life parents, sisters and aunt.

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