Movie stories that you wish (hope) were true?

[Trevor]

I remember reading in Fangoria in 1987 that the famous scene in Robocop where Ray Wise bumps into a melting Paul McCrane and screams "Don't touch me, man!" was filmed without Ray seeing Paul until action was called.

Thus his look of horror and yell of terror were real. 

[Trevor]

I heard that Jamie Uys (he of The Gods Must Be Crazy fame) was so demanding on set of a film in the 1960s, that his camera assistant threw a camera at him and stormed off the set.

One of these: 

[akiratubo]

Story goes that Bette Davis hated Joan Crawford so much that she really did punch and kick her every time the script called for it in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

[lester1/2jr]

That in Astounding She monster the guy really was smoking in the bear suit like it said in that ed Wood book

[akiratubo]

The story of how Robert John Burke got cast in RoboCop 3 has always amused me:

Robert Burke has been quoted to the effect that his agent called him and asked, "Would you like to be in RoboCop 3?"  When Burke answered in the affirmative, his agent replied, "Great!  Now get down to the set quick!  They're almost ready to start shooting!"  That's why Burke is especially stiff as Robo in a few scenes: he arrived at the set, they threw the costume on him, and called action.  He didn't have any time to prepare nor did they have time to fit the suit to him, so it was literally painful to wear.

[claws]

The Runaways (2010)

Dakota Fanning was scared of Michael Shannon and his Kim Fowley character. Not something the director and the script had in mind.

[Trevor]

I read in The Hollywood Hall of Shamethat most of the cast and crew of Heaven's Gate were stoned out of their minds for much of the shoot, citing something called 'chemical production aids'. 

[akiratubo]

The reason everyone uses 12-gauge pump-action shotguns in the futuristic movie Outland (1981) is because the weapons-master was told the movie was a remake of High Noon, and someone forgot to add, "in space."  When he showed up with a bunch of Old-West pistols and rifles instead of space guns, the production had to make do with buying a couple of shotguns from a nearby sporting club.

[Trevor]

The reason everyone uses 12-gauge pump-action shotguns in the futuristic movie Outland (1981) is because the weapons-master was told the movie was a remake of High Noon, and someone forgot to add, "in space."  When he showed up with a bunch of Old-West pistols and rifles instead of space guns, the production had to make do with buying a couple of shotguns from a nearby sporting club.

 

I love that film: I told Dad that the film was High Noon in outer space and he went *facepalm*.