Once movies make it to the screen, they are often filled with magic, whether that be through engaging storylines and actors or from exciting special effects.
But sometimes the stories and facts from behind the scenes are just as incredible.
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From The Lord of the Rings to Poltergeist , here are 10+ unbelievable but true movie facts you probably didn’t know.
*Poltergeist* used real dead bodies for filming.
In one scene where the actress JoBeth Williams swims with skeletons, the bones were actually real. The reason for this is that they were cheaper than props.
Perhaps this is partially why the “Poltergeist Curse” seems to follow many people who were involved with the film.
Gal Gadot hid her pregnancy while filming *Wonder Woman.*
“We cut open the costume and had this green screen on my stomach,” she told Rolling Stone .
Gal Gadot proved women really can do it all while filming the iconic superhero film while pregnant. She and the filmmakers even hid the pregnancy from Gadot’s co-workers to avoid her being treated differently.
It took a week to film one minute of *The Nightmare Before Christmas.*
The film was created using stop-motion at a rate of 24 frames to a second.
This means it took around 110,000 frames to complete the entire film. It was definitely a painstaking process that lead to great creative results.
Michael Myer’s *Halloween* mask was modeled off of William Shatner.
Star Trek and Halloween might not seem to have much in common, but they did share an illustrator, Rick Sternbach.
This connection is how Captain Kirk’s death mask ended up as Michael Myers’ mask. They just painted the original white.
Rupert Grint was almost in *A Cinderella Story.*
Chad Michael Murray might have played Austin as the leading man in the movie, but the part almost went to Rupert Grint.
However, Grint was filming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the time and couldn’t take the role.
Viggo Mortensen broke his toe while filming.
While filming The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , Mortensen broke his toe while kicking an orc helmet.
His reaction to the pain was so visceral that director Peter Jackson decided to use that take for the film’s final cut.
Zac Efron didn’t sing in the first *High School Musical.”
The singing voice of Troy Bolton for the first film was Drew Seeley who had also auditioned for the role.
Efron said to Orlando Sentinel, “In the first movie after everything was recorded, my voice was not on them. I was not really given an explanation.”
Ian McKellen cried while filming *The Hobbit* movies.
The Lord of the Rings used filming techniques to make Gandalf appear bigger than the hobbits, but The Hobbit trilogy used a green screen instead.
At one point, McKellen grew so tired of filming in front of the green screen alone that he started to cry.
Harry Potter didn’t have green eyes because of contacts.
While in the Harry Potter books Harry has green eyes like his mother, Daniel Radcliffe has blue eyes.
While he tried wearing contacts , they irritated his eyes so much that production decided to have Harry’s eyes just be blue for the movies.
A cast member from *The Exorcist* was an actual murderer.
A man named Paul Bateson who played an X-ray technician in the film turned out to be a murderer who killed multiple gay men during the 1970s.
It’s a shocking and sad story, and it makes re-watching the film that much more disturbing.
Han Solo could have been played by Kurt Russell.
It’s hard to imagine anyone else that Harrison Ford playing this iconic role, and Star Wars definitely wouldn’t have been the same without him.
Kurt Russell did audition for the part, as well as the part of Luke Skywalker, but pulled himself out of the running.
Flynn Rider was designed during a “hot guy meeting.”
Flynn Rider from Tangled is a handsome rogue with a heart of gold, and Disney purposefully designed him to be dashing.
The filmmakers brought together all the women on the production team to evaluate the hottest men in Hollywood in order to decide Flynn Rider’s design.
Natalie Portman was almost cast in *Romeo and Juliet.*
While Claire Danes ended up with the part alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman . was originally intended to be Juliet.
She was only 13 at the time, however, and DiCaprio was 21. The directors decided to re-cast because of this creepy age difference.
Robert De Niro paid a dentist to ruin his teeth.
Many actors and actresses have gone to extremes over the years to change their appearance.
However, Robert De Niro paying around an alleged 5 grand to ruin his teeth for his role in Cape Fear is one of the wildest examples. He’s also reported to have spent about $20,000 to fix them.
*Snow White* was expected to be a total failure.
While Walt Disney had already become successful because of Mickey Mouse, most people expected Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to fail.
In fact, Walt Disney even took out a mortgage on his home in order to fund the film.
