Secrets Behind Famous Fantasy Films
Who doesn’t love a good fantasy world with creatures, landscapes, and magic we would never encounter in real life? Our favorite fantasy movies allowed us to follow Alice down her rabbit hole, warned us about cursed rings, and even introduced us to the one and only David Bowie as a Goblin King. We can’t think of a better way to escape our chaotic reality. But every fantasy film has some secrets most people don’t know about. There’s a lot more happening behind all the crazy things we see on the big screen. This goes to show how much stuff happens behind the scenes of these massive productions.
We’re taking a look at the shocking secrets behind famous fantasy films!
Excalibur
This great adaptation of the Arthurian tale has an outstanding cast. We watched Dame Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson share the screen as evil sorceress Morgana and the courageous wizard Merlin. But did you know the palpable tension between these two characters had nothing to do with their acting?
Apparently, the two absolutely didn’t want to work together. This was because when they starred in a stage production of Macbeth it went terribly and left them estranged. However, director John Boorman realized they could use their negative feelings towards each other to their advantage. Since their characters were enemies, this was the perfect combination. Not only did Boorman’s plan work out perfectly, but they also mended their relationship during filming.
The Neverending Story
It’s safe to say almost any fantasy movie requires some stunts as the characters go on their wild adventures. The Neverending Story is no exception. These tricks always come with risk and when Noah Hathaway shot the film, he learned this firsthand. He had to try to ride a horse. It didn’t go so well considering it threw Hathaway off its back and then stepped on him.
This wasn’t the only traumatic incident he’d experienced on set. His leg got caught on a hidden elevator and he was pulled underwater when he shot the drowning sequence in the ‘’swamp of sadness’’. The experience was so much for his body to handle he ended up passing out!
Gremlins
This movie had some of the most chaotic scenes ever, both on-screen and off. This film was made in the late 80s when CGI wasn’t an option, so the production team had to come up with a way to portray the Gremlin creatures. They tried out a few things until they decided to use puppets.
Apparently one of the rejected ideas they tried out was real-life monkeys with gremlin heads! And unsurprisingly, the test monkey that was made to wear a gremlin head did not enjoy it in the slightest and completely panicked. We can imagine it would’ve been a nightmare to deal with a set full of monkeys!
Avatar
We finally got our sequel to James Cameron’s cinema spectacle Avatar from 2009, which not many of us saw coming. Leading up to its release, the two main actors Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana looked back on the time that passed since the first installment and the numerous roles they had played since then.
Saldana was already an established actress when she took the role of the Na’vi woman Neytiri, but for Sam Worthington, this role really changed his whole life. Apparently, he was living out of his car when he got the role of Jake Sully. It’s safe to say that just like his role, he adapted to his new reality very well.
Pan’s Labyrinth
It is common for fantasy films to have a relatively high budget and be made to reach a wide audience. For this reason, it’s rare to find big fantasy films that aren’t in English. But Guillermo del Toro had different plans for his film Pan’s Labyrinth. The successful director got several offers from Hollywood producers to make this film, and though they tried to tempt him to make the film in English by offering double the budget he required, he persistently refused their offers.
He felt passionate about the Spanish story and wanted to keep it authentic, so he refused to take their offers which would have him compromise his film to make it more suitable for ‘’market needs’’.
Enchanted
It is a well-known fact that women often have to endure terrible discomfort for the sake of entertainment and this was no different when it came to Enchanted. Princess Giselle, played by the talented Amy Adams is seen throughout the movie wearing larger-than-life dresses, as she comes from a fairytale world. When she first pops up in rowdy New York City, she is seen wearing a huge puffy wedding gown. As it turns out, this dress weighed forty-five pounds.
Adams’ stunt double had to teach her how to move in this dress and she has described it as ‘‘grueling’’ and added that “the entire weight was on my hips, so occasionally it felt like I was in traction’’. Beauty is pain.
Conan The Barbarian
In order to create this campy 80s classic, two people with very different backgrounds came together and helped each other succeed. We’re talking about bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and acting legend James Earl Jones. And this almost didn’t happen. Jones had his commitments to Broadway at the time and was only added to the cast of Conan the Barbarian at the last minute.
It’s no surprise Schwarzenegger had the knowledge to help Jones with working out to prepare for his role. A secret we love to spill is how Jones also coached Schwarzenegger in acting for this film. They became friends on set and helped each other out. What a wholesome friendship.
Lord of the Rings
From hobbits to elves, to orcs, to dwarves; J.R.R. Tolkien’s world never lacked mythical creatures. It can be challenging to figure out how to portray all these characters so they could appear realistic. In Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, one of the members of the Fellowship is the dwarf Gimli, played by John Rhys-Davies.
We bet you didn’t know this actor is actually the tallest of all the members of the Fellowship. Isn’t it ironic a 6’1 man was cast as a dwarf?! How do you think they came to this decision? He was made to appear shorter using a specific stunt double, and some movie magic.
Labyrinth
Jim Henson’s muppet-filled musical fantasy adventure is considered a classic for a reason. With legendary David Bowie as Jareth, and Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, how could it not be a success? They played their characters so perfectly it’s hard to imagine anyone else pulling it off. But did you know Labyrinth was almost a very different movie?
The King of Pop himself Michael Jackson almost starred as the Goblin King. Can you believe he was even considered for the role? Imagine how differently things would’ve gone. We love Bowie’s portrayal so much, but of course, we can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to see Jareth moonwalk…
The Chronicles of Narnia
Besides all the mythical creatures from the Narnia world such as the part human, part goat faun, the unicorn, giants, and centaur, Aslan the talking lion barely seems fantastical. There were so many different characters in the series, it was hard to keep up. However, you still can’t find a talking lion anywhere in our world, or one who can promise it won’t tear your arm off.
For The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, director Andrew Adamson wanted to capture a moment in which the young Georgie Henley would reach out to touch the lion. The process to create the highly detailed animal involved 5.2 million individual hairs using CGI. This was an intensive process and the frame took about ten hours to capture.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
In this new series set in the world of Harry Potter, we met the quirky and soft-spoken character of Newt Scamander. He was a caretaker and enthusiast of magical creatures. Everything took place in 1920’s New York City before any of the events from the Harry Potter series had ever happened. This is when you’re introduced to a whole new set of characters to tell this story.
It seems like Eddie Redmayne was born to play Newt. It turns out that the people who made the movie feel the same way. Redmayne was apparently the only choice to play him. We can’t imagine anyone else playing the wizard in the same sympathetic way so we’re grateful for this casting decision.
Night at the Museum
This extremely fun movie contains so many great characters we can only imagine how challenging it must be to try to give everyone enough screen time. One of these characters is Jedediah, played by Owen Wilson. Did you know in the original cut of the film, his character was only in a brief cameo?
When the movie was tested with an audience before its release, they responded so well to him, so his role was expanded. Sometimes it’s hard to predict what’s going to work well and what doesn’t, so we are grateful this test audience realized he was one of the best characters.
Alice in Wonderland
Everyone was thrilled when they found out Alice in Wonderland was getting a live-action version. The studio was trying to figure out who would direct and star, and many different options were still on the table. This made the decision all the more difficult. Before Tim Burton was appointed as the director of this project, Anne Hathaway was actually offered the role of Alice.
Considering she had previously starred in projects such as Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries, she was worried about falling into a typecast. She turned down the offer, but when Tim Burton was chosen as the director, he offered her the role of the White Queen. She ended up taking it and shot all of her scenes in only two weeks.
Jumanji
When this 90s blockbuster was filmed, Robin Williams was already a household name. So when he spent time in the town of Keene, New Hampshire while filming Jumanji, he was very beloved by the locals of this town. He was even presented with the key to the city by the mayor in 1994 as a way to express the town’s appreciation of him.
After Williams’ tragic death in 2014, residents of Keene expressed their grief and love by creating a memorial at the location where the production team put up a “Parrish Shoes’’ sign on a wall; it had been there for 20 years. The residents left flowers and candles underneath the sign and organized a public screening of Jumanji.
The Shape of Water
This eccentric Guillermo Del Toro movie about a woman who falls in love with an amphibious creature received a lot of attention. It even won the Academy Award for a best motion picture in 2018. In the story, the lead character Elisa is mute and bonds with a hard-to-identify amphibious creature. They both feel like outcasts in the world. In order to properly convey this feeling, the creature had to be unlike anything we’d ever seen before.
However, the creature from The Shape of Water is very reminiscent of the character from the 1950s: Creature from the Black Lagoon. It’s undeniable how much the design was inspired by this older film. And it doesn’t seem like this is an accident, as the character played by Michael Shannon mentions in the film how the beast was found in the Amazon river. Funnily enough, this is also where Creature from the Black Lagoon took place… maybe they’re cousins?
Spirited Away
Anyone who’s seen this beautiful Japanese masterpiece knows the intricate story of a young girl named Chihiro who’s burdened with the huge task of saving her parents from the mysterious spirit world. The story seems as masterfully composed as Joe Hisaishi’s stunning score. But did you know that this elaborate film didn’t even have a script? Moreover, director Hayao Miyazaki is known for rarely using scripts!
“I don’t have the story finished and ready when we start work on a film,” the filmmaker told Midnight Eye. “I usually don’t have the time. So the story develops when I start drawing storyboards. The production starts very soon thereafter, while the storyboards are still developing.” Miyazaki does not have a clear destination for where the plot will end up and essentially lets the process happen naturally. “It’s not me who makes the film. The film makes itself and I have no choice but to follow”.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
We don’t know about you, but whenever we hear someone mention pasta puttanesca, we still think about A Series of Unfortunate Events. In the 2004 movie, this 13-part book series was finally brought to life. It made it to the big screen with Jim Carrey portraying the villainous Count Olaf. This malevolent character wanted to steal the young children’s inheritance after they tragically lost their parents.
When Carrey wore prosthetics, makeup, and a wig to transform into the character. He looked so scary that the toddler twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman who played the little girl Sunny were genuinely terrified of him! So now we know little Sunny’s reaction to her mean uncle was very real.
Pirates of the Caribbean
In the second installment of the popular pirate series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we met the intimidating character of Davy Jones, played by Australian actor Geoffrey Rush. While we had a hard time looking at the terrifying tentacle bearded captain, Rush wanted to make sure that all eyes would be on him.
In the DVD commentary of the film, he explained his theory that people watch the screen the way they read a book: from left to right. And for this reason, he made an effort to appear on the left side of the screen as much as possible. He said he made the biggest effort to do so in the scenes he shared with the monkey and Keira Knightley. We don’t blame him, competing with Keira Knightley and a monkey sounds like a losing game to us!
Harry Potter
We remember the exact moment when our hearts shattered into a million pieces when we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. After seven movies we learned that Severus Snape didn’t hate Harry, rather he would’ve given anything to make sure the boy was safe because of his deep feelings for his mother Lily. Excuse us, we’re not crying, we have something in our eyes.
But did you know that the beloved Alan Rickman was the only cast member who knew the extent of Snape’s complex backstory before anyone else did? The author of the series told him the information to help him convey the troubled character adequately.
Matilda
One of the most memorable characters in the 90s classic Matilda has to be the evil headmistress Trunchbull. The movie involved many child actors, and children can rarely hide their genuine reactions. The brilliant Pam Ferris, who played the headmistress, used this to make sure the children became genuinely terrified of her. She stayed in character even after the director called cut!
We think this was a great call because Miss Trunchbull’s effect on innocent children is truly chilling whenever we rewatch the movie. Now that we know she was actually scary, we have to wonder if she also really made that one kid eat the entire chocolate cake by himself…
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
This iconic movie took us to a world of pure imagination and made us fall in love with the story. Who didn’t love the heartwarming relationship between Charlie and his grandfather? But there is a pretty dark story behind Grandpa George who was played by Ernst Ziegler. The actor had suffered from poison gas in World War I which nearly blinded him.
Because of this, the director lit a red light to help show Ziegler where and when to look in a specific direction. We never noticed anything, so it’s safe to say it worked! It’s neat how the film’s production team and director made an effort to accommodate the actor’s disability.
Hook
In this Peter Pan remake, the main character is none other than the legendary Robin Williams. In this version, his children are taken by Captain Hook, and he has to defeat his old enemy. At one point Captain Hook threateningly tells Peter “death is the only adventure you have left’’. What a terrifying thing to say!
When Williams shot this film he became best friends with the director Stephen Spielberg. After Williams died, Spielberg decided to rewatch Hook and reminisce on the good times. Unfortunately, he was unable to finish it because he couldn’t stop crying. We feel you, Spielberg.
Mary Poppins
We have known and loved Mary Poppins ever since we saw it. Julie Andrews’ charming characterizations, Dick Van Dyke’s infamous cockney accent, and of course the cartoon penguins would win over anyone. However, it turns out the author of the book did not love what the filmmakers did with her story. She reportedly approved the casting of Dame Julie Andrews but nothing else. She was so upset by all the changes that she left the premiere in tears.
She was most rattled by how bubbly and kind Mary Poppins was when she was supposed to be cold and intimidating. She also hated the ending, in which Mrs. Winnifred Banks gives up campaigning for women’s rights to stay home as a housewife. We can definitely understand why she didn’t like this alteration.
The Mummy
We have loved seeing Brendan Fraser’s recent comeback in Hollywood. We still remember him as the adventurous Rick O’Connell who has to deal with an ancient Egyptian curse in The Mummy. But as it turns out, his adventures on screen were the only treacherous ones. The scene where Rick gets hanged didn’t go according to plan and Fraser almost died.
His co-star Rachel Weisz recalled how “he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated.” This must’ve been terrifying for everyone involved. It’s really scary to think about how he was in terrible danger. Thankfully the medics acted quickly and Fraser was able to live to tell the tale.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
There have been debates on whether this is a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie, but we say it’s both! Now you have a great excuse to watch Tim Burton’s 1993 classic twice a year. But did you know in 2001, Disney put the idea for a sequel on the table? However, they proposed doing so using computer animation. This concept was very trendy around this time. Many studios were steering away from claymation and embracing animation.
But Tim Burton convinced Disney to drop this idea. “I was always very protective of [Nightmare] not to do sequels or things of that kind,” Burton explained. “You know, ‘Jack visits Thanksgiving world’ or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it.” Sometimes it really is best not to mess with perfection. But we can’t help but wonder how Jack Skellington would’ve felt about turkeys and stuffing.
Peter Pan
When the original on-screen version of Peter Pan came out in 1953 it was pretty successful. Still, Walt Disney did not feel satisfied with the film. He thought the titular character was cold and unlikeable. However, people who were very familiar with the source material and its author J.M. Barrie have said Disney hit the nail on the head with it. The character was intended to be a heartless sociopath.
If we think about it, Peter Pan is a pretty odd character. Somehow, it isn’t hard to imagine him to be a little creepy. His main goal is to convince children to leave home. It doesn’t seem like he’d be normal or pleasant in real life.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
In this musical fantasy adventure film from the late 60s, we followed an inventor on his journey to a fantastical land with his children and girlfriend. This musical contains some great and simultaneously silly songs. And as a musical should, it has quite amusing choreography. However, Dick Van Dyke who played Caractacus Potts had issues keeping up with the dance numbers.
During the time of this film, it was still considered very normal to smoke nonstop. Van Dyke was reportedly smoking up to a whopping 40 cigarettes a day. This meant he was not in the best possible shape, and so he found all the dancing and jumping around very taxing.
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice… This campy 80s classic contains some spooky moments but also exudes fun. From the bright colorful costumes (or even skin tones) the characters wear to the goofy storyline, it’s a joy to watch. This film is fun for the entire family. It turns out it was as entertaining for Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse) to star in, as it was for us to watch.
Director Tim Burton gave Keaton a lot of freedom on set to add his own touch. He reportedly ad-libbed 90% of his lines. So this means almost everything the mischievous man in the striped suit said on screen was masterfully improvised. This is what we call talented! We can only imagine how delightful the atmosphere on set must’ve been.
The Craft
In the 90s and early 2000s witches were all the rage. Who doesn’t love a coven of powerful witches? The Craft definitely gave us one of the most memorable covens in this era, and it was made up of Sarah, Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle. Not only were they fierce spellcasters, but they also gave us iconic grunge 90s looks.
But did you know Sarah’s long red hair was fake? Actress Robin Tunney had previously shaved her head for her role in Empire Records which only wrapped up a month beforehand. Her role in The Craft did require a full head of hair. So to play Sarah, she wore a wig for the duration of the shoot.
Into The Woods
In this fantasy musical, we were treated to an all-star cast portraying an array of characters. Of course, the star everyone was most excited to work with had to be Meryl Streep. The legendary actress is someone who has left even the biggest Hollywood A-listers starstruck. So imagine how shocked everyone was when she almost died in front of them?! Director Rob Marshall and co-star James Corden must’ve been shocked!
Corden recalled the incident which took place during rehearsals when Streep jumped on a table and her foot got caught in her costume. She started falling backward, head first towards a concrete floor. We have a pregnant Emily Blunt to thank for acting quickly and catching Streep before she hit the floor.