Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #20 :: December 9•15

20th Century Fox

A good collection of films made their debuts across the decades as the holidays approached. This week saw a comeback for Bela Lugosi, an Oscar-winning epic from Otto Preminger, the re-teaming of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, an Oscar turn for Jack Lemmon, the first attempt at a movie featuring a star-spangled Marvel superhero, the first collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, a missing car, and another visit to Narnia. These and many more films premiered this week over the last 100 years. Check out the list and see if your favorites debuted this week, and be sure to tell us in the comments section about your favorite!

1920

December 10 – Broadway and Home

Cast: Eugene O’Brien, Elinor Fair, Warren Cook, Frank Losee, Ellen Cassidy
Director: Alan Crosland
Studio: Selznick Pictures, distributed by Select Pictures

December 10 – Her Beloved Villain

Cast: Wanda Hawley, Ramsey Wallace, Templar Powell, Tully Marshall, Lillian Leighton, Gertrude Claire, Robert Bolder, Margaret McWade, Harrison Ford, Irma Coonly, Jay Peters
Director: Sam Wood
Studio: Realart Pictures Corporation
Trivia: The film is considered lost.

December 12 – The Scuttlers

Cast: William Farnum, Jackie Saunders, Herschel Mayall, G. Raymond Nye, Arthur Millett, Harry Spingler, Manuel R. Ojeda, Earl Crain, Kewpie Morgan, Claire de Lorez, Al Fremont
Director: J. Gordon Edwards
Studio: Fox Film Corporation
Trivia: The film was lost in a fire at the 20th Century Fox film storage facility in Little Ferry, NJ on July 9, 1937.

December 13 – Hearts Are Trumps

Cast: Winter Hall, Frank Brownlee, Alice Terry, Francelia Billington, Joseph Kilgour, Brinsley Shaw, Thomas Jefferson, Norman Kennedy, Edward Connelly, Bull Montana, Howard Crampton
Director: Rex Ingram
Studio: Metro Pictures

December 14 – The Little ‘Fraid Lady

Cast: Mae Marsh, Tully Marshall, Kathleen Kirkham, Charles Meredith, Herbert Prior, Gretchen Hartman, George Bartholow
Director: John G. Adolfi
Studio: Robertson-Cole Distributing Corporation

1930

No new films were released this week in 1930.

1940

December 13 – The Devil Bat

Cast: Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Dave O’Brien, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott, Donald Kerr, Edward Mortimer, Gene O’Donnell, Alan Baldwin, John Ellis, Arthur Q. Bryan, Hal Price, John Davidson, Billy Griffith, Wally Rairdon
Director: Jean Yarborough
Studio: Producers Releasing Corporation
Trivia: The first horror film produced by PRC. Lugosi was beginning a comeback when he signed a contract with PRC on October 19, 1940. Production on the film began a week later. The film fell into the public domain with dozens of badly edited, poor quality versions flooding the market. The film was eventually restored and released on laserdisc in 1990. The film was restored again from the original elements in 2008 and has been released in both the original black-and-white and colorized editions, most recently on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber (2013). The film was re-released in 1945 on a double bill with Man Made Monster. The sequel Devil Bat’s Daughter was released in 1946, but no cast members from the original film made appearances. The indie film sequel Revenge of the Devil Bat was produced in 2015.

December 13 – Mysterious Doctor Satan (serial)

Cast: Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Wilcox, William Newell, C. Montague Shaw, Ella Neal, Dorothy Herbert, Charles Trowbridge, Jack Mulhall, Edwin Stanley, Walter McGrail, Joe McGuinn, Bud Geary, Paul Marion, Archie Twitchell, Lynton Brent, Ken Terrell, Al Taylor, Bert LeBaron, Tom Steele
Director: William Witney, John English
Studio: Republic Pictures
Trivia: Henry Brandon was originally cast as Doctor Satan, wearing a full devil costume complete with horns. By the end of the 1930s, that concept was considered unbelievable even for a serial so the character was transformed into a more sleek, gangster-style mad scientists played by Eduardo Ciannelli. The serial first began as a screenplay for a proposed Superman serial, but issues securing the rights to the character cancelled that project. The reporter character Lois Scott was Lois Lane in the original script. The serial’s production number was 1095. The official release date for the serial is December 14, but this is actually the date the seventh chapter was released. The serial was edited into a 100 minute film for television in 1966, Doctor Satan’s Robot. The series was remade in 1972 as a Turkish feature titled The Deathless Devil.

1950

December 11 – Watch the Birdie

Cast: Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Ann Miller, Leon Ames, Pamela Britton, Richard Rober
Director: Jack Donohue
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trivia: Skelton played three generations of the central character. Parts of the film were inspired by Buster Keaton’s 1928 comedy The Cameraman. Keaton, at this point, was working as a gagman for MGM and advising Skelton.

December 12 – The Sound of Fury

Cast: Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Lloyd Bridges, Katherine Locke, Adele Jergens Art Smith, Renzo Cesana, Irene Vernon, Cliff Clark, Harry Shannon, Mary Lawrence, Donald Smelick
Director: Cy Endfield
Studio: Robert Stillman Productions, distributed by United Artists
Trivia: The film was reissued under the title Try and Get Me! Based on the 1947 novel The Condemned by Jo Pagano, who also wrote the screenplay, which was based on a true incident involving the kidnap and murder of Brooke Hart in 1933. Fritz Lang’s 1936 film Fury was also inspired by the same incident. This was the last film made in the US by blacklisted director Cy Endfield before he moved to England. The film was restored under the reissue title and aired for the first time on Turner Classics on January 25, 2020. The film was nominated for the 1952 BAFTA for Best Film from Any Source.

December 15 – For Heaven’s Sake

Cast: Clifton Webb, Joan Bennett, Robert Cummings, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Blondell, Gigi Perreau, Jack La Rue, Harry von Zell, Tommy Rettig
Director: George Seaton
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Adapted from the play May We Come In? by Harry Segall. The film was to have starred Anne Baxter, but she dropped out and was replaced by Joan Bennett.

1960

December 14 – Esther and the King

Cast: Joan Collins, Richard Egan, Denis O’Dea, Sergio Fantoni, Rick Battaglia, Renato Baldini, Gabriele Tinti, Rosalba Neri, Robert Buchanan, Daniela Rocca, Folco Lulli
Director: Raoul Walsh, Mario Bava (Italian version)
Studio: 20th Century Fox, Galatea Film, Titanus, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The Italian title is Ester e il re. The film was based on the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Esther and recounts the origin of Purim. Hedy Lamarr bought the script in February 1952 with the intention of starring as Esther, producing the film independently for United Artists. She planned to produce the script as the first episode of a British TV series, The Great Love Stories, but the project changed and the story was not filmed. The film was shot in Italy because the 1960 writers strike forced production in Hollywood to cease. The film premiered at the RKO Palace Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1960.

December 15 – Exodus

Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Griffith, Martin Miller, Gregory Ratoff, Felix Aylmer, David Opatoshu, Jill Haworth, Marius Goring, Alexandra Stewart, Michael Wager, Martin Benson, Paul Stevens, Victor Maddern, George Maharis, Esther Ofarim
Director: Otto Preminger
Studio: Carlyle-Alpina, S.A., distributed by United Artists
Trivia: Based on the 1958 novel by Leon Uris. Preminger openly hired blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and his work here and on Spartacus is credited with ending the practice of blacklisting in Hollywood. Preminger had a difficult relationship with the actors, notably Paul Newman who had received a dressing down for suggesting some changes to the script. During one scene set on a high balcony, Newman hid a mannequin and pretended to stumble at the end of the scene, knocking the mannequin off the balcony. Preminger believed Newman had fallen to his death, collapsed and required medical attention. The two were barely on speaking terms after the prank. The film received three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Mineo), Best Cinematography and Best Original Score, winning for Ernest Gold’s score. Mineo won the Golden Globe for Supporting Actor. Gold’s soundtrack also won the Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album and Song of the Year in 1961. The theme to Exodus is the only instrumental to receive the Song of the Year Grammy. The film was screened at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival out of competition.

1970

December 11 – Claire’s Knee

Cast: Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Béatrice Romand, Laurence de Monaghan, Michèle Montel, Gérard Falconetti, Fabrice Luchini
Director: Éric Rohmer
Studio: Les Films du Losange (France), Columbia Pictures (USA)
Trivia: The fifth movie in the series of the Six Moral Tales. This was Rohmer’s second film shot in color.

December 15 – There’s a Girl in My Soup

Cast: Peter Sellers, Goldie Hawn, Tony Britton, Nicky Henson, Diana Dors, Judy Campbell, John Comer, Gabrielle Drake, Nicola Pagett, Geraldine Sherman, Thorley Walters, Ruth Trouncer, Françoise Pascal, Christopher Cazenove, Raf De La Torre
Director: Roy Boulting
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: The film had its UK release on December 21, 1970. Based on the stage play by Terence Frisby, which ran for six-and-a-half years in the West End. At the time, it was London’s longest-running comedy. The film introduced Christopher Cazenove and Nicola Pagett. The film helped revive the career of Diana Dors. Goldie Hawn was nominated at the BAFTAs as Best Actress for her work in this and Cactus Flower.

1980

December 12 – Stir Crazy

Cast: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, Miguel Ángel Suárez, Craig T. Nelson, Barry Corbin, Charles Weldon, Nicolas Coster, Joel Brooks, Jonathan Banks, Erland Van Lidth, Lewis Van Bergen, Franklyn Ajaye, Cedrick Hardman, Luis Ávalos, Esther Sutherland, Pamela Poitier, Claudia Cron, Grand L. Bush, Alvin Ing, Herbert Hirschman, Mickey Jones, Billy Beck, Lee Purcell
Director: Sidney Poitier
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Trivia: Wilder and Pryor had previously starred together in Silver Streak. The film set a record for its opening weekend of nearly $13 million, and set a studio record the following week with $15.3 million, and a record single day gross of $3.23 million. It grossed a total of $101.3 million, the third highest grossing film of 1980 behind The Empire Strikes Back and 9 to 5. It was Columbia’s third film to gross $100 million after Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Kramer vs Kramer. It was the first time a film directed by an African American earned more than $100 million.

December 14 – Tribute

Cast: Jack Lemmon, Robby Benson, Lee Remick, Colleen Dewhurst, John Marley, Kim Cattrall, Gale Garnett, Teri Keane
Director: Bob Clark
Studio: Tiberius Films, The Turman-Foster Company, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Based on the play of the same name by Bernard Slade, who also wrote the screenplay. Jack Lemmon won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, and Bob Clark was nominated for the Golden Bear. Lemmon was also nominated for the Oscar and Golden Globe, and he won the Canadian Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor.

1990

December 12 – Havana

Cast: Robert Redford, Lena Olin, Alan Arkin, Raul Julia, Tomás Milián, Daniel Davis, Tony Plana, Betsy Brantley, Lise Cutter, Richard Farnsworth, Mark Rydell, Vasek Simek, Fred Asparagus, Richard Portnow, Dion Anderson, Carmine Caridi
Director: Sydney Pollack
Studio: Universal Pictures
Trivia: Pollack wanted to shoot the film in Cuba but U.S. law would not allow American dollars to be spent in Cuba, nor could U.S. citizens travel legally to the country. The entire film was shot in the Dominican Republic. The end scene was filmed in Key West. The film’s main set, dubbed The Big Set, was a quarter of a mile long street lined with the facades of casinos, restaurants and hotels. Havana’s main boulevard, the Prado, was reconstructed at a former air base, using more than 80 neon signs made in the US and shipped to the Dominican Republic. The set took 20 weeks to construct. About 100 1950s vintage vehicles — cars, buses, trucks — appear in the film. The Andrew Sisters’ ‘Rum and Coca-Cola’ heard in the film is actually a re-recorded version from 1961, two years after the film’s setting. Raul Julia is uncredited in the film because producers would not give him above-the-title credit.

December 13 – Vincent and Me

Cast: Nina Petronzio, Christopher Forrest, Paul Klerk, Alexandre Vernon Dobtcheff, Anna-Maria Giannotti, Andrée Pelletier, Matthew Mabe, Tchéky Karyo, Jeanne Calment, Kiki Classen, Maria Giannotti, Inge Ipenburg, Michel Maillot, Wally Martin, Martijn Overing
Director: Michael Rubbo
Studio: Les Productions la Fête
Trivia: The 11th in the Tales for All (Contes Pour Tous) series of children’s movies. At 114, Jeanne Calment, who claimed to have met van Gogh around 1888 when she was 12 or 13, briefly appears in the film as herself making her the oldest person ever to appear in a motion picture.

December 14 – Captain America

Cast: Matt Salinger, Ronny Cox, Scott Paulin, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Bill Mumy, Francesca Neri, Michael Nouri, Kim Gillingham, Sven Medvešek, Melinda Dillon, Carla Cassola, Wayde Preston
Director: Albert Pyun
Studio: Marvel Entertainment Group, Jadran Film, distributed by 21st Century Film Corporation
Trivia: The film opened in the UK on December 14, 1990 but did not see a US release, direct-to-video, until July 22, 1992. Known as Bloodmatch in the Philippines. This was the first feature film to star Captain America. The film was set up in 1984 at the Cannon Group with Michael Winner as the director. After several failed attempts at a script, Winner finally joined forced with Stan Lee and Lawrence J. Block, but by 1987 Winner was out and John Stockwell was hired, with a new script by Stephen Tolkin. When Menahem Golan left Cannon with control of 21st Century Film Corporation in 1989, he was allowed to carry Captain America over with Albert Pyun set to direct Tolkin’s script. The film was intended for release in August 1990 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Captain America. Several release dates came and went before the film finally went straight to cable and home video in the US.

December 14 – Edward Scissorhands

Cast: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Robert Oliveri, Conchata Ferrell, Caroline Aaron, Dick Anthony Williams, O-Lan Jones, Vincent Price, Alan Arkin
Director: Tim Burton
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Trivia: The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 7, followed by a limited release on December 7 and a wide release on December 14. The film was developed while Burton was in pre-production on Beetlejuice at Warner Bros., but the studio declined to produce Edward Scissorhands and it was picked up by Fox. The film was fast-tracked after the success of Batman, and Fox gave Burton complete creative control. The majority of the film was shot in Lutz, Florida. This marked the first collaboration between Burton and Depp, and the fourth between Burton and composer Danny Elfman. Tom Cruise was the studio’s first choice for Edward, but Burton did not feel he was the right fit. Tom Hanks and Gary Oldman turned down the role, Hanks for The Bonfire of the Vanities and Oldman because he thought it was absurd (but then got it after seeing two minutes of the finished film). Jim Carrey and John Cusack were also considered. William Hurt, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Jackson expressed interest. Depp was always Burton’s first choice, and he reportedly ‘wept like a newborn’ when he read the script. Fox was so nervous about Edward’s appearance that they kept photos of Depp in full costume under wraps until the film’s release. Depp was in Baltimore filming John Waters’ Cry-Baby while preparing to play Edward, practicing with the scissorhands created by Stan Winston. The role of the Inventor was created specifically for Vincent Price and was his last major film role. Price did not speak in the role as his voice had weakened due to illness and age, and he did not want people to hear him that way. Burton originally conceived the film as a musical. Dianne Wiest was the first actress to read the script, and once she signed on other became interested. Drew Barrymore had auditioned for the role of Kim before Burton approached Ryder. Crispin Glover auditioned for the role of Jim, which went to Anthony Michael Hall. Backstreet Boy Nick Carter has a cameo as a boy playing with a Slip ‘n Slide as Edward rides in Peg’s car through suburbia.

December 14 – Look Who’s Talking Too

Cast: John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Elias Koteas, Twink Caplan, Olympia Dukakis, Lesley Ewen, Gilbert Gottfried, Don S. Davis, Bruce Willis, Roseanne Barr, Damon Wayans, Mel Brooks
Director: Amy Heckerling
Studio: Big Mouth Production, distributed by Tri-Star Pictures
Trivia: A teaser at the end of the first film included an uncredited Joan Rivers as the voice of Julie, but she declined the role due to scheduling conflicts. Roseanne Barr took over the role. Richard Pryor was the voice of Eddie in the trailer. Damon Wayans provided the voice in the film. When the movie was broadcast on ABC Family, many deleted scenes were reincorporated. Unlike the original, the sequel was widely panned and received two Razzie Awards nominations for Gottfried (Worst Supporting Actor) and Barr (Worst Supporting Actress).

December 14 – Mermaids

Cast: Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling, Christina Ricci, Caroline McWilliams, Jan Miner, Betsy Townsend, Richard McElvain, Paula Plum
Director: Richard Benjamin
Studio: Orion Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1986 novel by Patty Dann. Christina Ricci’s film debut. The film was originally set to be the American directorial debut of Lasse Halstrom. Halstrom left the project to make Once Around. Frank Oz was hired but quit after clashing with Cher and Ryder. The film was shot on location in Massachusetts in 1989. Ryder received a Golden Globe nomination. Emily Lloyd was originally cast as Charlotte and had begun shooting the film. Cher didn’t think she looked enough like her to be her daughter, and Ryder impressed both Cher and then-director Oz and got the part. Lloyd sued Orion Pictures for breach of contract, reaching a settlement on the second day of the trial.

December 14 – The Sheltering Sky

Cast: Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Campbell Scott, Jill Bennett, Timothy Spall, Eric Vu-An, Amina Annabi, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Nicoletta Braschi, Sotigui Kouyaté, Tom Novembre
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Studio: Recorded Picture Company, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Trivia: Based on the 1949 novel by Paul Bowles, who appears in a cameo role. The film won the BAFTA for Best Cinemetography and the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Bertolucci was also nominated for the Best Director Golden Globe.

2000

December 15 – Chocolat

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Victoire Thivisol, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp, Hugh O’Conor, Carrie-Anne Moss, Aurélien Parent-Koenig, Peter Stormare, Hélène Cardona, Antonio Gil, Elisabeth Commelin, Ron Cook, Leslie Caron, John Wood, Michèle Gleizer, Dominique MacAvoy, Arnaud Adam, Christianne Oliveira, Tatyana Yassukovich
Director: Lasse Hallström
Studio: Miramax Films
Trivia: Based on the 1996 novel by Joanne Harris. The film opened in the US in a limited release followed by a wide release on January 19, 2001. The film earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Binoche won the European Film Award for Best Actress, and Dench won the Screen Actors Guild Award. The film was also nominated for four Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs and one Grammy Award for Rachel Portman’s score.

20th Century Fox

December 15 – Dude, Where’s My Car?

Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner, Marla Sokoloff, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Kristy Swanson, David Herman, Hal Sparks, Charlie O’Connell, Teressa Tunney, Freda Foh Shen, John Toles-Bey, James Vincent, Keone Young, Erik Audé
Director: Danny Leiner
Studio: Alcon Entertainment, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: Andy Dick and Brent Spiner appear in uncredited roles. The film was critically panned but earned $73.2 million worldwide against a $13 million budget. Kutcher confirmed in 2016 that there was a script for a sequel that had been in development for years, titled Seriously Dude, Where’s My Car?, and is not opposed to reprising his role. Scott also discussed his interest in the sequel in 2017, saying it should be R-rated and ‘dark and really weird’.

December 15 – The Emperor’s New Groove

Voice Cast: David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton, Wendie Malick, Kellyann Kelso, Eli Russell Linnetz, Bob Bergen, Tom Jones, Patti Deutsch, John Fiedler, Joe Whyte, Jack Angel, Danny Mann, Rodger Bumpass, Paul Eiding, Patrick Pinney, Sherry Lynn, Jennifer Darling, Mickie McGowan, Jess Harnell, Steve Susskind, Miriam Flynn, Frank Welker, Jim Cummings, Kath Soucie, Andre Stojka, Robert Clotworthy, Mark Dindal
Director: Mark Dindal
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Feature Animation, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Trivia: Disney’s 40th animated film. Development of the film began in 1994 under the title Kingdom of the Sun. Roger Allers was set to direct, and Dindal was brought in to make the film more comedic after disappointing returns on Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. After poor test screenings and creative differences, Allers left the film which then became a lighthearted comedy instead of a dramatic musical. The documentary The Sweatbox details the behind-the-scenes turmoil over the six year development period. The film was a disappointment at the box office, but gained a following after the home video release. Sting’s ‘My Funny Friend and Me’ was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar. Sting agreed to compose several songs for the film on the condition his wife Trudy Styler could document the entire filmmaking process, which became The Sweatbox. Other actors cast under the film’s original title and story include Owen Wilson, Laura Prepon, Carla Gugino, and Harvey Fierstein. The film was so far behind in production, Disney nearly shut it down. Allers asked for an extension of six months to a year which was denied, so he quit. Dindal was given two weeks to salvage the production, which was eventually shut down for six months to undergo a complete overhaul, the first time that happened since Pinocchio. During the shutdown, animators were reassigned to work on segments of Fantasia 2000. The CG-animated Dinosaur replaced the film in the Summer of 2000. With Sting’s songs linked to the original story, seven of the eight were removed from the film but three did appear as bonus tracks on the soundtrack album. Disney told Sting they just wanted opening and closing songs for the film. He wrote ‘Perfect World’ but declined to perform it, saying they needed someone younger. Disney hired Tom Jones, who is eleven years older than Sting. The film’s original ending featured a rain forest being destroyed for a theme park, forcing Sting to threaten to resign from the film. The ending was changed. After the film’s release, similarities were noticed between the film and DreamWorks’ The Road to El Dorado. Jeffrey Katzenberg had been with Disney while Kingdom of the Sun was being developed, but left and started DreamWorks leading many to believe El Dorado was based on what he saw of Kingdom of the Sun. The Road to El Dorado was a critical and financial flop. Disney’s marketing of the film was restrained, focusing instead on 102 Dalmatians.

December 15 – The Visit

Cast: Obba Babatundé, Rae Dawn Chong, Marla Gibbs, Hill Harper, Phylicia Rashad, Billy Dee Williams
Director: Jordan Walker-Pearlman
Studio: Sony Pictures Releasing, Urbanworld Films
Trivia: Based on a play by Kosmond Russell. The film earned four Independent Spirit Awards nominations including Best First Feature.

December 15 – What Women Want

Cast: Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Ashley Johnson, Alan Alda, Mark Feuerstein, Judy Greer, Sarah Paulson, Lauren Holly, Robert Briscoe Evans, Delta Burke, Valerie Perrine, Eric Balfour, Ana Gasteyer, Diana-Maria Riva, Lisa Edelstein, Loretta Devine, Logan Lerman, Alex McKenna
Director: Nancy Meyers
Studio: Icon Entertainment, Wind Dancer Films, distributed by Paramount Pictures
Trivia: Gibson was nominated for the Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Golden Globe. The film had Chinese and Indian remakes, and was followed in 2019 by the remake/sequel What Men Want that gender swapped the film’s premise.

2010

December 10 – The Chronicles of Narnie: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Cast: Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Will Poulter, Ben Barnes, Simon Pegg, Gary Sweet, Shane Rangi, Morgan Evans, Steven Rooke, Tony Nixon, Liam Neeson, Laura Brent, Billie Brown, Terry Norris, Bruce Spence, Arabella Morton, Nathaniel Parker, David Vallon, Michael Foster, Roy Billing
Director: Michael Apted
Studio: Walden Media, Dune Entertainment, distributed by 20th Century Fox
Trivia: William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton and Douglas Gresham appeared in cameos. The film had a royal premiere performance on November 30, 2010, followed by a public opening in the UK on December 9. It’s the third and final film of the Narnia series, the only one released in 3D, and the only one not produced and distributed by Disney due to a budgetary dispute between the studio and Walden Media. The film grossed less at the US box office than its predecessors, but was a huge hit internationally, earning over $310 million. It was Fox’s highest grossing film of the year. A fourth film was to be produced but Walden Media’s contract with the estate of C.S. Lewis expired. The film features 1,400 special effects shots.

December 10 – The Fighter

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee, Frank Renzulli, Jenna Lamia, Bianca Hunter, Erica McDermott, Sugar Ray Leonard, Kate O’Brien
Director: David O. Russell
Studio: Closest to the Hole Productions, Mandeville Films, Relativity Media, Protozoa Pictures, distributed by Paramount Pictures (North America/United Kingdom), The Weinstein Company (International)
Trivia: Inspired by the 1995 documentary High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell. The film premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on December 6, 2010, and opened in the UK on February 4, 2011. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, winning two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Bale, who replaced Brad Pitt) and Best Supporting Actress (Leo), the first film to win both categories since 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters. Bale and Leo also won the Golden Globes in the same categories. Wahlberg gave the script to Martin Scorsese in hopes that he would direct, but Scorsese turned him down after having just completed his own Massachusetts-set The Departed, and he was not interested in another boxing film. Darren Aronofsky was hired to direct in March 2007, but by the time the film went into production in October 2008, Aronofsky had moved on to the Robocop remake followed by Black Swan. Aronofsky accepted an executive producer credit and was happy to have David O. Russell take over the directing.

December 10 – The Tempest

Cast: Helen Mirren, Ben Whishaw, Djimon Hounsou, Felicity Jones, David Strathairn, Tom Conti, Reeve Carney, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand
Director: Julie Taymor
Studio: Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Chartoff/Hendee Productions, TalkStory Productions, Artemis Films, Mumbai Mantra Media Limited, distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Trivia: The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on September 11, 2010. The gender of the main character, Prospero, was changed from male to female. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design.

December 10 – The Tourist

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Steven Berkoff, Rufus Sewell, Christian De Sica, Alessio Boni, Christina Magargle, Giovanni Guidelli, Raoul Bova, Igor Jijikine, Bruno Wolkowitch, Mhamed Arezki, Marc Ruchmann, Julien Baumgartner, François Vincentelli, Nino Frassica, Neri Marcorè, Renato Scarpa, Maurizio Casagrande, Giovanni Esposito
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Studio: GK Films, Spyglass Entertainment, StudioCanal, distributed by Columbia Pictures
Trivia: A remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. The film earned three Golden Globe nominations despite mostly poor critical reviews. There was confusion over which category for which the film should be nominated, comedy or drama, and the director said it was neither, it was a travel romance with thriller elements but if he had to choose, he’d choose comedy. Lasse Halstrom was originally set to direct, with Charlize Therone in the lead role. Tom Cruise was briefly cast as the male lead, followed by Sam Worthington. When Jolie accepted the role, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck agreed to direct, who then left with Worthington over creative differences. Many names, including Alfonso Cuarón, were on the list to direct but Henckel von Donnersmarck returned, with Johnny Depp taking over the male lead. The film was shot in 58 days because Depp was on a tight schedule to leave for Hawaii to begin filming the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

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