Category: Interesting Stories

Few 80s movies have proved quite so influential as 1984’s The Terminator. Directed by future Oscar-winner James Cameron—and featuring one of movie legend Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most iconic performances—the film has since become the first installment of a long-running franchise that has gone on to earn more than $3.5 billion at the global box office. Here […]

At the time of its release in 1984, The Never-Ending Story was the most expensive movie ever produced outside of the United States. Financed in West Germany, and directed by legendary German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (at the time best known for his gritty Second World War drama Das Boot), the $20 million movie proved a […]

1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced an entirely new action hero to the world. Swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones has since gone on to appear in four films over three decades (with a fifth supposedly on the way for the 2020s) while the entire franchise has now earned $2 billion at the box office. SMITH […]

When E.T. first arrived in cinemas in 1982, science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) immediately noticed its similarity to a screenplay called The Alien that his friend, the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, had written in 1967. The Alien told an almost identical story: A spaceship lands in an isolated […]

Having been attacked by a mysterious alien lifeform on a distant planet, Officer Kane (played by John Hurt) joins the rest of the crew of the Nostromo spacecraft for breakfast the next morning, seemingly unaffected by the entire experience. Moments later, a monstrous embryonic creature bursts out of his chest, killing him instantly—and kick-starting the […]

Fresh from the success of 1974’s The Godfather Part II, for his next movie, Francis Ford Coppola embarked on one of the most challenging movie shoots in cinema history. To say that he put a lot on the line when it came to filming his Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now in 1976 would be putting […]

At the time of its release in 1978, Superman was Hollywood’s most expensive ever feature film. Directed by Richard Donner and starring a relatively unknown Christopher Reeve in the title role (alongside an impressive ensemble cast, including Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Trevor Howard, and Terence Stamp), the movie was given a budget of $55 million—almost […]

Few movies have established such a loyal following as 1977’s Star Wars, and the now nine-part movie series—plus all of its later spinoffs—remains one of Hollywood’s best-loved franchises. Here are some facts and tales from the set of one of cinema’s most influential and eternally popular movie series. A WASTE OF SPACE When Disney bought […]

Legendary 1976 sports drama Rocky told the rags-to-riches story of smalltime backstreet boxer Rocky Balboa, who eventually ends up going a full fifteen rounds in a world heavyweight championship match. With that in mind, it could be argued that the film’s plotline mirrors the uphill struggle that inexperienced writer and leading man Sylvester Stallone had […]

Marlon Brando burst onto the silver screen in the early 1950s, with career-defining roles in dramas like A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. Off-screen, however, his private life was just as dramatic. Brando married three times in his life, first to British-Indian actress Anna Kashfi in 1957; then to American actress Movita Castaneda […]