Reel Facts: Unbelievable Stuff About Famous Film Stars and Movies That Really Happened

Book excerpt: ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD COULD THINGS THIS UNBELIEVABLE HAPPEN As any actor, producer, director, or screenwriter can attest, working in the movie business isn't easy. After Jack Nicholson filmed his first screen test for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, studio mogul Louis B. Mayer politely told him afterwards: "I don't know what we can use you for, but if we ever do need you, we'll need you real bad." In the late 1960s, Paul, John, George, and Ringo–better known as The Beatles–were set to star in a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, until Tolkien objected over the loudness of their music. Steven Spielberg snubbed Charlton Heston for the lead role in Jaws believing his "save the day" disaster movie performances would overshadow the movie's real star–the killer shark. In prepping for his role of the psychotic Vietnam veteran-turned cab driver in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro obtained a New York taxicab driver's license and learned how to drive a cab working 12-hour shifts and picking up passengers for a New York cab company. What does this unbelievable stuff have in common? Scores of these and other tantalizing tidbits and scintillating stories that really happened to famous film stars and in the movies are meticulously detailed in one fun, fact-filled volume, REEL FACTS. This fascinating, full-color copiously illustrated treasury offers an inside the Hollywood grapevine look at it all—classic movie star rejections, remarkable movie ideas that misfired (or the greatest movies never made), amazing extremes actors have undertaken in preparing for film roles, unforeseen calamities that disrupted or delayed movies in production, fantastic film foolery perpetrated in popular movies on audiences, notable casting mishaps, the worst screen kissers, and much more. For avid movie lovers and film buffs alike, this entertaining chronicle shows filmdom's favorite stars and movies in general like you have never seen them before.