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Thursday, December 22, 2016

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

Latest Movie News From Moviefone

Watch Charlie Hunnam Come Under Fire in the 'Lost City of Z' Teaser Trailer

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A father-son team of explorers will get more adventure than they bargained for in "The Lost City of Z."

Amazon Studios dropped a teaser trailer for the upcoming biopic Thursday, and it dives into the ill-fated real-life expedition of Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) and his son, Jack (Tom Holland). It's clear that their journey won't be uneventful, to say the least. In less than two minutes, the teaser shows arrows raining down on them, conflict with locals, and dire warnings.

Set in 1925, the film follows the explorers as they try to find the City of Z, thought to exist in the Brazilian jungle. Both father and son disappeared while hunting for it in 1925, adding to the mystery. Their story later became the subject of David Grann's 2009 book, which the film is based on.

"The Lost City of Z" also stars Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller, and it opens in theaters in April 2017.

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Chewbacca Singing 'Silent Night' Is the 'Star Wars' Christmas Carol You Didn't Know You Needed

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Even Wookiees can sing Christmas carols.

The holiday classic "Silent Night" has gotten a "Star Wars" spin, thanks to the YouTube account How It Should Have Ended and viral video creator James Covenant. Their joint project features Chewbacca singing the carol, but instead of getting actor Peter Mayhew to do it himself, they updated audio created by web designer Scott Anderson in 1999 that splices together sound bites from the space opera films to form the song.

As you can imagine, Chewbacca's roaring isn't exactly beautiful or always on key. It is entertaining to see how musical his sounds can be with a little help, though. The original didn't need much improving, but the new video features footage that does does add to the fun. It shows Han Solo (Harrison Ford) making a cameo and hilariously scolding his companion.

The Force and the Christmas spirit make for a powerful combination.

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The 'Fuller House' New Year's Countdown Will Let You Celebrate Early with Netflix

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There's no reason to wait till the clock is a handful of ticks away from striking midnight on Dec. 31 to count down to the New Year.

Netflix is again bringing subscribers a selection of special countdowns, and this year, "Fuller House" fans will get one, too. The specials are primarily geared toward children, but they'll also be entertaining for adults. The beauty is that they'll be available on demand, so if you can't stay awake till midnight (no shame) or you won't be near your TV, you won't have to miss out.

The countdowns will arrive on Netflix on Dec. 28, so you don't even have to wait till New Year's Eve to bust out your party hat, 2017 glasses, and champagne or sparkling cider. This could be the new Netflix and chill. Netflix and New Year, anyone?

Watch the video below for a preview of the fun that awaits with characters from "Fuller House," "Word Party," "Beat Bugs," "Puffin Rock," "Project Mc2," and more.

[h/t: Bustle]

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'Grey's Anatomy' Season 13: Shonda Rhimes Talks Complicated Relationships

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ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" - Season ThirteenRelationships are never easy on "Grey's Anatomy," and that's not suddenly going to change in the second half of Season 13.

That's the main takeaway from a recent email interview Shonda Rhimes did for TVLine. The show creator answered questions about the upcoming episodes, and she made it clear that Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Alex (Justin Chambers), Arizona (Jessica Capshaw), and the rest of the Grey Sloan gang will continue to have complicated relationships, romantic and otherwise.

"Meredith's journey is always interesting and complex," Rhimes told the publication. "There are so many aspects to her as woman, a surgeon, a sister and a mother."

Given that she had been asked about the character's relationship with Nathan (Martin Henderson), her response was impressively vague. Still, wherever things may go with the two doctors, it sounds like we can expect the usual turbulence.

Rhimes was equally evasive when answering questions about Arizona and Eliza (Marika Dominczyk), and DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) and Jo (Camilla Luddington). She called the first two's relationship "barely a flirtation" but hinted that there will be fun in "waiting to see what unfolds." As for DeLuca's feelings for Jo, she didn't feel it was "mature to put a name on" whatever is developing, leaving it unclear what that could mean for them and for Alex.

Clearly, Rhimes is good at keeping her story lines a mystery -- just as she is putting together compelling and complex drama. We'll see it all play out when "Grey's Anatomy" returns on Jan. 19.

[via: TVLine]

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Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie Stars Love Them as Much as You Do

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Hallmark Channel Christmas movies actressesThey've become seasonal fixtures as perennial and omnipresent as wreaths, stockings and neatly trimmed trees -- and for both their devoted audience and their regular stable of leading ladies, warm-hearted Hallmark Christmas movies are an irresistible annual treat.

"I look forward to it every year," says actress Alicia Witt, who for the past four years has headlined an annual Hallmark holiday-themed film, one of a slate of several new, original productions the cable network unveils beginning at Thanksgiving and airs alongside repeat showings of its previous releases.

The wall-to-wall airings of stories of Christmas-themed romances, family reconciliations and comedies of errors, typically starring familiar female faces from television have become a heartwarming and reassuring holiday viewing stable that's proven popular year after year.

For Witt -- who headlined this year's "Christmas List" after previously starring in "A Very Merry Mix-Up" (2013), "Christmas at Cartwright's" (2014), and "I'm Not Ready For Christmas" (2015) -- the Hallmark roles are a refreshing change of pace from an increasingly edgy television landscape.

"I do so many dark jobs and play so many dark characters -- like this year on 'The Walking Dead,' and a real conniving kind of girl on 'Nashville,'" Witt tells Moviefone. "I tend to have this career where I play these characters who are either dark, twisted characters who are killing people or screwing them over or I play these really happy, life-affirming characters on Hallmark!"

"And I honestly look forward so much to getting to make my annual Hallmark Christmas movie," Witt adds. "Because I wish that life were more like a Christmas movie. I love the characters I'm playing there, and the girl I'm playing in this year's movie is maybe my favorite one yet."

Along with starring in sister channel Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' series of TV movies based on author Charlaine Harris's novels featuring librarian/murder enthusiast Aurora Teagarden, actress Candace Cameron Bure found a home on Hallmark each holiday season with movies including "Let It Snow" (2013), "Christmas Under Wraps" (2014), "A Christmas Detour" (2015), and this year's "Journey Back to Christmas."

The exposure there was a key part of Bure's career re-ascendance as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars," a co-hosting slot on the daytime talk show "The View," and as the star of "Fuller House," Netflix's revival of the sitcom that first made her a star, "Full House."

"Hallmark's my family." Bure tells Moviefone. "We've had such a great relationship and I've been working with them for so long. And it's grown over the years: developing the projects that I work on and producing the projects that I work on. They have a wonderful brand that lines up with my brand, what their core values are and what they represent -- that's what I do, and that's why it works so well."

"And then they're very generous in the way that I was able to do 'Fuller House' and be on 'The View' all year long," Bure adds. "And still I find the time to make these movies with them, because that's how much I love the company."

Bure's "Fuller House" co-star, Lori Loughlin, has also found a holiday home with Hallmark, appearing in "Northpole: Open for Christmas" (2015), "Christmas Makeover" (2016), as well as starring in the network's non-Christmas themed fare, including the drama series "When Calls the Heart" and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' recurring telefilm series "Garage Sale Mystery."

"Oh, they've been great to me," says Loughlin. "I love that it's family-friendly. I love that it's feel-good and it's uplifting. That makes me really happy. All the Christmas movies and the joy -- I mean, you know when you put the channel on you're going to feel good and you're going to forget about your problems for a little while. It's just going to take you away, and I like that it has a positive message."

There another benefit to working with the Hallmark Channel: prime roles aren't easy to find in Hollywood for actress over a certain age, but the network is much more open to casting its stars along lines closer to its demographic. "As you get older as an actress, you don't think you're going to work as much," she says. "What I love about Hallmark is they have so many roles for me where I still get to be the leading lady."

After appearing in "A Christmas Wedding Date" (2012), actress Marla Sokoloff has continued to work steadily for Hallmark in various projects.

"As an actor -- and especially as a female actor -- it's so rare and nice to have a company that keeps hiring you," Sokoloff says, "because generally it's like, 'Bring in the next new girl,' and 'Oh, we already know Marla Sokoloff, we've seen her in this. We don't need to see her for this, she's not right for that.' So it's really beyond touching and nice as an actress to know that people are behind you and believe in you still. We're all getting older and it's harder to do what you love to do. So it's just really lovely."

And the audience has a seemingly never-ending appetite for new holiday romances -- including her own social circle. "A lot of my friends are just, like, obsessed. Whenever I do do a Hallmark movie, the first question they ask is, 'Is it Christmas? Please tell me it's Christmas!'" Sokoloff laughs. "Honestly, at this time in this crazy world, anything positive on the television is fine by me. I can barely go on Facebook anymore because I just think I'm terrified right now, so yeah, I think bring more positivity, bring more light. That's what we need."

Rachel Boston has also become one of the Hallmark Channel's go-to players following her stint in "Ice Sculpture Christmas" (2015) and "A Rose For Christmas," which premieres on Jan. 1.

"I love working with Hallmark," says Boston. "They're incredibly loyal people. The messages that you see in their films are definitely what they put into practice behind the scenes too. And I like telling stories about hope and faith, and I think I can turn on the news, and there are so many things I can watch if I want a different type of story. Just real life has enough pain and suffering in my opinion. So doing a film that brings people and uplifts people and makes them happier than they started it, that's the kind of programming I'm interested in being part of."

Boston says she appreciates the channel's family-friendly sensibility -- "You're always going to be safe leaving this network on, and that's rare in today's world," she says -- and its dedication to happy endings -- and then there's the fact that she's a sucker for Christmas movies. "My favorite movie when I was growing up was 'It's a Wonderful Life,' so I might have channeled some of my inner seven-year-old!"

And, as Witt points out, the fanbase for Hallmark's holiday fare just keeps growing -- and the ones watching aren't always who one might suspect. "One of the coolest responses I get pretty regularly is that guys will come up to me at the gym and say 'Hey, I feel kind of lame telling you, but you're the only one that, when my wife is watching the Hallmark Channel, I watch it with her.'"

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Helen Mirren Agrees That 2016 Was Terrible in Hilarious, Foul-Mouthed Christmas Message

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"Collateral Beauty" - European Premiere - Red Carpet ArrivalsAfter a seemingly neverending parade of celebrity deaths and a brutal election cycle, many of us can agree that 2016 was a pretty rough year. Helen Mirren definitely thinks so, and has shared her thoughts about the upcoming end of the year in a hilarious, foul-mouthed new Christmas message.

Mirren delivered the address while appearing on "The Graham Norton Show," after the host encouraged her to share some thoughts on the holiday in Queen Elizabeth II's stead. (It's an annual tradition in the U.K. for QEII to give a Christmas address to the nation.) Since Mirren, a British dame and Oscar winner for playing the queen herself, was "the nearest thing to royalty" in the studio, Norton urged her to offer some remarks to viewers about the year that was.

The actress was only too happy to oblige, facing the camera and putting on her most deadpan expression.

"At this time of celebration and togetherness, we have a chance to reflect on the year gone by," Mirren began. "And I think we can all agree that 2016 has been a big pile of sh*t. So my advice to you is drink responsibly and be merry. Have a very happy Christmas."

Say no more, Dame Helen. Cheers and bottoms up.

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There Were 455 Scripted Original Shows on Air in 2016

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If you had any doubt that we are truly living in the age of Peak TV, look no further than a new study, which concluded that there were 455 original scripted series on the air in 2016.

The research comes courtesy of FX, the network responsible for coining the term Peak TV in the first place. (Network president John Landgraf used those words to describe the 2015 TV season, when an estimated 400 scripted series were set to make it on the air; the actual number was 421.) Variety interviewed the folks behind the FX Networks Research report, and determined that between 2006 and 2016, the number of scripted shows increased by a whopping 137 percent, from 192 series in 2006 to 455 this year.

Much of that staggering increase is thanks to the continued rise of original programming offered by streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Since 2011, streaming services have increased original offerings from a total of 6 series across all platforms to this year's count of 93, mostly thanks to those outlets' seemingly endless wads of cash (especially Netflix, which is continuing in its quest to double its original offerings every year).

At the rate things are going, Variety estimates that 2017 could see as many as 500 original scripted series on the air, though a spokesperson for FX said that it was premature to speculate just yet.

"While it's a reasonable bet that 2017 will hover around the 500 mark, I'm going to go with Yogi Berra: 'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future,'" said Julie Piepenkotter, executive vice president of research for FX, in an interview with Variety.

This is both good and bad news for viewers: You'll have endless options to choose from, but you'll also probably spend more time deciding what to watch than you do actually watching.

For a closer look at FX's research, check out Variety's story here.

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Bill Murray Is Opening a 'Caddyshack'-Themed Restaurant in Chicago

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caddyshack, restaurant, bar, bill murray, chicago, murray brothersAfter trying his hand at bartending, Bill Murray is getting into the restaurant business himself: The comedy star is set to open his own eatery just outside of Chicago. And if that weren't awesome enough news, the venue will pay tribute to one of the actor's most beloved movies.

According to Eater Chicago, Murray and his brothers have hammered out an agreement to lease restaurant space in the suburb of Rosemont, and it will take inspiration directly from 1980's "Caddyshack," considered by some film buffs to be one of the greatest comedies of all time. It would actually be the second location of the Murray Brothers Caddyshack sports bar and grill, after the family opened a similar restaurant at a golf resort in St. Augustine, Florida 15 years ago.

Eater reports that the restaurant's tagline in "Eat, drink, and be Murray," which is pretty much the most perfect motto we've ever heard. According to the site, the Florida location offers a menu with typical pub fare like sandwiches and grilled items, and also serves a Chicago-style hot dog, in a nod to Murray's Chi-town roots. The interior is golf-themed -- even the servers are dressed as caddies -- and there are lots of TVs for plenty of sports viewing, golf or otherwise.

City officials still need to approve the Murrays' plans, but we can't see how they could deny giving their hometown hero the opportunity to open a hole-in-one business.

[via: Eater Chicago]

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'Jeopardy!' Pays Tribute to Cindy Stowell, Champion Who Died of Cancer

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jeopardy, cindy stowell, tribute, contestant, champion, cancerCindy Stowell won more than $100,000 when she appeared as a six-time champion on "Jeopardy!" beginning on December 13. But sadly, Stowell died of cancer before her episodes made it on the air. Now, the long-running game show and host Alex Trebek have paid tribute to the contestant with a heartfelt video message, as well as an emotional interview with Stowell herself, conducted while she was taping her episodes.

At the end of the December 21 episode, which marked Stowell's last appearance on the program following a six-game winning streak, a special message from Trebek was appended to the broadcast, in which the host explained to audiences what happened to Stowell. A clearly emotional Trebek told viewers:

"For the past six 'Jeopardy!' programs, you folks have been getting to know the talented champion, Cindy Stowell. Appearing on our show was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition for that lady. What you did not know is that when we taped these programs with her a few weeks ago, she was suffering from Stage 4 cancer. And sadly, on December 5, Cindy Stowell passed away. So from all of us here at 'Jeopardy!' our sincere condolences to her family and her friends."

"Jeopardy!" also posted a tribute to Stowell on its website, noting the champion's desire to donate her winnings to cancer charities. Producers were able to send Stowell advance copies of her first three episodes, which she watched from the hospital, and expedited her total winnings of $103,803. Her longtime boyfriend, Jason Hess, confirmed that the money was donated to the Cancer Research Institute.

A video interview with Stowell, taped during her run on the show, allowed the contestant to explain her lifelong dream of appearing on "Jeopardy!," and also reveal her terminal diagnosis.

"Experiencing this, and seeing what it's really like in person, has been phenomenal, and it's been fun," Stowell said of her "Jeopardy!" run, noting that even with the game's nerve-wracking stakes, it's still possible to succeed.

"Even when you think the odds are completely against you, somehow, via luck or something, things can work out," she said.

Stowell was 41.

[via: Jeopardy!, KXAN, h/t Variety]

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Wonder Woman Steals 'God Killer' Sword in New Movie Photo

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Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is a superhero ready to save mankind, but she's also just a young woman disobeying her mom in favor of her own path.

Entertainment Weekly shared a new photo from "Wonder Woman" -- which comes out in June -- showing Diana Prince of Themyscira stealing the Amazon's mythical sword, dubbed the "god killer," for use over in Europe to help Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) in World War I. In taking the sword, she's defying her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), and breaking into her island paradise's heavily guarded armory.

"This is her moment," director Patty Jenkins told EW. "She's heard all the terrible things about man's land. But she's also heard that mankind is in need and under duress. This is her great moment to make the decision to be the one to try and save them."

Here's the new photo:

WONDER WOMAN (2017)Gal Gadot as Wonder WomanIn October, Gal Gadot talked to Variety about Jenkins's vision for Wonder Woman's origin story:

"For her it was very important to not just portray her as a goddess, but to tell a very simple story of someone who believes in good and believes that people should be happy and lead safe, happy lives. We cared a lot about simplifying Wonder Woman's agenda, because it is simple. It was her heart that we cared about, not her being this warrior. When you tell a story from the heart, all of us can relate, because all of us want to live in a safe, quiet, and peaceful world."

DC's "Wonder Woman" opens June 2, 2017.

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Tim Gunn Wants 'Project Runway' Season With Only Size 12-Plus Models

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Take note, Santa: Official national treasure Tim Gunn wants you to bring Lifetime a curvier season of "Project Runway."

Tonight (Thursday, Dec. 22), "Project Runway" Season 15 ends, and "Project Runway: Junior" Season 2 begins, but Gunn is already looking toward the future. He shared his Christmas wish list with the New York Post, and here's the second item:

2. A new season of "Project Runway" in which all of the models are size 12/14-plus.
"Isn't it time that fashion designers address the real world?"

"Project Runway" usually presents one "real woman" challenge a season, which the designers often hate, since they're only used to designing for tall, straight model forms. In the past, the show has even held schoolyard picks for the "real woman" models, leading to body shaming insults.

Season 14 winner Ashley Nell Tipton made a point to design for women with larger body types, but Gunn was not happy with that season as a whole, or Tipton as winner, because he felt the judges were making a "condescending" statement that "reeked of tokenism" by honoring designs he found unflattering. He argued that the fashion industry has failed the millions of women out there who wear size 12 or above, and now he wants "Project Runway" to lead the way in raising the bar for that demographic.

Gunn has yet to complain about Season 15, which is likely to come down to Laurence Basse vs. Erin Robertson, although Rik Villa and Roberi Parra are still in the running. (No matter what, Laurence has already won.) After the two-hour Season 15 finale from 8 to 10 p.m., "Project Runway: Junior" will introduce its 12 new designers.

"Project Runway" Season 16 has yet to be announced, but do you hope it includes all size 12-plus models?

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Martin Freeman Had the Most Awkward Fan Encounter at the Urinal

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Etiquette tip: When they have to pee, let them be!

Martin Freeman, Will Smith, Helen Mirren, and Naomie Harris were recently on "The Graham Norton Show" and the topic of fan encounters came up. Freeman said he can tell immediately, just by looking at fans, what they'll know him from. He said -- with respect to anyone this might not apply to -- that if a female between 16-25 approaches him, it's usually for "Sherlock." Young women in the audience cheered, essentially confirming it. He apparently has very different experiences with fans of "The Office," which he relayed later in the chat.

Norton asked the group to name the oddest places they had been recognized. For Will Smith, it was in a village in Mozambique. Helen Mirren said, for her, it's most awkward when fans approach her when she's in line for the bathroom.

"When you get recognized in a queue for the toilet ... that is not an easy place to be recognized because you're stuck." She noted that women's bathroom lines tend to be long, and you feel compelled to talk to people as you stand there slowly moving forward. And then word spreads that Helen Mirren is in line, and people whisper. "Knowing everybody is going to be listening once you're in there is mortifying," she added.

Smith jumped in on that: "For men, it's bad if you get recognized at the urinal."

Freeman had a story on that front, and that's where things got really good:

"That happened to me. I was at a gig years ago. I was at the urinal. And there were two guys and they both clocked me. I think this is from 'The Office' days. They both clocked me and looked at each other and went, 'Has he got a big one?'"

Graham Norton's assessment: "Women are lucky."

Truth. And apparently no one recognizes Naomie Harris at all, so she doesn't even have problems in line for the bathroom.

Watch the whole interview, it's great:Smith, Mirren, and Harris are all in the new movie "Collateral Beauty," and Freeman is in the new season of "Sherlock," starting January 1 on PBS.

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Ellen Pompeo and A&E Are Now Feuding Over New KKK Series

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2015 Summer TCA Tour - Day 8There's no grey area here: Ellen Pompeo is speaking out against A&E's upcoming series "Generation KKK," following high-ranking Ku Klux Klan members and their families.

The eight-part documentary series starts January 10, and the "Grey's Anatomy" star was one of many to reply with shock and anger at the news. Pompeo called for a full boycott of A&E, then A&E responded and tried to convince her the series is actually about "exposing hate and extracting families from the KKK."

The network replied to Pompeo's "shame on you" tweet by defending the show's mission:

Her reply to that was cordial:

Some fans argued that the series could be beneficial. As one wrote to Pompeo, "hate groups are on the rise. This documentary exposes that and helps people leave! #exposehate." Here's her reply:


According to the New York Times, A&E aimed to find a balance between winning the trust of the Klan members and ensuring the show didn't promote views the network executives abhor. "We certainly didn't want the show to be seen as a platform for the views of the KKK," Rob Sharenow, general manager of A&E, told the Times. "The only political agenda is that we really do stand against hate."

The Times added that, as the filmmakers sought to depict this relatively unseen world, they also incorporated the anti-hate activists Daryle Lamont Jenkins, Arno Michaelis, and Bryon Widner "as they tried to persuade members to leave the Klan — or at least to leave their children out of it."

So it isn't aiming to glamorize the KKK, but just the fact that the KKK is getting its own reality series is at least normalizing if not glamorizing it, as opposed to showcasing the many more positive and less destructive groups out there. But will a call to boycott A&E just lead to a backlash supporting A&E, the way so much "outrage" does these days?

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Emma Stone Says a Director Gave Her Improvised Jokes to Male Co-Star

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Premiere Of Lionsgate's "La La Land" - ArrivalsIf only we could shrink down to Ant-Man size and sit on the shoulders of Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence, we could get specifics on all of the Hollywood tea they have started spilling. Lawrence just dished on the nicknames she has for celebrities she does not like, and Stone -- also without naming names -- talked about directors who have brushed away her ideas or openly stolen them and given them to her (male) co-stars.

Rolling Stone did a great profile on the "La La Land" star, who was pretty candid about her journey through Hollywood to date, including her struggle to get a scene just right for "Birdman" director Alejandro González Iñárritu and her insistence to "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle that she wanted to learn to tap dance for the role instead of half-assing it.

In the profile, Stone also described her new film as breakthrough in another way, and that's where she got into the behind-the-scenes scoop. Here's that part of the interview:

"There are times in the past, making a movie, when I've been told that I'm hindering the process by bringing up an opinion or an idea," Stone says. "I hesitate to make it about being a woman, but there have been times when I've improvised, they've laughed at my joke and then given it to my male co-star. Given my joke away. Or it's been me saying, 'I really don't think this line is gonna work,' and being told, 'Just say it, just say it, if it doesn't work we'll cut it out' – and they didn't cut it out, and it really didn't work!'" (Stone goes off-the-record before elaborating further.)

Ah, but the off-the-record stuff is the best!

Giving away someone's improvised work is an immediate black mark. The part about patronizing directors blowing off a line that doesn't work -- that probably happens all the time. Directors and writers can be so sure of their vision that they can't see or hear past it, and when it turns out they're wrong they are still likely to insist they were right. That's the tough spot actors get put in, which is why you get the cliché that actors really want to direct -- or, in this case, maybe write.

Rolling Stone asked Emma Stone if she had ever considered writing or directing a script herself. Here's her answer:

When I ask if she's considered writing a script herself, or directing one, Stone's eyes widen. "Writing's interesting, but I've never done it in any way," she says. "And directing, God, that's a hard job. It's all the things you don't think about as an actor. 'We lost a location.' 'That costume is wrong.' 'That actor won't leave their trailer.'

Sure, it's harder than just doing what you're told, but if you want more control over what you do, it makes sense as the next step. Maybe Stone should team up with Jennifer Lawrence?

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16 Things You Never Knew About 'Dirty Harry'

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Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?

If you do, then it's time to celebrate the 45th anniversary of "Dirty Harry," released on December 23, 1971. The landmark movie gave Clint Eastwood his most famous role, invented a new kind of hero and a new kind of police thriller, and heralded the cultural shift away from Westerns toward the modern urban cop drama as the arena for American stories about law, social order, and violence. Celebrate the iconic film's anniversary with these need-to-know facts.
1. The original "Dirty Harry" script, written by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink and called "Dead Right," was about a middle-aged cop tracking a serial killer in New York.

2. In revisions, the setting changed to Seattle before settling in San Francisco. Among the script doctors who revised it: future "Apocalypse Now" and "Red Dawn" scribe John Milius, who claimed credit for the movie's firearm fetishism and Harry's famous speech praising his Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum. Another was Terrence Malick, still three years away from his breakthrough film "Badlands." He made the killer a vigilante who attacked other killers, an idea that ultimately found its way into the first "Dirty Harry" sequel, "Magnum Force."
3. Frank Sinatra, then 55, was the initial star attached to the film. But he bowed out, reportedly because a hand injury he'd suffered a decade earlier on the set of "The Manchurian Candidate" made Harry's all-important .44 Magnum too heavy for the singer-actor to hold comfortably. ("That sounded like a pretty lame excuse," Eastwood recalled in 2008.)

4. Several A-list leading men turned down the role, mostly out of concerns over the extreme violence. (Even John Wayne found Harry too trigger-happy.) Steve McQueen didn't want to do another cop movie so soon after "Bullitt" (he turned down "The French Connection" for the same reason). Liberals Burt Lancaster and Paul Newman disagreed with the character's seemingly right-wing politics, but Newman recommended to the producers the more right-leaning Eastwood.
5. Eastwood's conditions for accepting the role: hire director Don Siegel, who'd made three previous movies with Eastwood, and go back to the original story that pitted lone-wolf Harry against the killer.

6. With the San Francisco setting, however, came the notion of making the villain more like the Zodiac Killer who'd recently terrorized the Bay Area. The movie's bad guy, "Scorpio," certainly echoed Zodiac in his name, his hippie trappings, and his taunting of the authorities.

7. Siegel's initial pick for Scorpio was World War II hero-turned-movie-hero Audie Murphy, figuring it would shock audiences to see Murphy playing against type. But Murphy died in a plane crash just before "Dirty Harry" went into production. Filmmakers also briefly considered James Caan for the part.
8. Eastwood and Siegel had seen Andy Robinson in a play and picked him as Scorpio, again because his angelic face made him seem like anything but a serial killer. In fact, Robinson considered himself a pacifist and would flinch whenever he had to fire a weapon -- until Siegel made him undergo firearms training.

9. Robinson ad libbed the line "My, that's a big one," in response to seeing Harry's revolver. His improvisation made the crew crack up and ruined the take, but Siegel liked the line and kept it when they reshot the scene.
10. The 41-year-old Eastwood performed a number of his own stunts in the film. If you watch closely the scene where Harry jumps from a bridge onto the roof of a moving school bus, you'll see that it's really Eastwood and not a double.

11. Siegel was out sick the day the scene was to be shot in which Harry confronts a suicidal jumper, so Eastwood directed the scene himself.

12. While Harry's famous Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver holds .44 Magnum bullets, blanks of that caliber were unavailable in 1971. Whenever you see Harry open fire, he's shooting a nearly identical Smith & Wesson Model 25, which uses .45 caliber rounds.
13. During the classic scene near the beginning when Harry catches the bank robbers, you can see a movie theater marquee advertising Eastwood's directing debut, "Play Misty for Me," which had just been released at the time of the shoot.

14. "Dirty Harry" cost $4 million to make. It returned $36 million in North America, making it the fourth biggest movie of 1971.
15. Robinson was so convincingly evil as Scorpio that he received death threats and had to get an unlisted phone number.

16. "Dirty Harry" had an impact even overseas. Two copycat hostage crimes, one in Australia and one in Germany, were blamed on the film. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, one police department reportedly screened Eastwood's exploits for training purposes.

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