Monday January 19 Dougies Daily Trivia This year marks the 20th anniversary of the movie, Apollo 13. The movie is widely considered the best of Ron Howards directorial career. He even refers to it as his favorite movie project. The movie stars Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon as astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert respectively. Gary Sinise appears as Ken Mattingly and Ed Harris appears as Gene Kranz. It tells the amazing true life story of the Apollo 13 mission. The crew launched into space, and were supposed to do a moonwalk. An equipment malfunction traps them in orbit, and they have to figure out a way to get back to Earth, and not run out of oxygen in the process. This was part of the biggest career run of Tom Hanks when he was getting nominated for Oscars every year. Todays question: This was the second movie that Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise appeared together. What was the first one? Answer: Forrest Gump OTHER FUN APOLLO 13 FACTS: Brad Pitt and John Travolta turned down the part of Jim Lovell. Charlie Sheen and John Cusack were considered for the part of Fred Haise. Cusack was offered the part, but turned it down. Ron Howards parents appear in the film. His mother, Jean, plays Blanche Lovell. His father, Rance, plays a priest. To prepare for their roles, the main cast went to Space Camp, and trained in the simulators. According to Marilyn Lovell (the real one, not Kathleen Quinlan who played her in the movie), Tom Hanks mannerisms in the movie matched her husbands exactly. Marilyn really did lose her ring down the drain, but she did find it back. Jim Lovell is left handed, but Tom Hanks is right handed. Gary Sinise shares the same birthday with his character Ken Mattingly: March 17. The spacesuits cost $30,000 each. The zero-gravity sequences were filmed at Ellington Field in Houston. The scenes of Earth from the window of the Apollo 13 were photos taken by Jim Lovell and Bill Anders on Apollo 8. The real Jim Lovell appears at the end of the movie as the captain of the U.S.S. Iwo Jima that greets the astronauts when they get back home. The U.S.S. New Orleans was used as a stand in for the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The Iwo Jima had been decommissioned prior to filming. At the premiere Director Ron Howard asked audience members to review the film. Most of the reviews were positive. Although there was one reviewer thought that it was unrealistic saying that something like that would never happen in real life. Apparently the reviewer didnt know it was a true story. For his portrayal of real life astronaut Jim Lovell in the movie, Tom Hanks had an asteroid named after him.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:05:50 +0000
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