58 Fun Facts About Fall Movie

Who directed the 1989 autumn romance 'When Harry Met Sally...'?

Rob Reiner directed from Nora Ephron's script, and he cast his own mother, Estelle, as the deli customer who delivers the film's most quoted line.

At which Manhattan deli was the 'I'll have what she's having' scene in 'When Harry Met Sally...' filmed?

Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street hosted the scene; the deli hung a sign over the table reading 'Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!'

'Dead Poets Society' is set in 1959 at which fictional boarding school?

Welton Academy. Its screenwriter modelled the Vermont school on the one he attended, Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, and the film was shot at St. Andrew's School in Delaware.

Which poet do the students quote when they salute Keating as 'O Captain, my Captain' in 'Dead Poets Society'?

Walt Whitman wrote the poem in 1865 to mourn the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and in the film's finale his students climb onto their desks to say it as their teacher leaves.

What Latin phrase does John Keating teach his students in 'Dead Poets Society'?

Carpe diem. Keating gives it as 'seize the day', but Horace's Latin literally says 'pluck the day', and the poet's line goes on to advise trusting tomorrow as little as possible.

In 'Good Will Hunting', Will works as a janitor at which institution?

Will mops floors at MIT, where Professor Gerald Lambeau spots his genius after he anonymously solves a problem left on a hallway blackboard.

Which two friends wrote 'Good Will Hunting' and won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for it?

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Damon began it as a Harvard playwriting assignment, handing his professor some 40 pages of a film in place of the one-act play he had been set.

Who directed 'Good Will Hunting'?

Gus Van Sant. Kevin Smith was asked first but said he wouldn't dare direct it; he helped take the script to Miramax instead, and Van Sant got the job.

In which Massachusetts town is 'Hocus Pocus' set?

Salem. The 1693 opening was filmed at Pioneer Village, the city's replica of its colonial self, and fans of the film now flood the place every autumn.

Which director of 'Hocus Pocus' later made the 'High School Musical' films?

Kenny Ortega. His witch comedy tanked in cinemas in the summer of 1993, then found its audience through yearly October airings on cable television.

What object must be lit by a virgin to bring the Sanderson sisters back in 'Hocus Pocus'?

The Black Flame Candle. Max, who thinks the legend is 'hocus pocus', lights it anyway, and the witches hanged 300 years earlier get one night to take the souls of the town's children.

'Hocus Pocus 2' arrived in 2022 on which streaming service?

Disney+. Bette Midler had been telling fans since 2014 to 'inundate' the studio with requests for a sequel, and it finally arrived 29 years after the original.

'You've Got Mail' takes its title from the greeting used by which online service?

AOL. The cheery voice belongs to Elwood Edwards, who recorded the greeting at home in 1989, on a cassette deck in his living room.

In 'You've Got Mail', what is the name of Kathleen Kelly's independent children's bookstore?

The Shop Around the Corner is named for the Ernst Lubitsch film the story remakes, itself adapted from Miklós László's Hungarian play Parfumerie.

Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' adapts a 1970 novel by which author?

Roald Dahl. To keep the animals' lines spontaneous, Anderson recorded his voice cast on location, in a forest, an attic and a stable, and not in a studio.

What are the names of the three farmers who hunt the title character in 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'?

Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Mr. Fox raids each of their farms in turn, so the three farmers shoot off his tail and tear up his home, driving the animals underground.

What is the surname of the witch family played by Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in 'Practical Magic'?

Owens. An old family curse dooms any man an Owens woman loves, which is why the household in the film is made up entirely of women.

Which cocktail do the witch sisters and their aunts mix at midnight in 'Practical Magic'?

Margaritas. The four women blend them at midnight and dance to Harry Nilsson, until the dead man's tequila they are pouring starts turning them against each other.

Which detective does Daniel Craig play in 'Knives Out'?

Benoit Blanc. Daniel Craig built the detective's Southern drawl on the historian Shelby Foote, whose voice he studied in Ken Burns's documentary The Civil War.

Who plays the crime novelist Harlan Thrombey, whose death sets 'Knives Out' in motion?

Christopher Plummer plays the 85-year-old patriarch found with his throat cut after his birthday party; Ana de Armas is his nurse Marta, who cannot lie without vomiting.

In 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', Neal Page is trying to get home to which city for Thanksgiving?

Chicago. A blizzard there diverts Neal's flight to Wichita, and the short hop home turns into a two-day ordeal by train, bus and car beside Del Griffith.

What does John Candy's character Del Griffith sell in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'?

Shower curtain rings. When their flight is diverted to Wichita, Del and Neal are left sharing a single room for the night, and its one bed.

Wes Anderson co-wrote 'Rushmore' with which actor, a friend from his college days in Texas?

Owen Wilson. Like Max Fischer, he had been expelled from his own prep school, in tenth grade, and he met Anderson in a playwriting class at the University of Texas.

Who plays the precocious student Max Fischer in 'Rushmore'?

Jason Schwartzman. His Max runs nearly every club at the school while failing his classes, and he is there on a scholarship, the son of a barber.

Which animation studio made the stop-motion film 'Coraline' (2009)?

Laika. Nike co-founder Phil Knight took control of Will Vinton Studios, the claymation house behind the California Raisins, and renamed it after the Soviet dog sent into orbit.

In 'Coraline', what does the Other Mother want to sew onto Coraline's eyes?

Buttons. The doubles in the Other World all have them sewn over their eyes, and the Other Mother will let Coraline stay for ever only if she accepts a pair herself.

Which Peanuts character waits in the pumpkin patch in 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'?

Linus. He gives up trick-or-treating to keep watch for the Great Pumpkin; only Sally stays beside him, and her patience runs out long before morning.

What does Charlie Brown get instead of candy while trick-or-treating in the Great Pumpkin special?

Rocks. At house after house he reports 'I got a rock', and for a long time afterwards viewers mailed candy to the show's makers for Charlie Brown.

Who provides Jack Skellington's singing voice in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'?

Danny Elfman wrote the film's songs and sang Jack's himself, so Chris Sarandon was cast afterwards as a speaking voice that matched Elfman's singing.

'The Nightmare Before Christmas' lost its only Oscar nomination to 'Jurassic Park' in which category?

Best Visual Effects. Its director, Henry Selick, says the studio put the stop-motion film out under its Touchstone label because executives thought it too dark and frightening for children.

Who plays the Headless Horseman, seen with his head, in Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow'?

Christopher Walken plays the Hessian mercenary who made a habit of taking heads in the Revolutionary War until he lost his own, the ghost the villagers blame for the killings.

Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' is based on a tale by which American author?

Washington Irving. In his 1820 story Ichabod Crane is a timid schoolteacher; the film turns him into a New York City constable sent upstate to investigate the beheadings.

Who plays Jo March in Greta Gerwig's 2019 'Little Women'?

Saoirse Ronan did not wait to be asked: at an awards event for Lady Bird she told Greta Gerwig that she had to play Jo, and that she would only do the film in that part.

The 2019 'Little Women' won its only Oscar in which category?

Best Costume Design. Jacqueline Durran's winning wardrobe had Jo and Laurie swapping the same clothes back and forth, on purpose, to show how alike the two are.

Which real Alexandria, Virginia school's team does Denzel Washington's coach integrate in 'Remember the Titans'?

T. C. Williams. The school carried the name of a superintendent who had fought to keep Alexandria's schools segregated, and in 2021 the city renamed it Alexandria City High School.

Notre Dame had not agreed to host a film shoot since which 1940 picture when 'Rudy' arrived in 1993?

Knute Rockne, All American. Ronald Reagan plays the dying George Gipp in it, and the deathbed plea to 'win one for the Gipper' later gave Reagan the politician his nickname.

Who plays the undersized walk-on who dreams of playing for Notre Dame in 'Rudy' (1993)?

Sean Astin. The film's most stirring scene, teammates laying their jerseys on the coach's desk so Rudy can suit up, never happened, as teammate Joe Montana later confirmed.

Michael Myers's mask in John Carpenter's 'Halloween' (1978) was adapted from a mask of which character?

Captain Kirk. Production designer Tommy Lee Wallace bought a William Shatner mask at a shop on Hollywood Boulevard, widened the eye holes and painted the face white.

Roughly what was the budget of 'Halloween' (1978), which went on to gross about $70 million?

$300,000, give or take: the production designer doubled as the film's editor, and it still took some $47 million in North America alone.

Wes Craven's 'Scream' was written by Kevin Williamson under what working title?

Scary Movie. The studio swapped the title for Scream only after shooting had begun, by which time the old name was already printed on the crew's wrap gifts.

Which star is killed off in the famous opening scene of 'Scream' (1996)?

Drew Barrymore. She had signed on to play the heroine, Sidney, then asked for the doomed Casey instead, and the film used its biggest name's early death to shock audiences.

In which fictional Connecticut town do the Maitlands haunt their own house in 'Beetlejuice'?

Winter River. The Maitlands drown there when their car plunges off a bridge, then haunt their own house, and the 2024 sequel opens by swooping over the same sleepy town.

Which Oscar did 'Beetlejuice' win?

Best Makeup. Ve Neill, Steve La Porte and Robert Short buried Michael Keaton so deep that Roger Ebert found him nearly unrecognizable behind pounds of the stuff.

In 'Ghostbusters' (1984), the god Gozer attacks New York in the form of which giant mascot?

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Told that their own thoughts will choose the shape of their destroyer, Ray can't keep the mascot out of his head, and it arrives gigantic.

Who wrote 'Ghostbusters' (1984)?

Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Aykroyd first wrote it as a vehicle for himself and John Belushi; after Belushi died in 1982, Ramis came in to help rework it for New York.

The 1999 film 'October Sky' is based on Homer Hickam's memoir of what title?

Rocket Boys. Hickam says Universal's research found women over thirty would never see a film with that title, so the studio rearranged its letters into October Sky.

Which candy did Hershey allow into 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' after Mars refused to lend M&M's?

Reese's Pieces. Hershey took the deal Mars had turned down, and within two weeks of the film's premiere sales of its peanut-butter candy had shot up.

Who directed 2001's 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'?

Chris Columbus stepped in after Steven Spielberg, who had been in talks to direct, walked away from the project, and he stayed on to make the second film too.

Which screen legend plays grandmother Aggie Cromwell in the 1998 TV movie 'Halloweentown'?

Debbie Reynolds. St. Helens, Oregon, where the film was shot, now dresses its riverfront as Halloweentown every autumn for an annual Spirit of Halloweentown celebration.

'Legends of the Fall' won its only Oscar for which craft?

Cinematography. John Toll's winning camera follows a Montana rancher's three sons from the Rockies to the trenches of the First World War, where the youngest is killed.

Which future star made a tiny screen debut in the 1988 Connecticut romance 'Mystic Pizza'?

Matt Damon has a small part as a kid brother. The title came from a real pizzeria in Mystic, Connecticut, which caught the screenwriter's eye while she was summering nearby.

The young cast of 'St. Elmo's Fire' (1985) was tagged with which nickname by New York magazine?

The Brat Pack. Writer David Blum coined it weeks before the film opened, after a night out watching Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson hold court at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Who plays Nelson, the workaholic ad man, in 'Sweet November' (2001)?

Keanu Reeves. His Nelson becomes the 'November' of Charlize Theron's Sara, who takes in a new man each month to mend his life, a premise borrowed from a 1968 film with Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley.

David Fincher's 'Fight Club' (1999) adapts a 1996 novel by which author?

Chuck Palahniuk. His earlier manuscripts had been turned down everywhere, so he grew a short story about a fight club into the novel that became his first published book.

Which Swedish-born star played the concert-pianist mother in 'Autumn Sonata' (1978), her last big-screen role?

Ingrid Bergman. In her only film for her unrelated namesake Ingmar Bergman, her celebrated pianist is confronted by the daughter she neglected, and it earned her a seventh Oscar nomination.

Who plays Cathy, the 1950s Connecticut housewife at the centre of Todd Haynes's 'Far from Heaven'?

Julianne Moore. Todd Haynes made the film look and feel like a 1950s Douglas Sirk melodrama, then had it say out loud what those films could only hint at.

In 'Pieces of April' (2003), why must April carry her Thanksgiving turkey from door to door around her building?

Her oven is broken, which she discovers only once she starts cooking for her estranged family, so the meal comes together in a relay of neighbours' kitchens.

What is the name of the pajama-clad demon who links the Halloween stories in 'Trick 'r Treat' (2007)?

Sam. In orange footie pajamas and a burlap-sack mask, he turns up in each tale to punish whoever has just broken one of Halloween's traditions.