49 Fun Facts About Fantasy Movie

Which fantasy film first won Best Picture?

The Return of the King won at the third attempt, sweeping all 11 of its nominations in 2004: the trilogy's first two films had each been nominated for Best Picture and lost.

In which country were the three Lord of the Rings films shot back-to-back?

New Zealand is Peter Jackson's home country, and the Shire village set built on a farm near Matamata was later rebuilt to last and now takes visitors round on guided tours.

Which director made the 1987 film The Princess Bride?

Rob Reiner got it made only after years of false starts under other directors: Norman Lear, his old boss on All in the Family, put up the money.

Which wrestler played the gentle strongman Fezzik in The Princess Bride?

André the Giant was in such back pain during the shoot that he could not catch Robin Wright in his arms, so cables held her up.

Which musician played Jareth the Goblin King in the 1986 film Labyrinth?

David Bowie was picked from a shortlist of rock stars that also had Sting, Prince and Michael Jackson on it, and he wrote and sang the film's songs.

What is the name of the luckdragon in The NeverEnding Story?

Falkor swoops in to save Atreyu as he sinks into the Swamps of Sadness with Gmork closing in, then carries him on toward the Southern Oracle.

Which actor played the title dwarf farmer in the 1988 fantasy film Willow?

Warwick Davis had been George Lucas's choice for Willow since 1982, when the boy was playing the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi.

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is set in 1944 in which country?

Spain under Franco is the setting, five years after its civil war; del Toro wrote the English subtitles himself because he disliked the translation of his earlier film The Devil's Backbone.

In L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what colour are the magic shoes that MGM later made ruby red?

Silver shoes carry Dorothy home in the 1900 book; the film-makers made them red to take advantage of the new Technicolor process.

Which visual-effects pioneer created the famous seven-skeleton battle in Jason and the Argonauts (1963)?

Ray Harryhausen had to pose seven model skeletons by hand for every frame, and on some days he finished only 13 or 14 frames, less than a second of film.

Who played the barbarian hero in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian?

Arnold Schwarzenegger got the part after the producers saw him in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron, and the film launched his Hollywood career.

Which actor played the devil-like Darkness in Ridley Scott's 1985 film Legend?

Tim Curry once grew so impatient that he tore the Darkness makeup off without soaking it loose and took his own skin with it, and Ridley Scott had to film around him for a week.

The 1982 film The Dark Crystal is populated entirely by what?

Puppets play every part, with no human on screen; the villains at first spoke an invented language, which was re-voiced in English after preview audiences reacted badly.

The 2007 film Stardust is based on a novel by which author?

Neil Gaiman's novel has no Captain Shakespeare: Robert De Niro's cross-dressing sky pirate was built for the film out of a captain the book barely mentions.

Which actor plays the title character in the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands?

Johnny Depp, then a teen idol from TV's 21 Jump Street, was the director's choice, but the studio wanted a bigger star and made him meet Tom Cruise first.

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water was inspired by which classic monster film?

Creature from the Black Lagoon left the six-year-old del Toro aching for the Gill-man and the heroine to end up together, so he made a film in which the creature gets the girl.

Which Studio Ghibli film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003?

Spirited Away won, but Hayao Miyazaki stayed away from the ceremony; he said years later that he had not wanted to visit a country that was bombing Iraq.

Which actress plays the sorceress Morgana in John Boorman's 1981 Arthurian film Excalibur?

Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson, the film's Merlin, had fallen out during a stage Macbeth years earlier; Boorman cast them as enemies anyway, hoping the friction would show.

Which Monty Python member directed the 1981 fantasy Time Bandits?

Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin's script joked that Agamemnon should be 'Sean Connery or an actor of equal but cheaper stature'; Connery was offered the part and took it.

In the 1981 film Clash of the Titans, what does Perseus ride to save Andromeda?

The winged horse Pegasus is the film's twist on the myth: in the old Greek tellings the horse springs from Medusa's blood when Perseus beheads her, and it is Bellerophon who tames it.

In the 1985 film Ladyhawke, Isabeau is a hawk by day; what does her lover Navarre become each night?

A wolf by night and a hawk by day, the lovers are never human together: the Bishop of Aquila cursed them because he wanted Isabeau for himself.

Who plays the White Witch in 2005's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

Tilda Swinton's White Witch has plunged Narnia into endless winter, and she tempts Edmund with Turkish delight and the promise of a crown so that he will bring her his brother and sisters.

Which band recorded the soundtrack songs for the 1986 film Highlander?

Queen's Brian May wrote 'Who Wants to Live Forever' in the car on the way home from seeing early footage of the film, in which the immortal hero's wife grows old and dies in his arms.

Who played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films?

Alan Rickman knew what his directors did not: years before the books ended, J. K. Rowling took him aside and told him Snape's secret history, and he shaped the whole performance around it.

The first Harry Potter film was retitled Sorcerer's Stone for the US; what was the original British title?

Philosopher's Stone stayed on British prints; because the American title differed, every scene that names the stone was filmed twice, once with each word.

Which Harry Potter actor won his role after sending in a video of himself rapping?

Rupert Grint sent the casting team a home-made tape with a rap, a sketch in which he dressed up as his drama teacher, and some of Ron Weasley's lines, and it got him a meeting.

Who played Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy?

Martin Freeman's Bilbo carried three films spun from one short novel: the project was being made as two until July 2012, when Jackson announced a third.

Which actor plays Sir Gawain in David Lowery's 2021 film The Green Knight?

Dev Patel's film lost its 2020 premiere to the pandemic, and David Lowery, unhappy with his cut, spent six months re-editing it before it opened in 2021.

Which director made the 2003 film Big Fish?

Tim Burton signed on in 2002, not long after his own father died, and this story of a son making peace with a dying father had special meaning for him.

Which actress plays the fairytale princess Giselle in Disney's 2007 film Enchanted?

Amy Adams was a little-known actress when she was cast, and the part made her a star: Enchanted was her first hit in a leading role.

Which fantasy film grew out of a Disneyland ride that opened in 1967?

Pirates of the Caribbean began as a Disneyland ride; once the films took off, the ride borrowed back from them, adding Captain Jack Sparrow in 2006.

The 2007 film The Golden Compass adapts the first novel of which fantasy trilogy?

His Dark Materials opens with the novel Britain calls Northern Lights; the film won an Oscar for its visual effects, yet its two planned sequels were cancelled.

Which actor leads the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as the bard Edgin?

Chris Pine's Edgin lands in prison for trying to steal a magic tablet that could bring his dead wife back, and the film's heist is his second attempt to get it.

Which actress plays the title role in Disney's 2014 live-action film Maleficent?

Angelina Jolie's own young daughter Vivienne played the little Aurora, because the other small children were terrified of Jolie in costume and would not go near her.

Which actor plays the 'magizoologist' Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts films?

Eddie Redmayne's Newt began as a name on a Hogwarts reading list: the films grew out of the mock textbook 'Fantastic Beasts' that J. K. Rowling published for charity in 2001.

In the 1983 film Krull, what is the name of Prince Colwyn's five-pointed throwing weapon?

The Glaive is a five-bladed throwing star that Colwyn must fetch from a mountain cave before he can face the Beast; in the end it only lodges in the monster, and fire finishes him.

Which director made the 1991 Peter Pan film Hook?

Steven Spielberg has cooled on the film: he told Entertainment Weekly in 2011 that he is proud of the opening but uncomfortable with the stylised Neverland scenes.

Which actor plays the title ghost in the 1988 film Beetlejuice?

Michael Keaton's Betelgeuse turns the haunted-house story inside out: he is a 'bio-exorcist', a ghost hired by a dead couple to scare the living out of their home.

Which 1940 Alexander Korda fantasy, starring Sabu, won three Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography?

The Thief of Bagdad left its mark on Disney's Aladdin, which borrowed its scheming vizier Jaffar and named its thieving monkey after Sabu's character, Abu.

Which 1958 Sinbad adventure introduced the 'Dynamation' label for its stop-motion creatures?

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was the first film billed as made in Dynamation, a word its producer coined as a selling term for stop-motion creatures that share the frame with live actors.

The animated 1982 film The Last Unicorn was adapted from a novel by which author?

Peter S. Beagle wrote the screenplay from his own novel, and the film was drawn in Japan by Topcraft, whose animators went on to help Hayao Miyazaki found Studio Ghibli.

The NeverEnding Story was based on a novel by which German author?

Michael Ende hated the film, which covers only the first half of his novel: he called it a 'gigantic melodrama of kitsch, commerce, plush and plastic', sued the producers and lost.

Which newcomer, later a Downton Abbey regular, plays the farm boy turned dragon rider in 2006's Eragon?

Ed Speleers was still a schoolboy with no screen credits when a worldwide casting search picked him to play Eragon.

Which 2010 fantasy film grossed just over $1 billion worldwide?

Alice in Wonderland took about $1.025 billion even though big British cinema chains had threatened to boycott it, angry that Disney planned to rush out the DVD.

Who directed the 2009 stop-motion film Coraline?

Henry Selick's stop-motion figures wore real knitwear: one crew member's only job was to knit their tiny sweaters, on needles as thin as human hairs.

The 2007 film Bridge to Terabithia is based on a 1977 novel by which author?

Katherine Paterson wrote the novel after her young son David's best friend was killed by lightning; David grew up to co-write and produce the film.

Which composer won an Oscar for his score for The Fellowship of the Ring?

Howard Shore came to Middle-earth by an unlikely road: he had been the first music director of Saturday Night Live, then scored dark thrillers such as The Silence of the Lambs.

Which puppeteer's final film project was the 1990 Roald Dahl adaptation The Witches?

Jim Henson let the boy turn human again at the end, unlike the book, and a furious Roald Dahl demanded his name come off the credits before Henson talked him round.

Which director of the first two Harry Potter films made Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief (2010)?

Chris Columbus's film is one the books' author has never watched: Rick Riordan says he stayed away so the movie would not change the way he saw his own characters.