Claims have circulated that Walt Disney included a clause in his will requiring that his company remake movies by/after a certain time. This is, of course, not true.
According to this section on this site, it has been mentioned that Michael E. Rodgers has worked with Matthew Broderick and Jack Lemmon before in a film that was somewhat released in the mid-to-late '90s. It is unknown if this is true or not, as the project was not included in their filmographies and there is no further evidence of this, meaning that it's an interesting mystery.
It appears that Jack Lemmon and Matthew Broderick have acted together in the 1993 TV film adaption of "A Life in the Theater", which aired on TNT back in October 1993, which makes this mystery even more mysterious, since it has been mentioned on the internet that Michael's first on-screen role was either the 1996 film "The Dentist" or the 1998 TV film "Gia", with no mention of "A Life in the Theater" anywhere in his filmography. Since there were other actors that starred in the film other than Lemmon and Broderick, it may be possible that Michael only had an unnoticeable minor role.
The site also mentioned that Michael has worked with Alan Rickman before, but it is unknown if it's true or not, since there's no further evidence on this.
Marisa Tomei's Dark Horse Victory for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1992 for My Cousin Vinny was particularly shocking because an unknown in a Joe Pescicomedy beat out a bunch of acting heavyweights (Judy Davis, Joan Plowright, Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson) in solid Oscar Bait films. This led to a widely-circulated story that presenter Jack Palance, in a Scatterbrained Senior moment, read the wrong name from the card. As the world learned from the 2017 Best Picture debacle, the envelope contains a card with just one name on it, so if Tomei really didn't deserve the award, it would be because the Price Waterhouse representative put the wrong card in the envelope. Once this was pointed out, a variation on the story emerged that Palance, frustrated because he couldn't read the card, just called out Tomei's name because it was still on the teleprompter. Except footage from the ceremony clearly shows him reading the card, and the prompter would have already scrolled past the names anyway. And then after that was pointed out, YET another story emerged (this time in smaller circles), saying that the award was meant for Redgrave, but Palance said Tomei's name because he didn't agree with her political views. The more reasonable explanation for Tomei's win is that the Academy was in a mini-trend of giving Supporting Actress to less-established actresses in mainstream audience-pleasing films (the previous two winners were Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (1990) and Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King), and the "prestige" vote was split between the other four nominees, allowing Tomei to squeak away with the win. Also, the aforementioned 2017 debacle showed that the "they won't admit they messed up, they'll just roll with if they call a wrong winner" part of the story was bunk.
The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a movie that has long been dogged by accusations of animal abuse perpetrated by the filmmakers, probably helped by many scenes of peril and violence, as well as the lack of a "no animals were harmed" disclaimer. These allegations appear to have started not long after its release, when Australian animal rights organizations called for a boycott of the film based on the claims. Rumors state that the people who made the movie put animals in genuine danger or sometimes even personally abused them (for example, a scene with Milo limping has been claimed to have been achieved by breaking the paw of the cat who played him in that scene). Animal Liberation Queensland founder Jacqui Kent went so far as to allege that more than twenty kittens were killed during production. These claims have been consistently denied by the filmmakers. A behind-the-scenes feature included on the Japanese DVD maintains that all scenes were in fact handled with great care (notably, the scene where Milo is limping was created not by breaking the animal's leg but by injecting its paw with a mild anesthetic). Moreover, several Japanese animal welfare organizations such as the JSPCA had a hand in the production and the film's director himself was a zoologist and owned most of the animals seen in the film. The reason they couldn't have the "No animals were harmed" disclaimer was because of a handful of unfortunate incidents (at least one live fish was dragged around and chewed on by other animals and a mouse was caught by an owl).
When the Alexander film was released in India, the local distribution company cut out severely the admittedly long film, which is not weird in foreign markets; the weird part comes in that, according to a rumor, they cut it in a way to make it look like Alexander died in the Battle of the Hydaspes, killed by the Indian King Porus, rather than being solely wounded and returning to Babylon, where he dies later.
One of the most famous legends concerning the Alien franchise is that Aliens supposedly had a scene, which was only shown on the opening day of its release, which showed Ellen Ripley tying up her futuristic Reebok sneakers (in closeup, with the logo visible) in the Medlab just before the facehugger attack. For many years, fans swore up and down that this scene existed on different cuts of the film, to the point that one fan wrote an article specifically discussing the legends regarding the scene. No such scene has ever appeared in any cut of the film, and even then, close-ups of Ripley's Reebok shoes were already seen earlier in the film (such as the sequence where she straps herself into the Power Loader for the first time).
There is an urban legend that the piglets used in Babe all ended up sent to slaughterhouses after filming ended. In reality, they were retired to petting zoos and farms.
Back to the Future: The hoverboards in Back to the Future Part II are real, kept away from the public by parents groups not letting toy companies make them. This urban legend originates from a joke director Robert Zemeckis made in a documentary on the film to promote its release, and since it was in an otherwise factual piece many people watching bought into it. It resurfaced in 2014 thanks to an episode of The Goldbergs, and a CollegeHumor video featuring Christopher Lloyd demonstrating what seemed to be a real one. That website name alone should be enough to tell you the video's not real.
There's a widespread urban legend that the parade scene in Batman (1989) has an alternate version where the people notice the bills all have the Joker's face on them in reference to an earlier scene where Joker tells Vicki he wants his face on the one-dollar bill. This is probably due to the fact that this very thing does happen in the comic book novelization. However, while the money in the film itself is pretty obviously fake, we never get a close enough shot to make out the face on the bills, and no evidence of an alternate scene has ever turned up.
It's been widely reported that Billy Dee Williams, who played Harvey Dent in the 1989 movie, had a clause put in his contract that guaranteed he would play Two-Face in an eventual sequel, and that Warner Bros. ended up having to buy him out of his contract so that they could recast the role with Tommy Lee Jones for Batman Forever. However, although Williams did end up disappointed that he didn't get to play Two-Face, he was only ever signed on for a one-picture deal — that picture being the 1989 movie — and was never technically guaranteed in any way to reprise the role in a future installment. Williams eventually reprised the role of Two-Face in The LEGO Batman Movie.
It's widely reported that the planned third Batman movie directed by Joel Schumacher was titled Batman Triumphant. Warner Bros. did plan another Batman film before the failure of Batman & Robin and commissioned Mark Protosevich to write the screenplay, but it was actually titled Batman Unchained. Protosevich isn't even sure where the title "Batman Triumphant" came from.
Beach Party is the subject of a long standing rumor that Annette Funicello was forbidden from wearing a bikini. While Walt Disney did personally ask her not to expose her navel, she wears a two-piece in the film, and shows her navel in Muscle Beach Party.
It's often claimed that the scene in Being John Malkovich, where John is hit by a beer can was unscripted. The source came from a director's commentary that itself turned out to be fake. It was in fact scripted, especially considering that it would be odd that an extra would hit a movie star with something and not get in trouble for it.
The 1959 version of Ben-Hur is the single film most commonly accused of including real death, in its climactic chariot race scene. Three different sequences in which characters are run over by chariots have been pointed to as the real death, but all are visibly done with dummies. The earlier 1926 silent film version is subject to more serious claims of fatalities, with people who were present at the time alleging that at least one stunt performer was killed in an abortive attempt to film the chariot race scene in Rome, and that stunt performers may have drowned during the chaotic filming of a sea battle sequence. However, no sequences within the film have been identified as actually depicting death.
There's a persistent rumor that Big has an alternate ending where Susan shows up in Josh's class as a transfer student after using the Zoltar machine to de-age herself that was only seen on copies of the tape sold in New Zealand, despite Penny Marshall denying its existence. It doesn't help matters that a Made-for-TV Movie called 14 Going On 30, which came out around the same time as Big and had the same premise, used a similar ending, and that's probably what people are thinking of.
It's often assumed that The Blue Lamp, which centres around a policeman being murdered by a juvenile delinquent in post-war London, was inspired by the real Craig and Bentley case. In fact, that happened a couple of years after the film was released.
Ronald Reagan was never seriously considered to star in the movie. A brief newspaper item suggesting this was simply a publicity plant to keep Reagan's name in the public view.
For years, rumors persisted that the plane from the film's finale found its way to Disney World. There are two stories (or a combination of both, depending on who you ask): that it was cut in half and used as the plane wreck in the Jungle Cruise ride, or that it was kept whole and put on display as part of the now-defunct Great Movie Ride. While several Disney World cast members have been recorded as spreading the rumors for the entertainment of guests, both are false. There wasn't an actual plane in the finale; the plane was a cutout. What makes the GMR rumor so believable and widely spread is that there actually were many actual film props used in the Great Movie Ride, including a suit worn by James Cagney and John Wayne's actual belt buckle!
There's a persistent rumour that Citizen Kane (In fact, once included on This Very Wiki under Funny Background Event) used stock footage from The Son of Kong as the backdrop in a beach party scene, leading to a few pterodactyls sneaking into what's often considered the greatest movie ever made. There definitely are a few animated creatures flying around in the background at Kane's beach party, but the footage doesn't match any known scenes from Son of Kong.
Brandon Lee died on the set of The Crow (1994) from being hit by a dummy bullet shell, forcing them to use a body double in scenes produced after his death. Now, rumor persists that the film originally contained his actual death scene. It doesn't, and there is no conceivable reason why they would consider to do something of such a bad taste. While the death WAS on film, the only copy was turned over to the police for the investigation and was reportedly later destroyed.
A popular internet joke/rumor is that there is an alternate version of the horror film Deep Blue Sea, which was supposedly only screened on Canadian television in The Noughties, that ran 22 minutes longer and had one of the stars, LL Cool J, rapping most of his lines instead of speaking them. While no such cut exists (its mention is a popular message board joke on Reddit), this urban legend does have some basis in reality in that there was a radically altered version of the film. The original ending involved lead character Susan surviving the final shark attack, while Preacher (LL Cool J) died instead. After negative test screening feedback, director Renny Harlin and crew went back for a day to reshoot an alternate version of the scene (used in the final product) where Susan commits a Heroic Sacrifice to keep the shark from escaping, and Preacher manages to survive alongside Carter. Additionally, LL does rap — in the tie-in music video, "Deepest Bluest (Shark's Fin)".
Doctor Zhivago: It's widely rumored that during the filming of one of the train scenes, a stuntwoman had her legs cut off when she fell under the wheels. Rumors further suggest that the footage of the incident made it into the final film. Again, there's a grain of truth to this: Lili Murati did fall under the train wheels due to a miscommunication between her and Omar Sharif, and her stumble did end up in the finished movie, but she wasn't seriously injured.
Fargo is kind of an odd example, as there are technically two main rumors about it, although they're both somewhat the same rumor. The opening says that it's based on a true story, but Word of God says this was just a joke, which could be an example in itself. A straighter example is the report of a Japanese woman who died trying to find the buried money. There was in fact a Japanese woman who died around the same area the movie takes place, but there's no evidence she was motivated by looking for the money. This later rumor would end up being the basis for the movie Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.
Ghostwatch: There have been allegations that prior to the broadcast, Sarah Greene performed an item promoting the film on the childrens' Saturday-morning entertainment show which she co-presented, Going Live!, which gave no hint that the programme would be fictional. This was seized upon by people who accused the BBC of an irresponsible hoax, but Greene denies it, and people have searched unsuccessfully through editions of the show that might have been involved without finding anything like it.
Starting with Godzilla (1954), a persistent rumor is that the name "Gojira" was originally the nickname of a former employee of Toho, likely popularized by James Rolfe's review of the film. To date, no one living or deceased has ever come forward stating they (or someone they knew) was that person. In reality, Gojira is a combination of the words "Gorilla" and "Kujira" (Japanese for whale). This is because Toho originally planned for Godzilla to be a giant sea-dwelling ape (and later a giant octopus) before settling on a dinosaur. The name was kept for a very simple reason: Toho liked the way it sounded and felt it was a perfect name for a giant monster.
Rumours abound that the name "Godzilla" was a way for American distributors to hide the fact that the film was Japanese. However, it was Toho who came up with the name Godzilla for international releases. The reason why? They felt foreign audiences would have an easier time pronouncing it that way.
For the record, no, Godzilla has never fought Gamera in a film. People often mistake the Magnetic Monster from the 1970s The Godzilla Power Hour or Kamoebas from Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. for Gamera due to them being giant turtles (Kamoebas was used because an employee suggested using Gamera for the scene, but they went with Kamoebas since Toho already owned the rights). Funnily enough, Godzilla did face-off against Gamera in a stage show back in 1970. Alas, no video footage of this event has surfaced so far. A Gamera versus Godzilla movie really was proposed in the early 2000s, but it never got further than that before being rejected.
It was rumored for a while that Little Godzilla was going to star in his own children's TV series. No such program was ever even considered by Toho.
There are a lot of people who claim that King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) has two different endings for the American and Japanese releases, one where King Kong wins and one where Godzilla wins respectively. While there really are differences between the two versions, the endings are the same and Word of God says that King Kong was always the intended victor. The rumor may have started because the Japanese version has King Kong's and Godzilla's roars played at the end, while the American version only had Kong's. People also may have assumed that American audiences didn't want to see an iconic American movie monster getting beat by an iconic Japanese movie monster, but this is also untrue; Godzilla was still portrayed as a villain at that point in the series, so Japanese audiences fully expected him to lose (not to mention the fact Kong clearly has top billing in the title).
Destroy All Monsters (1968): For a long time, it was thought that Baragon was originally going to be the one to destroy the Arc de Triomphe in this film, but was replaced by Gorosaurus due to the Baragon suit being in bad condition. However, storyboard images show that Gorosaurus was going to be the one to attack Paris the whole time. While Baragon was briefly considered, he was scrapped. Not because the suit was in bad condition (the suit had been repaired sometime prior to filming) but because the suit's ears made it difficult to film Baragon emerging from underground. And in the first draft of the film (when it was known as All Monsters Attack Directive), the one who attacked was neither Baragon or Gorosaurus, but Maguma, but this was scrapped early on, and Maguma does not even appear in the final film.
There is also a common rumor about the German release of Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), namely that the dub claims that Jet Jaguar is King Kong wearing a robot suit — likely started by James Rolfe's Godzillathon movie reviews. While it is true that some European releases of these movies have very wacky names, and in Germany, Jet Jaguar is really called King Kong, it's just a rather odd case of Dub Name Change, and the character is never stated to be anything other than a human-built robot. For the record, Mechagodzilla is also renamed to King Kong in Germany, and this is, again, a simple name-change.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974): A rumor stated that Anguirus replaced Baragon in this film due to Anguirus displaying traits commonly associated with Baragon (IE: burrowing and great leaping ability). This rumour was attributed to the poor quality of the suit because Baragon was never considered for the film and early drafts of the script clearly have Anguirus as the intended monster.
An old and widely believed legend is that a movie titled Godzilla vs. the Devil was in development during the late 1970s. The story is oddly specific, detailing that the film was to be an American/Japanese co-production between Toho Company and UPA Productions in which Godzilla battles a giant spider, a giant fish, and a giant bird before dueling with Satan himself. Not only did the film never come out, but it also doesn't even exist. The whole thing is just a very strange, very detailed rumor that originated in America. Although it likely has its origin from the real proposed film, Resurrection of Godzilla, which did involve Godzilla fighting a shapeshifting monster named Bakan/Bagan which had a demon-like final form.
Godzilla (1994): One legend associated with this planned 1994 US remake was that it would star an adult Junior. According to the myth, the original ending of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) was initially going to end with Godzilla performing a Heroic Sacrifice by exploding and pulling a Taking You with Me on Mechagodzilla. Junior was then said to grow into an adult Godzilla and head to America where the US films would start. In reality, no such idea was ever conceived by Toho, TriStar, or any film company at the time, though this proposed ending is a little bit like the end of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
This film has inspired rumours that this version was retroactively renamed "Zilla". While subsequent versions of the monster are now officially named "Zilla", the 1998 incarnation of the monster and Godzilla: The Series incarnations are still both officially named "Godzilla". The rumor likely spread after Godzilla: Final Wars featured the version of the monster named "Zilla" after director Ryuhei Kitamura stated that the monster "took the "God" out of Godzilla". For the record, while the monsters are of the same species, Godzilla '98 and Zilla are two separate individuals and it's been confirmed that the 1998 film (and cartoon spin-off) exist in their own continuity.
This film also inspired rumours that Toho absolutely hates the 1998 Godzilla. This, however, is untrue. While many people working for the company have expressed their own individual dislikes of the film (including suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma walking out of a screening of the film stating "It's not Godzilla"), the company as a whole's view towards Zilla has been neutral to fairly positive. Plus, given that the film was a box-office hit in its initial release and Toho continues to get royalties for every cable TV showing, DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital download purchase, it wouldn't make sense for them to hate something that makes them a profit.
Another rumor inspired by this film is that TriStar Pictures originally wanted to use King Ghidorah and Mothra, but were unable to due to Toho refusing to give them the rights to the monsters. In reality, Toho was perfectly willing to let TriStar use either monster but required separate licensing fees for each. Due to budget reasons, TriStar ultimately decided to have Godzilla (and his offspring) be the only monsters in the film.
The rumour that this Godzilla is actually Junior. This rumor likely began due to the film's opening credits using the final scene in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in which an adult Junior can be seen in silhouette. However, this was likely only used for dramatic effect. Likewise, another rumor states that the Final Wars Godzilla was originally going to be an adult Junior but the idea was scrapped during development. So far, there are no statements from Ryuhei Kitamura or any of the film's production team that neither confirm nor deny this claim. In fact, the Final Wars Godzilla is its own incarnation of the monster.
Bagan was rumored to have been cut from the film, and a YouTube video from 2012 claiming to be evidence of this rumor. However, this was quickly debunked as the footage in question was actually from a show called Chousei Kantai Sazer-X and had absolutely nothing to do with the Godzilla franchise or any supposed cut footage of Bagan.
When Godzilla (2014) first came out, there were rumors of a post-credits scene exclusive to the Japanese release featuring Mothra. There never was any scene like that in any version of the movie, though Mothra does appear in the sequel. There was a stinger setting up Mothra (along with Rodan and King Ghidorah), but it appeared at the end of Kong: Skull Island, a few years after Godzilla came out.
A rumor that lasted for years claimed that, in the Italian dub of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Brain Gremlin was voiced by art critic, politician and TV personality Vittorio Sgarbi. A lot of people believed the story, to the point that it was even written on the Italian Wikipedia for a while, but it was debunked when people listened more carefully and realized that the character was actually voiced by professional voice actor Eros Pagni.
The Grifter, according to 4chan, is one of the most messed up films ever made that very few have ever seen. It does not exist, and is really just a creepypasta meme along the lines of that haunted Zelda cartridge, which also doesn't exist.
Legends abound that Groundhog Day's filming was temporarily halted when the SPCA investigated issues revolving around the groundhog. A groundhog-related halt did occur, but it was because Bill Murray was bitten by the groundhog.
A Tumblr prank started a rumor that the snake freed in the zoo is Nagini, Voldemort's pet snake. From the looks of things, thousands of gullible fans have reblogged the quote.
Also on Tumblr, there's a very highly reblogged post that appeared around the time the last movie premiered about the child actor playing Albus Severus being the same one who played baby Harry in the first movie, despite the fact that a quick IMDb check shows that the first baby Harry was actually played by a set of triplets. Also, bonus points for using a picture of baby Harry from Deathly Hallows instead of the baby Harry from Philosopher's Stone.
The long-standing contention that the filmmakers, particularly Steve Kloves and David Yates, favored the Harry/Hermione ship over the canon Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione ships. This comes from the perception that the films built up Harry and Hermione as a couple while portraying Ron as an idiot and Ginny as bland. Of course, the films ultimately end with the same pairings as the books, but did they really make those pairings look good? There's no real way to prove or disprove this since it ultimately rests on a subjective reading of the films themselves, but you'd think the filmmakers would have better things to do than try to subtly undermine the canon ships.
The Howling: Hard as it might be to believe, some fundamentalist Christians have alleged that the film's werewolf transformation scenes were unsimulated.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang: Legend has it that the famous ending was shot in the dark due to malfunctioning lighting. However, a look at the script (which was written in its entirety before shooting began) implies that the ending was always meant to be filmed in dark conditions.
Raiders of the Lost Ark has the famous gun vs. sword fight, which was claimed to be purely an improvised moment on set to replace an otherwise lengthy sword vs. whip fight, sometimes to the extent that no one was expecting it in that particular take. While not exactly wrong, this is a bit of an overly-simplified account. The truth was they were in the midst of rehearsals for the fight, but Harrison Ford was not feeling well and not up for the extensive filming needed, and he suggested Indy would not want a drawn out fight himself, especially when time was of the essence. Steven Spielberg had similar sentiments, as in the same action sequence Indy had held off pursuers using his whip already. Footage of the rehearsal is available.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Some very odd rumors have circulated about a deleted scene where the Joneses unintentionally inspire Rudolph Hess' ill-fated flight to Britain years later. While the details are rarely consistent, there's no evidence that such an idea was even considered, let alone filmed.
There was a rumor that Shirley Eaton, the actress who played Jill Masterson, the character that died by being covered in gold paint in Goldfinger died in Real Life like her character did. MythBusters debunked this... by having the actress herself appear.
invokedMoonraker: An urban legend that's been around since at least The '90s, which saw renewed interest in The New '10s when it was used an example of the Mandela Effect, that Dolly originally had braces. Many people "remembering" them in particular during her first meeting with Jaws where they smile at each other, and many people claiming they were edited out at some point. That said, it's not true, as people have dug up the original VHS tapes from The '70s and found she still has no braces, as well as the actress herself denying it. Most likely, this whole misbelief comes from the fact that Jaws has metal teeth, and braces are metal things that go on teeth, meaning it would have made sense for her to have braces to make the two of them more similar, even if that isn't the case in reality.
There are a few myths regarding the legendary "Spider Pit Sequence", a deleted scene from the original King Kong (1933) in which several of the sailors survive their fall into a deep chasm only to be eaten alive by giant bugs and reptiles. While the scene definitely was shot, there's a longstanding myth that it was removed from the film because test audiences found it too disturbing. In reality, co-director and Kong creator Merian C Cooper cut it because he felt it ruined the film's pacing. The second myth is that the footage still exists somewhere in the world, possibly in Asia due to the possibility that the film was shipped there before the scene was cut, but so far, no luck. A very convincing reconstruction of the scene was created by Peter Jackson for the bonus features of the DVD, but when taken out of context, it is sometimes mistaken for the real thing, causing more confusion.
It's been rumored that Bill Cosby was deeply offended by the way Buckwheat was depicted in the original movies, so he bought the rights to prevent them from airing on TV ever again. Needless to say, this is absolutely not true.
There's also some information floating around online saying that the original stars of the shorts met with very untimely deaths. While the information presented is technically true, it's more of an example of the Sharpshooter Fallacy as it pays more attention to minor details than really getting the big picture of the actor's fates, especially considering the massive number of recurring actors that appeared in the shorts. A long analysis is here.
Ever since the last known copy of London After Midnight was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, there has been a plethora of urban legends regarding film collectors who possess copies of it and refuse to share. Several different names have been thrown around, meaning that potentially several copies might be hidden away in private film vaults somewhere, but so far there's every indication that it's all just bored horror fans pulling the legs of other horror fans. This sort of thing isn't unheard of for lost films, but London After Midnight attracts it to an unrivaled extent due to it being the most famous lost film there is.
There has been a rumor about The Fellowship of the Ring that, when filming the fight between Lurtz and Aragorn, the prop knife that Lurtz was supposed to throw was accidentally replaced by a real knife on the first take, but Viggo Mortensen managed to deflect it with his sword, and the switch was only discovered afterwards. Some versions spruce up the myth by saying that Lurtz's actor was not supposed to throw the knife at all, but only mime throwing it and the throw would be edited in, but the added weight caused him to let go by mistake. However, no such mistake is attested by any primary source. The legend is most likely based on the real grain of truth that Viggo did actually deflect the knife with his sword rather than it being CGI, but the knife was a harmless prop knife as intended, and it took him several attempts to actually deflect it.
The film series is one of several examples of action-heavy films which are subject to urban legends of incidents that led to the actual death of stunt artists being included in the finished film. The two incidents most commonly mentioned are the "bridge scene" near the end of the original Mad Max, in which Max drives the Interceptor through a group of the outlaw bikers, and one biker who hits the road can be clearly seen to be struck in the head by the wheel of a sliding bike; and a sequence in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior where a biker hits an overturned dune buggy at speed and flies over the handlebars, over a buggy, and into a pit. Both of these were genuine accidents during filming that were kept in for being spectacular, but neither led to any permanent harm.
The original Mad Max also has a legend relating to deleted scenes from the film that were supposedly included in certain early VHS releases and/or TV edits. Those most commonly mentioned include the bikers attacking Main Force Patrol headquarters and killing Fifi and all the other surviving cops (which would explain their absence from the final portion of the film), Max and Goose having a drag race, and Max looting the MFP HQ for weapons. However, no physical evidence of the alleged scenes has ever been produced. The Mad Max Movies page discusses these more in detail; at least some of these scenes were at the very least scripted.
There's a persistent rumor that the infamous "Turtle Club" scene in the Dana Carvey film The Master of Disguise was filmed on the day of the 9/11 attacks, with Carvey learning of the attacks while wearing his turtle costume; some versions of the story claim that he observed an impromptu moment of silence while still in costume. In fact, this isn't true: the film did begin production in September 2001, but filming didn't start until a few weeks after 9/11. There is, however, a grain of truth in the legend: the cast and crew (understandably) felt awkward filming a wacky comedy so soon after a national tragedy, so they decided to observe a brief moment of silence before the first day of filming commenced—and the Turtle Club scene was the first scene of the movie to be filmed.
A common legend regarding The Matrix is that The Wachowskis, unable to secure more than $10 million in funding from Warner Bros., decided to spend all of the $10 million on the film’s opening scene in a successful attempt to convince the studio to fully fund the rest of the film. In reality, Warner Bros. had already provided the $60 million budget for the film (after an extensive preproduction and storyboarding process from the filmmakers), but was concerned about how long the filming process was taking. The creators then sent in an edit of the opening scene to assure the studio of the film’s quality, and Warner Bros. was satisfied with the result, letting them continue their work without interference.
A widely circulated internet rumor holds that Tim the Enchanter originally had an (unspecified) more complicated, mystical name in the original script, and that John Cleese blew his line and they went with it. However, Tim the Enchanter is identified by that name in the 1974 screenplay, well before filming began. The same screenplay suggests that it was actually Michael Palin who either forgot or couldn't pronounce what the Knights Who Say Ni were supposed to change their name to, and so improvised a random string of consonants instead.
The rumor that having the squires bang on coconuts to imitate the sound of hoofbeats was improvised during filming when horses proved unaffordable is dismissed by the original screenplay.
For decades, many film writers claimed that Nosferatu star Max Schreck was either a one-time actor who never appeared in another film, a well-known actor like Alfred Abel (star of Metropolis) performing under a pseudonym, or even jokingly a realvampire playing himself. In fact, Schreck was a well-known stage and screen actor with dozens of credits, and contemporary coverage of the film's release shows him giving interviews on the set and appearing at the film's Berlin premiere.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was rumored to be a reworked Monkey Island script (which ironically was itself inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). The similarities are obvious, just to start with the plot: An unlikely hero rescues his political love interest (the governor in MI, the governor's daughter in POTC) from an undead pirate. Many of the locations from the games were recycled as well. Examples: the Voodoo Lady and her shack accessible by coffin became Tia Dalma and her cabin in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge has a town cobbled together from various ships like third film. There could be some inspiration, as writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio visited Industrial Light & Magic and saw the storyboards for a Monkey Island movie that never came out while they were working on POTC. But both have denied even playing the games in the first place.
Since Ready Player One (2018) first came out, there were many rumors about the character cameos appearing in the background during multiple scenes of the movie. Some people swear you can see Homestuck or Undertale characters in the climax, and at a certain point the wiki for the book and movie was filled of short pages about characters that were supposedly in the movie such as Brian Griffin, Bill Cipher or Chiaki Nanami.
There are a few stories going around about bits and pieces of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show. When online fans in the pre-DVD days bragged that their theater's print of the film had the UK-exclusive song "Super Heroes" intact, one fan attempted to top them by claiming that his theater had an otherwise lost scene in which Riff and Brad engage in anal sex. This became a long (LONG) running in-joke among the Rocky community, with two fans actually writing and filming an intentionally blurry version of the scene for the 2001 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood' convention. Currently, the scene circulates in a fan-created 'extended edition' in the film, strictly for the sake of keeping the legend alive, though it should never be considered canon.
For a long time, it was reported that Tim Curry was originally supposed to play Mondavarius in Scooby-Doo (2002), but turned it down after learning that Scrappy, a character he despised, was going to be in the movie. James Gunn has since stated that the story is completely false.
It's falsely claimed that the SPCA shut down The Shawshank Redemption for animal cruelty. This rumor possibly began because the SPCA suggested that, instead of feeding a crow a live maggot, they feed a crow a maggot that died naturally already.
There is a VERY persistent rumor that a movie called Shazaam starring the comedian Sinbad as a genie exists; the film is actually named Kazaam and stars Shaquille O'Neal. Sinbad himself officially denied it but hundreds of people (who, again, actually saw Kazaam) claim to have seen it. This article goes into more detail. Note that the actor also hosted an afternoon of Sinbad the Sailor movies on TNT while dressed up in a genie outfit during segments, likely another source of the confusion. CollegeHumorspoofed this phenomena as their 2017 April Fools' Day prank.
Rumors of an upcoming live-action movie of The Simpsons have persisted. There were ideas for a live-action Troy McClure movie, but not a movie focusing on the entire Simpsons family.
According to Mary Pickford, during the filming of the 1926 film Sparrows she was literally crawling in a tree above an alligator pit with a toddler strapped onto her back. To make it worse, Pickford was a very light woman so the child was almost 1/3rd of her weight. The validity of this is up in the air, however, as the film's director refuted the claim.
One rumor involving Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was that the special effects for the destruction of the Enterprise had to be redone, and that the original version would have just had it exploding in a huge fireball visible from the surface of the Genesis Planet, which was deemed to look too much like the destruction of the Death Star II in Return of the Jedi. This misconception likely originates from the film's comic adaptation (which includes various other sequences that were deleted from the finished film) depicting the ship's destruction in a similar manner, as well as the fact that in the first draft script, the Enterprise had a Dying Moment of Awesome by self-destructing in a huge fireball which took out an entire Romulan fleet.
A long-held rumor around Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was that the traitorous Lieutenant Valeris was originally supposed to be Saavik from the earlier films, but that this was changed after an epic amount of rank-pulling by Gene Roddenberry. Nicholas Meyer didn't give a damn what Roddenberry thought (and by that point, Roddenberry's influence over production was quite limited due to his declining health), but he wanted to bring back initial actor Kirstie Alley to reprise the role from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The issue was either Alley's asking price was too high due to her starring role on Cheers or she declined due to her concern that she would look fat in the form-fitting uniforms, and rather than recasting the role again the script was rewritten.
Tom Hanks was never seriously considered to play Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact. It's often claimed that Hanks was nearly cast in the role but had to turn it down at the last minute due to scheduling difficulties. Producer Rick Berman cleared this up during a retrospective interview about the film, saying Hanks was floated in some capacity by the studio, but James Cromwell was always the first choice for the role.
In the years after the release of Star Trek: Insurrection, rumors sprang up that it was in fact supposed to be just the first of a two-part finale to the Star Trek: The Next Generation films, and that the planned sequel purportedly titled Star Trek: Civil War, would have essentially been the plot of Insurrection turned up to eleven. The existence of the Ba'ku planet and its healing powers would have seen the Federation erupt into a full-scale civil conflict, and Picard would have led the faction trying to defend the planet, eventually leading to him overthrowing the corrupt government of the Federation, before he and the rest of the main characters (except for Data, who became the new captain of the Enterprise-E) settled happily into retirement on the planet. This rumor appears to have grown out of an interview that Patrick Stewart did in 1999, where he said that the next Star Trek film would likely be the last with the Next Generation cast, and that he would like to see the events of Insurrection followed up in some fashion. Additionally, many of the alleged plot elements of the "Civil War" script were in fact taken from writer Michael Piller's first draft for Insurrection, which was a darker and larger in scope story that was cut back due to a combination of budgetary restraints and Paramount wanting something Lighter and Softer.
Carol Marcus was never meant to appear in Star Trek Beyond at any point in its development — either in the original drafts when Roberto Orci was attached to write and direct, or in the eventual script penned by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung — simply because the various writers couldn't think of anything for her to do. That hasn't stopped rumors that her absence was the result of Alice Eve having been fired from the role for making allegedly transphobic remarks about Caitlyn Jenner on social media. There's nothing which suggests any truth to this rumor, and in any event, Beyond had already gone into production when Eve made the remarks in question.
Everyone knows about a blooper from A New Hope in the scene where Luke gets back to the Rebel base after destroying the Death Star and is hugged by Princess Leia where Mark Hamill accidentally yelled "Carrie!" instead of "Leia!" This was eventually shot down by Hamill himself, who clarified that he had actually said "There she–!" while dubbing his line.
An urban legend that has been circulating online for years is that there exists a scene within the Death Star where Luke, Han, and Leia are fighting against stormtroopers. They are trapped against a locked blast door as R2-D2 attempts to open it. The center of the room is a circular pit from which stormtroopers are seen falling in as they are shot trying to cross with the use of grappling hooks. The scene in question has never surfaced online or in any other media, except for Roger Ebert's 'Microsoft Cinemania', a DOS-based multimedia CD-ROM movie encyclopedia released in the early 1990s. However, evidence of this has never been produced and numerous people have tried searching the “Microsoft Cinemania” releases to no avail.
A rumor claims that Mark Hamill got into a devastating car or motorcycle accident between the making of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and needed to have facial reconstruction surgery. The proof of this is often cited as The Star Wars Holiday Special, where Luke Skywalker looks noticeably "off" in all his appearances. Mark Hamill, however, states that he never had such surgery—he did get into an accident, but suffered scratches and bruises instead. The reason he looked so strange in the Holiday Special was due to the heavy pancake makeup put on to hide his blemishes while he was healing.
invoked A widespread theory claims that George Lucas originally planned on making Jar Jar Binks Force-sensitive, and all of his moments of bumbling throughout The Phantom Menace were simply him Obfuscating Stupidity. The theory goes so far as to claim that Jar Jar was planned to secretly be a Sith Lord and/or an agent of Darth Sidious (explaining how easily he became a member of the Galactic Senate and was essential in granting Palpatine emergency powers in Attack of the Clones), but Lucas walked back on the idea at the last minute after seeing how much audiences hated the character. So far, there's been no confirmation by Lucas that he intended Jar Jar to be anything other than a comic relief character, although his actor Ahmed Best did confirm that Jar Jar's role in the trilogy was reduced following fan backlash, and also claimed that he did shoot an eerie scene in Attack of the Clones that showed Jar Jar as Palpatine's secret confident.
The (possibly satirical) Bigger Luke Hypothesis claims that in certain scenes of the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker appears to be slightly taller (especially in relation to Han Solo), which either means that he's randomly using The Force to change his size or replace himself with a clone (with Obi-Wan's line "You've taken your first step into a larger world" somehow being proof), or that these scenes were shot using a near-perfect body double of Mark Hamill for unknown reasons.
Similar to the above Bigger Luke theory, some people have claimed that some TV airings of A New Hope in the 90s featured an unusual scene in which Luke's face morphs into a long, elephantine proboscis while escaping the Death Star. However, outside of hearsay, there is no concrete evidence to support the existence of this scene.
Superman: The Movie: Rumors have circulated for decades about a supposed Deleted Scene where Lex Luthor and his goons steal a piece of green Kryptonite from Addis Ababa. Understandable, since the editing of the movie makes it appear as if there is. Luthor and his cronies are shown discussing the idea of going there. The scene ends with them preparing for their trip. The very next scene takes place in a mountainous area of the United States where suddenly Luthor and his gang execute their hijacking of the nuclear missile. This sudden narrative jump to this day has people wondering if there wasn't an entire sequence of events between the two sequences - i.e. the Addis Ababa caper, or at least a transitional scene involving Superman - that was filmed and cut. When Perry White gives Clark his speech about being more aggressive, he mentions a robbery of a museum in Addis Ababa where only a meteorite was stolen, which strongly implies it did happen offscreen. However, there's no evidence that the event was actually filmed or even planned as a scene.
An urban legend is that one scene in the movie Three Men and a Baby has a ghost of a little boy standing by the window in Ted Danson's apartment. Legend says that the film was shot in an apartment where this boy got killed. It's actually just a cardboard cut-out of Danson (intended for a Deleted Scene), and the apartment was actually a movie studio set.
The "still in development" live-action ThunderCats movie has been rumored since 2005 and has even been confused with the canceled 2010 CGI movie. But there is an IMDb page with no information.
There are persistent rumours that the roads along which Grace Kelly is seen driving like a maniac during the chase scene in To Catch a Thief are the same roads on which she was killed in a car accident in 1982, with some embellished versions holding that she crashed right at the spot where she and Cary Grant stop for a picnic. Her son, Prince Albert II of Monaco, has denied this on multiple occasions.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been stated to be a supposed Chinatown sequel that was rewritten tobe an adaptation ofWho Censored Roger Rabbit?. While the film's writers have admitted they are Chinatown fans and that movie was a heavy influence, there is no proof of this, especially as the official sequel The Two Jakes only came out after Roger Rabbit. Writer Robert Towne also denied that a once-planned third movie was named Cloverleaf (similar to the company owned by Judge Doom), and added that the planned setting was the 60s, way after the railway conspiracy.
One of the most persistent rumors about Waterworld is that the movie's massive cost overruns were due to the need to rebuild the massive atoll set after it sank in a hurricane, even being included in several movie trivia lists. While there was a brief tsunami scare at one point, and the smaller slaver colony set did indeed briefly tip over, neither even ended up disrupting filming for more than a few hours. In reality, the shooting budget was eaten up by less dramatic issues like waiting for weather to clear over the large outdoor set.
There is one scene, just after meeting the Tin Man, where you can see an odd bit of movement in the far background; rumors say this is either a stagehand or one of the Munchkin actors either falling out of a tree or hanging himself because he was rejected by the woman he loved. It's actually a large bird, one of many you can see during the rest of the Tin Man scene. Not only would it have been impossible for an actor to have died in plain sight without anyone noticing (especially given that the extremely hot stage lights used for color filming would've made the body absolutely reek), the forest scenes were filmed before the Munchkinland scenes, so no Munchkin actors would have even been present.
There is a legend that the Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon, synchs up with the film's soundtrack. This legend has been vigorously denied by the band, who have pointed out that the audio technology necessary to make the film soundtrack and rock album synch this precisely with each other didn't exist in 1973. The Angry Video Game Nerd was inspired by urban legends of The Dark Side of the Moon synching to this film's soundtrack. When Nerd reviewed the video game adaptation, Cinemassacre deliberately synched the album to their episode and placed in a few bits and clues, like a plane, to make the synching work, as described in their blog.
Urban-legend accounts of the zany hijinks engaged in by the little people who'd been recruited from all over the country to play the Munchkins provided inspiration for the 1981 Chevy Chase comedy Under the Rainbow.
There are legends of two different alternate endings that show that Oz was real after all. One ending shows the Ruby Slippers still on Dorothy's feet as she lies in bed while the other has Dorothy saying "There's no place like home", with the camera panning down to show the Ruby Slippers under her bed. These endings are often mentioned to have only been shown once or twice on television reruns in the mid-to-late 20th century. Neither ending has been confirmed to exist, and given that all of the hints of Oz being a dream were added for the film (as filmmakers believed audiences wouldn't be able to accept a "real" fairyland like Oz), it's unlikely that either were even considered, let alone filmed.
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes: As related by Stephen King in his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, the 1963 Roger Corman-directed sci-fi/horror film supposedly originally ended with Ray Milland's character Dr. James Xavier screaming "I can still see!" after he tears out his own eyes, and Executive Meddling forced Roger to cut the final line as too horrifying, so that the film ends with a freeze-frame on Xavier's bloody eye sockets. Corman has both confirmed and denied this legend, saying alternately that Milland went off script and that King just made the whole story up.
, it has been mentioned that Michael E. Rodgers has worked with Matthew Broderick and Jack Lemmon before in a film that was somewhat released in the mid-to-late '90s. It is unknown if this is true or not, as the project was not included in their filmographies and there is no further evidence of this, meaning that it's an interesting mystery.