10 Surprising Facts About Home Alone
Home Alone is one of the most universally popular and perhaps overly familiar Christmas movie classics, but here’s ten fact you might not know about it. So read on an impress your family by casually dropping a few into conversation during the obligatory seasonal re-watching.
1. John Hughes wrote the entire script in just nine days. His son, James Hughes claims he wrote it after a bout of traveller’s anxiety
2. The role of Kevin was written specifically for Macauley Culkin. The idea for Home Alone occurred to John Hughes during the making of Uncle Buck, which starred Macaulay Culkin. But that didn’t stop director Chris Columbus from auditioning more than 100 other rascally pre-teens for the part.
3. The film is a Guinness World record holder. In its opening weekend, Home Alone topped the box office, making $17,081,997 in 1202 theaters. The movie maintained its number one spot for a full 12 weeks and remained in the top 10 until June of the following year. It became the highest grossing film of 1990 and earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever domestically.
4. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry Lime. As did Jon Lovitz. Then Joe Pesci swept in and made the part his own.
5. Many of the interior shots of the interior house and other scenes were shot inside a High School in Chicago. The school’s swimming pool was converted into the McCallister’s basement. The school was also used for the police station and some airport scenes.
6. John Candy shot his entire part in one 23-hour filming day. He worked from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m., but even that wasn’t enough time for him to film a farewell scene with Catherine O’Hara, who played Kevin’s mom, when she arrives at her house.
7. While rehearsing the scene where Harry tries to bite off Kevin’s finger, Pesci actually bit Culkin, which left a scar
8. Marv’s line ‘why are you dressed like a chicken?’ was improvised.
9. The spider on Marv’s face was real, they filmed that scene in one take, he mimed the scream so he wouldn’t scare the spider.
10. The script originally ended with a short scene after the credits where Harry and Marv see Angels with filthy souls on tv in prison.
Merry Christmas you filthy animals… and a happy new year too.
BAFTA Children’s Awards 2017 Winners List
Winners for the British Academy Children’s Awards 2017 were announced over the weekend at a star studded ceremony in central London at the Camden Roundhouse. Full list of nominees in all categories listed below, with winners in bold.
SPECIAL AWARD
JACQUELINE WILSON
ANIMATION
THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL Ben Bocquelet, Mic Graves, Sarah Fell – Turner/Cartoon Network
REVOLTING RHYMES Production Team – Magic Light Pictures/BBC One
SHAUN THE SHEEP Will Becher, John Woolley, Richard Starzak – Aardman Animations/CBBC
WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT Production Team – Lupus Films, Bear Hunt Films, Walker Productions, Herrick Entertainment/Channel 4
CHANNEL OF THE YEAR
CARTOON NETWORK
CBBC
CBEEBIES
TRUETUBE
COMEDY
CLASS DISMISSED Sid Cole, Claire McCarthy, Tracey Rooney – CBBC Productions/CBBC
HANK ZIPZER Richard Grocock, Mark Oswin, Nick Collett – Kindle Entertainment with DHX Media, Walker Productions and Supported by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund/CBBC
HORRIBLE HISTORIES Production Team – Lion Television/CBBC
SO AWKWARD Production Team – Channel X North/CBBC
DRAMA
HANK ZIPZER’S CHRISTMAS CATASTROPHE Matt Bloom, Anne Brogan, Joe Williams – Kindle Entertainment with DHX Media, Walker Productions and Supported by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund/CBBC
HETTY FEATHER Matt Evans, Reza Moradi, David Collier – CBBC Productions/CBBC
JAMIE JOHNSON Production Team – Short Form Film Company/CBBC
LIKE ME Adam Tyler, Bob Ayres, Toby Lloyd – CTVC Ltd/TrueTube
ENTERTAINMENT
BEAR GRYLLS’ SURVIVAL SCHOOL Michael Kelpie, Phil Mount, Bear Grylls- Potato for ITV Studios/CiTV
THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK Production Team – BBC Children’s Scotland/CBBC
SAM &MARK’S BIG FRIDAY WIND-UP Gareth Edwards, Steve Ryde, John Payne – CBBC Productions/CBBC
SWASHBUCKLE Anna Perowne, Geoff Coward, Tony Grech-Smith – CBeebies Productions/CBeebies
FACTUAL
ABSOLUTE GENIUS MONSTER BUILDS Matt Knight, James Knight, Annette Williams – CBBC Productions/CBBC
INSIDE MY HEAD: A NEWSROUND SPECIAL Charlotte Ingham, Josh Gale – CBBC Productions/CBBC
MY LIFE: BORN TO VLOG Sarah Murch, Launa Kennett, Denis McWilliams – Blakeway North/CBBC
TO LIFE Production Team – CTVC Ltd/TrueTube
FEATURE FILM
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner – Laika/Universal Pictures
THE LITTLE PRINCE Mark Osborne, Aton Soumache, Alexis Vonarb, Dimitri Rassam – ON Animation Studios and Netflix/Netflix
MOANA Ron Clements, John Musker, Osnat Shurer – Walt Disney Animation Studios/Walt Disney Animation Studios
SING Christopher Meledandri, Janet Healy, Garth Jennings – Illumination/Universal Pictures
GAME
MONUMENT VALLEY 2 Development Team – ustwo games/ustwo games
THE PLAYROOM VR Development Team – SIE Japan Studio, Team ASOBI!/ Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
POKÉMON GO Development Team – Niantic/Pokémon
POKÉMON SUN & POKÉMON MOON Development Team – Game Freak/Pokémon, Nintendo
INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR
BLUE ZOO ANIMATION STUDIO
KARROT ENTERTAINMENT
MAGIC LIGHT PICTURES
STRAWBERRY BLOND
INTERACTIVE
ADVENTURE TIME ‘I SEE OOO’ Production Team- Turner
THE GRUFFALO SPOTTER Development Team – Magic Light Pictures & Nexus Studios
HEY DUGGEE: WE LOVE ANIMALS Phil Hoskins, Keith Davidson, Peter Hickman – Scary Beasties Ltd and BBC Worldwide
VIRRY VR Martin Percy, Svetlana Dragayeva, Joanna Fogler – Fountain Digital Labs
INTERNATIONAL
AN AMERICAN GIRL STORY – MELODY 1963: LOVE HAS TO WIN Alison McDonald, Tina Mabry, Nicole Dow – Amazon Studios/Amazon
ASK THE STORYBOTS Evan Spiridellis, Gregg Spiridellis – JibJab Bros. Studios/Netflix
THE SNOWY DAY Production Team – Amazon Studios and Karrot Entertainment/Amazon
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Stephen Hillenburg, Vincent Waller, Marc Ceccarelli – Nickelodeon/Nicktoons
LEARNING
HISTORY BOMBS: ONLINE HISTORY RESOURCES Chris Hobbs, Ellie Rogers, Claire O’Brien – History Bombs/Historybombs.com
LIFESAVER VR Martin Percy, Yates Buckley, Andy Lockey – UNIT9
NUMBERBLOCKS Joe Elliot, Simon Taylor, Laura Annis – Blue Zoo Animation/CBeebies
SHIA // SUNNI Adam Tyler, Bob Ayres, Toby Lloyd – CTVC Ltd/TrueTube.co.uk
PERFORMER
ALHAJI FOFANA as Ryan in Screwball! – TrueTube
MILLIE INNES as Millie in Millie Inbetween – CBBC
PHIL FLETCHER as Hacker T Dog in CBBC Presentation – CBBC
SAVANNAH BAKER as Natalie in Screwball! – TrueTube
PRE-SCHOOL – ANIMATION
DIGBY DRAGON Adam Shaw, Chris Drew, Tom McDowell – Blue Zoo Animation/Nick Jr
HEY DUGGEE Grant Orchard, Janine Voong, Sander Jones – STUDIO AKA/CBeebies
PEPPA PIG Phil Davies, Mark Baker, Joris van Hulzen – Astley Baker Davies/Entertainment One/Channel 5
SARAH & DUCK Jamie Badminton, Sarah Gomes Harris, Tim O’Sullivan – Karrot Entertainment/CBeebies
PRE-SCHOOL – LIVE ACTION
APPLE TREE HOUSE Production Team – Five Apples Ltd/CBeebies
CBEEBIES STARGAZING: MISSION EXPLORE Katie Simmons, Tom Cousins, Anna Perowne – CBeebies Production/CBeebies
DO YOU KNOW? Romily Menzies, Sarah Trigg, Paul Kittel – 7Wonder/CBeebies
OUR FAMILY Sallyann Keizer, Ruth Mills, Luke Gallie – Sixth Sense Media Limited/CBeebies
PRESENTER
DR CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN AND DR XAND VAN TULLEKEN Operation Ouch! Hospital Takeover – CBBC
GEMMA HUNT Swashbuckle – CBeebies
MADDIE MOATE Do You Know? – CBeebies
SAM NIXON AND MARK RHODES Sam & Mark’s Big Friday Wind-Up – CBBC
SHORT FORM
CN BUDDY NETWORK – Production Team – Turner/Cartoon Network
THE HAPPOS FAMILY Production Team – Turner/Boomerang
MORPH Merlin Crossingham, Helen Argo, Peter Lord – Aardman Animations/Sky Kids
SHARE A STORY 2016 Production Team – CiTV/CiTV
WRITER
ADAM TYLER – Screwball! – TrueTube
JOE WILLIAMS Hank Zipzer’s Christmas Catastrophe – CBBC
PAUL ROSE, LUC SKYZ, MIKIS MICHAELIDES 4 O’Clock Club – CBBC
WRITING TEAM The Amazing World of Gumball – Cartoon Network