› added 12 years ago

127

TIL: George Lucas was sure Star Wars was going to flop, so he made a friendly bet with Stephen Spielberg: That if Close Encounters of the Third Kind made more money than SW, he would get 2.5% of the profit for all time, and vice versa. Spielberg still gets enormous, grudging checks today.

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Enad TIL that there is currently no anti-venom for coral snake bites because Pfizer didn’t find it profitable enough.
gMA0L TIL that Princess Leia's hair in Star Wars was inspired by women of the Mexican revolution.
VMpJk TIL that the pretext for the French invasion and subsequent 132 year occupation/colonization of Algeria, was their diplomat getting hit with a flyswatter.
QN78p TIL that in middle ages suicidal people feared eternal damnation that direct suicide entailed, so they would commit a capital crime over innocent child and then turn themselves in to authorities and demand capital punishment
Wkjad TIL that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) had the smallest budget of all the Star Trek movies, only $12m. It is often considered by many, to be the best of one