Multiversal Movie Actresses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Knocked Up

Producer and director Judd Apatow had been responsible for a number of films, including "Anchorman", "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and "Talladega Nights" by the time he began development of the film that became "Knocked Up". His films shared a number of cast members, building up the reputation of an almost repertory company feel to the way he worked. This led to his regular collaborator Seth Rogen being cast in the male lead role, with Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Apatow's wife Leslie Mann also taking major roles in the film. However, because of the number of his regular collaborators he cast in the film, Apatow felt that the female lead should have a relatively big name attached to it in order to maximise the potential box office for the movie. Ultimately, Anne Hathaway was cast and the film moved towards a start of production.

At the time, Hathaway's profile was rising, with her previous two films, "Brokeback Mountain" and "The Devil Wears Prada", having grossed more than $500m between them. However, as the start of production came closer, she expressed reservations about a particular part of the script that Apatow had produced, which was a scene explicitly showing a woman actually giving birth, which she felt was not necessary to the actual story. As a result, just prior to the film starting, Hathaway pulled out of the production, which led to auditions having to be undertaken to replace her. Katherine Heigl, at the time known primarily for her role in the TV show "Grey's Anatomy", was instead cast in the role, and the film ended up grossing $219m at the box office. Ironically, Apatow's idea of showing an actual birth did not come to fruition - the child seen in the birth would have needed a permit to work to be shown in the film, which could not have been obtained until after it had been born.

Answer: Batman Returns

Following the success of the 1989 film "Batman", Warner Brothers approached director Tim Burton to undertake a sequel that, despite reservations, he agreed to do. Having had the Joker appear as the main villain in the first film, the director, alongside writer Sam Hamm, began to discuss who would be best for Batman to face in the sequel; the studio were insistent that the Penguin be included, while Burton and Hamm were interested in using Catwoman. Ultimately, both villains were included in the story. Once he was confirmed as the director of the sequel, Burton replaced Hamm with writer Daniel Waters, giving him a simple direction in relation to the character of Catwoman to be "more than a sexy vixen", leading to the character's alter ego, Selina Kyle, starting out as a disenchanted secretary who goes through a transformation into the supervillain she becomes.

Annette Bening was cast in the role of Selina Kyle / Catwoman. At the time, Bening was building a reputation as a film actress, with her breakout role in the 1990 film "The Grifters" gaining her an Academy Award nomination, before two significant roles in 1991 in the romantic drama "Regarding Henry", and the biopic "Bugsy", in which she starred alongside Warren Beatty. During the production of "Bugsy", which ran from January to May 1991, Bening and Beatty began a relationship that saw Bening become pregnant. As a result, owing to production of "Batman Returns" (as the sequel had become known) starting in September 1991, Bening was forced to withdraw from the role, which required a new casting process to start. A number of actresses lobbied hard to win the part, most notably Sean Young, who had been cast as Vicki Vale in "Batman" before sustaining an injury and having to pull out. Ultimately, Michelle Pfeiffer won the part, and won almost universal acclaim for her portrayal.

Answer: Chicken Little

In 2001, development work started on a new adaptation by Disney of the story of "Chicken Little", the character derived from the European folk tale "Henny Penny". The project was developed by Mark Dindal, an animator who had previously worked on a number of Disney projects, including directing the 2000 animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove". Dindal's initial concept for the film had the lead character of Chicken Little as a paranoid female chicken that would uncover a plot against her home town planned by a nefarious camp counselor. When work on this concept began, Academy Award winner Holly Hunter was cast to play Chicken Little.

Work on the original concept of "Chicken Little", with the character as a female, continued for eight months, from mid 2002 until early 2003, with Hunter recording all of her part for the film. However, in January 2003, the new president of Disney's Feature Animation division, which had responsibility for "Chicken Little", ordered a complete reworking of the film, which included a new story, requiring major script revisions, and a change of the lead character from female to male. As a result, all of Holly Hunter's work was dropped, and auditions were held for male actors for the part, which led to Zach Braff ultimately winning the role.

Answer: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

In 2008, independent film producer Anne Carey began work to try and bring to fruition a film adaptation of the book "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", the memoir of author Lee Israel, who became infamous during the 1990s for producing forgeries of letters supposedly by deceased writers and actors, which she would sell to dealers. Having convinced the author, Carey brought in playwright Jeff Whitty to adapt the book for the screen, at the same time looking to bring in investment to try and get the film made. It wasn't until 2014, when writer and director Nicole Holofcener agreed to direct, that progress was able to be made, as she was able to convince actress Julianne Moore to play the lead role, which subsequently led to a $10m financing deal being agreed. Moore's casting as Lee Israel was announced in April 2015.

Moore had just won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film "Still Alice", and had also appeared in the commercially successful "Hunger Games" franchise, and was therefore a major name to headline a fairly low budget picture. Holofcener meanwhile was also announced as providing rewrites to Jeff Whitty's original screenplay. However, with shooting due to begin in July, just six days prior to the start date, Moore dropped out of the project, with Holofcener following soon afterwards. Although the star's departure was announced at the time as being due to "creative differences", Moore subsequently stated that because she favoured the use of prosthetics to better resemble Lee Israel, the director had ultimately fired her. As a result of the loss of both the director and the star, the project was put on hold. Producer Anne Carey subsequently recruited Marielle Heller to direct, with Melissa McCarthy cast to play Lee Israel. "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" was ultimately released in October 2018, and subsequently gained three Academy Award nominations.

Answer: Demolition Man

"Demolition Man" originated as a spec script produced by first time writer Peter Lenkov, who was inspired to write something to do with the police by the film "Lethal Weapon", while at the same time also being intrigued by the idea of being cryogenically frozen. Initially written with just the story element of super cop in a future world with virtually no crime, the cryogenics idea was reinstated in rewrites. Sylvester Stallone initially turned down the lead role of John Spartan, but later came around to the idea as something he hadn't done before, while producer Joel Silver and director Marco Brambilla persuaded Wesley Snipes to take the role of the villain, Simon Phoenix. To play Lt. Lenina Huxley, the police officer assigned to help John Spartan in acclimatising to the year 2032, Lori Petty was cast.

At the time, Petty was a rising star, having appeared in the 1991 thriller "Point Break", before capturing a leading role in the baseball movie "A League of Their Own" the following year. As a result, she was regarded as a significant name for the role. However, just two days into shooting, Petty was let go from the film, as a result of what producer Joel Silver called "creative difficulties". However, at the time, Petty indicated that the decision was more to do with her interaction with the film's star, describing her relationship with Stallone as like "oil and water". Lorenzo di Bonaventura, an executive at Warner Brothers, then recommended his friend Sandra Bullock to Silver for the role. Having seen an audition tape, Silver took the decision to hire Bullock, which led to the biggest role of her career to date.

Answer: Back to the Future

During the development process for what eventually became "Back to the Future", one of the major supporting characters to cast was Jennifer Parker, the girlfriend of the lead character Marty McFly. Initially, the role had been offered to actress Claudia Wells, but she had to turn it down owing to her having also been cast in a new sitcom, "Off the Rack", which made its debut in December 1984. As a result, Melora Hardin, who had an extensive resume despite only being aged 17 at the time, was cast as Jennifer alongside Eric Stoltz as Marty, signing a two-film deal for the role. With the principal cast in place, shooting began at the end of November 1984, with a view to it being complete by the end of February 1985.

However, during the initial weeks of shooting, the producers and director soon came to the conclusion that Stoltz had been miscast in his role and, in January 1985, he was replaced by Michael J. Fox. Fox had been the producers' first choice, and they felt happy with the decision. However, Fox, at just 5ft 5in tall, was a good six inches shorter than the 5ft 11in Stoltz, while Hardin, cast as Marty's girlfriend, was also taller than the film's new leading man. The producers therefore decided to gauge opinion as to whether it was felt that Jennifer could be taller than Marty without impacting on the character; a pair of female executives with the studio gave their opinion that this would "emasculate" the male character, and so, without having shot any footage, Hardin was released from the film, to be replaced by Claudia Wells, who had become available as a result of the cancellation of her TV show.

Answer: Romeo + Juliet

Natalie Portman made her professional acting debut at the age of 13 in Luc Besson's 1994 thriller "Leon". This role led to her receiving other offers in spite of her still being at school at the time - after "Leon", she had small roles in Michael Mann's 1995 film "Heat", Woody Allen's musical "Everyone Says I Love You" and Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!", as well the Ted Demme directed "Beautiful Girls". Her performances in several of these roles, in which she would often play characters who were young but sexualised, led to her being the first choice to portray the female lead in Australian director Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet", a reimagining of the play that was planned with a modern setting, but still using William Shakespeare's original text.

Portman was cast to play Juliet alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, with shooting intended to start in January 1996. This saw the cast entering a rehearsal period in the latter half of 1995. At the time, Portman had just turned 14, while DiCaprio was approaching his 21st birthday. The obvious age difference between the pair led to concerns of how young Portman looked during the rehearsal period, with the director subsequently stating that this made DiCaprio look older than he had intended. As a result, Portman was replaced as Juliet by the 16-year old Claire Danes, and instead signed up to appear as the female lead in the first of the planned "Star Wars" prequel trilogy.

Answer: Panic Room

"Panic Room" was inspired when screenwriter David Koepp came across news reports in the early 2000s about how so-called 'safe rooms' were being installed by wealthy people in urban areas. Director David Fincher came to the project after the first draft of the script had been bought by Sony, looking at it as a cross between "Rear Window" and "Straw Dogs". Casting began in late 2000, and saw Nicole Kidman gain the lead role of Meg Altman. Kidman's profile had been steadily rising since the mid 1990s, appearing in both commercially successful blockbusters such as "Batman Forever" and "The Peacemaker", and critically acclaimed low-budget films including "To Die For" and "The Others". As a result, she was regarded as a name that would be able to headline a film such as "Panic Room", which was seen as a mid-level production in terms of budget.

"Panic Room" began shooting in January 2001. However, two weeks into the shoot, Kidman suffered an injury on set, with an x-ray revealing that she had a hairline fracture of one of her knee joints. The injury itself dated from the period the previous year when Kidman had been shooting the film "Moulin Rouge!" that had never completely healed. As a result, Kidman was forced to leave the project, which led to a search for a replacement. While this went on, Fincher continued shooting scenes that did not include Kidman's character. Owing to the shutdown of the film "Flora Plum" that she was directing, Jodie Foster became available and signed on to replace Kidman, starting work on "Panic Room" a week after she was cast.

Answer: Her

The film that ultimately became "Her" was initially developed as an idea in the early 2000s, when director Spike Jonze read an article in which the idea of instant messaging with an AI was discussed. The idea remained nascent for a decade until around 2010, when Jonze sat down and began producing a draft screenplay. By 2011, the project had moved sufficiently along that casting was underway, with Joaquin Phoenix, one of Jonze's first choices for the lead role of Theodore Twombly, joining the cast late in the year. In the role of Samantha, the AI with whom Theodore develops a romantic attraction, Jonze cast Academy Award nominee Samantha Morton. Despite the character of Samantha only appearing as a voice in the film, Morton played the role on set, providing her dialogue from a carpeted soundproof booth to provide direct interaction with the rest of the cast.

Principal photography of "Her" took place in mid to late 2012, with post-production taking place through the remainder of the year and into 2013. However, during the editing process, Jonze decided that the character of Samantha needed to be different from what he and Morton had originally worked out and shot. As a result, in the spring of 2013, Jonze reached an agreement with Scarlett Johansson to replace Morton in the role. In August 2013, following four months of preparatory work between Jonze and Johansson, new scenes were shot for the film incorporating Johansson's re-recorded dialogue. "Her" was finally released in December 2013, with Morton, no longer being credited in the cast, having received an associate producer credit for the film.

Answer: Dick Tracy

Although plans for a film adaptation of "Dick Tracy" had been around for many years, it was only in 1988, when the rights were obtained by Disney, that it received a greenlight, with Warren Beatty attached as director, producer and star. A stellar cast was then assembled for the film, with Al Pacino, Madonna, Dustin Hoffman and Kathy Bates all attached to the cast. One of the major supporting characters was that of Tess Trueheart, the love interest of the eponymous square jawed hero Dick Tracy, with Sean Young cast in the role. At the time that "Dick Tracy" was being shot, Young had appeared in a number of major film roles, including "Blade Runner", "Dune" and "No Way Out", while she had been the original choice to play Vicki Vale in "Batman", before an injury in rehearsals led to her being replaced.

Shooting of "Dick Tracy" began at the start of February 1989. However, a week after principal photography began, Young was fired, with "artistic differences", specifically related to Young's take on the character not being maternal enough, being given as the reason. However, in a later interview, Young claimed that her dismissal came after she rejected advances from Warren Beatty. Emmy Award nominee Glenne Headly was brought in instead. Young, who at the time was having difficulties with her career, had her next major role two years later when she appeared in the 1991 film "A Kiss Before Dying".