On January 11, 1977 Mark Hamill got into a car accident that fractured his nose and left cheekbone.

If the accident had happened four months later the news would have been in every paper around the world. But at the time Hamill was still an unknown actor who had just finished being the lead in a yet-to-be-released sci-fi movie in which he wore all white and wielded a glowing sword. 

Hamill had to have cartilage taken from his ear to rebuild his nose.

But when "Star Wars: A New Hope" opened on May 25, 1977 breaking box office records and making everyone involved — especially Hamill as Luke Skywalker — overnight sensations, little attention was made about Hamill's accident.

However when the sequel to "A New Hope," 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back," opened with Skywalker being mauled in the face by a Wampa, fans speculated that the scene was written because Hamill's face looked different after his accident.

The rumor has become one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the "Star Wars" saga, 35 years after the film was released.

But First, What Happened?

Speaking to Gossip Magazine in 1978 for the release of "Corvette Summer," which was released between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back," Hamill spoke about the accident:

"What happened was that I was on the wrong freeway," Hamill said. "I was way out in the sticks somewhere and there were no cars and no traffic, thank God. I was going about 65-70 mph... I was speeding, going too fast... and what happened, I think, was that I tried to negotiate an off-ramp and lost control, tumbled over, and went off the road. I fractured my nose and my cheek."

Hamill also said in the interview that the next day he was supposed to do pick-up shots for "A New Hope" of scenes on Tatooine. This led to director George Lucas having to use a double, though the shots were for scenes where you wouldn't see Hamill's face.

So Hamill's accident did not effect the completion of "A New Hope," but the question is, did it alter "The Empire Strikes Back?"

The Wampa Scene

This is where the story gets hazy.

In the opening scene of "The Empire Strikes Back," Skywalker's face is scratched after being attacked by a Wampa, which digs its claws into his face and then drags Skywalker and his Tauntaun back to its cave. George Lucas says the Wampa scene helped justify Hamill's new look to viewers, but suggests the scene wasn't written because of his accident.

"At the end of 'A New Hope' he had been in a car accident and I knew Mark was going to look a little different than he was in the first film," said Lucas in the Blu-ray commentary of "The Empire Strikes Back."

"But my feeling was some time had past, they've been in the Rebellion fighting, that kind of thing, so the change was justifiable. There's a scene in the film where Mark gets beat up by the monster [Wampa], which helps even more, but that wasn't really the meaning of why we wrote the monster in the beginning. We needed something to keep the film suspenseful at the beginning while the Empire is looking for them."

However, Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, remembers things differently.

"I was still shooting 'Star Wars' when Mark got into the car accident," Fisher said in the commentary. "It was a really bad accident. Miraculously his teeth didn't shatter. But his nose did. He had to have some of his ear put into his nose. So they adjusted the film with this snow monster to right away in the movie scratch his face to account for his looks being different."

Revealed in the book, "The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," a scene was filmed after Skywalker is saved from the Wampa attack where his damaged face is attended by a droid.

That portion was cut out, though it seems clear Lucas and "Empire" director Irvin Kershner were working out how far they wanted to go to address Hamill's restructured face.

What Hamill Says

For the most part Hamill has been quiet about the origin of the Wampa scene, but this interview with the actor posted on YouTube in 2014 does indicate that the make-up department on "Empire" did play on his scars from the crash.

Briefly describing what he remembers from the accident, he then said: "they used a lot of the real scars to build upon" the make up used for the scene.

This is not Hamill admitting that the Wampa scene was written due to how his face looked after the accident, but it's interesting to hear that his scars from the crash were on the mind of the make up artists.

So what do you think? Was the Wampa scene created due to Hamill's restructured face?

Watch the Wampa attack scene, followed by Skywalker escaping the Wampa's cave.

"Star Wars" Rewind is an on-going series of posts that looks back on the saga leading up to "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" (in theaters December 18).

SEE ALSO: The lost 25-minute short film that originally debuted in front of "Empire Strikes Back" is finally available to watch

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A lot of people have been talking about what Jared Leto was like on the set of "Suicide Squad."

The picture painted by numerous co-stars is one of an actor so dedicated to the performance that he never broke character. Now we have the first word from the man himself about what it was like playing the clown prince of crime and the picture he paints is twisted and weird.

Speaking with Empire Magazine (via ComicBookMovie), Leto’s description of the experience creating The Joker is...vivid to say the least.

"I took a pretty deep dive. But this was a unique opportunity and I couldn't imagine doing it another way. It was fun, playing those psychological games. But at the same time it was very painful, like giving birth out of my prick hole."

So, yeah, that’s about the most painful analogy we can contemplate. The descriptions of Leto being always in character have been going around for months, as several of the man’s co-stars have discussed the dedication he had to the role. While his actions were certainly strange, and we can see what he was doing being fun, but this is the first time we’ve considered the dark side of playing such a dark character.

It seems Leto remained in character outside of filming as well, even going so far as to call co-star Jim Parrack and give him random orders throughout the day. Leto says there was a period of detachment during filming as well, implying that he may have lost himself in the role to some extent.

Remaining in character is something a few actors do but making that decision with such an off-the-wall character had to be a unique experience. He says he enjoyed the psychological games, like sending dead hogs as gifts to his co-stars, but it got to the point that several of those same people were literally afraid to speak to him.

That has to be isolating. Of course, that isolation likely fed the character, but it could also be part of the painful side of the experience that the actor mentions.

Jared Leto was a controversial choice to play The Joker, especially following the Academy Award winning performance that Heath Ledger made in "The Dark Knight." The role is iconic and the last performance has become so. Following that up is a monumental task. The comparison will always come, and the goal has to be to make the character significantly different while making an equally memorable performance. While we’ve seen little of Leto’s Joker thus far we know that Leto’s version is physically very different. Most of the rest we’re still waiting to see.

Now that we’re starting to get a complete look at the role, it only makes us more curious about "Suicide Squad" and seeing the DC universe Joker on the screen. Will Leto be returning to the role for future movies? Will he be able to?

SEE ALSO: How Jared Leto went from being an art-school dropout to playing The Joker in 'Suicide Squad'

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Like all streaming services, Netflix is generally mum on their viewing statistics. But the company has just let out a bit of info to show that its awards contender “Beasts of No Nation” is finding an audience.

Speaking to Deadline, Netflix’s head of content, Ted Sarandos, said “this movie, in North America alone, has over 3 million views already.”

Sarandos noted that Netflix is focusing on making the film available to all 69 million of its subscribers around the world, in more than 50 countries.

He went on to boast that in the film’s first week on Netflix, starting October 16, it was the most-watched movie in every country in which the service operates.

This sudden reveal of in-house analytics comes on the heels of the film’s poor limited-opening theatrical release, in which it only earned $51,003 in 31 theaters during the same time frame. 

All the main theater chains boycotted the theatrical release as it was available on streaming the same day, which went against their agreed 90-day hold period between theatrical and DVD/Blu-ray/streaming release. The film was mainly shown at Landmark theaters, the largest chain in the U.S. for arthouse titles.

If “Beasts” had been released in a traditional manner, a film that to-date has earned only $84,000 in theaters that Netflix bought for a reported $12 million would be a disaster.

But Sarandos told Deadline that the Netflix plan is to give the audience every option to see the movie.

“If you want to go out and see a movie and sit in a dark room with strangers, it’s not an experience you can replicate at home,” he said. “But it is a very good experience, to watch a movie at home in 4k, in the comfort of your living room. That’s the way most people see their movies. It’s a very sexy thing to talk about whether there’s a feud, but I think what’s really happening here is that we’re offering consumers a lot of choices they didn’t have just a few years ago.”

The other reason Netflix put the movie in theaters was so “Beasts” would be eligible for awards consideration like the Oscars, for which films are required to have at least a limited run of two weeks.

As Landmark will likely have to take “Beasts” out of its theaters for other titles that will be more profitable, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix and its partner Bleecker Street are planning to rent screens in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco through December to continue the film’s award campaign. 

SEE ALSO: Believe the hype - Netflix's "Beasts of No Nation" is incredible

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NOW WATCH: We just got our first teaser for Netflix's next Marvel show 'Jessica Jones'

We haven't seen a new image of Jared Leto as The Joker since the "Suicide Squad" trailer was released in July.

Now, Empire magazine has revealed a new limited-edition December cover featuring our first full look of Leto in one of his Joker outfits.

It's interesting.

Here's the Clown Prince of Crime in all his menacing glory, barefoot, in sweatpants, and with a cane.

Fans are torn over the look.

Some love it.

 Others are having a tough time taking the look seriously.

If you're concerned about the sweatpants look, don't be. This is probably a temporary look while The Joker is held in Arkham Asylum, the psychiatric hospital for all of Batman's foes.

ComingSoon.net has more images of Leto as the Joker, along with Margot Robbie as his psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel, from the magazine. You can see them here.

"Suicide Squad" will be in theaters August 5, 2016.

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NOW WATCH: Here's what the 'Suicide Squad' stars look like in real life

Actor Daniel Brühl has been working in the business since the mid-1990s and has encountered many different directing styles, but he admits Quentin Tarantino tops them all.

When Business Insider recently spoke to Brühl about the experience of playing a top-flight maître d' in the new movie "Burnt" (opening in theaters Friday), the actor applauded the work of the film’s director John Wells, who had to navigate extremely dramatic scenes between leads Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller around a kitchen that really had hot stoves cooking food.

But it sounds like it still didn’t compare to working with Tarantino on the 2009 film "Inglourious Basterds."

“He’s not just a purist but he’s very peculiar in his methods,” Brühl said. “But the thing is, they are all great ideas.”

Brühl, who played Nazi solider Fredrick Zoller, will never forget these "peculiar methods," which included Tarantino never looking at a monitor while the scene was being shot, and the banning of any phones on set.

“There was like a security check on set where you had to hand off your phone,” he said.

But it didn’t stop there.

Brühl said that between takes, loud music was played on the set, and no one was allowed to go to sleep.

A typical day on a movie set, depending on the size of the film, can take up to 12 hours. There's usually a lot of downtime as the crew sets up a shot or a director and the key crew discuss a scene.

This leads to a lot of naps. But apparently Tarantino forbids it, and has an interesting way of enforcing it.

“There’s a wall of shame of people that are caught sleeping,” Brühl explained. Photos are pegged to a wall on the set of people found sleeping. “And these are very special pictures because the pictures are taken with a giant purple dildo in front of the sleeping face. So I made sure I didn’t fall asleep on set.”

Brühl said this wasn’t done to create intimidation, but to bring everyone together. “These sound strange but they made sense because that’s how he creates the energy that’s on set."

A favorite ritual among the cast and crew happened every Thursday before shooting. Tarantino would project one of the original prints from his personal collection of movies that inspired “Inglourious Basterds.”

“I would cut my arm off to work with him again,” Brühl said. “It was one of the most outstanding experiences of my professional life.”

SEE ALSO: Quentin Tarantino says there will be two different versions of his next movie, "The Hateful Eight"

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NOW WATCH: Actor Mark Hamill debunked a long-standing 'Star Wars' myth

Halloween is right around the corner, which means that you're probably desperately searching for last-minute costume ideas. But that's no excuse for being unoriginal. 

Every year, there are those costumes that you can't seem to escape. How many Ice Queen Elsas and Star Lords did you see last year? Exactly. 

Here are 14 pop culture costumes to avoid if you don't want to look like everyone else.

SEE LAST YEAR'S: The 18 Most Cliché Halloween Costumes Of 2014

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

"The dress" was easily the biggest viral sensation of 2015 — possibly ever. As a costume, it's pretty low maintenance: get the dress and call it a day.

Pizza rat is an easy costume based on an extremely viral video. New York will be infested with pizza rats this Halloween.

Too soon or not, there will be many Cecil the Lion costumes roaming your streets and parties.

The first of four original films that Adam Sandler is making for Netflix, "The Ridiculous 6," now has a trailer.

Available to stream starting December 11, Sandler's movie is a who's who of comics starring in a wacky Western in which Sandler plays one of six outlaws who realize they have the same father.

Along with Sandler, the film stars Rob Schneider, Will Forte, Luke Wilson, David Spade, Terry Crews, John Turturro, Whitney Cummings, and Norm Macdonald, to name a few.

The film already made headlines when, during filming, a group of American Indian actors walked off the set after complaining of their characters having offensive names and scenes that they felt disrespected Native American religious practices.

Following the walkout, Netflix released a statement:

The movie has 'ridiculous' in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous. It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of—but in on—the joke.

Watch the trailer:

SEE ALSO: Here's when you'll be able to see Adam Sandler's first original Netflix movie

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Ever since the one, two punch of the poster and the trailer for “The Force Awakens,” fans have been asking themselves one question, "Where in the bloody hell is Luke Skywalker?"

His name is on the poster but he’s nowhere to be seen. As is normally the case when the internet lacks information, the speculation is running rampant, mostly in the "Luke’s gone to the dark side" direction.

Well, somebody finally asked J.J. Abrams about the case of the missing Skywalker and JJ’s response was his most JJ-ish to date.

The Associated Press asked J.J. Abrams why Luke was nowhere to be seen and his first response was to say it was an important question that should be asked before going on to at least admit that there is a reason we haven’t seen the Jedi in any marketing material. He simply stated:

"It’s no accident."

While Abrams' trollish tease was the most entertaining part of his time with AP it wasn’t the most newsworthy. The director also reported that the final cut of the film is still being worked on, although it sounds like it will be ready soon. The visual effects are another story. They are still underway and likely have another three to four weeks before they’ll be concluded, which will likely be after the final cut has been made.

The other thing that’s still being worked on is the score. There’ll be another session with John Williams, who Abrams calls "a God," to finish off the film’s music.

While we know that Skywalker not being visible in the marketing is obviously not an accident — that’s not an oversight that anybody rational could make — we’re going to take J.J. Abrams at his word here that this means that there’s a reason we can’t see him. It’s not just that he wants to surprise us in the film, but that simply seeing Luke Skywalker in the trailer would give away parts of the movie.

It’s this idea that has led many to believe that Skywalker may turn out to be a bad guy in the forthcoming film, because if we saw him dressed as a Sith, we’d know too much going in. This is certainly a possibility though it doesn’t explain the image that was leaked out several months ago. Check out the full interview below.

So let the speculation go into high gear. We don’t know what the reason is, but we do know there is a reason. Is he bad? Is he dead? Maybe he’ll be a ghost. Let us know your theories below. 

SEE ALSO: Netflix users will be able to watch "Star Wars" The Force Awakens"— there's just one catch

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The opening scene of "Spectre," the latest James Bond film, centers on a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) parade shot on location in Mexico City.

The details behind it make it even more impressive. 

The shoot, which took six months to plan, used 1,500 extras. Crowd scenes today are usually done with CGI, using only a handful of actors.

Each extra got a specially designed costume. It took just 75 minutes to do all their makeup. That's 20 skeleton faces a minute.

"I wanted the audience to be dropped right into the middle of a very, very specific, very heady rich environment." director Sam Mendes said.

"Spectre" was shot in locations all over the world. It will be out in theaters November 6.

Story by Ian Phillips and editing by Carl Mueller.

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Fifteen minutes after the splashy royal premiere of "Spectre" in London on Monday, 647 UK theaters got first dibs of the movie, and it was a huge success.

Variety is reporting that the film took in $6.4 million on Monday night. That didn't beat out the opening-day gross of the previous, record-setting Bond movie, "Skyfall," three years ago (in local currency: £4.1 million for "Spectre"; £6.2 million for "Skyfall"). But "Skyfall" had a full Friday. "Spectre" had two screenings per location Monday night.

Regardless, it looks as if the 24th Bond movie will have a strong opening week across the pond before its November 6 release in the US.

The second consecutive Bond film led by director Sam Mendes, "Spectre" follows 007 (Daniel Craig) as he faces off with the evil eponymous organization, with Christoph Waltz playing the sinister villain.

"Skyfall" is the top-grossing Bond movie of all time, earning over $1.1 billion worldwide, and it was the highest-grossing film ever in the UK.

"Spectre" is projected to earn $80 million-plus domestically in its opening weekend. "Skyfall" opened with $88.4 million.

Watch the trailer for "Spectre":

SEE ALSO: Roger Moore says James Bond should never be gay or female

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Gaspar Noe ("Irreversible,""Enter the Void"), an Argentinian filmmaker based in France, isn't as provocative or insightful as he thinks he is. 

His latest pretentious opus is called "Love," although there's very little of that on display.

The film is less concerned with the feeling itself and more focused on the physical act. The advertising for the film has really honed in on the "NSFW," edgy angle, and the entire selling point of the movie is sex. In 3D!

If that sounds more like a gimmick than anything artful, that's because it absolutely is. It's incredibly strange to see hardcore sex on the big screen, especially in the third dimension, but what's the point? 

If the film surrounding these moments is entirely hollow, these scenes become superfluous and don't really add anything to the narrative.

And there's not much of a narrative to begin with. The film throws you right in the thick of it, as the opening scene features a couple in bed pleasuring one another. To completion.

The camera is stationary as the act goes on and on until its logical climax. No camera tricks, edits, or awkward angles. Just sex, right in front of your nose.

This scene is revealed to be a dream, and we learn that Murphy (an American man in France) still has serious feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Electra, the woman from the dream. 

In reality, Murphy is currently dating a woman named Omi, and they have a baby together. Murphy's stream-of-consciousness narration plays over the visuals, so there are no secrets between him and the audience. 

Murphy's internal monologue doesn't sugarcoat anything. He is only with Omi because they have a child together (that was conceived accidentally, of course) and he doesn't have a better option. 

The biggest problem with "Love" is that its protagonist is, in a word, insufferable. Murphy is young, dumb, and full of false wisdom. He's an aspiring filmmaker, and we know this because he has posters for "Birth of a Nation" and "Salo" in his apartment and won't shut up about how inspiring he finds "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Murphy feels very much like a conduit for Gaspar himself, as the writer/director can't help but repeatedly inject his own autobiographical catharsis into the film. When Murphy and Omi are discussing baby names, Murphy wants to name him Gaspar. Later, the name Noe also comes into play.

The audience I saw it with laughed uproariously (at it, not with it) both times. This is actually quite fitting, as I tend to find the director's work to be just as dense and intolerable as his protagonist.

There's a case to be made that Murphy being a total moron is the entire point — we've all been young and naive — but Gaspar plays him entirely straight.

In most movies, when a character drones on and on about his unfounded ambitions, the filmmakers are in on the gag. This guy's a joke, look at him making an ass of himself!  

I thought maybe I was having trouble separating the character of Murphy from Gaspar himself at first. Any doubt I had fell away when Murphy literally explained the concept of the very movie we are watching. He talks about wanting to make a movie that focuses on love, but told raw, via hardcore sex. Give me a break, Gaspar!

The sex scenes themselves, which are really the focal point according to every piece of press material, get the job done. There's an extended threesome sequence that is undeniably alluring, and Gaspar shoots it in such a way that it never gets boring.   

The problem is we never really care about Murphy or the women he beds, so there's no real emotional connection to be had. No matter how raw or real the sex scene is, if we don't care about the characters, it's all for naught. 

The 3D gimmick is amusing for a while, but it doesn't take long for it to lose its luster. By the time Gaspar literally cuts to an erect penis ejaculating on the audience, it's clear the film's use of 3D is focused more on amusement than immersion.

"Love" is a pretty awful title for the film, as nothing on display here can or should be construed as love. There's sex, bickering, hopelessness, self-indulgence and ignorance, but never love. Maybe one of those words would have worked better. 

Watch the trailer (don't worry, no nudity or actual sex):

"Love," which is unrated, opens in limited release Friday, October 30.

SEE ALSO: The less you know before seeing 'Room,' the better

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It's a pairing you never thought could ever happen, until it did: Zac Efron and Robert De Niro are starring in a spring break comedy. 

It's called "Dirty Grandpa."

In it, Efron plays an uptight guy who is about to get married to Julianne Hough, but not before his perverted retired Army General grandfather (De Niro) has him let loose in Daytona Beach, Florida, for some sunny and shirtless spring partying with the old man.

"Dirty Grandpa" opens January 22 and also stars Aubrey Plaza as a fellow spring breaker who has the hots for De Niro. Yes, you read that correctly.

Watch the trailer, released exclusively by BuzzFeed:

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The first opportunity to buy tickets to the play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" occurred Wednesday morning and made some of the franchise's most diehard fans angry.

In less than an hour, the tickets for preview performances from June 7 to September 18, 2016 were sold out. To add insult to injury, the volume of buyers caused technical difficulties for the online ticketing system, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

As these tickets were available to buyers who pre-registered for the opportunity (Read: The most faithful fans), customers became very angry.

 As a result, another round of tickets for performances through January 8, 2017 were released on Wednesday, instead of Saturday. That led to some relieved fans.

The price for tickets went as high as 260 pounds (or $40o U.S.). Third party sites were reselling the tickets for as high as 2,950 pounds (or about $4500 U.S.). General audience ticket sales begin on October 30.

Clearly, excitement about anything related to Harry Potter is high. But author J.K. Rowling raised the stakes when she announced last week that it will be an official sequel to the movie franchise.

Designed to be watched in two parts (on either the same day or consecutive days) at London’s West End at the Palace Theatre, the story takes place 19 years after the seventh book, "Deathly Hallows," and will focus on Harry's son, Albus.

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about JK Rowling's new 'Harry Potter' play

MORE: All of the Harry Potter books with lots of extra bells and whistles are finally available on Apple devices exclusively

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NOW WATCH: 9 new things J.K. Rowling just revealed about Harry Potter's family

"Look Who's Back," a satire based on a controversial 2012 novel, was No. 1 at the German box office this past weekend, taking in more than 10 million euros and beating out Pixar's "Inside Out."

The film imagines Hitler living in modern-day Germany and aspiring to be a stand-up comedian. And if that wasn't strange enough, the director, David Wnendt, made the film in a "Borat" style in which the Hitler character (played by Oliver Masucci) interacts with non-actors to capture their reactions.

Wnendt told The Guardian that the motivation behind the movie was to show that Hitler's propaganda hasn't completely gone away. The filmmaker said that people can't "ignore the fact that we met many Germans who were quite ready to reconcile with him and see him as something of a father figure."

Masucci described what he encountered while filming dressed as Hitler: "People clustered around me. One told me she loved me, and asked me to hug her. One, to my relief, started hitting me. There was also a black woman who said I scared her.”

The book the film is based on, written by Timur Vermes, sold 2 million copies in Germany alone when it was published in 2012. It has been published in more than 40 countries.

The film currently does not have a US distributor.

Watch the trailer:

SEE ALSO: This is the last known photo of Hitler

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NOW WATCH: Here are all the movies Disney will release in the next two years

There have been eight "Halloween" feature films since 1978 — discounting the two remakes — and only a handful of them are objectively any "good." What started as an independent film full of tension, suspense, and dread blossomed into a lucrative, decade-spanning franchise that has since undergone a remake and a sequel to the remake.

As the series progressed, the films moved further and further from the spirit of the original until they reached a breaking point. They got so bad that the writers of the later films literally had to un-do all the egregious errors set up by the truly terrible ones.

The history of the "Halloween" franchise is one riddled with production horror stories, differing opinions of what the films should be, and, of course, a bunch of dead teenagers.

Scroll down for a full breakdown and ranking of each film in the original, pre-Zombie-fied "Halloween" universe. For the sake of consistency, I've included the numbers in each title, even if they are not actually there.

Screenshots courtesy of Anchor Bay, Dimension, and Miramax.

SEE ALSO: The 25 best horror movies you can stream on Netflix this Halloween

8. "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995)

The theatrical cut of "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" is an absolute mess.

It's a film so incredibly maimed by studio interference and sheer lack of direction that it's more a "Frankenstein"-esque project made up of bits and pieces of different movies than anything cohesive.

Its tumultuous production is no secret — Dimension allegedly wanted more gore, director Joe Chappelle wanted less Loomis, and the screenwriter wanted direct connections to previous films while also adding new details. 

The film was botched so badly the studio took on extensive reshoots, and that's the version most people know.

The "workprint" version (sometimes referred to as "Halloween 666" or the "Producer's Cut") is another beast entirely, but more on that later.

Not a single thing in "Halloween 6" makes any sense. Its historically difficult production shows through as it's clearly a movie pieced together by people who disagreed at every turn.

"The Curse of Michael Myers" is the first "Halloween" sequel to shoot in the '90s (1995, to be exact), and it shows.

Right away, the film opens with hyper-stylized, quick cuts that couldn't be further from the patient, voyeuristic tendencies of the original film's camerawork. Minimal editing and carefully plotted long takes are no longer relevant here.

The plot itself is even more absurd than the last, which is really saying something. 

The film opens with Michael's niece Jamie, now 15 years old and inexplicably pregnant, giving birth to a child, which is then promptly kidnapped by the unexplained "Man in Black" (who briefly appeared at the end of 4) and his cult.

A nurse later helps Jamie and her baby escape, and Michael of course shows up and kills the nurse. Jamie and her baby flee in a stolen pickup truck and she manages to call in to a radio station and warn Haddonfield that Michael is returning.

She is quickly impaled by Michael and killed, but not before hiding her baby in a bus station, where Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd!), the child Laurie Strode babysat in the first film, conveniently finds it. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis, now a retired recluse, hears Jamie's plea on the radio and decides to go back to Haddonfield to warn everyone, yet again.

Tommy Doyle now lives in a boarding house across the street (?!) from the Myers' home, and relatives of the Strode family now live in the Myers home for some godforsaken reason.

Tommy spends a lot of time being sad, and you know this because the film shows him staring longingly out a window. He's depressed, but worse than that, he comes off as incredibly creepy. 

He spends much of the movie investigating Myers, something he has been doing his whole life. He just wants to understand.

Meanwhile, Loomis shows up just in time in inform the Strodes that they are living in Myers' house, but at this point, the murders have already begun. It also makes zero sense that the Strodes would be so blissfully unaware, especially when Tommy himself is right across the street.

Tommy eventually learns that Michael's evil *does* have an explanation! According to this movie, Myers was afflicted with the curse of Thorn by a druid-inspired cult.

This entire idea is so absurd I'll let the film's Wikipedia explain:

Thorn is an ancient Druid symbol that represented a demon that spread sickness and caused destruction. To prevent this, one child from each tribe was chosen to bear the curse of Thorn to offer a blood sacrifice of its next of kin on the night of Samhain (Halloween). When the corresponding Thorn constellation appears, Michael appears.

While Tommy and the Strodes are out discovering all this, Michael kills some folks, and the "Man in Black" cult leader is revealed to be Dr. Wynn, the chief administrator of Smith's Grove, the facility in which Michael was incarcerated for most of his life.

The cult's motives? To replicate evil. They believe Michael (and his relatives) possess the desired "evil" genes, and they want to harness this. For what, god only knows. They see Jamie's baby as an opportunity to usher in a new era of evil ... or something.

Once Michael kills a bunch of cult members, he chases Tommy and the remaining Strodes around Smith's Grove, but Tommy eventually "kills" him by injecting him with something corrosive and beating him with a lead pipe.

When Loomis goes to deal with Michael's body, all that's left is his mask.

Did you follow all that? Me neither.

In this movie, every single element is more convoluted than the last, and the entire concept is fundamentally flawed.

The title itself, "The Curse of Michael Myers," is inherently problematic — there doesn't need to be a curse to make Michael a scary figure!

The filmmakers here are attempting to inject some sort of supernatural explanation for Michael's desire to kill.

Michael has always been a mysterious figure, and the origin of his "evil" has been alluded to repeatedly throughout the series, but never flat out explained.

Loomis is usually the one delivering the "he's not human, he's the boogeyman" rhetoric, and he gets systematically ignored as the bodies pile up film after film

Additionally, the convenience of the writing repeatedly showcases how incredibly lazy the film is. For example, Tommy only finds the baby because that's what his character needs to do, and Loomis only hears Jamie's radio plea as it serves the narrative to bring him to Haddonfield.

But I digress. "Halloween 6" proves that questions about Michael Myers supernatural abilities are best left unanswered.  

Back to the producer's cut — even though this version consists of 43 minutes of altered footage, it's still a thoroughly terrible movie.

There are tons of minor differences, but the biggest takeaway is that the producer's cut features about double the Loomis and goes into even more detail on the awful cult stuff. 

The most shocking thing about the producer's cut is that it reveals Michael himself is the father of Jamie's weird cult baby.

Yes, in this universe, Uncle Michael had sex with 15-year-old niece Jamie and procreated. It's no surprise this was left on the cutting-room floor.

The ending is also a little different — instead of Loomis just finding Michael's mask on the ground, he finds Michael on the ground, laying dead.

Except it's not Michael — it's Dr. Wynn! He donned the mask, which allowed Michael to escape wearing Wynn's cult garb. Wynn then transfers his "mark of Thorn" to Loomis, the idea being that now Loomis is the cult leader in charge of Michael?

No matter how you spin it, both versions of "Halloween 6" are varying levels of atrocious.

7. "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989)

If "Halloween 4" was a step in the wrong direction, "Halloween 5" is a full on sprint. 

The film opens right where "4" left off, as Myers inevitably cheats death yet again after the firing-squad assault. He literally crawls into a river as the "Halloween" theme plays. 

We abruptly cut to a year later, and Jamie, who was set up to be the killer at the end of the last movie, is now just mentally disturbed and living in some sort of home for deranged children. 

She now has quite the reputation amongst the townspeople, and they welcome her by tossing rocks through her window that say things like "the evil child must die." 

In "Halloween 5," Jamie inexplicably develops a psychic connection to Michael. She can sense when his future victims are in danger. 

Unfortunately, this gift doesn't quite save Rachel, her foster-sister, as she is killed fairly early on. The buck then gets passed to Tina, her annoying, random friend, and we watch her and her friends suffer at the hands of Michael.  

For a film whose title touts "Revenge," Michael sure spends a hell of a lot of time senselessly murdering kids that have nothing to do with him. I guess he's easily distracted.

He actually spends most of the movie's runtime behind the wheel of his car, which is a bizarre sight.

By the end of the film, a wild-eyed Loomis uses Jamie as bait to lure Michael into his childhood home, where Loomis then tranquilizes him and beats him with a 2x4 until he literally has a stroke.
 

"Halloween 5" ends with Michael locked up in the sheriff's station ... that is, until a stranger (a "Man in Black") shows up, kills the cops, and sets him free. 

Will this masked man play a role in "Halloween 6"? Yes, but he probably shouldn't have.

6. "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988)

"Halloween 4" was the beginning of a serious rough patch for the franchise.

After backlash from fans following the release of the Michael Myers-less "Season of the Witch," the studio caved and gave people what they want — "The Return of Michael Myers."

The film is notable for introducing Jamie (Danielle Harris), Michael's niece and Laurie Strode's daughter, but it's best known for considerably lowering the bar for the series. 

From the very beginning, "Halloween 4" just doesn't compare to what came before. It starts on shaky ground and never moves past it. The plot is entirely dependent on dumb people doing dumb things to drive its narrative. 

The opening sequence involves Michael being transferred to a sanitarium without Loomis' consent. On October 30. 

It's been 10 years since the events of the first two films, and Michael has been in a coma ever since.  

Michael awakens as soon as the paramedics mention that he has a niece, immediately kills them both, and makes his way back to Haddonfield to find and kill her, as well as whoever else gets in his way. You know the drill. 

While the return to familiar territory is welcome, the film is more often a boring retread of the original film than any sort of improvement on it. The impressive direction and focus on suspense and anticipation has gone entirely out the window.

"Halloween 4" relies way too heavily on narrative convenience and coincidence. Major plot details hinge on trivial meetings between characters, like the fact that Michael just so happens to run into Loomis at a gas station before heading to Haddonfield.   

The characters in "Halloween II" were certainly dumb, but the sheer stupidity on display in "Halloween 4" is shocking, and every decision every character makes is a bad one. Who thought it'd be a good idea to transfer Michael on the 10th anniversary of his massacre?!

Jamie, Michael's nephew and the film's protagonist, is terrorized by her classmates for her relation to Myers (shouldn't they be horrified?!) and also haunted by nightmares and visions of The Shape himself. 

Jamie has been taken in by a foster family, and is mostly left in the care of her foster sister Rachel to babysit, because nothing bad has ever happened to a Strode while babysitting.

There's a lot of unnecessary character detail here, including a subplot revolving around the fact that Rachel's boyfriend is a sleazeball whose sleeping with her good friend, who also just so happens to be the Sheriff's daughter.

These transgressions are, of course, swiftly punished by Myers, so I guess it's fine.

When Loomis informs the Haddonfield police that Michael has returned, it's not long before an angry mob is formed and they go on the hunt for Michael. At one point they actually kill an innocent person, as it's Halloween and masked men are everywhere.

The ending is pretty ridiculous, and the producers must have known it, because "Halloween 5" ditches its implications entirely. 

After Michael is shot at by the Haddonfield firing squad, Jamie touches his body, and we are to assume she inherited some of his "evil," as the final shot of the movie is Jamie brandishing scissors after stabbing her own stepmother.

"Halloween 4" was clearly an attempt to usher in a new era of Myers-focused "Halloween" films, and while it did just that, the next two sequels are arguably even worse. 

I’ll never forget the first time I saw “Apocalypse Now.”

Captivated, I stared at the screen for the 196-minute runtime as Willard journeyed upriver in the midst of the Vietnam War to assassinate the general-turned-rogue-demigod Colonel Kurtz.

Afterward, I felt disgusted, exhausted, relieved, and forever altered in my way of thinking about war.

Way more important than my first screening, however, is the story behind the making of “Apocalypse Now.” The film was legendarily produced over budget (from an initial $14 million to costing over $31.5 million) over time (principal photography was planned for six months, but ended up lasting over a year), and over the top. Most people know it took over three years to shoot and edit.

And the screenplay was based on Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness.” And that Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, but got well enough to finish his work on set. And that Marlon Brando was paid $3.5 million for 15 total minutes of screen time. So I dug deep into “the horror, the horror” to present these 10 obscure facts about “Apocalypse Now.”

1. Colonel Kurtz was based on a real person.

Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtzis thought to be modeled after Anthony Poshepny. Poshepny, a CIA operative, was dispatched to train a secret CIA-funded army of hill tribes in Laos during the Vietnam War. Much like Kurtz, he dropped severed heads in enemy locations as a form of psychological warfare.

2. Props got a little too real on set.

One props manager attempted to take the film’s sense of authenticity to the extreme, going so far as to source actual human cadavers for scenes requiring dead bodies. A production manager put the kibosh on the cadavers after local police began investigating. It turns out the cadaver supplier was robbing area cemeteries for their “inventory.”

3. George Lucas almost shot first.

Lucas was the film’s original director. He intended to shoot “Apocalypse Now” as a faux documentary in Vietnam during the war, on 16 mm film with real soldiers. But Lucas was too busy with “Star Wars” and “American Graffiti” and had to drop the project. Lucas then gave Francis Ford Coppola his blessing to direct.

4. You can only watch the 2001 re-release. 

“Apocalypse Now: Redux” is the only commercially available version of the film. The 2001 re-issue added 49 additional minutes to the runtime, and used a special Technicolor film process. It required layering multiple negatives to produce rich color saturation and consistent black tones. It also required cutting the original negative.

Coppola gave the editor the okay, believing the redux was an improvement over the film’s first version.

5. The film’s title makes fun of hippies.

“Apocalypse Now” is not the film’s original title. Early drafts of the 1,000-plus page screenplay were named “The Psychedelic Soldier.” It was changed to “Apocalypse Now” after screenwriter John Milius was inspired to make fun of a hippie pin bearing the words “Nirvana Now.”

6. Animal rights activists hated the film.

After its release, the American Humane Association deemed the film “unacceptable.” Unfortunately, the water buffalo ceremonially slaughtered by the Montagnards was real. (Pour one out for the water buffalo.)

7. Sound editing created a breakthrough in stereo technology.

Sound libraries at the time didn’t have stereo recordings of weapons. So, sound editor Walter Murch recorded the latest military guns firing in Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track for the film’s 70 mm release. The final product resulted in 5.1 surround sound, aka with two channels of sound behind the audience, and three from behind the movie screen.

8. The most famous line is completely original.

“Apocalypse Now” was highly referential, drawing its inspiration and dialogue from works by documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog, poet T.S. Eliot, author Michael Herr, and more. But the infamous line, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” was totally original.

9. Real combat took place during production.

The film shot on location in the Philippines. After Coppola met with president Ferdinand Marcos about the project, the president loaned helicopter gunships to the production. During filming, Marcos had to recall the gunships for actual combat against a rebel army.

10. The title of the film isn’t spoken.

It does, however, make an appearance as graffiti in the background of a scene:

SEE ALSO: 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'Full Metal Jacket'

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As Halloween rolls around once again, Business Insider has put together a list of Top 10 Scary Cars — cars that strike fear into the hearts of drivers, onlookers, and society at large.

Be afraid! Be very afraid!

And here they are — enjoy!

10. The Lamborghini Veneno looks like an alien warship on the prowl for unsuspecting planets to colonize. Is it cool? Absolutely. But it's kind of terrifying, too.

9. The "Deathmobile" is one of the most memorable relics of the 1978 comedy classic, "Animal House." The car's angry fangs, skull-and-crossbones, and prominently mounted bust of Lenin summarize the type of mayhem unleashed at Faber College by the men of Delta Tau Chi.

8. The Maybach Exelero is dark and menacing. This car has only one rightful owner ...

J.K. Rowling is co-writing an eighth part to the "Harry Potter" series— but it won't be a book. Instead, fans have to travel to London in 2016 to see the play, titled "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." If the chosen medium wasn't exclusive enough, purchasing tickets to the production has proven to be a convoluted process, leaving some fans in the dust. 

Special priority tickets for the play went on sale Wednesday, October 28. General tickets go on sale Friday. The exact quantities available is unknown.

However, not just anyone could buy them. You had to go through a number of pre-registration steps beforehand in order to secure your tickets to the anticipated event. 

Here's what it took to get your hands on tickets.

Step one: Register to be a priority subscriber.

The play's website and early press releases indicated people could add themselves to a "priority subscriber list" for the "first opportunity to book" tickets. Registration for this list ended at 11:45 p.m. BST (British Standard Time) on October 24. 

Step two: Register for an account with the official ticketing partner, Nimax Theatres.

This is where the process got tricky. On October 25, priority subscribers received an email which contained a message instructing fans of the next steps to take toward purchasing play tickets.

Here's how the email looked:

Two pieces of critical information were tucked into this email. First, tickets would be on sale at 11 a.m. GMT on October 28. Second, if you wanted to buy tickets, you only had 48 hours to create an account with Nimax Theaters, the play's official ticketing partner.

Within that 48-hour window, a follow-up email was sent reminding fans to register: 

At 10:45 a.m. GMT on Wednesday 28 October you will receive an email giving you a link to access Priority Booking where you will need to enter the email address and password for your NIMAX THEATRES account to purchase tickets. You will only be able to book if you have created your account with NIMAX THEATRES by 1pm GMT on Tuesday 27 October.

After registering with Nimax, there was no email confirmation. There was a browser window telling you registration worked, and a message stating a "private booking link" would be sent Wednesday morning.

I read the message carefully, and set an alarm for 6:00 a.m. ET in order to coordinate with the 11:00 a.m. GMT ticket release.

We're only halfway through the process.

Step three: Gather information on how ticketing will work

The website provides a handy (though complex) infographic for buying tickets. This may come as a surprise to some fans, but the play is being produced in two parts. Not two acts — two separate parts. As a result, fans must purchase two tickets to two different shows. 

There is also a performance schedule available. Ticket prices ranged from £10 to £130 (about $15 to $200) depending on best available seating.

Step four: Enter the online queue to purchase tickets at 11:00 a.m. GMT

I woke up early, and hopped on Twitter while I waited for my email notification. Fans were already on Twitter complaining about the lack of email confirmation or instructions about where to buy tickets. Some probably didn't notice the fine print in the email from Step 2 that said a private booking link would be sent at 10:45 a.m GMT.

Others were ready and raring to go.

At 10:37 a.m. GMT (eight minutes early) — the email arrived in my inbox.

Here's what I saw:

I clicked "Book Now" and was promptly taken to a new browser tab. The window showed a countdown.

A pre-queue! The line for the line. While I waited, I checked Twitter to see if others had also recieved their emails early. Though some reported being in queue, too, I noticed a lot of panicked tweets from fans unable to locate an email.

Ten minutes leading up to the sale, twitter exploded with fans unable to find their emails. The official "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Twitter account was trying to do damage control.

Since I was already in the pre-queue, I had nothing to worry about. Right? 

Step five: Enter the actual queue to purchase tickets.

The timer ticked down to zero, and my browser automatically refreshed. I was now in the official queue. With 11,834 users ahead of me. The timer showed 11:00:07 a.m GMT. 

I wasn't the only one shocked by the large volume of people ahead of me.

Step six: The waiting game.

There was no announcement of how many tickets would be sold. Fans only knew each person would be able to buy up to six at a time in a 14-minute window.

I decided to wait it out and see what would happen. 

Others were lucky, and had their tickets purchased within fifteen minutes.

But reports of site bugs began cropping up on Twitter. It seems as though the site was kicking users off, and forcing them to get back in line.

I nervously waited. One hour later, my progress bar was halfway loaded. The site updated, letting me know there was "good availability."

Step seven: Buying tickets!

Nearly two hours after receiving the initial booking email, it was finally my turn to buy tickets.

I was in. I scrolled through the calendar, and selected the first consecutive tickets I could find. After entering in payment information, I was brought to this happy sight:

Despite being 11,000th in line, I was able to get tickets for parts one and two in June — the debut month of the show. And as of 7:30 p.m. GMT, there are still tickets available to priority subscribers for the months of October through January 2017.

Harry Potter fans who weren't in the priority group will have to wait until October 30 for the public ticket release. The site also promises a daily ticket lottery will allow a lucky few to get same-day seats, details forthcoming. 

Either way, it was an exciting (if stressful) morning for the Harry Potter fandom.

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Citi Research just dropped a huge note on the future of China's internet, commerce and media markets.

A key insight is that the Chinese movie market is set to be the world's biggest in the next couple of years, thanks to incredible growth in the last decade.

The rapid emergence of China's middle class means more and more people are becoming big movie fans — going to the cinema or buying a DVD is an easy and enjoyable way to spend the spare cash you've found yourself with. In a market as huge as China's any increase in interest means lots of money, and big growth.

Between 2003-2010, the peak years of double figure growth for the country's economy, box office receipts had compound annual growth of about 40%. That has now slowed to 29%, but China is still on track to become the world's biggest market for films (in terms of box office receipts) by 2017.

Films in China are expected to make about RMB632 billion (£6.5 billion, $10 billion) per year by 2017. This will put it right alongside the US as joint biggest market in the world. China is then predicted to overtake the US.

Here's Citi's chart:

Compare that to the pretty stagnant box office numbers in the USA:

Box office receipts are now mainly going up because of the booming desire for cinemas in Tier 2 cities, smaller cities like Nanjing, Ningbo and Jinan. The cities are not as big or wealthy as places like Shanghai and Beijing, but are experiencing quicker growth. Jinan, for example, grew it's GDP by 12.7% last year.

As these cities grow, cinemas are being built at a higher rate, helping fuel the box office boom. Citi's chart shows this:

Earlier this month, Business Insider spoke to Chinese entrepreneur and media producer Johnny Hon, who sees the number of Chinese people now going to the cinema as an investment opportunity for Westerners.

Hon's projections for the Chinese box office are a little more optimistic than Citi's and he says that "in half a year China will overtake the US as number one in the world."He thinks that Western investment could help both the West and China in making better films which could attract crowds around the world.

"We may be able to make movies but we don't necessarily have the right expertise or the special effects experience like in Hollywood to push entertainment to the next level. That's why we need Western companies to come over and partner with us to make worldwide hits." Hon said.

Johnny Hon's argument has some weight given that Chinese movies make up more than half of box office sales already. If Western companies did invest in Chinese movies, it seems like the rewards could be pretty big.

Here's Citi again:

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New Line is in negotiations to acquire "The Disaster Artist," a film package that sees James Franco direct a making-of movie about the 2003 drama "The Room," which is widely considered one of the worst movies of all time.

Franco will do double duty to star as Tommy Wiseau, the director and star of The Room. The movie played in a couple of local Los Angeles theaters and soon was pulled, due to mostly empty venues. Soon after, however, Wiseau got requests for the film to be shown, and it played midnights at Laemmle's Sunset 5, where, for many, seeing it became a ritual. It also helped that many celebrities, including Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd, began showing up to watch it. And for years, a giant billboard graced La Cienega Boulevard in Hollywood with Wiseau's disheveled visage.

"The Room" centered on the melodramatic love triangle between a man, his fiance and his best friend. Greg Sestero, who starred in The Room, and Tom Bissell wrote the 2013 nonfiction book "The Disaster Artist," which chronicled the shoot. Sestero described his life as a struggling actor and what it was like to work with the mysterious and eccentric Wiseau, who had no filmmaking experience when he set out to write, direct and produce "The Room."

James Franco's brother Dave ("Neighbors") is attached to play Sestero in "The Disaster Artist." Seth Rogen, who also is producing through Point Grey Pictures along with Evan Goldberg, Vince Jolivette and Franco, is in talks to star as well. Good Universe also is producing and handled the deal with New Line.

Rogen and Franco are frequent collaborators, their most recent project together being "The Interview," which led to the devastating hack of the film's studio, Sony. They previously worked together on "This Is the End,""Pineapple Express" and the TV series "Freaks and Geeks."

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who penned "The Spectacular Now" and "The Fault in Our Stars," wrote the script. The project is planned for a Dec. 7 start date.

For those who need a reminder of what "The Room" was all about, the trailer is below.

SEE ALSO: James Franco: "McDonald's was there for me when no one else was"

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