10 facts about cinema you didn't know

Today we'll tell you something you didn't know about the world of cinema: for example, did you know that Hollywood was founded by a temperance activist? That's right!

1. Hollywood was founded by Harvey Wilcox, a renowned temperance activist and prohibitionist. He and his wife wanted the future city to be a community based on religious and temperance principles. They offered free land to anyone willing to build a church.

2. It took 15 crew members to operate the three full-scale sharks in Jaws.

3. 152 kilometers of film were shot for Gone with the Wind. This was edited down to 6 kilometers.

4. In preparation for his role in The Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins studied serial killer cases. He also visited prisons and met convicted murderers.

5. For the filming of 12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet made the actors stay in one room for hours and read their lines over and over again, off the record.

6. In preparation for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger holed up in a motel room for a month and a half. He tried to understand his character's psychology. He dedicated himself to practicing his voice and imitating the Joker's sadistic laugh. His interpretation of the Joker was based on the portrayals of Sid Vicious and Alex Large in A Clockwork Orange.

7. Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky asked Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans to abstain from sex and sugar for a month to better understand their roles.

8. Christopher Lee (who played Saruman) read The Lord of the Rings once a year—ever since the book was published. He is the only member of the film crew who met Tolkien.

9. The actress who played Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter (Shirley Henderson) was 37 years old during the filming of the second film. She was the oldest of the actors to play Hogwarts students.

10. The first film to show a toilet flushing was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.