Things are about to get weird

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the sequel to 2016’s “Doctor Strange” and the 28th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is set to take over the box office this weekend.
But curiously, many other movies released over the past few decades also have the word “weird” in their titles. What do you know of these curious, particular and mystifying films?
1. 1946’s “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” featured the big-screen debut of which Hollywood icon born in the great capital region?
2. This 2014 film starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple who marry, resulting in one of them being fired, shares the same title as a 1956 crossover hit from an R&B duo that went on to been featured in the movies ‘Dirty Dancing’, ‘Casino’, ‘Badlands’ and even ‘Deep Throat’. What is it?
3. One of Ingmar Bergman’s first films, 1944’s ‘Thirst’, was retitled ‘Three Strange Loves’. 1983’s “Strange Brew” brought Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis’ “SCTV” characters, Bob and Doug McKenzie, to the big screen. Which Oscar-nominated actor, who died in 2020, worked 11 times with Bergman and played the antagonist in ‘Strange Brew’?
4. What 1995 sci-fi thriller was directed by a woman whose ex-husband was co-writer and co-producer, years before the two became Oscar winners?
5. The 2015 animated film “Strange Magic” – with the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Maya Rudolph and Alfred Molina – was the last writing credit (so far) of one of the most successful filmmakers of all time, responsible for two different successful franchises. Who is he?
6. 1940’s “Strange Cargo” was the eighth and final couple (tenth if you count two uncredited appearances) including two screen legends (and on-and-off lovers), whose previous films included “Possessed,” “Dance, Fools , Dance” and “Chained”?
7. True or False: Val Kilmer, who played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’, narrated the 2009 documentary ‘When You’re Strange’ about the rock band.
8. The 2002 mockumentary “Nothing So Strange” depicts the fictionalized assassination of which real-life multi-billionaire businessman who is currently ranked as the fourth richest person in the world, having held the top spot 20 times in 22 years?
9. The Tony Award-winning rock musical “Passing Strange” beat out “Hamilton” by releasing a filmed version of his show in 2009. What an acclaimed director, who won a Student Academy Award in 1983 for his thesis film graduate “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads”, was behind the camera for the film “Passing Strange”?
ten. The producers of the 2004 Australian comedy ‘Strange Bedfellows’, about two straight men who pose as a gay couple to get government benefits, have filed a lawsuit against Universal Pictures, claiming what Adam Sandler hit in 2007 had plagiarized their film?
ANSWERS
1. Kirk Douglas, originally from Amsterdam, NY
2. “Love is Strange”
3. Max von Sydow
4. “Strange Days”, with Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis. Kathryn Bigelow directed from a screenplay co-written by ex-husband James Cameron.
5. george lucas
6. Clark Gable and Joan Crawford
7. Fake. It was narrated by, for some reason, Johnny Depp.
8. Bill Gates
9. Spike Lee
ten. “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry” lawsuit was dropped when the filmmakers of “Chuck and Larry” provided an early draft of the script that preceded the Australian film. In fact, as early as 1999, an earlier unproduced version was announced, starring Nicolas Cage and Will Smith.