Everyone likes a good movie.  Boxed sets of DVDs, particularly collector editions, etc. make great gifts for people who are really into a specific movie or character.

In this article I'm showcasing the Harry Potter Movies, Night at the Museum, and Star Trek.  Each section contains interesting movie trivia facts about each set of movies.  In the case of Star Trek, I've also included trivia about the television series.

This is one of several articles featuring popular movie boxed sets that are available.  Be sure to check the links at the bottom for other articles written by me showcasing other movies.  Each one will be packed with interesting trivia about each set of movies.

• Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hagrid, was the first person to be cast in the Harry Potter movies and was handpicked by J.K. Rowling.
• There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England over the film crew using the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Local newspapers received sacks of letters promising to block the film crew’s access. Only one protester showed up.
• Daniel Radcliffe was in the bathtub when he learned that he'd won the role of Harry Potter.
• Both Rosie O’Donnell and Robin Williams had offered to play roles in the movie with pay, but were never filmed for any scenes.
• Steven Spielberg is reported to have wanted Haley Joel Osment to play the role of Harry Potter.
• The last name Dumbledore means "Bumblebee" in Old English.
• Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban broke UK box office records when it grossed 5.3 million pounds in its opening day of release on May 31, 2004, which made it the biggest opening day and top grossing single day of all time.
• When filming the Prisoner of Azkabanin Scotland they wanted to make sure that a native breed of cow, called the Highland Cow, make into the movie. The breed can be seen as the large hairy animal with horns in front of a shop in Hogsmeade when Hermoine and Ron are looking for Harry Potter after he leaves the pub.
• The director of the Prisoner of Azkaban, Alfonso Cuaron, requested that the three lead characters, Hermoine, Harry and Ron, each write an essay about their characters in first person to help him get acquainted with them. Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry, wrote a simple one-page summary. Emma Watson, who played Hermoine, wrote a 16 page essay, and Rupert Grint, who played Ron never turned his in. All three were very typical responses from the characters they played.
• The tag line for the Prisoner of Azkaban was “Something Wicked This Way Comes” which is the same tagline that was used in the 1987 movie, The Witches of Eastwick.
• During the breakfast scene in the Great Hall in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, there is a box of cereal called Cherri-Owls and Pixie Puffs. Both are in the same color schemes as Cheerios and Sugar Puffs cereals.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had the biggest first-day gross of a "Harry Potter" movie.
• Dumbledore was featured saying "Don't fight him, Harry, you can't win" through almost every movie trailer and TV commercial for The Order of the Phoenix, but it was not featured in the final version of the movie or the DVD extended scenes.
• The Order of the Phoenix was the longest of the Harry Potter books, but the shortest of the films.

A new box set will be available December 1, 2009 but can be pre-ordered now through Amazon.

• The building featured in Night at the Museum was modeled after the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and was built on a sound stage in Vancouver, Canada. External shots of the actual museum were used in the movie.
• The actual American Museum of Natural History in New York saw a 20% increase in visitors during the holiday season following the movie's opening.
• Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were only present at the same time once during the filming of Night at the Museum. Their parts were filmed months apart.
• The cowboy in the blue shirt, played by stuntman Roger Lewis, actually broke some vertebrae in his neck while filming the scene where Jedediah and Octavius let the air out of the van's tires.
• In the movie, a TV news report mentions cave drawings in the subway and shows a quick shot of the 81st St. subway station in New York. This is the actual subway stop for the American Museum of Natural History.
• Battle of the Smithsonian is the first movie ever filmed in the Smithsonian Institution.
• Ben Stiller’s real mother, Anne Meara, plays the woman in the employment office. I have fond recollections of Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller in many shows in the late 60s.
• The role of Jedediah was originally supposed to only be a cameo role. However, Jedediah, played by Owen Wilson turned out to be an audience favorite, so he was given a bigger role.
• When Larry is speaking to Roosevelt, played by Robin Williams, he makes reference to a genie’s three wishes. You may recall that Robin played a genie in Aladdin.
• When Jedidiah tells Octavius that he won't quit him, they were making a tongue-in-cheek reference to Brokeback Mountain.
• Battle at the Smithsonian is the second movie to feature Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon. The first movie to feature them both was Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 20 years earlier.

• The "mysterious" theme used in the Indiana Jones films is heard several times while Larry is exploring the treasures in crates in the Smithsonian vaults..
• “American Gothic” and “Nighthawks” is at the Art Institute of Chicago. “The Thinker” is at the Musee Rodin in Paris. The “Venus Italica” is at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and Degas ballerina is at the Royal Academy in London. All of these are portrayed as being in the Smithsonian.
• Amelia Earhart was originally set to be played by Reese Witherspoon. In the movie, Amelia says that she became a pilot “for the fun of it”. This is a reference to Amelia’s book of memoirs called “The Fun of It”.
• At the end of the movie, Dick Van Dyke dances with the mop much like his character did in the 1964 movie Mary Poppins.

• Captain Kirk, nor anyone else on Star Trek, ever said “Beam me up, Scotty” although it is widely believed and repeated as though he did.
• Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, is the only actor that appeared in all 80 episodes of the television series.
• Sarek, Spock’s father, played by Mark Lenard, was only six years older than Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock.
• James Doohan, who played Scotty, lost his right middle finger during World War II.   There is one scene in an episode called “Catspaw” where you can see it when he’s holding a phaser on Kirk and Spock.  They generally tried to hide his hand in other scenes.
• In 2000, Star Trek was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of spin-offs.
• Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, always envisioned the Klingons as being more alien looking.  Budget restrictions wouldn’t allow for more elaborate ideas in those early days.  It really wasn’t until the movies that they were finally able to create the look he was after.  In the early days, adding metallic paint to their make-up was about the extent of it.
• Tubes in the hallways of the Enterprise are labeled “GNDN”.  These initials stand for “goes nowhere does nothing".
• In early magazine promotions for Star Trek, Spock’s pointed eyebrows and ears were airbrushed out.  NBC feared that Spock would look too devilish and it would keep people from watching the show.  As it turns out, Spock actually became quite a sex symbol with young female viewers.  This surprised everyone.
• There were at least two times that the set from Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show was used in Star Trek episodes.  In “City on the Edge of Forever” Kirk is walking Edith home and they walk past the courthouse, Floyd’s barbershop, Emmett’s repair shop and the grocery.  It was also used in an episode called “Miri”.
• The uniforms from the TV series had to be dry-cleaned but the velour tended to shrink.  Their costumes were constantly having to be altered which is why they often look short on them.
• Gene Roddenbery had originally intended for Spock’s skin to be red (that really would have made him look devilish!), but the red appeared black on black and white televisions which were still the norm in the 60s, so they dropped that idea. They opted for a faint green color.  This was hand-mixed each time so it always varied.
• The two models of the Enterprise used for the filming were 3 foot long and 11 feet long.  The 11 foot model is on display at the National Air and SpaceMuseum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. 
• The shimmer you see when the transporter beam was activated was actually a film of aluminum powder that is being blown into the air by an industrial fan under a bright spotlight.
• Randy Pausch, from the “Last Lecture” was invited to appear as an extra in one of the Star Trek movies.  He wrote in his blog saying: “I got a custom-made Star Trek uniform and my own station on the bridge, where I had lots of buttons and controls. I even got a line!"
• Both Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and James Doohan, who played Scotty, had arranged to have portions of their remains in vials launched into orbit via satellites.  Their last requests have been honored and fulfilled.
• Majel Barrett, who was Gene Roddenberry’s wife, played the voice of the Enterprise computer in several of the Star Trek movies.  She had just completed her voiceover work just before her death.
• There are 11 Star Trek films. 
• To perfect the Vulcan salute, Zachary Quinto had his fingers glued together.
• According to Leonard Nimoy’s wife, he was completely overwhelmed with emotion when he was called asking him to return as Spock in the latest movie.
• An iconic peak of the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park Area just north of Los Angeles has been used in multiple Star Trek movies and nine episodes of the TV series.
• The sets for Delta Vega, the ice planet and the Romulan drill were located in the Dodge Stadium parking lot in Los Angeles.
• In the original TV series, salt shakers were used for McCoy’s medical scanner and other futuristic equipment.  In the 2009 movie, Chris Pine, as Kirk, can be seen picking up a small starship model off of a table.  You can see the “S” on the dish portion and when he flips it over, salt pours out.
• A slang term used on the set is “a redshirt character”.  This refers to a stock character who will die very soon after being introduced.   You will often see this type of character going with the main characters on some dangerous mission.
• For the 2009 movie, the engine room of the Enterprise was filmed in a Budweiser factory in Van Nuys, California. The engine room of the Kelvin was shot in an old power plant in Long Beach, California.
• Simon Pegg, who played Scotty in the recent film,  didn't audition for the part.  He received an email from J.J. Abrams asking him if he’d like to play the part.  He has said that he would have done it for free, or even paid to be in the movie if he hadn’t been offered the part.
• Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is the first time a movie was made as a sequel to a specific television show episode.  It was a sequel to the 1967 episode called “Star Trek: Space Seed”.
• The Wrath of Kahn is the only Star Trek film that features no appearances by Klingon characters.
• Kirstie Alley made her film debut in The Wrath of Khan.
• All of Khan's men were Chippendale dancers at the time.
• In The Wrath of Khan, Leonard Nimoy now narrated the famous "Space, the final frontier" monologue.  It is the first time it is used since the original TV series.  Some of the words were changed.  Instead of saying, "...its five-year mission..." and "to seek out new life," it now says, "her ongoing mission..." and "to seek out new life forms".
• Richardo Montalban reveals a bare chest in The Wrath of Khan and some speculate if it’s his real chest or not.  It has been confirmed that it was his real chest and that he attributes his fitness in that film from the many many push-ups he does.
• Baby Ceti eels were used in The Wrath of Khan and they were pulled along the actors' cheeks using a piece of string. They were made out of a stretchy rubber, allowing them to seem to crawl along, and covered with raspberry jelly to give them a slimy appearance.   The closeups of the eels entering and exiting Chekov’s ear were done using a huge rubber replica of his ear.  As a joke, the art department created a true-to-scale Q-tip and laid it next to the giant ear.