1.
Joel Schumacher
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Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing The Incredible Shrinking Woman, St. Elmos Fire, Batman Forever, A Time to Kill, Batman & Robin, Phone Booth, The Phantom of the Opera and The Number 23. Before he launched his career as a director, Schumacher also wrote the adaptation of The Wiz. Schumacher was born in New York City. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, Schumacher studied at Parsons The New School for Design and The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After first working in the industry, he realized his true love was in filmmaking. Schumachers first screenplay was for the musical drama Sparkle in 1976 and he also wrote the screenplays for the 1976 low-budget hit movie Car Wash, 1978s The Wiz — an adaptation of the stage play of the same name — and a number of other minor successes. His film directorial debut was The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981, the Brat Pack films St. Elmos Fire and The Lost Boys were two of Schumachers biggest hits. Their style impressed audiences and their success allowed studios to trust him with ever-larger projects. He states in the commentary for St. Elmos Fire that he resents the Brat Pack label. Schumacher has directed two adaptations of John Grishams novels, The Client and A Time to Kill, Grisham personally requested that Schumacher return to direct A Time to Kill. Schumacher replaced Tim Burton as the director of the Batman film franchise when he directed Batman Forever in 1995, val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton in the title role, despite a lukewarm critical reception, the film scored the highest-grossing opening weekend of 1995. It finished as the second highest-grossing film of the year in North America, after this success, Warner Bros. hired Schumacher to direct a sequel, Batman & Robin, in 1997. The film did not perform as well at the box office as its predecessors, Warner Bros. subsequently put the Batman movie series on hiatus, canceling Schumachers next planned Batman movie, Batman Unchained. On the DVD commentary, Schumacher has admitted that his movie disappointed fans of darker Batman adaptations, saying that the film was made intentionally marketable and kid-friendly. He claims to have been under pressure from the studio to do so, however, he admits full responsibility and, at one point. Schumacher is a devoted Batman fan himself, and has said he would have preferred an adaptation of the comic Batman. After back-to-back Grisham and Batman films, Schumacher decided to reinvent his career with darker, lower-budget fare like 8MM with Nicolas Cage, 8MM was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1999, Schumacher also directed the video for Letting the Cables Sleep by English rock band Bush
2.
John Grisham
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John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide, John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990 and his first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide, a Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing. Grishams first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. Eight of his novels have also been adapted into films, The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury. Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and his father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, DeSoto County, as a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, after leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford. Although Grishams parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and he drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House. Grisham started working for a nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for US$1.00 an hour and he was soon promoted to a fence crew for US$1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job, there was no future in it, at 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he never drew inspiration from that miserable work. Through a contact of his fathers, he managed to work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him serious about college, a fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators and he hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store mens underwear section and he decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys, a confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college, planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by the complexity and lunacy of it
3.
Akiva Goldsman
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Akiva J. Goldsman is an American film and television writer, director, and producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, goldsmans filmography as a screenwriter includes Batman Forever and its sequel Batman & Robin, I Am Legend, Cinderella Man, and numerous rewrites both credited and uncredited. In 2006 Goldsman re-teamed with A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard to adapt Dan Browns novel The Da Vinci Code for Howards film version, receiving mixed reviews for his work. Akiva Goldsman was born on July 7,1962 in New York City, the son of Tev Goldsman, a therapist, and Mira Rothenberg, both of his parents ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children. Goldsmans parents were occupied with their work, and Goldsman said, By the time I was 10 or 12, I wanted nothing more to do with that world. I had a fantasy that someday Id see my name on a book, in 1983, Goldsman attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After graduation, Goldsman studied creative writing at New York University, in 1994, he wrote the screenplay that would become the film Silent Fall. Afterward, director Joel Schumacher hired Goldsman to write The Client, in the late 1990s, Akiva Goldsman wrote screenplays for A Time to Kill and Batman & Robin, which were considered subpar quality and got him nominated for the Golden Raspberry Awards. Goldsman came to the realization, I sort of got lost, I was writing away from what I knew. Its a little like a cat chasing its tail, once you start making movies that are less than satisfying, you start to lose your opportunity to make the satisfying ones. People are not serving them up to you, saying, Youre the guy we want for this, Goldsman appealed to producer Brian Grazer to write the screenplay for A Beautiful Mind and ultimately won an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. The star of A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe, later invited Goldsman and director Ron Howard to film Cinderella Man, Goldsman has a production company at Warner Bros. called Weed Road Pictures. On April 6,2010, it was announced that he produce a PG-13 remake of the Troma cult film The Toxic Avenger. On September 8,2010, it was announced that he would write the first season of the series based on the novels of Stephen Kings The Dark Tower series. The project is currently in development hell and it tells the story of Luttrells Navy SEAL team in 2005 Afghanistan, on a mission to kill a terrorist leader. The movie starred Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Taylor Kitsch, Goldsman made his feature film directing debut with Winters Tale, a film adaption of the Mark Helprin novel. Goldsman worked for seven years on developing the project with Warner Bros, Pictures, finally getting a green light on the script. The principal cast consisted of Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly, Will Smith, the film was released on February 14,2014
4.
A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)
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A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a modest 5 and this made Grisham extremely popular among readers. In 1996, the novel was adapted into a film of the name, starring Matthew McConaughey. In 2011, it was adapted into a stage play of the same name by Rupert Holmes. The stage production opened at the Arena Stage in May 2011, the story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi in the 1980s, a period of time during which racial tension was heavily prevalent in America. This setting is featured in other John Grisham novels. Three of the characters, Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks, Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks also appear in Grishams 2003 novel The Last Juror, which is set in Clanton in the 1970s. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the 2002 Grisham novel, The Summons, a brief reference to the events depicted in the book is also contained in Grishams 1994 novel The Chamber. In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim, the inspiration came from the case of the rape and assault of 12 year old Marcie Scott and her 16 year old sister Julie Scott. Unlike Grishams depiction, however, the Scotts were white and their assailant, according to Grishams official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which explored what would have happened if the girls father had murdered her assailants. He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987, Grisham has also cited Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird as an influence. This book is set in 1984, another stated inspiration was the success of Presumed Innocent. Tonya is later found and rushed to a hospital while Pete, Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya and, while Pete and Billy Ray are being led into holding from their bond hearing, Carl Lee is charged with capital murder. Despite efforts to persuade Carl Lee to retain high-powered attorneys, he elects to be represented by Jake, helping Jake are two loyal friends, disbarred attorney Lucien Wilbanks and sleazy divorce lawyer Harry Rex Vonner. Later, the team is assisted by law student Ellen Roark. Ellen appears to be interested in Jake romantically, but the married Jake resists her overtures, Carl Lee is prosecuted by Ford Countys corrupt district attorney, Rufus Buckley, who hopes that the case will boost his political career. It is claimed that the judge presiding over Carl Lees trial, Billy Rays brother, Freddy, seeks revenge against Carl Lee, enlisting the help of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan and its Grand Dragon, Stump Sisson
5.
Sandra Bullock
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Sandra Annette Bullock is a German-American actress, producer, and philanthropist. Her breakthrough role was in the film Demolition Man and she subsequently starred in several successful films including Speed, While You Were Sleeping, The Net, A Time to Kill, Hope Floats, and Practical Magic. Bullock achieved further success in the decades in Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice, Crash, The Proposal. Bullocks greatest commercial success is the comedy film Minions, which grossed over US$1 billion at the box office. In 2007, she was one of Hollywoods highest-paid actresses and she was also named Most Beautiful Woman by People magazine in 2015. In addition to her career, Bullock is the founder of the production company Fortis Films. She has produced some of the films in which she starred, including Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality 2, Armed and Fabulous and she was an executive producer of the ABC sitcom, George Lopez, and made several appearances during its run. Bullock was born in Arlington, Virginia and her father, John W. Bullock, was a U. S. Army employee and part-time voice coach, her mother, Helga Mathilde Meyer, was an opera singer and voice teacher. Helga was German, while John is from Birmingham, Alabama and has English, French, German, Bullocks maternal grandfather was a German rocket scientist from Nuremberg. John, who was in charge of the U. S. Armys Military Postal Service in Europe, was stationed in Nuremberg when he met Helga. They married in Germany and moved to Arlington, where John worked with the Army Materiel Command before becoming a contractor for The Pentagon, Bullock has a younger sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, who went on to serve as vice president of Bullocks production company Fortis Films. Until the age of 18, Bullock held American-German dual citizenship and she then held only American citizenship until 2009, when she reapplied for German citizenship. Bullock was raised in Germany for 12 years, and grew up speaking German and she attended the humanistic Waldorf School in Nuremberg. As a child, while her mother went on European opera tours, Bullock usually stayed with her aunt Christl and cousin Susanne, Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child and frequently accompanied her mother, taking small parts in her opera productions. She sang in the childrens choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. Bullock has a scar above her eye, caused by falling into a creek when she was a child. She attended Washington-Lee High School, where she was a cheerleader, after graduating in 1982, she attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where she received a BFA in Drama in 1987. While at ECU, she performed in theater productions, including Peter Pan
6.
Samuel L. Jackson
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Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American actor and film producer. With Jacksons permission, his likeness was used for the Ultimate version of the Marvel Comics character Nick Fury. He has also portrayed the character in the second and final episodes of the first season of the TV show Marvels Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D and he is married to LaTanya Richardson, with whom he has a daughter, Zoe. Samuel L. Jackson is ranked as the highest all-time box office star with over $4.9053 billion total box office gross, Jackson was born in Washington, D. C. the son of Elizabeth and Roy Henry Jackson. He grew up as a child in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri, Jackson only met his father twice during his life. Jackson was raised by his mother, who was a worker and later a supplies buyer for a mental institution. According to DNA tests, Jackson partially descends from the Benga people of Gabon, Jackson attended several segregated schools and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. Between the third and twelfth grades, he played the French horn, during childhood, he had a stuttering problem. While he eventually learned to pretend to be people who didnt stutter and use the curse word motherfucker as an affirmation word. Initially intent on pursuing a degree in biology, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. After joining a local acting group to earn points in a class, Jackson found an interest in acting. Before graduating in 1972, he co-founded the Just Us Theatre, after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackson attended the funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers. Jackson then flew to Memphis to join an equal rights protest march, in a Parade interview Jackson revealed, I was angry about the assassination, but I wasnt shocked by it. I knew that change was going to something different – not sit-ins. In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the schools curriculum and governance. The college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, Jackson was then suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions. He would later return to the college to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Drama in 1972, while he was suspended, Jackson was employed as a social worker in Los Angeles
7.
Matthew McConaughey
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Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor. He first gained notice for his role in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused. Matthew McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was born on November 4,1969 in Uvalde, Texas and his mother, Mary Kathleen Kay or KMac, is a former kindergarten teacher and a published author. She was originally from Trenton, New Jersey and his father, James Donald McConaughey, was from Louisiana and ran an oil pipe supply business. He played for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Houston Cougars college football teams, in 1953, Jim McConaughey was drafted in the 27th round by the NFL football team the Green Bay Packers. He was released before the season began and never played a league game in the NFL. Matthews mother and late father married each other three times and his ancestry includes Scottish, English, Irish, Swedish and German. He is a relative of Confederate brigadier general Dandridge McRae, McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas in 1980, where he attended Longview High School. He lived for a year in Warnervale, New South Wales, Australia and he attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He began in the fall of 1989 and graduated in the spring of 1993 with a degree in Radio-Television-Film. His original plan had changed as he wanted to attend Southern Methodist University until a brother told him that private school tuition would have been a burden on the family finances. He also had planned to attend law school graduation from college. McConaughey began working in commercials, including one for the Austin, Texas daily newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman. The line, How else am I gonna keep up with my Horns, – a reference to his beloved Texas Longhorns sports teams – gave the local community a look at the young actor, before he was cast in Richard Linklaters film Dazed and Confused. In 1992, he was cast as Joe in Trisha Yearwoods video for her hit song Walkaway Joe, in the late 1990s, McConaughey was cast in leading roles in more movies, including Contact, Amistad, The Newton Boys, EDtv and U-571. By the early 2000s, he was frequently cast in comedies, including The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. McConaughey starred in the 2005 feature film Sahara, along with Steve Zahn, prior to the release of the film, he promoted it by sailing down the Amazon River and trekking to Mali. That same year, McConaughey was named People magazines Sexiest Man Alive for 2005, in 2006, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch and as Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyal in We Are Marshall
8.
Kevin Spacey
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Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known as Kevin Spacey, is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and singer. He began his career as an actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film. In Broadway theatre, Spacey won a Tony Award for his role in Lost in Yonkers and he was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 until stepping down in mid-2015. Since 2013, Spacey has played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards, Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann, a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant. He has two siblings, a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He has English, Swedish, and Welsh ancestry and his family relocated to Southern California when Spacey was four years old. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School, and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California, where he graduated co-valedictorian of his class in 1977. At Chatsworth, Spacey starred in the senior production of The Sound of Music. He took Spacey as his stage name, several reports have incorrectly suggested that he took his name in tribute to actor Spencer Tracy, combining Tracys first and last names. He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, during this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests. Spaceys first professional appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsens Ghosts, then he portrayed Philinte in Molières The Misanthrope. In 1984, he appeared in a production of David Rabes Hurlyburly, next came Anton Chekhovs The Seagull. In 1986, he appeared in a production of Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre, Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to Spacey. He made his first major appearance in the second-season premiere of Crime Story. Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remained actively involved in the theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Uncle Louie in Neil Simons Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers, Spaceys father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known. Some of Spaceys early roles include a widowed eccentric millionaire on L. A. Law, the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan, opposite Lemmon, and he earned a fan base after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy
9.
Brenda Fricker
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Brenda Fricker is an Irish actress of theatre, film and television. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles, in 1989, she became the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot. As of July 2014, she has retired from acting. Fricker was born in Dublin, Ireland and her mother, Bina, was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond Frederick Fricker, was an officer in the Department of Agriculture and a journalist for The Irish Times. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parents footsteps into journalism, Fricker has a younger brother named Daniel, who both works and lives in the Baltimore, MD area. Before becoming an actress, Fricker was assistant to the art editor of the Irish Times, with hopes to become a reporter. At age 19, she became an actress by chance, her film career began with a small uncredited part in the 1964 film Of Human Bondage. She also appeared in Tolka Row, Irelands first ever soap opera, One of Frickers first TV roles was staff nurse Maloney in Coronation Street, debuting on 10 January 1977. Brendas character attended on the birth of Tracy Barlow on 24 January 1977s episode, Fricker came to wider public attention in the United Kingdom in another nursing role, as Megan Roach in the BBC One television drama series Casualty. In February 1998 she appeared in two episodes, with Megan attending the wedding of her former colleagues Charlie Fairhead and Barbara Baz Samuels, in 2007, she returned for a single episode for Red Nose Day. The episode was written by Richard Curtis, Frickers final appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life. Fricker found international acclaim after she won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Christy Browns mother in My Left Foot. In her acceptance speech, Brenda thanked Christy Brown just for being alive and also dedicated the Oscar to Mrs. Brown, for her performance Brenda was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and she won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress as well. She rejoined My Left Foots writer/director Jim Sheridan to make the 1990 film The Field and she continued her television work during this period, starring in the Australian-produced short series Brides of Christ. She then co-starred in the 1992 TV miniseries Seekers alongside Josette Simon, buoyed by her Oscar win, Fricker went on to appear in several high-profile Hollywood films, most notably in Home Alone 2, Lost in New York as the Central Park Pigeon Lady. The following year she portrayed May Mackenzie in So I Married an Axe Murderer, One of her last Hollywood film roles came with A Time to Kill, as Ethel Twitty, after which she focused almost exclusively on film and television work in Canada and the British Isles. In 2003, she played Bernie Guerin, mother of Veronica Guerin in the film of the same name and she then played nurse Eileen in the film Inside Im Dancing. In 2007, she starred in How About You the film based on a story about people living in a residential nursing home written by Maeve Binchy
