NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American worldwide mass media conglomerate owned by Comcast and headquartered at Rockefeller Plaza's Comcast Building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is one of two successor companies to MCA Inc. the other being Vivendi through its subsidiary Universal Music Group. NBCUniversal is involved in the media and entertainment industry, it has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial and pay television outlets. Via its Universal Parks & Resorts division, NBCUniversal is the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBCUniversal was formed in 2004 with the merger of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi Universal's film and television subsidiary Vivendi Universal Entertainment, after GE had acquired 80% of the subsidiary, giving Vivendi a 20% share of the new company. In 2011, Comcast attained 51% and thereby the control of newly reformed NBCUniversal, by purchasing shares from GE, while GE bought out Vivendi.
Since 2013, the company is wholly owned by Comcast. NBC and Universal Television had a partnership dating back to 1950, when Universal Television's earliest ancestor, Revue Studios, produced a number of shows for NBC; this partnership continued throughout a number of name changes of ownership. NBC Universal Television has its modern roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, including the formation of two NBC-owned cable-television networks: CNBC and America's Talking. NBC had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV. In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a financial news service that delivered live video to personal computers; the following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, MSNBC. A separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing MSNBC.com. In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Co..
The two companies combined their financial news channels outside the US. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, CNBC Africa. In 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, Paxson Communications. In 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, that includes the bilingual Mun2 Television for $1.98 billion. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo. In 2003, amid a major financial crisis caused by over-expansion, Universal Studios' parent company, Vivendi Universal Entertainment, decided to sell an 80% stake to NBC's parent company, General Electric; the sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, 20% owned by Vivendi; the joint venture encompassed Vivendi's US film interests and distribution units, as well as five theme parks, cable television channels including USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, the defunct Trio, Cloo, as well as 50% stakes in Canal+ and StudioCanal.
Universal Music Group is not part of NBC Universal. On August 2, 2004, the television divisions of NBC and Universal Television were combined to form NBC Universal Television. NBC Studios series bought into the company include the NBC dramas Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, American Dreams. Universal Network Television bought the Law & Order franchise and The District—in fact, Universal Network Television had co-produced American Dreams with NBC before the merger. Entertainment shows produced by the new group include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, Saturday Night Live; the formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution and advertisement sales for thirteen channels. NBC Universal Cable manages the company's investments in The Weather Channel and TiVo; the cable division used to operate NBC Weather Plus until 2008. It owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and owned a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012.
In the early 1990s, NBC began its expansion throughout Europe by creating CNBC Europe and its long-time successful NBC Europe Superstation by broadcasting NBC Giga throughout Germany and the rest of the European Union. NBC Europe helped to develop the Leipzig-based Games Convention, the largest European video game exposition with more than 100,000 visitors each year. In 2005, NBC Universal joined HANA, the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance to help establish standards in consumer electronics interoperability; that year, NBC announced a partnership with Apple Computer to offer shows from all the NBC Universal TV networks on Apple's iTunes Store. In January 2006, NBC Universal launched Sleuth; the channel's programming dedicated to mystery/crime genre. Sleuth Network's initial slogan was "Mystery. Crime
Cinépolis
Cinépolis is a Mexican chain of movie theaters. Its name means City of Cinema and its slogan is La Capital del Cine. Cinépolis is the biggest cineplex chain in Mexico with 427 theaters in 97 cities, it is the largest chain in Latin America and the fourth largest in the world, with over 624 theaters, 5000 screens and over 27,177 employees throughout Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, Spain and the United States. Enrique Ramírez Villalón founded the Cine Morelos in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico in 1947. Years the company was rebranded as Cinematográfica Cadena de Oro, S. A. opening theaters in Salamanca, Acámbaro and Guanajuato. By 1971, the brand had expanded to Mexico City with the opening of Cine La Raza. In 1972 Cinemas Gemelos was born and one year the national expansion of Multicinemas began; the company was rebranded in 1994 as Cinépolis with the first multiplex-style theaters in Tijuana. In 1999, Cinépolis VIP was created, it is believed to be the biggest cinema chain in Mexico.
Cinépolis VIP was created in 1999 and is considered one of the pioneers in the development of the Luxury Cinema concept. In 1997, Cineticket was created to give users the option to buy their tickets online instead of waiting to purchase at the venue. Cineticket was the first online theater ticket-selling-system in Mexico. On June 2, 2011, Cinépolis invested $25 million and partnered with the South Korean company CJ Group to open 11 4DX theaters throughout Mexico. 4DX features motion seats, wind effects and air spray, odors with over 100 scents. It first opened at the Plaza Acoxpa mall in Mexico City with the release of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. On July 1, 2012, Cinépolis opened South America's first 4DX theater in Brazil at the JK Iguatemi shopping mall in São Paulo with the release of Prometheus and Ice Age: Continental Drift, it is the launch customer in the Western Hemisphere and is the second largest CJ Group customer with a total of thirteen 4DX theaters throughout Mexico and a total of seventeen 4DX theaters throughout Latin America.
Cinépolis has opened theatres in the capitals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia. Cinépolis failed. So far, 11 theatres have been opened outside Mexico under the Cinépolis brand, with a planned expansion to Peru, with the opening of a fourteen-screen theatre in Lima, a theatre in Cali, Colombia and a third in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Cinépolis has plans to operate 500 screens in India with an investment of ₹ 1,500 crore and has signed deals with 12 developers in eight cities to set up 110 screens in the first phase. There are plans to enter into deals with developers to create 200 more screens across India by 2010. Cinépolis has locations in India at: Bhubaneswar, Thane, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, Hubballi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Guwahati and Lucknow, it is scheduled to open in Chennai, Surat, Kozhikode and Ghaziabad. Cinépolis has opened the largest Cinépolis Megaplex in Seasons Mall, Pune with 15 screens and another Megaplex at Viviana Mall, Thane with 14 screens with IMAX, 4DX, Dolby Atmos.
Cinepolis Kochi operates 3 VIP screens, first of its kind in India. Cinépolis has its sub-brand in India known as Cinemastar, it was opened in December 2010 in Thane. Cinépolis USA, headquartered in Dallas, began operating luxury theaters in the United States in 2011. In November 2018 it revived the classic Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades, California, as a plush five-screen cinema that features a coastal-themed menu at its concession stand, including an extensive wine list. One auditorium of the new Bay Theatre is equipped with an rare 35 mm film projector. In 2003, Organización Ramírez created the Cinépolis Foundation to help underprivileged people get medical care and education, its mission is to contribute to social justice in Mexico through visible health programs. In 2007 the foundation was awarded the International Accomplishment in Exhibition for its work in promoting activism within the Mexican community; the Foundation's program, Del Amor Nace la Vista has been recognised as The Best Practice in Social Responsibility.
They have signed association deals with twelve organizations in Mexico. Within Mexico in March 2015, an article from the Mexican edition of the Forbes magazine revealed that Cinepolis along its rival movie theater chain Cinemex, were fined $7 million pesos each for directly disobeying instructions by the Intituto Nacional Electoral, by showing political propaganda of the Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico, with the political party itself being fined for $35 million pesos. In 2017, the Del Amor Nace La Vista charity foundation of Cinepolis was criticized for leaving 100 mayans indigens blind due to negligencies. Although Cinepolis said it was only two, no negligency was detected within the operations
The Little Colonel (1935 film)
The Little Colonel is a 1935 American comedy drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by William M. Conselman was adapted from the children's novel of the same name by Annie Fellows Johnston published in 1895, it focuses on the reconciliation of an estranged father and daughter in the years following the American Civil War. The film stars Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Venable, John Lodge, Bill Robinson, Hattie McDaniel; the Little Colonel was the first of four cinematic pairings between Temple and Robinson, features the duo's famous staircase dance. The film was well received, and, in 2009, was available on videocassette and DVD in both black-and-white and computer-colorized versions. Shortly after the American Civil War, southern belle Elizabeth Lloyd marries a northerner, Jack Sherman, her father Colonel Lloyd disowns her in retaliation. Elizabeth and Jack move west. Six years Lloyd Sherman is made an honorary colonel in the Army. Elizabeth returns to the south with little Lloyd and settles in a cottage near Colonel Lloyd’s mansion while her husband Jack remains in the west prospecting for gold.
When Colonel Lloyd discovers his daughter living in the neighborhood, he treats her with disdain. Little Lloyd learns of her parents’ past from housekeeper Mom Beck, when she meets her grandfather for the first time, throws mud at him; the two become contentious friends. Elizabeth’s husband returns from the west with a fever, he has lost everything in his prospecting venture, but the family is saved from complete ruin when the Union Pacific Railroad requests right of way across Jack’s western property. Jack's former prospecting partners try to swindle Jack, they resort to holding the Sherman couple hostage until the deed to their valuable property is located. Little Lloyd runs through dark woods for her grandfather but he refuses to help, he changes his mind. They arrive at the cottage just in time to save Jack; the film ends with a brief Technicolor sequence featuring a'pink party' for little Lloyd, her friends, her reconciled family. Shirley Temple as Lloyd Sherman, the daughter of Elizabeth and Jack Sherman, granddaughter to Colonel Lloyd Lionel Barrymore as Colonel Lloyd Evelyn Venable as Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman, Jack Sherman’s wife, little Lloyd’s mother, Colonel Lloyd’s daughter John Lodge as Jack Sherman, Elizabeth’s husband and little Lloyd’s father Sidney Blackmer as Swazey Stephen Chase as Hull William Burress as Dr. Scott Frank Darien as Nebler Bill Robinson as Walker, Colonel Lloyd’s butler Robert Warwick as Colonel Gray Hattie McDaniel as Becky'Mom Beck' Porter, Elizabeth’s housekeeper Geneva Williams as Maria Avonnie Jackson as May Lily, little Lloyd’s friend Nyanza Potts as Henry Clay, little Lloyd’s friend The Little Colonel is best known for the famous staircase dance between Robinson and Temple.
It was the first interracial dance pairing in Hollywood history and was so controversial that it was cut out in the south. The idea was first proposed by Fox head Winfield Sheehan after a discussion with D. W. Griffith. Sheehan set his sights on Robinson, but unsure of his ability as an actor, arranged for a contract that would be voided if Robinson failed the dramatic test. Robinson was brought in to both star with Temple and to teach her tap dancing, they hit it off, as Temple recounted years later: Robinson walked a step ahead of us, but when he noticed me hurrying to catch up, he shortened his stride to accommodate mine. I kept reaching up for his hand. Fannie called his attention to what I was doing, so he stopped short, bent low over me, his eyes wide and rows of brilliant teeth showing in a wide smile; when he took my hand in his, it felt cool. For a few moments, we continued walking in silence. "Can I call you Uncle Billy?" I asked. "Why sure you can," he replied... "But I get to call you darlin′."
It was a deal. From on, whenever we walked together it was hand in hand, I was always his "darlin′." During the filming of the movie, Temple drew the ire of veteran actor Lionel Barrymore when she prompted him for one of his lines after he forgot it, causing him to storm off in a fit of anger. Temple was sent off to apologize to Barrymore but instead of directly apologizing, told him she thought he was the best actor in the world and asked for his autograph, defusing the situation and bringing Barrymore onto the set; this film made brief usage of early Technicolor film, which required heavy usage of red-hued makeup for the actors. It would be the only time. Andre Sennwald in his New York Times review of March 22, 1935 thought the film "ll adrip with magnolia whimsy and vast, unashamed portions of synthetic Dixie atmosphere", he further wrote that the film was "so ruthless in its exploitation of Miss Temple's great talent for infant charm that it succeeds in being properly lively and gay". He finished his review noting the audience applauded for a full eleven seconds after the final fade-out, that the film "ought to bring out the best in every one who sees it."
In 2009, the film was available on videocassette and DVD in both the original black-and-white version and a computer-colorized version of the original. Some versions included other special features. Shirley Temple filmography Lionel Barrymore filmography Footnotes Works cited BibliographyThomson, Rosemarie Garland, ed. Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary B
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black was an American actress, dancer and diplomat, Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1935 to 1938. As an adult, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia, served as Chief of Protocol of the United States. Temple began her film career at the age of three in 1932. Two years she achieved international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed for her talents, she received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer in motion pictures during 1934. Film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Temple capitalized on licensed merchandise, her box-office popularity waned. She appeared in 14 films from the ages of 14 to 21. Temple retired from film in 1950 at the age of 22. In 1958, Temple returned to show business with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations, she made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot, never released.
She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, the National Wildlife Federation. She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U. S Mission under Ambassador Charles W. Yost. In 1988, she published Child Star. Temple was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, she is 18th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female American screen legends of Classic Hollywood cinema. Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, the third child of homemaker Gertrude Amelia Temple and bank employee George Francis Temple; the family was of Dutch and German ancestry. She had two brothers: John Stanley, George Francis, Jr; the family moved to Los Angeles. Her mother encouraged her singing and acting talents, in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles.
At about this time, Shirley's mother began styling her daughter's hair in ringlets. While at the dance school, she was spotted by Charles Lamont, a casting director for Educational Pictures. Temple hid behind the piano. Lamont took a liking to Temple, invited her to audition. Educational Pictures was going to launch its Baby Burlesks, multiple short films satirizing recent film and political events by using preschool children in every role. Baby Burlesks is a series of one-reelers, another series of two-reelers called Frolics of Youth followed with Temple playing Mary Lou Rogers, a youngster in a contemporary suburban family. To underwrite production costs at Educational Pictures and her child co-stars modeled for breakfast cereals and other products, she was lent to Tower Productions for a small role in her first feature film in 1932 and, in 1933, to Universal and Warner Bros. Pictures for various parts. After Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy in 1933, her father managed to purchase her contract for just $25.
Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney was walking out of the viewing of Temple's last Frolics of Youth picture when he saw her dancing in the movie theater lobby. Recognizing her from the screen, he arranged for her to have a screen test for the movie Stand Up and Cheer! Temple arrived for the audition on December 7, 1933; the role was a breakthrough performance for Temple. Her charm was evident to Fox executives, she was ushered into corporate offices immediately after finishing Baby Take a Bow, a song-and-dance number she did with James Dunn. On December 21, 1933, her contract was extended to a year at the same $150/week with a seven-year option and her mother Gertrude was hired on at $25/week as her hairdresser and personal coach. Released in May 1934, Stand Up and Cheer! became Shirley's breakthrough film. Within months, she became the symbol of wholesome family entertainment. In June, her success continued. After the success of her first three movies, Shirley's parents realized that their daughter was not being paid enough money.
Her image began to appear on numerous commercial products without her legal authorization and without compensation. To get control over the corporate unlicensed use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired lawyer Loyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, the contractual salary was raised to $1,000 a week and her mother's salary was raised to $250 a week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie finished. Temple's original contract for $150 per week is equivalent to $2,750 in 2015, adjusted for inflation. However, the economic value of $150 during the Great Depression was equal to $18,500; the subsequent salary increase to $1,000 weekly had the economic value of $123,000 and the bonus of $15,000 per movie was equivalent to $1.85 million in a decade when a quarter could buy a meal. Cease and desist letters were sent out to many companies and the process was begun for awarding corporate licenses. On December 28, 1934, Bright Eyes was released; the movie was the first feature film crafted for Temple's talents and the first where her name appeared eponymously over the ti
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Hanks is known for his comedic and dramatic roles in such films as Splash, Turner & Hooch, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, You've Got Mail, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Cloud Atlas, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, Sully, he has starred in the Robert Langdon film series, voices Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story film series. He is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks has collaborated with film director Steven Spielberg on five films to date: Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, The Post, as well as the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers, which launched Hanks as a successful director and screenwriter. In 2010, Spielberg and Hanks were executive producers on the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Hanks' films have grossed more than $4.6 billion at U. S. and Canadian box offices and more than $9.2 billion worldwide, making him the fourth highest-grossing actor in North America.
Hanks has been nominated for numerous awards during his career. He won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia, as well as a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a People's Choice Award for Best Actor for Forrest Gump. In 1995, Hanks became one of only two actors who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in consecutive years, with Spencer Tracy being the other. In 2004, he received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received a Kennedy Center Honor, in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, as well as the French Legion of Honor. Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn and itinerant cook Amos Mefford Hanks, his mother was of Portuguese descent. His parents divorced in 1960, their three oldest children, Sandra and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California.
In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often. While Hanks' family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, he has characterized his teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years. In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike telling Rolling Stone magazine, "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully shy. At the same time, I was the guy, but I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible." In 1965, his father married a San Francisco native of Chinese descent. Frances had three children. Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward and transferred to California State University, two years later. During a 2001 interview with Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy, he replied. He told New York magazine in 1986, "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant.
I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams and all that."During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival, his internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain. Time magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts." In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher film He Knows You're Alone and landed a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters.
Early that year, he was cast in the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies, he and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel. Hanks had partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. Bosom Buddies ran for two seasons, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "The first day I saw him on the set," co-producer Ian Praiser told Rolling Stone, "I thought,'Too bad he won't be in tel
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company; the studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in California; the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in October 2012 for $2.2 billion in cash and $1.855 billion in stock. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12, 1977. In 2005, Lucasfilm opened a studio in Singapore. On July 8, 2012, Lucasfilm's marketing and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco, it shares the complex with Industrial Magic. Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors.
However, it still plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch. In January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. In June 2012, it was announced that producer Kathleen Kennedy, a long-term collaborator with Steven Spielberg and a producer of the Indiana Jones films, had been appointed as co-chair of Lucasfilm Ltd, it was reported that Kennedy would work alongside Lucas, who would remain chief executive and serve as co-chairman for at least one year, after which she would succeed him as the company's chairperson, which she did in June 2013. On September 5, 2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy. Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives.
Discussions relating to the possibility of The Walt Disney Company signing a distribution deal with Lucasfilm began in May 2011, after a meeting that George Lucas had with Disney CEO Bob Iger during the inauguration of the Star Tours – The Adventures Continue attraction. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, as well as the Star Wars franchise. On October 30, 2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Lucasfilm had collaborated with the company's Walt Disney Imagineering division to create theme park attractions centered on Star Wars and Indiana Jones for various Walt Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney's global lines of business to build, further integrate, maximize the value of this global franchise.
Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas announced as serving as creative consultant. The company announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in 2015. Under the deal, Disney acquired ownership of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lucasfilm's operating businesses in live-action film production, consumer products, video games, visual effects, audio post-production. Disney acquired Lucasfilm's portfolio of entertainment technologies; the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014. Starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney name, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4, 2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, allowing the acquisition to be finalized without dealing with antitrust problems. On December 18, 2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. converted from a corporation to a limited liability company, changing its name to Lucasfilm Ltd.
LLC in the process. On December 21, 2012, Disney completed the acquisition and Lucasfilm became a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. Iger confirmed that Lucasfilm had plans to have standalone Star Wars films released sometime during the six-year period the sequel trilogy is being released, with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg each developing a title. In April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a skeleton staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6, 2013, Disney announced an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market. LucasArts retained the ability to license, Disney Interactive Studios retained the ability to develop, Star Wars games for the casual gaming market.20th Century Fox, the original distributor of the first six Star Wars films, retained the physical and theatrical distribution rights to the original two Star Wars trilogies and permanent full distribution rights for the original 1977 film, until May 2020 according to the 2012 Lucasfilm acquisition deal.
On March 20, 2019, Disney acquired the studio after acquiring it's owner, 21st Century Fox, thus combining all these rights under its umbrella. Lucasfilm retains the television and digital distribution rights to Star Wars Ep
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, was inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel". A novel called 2001: A Space Odyssey, written concurrently with the screenplay, was published soon after the film was released; the film, which follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer HAL after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution, deals with themes of existentialism, human evolution, artificial intelligence, the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The film is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of spaceflight, pioneering special effects, ambiguous imagery. Sound and dialogue are used sparingly and in place of traditional cinematic and narrative techniques; the soundtrack incorporates a number of pieces of classical music, among them Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II, works by Aram Khachaturian and György Ligeti.
2001: A Space Odyssey was financed and distributed by American studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but filmed and edited entirely in England, where Kubrick lived, using the facilities of MGM-British Studios and Shepperton Studios. MGM subcontracted the film to Kubrick's production company in order to qualify for the Eady Levy, a UK tax on box-office receipts used to fund the production of films in Britain at the time; the film received mixed reactions from critics and audiences upon its release, but garnered a cult following and became the highest-grossing North American film of 1968. It was nominated for four Academy Awards. A sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, directed by Peter Hyams, was released in 1984. 2001: A Space Odyssey is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films made. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Sight & Sound magazine ranked 2001: A Space Odyssey sixth in the top ten films of all time in its 2002 and 2012 critics' polls editions.
In 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal. In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of hominids is driven away from its water hole by a rival tribe, they awaken to find a featureless black monolith. Influenced by the monolith, they discover how to use a bone as a weapon and drive their rivals away from the water hole. Millions of years a Pan Am spaceplane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd to the huge Space Station V orbiting Earth for a layover on his trip to Clavius Base, a United States outpost on the Moon. After Floyd has a videophone call with his daughter, he deflects questions from his Soviet scientist friend and her colleague about rumors of a mysterious epidemic at Clavius. Floyd speaks to a meeting of Clavius personnel, apologizing for the epidemic cover story but stressing secrecy, his mission is to investigate a found artifact buried four million years ago near the crater Tycho. Floyd and others ride in a Moonbus to the artifact, a monolith identical to the one encountered by the ape-men.
Sunlight strikes a loud high-pitched radio signal is heard. Eighteen months the United States spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. On board are mission pilots and scientists Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, along with three other scientists in suspended animation. Most of Discovery's operations are controlled by the ship's computer, a HAL 9000 with a human personality that the crew calls "Hal". Hal says he is "foolproof and incapable of error". Hal raises concerns about the nature of the mission to Bowman, but their conversation is interrupted when Hal reports the imminent failure of an antenna control device; the astronauts find nothing wrong. Hal suggests letting it fail so the problem can be found. Mission Control advises the astronauts that results from their twin HAL 9000 indicate that Hal is in error about the device's imminent failure. Hal says. Concerned about Hal's behavior and Poole enter an EVA pod to talk without Hal overhearing, agree to disconnect Hal if he is proven wrong.
Hal secretly follows their conversation by lip reading. While Poole is on a space walk outside his EVA pod attempting to replace the unit, Hal takes control of the pod, severs his oxygen hose and sets him adrift. Bowman takes another pod to rescue Poole. Meanwhile, Hal turns off the life support functions of the crewmen in suspended animation; when Bowman returns to the ship with Poole's body, Hal refuses to let him in, stating that the astronauts' plan to deactivate him jeopardizes the mission. Bowman opens the ship's emergency airlock manually, enters the ship, proceeds to Hal's processor core. Hal tries to reassure Bowman pleads with him to stop, expresses fear; as Bowman deactivates the circuits controlling Hal's higher intellectual functions, Hal regresses to his earliest programmed memory, the song "Daisy Bell", which he sings for Bowman. When Bowman disconnects Hal, a prerecorded video message from Floyd plays, revealing that the mission's true objective is to investigate a radio signal, sent from a lunar artifact to Jupiter.
Only Hal and the hibernating crew had been told this. At Jupiter, Bowman leaves Discovery One in an EVA pod to investigate another monolith orbiting the planet; the pod is pulled into a vortex of colored light, the Star Gate, Bowman races across vas
