1.
Angry Birds
–
Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish company Rovio Entertainment. The series focuses on multi-colored birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs, inspired by Crush the Castle, the game has been praised for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. The original Angry Birds has been called one of the most mainstream games out right now, one of the great hits of 2010. An animated feature based on the series was released by Columbia Pictures on 20 May 2016. The first game in the series was released in December 2009 for Apple iOS. The company then released ports of the game for other touchscreen smartphone operating systems, including Android, Symbian and Windows Phone, then video game consoles, mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Mobile, has envisioned a feature film in the stop-motion animation style of Aardman Animation. Hed acknowledges that such a film would be away. Angry Birds Toons, a TV series based on the game, Toons is released through third-party video distribution platforms, including Comcasts Xfinity On-Demand in the US, Samsung Smart TVs, and Roku set-top boxes. It is also available in a number of countries on television broadcasts. Angry Birds Toons is available on devices by an additional Toons channel on all of the Angry Birds apps homescreens. DVD version for the TV series was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the series has a total of 3 seasons. On 11 April 2014, Rovio released Piggy Tales, a stop motion animated series and it tells the stories of the Minion Pigs life. On 1 November 2014, Rovio released Angry Birds Stella, a 2D/3D animated series, telling the stories of Stellas life, real Angry Birds, inspired by the game Angry Birds, premiered on Nat Geo Wild on 12 July 2015. A 3D computer-animated film adaptation, The Angry Birds Movie, was released on 20 May 2016, developed, produced and financed by Rovio Entertainment, it is animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Entertainment under their Columbia Pictures banner. It is directed by animation veterans Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly in their directorial debut, Jon Vitti wrote the films screenplay, and John Cohen and Catherine Winder served as the producers. Rovio also hired David Maisel, former producer of Marvel Studios films such as Iron Man. A sequel is in planning stages, there have been several toys made from Angry Birds characters. The games official website offers plush versions of the birds and pigs for sale, along with T-shirts featuring the games logo, in May 2011, Mattel released an Angry Birds board game, entitled Angry Birds, Knock on Wood
2.
Jason Sudeikis
–
Daniel Jason Sudeikis, better known as Jason Sudeikis, is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and producer. He began his career in improv comedy, in 2003, he was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live and was a cast member from 2005 to 2013. He has appeared on television in 30 Rock, The Cleveland Show, Eastbound & Down, The Last Man on Earth, Son of Zorn, Sudeikis was born Daniel Jason Sudeikis in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D. C. His mother, Kathryn, was formerly an agent at Brennco and was president of the American Society of Travel Agents. His father, Daniel Joseph Sudeikis, is a president of business development. His maternal uncle is actor George Wendt, best known for his role as Norm Peterson on Cheers, Sudeikis is of Lithuanian and Irish descent on his fathers side, and German and Irish ancestry on his mothers. As a child, Sudeikis moved with his family to Overland Park, Kansas and he was born with anosmia, leaving him with no sense of smell and virtually no sense of taste. Sudeikis began performing at ComedySportz in Kansas City, after moving to Chicago, Sudeikis studied at the Annoyance Theatre and ImprovOlympic, where he was one of the founding members of the long-form team J. T. S. He was later cast in The Second Citys National Touring Company, in the early 2000s, he became a founding member of Second City Las Vegas. In 2003, while a performer at Second City Las Vegas, Sudeikis was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live. In May 2005, he became a player on the show. In July 2013, Sudeikis announced that he was leaving Saturday Night Live, in the earlier sketches, Officer Sikorskys last name was Matthews. Dancer on What Up with That, a background dancer often dressed in a red. The Ed Helms/Paul Simon episode reveals that his name is Vance. One half of Bon Jovi opposite band Jon Bovi appearing on Weekend Update with Will Forte DJ Supersoak, emcee for Kickspit Underground Music with Lil Blaster and MC George Castanza. He has appeared in the Underground Rock Minute, the Crunkmas Karnival, the Kickspit Underground Easter Festival, the Columbus Day Assblast, the Devil, who often comes on Weekend Update to point out religious and moral hypocrisy on Earth. Jack Rizzoli, an anchor at WXPD News who always tells veteran reporter Herb Welch to do his job, marshall T. Boudreaux, The host of the courtroom reality show, Maine Justice. Sudeikis had a role on the NBC series 30 Rock with friend Tina Fey in early 2007
3.
Columbia Pictures
–
The studio was founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jacks best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924, and went public two years later and its name is derived from Columbia, a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studios logo. In its early years, it was a player in Hollywood. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbias major contract stars were Jean Arthur, in the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studios premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio, in 1982, the studio was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company, and launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which was sold to Tri-Star, after a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989. It is one of the film studios in the world. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studios early productions were short subjects, Screen Snapshots, the Hall Room Boys. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywoods famously low-rent Gower Street, among Hollywoods elite, the studios small-time reputation led some to joke that CBC stood for Corned Beef and Cabbage. Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and sold his stake to Harry Cohn. In an effort to improve its image, the Cohn brothers renamed the company Columbia Pictures Corporation on January 10,1924, Cohn remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for the next 34 years, the second-longest tenure of any studio chief, even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jacks relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, because it has so many Cohns, Columbias product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was an integrated company. It controlled production and distribution, it did not own any theaters, helping Columbias climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra
4.
Angry Birds (video game)
–
Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized birds, the game was first released for iOS. The series has expanded to include titles for dedicated video game consoles. A sequel, titled Angry Birds 2, was released in July 2015, in the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed in or around various structures with the goal of destroying all the pigs on the playing field. As players advance through the new types of birds become available. Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional content. Angry Birds was praised by critics for its success for leveraging a combination of gameplay, comical style. In Angry Birds, the controls a flock of multi-colored birds that are attempting to retrieve their eggs. In each stage of the gameplay, enemy pigs are sheltered by structures made of materials such as wood, glass. The objective of the game is to all the pigs on the level. The player must set the angle and force of the travel by pulling back on the slingshot. The launch process is quick and casual, with no visible trajectory data, in various stages of the game, additional objects such as TNT crates and rocks are incorporated into the structures, and power-ups may be used to enhance the birds to attack hard-to-reach pigs. There are several different types of birds used in the game, distinguished by their color, in the earliest levels only the basic red bird is available. As the player advances through the additional types of birds become available. Some birds are effective against particular materials, and some have special abilities that may be activated by the player while the bird is airborne, the pigs also vary, with hardiness relative to their size. Small pigs are weaker and are easily vanquished by direct hits or by debris from the damaged structures, in addition, some pigs wear hats or armor, making them even more resistant to damage. Each level starts with the quantity, types, and firing order of birds predetermined, if all of the pigs are eliminated after the last bird is launched, the level is completed and the next level is unlocked. If all of the run out and the pigs are not killed
5.
Josh Gad
–
He has also appeared in ER, The Daily Show, Modern Family, New Girl, Bored to Death, and Numb3rs. Gad played Skip Gilchrist in the political sitcom 1600 Penn on NBC, Josh Gad was born in Hollywood, Florida on February 23,1981. His mother is a realtor and his stepfather is an investment advisor, he has 2 brothers and he was raised Jewish, his father is a Jewish immigrant from Afghanistan and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Gad attended NSU University School, graduating in 1999, while there, he won the National Forensics League National Tournament Championships for Original Oratory in 1998, and for Humorous Interpretation and Original Oratory in 1999. He then attended the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama, during this time, he undertook a semester-long exchange at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Gad portrayed news director Ryan Church on the Fox sitcom Back to You, Gad appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show on May 5,2009, and became a regular correspondent on June 2,2009. His signature segments include The War on Christmas, in which he played an oversexed Benjamin Franklin, in 2008, he played a supporting role in the film 21, and a leading role in The Rocker. In 2010, he had a role in Love & Other Drugs, and he was cast in the American version of the British sitcom No Heroics. In the pilot, Gad played Horse Force, a classmate from Superhero College. The show was not picked up, Gad originated the role of Elder Cunningham in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. His last performance was June 6,2012, the show opened at the Eugene ONeill Theatre on March 24,2011. Gad was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, both lost to Norbert Leo Butz in Catch Me If You Can. In 2011, Gad had an appearance in ABCs hit show, Modern Family. In 2011, Gad voiced Mondo in the MTV animated series Good Vibes and he also made an appearance as Bump in the 2011 comedy road trip film Mardi Gras, Spring Break. In 2012, he voiced the molehog Louis in Ice Age and he also played Bear Claw on an episode of New Girl. In 2012, he starred in the independent romantic comedy She Wants Me, in 2013, he appeared as Skip Gilchrist in NBCs 1600 Penn, of which he is also a co-creator and executive producer. Also in 2013, he played Andrew in the film The Internship, the same year, he voiced Olaf in Frozen, re-collaborating with co-songwriter Robert Lopez from The Book of Mormon. In 2014, Gad co-starred in Zach Braffs film Wish I Was Here, on August 5,2013, it was announced that Gad will play Sam Kinison in a biopic
6.
Angry Birds Space
–
Angry Birds Space is a physics-based puzzle game and the fifth game in the Angry Birds video game series. It is developed and published by Rovio Entertainment, Angry Birds Space was released on March 22,2012. The game was featured in NASA videos and the game features NASA spacecraft that when found unlock unique levels, there is an aiming system that makes it easier to aim the birds. Some pigs are in space bubbles, and when the birds break them, they will freeze, like in Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space features boss fights. In February 2012, Rovio announced a new game in the Angry Birds series to be called Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Space launched on March 22,2012, and features elements from the preceding Angry Birds games as well as new gameplay mechanics. The game initially contained 60 levels with additional levels available as free updates or with in-app purchases, on March 8,2012, new footage of Angry Birds Space, presented by NASA astronaut Donald Pettit on board the International Space Station, was released. Rovio also partnered with Samsung with the Samsung Galaxy Note for the games release, the release included free Danger Zone levels and exclusive level for the Galaxy Note until June 21,2012 for Samsung Galaxy users only when downloaded from the Google Play Store or Samsung Apps. The game features variations of the existing character and one new character that each carry their own unique abilities. As of June 1,2012, Angry Birds Space has been downloaded a total of 100 million times since launching on iOS, Android, PC and Mac. In April 2012, the first update for Angry Birds Space was released and contained Fry Me to the Moon, in May 2012, a further update was released with the first 10 levels of the next episode Utopia. In June 2012 an update for the Android version included Danger Zone, a purchase with 30 challenging levels that had previously been available for iOS. In July 2012, Rovio released an update unlocking the rest of the levels in Utopia, on November 1, Angry Birds Space was updated to complete Red Planet and added one Space Eagle Bonus Level for each episode. These are unlocked by getting 100% on each level using the Space Eagles, on January 10,2013, an update added Pig Dipper, that featured water physics, and includes a boss fight against the King Pigs submarine. On March 7,2013, rock legendary Slash made his own music for the Angry Birds Space theme, on September 13,2013, Rovio released Cosmic Crystals, which adds crystals and breakable crystal planets. On June 5,2014, Rovio added Beak Impact, which adds 40 levels and 10 bonus levels, on January 21,2015, Rovio released Mirror Worlds and Brass Hogs, which adds mirrored levels of every level and 30 levels of Brass Hogs. It also adds 5 levels for trying power-ups and daily missions everyday, in July 2015, Solar System was released in honor of the New Horizons Pluto mission. Mattel have made board games based on the game and these are called Angry Birds In Space and Angry Birds Space, Planet Block Version. Angry Birds Space, Planet Block Version featured pigs with satellite helmets, the game has received generally favorable reviews with a Metacritic score of 83/100 based on 30 reviews
7.
Angry Birds Epic
–
Angry Birds Epic is a free-to-play role-playing video game that is the ninth installment in the Angry Birds series, developed by Chimera Entertainment and published by Rovio Entertainment. The game was announced on March 12,2014 and features turn-based combat, the game was soft launched March 17 on the Australia, New Zealand and Canada App Store, and was released worldwide on June 12,2014. The storyline begins with the player, playing as Red, trying to recover the stolen eggs by the Pigs, as the player progresses, new birds from the Angry Birds universe are added to the roster, including Chuck, Matilda, Bomb and the Blues. Players are limited to choosing three birds from their roster - and sometimes fewer - in the battles against the pigs. Angry Birds Epic is set on Piggy Island, with its characters residing in the existing Angry Birds universe, Pigs and the birds take on various roles in the games cutscenes. Whenever a player selects a level, they can choose up to 3 birds, after selecting the characters and tapping the play button, enemy pigs appear on a landscape. Battles may be normal, involve multiple waves of enemies, or boss fights, to attack, players simply swipe from a bird to a pig. To use a skill, the player taps the bird. If the player swipes a bird into another bird, the skill of the bird will be received by the other bird. Whenever a character gets damage, a Rage Chili indicator fills up at the bottom of the screen, when full, players can swipe it to a bird to use their rage ability, however there are some pigs that can empty the chili by a certain percent. After finishing a battle, the players can earn up to three stars, depending on their performance in that battle, more stars indicates more resources that the players receive as a reward for winning the battle. The golden Lucky Coins, are rare and used to buy certain classes, spin the Golden Pig Machine, hire the Mighty Eagle and they can be earned by defeating a Golden Pig across different levels, leveling up or through in-app purchases. Whenever the character is not in battle, players can equip and craft weapons, off-hand items and these items are obtained by spending an in-game currency called Snoutlings, and include blueprints, abilities and crafting materials. These are earned by defeating pigs, opening Treasure Chests, whenever the player crafts or brews something, their quantity, damage, or health increase are increased by a random number from zero to three. In December 2014, Angry Birds Epic was updated to include a multiplayer mode, the Player Arena has weekly leagues that awards epic items to the top players. There are different tiers and the highest is Diamond tier, the game periodically releases limited time events featuring special characters, game play and rewards. Some events feature characters from other franchises like in September 2015 there was the Sonic Dash event with Sonic the Hedgehog, when the player first starts the event, a short clip is shown. The birds jump through a portal into the Sonic world, where Sonic is captured by Dr. Eggman, after a few levels, Sonic gets rescued by the birds, and you can play as him in the event
8.
Rovio Entertainment
–
Rovio Entertainment Ltd, previously known as Relude and Rovio Mobile, is a Finnish developer, publisher, distributor of video games and is an entertainment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. The company was founded in 2003 as a game development studio named Relude. The company is best known for creating the Angry Birds franchise, a victory with a multiplayer game called King of the Cabbage World led the trio, along with Niklas Heds cousin Mikael Hed, to set up their own company, Relude. King of the Cabbage World was sold to Sumea, and renamed to Mole War, in January 2005, Relude received its first round of investment from a business angel, and the company changed its name to Rovio Mobile. In 2009, Mikael Hed became the CEO, Angry Birds has since been downloaded over 1 billion times, with paid downloads accounting for more than 25% of total downloads, making it one of the top selling games in the Apple App Store. In March 2011, Rovio raised $42 million in capital funding from Accel Partners, Atomico. In July 2011, the changed its name to Rovio Entertainment Ltd. In June 2011, the company hired David Maisel to lead their Angry Bird movie production, by October 2011, Rovio purchased Kombo, a Helsinki-based animation company. The animation studio was acquired to produce a series of videos released in 2012. In March 2012, Rovio acquired Futuremark Game Studios, the development division of benchmarking company Futuremark. In May 2012, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its one billionth download. In July 2012, Rovio announced a partnership with Activision to bring the first three Angry Birds titles to video game consoles and handhelds, in a collection named Angry Birds Trilogy. The title was released in September 2012, in November 2012, Rovio released Angry Birds Star Wars, an iteration of its popular game licensed from the Star Wars original trilogy, for mobile devices and PC. Rovio partnered with Activision again to port the title to video game consoles and handhelds, a sequel, Angry Birds Star Wars II, based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was released in September 2013. In March 2013, Rovio launched its multi-platform ToonsTV channel starting with Angry Birds Toons, as of 2013, Rovio became a video game publisher and is publishing third party games through their Rovio Stars program. In January 2014, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its two billionth download, in addition, it was revealed that their flagship series, Angry Birds, leaked data to third-party companies, possibly to surveillance agencies like the NSA. In retaliation, anti-NSA hackers defaced Rovios website, in May 2014, Rovio launched a new publishing arm, Rovio LVL11, to release experimental games. The first game published under Rovio LVL11 is Retry and the second is Selfie Slam, as of June 2014, Rovio considers themselves an entertainment company, not just a game company
9.
Danny McBride
–
Daniel Richard Danny McBride is an American actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for starring in the HBO comedies Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, both of which he co-created with frequent collaborator Jody Hill. He has also starred in films, such as The Foot Fist Way, Hot Rod, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Land of the Lost, Your Highness, This Is the End. McBride was born in Statesboro, Georgia and his mother, Kathy Rudy, and his stepfather both work at Marine Corps Base Quantico as civilian support. On his fathers side, McBride is of English, Scottish, mcBrides mother is of Jewish descent. His mother performed sermons in church using puppets, and McBride stated that his interest in telling stories comes from her and he was raised in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where he graduated from Courtland High School and attended North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2006, McBride played Fred Simmons in the comedy film The Foot Fist Way. He appeared in character as Simmons to promote the film on Late Night with Conan OBrien on February 26,2008. He wrote and starred in the HBO original comedy series Eastbound & Down, as Kenny Powers, the series was produced by Gary Sanchez Productions, and the pilot episode premiered on February 15,2009 featuring guest appearances from frequent collaborators Will Ferrell and Craig Robinson. On April 8,2009, HBO announced it had renewed the series for a second season, on July 2,2012 HBO renewed the series for a fourth season. The show ended on November 17,2013, in 2010, he signed an endorsement deal with K-Swiss shoes and played the eponymous roadie in the Tenacious D music video for Roadie in 2012. In 2014, McBride and Hill created and began filming the comedy series Vice Principals for HBO, McBride is currently co-writing a script with David Gordon Green for a reboot of Halloween, to be directed by Green and produced by series creator John Carpenter and Jason Blum. McBride married Gia Ruiz in October 2010 and they have a child who was born in 2011, Danny McBride at the Internet Movie Database
10.
Sterling K. Brown
–
Sterling Kelby Brown is an American actor. Brown is also known for his role as Roland Burton on the Lifetime Network drama series Army Wives and he currently stars as Randall Pearson on the critically acclaimed NBC drama, This Is Us. Brown was born in 1976 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Sterling Brown Jr. Brown is one of five children, he has two sisters and two brothers. His father died when Brown was 10 years old, as a child, he was known by his middle name, Kelby, until he was 16 and began going by his first name Sterling to honor his late father. Brown grew up in Olivette, Missouri and attended St. Louis Country Day School, Brown attended Stanford University from which he graduated in 1998 with an acting degree. He initially wanted to work in business but fell in love with acting as a college freshman, Brown then attended New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts where he obtained his MFA. After graduation from college, Brown performed in a series of roles in regional theatre and he has also since appeared in numerous television shows including ER, NYPD Blue, JAG, Boston Legal, Alias, Without A Trace, Supernatural, and Third Watch. He was a regular in the comedy Starved and has appeared in movies, including Stay with Ewan McGregor, Brown Sugar with Taye Diggs and Trust the Man with David Duchovny. He played a character on the television series Supernatural, where he portrayed vampire hunter Gordon Walker. Brown played Dr. Roland Burton on Army Wives and he also portrayed Detective Cal Beecher on Person of Interest. In 2008, he played David Mosley on the Patience episode of Eli Stone, in 2016, Brown starred in the FX miniseries The People v. O. J. In the theater, Brown starred in 2014 as Hero in Suzan-Lori Parks Odyssey-inspired play Father Comes Home From the Wars at New Yorks Public Theater, in June 2007, he married actress Ryan Michelle Bathe, his college sweetheart. Sterling K. Brown at the Internet Movie Database Sterling K. Brown at AllMovie
