1.
Twister (1989 film)
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Twister is a 1989 American comedy film starring Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dylan McDermott. It was shot in Wichita, Kansas, based on Mary Robisons 1981 novel Oh. The film relates the story of the eccentric Cleveland family during the event of a tornados hitting their rural Kansas home, the head of the family is Eugene Cleveland, who built soda pop and mini-golf empires and lives off the proceeds. His two adult children, Maureen, and Howdy, live with him in his mansion along with Maureens daughter Violet, and Lola, the housekeeper. Maureen is plagued by unwanted visits from her ex, Chris, Howdy is enrolled in a local university and pursues rolling interests in painting, music, and theater, all with an Absurdist slant. He is also trying to convince Stephanie, a young groundskeeper from the University, to marry him. Eugene, exasperated with Howdys high-brow attitude and Maureens sullen listlessness, spends his time drinking and courting Virginia, a local host of a Christian childrens TV program. The group continuously annoy each other, fight, and try to find themselves in a little world where all of the necessities of life are provided. Howdy finds an envelope with their mothers address and he and Maureen take Violet with them in an effort to track her down, the address on the envelope leads them to a farm in which they meet an unnamed character played by William Burroughs. Burroughs tells them he bought the farm from her and met her once when they were in escrow, when the kids ask if they can speak to Jim Burroughs replies Jim got kicked in the head by a horse last year. Went around killing horses for a while, until he ate the insides of a clock and he then indicates that he thinks she moved to Ireland and that becomes the focus of their drive to see her and forgive her. Eugene, frustrated with Virginias condescending attitude toward his family, breaks up with her, during a particularly heated dinner one evening, Eugene overreacts to Howdys insults and explodes, tipping over bowls of gazpacho. Howdy reveals to his father that he and Maureen have actively attempted to find their mother, Eugene informs them that she died in a mental institution and didnt even recognize him toward the end. Maureen and Chris decide to get married and Stephanie goes back to her old boyfriend, meanwhile, Eugene absconds from his immediate family and goes off to destinations unknown with Lola
2.
Twisted (1996 film)
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Twisted is a film written and directed by Seth Michael Donsky. His debut film, it was released in 1997, the film was an official selection and debuted in 1997 at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival, and was also screened as an official selection at the Seattle International Film Festival. Donskys film was made prior to Jacob Tierneys similar film Twist, william Hickey stars as Andre, the lecherous brothel owner that trades in young men. Exploiting his young charges through paternalism and drugs, Andre sets his sights on Lee, through Andre, Lee quickly becomes immersed in New Yorks sleazy underbelly of drug dealers and street hustlers. The boys only hope for survival is the aspiring songwriter Angel, himself a former hustler, Angel befriends Lee and rescues him from the wiles of Andres cohort Fine Art, who attempts to profit on Lees tender age. Eventually, Andres petty empire is vanquished by Shiniqua, a powerfully wise, bundrass, social Worker Simon Brook as Undercover Cop Erik Jensen as Punk Brenda Pressley as Mrs. Burns, Lees foster mother Eugene Byrd as Willus, Mrs
3.
Jan de Bont
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Jan de Bont is a Dutch cinematographer, director and film producer. He is widely known for directing the 1994 action film Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, as a director of photography, he has shot numerous blockbusters and genre films, including Cujo, Flesh and Blood, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October and Basic Instinct. De Bont was born to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands and his earliest work after studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy was with the Dutch avant garde director Adriaan Ditvoorst. He first came to fame in the Netherlands as the cinematographer for the 1973 film Turkish Delight, directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Rutger Hauer, since the early 1980s, he worked frequently in Hollywood, often collaborating with directors including Verhoeven and John McTiernan. While serving as cinematographer for the 1981 film Roar, De Bont experienced one of many injuries during filming. After Roar, De Bont shot the 1983 horror film Cujo, in 1988, he was director of photography on the critically lauded action film Die Hard. The following year, de Bont shot the Ridley Scott-directed action thriller Black Rain, De Bont made his directorial debut with the action thriller Speed in 1994, which was a surprise hit. He followed this up with the more successful Twister in 1996. His output since has had mixed commercial and critical success, in 1997, he returned to direct the sequel Speed 2, Cruise Control, which was a commercial and critical failure. In 1999, he directed The Haunting remake and it was a commercial success, but was heavily panned by critics, receiving five Razzie Award nominations and being widely considered one of the worst remakes in cinema history. He was married to Dutch actress Monique van de Ven from 1973 to 1988, Monique starred in the 1973 film Turkish Delight, for which De Bont did the cinematography. De Bont has two children from his marriage with Trish Reeves, Alexander and Anneke. De Bont began pre-production on an American Godzilla film for a summer 1996 release,1997 Golden Raspberry Awards Jan de Bont at the Internet Movie Database
4.
Ian Bryce
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Ian Bryce is a Welsh film producer. Starting as an assistant on Return of the Jedi, he is now an award-winning film producer. He now lives with his two children, Alex and Mac, and his wife Taylor, Bryce has won and been nominated for many awards, including multiple Golden Globes, Academy Awards and BAFTA nominations for his work as a producer. For Steven Spielbergs World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, he won a Golden Globe Award and nominations from the Academy Awards, the film was one of the top-grossing films of 1998. Almost Famous, another Bryce production, received a BAFTA Best Film award in 2000, Bryce produced all the films of the Transformers series, one of the biggest movie franchises in recent years
5.
Michael Crichton
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John Michael Crichton was an American best-selling author, screenwriter, film director and producer best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films, in 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at No.1 in US television, film, and book sales. His literary works are usually within the genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. John Michael Crichton was born on October 23,1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton. He was raised on Long Island, in Roslyn, New York, Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor who he believed was giving him abnormally low marks, informing another professor of his suspicions, Crichton submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of B− and he received a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965 and was a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965. Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School, when he began publishing work, by this time he had become exceptionally tall, by his own account he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches tall in 1997. In reference to his height, while in school, he began writing novels under the pen names John Lange. He later described his Lange books in the way, My feeling about the Lange books is that my competition is in-flight movies. One can read the books in an hour and a half, I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back. In Travels he recalls overhearing doctors, who were unaware that he was the author, a Case of Need, written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969. He also co-wrote Dealing, or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues with his younger brother Douglas, the back cover of that book carried a picture, taken by their mother, of Michael and Douglas when very young. He graduated from Harvard, obtaining an MD in 1969, and undertook a fellowship study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He never obtained a license to practice medicine, devoting himself to his career instead. Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that too often shunned responsibility for their own health. He experimented with astral projection, aura viewing, and clairvoyance, in 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6.
Kathleen Kennedy (producer)
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Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer. In 1981, she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall and she was a producer on the 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s. Kennedy is third only to Spielberg and Stan Lee in domestic box office receipts, on October 30,2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise, after The Walt Disney Company acquired the company for over $4 billion. Overall, Kennedys work has included over 60 films,120 Academy Award nominations, one of her most recent projects, Lincoln, also produced by Spielberg, was nominated for seven Golden Globes and twelve Academy Awards. Kennedy was born in Berkeley, California, the daughter of Dione Marie Dede, a theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy. Her twin sister, Connie, formerly a location manager in British Columbia, Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding, California, in 1971. She continued her education at San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications, after her employment with KCST, she went on to produce a local talk show entitled Youre On for the station for four years before moving to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Kennedy secured her first film production job working as an assistant to John Milius, during the production of 1941, while working for screenwriter John Milius, Kennedy came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg hired Kennedy as his secretary, but both she and he reported that she was a terrible typist who was kept on only because of her good production ideas. Kennedy was credited as associate to Mr. Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark and she began receiving producer credit with Spielberg on the box-office smash E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which continued on most of his films for the next three decades. Following her work on the Indiana Jones films, she rose to one of Hollywoods leading producers. In 1981 she helped co-found and run the successful production company Amblin Entertainment, with Spielberg. She went on to collaborate with a large and important group of directors, including Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, and Clint Eastwood when they made films for Amblin. Kennedy took over a portion of the running of Amblin and served as president of the Amblin company until 1992. She became a partner with him in The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a Santa-Monica-based film-production company with a deal at DreamWorks. In 2007, she was the first recipient of Women in Films Paltrow Mentorship Award, for showing extraordinary commitment to mentoring and supporting the generation of filmmakers. In 2005 she was a producer on two of Spielbergs films, War of the Worlds and Munich, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. Marshall and Kennedy were producers for the US versions of two Studio Ghibli animated features, Ponyo released in 2009 and The Secret World of Arrietty, in May 2012, she stepped down from Kennedy/Marshall, leaving Marshall as sole principal of their eponymous film company
7.
Helen Hunt
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Helen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Some of her notable films include Twister, Cast Away, What Women Want, Pay It Forward, and The Sessions. She made her debut in 2007 with Then She Found Me. Hunt has also won four Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards. Hunt was born in Culver City, California and her mother, Jane Elizabeth, worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, was a film, voice and stage director and acting coach. Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries, was a voice coach. Hunts paternal grandmother was from a German-Jewish family, while Hunts other grandparents were of English descent, when she was three, Hunts family moved to New York City, where her father directed theatre and Hunt attended plays as a child several times a week. Hunt studied ballet, and briefly attended UCLA, Hunt began working as a child actress in the 1970s. She appeared as a classmate on an episode of The Facts of Life. Hunt also played a woman who, while on PCP, jumps out of a second-story window. That same year, Hunt was cast on the ABC sitcom It Takes Two, for the last year of the show she and Paul Reiser became the first actors ever to be paid $1,000,000 per episode. Hunt directed several episodes of Mad About You, including the series finale and her big-screen directorial debut came with the film Then She Found Me, in which she also starred, with Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. She starred with Bill Paxton in the 1996 disaster action film Twister, after winning the Academy Award, she took time off from movie work to play Viola in Shakespeares Twelfth Night, at Lincoln Center in New York. In 2000, Hunt starred in four films, Dr. T & the Women, with Richard Gere, Pay It Forward, with Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment, What Women Want, with Mel Gibson, and Cast Away, with Tom Hanks. In 2003, she returned to Broadway in Yasmina Rezas Life x 3, in 2006, Hunt appeared in the ensemble cast film Bobby alongside Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone and William H. Macy. In 2011, in the movie Soul Surfer, she played the mother of the Hawaiian-born champion surfer Bethany Hamilton, on whose life the movie was based, in 2012, she starred alongside John Hawkes and William H. Macy in The Sessions as sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene. The movie and her performance were well reviewed and earned her several award nominations. The movie also gained two awards at the Sundance Film Festival and she owns a production company with Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hunt started dating actor Hank Azaria in 1994 and they married in 1999 and she has been partnered with producer/writer/director Matthew Carnahan since 2001
8.
Bill Paxton
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William Bill Paxton was an American actor and film director. The films in which he appeared include The Terminator, Weird Science, Aliens, Predator 2, True Lies, Apollo 13, Twister, Titanic, U-571, Edge of Tomorrow, Paxton also starred in the HBO drama series Big Love. In 2013, he received an Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou and John Lane Paxton. His father was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive and his mother was Roman Catholic, and he and his siblings were raised in her faith. Paxton was in the crowd when President John F. Kennedy emerged from the Hotel Texas on the morning of his assassination on November 22,1963, photographs of an 8-year-old Paxton being lifted above the crowd are on display at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas. On the Marc Maron podcast, Paxton revealed at the age of 13 he contracted rheumatic fever which had damaged his heart, during his teens, Paxton worked as a paper delivery boy with Mike Muir. He directed several films, including the music video for Barnes & Barnes novelty song Fish Heads. He was cast in a video for the 1982 Pat Benatar song Shadows of the Night. In 1982, Paxton and his friend Andrew Todd Rosenthal formed a new wave band called Martini Ranch. The band released its full length album, Holy Cow. The album was produced by Devo member Bob Casale and featured guest appearances by two members of that band. The music video for the bands single Reach was directed by James Cameron, Paxton worked with director James Cameron on True Lies and Titanic, the latter of which was the highest-grossing film of all time at its release. In his other roles, Paxton played Morgan Earp in Tombstone, Fred Haise in Apollo 13, the lead in Twister, Paxton directed the feature films Frailty, in which he starred, and The Greatest Game Ever Played. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic, a film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss, was released in 2003. He also appeared in the video for Limp Bizkits 2003 song Eat You Alive as a sheriff. His highest profile television performances received positive attention, including his lead role in HBOs Big Love. Paxton also received good reviews for his performance in the History Channels miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, alongside co-star Kevin Costner. In 2014, he played the role of the villainous John Garrett in Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. and a supporting role in Edge of Tomorrow
9.
Jami Gertz
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Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz was born in Chicago, Illinois, and lived in the nearby suburb of Glenview. Her parents are Sharyn and Walter Gertz, who was a builder and contractor, Gertz, who is Jewish, was raised in Conservative Judaism. She graduated from Maine East High School and she was discovered in a nationwide talent search by Norman Lear and studied drama at NYU. As a child actor, Gertz was in one episode of Diffrent Strokes along with Andrew Dice Clay and she also had a recurring role on The Facts of Life as Blairs friend and fellow schoolmate Boots St. Clair. Gertz made her debut in the 1981 romance film Endless Love. After its cancellation, she appeared in the teen movie Sixteen Candles in 1984 and she gained more significant attention with a starring role in 1987s Less Than Zero, as the friend of a doomed drug addict played by Robert Downey, Jr. She also starred in the 1987 film The Lost Boys as Star, in the 1994 episode of Seinfeld, The Stall, she appeared as one of Jerrys girlfriends who works as a phone sex operator and cant spare a square of toilet paper to Elaine in the restroom. Gertz later played the recurring character Dr. Nina Pomerantz during the 1997 season of ER and she reportedly was offered, but declined, the role of Rachel Green, during pre-production of Friends. In 2000, Gertz took up a role on the Fox hit Ally McBeal as Kimmy Bishop. Gertz was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and she returned to this role in one more episode as a guest star in the shows final season in 2002. Also in 2002, she portrayed comedian Gilda Radner in the television movie Gilda Radner, gertzs character on Still Standing, Judy Miller, is named after a character Radner portrayed on Saturday Night Live. Still Standing, a sitcom in which Gertz co-starred with Mark Addy. In 2003 Gertz starred as Brandy, a wanted criminals girlfriend, in Undercover Christmas, in 2009–10 she had a recurring role as Marlo Klein, wife of Ari Golds newest business partner Andrew Klein, an agent at Miller-Gold Talent Agency, on HBOs Entourage. In 2011, she returned to broadcast television with a guest role in the Modern Family episode Slow Down Your Neighbors. From 2012 to 2014, Gertz starred in the ABC sitcom The Neighbors where she played the mother of a family that moves into a neighborhood populated by residents from another planet. Gertz and her husband Antony Ressler have three children, Gertz and her husband are members of the investment group led by Mark Attanasio that purchased the MLB franchise Milwaukee Brewers. Gertz-Ressler High Academy, a member of The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, is named for Jami, in 2011, the Giving Back Fund named Gertz and her husband the number-one donor to charity of any celebrity in 2010
10.
Cary Elwes
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Ivan Simon Cary Elwes, known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor and writer. He is best known for his roles in such as The Princess Bride, Glory, Robin Hood, Men in Tights, Days of Thunder, Bram Stokers Dracula. Twister, The Jungle Book, Liar, Liar, and Saw and he has also had recurring roles in series such as The X-Files and Psych, and currently stars in the Crackle series The Art of More. Ivan Simon Cary Elwes was born on 26 October 1962 in Westminster, London and he is the brother of artist Damian Elwes and film producer Cassian Elwes. His stepfather, Elliott Kastner, was an American film producer and his paternal grandfather was painter Simon Elwes, whose own father was the diplomat and tenor Gervase Elwes. His other great-grandfathers include the diplomat Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, Elwes has Croatian Jewish, Irish, Serbian, and Scottish ancestry. His Croatian and Serbian roots come from his grandmother, Daška McLean, whose second husband. One of Elwes ancestors is John Elwes, who is alleged in sources to have been the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Elwes himself played five roles in the 2009 film adaptation of the novel and his paternal relatives include such clerics as Dudley Charles Cary-Elwes, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, Abbott Columba Cary-Elwes, and Father Luke Cary-Elwes. He discussed this in an interview while he was filming the 2005 CBS television film Pope John Paul II, Elwes parents divorced when he was four years old, and in 1975, when Elwes was 13, his father committed suicide. For his education, Elwes attended Harrow School and he then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1981, he moved to the United States to study acting at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, while living there, Elwes studied acting at both the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under the tutelage of Al Pacinos mentor, Charlie Laughton. As a teenager, he worked as a production assistant on the films Absolution, Octopussy, and Superman. When Elwes introduced himself to the actor, Brando insisted on calling him Rocky after Rocky Marciano. He went on to play Guilford Dudley in the British historical drama film Lady Jane and he was then cast as a stable boy turned swashbuckler Westley in Rob Reiners fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride, based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. It was a modest box office success, but received critical acclaim, since being released on home video and television, however, the film has become a cult classic. Initially the studio didnt know how to market, in the end they sold it as a kids movie and it largely had to rely on word of mouth. People tell me they still have their VHS copy that has passed down from one generation to the next
11.
Eddie Van Halen
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Edward Lodewijk Eddie Van Halen is a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and he is considered one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock music. In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, in 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine readers poll for The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is the son of Dutch father, Jan van Halen, a clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, Van Halens middle name, Lodewijk, is after composer Ludwig van Beethoven, Lodewijk being the Dutch equivalent of Ludwig. He continued this tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in February 1962, the Van Halen family moved to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California. Both Eddie and his brother, Alex, are naturalized U. S. citizens. The Van Halen brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six and they commuted from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly man, Stasys Kalvaitis who taught them classical piano. Although they hated the commute, they continued as their mother would discipline them if they refused to go, Van Halen revealed in an interview that he never could read the music. Instead, he learned from watching and listening, during recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would simply wing it. From 1964 through 1967, Edward won first place in the piano competition held at Long Beach City College. Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interpretation of the classical piece. I thought I was playing it correctly, however, according to one interview, playing the piano did not prove to be challenging or interesting to him. Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit, after Eddie heard Alexs performance of The Surfaris drum solo in the song Wipe Out, he decided to switch instruments and began learning how to play the electric guitar. According to Eddie Van Halen, as a teen, he would often practice while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked. Van Halen acknowledged the importance of super group Creams Im So Glad on Goodbye Cream to be mind-blowing and he once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Claptons solos in the band Cream. note for note. Ive always said Eric Clapton was my influence, Van Halen said. Van Halen would later say that this was when he first felt the desire to become a professional musician, in 1972, Van Halen formed another band, originally called Genesis. The name was changed to Mammoth when Van Halen became aware of the English progressive rock band of the same name, Mammoth consisted of Van Halen on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Alex on drums and bass guitarist Mark Stone
12.
Amblin Entertainment
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Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. The companys headquarters are located on the backlot of Universal Studios in Universal City, Amblin is named after Spielbergs first commercially released film, Amblin, a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios, although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot. Its logo features the silhouette of E. T. riding in the basket on Elliotts bicycle flying in front of the moon from the 1982 movie, J. Abrams, The Coen Brothers, and Simon Wells. Most of these directors are close friends of Spielberg, who has a producer or producer credit on many. Amblins most critically acclaimed production is Schindlers List, which was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven, a companion study guide for it, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal. Amblins television series credits include Amazing Stories, Tiny Toon Adventures, seaQuest DSV, Animaniacs, Earth 2, Pinky and the Brain, ER, Freakazoid. Back to the Future, Family Dog, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Fievels American Tails, The Land Before Time and Men in Black, the animated title Fievels American Tails and others were produced by Amblins animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros, dreamWorks has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994. Asterisked films indicate that Steven Spielberg is uncredited or uninvolved, back to the Future, The Ride, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Japan. Also existed at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, gremlins Invasion, a ride at Warner Bros. Jurassic Park, The Ride, a ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Men in Black, Alien Attack, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, a ride in Mickeys Toontown. Twister. Ride it Out, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. E. T. Adventure, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. Also existed at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan, Amblin Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database
13.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
14.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
15.
Epic film
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Epic film is a style of filmmaking with large scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre, like epics in the classical literary sense it is often focused on a heroic character. An epics ambitious nature helps to set it apart from other types of such as the period piece or adventure film. The most common subjects of epic films are royalty, and important figures from various periods in world history, the term epic originally came from the poetic genre exemplified by such works as the Iliad, Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Odyssey. In classical literature, epics are considered works focused on deeds or journeys of heroes upon which the fate of a number of people depend. Similarly, films described as epic typically take a historical character, common subjects of epics are royalty, gladiators, great military leaders, or leading personalities from various periods in world history. Such films usually have a setting, although fantasy or science fiction settings have become common in recent decades. The central conflict of the film is seen as having far-reaching effects. The main characters actions are often central to the resolution of the societal conflict, in its classification of films by genre, the American Film Institute limits the genre to historical films such as Ben-Hur. However, film scholars such as Constantine Santas are willing to extend the label to science-fiction films such as 2001, A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. Stylistically, films classed as epic usually employ spectacular settings and specially designed costumes, often accompanied by a musical score. Epics are usually among the most expensive of films to produce and they often use on-location filming, authentic period costumes, and action scenes on a massive scale. Biographical films may be less lavish versions of this genre, many writers may refer to any film that is long as an epic, making the definition epic a matter of dispute, and raise questions as to whether it is a genre at all. As Roger Ebert put it, in his Great Movies article on Lawrence of Arabia, what you realize watching Lawrence of Arabia is that the word epic refers not to the cost or the elaborate production, but to the size of the ideas and vision. Werner Herzogs Aguirre, The Wrath of God didnt cost as much as the catering in Pearl Harbor, but it is an epic, the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail had the joking tagline Makes Ben Hur look like an epic. This boom period of international co-productions is generally considered to have ended with Cleopatra, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Epic films continue to be produced, although since the development of CGI they typically use computer effects instead of an actual cast of thousands. Since the 1950s, such films have regularly been shot with an aspect ratio for a more immersive. Epic films were recognized in a montage at the 2006 Academy Awards, War epics are generally focused on specific battles in a war, P. O. W camps or the personal consequences of living in an invaded/occupied country
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Storm chasing
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Storm chasing is broadly defined as the pursuit of any severe weather condition, regardless of motive, which can be curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases storms is known as a storm chaser, there are also a smaller number of storm chasers who intercept tropical cyclones and waterspouts. Storm chasing is chiefly a recreational endeavor, with motives usually given toward photographing or videoing the storm, pecuniary interests and competition may also be components, in contrast, camaraderie is common. Although scientific work is cited as a goal, direct participation in such work is almost always impractical except for those collaborating in an organized university or government project. Many chasers also are storm spotters, reporting their observations of weather to relevant authorities. These reports greatly benefit real-time warnings with ground truth information as well as science by increasing the reliability of severe storm databases used in climatology, additionally, many recreational chasers submit photos and videos to researchers as well as to the National Weather Service for spotter training. An increasing number do sell storm videos and pictures and manage to make a profit, a few operate chase tour services, making storm chasing a recently developed niche tourism. Financial returns usually are relatively meager given the expenses with most chasers spending more than they take in, no degree or certification is required to be a storm chaser. Local National Weather Service offices do hold storm spotter training classes, some offices collaborate to produce severe weather workshops oriented toward operational meteorologists. Storm chasers come from a variety of occupational and socioeconomic backgrounds. A fair number are meteorologists but most are not, a large majority of chasers are male and white but a minority are female or of Asian or other descents. The average age is probably around 35 but ages range from teenagers to those in their 70s, a relatively high proportion possess college degrees and a large number live in the central and southern U. S. Many are lovers of nature with interests that also include flora, fauna, volcanoes, aurora, meteors, eclipses, the first recognized storm chaser is David Hoadley, who began chasing North Dakota storms in 1956, systematically using data from area weather offices and airports. He is widely considered the storm chaser and was the founder of Storm Track magazine. Bringing research chasing to the forefront was Neil B. Ward who in the 1950s and 1960s enlisted the help of Oklahoma Highway Patrol to study storms and his work pioneered modern storm spotting and made institutional chasing a reality. In 1972 the University of Oklahoma in cooperation with the National Severe Storms Laboratory began the Tornado Intercept Project and this was the first large scale chase activity sponsored by an institution. The project produced the first legion of veteran storm chasers, with Hoadleys Storm Track magazine bringing the community together in 1977, Storm chasing then reached popular culture in three major spurts, in 1978 with the broadcast of an episode of the television program In Search of. In 1985 with a documentary on the PBS series Nova, further early exposure to storm chasing encouraging some in the weather community resulted from several articles beginning in the late 1970s in Weatherwise magazine
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Tornado
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A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that spins while in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour, are about 250 feet across, the most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour, are more than two miles in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles. Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout and waterspout, waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water and these spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is dissimilar. Tornadoes have been observed and documented on every continent except Antarctica, however, the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes, the Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, an F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes, Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating. The word tornado is a form of the Spanish word tronada. This in turn was taken from the Latin tonare, meaning to thunder and it most likely reached its present form through a combination of the Spanish tronada and tornar, however, this may be a folk etymology. A tornado is also referred to as a twister, and is also sometimes referred to by the old-fashioned colloquial term cyclone. The term cyclone is used as a synonym for tornado in the often-aired 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the term twister is also used in that film, along with being the title of the 1996 tornado-related film Twister. A tornado is a rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud. For a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. Scientists have not yet created a definition of the word, for example. Tornado refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud and this results in the formation of a visible funnel cloud or condensation funnel. There is some disagreement over the definition of cloud and condensation funnel
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Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
