1.
Oliver Stone
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William Oliver Stone is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of Midnight Express and he also wrote the acclaimed gangster movie Scarface. As a director, Stone achieved prominence as director/writer of the war drama Platoon, for which Stone won the Academy Award for Best Director, Platoon was the first in a trilogy of films based on the Vietnam War, in which Stone served as an infantry soldier. He continued the series with Born on the Fourth of July —for which Stone won his second Best Director Oscar—and Heaven & Earth. Many of Stones films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century and they often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as evidenced in JFK, Natural Born Killers, and Nixon. Stone was born September 15,1946, in New York City, the son of Jacqueline and Louis Stone and he grew up in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. His parents met during World War II, when his father was fighting as a part of the Allied force in France and his American-born father was a non-practicing Jew, and his French-born mother was a non-practicing Roman Catholic. Stone was raised in the Episcopal Church, and now practices Buddhism, Stone attended Trinity School in New York City before his parents sent him away to The Hill School, a college-preparatory school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. His parents were divorced abruptly while he was away at school, Stones mother was often absent and his father made a big impact on his life, father-son relationships were to feature heavily in Stones films. He often spent parts of his vacations with his maternal grandparents in France. Stone also worked at 17 in the Paris mercantile exchange in sugar, Stone graduated from The Hill School in 1964. Stone was admitted into Yale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18 to teach school students English for six months in Saigon at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam. Afterwards, he worked as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship in 1966 and he returned to Yale, where he dropped out a second time. In April 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army, from September 16,1967 to April 1968, he served in Vietnam with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Division and was twice wounded in action. He was then transferred to the First Cavalry Division participating in long range patrols before being transferred again to drive for an infantry unit of the division until November 1968. Stone graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film in 1971, Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film Last Year in Viet Nam. In 1979, Stone won his first Academy Award, after adapting true-life prison story Midnight Express into a hit film for British director Alan Parker. Stones screenplay for Midnight Express was criticized by some for its inaccuracies in portraying the events described in the book, the original author, Billy Hayes, around whom the film is set, spoke out against the film, protesting that he had many Turkish friends while in jail
2.
John Ridley
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John Ridley IV is an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed anthology series American Crime. He has two sisters and is the middle sibling, Ridley graduated from Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin in 1982. He enrolled in Indiana University but transferred to New York University, following college, Ridley performed standup comedy in New York City, with appearances on a David Letterman late-night talk show and The Tonight Show. Moving to Los Angeles in 1990, he began writing for television sitcoms as Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Ridley went on to write the novels Love Is a Racket and his novel Spoils of War was adapted into the 1999 David O. Russell-directed Three Kings. His other novels are The Drift, Those Who Walk in Darkness and he also wrote the graphic novel The American Way. His work as screenwriter also includes 12 Years a Slave, Red Tails and his script for 12 Years a Slave won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making Ridley the second African-American to win the award after Geoffrey S. Fletcher. As of April 2015, he was developing an ABC television series involving an existing Marvel Comics character, Love Is a Racket, A Novel. New York, Alfred A. Knopf,1999, a Conversation with the Mann, A Novel. ISBN 978-0-446-53093-4 Ridley, John, and Patricia R. Floyd, Prince Frederick, MD, Recorded Books,2011,2007. ISBN 978-1-456-10151-0 Ridley, John, and Ben Oliver, the Authority, Human on the Inside. La Jolla, CA, WildStorm Productions,2004, Ridley, John, Georges Jeanty, and Karl C. La Jolla, Calif, WildStorm/DC Comics,2007, the Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Nigger. Esquire, December 2006, Volume 146, Issue 6, Ridley is married to wife Gayle, a former script supervisor. Gennusa, Chris R. John Ridley, Burnt Noir. Winter 1997, v.4 n.4, pp. 33–38 Archived pages of official site, December 1,2006 – March 1,2007, January 8 – April 12,2007. John Ridley at the Internet Movie Database
3.
Sean Penn
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Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, filmmaker, and political activist. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River and the biopic Milk, Penn began his acting career in television with a brief appearance in episode 112 of Little House on the Prairie, directed by his father Leo Penn. He became known as a prominent leading actor with the drama Dead Man Walking, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination, Penn made his feature film directorial debut with The Indian Runner, followed by the drama film The Crossing Guard and the mystery film The Pledge. Penn directed one of the 11 segments of 110901 September 11 and his fourth feature film, the biographical drama survival movie Into the Wild, garnered critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations. In January 2016, Penn published an interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán in Rolling Stone, Penn was born in Los Angeles County, California, to actor and director Leo Penn, and actress Eileen Ryan. His older brother is musician Michael Penn and his younger brother, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006. His paternal grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish emigrants from Lithuania and Russia, while his mother is a Catholic of Irish, Penn was raised in a secular home and attended Santa Monica High School. He began making films with some of his childhood friends, including actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen. Penn appeared in a 1974 episode of the Little House on the Prairie television series as an extra when his father, Leo, Penn launched his film career with the action-drama Taps, where he played a military high school cadet. A year later, he appeared in the hit comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in the role of surfer-stoner Jeff Spicoli, next, Penn appeared as Mick OBrien, a troubled youth, in the drama Bad Boys. The role earned Penn favorable reviews and jump-started his career as a serious actor, Penn played Andrew Daulton Lee in the film The Falcon and the Snowman, which closely followed an actual criminal case. Lee was a drug dealer by trade, convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and originally sentenced to life in prison. Penn starred in the drama At Close Range which received critical acclaim and he stopped acting for a few years in the early 1990s, having been dissatisfied with the industry, and focused on making his directing debut. The Academy Awards first recognized his work in nominating him for playing a racist murderer on death row in the drama film Dead Man Walking and he was nominated again for his comedic performance as an egotistical jazz guitarist in the film Sweet and Lowdown. He received his nomination after portraying a mentally handicapped father in I am Sam. Penn finally won for his role in the Boston crime-drama Mystic River, in 2004, Penn played Samuel Bicke, a character based on Samuel Byck, who in 1974 attempted and failed to assassinate President Richard Nixon, in The Assassination of Richard Nixon. The same year, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, next, Penn portrayed governor Willie Stark in an adaptation of Robert Penn Warrens classic 1946 American novel All the Kings Men. The film was a critical and commercial failure, named by a 2010 Forbes article as the biggest flop in the last five years, the film also earned Penn his fifth nomination and second win for the Academy Award for Best Actor
4.
Jennifer Lopez
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Jennifer Lynn Lopez, also known as JLo, is an American singer, actress, dancer, fashion designer, author, and producer. Lopez gained her first high-profile job as a Fly Girl dancer on In Living Color in 1991 and she received her first leading role in the Selena biopic of the same name in 1997, a portrayal that earned her a Golden Globe nomination. For her role in Out of Sight the following year, Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn over US$1 million for a film. She ventured into the industry in 1999 with her debut studio album On the 6. With the simultaneous release of her studio album J. Lo and her film The Wedding Planner in 2001, Lopez became the first woman to have a number one album. Her 2002 remix album, J to tha L–O, the Remixes, became the first in history to debut at number one on the U. S. Billboard 200. Following her second divorce, Lopez had a relationship with Ben Affleck. Then, while also overshadowing the release of Gigli, a critical and commercial failure and she subsequently married longtime friend Marc Anthony, and rebounded with the box office successes Shall We Dance. and Monster-in-Law. Her fifth studio album, Como Ama una Mujer, received the highest first-week sales for a debut Spanish album in the United States, in 2016, she began starring as Harlee Santos in the crime drama series Shades of Blue. Time listed her as one of the 25 most influential Hispanic Americans, for her contributions to the arts, Lopez has received a landmark star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Billboard Icon Award, among other honors. Beyond entertainment, she enjoys a successful business career consisting of various clothing lines, accessories, fragrances, a company. Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24,1969, in the Castle Hill neighborhood of The Bronx, New York, to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez and she has an older sister, Leslie, and a younger sister, Lynda, a journalist. David worked the night shift at the Guardian Insurance Company before becoming a technician at the firm. When Lopez was born, the family was living in a small apartment, a few years later, her parents had saved up enough money to be able to purchase a two-story house, which was considered a big deal for the relatively poor family. At the age of five, Lopez began taking singing and dancing lessons and she toured New York with her school when she was seven years old. Her parents stressed the importance of work ethic and being able to speak English and they encouraged their three daughters to put on performances at home—singing and dancing in front of each other and their friends so that they would stay out of trouble. Lopez spent her academic career in Catholic schools, finishing at Preston High School. In school, Lopez did gymnastics, ran track on a national level and she excelled athletically rather than academically, competing in national track championships
5.
Nick Nolte
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Nicholas King Nick Nolte is an American actor and former model. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and he went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Affliction and Warrior. His other film appearances include The Deep,48 Hrs, down and Out in Beverly Hills, Another 48 Hrs. Everybody Wins, Cape Fear, Lorenzos Oil, The Thin Red Line, Hulk, The Good Thief, Hotel Rwanda, Tropic Thunder, A Walk in the Woods and The Ridiculous 6. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in the TV series Graves, Nolte was born February 8,1941 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Franklin Arthur Nolte, was a son who ran away from home. His mother, Helen, was a department store buyer and his ancestry includes German, English, Scots-Irish, Scottish and Swiss-German. Noltes maternal grandfather, Matthew Leander King, invented the hollow-tile silo and was prominent in early aviation and his maternal grandmother ran the student union at Iowa State University. He has a sister, Nancy, who was an executive for the Red Cross. Nolte attended Kingsley Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa and he studied at Westside High School in Omaha, where he was the kicker on the football team. He also attended Benson High, but was expelled for fighting and hiding beer before practice, at Eastern Arizona, Nolte lettered in football as a tight end and defensive end in basketball with forward, and as a catcher on the baseball team. Poor grades eventually ended his studies, at which point his career in began in earnest. While in college, Nolte worked for the Falstaff Brewery in Omaha, Nolte was a model in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1992, Nolte was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, Nolte first starred in the television miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man, based on Irwin Shaws 1970 best-selling novel. Later he appeared in forty films, playing a wide variety of characters. Diversity of character, and his athleticism, and gravelly voice are signatures of his career. In 1973, he guest-starred in the Griff episode, Who Framed Billy the Kid. as Billy Randolph, a football player accused of murder. He co-starred with Andy Griffith in Winter Kill, a film made as the pilot of a possible television series, and another one, Adams of Eagle Lake
6.
Powers Boothe
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Powers Allen Boothe is an American television and film actor. Boothe, the youngest of three boys, was born on a farm in Snyder, the seat of Scurry County, Texas, to Emily Kathryn and Merrill Vestal Boothe, a rancher. He has been married to his college sweetheart Pam since 1969 and his New York stage debut was in the 1974 Lincoln Center production of Richard III. Five years later, his Broadway theater debut came in a role in the one-act play Lone Star. Boothe first came to attention in 1980, playing Jim Jones in the CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy. Boothes portrayal of the cult leader received critical acclaim. In Times story on the production, Boothe was praised, There is one extraordinary performance, a young actor named Powers Boothe captures all the charisma and evil of Dad, Jim Jones. Boothe won the Emmy Award for his role, beating out veterans Henry Fonda, Powers Boothe made an appearance during the 1987 Celebrity Golf Challenge for Charity where he made the current long drive record for celebrities of 490 yards. For these efforts, Boothe was awarded the Golden Pumpkin, but, because of scheduling conflicts, Boothe joined the ranks of Humphrey Bogart and other actors when he portrayed Philip Marlowe in a series of short films for HBO in the 1980s. He appeared in films as Southern Comfort, A Breed Apart, Red Dawn, The Emerald Forest and Extreme Prejudice, as well as the HBO films Into the Homeland. Additionally, he appeared in the 1990 CBS-TV film Family of Spies, Boothe portrayed Curly Bill Brocius in the hit 1993 Western Tombstone, the disloyal senior Army officer in Blue Sky, and the sinister lead terrorist in Sudden Death. He was also part of the ensemble casts for Oliver Stones Nixon. In 2001, he starred as Flavius Aëtius, the Roman general in charge of stopping the Hun invasion in the made-for-TV miniseries Attila. Boothe played a role as brothel-owner Cy Tolliver on the HBO series Deadwood. He is the voice of one of the characters in the 2005 video game Area 51 and of Gorilla Grodd and he voiced the villain, Kane, in the 2008 video game Turok. He was a special guest star on 24, where he played Vice President Noah Daniels and he returned in the prequel to the seventh season,24, Redemption. Just after taking the role as acting President, Boothe is seen exiting Air Force Two with F-15s in the background, Boothe played a downed F-15 pilot in Red Dawn. In March 2008, he narrated a television ad for Senator John McCains presidential campaign
7.
Claire Danes
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Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Danes gained recognition with her role as Angela Chase in the acclaimed 1994 teen drama series My So-Called Life. The role won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and she made her film debut the same year in Little Women. From 1998 to 2000, Danes attended Yale University before dropping out to return to acting and she appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in 2000, and made her Broadway debut playing Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 revival of Pygmalion. She is married to actor Hugh Dancy, with whom she has one child, Danes was born in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of a sculptor and printmaking artist, Carla Danes, and a photographer, Christopher Danes. She has a brother, Asa, who is a lawyer. Danes parents met when they were studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, during Danes childhood her father worked as a general contractor for 20 years, working on residential buildings in a company he ran called Overall Construction in New York. He also worked as a photographer and computer consultant and he is the son of Gibson Andrew Danes, a former dean of the Yale School of Art and Architecture from 1958 to 1968. Danes is named after her grandmother, Claire Danes, who died in 1953. The family lived in a loft on Crosby Street. 3 and PS11 for elementary school and Professional Performing Arts School for junior high school, Danes attended the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies in New York City. She attended The Dalton School for one year of school before moving with her parents to Santa Monica. Danes said they moved two days after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Danes graduated from the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in 1997. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University, director Oliver Stone wrote a letter of recommendation. After studying for two years as a major, she dropped out to focus on her film career. Danes started studying dance when she was six years old, Danes took dance classes from Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop and acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute at the age of ten. She appeared in theater and video productions in New York City, although she continued to dance, Danes said that her focus shifted to acting by the time she was nine years old
8.
Joaquin Phoenix
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Joaquín Rafael Phoenix, known formerly as Leaf Phoenix, is a Puerto Rican–born American actor, producer, music video director, musician and activist. For his work as an artist, Phoenix has received a Grammy Award, Phoenix started acting in television shows with his brother River Phoenix and sister Summer Phoenix. His first major release was in the comedy-drama film Parenthood. During his period as an actor he was credited as Leaf Phoenix. He received international attention for his portrayal of Commodus in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, to this date, he and River Phoenix hold the distinction of being the first and only brothers to be nominated for acting Academy Awards. Aside from his career, he has also ventured into directing music videos, as well as producing films. He has recorded an album, the soundtrack to Walk The Line, Phoenix is a social activist, lending his support to a number of charities and humanitarian organizations. He is also known for his animal rights advocacy. He has been a vegan since the age of three, and actively campaigns for PETA and In Defense of Animals, Phoenix was born Joaquín Rafael Bottom in the Río Piedras district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents from the U. S. mainland. He is the third of five children, including River, Rain, Liberty and Summer and he also has a half-sister named Jodean from a previous relationship of his fathers. Phoenixs father, John Lee Bottom, originally from Fontana, California, was a lapsed Catholic, of English, Phoenixs mother, Arlyn, was born in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents whose families emigrated from Russia and Hungary. Arlyn left her family in 1968 and moved to California, later meeting Phoenixs father while hitchhiking and they married in 1969, then later joined a religious group, the Children of God, and began traveling throughout South America. His parents eventually became disenchanted with the Children of God, they made the decision to leave the group and they changed their last name to Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, symbolizing a new beginning. Around this time, Joaquín began calling himself Leaf, desiring to have a name like his siblings. Leaf became the name he used as a actor, until at age 15. He first used it as a credit in his big comeback film To Die For. In order to provide food and financial support for the family, in Los Angeles, his mother started working as a secretary for NBC, and his father worked as a landscaper. He went on to himself as a child actor before deciding to withdraw from acting for a while and travel to Mexico
9.
Billy Bob Thornton
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Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, filmmaker, singer, songwriter, and musician. In 2016, he starred in an Amazon original series, Goliath about a washed up attorney with a new case. He has been vocal about his disrespect for celebrity culture, choosing to keep his life out of the public eye, however, the attention of the media has proven unavoidable in certain cases, his marriage to Angelina Jolie being a notable example. Thornton has appeared in at least one film per year every year since 1991. Thornton has written a variety of films, usually set in the Southern United States and mainly co-written with Tom Epperson, including A Family Thing, after Sling Blade, he directed several other films, including Daddy and Them, All the Pretty Horses, and Jayne Mansfields Car. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes, in addition to film work, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter. He has released four albums and is the vocalist of a blues rock band The Boxmasters. His brother Jimmy Don wrote a number of songs, two of which Thornton has recorded on his solo albums, during his childhood, Thornton lived in numerous places in Arkansas, including Alpine, Mount Holly, and Malvern. He was raised a Methodist in a family in a shack that had neither electricity nor plumbing. He graduated from school in 1973. A good high school player, he tried out for the Kansas City Royals. After a short period laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Department, he attended Henderson State University to pursue studies in psychology, in the mid-1980s, Thornton settled in Los Angeles to pursue his career as an actor, with future writing partner Tom Epperson. He initially had a difficult time succeeding as an actor, and worked in telemarketing, offshore wind farming and he also played drums and sang with South African rock band Jack Hammer. While Thornton worked as a waiter for an event, he served film director. Thornton struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career as a screenwriter, thorntons first screen role was in 1980s South of Reno, where he played a small role as a counter man in a restaurant. He also made an appearance as a store clerk in the 1987 Matlock episode The Photographer. Another one of his screen roles was as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire. His role as the villain in 1992s One False Move, which he also co-wrote and he also had small roles in the 1990s films Indecent Proposal, On Deadly Ground, Bound by Honor, and Tombstone
10.
Jon Voight
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Jonathan Vincent Jon Voight is an American actor. He is the winner of one Academy Award, having nominated for four. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for eleven and he is the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven. Voight came to prominence in the late 1960s with his performance as Joe Buck, although his output slowed during the 1980s, Voight received critical acclaim for his performance as a ruthless bank robber in Runaway Train. During the 1990s, Voight made somewhat of a comeback, starring in Michael Manns cult classic Heat opposite Robert DeNiro, Roosevelt in Michael Bays Pearl Harbor and as Pope John Paul II in the eponymous miniseries. Voight also appears in Showtimes Ray Donovan TV series as Mickey Donovan, Voight was born on December 29,1938, in Yonkers, New York, the son of Barbara and Elmer Voight, a professional golfer. He has two brothers, Barry Voight, a former volcanologist at Pennsylvania State University, and Wesley Voight, known as Chip Taylor, Voights paternal grandfather and his paternal grandmothers parents were Slovak immigrants, while his maternal grandfather and his maternal grandmothers parents were German immigrants. Following his graduation in 1956, he enrolled at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. where he majored in art, after graduation, Voight moved to New York City, where he pursued an acting career. In 1962, Voight married actress Lauri Peters, who he met when both appeared in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music. He married actress Marcheline Bertrand in 1971 and they separated in 1976, filed for divorce in 1978, and divorced in 1980. Their children, James Haven and Angelina Jolie, would go on to enter the business as actors and producers. Voight was estranged from his children for years, but they reconciled in 2007 after Bertrands death. His theatre career took off in January 1965, playing Rodolfo in Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge in an Off-Broadway revival, Voights film debut did not come until 1967, when he took a part in Phillip Kaufmans crimefighter spoof, Fearless Frank. Voight also took a role in 1967s western, Hour of the Gun. In 1968 Voight took a role in director Paul Williamss Out of It, in 1969, Voight was cast in the groundbreaking Midnight Cowboy, a film that would make his career. Voight played Joe Buck, a male hustler from Texas. He comes under the tutelage of Dustin Hoffmans Ratso Rizzo, a petty thief. The film explored late 1960s New York and the development of an unlikely, directed by John Schlesinger and based on a novel by James Leo Herlihy, the film struck a chord with critics and audiences
11.
Ennio Morricone
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Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI is an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player. He composes a wide range of styles, making him one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time. Since 1946 Morricone has composed over 500 scores for cinema and television, after playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he has composed music for such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for westerns and his score to 1966s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered as one of the most influential soundtracks in history and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. With an estimated 10 million copies sold, Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide and he also scored seven westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessaris Ringo duology and Sergio Sollimas The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other genres with directors such as Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission was certified gold in the United States, the album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums. Morricones best-known compositions include The Ecstasy of Gold, Se Telefonando, Man with a Harmonica, Heres to You and he functioned during the period 1966–1980 as a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives. In 1969, he co-founded Forum Music Village, a recording studio. In 1977, he composed the theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La Piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol and En mai, fais ce quil te plait. Morricones music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, as of 2013, Ennio Morricone has sold over 70 million records worldwide. In 1971, he received a Targa dOro for the sales of 22 million. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award for his magnificent and he has been nominated for a further six Oscars. In 2016, Morricone received his first Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantinos film The Hateful Eight, Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. His family came from Arpino, near Frosinone, Morricone, who had four siblings, Adriana, Aldo, Maria and Franca, lived in Trastevere, in the centre of Rome, with his parents. Mario was a player who worked professionally in different light-music orchestras
12.
TriStar Pictures
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TriStar Pictures is an American film production/distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, owned by the Sony subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment. On May 16,1983, it was given the name Tri-Star Pictures and it was the first new major Hollywood studio to be established since RKO Pictures was founded in 1928. The studios first produced film in 1984 was The Natural starring Robert Redford, during this venture, many of Tri-Stars releases were released on VHS by either RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, CBS/Fox Video, or HBO Video. In addition, HBO would gain exclusive distribution rights to these films. CBS dropped out of the venture in 1985, though still distributed some of TriStars films on home video until at least 1992. In 1986, HBO dropped out of the Tri-Star venture as well, the same year, Tri-Star entered into the television business as Tri-Star Television. It was formed when the studio joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. On April 13,1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, in 1989, all of Cokes entertainment holdings were acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan, who merged Columbia and Tri-Star, but continued to use the separate labels. On July 11,1990, Tri-Star Pictures dissolved and sold its venture in TeleVentures to Stephen J. Cannell Productions, most of the series and the Tri-Star film packages that were distributed by TeleVentures were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. The Tri-Star film packages were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, both studios continued to operate separately until TriStar folded in 1999 and CPT in 2001. In addition to its own slate, TriStar was the distributor for many films produced by Carolco Pictures. TriStar also theatrically distributed some FilmDistrict movies, TriStar was relaunched on May 13,2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that had a particular emphasis on genre films. Screen Gems executive vice president Valerie Van Galder was tapped to run the studio after being dormant. However, the release of its 2013 film Elysium represents the labels first big-budget release since The Mask of Zorro in 1998, the same year, former 20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman joined Sony Pictures and created TriStar Productions as a joint venture with existing Sony Pictures executives. The new TriStar will develop, finance and produce up to four films per year, as well as programming and acquisitions. Sonys TriStar Pictures unit will be retained for other product, including titles from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, TriStars logo of Pegasus, introduced in 1984, has become something of a cultural icon. The idea came about because of executive Victor Kaufman and his familys interest in riding horses, the original logo was created with the assistance of Sydney Pollack, who was an adviser at Tri-Star. The horse in that logo was the one used in Pollacks film The Electric Horseman
13.
Sony Pictures
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Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American entertainment company that produces, acquires and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms. It operates as a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc. which is the parent company for both the music and motion picture businesses of Sony Corporation, based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sonys motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in the fiscal year 2015 has been reported to be of $8.3 billion, Sony Pictures film franchises include Spider-Man, Men in Black, Underworld, Resident Evil, and Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures is one of Hollywoods major film studios and a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, on September 1,1987, The Coca-Cola Company announced plans to spin-off its assets of Columbia Pictures, which it had owned since 1982. Under this arrangement, Coca-Cola would sell its entertainment assets to TriStar Pictures, Tri-Star would be renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. with Coca-Cola owning 49%, its shareholders owning 31%, and Tri-Stars shareholders owning 20%. A new company was formed in early 1988 with the Tri-Star name to take over the studios operations, on September 28,1989, Sony obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Companys stock in CPE for $27 per share. This was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president, the hiring of Guber and Peters by Sony to run Columbia was conflicted by a previous contract the producers had signed at Warner Bros. Time Warners chairman, Steve Ross, threatened Sony with a lawsuit for breach of contract, the lawsuit would be subsequently dropped when Sony sold half-interest in Columbia House and cable distribution rights to Columbias feature films, TV movies, and miniseries to Warner Bros. Said agreement also saw Columbia sell its 35% interest in the Burbank Studios, on November 8,1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a short-form merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of stock of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 6,1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion and was backed by five major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi, the company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7,1991. On June 4,2008, SPEs wholly owned group 2JS Productions B. V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N. V. famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million. In 2011, the Sony Pictures computer network was breached and approximately one million user accounts associated with the SonyPictures. com website were leaked. On November 21,2013, SPE and Sony Entertainments CEO Michael Lynton announced that SPE will shift emphasis from movies to television by cutting its 2014 film slate, on January 22,2014, SPE folded its technology unit into its various cores of its businesses. On February 6,2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment, through their legal name Columbia TriStar Warner Filmes de Portugal Ltda. announced that they close their offices in Portugal on March 31. On November 20,2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they will release Ultra HD Blu-ray releases, the first set will be in early 2016 and will include film and television content. In November 2014, the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers. Later the same week, five of Sony Pictures movies were leaked, including some not yet released, as well as confidential data about 47,000 current and former Sony employees
14.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
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Crime fiction
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Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other such as historical fiction or science fiction. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are ubiquitous to the genre. In Italy people commonly call a story about detectives or crimes giallo, better known are the earlier dark works of Edgar Allan Poe. Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Woman in White was published in 1860, french author Émile Gaboriaus Monsieur Lecoq laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. The evolution of locked room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction, the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. A precursor was Paul Féval, whose series Les Habits Noirs features Scotland Yard detectives, the best-selling crime novel of the nineteenth century was Fergus Humes The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne, Australia. The evolution of the print mass media in the United Kingdom, like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e. g. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens—Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in form in the monthly Strand magazine in the United Kingdom. Later a set of stereotypic formulae began to appear to cater to various tastes, Crime fiction can be divided into the following four branches, The cozy mystery, a subgenre of detective fiction in which profanity, sex, and violence are downplayed or treated humorously. The whodunit, the most common form of detective fiction, the historical whodunnit, also a subgenre of historical fiction. The police procedural, the detective is a member of the police, the forensic crime fiction, similar to the police procedural. The detective the reader follows is usually a medical examiner or pathologist—they must use the evidence left on the body. This subgenre was first introduced by Patricia Cornwell, the legal thriller, the major characters are lawyers and their employees, and they become involved in proving their cases. The spy novel, the characters are spies, usually working for an intelligence agency. The caper story and the novel, the stories are told from the point of view of the criminals. The parody or spoof When trying to pigeon-hole fiction, it is difficult to tell where crime fiction starts
16.
Abraham Benrubi
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Benrubi was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the eldest son of Patricia and Asher Benrubi, who was a rock singer and is currently a radio personality known as Smash to St. Louis radio audiences. His paternal grandfather was from a Greek Jewish family and his paternal grandmother, who was born to a Greek Orthodox Christian family, helped shelter Jews in Greece during World War II and later converted to Judaism. Benrubi graduated from Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis, the high school alma mater of David Letterman. Benrubis first major role was on the show Wings, as Roy R. J and he would appear as R. J. twice, once during the shows second season, and again during the seventh season, shortly after he began working on NBCs ER. Between the first and second seasons of Parker Lewis Cant Lose, Benrubi, Benrubi starred as one of the main characters in ABCs show Men in Trees, playing bartender/millionaire Ben Tomasson. This was a role where he got noticeably more main dialog and depth than with his previous longtime characters on ER and Parker Lewis Cant Lose, Ben Tomasson was described as the cuddliest TV character since Jorge Garcias Hurley on Lost by TV-critic David Bianculli. Other previous work includes playing Mose in the 2003 western Open Range and he frequently voices characters on Adult Swims stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken, and has also contributed to a second show from Chickens creators, Titan Maximum. Following the cancellation of Men In Trees in early 2007, Benrubi returned to the cast of ER in late 2008 for the final season. Benrubi played a young Dan Conner, the character portrayed by John Goodman, Benrubi starred in the short lived ABC show, Happy Town where he played the part of Big Dave Duncan. Almost right after the cancellation was announced he appeared in a new show Memphis Beat. Jody JC Lightfoot, a desk sergeant that is 1/16 Chickasaw by a distant relative, Benrubi is currently working on an independent film called To Kill a Memory. In May 2011 it was announced that he would star in Glutton, Benrubi will play Jethro, a 1, 200-pound man, forced to save his sisters life. Jethros sister is played by Patricia Arquette, while Kacey Barnfield also stars as his blind neighbour, Benrubi is a member of Los Angeles Sacred Fools Theater Company. Abe Ferguson George of the Jungle, geddy Paretti I Woke Up Early the Day I Died Under Oath. Geoff Carmichael Out in Fifty Twister, bubba The Man Who Wasnt There. Young Man at Dance War Story, bruno Miss Congeniality 2, Armed and Fabulous. Jimbo A Night In Old Mexico, Big Rosco Hamill The Finest Hours. George Tiny Myers The Belko Experiment, Roy R. J. Biggins, Jr. Parker Lewis Cant Lose
17.
Bo Hopkins
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William Hopkins, known as Bo Hopkins, is an American actor of stage, television and film. Bo Hopkins first major role in a film was in White Lightning, Bo Hopkins played Roy Boone, Gator McCluskys sidekick during much of the film. Jerry Reed played Bama McCall in the sequel to White Lightning called Gator, jerry Reed and Bo Hopkins bore a striking resemblance to one another, hence they played brothers Joe Hawkins and Tom Hawkins in the film What Comes Around. In 1981, he appeared in the first season of the prime-time drama Dynasty as Matthew Blaisdel, king, The Fall Guy, Crazy Like a Fox and Murder, She Wrote and Doc Elliot. Hopkins has a role in the video game Nuclear Strike and he plays Colonel LeMonde, a mercenary who steals a nuclear weapon. The Strike team tracks him through Southeast Asia, William Hopkins was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1942. At the age of nine months he was adopted by a couple who were unable to conceive their own, growing up, he was called Billy. His adoptive father worked in a mill in Taylors, South Carolina, when his father was 39, Billy was present with his mother when he died of a heart attack on the porch of the familys home. Unable to remain in their house, a month later the two of them moved to a new residence in nearby Ware Shoals, where his grandfather and his mother eventually remarried to a man whose last name was Davis. Hopkins did not get along with his new stepfather and the two got into arguments, some serious. At age 12, he met his mother for the first time, who lived in a South Carolina mill town called Lockhart, and also his half-sisters. Billy led a life as a youngster, with numerous instances of truancy, minor crimes. He dropped out of school at 16 just before his 17th birthday and joined the United States Army and he was based at Fort Jackson, Fort Gordon and Fort Pope, before being shipped off to Korea, where he served for nine months. After his military service, William Billy Hopkins began dating a girl named Norma, whom he married at about age 18, Hopkins became interested in pursuing an acting career, which his wife disapproved of, and she left him, taking their daughter with her. After appearing in some plays, he received a scholarship to study acting and stage production at the Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky. While there he began dating a girl who was a Miss Mississippi, from Kentucky, he made his way to New York City to act in more stage plays. After New York, he moved to Hollywood with his cousins boyfriend, in Hollywood, he earned a living parking cars while studying at the Actors Studio, where one of his classmates was future Oscar winner Martin Landau. Explaining in a 2012 magazine interview how he got his first name Bo, he said, Billy when I was growing up
18.
Sheri Foster
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Sheri Foster is a Native American / Cherokee actress from Texas. Her theatre experiences include The Independence of Eddie Rose, Death of a Miner, God of Vengeance and her film work includes U-Turn, Naturally Native, Secondhand Heart, and Shouting Secrets. TV credits include House M. D. Crazy Horse, Coyote Waits, sheri Foster at the Internet Movie Database Native Voices, Native Voices Artists Ensemble, Autry National Center Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Has Two Native American Actors
19.
Liv Tyler
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Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and former child model. She is the daughter of Aerosmiths lead singer, Steven Tyler, Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14 but, after less than a year, she decided to focus on acting. After her film debut Silent Fall, she appeared in supporting roles in Empire Records, Heavy, Tyler later achieved critical recognition in the leading role in Bernardo Bertoluccis Stealing Beauty, playing a teenage girl visiting her deceased mothers artist friends in Italy. She followed this by appearing in supporting roles including Inventing the Abbotts and she also appeared in Armageddon, where she played the daughter of Bruce Willis character and love interest of Ben Afflecks character. Tyler achieved international recognition as a result of her portrayal of Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in 2014, Tyler made her television debut on the HBO series The Leftovers in a recurring role. She has served as a United Nations Childrens Fund Goodwill Ambassador for the United States in 2003, Tyler was born Liv Rundgren at Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem, New York. She is the daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and former Playboy Playmate, and Steven Tyler. Her mother named her after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5,1977 issue of TV Guide and she is of Italian, German, Polish, and English ancestry on her fathers side and German ancestry on her mothers side. Tyler has three half-siblings, Mia Tyler, Chelsea Anna Tallarico, and Taj Monroe Tallarico and her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington. From 1972 to 1979, Liv’s mother Bebe Buell lived with rock musician Todd Rundgren, in 1976, Buell became unexpectedly pregnant from a brief relationship with Steven Tyler. On July 1,1977, Buell gave birth, naming the daughter Liv Rundgren, Rundgren and Buell ended their romantic relationship but Rundgren put his heart and soul into the white lie. At age eight Liv met Steven Tyler and noticed a resemblance she shared with his other daughter, when she asked her mother about the similarity, the secret was revealed. The truth about Tylers paternity did not become public until six years later in 1991, when she changed her name from Rundgren to Tyler, buells stated reason for the initial decision was that Steven was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of her birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have developed a close relationship, Todd basically decided when I was born that I needed a father so he signed my birth certificate. He knew that there was a chance that I might not be his and he paid to put her through private school, and she visited him several times a year. Tyler maintains a relationship with Rundgren. I’m so grateful to him, I have so much love for him and you know, when he holds me it feels like Daddy. And he’s very protective and strong, Tyler attended the Congressional Schools of Virginia, Breakwater School, and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City with her mother at age 12
20.
Laurie Metcalf
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Lauren Elizabeth Laurie Metcalf is an American actress. She voiced the role of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and her other film appearances include Making Mr. Right, JFK, Mistress, and as Debbie Salt/Loomis in Scream 2. She has also appeared in commercials for Plan USA, an organization which helps children in need around the world. Metcalf began her career with the Steppenwolf Theater Company and frequently works in Chicago theater, a 10-time Emmy Award nominee, she won three consecutive Emmys for Roseanne from 1992 to 1994. In 2012, she starred as Mary Tyrone in a London production of Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey into Night at the Apollo Theatre. Her father, James, was the director at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at the time of his sudden death in 1984. Her great-aunt was the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zoë Akins, Metcalf is an alumna of Illinois State University, class of 1976. She liked bike riding as a child, Metcalf attended Illinois State University and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Theater in 1977. Metcalf began her career at Steppenwolf, of which she was a charter member. Metcalf was praised for her performance as Darlene, and was singled out for her tour de force twenty-minute Act Two monologue. Just to sit there and watch and hear Laurie unspool that story, it just brought tears coming down your eyes—oh, boy, it was something. Thereafter, Metcalf relocated to New York City and began to work in film and theater, including such productions as David Mamets November on Broadway in 2008. The former productions run, however, lasted for 9 performances in October 2009, voice Lessons, however, with its original cast intact, went on to two more runs—one Off-Broadway in May 2010, and another in Hollywood in May 2011. In September 2010, Metcalf returned to Steppenwolf and starred in Lisa DAmours play, in March 2011, she appeared Off-Broadway in The Other Place by Sharr White. She won the 2011 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Lead Actress, in 2012, Metcalf joined David Suchet in a British stage production in the West End of Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey into Night. She performed in The Other Place again in 2013, this time on Broadway and she starred with her real life daughter, Zoe Perry. In October 2013, Metcalf performed with Jeff Goldblum in Domesticated and she was then cast in the role of Annie Wilkes in the Broadway production of Stephen Kings Misery, opposite Bruce Willis. The play premiered on November 15,2015 and it received mixed reviews from critics, however Metcalfs performance was universally acclaimed
21.
Superior, Arizona
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Superior is a town in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 2,837. Such films as U Turn by Oliver Stone, Eight Legged Freaks, How the West Was Won, Blind Justice, The Prophecy, Skinwalkers, The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood, and Young Billy Young are set in Superior. In 2005, a film named The Salena Incident, also called Alien Invasion Arizona, was filmed in Superior. Superior is located approximately 70 miles east of Phoenix and the distance north of Tucson. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 1.9 sq mi. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,254 people,1,237 households, the population density was 1,684.6 people per square mile. There were 1,470 housing units at a density of 761.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 72. 68% White,0. 46% Black or African American,1. 63% Native American,0. 34% Asian,0. 09% Pacific Islander,23. 05% from other races, and 1. 75% from two or more races. 69. 08% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,27. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the family size was 3.20. In the town, the population was out with 26. 9% under the age of 18,8. 0% from 18 to 24,21. 7% from 25 to 44,23. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.7 males, the median income for a household in the town was $27,069, and the median income for a family was $31,250. Males had an income of $34,297 versus $21,607 for females. The per capita income for the town was $12,490, about 22. 5% of families and 27. 8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 39. 0% of those under age 18 and 16. 5% of those age 65 or over. The Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park is a 323-acre botanical collection includes a wide range of habitats. Founded in 1925, the arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical garden in Arizona, Superior has a hot semi-arid climate
22.
Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
23.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
24.
Coachella Valley
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It is the northernmost extent of the vast trough which includes the Salton Sea, the Imperial Valley and the Gulf of California. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner, the fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain. The Chocolate Mountains are home to a United States Navy live gunnery range and are mostly off-limits to the public, in comparison to the Inland Empire, some people refer to the IEs sub-region Coachella Valley as the Desert Empire to differentiate it from the neighboring Imperial Valley. Geographers and geologists sometimes call the area, along with the Imperial Valley to the south, the valley connects with the Greater Los Angeles area to the west via the San Gorgonio Pass, a major transportation corridor that includes I-10 and the Union Pacific Railroad. The valley is part of the 13th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the famous desert resort cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert lie in the Coachella Valley.5 million annual conventioneers and tourists. The local population rounds up to almost 500,000 in April, declines to 200,000 in July, there is some contention as to the origin of the name. Early maps show the area as Conchilla, the Spanish word for seashell, since the area was once a part of a vast inland sea, tiny fossilized mollusk shells can be found in just about every remote area. Local lore explains the change in the name from Conchilla to Coachella as a made by the map-makers contracted to transcribe the data supplied by the Southern Pacific Railroads survey party. Rather than redraw the expensive maps, the railroad chose to begin calling the area by the misspelled name Coachella rather than its traditional name Conchilla. Some believe that the name Coachella was simply made up, cindarella Courtney was the first non-Indian child born in Indio in 1898. The first boy, David Elgin, was born in 1899, the coming in 1926 of U. S. So too did the coming of State Highway 111 in the early 1930s, the standard was refined and adopted worldwide. Doctor McCarroll is memorialized by a stretch of I-10 through Indio named in her honor, the Coachella Valley was popular among celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Dakota Fanning who came and continue to come to enjoy vacations and winter homes in the desert resort community. Also it became a real estate destination in the 1980s and 1990s no longer limited to senior citizens, winter residents. Families with young children and young adults interested in Palm Springs and surrounding communities for lower cost housing. In a 2003 Condé Nast publication review, Palm Springs was ranked one of the top 10 global vacation destinations, and the smallest one in population. The area is surrounded on the southwest by the Santa Rosa Mountains, by the San Jacinto Mountains to the west and these mountains peak at around 11,000 feet and tend to average between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. Elevations on the Valley floor range from 1600 ft above sea level at the end of the Valley to 250 ft below sea level around Mecca
25.
Roger Ebert
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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic and historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase Two Thumbs Up, used when both hosts gave the film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued hosting the show with various co-hosts and then, starting in 2000, Ebert lived with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands from 2002. This required treatments necessitating the removal of his jaw, which cost him the ability to speak or eat normally. His ability to write remained unimpaired, however, and he continued to publish frequently both online and in print until his death on April 4,2013. Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the child of Annabel, a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert. He was raised Roman Catholic, attending St. Marys elementary school and his paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was Irish and Dutch. In his senior year, he was president and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in radio speaking, regarding his early influences in film criticism, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies, I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine. Mads parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies, I lost it at Mad magazine, Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early-entrance student, completing his high-school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his degree in 1964. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961. Ebert spent a semester as a student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge and he attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year
26.
San Francisco Chronicle
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It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. The paper benefited from the growth of San Francisco and was the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the United States by 1880. Like many other newspapers, it has experienced a fall in circulation in the early 21st century. The newspaper publishes two web sites, SFGate, which has a mixture of news and web features. Between World War II and 1971, new editor Scott Josephine Newhall took a bold, the newspaper grew in circulation to become the citys largest, overtaking the rival San Francisco Examiner. The demise of other San Francisco dailies through the late 1950s and early 1960s left the Examiner, from 1965 on the two papers shared a single classified-advertising operation. This arrangement stayed in place until the Hearst Corporation took full control of the Chronicle, beginning in the early 1990s, the Chronicle started to face competition beyond the borders of San Francisco. The Chronicle launched five zoned sections to appear in the Friday edition of the paper, the sections covered San Francisco, and four different suburban areas. They each featured a unique columnist, enterprise pieces and local news specific to the community, the newspaper added 40 full-time staff positions to work in the suburban bureaus. The de Young family controlled the paper, via the Chronicle Publishing Company, until July 27,2000, following the sale, the Hearst Corporation transferred the Examiner to the Fang family, publisher of the San Francisco Independent and AsianWeek, along with a $66-million subsidy. Under the new owners, the Examiner became a free tabloid, in 1949, the de Young family founded KRON-TV, the Bay Areas third television station. Until the mid-1960s, the station, operated from the basement of the Chronicle Building, KRON moved to studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue. The frequent bold-faced, all-capital-letter headlines typical of the Chronicles front page were eliminated, editor Ward Bushees note heralded the issue as the start of a new era for the Chronicle. On July 6,2009, the paper unveiled some alterations to the new design that included yet newer section fronts and wider use of color photographs and graphics. In a special section publisher Frank J. Vega described new, the newer look was accompanied by a reduction in size of the broadsheet. On November 9,2009, the Chronicle became the first newspaper in the nation to print on high-quality glossy paper, the high-gloss paper is used for some section fronts and inside pages. As of 2013 the publisher of the Chronicle is Jeffrey Johnson, audrey Cooper was named editor-in-chief in January 2015 and is the first woman to hold the position
27.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
28.
Golden Raspberry Awards
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The Golden Raspberry Awards often shortened to Razzies and Razzie Awards, is an award in recognition of the worst in film. The term raspberry in the name is used in its irreverent sense, the awards themselves are in the form of a golf ball-sized raspberry which sits atop a Super 8 mm film reel, the whole of which is spray painted gold. The first Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony was held on March 31,1981, wilsons living-room alcove in Los Angeles, to honor the worst in film of the 1980 film season. The 37th ceremony was held on February 25,2017, american publicist John J. B. Wilson traditionally held potluck parties at his house in Los Angeles on the night of the Academy Awards. In 1981, after the 53rd Academy Awards had completed for the evening, Wilson decided to formalize the event, after watching a double feature of Cant Stop the Music and Xanadu. He gave them ballots to vote on worst in film, approximately three dozen people came to the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards. The 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards had double the attendance as the first, by the 4th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, CNN and two major wire services covered the event. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in blowing a raspberry, Wilson commented to the author of Blame It on the Dog, When I registered the term with the Library of Congress in 1980, they asked me, Why raspberry. But since then, razz has pretty much permeated the culture and we couldnt have done it without Hollywoods help. Wilson is referred to as Ye Olde Head Razzberry, paying members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation vote to determine the recipients. For the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2009, award results were based on votes from approximately 650 journalists, cinema fans, voters hailed from 45 states in the United States and 19 other countries. The ceremony, typically one day before the Academy Awards, is modeled after the latter but deliberately low-end. Most winners do not attend the ceremony to collect their awards, notable exceptions include Tom Green, Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock, Michael Ferris, J. D. Shapiro, and Paul Verhoeven. Three people won both the Razzies and Oscars the same weekend, Alan Menken in 1993, Brian Helgeland in 1998, two actors had performances in the same movie scoring Oscar and Razzie nominations, James Coco and Amy Irving. Neil Diamond, winner of the inaugural Worst Actor Razzie for 1980s The Jazz Singer, was nominated for the Golden Globe in the same role, wall Street is the only film to date to win both an Oscar and a Razzie. Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor, however Daryl Hannahs performance was not as well received and earned her a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress, special prizes for the 25th anniversary of the Razzies awards were also given out in 2005. This is an award given by Razzie Award Governor John J. B. Wilson to an individual whose achievements are not covered by the Razzies other categories. It was awarded in 2003 to Travis Payne for Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography in the film From Justin to Kelly and this award is given to a critical and financial failure that wouldve been nominated if it had received an eligible release
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Kevin Costner
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Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, director, producer, and musician. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Emmy Award, Costner has played Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, Crash Davis in Bull Durham, Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, Lt. John J. He directed, produced, and starred in The Postman, Costner was born January 18,1955 in Lynwood, California. He grew up in Compton, California and he is the youngest of three boys, the middle of whom died at birth. His mother, Sharon Rae, was a worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician. His fathers heritage originates with German immigrants to North Carolina in the 1700s and Costner also has English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and he instead enjoyed sports, took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. He has stated that a viewing of the 1962 film How the West Was Won at the age of seven had formed his childhood. Spending his teenage years in parts of California as his fathers career progressed, Costner has described this as a period when he lost a lot of confidence. Costner lived in Ventura, then in Visalia, he attended Mt. Whitney High School and then moved to Orange County and he went on to earn a BA in marketing and finance from California State University, Fullerton in 1978. While at CSUF, he was a fraternity brother in Delta Chi. Costner became interested in acting while in his last year of college, Burton agreed to speak to Costner after he finished reading his book. Costner, who had been taking acting classes but had not told his wife about his desire to be an actor, watched Burton closely and approached when Burton gestured. Costner told Burton that he would prefer to avoid the drama that followed Burton, Burton replied, You have green eyes. After landing, Burtons limousine pulled up to the curb where Costner, Burton wished Costner luck, and the two would never meet again. Still, Costner credits Burton with partially contributing to his career, having agreed to undertake a job as a marketing executive, Costner began taking acting lessons five nights a week, with the support of his wife. His marketing job lasted 30 days, Costner allegedly made his film debut in the film Sizzle Beach, U. S. A. Although a biography claims it was filmed in the winter of 1978–79. Costner made a brief appearance in the Ron Howard film Night Shift. He is listed in the credits as Frat Boy No.1 and appears at the climax of a frat-style, blow-out party in the New York City morgue, Costner can be seen holding a beer and looking surprised at the sudden halt of celebration
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The Postman (film)
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The Postman is a 1997 American epic post-apocalyptic adventure film. It is directed by, produced by, and stars Kevin Costner, with the written by Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland. The film also features Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, released on Christmas of 1997 from Warner Bros. The Postman was a critical and commercial failure, grossing a total of $17 million worldwide. Pockets of survivors in more areas have formed small villages to maintain some semblance of civilization while others have joined militias. Horses are the standard for travel, and bartering has replaced currency, in 2013, an unnamed nomad enters the Oregon flatlands, trading Shakespearean performances for food and water. In one of the towns, the nomad is impressed into the ranks of the predominant militia, known as the Holnists, when he escapes, the nomad takes refuge in a dead postmans mail vehicle. Wearing the postmans uniform and carrying the bag, he arrives in Pineview claiming to be a postman from the newly restored US government. The Postman inspires a teenager named Ford Lincoln Mercury and swears him into the postal service, when the Postman leaves for the town of Benning, he carries a pile of mail left at the post office door by the townspeople. During a raid of Pineview, General Bethlehem learns of the Postman’s tales of a restored government and he burns the American flag and post office, kills Abby’s husband, kidnaps Abby, and attacks the town of Benning. The Postman surrenders, but Abby saves him from execution, a pregnant Abby and a seriously-wounded Postman ride out the winter in an abandoned cabin. When spring arrives, they cross the range and run into a girl and she reveals that Ford Lincoln Mercury organized a postal service based on the Postmans story. They have established communications with other settlements, creating a quasi-society, Bethlehem is still fighting to suppress the postal carriers, who are mostly teenagers pitted against a better-equipped enemy. In the face of mounting casualties, the Postman orders everyone to disband, the Postman, Abby, and a small group of postal carriers travel to Bridge City. When Bethlehems scouts catch up, the enclave leader Tom Petty helps the Postman to escape on a car to find volunteers for another army. In a recitation of King Henry Vs speech prior to the Siege of Harfleur, Bethlehem and his army meet the Postmans army across a field. Knowing the casualties will be if the armies meet in battle. The Postman wins the fight with inspiration from the Neither snow nor rain inscription, Bethlehem lunges to shoot the Postman but is shot by his former first officer
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Most Wanted (1997 film)
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Most Wanted is a 1997 film starring Keenen Ivory Wayans and Jon Voight. James Dunn, a United States Marine who served in the Gulf War, is accused of an assassination of an officer he had disputed with. Dunn is later saved from death row and recruited for a special operations squad led by Lt. Col. Grant Casey. Their mission is to neutralize criminals who had avoided conventional law enforcement methods, on his first mission, Dunn finds that his purpose is to actually be falsely perceived as the man who assassinated the first lady. Soon, a search begins for Dunn and Dr. Victoria Constantini who happened to videotape what occurred, one of the forces looking for him is the military, led by General Adam Woodward, which is in fact the real name for Grant Casey. Keenen Ivory Wayans as Gunnery Sergeant James Anthony Dunn Jon Voight as Lt. Col. Grant Casey/Gen, Most Wanted at the Internet Movie Database Most Wanted at Box Office Mojo Most Wanted at Rotten Tomatoes Most Wanted at AllMovie
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Dennis Rodman
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He was nicknamed The Worm and was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Rodman played at the forward position in his early years before becoming a power forward. He earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice and he also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships. His biography at NBA. com states that he is arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history, on April 1,2011, the Pistons retired Rodmans No.10 jersey, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year. Rodman experienced a childhood and was shy and introverted in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a bad boy and he repeatedly dyed his hair in artificial colors, had many piercings and tattoos, and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He famously wore a dress to promote his 1996 autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be. Rodman pursued an affair with singer Madonna and was briefly married to actress Carmen Electra. Rodman also attracted attention for his visits to North Korea. Apart from basketball, Rodman is a retired professional wrestler. He was a member of the nWo and fought alongside Hulk Hogan at two Bash at the Beach events, in professional wrestling, Rodman was the first ever winner of the Celebrity Championship Wrestling tournament. He had his own TV show The Rodman World Tour, and had roles in the action films Double Team. Both films were critically panned, with the former earning Rodman a triple Razzie Award and he appeared in several reality TV series and was the winner of the $222,000 main prize of the 2004 edition of Celebrity Mole. Rodman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Shirley and Philander Rodman, Jr. an Air Force enlisted member, when he was young, his father left his family, eventually settling in the Philippines. Rodman has many brothers and sisters, according to his father, however, Rodman himself has stated that he is the oldest of a total of 47 children. After his father left, Shirley took many odd jobs to support the family, in his 1997 biography Bad As I Wanna Be, he expresses his feelings for his father, I havent seen my father in more than 30 years, so whats there to miss. I just look at it like this, Some man brought me into this world and that doesnt mean I have a father. Rodman and his two sisters, Debra and Kim, grew up in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Rodman was so attached to his mother that he refused to move when she sent him to a nursery when he was four years old
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Double Team (film)
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Double Team is a 1997 American action comedy film directed by Tsui Hark in his American directorial debut and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke. Van Damme plays counter-terrorist agent Jack Quinn, who is assigned to bring an elusive terrorist known as Stavros to justice, things become personal when Stavros kidnaps Quinns pregnant wife after his own lover and child were killed in an assassination attempt that went awry. Aiding Quinn in his rescue is his flamboyant weapons dealer Yaz and this film received negative reviews and was a box office bomb. The film was nominated for and won three Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst New Star and Worst Screen Couple. Quinn is reluctant to return to duty but agrees after the representative is killed by Stavros shortly after the meeting with Quinn. Stavros has been tracked to an amusement park but Quinn hesitates to give the order to shoot Stavros when it becomes apparent that Stavros is meeting with his six-year-old son. Stavros exploits Quinns hesitation and a shootout ensues in which Stavros’ son is killed and Stavros is able to escape into a hospital, Stavros and Quinn fight in the hospital’s maternity ward with Stavros getting away after knocking Quinn unconscious in an explosion. Quinn wakes up on The Colony, an inescapable, invisible penal institution island for secret agents, the occupants of the Colony are expected to help analyse terrorist threats and have to register themselves present every day using a fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, Kathryn receives a call from an art gallery in Rome telling her that they would like to display her sculptures, when she arrives, Stavros kidnaps her. Quinn devises a system to fool the fingerprint scanner and is able to leave the island by attaching himself to cargo due to be extracted from the island from the air. Quinn goes to Yaz, the man who can help him. Yaz agrees to help and the two go to Quinn’s house where they are ambushed by Stavros’ men, after fighting the men off, Quinn receives a message from Stavros telling him that he must go to Rome for his baby’s sake. When they arrive in Rome, Yaz learns that Quinns wife is pregnant after Stavros delivers a sonogram of the baby to the given rendezvous, Quinn emails Stavros encouraging him to meet in a town square, knowing that Stavros will have to take the bait. At the meeting point, Quinn catches sight of Kathryn in a car but is intercepted by Stavros before he can reach her, Quinn tracks Stavros’ henchmen down to the hotel suite where Kathryn was being held and finds a clue to her whereabouts — a prescription bottle label. Meanwhile, Kathryn is transported to hospital where she gives birth, using the prescription bottle and with Yazs help, Quinn is able to track down the hospital where he finds Kathryn but discovers that Stavros has taken his son. Thanks to assistance from a nurse, Quinn locates Stavros and the baby in an explosives-rigged Roman amphitheater, Stavros leaves Quinn in the middle of a minefield with his son and then unleashes a tiger. Yaz arrives on a motorbike and is able to snatch the baby, leaving Quinn to escape from the tiger, Quinn and Stavros fight in the minefield until Stavros steps on a mine and is left stranded. Stavros and the tiger are killed in the blast, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jack Paul Quinn, A government counter-terrorist agent, forced out of retirement by the kidnapping of his pregnant wife, Kathryn, by Stavros
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Portable Document Format
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The Portable Document Format is a file format used to present documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, PDF was developed in the early 1990s as a way to share computer documents, including text formatting and inline images. It was among a number of competing formats such as DjVu, Envoy, Common Ground Digital Paper, Farallon Replica, in those early years before the rise of the World Wide Web and HTML documents, PDF was popular mainly in desktop publishing workflows. Adobe Systems made the PDF specification available free of charge in 1993 and these proprietary technologies are not standardized and their specification is published only on Adobe’s website. Many of them are not supported by popular third-party implementations of PDF. So when organizations publish PDFs which use proprietary technologies, they present accessibility issues for some users. In 2014, ISO TC171 voted to deprecate XFA for ISO 32000-2, on January 9,2017, the final draft for ISO 32000-2 was published, thus reaching the approval stage. The PDF combines three technologies, A subset of the PostScript page description programming language, for generating the layout, a font-embedding/replacement system to allow fonts to travel with the documents. A structured storage system to bundle these elements and any associated content into a single file, PostScript is a page description language run in an interpreter to generate an image, a process requiring many resources. It can handle graphics and standard features of programming such as if. PDF is largely based on PostScript but simplified to remove flow control features like these, often, the PostScript-like PDF code is generated from a source PostScript file. The graphics commands that are output by the PostScript code are collected and tokenized, any files, graphics, or fonts to which the document refers also are collected. Then, everything is compressed to a single file, therefore, the entire PostScript world remains intact. PDF supports graphic transparency, PostScript does not, PostScript is an interpreted programming language with an implicit global state, so instructions accompanying the description of one page can affect the appearance of any following page. Therefore, all preceding pages in a PostScript document must be processed to determine the appearance of a given page. A PDF file is a 7-bit ASCII file, except for elements that may have binary content. A PDF file starts with a header containing the magic number, the format is a subset of a COS format. A COS tree file consists primarily of objects, of which there are eight types, Boolean values, representing true or false Numbers Strings, enclosed within parentheses, objects may be either direct or indirect
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IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
