1.
Alameda County, California
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Alameda County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,510,271, Alameda County is included in the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying much of the East Bay region. The county was formed on March 25,1853, from a portion of Contra Costa County. The Spanish word alameda means a place where trees grow. The willow and sycamore trees along the banks of the river reminded the early explorers of a road lined with trees, the county seat at the time it was formed was located at Alvarado, now part of Union City. In 1856 it was moved to San Leandro, where the county courthouse was destroyed by the devastating 1868 quake on the Hayward Fault, the county seat was then re-established in the town of Brooklyn from 1872-1875. Brooklyn is now part of Oakland, which has been the county seat since 1873, much of what is now considered an intensively urban region, with major cities, was developed as a trolley car suburb of San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The annual county fair is held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, the fair runs for three weekends from June to July. Attractions include horse racing, carnival rides, 4-H exhibits, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 821 square miles, of which 739 square miles is land and 82 square miles is water. The San Francisco Bay borders the county on the west, the crest of the Berkeley Hills form part of the northeastern boundary, and reach into the center of the county. A coastal plain several miles wide lines the bay, and is Oaklands most populous region, Livermore Valley lies in the eastern part of the county. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge A2014 analysis found Alameda County to be the 4th most racially diverse county in the United States, the 2010 United States Census reported that Alameda County had a population of 1,510,271. The population density was 2,047.6 people per square mile, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 339,889 persons,16. 4% Mexican,0. 8% Puerto Rican,0. 2% Cuban,5. 1% Other Hispanic. 26. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.31. In the county, the population was out with 24. 6% under the age of 18,9. 6% from 18 to 24,33. 9% from 25 to 44,21. 7% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 96.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.00 males, the median income for a household in the county was $55,946, and the median income for a family was $65,857. Males had an income of $47,425 versus $36,921 for females
2.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
3.
Film director
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A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
4.
Screenwriter
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One famous screenwriter is Jack Rosenthal, who has written for various TV shows over the years, including Londons Burning and Coronation Street. No education is required to become a screenwriter, just good storytelling abilities. Screenwriters are not hired employees, they are contracted freelancers, most, if not all, screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation, meaning they write without being hired or paid for it. If such a script is sold, it is called a spec script, what separates a professional screenwriter from an amateur screenwriter is that professional screenwriters are usually represented by a talent agency. Also, professional screenwriters do not often work for free, whereas amateur screenwriters will often work for free and are considered writers in training, spec scripts are usually penned by unknown professional screenwriters and amateur screenwriters. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the industry but it often takes years of trial-and-error, failure. In Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hague writes Screenplays have become, for the last half of century, closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen. Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use those ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases, the script is based on a property, such as a book or persons life story. The majority of the time, a film project gets initiated by a screenwriter and because they initiated the project and these are referred to as exclusive assignments or pitched assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, when word is put out about a project a film studio, production company, or producer wants done, these are referred to as open assignments. In situations where screenwriters are competing for an assignment, more established writers will usually win these assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment, many screenwriters also work as full or part-time script doctors, attempting to better a script to suit the desires of a director or studio. For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak, script-doctoring can be quite lucrative, especially for the better known writers. David Mamet and John Sayles, for instance, fund the movies they direct themselves, usually from their own screenplays, by writing and doctoring scripts for others. In fact, some writers make very profitable careers out of being the ninth or tenth writer to work on a piece, in many cases, working on projects that never see exposure to an audience of any size. Many up and coming screenwriters also ghost write projects and allow more established screenwriters to take credit for the project to increase the chances of it getting picked up. After a screenwriter finishes a project, he or she pairs with a representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent, entertainment lawyer
5.
Vin Diesel
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Mark Sinclair, better known by his stage name Vin Diesel, is an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter. He is well known for his portrayals of Dominic Toretto in The Fast, Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick series and Xander Cage in xXx series. He was also a producer on sequels in these franchises, Diesel has also starred in films such as The Pacifier and Find Me Guilty. His voice acting work includes The Iron Giant, the video game spin-offs from The Chronicles of Riddick franchise and he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in a short film titled Multi-Facial and the feature-length drama film Strays. He is the founder of the production companies One Race Films, Racetrack Records, Diesel was born as Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his twin brother, Paul. His mother, Delora Sherleen Vincent, is an astrologer, Diesel has stated that he is of ambiguous ethnicity. His mothers background includes English, German, and Scottish and he has never met his biological father, and has stated that all I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures. Diesel has self-identified as definitely a person of colour, and has stated that his parents relationship would have been illegal in parts of the United States due to anti-miscegenation laws. He was raised in New York City by his Caucasian mother and African-American stepfather, Irving H. Vincent, Diesel made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the childrens play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New Yorks Greenwich Village and his involvement in the play came about when he, his brother, and some friends had broken into the Theater for the New Citys space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the artistic director, Crystal Field. Diesel remained involved with the theater throughout adolescence, going on to attend the citys Hunter College and he has identified himself as a multi-faceted actor as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage. Diesels first film role was an uncredited appearance in the drama film Awakenings. He then wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the drama film Multi-Facial. The film was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival, Diesel made his first feature-length film, Strays, an urban drama in which he played a gang leader whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed, and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival and he was then cast in Steven Spielbergs 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial. In 1999, he provided the voice of the character in the animated film The Iron Giant. Diesel had a role in the drama thriller Boiler Room
6.
Dominic Toretto
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Dominic Dom Toretto is a fictional character of The Fast and the Furious series. He is portrayed by Vin Diesel and was created by screenwriter Gary Scott Thompson, Dom is introduced in the first film of the series The Fast and the Furious. The role put Diesel on Hollywoods A-list, and won him the 2002 and 2014 MTV Movie Awards for Best On-Screen Team with Paul Walker. Diesels portrayal of the character has given much of the credit for the longevity of the film series. The Fast and the Furious film series was inspired by an article on street racing, Racer X, that appeared in the May 1998 issue of Vibe magazine. Having witnessed his fathers death in a car race, Dominic is left with the responsibility of watching his younger sister, Mia Toretto. Vin Diesel was reportedly paid $2.5 million to star as Dominic Toretto in The Fast, Dominic Toretto is an elite street racer, auto mechanic, and ex-convict. The character is the brother of Mia Toretto and love interest of Letty Ortiz. Throughout the series, Dominics crew has perpetrated many high-speed semi hijackings and he has spent most of his life running from the law. In The Fast and the Furious, Dominic runs his own automotive garage while Mia takes care of the grocery store in Echo Park. He also runs his own race team, which consists of Letty, Vince, Leon. Dominic has bad blood with Vietnamese-American rival Johnny Tran due to a deal that went sour. Unknown to the public, he and his team drive black Honda Civic coupes and stage daring semi hijackings on the freeways and he forms a friendship with rookie racer Brian Earl Spilner, who saves him from arrest when the LAPD raid a street race gathering. During the Race Wars, Johnny Tran blames Dominic for a raid by SWAT forces, the SWAT team came into his house, causing disrespect to his family. Dominic then attacks him and is led away by Vince who then tells him to chill out. During a hijacking job gone wrong, Dominic discovers Brians true identity as undercover LAPD officer named Brian OConner, Dominic ends up escaping and fleeing to Mexico. Brian then is wanted for aiding in the escape of a wanted felon, in Los Bandoleros, Dominic recruits Han, Rico Santos, and Tego Leo to help him complete a job that is seen in the beginning of Fast & Furious. In Fast & Furious, Dominic, Letty, and their lead a successful hijacking of a gasoline tanker in the Dominican Republic
7.
Riddick (character)
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Actor Vin Diesel has played the title role in all of the Riddick-based films and video games so far. Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a campaign that left Furya desolate. This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot, before Riddicks birth, a Necromonger officer named Zhylaw consulted an Elemental seer, who told him that a Furyan male would be born that would be responsible for his downfall. As a prevention, Zhylaw attacked Furya in an attempt to massacre all male children, Riddick was among those presumably strangled to death, but he actually survived. Despite this, he received visions and messages from a Furyan survivor named Shirah. Little is known about Riddicks childhood, save that he had no education and seems to have been in trouble with the law from an early age. In the premiere installment in the franchise, Riddick is introduced as notorious convict who is en route to an institution with his captor. However the ship passes through a comets tail while on auto-pilot. Five years later, Riddick has remained in hiding on an Arctic planet called U. V, dissatisfied with his role as Lord Marshal, Riddick attempts to find Furya, but is instead abandoned on a desolate planet. After spending some time on this world, Riddick finds that he will soon be overtaken by a storm that provides cover for countless predators. Riddick is able to establish a deal with the using the approaching storm to force cooperation. To Riddicks surprise, Johns rescues him and allows him to leave while Riddick praises Johns for being a man than his son. According to Riddick, while in Butcher Bay he received eye surgery, or a surgical shine job, as he calls it, in the flash movie on the Pitchblack. Riddick elects to have no anesthetic despite the procedure involving cutting the cornea, the cost quoted to Riddick is 1000 creds. Having no cash, Riddick offers down payment of a pack of Kool cigarettes which he took from a guard. He also takes welders goggles from the facility, the video game, The Chronicles of Riddick, Escape from Butcher Bay, clarifies that Riddicks eyeshine is more than just something he picked up in a prison. After helping a character called Pope Joe retrieve his blessed voice box, and that he is to receive a gift
8.
The Chronicles of Riddick (franchise)
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The series follows the adventures of antihero character Riddick in the 28th century. The Chronicles of Riddick fictional universe was created with the release of Pitch Black, which was written by director Twohy, Ken Wheat. Since then Twohy has written and directed the two live action sequels and was involved in the development of the storyline of a number of the franchises offshoots, the first installment of the franchise, Pitch Black, was a lower budget production compared to the later ones. The story involved Riddick being transported to prison on the Hunter Gratzner, when the spaceship is damaged in the wake of a comet and makes an emergency crash landing on an isolated desert planet, Riddick escapes. However, when flying creatures begin attacking all the survivors, Riddick joins forces with the others to escape the planet and it received mixed reviews but today is considered a cult classic. The second feature film in the series, The Chronicles of Riddick was a more expensive production and was more action oriented than its predecessor. Critically it wasnt received as well as the first film in the franchise, but the release of a directors cut DVD received strong sales and a cult following. Encouraged by high DVD sales and Vin Diesels newly restored box office success, the film was produced by Media Rights Capital and distributed by Universal, and was released on September 6,2013. Karl Urban returned to reprise his role as Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick, katee Sackhoff and Matt Nable also joined the cast of the film. Reviews were mixed, but it was considered a success at the box-office. In January 2014, Diesel announced on his Facebook page that Universal wishes to develop a fourth Riddick film and they were looking into Media Rights Capital or Legendary Pictures to co-finance it. Diesel announced on his Facebook page that the film is titled Furia. In April 2016, Vin Diesel confirmed that he and writer-director David Twohy were developing a fourth Riddick movie entitled The Chronicles of Riddick, in May 2016, he explained that production on The Chronicles of Riddick, Furia may begin in early 2017. In a video, Vin Diesel asked, Are you guys excited to hear about Furia, do you want to know where it all began with that dark character Riddick. The posts did not elaborate on how, if at all, Riddick, more commonly known as Riddick, is the protagonist of the series. Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a campaign that left Furya desolate. This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot, william J. Johns is a war veteran and mercenary who was trusted to track down Riddick after he escaped from Slam City and the primary human antagonist of Pitch Black
9.
The Pacifier
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The Pacifier is a 2005 action comedy film directed by Adam Shankman and written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. The film was released in March 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures, U. S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant Shane Wolfe is assigned to rescue Howard Plummer, a man working on a top-secret government project, from a group of Serbian rebels. Shane and his team get Plummer off a boat, though while boarding the escape helicopter. Plummer is killed in the attack, and Shane spends two months in the hospital, Wolfes commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett, is assigned to escort Plummers widow, Julie, to Zürich, where Plummers safety deposit box has been discovered. The kids prove to be difficult to handle, even with the help of nanny Helga and that night, Zoe yells at Shane when he stops a teenager party she held at the house, just as two ninjas invade the house, intending to find GHOST. Shane fights them off and explains the GHOST situation to Zoe and the kids, later, Murney informs Shane that Seth has cut and bleached his hair, has a Nazi armband in his locker, and has skipped every wrestling practice for a month. At home, Seth tells Shane he only joined the team because of his father. After Seth sneaks out of the house, Shane leaves Zoe in charge and follows him to the town theater, the director quits when he believes the show will be a failure. Encouraged by Shane, Seth quits the team and stands up for himself when Murney berates him for doing this. Shane challenges Murney to a match in front of the entire school. The training Shane gives the Firefly Scouts becomes useful when they again have a conflict with the thuggish scouts. Zoe and Shane share stories of their fathers, both of whom died in similar circumstances and they are interrupted by a phone call from Julie, who has figured out the password, retrieved a key from a box, and is on her way home. The kids immediately plan a Welcome Home party and that evening, Shane discovers a secret vault underneath the garage, which requires a key to open. When Bill and Julie arrive home, Bill and Shane go to the garage, the two ninjas arrive armed and pull off their masks, revealing themselves as the Plummers North Korean neighbors, the Chuns. Bill suddenly knocks out Shane, revealing himself to be a double agent, Mr. Chun restrains and guards the children while Bill and Mrs. Chun take Julie down to the vault. They open the door, but a security system prevents them from going further. The children escape and awaken Shane, who sends the kids to get the police while he goes to the vault to help Julie, Mr. Chun follows them in his car, with Zoe at the wheel, the kids force him to crash. Shane gets past the security using an dance Howard had used to make Peter go to sleep each night
10.
Find Me Guilty
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Find Me Guilty is a 2006 American courtroom comedy-drama crime film co-written and directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the true story of the longest Mafia trial in American history. A wrench is thrown into the system when DiNorscio attempts to defend himself, the film also stars Peter Dinklage, Linus Roache, Alex Rocco, and Ron Silver. Much of the testimony was taken from the original court transcripts. Its the late 1980s and low-level mobster Jackie DiNorscio has just been shot by his junkie cousin Tony Compagna, Jackie soon gets arrested and is sentenced to thirty years on an unrelated drug bust. Kierney tries to bribe Jackie to be a government witness as well and that sets in motion a massive court case where Jackie, Nick and dozens of other mobsters are tried together for a countless number of crimes in front of presiding Judge Sidney Finestein. Jackies mischievous and vulgar manner amuses the jury on occasions but persistently irritates the judge, lawyers, witnesses, as weeks turn into months, the court case evolves into a marathon affair. Jackie turns the courtroom into something of a three-ring circus, ben begins to believe that maybe Jackie could be effective, but Nick Calabrese is furious and Judge Finestein repeatedly threatens the charismatic mobster with contempt of court. Jackies estranged wife, Bella, visits him in jail, where he is becoming increasingly frustrated, guards spy on him and prosecuting attorneys remove his favorite chair, causing considerable pain to Jackies injured back. He apologizes to the court and tries to mind his manners in the end, the prosecutors and the defense return to their offices expecting the jury to deliberate for at least a week. However, the comes to a decision after only 14 hours of deliberation. The jury reaches a verdict of not guilty for all, the entire courtroom reaches pandemonium as the family celebrates. The entire family hugs the twelve members as they leave. Meanwhile, Jackie is the one bound for jail, returning there to finish his sentence. Jackie is welcomed as a hero in the facility, where fellow prisoners chant Jackie. Find Me Guilty received mostly positive reviews, review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 61% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 104 reviews, with an average score of 6/10. The critical consensus is, Find Me Guiltys excessive length and heavy-handed narrative keep it from reaching its full potential, roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling Diesel a good choice for this role, bringing it sincerity without nobility. Ebert also praised the director, Lumet, who was able to see the serious dramatic potential of Vin Diesel, dismissed as an action star. The film had poor box office performance, on its first weekend
11.
The Iron Giant
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The Iron Giant is a 1999 American animated science-fiction comedy-drama action film using both traditional animation and computer animation, produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut and it is based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and is scripted by Tim McCanlies. The film stars the voices of Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr. John Mahoney, set during the Cold War in 1957, the film is about a young boy named Hogarth Hughes who discovers a giant metallic robot who fell from space. With the help of a beatnik artist named Dean McCoppin, they have to stop the U. S. military, the film was created traditionally, with computer-generated imagery used to animate the title character and other effects. The understaffed crew of the film completed it with half of the time, Michael Kamen produced the films score, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic. Upon its release, the film saw widespread critical acclaim from critics and it was nominated for several awards, winning nine Annie Awards out of fifteen nominations. Through home video releases and television syndication, the film gathered a following and is now widely regarded as a modern animated classic. In 2015, an extended, remastered version of the film was re-released theatrically, shortly after the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes of the fictional town of Rockwell, Maine spots a meteorite crash into a nearby forest. Investigating, he finds a giant robot being electrocuted as it tries to eat the transmission lines of an electrical substation, Hogarth turns off the station, and the robot runs off. Hogarth tracks down and befriends the robot, finding it docile, when it tries to eat railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train, Hogarth tries to have the robot repair the damage, but the train collides with its head and derails. Hogarth helps usher the robot away from the scene, discovering that its parts are drawn to the robot. Hogarth hides the robot in his familys barn, after dinner with his widowed mother Annie, Hogarth reads comics to the robot. The robot is impressed with the adventures of Superman, but is agitated by how the villainous Atomo the Metal Menace is depicted, Hogarth calms the robot by telling it you are who you choose to be. The recent incidents lead U. S. government agent Kent Mansley to town and he discovers evidence of Hogarths involvement and rents a room in their house to stay close to the boy. Hogarth ditches Kent long enough to move the robot to a junkyard owned by beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, nevertheless, the easily spooked Kent issues orders for the military, led by General Shannon Rogard, to move into town. Hogarth enjoys his time with the robot but is forced to explain the nature of death when they witness hunters kill a deer, one day, Hogarth is playing with the robot using a toy gun. The robot involuntarily reveals several powerful weapons, and Dean rescues Hogarth before one strikes him, the robot reverts to its docile form and Dean orders it away for Hogarths safety, but Hogarth gives chase. Dean realizes the robot was acting in self-defense and quickly catches up to Hogarth as they follow the robot into town, the robot saves two boys falling from a roof when it arrives, impressing the townspeople
12.
Groot
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Groot is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers, an extraterrestrial, sentient tree-like creature, the original Groot first appeared as an invader that intended to capture humans for experimentation. The character was reintroduced as a heroic, noble being in 2006, Groot went on to star in its spin-off series, Guardians of the Galaxy, joining the team of the same name. Groot has been featured in a variety of associated Marvel merchandise, including animated series, toys. Vin Diesel voices Groot in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, since his film premiere, Groot has become a pop culture icon, with his repeated line I am Groot becoming an internet meme. Groot first appeared in Tales to Astonish #13, and was created by Stan Lee, Groot appeared again in The Incredible Hulk Annual #5, alongside five other monsters from Marvels anthology horror comics of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In The Sensational Spider-Man #−1, Groot was featured in a nightmare of the young Peter Parker, Groot reappeared in 2006 in the six issue limited series Nick Furys Howling Commandos, and appeared in the Annihilation, Conquest and Annihilation, Conquest – Star-Lord limited series. Groot went on to join the Guardians of the Galaxy in the series of the same name, Groot appeared in issues #6–8 of Avengers Assemble as a member of the Guardians. Groot is one of the stars of Guardians of the Galaxy vol,3, a part of the Marvel NOW. relaunch. Groot is a Flora colossus from Planet X, the capital of the branch worlds, other beings try to be friendly but become angry with the Flora colossi for not being able to speak. Groot was shown to be capable of speaking not just understandably but eloquently throughout Annihilation, Planet Xs biome is managed by Maintenance Mammals which are small squirrel-like beings. The Flora colossus sapling that would come to be known as Groot came from an Ennobled Sap-line, Groot did not get along with fellow saplings but instead preferred the company of the Maintenance Mammals, which the other saplings treated with prejudice. Groot was exiled by the Arbor Masters after killing another sapling to defend a maintenance mammal it was brutalizing, an alternate origin was presented in the Groot ongoing series. In the story, it is revealed that the other Flora colossi had been abducting organisms from other planets, after seeing Hannah, Groot realized what his people were doing was wrong and managed to save the child and send her back to Earth. Yet another alternate origin was presented in Guardians of Infinity, written by Edgardo Miranda Rodriguez, wherein a woman makes the claim that Groot is a tree from Ponce. According to Puerto Rican folklore, a tree is believed to possess the spirits of the indigenous Taino population that formerly thrived on the Caribbean island. By her logic, the woman considers Groot to be Puerto Rican, Groot is an extraterrestrial tree monster who initially came to Earth seeking humans to capture and study. Groot was seemingly destroyed by termites used by Leslie Evans, xemnu made a duplicate of Groot that was used to fight the Hulk, but it was destroyed in the battle
13.
Marvel Studios
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Previously, the studio was a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment until The Walt Disney Company reorganized the companies in August 2015. X-Men and Spider-Man and other Marvel franchises are licensed out to 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures, Marvel Studios has released 14 films since 2008 within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Iron Man to Doctor Strange. These films all share continuity with other, along with the One-Shots produced by the studio. During what is known as Marvels Timely era, Captain America was licensed out to Republic Pictures for a serial just for the free advertising, in the late 1970s up to the early 1990s, Marvel Entertainment Group sold options to studios to produce films based on Marvel Comics characters. Spider-Man, one of Marvel’s superheroes, was optioned in the late 1970s, from 1986 to 1996, most of Marvel’s major characters had been optioned, including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Iron Man. A Howard the Duck film made it to the screen in 1986, New World Entertainment purchased MEG in November 1986 and moved to produce films based on the Marvel characters. It released The Punisher before MEG was sold to Ronald Perelmans Andrews Group, two other films were produced, Captain America released in the United Kingdom on screens and direct to video in the United States, and The Fantastic Four, not intended for release. Marvels rival DC Comics, on the hand, had success licensing its properties Superman and Batman into successful film franchises. New World was MEGs former parent corporation and later a subsidiary of the Andrews Group. Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 as Marvel would start up Marvel Films including Marvel Films Animation, Marvel Films Animation shared Tom Tataranowicz with New World Animation as head of development and production. New World Animation, Saban, and Marvel Films Animation each produced a Marvel series for television for the 1996–1997 season and it was Marvel Films Animations only production. By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox struck a deal to make a film based on the X-Men, New World Animation and Marvel Films Animation were sold along with the rest of New World by Andrews Group to News Corporation/Fox as announced in August 1996. As part of the deal, Marvel licensed the rights to Captain America, Daredevil and Silver Surfer to be on Fox Kids Network, New World Animation continued producing a second season of The Incredible Hulk for UPN. In August 1996, Marvel created Marvel Studios, an incorporation of Marvel Films, due to the sale of New World Communications Group, Marvels fellow Andrews Group subsidiary in film and television stations, to News Corporation/Fox. Toy Biz filed an offering of 7.5 million shares with a price of $20.125 at the time. Toy Biz sought to sell 1 million shares, and Marvel sought to sell 2.5 million shares. Jerry Calabrese, the president of Marvel Entertainment Group, and Avi Arad, head of Marvel Films, Arad said of the goal for control, When you get into business with a big studio, they are developing a hundred or 500 projects, you get totally lost. Were just not going to do it anymore, Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally
14.
Guardians of the Galaxy (film)
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Guardians of the Galaxy is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill forms an uneasy alliance with a group of extraterrestrial misfits who are fleeing after stealing a powerful artifact. Perlman began working on the screenplay in 2009, Gunn was hired to write and direct the film that September. In February 2013, Pratt was hired to play Peter Quill / Star-Lord, principal photography began in July 2013 at Shepperton Studios, England, with filming continuing in London before wrapping up in October 2013. Post-production was finished on July 7,2014, the film premiered in Hollywood on July 21,2014. It was released in theaters on August 1,2014 in the United States in the 3D, the film garnered praise for its humor, action, soundtrack, visual effects, direction, musical score, and acting. A sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, is scheduled to be released on May 5,2017, in 1988, following his mothers death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals an orb but is attacked by Korath, although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb. When Quill attempts to sell the orb on Xandar, capital of the Nova Empire, Gamora ambushes him, a fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters, the genetically and cybernetically modified raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. Nova Corps officers capture the four, detaining them in the Kyln, a powerful inmate there, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill convinces Drax that Gamora can bring Ronan to him, though Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, Quill, Rocket, Groot, and Drax work with her to escape the Kyln in Quills ship, the Milano. Ronan meets with Gamoras adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss her betrayal, Quills group flee to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed head of a Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meet Gamoras contact, Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Tivans tormented assistant grabs the Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivans archive, Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronans followers and Gamoras adoptive sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamoras ship, leaving her floating in space, Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive, Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondus ship to rescue them, Quills group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they cannot let him use the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronans flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in his warhammer and he contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him after first destroying Xandar, hateful of her adoptive father, Nebula allies with Ronan
15.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
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It is intended to be the sequel to 2014s Guardians of the Galaxy and the fifteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, the Guardians travel throughout the cosmos as they help Peter Quill learn more about his true parentage, the film began principal photography in February 2016 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, and concluded in June 2016. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 is scheduled to have its premiere in Hollywood on April 19,2017, describing where Quill is at the start of the film, Pratt said, hes famous now in the galaxy for having saved so many people. He feels like hes part of group, a leader of this group. Hes a little more responsible and trying to out of trouble. Pratt stated that working on the film forced him to come to terms with the death of his father, Pratt returns as part of a multi-film contract with Marvel. Zoe Saldana as Gamora, A member of the Guardians who is an orphan from a world who seeks redemption for her past crimes. She was trained by Thanos to be his personal assassin, regarding Gamoras relationship with Nebula, Saldana described it as volatile and added, were starting somewhere very crazy but appropriate given where we had ended things off in the first film. Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, A member of the Guardians and he also added that the Guardians become more of a solid family in the film, with Drax getting closer and more caring with the other Guardians. Bautistas makeup took only 90 minutes to apply, down four hours for the first film. He added that he would have to sit in a sauna at the end of the day to get the makeup off, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, A member of the Guardians who is a tree-like humanoid and the accomplice of Rocket. Diesel also provided Groots voice for sixteen foreign-language releases of the film, as Groot is smaller in the film than in the first and known as Baby Groot, executive producer Jonathan Schwartz said, He doesnt have the wisdom and experience of that Groot. Hes a younger Groot and a more rambunctious Groot, Schwartz also stated the film would examine if he was the same Groot, just smaller. Or is he a different Groot thats sprung up from the seed of the first Groot, Diesel added that Baby Groot couldnt be more naive and felt the Groot seen in the first film was a college level Groot. Hes not fully grown yet, but hes a man, now he has to start all over, so to speak. So were going to see this goofy, adorable, baby Groot thing running around the screen, just kinda learning as he goes. Regarding Groots previous memories, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige added, hes not mentally a baby, he is still Groot. I sort of equate it to Spock circa the end of, however James Gunn later clarified that Baby Groot does not have any of his previous memories
16.
Avengers: Infinity War
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Avengers, Infinity War is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is intended to be the sequel to 2012s Marvels The Avengers and 2015s Avengers, Age of Ultron, in Avengers, Infinity War, the Avengers join forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy to confront Thanos. The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers, Infinity War – Part 1, the Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015 and by May, Markus and McFeely signed on to write the script for the film. In July 2016, Marvel shortened the titled to Avengers, Infinity War, filming began in January 2017, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel until October/November 2017. Additional filming took place in Scotland, Avengers, Infinity War is scheduled to be released on May 4,2018, in IMAX. An untitled sequel is scheduled to be released on May 3,2019, co-director Joe Russo said that Tony senses this greater threat approaching, so he is doing everything in his power to keep the Earth safe. Josh Brolin as Thanos, A powerful being who longs to collect all of the Infinity Stones in order to conquer the universe, co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely noted that Thanos wants to amass the Infinity Stones so he can re-balance the universe as he sees it. In addition to providing the voice for the character, Brolin performed motion capture on set, on choosing to portray Thanos, Brolin said that his good friend Marvel Studios co-president Louis DEsposito called me up and started talking about this thing. It was nice because I could intimately talk to him about it, what I didnt like about the whole idea of it. It was really exciting because of the possibilities that it could become, not as an idea or as a blockbuster, but just as something different. Brolin was looking to explore the humanity of the character, saying there are parts of him that are unfounded to me, which will be found. Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk, An Avenger and a genius scientist who, because of exposure to gamma radiation, tom Hiddleston as Loki, Thors adoptive brother and nemesis based on the deity of the same name. Joe Russo added, His responsibility to himself is now in conflict with his responsibility to others and his road forward involves figuring out who Steve Rogers is without the shield. Chris Hemsworth as Thor, An Avenger and the prince of Asgard. Joe Russo stated that Thors storyline picks up after the events of Thor, Ragnarok, very interesting place and gives him a real emotional motivation after that. Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, A master archer and former agent of S. H. I. E. L. D, who is a member of Rogers faction of Avengers. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, A member of Rogers faction of Avengers, sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, An enhanced assassin and Rogers ally and best friend, who reemerged brainwashed after being thought killed in action during World War II. Aaron Lazar will serve as Cumberbatchs stand-in during filming, until the latter completes filming on The Current War, at that point, Cumberbatch will re-shoot scenes where his face needs to be seen
17.
Multi-Facial
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Multi-Facial is a 1995 American short drama film written, directed, produced, and scored by Vin Diesel. The film stars Diesel as an actor and depicts the professional and emotional issues he faces. Multi-Facial was noticed by Steven Spielberg, who would cast Diesel in Saving Private Ryan and it was released on DVD in 1999. Mike, an actor with a tattooed arm, auditions for a role as an Italian man. He delivers a profanity-laced anecdote in an Italian accent, about getting into a fight with another man in a restaurant for looking at his girlfriend. The anecdote ends with Mike saying that he discovered the man was a homosexual, so he beat up his girlfriend instead, the casting director expresses interest and has Mike speak Italian before telling him theyll get back to him. When the director asks Mike where the came from, Mike says that its a true story that happened to his friend. Outside, Mike calls his manager without an Italian accent and he complains about the monologue, which wasnt a true story, saying it was offensive and worries that it will keep him from getting the job. He wipes the fake tattoo off his arm and goes to his next audition, at an audition for a commercial, Mike meets a black actor in the waiting room and the two of them talk about their careers. Mike tells the actor about the audition he just left, the actor tells Mike he has just landed a role in an international commercial, but Mike says he doesnt want to do commercials because no great actors have had to do commercials. Before he can audition, the director tells Mike that his skin is a little too light and he suggests Mike audition for a Spanish role in a soap opera instead. Mike goes to audition and reads with a Cuban accent alongside a Hispanic actress. The two of them are portraying an argument, but when the actress launches into Spanish, Mike is unable to continue, as they leave the audition, the actress guesses correctly that Mike doesnt speak Spanish. She suggests that he try out for an opera which is looking for Hispanic actors. Mike attends another audition, where the reading with him tells him that she really thinks he could do well. Mike does the reading with her in a heavy urban accent, Mike moves on to another audition, where they are expecting him from a previous audition. The casting director sees on his resume that Mike can rap, afterwards, Mike sits down and does a monologue about being a young man watching his father on stage in a performance of Raisin in the Sun. During his fathers performance, Mike came to believe that his father wanted him to be a black actor
18.
Strays (1997 film)
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This film marked Diesels feature film directing debut and takes a hard look at his own adolescence and upbringing in New York City. Frustrated by the repetitious grind of one-night stands and aimless hustling, like his testosterone-tweaked buddies, Rick is a stray looking for a traditional family structure and wrestling unconsciously with his own fathers absence. When he meets Heather, the next door, he suddenly perceives a new avenue. Trying to assimilate into Heathers world, Rick takes heat from his perpetually adolescent cohorts whose ambitions are restricted to riding fast, toking slow, and ditching hard. Though the chemistry between the couple is immediately charged, Ricks street chic and volatile aggression threatens to extinguish their relationship before it has ever begun. Vin Diesel as Rick Suzanne Lanza as Heather Joey Dedio as Fred F. Valentino Morales as Tony Mike Epps as Mike T. K
19.
Tigon Studios
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Tigon Studios is a video game developer owned by One Race Films focused primarily on games featuring actor Vin Diesel, who also founded the company. Following a suspension of development work, Diesel reactivated the company in September 2013, the Chronicles of Riddick, Escape from Butcher Bay is set before the films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. Wheelman is a game developed by Midway Studios Newcastle and published by Ubisoft and Midway Games for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. The game is set in an open-world environment modeled after Barcelona, full of objects, alleyways, shortcuts through office blocks. While most missions are driving-oriented, there are also missions that are played from a third-person perspective. The Chronicles of Riddick, Assault on Dark Athena is another game in the Riddick universe for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and it also contains a remake of Escape From Butcher Bay. Vivendi Games, Sierra Entertainment, Tigon Games, Starbreeze Studios and Universal Pictures worked on the project, featuring new content, after the Activision-Blizzard merger, the game was dropped. It has since picked up by Atari, and was released on April 7,2009. Riddick, The Merc Files is a top-down view stealth-action game where the player controls Riddick, even though the gameplay focuses on stealth, the player has the option to use melee attacks and guns to take down enemies. However, using stealth attacks and remaining undetected generated more points for the player, the game was developed by Gaming Corps in Uppsala/Sweden and released on September 20,2013 through iTunes for iPhone and iPad. Perrone, Raised on Honor is a based on the careers of New York City Police Officer Frank Frankie Dynamite Perrone. The game follows Perrones career and his unwillingness to rat on his mobster contacts, Perrone seeks to put the player into the shoes of the cop who graced the departments most violence-prone cops list, and to play out the biography of a decade of his life. Melkor is a based on one of Vin Diesels Dungeons & Dragons characters. Melkor is an epic that has been scheduled to be a series of games. According to the website, Melkors game-style is influenced by Dungeons & Dragons, Conan, in 2006 Barca B. C. was developed as a MMORPG. Later the genre was changed into a third-person action real-time strategy and it is based on the historical Punic Wars of Hannibal Barca. The player controls Hannibals forces during his campaigns against Rome
20.
Astrology
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Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events. Throughout most of its history astrology was considered a tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology. It was present in political circles, and is mentioned in works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in it has largely declined, Astrology is now recognized to be pseudoscience. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron, astrologia later passed into meaning star-divination with astronomia used for the scientific term. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in systems used to predict seasonal shifts. A form of astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia, Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty. Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, Alexander the Greats conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with Chaldean wisdom, after the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe, major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer. Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and it was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new concepts in astronomy. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined, Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. This was a first step towards recording the Moons influence upon tides and rivers, by the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa thought to be compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE, a scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash
21.
English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
22.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
23.
Scottish people
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The Scottish people, or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century, and are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celts. Later, the neighbouring Cumbrian Britons, who spoke a Celtic language, as well as Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons. In modern usage, Scottish people or Scots is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, the Latin word Scotti, originally the word referred specifically to the Gaels, but came to describe all inhabitants of Scotland. Considered archaic or pejorative, the term Scotch has also used for Scottish people. John Kenneth Galbraith in his book The Scotch documents the descendants of 19th-century Scottish pioneers who settled in Southwestern Ontario and he states the book was meant to give a true picture of life in the community in the early decades of the 20th century. People of Scottish descent live in countries other than Scotland. Scottish emigrants took with them their Scottish languages and culture, large populations of Scottish people settled the new-world lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Canada has the highest level of Scottish descendants per capita in the world, Scotland has seen migration and settlement of many peoples at different periods in its history. The Gaels, the Picts and the Britons have their origin myths. The Venerable Bede tells of the Scotti coming from Spain via Ireland, Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxons, arrived beginning in the 7th century, while the Norse invaded and colonized parts of Scotland from the 8th century onwards. In the High Middle Ages, from the reign of David I of Scotland, there was emigration from France, England. Some famous Scottish family names, including bearing the names which became Bruce, Balliol, Murray. Today Scotland is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, culturally, these peoples are grouped according to language. Most of Scotland until the 13th century spoke Celtic languages and these included, at least initially, the Britons, as well as the Gaels and the Picts. Germanic peoples included the Angles of Northumbria, who settled in south-eastern Scotland in the region between the Firth of Forth to the north and the River Tweed to the south. They also occupied the south-west of Scotland up to and including the Plain of Kyle and their language, south-east of the Firth of Forth, then in Lothian and the Borders, a northern variety of Old English, also known as Early Scots, was spoken. The Northern Isles and some parts of Caithness were Norn-speaking, from 1500 on, Scotland was commonly divided by language into two groups of people, Gaelic-speaking Highlanders and the Inglis-speaking Lowlanders
24.
Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States
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Anti-miscegenation laws were a part of American law since before the United States was established and remained so until ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by the U. S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia. In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws were laws passed by individual states to prohibit miscegenation, nowadays more commonly referred to as interracial marriage. Typically defining miscegenation as a felony, these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Sometimes, the individuals attempting to marry would not be guilty of miscegenation itself. All anti-miscegenation laws banned the marriage of whites and non-white groups, primarily blacks, in many states, anti-miscegenation laws also criminalized cohabitation and sex between whites and non-whites. While anti-miscegenation laws are regarded as a Southern phenomenon, most western. Although anti-miscegenation amendments were proposed in United States Congress in 1871, 1912–1913 and 1928, prior to the California Supreme Courts ruling in Perez v. Sharp, no court in the United States had ever struck down a ban on interracial marriage. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional. At first, in the 1660s, the first laws in Virginia, in 1664, Maryland enacted a law which criminalized such marriages—the 1681 marriage of Irish-born Nell Butler to an African slave was an early example of the application of this law. Virginia was the first English colony in North America to pass a law forbidding free blacks and whites to intermarry, followed by Maryland in 1692. This was the first time in American history that a law was invented that restricted access to marriage partners solely on the basis of race, later these laws also spread to colonies in the Thirteen Colonies with fewer slaves and free blacks, such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Moreover, after the independence of the United States had been established, a sizable number of the early indentured servants in the British American colonies were brought over from the Indian subcontinent by the British East India Company. Anti-miscegenation laws discouraging interracial marriage between white Americans and non-whites affected South Asian immigrants as early as the 17th century, for example, a Eurasian daughter born to an Indian father and Irish mother in Maryland in 1680 was classified as a mulatto and sold into slavery. Anti-miscegenation laws there continued into the early 20th century, for example, the Bengali revolutionary Tarak Nath Dass white American wife, Mary K. Das, was stripped of her American citizenship for her marriage to an alien ineligible for citizenship. In 1918, there was controversy in Arizona when an Indian farmer B. K. Singh married the sixteen-year-old daughter of one of his white tenants. In 1685, the French government issued a special Code Noir restricted to Louisiana, however, interracial cohabitation and interracial sex were never prohibited in French Louisiana. The situation of the children followed the situation of the mother, under Spanish rule, interracial marriage was possible with parental consent under the age of 25 and without it when the partners were older. In 1806, three years after the U. S. gained control over the state, interracial marriage was again banned
25.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
26.
Theater for the New City
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Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 and known familiarly as TNC, is one of New York Citys leading Off-Off-Broadway theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, TNC currently exists as a 4-theater complex in a 30, 000-square-foot space located at 155 1st Avenue, in Manhattans East Village. Crystal Field and George Bartenieff founded Theater for the New City in 1971 with Theo Barnes and Lawrence Kornfeld, who was the Resident Director of Judson Poets Theatre, where the four had met. Feeling that Judson Poets Theatre had peaked, they decided to form a theater of their own for poetic work that would encompass a community ideal. The impulse to form a company coincided with the availability of a space at the Westbeth Artists Community in the West Village. Bartenieff, Field, Barnes and Kornfeld named their new company Theater for the New City after a speech in which then-Mayor John V. Lindsay envisioned a new city for all, the theater officially opened in March 1971. Its initial two seasons included plays by Richard Foreman, Charles Ludlam, Miguel Piñero and Jean-Claude van Itallie, Theater for the New City also began its Annual Summer Street Theater, and founded the Village Halloween Parade with puppeteer Ralph Lee. TNC subsequently inaugurated its Village Halloween Costume Ball, which it holds to this day. TNC saw some changes in its first year. Kornfeld and Barnes resigned, leaving Bartenieff as Executive Director and Field as Artistic Director. TNC also moved from Westbeth Artists Community and found a new home in the Jane West, mabou Mines found a home at Theater for the New City as did playwrights such as Romulus Linney, Harvey Fierstein, H. M. Koutoukas, Arthur Sainer and Maria Irene Fornes. A musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince in 1973 featured a young Tim Robbins in the title role, the 1976 play Dinosaur Door by Barbara Garson featured a young Vin Diesel. Notable productions in the late 1970s and 1980s include the American premiere of two of Heiner Muller’s plays, Hamletmachine in 1984 and Quartett in 1985, and Buried Child by Sam Shepard in 1978. The Theater for the New City production of Buried Child moved Off-Broadway to the Theatre de Lys and in 1979, and became the first Off-Off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize. Rent in New York City began to increase exponentially in the early 1980s, with the help of Bess Myerson, Ruth Messinger and David Dinkins, the theater was able to purchase an underutilized 30, 000-square-foot former WPA building one block east at 155 First Avenue in 1986. The first Halloween Ball to take place in the new location was held in tents pitched on 10th Street because a Certificate of Occupancy hadnt yet been obtained. The first completed theater was created with the help of sculptor John Seward Johnson II of the Johnson & Johnson family, in honor of its benefactors, it was named the Joyce and Seward Johnson Theater. It is currently one of the largest theaters Off-Off-Broadway, renovation of the building was finally completed in 2001
27.
Greenwich Village
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Greenwich Village, often referred to by locals as simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Greenwich Village has been known as a haven, the Bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement. Groenwijck, one of the Dutch names for the village, was Anglicized to Greenwich, two of New Yorks private colleges, New York University and the New School, are located in Greenwich Village. The neighborhoods surrounding it are the East Village and NoHo to the east, SoHo to the south, the East Village was formerly considered part of the Lower East Side and never associated with Greenwich Village. The western part of Greenwich Village is known as the West Village, some believe it starts at Seventh Avenue and its southern extension, a border to the west of which the neighborhood changes substantially in character and becomes heavily residential. The Far West Village is another sub-neighborhood of Greenwich Village that is bordered on its west by the Hudson River and on its east by Hudson Street. Greenwich Village is located in New Yorks 10th congressional district, New Yorks 25th State Senate district, New Yorks 66th State Assembly district, encyclopaedia Britannicas 1956 article on New York states that the southern border of the Village is Spring Street, reflecting an earlier understanding. The newer district of SoHo has since encroached on the Villages historic border, many of the neighborhoods streets are narrow and some curve at odd angles. This is generally regarded as adding to both the character and charm of the neighborhood. In addition, as the meandering Greenwich Street used to be on the Hudson River shoreline, much of the neighborhood west of Greenwich Street is on landfill, but still follows the older street grid. When Sixth and Seventh Avenues were built in the early 20th century, they were built diagonally to the street plan. Unlike the streets of most of Manhattan above Houston Street, streets in the Village typically are named rather than numbered, while some of the formerly named streets are now numbered, they still do not always conform to the usual grid pattern when they enter the neighborhood. The Districts convoluted borders run no farther south than 4th Street or St. Lukes Place, redevelopment in that area is severely restricted, and developers must preserve the main façade and aesthetics of the buildings during renovation. In the 16th century, Native Americans referred to its farthest northwest corner, by the cove on the Hudson River at present-day Gansevoort Street, the land was cleared and turned into pasture by Dutch and freed African settlers in the 1630s, who named their settlement Noortwyck. In the 1630s, Governor Wouter van Twiller farmed tobacco on 200 acres here at his Farm in the Woods, sir Peter Warren began accumulating land in 1731 and built a frame house capacious enough to hold a sitting of the Assembly when smallpox rendered the city dangerous in 1739. The building was designed by Joseph-François Mangin, who would later co-design New York City Hall, by 1821, the prison, designed for 432 inmates, held 817 instead, a number made possible only by the frequent release of prisoners, sometimes as many as 50 a day. The oldest house remaining in Greenwich Village is the Isaacs-Hendricks House, when the Church of St. Luke in the Fields was founded in 1820 it stood in fields south of the road that led from Greenwich Lane down to a landing on the North River. In 1822, a fever epidemic in New York encouraged residents to flee to the healthier air of Greenwich Village
28.
Hunter College
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Hunter College, located in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, an American public university. The College offers studies in more than an undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also administers Hunter College High School and Hunter College Elementary School, Hunter was founded in 1870 as a womens college. The main campus has been located on Park Avenue since 1873, in 2012, Hunter announced a partnership with Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center and plans to develop a shared health-science campus on East 74th Street. The college is the one in the nation whose roster of alumni includes two female Nobel laureates in medicine. Hunter College has its origins in the 19th-century movement for normal school training which swept across the United States, Hunter descends from the Female Normal and High School, established in New York City in 1870. Founded by Irish immigrant Thomas Hunter, who was president of the school during the first 37 years, it was originally a womens college for training teachers. The school, which was housed in an armory and saddle store at Broadway and East Fourth Street in Manhattan, was open to all qualified women, irrespective of race, at the time most womens colleges had racial or ethno-religious admissions criteria. Created by the New York State Legislature, Hunter was deemed the only approved institution for those seeking to teach in New York City, the school incorporated an elementary and high school for gifted children, where students practiced teaching. In 1887, a kindergarten was established as well, the first female professor at the school, Helen Gray Cone, was elected to the position in 1899. The hall was designed by the architect Snyder. In 1888 the school was incorporated as a college under the statutes of New York State, after 1902 when the Normal course of study was abolished, the Academic course became standard across the student body. In 1914 the Normal College became Hunter College in honor of its first president, at the same time, the college was experiencing a period of great expansion as increasing student enrollments necessitated more space. The college reacted by establishing branches in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, by 1920, Hunter College had the largest enrollment of women of any municipally financed college in the United States. In 1930, Hunters Brooklyn campus merged with City Colleges Brooklyn campus, between 1938 and 1939 the garden at Park Avenue was given up for the construction of the north building. The expansion also destroyed a part of the neo-gothic original structure. Only the back part facing Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th street remain from the original building, the late 1930s saw the construction of Hunter College in the Bronx. During the Second World War, Hunter leased the Bronx Campus buildings to the United States Navy who used the facilities to train 95,000 women volunteers for service as WAVES
29.
Fast & Furious (2009 film)
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Fast & Furious is a 2009 American action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, the film serves as a connection from the first film into a present-day setting, with main members of the original cast reprising their roles. The film is set between the second installment and third installment. Originally released on April 3,2009, the film received negative reviews upon release and it was followed by Fast Five in 2011. Dominic suspects that the police are on their trail, forcing the crew to disband and go their separate ways, realizing that he must leave, he runs, leaving Letty behind to protect her from harm. Three months later, Dominic is now residing in Panama City and he gets a call from his sister, Mia Toretto, who tells him that Letty has been murdered. Dominic heads back to Los Angeles to attend her funeral and examine the crash, meanwhile, F. B. I. agent Brian OConner is trying to track down a drug lord, Arturo Braga. His search leads him to David Park, and he tracks him down using an illegal modification record on his car, Dominic arrives at Parks apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before Brian arrives. Brian saves Park and Park becomes the F. B. I. s new informant, Park gets Brian into a street race. Brian selects a modified 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from the impound lot, Dominic races in his modified Chevelle. Gisele Yashar, the liaison for Braga, reveals that the winner will become the last driver on a team that traffics heroin between the Mexico–United States border, Dominic wins by bumping Brians car while it is in nitro, making him lose control. Brian uses his power as an F. B. I. agent to arrest another driver, Dwight Mueller, the team meets one of Bragas men, Fenix, and Dominic notices that Fenix drives the same Torino the mechanic described. They drive across the border using underground tunnels to avoid detection, Brian has prior knowledge that after the heroin was delivered Braga ordered the drivers to be killed. Fenix killed Letty personally, and after a stand-off, Dominic detonates his car with nitrous to distract Bragas men, and Brian hijacks a 1999 Hummer H1 with $60 million worth of heroin in it. Dominic and Brian drive back to L. A. and hide the heroin in an impound lot, where Brian picks up a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STI Hatchback. Brian tells his superiors that in exchange for Dominics pardon, he will lure Braga into a trap, at the drop site, the man who claims to be Braga is revealed as a decoy, and Campos, the real Braga, escapes and flees to Mexico. Brian and Dominic travel to Mexico to catch Braga and they find him at a church and apprehend him
30.
Awakenings
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Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sackss 1973 memoir of the same title. It tells the story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer. He administered it to patients who survived the 1917–28 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe and the rest of the patients were awakened after decades of catatonia and have to deal with a new life in a new time, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards. Directed by Penny Marshall, the film was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, Awakenings stars Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, and Max von Sydow. Also, a then-unknown Vin Diesel appeared, uncredited, in the playing a psych-ward orderly. In 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer is a dedicated and caring physician at a hospital in the New York City borough of The Bronx. Leonard Lowe proves elusive in this regard, but Sayer soon discovers that Leonard is able to communicate with him by using a Ouija board, a trial run with Leonard yields astounding results, Leonard completely awakens from his catatonic state. This success inspires Sayer to ask for funding from donors so that all the patients can receive the L-Dopa medication. Meanwhile, Leonard is adjusting to his new life and becomes interested in Paula. Leonard also begins to chafe at the restrictions placed upon him as a patient of the hospital, desiring the freedom to come and he stirs up a revolt by arguing his case to Sayer and the hospital administration. Sayer notices that as Leonard grows more agitated, a number of facial and body tics are starting to manifest, while Sayer and the hospital staff are thrilled by the success of L-Dopa with this group of patients, they soon find that it is a temporary measure. As the first to awaken, Leonard is also the first to demonstrate the limited duration of this period of awakening. Leonards tics grow more and more prominent and he starts to shuffle more as he walks and he soon begins to suffer full body spasms and can hardly move. Leonard puts up well with the pain, and asks Sayer to film him, Leonard acknowledges what is happening to him and has a last lunch with Paula where he tells her he cannot see her anymore. When he is about to leave, Paula dances with him, Leonard and Sayer reconcile their differences, but Leonard returns to his catatonic state soon after. The other patients fears are realized as each eventually returns to catatonia no matter how much their L-Dopa dosages are increased. Sayer tells a group of grant donors to the hospital that although the awakening did not last, another kind — one of learning to appreciate and live life — took place
31.
Cannes Film Festival
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Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. On 1 July 2014, co-founder and former head of French pay-TV operator Canal+ Pierre Lescure took over as President of the festival, the Board of Directors also appointed Gilles Jacob as Honorary President of the festival. The 2016 Cannes Film Festival took place between 11 and 22 May 2016, australian film director George Miller was the President of the Jury. I, Daniel Blake, directed by British director Ken Loach, in 2017, The Festival de Cannes will celebrate its 70th anniversary edition from May 17 to 28. In 1947, the festival was held as the Festival du film de Cannes, at that time the principle of equality was introduced, with a jury made up of only one representative per country. The festival is now held at the Palais des Festivals, expressly constructed for the occasion, although for its 1949 inaugural the roof was unfinished, the festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. Although its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with Autumns Venice Film Festival, in 1955, the Palme dOr was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival which had been given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Rio was the first female member of the jury as a Sélection officielle – Member, in 1959, the Marché du Film was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce, in 1962, the International Critics Week was born, created by the French Union of Film Critics as the first parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors all over the world. In 1965, an hommage was paid to Jean Cocteau after his death, the next year, Olivia de Havilland was named the first female president of the festival. The 1968 festival was halted on 19 May, some directors, such as Carlos Saura and Miloš Forman, had withdrawn their films from the competition. The filmmakers achieved the reinstatement of the President, and they founded the Film Directors Society that same year, during the 1970s, important changes occurred in the Festival. In 1972, Robert Favre Le Bret was named the new President and he immediately introduced an important change in the selection of the participating films. Until that date, the different countries chose which films would represent them in the festival, Bessy created one committee to select French films, and another for foreign films. In 1978, Gilles Jacob assumed the President position, introducing the Caméra dOr award, in 1983, a new, much bigger Palais des Festivals et des Congrès was built to host the Festival. It was nicknamed The Bunker and provoked many reactions against it, in 1984, Pierre Viot replaced Robert Favre Le Bret as President of the Festival. It was not until 1995 that Gilles Jacob created the last section of the Official Selection and its aim was to support the creation of works of cinema in the world and to contribute to the entry of the new scenario writers in the circle of the celebrities
32.
Sundance Film Festival
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The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, is an American film festival that takes place annually in Park City, Utah. With 46,660 attendees in 2016, it is the largest independent film festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the 2017 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to January 29,2017. Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978, as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to more filmmakers to Utah. It was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen, John Earle, the 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, and The Sweet Smell of Success. The festival also highlighted the work of filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system. The jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison, and included Verna Fields, Linwood G. Dunn, Katharine Ross, Charles E. Sellier Jr. Mark Rydell, and Anthea Sylbert. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, also that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to Jimmy Stewart. The festival also made a profit for the first time, in 1980, Catania left the festival to pursue a production career in Hollywood. Several factors helped propel the growth of Utah/US Film Festival, first was the involvement of actor and Utah resident Robert Redford, who became the festivals inaugural chairman. By having Redfords name associated with the festival, it received great attention, secondly, the country was hungry for more venues that would celebrate American-made films as the only other festival doing so at the time was the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Response in Hollywood was unprecedented as major studios did all they could to contribute their resources, in 1981, the festival moved to Park City, Utah, and changed the dates from September to January. It was called the US Film and Video Festival, in 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc. by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991 the festival was renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redfords character The Sundance Kid from the film Butch Cassidy. The majority of the screenings, including the festivals premieres. The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held April 25–28,2013, Sundance London 2014 took place on April 25–27,2014 at the O2 arena. The Sundance London 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on January 16,2015, Sundance London will return to London in 2016 from June 10–12 at Picturehouse Cinema in Londons West End
33.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
34.
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
35.
Saving Private Ryan
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Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war drama film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. It follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller and a squad as they search for a paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen. The film received acclaim, winning several awards for film, cast. The film grossed US$481.8 million worldwide, making it the film of the year. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, Spielbergs direction won his second Academy Award for Best Director, Saving Private Ryan was released on home video in May 1999, earning another $44 million from sales. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed culturally, historically, in the late 1990s, an elderly World War II veteran and his family visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France. The veteran walks around the cemetery and, upon seeing one specific gravestone, collapses to his knees, on the morning of June 6,1944, the beginning of the Normandy Invasion, American soldiers prepare to land on Omaha Beach. They suffer heavily from their struggle against German infantry, machine gun nests, after the battle, the body of a dead soldier lying face down on the beach, with S. Ryan stenciled on the back of his pack, is shown. Meanwhile, in Washington, D. C, at the U. S, War Department, General George Marshall is informed that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family were killed in action and that their mother is to receive all three telegrams on the same day. He learns that the son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, is a paratrooper and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy. Marshall, after reading Abraham Lincolns Bixby letter, orders that Ryan must be found, three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders to find Ryan and bring him back from the front. He assembles six men from his company—T/Sgt, Miller and his men move out to Neuville, there, they meet a squad from the 101st Airborne Division. Caparzo dies after being shot by a sniper, eventually, they locate a Private James Ryan, but soon learn that he is not their man. They find a member of Ryans regiment who informs them that his drop zone was at Vierville, once they reach it, Miller meets a friend of Ryans, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically important bridge over the Merderet River in the fictional town of Ramelle. On the way to Ramelle, Miller decides to neutralize a German machine gun position, no longer confident in Millers leadership, Reiben declares his intention to desert the squad and the mission, prompting a confrontation with Horvath. The argument heats up until Miller defuses the situation by disclosing his background in civilian life, Reiben then reluctantly decides to stay. Upon arrival at Ramelle, Miller and the squad come upon a group of paratroopers. Ryan is told of his brothers deaths, the mission to bring him home, and that two men had been lost in the quest to find him
36.
Boiler Room (film)
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Screenwriter Ben Younger interviewed for a job at brokerage firm Sterling Foster. Younger said, I walked in and immediately realized, This is my movie, I mean, you see these kids and know something is going on. In 1999, Seth Davis, a 19-year-old Queens College dropout, runs a casino in his home near the campus. Although he earns a living, he is a disappointment to his father, Marty. One night, his cousin Adam stops by the casino to play blackjack, Greg recruits Seth to join J. T. Marlin, a brokerage firm based somewhere off the Long Island Expressway, promising him that he has the opportunity to get rich. Arriving at J. T. Marlin, Seth attends an interview and learns from Jim Young, one of the co-founders of the firm, what is expected of his work. The brokers love to quote insider trader Gordon Gekko from Wall Street and he is soon making a good living, as well as winning his fathers approval and embarking on a romance with Abbie Halpert, a secretary and Gregs ex-girlfriend. Marlin is a stock brokerage firm that runs a pump and dump, using its brokers to create artificial demand in the stock of expired or fake companies. When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares to in the market, the FBI agents investigating the firm decide to pursue Seth, hoping to make him their informant. Seth passes his Series 7 Exam and becomes a broker and he then contacts Harry Reynard, the purchasing manager of a gourmet foods company. Although Harry is reluctant, he gives in after Seth lies that the stock is guaranteed to go up in value, Seth sells him 100 shares at $8 each. When the stocks value drops, Harry calls back to ask why the stock has done so poorly, only to have Seth persuade him to buy more worthless shares, the stock eventually tanks, costing Harry his savings and his family. Feeling guilty for scamming Harry, Seth resolves to shut the firm down, Marty then disowns him, accusing him of destroying peoples lives. He then requests that his father help him on an IPO scheme in order to rob the firm of their money and bring them down. Although Marty initially refuses due to the risk of losing his judgeship, he calls Seth the next day, reconciling with him, the FBI offer him federal immunity if he agrees to testify against J. T. Marlin once all the suspects are brought into court, and threaten to involve Marty in order to assure Seths cooperation, Seth asserts that he will testify against the firm and provide strong evidence of their illegal practices only if his father is released. He and the come to an agreement on this, with Seth being kept overnight only to return to work the next day. After that, it is implied that he will be free to go as the FBI will proceed to raid the building, Seth returns to work the next day and goes along with the FBIs instructions
37.
Pitch Black (film)
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Pitch Black is a 2000 science fiction action horror film co-written and directed by David Twohy. The film stars Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Riddick is being transported to prison in a spacecraft. When the spaceship is damaged by debris and makes an emergency crash landing on an empty desert planet. However, when alien creatures begin attacking the survivors, Riddick joins forces with the surviving crew. Pitch Black was the film credit of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. It was shot on a modest budget of US$23 million, despite mixed reviews from critics, it was a sleeper hit, grossing over US$53 million worldwide and developing its own cult following, particularly around the antihero Riddick. A sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, was released in 2004 by Universal, with Diesel back as the character and Twohy returning as writer. A third film simply entitled Riddick was released in 2013, with Diesel, in the distant future, the transport ship Hunter-Gratzner passes a desert planet with its crew and passengers in cryostasis. Johns, who is transporting a notorious criminal, Richard B, Riddick has surgically-modified eyes that allow him to see in the dark. Debris from a comet tail rupture the hull, killing several including the captain. The surviving crew members, docking pilot Carolyn Fry and co-pilot Greg Owens, as the ship falls apart, Fry is forced to jettison sections of the ship. Fry attempts to dump the passenger section of the ship to reduce their weight, during the crash landing, several passenger compartments are destroyed and Owens sustains fatal injuries. Riddick escapes and Johns warns everyone that he might kill them all and they notice that the three suns surrounding the planet keep it in perpetual daylight. Zeke goes missing and while searching for him, Fry escapes from photosensitive aggressive underground creatures and they find an abandoned geological research settlement, with a dropship with drained batteries. Inside the settlement, one of the pilgrims is killed by the creatures. An orrery shows that an eclipse is imminent and that the creatures will be free to hunt above ground, Riddick rejoins the group and they return to the crash site to retrieve the power cells to power the dropship. Riddick reveals that Johns is not actually a law officer, but a bounty hunter who is attempting to collect the bounty on Riddick, the group reaches the wreckage, but the eclipse begins before they can return to the settlement. The creatures pour out of the ground and kill Shazza and another child, the group salvages any light source that they can in their attempt to return to the dropship with the power cells
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Action hero
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The archetypal action hero or heroine is the protagonist of an action film or other entertainment which portrays action and adventure. Other media in which such heroes appear include swashbuckler films, Westerns on television, old-time radio, adventure novels, dime novels, pulp magazines, anandalok Best Action Hero Award Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. Action TV, Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks, female action heroes photo gallery - The Boston Globe The Lost Action Hero - The Washington Post
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The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)
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The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 American crime action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Gary Scott Thompson and David Ayer. It was the first installment in the The Fast and the Furious franchise, the film stars Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong and Ted Levine. The film follows an undercover cop named Brian OConner who is tasked with stopping a group of unknown hijackers that are using high-performance racecars to hijack 18-wheelers. The films concept was inspired by Racer X, a Vibe magazine article by journalist Ken Li about street racing in New York City, filming locations include Los Angeles and parts of southern California. The Fast and the Furious was released on June 22,2001 to financial success, the films budget was an estimated $38 million, grossing $207,283,925 worldwide. S. and internationally. Also, many praised the action sequences, storyline and the soundtrack but criticized the direction and writing. It was followed by 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003, in the docks outside Los Angeles, a semi-trailer truck is loaded with electronics. On the road, it is hijacked three heavily modified black Honda Civics with green underglow, the Honda drivers fire a grappling hook into the trucks windshield, knock out the driver, and corral the semi allowing them to heist electronics and escape. The next day, undercover LAPD officer Brian OConner is assigned to find the responsible for the crimes. Brian uses his job at an auto parts shop to infiltrate the L. A. street racing scene. While visiting Torretos Market, a grocery, he flirts with the shops owner, Mia Toretto. Vince, one of Dominic’s henchmen and who has a crush on her, starts a fight with Brian, during a local racing gathering, Brian arrives with his 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS, and Dominic arrives in his 1993 Mazda RX-7. Dominic organizes a race with a local betting schemer called Hector. Brian wagers pink slips for his car, during the race, Brian blows his engine, handing the victory to Dominic. As Brian prepares to give Dominic the keys, the LAPD arrives, Dominic drives his Mazda into a local garage and parks it there, intending to walk home, but is spotted by a police cruiser. Brian arrives and saves him from the cops, the duo ventures into Little Saigon, the territory of Dominics old racing rival, Vietnamese gang leader Johnny Tran and his cousin, Lance Nguyen. Tran and Lance blow up Brians car, afterwards, Dominic tells Brian that he owes Dominic a ten-second car, a car that can drive a quarter mile in under 11 seconds from a standstill. Brian goes to Dominics garage, where he offers his skills as a driver and he begins dating Mia, much to Vinces dismay
40.
XXX (2002 film)
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XXX is a 2002 American spy action adventure film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and was written by Rich Wilkes. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas and Samuel L. Jackson, Cohen previously directed The Fast and the Furious, in which Diesel also starred. The film received mixed reviews but was a success for the studios. The film is followed by two sequels, State of the Union and Return of Xander Cage, an NSA mission to collect information on Anarchy 99, a mercenary group of former Russian soldiers goes awry when the agents identity is discovered. Cage is convinced to accept the mission after Gibbons uses a technique, with a clean slate as the carrot. Cage flips this show of authority by saying that he doesnt want to be there, while scouting an Anarchy 99 party, Xander purposely reveals Sovas cover, which allows him to gain the confidence of Anarchy 99s leader, Yorgi. Through Yorgis brother Kolya, who is a fan of Cages show, Xander is attending a car deal with Yorgi at his invitation when Sova shows up and starts a firefight. Xander shoots Sova with a fake blood-splatter round to make it look like he is dead, Xander returns with Yorgi to their headquarters, a castle outside of the city, where he meets Yorgis girlfriend Yelena. Xander finds Yelena trying to break into Yorgis safe and, taking her to a nearby restaurant, Yelena gets a call from Kirill, a sniper working for Yorgi, who reveals they know of Xanders true identity before he starts firing on them. Yelena and Cage work together to each other escape by staging a fight between them, which results in Cage knocking Yelena out with a serving tray. Xander learns that Sova purposely blew his cover, Xander sneaks back to the castle and overhears Yorgis plans to equip a waterborn drone named Ahab with Silent Night to release the biochemical in the middle of every major city, starting with Prague. Yorgi tests the weapon on his scientists, killing them, Xander rescues Yelena from Yorgi and kills Kolya. At a safehouse, Yelena explains she is an FSB agent, Xander organises the rest of the NSA team in Prague for an assault on Yorgis castle. Xander is taken back to Yorgi, who reveals he has captured Yelena again and has known about her identity all along. As the special forces attack starts, Xander and Yelena use the opportunity to escape, killing Kirill and Yorgi, Xander alerts Gibbons, who has the Czech military prepare to destroy the Ahab via airstrikes with the unfortunate side effect of releasing some of the biochemical agent. Xander harpoons Ahab from the car, grabs the hard drive containing the priming and targeting information and flips one of the primed bio-warheads, Xander is rescued from the freezing river and Gibbons promises Yelena American citizenship. Xander and Yelena are relaxing in Bora Bora when Gibbons calls, Xander ignores him and goes with Yelena. To support Xander Cages credibility within extreme sport subcultures, various personalities make appearances, including Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, Carey Hart, Mat Hoffman
