|
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed E.T., who is left behind on Earth. Along with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help E.T. find his way home. The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore. The film's concept was based on an imaginary friend that Spielberg created after his parents' divorce. In 1980, Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the unrealized project ''Night Skies''. In less than two months, Mathison wrote the first draft of the script, titled ''E.T. and Me'', which went through two rewrites. The project was rejected by Columbia Pictures, who doubted its commercial potential. Universal Pictures eventually purchased the script for $1 million. Filming took place from September t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Alvin
John Henry Alvin (November 24, 1948 – February 6, 2008) was an American cinematic artist and painter who illustrated many movie posters. Alvin created posters and key art for more than 135 films, beginning with the poster for Mel Brooks' ''Blazing Saddles'' (1974). His style of art became known as ''Alvinesque'' by friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry. Alvin's work includes the movie posters for ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', ''Blade Runner'', ''Gremlins'', ''The Goonies'', ''The Color Purple (1985 film), The Color Purple'', ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Little Mermaid'', ''Batman Returns'', ''Beauty and the Beast (1991 film), Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin (1992 Disney film), Aladdin'', ''The Lion King'', ''Space Jam'', ''The Emperor's New Groove'', ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', and ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action''. He also created the anniversary posters for ''Star Wars''. Early li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Numbers (website)
The Numbers is a film industry data website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The company also conducts research services and forecasts incomes of film projects. History The site was launched in 1997 by Bruce Nash. On March 21, 2020, the Numbers released a statement that because of movie theater closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, "We don’t expect much box office reporting in the short term" and did not report the usual daily box office estimates due to lack of box office data from film studios. See also * Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ... * Lumiere References External links * ''The Numbers'' Bankability Index 1997 establishments in California Companies based in Beverly Hills, California Film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurassic Park (film)
''Jurassic Park'' is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen. It is the first installment in the '' Jurassic Park'' franchise, and the first film in the ''Jurassic Park'' original trilogy, and is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton and a screenplay written by Crichton and David Koepp. The film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America's Pacific Coast near Costa Rica. There, wealthy businessman John Hammond and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park's power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond's grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island. Before Crichton's novel was published, four studios put in bids for its film rights. With the backing of Universa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Highest-grossing Films
Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners (ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise. Traditionally, war films, musicals, and historical dramas have been the most popular genres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Wars (film)
''Star Wars'' (retroactively titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'') is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first film in the '' Star Wars'' film series and fourth chronological chapter of the " Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. Luke Skywalker becomes caught in the conflict while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew. Lucas had the idea for a science-fiction film in the vein of '' Flash Gordon'' aro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blockbuster (entertainment)
A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production ''intended'' for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it. The term originated from the Blockbuster bomb which were used in World War II. Etymology The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, referring to aerial bombs capable of destroying a whole block of buildings. Its first known use in reference to films was in May 1943, when advertisements in ''Variety'' and ''Motion Picture Herald'' described the RKO film, '' Bombardier'', as "The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!" Another trade advertisement in 1944 boasted that the war documentary, '' With the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Rambaldi
Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an Italian special effects artist, winner of three Oscars: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1977 for the 1976 version of ''King Kong'' and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects in 1980 and 1983 for, respectively, ''Alien'' (1979) and '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982). He is most famous for his work in those two last mentioned films, that is for the mechanical head-effects for the creature in ''Alien'' and the design of the title character of ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. Early life Carlo Rambaldi was born September 15, 1925 in Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna. Assante, Ernesto (August 10, 2012)"Addio a Carlo Rambaldi il creatore di E.T. e Alien" ''la Repubblica'' He studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, where he developed a passion for electromechanics and the skeleton and musculature of the human body. He was heavily influenced by the work of Picasso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animatronics
Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy and mechatronics. Animatronic figures can be implemented with both computer and human control, including teleoperation. Motion actuators are often used to imitate muscle movements and create realistic motions. Figures are usually encased in body shells and flexible skins made of hard and soft plastic materials and finished with colors, hair, feathers and other components to make them more lifelike. Animatronics stem from a long tradition of mechanical automata powered by hydraulics, pneumatics and clockwork. Greek mythology and ancient Chinese writings mention early examples of automata. The oldest extant automaton is dated to the 16th century. Before the term "animatronics" became common, they were usually referred to as "robots". Since t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation, which would eventually become Columbia Pictures. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series The Three Stooges, Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Skies
''Night Skies'' is an unproduced science fiction horror film that was in development in the late 1970s. Steven Spielberg conceived the idea after ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''. Instead, material developed at the time was used in ''Poltergeist'' and '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''.Grefrath, Richard W. "Review: ''The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made''." ''Library Journal'', University of Nevada Library, Reno, Nevada, 2002. Origins Steven Spielberg came up with the idea for ''Night Skies'' in the late 1970s when Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel to ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''.Sinyard 1987, p. 77. He had no interest in a sequel, but also did not want Columbia to make a sequel without him, as Universal Pictures had done with ''Jaws''. Instead, he came up with a horror film treatment for a ''Close Encounters'' follow-up initially titled ''Watch the Skies'' (which had also been a working title for ''Close Encounters''). Spielberg based the story on the Kelly-Hop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imaginary Friend
Imaginary friends (also known as pretend friends, invisible friends or made-up friends) are a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship takes place in the imagination rather than physical reality. Although they may seem real to their creators, children usually understand that their imaginary friends are not real. The first studies focusing on imaginary friends are believed to have been conducted during the 1890s. There is little research about the concept of imaginary friends in children's imaginations. Klausen and Passman (2007) report that imaginary companions were originally described as being supernatural creatures and spirits that were thought to connect people with their past lives. Adults in history have had entities such as household gods, guardian angels, and muses that functioned as imaginary companions to provide comfort, guidance and inspiration for creative work. It is possible the phenomenon appeared among children in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Blockbuster (entertainment)")
.png "Click for more on -> Columbia Pictures")
.svg "Click for more on -> Earth")