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Gramercy Pictures
Gramercy Pictures was an American film production label. It was founded on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy was the distributor of PolyGram films in the United States and Canada and also served as Universal's art-house division. After Seagram's buyout of PolyGram, Gramercy along with October Films were merged by Barry Diller to form USA Films in 1999. On May 20, 2015, Focus Features (the current art-house division for Universal) revived the name as a label for action, horror and sci-fi genre films; the label was shut down after the release of '' Ratchet & Clank'' on April 29, 2016. History Gramercy Pictures was formed on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western ''Posse'', on May 14, 1993. On January 11, 1996, PolyGram brought the 50% stake owned by Universal thus assuming full contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focus Features
Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally. In November 2018, The Hollywood Reporter named Focus Features Distributor of the Year for its success behind the year's breakout documentary film '' Won't You Be My Neighbor?'' and Spike Lee's '' BlacKkKlansman''. The studio's most successful film to date is '' Downton Abbey'', which garnered $194.3 million at the worldwide box office. History Focus Features was formed in 2002 by James Schamus and David Linde and formed from the divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine, as well as the several assets of the Vivendi-affiliated film studio StudioCanal. USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 when he purchased October Films and Gramercy Pictures from Seagram and merged the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Posse (1993 Film)
''Posse'' is a 1993 American Western film directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles. Featuring a large ensemble cast, the film tells the story of a posse of African-American soldiers and one ostracized white soldier, who are all betrayed by a corrupt colonel. The story starts with the group escaping with a cache of gold, and continues with their leader Jessie Lee (Mario Van Peebles) taking revenge on the men who killed his preacher father. The story is presented as a flashback told by an unnamed old man ( Woody Strode). The title of the film refers to a group of people who are summoned to help law enforcement officers. This film was the first film to be released by Gramercy Pictures. Melvin Van Peebles, the father of director Mario Van Peebles, recorded a new song, "Cruel Jim Crow", for the film. This marked his first music recording in 20 years, after his 1974 album '' What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?!'' It led to the production of a new album, '' Ghetto Gothic'', releas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher McQuarrie
Christopher McQuarrie is an American filmmaker. He received the BAFTA Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the neo-noir mystery film ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995). He made his directorial debut with the crime thriller film ''The Way of the Gun'' (2000). He is a frequent collaborator with Tom Cruise, having written and directed the action films ''Jack Reacher'' (2012), '' Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation'' (2015), '' Mission: Impossible – Fallout'' (2018), and the upcoming sequels '' Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One'' (2023) and '' Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two'' (2024), in addition to producing the latter three, while also being a part of the writing and/or producing team on the films ''Valkyrie'' (2008), ''Edge of Tomorrow'' (2014), '' Jack Reacher: Never Go Back'' (2016), ''The Mummy'' (2017), and '' Top Gun: Maverick'' (2022). Early life McQuarrie was born in Princeton, New Jersey. After gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Best Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. See also the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a similar award for screenplays that are adaptations of pre-existing material. Superlatives Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for ''Annie Hall'', ''Hannah and Her Sisters'', and ''Midnight in Paris''). Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars: Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay ('' The Hospital'' and ''Network'') and one for Adapted Screenplay ('' Marty''), while Wilder won one for Adapted Screenplay ('' The Lost Weekend'', shared with Charles Brackett), and two for Original Screenplay (''Sunset Boulevard'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Usual Suspects
''The Usual Suspects'' is a 1995 neo-noir mystery thriller film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, and Kevin Spacey. The plot follows the interrogation of Roger "Verbal" Kint, a small-time con man, who is one of only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. Through flashback and narration, Kint tells an interrogator a convoluted story of events that led him and his criminal companions to the boat, and of a mysterious crime lord—known as Keyser Söze—who controlled them. The film was shot on a $6 million budget and began as a title taken from a column in '' Spy'' magazine called ''The Usual Suspects'', after one of Claude Rains' most memorable lines in the classic film ''Casablanca'', and Singer thought that it would make a good title for a film. The film was shown out of competition at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mallrats
''Mallrats'' is a 1995 American buddy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Claire Forlani, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams, Michael Rooker, and Smith as Silent Bob. It is the second film in the View Askewniverse and a prequel to 1994's ''Clerks''. As in the other Askewniverse films, the characters Jay and Silent Bob feature prominently, and characters and events from other films are discussed. Several cast members, including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams, have gone on to work in several other Smith films. Comic-book icon Stan Lee appeared, as did Brian O'Halloran, the star of Smith's breakout feature ''Clerks''. Despite failing at the box office and receiving a lukewarm critical reception, ''Mallrats'' has since become a cult classic. Plans for a sequel film titled ''MallBrats'' were announced in March 2015. By the following year, the project was proposed to be a television miniseri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clay Pigeons
''Clay Pigeons'' is a 1998 black comedy film written by Matt Healy and directed by David Dobkin. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, and Janeane Garofalo. It is the second film on-screen collaboration between Vaughn and Phoenix, the first film being '' Return to Paradise'', released in the same year. Plot Clay Bidwell, a young man living in Montana, witnesses his friend Earl kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the Earl's adulterous wife Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists Amanda's advances when she presses him to continue with their affair as if nothing has happened. After a jealous Amanda kills a waitress Clay briefly dates, he inadvertently befriends Lester Long, who happens to be a serial killer. Lester murders the nagging Amanda in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy", leaving Clay horrified. Soon enough, FBI agent Dale Shelby and her partner Reynard come to town and zero in on Clay as the prime suspect. Cast * Joaquin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dazed And Confused (film)
''Dazed and Confused'' is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rory Cochrane. The plot follows different groups of Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976. The film was a commercial disappointment at the box office, grossing less than $8 million in the United States. Despite this, the film has enjoyed critical and commercial success over the years, and has since become a cult classic. It ranked third on ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine also ranked it 10th on its "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list. Plot It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in Austin, Texas. The next year's group of seniors are pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Lebowski
''The Big Lebowski'' () is a 1998 crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken identity, then learns that a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski ( David Huddleston) was the intended victim. The millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is kidnapped, and millionaire Lebowski commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release; the plan goes awry when the Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the ransom money for themselves. Sam Elliott, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, David Thewlis, Peter Stormare, Jon Polito, and Ben Gazzara also appear, in supporting roles. The film is loosely inspired by the work of Raymond Chandler. Joel Coen stated, "We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story – how it moves episodically, and deals with the characte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult Classics
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated viewings, dialogue-quoting, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box-office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term ''cult film'' itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though ''cult'' was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that. Cult films trace their origin back to controversial and suppressed films kept alive by dedicated fans. In some cases, reclaimed or rediscovered films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bean (film)
''Bean'' (also known as ''Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie'' or ''Bean: The Movie'') is a 1997 comedy film directed by Mel Smith and written by Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll. Based on the British sitcom series ''Mr. Bean'' created by Rowan Atkinson and Curtis, the film stars Atkinson in the title role, with Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Sandra Oh and Burt Reynolds in supporting roles. In the film, Bean works as a security guard at the National Gallery in London before being sent to the United States to talk about the unveiling of James Abbott McNeill Whistler's 1871 painting ''Whistler's Mother''. Produced by Gramercy Pictures, Working Title Films, and Tiger Aspect Films, ''Bean'' was released in the United Kingdom on 2 August 1997 and in the United States on 7 November 1997 by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, having grossed $251.2 million worldwide against an $18 mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fargo (1996 Film)
''Fargo'' is a 1996 black comedy crime film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating a triple homicide that takes place after a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from her wealthy father (Harve Presnell). The film was an American-British co-production. Filmed in the United States during the end of 1995, ''Fargo'' premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the festival's '' Prix de la mise en scène'' (Best Director Award) and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was both a commercial and critical success, earning particular acclaim for the Coens' direction and script and the performances of McDormand, Macy, and Buscemi. ''Fargo'' received seven Oscar nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
