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Roadgames
''Roadgames'' (stylized as ''Road Games'') is a 1981 Australian thriller film directed by Richard Franklin and starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. The film follows a truck driver travelling across Australia who, along with the help of a hitchhiker, seeks to track down a serial killer who is butchering women and dumping their dismembered bodies along desolate highways. Plot In rural Australia, truck driver Patrick Quid pulls into a motel for the night and notices a man in a green van checking in with a female hitchhiker. Quid had passed the hitchhiker earlier because trucking company policy forbade him from picking her up. In the motel room, the hitchhiker strums a guitar while the man unpacks a new guitar string. The man winds the string around his gloved hands and uses it to strangle the woman. Quid wakes the next morning in his truck. His pet dingo sniffs relentlessly at the garbage outside the motel, and Quid notices the van driver watching the dingo from the window ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Franklin (director)
Richard Franklin (15 July 1948 – 11 July 2007) was an Australian film director. Early life and career Franklin was born and grew up in Brighton, Victoria, Brighton, Melbourne, the son of Margaret Anne (Jacobson) and Rea Richard Franklin, an engineering company director. He was educated at Haileybury, Melbourne, Haileybury College. In the 1960s, Franklin was the drummer in the Melbourne band The Pink Finks, which also featured Ross Wilson (musician), Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford, later of Daddy Cool (band), Daddy Cool. The band released several singles, none of which had any significant chart success. Franklin decided upon a career in film rather than music. He went on to study film at The University of Southern California alongside other notable directors George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and John Carpenter. Franklin was a devotee of Alfred Hitchcock (ever since he saw ''Psycho (1960 film), Psycho'' at the age of 12), and his attempt to arrange for a screening of Hitchcock's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, children's author, and activist. She came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom '' Operation Petticoat'' (1977–78). In 1978, she made her feature film debut playing Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's slasher film ''Halloween'', which established her as a scream queen and led to a string of parts in horror films such as '' The Fog'', '' Prom Night'', ''Terror Train'' (all 1980) and ''Roadgames'' (1981). She reprised the role of Laurie in the sequels '' Halloween II'' (1981), '' Halloween H20: 20 Years Later'' (1998), '' Halloween: Resurrection'' (2002), ''Halloween'' (2018), ''Halloween Kills'' (2021), and '' Halloween Ends'' (2022). Curtis's film work spans many genres, including the cult comedies ''Trading Places'' (1983)—for which she won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress—and ''A Fish Called Wanda'' (1988), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Hopgood
Alan John Hopgood AM (29 September 1934 – 19 March 2022), also known as Alan Hopwood, was an Australian actor, producer, and writer. He wrote the screenplay for the 1972 film '' Alvin Purple'' and made appearances in television shows such as '' Bellbird'', ''Prisoner'' and ''Neighbours''. Early life Hopgood was born in Launceston, Tasmania, and grew up in the state. He acted in several dramatic roles in his childhood. He attended school in Melbourne and then studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Hon) and a Diploma of Education. His first play, ''Marcus'', was produced at Melbourne University while he was working as a school teacher. He left teaching to write full-time and start his acting career. Career Scriptwriting and screenwriting Hopgood's first successful play, '' And the Big Men Fly'', was about Australian rules football and was produced in 1963 by the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Russell Street Theatre in Melbourne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Everett De Roche
Everett De Roche (July 12, 1946 - April 2, 2014) was an American-Australian screenwriter who worked extensively in the Australian film and TV industry. He was best known for his work in the thriller and horror genre, with such credits as ''Long Weekend'', '' Patrick'' and '' Roadgames''. Career De Roche was born in Lincoln, Maine and moved to San Diego with his family when he was six. De Roche emigrated to Australia with his wife when he was 22 in 1968 and originally worked as a journalist for the Queensland Health Education Council. He wanted to be a writer and wrote a spec script for '' Division Four''. Nine months later he received a telegram inviting him to write for the show. From 1970-74 he was a staff writer at Crawford Productions mainly working on police shows, then he freelanced. In the late 70s and early 80s he established himself as the leading screenwriter of thrillers in Australia. He often worked with director Richard Franklin who said of him: Everett is a very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian May (Australian Composer)
Brian May (28 July 1934 – 25 April 1997) was an Australian film composer and conductor who was a prominent figure during the Australian New Wave. He is perhaps best known for his scores to ''Mad Max'' and ''Mad Max 2''. Life and career May was born in Adelaide on 28 July 1934. He trained at the Adelaide Elder Conservatorium as a pianist, violinist and conductor. He joined the ABC Adelaide in 1957 and was asked to form and conduct the ABC Adelaide Big Band, a full-blown ensemble that was rated as the best of the ABC state-based bands. He moved to Melbourne when he was 35 to arrange and conduct the ABC's Melbourne Show band. The Show Band made its radio debut on the First Network on 13 March 1969. Background music for Australian television had previously been taken from records. May changed this by writing and arranging the themes for television programmes, including '' Bellbird'', ''Return to Eden'', ''The Last Frontier'', ''A Dangerous Life'' and ''Darling of the Gods' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stacy Keach
Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictional detective Mike Hammer, which he played in numerous stand-alone television films and at least three television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1984. He has appeared as the lead in films such as '' Fat City'' and '' The Ninth Configuration''. He has also performed as a narrator for programs including CNBC'S ''American Greed'' (2008–) and various educational television programs. Comedic roles include Ken, the father of comedian Christopher Titus in the FOX sitcom ''Titus'' (2000–2002), and as Sergeant Stedenko in Cheech & Chong's films '' Up in Smoke'' (1978) and '' Nice Dreams'' (1981). Keach won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Page
Grant Page (born 1939) is an Australian stuntman who worked mostly during the seventies and eighties. Page was the stunt coordinator for the popular Australian action movies ''The Man from Hong Kong'' (1975) and ''Mad Max'' (1979), as well as other Australian and overseas films including the cult horror flick '' Death Ship'' (1980). He starred in the 1970s Australian TV series ''Danger Freaks'', which, while ostensibly a documentary of his professional work with various stunt performers, emphasized the spectacular visual results from these collaborations. Grant featured in a cameo appearance in the '' Blur'' music video '' M.O.R.'' One of the things Grant Page is best remembered for is a failed stunt attempt on ''The Don Lane Show ''The Don Lane Show'' was an Australian television talk show which aired twice a week on the Nine Network from 1975 to 1983. The show was created by Don Lane who co-hosted it with Bert Newton. Channel Nine was reluctant to cast Bert Newton, ...' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about . At its widest point, it stretches about from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia. History Historically, the Nullarbor was seasonally occupied by Indigenous Australian people, the Mirning clans and Yinyila people. Traditionally, the area was called ''Oondiri'', which is said to mean "the waterless". The first Europeans known to have sighted and mapped the Nullarbor coast were Captain François Thijssen and Councillor of the Indies, Pieter Nuyts, on the Dutch East Indiaman '''t Gulden Zeepaert'' (the Golden Seahorse). In 1626–1627, they charted a stretch of the southern Australian coast ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embassy Home Entertainment
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes an embassy, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives to another country; it is usually, but not necessarily, based in the receiving state's capital city. Consulates, on the other hand, are smaller diplomatic missions that are normally located in major cities of the receiving state (but can be located in the capital, typically when the sending country has no embassy in the receiving state). As well as being a diplomatic mission to the country in which it is situated, an embassy may also be a nonresident permanent mission to one or more other countries. The term embassy is sometimes used interchangeably with chancery, the physical office or site of a diplomatic mission. Consequently, the terms "embassy reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Actors Equity Of Australia
Actors Equity of Australia was an Australian trade union representing actors and other performers. It existed from 1920 to 1993. It was established as the Actors' Federation of Australasia in 1920. It was renamed Actors' Equity of Australia in 1936, and again to Actors and Announcers' Equity of Australia in 1945 following the collapse of the Announcers' Association of Australia. It reverted to the Actors' Equity of Australia name in 1983. Actor and comedian Hal Lashwood was a key figure in its establishment and its president for 25 years. It ceased to exist in 1993, when it merged with the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees' Association and the Australian Journalists' Association to form the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), also sometimes referred to as the Alliance, is the Australian trade union and professional organisation which covers the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries. Its Musicians ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Originating the role in '' Dr. No'', Connery played Bond in six of Eon Productions' entries and made his final appearance in '' Never Say Never Again''. Following his third appearance as Bond in '' Goldfinger'' (1964), in June 1965 ''Time'' magazine observed "James Bond has developed into the biggest mass-cult hero of the decade". Connery began acting in smaller theatre and television productions until his breakout role as Bond. Although he did not enjoy the off-screen attention the role gave him, the success of the Bond films brought Connery offers from notable directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and John Huston. Their films in which Connery appeared included '' Marnie'' (1964), ''The Hill'' (1965), '' Murder on the Orient Expre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avco Embassy
Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film production and distribution studio responsible for such films as ''The Graduate'', '' The Producers'', ''The Fog'', ''The Howling'', ''Escape from New York'', and ''This Is Spinal Tap''. History Founding The company was formed in 1942 by Joseph E. Levine, initially to distribute foreign films in the United States. The company entered film production in 1945, co-producing with Maxwell Finn the documentary ''Gaslight Follies'', a compilation of silent film clips narrated by Ben Grauer. Success Embassy found success in 1956 bringing the Japanese film ''Godzilla'' to the American general public (in a re-edited version), acquiring the rights for $12,000 and spending $400,000 promoting it under the title ''Godzilla, King of the Monsters!'', and earning $1 million in theatrical rentals. They then made a $100,000 deal to bring the French-I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
