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Virus (1999 Film)
''Virus'' is a 1999 science fiction horror film directed by visual effects artist John Bruno and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland. Based on the comic book of the same name by Chuck Pfarrer, it tells the story of a ship beset by a malevolent extraterrestrial entity that seeks to turn humanity into cyborg slaves. The film was promoted with a line of action figures and a tie-in video game. It turned out to be a critical and commercial flop, but over time gained a cult following. Plot ''Akademik Vladislav Volkov'', a Russian research vessel in the South Pacific, communicates with the orbiting space station ''Mir''. A large energy source traveling through space strikes ''Mir'', killing the cosmonauts and beaming itself down to ''Volkov''. The electrical surge takes over the ship and attacks the crew. Seven days later, the tugboat ''Sea Star'', captained by alcoholic Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland), loses its uninsured cargo while sailing throu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bruno (special Effects)
John Bruno is an American visual effects artist and filmmaker known for his prolific collaborations with director James Cameron on films like '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', ''True Lies'', ''Titanic'', ''Avatar'', and ''The Abyss'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He has also contributed to other blockbuster films including ''Ghostbusters'', ''Batman Returns'', ''Cliffhanger'', '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', and '' Kingsman: The Secret Service''. He also directed the 1999 science fiction horror film ''Virus'', starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland. He currently holds five Oscar nominations and two BAFTA Award nominations. Filmography Visual effects * ''Poltergeist'' (1982) – Animation supervisor: Industrial Light & Magic * ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) – Visual effects art director: Boss Film Studios, Entertainment Effects Group * '' Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers'' (1984) – Visual consultant * ''Fright Night'' (1985) – Visual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valhalla Entertainment
Valhalla Entertainment Productions, Inc. is an American film and television production company. Their productions include AMC's ''The Walking Dead'' television series, its companion series, '' Fear the Walking Dead,'' and the spin-off, '' The Walking Dead: World Beyond.'' History Formerly Pacific Western Productions, the company was founded by producer Gale Anne Hurd in 1982, and it was folded into Valhalla Motion Pictures in 2000. In 1988, Gale Anne Hurd launched a label No Frills Film, devoted to producing lower budget and independent films, usually with the nature of B-movie. In 1993, No Frills Film was merged into Pacific Western Productions. Five years later, Gale Anne Hurd formed another production label, Valhalla Motion Pictures, which was ultimately merged with Pacific Western Productions in 2000. The same year it signed a first-look deal with Kinowelt USA, which was acquired by StudioCanal after Kinowelt was forced into bankruptcy. In 2001, Valhalla Motion Pictures l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for almost one-third of the world's annual tropical cyclones. For organizational purposes, the northern Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions: the eastern (North America to 140°W), central (140°W to 180°), and western (180° to 100°E). The Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for tropical cyclone forecasts is in Japan, with other tropical cyclone warning centers for the northwest Pacific in Hawaii (the Joint Typhoon Warning Center), the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Although the RSMC names each system, the main name list itself is coordinated among 18 countries that have territories threatened by typhoons each year. Within most of the northwestern Pacific, there are no official typhoon seasons as tropical cyclones form thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, such as in crowded harbour or narrow canals, or cannot move at all, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Some are ocean-going, some are icebreakers or salvage tugs. Early models were powered by steam engines, long ago superseded by diesel engines. Many have deluge gun water jets, which help in firefighting, especially in harbours. Types Seagoing Seagoing tugs (deep-sea tugs or ocean tugboats) fall into four basic categories: #The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows almost exclusively by way of a wire cable. In some rare cases, such as some USN fleet tugs, a synthetic rope hawser may be used for the tow in the belief that the line can be pulled aboard a disabled ship by the crew owing to its lightness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists. "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or the Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin "tàikōng" (), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China, the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Pacific Ocean
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz'' ("south"), possibly related to the same Proto-Indo-European root that the word ''sun'' derived from. Some languages describe south in the same way, from the fact that it is the direction of the sun at noon (in the Northern Hemisphere), like Latin meridies 'noon, south' (from medius 'middle' + dies 'day', cf English meridional), while others describe south as the right-hand side of the rising sun, like Biblical Hebrew תֵּימָן teiman 'south' from יָמִין yamin 'right', Aramaic תַּימנַא taymna from יָמִין yamin 'right' and Syriac ܬܰܝܡܢܳܐ taymna from ܝܰܡܝܺܢܳܐ yamina (hence the name of Yemen, the land to the south/right of the Levant). Navigation By convention, the ''bottom or down-facing side'' of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and shares Borders of Russia, land boundaries with fourteen countries, more than List of countries and territories by land borders, any other country but China. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's ninth-most populous country and List of European countries by population, Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city is Moscow, the List of European cities by population within city limits, largest city entirely within E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladislav Volkov
Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov (russian: Владисла́в Никола́евич Во́лков; 23 November 193529 June 1971) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 11 missions. The second mission terminated fatally.Volkov at peoples.ru Volkov and the two other crew members were on reentry, the only three people to have died in outer space. Biography Volkov graduated from the , 1959. As an aviation engineer at Korolyov Design Bureau, he was involved in the development of the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft prior ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult Following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase. A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment the fans have to the object of the cult following, often identifying themselves and other fans as members of a community. Cult followings are also commonly associated with niche markets. Cult media are often associated with underground culture, and are considered too eccentric or anti-establishment to be appreciated by the general public or to be widely commercially successful. Many cult fans express their devotion with a level of irony when describing entertainment that falls under this realm, in that something ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Box-office Bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after release has technically "bombed", the term is more frequently used for major studio releases that were highly anticipated, extensively marketed and expensive to produce that ultimately failed commercially. Causes Negative word of mouth With the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the 2000s, word of mouth regarding new films is easily spread and has had a marked effect on box office performance. A film's ability or failure to attract positive or negative commentary can strongly impact its performance at the box office, especially on the opening weekend. External circumstances Occasionally, films may underperform because of issues largely unrelated to the content of the film, such as the timing of the film's re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action Figure
An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually marketing, marketed toward boys and adult collectors. The term was coined by Hasbro in 1964 to market G.I. Joe to boys (while competitors called similar offerings ''boy's dolls''). According to a 2005 study in Sweden, action figures which display traditional Masculinity, masculine traits primarily target boys. While most commonly marketed as a child's toy, the action figure has gained widespread acceptance as collecting, collector item for adults. In such a case, the item may be produced and designed on the assumption it will be bought solely for display as a collectible and not played with like a child's toy. History Precursors Articulated dolls go back to at least 200 BCE, with articulated clay and wooden dolls of ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyborg
A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.Cyborgs and Space in ''Astronautics'' (September 1960), by Manfred E. Clynes and American scientist and researcher Nathan S. Kline. Description and definition "Cyborg" is not the same thing as bionics, , or ; it applies to an organism that has restored function ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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