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Twin Films
Twin films are films with the same or similar plots produced and released at the same time by two different film studios. The phenomenon can result from two or more production companies investing in similar scripts at the same time, resulting in a race to distribute the films to audiences.Fredrik Strage.Tvillingfilmer resultatet av ängsliga filmbolag", ''Dagens Nyheter'', 28 September 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2011. (In Swedish)Henrik Arvidsson.Först till kvarn i Drömfabriken ''Dagens Nyheter'', 11 July 2008. Retrieved 22 June 2011. (In Swedish) Some attribute twin films to industrial espionage, the movement of staff between studios, or that the same screenplays are sent to several film studios before being accepted. Another possible explanation is if the films deal with topical issues, such as volcanic eruptions, reality television, terrorist attacks, or significant anniversaries, resulting in multiple discovery of the concept. While twin films are often big budget films, a moc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company. Most firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies. There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space. Beginnings In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria, a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Mass (film)
''Black Mass'' is a 2015 American biographical crime drama film about American mobster Whitey Bulger. Directed by Scott Cooper and written by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth, it is based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's 2001 book ''Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob''. The film features an ensemble cast led by Johnny Depp as Bulger, alongside Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll. Principal photography of the film began on May 19, 2014, in Boston and wrapped on August 1, 2014. The film had its world premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and was released by Warner Bros. worldwide on September 18, 2015. It received generally positive reviews and grossed $99 million on a $53 million budget. Plot In 1975, James "Whitey" Bulger, leader of the Winter Hill Gang, controls most organized crime within South Boston, along with his right-hand man St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topaze (1933 American Film)
''Topaze'' is a 1933 American pre-Code film directed by D'Abbadie D'Arrast and starring John Barrymore and Myrna Loy. It was based on the 1928 French play of the same name by Marcel Pagnol. Another film version of ''Topaze'', this one made in the original French was also released that year, starring Louis Jouvet in the title role. Subsequently, Pagnol himself directed another film titled '' Topaze'' in 1936. Plot Prof. Auguste A. Topaze (John Barrymore), an honest, naive chemist and schoolteacher at the Stegg Academy in Paris, loses his job when he refuses to accede to a demand by the Baroness de La Tour-La Tour to alter the grades of her bratty son, Charlemagne. On the same day, Friday the 13th, Topaze calls on the Baron de La Tour-La Tour's mistress, Coco (Myrna Loy), who is looking for a tutor for her sister's son, Alphonse, and had gotten Topaze's name from La Tour. Upon meeting and listening to the sincere remarks of Topaze, the baron, head of the La Tour Chemical Works, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topaze (1933 French Film)
''Topaze'' is a 1933 French comedy film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and starring Louis Jouvet, Simone Héliard and Marcel Vallée.Goble p.987 It is based on the 1928 play '' Topaze'' by Marcel Pagnol. The same year, an American version of the play '' Topaze'' was released, starring John Barrymore. In 1936, Pagnol himself remade the film in France. It was made at the Joinville Studios in Paris by the French subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. The film's sets were designed by the art director René Renoux. Synopsis An earnest schoolteacher who teaches his pupils that honesty is the best policy eventually changes his mind when confronted with the corruption of the business world. Cast * Louis Jouvet as Albert Topaze * Simone Héliard as Ernestine * Marcel Vallée as Muche * Jane Loury as Baronne Pitart Vergolles * Maurice Rémy as Roger de Tréville * Pierre Larquey as Tamise * Edwige Feuillère as Suzy Courtois * Camille Beuve as Le mâitre-chanteur *Henri Vilbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film ''The Saga of Gosta Berling, The Saga of Gösta Berling''. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She stirred interest with her first American silent film, ''Torrent (1926 film), Torrent'' (1926). Garbo's performance in ''Flesh and the Devil'' (1927), her third movie, made her an international star. In 1928, Garbo starred in ''A Woman of Affairs,'' which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mata Hari (1931 Film)
''Mata Hari'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice loosely based on the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer and courtesan executed for espionage during World War I. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film stars Greta Garbo in the title role. It was Garbo's most commercially successful vehicle. Only a censored version of the film is currently available. Plot In 1917, France is embroiled in World War I. Dubois, head of the French spy bureau, offers to spare the life of a captured agent (an uncredited Mischa Auer) if he will reveal who he is protecting. Dubois suspects it is Mata Hari, a celebrated exotic dancer, but the prisoner chooses execution by firing squad. Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff of the Imperial Russian Air Force lands in Paris after a dangerous flight over enemy territory, bringing important dispatches from Russia. He persuades his superior, General Serge Shubin, to take him to see Mata Hari perform that night. Rosanoff is instantly smitten by he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dishonored (film)
''Dishonored'' is a 1931 pre-Code romantic spy film about a female spy for Austria-Hungary during World War I. It was co-written (with Daniel N. Rubin), directed, and edited by Josef von Sternberg for Paramount Pictures. The costume design was by Travis Banton. The film stars Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Warner Oland. Plot The story opens in 1915 on the streets of Vienna, Austria, in war-torn Europe. The corpse of a prostitute is removed by the authorities from a tenement building in the red-light district – a case of suicide. When Marie Kolverer, a fellow streetwalker, offers a word of sympathy, the concierge warns that she is destined to suffer the same fate. She responds: "No I am not. I am not afraid of life... Although I am not afraid of death, either." The Chief of Austrian Secret Service overhears Marie's remark. He approaches her, and she invites him up to her flat, assuming the elderly man is engaging her for sex. The Chief discovers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Towering Inferno
''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The Tower'' (1973) by Richard Martin Stern and ''The Glass Inferno'' (1974) by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. The film earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the highest-grossing film of 1974. The picture was nominated for eight Oscars in all, winning three. In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman, and Jennifer Jones in her final role. Plot Architect Doug Roberts returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for developer James Duncan. The tower, tall and 138 stories, is the world's talles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cadillac Records
''Cadillac Records'' is a 2008 American biographical drama film written and directed by Darnell Martin. The film explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and a few of the musicians who recorded for Chess Records. The film stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf, and Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James. The film was released in North America on December 5, 2008, by TriStar Pictures. The soundtrack was released on Music World/Columbia and Sony Music. Plot In 1947 in Chicago, a Jewish immigrant from Poland and bar owner Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) hires a blues combo, including guitarist Muddy Waters ( Jeffrey Wright) and harmonica player Little Walter ( Columbus Short). Waters' and Walter's success leads to Chess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records. Established and run by two Jewish immigrant brothers from what was then Poland, Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many singles and albums regarded as central to the rock music canon. The musician and critic Cub Koda described Chess as "America's greatest blues label". Chess was based at several locations on the south side of Chicago, initially at South Cottage Grove Ave. The most famous was 2120 S. Michigan Avenue, from May 1957 to 1965, immortalized by the Rolling Stones in " 2120 South Michigan Avenue", an instrumental re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
