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Gremlins
''Gremlins'' is a 1984 American black comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday and Frances Lee McCain, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of Gizmo the ''Mogwai''. It draws on legends of folkloric mischievous creatures that cause malfunctions—"gremlins"—in the British Royal Air Force going back to World War II. The story follows Billy Peltzer, who receives Gizmo as a pet, who then spawns more of his kind that evolve into the titular imp-like monsters that wreak havoc on Billy's hometown during Christmas Eve. The film was accompanied by a large merchandising campaign and juxtaposes black comedy with a Christmastime setting. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, with the film being produced by Michael Finnell. ''Gremlins'' was theatrically released on June 8, 1984, by Warner Bros. to critical and commercial success. However, it was heavily criticized for some of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gremlin
A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. Stories about them and references to them as the causes of especially inexplicable technical and mental problems of pilots were especially popular during and after World War II.gremlin on World Wide Wordsgremlin in the American Heritage Dictionary Use of the term in the sense of a mischievous creature that sabotages aircraft first arose in Royal Air Force (RAF) slang among British pilots stationed in Malta, the Middle East, and British Raj, India in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Dante
Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with Counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s radicalism and cartoon comedy. Dante's output includes the films ''Piranha (1978 film), Piranha'' (1978), ''The Howling (film), The Howling'' (1981), ''Explorers (film), Explorers'' (1985), ''Innerspace'' (1987), ''The 'Burbs'' (1989), ''Matinee (1993 film), Matinee'' (1993), ''Small Soldiers'' (1998), and ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' (2003). His work for television and cable include the Satire (film and television), social satire ''The Second Civil War'' (1997), episodes of the anthology series ''Masters of Horror'' ("Homecoming (Masters of Horror episode), Homecoming" and "The Screwfly Solution (Masters of Horror episode), The Screwfly Solution") and ''Amazing Stories (1985 TV series), Amazing Stories'', as well as ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zach Galligan
Zachary Wolfe Galligan (born February 14, 1964) is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Billy Peltzer in the comedy-horror films ''Gremlins'' (1984) and '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990). Early life and education Galligan was born on February 14, 1964, in New York City, the son of Carol Jean (née Wolfe), a psychologist, and Arthur John Galligan, a lawyer who was a founding partner of the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro. He is mostly of Irish descent, although he also has some English roots and Jewish ancestry (from Austria) on his mother’s side. He has a sister, Jessica, and graduated from Columbia University. Career Galligan's first major and most widely seen role was as Billy Peltzer in the 1984 film ''Gremlins''. Prior to being cast in ''Gremlins'', he filmed '' Nothing Lasts Forever'', which had its theatrical release cancelled and went unreleased in any form for years. In 1988, he starred as Mark Loftmore in the horror comedy '' Waxwork''. He reprise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Columbus (filmmaker)
Christopher Joseph Columbus (born September 10, 1958) is an American filmmaker. Born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Columbus studied film at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. After writing screenplays for several Teen film, teen comedies in the mid-1980s, including ''Gremlins'', ''The Goonies'', and ''Young Sherlock Holmes'', he made his List of directorial debuts, directorial debut with a teen adventure, ''Adventures in Babysitting'' (1987). Columbus gained recognition soon after with the highly successful Christmas comedy ''Home Alone'' (1990) and ''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992). The comedy ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' (1993), starring Robin Williams, was another box office success for Columbus. He went on to direct several other films throughout the 1990s, which were mostly met with lukewarm reception. However, he found commercial success again for directing the film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howie Mandel
Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel is known for voicing Gizmo in the 1984 film ''Gremlins'' and the 1990 sequel ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', playing rowdy ER resident Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama ''St. Elsewhere'', and creating and starring in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox children's cartoon ''Bobby's World''. He has also been a judge on NBC's ''America's Got Talent'' since 2010, and Citytv's ''Canada's Got Talent'' since 2022. He hosted the American NBC and later CNBC game show ''Deal or No Deal (American game show), Deal or No Deal'', as well as the show's daytime and Deal or No Deal Canada, Canadian-English counterparts. Early life and education Mandel was born in Toronto and grew up in the Bathurst Manor neighbourhood of the city. He is Jewish, and his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland. Mandel is a distant cousin of Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman. His fathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was considered one of film music's most innovative and influential composers. He was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards (winning in 1977 for ''The Omen''), six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, and four British Academy Film Awards. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the Rambo (franchise), ''Rambo'' franchise, as well as for films including ''Logan's Run (film), Logan's Run'', ''Planet of the Apes (1968 film), Planet of the Apes'', ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'', ''Patton (film), Patton'', Papillon (1973 film), ''Papillon'', ''Chinatown (1974 film), Chinatown'', ''The Omen'', ''Alien (film), Alien'', ''Poltergeist (1982 film), Poltergeist'', ''The Secret of NIMH'', ''Medicine Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Finnell
Michael Finnell is a film producer active from the 1970s in film, 1970s to the present. He has produced several horror film, horror-comedy films, particularly with the director Joe Dante. Finnell worked for the American producer Roger Corman before emerging as a producer in his own right. His first films were ''Avalanche (1978 film), Avalanche'' (1978) and ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'' (1979), with Corman. One of the first without Corman was the movie ''Airplane!'', in which he was listed in the end credits as "generally in charge of a lot of things". Working with Dante, Finnell then produced the modest hit ''The Howling (film), The Howling'' in 1981 and the Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster ''Gremlins'' in 1984. Dante and the special effects designer Chris Walas have said that Finnell's producing style was influenced by Corman, in that Finnell was very concerned about budgeting and wanted to make sure even cheap purchases contributed to the final film. The anecdote Walas t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American businesswoman and retired actress and model. She appeared in the films '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), '' Gremlins'' (1984), '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990), '' Drop Dead Fred'' (1991) and ''Princess Caraboo'' (1994). In 2005, she founded the Blue Tree boutique. Early life and education Cates was born on July 16, 1963, in New York City, to a family of television and Broadway production insiders. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates (originally Joseph Katz), who was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television, and who helped create '' The $64,000 Question''. Her uncle, Gilbert Cates, produced numerous television specials, often in partnership with Cates's father, as well as several annual Academy Awards shows. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Catholic. Cates is of Eurasian or mixed European and Asian descent. Her mother was born in Shanghai, China to a family of Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hora
John Charles Hora (February 16, 1940 – February 9, 2021) was an American cinematographer and actor. Career Hora worked with director Joe Dante in numerous films, including ''The Howling'' in 1981, '' Twilight Zone: The Movie'' in 1983, ''Gremlins'' in 1984 and its 1990 sequel, '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', ''Explorers'' in 1985, and '' Matinee'' in 1993. He also served as a cinematographer for Michael Jackson's 1988 film ''Moonwalker'' and as the pilot for the television series ''Eerie, Indiana''. As an actor, Hora performed in Dante's film ''Innerspace'' (1987). He later appeared in '' Honey, I Blew Up the Kid'' (1992), the sequel to ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids''. Hora also worked as the director of photography for ''Honey, I Blew Up the Kid''. Later, Hora worked for The Los Angeles Film School and as secretary for the American Society of Cinematographers. In May 2005 he was honored by the magazine ''American Cinematographer The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner. History Amblin is named after Steven Spielberg's first commercially released film, '' Amblin''' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. Costing $15,000 to produce, it was shown for Universal Studios, giving Spielberg more directing roles. The company was established a year later, in 1969, and it was properly incorporated in 1970. On July 14, 1975, Spielberg signed a four-picture agreement with Universal Pictures to produce its feature films through his Amblin label, aiming to build upon the success of its first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. Among his best-known songs are " Joy to the World", "The Pusher", "No No Song", "Greenback Dollar", "Della and the Dealer", "Never Been to Spain", and "Boney Fingers". He was also a prolific character actor, with many film and television roles to his credit, often playing a father figure in a number of films, including '' The Black Stallion'' (1979), '' Heart Like a Wheel'' (1983), and ''Gremlins'' (1984). Early life Born in Duncan, Oklahoma, Axton spent his preteen years in Comanche, Oklahoma, with his brother John. His mother Mae Boren Axton, a songwriter, cowrote the song "Heartbreak Hotel", which became a major hit for Elvis Presley. Some of Hoyt's own songs were later recorded by Presley. Axton's father John Thomas Axton was a na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones, ''Indiana Jones'' film series and a prequel to ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. The film stars Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as the Indiana Jones (character), title character. Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, and Ke Huy Quan, in his film debut, star in supporting roles. In the film, after arriving in British Raj, British India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult to all appearances practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali. Not wishing to feature the Nazis as the villains again, executive producer and story writer George Lucas decided to regard this film as a prequel. Three plot de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
