Although Star Wars today has become much more than just a movie, there was a time when it was nothing more than a risky business proposition. This is a look at how classic film and cultural changes helped that original film blossom into the most popular and profitable film-based franchise in history.
Let me take you back to a time before midichlorians and Gungans. Before lightsabers and tie fighters. This is a time when Death Star could have referred to a Shuriken, and Skywalker was the nickname for future NBA Hall of famer David Thompson. It was 1973 and George Lucas began writing the script for what would become Star Wars, later Episode IV: A New Hope. At this time, Lucas had completed filming his second feature film, American Graffiti, which would become a hit. His first feature film was 1971’s Thx-1138, a dystopian sci-fi, and a flop in theaters. However,...
Let me take you back to a time before midichlorians and Gungans. Before lightsabers and tie fighters. This is a time when Death Star could have referred to a Shuriken, and Skywalker was the nickname for future NBA Hall of famer David Thompson. It was 1973 and George Lucas began writing the script for what would become Star Wars, later Episode IV: A New Hope. At this time, Lucas had completed filming his second feature film, American Graffiti, which would become a hit. His first feature film was 1971’s Thx-1138, a dystopian sci-fi, and a flop in theaters. However,...
- 12/13/2017
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (G.S. Perno)
- Cinelinx
Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman
Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...
Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...
- 6/29/2016
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Last month we shared a Top 10 video with you listing the all-time best opening shots in movies. Now today, we have a new video from CineFix that gives us a Top 10 list of the best closing shots of all time.
The end of a movie ties the whole story together. It completes the journey of the characters we've spent our time watching. "The final moments of a movie can make things feel complete, leave you wanting more, and bring out deep emotions."
I love the feeling I get when there's a great ending to a film. Below the video I've included the entire list that you can go through in case you are in a place where you can't watch it. All of the choices that CineFix made here are fantastic.
Symbolic - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Kubrick set out to avoid “intellectual verbalization,” opting instead to try to speak directly to the subconscious.
The end of a movie ties the whole story together. It completes the journey of the characters we've spent our time watching. "The final moments of a movie can make things feel complete, leave you wanting more, and bring out deep emotions."
I love the feeling I get when there's a great ending to a film. Below the video I've included the entire list that you can go through in case you are in a place where you can't watch it. All of the choices that CineFix made here are fantastic.
Symbolic - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Kubrick set out to avoid “intellectual verbalization,” opting instead to try to speak directly to the subconscious.
- 2/5/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman
Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...
Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...
- 6/25/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The agents travel to Cuba and Guantanamo Bay to question a terrorist about smuggling involving a navy translator. Tony (Michael Weatherly) is enamored with a fellow female agent. Sorry Kate, (Sasha Alexander) it's not pronounced 'Pushtu' it's 'Pashto'. Tony's overjoyed at the thought of going to Cuba, but then Tony's happy at the thought of going anywhere. Gibbs (Mark Harmon) doesn't wear cologne as the women he dates think that the smell of sawdust is sexy. (Tony should try that sometime.) Gibbs doesn't date many women. Gibbs misses the canvas seats, they're getting a ride on a jet, priority. Tony didn't mention here how all the agencies have their own jets like he did in the Pilot. Kate comments on the PR stated on the official Navy website about going to Cuba for a holiday, specifically Gitmo. She asks how gullible people are, well in her line of work especially,...
- 2/18/2012
- by mhasan@corp.popstar.com (Mila Hasan)
- PopStar
--By Max Evry
Movies based on or inspired by real life events are commonplace, but every once in awhile one comes along that taps into something so current it hits a raw nerve with the public. This week sees the release of such a film, David Fincher's "The Social Network," based around the founding of the Facebook website, which -- at over 500 million users and counting -- is dominating human interaction the way arguably no device has since the telephone.
Currently at the height of its popularity, Facebook has been an accelerator pad for public discourse, and Fincher's film and its depiction of founder Mark Zuckerberg (the world's youngest billionaire) is less a biopic than a document of history still being written. Whether Zuckerberg and his website will still have the sway it has today five years from now is anybody's guess, but we're going to take a...
Movies based on or inspired by real life events are commonplace, but every once in awhile one comes along that taps into something so current it hits a raw nerve with the public. This week sees the release of such a film, David Fincher's "The Social Network," based around the founding of the Facebook website, which -- at over 500 million users and counting -- is dominating human interaction the way arguably no device has since the telephone.
Currently at the height of its popularity, Facebook has been an accelerator pad for public discourse, and Fincher's film and its depiction of founder Mark Zuckerberg (the world's youngest billionaire) is less a biopic than a document of history still being written. Whether Zuckerberg and his website will still have the sway it has today five years from now is anybody's guess, but we're going to take a...
- 10/1/2010
- by MTV Movies Team
- MTV Movies Blog
Put your best foot forward as we take a stroll round the best doors on film with Kevin Holmes. After you …
Few bits of furniture are so rich in symbolic meaning as the door: it can be an opening or an exit, a beginning or an ending. It can protect and guard but also trap and imprison. It holds promise or danger, and often both. And, of course, cinema itself is a doorway, a threshold to another world where anything is possible.
An open door is an invitation, but once you walk through it your life can change forever. Take Karen in Goodfellas entering the Copacabana nightclub; she isn't just entering the club, but Henry's life too – it's a classic portal.
As well as an opening doors can also be a barrier; a divider between home and the world. Hidden behind a locked door can lurk something nasty, something terrifying; an alien presence,...
Few bits of furniture are so rich in symbolic meaning as the door: it can be an opening or an exit, a beginning or an ending. It can protect and guard but also trap and imprison. It holds promise or danger, and often both. And, of course, cinema itself is a doorway, a threshold to another world where anything is possible.
An open door is an invitation, but once you walk through it your life can change forever. Take Karen in Goodfellas entering the Copacabana nightclub; she isn't just entering the club, but Henry's life too – it's a classic portal.
As well as an opening doors can also be a barrier; a divider between home and the world. Hidden behind a locked door can lurk something nasty, something terrifying; an alien presence,...
- 7/28/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
We all have film sequences that stick in our minds. Some are shared by many – such as the shower scene from Psycho – others are particular to us. Here our film critic and a panel of leading movie-makers reveal their favourites. What are yours?
Who will ever forget the first time they saw the 45-second shower-room murder in Hitchcock's Psycho? I remember 1959 and 1961 as the years when my first two children were born. But the first thing that comes to mind about the year in between was seeing Psycho, which I'd been looking forward to since a radio programme I'd produced the previous October, when Hitchcock had enticingly described Psycho as "my first real horror film". Entering the Plaza, Lower Regent Street, the day the film opened, I passed the cardboard cut-out of Hitchcock in the foyer, from which a tape recording of the Master's familiar Leytonstone undertaker's voice warned us...
Who will ever forget the first time they saw the 45-second shower-room murder in Hitchcock's Psycho? I remember 1959 and 1961 as the years when my first two children were born. But the first thing that comes to mind about the year in between was seeing Psycho, which I'd been looking forward to since a radio programme I'd produced the previous October, when Hitchcock had enticingly described Psycho as "my first real horror film". Entering the Plaza, Lower Regent Street, the day the film opened, I passed the cardboard cut-out of Hitchcock in the foyer, from which a tape recording of the Master's familiar Leytonstone undertaker's voice warned us...
- 3/15/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Back in mid-April Turner Class Movies (TCM) revealed a list of their Top 15 Most Influential Films of All-Time. Shortly thereafter Kris Tapley at InContention.com started polling his readers to come up with another variation of the list and today the results are in. Some of the complaints about TCM's list had to do with the fact it didn't include a film after 1977's Star Wars and it had two John Ford/John Wayne films. That was, of course, on top of people getting upset over what films were left off the list, which is just one of the motivating factors for Tapley's attempt to take another stab at it. I have included the In Contention list directly below and movies with an * indicate a film that was also on TCM's list. The only thing I wish this list had was reasoning behind each title, but since it was...
- 6/10/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
As we creep closer to the 2009 Academy Awards, prognosticators look back as much as forward to try and determine who the favorites will be. By looking back, I mean to suggest that past Academy choices perhaps unfairly paint them in a certain light, and support the group's predictability and oft-whispered bias. For instance, feel good films generally trump depressors. Oscar loves a comeback story almost as much as they love to reward seasoned veterans with lead acting awards and fresh faces in the supporting roles (particularly supporting actress). And despite a requisite surprise or two every year, they mostly play it safe. Usually painfully boringly safe. That, and the fact they get it wrong more often than they get it right. So I present a glance at the ten most egregiously shortsighted Oscars ever given.
I'm focusing solely on the big one: Best Picture. If I included anything and everything,...
I'm focusing solely on the big one: Best Picture. If I included anything and everything,...
- 2/7/2009
- by Matt Medlock
- JustPressPlay.net
This stamp honoring Bette Davis was issued by the U. S. Postal Service on Sept. 18. The portrait by Michael Deas was inspired by a still photo from "All About Eve." Notice anything missing? Before you even read this far, you were thinking, Where's her cigarette? Yes reader, the cigarette in the original photo has been eliminated. We are all familiar, I am sure, with the countless children and teenagers who have been lured into the clutches of tobacco by stamp collecting, which seems so innocent, yet can have such tragic outcomes. But isn't this is carrying the anti-smoking campaign one step over the line?
Depriving Bette Davis of her cigarette reminds me of Soviet revisionism, when disgraced party officials disappeared from official photographs. Might as well strip away the toupees of Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart. I was first alerted to this travesty by a reader, Wendell Openshaw of San Diego,...
Depriving Bette Davis of her cigarette reminds me of Soviet revisionism, when disgraced party officials disappeared from official photographs. Might as well strip away the toupees of Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart. I was first alerted to this travesty by a reader, Wendell Openshaw of San Diego,...
- 10/14/2008
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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