Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ, (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor and singer. Lee initially portrayed villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a string of popular Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014), and Count Dooku in the final two films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002, 2005).
He was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011. Lee considers his most important role to be that of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998), and his best role to be Lord Summerisle in the British cult classic The Wicker Man (1973), which he also considers his best film.
Always noted as an actor for his deep, strong voice, he has, more recently, also taken to using his singing ability, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and the symphonic metal album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010 after having worked with several metal bands since 2005. The heavy metal follow-up titled Charlemagne: The Omens of Death was released on 27 May 2013. He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.
Christopher Lee played Saruman in the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. In the commentary, he states he had a decades-long dream to play Gandalf but that he was now too old and his physical limitations prevented his being considered. The role of Saruman, by contrast, required no horseback riding and much less fighting. Lee had met J.R.R. Tolkien once (making him the only person in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy to have done so) and makes a habit of reading the novels at least once a year. In addition, he performed for the album The Lord of the Rings: Songs and Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien in 2003. Lee's appearance in the final film in the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was cut from the theatrical release, but the scene was reinstated in the extended edition.
The Lord of the Rings marked the beginning of a major career revival that continued in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), in which he played the villainous Count Dooku. His autobiography states that he did much of the swordplay himself, though a double was required for the more vigorous footwork.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee
Marvel Worldwide Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide's parent company.
Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvel's modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and many others.
Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and the Avengers and antagonists such as the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Kingpin, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Loki, Galactus, Thanos, the Abomination, and the Red Skull. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirror real-life cities. Characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil, and Dr. Strange are based in New York City, whereas the X-Men have historically been based in Salem Center, New York, and the Hulk's stories have usually been set in the American Southwest.
Marvel Comics began life as "Timely Publications" in 1939, with comic books featuring Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner and an early version of the Human Torch. Legendary comics writer Stan Lee was hired as an office assistant in 1939. Within two years, the 19-year-old Lee was promoted to editor of the Marvel Comics line, a post that he would keep until 1972.
Everything changed in 1961, when Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ushered in "The Marvel Age of Comics" by creating The Fantastic Four -- a new style of superhero comic that focused on the characters' internal drama as well as their heroic adventures. The style was a huge success, and the Lee/Kirby team went on to create the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Mighty Thor and the X-Men. The prolific Lee worked with artist Steve Ditko to create Marvel's greatest success story, Spider-Man. Stan Lee's Marvel revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to the way in which comic books engaged the readership and built a sense of community between fans and creators.
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 (April 1964).
Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, Matt Murdock is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from an oncoming vehicle. While he no longer can see, the radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human ability. His father, a boxer named Jack Murdock, supports him as he grows up, though Jack is later killed by gangsters after refusing to throw a fight. After donning a yellow and dark red, and later an all dark red costume, Matt seeks out revenge against his father's killers as the superhero Daredevil, fighting against his many enemies including Bullseye and the Kingpin. Daredevil's nickname is "the Man Without Fear".
While Daredevil had been home to the work of comic-book artists such as Everett, Kirby, Wally Wood, John Romita, Sr., and Gene Colan, among others, Frank Miller's influential tenure on the title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular and influential part of the Marvel Universe. Daredevil has since appeared in many various forms of media including several animated series, video games and merchandise, and the 2003 feature-length film Daredevil, where he was portrayed by Ben Affleck.
The son of prize fighter Battlin' Jack, Matt Murdock grew up in the relative poverty of Hell's Kitchen with much reverence for his father, who constantly pressed him to study instead of playing with his friends. In turn, they taunted him with the nickname Daredevil since he always went back to studying (or secretly training in his father's gym) instead of doing things with them.
As a boy, Matt witnessed a man about to be hit by a truck and pushed him out of the way but the truck crashed and spilled its cargo of extremely toxic chemicals into his face. He awoke in the hospital blind from the toxins and learned that his other senses were amplified as a result of his loss of sight and was able to see by a radar-like sense using natural sounds around him, giving him ultimate confidence in his surroundings. He met a blind martial arts master named Stick, who taught him to hone his senses and trained him in martial arts among other skills such as free running, meditation and marksmanship.
As an adult, he became a lawyer and opened a law firm with Foggy Nelson while secretly taking on the mantle of Daredevil in order to protect the citizens of Hell's Kitchen and bring justice to the streets as well as the courtroom. His arch nemesis is Kingpin and other side villains include Electro, the psychotic Bullseye, and Daredevil's frequent love interest Elektra.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is a 2002 American action film starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu. Liu (Sever) and Banderas (Ecks) play opposing secret agents who are supposedly enemies, but team up during the movie to fight a common enemy. The film was universally panned by critics, often listed among the worst movies ever made. In March 2007, the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film #1 among "The Worst of the Worst" movie list, with 108 "rotten" reviews and no "fresh" ones. Financially, the film was also a box office failure, recouping just over $19.9 million of its $70 million budget.
Facts about Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
1. The role of Agent Sever was originally written to be played by a man. Wesley Snipes and Jet Li were originally said to star, then Vin Diesel and Sylvester Stallone.
2. The 2001 Game Boy Advance game "Ecks vs. Sever" was actually based on an early script draft for this film and not the other way around. The game's producers later made a sequel to that game that was based on the finished version of the movie.
3. Grossed less than 30% of its budget at the box-office making it one of the biggest box-office failures in film history.
4. Rotten Tomatoes list this film as #1 on their list of "The 100 Worst Reviewed Movies of All Time".
Source: IMDB.
Here is another fact about the film Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) in which it (erroneously) places the FBI (United States) in Canada:
1. Among the most obvious plot holes noted by critics of the film is the fact that the FBI - an organization intended to work within the United States - is somehow working in Vancouver, Canada, causing costly shootouts with other Americans.
2. Factual error: Why are the FBI investigating and following their case if it's in Canada? The FBI or any other law enforcement agency in the US has no jurisdiction in Canada.
Source: Wikipedia, www.moviemistakes.com.
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.
The World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games; the cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match, a ninth of the entire population of the planet.
X-Men: First Class is a 2011 American superhero film directed by Matthew Vaughn and produced by Bryan Singer, based on the X-Men characters appearing in Marvel Comics. The fifth installment in the X-Men series, the film acts as a prequel for the original X-Men trilogy, being set primarily in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It focuses on the relationship between Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), and the origin of their groups—the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, respectively. The film stars James McAvoy as Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Lensherr, leading an ensemble cast that includes Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoë Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Erik Lehnsherr: Excuse me, I'm Erik Lehnsherr.
Professor Charles Xavier: Charles Xavier.
Logan: Go fuck yourself.
Erik Lehnsherr: (before Charles uses Cerebro for the first time) What an adorable lab rat you make, Charles.
Professor Charles Xavier: Don't spoil this for me, Erik.
Erik Lehnsherr: I've been a lab rat. I know when I see one.
(about the Class going into action)
Professor Charles Xavier: They're just kids...
Erik Lehnsherr: No, they WERE kids. Shaw has his army, we need ours.
Erik Lehnsherr: (Shaw's mind is frozen by Charles) If you're in there, I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said. We are the future. But, unfortunately, you killed my mother. This is what we're gonna do.
Professor Charles Xavier: No. Please, Erik, no.
Erik Lehnsherr: I am going to count to three and I'm going to move the coin. One.
(moves the coin at Shaw's head)
Professor Charles Xavier: Please, Erik.
Erik Lehnsherr: Two. Three.
(Magneto halts the missile barrage and directs it upon the fleet)
Professor Charles Xavier: Erik, you said yourself we're the better men. This is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships who are just following orders.
Erik Lehnsherr: I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.
Spawn is a 1997 American superhero action film which is partly based on the graphic novel by Todd McFarlane.This film is an origin story, and was directed and co-written by Mark A.Z. Dippe.
The film stars Michael Jai White as Al Simmons, a military soldier/assassin,who is betrayed by the head of a covert government agency,Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen).After Simmons dies from a gas fire caused by Wynn,he arrives in Hell,where Malebolgia (Frank Welker),the Devil, offers him a deal.If Simmons becomes his eternal servant and leader of his army in Armageddon, he will be able to return to Earth to see his fiancee,Wanda Blake (Theresa Randle).
Al Simmons accepts the offer and is returned to Earth as the occult anti-hero "Spawn".
However, when he returns, Al Simmons discovers that five years have passed.Wanda is now married to his best friend,Terry (D.B. Sweeney) and living the life he always wished for.He encounters a strange clown-like demon called The Violator (John Leguizamo), who acts like a guide for Spawn.Al Simmons also seeks revenge on his former boss and killer,Jason Wynn, and during a reception Simmons attacks Wynn,kills Jessica Priest and escapes, using his new-found "Spawn" powers.
It transpires that Jason Wynn has made a deal with the Clown/Violator too and plans to destroy the world with a deadly virus that will usher in Armageddon and a war between Heaven and Hell.Spawn must stop Wynn and the Clown/Violator (the Devil's assistant) from destroying the world.
Spawn:"You sent me to Hell, Jason! I'm here to return the favor!"
Spawn:(after he sees his wounds heal for the first time)"Daaaamn."
(after defeating the Clown)
Spawn:"Give my regards to your boss.Tell him he's next."