Annie | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Will Gluck |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Michael Grady |
Edited by | Tia Nolan |
Music by | Charles Strouse [lower-roman 1] |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 118 minutes [2] |
Country | United States [1] |
Language | English |
Budget | $65 million [3] [4] |
Box office | $133.8 million [5] |
Annie is a 2014 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Will Gluck from a screenplay he co-wrote with Aline Brosh McKenna. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Marcy Media Films, and Olive Bridge Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is a contemporary film adaptation of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, and Thomas Meehan's 1977 Broadway musical of the same name (which in turn is based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray). The film changes the setting from the Great Depression to the present day, and it is the second remake and the third film adaptation of the musical, following the 1982 theatrical film starring Carol Burnett and Albert Finney and the 1999 television film starring Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. The revival film stars Quvenzhané Wallis in the title role, alongside Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Cameron Diaz. Annie began production in August 2013 and, following a premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 7, 2014, it was released theatrically in the United States on December 19. [6] [7] [8]
The film received generally negative reviews; the Rotten Tomatoes consensus say it "smothers its likable cast under clichés, cloying cuteness, and a distasteful materialism". It grossed $133.8 million against a budget of between $65–78 million. Annie received two Golden Globe Award nominations in the categories of Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical (for Wallis) and Best Original Song. Conversely, the film received two Golden Raspberry nominations and won in the category of Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel while Diaz was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. It was followed by a fourth adaptation of the musical that was a live NBC production.
In Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, ten-year-old Annie Bennett lives in a foster home alongside other girls with a former member of C+C Music Factory, Colleen Hannigan, who spends her days drinking, trying to snag a sweetheart, and giving various grueling chores to the orphaned children in her care. Every Friday, Annie waits outside an Italian restaurant, Domani's, believing her parents will arrive there for her, as a message written on a Domani's receipt promised that they would do so. When a city inspector comes to check Miss Hannigan's treatment of the kids, Annie decides to take advantage of this opportunity; she manages to copy her social security number from the inspector's clipboard and heads off, hoping to find out more about herself. Unfortunately, Annie receives what she already knows.
While trying to protect a Shiba Inu from a group of bullies, Annie is nearly run over by a car but is saved by Will Stacks, a germaphobic cellphone mogul running for Mayor of New York City. The incident is caught on camera and soon goes viral on the internet, boosting Stacks popularity; per the suggestion of his campaign manager, Guy Danlily, Annie moves in with Stacks to continue his popularity boost, who enjoys everything. She befriends Stacks' assistant, Grace Farrell. Annie also gets to adopt the stray dog from before, naming her Sandy. Bonding with Annie, Stacks reveals that he had humble beginnings in Queens; he never really knew his father because he worked so much, but believed he could understand him if he worked just as hard. Annie also helps Grace and Stacks realize that they like each other romantically.
At Annie's request, Stacks takes her and her friends to see the premiere of MoonQuake Lake. Stacks is uninterested at first, but soon becomes a major fan along with Grace. To Annie and Grace's insistence, he joins the premiere party. After returning her friends home, Annie shows Grace her Friday routine of waiting outside Domani's to see if her parents will return; Grace sympathizes, agreeing to keep this a secret from Stacks. At Miss Hannigan's, the girls accidentally wake her; Miss Hannigan snaps at them, saying the rich are selfish and will ditch anyone they don't care about anymore, recalling her past. Slightly hung over, she laments about her situation of foster kids and her desire to reclaim stardom.
Annie is invited to a charity event, where she speaks about how grateful she is for all the opportunities she's been given. When she is asked to read a speech, Annie runs off and reveals that, despite attending school, she does not know how to read. With Miss Hannigan, Guy plans to have a pair of impostors claim Annie is their daughter to boost Stacks' popularity to the point where he wins the election; Guy would then share his payment of the reward with Miss Hannigan. However, Guy doesn't care about Annie's well-being, planning to put her back into foster care after the election and cutting Miss Hannigan out of the deal.
By the time Miss Hannigan has a change of heart, Annie has already been kidnapped by the imposters. Miss Hannigan tells Stacks about Guy's role in the scheme, and enraged, Stacks angrily confronts Guy and fires him. Stacks, Grace, Miss Hannigan, Lou and the girls board Stacks' helicopter; aided by the police, they chase the getaway car into the park. The kidnappers believe that Stacks paid them to kidnap Annie rather than Guy, so Annie gets upset and chastises Stacks, thinking he set up the kidnapping and rescue. To prove his innocence, Stacks announces to the press his withdrawal from the mayoral race, after which Annie helps Grace and Stacks admit their love for each other. All three dance and sing happily as they are streamed onto television.
Annie announces the opening of the "Stacks Literacy Centre," to help children like herself who cannot read. Everyone then sings Annie's "Tomorrow" and Stacks adopts Isabella, Pepper, Tessie, Mia, as well as Sandy. Humorously, Miss Hannigan attempts to continue singing even after the song is finished, receiving stares that cue her to stop.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's names appear in the end credits of MoonQuake Lake, a fictional film within the film; the scenes were actually directed by Lord and Miller.[ citation needed ] Taylor Richardson, who played the title role in the 2012 Broadway revival of the musical, appears in the beginning of the film as one of Annie's classmates, also named "Annie".[ citation needed ] Dorian Missick and Tracie Thoms portray Annie's fake parents who were hired by Guy.[ citation needed ]
While the film incorporates notable songs from the original Broadway production, written by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Martin Charnin, the songs themselves were rearranged by Sia and Greg Kurstin to reflect its new contemporary setting. Executive music supervisor Matt Sullivan explained that there was a desire to make the film's use of music "seamless" rather than "abrupt", and to maintain the integrity and familiarity of the musical's most iconic songs, including "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life". The songs were rearranged with a percussive, pop-inspired style: in particular, "It's the Hard Knock Life" — whilst maintaining the use of "natural" sounds for its rhythm — was updated in a hip hop style. Lyrics to some songs were also updated to reflect the differences in the film's storyline and settings. [9] Sia and Kurstin wrote three new songs for the soundtrack: "Opportunity", "Who Am I", and "MoonQuake Lake". Sia additionally co-wrote "The City's Yours" with Norwegian Stargate. [15] [16]
Sony Pictures first announced the film in January 2011, with Jay-Z and Will Smith serving as producers and Smith's daughter, Willow Smith, attached to play the lead role. [17] In February 2011, Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy became front-runner to direct the film, [18] but by March, he had declined due to filming new episodes. [19]
The production soon began seeking a screenwriter and actress Emma Thompson was considered. [20] No developments arrived until May 2012, when Will Smith appeared on Good Morning America and provided updates, including that the film would be set in modern-day New York City, that Thompson was providing a script and that Jay-Z would also provide new songs for the film. [21] In July 2012, We Bought a Zoo screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna wrote a second draft of the script. [22] In August, it was announced production was to begin in Spring 2013. [23]
In January 2013, Easy A director Will Gluck was hired to direct but Willow Smith had aged out. [24]
By February 2013, Beasts of the Southern Wild star and Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis had replaced Smith in the lead role, [25] and the film was given a Christmas 2014 release date. [26]
In March 2013, the search for the rest of the cast continued and Justin Timberlake was rumored for the role of Daddy Warbucks. [27] This was proven false when Jamie Foxx signed on for the role, which was renamed William "Will" Stacks. [28] In June 2013, Cameron Diaz was cast as Miss Hannigan after Sandra Bullock declined. [29]
In July 2013, Rose Byrne joined the cast as Grace Farrell, Stacks's faithful assistant [30] and in August, Boardwalk Empire star and partner of Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale joined the cast as a "bulldog political adviser" to Will Stacks. [31] In September, the rest of the cast was announced: Amanda Troya, Nicolette Pierini, Eden Duncan-Smith, and Zoe Colletti as Annie's foster sisters. [32]
As of August 19, 2013, principal photography had begun. [33] [34] Shooting was done at Grumman Studios. [35] Other scenes were filmed at the new Four World Trade Center.
While "rooted in the same story" according to Gluck, this adaptation is a contemporary take on the 1977 Broadway musical and contains many differences from the original: [9] The setting was changed from the 1930s — the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency and the Great Depression — to present-day New York City. The opening school scene features class presentations by both the new Annie and a student representing her classic appearance, discussing aspects of and parallels between the economic states of the two settings, such as the New Deal and the modern lower class. [36]
While Hannigan is complicit in deceiving Stacks and Annie that Annie's birth parents have been found (conspiring with Stacks' campaign manager Guy Danlily), they are not impersonated by Hannigan's brother Rooster and his girlfriend Lily as in the original version. Instead, Guy has 'people he uses for this kind of work' take Annie. The fate of Annie's birth parents is left open, whereas in previous versions Hannigan reveals that they died sometime previously but Annie has not been told.
The film officially premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on December 7, 2014. [37]
On November 27, 2014, Annie was one of several films leaked by the "Guardians of Peace", a group that the FBI believes has ties to North Korea, [38] following its breach of Columbia's parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment. Within three days of the initial leak, Annie had been downloaded by an estimated 206,000 unique IPs. [8] By December 9, the count had risen to over 316,000. The chief analyst at BoxOffice.com felt that despite this, the leak was unlikely to affect Annie's box office performance as the demographic who pirates movies isn't the target audience for the film. [39]
Annie was released on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on March 17, 2015, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. [40]
Annie opened on December 19, 2014, and earned $5.3 million on its opening day. In the first weekend, the film made $15.9 million and ranked third in the North American box office behind other new releases The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb . [41] The film grossed $85.9 million in North America and $47.9 million overseas for a worldwide total of $133.8 million. [42]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 28% based on 163 critic reviews, and an average rating of 4.48/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The new-look Annie hints at a progressive take on a well-worn story, but smothers its likable cast under clichés, cloying cuteness, and a distasteful materialism." [43] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [44] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. [45]
PopMatters magazine rated Annie with a three out of ten, saying, "In its aggravatingly choreographed frenzy, the party scene epitomizes Annie: it's trying too hard both to be and not be the previous Annies, it's trying too little to be innovative or vaguely inspired. It's as crass as Miss Hannigan and as greedy as Stacks, at least until they learn their lessons. The movie doesn't appear to learn a thing." [46] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave Annie one-and-a-half stars, describing the adaptation as being "wobbly" and "unsatisfying", criticizing the commercialized nature of the plot changes, concluding that it was "finesse-free and perilously low on the simple performance pleasures we look for in any musical, of any period." [11] Ben Sachs of the Chicago Reader gave the film three out of four stars, praising the "surprising amount of bite: the filmmakers openly acknowledge the similarities between the Great Depression and the present, and the populist message, however overstated, always registers as sincere." Sachs also praised director Will Gluck for "striking a buoyant tone that feels closer to classic Hollywood musicals than contemporary kiddie fare." [47]
The soundtrack, rearranged by Sia Furler and Greg Kurstin, received a polarizing response from critics, with much criticism going towards the heavy use of auto-tune. Entertainment Weekly described its soundtrack as an auto-tuned "disaster," noting that "you won't ever hear a worse rendition of 'Easy Street' than the one performed by Diaz and Cannivale — I promise." [10] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter says "all but a handful of the existing songs have been shredded, often retaining just a signature line or two and drowning it in desperately hip polyrhythmic sounds, aurally assaultive arrangements and inane new lyrics." [48] Matt Zoller Seitz however, praised the soundtrack's new songs. [49]
The performances were more positively received by some critics. IGN.com praised Wallis and Foxx for being "on-point" throughout much of the film, as well as Rose Byrne, calling her the "surprise" of the film. [50] Matt Zoller Seitz called Wallis "the first Annie to bring something both culturally and personally new to this role," and praised the rest of the cast too, including Foxx and Byrne. [49] Cameron Diaz's performance received polarized reviews, with critics praising her effort, but ultimately calling it too "vampy," [49] as well as "strident and obnoxious." [48] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says that she "overacts the role to the point of hysteria." [51]
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress. Known for her work in both comedy and drama, her films have grossed over $3 billion in the U.S. box-office. Diaz established herself as a sex symbol and one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, and in 2013 she was named the highest-paid actress over 40. She has received various accolades, including nominations for a BAFTA Award and four Golden Globe Awards.
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on August 5, 1924, in the New York Daily News.
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Annie is a musical with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 1924 comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won seven Tony Awards, including for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers.
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Who Am I? or Who Am I may refer to:
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Annie is an American media franchise created by Harold Gray. The original comic strip created by Harold Gray, Little Orphan Annie, The comic strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley. Its most notable adaptation is the 1977 musical Annie that won 7 Tony Awards which has been adapted four times on screen for both the big screen and television. The musical also has two sequels titled Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge (1989) and Annie Warbucks (1992). The 1982 film also has a television film sequel Annie: A Royal Adventure! (1995).
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