George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and entrepreneur. Lucas is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm Games, and Industrial Light & Magic. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His films are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster.
Star Wars is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films and other media, including television series, video games, novels, comic books, theme park attractions, and themed areas, comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. In 2020, its total value was estimated at US$70 billion, and it is currently the fifth-highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired from September 28, 1987 to May 23, 1994 in syndication, spanning 178 episodes over seven seasons. The third series in the Star Trek franchise, it is the second sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of the United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of a Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), in its exploration of the Milky Way galaxy.
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist or protagonists are thrust into a series of events that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, rescues and frantic chases. Action films tend to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life-threatening situations, a dangerous villain, or a pursuit which usually concludes in victory for the hero. Advancements in computer-generated imagery (CGI) have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences and other visual effects that required the efforts of professional stunt crews in the past. However, reactions to action films containing significant amounts of CGI have been mixed, as films that use computer animations to create unrealistic, highly unbelievable events are often met with criticism. While action has long been a recurring component in films, the "action film" genre began to develop in the 1970s along with the increase of stunts and special effects. Common tropes of the genre include explosions, car chases, fistfights and shootouts.
Ronald William Howard is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of The Twilight Zone. He gained national attention for playing young Opie Taylor, the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968. During this time, he also appeared in the musical film The Music Man (1962), a critical and commercial success. He was credited as Ronny Howard in his film and television appearances from 1959 to 1973. Howard was cast in one of the lead roles in the coming-of-age film American Graffiti (1973), and became a household name for playing Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days, a role he would play from 1974 to 1980.
Sylvester Enzio Stallone is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, he won his first critical acclaim as an actor for his co-starring role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lords of Flatbush. Stallone subsequently found gradual work as an extra or side character in films with a sizable budget until he achieved his greatest critical and commercial success as an actor and screenwriter, starting in 1976 with his role as boxer Rocky Balboa, in the first film of the successful Rocky series (1976–present), for which he also wrote the screenplays. In the films, Rocky is portrayed as an underdog boxer who fights numerous brutal opponents, and wins the world heavyweight championship twice.
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series Taxi (1978–1983), which won him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He plays Frank Reynolds on the FX and FXX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2006–present).
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor and pianist. In a career that has spanned nearly seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history. Williams has won 25 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 52 Academy Award nominations, he is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His compositions are considered the epitome of film music. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time. The Library of Congress also entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Eric Marlon Bishop, known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. In 1991 he joined the cast as a featured player in the sketch comedy show In Living Color until the show's end in 1994. Following this success, Foxx was given his own television sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, in which he starred, co-created and produced, airing for five highly rated seasons from 1996 to 2001 on The WB Television Network. He subsequently became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film Ray, for which he won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming the second actor to win all five major lead actor awards for the same performance. That same year, Foxx was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the crime film Collateral. Since spring 2017, Foxx has served as the host and executive producer of the Fox game show Beat Shazam.
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director, writer and producer. In a career spanning over three decades, he has directed more than 95 films in various Indian languages, predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi, while also having done six films in Tamil and two in Telugu. He has done about 27 films in Hindi alone, the highest number of films done by any Hindi film director after David Dhawan. He was one of the first directors in India to introduce rich color grading, clear sound and quality dubbing through his early Malayalam films.
Michael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children’s television show The Berenstain Bears and portraying a young Chuck Barris in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002).
Vishal Veeru Devgan, known professionally as Ajay Devgn, is an Indian actor, film director and producer. He has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. Devgn has won numerous accolades, including two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. In 2016, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country.
Regina Rene King is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for an African-American performer. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Akshaye Vinod Khanna is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the son of late Indian actor Vinod Khanna. He has also won numerous awards in his career including two Filmfare Awards, three Screen Awards and two IIFA Awards in varied acting categories.
Jonah Hill Feldstein is an American actor, filmmaker, and comedian. He is known for his comedic roles in films including Superbad (2007), Knocked Up (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Funny People (2009), Get Him to the Greek (2010), 21 Jump Street (2012), This Is the End (2013), and 22 Jump Street (2014), as well as his dramatic performances in Moneyball (2011) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both of the latter films.
Kodi Smit-McPhee is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles in The Road, Let Me In, ParaNorman, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Apocalypse, Alpha, and The Power of the Dog, for which he won the 2021 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Anna Cooke Kendrick is an American actress and singer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Tony Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award; making her one of the youngest people to be nominated for the "Triple Crown of Acting".
Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various films, television series, video games, novels, and comic books. With an estimated $10.6 billion in revenue, Star Trek is one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
