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John Mahaffie is a New Zealand filmmaker, steadicam operator, second unit director, and second unit director of photography. [1] He is most well known for his work on superhero movies (both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe series of films) and his collaborations with director Martin Campbell.
Mahaffie, alongside Geoff Murphy, Rick Porras, Barrie M. Osborne, and George Marshall Ruge, served as second unit director on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, under Jackson's supervision via satellite feed. [2]
Other films Mahaffie has directed second unit on include The Avengers and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron , Aquaman and its sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom , Shazam , The Amazing Spider-Man 2 , Spider-Man: Homecoming , Edge of Darkness , The Legend of Zorro , Zero Dark Thirty , Racing Stripes , The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep , and Where the Wild Things Are . [3]
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary.
Samuel M. Raimi is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the Evil Dead franchise (1981-present) and the Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007). He also directed the superhero movie Darkman (1990), the revisionist western The Quick and the Dead (1995), the neo-noir crime thriller A Simple Plan (1998), the supernatural thriller The Gift (2000), the supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell (2009), the Disney fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Superhero films are films centered around superheroes and their adventures. These characters often possess superhuman abilities and/or exceptional skills. Superhero films typically blend elements of action, adventure, fantasy, or science fiction. The first film in a series about a particular superhero character often focuses on the hero's origin story and typically introduces the hero's nemesis.
Second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming stage of production to be completed faster.
Spider-Man in film dates back to 1977, the rights belonging to Marvel until 1999, when Sony bought them for $7 million. He has been Marvel's most successful character in the cinema industry ever since. After selling the Spider-Man motion picture rights to Sony, Marvel eventually founded its own studio, developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) based on the characters they still held the rights to. This would change in 2016, when Sony and Disney entered an agreement to include Spider-Man in the MCU. Despite some disagreements pertaining to finances and merchandising between the two parties, the agreement proved to be a successful endeavor for both companies. The following two Avengers sequels, finally with Spider-Man, crossed the two-billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office for the first time. Meanwhile, Sony in association with Marvel launched the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), with Sony entering a three-billion-dollar streaming agreement with Netflix and Disney.
Hot Toys Limited is a Hong Kong production house for designing, developing, and manufacturing highly detailed collectible merchandise to worldwide markets. They are known for their high end 1/6th scale figurines of licensed properties, like Marvel and Star Wars, which must be preordered. Hot Toys collectibles are primarily available to purchase from secondary retailers, like Sideshow.
Don Michael Burgess, is an American cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis. He was nominated for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Zemeckis' Forrest Gump (1994). In 2024, he received the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award.
An event film or event movie is a blockbuster film whose release itself is considered a major event.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise also includes several television series, short films, digital series, and literature. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Lego Super Heroes is a theme and product range of the Lego construction toy, introduced in 2011, owned by The Lego Group and licensed from DC Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company and Pixar.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the first animated film in the Spider-Man franchise and the first film in the Spider-Verse franchise, which is set in a shared multiverse of alternate universes called the "Spider-Verse". Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman, it stars Shameik Moore as Morales, alongside the voices of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Vélez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. The film's story follows Miles as he becomes the new Spider-Man and joins other Spider-People from various parallel universes who team up to save New York City from the Kingpin.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 American animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and the second film in the Spider-Verse franchise, which is set in a shared multiverse of alternate universes called the "Spider-Verse". The film was directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who both wrote the film with Dave Callaham. It stars Shameik Moore, who voices Miles. Other voice actors of the film are Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Greta Lee, Daniel Kaluuya, Mahershala Ali, and Oscar Isaac. Miles goes on an adventure with Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman (Steinfeld) across the multiverse, where he meets a team of Spider-People led by Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099 (Isaac) known as the Spider-Society, but comes into conflict with them over handling a new threat in the form of the Spot (Schwartzman).
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on superhero films and other series starring various titular superheroes independently produced by Marvel Studios and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. Over the course of the films and related media, several teams and organizations have been formed, each with different aims and purposes.