Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
H.R. Pufnstuf is an American children's television series created by Sid and Marty Krofft. It was the first independent live-action, life-sized-puppet program, following on from their work with Hanna-Barbera's program The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast Saturday from September 6, 1969, to December 27, 1969. The broadcasts were successful enough that NBC kept it on the schedule as reruns until September 4, 1971. The show was shot at Paramount Studios and its opening was shot at Big Bear Lake, California. Reruns of the show returned on ABC Saturday morning from September 2, 1972, to September 8, 1973, and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 16, 1973, to September 8, 1974. It was syndicated by itself from September 1974 to June 1978 and in a package with six other Krofft series under the banner Krofft Superstars from 1978 to 1985. Reruns of the show were featured on TV Land in 1999 as part of its Super Retrovision Saturdaze Saturday morning-related overnight prime programming block and in the summer of 2004 as part of its TV Land Kitschen weekend late-night prime programming block, and it was later shown on MeTV from 2014 until 2016.
Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.
Bad Taste is a 1987 New Zealand science-fiction comedy horror film directed, produced and filmed by Peter Jackson, who also starred in it and co-wrote the screenplay, along with Tony Hiles and Ken Hammon. Independently produced on a low budget, it is Jackson's first feature film. Jackson and friends take on most of the key roles, both on and off-screen. The plotline sees aliens invade the fictional New Zealand village of Kaihoro to harvest humans for their intergalactic fast food franchise, where they face off against a four-man paramilitary force. The film was shot in Northern Wellington over the course of four years, and eventually reviewed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in New Zealand Film Commission assistance, providing Jackson with the leverage necessary to advance in the film industry.
The Frighteners is a 1996 supernatural comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with Fran Walsh. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, R. Lee Ermey and Jake Busey. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts after his wife's murder. He initially uses his new abilities to befriend ghosts, whom he sends to haunt people so that he can charge them handsome fees for "exorcising" the ghosts. However, the spirit of a mass murderer appears posing as the Grim Reaper, able to attack the living and the dead, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence.
Flushed Away is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, produced by Cecil Kramer, David Sproxton, and Peter Lord, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan and Will Davies. It was the third and final DreamWorks Animation film co-produced with Aardman Features following Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and was the first Aardman project mostly made in CGI animation as opposed to starting with their usual stop-motion – this was because using water on plasticine models could damage them, and it was complex to render the effect in another way. The film stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Shane Richie, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and Jean Reno. In the film, a pampered fancy rat named Roddy St. James (Jackman) is flushed down the toilet in his Kensington apartment by a sewer rat named Sid (Richie), and befriends a scavenger named Rita Malone (Winslet) in order to get back home while evading a sinister toad (McKellen) and his hench-rats.
Thinner is a 1996 American body horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Michael McDowell and Holland. The film is based on Stephen King's 1984 novel of the same name and stars Robert John Burke and Joe Mantegna. In the film, an obese lawyer who accidentally kills a Romani woman is cursed by the woman's father to rapidly lose weight.
Mark Selwyn Hadlow is a New Zealand actor and comedian, perhaps best known internationally for playing the roles of Harry in King Kong and Dori, a dwarf, in The Hobbit series.
James William Arthur "Jamie" Selkirk is a film editor and producer who has worked primarily in New Zealand. He is particularly noted for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which he co-produced with Peter Jackson. He received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the last film of the trilogy, The Return of the King (2003).
Crazy in Alabama is a 1999 American crime film directed by Antonio Banderas in his directorial debut, written by Mark Childress based on his novel, and starring Melanie Griffith. The film follows an abused housewife who travels to California to become a television actress, while her nephew deals with a racially motivated murder involving a corrupt sheriff. It marked Dakota Johnson's film debut.
Carry On Henry is a 1971 British historical comedy film, the 21st release in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). It tells a fictionalised story involving Sid James as Henry VIII, who chases after Barbara Windsor's character Bettina. James and Windsor feature alongside other regulars Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott and Kenneth Connor. This was the first time that Williams and Connor appeared together since Carry On Cleo seven years previously. The original alternative title was to be Anne of a Thousand Lays, a pun on the Richard Burton film Anne of the Thousand Days, and Sid James wears exactly the same cloak that Burton wore in that film. Harry Secombe was considered for Henry VIII when it appeared that Sid James might not have been available due to possible stage commitments. James was making a lengthy appearance in South Africa which was cut down when he heard he was wanted for the film and arrived back in time for the second day of shooting.
Heidi's Song is a 1982 American animated musical film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and based on the 1881 novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri. The film was directed by Robert Taylor from a screenplay by Taylor, Joseph Barbera and Jameson Brewer, and stars Margery Gray as the title character, alongside the voices of Lorne Greene and Sammy Davis Jr. It is one of only four films Hanna-Barbera ever made that did not feature their trademark characters.
Surrender Dorothy is an independent film by director Kevin DiNovis which won first place at the 1998 Slamdance Film Festival. The film stars Peter Pryor and Kevin DiNovis. The film is shot in black and white. It is also notable for featuring the first film role for Elizabeth Banks, who appears in the credits as "Elizabeth Casey."
Twelfth Night is a 1996 romantic comedy film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Trevor Nunn and featuring an all-star cast. Set in the late 19th century, it was filmed on location in Cornwall, including scenes shot at Padstow and at Lanhydrock House near Bodmin, with Orsino and his followers wearing uniforms that evoke the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Sir Peter Robert Jackson is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both of which are adapted from the novels of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien. Other notable films include the critically lauded drama Heavenly Creatures (1994), the horror comedy The Frighteners (1996), the epic monster remake film King Kong (2005), the World War I documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021). He is the fifth-highest-grossing film director of all-time, his films having made over $6.5 billion worldwide.
Heidi 4 Paws is a feature-length children's film that retells the classic story of Heidi using dogs in all the acting roles. Heidi 4 Paws was syndicated to public television stations in the United States through American Public Television and WTTW Chicago in November/December 2008.
Spread is a 2009 American coming-of-sexual-maturity black comedy film directed by David Mackenzie and starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 2009, and was released in North American theaters by Anchor Bay Films on August 14, 2009.
Miss March is a 2009 American sex comedy film written, starring, and directed by Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger, stars of the IFC show The Whitest Kids U' Know. The film was released on March 13, 2009. It marks the final on-screen film appearance of Hugh Hefner before his death in 2017. It is also the first of only three films directed by Trevor Moore before his death in 2021, the second being "The Civil War On Drugs" which was aired in segments in the final season of The Whitest Kids U' Know in 2011, and the third being the animated comedy “Mars” which is set to be released posthumously.
Heidi and Peter is a 1955 Swiss family drama film directed by Franz Schnyder and starring Heinrich Gretler, Elsbeth Sigmund and Thomas Klameth. It is a sequel to the 1952 film Heidi, which is itself an adaptation of the 1880 novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri. It was the first Swiss film made in colour and was one of the biggest grossing films in Switzerland for the year.
Marlowe is a 2022 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Monahan. Based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville, writing under the pen name Benjamin Black, the film stars Liam Neeson as private detective Philip Marlowe, a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, and features Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Francois Arnaud, Ian Hart, Danny Huston, Daniela Melchior and Colm Meaney.
