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 film director, screenwriter and producer. 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 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).
Willard Tobe Hooper was an American filmmaker, best known for his work in the horror genre. The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time.
Lance Henriksen is an American actor. He is known for his works in various science fiction, action and horror films, such as that of Bishop in the Alien film franchise, and Frank Black in Fox television series Millennium (1996–1999) and The X-Files (1999). He has also done extensive voice work, as Kerchak the gorilla in the 1999 Disney film Tarzan (1999), General Shepherd in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett in BioWare's Mass Effect video game trilogy (2007–2012). He also appeared as Hal Vukovich in The Terminator (1984), Ed Harley in the cult horror film Pumpkinhead (1988), Chains Cooper in Stone Cold (1991), and Emil Fouchon in Hard Target (1993).
Alone in the Dark is a 2005 action horror film directed by Uwe Boll and written by Elan Mastai, Michael Roesch, and Peter Scheerer. Based on the video game series of the same name, it stars Christian Slater, Tara Reid, and Stephen Dorff as paranormal investigators who combat a supernatural threat. The film's story is a loose adaptation of the game Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001).
Stanley Winston was an American television and film special make-up effects artist, best known for his work in the Terminator series, the first three Jurassic Park films, Aliens, The Thing, the first two Predator films, Inspector Gadget, Iron Man, and Edward Scissorhands. He won four Academy Awards for his work.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), it is the second installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Set one year after the events of The Curse of the Black Pearl, the film recounts Captain Jack Sparrow owing a debt to Davy Jones, the ghastly captain of the Flying Dutchman, and being marked for death and pursued by the Kraken. Meanwhile, the wedding of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann is interrupted by Lord Cutler Beckett, who wants Turner to acquire Jack's magic compass in a bid to find the Dead Man's Chest.
Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker and actor. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He began making independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a 2007 American epic fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski. The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. The sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), it is the third installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Set a few months after Dead Man's Chest, the story follows a desperate quest to locate and rescue Captain Jack Sparrow, trapped on a sea of sand in Davy Jones' Locker, and convene the Brethren Court in a war against the East India Trading Company. In an uneasy alliance, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Hector Barbossa, and the crew of the Black Pearl rescue Jack and prepare to fight Lord Cutler Beckett, who controls Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman.
David Winning is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and occasional actor. Although Winning has worked in numerous film and TV genres, his name is most commonly associated with science fiction, thrillers and drama.
The Orphanage was a visual effects studio located in California. It had offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was co-founded in 1999 by Stu Maschwitz, Jonathan Rothbart, and Scott Stewart, who all previously worked at Industrial Light & Magic. Scott Kirsner at Hollywood Reporter interviewed a couple of the founders, and writes about the company and its plans. Stu Maschwitz created the Magic Bullet software which gives video a film look, and wrote a book about guerrilla filmmaking called The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap.
Andrew Brion Hogan Goddard is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He began his career writing episodes for the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias, and Lost. After moving into screenwriting in film, he wrote Cloverfield (2008), World War Z (2013), and The Martian (2015), the latter earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2011, he made his directorial debut with The Cabin in the Woods.
Pirates of the Caribbean is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with Walt Disney's theme park ride of the same name, which opened at Disneyland in 1967 and was one of the last Disneyland attractions overseen by Walt Disney. Disney based the ride on pirate legends, folklore and novels, such as those by Italian writer Emilio Salgari.
Julian Richards is a Welsh film director. He is associated with the Cool Cymru era of culture and arts in Wales.
Anthony Scott Burns is a Canadian filmmaker, visual effects artist and musician. After starting his film career as a visual effects artist and director, as of 2015 he is directing three feature films in pre-production: Dark Matter, Holidays, and Plan B Entertainment's Alpha. He also releases music under the moniker Pilotpriest. His film, Our House, was released in 2018.
Neil Corbould is a British special effects supervisor best known for his work on major blockbuster films such as Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Black Hawk Down. He is the brother of fellow special effects supervisors Chris Corbould, Paul Corbould and Ian Corbould
Vulgar auteurism is a movement that emerged in early 2010s cinephilia and film criticism associated with championing or reappraising filmmakers, mostly those working in the horror, sci-fi and action genres and whose work has otherwise received little attention or negative reception in the critical mainstream. It became a controversial topic in the cinephile community following the publication of an article in the Village Voice in 2013 and has been described as "a critical movement committed to assessing the 'unserious' artistry of popcorn cinema with absolute seriousness."
Paul Kavanagh is a British visual effects artist who was nominated at the 82nd Academy Awards in the category of Best Visual Effects for his work on Star Trek. His nomination was shared with Burt Dalton, Russell Earl and Roger Guyett. In 2016, he and his colleagues Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett and Neal Scanlan received the BAFTA-Award in the category of Best Special Visual Effects for their work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They were also nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to Ex Machina.
Scott Ray Fisher is an American visual effects supervisor.
