October 31, 2012 by Nostra - 32 Comments

The Story Behind… The Walt Disney Pictures logo

In “The Story Behind…” series I take a look at the history of anything related to movies. One of them are the logos of the various studios, this time that of Walt Disney Pictures.

The man who lent his name to the company was a big fan of drawing as he grew up. He shortly worked at The Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he met Ubbe Iwerks and after their contract with the studio expired they decided to start their own company. It was called “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists” in 1920. Since they couldn’t manage to run it succesfully Disney started working at the Kansas City Film Ad Company and was joined by Iwerks. He started experimenting with animation and made Laugh-o-grams. These were so succesfull that Disney was able to start a new company called “Laugh O Gram Studio”. Unfortunately this company went bankrupt and Disney decided to move to Hollywood in 1923 together with his brother Roy.

They started “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio” and they succesfully sold a live action/cartoon named “Alice’s Wonderland”, which became very succesfull and more episodes were made. After the popularity dropped Disney developed the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons together with Iwerks who created the character. Unfortunately for Disney it was Universal Studios who owned the rights to the character and after most of his animators were hired away (except Iwerks) he had to come up with a new character, which was Mickey Mouse. The instant success of this first cartoon with synchronised sound meant he was able to create other shorts, which became the Silly Symphonies. His cartoons were distributed by various big studios including Columbia Pictures and United Artists. In 1934 he started production for the first feature length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which was released in 1937. Continue reading →

October 24, 2012 by Nostra - 31 Comments

The Story Behind… The RKO Pictures logo

It’s been a while since I wrote one of these “The Story Behind…” posts, but felt like doing a new one. For those who don’t know the series, in “The Story Behind…” I take a look at movie related things and the stories behind them. I’ve written several of these about the history and various logos of the major studios. I’ve covered quite a few studios, but there are a couple I didn’t cover yet. One of them is RKO, which was part of the “Big Five” studios during the golden age of Hollywood. The studio has been responsible for some classic movies like King Kong, It’s a Wonderful Life and Citizen Kane. It matched up Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant was under contract with them for a long time. Although the RKO name still exists it’s not the big studio it once was as the original RKO Pictures was out of business in 1960. Continue reading →

October 19, 2012 by Nostra - 20 Comments

The Many Faces of… Paul Bettany

Paul Bettany was born on 27th of May 1971 in London. After he started living on his own he made money playing guitar on the streets. He studied at the Drama Centre London and appeared on stage in a production of An Inspector Calls. He appeared in several Shakespeare plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He made the move to TV and appeared in various TV series. His first leading role was in the movie Gangster No.1, which made people take notice. His first big Hollywood production was A Knight’s Tale. He has since appeared in various big productions like A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander and The Da Vinci Code and as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man movies. Continue reading →

October 12, 2012 by Nostra - 21 Comments

The Many Faces of… Eva Mendes

Overview roles of actress Eva Mendes in all movies

Eva Mendes was born on March 5, 1974 in Miami. She grew up in Los Angeles and as she was growing up was aspiring to become a nun. At California State University she studied marketing, but dropped out to pursue acting. She studied acting under Ivana Chubbuck (who’s students also included Brad Pitt, Halle Berry and Terrence Howard amongst many others).

Her first movie role was in Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, a straight to video release. She acted in several small movies, but had her big break when she appeared in Training Day. She has since starred in a lot of movies including 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Out of Time, Hitch, Ghostrider and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 by Nostra - 27 Comments

The Many Faces of… Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas. He moved a lot together with his mother and ended up in New York. He attended several schools and aspired to be a writer when he was in high school. He also started acting and did his first play when he was 13. He decided to follow acting classes and eventually studied actign at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg.

He dropped out when he got a role in 1989 in Dead Poets Society. His first movie was Explorers in 1985 (which also starred River Phoenix). Dead Poets Society however meant his breakthrough. He had the leading role in White Fang and also acted in A Midnight Clear and Alive. He has since starred in many films including Reality Bites, Before Sunrise, Gattaca, Waking Life, Training Day, Before Sunset and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Continue reading →

September 28, 2012 by Nostra - 23 Comments

The Many Faces of… Ryan Gosling

Overview of the career and roles of actor Ryan Gosling

With the weekend about to start it’s time to take a look again at the career of an actor or actress, with this week’s choice for Ryan Gosling. He was born November 12, 1980 in London, Ontario. He didn’t like being a child and really didn’t have any friends until he was in his teens. He got in some trouble after watching First Blood and decided he would take stake knives to school and throw them at other kids. Luckily no one got hurt, but he was suspended. He had trouble reading and eventually was placed in a class for special-needs students. His mother also gave him home schooling.

As for acting, he started out as a mouseketeer and became close friends with Justin Timberlake. After his contract with Disney ended he appeared in several TV shows, including the adventure series Young Hercules. In 2000 he made the move to movies, appearing in Remember the Titans. It wasn’t until 2004 that people started really noticing him when he starred in The Notebook. Other notable performances are those in Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl, Blue Valentine, The Ides of March and Drive. Continue reading →

September 21, 2012 by Nostra - 19 Comments

The Many Faces of… Vin Diesel

It’s Friday and time for a new installment of this weekly series. This time I decided to take a look at action star Vin Diesel. He was born as Mark Sinclair Vincent on July 18, 1967 in New York. He first appeared in a play at the age of seven. The reason he was in that play was because him, his brother and several friends had broken into the theater planning to vandalize it, but were offered parts by the artisitc director when he found them.

When he went to Hunter college he remained interested in acting and as he loved writing he started writing screenplays and making films. His first (uncredited) movie role was in Awakenings and the next movie was Multi-Facial, which he wrote, directed and starred in. He also did so for his next movie, Strays. Saving Private Ryan was the first big movie he starred in and he also did voice work for the giant in The Iron Giant. Next up were the Boiler Room and Pitch Black, but it was when The Fast and Furious came out he really became famous. He has since starred in a lot of action movies, but also tried different types of roles in both comedies and dramas. Continue reading →

September 14, 2012 by Nostra - 15 Comments

The Many Faces of… Emma Stone

overview roles and movies of actress Emma Stone

Welcome to a new installment of this weekly series. This week I decided to shine the light on an actress who might not have a very long filmography, but Emma Stone has impressed me since the first time I saw her in Paper Man.

She was born on November 6, 1988 in Arizona. When growing up she was part of the Valley Youth Theatre and appeared in a play when she was 11 and many followed. She was mostly home schooled and convinced her parents to move to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.

They moved when she was 15 and she won the part of Laurie in a reality tv competition looking for actor for a new series called The New Partridge Family. Apart from a pilot episode the show didn’t go anywhere, but it meant more TV work for her as she appeared on several shows. She had her movie debut in Superbad as the girl Jonah Hill’s falls in love with. Stone has since appeared in several movies including Zombieland, Easy A, The Help and The Amazing Spider-Man. Continue reading →

September 7, 2012 by Nostra - 32 Comments

The Many Faces of… Bill Murray

It’s Friday again, so I already want to wish you a very enjoyable weekend and present you with a new installment of “The Many Faces of…”. Born on the 21st of September, 1950, Bill Murray has been picked as this week’s star. He comes from a big family (he had 8 brothers and sisters). When growing up he kept himself busy as lead singer of a rockband and to earn some money he worked as a golf caddy. He already acted in high school. After graduating he started taking premedical course, but never finished.

He started doing improvisational comedy together with his brother and was eventually recruited by John Belushi to star on a comedy radio show. He appeared on Saturday Night Live and TVTV. His first movie role was in Meatballs and he played Hunter S. Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam. With movies like Caddyshack and Tootsie he quickly became a well-known actor. He was the star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog day and has appeared in lots of movies over his career, including more serious roles. Continue reading →

August 31, 2012 by Nostra - 25 Comments

The Many Faces of… Cillian Murphy

Overview of the roles and movies of actor Cillian Murphy

So with the weekend about to start it is time to give you another installment of “The Many Faces of…”. This week’s choice is Cillian Murphy. He was born in Douglas in 1976. He went to a catholic school where he performed in a drama. It is something he really liked. He first tried to become a rock star as he played guitar. He later became interested in acting again and acted in a play at University College Cork. He started acting professionally in 1996 in a play called Disco Pigs. He started appearing in small movies in 1997 and also the BBC television miniseries The Way We Live Now. His first big movie was Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and this he appeared in Hollywood movies like Cold Mountain and GIrl with a Pearl Earring. With his role in the Batman movies as Dr. Jonathan Crane a wider audience noticed him (he originally was asked to audition for the role of Bruce Wayne). Continue reading →