Early life

Film work

His next feature was the World War II epic ''Das Boot'', released in early 1982. The film chronicles the experiences of a German submarine crew engaged in the "Battle of the Atlantic". Though not a financial success, the film received positive reviews and was nominated for six Academy Awards, two of which (for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) went to Petersen himself; he was also nominated for a BAFTA Award and DGA Award. The film also introduced Jurgen Prochnow as the U-boat Captain, who became a good example of Peterson's action characters, a man at war and who dares danger and fate at sea.

After ''The NeverEnding Story'' (1984), Petersen's first full-blown Hollywood effort (although filmed at the Bavaria Film Studios complex in Germany), ''Enemy Mine'' (1985), was not a critical and box office success. He finally hit his stride in 1993 with the assassination thriller ''In the Line of Fire''. Starring Clint Eastwood as an angst-ridden presidential Secret Service guard, ''In the Line of Fire'' gave Petersen the box office clout he needed to direct another suspense thriller, ''Outbreak'' (1995), starring Dustin Hoffman. The 1997 Petersen blockbuster, ''Air Force One'', did very well at the box office, while getting a mix of opinions from movie critics. For both ''Air Force One'' and ''Outbreak'' (but not for ''The Perfect Storm'') Petersen teamed up with the German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who has also worked frequently with director Martin Scorsese. In another project, Petersen was the executive producer for the film ''Red Corner'', starring Richard Gere.

By 1998, Petersen was an established Hollywood director, with the power to both re-release his classic ''Das Boot'' in a new director's cut and to helm star-studded action-thrillers. As such, he was originally considered for the first movie in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''. Petersen pulled out of the running in March 2000.

In May 2006, Petersen's $160 million epic film ''Poseidon'', a re-telling of the 1969 Paul Gallico novel (and popular 1972 disaster film) ''The Poseidon Adventure'', was released by Warner Bros., but performed poorly in the US, barely cracking $60 million in box office receipts by early August, although international profits surpassed $121 million.

Although hired to direct a film adaptation of ''Ender's Game'' by Orson Scott Card that was scheduled for release in 2008, he "moved on" from the project. Then producers of the film hoped for a 2009 release.

He is currently developing a live-action adaptation of the 2006 anime film ''Paprika''. He is directing a film adaptation of the science fiction novel ''Old Man's War'', with a scheduled release date of 2012.

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:People from Emden Category:German expatriates in the United States Category:German film directors Category:German television directors

Jürgen Prochnow (; born 10 June 1941) is a German actor. His most well-known roles internationally have been as the sympathetic submarine captain in ''Das Boot'' (1981), Duke Leto Atreides I in ''Dune'' (1984), the minor, but important role of Neo-Stalinist dictator General Ivan Radek in ''Air Force One'' and the villain Maxwell Dent in ''Beverly Hills Cop II''.

Biography

He was facially scarred following a stunt accident during the filming of ''Dune''. One scene called for Prochnow to be strapped to a black stretcher and drugged. During one take, a high-powered bulb positioned above Prochnow exploded due to heat, raining down molten glass. Remarkably, the actor was able to free himself from the stretcher, moments before glass fused itself to the place he had been strapped. During the filming of the dream sequence, he had a special apparatus attached to his face so that green smoke (simulating poison gas) would emerge from his cheek when the Baron scratched it. Although thoroughly tested, the smoke gave Prochnow first and second-degree burns on his cheek. This sequence appears on film in the released version.

Personal life

Awards

Filmography

References

External links

Category:German film actors Category:German television actors Category:American film actors Category:American people of German descent Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Actors from Berlin Category:1941 births Category:Living people

James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film ''Titanic'' remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.

In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Other scores he worked on include those of ''Braveheart'', ''Willow'', ''Apollo 13'', ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', ''Cocoon'', ''Legends of the Fall'', ''Aliens'', ''Glory'', ''The Mask of Zorro'', ''Field of Dreams'', ''Enemy at the Gates'', ''The Missing'', ''Sneakers'', ''Casper'', ''Troy'', ''An American Tail'', ''The Land Before Time'', ''The Rocketeer'', ''A Beautiful Mind'', ''Mighty Joe Young'', ''The Perfect Storm'', ''Avatar'', ''The Karate Kid'', and most recently, ''Black Gold.''

His body of work is notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; ''Titanic'' and ''Avatar'', both of which were directed by James Cameron.

Horner is a two-time Academy Award-winner, and has received a total of 10 Oscar nominations. He has won numerous other awards, including the Golden Globe Award and the Grammy Award.

Early life

Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned a master's and started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished his teaching of music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.

Film and television scoring

Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), ''Krull'' (1983), ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984), ''Commando'' (1985), ''Cocoon'' (1985), ''Aliens'' (1986), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Glory'' and ''Field of Dreams'' (both 1989).

''Aliens'' earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination. He has been nominated an additional nine times since. Horner's scores have been sampled in film trailers for other films. The climax of the track ''Bishop's Countdown'' from his score for ''Aliens'' ranks fifth in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers. Also, an unused fragment from ''Aliens'' was featured in a scene from ''Die Hard''. Several films whose scores were composed by Michael Kamen have had trailers featuring Horner's music; most notably, the music from ''Willow'' is substituted for the theme Kamen wrote for the 1993 remake of ''The Three Musketeers''. Horner also added his nominated Braveheart "For the Love of a Princess" single for Robert Zemeckis's Theatrical Trailer of ''Cast Away''.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also wrote orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by Amblin Entertainment), with credits for ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''The Land Before Time'' (1988), ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'' (1991), ''We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'' (1993), and ''Casper'', ''Jumanji'', and ''Balto'' (all from 1995).

1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for ''Braveheart'' and ''Apollo 13'', both of which earned him Academy Award nominations. Horner's greatest financial and critical success would come in 1997, with the score to the motion picture, ''Titanic''. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide.

At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for the soundtrack and ''My Heart Will Go On''. ''Titanic'' also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for ''Aliens'', Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience of scoring the film ''Aliens'' as "a nightmare").

Since ''Titanic'', Horner has continued to score for major productions (including ''The Perfect Storm'', ''A Beautiful Mind'', ''Enemy At The Gates'', ''The Mask of Zorro'', ''The Legend of Zorro'', ''House of Sand and Fog'' and ''Bicentennial Man'').

Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically works on smaller projects such as ''Iris'', ''Radio'' and ''Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius''. He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for ''A Beautiful Mind'' (2001) and ''House of Sand and Fog'' (2003), but lost on both occasions to Howard Shore. He frequently collaborates with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with ''Cocoon'' in 1985. Coincidentally, Horner's end title music from ''Glory'' can be heard in the trailer for Howard's ''Backdraft''.

Horner composed the 2006-2011 theme music for the ''CBS Evening News''. The theme was introduced as part of the debut of Katie Couric as anchor on September 5, 2006. It has since been adopted by most other CBS News programs as well.

Horner recollaborated with James Cameron on the 2009 film ''Avatar'', which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing ''Titanic'' (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner).

Horner spent over two years working on the score for ''Avatar'', and did not take on any other projects during that time. Horner's work on ''Avatar'' earned him numerous award nominations, including his tenth Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA nomination, and a Grammy Award nomination, all of which he lost to Michael Giacchino for ''Up''.

Regarding the experience of scoring ''Avatar'', Horner said, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken... I work from four in the morning to about ten at night and that’s been my way of life since March. That's the world I'm in now and it makes you feel estranged from everything. I'll have to recover from that and get my head out of Avatar." It is currently unknown whether or not Horner will return as composer for the sequel(s) to ''Avatar''.

Horner recently composed the score for the film ''The Karate Kid'' replacing Atli Örvarsson. This is the first film Horner has worked on since ''Avatar''. The film was released in 2010.

Horner's next projects will be the score to ''The Song of Names'', which is due for release in 2011 and The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 Starring Andrew Garfield.

Critical debate

List of scores

Film

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Television

Short films

Concert works

Miscellaneous works

Awards and nominations

Horner has also received five Golden Globe nominations, all in the category of Best Original Score, winning one, for ''Titanic'', as well as seven Grammy Award nominations, winning for ''Glory'' (Best Score), ''An American Tail'' and ''Titanic'', the latter two being in the category of Best Song. He has also received three BAFTA nominations, but has not won any.

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AFI

References

External links

Category:1953 births Category:American composers Category:American film score composers Category:American people of Austrian descent Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:Saturn Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:University of Southern California alumni

Barret Spencer Oliver (born August 24 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an American actor and photographer. He is best known for his role as Bastian Bux in the film adaption of Michael Ende's novel ''The NeverEnding Story''.

Career

In his teens Oliver left acting to join the Church of Scientology's Sea Org and was stationed at its Gold Base compound. Later he became a printer and photographer specializing in nineteenth century processes such as collodion and Woodburytype. His work has been displayed in museum and gallery exhibitions and used in films. In 2007 he published ''A History of the Woodburytype''.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

|1983 |rowspan="4"|Young Artist Award |''The Circle Family'' |Best Young Actor in a Television Special |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- |rowspan="2"|1985 |''Highway to Heaven'' |Best Young Actor - Guest in a Television Series |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- |''The NeverEnding Story'' |Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- |rowspan="2"|1986 |rowspan="2"|''D.A.R.Y.L.'' |Best Starring Performance by a Young Actor - Motion Picture |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- |Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor |Best Performance by a Younger Actor |bgcolor="#ddffdd"|Won |- |}

References

External links

Oliver, Barret Oliver, Barret Oliver, Barret Oliver, Barret Category:Living people

Tamara "Tami" Stronach (born July 31, 1972 in Tehran, Iran) is a dancer and choreographer who has also worked as an actress.

Stronach was born to Israeli and Scottish parents. Her father, David Stronach, is a renowned archeologist of ruins of Ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) and a professor at UC Berkeley. David met his wife, an Israeli archeologist named Ruth Vaadia, in Tehran, where they both worked on excavations at a Tehran site. They got married shortly afterwards, and Tami is their second child.

The family fled to Israel during the Iranian Revolution in 1978 where they lived for a few years until the family had to relocate again to America for a job David got as a professor of archeology.

Stronach made her acting debut as "The Childlike Empress" in ''The Neverending Story'' (1984), a film adaptation of the novel ''Die Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story)'' by Michael Ende. She has not since had many known acting roles; her parents preferred that she not further pursue acting to avoid the possible dangers many child actors in both movies and television sometimes encounter. She has nevertheless since acted in Chambre at La Ma Ma, and she has further studied acting with Laura Esterman. More recently, she has suggested that she would like to return to acting after her hiatus.

She also released a 45 rpm single around the same time as ''The Neverending Story'' entitled ''Tami Stronach - Fairy Queen''. The songs on the album are called "Fairy Queen" and "Riding On a Rainbow." The tracks are of similar synthpop orientation as the Giorgio Moroder/Limahl ''Neverending Story'' theme, and may have been an attempt to capitalize on its success.

Since the days of her childhood role, she has become a member of a well-respected Israeli dance troupe based in the U.S, the Neta Dance Company, joining them in 1996, she performed with the company mostly in places like the U.S, Israel and Europe. She has also choreographed and performed her own works, including "The Maid and the Marmalade" and "Contain yourself, darling." While her own work has typically been performed in New York City, she has begun more recently to take this abroad, such as with a tour of Australia in July 2006.

She is married to Greg Steinbruner since April 30, 2010. They had a daughter (born in January 2011).

References

Dance and choreography reviews

External links

Category:1972 births Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American people of Israeli descent Category:Iranian emigrants to Israel Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:People from Tehran Category:American people of Iranian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent