Jude Law

David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972), known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor. He has received nominations for two Academy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and two British Academy Awards, winning one. In 2007, he received an Honorary César and was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Law came to international attention for his role in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2004, he received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and British Academy Film Award nominations for his role in Anthony Minghella's epic war film Cold Mountain (2003). Law's other notable films include Gattaca (1997), Enemy at the Gates (2001), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), Alfie (2004), Closer (2004), The Holiday (2006), Contagion (2011), Hugo (2011), Anna Karenina (2012), Side Effects (2013), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He portrayed the role of Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009), and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).

Batman Begins

Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of the title character (Bale), from his alter ego Bruce Wayne's initial fear of bats, the death of his parents, his journey to become Batman, and his fight to stop Ra's al Ghul (Watanabe) and the Scarecrow (Murphy) from plunging Gotham City into chaos. It draws inspiration from classic comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One, and Batman: The Long Halloween.

After a series of unsuccessful projects to resurrect Batman on screen following the critical failure and box office disappointment of Batman & Robin (1997), Nolan and David S. Goyer began to work on the film in early 2003 and aimed for a darker and more realistic tone, with humanity and realism being the basis of the film. The goal was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne. The film, which was primarily shot in Iceland and Chicago, relied on traditional stunts and miniatures – computer-generated imagery was used minimally.

David S. Goyer

David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, and comic book writer.

His screenwriting works includes the Blade trilogy, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Dark City and Man of Steel, and he directed four feature films: Zig Zag, Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, and The Unborn.

Goyer was also co-writer of the video games Call of Duty: Black Ops and its sequel Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He won a Saturn Award for Best Writing for Batman Begins and received another nomination for Dark City, and has been nominated for four Hugo Awards.

Early life

Goyer and his brother Jeff were born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and were raised by their mother. He is Jewish on his mother's side, and attended Hebrew school. He has stated that in regular school, "a lot kids beat me up, saying that I killed Christ. I was very consciously different... I grew up with something of a chip on my shoulder." Goyer is an alumnus of Huron High School and the University of Southern California, graduating from the School of Cinema-Television in 1988.

Colin Firth

Colin Andrew Firth CBE (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor. His films have grossed more than $3 billion from 42 releases worldwide. He has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two British Academy Film Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as the Volpi Cup. His most notable and acclaimed role to date has been his 2010 portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech, a performance that earned him an Oscar and multiple worldwide best actor awards.

Identified in the late 1980s with the "Brit Pack" of rising, young British actors, it was not until Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that he received more widespread attention. This led to roles in films such as The English Patient, Bridget Jones's Diary (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA), Shakespeare in Love and Love Actually. In 2009 he received widespread critical acclaim for his leading role in A Single Man, for which Firth gained his first Academy Award nomination, and won a BAFTA Award. He starred in the action spy comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014, which was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews.