Wannabes (film)

Wannabes (2000 film) is a crime drama film starring William DeMeo, Conor Dubin, Joe Viterelli and Joseph Donofrio.

Plot

At the beginning of the film, Vinny Minieri (Donofrio) and his two men are beating a man. It finishes with Vinny burning man's face with a cigarette. Two brothers, Angelo Argono (DeMeo) and Paulie Argono (Dubin) are leading poor and boring life on the streets of Brooklyn, New York City, along with their childhood friends Pete (Daniel Margotta) and Dominic "Dom" (John Palumbo). Brooklyn is owned by a mob boss Santo Minieri (Joe Viterelli), old but ruthless crime boss. Brothers are working in a local restaurant belonging to Mr. Letto (Robert Constanzo) as waiters. Although they can't stand their boss, they must work there.

All changes when Angelo decides to quit his job. He, Paulie, Pete and Dom borrow cash from a loan shark Hector and start bookie business, although their Uncle Tommy (Raymond Serra) doesn't like the idea. Business goes well and more and more money goes in Angelo's crew's pockets, from losing customers. Soon they were able to sit in luxury strip club (owned by Minieri) and drink expensive drinks.

Film

A film, also called a movie, motion picture or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession. A film is created by photographing actual scenes with a motion picture camera; by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques; by means of CGI and computer animation; or by a combination of some or all of these techniques and other visual effects. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to the industry of films and filmmaking or to the art of filmmaking itself. The contemporary definition of cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere by the means of recorded or programmed moving images along with other sensory stimulations.

The process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry.

The Wannabes

The Wannabes, (US title: Criminal Ways), is a 2003 Australian comedy film starring Nick Giannopoulos, Russell Dykstra, Isla Fisher, Ryan Johnson, Michael Carman, Lena Cruz, Tony Nikolakopoulos, Costas Kilias, Chantal Contouri and Felix Williamson. Rove McManus also appears in the film as himself, promoting The Wannabes on his TV show Rove Live.

Plot

Danny (Nick Giannopoulos) is a talentless entertainer who is hired by Marcus (Russell Dykstra) and his motley crew to turn them into the biggest kids' group since The Wiggles. But while Danny is training them to become The Wannabes, they're secretly planning to use their new identity as cover to pull off a heist of a diamond necklace from the very rich Aurora Van Dyke (Lena Cruz). Aurora has hosted a party for her grandchild, and booked all the best child entertainers in town to perform, and as The Wannabes prepare for the show, two of the characters steal the necklace.

The burglary doesn't go as planned, so they ditch the necklace and escape the scene without being caught. But after the escapade something totally unexpected happens; they end up becoming the hottest kids' band in the country. They even have The Wannabes merchandise and posters, etc.; they release an album and even do a performance on the Australian show Rove Live. Their fame continues to build until Aurora Van Dyke discovers they were the people responsible for trying to steal her necklace. After some escapades including abduction and rescuing, The Wannabes discover crime doesn't pay, but kids groups do.

Spice Girls

The Spice Girls are an English pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consists of Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham, née Adams ("Posh Spice"). They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number one in 37 countries and established them as a global phenomenon. Their debut album Spice sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. Their follow up album Spiceworld sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The Spice Girls have sold over 80 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling female group of all time, one of the best-selling pop groups of all time, and the biggest British pop phenomenon since Beatlemania.

Measures of their success include international record sales, a 2007–2008 reunion tour, merchandising, record-breaking achievements, iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress representing "girl power", and a film, Spice World. The group became one of the most successful marketing engines ever, earning up to $75 million per year, with their global grosses estimated at $500–800 million between 1996 and 1998. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, the Spice Girls embraced merchandising and became a regular feature of the British and global press. In 1996, Top of the Pops magazine gave each member of the group aliases, which were adopted by the group and media. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, "Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely recognised group of individuals since John, Paul, George, and Ringo". With the "girl power" phenomenon, the Spice Girls were popular cultural icons of the 1990s. They are cited as part of the 'second wave' 1990s British Invasion of the US.

The Wannabe

The Wannabe is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Nick Sandow. The film stars Patricia Arquette, David Zayas, Domenick Lombardozzi, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Piazza and Nick Sandow. The film was released on December 4, 2015, by Entertainment One Films.

Cast

Production

Nick Sandow was inspired to write the film after reading about Thomas and Rosemarie Uva, a New York City couple who were murdered on Christmas Eve 1992 by the New York mafia after they had robbed several mafia social clubs over the prior few months. After Sandow worked with his Boardwalk Empire co-star Vincent Piazza on the script, the pair sent the script to Boardwalk Empire executive producer Martin Scorsese. Sandow told Creative Screenwriting, "When we felt comfortable about the script, we thought about trying to get it to Marty. He sent it to him with a bottle of wine before the holidays. We didn’t have expectations, but after the holidays they were having a table read for the first episode of the next season of Boardwalk Empire and Marty came up to him and said he loved The Wannabe." Scorsese agreed to serve as executive producer of the film.