The genre is predominantly a version of fantasy films ( Star Wars (1977)), but can easily overlap with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent (Alien (1979)) in a confined spaceship (much like a haunted-house story). Quite a few science-fiction films took an Earth-bound tale and transported it to outer space: High Noon (1952) became Outland (1980), The Magnificent Seven (1960) was spoofed in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Enemy Mine (1985) was essentially a remake of Hell in the Pacific (1968) with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, and the chariot race of Ben-Hur (1959) was duplicated in the pod-race of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

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The Marx Brothers' greatest and funniest masterpiece - the classic comedy Duck Soup (1933) is a short, but brilliant satire and lampooning of blundering dictatorial leaders, Fascism and authoritarian government. The film, produced by Herman Mankiewicz, was prepared during the crisis period of the Depression. Some of its clever gags and routines were taken from Groucho's and Chico's early 1930s radio show Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel. Working titles for the film included Oo La La, Firecrackers, Grasshoppers, and Cracked Ice.

It was the Marx Brothers' fifth film in a five-picture contract with Paramount Studios, before they went on to MGM. It was their last and best film with the studio. The film was directed by first-class veteran director Leo McCarey (who would go on to direct The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939), Going My Way (1944), and An Affair to Remember (1957) - a remake of his 1939 film), and its screenplay was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin). Originally, it was to have been directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The film was devoid of any Academy Award nominations.

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Columbia Pictures presented thirteen low-budget installments of another detective series (from 1941 to 1949) titled Boston Blackie, starring square-jawed Chester Morris in the lead role as a former jewel thief/con artist who reformed himself and turned detective. The series was based on the 1910 book by Jack Boyle, and the wise-cracking character first appeared in various silent era versions:

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Creative director Rouben Mamoulian stylishly remade the Fairbanks' 1920 Zorro tale almost two decades later as the historical swashbuckler The Mark of Zorro (1940) with Tyrone Power as the dashing, masked and foppish hero Don Diego Vega in old California, who duels with a villainous oppressor (Basil Rathbone) to the death in the film's climax. The 1940 version also featured glowing and gorgeous Linda Darnell and Gale Sondergaard as the good and bad female characters respectively.

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Films that were concerned with race relations included Hollywood's first major indictment of racism in producer Stanley Kramer's and director Mark Robson's Home of the Brave (1949), the story of a black WWII soldier facing bigoted insults from his squad. Then, there was John Sturges' Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) about small-town Japanese-American prejudice uncovered by a one-armed Spencer Tracy, Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones (1958) with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as bound-together escaping convicts - and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) about an inter-racial couple (Sidney Poitier as WHO doctor John Prentiss and Katharine Houghton as SF socialite Joanna Drayton) planning on marrying who needed parental approval from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (in their ninth and last film together). Also, In the Heat of the Night (1967) featured a bigoted sheriff and a black homicide detective working together to solve a murder, and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) - about racial tensions and eventual violence during a hot Brooklyn summer.

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Cast
Elle Fanning as Mary
Nathan Lane as Uncle Albert
John Turturro as The Rat King
Frances de la Tour as The Rat Queen
Shirley Henderson as the voice of The Nutcracker
Aaron Michael Drozin as Max
Charlie Rowe as The Prince

Download The Nutcracker in 3D

Kim Kardashian is being ripped apart by her Twitter fans and PETA for the way she held a kitten in a photo she posted on her page -- but according to another animal rights group, it's not as bad as it seems.

Download Kim Kardashian -- Hello Kitty Controversy

Transformers producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford made a lot of fans happy today with their news of acquiring popular 1990’s cartoon Captain Planet, featuring a hero who promotes environmental themes in addition to battling super villains, for a live-action movie.

Download Transformers Producers To Tackle CAPTAIN PLANET Movie!

We have a blast with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Andrew Niccol for the little known In Time.

Justin Timberlake...really? YEP! The multi-talented actor who turned in a terrific performance in The Social Network, joins Red Riding Hood's Seyfried in the Niccol-directed and written film which also stars Cillian Murphy, Vincenet Kartheiser, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Galecki and Olivia Wilde.

Download Comic-Con 2011 - IN TIME Press Conference Images with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and director Andrew Niccol