BIRTHDAY
September 28, 1968
Shoreham, England

RECENT CREDITS
Dream House (FILM) Feb. 18, 2011
Fair Game (FILM) Nov. 5, 2010
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (FILM) Sep. 22, 2010
Mother and Child (FILM) May. 7, 2010
The International (FILM) Feb. 13, 2009

Download Naomi Watts

Robots in the Movies - Film History: Throughout cinematic history, especially in science-fiction tales, robots have always played a primary role. Throughout history and popular culture, robots have reflected the mood, social and cultural issues, and technology of their times. For example, in the Cold War 1950s, robots were generally viewed as threatening forces, but in later years reflected both the conflict and the continuity between man and machine. Robots have also functioned as both servant-helpers or oppressors of humanity, portraying the good and evil sides.

Download Robots in the Movies - Film History

The action/adventure film first became popular with weekly Saturday serials, running in installments that often had 'cliff-hanging' endings to entice viewers to return for the next show. Heroine Pearl White in the 20-episode The Perils of Pauline (1914) was the first major super-star of the silent serials. Besides Pearl White, there were other queens of the sound serials, including Kay Aldridge (as jungle Queen Nyoka in Nyoka and the Tigermen (1942)) and Linda Stirling (in the 12 part serial Zorro's Black Whip (1944) and as the "Tiger Woman" in another 12-episode serial, Perils of the Darkest Jungle (1944)).

Download Serials

Hollywood has always enjoyed lucrative returns from the action-film genre, although the action film has been steadily worn thin with retreaded stories, excessive macho-posturing of the 'one-man-army' hero or hit-man vigilante, and overwhelming special-effects and insane stunts. By the 1980s, action films became more hyperkinetic, violent, and expensive to produce. Raw, indestructible, powerful and muscular heroes of modern, ultra-violent action films were very much unlike the swashbuckler action heroes of the past. Many of the films have morphed into other genre areas, including thrillers, sci-fi, and adventure dramas. The biggest stars and their action films have been:

Download Recent Ultra-Violent Action Films and Their Stars

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was one of the earliest silent film comedians (as well as director and screenwriter). He started out with the Selig Polyscope Company in 1909 (his first film was Ben's Kid (1909)), and then went onto Universal Pictures in 1913 where he appeared in several of Mack Sennett's Keystone Comedies films, noted for fast-paced chase sequences and 'pie-in-the-face' segments. Arbuckle was the first of the silent comedians to direct his own films, starting with Barnyard Flirtations (1914). His teaming with Mabel Normand at Keystone, in a series of "Fatty and Mabel" films, were lucrative for the studio.

Download Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

The Big Parade (1925) is director/producer King Vidor's most famous, precedent-setting war film from the silent era. It was the first realistic war drama and has served ever since as an archetypal model for all other war films. It was the first big box-office success of the newly-formed MGM Studios - and possibly the most profitable silent film of all time - it helped bring back the popularity of war films in the late 20s. Vidor, often compared to the end of the century's director Steven Spielberg, brought his own epic, sweeping style to his intimate yet massive work about love and war.

Screenwriter Harry Behn based his script on a story by author Laurence Stallings, who based his writing on his own gritty wartime experiences as a Marine serving in N. France. Made only seven years after the Great War's Armistice, the film captures the impact of the conflict on an ordinary GI. It was the first war film of its kind to tell its story from the viewpoint of the GI. Handsome matinee silent screen idol John Gilbert gave his greatest acting performance in a star-making role as one of three Americans who enlisted and was swept into the war in France.

Download Return to home The Big Parade (1925)

One of the earliest 'thrillers' was Harold Lloyd's comic Safety Last (1923), with the all-American boy performing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. The haunting and chilling German film M (1931) directed by the great Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre (in his first film role) as a criminal deviant - a child killer. The film's story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten (known as the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf'). Edward Sutherland's crime/horror thriller Murders in the Zoo (1933) from Paramount starred Lionel Atwill as a murderous and jealous zoologist. And various horror films of the period, The Cat and the Canary (1927), director Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with Fredric March, and The Bat Whispers (1930), provided some thrills.

Download Early Thrillers

Starring Renee Willner
Bridget Neval
Dawn Klingberg
Danny Alder
Taryn Eva
Peter Stratford
Mark Taylor

Download Damned by Dawn

Cast:

Mel Gibson, Maria Bello, Gregg Henry, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, William Devane, David Paymer, Deborah Kara Unger


Download Payback

With much of its female cast already in place, Cameron Diaz, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Jennifer Lopez, director Kirk Jones continued to complete his male leads for What To Expect When You're Expecting, the star-studded adaptation of the popular pregnancy guidebook series from Lionsgate and Phoenix Pictures.

Download Dennis Quaid Joins WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING!