Play Story Download ~UPD~ Film 2012
Quartet is a 2012 British comedy-drama film based on the play Quartet by Ronald Harwood, which ran in London's West End from September 1999 until January 2000.[2] It was filmed late in 2011 at Hedsor House, Buckinghamshire. The film is actor Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut.
Play Story Download Film 2012
Headline Pictures' Mark Shivas and Stewart Mackinnon acquired the film rights to the play from Ronald Harwood, and, with funding from BBC Films, commissioned him to write the screenplay. Mackinnon then approached a number of co-producers and directors, and eventually contracted the producer Finola Dwyer and director Dustin Hoffman. Mark Shivas died four years before the film was completed.
Dustin Hoffman said Harwood was inspired by the 1984 documentary Tosca's Kiss (about the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded in Milan by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896) to write the original play on which the film is based.
Quartet premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2012, followed by screenings at another dozen film festivals during the autumn of 2012. The film had its first general release in Australia and New Zealand on 26 December 2012, before being released in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2013 and in Ireland three days later. It saw a limited release in the United States on 11 January 2013.
Quartet was also screened at Cardiff's Cineworld complex on Thursday, 6 December 2012, in a charity event arranged by the Rotary Club of Blackwood, with proceeds donated to charities. The premiere was attended by the film's producer Finola Dwyer, who gave an interview on the making of the film.
Marvel's The Avengers[5] (classified under the name Marvel Avengers Assemble in the United Kingdom and Ireland),[1][6] or simply The Avengers, is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures,[a] it is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the film features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the Avengers, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Nick Fury and the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton to form a team capable of stopping Thor's brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
The film's development began when Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel announced that The Avengers would be released in July 2011 and would bring together Tony Stark (Downey), Steve Rogers (Evans), Bruce Banner (Ruffalo), and Thor (Hemsworth) from Marvel's previous films. With the signing of Johansson as Natasha Romanoff in March 2009 and Renner as Clint Barton in June 2010, the film was pushed back for a 2012 release. Whedon was brought on board in April 2010 and rewrote the original screenplay by Zak Penn. Production began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in August and New York City in September. The film has more than 2,200 visual effects shots.
The Avengers premiered in Los Angeles on April 11, 2012, and was released in the United States on May 4, as the final film in Phase One of the MCU. The film received praise for Whedon's direction and screenplay, visual effects, action sequences, acting, and musical score. The film grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, setting numerous box office records and becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release and the highest-grossing film of 2012, as well as the first Marvel production to generate $1 billion in ticket sales. In 2017, The Avengers was featured as one of the 100 greatest films of all time in an Empire magazine poll. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 85th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. Three sequels have been released: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Clark Gregg appears as Phil Coulson, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who oversees many of the division's field operations.[40] Gregg was cast as part of a multi-picture deal with Marvel.[41] Gregg said his role was expanded in The Avengers: "[What] Agent Coulson had become in terms of the import of this particular story, and how important his job is in bringing the Avengers together, it kind of felt a little surreal, like somebody was playing a prank and that wasn't the real script. But it wasn't, it was the real thing, I got to show up and do that stuff, and it felt like such an amazing payoff to what the journey had been and the fact I had been doing it for five years."[42] Gregg said Whedon provided insight into his character's backstory, particularly about Coulson being a fan of Captain America.[42] Cobie Smulders appears as Maria Hill, a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who works closely with Nick Fury.[43] Smulders, whom Joss Whedon once considered for his unproduced live-action Wonder Woman film, was selected from a short list of potential actresses including Morena Baccarin. Smulders' deal would integrate her into nine films.[44][45] Regarding her preparation, Smulders said, "I hired this amazing black-ops trainer to teach me how to hold a gun, take me to a shooting range, how to hit, how to hold myself, how to walk and basically how to look. I don't do a ton of fighting in the movie, which is why I wasn't offered a trainer, but I wanted to look like I had the ability to."[46] On relating to the character, Smulders said, "I can relate to her being a mom and being a businesswoman and trying to work full-time and raising a family and having a career. We're asked to do a lot of things these days. I feel she is just all about her job and keeping things going."[47]
Gwyneth Paltrow and Maximiliano Hernández reprise their roles from previous MCU films as Pepper Potts and Jasper Sitwell, respectively.[48] Paul Bettany returns to voice J.A.R.V.I.S.[48] Frequent Whedon collaborator Alexis Denisof portrays "the Other", and Damion Poitier portrays his master, Thanos (unnamed in the film), in a post-credits scene.[49] Powers Boothe and Jenny Agutter appear as members of the World Security Council later revealed to be Gideon Malick and Councilwoman Hawley.[50][51] Avengers co-creator Stan Lee has a cameo appearance in a news report.[52] Harry Dean Stanton cameos as a security guard, and Polish film director Jerzy Skolimowski appears as Georgi Luchkov, Romanoff's interrogator.[53] Warren Kole has a brief role as a S.H.I.E.L.D. bridge tech who is caught playing Galaga.[54] Enver Gjokaj, who later went on to play Daniel Sousa in the series Agent Carter, appears as a police officer.[55]
In January 2010, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige was asked if it would be difficult to meld the fantasy of Thor with the high-tech science fiction in Iron Man and The Avengers. "No," he said, "because we're doing the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee/Walt Simonson/J. Michael Straczynski Thor. We're not doing the blow-the-dust-off-of-the-old-Norse-book-in-your-library Thor. And in the Thor of the Marvel Universe, there's a race called the Asgardians. And we're linked through this Tree of Life that we're unaware of. It's real science, but we don't know about it yet. The 'Thor' movie is about teaching people that".[72] In March, it was reported that Penn had completed the first draft of the script, and that Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and Avengers comic-book writer Brian Michael Bendis had received copies.[73] Also in March, Chris Evans accepted an offer to play Captain America in three films including The Avengers.[16]
When Whedon received Penn's draft, he told Feige he felt the studio did not "have anything" and they should "pretend this draft never happened".[80] Part of Whedon's issue was the lack of character connections in Penn's draft, which necessitated Whedon to begin "at square one".[57] Whedon went on to write a five-page treatment of his plan for the film, and created the tagline "Avengers: Some Assembly Required", riffing on the "Avengers Assemble" slogan from the comic books. Marvel quickly began working to sign Whedon to write and direct, only stipulating that he include the Avengers against Loki, a battle among the heroes in the middle, a battle against the villains at the end, and he get the film done for its May 2012 release.[80] The script would go through "a lot of insane iterations of what might be" according to Whedon. Whedon explained there was a point when it was not certain Johansson would star in the film, so he "wrote a huge bunch of pages starring The Wasp",[57] and wanted Zooey Deschanel to play the character.[81] He also was "worried that one British character actor [(Hiddleston)] was not enough to take on Earth's mightiest heroes, and that we'd feel like we were rooting for the overdog. So I wrote a huge draft with Ezekiel Stane, Obadiah Stane's son, in it." Once all of the actors were "locked in place the movie stayed on mission." Whedon noted that the characters used do not have the same issue, unlike the X-Men. He felt "these guys just don't belong together" before realizing their interactions could be like The Dirty Dozen (1967). Whedon also referenced Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Abyss (1989), His Girl Friday (1940), and Black Hawk Down (2001). Whedon would ultimately share final screenplay credit with Penn, though Whedon noted he "fought" for sole credit and was "very upset about it." Penn felt the two "could have collaborated more, but that was not his choice. He wanted to do it his way, and I respect that."[57]