title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Nearly three decades after the film's release, Alcon Entertainment co-founders Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson purchased the intellectual property from producer Bud Yorkin. The terms of Alcon's acquisition prohibited the remake of the original "Blade Runner" film, but entitled the company rights to syndication, franchising, and derivative media such as prequels and sequels. No longer satisfied with the profits of their smaller-budget features, and with investor funding scarce, Kosove and Johnson sought to increase Alcon's output of blockbuster films: "If you don't have repetitive cash flow, which is a fancy way of saying being in the sequel business, you are going to be in trouble eventually." Progress on a new "Blade Runner" feature soon intensified when Kosove named Christopher Nolan one of his ideal choices to direct. However, Nolan said he never planned to direct, despite being an admirer of the "Blade Runner" franchise.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: By August 2011, Alcon announced Ridley Scott's signing as the film's director to the press. The British filmmaker had long desired a sequel to expand upon the subject matter. After securing Scott's services, the studio assigned Michael Green and a returning Hampton Fancher the responsibility for writing the script. Alcon producers provided some insight of their vision but were unsure of how to approach the "Blade Runner" story, hence they and the normally candid Scott were tight-lipped when questioned further about the sequel's artistic direction in interviews conducted during the pre-production. Ultimately, Scott resigned from his duties once his existing commitment to "" (2017) took precedence, and retained partial oversight as an executive producer. He also made significant contributions to the screenplay, albeit in an uncredited role.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" was Alcon's second collaboration with director Denis Villeneuve, who they called for a meeting at a cafe in rural New Mexico to negotiate an offer. They had an existing professional relationship from "Prisoners" (2013). Villeneuve credits "Blade Runner" for inspiring his passion for filmmaking, but hesitated to accept the assignment at first as he feared tarnishing the franchise's legacy. Nevertheless, he liked the screenplay and was assured by Fancher's investment in the project. Villeneuve preserved elements of the original film by modernizing "Blade Runner" retrofuturistic onscreen world, which he saw as imperative for an authentic story.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: A scene from Steven Spielberg "Ready Player One" (2018) set in the "Blade Runner" universe was excluded from the film's finished cut. Spielberg had sought copyright approval during the filming of "Blade Runner 2049", which Alcon producers refused as they feared the explicit reference would affect their commercial prospects, even though "Ready Player One" was released months later.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling were "Blade Runner 2049"s first significant casting choices. Gossip about Ford's participation had been circulating in the media since the project's conception, claims which the producers initially denied, having only approached the actor for a part in 2014. Alcon did not publicly announce their signing until the following year. Ford had expressed interest in reprising his role in past interviews and was enthusiastic about the "Blade Runner 2049" script. The working conditions on set was another aspect of the production Ford was pleased with, in contrast to the stressful shooting environment endured on "Blade Runner". Ford stated the thirty five-year passage of time, plus the synthesis of a new story with Deckard's already-established backstory, lent context necessary to playing his aged character. The only other returning "Blade Runner" actor, Edward James Olmos, appears in a supporting part which pivots the main story.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The screenwriters tailored K specifically for Gosling, but it was the opportunity to work with Villeneuve and experienced cinematographer Roger Deakins, paired with his faith in the script, that convinced the actor to join "Blade Runner 2049" in his first leading role in a blockbuster production. Gosling developed a reputation for his discriminating film choices; the prospect of working on big-budget franchise sets never enticed him, yet he trusted the filmmakers' instincts, and the thematic complexity of the script furthermore reassured his decision. A longtime "Blade Runner" fan, the actor said his first viewing experience of the film as a young teenager was profound, remarking, "It was one of the first films I had seen where it wasn't clear how I was supposed to feel when it was over. It really makes you question your idea of the hero and the villain, the idea of what it means to be human." "Blade Runner 2049" proved challenging for Gosling because of the production's scope.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Ana de Armas auditioned several times before landing the film's female lead. De Armas was an actress of national renown in Spain, aspiring to break into English-speaking roles. After working in her first Hollywood film in "Hands of Stone" (2016), she settled in Los Angeles in pursuit of a role that did not typecast her ethnicity. De Armas underwent four months of rigorous speech training to master her English before auditioning. Once the studio commenced production of "Blade Runner 2049", the actress said her fitness training provided the necessary mental space to prepare for the intense shooting schedule.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Villeneuve considered David Bowie, one of the franchise's core influences, for the part of Niander Wallace, but the musician died before filming began. Instead, he and the producers looked at Jared Leto, fresh off the filming of "Suicide Squad" (2016) because they felt he exuded Bowie's rockstar sensibility. Leto refrains from naming specific sources that shaped certain aspects of his character's persona, rather the actor cites real-life friends that work in tech as a general influence. Leto is notorious in the film industry for his unorthodox preparation for his roles, and he continued his unusual practices in "Blade Runner 2049" by wearing custom opaque contact lenses to work the set completely blind. Villeneuve recalled his first day shooting with the actor, "He entered the room, and he could not see at all. He was walking with an assistant very slowly. It was like seeing Jesus walking into a temple. Everybody became super silent, and there was a kind of sacred moment. Everyone was in awe. It was so beautiful and powerful—I was moved to tears."


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: A raft of mostly young actors comprise "Blade Runner 2049"s supporting cast; David Dastmalchian, Sylvia Hoeks, Carla Juri, Mackenzie Davis and Barkhad Abdi were lesser-known stars with years of expertise in indie cinema. Among the few exceptions are Dave Bautista, Hiam Abbass and Lennie James, whose castings were revealed between April and July 2016, and Robin Wright, assigned to one of three major female roles in "Blade Runner 2049". Wright's participation had been rumored for weeks, but was not immediately confirmed by the filmmakers because her existing duties to Netflix's political TV thriller "House of Cards" momentarily stalled the negotiations.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The filmmakers embarked on location scouting in April 2016, and principal photography of "Blade Runner 2049" commenced that July, lasting four months until November. They first toured London but found no soundstage available for the needs of the production. As a result, Deakins and Villeneuve flew to Hungary for location scouting partly due to Scott's familiarity with the country's network of facilities. They also toured Slovakia to source architectural ideas. "Blade Runner 2049" production crew were mostly Hungarian, with some American staff hired to supervise the set. Inserts with Wright and Hoeks were the first scenes filmed on set. Shooting took place mainly at Korda Studios and the Origo Studios backlot in suburban Budapest, where the shoot qualified for a 25% tax rebate on in-state costs from the Hungarian government.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The Alcon–Sony partnership allocated $180million ($90million each) for the budget, rebates notwithstanding. Interior shots of the Budapest Stock Exchange's Liberty Square palace doubled for Las Vegas in casino-set scenes, and abandoned Soviet industrial sites such as the abandoned Inota and Kelenföld power plants were important filming locations that emphasized "Blade Runner 2049" dystopian ethos. The Budapest palace was the film's largest set, occupying at least three floors of the building. Filmmakers revised Deckard's capture by Luv into a simple conversational scene after Ford conveyed to Kosove and Johnson his disapproval of the dialogue.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Pitfalls occasionally beset the production. The filmmakers frequently fell behind schedule, and an Origo Studios-employed subcontractor was killed by falling debris when dismantling one of the sets. Gosling's obligation to fulfill a New York City press junket for "La La Land" (2016) exacerbated the unusual circumstances of the shoot; however, his scenes were able to be filmed in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" is the third Deakins–Villeneuve collaboration after "Prisoners" and "Sicario" (2015). Together with production designer Dennis Gassner, the men brainstormed ideas for the film's visual palette as Villeneuve was editing his science fiction drama "Arrival" (2016). The sequences were then storyboarded and left for Deakins and Villeneuve to execute. The two were inspired by the architecture of several global cities to develop a hostile, imposing brutalist style for their fictionalized Los Angeles, among them the appearance of Beijing's cityscape in dense smog, the foothills of southern Spain, Bangladeshi shipyards, and certain mid-twentieth century landmarks in London (such as the Barbican Estate and Trellick Tower). For Las Vegas-set scenes, the filmmakers researched intense dust storms in the Sahara, Saudi Arabia and Sydney to replicate the sandy desert ruins Villeneuve sought.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: It became apparent to Deakins that "Blade Runner 2049" would be one of his biggest undertakings because of the technical demands involved realizing the onscreen universe. Deakins exercises full artistic control of his shoots, and the extent of his oversight meant a single-camera setup for the set—the British cinematographer rejected a studio line producer's request for a nine unit-camera setup because he firmly believed said technique would yield sloppy camerawork. Rather he and Villeneuve resumed the practical approach of their previous collaborations to capture the "Blade Runner 2049" scenes. They shot the project in 1.55:1 aspect ratio from a single Arri Alexa XT Studio camera with Zeiss Master prime lenses, assisted with an attached crane arm or a dolly. The filmmakers conducted tests with an Alexa 65 camera but preferred the XT Studio's somewhat grainy image quality, and the choice of lenses corresponded to the scale and lighting specifications of the scenes. For example, close-up character scenes were captured in 32mm lenses, but filmmakers captured sweeping cityscape shots with 14mm and 16mm lenses. Occasionally, production filmed with Arri Alexa Mini cameras to capture shots from the spinners, the vehicles used in the film.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: When Gassner was first approached for "Blade Runner 2049", he was called with a request from Villeneuve to observe the shape of passing street sweepers. The designer had known Scott since 1982, when they first collaborated for the Francis Ford Coppola-directed musical "One From the Heart". Redesigning the spinners then became one of his initial responsibilities. He and the filmmakers envisioned a harsh, angular design for the spinners, one intended to evoke the sense of technological innovation. It was also up to Gassner to complete most of the "Blade Runner 2049" sets so producers could exercise full artistic control of the shoot. Gassner described the process as especially difficult as design elements had to be distinct, but lore faithful, and considered under a tight shooting schedule.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Costume designer Renée April produced costumes featuring fake fur, painted cotton disguised as shearling, and breathing masks. April initially researched the fashion styles of the 1960s and 1970s, but elected to research various decades for influence as well as both Eastern and Western culture. When discussing the film, she stated she did not consider it a fashionable one. "I made costumes for the dark, wet, polluted, miserable world that Denis [Villeneuve] created. I had to hold myself back and remove anything too avant-garde or outré because it did not help the story. There were no superhero suits because the world needed to be realistic, and the characters relatable." When April discussed the film with Villeneuve about what direction she should take the costumes, Villeneuve told her "brutal", a similar description he gave to Gassner. "So I took it from there and made it tougher. Also, we did not want to do something science-fiction. We wanted to do it realistic. I did not want costumes with [lots of] zippers and plastic. So my job was to make the characters believable."


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Warner Bros. announced in early October 2016 that the film would be titled "Blade Runner 2049". Editing commenced in December in Los Angeles, with the intention of having the film being rated R. At the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Villeneuve said that the film would run for two hours and 32 minutes. There originally existed a four-hour early cut of the film that Villeneuve described "quite strong" but also at times "too self-indulgent". He prefers the shorter final version that he describes as "more elegant" and which Ridley Scott still described as too long. Villeneuve says he will not show the four-hour cut to anyone. As with "Skyfall", cinematographer Roger Deakins created his own IMAX master of the film rather than using the proprietary "DMR" process that IMAX usually uses with films not shot with IMAX cameras.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Rapper-producer El-P said he was asked to compose music for the first "Blade Runner 2049" trailer, but his score was "rejected or ignored". Jóhann Jóhannsson, who had worked with Villeneuve on "Prisoners", "Sicario" and "Arrival", was initially announced as composer for the film. However, Villeneuve and Jóhannsson decided to end the collaboration because Villeneuve thought the film "needed something different", and also that he "needed to go back to something closer to Vangelis's soundtrack" of the first film. Composers Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch joined the project in July 2017. In September, Jóhannsson's agent confirmed that he was no longer involved and was contractually forbidden from commenting. The musical cue during the final scene, "Tears in the Rain", is a call-back to the "Tears in rain" scene from "Blade Runner" which saw the death of the film's central antagonist Roy Batty. The track is a reimagined version of the original Vangelis work.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" premiered on October 3, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, although following the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting, the red carpet events were canceled prior to the screening. It was the opening feature at the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal the following day. It also was premiered in Switzerland at the Zurich Film Festival on October 4, 2017. Sony Pictures Releasing, which had obtained rights to release the film in overseas territories, was the first to release "Blade Runner 2049" in theaters, first in France and Belgium on October 4, 2017, then in other countries on the two following days. The film was released by Warner Bros. in North America on October 6, 2017. In addition to standard 2D and 3D formats, "Blade Runner 2049" was released in IMAX theaters. Also, Alcon Entertainment partnered with Oculus VR to create and distribute content for the film exclusively for its virtual reality format and launched it alongside the theatrical release of October 6, 2017. That content would later be referred to as "Blade Runner: Revelations". Due to the popularity and preference of IMAX in 2D (as opposed to 3D) among filmgoers in North America, the film was shown in IMAX theaters in only 2D domestically, but was screened in 3D formats internationally. Just like "Skyfall", the movie was specially formatted for IMAX at the expanded aspect ratio of 1.9:1. The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "violence, some sexuality, nudity, and language".


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Some scenes in the film that featured nudity were censored in Turkey. This decision received criticism from the country's film critics.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures jointly released an announcement teaser on December 19, 2016. A selection of excerpts (lasting 15 seconds) were released as a trailer tease on May 5, 2017, in the lead up to the full trailer, which was released on May 8, 2017. A second trailer was released on July 17, 2017.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Three short films were made to explore events that occur in the 30 years between "Blade Runner 2049" and "Blade Runner", set in 2019:


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and 4K Blu-ray on January 16, 2018. It made approximately $29million in US physical home media sales.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" grossed $92.1million in the United States and Canada, and $175.4million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $267.5million, against a production budget between $150–185million. The projected worldwide total the film needed to gross in order to break even was estimated to be around $400million, and in November 2017 "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that the film was expected to lose the studio as much as $80million. Ridley Scott attributed the film's underperformance to the runtime, saying: "It's slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour."


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was initially projected to gross $43–47million in its opening weekend. In September 2017, a survey from Fandango indicated that the film was one of the most anticipated releases of the season. It made $4million from Thursday night previews, including $800,000 from IMAX theaters, but just $12.6million on its first day, lowering weekend estimates to $32million. It made $11.3million on Saturday and went on to debut to $31.5million, performing below both projections but still finishing first at the box office and marking the biggest openings of Villeneuve and Gosling's careers. Regarding the opening weekend, director Villeneuve said, "It's a mystery. All the indexes and marketing tools they were using predicted that it would be a success. The film was acclaimed by critics. So everyone expected the first weekend's results to be impressive, and they were shocked. They still don't understand."


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Deadline Hollywood" attributed the film's performance to the 163-minute runtime limiting the number of showtimes theaters could have, lack of appeal to mainstream audiences, and the marketing being vague and relying on nostalgia and established fanbase to carry it. In its second weekend, the film dropped 52.7% to $15.5million, finishing second behind newcomer "Happy Death Day" ($26million) and dropped another 54% in its third weekend to $7.2million, finishing in 4th behind "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween", "Geostorm" and "Happy Death Day".


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Overseas, it was expected to debut to an additional $60million, for a worldwide opening of around $100million. The debut ended up making $50.2million internationally, finishing number one in 45 markets, for a global opening of $81.7million. It made $8million in the United Kingdom, $4.9million in Russia, $1.8million in Brazil and $3.6million in Australia. It debuted in China on October 27, and made $7.7million in its opening weekend, which was considered a disappointment.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" was well received by the American press, and various US publications included the film in their end-of-2017 lists. Critical reviews compared the sequel favorably to "Blade Runner" as a worthy successor advancing the franchise mythos, though some were conflicted over the pacing and tonal shifts of the story, and the film drew occasional disapproval from reviewers who felt it lacked the spectacle and dramatic depth of its predecessor. The film's craftsmanship was the main source of praise from journalists, who routinely singled out Villeneuve for his expertise: "The New York Times" A. O. Scott viewed "Blade Runner 2049" as an introspection of Villeneuve's own sensibilities, the product of a director exuding an "unnerving calm", while "San Francisco Chronicle" Mick LaSalle said the film seemed to employ a similar narrative tone to the director's late period films such as "Arrival". The Villeneuve–Deakins collaboration was noted for the creation of cinematography displaying "the kind of complex artistry one would expect from the profession's top veteran", with Deakins' work described as "bleakly beautiful". Other aspects of "Blade Runner 2049", such as the set design, writing, and scoring, were cited among the strengths of the film.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The actors' performances were a principal topic of discussion among critics. Critiques of the dynamic of the cast were positive in the media, and reviewers often distinguished Gosling, Ford and Wright for further praise. Gosling's work was described as "superb, soulful", and he was considered physically convincing as a replicant in his expression and appearance. Meanwhile, critics from "The Hollywood Reporter" and from "Empire" magazine were among those who believed Ford worked a career-best performance. Other journalists, such as Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone", viewed the two men as "double dynamite" in conversational scenes, in which the film assumes "a resonance that is both tragic and hopeful". One particular point of contention in "Blade Runner 2049" was characterization: some critics, for example, saw K's romance with Joi as an idea of unrealized potential because the film explores their relationship only superficially, so Joi never seems to develop into a fleshed out character. Some criticized the film's depiction of its female characters as being too submissive.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The fate of K in the closing scenes of the film has been a matter of debate; some critics have suggested that his demise is open to interpretation, as it is not explicitly stated in the film that K has died. In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", screenwriter Michael Green expressed surprise that K's death had been called into question, referring to the use of the "Tears in rain" musical motif in the final scene.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: The question of whether Deckard is a human or a replicant has been an ongoing controversy since the original release of "Blade Runner". Ridley Scott has stated that Deckard was a replicant. However, others, including Harrison Ford, disagree, and feel preserving the ambiguity of Deckard's status important to the film. "Blade Runner 2049" draws no conclusion to this debate. During various physical struggles, Deckard showed no sign of artificial replicant strength; however, Gaff described Deckard to K as "retired"; and replicant maker Niander Wallace tells Deckard that "You are a wonder to me, Mr. Deckard," and that he might have been "designed" to fall in love with Rachael.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 444 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Visually stunning and narratively satisfying, "Blade Runner 2049" deepens and expands its predecessor's story while standing as an impressive filmmaking achievement in its own right." As of May 2021, Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 54 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Critics who saw the film before its release were asked by Villeneuve not to reveal certain characters and plot points. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 78% overall positive score and a 60% "definite recommend".


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Reviewing the film for "Vice", Charlotte Gush was critical of its portrayal of women, who she said were "either prostitutes, holographic housewives" or victims dying brutal deaths. While acknowledging that "misogyny was part of the dystopia" in Scott's 1982 original, she stated that the sequel was "eye-gougingly sexist". Writing for "The Guardian", Anna Smith expressed similar concerns, stating that "sexualised images of women dominate the stunning futuristic cityscapes" and questioned whether the film catered heavily to heterosexual men. Sara Stewart, of the "New York Post", entitled her review "You'll love the new Blade Runner — unless you're a woman". Rachael Kaines of "Moviepilot" countered that "the gender politics in "Blade Runner 2049" are intentional": "The movie is about secondary citizens. Replicants. Orphans. Women. Slaves. Just by depicting these secondary citizens in subjugation doesn't mean that it is supportive of these depictions – they are a condemnation." Helen Lewis of the "New Statesman" suggested that the film is "an uneasy feminist parable about controlling the means of reproduction" and that "its villain, Niander Wallace, is consumed by rage that women can do something he cannot":


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Fertility is the perfect theme for the dystopia of "Blade Runner 2049" because of the western elite anxiety that over-educated, over-liberated women are having fewer children or choosing to opt-out of childbearing altogether. (One in five women is now childless by the age of 45; the rates are higher among women who have been to university.) Feminism is one potential solution to this problem: removing the barriers which make women feel that motherhood is a closing of doors. Another is to take flight and find another exploitable class to replace human females ... Maybe androids don't dream of electric sheep, but some human men certainly dream of electric wombs.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: In an interview with "Vanity Fair", Denis Villeneuve responded that he is very sensitive about his portrayal of women: ""Blade Runner" is not about tomorrow; it's about today. And I'm sorry, but the world is not kind on women." Quoting from the "Variety" magazine breakdown of viewer demographics for the film, Donald Clarke for "The Irish Times" indicated that female audiences seemed alienated from it; just 8% of its audiences were females under 25. "Esquire" magazine commented on the controversial aspects of the sex scene — involving K, the holographic Joi and replicant Mariette — calling it a ""robo-ménage à trois"", and contrasted it with the sex scene between Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson in "Her" (2013).


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: Mackenzie Davis, who portrayed Mariette, argued for the self-awareness of the film's social commentary in an interview with the website "Refinery29". Asked how she believed "Blade Runner 2049" "differs [from "Blade Runner"] in its portrayal of women?", Davis responded:


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: I think it’s pretty self-aware about a pornographic economy that has reduced the roles of women to sheer consumption. The normalization of women’s roles as things to be consumed, there’s products that are made, just like there are now, the idea of the semi-sentient sex doll is really in line with what’s going on in this Blade Runner universe, about having a thing that fulfills everything you want, but doesn’t talk back and can’t argue with you, but can be a loving, supporting companion and also fulfill all your sexual needs feels like something that’s very contemporary and something the movie is very self-aware about. And then I think that there are female roles in different castes of this society that are able to be more embodied and powerful in conventional ways, and also have cracks in their facade where you see their vulnerabilities. But it seems like this world is so dependent on this caste system of humans perform these roles; replicants perform these roles, human superiors, creators, and those are the ways that women sort of travel between. But there isn’t a lot of upward mobility. Other outlets also noted the film's depiction of environmental issues and the impacts of climate change. Science fiction author Matthew Kressel told the BBC he thought that "the environmental collapse the film so vividly depicts is not too far off from where we are today". A 2013 image of air pollution in Beijing was also compared to a still from the film.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: "Blade Runner 2049" has received numerous awards and nominations. At the 90th Academy Awards, it was nominated for five awards, winning Best Cinematography for Deakins, and Best Visual Effects for John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover. At the 71st British Academy Film Awards, it received eight nominations, including Best Director, and won for Best Cinematography and Best Special Visual Effects. At the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, it was nominated for seven awards, winning for Best Cinematography.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: During the promotional tour for the 2015 film "The Martian", Scott expressed interest in making additional "Blade Runner" films. In October 2017, Villeneuve said that he expected a third film would be made if "2049" was successful. Fancher, who wrote both films, said he was considering reviving an old story idea involving Deckard traveling to another country. Ford said that he would be open to returning if he liked the script. In January 2018, Scott stated that he had "another [story] ready to evolve and be developed, [that] there is certainly one to be done for sure", referring to a third "Blade Runner" film.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: In January 2020, Villeneuve expressed interest in "revisit[ing] this universe in a different way," making "something disconnected from both other movies," as opposed to a direct sequel.


title: Blade Runner 2049

text: In November 2021, Scott announced that a "Blade Runner" TV series was in the works. In February 2022, it was announced that the series, "Blade Runner 2099", was in development at Alcon Entertainment and Amazon Studios. It will be set fifty years after the events of "2049". Scott will serve as executive producer and potentially direct the series while Silka Luisa will serve as showrunner.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The awards were scheduled after its usual late February date to avoid conflicting with both the 2022 Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI, with the latter being held in nearby Inglewood, California. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories honoring films released from March 1 to December 31, 2021. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Will Packer and Shayla Cowan and was directed by Glenn Weiss. Actresses Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes hosted the show for the first time. Two days earlier, in an event held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom of the Ovation Hollywood complex in Hollywood, the Academy held its 12th annual Governors Awards ceremony.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: "CODA" won three awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included "Dune" with six awards, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" with two, and "Belfast", "Cruella", "Drive My Car", "Encanto", "King Richard", "The Long Goodbye", "No Time to Die", "The Power of the Dog", "The Queen of Basketball", "Summer of Soul", "The Windshield Wiper", and "West Side Story" with one. The telecast garnered 16.62 million viewers in the United States.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The nominees for the 94th Academy Awards were announced on February 8, 2022, by actors Leslie Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross. "The Power of the Dog" led all nominees with twelve nominations; "Dune" came in second with ten. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 27.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: "CODA" became the first Best Picture winner to be distributed via a streaming platform and the first one starring a primarily deaf cast. Its three nominations were the fewest for any Best Picture winner since 1932's "Grand Hotel", and it was the first Best Picture winner without directing or film editing nominations since the aforementioned film. Furthermore, it became the first without any nominations in the below-the-line categories since 1980's "Ordinary People". Best Director winner Jane Campion was the third woman to win the award and the first woman to be nominated twice, having previously been nominated for 1993's "The Piano". "The Power of the Dog" became the first film to win Best Director as its sole award since 1967's "The Graduate". Best Original Screenplay winner Kenneth Branagh was the first person to have been nominated in seven different categories throughout his career, having also been nominated as one of the producers for "Belfast".


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man and second deaf individual overall to win an acting award. Best Supporting Actress winner Ariana DeBose was the first Afro-Latina person and first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar. Furthermore, as a result of her win for portraying Anita in the 2021 film adaptation of the Broadway musical "West Side Story", she and Rita Moreno, who previously won for playing the same character in the 1961 film adaptation, became the third pair of actors to win for portraying the same character in two different films. Nominated for their performances as Leda Caruso in "The Lost Daughter", Best Actress nominee Olivia Colman and Best Supporting Actress nominee Jessie Buckley were the third pair of actresses nominated for portraying the same character in the same film. "Flee" became the first film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature Film, and Best Documentary Feature in the same year.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The Academy held its 12th annual Governors Awards ceremony on March 25, 2022, during which the following awards were presented:


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: In October 2021, the Academy hired film director and producer Will Packer and his production company chief of staff Shayla Cowan to oversee production of the 2022 ceremony. "Will is a powerhouse producer who has enjoyed success across all movie genres! He's already bringing a boundless energy and a focus on innovation to this year's Oscars, to entertain the widest spectrum of fans. Many wonderful surprises ahead," remarked Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson. In response, Packer expressed his gratitude, saying, "The power, the beauty, the romance of the imagery in movies has always attracted me. I'm fully embracing the challenge of bringing an ode to one of the most iconic mediums in the world to life. What an honor." Four months later, actresses and comediennes Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes were announced as hosts of the gala during an interview with Packer on "Good Morning America". This marked the first time that three people had shared hosting duties for the Oscars since Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Paul Hogan presided over the 59th ceremony held in 1987.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: This year, the show was centered around the theme "Movie Lovers Unite." In an interview with the "Los Angeles Times", Packer explained his reasoning behind the theme stating, "Some are movie lovers who have seen every single one of the nominated movies, and they've got very specific opinions about who wins. And then you have people who are just casual moviegoers, who perhaps have not seen the awards fare but who also love movies. I’m inviting them in as well. They're just as important to me as a viewer. And I think we can have a show that does both. We can walk and chew gum at the same time." In tandem with the theme, several people from different backgrounds, such as firefighters and healthcare workers, participated in the nominations announcement. DJ Khaled introduced the hosts at the beginning of the telecast, and athletes Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater, and Shaun White introduced a montage saluting the 60th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Also tying in with the ceremony's theme of "Movie Lovers Unite", the Academy teamed up with Twitter to host an "Oscars Fan Favorite" contest, where Twitter users could vote for their favorite film of the year and their favorite movie moment. The contest drew a predominantly negative reaction from Academy members, with some comparing it to the "Popular Film" category initially proposed for the 91st ceremony held in 2019, and others viewing it as an attempt to recognize "" and its box office performance. Ultimately, "Army of the Dead" was named the Oscars Fan Favorite, while the Oscars Cheer Moment went to "Zack Snyder's Justice League" for "The Flash Enters the Speed Force". According to "TheWrap", the most active voters were autonomous web programs.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The festivities marked their return to the Dolby Theatre after a one-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In compliance with Los Angeles County health and safety standards, AMPAS announced that attending nominees and guests would need to show proof of vaccination or a valid medical exemption, and two negative PCR tests, in order to attend. Presenters and performers underwent "rigorous testing" but were not required to be vaccinated. Audience members in sections closest to the stage were seated further apart but were not required to wear face masks. Masks were required for attendees in the mezzanine. Additionally, the annual Governors Awards was held on March 25, two days before the main ceremony, after previously being postponed from its original January 15 date due to concerns due to health and safety concerns related to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Production designer David Korins designed a new stage for the show. Music producer and songwriter Adam Blackstone served as musical director for the telecast and conductor for the orchestra, which featured musicians Travis Barker, Sheila E., and Robert Glasper. Rapper D-Nice served as an in-house DJ during the gala. As part of a continued focus on enhancing inclusion and accommodations for disabilities, the Academy offered a live feed of American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation for the ceremony through the Academy Awards' YouTube channel.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: In June 2020, the Academy announced that, starting with the 94th awards, a fixed number of ten films would once again be nominated for Best Picture. According to "The Hollywood Reporter", this rule change was initiated in order "to maximize the diversity of the films that are nominated for the Academy's highest honor" as part of the organization's Academy Aperture 2025 equity and inclusion initiative. Previously, AMPAS had experimented with a ten-film Best Picture slate for two years beginning with the 82nd ceremony in 2010 before changing the rules two years later so that a fluctuating number of films would be nominated depending on the nomination voting results.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Due to continued concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy decided once again to allow films that were released via video on demand or streaming to be eligible for the awards on the condition that said films were originally scheduled to have a theatrical release prior to the start of the pandemic. However, only feature films released during the ten-month period in 2021 from March 1 to December 31 would be eligible for awards consideration.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The presentations and acceptance of eight awards (Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Film Editing, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Sound) were not broadcast live but instead pre-taped an hour before the start of the telecast, in an attempt to "allow more time for comedy, film clips and musical numbers", and to shorten the ceremony; a similar move had been attempted for the 91st Academy Awards in 2019 but had been reversed after being negatively received. The decision was reportedly made under pressure from ABC executives, who had initially demanded that 12 categories be moved off the live broadcast, under the possible penalty of not airing the ceremony at all. Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa presented the awards off the air.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The move was quickly met with significant backlash. Following the announcement, Steven Spielberg said, "All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together "live" at 5." More than 70 prominent film professionals—including Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Jane Campion, Denis Villeneuve, and John Williams—issued a letter urging the Academy to reverse the plan, which they argued would relegate some nominees to "the status of second-class citizens". Addressed to Academy President David Rubin, the letter claimed that the decision would do "irreparable damage" to the Oscars' reputation by "demeaning the very crafts that, in their most outstanding expressions, make the art of filmmaking worthy of celebration". Best Actress nominee (and eventual winner) Jessica Chastain decided to skip the red carpet and other press to ensure she was in the theater during the Makeup and Hairstyling category to support the team who worked with her on "The Eyes of Tammy Faye", stating, "The most important thing for me is to honor the incredible artisans who work in our industry." Sound engineer Tom Fleischman and production sound mixer Peter Kurland resigned from the Academy in protest of the new policy.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: During the presentation for Best Documentary Feature, actor Will Smith walked onstage and assaulted presenter and comedian Chris Rock over a joke about the former's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Rock remarked, "Jada, I love you. "G.I. Jane 2", can't wait to see it," referencing the 1997 film "G.I. Jane" in which Demi Moore's character wears her hair in a buzz cut. Pinkett Smith was diagnosed with alopecia in 2018 and shaved her head due to the condition. The joke was ad-libbed by Rock and not part of his scripted remarks. After initially laughing, Smith rose from his seat near the stage, walked up to Rock, slapped him, and returned to his seat. Rock said: "Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me!" After Smith returned to his seat, he shouted to Rock, twice: "Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!" Rock replied, "I'm going to, okay?" to Smith and joked that it was the "greatest night in the history of television" before presenting the award. Commentators noted that although Rock appeared to fumble his subsequent lines, he maintained his composure in the midst of chaos.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: An Academy librarian said the altercation was likely the first incident of on-stage violence in Academy Awards history. In the United States, ABC muted the audio due to federal broadcast profanity regulations; however, many international broadcasters use a clear feed and did not censor it, and uncensored recordings of the event went viral on social media. About forty minutes later, Smith won the award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Richard Williams in "King Richard". He focused his speech on his need to protect those around him and apologized to the Academy and to the other nominees, but not to Rock. He received a standing ovation. "The Economist" described his acceptance speech, in which he appealed to God calling on him to do "crazy things" in the name of love, as "dangerous, self-serving cant".


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Many celebrities expressed shock, disappointment, and outrage over the incident. The show's production team decided not to remove Smith from the theater, due to time constraints and the desire to avoid another disruption. Rock did not file a police report over the incident. The day after the ceremony, the Academy released a statement condemning Smith's actions and announced an internal review. The same day, Smith formally apologized to Rock, the Academy, the Williams family, and the cast and crew of "King Richard" in Instagram and Facebook posts; he described his behavior as "unacceptable and inexcusable". Smith later announced his resignation from the Academy on the Friday following the gala. One week later, the Board of Governors banned Smith from all Academy events, including the Academy Awards, for ten years effective that day.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: Television critic Daniel Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "After a fairly promising first hour, the show had begun to flag in basically the same ways Oscar telecasts always flag, proving conclusively that producer Will Packer's attempt to fix the event was barely a Band-Aid." He concluded by stating, "The 94th Academy Awardswhich should have provided either a pleasant distraction from a world starting to emerge from a pandemic or the opportunity for advocacy relating to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and discriminatory laws being passed around the countrywill just be remembered as a moment of toxic awfulness and subsequent infection." "Variety" columnist Caroline Framke quipped, "No matter how desperately ABC and the Academy wanted the ceremony to be a well-oiled machine, this year's Oscars proved the power of live TV, for better and for deeply uncomfortable worse." Kelly Lawler of "USA Today" commented that despite the attempts by AMPAS and broadcaster ABC to shorten the ceremony while making it more entertaining for viewers at home, "it was equal parts boring and terrifying, cringe-worthy and interminable."


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: "Los Angeles Times" television critic Lorraine Ali said, "Overall, the production was much tighter and brighter than in recent years, thanks in large part to powerful music numbers, a diverse mixture of guests, and the bitingly funny trio of hosts, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall." Film critic Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" praised the hosts performances, saying, "It was funny, albeit relatively safe stuff." He also noted that despite the Rock–Smith incident disrupting the momentum of the proceedings, the telecast was "one of the most uplifting, groundbreaking, amazing Oscars ever".


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 16.62 million people over its length, which was a 60% increase from the previous year's ceremony. The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 9.0% of households watching the ceremony. In addition, it garnered a higher 18–49 demo rating with a 3.76 rating, or 77% viewers in that demographic. In July 2022, the broadcast was nominated for three awards at the 74th Primetime Emmys, but it failed to win any of its nominations.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: The "In Memoriam" tribute, accompanied by a musical medley performed by musical group The Samples, paid tribute to the following individuals.


title: 94th Academy Awards

text: During the montage, actors Tyler Perry, Bill Murray, and Jamie Lee Curtis eulogized Poitier, Reitman, and White, respectively. Furthermore, a moment of silence was observed at the end of Reba McEntire's performance of Best Song nominee "Somehow You Do" in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: The DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM; also known as DC Universe Original Movies or DC Universe Movies or DC Animated Movies) are a series of American direct-to-video superhero animated films based on the DC Comics characters and stories. From 2007 to 2022, films were produced primarily by Warner Bros. Animation, but will fall under DC Studios Animation. Many films are usually stand-alone projects that are either adaptations of popular works or original stories. From 2013 to 2020, the DC Animated Movie Universe was a subset of this series featuring several movies that took place in a shared universe, influenced predominantly by The New 52. They are usually made for an older audience compared to that of the DC animated universe and other projects, and also featuring DCAU alumni such as Bruce Timm, who mainly served as executive producer or as producer until "", before returning for "".


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: Since it first began with 2007's "", the series has been well received by fans, critics, with consistently good sales.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: Unlike earlier animated DC films (most of which also involved Bruce Timm and were part of the DC animated universe), the films in the line are aimed at a more adult audience, often containing profane language, stronger violence, sexual scenes and more mature themes. The art styles for the films are also generally more realistically proportionate. The majority of the films are rated PG-13 by the MPAA with the exception of "All-Star Superman" and "", which are rated PG, and "", "Justice League Dark", "", "", "", "", "", and "Injustice", which are rated R. Many of the films are adapted from stories originally featured in DC print comics and graphic novels. , 47 feature films and fourteen short films have been released, with additional films slated for future releases until 2023.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: In terms of continuity, the films are usually stand-alone, with exceptions being "" (which takes place between "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight"), "" and its sequel "", "" and its sequel "", the DC Animated Movie Universe, the Tomorrowverse, and the DCAU-related films "Batman and Harley Quinn" and "Justice League vs. the Fatal Five", which also feature several role reprises from various actors. The usual runtime is around 75 minutes.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: From 2007 to 2015, most of the films were voice directed by Andrea Romano, the last one being "", while the films since 2016 starting with "" were voice directed by Wes Gleason.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: The films are generally released direct-to-video, but "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Batman and Harley Quinn", "The Death of Superman" and "Reign of the Supermen" were also given limited releases in theaters.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: "Legion of Super-Heroes" was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2022. The voice cast will consist of Meg Donnelly as Supergirl, Harry Shum Jr. as Brainiac 5, Darren Criss as Superman, Matt Bomer as the Flash, Jensen Ackles as Batman, Cynthia Hamidi as Dawnstar, Gideon Adlon as Phantom Girl, Ely Henry as Bouncing Boy, Robbie Daymond as Timber Wolf and Brainiac 4, Yuri Lowenthal as Mon-El, Eric Lopez as Cosmic Boy and Chemical King, Darin De Paul as Brainiac and Solomon Grundy, Ben Diskin as and Brainiac 2, Victoria Grace as Shadow Lass, Jennifer Hale as Alura, Daisy Lightfoot as Triplicate Girl and Zeno Robinson as Invisible Kid and Brainiac 3. It will be part of the Tomorrowverse. It will be released on Blu-Ray and digital on February 7, 2023.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham" was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2022. Adapted from . The voice cast will consist of David Giuntoli as Batman, Tati Gabrielle as Kai Li Cain, Christopher Gorham as Oliver Queen, John DiMaggio as James Gordon, Patrick Fabian as Harvey Dent, Brian George as Alfred Pennyworth, Jason Marsden as Dick Grayson and Young Bruce Wayne, Karan Brar as Sanjay "Jay" Tawde, David Dastmalchian as Grendon, Navid Negahban as Ra's al Ghul, Emily O'Brien as Talia al Ghul and Martha Wayne, Tim Russ as Lucius Fox, Matthew Waterson as Jason Blood / Etrigan the Demon, Jeffrey Combs as Kirk Langstrom, William Salyers as Oswald Cobblepot, Gideon Adlon as Oracle and Darin De Paul as Thomas Wayne.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: "Justice League: Warworld" was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2022. It will be part of the Tomorrowverse.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: An animated film featuring characters from the Milestone Media imprint was announced at DC Fandome in October 2021. The film will be written by Brandon Thomas and will feature "more than one character" according to Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan. The announcement included promotional concept art of Static, Hardware, Icon, and Rocket.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: Beyond the list of announced projects, creators involved in various levels at DC Comics have brought up names of possible future projects.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: Plans for sequels to the 2009 films "Wonder Woman" and "" were shelved, as well as a planned film based on the 2003 miniseries "". Slower sales of the "Wonder Woman" film were cited, although sales figures indicate that it was at least the #8 best-selling of the 25 DC Universe films released (4 of the films that ranked higher than it include Blu-ray sales which have not been released for "Wonder Woman").


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: In 2010, Timm stated that the production team originally planned to make an Aquaman film, but at the end, the executives of Warner Bros. cancelled the project because their expectations about marketing were very low.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: During an interview in October 2016, Jay Oliva revealed that he had an idea for a sequel to "", but following Oliva's departure from Warner Bros. Animation in 2017, the project may have been pulled.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: Sales figures below represent, when available, DVD and Blu-ray sales in the United States. Theatrical ticket, digital, and rental sales are not included.


title: DC Universe Animated Original Movies

text: The following films are stand-alone, and do not share continuity with each other or other films (note exceptions)


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Aubrey Christina Plaza (born June 26, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She starred as April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" from 2009–2015, and featured in the FX drama series "Legion" (2017–2019). In 2022, she starred in the second season of the HBO anthology series "The White Lotus", for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza had her first leading film role in "Safety Not Guaranteed" (2012). She also appeared in the films "Mystery Team" (2009), "Funny People" (2009), "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010), "The To Do List" (2013), "Life After Beth" (2014), "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" (2016), "Child's Play" (2019), and "Happiest Season" (2020). Plaza has produced and starred in the films "The Little Hours" (2017), "Ingrid Goes West" (2017), "Black Bear" (2020), and "Emily the Criminal" (2022).


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Bernadette, an attorney, and David Plaza, a financial advisor. She has two younger sisters, Renee and Natalie.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza was named after the song "Aubrey" by Bread. Her father is of Puerto Rican descent; her paternal grandfather Ismael was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and moved to the mainland US when he was 17 years old. Her mother is of Irish and English descent. She has also stated that she has Taíno ancestry.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza has stated: "I'm half-Puerto Rican. But, yeah, I have a huge family and tons of cousins in Puerto Rico." She grew up "very Catholic in a very Catholic household". She graduated from Ursuline Academy, an all-girls Catholic school, in 2002. In high school, she was student council president and participated in productions with the Wilmington Drama League. She studied film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2006.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza had many internships and worked as an NBC page. Plaza has performed improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater since 2004. She also performed stand-up and has appeared at the Laugh Factory and The Improv.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza starred in the online series "The Jeannie Tate Show" and as Robin Gibney in ESPN's "Mayne Street". She appeared in the first episode of "Terrible Decisions with Ben Schwartz" on Funny or Die.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: She played Seth Rogen's love interest, Daisy, in 2009's "Funny People", directed by Judd Apatow. She appeared in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and Derrick Comedy's "Mystery Team", which debuted at 2009 Sundance. She appeared in a CollegeHumor short alongside Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: She played April Ludgate in "Parks and Recreation" from 2009 to 2015. She received universal praise throughout the entire show for her performance as the deadpan employee, being referred to as one of the show's breakout characters.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: On March 12, 2010, Plaza performed at "A Night of 140 Tweets: A Celebrity Tweetathon for Haiti", produced by Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Ben Stiller, and Mike Rosenstein, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2011 she appeared on "Portlandia". Plaza appeared as a guest judge during a roast segment on "The Next Food Network Star" in 2011. She appeared in Episode 199 of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast. She also had a recurring role as "the Princess" in the comedic sci-fi web series "Troopers" on CollegeHumor.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2012, she was featured in Father John Misty's music video for the song "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" from the album "Fear Fun" and in 2014 she was in Cassorla's "Bona Fide" video where she also made her saxophone-playing debut.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2012, Plaza earned her first starring role in a major film, alongside Mark Duplass, in the comedy, "Safety Not Guaranteed". Plaza played Darius, a jaded intern who answers a curious want ad "seeking a companion for a time traveling adventure". Her performance in the film was critically acclaimed.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2013, she had the leading female role as Sacagawea in "Drunk History" episode "Nashville" in the segment on Lewis and Clark Expedition.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2013, she also had the starring role in the CBS Film "The To Do List". In an impromptu attempt to promote this film, Plaza ran onto the stage and grabbed Will Ferrell's MTV Movie award for "Comedic Genius" with the film's name written across her chest and a drink in hand, this resulted in her being ejected from the studio lot at which the ceremony was held.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Plaza's film, "Life After Beth", which was written and directed by her now-husband Jeff Baena, premiered.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza also voiced Grumpy Cat in the Lifetime Network's original movie "Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever" (2014).


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: She starred in "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" alongside Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Adam DeVine. The film was released on July 8, 2016. Her role as the rebellious Tatiana earned her critical praise.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2016, she was a guest star on "HarmonQuest", as a gnome named "Hawaiian Coffee" and portrayed Aaron Burr in the "Hamilton" episode of "Drunk History". She also provided a guest voice for the "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode "Mall Girl Pearl" with Betty White.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: She first played the role of Cat Adams, a contract killer, in Season 11 of the CBS television show "Criminal Minds". She returned to the role in Seasons 12 and 15.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2017, Plaza both starred in and produced two films, "The Little Hours" and "Ingrid Goes West." It was announced that she would star in indie comedy "An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn" in 2018.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza starred as both Amahl Farouk / Shadow King and Lenny Busker in the FX series "Legion" from 2017 to 2019.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2019, she starred in "Child's Play", a reboot of the 1988 film, as Karen Barclay, Andy's mother who brings home a killer doll, Chucky.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2020, Plaza produced and starred in independent film "Black Bear" and played a large role in "Happiest Season" as well.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In 2021, Plaza wrote a children's book, "The Legend of the Christmas Witch," along with co-author Dan Murphy and illustrator Julia Iredale.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza produced and starred in the film "Emily the Criminal," which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She also appears in the film "Spin Me Round", which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2022.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In January 2022, it was announced that Plaza will star in the second season of the HBO series "The White Lotus." Plaza plays Harper, a character there with her husband, Ethan Spiller, played by Will Sharpe.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: On August 25, 2022, Little Demon premiered on FXX. The series stars Plaza (who is also an executive producer), with Danny DeVito and Lucy DeVito.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: On October 16, 2022, Plaza was given the Artist of Distinction Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In November 2022, Plaza was cast in an undisclosed role, potentially as a coven member, in the Disney+ series "", set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza has been in a relationship with writer and director Jeff Baena since 2011. In May 2021, Plaza revealed that she and Baena are married, referring to him as her husband in an Instagram post.


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: In a 2016 interview with "The Advocate", she stated: "Girls are into me—that's no secret. Hey, I'm into them, too. I fall in love with girls and guys. I can't help it."


title: Aubrey Plaza

text: Plaza suffered a stroke when she was 20 years old that caused temporary paralysis and temporary expressive aphasia. A couple of years later, she had a transient ischemic attack while on the set of "Parks and Recreation".


title: Iraq

text: Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Persians and Shabakis with similarly diverse geography and wildlife. The vast majority of the country's 44 million residents are Muslims – the notable other faiths are Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; others also recognised in specific regions are Neo-Aramaic, Turkish and Armenian.


title: Iraq

text: Starting as early as the 6th millennium BC, the fertile alluvial plains between Iraq's Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, referred to as Mesopotamia, gave rise to some of the world's earliest cities, civilisations, and empires, including those of Akkad, Babylon, Assyria and Sumer. Mesopotamia was a "Cradle of Civilisation" that saw the independent development of a writing system, mathematics, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology, and a law code. Following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, Baghdad became the capital and the largest city of the Abbasid Caliphate, and during the Islamic Golden Age, the city evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center, and garnered it a worldwide reputation for its academic institutions, including House of Wisdom. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258 during the Siege of Baghdad, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.


title: Iraq

text: Modern Iraq dates back to 1920, when the British Mandate for Mesopotamia, joining three Ottoman vilayets, was created under the authority of the League of Nations. A British-backed Kingdom was established in 1921 under Faisal I of Iraq. The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from the UK in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, sparking a protracted war which would last for almost eight years, and end in a stalemate with devastating losses for both countries. After an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was removed from power, and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The US presence in Iraq ended in 2011.


title: Iraq

text: Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic. The president is the head of state, the prime minister is the head of government, and the constitution provides for two deliberative bodies, the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. The judiciary is free and independent of the executive and the legislature.


title: Iraq

text: Iraq is considered an emerging middle power with a strategic location and a founding member of the United Nations, the OPEC as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF. From 1920 to 2005 Iraq experienced spells of significant economic and military growth and briefer instability including wars. Since the inception of the current multipartite system in 2005, the country has seen further growth and steadier international investment, and a major decline in factional domestic attacks. However, recurrent failures to form a working government by members of parliament have been accompanied by politically motivated violence against government institutions.


title: Iraq

text: There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (Biblical Hebrew "Erech") and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as "Uruk" was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of "", containing the Sumerian word for "city", UR.


title: Iraq

text: Another possible etymology for the name is from the Middle Persian word , meaning "lowlands." An “Aramaic incantation bowl” excavated in Nippur features the word "’yrg" () next to "myšyn" (Mesene) that suggests that it refers to the region of southern Mesopotamia.


title: Iraq

text: During the medieval period, there was a region called "ʿIrāq ʿArabī" ("Arabian Iraq") for Lower Mesopotamia and "ʿIrāq ʿAjamī" ("Persian Iraq"), for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraq. Prior to the middle of the 19th century, the term Eyraca Arabica was commonly used to describe Iraq.


title: Iraq

text: The term "Sawad" was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contrasting it with the arid Arabian desert. As an Arabic word, means "hem", "shore", "bank", or "edge", so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment", such as at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area.


title: Iraq

text: The Arabic pronunciation is . In English, it is either (the only pronunciation listed in the "Oxford English Dictionary" and the first one in "Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary") or (listed first by "MQD"), the "American Heritage Dictionary", and the "Random House Dictionary". The pronunciation is occasionally heard in US media.


title: Iraq

text: When the British established the Hashemite king on 23 August 1921, Faisal I of Iraq, the official English name of the country changed from "Mesopotamia" to the endonymic "Iraq". Since January 1992, the official name of the state is "Republic of Iraq" ("Jumhūrīyyet al-'Irāq"), reaffirmed in the 2005 Constitution.


title: Iraq

text: Between 65,000 BC and 35,000 BC, northern Iraq was home to a Neanderthal culture, archaeological remains of which have been discovered at Shanidar Cave This same region is also the location of a number of pre-Neolithic cemeteries, dating from approximately 11,000 BC.


title: Iraq

text: Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq, together with a large part of the Fertile Crescent also comprising Asia Minor and the Levant, was one of centres of a Neolithic culture known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. In Iraq, this period has been excavated at sites like M'lefaat and Nemrik 9. The following Neolithic period, PPNB, is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations.


title: Iraq

text: Further important sites of human advancement were Jarmo (circa 7100 BC), a number of sites belonging to the Halaf culture, and Tell al-'Ubaid, the type site of the Ubaid period (between 6500 BC and 3800 BC). The respective periods show ever-increasing levels of advancement in agriculture, tool-making and architecture.


title: Iraq

text: The "Cradle of Civilisation" is thus a common term for the area comprising modern Iraq as it was home to the earliest known civilisation, the Sumerian civilisation, which arose in the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley of southern Iraq in the Chalcolithic (Ubaid period).


title: Iraq

text: It was here, in the late 4th millennium BC, that the world's first writing system and recorded history itself were born. The Sumerians were also the first to harness the wheel and create city states, and whose writings record the first evidence of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, written law, medicine and organised religion.


title: Iraq

text: The language of the Sumerians is a language isolate. The major city states of the early Sumerian period were; Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larsa, Sippar, Shuruppak, Uruk, Kish, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Girsu, Umma, Hamazi, Adab, Mari, Isin, Kutha, Der and Akshak.


title: Iraq

text: The cities to the north like Ashur, Arbela (modern Erbil) and Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) were also extant in what was to be called Assyria from the 25th century BC; however, at this early stage, they were Sumerian ruled administrative centres.


title: Iraq

text: In the 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash created what was perhaps the first empire in history, though this was short-lived. Later, Lugal-Zage-Si, the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It was during this period that the Epic of Gilgamesh originates, which includes the tale of The Great Flood.


title: Iraq

text: From the 29th century BC, Akkadian Semitic names began to appear on king lists and administrative documents of various city states. It remains unknown as to the origin of Akkad, where it was precisely situated and how it rose to prominence. Its people spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic language.


title: Iraq

text: Between the 29th and 24th centuries BC, a number of kingdoms and city states within Iraq began to have Akkadian speaking dynasties; including Assyria, Ekallatum, Isin and Larsa.


title: Iraq

text: However, the Sumerians remained generally dominant until the rise of the Akkadian Empire (2335–2124 BC), based in the city of Akkad in central Iraq. Sargon of Akkad, originally a Rabshakeh to a Sumerian king, founded the empire, he conquered all of the city states of southern and central Iraq, and subjugated the kings of Assyria, thus uniting the Sumerians and Akkadians in one state.


title: Iraq

text: He then set about expanding his empire, conquering Gutium, Elam in modern-day Iran, and had victories that did not result into a full conquest against the Amorites and Eblaites of the Levant. The empire of Akkad likely fell in the 22nd century BC, within 180 years of its founding, ushering in a "Dark Age" with no prominent imperial authority until the Third Dynasty of Ur. The region's political structure may have reverted to the "status quo ante" of local governance by city-states.


title: Iraq

text: After many years (and 4 kings) of chaos, Shu-turul and Dudu appear to have restored some centralised authority for several decades however they were unable to prevent the empire eventually collapsing outright, eventually ceding power to Gutians, based in Adab, who had been conquered by Akkad in the reign of Sharkalisharri.


title: Iraq

text: After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in the late 22nd century BC, the Gutians occupied the south for a few decades, while Assyria reasserted its independence in the north. Most of southern Mesopotamia was again united under one ruler during the Ur III period, most notably during the rule of the prolific king Shulgi. His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, begun by his father Ur-Nammu.


title: Iraq

text: In 1792 BC, an Amorite ruler named Hammurabi came to power in this state, and immediately set about building Babylon from a minor town into a major city, declaring himself its king. Hammurabi conquered the whole of southern and central Iraq, as well as Elam to the east and Mari to the west, then engaged in a protracted war with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan for domination of the region, creating the short-lived Babylonian Empire. He eventually prevailed over the successor of Ishme-Dagan and subjected Assyria and its Anatolian colonies. By the middle of the eighteenth century BC, the Sumerians had lost their cultural identity and ceased to exist as a distinct people. Genetic and cultural analysis indicates that the Marsh people of southern Iraq are probably their most direct modern descendants.


title: Iraq

text: It is from the period of Hammurabi that southern Iraq came to be known as Babylonia, while the north had already coalesced into Assyria hundreds of years before. However, his empire was short-lived, and rapidly collapsed after his death, with both Assyria and southern Iraq, in the form of the Sealand Dynasty, falling back into native Akkadian hands.


title: Iraq

text: After this, another foreign people, the Language Isolate speaking Kassites, seized control of Babylonia, where they were to rule for almost 600 years, by far the longest dynasty ever to rule in Babylon.


title: Iraq

text: Iraq was from this point divided into three polities: Assyria in the north, Kassite Babylonia in the south central region, and the Sealand Dynasty in the far south. The Sealand Dynasty was finally conquered by Kassite Babylonia circa 1380 BC. The origin of the Kassites is uncertain, though a number of theories have been advanced.


title: Iraq

text: The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) saw Assyria rise to be the most powerful nation in the known world. Beginning with the campaigns of Ashur-uballit I, Assyria destroyed the rival Hurrian-Mitanni Empire, annexed huge swathes of the Hittite Empire for itself, annexed northern Babylonia from the Kassites, forced the Egyptian Empire from the region, and defeated the Elamites, Phrygians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Cilicians, Gutians, Dilmunites and Arameans. At its height, the Middle Assyrian Empire stretched from The Caucasus to Dilmun (modern Bahrain), and from the Mediterranean coasts of Phoenicia to the Zagros Mountains of Iran. In 1235 BC, Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria took the throne of Babylon.


title: Iraq

text: During the Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BC), Babylonia was in a state of chaos, dominated for long periods by Assyria and Elam. The Kassites were driven from power by Assyria and Elam, allowing native south Mesopotamian kings to rule Babylonia for the first time, although often subject to Assyrian or Elamite rulers. However, these East Semitic Akkadian kings, were unable to prevent new waves of West Semitic migrants entering southern Iraq, and during the 11th century BC Arameans and Suteans entered Babylonia from The Levant, and these were followed in the late 10th to early 9th century BC by the Chaldeans who were West Semitic migrants to the southeastern corner of the region. However, the Chaldeans were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia.


title: Iraq

text: After a period of comparative decline in Assyria, it once more began to expand with the Neo Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC). Because of its geopolitical dominance and ideology based in world domination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire is by many researchers regarded to have been the first world empire in history. At its height, the empire was the strongest military power in the world and ruled over all of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, as well as portions of Anatolia, Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia. Under rulers such as Adad-Nirari II, Ashurnasirpal, Shalmaneser III, Semiramis, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, Iraq became the centre of an empire stretching from Persia, Parthia and Elam in the east, to Cyprus and Antioch in the west, and from The Caucasus in the north to Egypt, Nubia and Arabia in the south.


title: Iraq

text: It was during this period that an Akkadian influenced form of Eastern Aramaic was adopted by the Assyrians as the lingua franca of their vast empire, and Mesopotamian Aramaic began to supplant Akkadian as the spoken language of the general populace of both Assyria and Babylonia. The descendant dialects of this tongue survive amongst the Mandaeans of southern Iraq and Assyrians of northern Iraq to this day. The Arabs and the Chaldeans are first mentioned in written history (circa 850 BC) in the annals of Shalmaneser III.The Neo-Assyrian Empire left a legacy of great cultural significance. The political structures established by the Neo-Assyrian Empire became the model for the later empires that succeeded it and the ideology of universal rule promulgated by the Neo-Assyrian kings inspired, through the concept of "translatio imperii", similar ideas of rights to world domination in later empires as late as the early modern period. The Neo-Assyrian Empire became an important part of later folklore and literary traditions in northern Mesopotamia through the subsequent post-imperial period and beyond. Judaism, and thus in turn also Christianity and Islam, was profoundly affected by the period of Neo-Assyrian rule; numerous Biblical stories appear to draw on earlier Assyrian mythology and history and the Assyrian impact on early Jewish theology was immense. Although the Neo-Assyrian Empire is prominently remembered today for the supposed excessive brutality of the Neo-Assyrian army, the Assyrians were not excessively brutal when compared to other civilizations of their time, nor when compared to other civilizations throughout human history.


title: Iraq

text: In the late 7th century BC, the Assyrian Empire tore itself apart with a series of brutal civil wars, weakening itself to such a degree that a coalition of its former subjects; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians and Cimmerians, were able to attack Assyria, finally bringing its empire down by 605 BC.


title: Iraq

text: The short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire (620–539 BC) succeeded that of Assyria. It failed to attain the size, power or longevity of its predecessor; however, it came to dominate The Levant, Canaan, Arabia, Israel and Judah, and to defeat Egypt. Initially, Babylon was ruled by yet another foreign dynasty, that of the Chaldeans, who had migrated to the region in the late 10th or early 9th century BC. Its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar II, rivalled another non native ruler, the ethnically unrelated Amorite king Hammurabi, as the greatest king of Babylon. However, by 556 BC, the Chaldeans had been deposed from power by the Assyrian born Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar. The defeat of the Assyrians and the transfer of empire to Babylon marked the first time the city, and southern Mesopotamia in general, had risen to dominate the Ancient Near East since the collapse of Hammurabi's Old Babylonian Empire nearly a thousand years prior. The period of Neo-Babylonian rule thus saw unprecedented economic and population growth throughout Babylonia and a renaissance of culture and artwork, with the Neo-Babylonian kings conducting massive building projects, especially in Babylon itself, and bringing back many elements from the previous 2,000 or so years of Sumero-Akkadian culture. The empire was the last of the Mesopotamian empires to be ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Nebuchadnezzar II succeeded Nabopolassar in 605 BC following the death of his father. The empire Nebuchadnezzar inherited was among the most powerful in the world, in which he quickly reinforced his father's alliance with the Medes by marrying Cyaxares's daughter or granddaughter, Amytis. Some sources suggest that the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife as to remind her of her homeland (though the existence of these gardens is debated). Nebuchadnezzar's 43-year reign would bring with it a golden age for Babylon, which was to become the most powerful kingdom in the Middle East.


title: Iraq

text: In the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great of neighbouring Persia defeated the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the Battle of Opis and Mesopotamia was subsumed into the Achaemenid Empire for nearly two centuries. The Achaemenids made Babylon their main capital. The Chaldeans and Chaldea disappeared at around this time, though both Assyria and Babylonia endured and thrived under Achaemenid rule (see Achaemenid Assyria). Their kings retained Assyrian Imperial Aramaic as the language of empire, together with the Assyrian imperial infrastructure, and an Assyrian style of art and architecture.


title: Iraq

text: In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the region, putting it under Hellenistic Seleucid rule for over two centuries. The Seleucids introduced the Indo-Anatolian and Greek term "Syria" to the region. This name had for many centuries been the Indo-European word for "Assyria" and specifically and only meant Assyria; however, the Seleucids also applied it to the Levant (Aramea), causing both the Assyrians of Iraq and the Arameans of the Levant to be called "Syrians/Syriacs" in the Greco-Roman world.


title: Iraq

text: The Parthians (247 BC – 224 AD) from Persia conquered the region during the reign of Mithridates I of Parthia (r. 171–138 BC). From northwestern Mesopotamia, the Romans invaded western parts of the region several times, briefly founding "Assyria Provincia" in Assyria. Christianity began to take hold in Iraq (particularly in Assyria) between the 1st and 3rd centuries, and Assyria became a centre of Syriac Christianity, the Church of the East and Syriac literature. A number of independent states evolved in the north during the Parthian era, such as Adiabene, Assur, Osroene and Hatra.


title: Iraq

text: The Sassanids of Persia under Ardashir I destroyed the Parthian Empire and conquered the region in 224 AD. During the 240s and 250's AD, the Sassanids gradually conquered the independent states, culminating with Assur in 256 AD. The region was thus a province of the Sassanid Empire for over four centuries, and became the frontier and battle ground between the Sassanid Empire and Byzantine Empire, with both empires weakening each other, paving the way for the Arab-Muslim conquest of the Mesopotamia in the mid-7th century.


title: Iraq

text: The first organised conflict between invading Arab-Muslim tribes and occupying Persian forces in Mesopotamia seems to have been in 634, when the Arabs were defeated at the Battle of the Bridge. There was a force of some 5,000 Muslims under Abū `Ubayd ath-Thaqafī, which was routed by the Persians. This was followed by Khalid ibn al-Walid's successful campaign which saw all of Iraq come under Arab rule within a year, with the exception of the Persian Empire's capital, Ctesiphon. Around 636, a larger Arab Muslim force under Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās defeated the main Persian army at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah and moved on to capture the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. By the end of 638, the Muslims had conquered all of the Western Sassanid provinces (including modern Iraq), and the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdegerd III, had fled to central and then northern Persia, where he was killed in 651.


title: Iraq

text: The Islamic expansions constituted the largest of the Semitic expansions in history. These new arrivals did not disperse and settle throughout the country; instead they established two new garrison cities, at Kufa, near ancient Babylon, and at Basra in the south and established Islam in these cities, while the north remained largely Assyrian and Christian in character.


title: Iraq

text: The Abbasid Caliphate built the city of Baghdad along the Tigris in the 8th century as its capital, and the city became the leading metropolis of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. Baghdad was the largest multicultural city of the Middle Ages, peaking at a population of more than a million, and was the centre of learning during the Islamic Golden Age. The Mongols destroyed the city and burned its library during the siege of Baghdad in the 13th century.


title: Iraq

text: In 1257, Hulagu Khan amassed an unusually large army, a significant portion of the Mongol Empire's forces, for the purpose of conquering Baghdad. When they arrived at the Islamic capital, Hulagu Khan demanded its surrender, but the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused. This angered Hulagu, and, consistent with Mongol strategy of discouraging resistance, he besieged Baghdad, sacked the city and massacred many of the inhabitants. Estimates of the number of dead range from 200,000 to a million.


title: Iraq

text: The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's House of Wisdom, which contained countless precious and historical documents. The city has never regained its previous pre-eminence as a major centre of culture and influence. Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for millennia. Other historians point to soil salination as the culprit in the decline in agriculture.


title: Iraq

text: The mid-14th-century Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world. The best estimate for the Middle East is a death rate of roughly one-third.


title: Iraq

text: In 1401, a warlord of Mongol descent, Tamerlane (Timur Lenk), invaded Iraq. After the capture of Baghdad, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many warriors were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur). Timur also conducted massacres of the indigenous Assyrian Christian population, hitherto still the majority population in northern Mesopotamia, and it was during this time that the ancient Assyrian city of Assur was finally abandoned.


title: Iraq

text: During the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the Black Sheep Turkmen ruled the area now known as Iraq. In 1466, the White Sheep Turkmen defeated the Black Sheep and took control. From the earliest 16th century, in 1508, as with all territories of the former White Sheep Turkmen, Iraq fell into the hands of the Iranian Safavids. Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian rivalry between the Safavids and the neighbouring Ottoman Turks, Iraq would be contested between the two for more than a hundred years during the frequent Ottoman-Persian Wars.


title: Iraq

text: With the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639, most of the territory of present-day Iraq eventually came under the control of Ottoman Empire as the eyalet of Baghdad as a result of wars with the neighbouring rival, Safavid Iran. Throughout most of the period of Ottoman rule (1533–1918), the territory of present-day Iraq was a battle zone between the rival regional empires and tribal alliances.


title: Iraq

text: By the 17th century, the frequent conflicts with the Safavids had sapped the strength of the Ottoman Empire and had weakened its control over its provinces. The nomadic population swelled with the influx of bedouins from Najd, in the Arabian Peninsula. Bedouin raids on settled areas became impossible to curb.


title: Iraq

text: During the years 1747–1831, Iraq was ruled by a Mamluk dynasty of Georgian origin who succeeded in obtaining autonomy from the Ottoman Porte, suppressed tribal revolts, curbed the power


title: Iraq

text: of the Janissaries, restored order and introduced a programme of modernisation of economy and military. In 1831, the Ottomans managed to overthrow the Mamluk regime and imposed their direct control over Iraq. The population of Iraq, estimated at 30 million in 800 AD, was only 5 million at the start of the 20th century.


title: Iraq

text: During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. In the Mesopotamian campaign against the Central Powers, British forces invaded the country and initially suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Turkish army during the Siege of Kut (1915–1916). However, subsequent to this the British began to gain the upper hand, and were further aided by the support of local Arabs and Assyrians. In 1916, the British and French made a plan for the post-war division of Western Asia under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. British forces regrouped and captured Baghdad in 1917, and defeated the Ottomans. An armistice was signed in 1918. The British lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. Ottoman losses are unknown but the British captured a total of 45,000 prisoners of war. By the end of 1918, the British had deployed 410,000 men in the area, of which 112,000 were combat troops.


title: Iraq

text: During the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Iraq was made up of three provinces, called vilayets in the Ottoman language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, and Basra Vilayet. These three provinces were joined into one Kingdom by the British after the region became a League of Nations mandate, administered under British control, with the name "State of Iraq". A fourth province (Zor Sanjak), which Iraqi nationalists considered part of Upper Mesopotamia was ultimately added to Syria. In line with their "Sharifian Solution" policy, the British established the Hashemite king on 23 August 1921, Faisal I of Iraq, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, as their client ruler. The official English name of the country simultaneously changed from "Mesopotamia" to the endonymic "Iraq". Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices.


title: Iraq

text: Faced with spiralling costs and influenced by the public protestations of the war hero T. E. Lawrence in "The Times", Britain replaced Arnold Wilson in October 1920 with a new Civil Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox. Cox managed to quell a rebellion, yet was also responsible for implementing the fateful policy of close co-operation with Iraq's Sunni minority. The institution of slavery was abolished in the 1920s.


title: Iraq

text: Britain granted independence to the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases, local militia in the form of Assyrian Levies, and transit rights for their forces. King Ghazi ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939. Ghazi was followed by his underage son, Faisal II. 'Abd al-Ilah served as Regent during Faisal's minority.


title: Iraq

text: On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the Golden Square staged a coup d'état and overthrew the government of 'Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War, the United Kingdom (which still maintained air bases in Iraq) invaded Iraq for fear that the Rashid Ali government might cut oil supplies to Western nations because of his links to the Axis powers. The war started on 2 May, and the British, together with loyal Assyrian Levies, defeated the forces of Al-Gaylani, forcing an armistice on 31 May.


title: Iraq

text: Nuri Said served as the prime minister during the Kingdom of Iraq, and was a major political figure in Iraq under the monarchy. During his many terms in office, he was involved in some of the key policy decisions that shaped the modern Iraqi state. In 1930, during his first term, he signed the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, which, as a step toward greater independence, granted Britain the unlimited right to station its armed forces in and transit military units through Iraq and also gave legitimacy to British control of the country's oil industry. In addition, Said contributed to the establishment of the Kingdom of Iraq and the Iraqi army.


title: Iraq

text: A military occupation followed the restoration of the pre-coup government of the Hashemite monarchy. The occupation ended on 26 October 1947, although Britain was to retain military bases in Iraq until 1954, after which the Assyrian militias were disbanded. The rulers during the occupation and the remainder of the Hashemite monarchy were Nuri as-Said, the autocratic Prime Minister, who also ruled from 1930 to 1932, and 'Abd al-Ilah, the former Regent who now served as an adviser to King Faisal II.


title: Iraq

text: In 1958, a coup d'état known as the 14 July Revolution was led by the Brigadier General and nationalist Abd al-Karim Qasim. This revolt was strongly anti-imperial and anti-monarchical in nature and had strong socialist elements. Numerous people were killed in the coup, including King Faysal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Nuri al-Sa'id. Qasim controlled Iraq through military rule and in 1958 he began a process of forcibly reducing the surplus amounts of land owned by a few citizens and having the state redistribute the land. He was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif in a February 1963 coup. After the latter's death in 1966, he was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, who was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party in 1968.


title: Iraq

text: Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr became the first Ba'ath President of Iraq but then the movement gradually came under the control of Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July 1979.


title: Iraq

text: In 1979, the Iranian Revolution took place. Following months of cross-border raids between the two countries, Saddam declared war on Iran in September 1980, initiating the Iran–Iraq War (or First Persian Gulf War). Taking advantage of the post-revolution chaos in Iran, Iraq captured some territories in southwest of Iran, but Iran recaptured all of the lost territories within two years, and for the next six years Iran was on the offensive. The war, which ended in stalemate in 1988, had cost the lives of between half a million and 1.5 million people.


title: Iraq

text: In 1981, Israeli aircraft bombed an Iraqi nuclear materials testing reactor at Osirak and was widely criticised at the United Nations. During the eight-year war with Iran, Saddam Hussein extensively used chemical weapons against Iranians. In the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War, the Ba'athist Iraqi regime led the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds, and led to the killing of 50,000–100,000 civilians.


title: Iraq

text: Due to Iraq's inability to pay Kuwait more than US$14 billion that it had borrowed to finance the Iran–Iraq War and Kuwait's surge in petroleum production levels which kept revenues down, Iraq interpreted Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production as an act of aggression. Throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory OPEC quota, which kept the oil prices down.


title: Iraq

text: In August 1990 Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. This subsequently led to military intervention by United States-led forces in the First Gulf War. The coalition forces proceeded with a bombing campaign targeting military targets and then launched a 100-hour-long ground assault against Iraqi forces in Southern Iraq and those occupying Kuwait.


title: Iraq

text: Iraq's armed forces were devastated during the war. Shortly after it ended in 1991, Kurdish Iraqis led several uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime, but these were successfully repressed using the Iraqi security forces and chemical weapons. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people, including many civilians were killed. During the uprisings the US, UK, France and Turkey, claiming authority under UNSCR 688, established the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Kurdish population from attacks by the Saddam regime's fixed-wing aircraft (but not helicopters).