title: Angelina Jolie

text: In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting, Jolie preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting "Gia", she told her husband, Jonny Lee Miller, that she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'" After "Gia" wrapped, she briefly gave up acting, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give." She separated from Miller and moved to New York, where she took night classes at New York University to study directing and screenwriting. Encouraged by her Golden Globe Award win for "George Wallace" and the positive critical reception of "Gia", Jolie resumed her career.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Following the previously filmed gangster film "Hell's Kitchen" (1998), Jolie returned to the screen in "Playing by Heart" (1998), part of an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, and Ryan Phillippe. The film received predominantly positive reviews, and Jolie was praised in particular; "San Francisco Chronicle" critic Peter Stack wrote, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble." She won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In 1999, Jolie starred in the comedy-drama "Pushing Tin", alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film met with mixed reception from critics, and Jolie's character—Thornton's seductive wife—was particularly criticized; writing for "The Washington Post", Desson Howe dismissed her as "a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home." Jolie then co-starred with Denzel Washington in "The Bone Collector" (1999), playing a police officer who reluctantly helps Washington's quadriplegic detective track down a serial killer. The film grossed $151.5 million worldwide, but was critically unsuccessful. Terry Lawson of the "Detroit Free Press" concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie next took the supporting role of Lisa, a sociopathic patient in a psychiatric hospital, in "Girl, Interrupted" (1999), an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood. She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2000. For "Variety", Emanuel Levy noted, "Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, "Gone in 60 Seconds", which became her highest-grossing film to that point, earning $237.2 million internationally. She had a minor role as the mechanic ex-girlfriend of a car thief played by Nicolas Cage; "The Washington Post" writer Stephen Hunter criticized that "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth." Jolie later explained that the film had been a welcome relief after her emotionally demanding role in "Girl, Interrupted".


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Although widely praised for her acting and performances, Jolie had rarely found films that appealed to a wide audience, but 2001's "" made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular "Tomb Raider" video games, the film required her to learn an English accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft. Although the film generated mostly negative reviews, Jolie was generally praised for her physical performance; "Newsday"s John Anderson commented, "Jolie makes the title character a virtual icon of female competence and coolth." The film was an international hit, earning $274.7 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie next starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his mail-order bride in "Original Sin" (2001), the first of a string of films that were poorly received by critics and audiences alike. "The New York Times" critic Elvis Mitchell questioned Jolie's decision to follow her Oscar-winning performance with "soft-core nonsense." The romantic comedy "Life or Something Like It" (2002), though equally unsuccessful, marked an unusual choice for Jolie. "Salon" magazines Allen Barra considered her ambitious newscaster character a rare attempt at playing a conventional women's role, noting that her performance "doesn't get off the ground until a scene where she goes punk and leads a group of striking bus workers in singing 'Satisfaction'". Despite her lack of box office success, Jolie remained in demand as an actress; in 2002, she established herself among Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, earning $10–15 million per film for the next five years.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in "" (2003), which was not as lucrative as the original, earning $156.5 million at the international box office. She also starred in the music video for Korn's "Did My Time", which was used to promote the sequel. Her next film was "Beyond Borders" (2003), in which she portrayed a socialite who joins an aid worker played by Clive Owen. Though unsuccessful with audiences, the film stands as the first of several passion projects Jolie has made to bring attention to humanitarian causes. "Beyond Borders" was a critical failure; Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" acknowledged Jolie's ability to "bring electricity and believability to roles," but wrote that "the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In 2004, Jolie appeared in four films. She first starred in the thriller "Taking Lives" as an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The film received mixed reviews; "The Hollywood Reporter" critic Kirk Honeycutt concluded, "Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." Jolie made a brief appearance as a fighter pilot in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", a science fiction adventure shot entirely with actors in front of a bluescreen, and voiced her first family film, the DreamWorks animation "Shark Tale". Her supporting role as Queen Olympias in Oliver Stone's "Alexander", about the life of Alexander the Great, was met with mixed reception, particularly concerning her Slavic accent. Commercially, the film failed in North America, which Stone attributed to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, grossing $167.3 million.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In 2005, Jolie returned to major box office success with the action-comedy "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", in which she starred opposite Brad Pitt as a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads; "Star Tribune" critic Colin Covert noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." With box office takings of $478.2 million worldwide, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" was the seventh-highest grossing picture of the year and remained Jolie's highest-grossing live-action film for the next decade.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Following a supporting role as the neglected wife of a CIA officer in Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" (2006), Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in the documentary-style drama "A Mighty Heart" (2007). Based on Pearl's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles the kidnapping and murder of her husband, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. Although the biracial Pearl had personally chosen Jolie for the role, the casting drew racial criticism and accusations of blackface. The resulting performance was widely praised; Ray Bennett of "The Hollywood Reporter" described it as "well-measured and moving," played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent." She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Jolie also played Grendel's mother in the epic "Beowulf" (2007), created through motion capture. The film was critically and commercially well-received, earning $196.4 million worldwide.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: By 2008, Jolie was considered the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, earning $15–$20 million per film. While other actresses had been forced to take salary cuts in recent years, Jolie's perceived box office appeal allowed her to command as much as $20 million plus a percentage. She starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the action film "Wanted" (2008), which proved an international success, earning $341.4 million worldwide. The film received predominantly favorable reviews; writing for "The New York Times", Manohla Dargis noted that Jolie was "perfectly cast as a super-scary, seemingly amoral assassin," adding that "she cuts the kind of disciplinarian figure who can bring boys of all ages to their knees or at least into their theater seats."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie next took the lead role in Clint Eastwood's drama "Changeling" (2008). Based in part on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the film centers on Christine Collins, who is reunited with her kidnapped son in 1928 Los Angeles, only to realize the boy is an imposter. "Chicago Tribune" critic Michael Phillips noted, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril." She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Academy Award for Best Actress. Jolie also voiced Tigress in the DreamWorks animation "Kung Fu Panda" (2008), the first work in a major family franchise, later reprising her voice role in the sequels "Kung Fu Panda 2" (2011) and "Kung Fu Panda 3" (2016).


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After her mother's death in 2007, Jolie appeared in fewer films, later explaining that her motivation to be an actress had stemmed from her mother's acting ambitions. Her first film in two years was the 2010 thriller "Salt", in which she starred as a CIA agent who goes on the run after she is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. Originally written as a male character with Tom Cruise attached to star, agent Salt underwent a gender change after a Columbia Pictures executive suggested Jolie for the role. With revenues of $293.5 million, "Salt" became an international success. The film received generally positive reviews, with Jolie's performance in particular earning praise; "Empire" critic William Thomas remarked, "When it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie starred opposite Johnny Depp in the thriller "The Tourist" (2010). The film was a critical failure, though Roger Ebert defended Jolie's performance, stating that she "does her darndest" and "plays her femme fatale with flat-out, drop-dead sexuality." Despite poor critical reception and a slow start at the North American box office, the film went on to gross a respectable $278.3 million worldwide, cementing Jolie's appeal to international audiences. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance, which prompted speculation that it had been given merely to ensure her high-profile presence at the awards ceremony.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After directing the documentary "A Place in Time" (2007), which was distributed through the National Education Association, Jolie made her feature directorial debut with "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011), a love story between a Serb soldier and a Bosniak prisoner, set during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. She conceived the film to rekindle attention for the survivors, after twice visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina in her role as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. To ensure authenticity, she cast only actors from the former Yugoslavia—including stars Goran Kostić and Zana Marjanović—and incorporated their wartime experiences into her screenplay. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews; Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "Jolie deserves significant credit for creating such a powerfully oppressive atmosphere and staging the ghastly events so credibly, even if it is these very strengths that will make people not want to watch what's onscreen." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Jolie was named an honorary citizen of Sarajevo for raising awareness of the war.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After a three-and-a-half-year absence from the screen, Jolie starred in "Maleficent" (2014), a live-action re-imagining of Disney's 1959 animation "Sleeping Beauty". Critical reception was mixed, but Jolie's performance in the titular role was singled out for praise; "The Hollywood Reporter" critic Sherri Linden found her to be the "heart and soul" of the film, adding that she "doesn't chew the estimable scenery in "Maleficent"—she infuses it, wielding a magnetic and effortless power." In its opening weekend, "Maleficent" earned nearly $70 million at the North American box office and over $100 million in other markets, marking Jolie's appeal to audiences of all demographics in both action and fantasy films, genres usually dominated by male actors. The film went on to gross $757.8 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year and Jolie's highest-grossing film ever.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie next completed her second directorial venture, "Unbroken" (2014), about World War II hero Louis Zamperini (1917–2014), a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash over sea and spent two years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. She also served as producer under her Jolie Pas banner. "Unbroken" is based on Laura Hillenbrand's , the film was scripted by the Coen brothers and starred Jack O'Connell. After a positive early reception, "Unbroken" was considered a likely Best Picture and Best Director contender, but it ultimately received mixed reviews and little award recognition, though it was named one of the best films of the year by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. "Variety" magazines Justin Chang noted the film's "impeccable craftsmanship and sober restraint", but deemed it "an extraordinary story told in dutiful, unexceptional terms." Financially, "Unbroken" far outperformed industry expectations in its opening weekend, eventually earning over $163 million worldwide.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's next directorial effort was the marital drama "By the Sea" (2015), in which she starred opposite her husband, Brad Pitt, marking their first collaboration since 2005's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith". Based on her screenplay, the film was a deeply personal project for Jolie, who drew inspiration from her own mother's life. Critics, however, dismissed it as a "vanity project," as part of an overall poor reception. Writing for "The Washington Post", Stephanie Merry noted its dearth of genuine emotion, stating, ""By the Sea" is dazzlingly gorgeous, as are its stars. But peeling back layer upon layer of exquisite ennui reveals nothing but emptiness, sprinkled with stilted sentiments." Despite starring two of Hollywood's leading actors, the film received only a limited release.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: As Jolie preferred to dedicate herself to her humanitarian work, her cinematic output remained infrequent. "First They Killed My Father" (2017), a drama set during Cambodia's Khmer Rouge era, again enabled her to combine both interests. In addition to directing the film, she co-wrote the screenplay with her longtime friend Loung Ung, whose memoirs about the regime's child labor camps served as its source material. Intended primarily for a Cambodian audience, the film was produced directly for Netflix, which allowed for the use of an exclusively Khmer cast and script. Labeling Jolie as a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker", Rafer Guzmán of "Newsday" commended her for "convincingly depict[ing] the illogical hell of the Khmer Rouge era". It received nominations for the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie reprised the role of Maleficent in the Disney fantasy sequel "" (2019), which received unfavorable reviews from critics but performed moderately well commercially, with a global gross of $490 million. She next starred alongside David Oyelowo as grieving parents to the title characters of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Peter Pan" in the 2020 fantasy film "Come Away". Jolie starred as a smokejumper in Taylor Sheridan's action thriller "Those Who Wish Me Dead". The film was released in May 2021, garnering moderate reviews. "The Independent"s Clarisse Loughrey wrote Jolie's "bare-knuckled performance ... easily outclasses the film that contains it". Jolie next played Thena, a warrior with post-traumatic stress disorder, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film "Eternals". Released in November 2021, the film generated divergent responses from audiences and critics. Reviewing the film for "The Washington Post", Ann Hornaday highlighted the "touching naivete" in Jolie's portrayal.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's next project is a film adaptation of the novel "Without Blood" by Alessandro Baricco, which she directed, wrote, and produced. It stars Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir. She is set to star in Pablo Larraín's biographical film about opera singer Maria Callas, titled "Maria". She is attached to produce and star in the thriller film "The Kept", an adaptation of the James Scott novel.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie first witnessed the effects of a humanitarian crisis while filming "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) in war-torn Cambodia, an experience she later credited with having brought her a greater understanding of the world. Upon her return home, Jolie contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for information on international trouble spots. To learn more about the conditions in these areas, she began visiting refugee camps around the world. In February 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In the following months, Jolie returned to Cambodia for two weeks and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where she donated $1 million in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal, the largest donation UNHCR had ever received from a private individual. She covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on August 27, 2001.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Over the next decade, she went on more than 40 field missions, meeting with refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries. In 2002, when asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." To that end, her 2001–02 field visits were chronicled in her book "Notes from My Travels", which was published in October 2003 in conjunction with the release of her humanitarian drama "Beyond Borders".


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie aimed to visit what she termed "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention had shifted away from. She became noted for traveling to war zones, such as Sudan's Darfur region during the Darfur conflict, the Syrian-Iraqi border during the Second Gulf War, where she met privately with U.S. troops and other multi-national forces, and the Afghan capital Kabul during the war in Afghanistan, where three aid workers were murdered in the midst of her first visit. To aid her travels, she began taking flying lessons in 2004 with the aim of ferrying aid workers and food supplies around the world. Jolie acquired a pilot license in 2004; as of May 2014, she owns a Cirrus SR22 aircraft and a Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: On April 17, 2012, after more than a decade of service as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to the rank of Special Envoy to High Commissioner António Guterres, the first to take on such a position within the organization. In her expanded role, she was given authority to represent Guterres and UNHCR at the diplomatic level, with a focus on major refugee crises. In the months following her promotion, she made her first visit as Special Envoy—her third over all—to Ecuador, where she met with Colombian refugees, and she accompanied Guterres on a week-long tour of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq, to assess the situation of refugees from neighboring Syria. Since then, Jolie has been on over a dozen field missions around the world to meet with refugees and undertake advocacy on their behalf.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie stated on her Instagram page on December 17, 2022, that she was stepping down from her job as Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after 20 years, citing personal reasons. She praised the agency and pledged to do everything in her power to help refugees and other displaced people in the coming years.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In an effort to connect her Cambodian-born adopted son with his heritage, Jolie purchased a house in his country of birth in 2003. The traditional home sat on 39 hectares in the northwestern province Battambang, adjacent to Samlout national park in the Cardamom mountains, which had become infiltrated with poachers who threatened endangered species. She purchased the park's 60,000 hectares and turned the area into a wildlife reserve named for her son, the Maddox Jolie Project. In recognition of her conservation efforts, King Norodom Sihamoni awarded her Cambodian citizenship on July 31, 2005.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In November 2006, Jolie expanded the scope of the project—renamed the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP)—to create Asia's first Millennium Village, in accordance with UN development goals. She was inspired by a meeting with the founder of Millennium Promise, noted economist Jeffrey Sachs, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she was an invited speaker in 2005 and 2006. Together they filmed a 2005 MTV special, "The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa", which followed them on a trip to a Millennium Village in western Kenya. By mid-2007, some 6,000 villagers and 72 employees—some of them former poachers employed as rangers—lived and worked at MJP, in ten villages previously isolated from one another. The compound includes schools, roads, and a soy milk factory, all funded by Jolie. Her home functions as the MJP field headquarters.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After filming "Beyond Borders" (2003) in Namibia, Jolie became patron of the Harnas Wildlife Foundation, a wildlife orphanage and medical center in the Kalahari desert. She first visited the Harnas farm during production of the film, which features vultures rescued by the foundation. In December 2010, Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, established the Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Foundation to support conservation work by the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary, a nature reserve also located in the Kalahari. In name of their Namibian-born daughter, they have funded large-animal conservation projects as well as a free health clinic, housing, and a school for the San Bushmen community at Naankuse. Jolie and Pitt support other causes through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, established in September 2006.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has pushed for legislation to aid child immigrants and other vulnerable children in both the U.S. and developing nations, including the "Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2005." She began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital from 2003 onwards, explaining, "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball." Since October 2008, she has co-chaired Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a network of leading U.S. law firms that provide free legal aid to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings across the U.S. Founded in a collaboration between Jolie and the Microsoft Corporation, by 2013, KIND had become the principal provider of pro bono lawyers for immigrant children. Jolie had previously, from 2005 to 2007, funded the launch of a similar initiative, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has also advocated for children's education. Since its founding at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in September 2007, she has co-chaired the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which provides policy and funding to education programs for children in conflict-affected regions. In its first year, the partnership supported education projects for Iraqi refugee children, youth affected by the Darfur conflict, and girls in rural Afghanistan, among other affected groups. The partnership has worked closely with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Universal Education—founded by the partnership's co-chair, noted economist Gene Sperling—to establish education policies, which resulted in recommendations made to UN agencies, G8 development agencies, and the World Bank. Since April 2013, all proceeds from Jolie's high-end jewelry collection, Style of Jolie, have benefited the partnership's work. Jolie additionally launched the Malala Fund, a grant system established by Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, at the 2013 Women in the World Summit; she personally contributed over $200,000 to the cause.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has funded a school and boarding facility for girls at Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, which opened in 2005, and two primary schools for girls in the returnee settlements Tangi and Qalai Gudar in eastern Afghanistan, which opened in March 2010 and November 2012 respectively. In addition to the facilities at the Millennium Village she established in Cambodia, Jolie had built at least ten other schools in the country by 2005. In February 2006, she opened the Maddox Chivan Children's Center, a medical and educational facility for children affected by HIV, in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. In Sebeta, Ethiopia, the birthplace of her eldest daughter, she funds a sister facility, the Zahara Children's Center, which is expected to open in 2015 and will treat and educate children who have HIV or tuberculosis. Both centers are run by the Global Health Committee.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie is the executive producer of the BBC program "My World" which aims to teach teenagers how to think critically about what they read and how to tell high-quality journalism from bad. She and Amnesty International released a children's rights book titled "Know Your Rights and Claim Them" on September 2, 2021. She co-authored the book with British human rights lawyer Geraldine Van Bueren.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After Jolie joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in June 2007, she hosted a symposium on international law and justice at CFR headquarters and funded several CFR special reports, including "Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities." In January 2011, she established the Jolie Legal Fellowship, a network of lawyers and attorneys who are sponsored to advocate the development of human rights in their countries. Its member attorneys, called Jolie Legal Fellows, have facilitated child protection efforts in Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake and promoted the development of an inclusive democratic process in Libya following the 2011 revolution.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has fronted a campaign against sexual violence in military conflict zones by the UK government, which made the issue a priority of its 2013 G8 presidency. In May 2012, she launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) with Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was inspired to campaign on the issue by her Bosnian war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011). PSVI was established to complement wider UK government work by raising awareness and promoting international co-operation. Jolie spoke on the subject at the G8 foreign ministers meeting, where the attending nations adopted a historic declaration, and before the UN security council, which responded by adopting its broadest resolution on the issue to date. In June 2014, she co-chaired the four-day Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the largest-ever meeting on the subject, which resulted in a protocol endorsed by 151 nations.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Through her work on the PSVI, Jolie met foreign policy experts Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, who served as special advisers to Hague. Their collaboration resulted in the 2015 founding of Jolie Pitt Dalton Helic, a partnership dedicated to women's rights and international justice, among other causes. In May 2016, Jolie was appointed a visiting professor at the London School of Economics to contribute to a postgraduate degree program at the university's Centre on Women, Peace and Security, which she had launched with Hague the previous year. In February 2022, Jolie with her daughter Zahara visited Washington, D.C. for the Senate introduction of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, a bill designed to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. She worked closely with the bill's sponsors and advocates. She's also an advocate for Kayden's Law, a law focuses on trauma-informed court processes, legal standards and judicial training that minimizes the risk of harm to children.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In September 2020, Jolie made a donation to two young boys who were running a lemonade stand in London to raise money for the people of Yemen, as the country was on the brink of humanitarian crisis caused by the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels. In March 2022, a month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jolie visited Ukrainian children at the Vatican Children’s Hospital Bambino Gesù. According to the clinic, Jolie commented, "I am praying for an end to the war. This is the only way to end the suffering and the flight from the conflict zone. It’s terrifying to see children paying the price in lost lives, compromised health and trauma." In May 2022, Jolie visited Lviv, Ukraine to meet with more displaced and hospitalized children.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In August 2002, she received the inaugural Humanitarian Award from the Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program, and in October 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. She was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA in October 2005, and she received the Freedom Award from the International Rescue Committee in November 2007. In October 2011, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres presented Jolie with a gold pin reserved for the most long-serving staff, in recognition of her decade as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In November 2013, Jolie received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award, from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In June 2014, she was appointed an Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) for her services to the UK's foreign policy and campaigning to end sexual violence in war zones. Queen Elizabeth II presented Jolie with the insignia of her honorary damehood during a private ceremony the following October.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years from the age of 14. Her mother allowed them to live together in her home, of which Jolie later said, "I was either going to be reckless on the streets with my boyfriend or he was going to be with me in my bedroom with my mom in the next room. She made the choice, and because of it, I continued to go to school every morning and explored my first relationship in a safe way." She has compared the relationship to a marriage in its emotional intensity, and said that the breakup compelled her to dedicate herself to her acting career at age 16.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: During filming of "Hackers" (1995), Jolie had a romance with actor Jonny Lee Miller, her first lover since the relationship in her early teens. They were not in touch for months after production ended, but eventually reconnected and married soon after in March 1996. She attended her wedding in black rubber pants and a white T-shirt, upon which she had written the groom's name in her blood. Although the relationship ended the following year, Jolie remained on good terms with Miller, whom she called "a solid man and a solid friend". Their divorce, initiated by Jolie in February 1999, was finalized shortly before she remarried the next year.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Prior to her marriage to Miller, Jolie began a relationship with model and actress Jenny Shimizu on the set of "Foxfire" (1996). In 1997 she said, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." According to Shimizu, their relationship lasted several years and continued even while Jolie was romantically involved with other people. In a 1997 interview with the lesbian magazine "Girlfriends", she was asked how she felt about being a sex symbol to both men and women; she responded "It's great because I love men and women." In 2003, when asked if she was bisexual, Jolie answered, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After a two-month courtship, Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas. They had met on the set of "Pushing Tin" (1999) but did not pursue a relationship at that time, as Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern, while Jolie was reportedly dating actor Timothy Hutton, her co-star in "Playing God" (1997). As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of love—most famously wearing one another's blood in vials around their necks—their marriage became a favorite topic of the entertainment media. Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002 but abruptly separated three months later. Their divorce was finalized on May 27, 2003. When asked about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but ... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie was involved in a prominent scandal when she was accused of causing the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in October 2005. She said she fell in love with Pitt during the filming of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), but dismissed allegations of an affair, saying, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife." Neither Jolie nor Pitt would publicly comment on the nature of their relationship until January 2006, when she confirmed they were expecting their first child together.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: During their 12-year relationship, the couple were dubbed "Brangelina"—a portmanteau coined by the media—and were the subject of worldwide media coverage. They became known as one of Hollywood's most glamorous couples. Their family grew to include six children, three of whom were adopted, before they announced their engagement in April 2012. Jolie and Pitt were legally married on August 14, 2014, and had their wedding on August 23, 2014, at their estate Château Miraval in Correns, France. She subsequently took on the name "Angelina Jolie Pitt". After two years of marriage, the couple separated on September 15, 2016. On September 19, Jolie filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. They were declared legally single on April 12, 2019. After Pitt sued Jolie for selling her share of a winery they owned to a third party, she filed a countersuit, in which she alleged that he physically and verbally abused her and their children on a plane in 2016.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has six children. Of the children, three were adopted internationally, while three are biological.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia. He was born as Rath Vibol on August 5, 2001, in a local village. After twice visiting Cambodia, while filming "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) and on a UNHCR field mission, Jolie returned in November 2001 with her then-husband, Billy Bob Thornton, where they met and subsequently applied to adopt Maddox. The adoption process was halted the following month when the U.S. government banned adoptions from Cambodia amid allegations of child trafficking. Although Jolie's adoption facilitator was later convicted of visa fraud and money laundering, her adoption of Maddox was deemed lawful. Once the process was finalized, she took custody of Maddox in Namibia, where she was filming "Beyond Borders" (2003). Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption together, but she adopted Maddox alone, becoming a single parent following her separation from Thornton three months later.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie adopted her second child, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born as Yemsrach on January 8, 2005, in Awasa. Jolie initially believed Zahara to be an AIDS orphan, based on official testimony from her grandmother, but Zahara's birth mother later came forward in the media. She explained that she had abandoned her family when Zahara became sick, and said she thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to have been adopted by Jolie. Jolie was accompanied by her then-partner, Brad Pitt, when she traveled to Ethiopia to take custody of Zahara. She later indicated that they had together made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia, having first visited the country earlier that year. After Pitt announced his intention to adopt her children, she filed a petition to legally change their surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was granted on January 19, 2006. Pitt adopted Maddox and Zahara soon after.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: In an attempt to avoid the unprecedented media frenzy surrounding their relationship, Jolie and Pitt traveled to Namibia for the birth of their first biological child. On May 27, 2006, she gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund. Shiloh's middle name is homage to French architect Jean Nouvel. During labor, Jolie had fits of hysteric laughter due to the administration of morphine. They sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images with the aim of benefiting charity, rather than allowing paparazzi to take the photographs. "People" and "Hello!" magazines purchased the North American and British rights to the images for $4.1 and $3.5 million, respectively, a record in celebrity photojournalism at that time, with all proceeds donated to UNICEF.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted her fourth child, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Pax was born as Pham Quang Sang on November 29, 2003, in HCMC, and was abandoned soon after birth. After visiting the orphanage with Pitt in November 2006, Jolie applied for adoption as a single parent, because Vietnam's adoption regulations do not allow unmarried couples to co-adopt. After their return to the United States, she petitioned the court to change Pax Thien's surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was approved on May 31. Pitt subsequently adopted Pax on February 21, 2008.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. For the two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, France, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade. She gave birth to twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12, 2008. Knox Léon was named after two of the twins' ancestors and Vivienne Marcheline was named in honor of Jolie's mother. The first pictures of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to "People" and "Hello!" for a reported $14 million—the most expensive celebrity photographs ever taken. All proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: On February 16, 2013, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy at age 37 after learning she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene. Her maternal family history warranted genetic testing for BRCA mutations: her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, while her grandmother died of ovarian cancer. Her aunt, who had the same BRCA1 defect, died of breast cancer three months after Jolie's operation. Following the mastectomy, which lowered her chances of developing breast cancer to under five percent, Jolie had reconstructive surgery involving implants and allografts (transplantations from a donor). Two years later, in March 2015, after annual test results indicated possible signs of early ovarian cancer, she underwent a preventive salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of an ovary and its fallopian tube), as she had a fifty percent risk of developing ovarian cancer due to the same genetic anomaly. Despite hormone replacement therapy, the surgery brought on premature menopause.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: After completing each operation, Jolie discussed her mastectomy and oophorectomy in op-eds published by "The New York Times", with the aim of helping other women make informed health choices. She detailed her diagnosis, surgeries, and personal experiences, and described her decision to undergo preventive surgery as a proactive measure for the sake of her six children. Jolie further wrote: "On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's announcement of her mastectomy attracted widespread publicity and discussion on BRCA mutations and genetic testing. Her decision was met with praise from various public figures, while health campaigners welcomed her raising awareness of the options available to at-risk women. Dubbed "The Angelina Effect" by a "Time" cover story, Jolie's influence led to a "global and long-lasting" increase in BRCA gene testing: the number of referrals tripled in Australia and doubled in the United Kingdom, parts of Canada, and India, as well as significantly increased in other European countries and the United States. Researchers in Canada and the United Kingdom found that despite the large increase, the percentage of mutation carriers remained the same, meaning Jolie's message had reached those most at risk. In her first op-ed, Jolie had advocated for wider accessibility of BRCA gene testing and acknowledged the high costs, which were later greatly reduced after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a June 2013 ruling, invalidated BRCA gene patents held by Myriad Genetics.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: As the daughter of actor Jon Voight, Jolie appeared in the media from an early age. After embarking on her own career, she earned a reputation as a "wild child", which contributed to her early success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Celebrity profiles routinely covered her fascination with blood and knives, experiences with drugs, and her sex life, particularly her bisexuality and interest in sadomasochism. In 2000, when asked about her outspokenness, she stated: "I say things that other people might go through. That's what artists should do—throw things out there and not be perfect and not have answers for anything and see if people understand." Another contributing factor to her controversial image were tabloid rumors of incest that began when Jolie, upon winning her Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted", kissed her brother on the lips and said, "I'm so in love with my brother right now." She dismissed the rumors, saying, "It was disappointing that something so beautiful and pure could be turned into a circus," and explained that, as children of divorced parents, she and James relied on one another for emotional support.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's reputation began to change positively after she, at age 26, became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, later commenting, "In my early 20s I was fighting with myself. Now I take that punk in me to Washington, and I fight for something important." Owing to her extensive activism, her Q Score—a marketing industry measure of celebrities' likability—nearly doubled to 25 between 2000 and 2006. Her recognizability grew accordingly; by 2006, she was familiar to 81% of Americans, compared to 31% in 2000. She became noted for her ability to positively influence her public image through the media, without employing a publicist or an agent. Her Q Score remained above average even when, in 2005, she was accused of ending Brad Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston, at which point her public persona became an unlikely combination of alleged homewrecker, mother, sex symbol, and humanitarian. A decade later, Jolie was found to be the most admired woman in the world in global surveys conducted by YouGov in 2015 and 2016.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's general influence and wealth are extensively documented. In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international markets, Jolie, together with Pitt, was found to be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide. Jolie was the face of St. John and Shiseido from 2006 to 2008, and a decade later became a spokesmodel for Guerlain. Her 2011 endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton, reportedly worth $10 million, was a record for a single advertising campaign. Jolie was among the "Time" 100, a list of the most influential people in the world as published by "Time", in 2006 and 2008. She was named the world's most powerful celebrity in "Forbes"s Celebrity 100 issue in 2009, and, though ranked lower overall, was listed as the most powerful actress from 2006 to 2008 and 2011 to 2013. "Forbes" additionally cited her as Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013, with estimated annual earnings of $27 million, $30 million, and $33 million respectively.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie's public image is strongly tied to her perceived beauty and sex appeal. Many media outlets, including "Vogue", "People", and "Vanity Fair", have cited her as the world's most beautiful woman, while others such as "Esquire", "FHM", and "Empire" have named her the sexiest woman alive; both titles have often been based on public polls in which Jolie places far ahead of other celebrity women. Her most recognizable physical features are her many tattoos, eyes, and in particular her full lips, which "The New York Times" considered as defining a feature as Kirk Douglas' chin or Bette Davis' eyes. Among her estimated 20 tattoos are the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" ("what nourishes me destroys me"), the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages", four Buddhist Sanskrit prayers of protection, a 12-inch tiger, and geographical coordinates of where she first met her adopted children. Over time, she has covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including "Billy Bob", the name of her second husband.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Professionally, Jolie's status as a sex symbol has been considered both an asset and a hindrance. Some of her most commercially successful films, including "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) and "Beowulf" (2007), overtly relied at least in part on her sex appeal, with "Empire" stating that her "pneumatic figure", "feline eyes", and "bee-stung lips" have greatly contributed to her appeal to cinema audiences. Conversely, "Salon" writer Allen Barra agreed with critics who suggested that Jolie's "dark and intense sexuality" has limited her in the types of roles she can be cast in, thus rendering her unconvincing in many conventional women's roles, while Clint Eastwood, who directed her Oscar-nominated performance in "Changeling" (2008), opined that having "the most beautiful face on the planet" sometimes harmed her dramatic credibility with audiences.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Beyond her career, Jolie's appearance has been credited with influencing popular culture at large. In 2002, AfterEllen founder Sarah Warn observed that many women of all sexual orientations had publicly expressed their attraction to Jolie, which she considered a new development in American culture, adding that "there are many beautiful women in Hollywood, and few generate the same kind of overwhelming interest across genders and sexual orientations that she does". Jolie's physical attributes became highly sought-after among western women seeking cosmetic surgery; by 2007, she was considered "the gold standard of beauty", with her full lips remaining the most imitated celebrity feature well into the 2010s. After a 2011 repeat survey by "Allure" found that Jolie most represented the American beauty ideal, compared to model Christie Brinkley in 1991, writer Elizabeth Angell credited society with having "branched out beyond the Barbie-doll ideal and embraced something quite different". In 2013, Jeffrey Kluger of "Time" agreed that Jolie has for many years symbolized the feminine ideal, and opined that her frank discussion of her double mastectomy redefined beauty.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie is considered a style icon and trendsetter for celebrity fashion. She first began making red carpet appearances at age ten. In the 1990s, she established an enduring partnership with Versace. In her early film career, she became known for wearing gothic styles and leather, "coquette" looks. Around this time, her style was regarded as dark, vampish, dramatic, and alluring. Her sequined Randolph Duke gown at the 1999 Golden Globe Awards was regarded as her fashion debut. Jolie wore a white satin dress by Marc Bouwer to the 76th Academy Awards, which drew critical praise and comparisons to the fashion of several classic film stars. As she transitioned to directorial and humanitarian work, her style grew more sophisticated, minimalist, and glamorous, with looks associated with Old Hollywood. In the 2010s, Jolie wore satin gowns, diamond jewelry, and Grecian silhouettes. She attended the 84th Academy Awards in a black velvet gown, designed by Versace, which has been deemed one of the most significant gowns in fashion history and pop culture, with Jolie's posing becoming the subject of Internet memes. Jolie prefers to invest in quality pieces, and in the 2020s, adopted more sustainable fashion while dressing.


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has appeared in over thirty film productions since 1982. According to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and infotainment website "Screen Rant," her most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are "Playing by Heart" (1998), "Gia" (1998), "Gone in 60 Seconds" (2000), "" (2001), "" (2003), "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" (2004), "Alexander" (2004), "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), "Beowulf" (2007), "A Mighty Heart" (2007), "Changeling" (2008), "Kung Fu Panda" (2008), "Wanted" (2008), "Salt" (2010), "The Tourist" (2010), "Maleficent" (2014), and "" (2019). Her television projects comprise CBS miniseries "True Women" and TNT's "George Wallace".


title: Angelina Jolie

text: Jolie has directed a number of films, such as "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011), "Unbroken" (2014), "By the Sea" (2015), and "First They Killed My Father" (2017). Her producing and executive producing credits include "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011), "Unbroken" (2014), "Maleficent" (2014), "First They Killed My Father" (2017) and "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" (2019). Jolie served as a screenwriter for "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (2011), "By the Sea" (2015) and "First They Killed My Father" (2017).


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The fourth season of the American science fiction horror drama television series "Stranger Things" was released worldwide on the streaming service Netflix in two volumes. The first set of seven episodes was released on May 27, 2022, while the second set of two episodes was released on July 1, 2022. The season was produced by the show's creators the Duffer Brothers, along with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Iain Paterson and Curtis Gwinn.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Returning as series regulars are Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Matthew Modine and Paul Reiser, while Brett Gelman was promoted to series regular after recurring in the previous two seasons. Jamie Campbell Bower, Joseph Quinn, Eduardo Franco and Cara Buono also star. Tom Wlaschiha, Nikola Đuričko, and Mason Dye appear in recurring roles.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The season was met with positive reviews, with critics praising the performances of the cast (particularly those of Brown, Sink, Harbour, McLaughlin, Bower, and Quinn), the visuals, action sequences, realistic themes, emotional weight, and the darker, more mature tone, though some criticized it for being overstuffed due to the lengthier episode runtimes. The first volume of the season received 13 nominations for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Set in March 1986, eight months after the events of the third season, the fourth season is split between different plotlines.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The first plotline takes place in Hawkins, where several teenagers are killed in mysterious ways. Eddie Munson, the leader of a "Dungeons & Dragons" group called the Hellfire Club, becomes the prime murder suspect and is hunted down by the Hawkins High School basketball team, led by Jason Carver, who believe that Eddie killed Jason's girlfriend, Chrissy Cunningham, using satanic powers. Dustin, Max, Lucas, Erica, Nancy, Steve, Robin and Eddie investigate and discover that the murders were carried out by a powerful being that lives in the Upside Down, whom they later dub "Vecna".


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The second plotline involves Mike visiting Eleven, Will and Jonathan at their new home in California. Due to the events in Hawkins and the imminent danger to her friends, Eleven goes with Dr. Martin Brenner and Sam Owens to a secret facility to help her regain her powers, while Mike, Will, Jonathan and his friend Argyle try to track her down.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The third plotline follows Joyce and Murray Bauman when they learn that Hopper may still be alive and are told to bring money to arrange for his transfer. Meanwhile, Hopper is held in a Soviet prison camp in Kamchatka, where he and the other inmates are forced to battle a Demogorgon that the Russians have captured.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: As with seasons past, planning for the fourth season of "Stranger Things" began before the preceding season's release. In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" that ran shortly after the third season's release, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed the series' creative team had already met on several occasions to discuss the show's future. On September 30, 2019, Netflix announced it had signed the Duffer Brothers for a new multi-year television and film deal that was reportedly worth nine figures. To coincide with the production deal announcement, Netflix also announced the renewal of "Stranger Things" for a fourth season by releasing a brief, minute-long teaser on YouTube.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Commenting on the previous season's ending, Ross Duffer divulged the process of connecting story arcs between seasons:


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Matt Duffer indicated one of the plot's "broad strokes" is the main center of action being moved out of Hawkins, Indiana, for the majority of the season, a series first. He also indicated the several loose ends left by the ending of season three, such as Hopper's perceived death and Eleven being adopted by Joyce Byers and relocating with her new family out of state, will all be explored sometime during the fourth season. The Duffers later expanded on their previous comments, saying that "epic" triptych structure of the fourth season was one of the main contributing factors to its exaggerated length. They likened it to the HBO series "Game of Thrones" in terms of its sheer scale, runtime, and newer, more mature tonal shift, as well as having split their characters across multiple distant locations.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Another contributing factor to the show's newfound extended length was the expressed goal of the Duffers to finally provide answers to uncertainties regarding the series' long-simmering mythology, which they have been slowly revealing like "layers of [an] onion" over the past three seasons. Halfway through writing the fourth season, Matthew and Ross realized they were going to need a ninth episode to include all of their desired plot points, which Netflix in turn "quickly approved". During production on the first season, the duo prepared a twenty-page document for Netflix that explained the show's universe, including what the Upside Down is, in clear detail. In turn, material from the document dictated certain plots while writing the season. The Duffers wanted to spend more time within the Upside Down in this season, as the narrative of the third season gave them little opportunity to explore it further.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Since the fourth season is the longest-running season produced so far, the Duffers and Netflix opted for a two-volume release plan. In a letter from the Duffer Brothers posted by Netflix, the duo revealed they wrote nine scripts spanning over 800 pages, and that the fourth season is nearly double the length of any of the previously released seasons.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: In an interview on the Netflix podcast "Present Company with Krista Smith", Ross Duffer discussed season four's much more mature tone, which he indicated will be at least partially achieved by "[leaning] into" the horror genre:


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: In a May 2022 interview with "Entertainment Weekly" on their "Around the Table" series, Finn Wolfhard stated that this season feels like "five movies into one", comparing it to "Scooby-Doo-meets-Zodiac-killer" while also being a "stoner action-comedy" and a "Russian prison movie".


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The character of Eddie Munson is based on Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three who was wrongly convicted in 1994 of the deaths of three boys due to his appearance, which residents tied to being part of a satanic cult. The writers drew from "", a documentary covering Echols, for Eddie's story.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: As they had done with the Demogorgon from the first season, the Duffers opted to use the "Dungeons & Dragons" character of Vecna as the basis of this season's antagonist, something that the child characters would recognize and understand the dangers due to their familiarity through the role-playing game. While Vecna was not fully introduced in "Dungeons & Dragons" materials until 1990 through the module "Vecna Lives!", and only had been alluded to in the lore prior to that, the Duffers believed that Eddie was an advanced gamemaster that was able to extrapolate how Vecna would behave for purposes of the show.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: By November 1, 2019, casting had begun to add four new male characters to the fourth season's lineup, with three of the roles being teenagers and one of them being an adult. The teenaged roles were characterized as ranging "from a metalhead to an entitled jock to a character that sounds an awful lot like the twin of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" stoner Jeff Spicoli", while the adult character was tied to the Russian storyline introduced during the third season.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On December 3, 2019, it was confirmed by the show's writers' room that Maya Hawke's character Robin would be returning for the fourth season. On February 14, 2020, Netflix confirmed David Harbour would return as Jim Hopper and that Tom Wlaschiha had been cast as a Russian malefactor. Priah Ferguson's return to the series was confirmed in February 2020. That March, Brett Gelman's promotion to series regular was also confirmed. On October 27, 2020, it was reported that Maya Hawke's brother, Levon Thurman-Hawke, was cast in an undisclosed role.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On November 20, 2020, Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, and Joseph Quinn were cast as series regulars while Sherman Augustus, Mason Dye, Nikola Đuričko, and Robert Englund joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season; Englund, best known for portraying Freddy Krueger in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" films, had approached the Duffers for a role in "Stranger Things", which fit well with the direction they wanted to take this season. On June 9, 2021, Amybeth McNulty, Myles Truitt, Regina Ting Chen, and Grace Van Dien joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: In the case of Bower, he was initially announced as "Peter Ballard", and credits for his role in the first six episodes were listed as "Friendly Orderly". This was to hide the reveal that his character was the grown-up Henry Creel, who was the first test subject for Dr. Brenner and thus named "One", and that he would become Vecna following his battle with Eleven.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: In February 2020, it was announced in a joint statement from the Duffer Brothers and Netflix that production had officially begun on the fourth season in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the recently decommissioned Lukiškės Prison. After production wrapped in Lithuania, filming resumed in the United States in and around the Atlanta metro area, the primary production location of previous seasons. However, after two weeks of filming, all Netflix productions, including "Stranger Things", were halted on March 16, 2020, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant portion of filming occurred at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico, which Netflix acquired in 2018.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: After several delays, filming resumed on September 28, 2020, in Georgia. On October 1, 2020, Natalia Dyer, Sadie Sink, and Gaten Matarazzo were all spotted filming scenes at the Hawkins Middle School and Hawkins High School sets. The three were also spotted filming scenes at the set for Dustin's house the following day. Filming took place in late 2020 around Rome, Georgia, including exterior shots of the Claremont House, which was used as the Creel House in the show.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On January 27, 2021, Matthew Modine was spotted filming scenes in Atlanta. On March 15, 2021, set photos were leaked of a trailer park in Griffin, Georgia that was dressed with tendrils from the Upside Down. In June 2021, David Harbour said filming was set to wrap in August. The same month, Joe Keery, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, and Caleb McLaughlin were spotted filming a scene that involved buying weapons from a store. In August 2021, a fire with no injuries near one of the filming sets was reported. In September 2021, Noah Schnapp stated that filming had wrapped.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: To visually distinguish between the season's three storylines, costume designer Amy Parris revealed that each of the plot's locations will have their own distinct color palette: "It's so fun because [the production team gets] to kind of capture California versus Hawkins through color. So, Hawkins still looks very saturated. We don't have as much as the dusty, rusty brown of Seasons 1 or 2 ... And in California, we get to incorporate baby pinks, and fun teals and purples. It's way more sun-soaked and saturated as opposed to the richer colors of Hawkins." American shoe company Converse designed three different styles of shoes using the Hawkins High School colors to be worn onscreen during a scene depicting a pep rally.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: According to Bower, for the key scenes of the massacre at the Hawkins lab, Brown herself helped to direct Martie Blair, who played the younger version of Eleven, so that the multiple filmings of Eleven's interactions with Henry in the lab, some with Brown and some with Blair, were consistent in Eleven's mannerisms.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: In April 2022, "The Wall Street Journal" reported in an article scrutinizing Netflix's recent production expenditures that the total cost to produce season four of "Stranger Things" was around $270 million, which amounts to roughly $30 million per episode.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Due to the season's considerable length, thousands of visual effect shots were commissioned and rendered during the two-year production and post-production processes. However, the Duffers wanted to rely more on practical effects than computer-generated ones, similar to how the first season was produced. For example, the season's major threat from the Upside Down, a humanoid creature called Vecna, was "90% practical", which the Duffers found created a better presence on the set for the actors to respond to rather than a prop for later computer-generated effects.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Barrie Gower, a make-up artist that had worked previously on "Game of Thrones" and "Chernobyl", provided the look for Vecna and other creatures. Vecna was loosely based on the "Dungeons & Dragons" villain of the same name, though the character in the universe of the show is a human "who mutated into a monster from overexposure to the Upside Down ... he's been subjected to all the environments and all the surroundings of the Upside Down basically for 20 odd years." Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the human character that is turned into Vecna, also played the role of Vecna with the use of planned prosthetics. Once the outfit was prepared, it took about seven hours of work to fit Bower into it.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Gower designed Bower's Vecna costume with "anemic" skin whose integration with the toxic environment of the Upside Down was apparent through the inclusion of "lot of roots and vines and very organic shapes and fibrous muscle tissue." To achieve this look using mostly practical effects, Gower disclosed that he and his team took a full body cast of Bower, to later sculpt to meet their design needs:


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: As with season three, Montreal-based Rodeo FX was contracted to provide a number of visual effects for the fourth season. One of the most complicated shots they worked on tracked a demobat as it glided through the air towards the Creel house in the Upside Down. Due to its various complexities, the company reports the shot took two years to animate to completion. To animate the death scenes of Vecna's cursed victims, personnel at Rodeo FX conducted "extensive research on broken bones and accidents" so they could properly manipulate the actor's CGI doubles to make their death look convincingly gruesome. The company also animated the demogorgon and demodogs seen in the Kamchatka prison, and updated their designs to better compliment the brighter lighting of the setting that was not present in seasons one and two.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The season was released while the visual effects team were still perfecting the special effects, due to challenges encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Production went eight weeks over schedule for the season, without a change to the release date. The amount of visual effects work required for the season during a limited time period led Netflix to bring over some visual effects editors working on other shows they produced to devote more resources to this season. The Duffer brothers said that they updated certain visual effects shots in the season's first volume during its initial release weekend, a practice Netflix has not allowed for any of its past releases. Similarly with volume two, a number of visual effects shots had finished rendering the morning of June 30, a day before the release. The season finale was originally uploaded with an estimated 20 unfinished visual effects shots to meet the release deadline. In all, season four's two-and-a-half hour finale had more visual effects shots than the entirety of season three. Three weeks after the season's release, the visual effects team was still updating visual effects shots at the request of the Duffer brothers.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Both volumes of the original soundtrack album for the fourth season, titled "Stranger Things 4", were released digitally on July 1, 2022, via Lakeshore and Invada Records. Like the previous three seasons, the soundtrack was composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the electronic band Survive. Both volumes will be also released on physical formats such as CD and vinyl.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The non-original soundtrack companion album for the season, titled "", was released digitally in two volumes by Legacy Recordings on May 27 and July 1, respectively.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" is featured multiple times during the season, including as part of the key scene in episode 4 with Max escaping from Vecna. The Duffers had envisioned a powerful emotional song for Max and had tasked music supervisor Nora Felder to determine which song would be used. Felder came upon "Running Up That Hill", which the Duffers agreed was a great fit for both the music itself and the theme of dealing with God. Winona Ryder also mentioned in an interview that she had been dropping hints to include the singer since the first season, arriving on sets in her Kate Bush T-shirts. Felder knew that Bush had been cautious on music licensing before, but after contacting her, Felder learned Bush was a fan of the show, and after reviewing the script pages where the song would be used, Bush agreed to clear licensing rights to the song for the show. The song saw a resurgence of popularity with an increase of over 8,700% on streaming charts, reaching the second-most heard song on Spotify playlists in the United States and the fourth-most song for worldwide charts. Metallica's "Master of Puppets" was prominently featured in the season finale when Eddie played its guitar riffs and solo as music to lure and distract demobats in the Upside Down. The song also got a significant boost peaking at number one on streaming platforms, and made listings on music charts in both the U.S. and UK for the first time since the song's original release in 1986.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Other songs featured in season 4, such as Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie", and Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus", also saw increased streaming playbacks of around 1,784 percent. The final two episodes of the season featured period music and classic rock songs such as Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Spellbound", James Taylor‘s "Fire and Rain", Rick Derringer’s "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" and Journey's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)".


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The season's official announcement showed a ticking grandfather clock in the Upside Down and ended with the tagline "We're not in Hawkins anymore," which led many news outlets to speculate the show's setting would be relocated to Russia. A teaser was released on February 14, 2020, showing that Hopper was still alive. On October 2, 2020, the show's various social media accounts posted two photographs from different sets: A poster for a pep rally hanging in a hallway at Hawkins High, and a clapperboard in front of a grandfather clock in the Upside Down, a scene that was first depicted in the season's initial teaser trailer. A second teaser was released on May 6, 2021.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On August 6, 2021, a sneak peek was released featuring most of the core cast and announcing that the show would return in 2022. On September 25, 2021, a third teaser was released, showcasing the house that was previously owned by the Creel family. The final teaser was released on November 6, 2021, and showed inside Will's and Eleven's lives in California, with the episode titles for the season being revealed on that same day.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On February 17, 2022, the social media accounts associated with "Stranger Things" released four teaser posters, one to coincide with the four teasers that were previously released, and a fifth poster, announcing the release date of both volumes. On March 23, 2022, Netflix released various stills from the upcoming fourth season. On April 12, 2022, the first official trailer was released online. On May 20, 2022, the first eight minutes of the season's first episode were released online.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The fourth season was released on the streaming platform Netflix in two volumes, the first volume with seven episodes was released on May 27, 2022, while the second volume with two episodes was released five weeks later on July 1, 2022.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The season's release occurred three days after a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman fatally shot 21 people. In the aftermath of the tragedy, and considering that the first episode's cold open — a scene that had been released as an online tease one week before the premiere — features graphic images of dead bodies including those of children's, Netflix added a warning card before the prior season recap that automatically plays before the episode. The card, which is shown only to viewers in the United States, reads as follows:


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Shortly after the season's release, viewers reported that Will's friends did not acknowledge his birthday in an episode of the season that took place on that day. The Duffers said in an interview that they could rectify the matter by changing its month, which they called "George Lucas-ing the situation", in reference to the canon changes that George Lucas had made to the original "Star Wars" trilogy to match what the prequel trilogy had added. Some viewers took this to imply that scenes from earlier seasons were also being edited, including one scene where Jonathan takes discreet pictures of a pool party that Steve, Nancy, and Barbara are holding. The writers stated that "no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited", including this scene.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On July 1, 2022, after the second volume of the season was released, Netflix's website reportedly crashed due to server overload as vast numbers of users logged on to stream the new episodes, overwhelming the service.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season holds an approval rating of 88% based on 184 reviews with an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Darker and denser than its predecessors, "Stranger Things" fourth chapter sets the stage for the show's final season in typically binge-worthy fashion. On Metacritic, the fourth season's first volume has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews"; the second volume has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 17 reviews, also indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Reviewing for "The A.V. Club", Saloni Gajjar gave the season a "B+" and said, ""Stranger Things" still injects an enthralling backstory into its well-established universe. It’s an indication that the final two episodes of Volume 2 (dropping on July 1), despite its movie length, will only elevate season four." "The Guardian"'s Jack Seale gave it a 4 out of 5 stars and summarized it by saying, ""Stranger Things" is bigger, older, somewhat sadder – and as lovable as ever." Tilly Pearce of "Digital Spy" also rated it a 4 out of 5 stars and said ""Stranger Things" continues to be the beautifully addictive nostalgic thrill ride we know and love. Season four is without a doubt the strongest offering to date and by far the most ambitious."


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Tara Bennett from "Paste" gave it a score of 8.1 out of 10 and wrote, "There’s a lot to love about "Stranger Things" Season 4, especially when it comes to some of the character progression and the change in vibe which fully embraces the tropes of the best of ‘80s horror." In a mixed review, Mae Trumata of "The Upcoming" gave it a 3/5 stars and said "Overall, this is a fun continuation to "Stranger Things". For anyone who’s well acquainted and attached to the series and the characters, this is an addition that will either be appreciated or tired of, as it offers nothing significantly new." Author Stephen King reviewed the season as "as good or better than the previous three", pointing out a ""Carrie" riff". However, King opined that the decision to split the season into two parts is "kind of lame". Sophie Gilbert of "The Atlantic" was more critical, calling the season "a 13-hour-plus behemoth that added Wes Craven to its mood board but otherwise ended with undeveloped characters and obvious but superficial allusions to contemporary crises."


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Critics praised Jamie Campbell Bower's performance as the season's villain. Patrick Caoile of "Collider" said "For the first time, "Stranger Things" gives us a villain with layers. Through Vecna, Bower explores a compelling, more complicated villain than the monsters that came before. From his traumatic childhood as Henry Creel to the abusive experiments he went through as One and finally to his role as the Mind Flayer’s top general, Vecna is the perfect villain to pit against Eleven. Another "Collider" writer Robert Brian Taylor stated, "He's a compelling presence from the moment he first appears. [...] From there his performance continues to shape-shift -- from intriguing to imposing to menacing," and called his monologue scene in episode seven as "hypnotizing" and further deemed the scene as ""Stranger Things" at its best." "Vulture"'s Devon Ivie wrote, "[Bower] has the distinction of embodying three characters, each more unsettling than the last, as the episodes unfurl: a friendly Hawkins Laboratory orderly; Henry Creel, aka "One"; and the most significant villain of the series thus far, Vecna."


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: "TVLine" named Joseph Quinn the "Performer of the Week" on May 28, 2022, for his performance in the episode "", writing: "Quinn took the teenager in short order from curious to concerned, then from panicked to so utterly horrified that he let out the kind of shriek that other shrieks hear and go, “Whoa.” All in all, Quinn’s debut was as auspicious as they come." Caleb McLaughlin was also named the "Performer of the Week" on July 9, 2022 for his performance in the season's final episode "Chapter Nine: The Piggyback". The site wrote: "...after Vecna’s brutal assault of Max, McLaughlin unleashed Lucas' pain with a rawness and urgency that still haunts us. McLaughlin had just shown us what an empowered young man his alter ego had become."


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: "TVLine" gave Sadie Sink an honorable mention on June 4, 2022 for her performance in the episode "", writing: "Sink not only nailed the tasks [of Max trying to put on a brave face for her friends despite being anxious and afraid] while still maintaining the edge that her character had received upon enrollment in the school of hard knocks, she also played Max's bittersweet monologue to her late stepbrother with a mixture of sincerity and regret that all but defined the word 'heartbreaking'." Millie Bobby Brown was also an honorable mention on July 2, 2022 for her performance in the penultimate episode "Chapter Eight: Papa". The site wrote: "Brown unleashed a pain and fury that was every bit as impressive as her character's powers. Later, when 'Jane' was offered a chance to rewrite history, in a manner of speaking, Brown beautifully, wordlessly played the emotions that were roiling inside of her alter ego. The scene was complex, deep and tricky to navigate, especially without any dialogue on her part. Yet Brown led us through it as surely as a lantern through a dark night."


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: The season was listed as one of the best TV shows of 2022, with "BuddyTV" and "PopBuzz" placing it at number one. "Entertainment.ie" ranked it at number five, "NME" at number eight, "ScreenCrush" at number 10, and "Empire" at number 11. In addition, "Nerdist" included it in its unranked list.


title: Stranger Things (season 4)

text: Netflix reported that by May 30, 2022, "Stranger Things 4" had been viewed more than 287 million hours, surpassing the previous first-week viewership record from season two of "Bridgerton", which had 193 million hours in its first week. Earlier seasons of "Stranger Things" also broke into the top 10 viewed programs in the same week as "Stranger Things 4" release. With its fourth season, "Stranger Things" became the second Netflix title to reach more than one billion hours viewed within its first 28 days of release, following "Squid Game". It reached 1.352 billion hours of viewership in the first 28 days, making it the second-most viewed program after "Squid Game", and the most viewed English-language series ever.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Morbius is a 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the third film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, it stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, alongside Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. In the film, Morbius and his surrogate brother Milo (Smith) become living vampires after curing themselves of a rare blood disease.


title: Morbius (film)

text: There were several attempts to bring Morbius to the big screen since 1998, including joining the "Blade" franchise as an antagonist and having a solo film produced by Artisan Entertainment, neither of which ever came to fruition. After announcing plans for a new shared universe of films inspired by Spider-Man related characters beginning with "Venom" (2018), Sony began developing a film based on Morbius. Sazama and Sharpless had written a script by November 2017, and Leto and Espinosa officially joined in June 2018. Work on the film began at the end of the year with further casting, ahead of production starting in London in February 2019. Filming was confirmed to have been completed by June 2019, with reshoots happening in Los Angeles the following February.


title: Morbius (film)

text: "Morbius" premiered at the Plaza Carso in Mexico City on March 10, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 1, 2022, after being delayed several times from an initial July 2020 date, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It received largely negative reviews from critics, with criticism towards its writing, visual effects, and post-credits scenes, though Smith's performance received some praise. The film was a box-office bomb and grossed $167 million worldwide. Due to the poor critical and commercial reception, it became the subject of various internet memes.


title: Morbius (film)

text: At a hospital in Greece, 10-year-old Michael Morbius welcomes his surrogate brother Lucien, whom he unintentionally renames Milo; they bond over their shared blood illness and desire to be "normal". Their adoptive father and hospital director arranges for Morbius to attend medical school in New York while he focuses on caring for Milo.


title: Morbius (film)

text: 25 years later, Morbius publicly declines a Nobel Prize for his work with artificial blood. His colleague Martine Bancroft discovers he has secretly captured dozens of vampire bats from Costa Rica in the hope of splicing their genes with his own to cure his condition. After informing Milo of his planned illegal experiment, Morbius receives funding from him to outfit a private mercenary vessel in international waters with his equipment. While the cure works, it transforms Morbius into a vampire, who kills and drains the crew of their blood after they attack him out of fear. Once his bloodlust subsides and he regains his senses, a horrified Morbius erases all CCTV footage of his experiment before contacting the authorities and jumping overboard.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Morbius returns to New York and discovers he now has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and echolocation, with his vampire bats treating him as one of their own. To control his bloodlust, he subsists on his artificial blood as it gradually ceases to satisfy his needs. FBI agents Simon Stroud and Al Rodriguez investigate Morbius' victims and deduce his involvement. Milo learns that Morbius is cured but becomes furious when Morbius refuses to cure him as well. While checking on a hospitalized Bancroft, Morbius finds a dead nurse, drained of her blood. Believing he was responsible, he attempts to escape before being cornered and arrested by Stroud. In prison, he is visited by Milo, who offers to use his wealth to free him. Upon realizing Milo took his cure and killed the nurse, Morbius escapes to confront him. An unrepentant Milo confesses to his bloodlust-induced crime and urges Morbius to embrace his powers as he has. Unwilling to hurt his brother, Morbius flees.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Morbius meets Bancroft to explain what Milo has done before acquiring a new lab and developing an antibody against vampirism to stop and kill Milo; he also plans to use it on himself since he will become unable to resist his bloodlust. Stroud and Rodriguez find footage of one of Milo's attacks and, believing Morbius' vampirism to be spreading, release it to the media. Nicholas recognizes Milo and pleads with him to stop. Angered by Nicholas' perceived preference for Morbius, Milo wounds and forces him to call Morbius, who arrives too late to save him while Milo also mortally wounds Bancroft. Morbius returns to Bancroft, but she dies in his arms, forcing him to drink her blood. Morbius confronts Milo and summons an army of bats to restrain him and inject the antibody. Milo dies peacefully and Morbius flies off with the bats, mourning his loved ones and embracing his identity as a vampire. Unbeknownst to him, Bancroft revives elsewhere with glowing red eyes, having ingested a drop of Morbius' blood whilst he was feeding on her.


title: Morbius (film)

text: In two mid-credits scenes, Adrian Toomes finds himself transported to Morbius' universe. Having deduced that his transportation involved Spider-Man, Toomes approaches the fugitive Morbius and suggests that they form a team.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Corey Johnson portrays mercenary Mr. Fox, while Michael Keaton makes a cameo appearance in the mid-credits scenes as Adrian Toomes / Vulture, reprising his role from the MCU film "" (2017).


title: Morbius (film)

text: Artisan Entertainment announced a deal with Marvel Entertainment in May 2000 to co-produce, finance, and distribute several films based on Marvel Comics characters, including Morbius, the Living Vampire. Previously, the character was set to appear in "Blade" (1998), portrayed by director Stephen Norrington in a cameo appearance ahead of a larger role in a sequel. However, the character was cut from the first film and not introduced in "Blade II" (2002) after Norrington chose not to return for that film. In May 2017, Sony announced plans for a new shared universe featuring Spider-Man-related properties beginning with "Venom" in October 2018; this was later titled "Sony's Spider-Man Universe". In July, "" (2017) director Jon Watts expressed interest in featuring Morbius and Blade in the then untitled "" (2019), believing that the character's dark tone could work well within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). That November, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless submitted a script to Sony for a "Morbius" film, after a "secret development process" at the studio. Jared Leto became "loosely attached" to star in the title role, but would not commit to the film until he was happy with its direction; Leto asked to personally meet with several director candidates.


title: Morbius (film)

text: By the end of April 2018, Sony had approached Antoine Fuqua about potentially directing the film. He expressed interest in taking on the project, and said that if he was to make a film in the superhero genre he would want to make it "something that's closer to what I get excited about." He ultimately chose not to take on the project. Other directors that Sony approached about the film included F. Gary Gray, who considered directing the film but ultimately turned down the role, and Daniel Espinosa, who previously directed the film "Life" (2017) for the studio. In May, while on tour in Germany with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto met with Espinosa to talk about the film, and the pair were both confirmed for the project at the end of June. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster were producing, and filming was expected to begin by the end of 2018. Sony was expected to fit the film into its already-set Marvel release slate shortly.


title: Morbius (film)

text: By the end of September, Sony was intending for production on the film to take place in Atlanta, Georgia—where "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Venom" were previously produced—but had still not set a release date for the film. Screen Rant's Cooper Hood opined that Sony was likely waiting to see the response to "Venom" in early October, with Arad confirming at that time that there was excitement at Sony to produce "Morbius", especially due to the story of a "healer that becomes a killer, and how do you deal with [that?]" Tolmach said the project was "very far along" at that stage and they were now planning to begin filming in early 2019, with the intention that "Morbius" would be the second film released as part of Sony's shared universe after "Venom". He added that Leto was bringing the same "intensity" to the film that he had brought to playing the Joker in "Suicide Squad" (2016). By November, box office analysts believed that "Venom" had been successful enough for Sony to move ahead with other films like "Morbius", and at the end of that month the studio dated an untitled Marvel film that was believed to be "Morbius" for a July 10, 2020, release. Adria Arjona entered negotiations to portray the film's female lead, Martine Bancroft, in December; her involvement was confirmed a month later when Sony pushed the release date to July 31, and Matt Smith also joined the cast in an undisclosed role. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway made uncredited contributions to the film's script.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Principal photography began during the last week of February 2019 in London, under the working title "Plasma". Oliver Wood served as cinematographer for the film. With the start of filming, Jared Harris and Tyrese Gibson joined the cast as Morbius' mentor and an FBI agent hunting Morbius, respectively. Smith was reported to be portraying the villainous Loxias Crown / Hunger, though he was later revealed to be playing an original character named Milo who is similar to Loxias Crown. Harris was revealed to be portraying Dr. Nicholas, a mentor and father figure to both Michael and Milo. In March, filming took place in Manchester's Northern Quarter, doubling for New York City. A month later, Gibson revealed that he was portraying Simon Stroud, and that Al Madrigal had been cast as his partner, Alberto Rodriguez. At the end of the month, Justin Haythe was believed to have contributed to the film's script. Filming was scheduled to take 12 weeks, and "Venom" producer Amy Pascal said in June that production had "just wrapped" on the project. Production also occurred at Pinewood Studios.


title: Morbius (film)

text: In September 2019, Sony announced a new agreement with Disney that extended a previous deal to have Marvel Studios and its president Kevin Feige produce a sequel to "Far From Home", keeping Spider-Man in Marvel's shared universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As part of the new agreement, Feige stated that moving forward the MCU's Spider-Man would be able to "cross cinematic universes" and appear in Sony's own shared universe as well. This interaction was said to be "a 'call and answer' between the two franchises as they acknowledge details between the two in what would loosely be described as a shared detailed universe". The film's first trailer, released in January 2020, included a brief appearance by Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Adrian Toomes / Vulture from the co-produced Marvel Studios Spider-Man film "Spider-Man: Homecoming". Some of Keaton's scenes had to be reshot when the events depicted in "" (2021) did not properly coincide with "Morbius". Certain moments, such as Morbius walking past a graffiti painting of Spider-Man, were added in the film without Espinosa's knowledge, only to be removed in the final film.


title: Morbius (film)

text: Reshoots for the film began in Los Angeles by early February 2020, and were finished a month later when film productions around the United States were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of March, the film's release date was pushed back to March 19, 2021, due to the pandemic closing theaters around the world. In January 2021, the film was delayed again, first to October 8, 2021, and then to January 21, 2022, when "No Time to Die" was moved to the October 2021 date. At the end of January, Leto revealed that additional reshoots were taking place in mid-February. The film's release was moved back another week at the end of April 2021, moving to January 28, 2022. At the start of January 2022, the film was delayed to April 1, 2022, due to the box office success of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" which Sony hoped would continue throughout early 2022. Later that month, Corey Johnson was revealed to have a role in the film. In March, visual effects supervisor Matthew E. Butler revealed that motion capture technology had been used for Leto to portray Morbius' vampiric form. Espinosa cited "Pokémon" as an influence on the portrayal of Morbius' powers, specifically singling out the series's use of light and color to depict the title creatures' attacks and abilities.


title: Morbius (film)

text: By October 2019, Jon Ekstrand was set to compose the score for "Morbius" after doing the same for Espinosa's previous films. Ekstrand's score was released digitally by Madison Gate Records on April 8, 2022.


title: Morbius (film)

text: The teaser trailer for the film was released on January 13, 2020. Julia Alexander at "The Verge" described the premise of the film as presented by the trailer as "ridiculous", while Matt Goldberg of "Collider" felt it looked "silly" and also noted that the film looked very similar to "Venom", which he acknowledged was commercially successful. Scott Mendelson, writing for "Forbes", agreed with the comparison to "Venom" which he felt was a good move by Sony due to the success of their last few "Spider-Man" films, but cautioned that Leto may not have the same box office draw for general audiences that Tom Hardy gave to "Venom". Much of the discussion surrounding the trailer centered on the revelation of Keaton's role and the visual reference to Spider-Man, which led to questions about the film's relationship with the "Spider-Man" films and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. A second trailer was released on November 2, 2021, and led to further confusion and speculation about the film's connections to other franchises. Fans and commentators noted that the trailer, in addition to the "Venom" films, also references Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy, Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" films, and the MCU "Spider-Man" films despite all three franchises being set in different fictional universes. Prior to the film's theatrical release, Espinosa clarified that "Morbius" is set in the same universe as the SSU "Venom" films.


title: Morbius (film)

text: In March 2022, Sony used their "The Daily Bugle" promotional TikTok account, previously used for "", to market "Morbius"; the videos feature Nicque Marina reporting on events relative to the film.


title: Morbius (film)

text: "Morbius" had its world premiere at the Plaza Carso in Mexico City on March 10, 2022, and was released in the United States on April 1, 2022, in IMAX and other premium large formats. It was originally set for release on July 10, 2020, before moving three weeks later to July 31. The film was then delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, firstly to March 19, 2021, then to October 8, 2021, and to January 21, 2022, before moving a week later to January 28. It was then delayed again to the April 2022 date. Sony chose not to release the film in Russia due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.