title: Searchlight Pictures

text: Both original material and adaptations of Searchlight's existing film library will be produced for cable, streaming and broadcast television, in the form of documentaries, scripted series, limited series and more. In April 2019, the Hulu streaming service ordered "The Dropout", starring Amanda Seyfried from Searchlight Television and 20th Television. The studio is also developing an adaptation of the "City of Ghosts" novel with ABC Signature and an adaptation of N. K. Jemisin's "Inheritance Trilogy" with Westbrook Studios. In October 2021, Hulu ordered a sequel series to the Mel Brooks film "History of the World, Part I" from Searchlight Television and 20th Television.


title: Searchlight Pictures

text: In March 2019, the studio launched Searchlight Shorts, a collection of short films that the studio would acquire from upper-tier festivals and release on their YouTube channel. The first two films to be acquired by the studio for this collection were Shelly Lauman's "Birdie" and Guy Nattiv's "Skin", the latter of which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Other acquisitions for the collection included A.V. Rockwell's "Feathers", Matthew Puccini's "Lavender", Freddy Macdonald's "Sew Torn", Savanah Leaf and Taylor Russell's "The Heart Still Hums" and Julia Baylis and Sam Guest's "Wiggle Room".


title: Walter O'Brien

text: Walter O'Brien (born 24 February 1975) is an Irish businessman and information technologist. He was also the executive producer and loose inspiration of the television series "Scorpion". He is known for claiming various accomplishments, including a childhood IQ of 197, which have been scrutinized and remain unproven.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: Walter O'Brien was born to Maurice and Anne O'Brien in 1975 in Clonroche, County Wexford, Ireland. The second of five children, he grew up on a farm. He attended St. Patrick's National School in Clonroche until his family moved to Rosshaven, when he was 13 years old. There he attended St. Mary's Christian Brothers School, Enniscorthy.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien has stated he scored a 197 on an IQ test administered by one of his teachers in primary school but did not keep the paperwork.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: "Techdirt" and "The Irish Times" said that O'Brien's 197 IQ score from childhood does not mean his intelligence exceeds that of other adults because scoring is scaled based on age. Mike Masnick noted that of all the "top IQ" lists available online, each one is different and none contains O'Brien's name. Susan Karlin questioned why, since O'Brien uses his childhood IQ score as part of his self-marketing, he did not retake the test through Mensa so that it could be confirmed.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: After completing his Leaving Certificate at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny, O'Brien attended the University of Sussex where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and artificial intelligence.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: According to the "New Ross Standard", a local paper in O'Brien's home county, his interest in computers began when his primary school started offering a computer course. O'Brien's father gave him livestock as payment for doing chores on the farm, which he sold in order to purchase an Amstrad personal computer at age nine, around 1984.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: Other sources indicate that his interest began when he was 14 when his parents bought him a computer.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien has stated that when he was thirteen years old (), he hacked into NASA under the pseudonym "Scorpion".


title: Walter O'Brien

text: In an interview with "Silicon Republic", an Irish technology news website, O'Brien claimed that the NSA, through Interpol, appeared at his home following the hack. He told the agents he would help show them vulnerabilities in their network in exchange for not getting into trouble. According to O'Brien, he had an extradition document ready in his backpack, but he could not provide more details on the deal that was made due to non-disclosure agreements.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: French tabloid "Telestar" reported that there is no record of the alleged NASA hack. "Techdirt" pointed out that the United States Department of Homeland Security—which CBS showed surrounding O'Brien's family's home in the television show—did not exist at the time of the alleged hack.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien was a member of the Irish team that participated in the 1993 International Olympiad in Informatics computer coding competition. The university from which he graduated shows his team finished the 1993 Olympiad in 90th place out of 250.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien allegedly founded Scorpion Computer Services at age 13 in 1988. "The Irish Times" reported he brought the business with him in the late 1990s, after graduating from university and moving to the United States. The "New Ross Standard" wrote that Scorpion Computer Services started as an IT tutoring service that expanded into security and risk management, and "The Irish Times" also described Scorpion Computer Services as an artificial intelligence company. In 2014, O'Brien described his company as a think tank for "high IQ individuals".


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien started Scorpion Studios, which advises film and television producers on how to make technology appear real.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: A month after the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, Fox 11 LA-KTTV (Los Angeles) reported that O'Brien's company, Scorpion Computer Services, Inc., developed video-analysis software similar to that used by the FBI to catch the bombers. "Techdirt" said that this was one of many "bogus" claims about O'Brien by CBS.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: Asher Langton, a security intelligence engineer, said O'Brien offered conflicting narratives of his contributions to catching the bombers and that the use of facial recognition software in the manner reported was implausible. O'Brien said he was bound by non-disclosure agreements.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: According to O'Brien, in an effort to promote his company Scorpion Computer Services, Inc. and its service Concierge Up, he came up with the idea to create a television show. O'Brien contacted Scooter Braun who shopped the idea to CBS. In September 2014, CBS premiered the first season of the drama series, "Scorpion", based on O'Brien's alleged life experiences. He serves as an executive producer for the series, and regularly contributes to story development. For his part in story development, O'Brien consults with series writers on technical aspects of the plot, including how he would solve problems presented in the show's scripts. The technical aspects of the plot, however, were a reason for a review published on the website of the National Science Teachers Association to advise teachers to use the show as an example of incorrect or exaggerated science in 2015. O'Brien also consults with Elyes Gabel, the actor who plays the fictional Walter O'Brien. In an interview with CBS News to promote the second season, Gabel said about O'Brien that "he's out saving the world or talking to, you know, princes of Liechtenstein. So every now and again, I get the chance to talk to him and he'll call me up. And sometimes we talk about the show. Sometimes we talk about characters."


title: Walter O'Brien

text: The first season attracted more than 26 million viewers. CBS ordered a full season of "Scorpion" in October 2014 and renewed it for a second season in 2015. The show was renewed again for a third season in 2016, with a fourth seasoned confirmed for 2017. In March 2017, CBS renewed Scorpion for season 4. The show was cancelled after four seasons in May 2018.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: In 2014, "CNET", "Techdirt", and "Fast Company" evaluated CBS' claims about O'Brien's accomplishments, widely reported in the media, following questions to "Fast Company". "The Irish Times" said that "it is impossible to substantiate some claims." In a follow-up interview with Susan Karlin of "Fast Company", O'Brien answered some of Karlin's questions but said that he was bound by non-disclosure agreements.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: Karlin wrote that some community-edited business directories showed O'Brien's company was much smaller than the 2,600 employees and $1.3 billion in revenues stated in Karlin's original article. For example, in 2014 an anonymous editor on Credibility.com recorded Scorpion Computer Services as having 1 employee with an annual revenue of $66,000. Karlin points out that community-edited business directories data may be unreliable, and O'Brien stated that most of the company consists of independent contractors who work remotely.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: In a News.com.au interview of Elyes Gabel, the actor who plays the fictional O'Brien in the TV show, the reporter Andrew Fenton says: "But even Elyes Gabel, who plays O'Brien in the show, admits he has some concerns over the veracity of the story. He says that to find the character he had to push those doubts to one side and just accept O'Brien's story as gospel." "That meant everything that he was saying I believe rather than kind of questioning," he says. "That becomes a very dangerous, treacherous area if you don't really fully commit or believe in what somebody is saying. So once I got rid of that, the balance became: 'How do I make this guy? How do I create vulnerability in a character?"


title: Walter O'Brien

text: In reality many of O'Brien's claims don't stack up. He says he didn't keep the paperwork showing he scored 197 on an IQ test in primary school — but even if it were true, scores are scaled with age, meaning a high score as a child doesn't reflect his intelligence as an adult. He hasn't taken an official Mensa-approved test since. There's also no evidence of the NASA hack and O'Brien can't provide further details claiming he signed a non-disclosure agreement. And of course Homeland Security was formed as a result of the attack on the Twin Towers and didn't exist when he was 13.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien has lived in Los Angeles, California, since 2001 when he was issued an EB-1 visa to immigrate to the United States. This type of visa is set aside for people with "extraordinary abilities" and/or who can be considered a national asset and goes to thousands of people each year.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: In 2015, "Kilkenny People" reported that O'Brien received a mayoral certificate from the mayor of Kilkenny for his contribution and dedication to the Irish community in Los Angeles. O'Brien helped fund the start-up cost of Kilkenny Taxi Watch which "Kilkenny People" reported as having prevented 45 suicides through July 2015. By April 2016, Taxi Watch stated on their Facebook page that the number of lives saved had reached 100.


title: Walter O'Brien

text: O'Brien has spoken at numerous events, including speaking at the Mensa 2016 annual gathering event in San Diego, and the Houston Innovation Conference and Showcase.


title: Billy Mays

text: William Darrell Mays Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson. Throughout his career, he promoted a wide variety of products, including OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, and Zorbeez. His promotions aired mostly on the Home Shopping Network through his company, Mays Promotions, Inc., although they aired on various other syndicated networks.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays and his business partner, Anthony Sullivan, were also featured on "PitchMen", a Discovery Channel television series that documented their work. His distinctive beard, attire, loud voice, and impassioned sales pitches made him a recognized television presence in the United States and Canada.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays was born on July 20, 1958, in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Pittsburgh. He was a student at Sto-Rox High School, and later West Virginia University, where he was a walk-on linebacker on its football team during his two years there.


title: Billy Mays

text: After dropping out of college, Mays worked for his father's hazardous waste company before moving to Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1983. On the Atlantic City boardwalk, Mays sold the Washmatik portable washing device to passersby, along with other "As Seen on TV" products. In Atlantic City, he was taught how to sell by the older salesmen, saying "I was taught to pitch by a lot of old pitchmen. That's the kind of style I have."


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays then traveled to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States for a period of twelve years, selling various maintenance products and tools, including cleaning products and food choppers.


title: Billy Mays

text: At a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home show in 1993, Mays struck up a friendship with rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International, a Denver-based manufacturer of cleaning products. He was then hired by the company to promote their line of cleaners, OxiClean, Orange Clean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom, on the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Florida. That same year he also befriended another future pitchman, Anthony Sullivan. Customer response to Mays' sales pitches was enthusiastic, with a sharp increase in sales after his first day on the network, although some reviews were poor. He was very well known for shouting during infomercials. For example, "The Washington Post" staff writer Frank Ahrens called him and other similar television salesmen "a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown".


title: Billy Mays

text: In October 2000, Mays shot an infomercial for the then-three-year-old OxiClean corporation. He would be a staple of the brand, as well as for the wider company, Orange Glo. Later on he would appear in Kaboom infomercials.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida. His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse "As Seen On TV" products such as Mighty Putty. Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted.


title: Billy Mays

text: In December 2008, Mays began appearing in ads for ESPN's online service, ESPN360. These ads were a slight departure for Mays as they were designed to be parodies of his and other infomercial clichés. He also made a live appearance during the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl promoting ESPN's and ABC's January 1, 2009, bowl games. Prior to his death, Mays had signed a deal with Taco Bell to film infomercial-style commercials for the chain. Shooting was scheduled to begin in August 2009.


title: Billy Mays

text: On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing "PitchMen", a documentary series that featured Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their jobs in direct-response marketing. After Mays' death, Discovery Channel aired a special Billy Mays tribute special, "".


title: Billy Mays

text: On March 27, 2009, Mays appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". He and Sullivan also appeared on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" on June 23, 2009, five days before his death.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays' first marriage was to Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays, which ended in divorce. He had a son with Dolores named Billy Mays III (born August 12, 1986) who worked as a production assistant alongside his father on the "PitchMen" television show. Mays had a daughter, Elizabeth, with his second wife, Deborah Mays. His daughter was three years old at the time of his death. Mays' mother is Joyce Palm, and his father is Billy Mays Sr.; he was survived by both.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009. He was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m., aged 50, appearing to have died sometime overnight. The Associated Press reported there were no indications that the house had been burglarized, and that police did not suspect foul play. Mays had told his wife the previous evening that he had felt unwell. Initially, there was incorrect speculation that he died from a head injury he experienced on a flight he had taken earlier in the day, in which the plane sustained a rough landing after blowing its tires.


title: Billy Mays

text: After an initial autopsy on June 29, 2009, Vernard Adams, the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner, stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that heart disease was the likely cause of his death. According to a toxicology report released August 7, 2009, heart disease was the "primary cause of death" and cocaine was listed as a "contributory cause of death." In response to the release of the toxicology report, the Mays family issued a press release stating, "We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension" and said in the release that they were considering "an independent evaluation of the autopsy results".


title: Billy Mays

text: The medical examiner concluded that "cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release. The office said Mays last used cocaine in the few days before his death but was not under the influence of the drug when he died. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Lori Hudson said that nothing in the toxicology report indicated the frequency of Mays' cocaine use. Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause hypertrophy of the left ventricle, and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said. However, in October 2009, the results of a second medical examination, commissioned by Mays' family, concluded that cocaine was not a "significant contributing factor" to his death.


title: Billy Mays

text: According to subsequent news reports, the toxicology tests also showed levels of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. Mays suffered from hip problems and was scheduled to have had hip replacement surgery the day after he was found dead.


title: Billy Mays

text: Mays' funeral was held on July 3, 2009, in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. The pallbearers wore blue shirts and khaki pants at the funeral, much like Mays wore when he advertised his products. He is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.


title: Billy Mays

text: In the immediate aftermath of his death, many companies pulled ads featuring Mays from the air. By mid-July, with his family's consent, some ads were put back into rotation, alongside previously unaired ads.


title: Billy Mays

text: His catchphrase and infomercials made Billy Mays a notable icon in popular culture, with many shows, YouTube videos, and films lampooning him. In the "South Park" episode "Dead Celebrities", Mays' ghost appears repeatedly to Ike Broflovski, trying to sell him products from the afterlife with his catchphrase "Hi, Billy Mays here with the...". Mays' son, Billy III, a self-proclaimed "South Park" fan, said he loved "Dead Celebrities", and found its portrayal of his father to be both tasteful and respectful.


title: Billy Mays

text: He was portrayed by comedian Colin J. Sweeney in the season 1 episode of "Epic Rap Battles of History", 'Billy Mays vs. Ben Franklin'. In the middle of the battle, Mays dies and has his second verse covered by fellow infomercial pitchman, Vince Offer, portrayed by Peter Shukoff.


title: Online game

text: An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Since 2010s, a common trend among online games has been operating them as games as a service, using monetization schemes such as loot boxes and battle passes as purchasable items atop freely-offered games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.


title: Online game

text: The design of online games can range from simple text-based environments to the incorporation of complex graphics and virtual worlds. The existence of online components within a game can range from being minor features, such as an online leaderboard, to being part of core gameplay, such as directly playing against other players. Many online games create their own online communities, while other games, especially social games, integrate the players' existing real-life communities. Some online games can receive a massive influx of popularity due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing them.


title: Online game

text: Online gaming has drastically increased the scope and size of video game culture. Online games have attracted players from a variety of ages, nationalities, and occupations. The online game content can also be studied in the scientific field, especially gamers' interactions within virtual societies in relation to the behavior and social phenomena of everyday life. As in other cultures, the community has developed a gamut of slang words or phrases that can be used for communication in or outside of games. Due to their growing online nature, modern video game slang overlaps heavily with internet slang, as well as leetspeak, with many words such "pwn" and "noob". Another term that was popularized by the video game community is the abbreviation "AFK" to refer to people who are not at the computer or paying attention. Other common abbreviations include "GL HF" which stands for "good luck, have fun," which is often said at the beginning of a match to show good sportsmanship. Likewise, at the end of a game, "GG" or "GG WP" may be said to congratulate the opponent, win or lose, on a "good game, well played". Many video games have also inspired internet memes and achieved a very large following online.


title: Online game

text: The culture of online gaming sometimes faces criticisms for an environment that can promote cyberbullying, violence, and xenophobia. Some are also concerned about gaming addiction or social stigma. However, it has been argued that, since the players of an online game are strangers to each other and have limited communication, the individual player's experience in an online game is not necessarily different from playing with artificial intelligence players.


title: Online game

text: The history of online games dates back to the early days of packet-based computer networking in the 1970s, An early example of online games are MUDs, including the first, "MUD1", which was created in 1978 and originally confined to an internal network before becoming connected to ARPANet in 1980. Commercial games followed in the next decade, with "Islands of Kesmai", the first commercial online role-playing game, debuting in 1984, as well as more graphical games, such as the MSX LINKS action games in 1986, the flight simulator "Air Warrior" in 1987, and the Famicom Modem's online Go game in 1987.


title: Online game

text: The rapid availability of the Internet in the 1990s led to an expansion of online games, with notable titles including "" (1996), "Quakeworld" (1996), "Ultima Online" (1997), "Lineage" (1998), "StarCraft" (1998), "Counter-Strike" (1999) and "EverQuest" (1999). Video game consoles also began to receive online networking features, such as the Famicom Modem (1987), Sega Meganet (1990), Satellaview (1995), SegaNet (2000), PlayStation 2 (2000) and Xbox (2001). Following improvements in connection speeds, more recent developments include the popularization of new genres, such as social games, and new platforms, such as mobile games.


title: Online game

text: Entering into the 2000s, the cost of technology, servers and the Internet has dropped so far that fast Internet was commonplace, which led to previously unknown genres like massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) becoming well-known. For example, "World of Warcraft" (2004) dominated much of the decade. Several other MMOs attempted to follow in "Warcraft"s footsteps, such as "Star Wars Galaxies", "City of Heroes", "Wildstar", "Warhammer Online", "Guild Wars 2", and "", but failed to make a significant impact in "Warcraft"s market share. Over time, the MMORPG community has developed a sub-culture with its own slang and metaphors, as well as an unwritten list of social rules and taboos.


title: Online game

text: Separately, a new type of online game came to popularity alongside "World of Warcraft", "Defense of the Ancients" (2003) which introduced the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) format. "DotA", a community-created mod based on "", gained in popularity as interest in "World of Warcraft" waned, but since the format was tied to the "Warcraft" property, others began to develop their own MOBAs, including "Heroes of Newerth" (2009), "League of Legends" (2010), and "Dota 2" (2013). Blizzard Entertainment, the owner of "Warcraft" property, released their own take on the MOBA genre with "Heroes of the Storm" (2015), emphasizing on numerous original heroes from "Warcraft III" and other Blizzard's franchises. By the early 2010s, the genre has become a big part of the esports category.


title: Online game

text: During the last half of the 2010s, hero shooter, a variation of shooter games inspired by multiplayer online battle arena and older class-based shooters, had a substantial rise in popularity with the release of "Battleborn" and "Overwatch" in 2016"." The genre continued to grow with games such as "Paladins" (2018) and "Valorant" (2020).


title: Online game

text: A battle royale game format became widely popular with the release of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (2017), "Fortnite Battle Royale" (2017), and "Apex Legends" (2019). Popularity of the genre continued in 2020s with the release of the "" (2020). Each game has received tens of millions of players within months of their releases.


title: Online game

text: The assumption that online games in general are populated mostly by males has remained somewhat accurate for years. Recent statistics begin to diminish the male domination myth in gaming culture. Although a worldwide number of male gamers still dominates over female (52% by 48%), women accounted for more than half of the players of certain games. As of 2019, the average gamer is 33 years old.


title: Online game

text: The report Online Game Market Forecasts estimates worldwide revenue from online games to reach $35 billion by 2017, up from $19 billion in 2011.


title: Online game

text: Xbox Live was launched in November 2002. Initially the console only used a feature called system link, where players could connect two consoles using an Ethernet cable, or multiple consoles through a router. With the original Xbox Microsoft launched Xbox Live, allowing shared play over the internet. A similar feature exists on the PlayStation 3 in the form of the PlayStation Network, and the Wii also supports a limited amount of online gaming. Nintendo also has a network, dubbed "Nintendo Network", that fully supports online gaming with the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.


title: Online game

text: As the World Wide Web developed and browsers became more sophisticated, people started creating browser games that used a web browser as a client. Simple single player games were made that could be played using a web browser (most commonly made with web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, ASP, PHP and MySQL).


title: Online game

text: The development of web-based graphics technologies such as Flash and Java allowed browser games to become more complex. These games, also known by their related technology as "Flash games" or "Java games", became increasingly popular. Games ranged from simple concepts to large-scale games, some of which were later released on consoles. Many Java or Flash games were shared on various different websites, bringing them to wide audiences. Browser-based pet games are popular among the younger generation of online gamers. These games range from gigantic games with millions of users, such as "Neopets", to smaller and more community-based pet games.


title: Online game

text: More recent browser-based games use web technologies like Ajax to make more complicated multiplayer interactions possible and WebGL to generate hardware-accelerated 3D graphics without the need for plugins.


title: Online game

text: PvE is a term used in online games, particularly MMORPGs and other role-playing video games, to refer to fighting computer-controlled opponents.


title: Online game

text: PvP is a term broadly used to describe any game, or aspect of a game, where players compete against each other rather than against computer-controlled opponents.


title: Online game

text: During the 1990s, online games started to move from a wide variety of LAN protocols (such as IPX) and onto the Internet using the TCP/IP protocol. "Doom" popularized the concept of a deathmatch, where multiple players battle each other head-to-head, as a new form of online game. Since Doom, many first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch or arena style play. And by popularity, first person shooter games are becoming more and more widespread around the world. As games became more realistic and competitive, an e-sports community was born. Games like "Counter-Strike", "Halo", "", "Quake Live" and "Unreal Tournament" are popular with these tournaments"." These tournaments have a range of winnings from money to hardware.


title: Online game

text: Expansion of hero shooters, a sub-genre of shooter games, happened in 2016 when several developers released or announced their hero shooter multiplayer online game. Hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as an esport, as a large degree of skill and coordination arises from the importance of teamwork. Some notable examples include "Battleborn", "Overwatch", "" and "Valorant".


title: Online game

text: Early real-time strategy games often allowed multiplayer play over a modem or local network. As the Internet started to grow during the 1990s, software was developed that would allow players to tunnel the LAN protocols used by the games over the Internet. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, allowing players from all over the globe to play with each other. Popular RTS games with online communities have included "Age of Empires", "Sins of a Solar Empire", "StarCraft" and "".


title: Online game

text: Massively multiplayer online games were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. Many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available, such as:


title: Online game

text: A specific subgenre of strategy video games referred to as multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) gained popularity in the 2010s as a form of electronic sports, encompassing games such as the "Defense of the Ancients" mod for "Warcraft III", "League of Legends", "Dota 2", "Smite," and "Heroes of the Storm." Major esports professional tournaments are held in venues that can hold tens of thousands of spectators and are streamed online to millions more. A strong fanbase has opened up the opportunity for sponsorship and advertising, eventually leading the genre to become a global cultural phenomenon.


title: Online game

text: A battle royale game is a genre that blends the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game with last-man-standing gameplay. Dozens to hundreds of players are involved in each match, with the winner being the last player or team alive. Some notable examples include "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", "Fortnite Battle Royale", "Apex Legends," and "," each having received tens of millions of players within months of their releases. The genre is designed exclusively for multiplayer gameplay over the Internet.


title: Online game

text: MUD are a class of multi-user real-time virtual worlds, usually but not exclusively text-based, with a history extending back to the creation of "MUD1" by Richard Bartle in 1978. MUD were the direct predecessors of MMORPG.


title: Online game

text: A social deduction game is a multiplayer online game in which players attempt to uncover each other's hidden role or team allegiance using logic and deductive reasoning, while other players can bluff to keep players from suspecting them. A notable example of the social deduction video game is "Among Us," which received a massive influx of popularity in 2020 due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it. "Among Us" has also inspired internet memes and achieved a very large following online.


title: Online game

text: Online gamers must agree to an End-user license agreement (EULA) when they first install the game application or an update. EULA is a legal contract between the producer or distributor and the end-user of an application or software, which is to prevent the program from being copied, redistributed or hacked. The consequences of breaking the agreement vary according to the contract. Players could receive warnings to termination, or direct termination without warning. In the 3D immersive world "Second Life" where a breach of contract will append the player warnings, suspension and termination depending on the offense.


title: Online game

text: Where online games supports an in-game chat feature, it is not uncommon to encounter hate speech, sexual harassment and cyberbullying. Players, developers, gaming companies, and professional observers are discussing and developing tools which discourage antisocial behavior.


title: Online game

text: Recent development of gaming governance requires all video games (including online games) to hold a rating label. The voluntary rating system was established by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). A scale can range from "E" (stands for Everyone) inferring games that are suitable for both children and adults, to "M" (stands for Mature) recommending games that are restricted to age above 17. Some explicit online games can be rated "AO" (stands for Adult Only), identifying games that have content suitable for only adults over the age of 18. Furthermore, online games must also carry an ESRB notice that warns that any "online interactions are not rated by the ESRB".


title: Online game

text: The video game industry is highly competitive. As a result, many online games end up not generating enough profits, such that the service providers do not have the incentives to continue running the servers. In such cases, the developers of a game might decide to shut down the server permanently.


title: Online game

text: Shutting down an online game can severely impact the players. Typically, a server shutdown means players will no longer be able to play the game. For many players, this can cause a sense of loss at an emotional level, since they often dedicate time and effort to making in-game progress, e.g., completing in-game tasks to earn items for their characters. In some other cases, the game might still be playable without the server, but certain important functionalities will be lost. For example, earning key in-game items often requires a server that can track each player's progress.


title: Online game

text: In some cases, an online game may be relaunched in a substantially different form after shutting down, in an attempt to increase the game's quality, remedy low sales, or reverse a declining player base, and see significantly greater success. "Final Fantasy XIV" was negatively received upon its 2010 release, and relaunched as "A Realm Reborn" in 2013 - the new version was met with considerable positive reception, and is still running as of 2022. "Splitgate: Arena Warfare" relaunched as "Splitgate" in 2021, switching to a free-to-play model and adding cross-platform multiplayer, and subsequently saw 2 million new players, with the servers being unable to handle the influx.


title: Online game

text: However, games may remain a commercial failure despite a planned relaunch. These include the 2015 asymmetrical first-person shooter "Evolve", which transitioned to a free-to-play title known as "Evolve Stage 2" a year after launch, after it was criticized for its significant amount of DLC despite being a full-priced game, but had its servers permanently shut down roughly two years later after its user base "evaporated" as a result of infrequent updates. The 2019 looter-shooter "Anthem" was also planned to be relaunched as "Anthem Next", but the changes were never implemented, partially due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and an unwillingness to further invest in the game by "Electronic Arts", and it was permanently shut down.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Goran Višnjić (; born 9 September 1972) is a Croatian actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known in the United States for his roles as Dr. Luka Kovač in "ER" and Garcia Flynn in "Timeless", both NBC television series. For "ER", he and the cast were nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is the son-in-law of Croatian film director and former head of Croatian Radiotelevision (1991–95), Antun Vrdoljak. He moved to the United States in the late 1990s.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Višnjić was born on 9 September 1972 in Šibenik, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. He has one sibling, an elder brother, Joško. His father, Željko, was a bus driver, and his mother, Milka, worked in a market. He appeared in plays throughout his childhood and made his screen debut at the age of 16 in the controversial Yugoslav film, "Braća po materi" (1988), playing a young Ustasha.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: In 1990, at the age of 18, Višnjić served one-year of obligatory military service in the Yugoslav People's Army as a paratrooper. Only weeks after his military discharge in 1991, as Yugoslavia began to dissolve, he joined the nascent Croatian Ground Army. After leaving the army, he moved to Zagreb to study at the Academy of Dramatic Art.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Višnjić was the youngest actor to be chosen for the title role in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" at the Dubrovnik Summer Theatre Festival. Originally cast as Laertes and understudy to Hamlet, he took over the role when the star dropped out of the production shortly before the first performance. He portrayed the doomed prince from 1994 to 2000, winning several Orlando Awards (the equivalent of the Tony Award). During an episode of "ER", he demonstrated his expertise in the part of Hamlet, by reciting an excerpt from the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Croatian.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Prior to "ER", he found work in local TV productions and landed a Tuborg beer commercial that aired in Europe. Višnjić also had small speaking roles in films such as "The Peacemaker", "Committed" and "Practical Magic". In 1998, he appeared in Madonna's music video "The Power of Good-Bye", and had a cameo in the movie "Rounders". It was his role as Risto, the Bosnian driver in "Welcome to Sarajevo" that led then-producer Jack Orman to offer him a role as a doctor to replace the departing George Clooney in the sixth season of "ER" in late 1999, eventually becoming the show's male lead by the start of season 12, having taken over from the departing star Noah Wyle, who left after the finale of season 11. By season 14, however, he was only making a limited number of appearances, before completely leaving the show early in season 15 (15x03: "The Book of Abby").


title: Goran Višnjić

text: While starring on "ER", Višnjić worked on other projects. He starred in the British film "Doctor Sleep" (2002), alongside Shirley Henderson and Miranda Otto. He co-starred in "The Deep End"; voiced Soto in "Ice Age", and starred in "The Last Will" and "Doctor Sleep". In 2004, he starred in the television miniseries "Spartacus" and the Croatian movie and television series "Long Dark Night". He appeared with Jennifer Garner in "Elektra" (2005). In 2005, Višnjić was one of four finalists for the role of James Bond, eventually losing out to British actor Daniel Craig, with whom he would appear in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".


title: Goran Višnjić

text: In 2008, Višnjić starred in the film "Helen", alongside Ashley Judd as Judd's character's husband David in the drama, which made its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: He appeared alongside Carla Gugino in a segment of the 2009 film "New York, I Love You", an anthology set in New York. Višnjić's segment was directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. The segment was cut from the theatrical release of the film but was included in the DVD version.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Višnjić appeared in the historical drama "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler", about a young Polish woman who saved the lives of many Jewish children in wartime Warsaw, filmed in Riga, Latvia. It was produced for "Hallmark Hall of Fame" and aired on CBS on 19 April 2009. He completed a role in Mike Mills' independent film, "Beginners". In late 2009, he was cast as Samson in the miniseries "The Deep", shown on BBC One in 2010.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: He appeared as Andrija Hebrang in the historical drama "Tito" on Croatian television. He later appeared in the unsold 2010 pilot of ABC's "Boston's Finest", playing a disgraced cop who works with a female officer to solve crimes while trying to clear his name. In 2011, he appeared in the two-episode season three finale of the television series "Leverage", as international crime financier Damien Moreau, his first guest appearance on an English-language television program. In 2011, he played Dragan Armansky, the head of a security agency, in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and he has signed on to play this role for the entire film trilogy produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment. He was featured on a four-episode arc of the American television series "Pan Am"; he played a Yugoslavian attaché to the United Nations.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: In 2014, Goran played John Woods, the husband of Molly Woods, in "Extant", produced by Steven Spielberg. Although the series was renewed in late 2014, Višnjić left the series early in the second season.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: From 2016 to 2018, he played former NSA asset Garcia Flynn in NBC's time travel television series "Timeless".


title: Goran Višnjić

text: In 2019, Višnjić portrayed Ante Gotovina in the Antun Vrdoljak-directed film "General". His performance, along with the film itself gained overwhelmingly negative reviews with many critics, including Milivoj Jukić and Jurica Pavičić calling his portrayal "the worst performance of his career". The critically and commercially panned film was screened at the Pula Film Festival.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Visnjic played Nikola Tesla in the twelfth series of "Doctor Who", appearing in the fourth episode, "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror", first broadcast on 19 January 2020. In early 2020, Višnjić was cast as Count Dracula in the unsold ABC drama pilot "The Brides", which was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: Višnjić was named "People" magazine's Sexiest Import in 1999 and "One of TV's Sexiest Men" in the June 5–11, 2005 "TV Guide". He was ranked #18 in Croatian-based monthly film magazine "Hollywood" in "Best Croatian Male Movie Stars of All Time" list in November 2005. He was also named as the Best Croatian actor in 2004 according to the votes of the visitors of internet magazines, for his role in the movie "Duga mračna noć", according to the votes of Croatian newspaper "Večernji list".


title: Goran Višnjić

text: He has supported a number of medical institutions in Croatia through the donation of money and equipment. In 2008 he appeared on the nationally broadcast American benefit program "Stand Up to Cancer". He served as one of the faces of "ER" on NBC's long-running "The More You Know" campaign, appearing in public service announcements discussing topics such as family time and tolerance.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: His wife, Eva (born Ivana Vrdoljak), is an artist and sculptor, and the daughter of film director Antun Vrdoljak, who controversially headed Hrvatska radiotelevizija from 1991–95. The couple have two adopted children and one biological child. They reside in Los Angeles, California, and also have a home on the Croatian island of Hvar. Višnjić acknowledged paternity of a daughter, Lana Lourdes Rupić, whom he fathered in 2006 with a Croatian woman, Mirela Rupić.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: In September 2015, Goran and his wife announced that they had sold their home in Los Angeles for a sum of about $5 million.


title: Goran Višnjić

text: He supported Croatian Democratic Union candidate Mato Franković for Mayor of Dubrovnik in the 2017 elections.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass media. He first became associated with the New Wave of science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as "The Drowned World" (1962), but later courted controversy for works such as the experimental short story collection "The Atrocity Exhibition" (1970), which included the 1968 story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", and the novel "Crash" (1973), a story about a renegade group of car crash fetishists.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In 1984, Ballard won broader recognition for his war novel "Empire of the Sun", a semi-autobiographical account of a young British boy's experiences in Shanghai during Japanese occupation; the story was adapted into a 1987 film directed by Steven Spielberg. The author's journey from youth to mid-age would be chronicled, with fictional inflections, in "The Kindness of Women" (1991) and in direct autobiography in "Miracles of Life" (2008). Several of his earlier works have been adapted into films, including David Cronenberg's controversial 1996 adaptation "Crash" and Ben Wheatley's 2015 adaptation of Ballard's 1975 novel "High-Rise".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's fiction has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the "Collins English Dictionary" as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments". The "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "Eros, Thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard's father, James (1901–1966), was a chemist at a Manchester-based textile firm, the Calico Printers' Association, and became chairman and managing director of its subsidiary in Shanghai, the China Printing and Finishing Company. His mother was Edna (1905–1998), née Johnstone. Ballard was born and raised in the Shanghai International Settlement, an area under foreign control where people "lived an American style of life". He was sent to the Cathedral School, the Anglican Holy Trinity Church near the Bund, Shanghai. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ballard's family were forced to evacuate their suburban home temporarily and rent a house in central Shanghai to avoid the shells fired by Chinese and Japanese forces.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: After the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, the Japanese occupied the International Settlement in Shanghai. In early 1943, they began to intern Allied civilians, and Ballard was sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre with his parents and younger sister. He spent over two years, the remainder of World War II, in the internment camp. His family lived in a small area in G block, a two-storey residence for 40 families. He attended school in the camp, the teachers being camp inmates from a number of professions. As he explained later in his autobiography "Miracles of Life", these experiences formed the basis of "Empire of the Sun", although Ballard exercised considerable artistic licence in writing the book, such as the removal of his parents from the bulk of the story.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: It has been supposed that Ballard's exposure to the atrocities of war at an impressionable age explains the apocalyptic and violent nature of much of his fiction. Martin Amis wrote that "Empire of the Sun" "gives shape to what shaped him". Ballard's own account of the experience was more nuanced: "I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed. The reassuring stage set that everyday reality in the suburban west presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience." But also: "I have—I won't say "happy"—not unpleasant memories of the camp. [...] I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" Ballard later became an atheist.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In late 1945, after the end of the war, his mother returned to Britain with Ballard and his sister on the SS "Arawa". They lived in the outskirts of Plymouth, and he attended The Leys School in Cambridge. He won an essay prize whilst at the school but did not contribute to the school magazine. After a couple of years his mother and sister returned to China, rejoining Ballard's father, leaving Ballard to live with his grandparents when not boarding at school. In 1949 he went on to study medicine at King's College, Cambridge, with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: At university, Ballard was writing avant-garde fiction heavily influenced by psychoanalysis and surrealist painters. At this time, he wanted to become a writer as well as pursue a medical career. In May 1951, when Ballard was in his second year at Cambridge, his short story "The Violent Noon", a Hemingwayesque pastiche written to please the contest's jury, won a crime story competition and was published in the student newspaper "Varsity".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Encouraged by the publication of his story and realising that clinical medicine would not leave him time to write, Ballard abandoned his medical studies, and in October 1951 he enrolled at Queen Mary College to read English literature. He dropped out after a year to become a copywriter for an advertising agency, after which he worked as an encyclopaedia salesman. He kept writing short fiction but found it impossible to get published.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In early 1954 Ballard joined the Royal Air Force and was sent to the Royal Canadian Air Force flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. There he discovered science fiction in American magazines. While in the RAF, he also wrote his first science fiction story, "Passport to Eternity", as a pastiche and summary of the American science fiction he had read. The story was not published until 1962.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard left the RAF in 1955 after thirteen months and returned to England. In 1955 he married Helen Mary Matthews and settled in Chiswick. Matthews was a secretary at the Daily Express. The first of their three children was born the following year. He made his science fiction debut in December 1956 with two short stories, "Escapement", published in "New Worlds" and "Prima Belladonna", published in "Science Fantasy". The editor of "New Worlds", Edward J. Carnell, remained an important supporter of Ballard's writing, and published nearly all of his early stories.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: From 1958 Ballard worked as assistant editor on the scientific journal "Chemistry and Industry". His interest in art led to his involvement in the emerging Pop Art movement, and in the late 1950s he exhibited collages that represented his ideas for a new kind of novel. Ballard's avant-garde inclinations did not sit comfortably in the science fiction mainstream of that time, which held attitudes he considered philistine. Briefly attending the 1957 World Science Fiction Convention in London, Ballard left disillusioned and demoralised and did not write another story for a year. By 1965, however, he had become an editor of the avant-garde "Ambit" magazine, which was more in keeping with his aesthetic ideals.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In 1960 Ballard moved with his family to the middle-class Shepperton in Surrey, where he lived for the rest of his life and which would later give rise to his moniker as the "Seer of Shepperton". Finding that commuting to work did not leave him time to write, Ballard decided he had to make a break and become a full-time writer. He wrote his first novel, "The Wind from Nowhere", over a two-week holiday to gain a foothold as a professional writer, not intending it as a "serious novel"; in books published later, it is omitted from the list of his works. When it was published in January 1962, he resigned from his job at "Chemistry and Industry", and from then on supported himself and his family as a writer.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Later that year his second novel, "The Drowned World", was published, establishing Ballard as a notable figure in the fledgling New Wave movement of science fiction. Collections of his stories started getting published, and he began a period of great literary productivity, while pushing to expand the scope of acceptable material for science fiction with such stories as "The Terminal Beach".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In 1964 Ballard's wife Mary died suddenly of pneumonia, leaving him to raise their three children—James, Fay and Bea Ballard—by himself. Ballard never remarried, but a few years later his friend and fellow author Michael Moorcock introduced him to Claire Walsh, who became his partner for the rest of his life (he died at her London residence), and is often referred to in his writings as "Claire Churchill". Walsh, who worked in publishing during the 1960s and 1970s, was a sounding board for many of his story ideas, and introduced him to the expatriate community in the south of France which formed the basis of several novels.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: After the shock of his wife's death, Ballard began in 1965 to write the stories that became "The Atrocity Exhibition", while continuing to produce stories within the science fiction genre. In 1967 Algis Budrys listed Ballard, Brian W. Aldiss, Roger Zelazny, and Samuel R. Delany as "an earthshaking new kind of" writer, and leaders of the New Wave. "The Atrocity Exhibition" (1969) proved controversial—it was the subject of an obscenity trial, and in the United States, publisher Doubleday destroyed almost the entire print run before it was distributed—but it gained Ballard recognition as a literary writer. It remains one of his iconic works, and was filmed in 2001.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: A chapter of "The Atrocity Exhibition" is titled "Crash!", and in 1970 Ballard organised an exhibition of crashed cars at the New Arts Laboratory, simply called "Crashed Cars". The crashed vehicles were displayed without commentary, inspiring vitriolic responses and vandalism. In both the story and the art exhibition, Ballard dealt with the sexual potential of car crashes, a theme he also explored in a short film in which he appeared with Gabrielle Drake in 1971. His interest in the topic culminated in the novel "Crash" in 1973. The main character of "Crash" is called James Ballard and lives in Shepperton, though other biographical details do not match the writer, and curiosity about the relationship between the character and his author increased when Ballard was in a serious car accident shortly after completing the novel.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: "Crash" was also controversial upon publication. In 1996, the film adaptation by David Cronenberg was met by a tabloid uproar in the UK, with the "Daily Mail" campaigning for it to be banned. In the years following the initial publication of "Crash", Ballard produced two further novels: 1974's "Concrete Island", about a man who becomes stranded in the waste area of a high-speed motorway, and "High-Rise", about a modern luxury high rise apartment building's descent into tribal warfare.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard published several novels and short story collections throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his breakthrough into the mainstream came with "Empire of the Sun" in 1984, based on his years in Shanghai and the Lunghua internment camp. It became a best-seller, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It made Ballard known to a wider audience, although the books that followed failed to achieve the same degree of success. "Empire of the Sun" was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987, starring a young Christian Bale as Jim (Ballard). Ballard himself appears briefly in the film, and he has described the experience of seeing his childhood memories reenacted and reinterpreted as bizarre.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard continued to write until the end of his life, and also contributed occasional journalism and criticism to the British press. Of his later novels, "Super-Cannes" (2000) was well received, winning the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize. These later novels often marked a move away from science fiction, instead engaging with elements of a traditional crime novel. Ballard was offered a CBE in 2003, but refused, calling it "a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop up our top-heavy monarchy". In June 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which metastasised to his spine and ribs. The last of his books published in his lifetime was the autobiography "Miracles of Life", written after his diagnosis. His final published short story, "The Dying Fall", appeared in the 1996 issue 106 of "Interzone", a British sci-fi magazine. It was reproduced in "The Guardian" on 25 April 2009. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In October 2008, before his death, Ballard's literary agent, Margaret Hanbury, brought an outline for a book by Ballard with the working title "Conversations with My Physician: The Meaning, if Any, of Life" to the Frankfurt Book Fair. The physician in question is oncologist Professor Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College, London, who was treating Ballard for prostate cancer. While it was to be in part a book about cancer, and Ballard's struggle with it, it reportedly was to move on to broader themes. In April 2009 "The Guardian" reported that HarperCollins announced that Ballard's "Conversations with My Physician" could not be finished and plans to publish it were abandoned.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In 2013, a 17-page untitled typescript listed as "Vermilion Sands short story in draft" in the British Library catalogue and edited into an 8,000-word text by Bernard Sigaud appeared in a short-lived French reissue of the collection () under the title "Le labyrinthe Hardoon" as the first story of the cycle, tentatively dated "late 1955/early 1956" by Sigaud and others.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In June 2010 the British Library acquired Ballard's personal archives under the British government's acceptance in lieu scheme for death duties. The archive contains eighteen holograph manuscripts for Ballard's novels, including the 840-page manuscript for "Empire of the Sun", plus correspondence, notebooks, and photographs from throughout his life. In addition, two typewritten manuscripts for "The Unlimited Dream Company" are held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: With the exception of his autobiographical novels, Ballard most commonly wrote in the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: His most celebrated novel in this regard is "Crash", in which the characters (the protagonist, called Ballard, included) become increasingly obsessed with the violent psychosexuality of car crashes in general, and celebrity car crashes in particular. Ballard's novel was turned into a controversial film by David Cronenberg.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Particularly revered among Ballard's admirers is his short story collection "Vermilion Sands" (1971), set in an eponymous desert resort town inhabited by forgotten starlets, insane heirs, very eccentric artists, and the merchants and bizarre servants who provide for them. Each story features peculiarly exotic technology such as cloud-carving sculptors performing for a party of eccentric onlookers, poetry-composing computers, orchids with operatic voices and egos to match, phototropic self-painting canvases, etc. In keeping with Ballard's central themes, most notably technologically-mediated masochism, these tawdry and weird technologies service the dark and hidden desires and schemes of the human castaways who occupy Vermilion Sands, typically with psychologically grotesque and physically fatal results. In his introduction to "Vermilion Sands", Ballard cites this as his favourite collection.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In a similar vein, his collection "Memories of the Space Age" explores many varieties of individual and collective psychological fallout from—and initial deep archetypal motivations for—the American space exploration boom of the 1960s and 1970s.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Will Self has described much of his fiction as being concerned with "idealised gated communities; the affluent, and the ennui of affluence [where] the virtualised world is concretised in the shape of these gated developments." He added in these fictional settings "there is no real pleasure to be gained; sex is commodified and devoid of feeling and there is no relationship with the natural world. These communities then implode into some form of violence." Budrys, however, mocked his fiction as "call[ing] for people who don't think ... to be the protagonist of a J. G. Ballard novel, or anything more than a very minor character therein, you must have cut yourself off from the entire body of scientific education".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In addition to his novels, Ballard made extensive use of the short story form. Many of his earliest published works in the 1950s and 1960s were short stories, including influential works like "Chronopolis." In an essay on Ballard, Will Wiles notes how his short stories "have a lingering fascination with the domestic interior, with furnishing and appliances", adding, "it's a landscape that he distorts until it shrieks with anxiety". He concludes that "what Ballard saw, and what he expressed in his novels, was nothing less than the effect that the technological world, including our built environment, was having upon our minds and bodies."


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard coined the term "inverted Crusoeism". Whereas the original Robinson Crusoe became a castaway against his own will, Ballard's protagonists often choose to maroon themselves; hence inverted Crusoeism (e.g., "Concrete Island"). The concept provides a reason as to why people would deliberately maroon themselves on a remote island; in Ballard's work, becoming a castaway is as much a healing and empowering process as an entrapping one, enabling people to discover a more meaningful and vital existence.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: On 13 December 1965, BBC Two screened an adaptation of the short story "Thirteen to Centaurus" directed by Peter Potter. The one-hour drama formed part of the first season of "Out of the Unknown" and starred Donald Houston as Dr. Francis and James Hunter as Abel Granger. In 2003, Ballard's short story "The Enormous Space" (first published in the science fiction magazine "Interzone" in 1989, subsequently printed in the collection of Ballard's short stories "War Fever") was adapted into an hour-long television film for the BBC entitled "Home" by Richard Curson Smith, who also directed it. The plot follows a middle-class man who chooses to abandon the outside world and restrict himself to his house, becoming a hermit.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard is cited as an important forebear of the cyberpunk movement by Bruce Sterling in his introduction to the seminal "Mirrorshades" anthology, and by author William Gibson. Ballard's parody of American politics, the pamphlet "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", which was subsequently included as a chapter in his experimental novel "The Atrocity Exhibition", was photocopied and distributed by pranksters at the 1980 Republican National Convention. In the early 1970s, Bill Butler, a bookseller in Brighton, was prosecuted under UK obscenity laws for selling the pamphlet.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In his 2002 book , the philosopher John Gray acknowledges Ballard as a major influence on his ideas. Ballard described the book as a "clear-eyed assessment of human nature and our almost unlimited gift for self-delusion".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: According to literary theorist Brian McHale, "The Atrocity Exhibition" is a "postmodernist text based on science fiction topoi".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Lee Killough directly cites Ballard's seminal "Vermilion Sands" short stories as the inspiration for her collection "Aventine", also a backwater resort for celebrities and eccentrics where bizarre or frivolous novelty technology facilitates the expression of dark intents and drives. Terry Dowling's milieu of "Twilight Beach" is also influenced by the stories of "Vermilion Sands" and other Ballard works.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: In "Simulacra and Simulation", Jean Baudrillard hailed "Crash" as the "first great novel of the universe of simulation".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard also had an interest in the relationship between various media. In the early 1970s, he was one of the trustees of the Institute for Research in Art and Technology.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Ballard has had a notable influence on popular music, where his work has been used as a basis for lyrical imagery, particularly amongst British post-punk and industrial groups. Examples include albums such as "Metamatic" by John Foxx, various songs by Joy Division (most famously "Atrocity Exhibition" from "Closer" and "Disorder" from "Unknown Pleasures"), "High Rise" by Hawkwind, "Miss the Girl" by The Creatures (based on "Crash"), "Down in the Park" by Gary Numan, "Chrome Injury" by The Church, "Drowned World" by Madonna, "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal and "Atrocity Exhibition" by Danny Brown.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Songwriters Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley credit Ballard's story "The Sound-Sweep" with inspiring The Buggles' hit "Video Killed the Radio Star", and the Buggles' second album included a song entitled "Vermillion Sands".


title: J. G. Ballard

text: The 1978 post-punk band Comsat Angels took their name from one of Ballard's short stories. An early instrumental track by British electronic music group The Human League "4JG" bears Ballard's initials as a homage to the author (intended as a response to "2HB" by Roxy Music).


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Additionally, the Manic Street Preachers song, "A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun", is taken from a line in the JG Ballard novel, Cocaine Nights.


title: J. G. Ballard

text: Klaxons named their debut album "Myths of the Near Future" after one of Ballard's short story collections. The band Empire of the Sun took their name from Ballard's novel. The Sound of Animals Fighting took the name of the song "The Heraldic Beak of the Manufacturer's Medallion" from "Crash". UK based Drum and Bass producer Fortitude released an EP in 2016 called "Kline Coma Xero" named after characters in The Atrocity Exhibition. The song "Terminal Beach" by the American band Yacht is a tribute to his short story collection that goes by the same name.. US indie musician and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis mentions Ballard by name in his song "Cult Boyfriend", on the record "A Turn in The Dream-Songs" (2011), in reference to Ballard's Cult following as an author.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The Right Stuff is a 1983 American epic historical drama film written and directed by Philip Kaufman and based on the 1979 book of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film follows the Navy, Marine, and Air Force test pilots who were involved in aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as well as the Mercury Seven, the seven military pilots who were selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight by the United States. The film stars Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, and Barbara Hershey; Levon Helm narrates and plays Air Force test pilot Jack Ridley.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The film was a box-office bomb, grossing about $21 million against a $27 million budget. Despite this, it received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for eight Oscars at the 56th Academy Awards, four of which it won. The film was a huge success on the home video market. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In 1947, the Muroc Army Air Field in California has test pilots fly high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1, but they die as a result. After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 () to attempt to break the sound barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. While on a horseback ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs, which inhibits him from leaning over and locking the door to the X-1. Worried that he might not fly the mission, Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley. Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1, and Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the "demon in the sky".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base, still attracts the best test pilots. Yeager (now a major) and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break the other's speed records. They often visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by Pancho Barnes, who classifies the pilots at Edwards as either "prime" (such as Yeager and Crossfield) that fly the best equipment or newer "pudknockers" who only dream about it. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Donald "Deke" Slayton, captains of the United States Air Force, are among the "pudknockers" who hope to also prove that they have "the Right Stuff". The tests are no longer secret, as the military soon recognizes that it needs good publicity for funding, and with "no bucks, no Buck Rogers". Cooper's wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, but cannot change their husbands' ambitions and desire for success and fame.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In 1957, the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite alarms the United States government. Politicians such as Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat the Russians in the new Space Race. The search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree. Grueling physical and mental tests select the Mercury Seven astronauts, including John Glenn of the United States Marine Corps, Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra and Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy, as well as Cooper, Grissom and Slayton; they immediately become national heroes. Although many early NASA rockets explode during launch, the ambitious astronauts all hope to be the first in space as part of Project Mercury. Although engineers see the men as passengers, the pilots insist that the Mercury spacecraft have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls. However, Russia beats them into space on April 12, 1961 with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin into space. The seven astronauts are determined to match and surpass the Russians.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3 on May 5. After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open and quickly fills with water. Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft, overweight with seawater, sinks. Many criticize Grissom for possibly panicking and opening the hatch prematurely. Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20, 1962, surviving a possibly loose heat shield, and receives a ticker-tape parade. He, his colleagues, and their families become celebrities, including a gigantic celebration in the Sam Houston Coliseum to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston, despite Glenn's wife Annie's fear of public speaking due to a stutter.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Although test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program for sending "spam in a can" into space, they recognize that they are no longer the fastest men on Earth, and Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV." While testing the new Lockheed NF-104A, Yeager attempts to set a new altitude record at the edge of space but is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection when his engine fails. Though seriously burned, after reaching the ground Yeager gathers up his parachute and walks to the ambulance, proving that he still has the Right Stuff.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: On May 15, 1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9, ending the Mercury program. As the last American to fly into space alone, he "went higher, farther, and faster than any other American ... for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen."


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The following appeared as themselves in archive footage: Ed Sullivan with Bill Dana (in character as José Jiménez); Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev embracing at a review, joined by Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, Kliment Voroshilov, and Anastas Mikoyan; Lyndon B. Johnson; John F. Kennedy; Alan Shepard (in Kennedy footage); and James E. Webb, director of NASA during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In 1979, independent producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler outbid Universal Pictures for the movie rights to Tom Wolfe's book, paying $350,000. They hired William Goldman to write the screenplay. Goldman wrote in his memoirs that his adaptation focused on the astronauts, entirely ignoring Chuck Yeager. Goldman was inspired to accept the job because he wanted to say something patriotic about America in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis. Winkler writes in his memoirs that he was disappointed Goldman's adaptation ignored Yeager.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In June 1980, United Artists agreed to finance the film up to $20 million, and the producers began looking for a director. Michael Ritchie was originally attached but fell through; so did John Avildsen who, four years prior, had won an Oscar for his work under Winkler and Chartoff on the original "Rocky". ("The Right Stuff" would have reunited Avildsen with both producers, and also with a fourth "Rocky" veteran, composer Bill Conti.)


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Ultimately, Chartoff and Winkler approached director Philip Kaufman, who agreed to make the film but did not like Goldman's script; Kaufman disliked the emphasis on patriotism, and wanted Yeager put back in the film. Eventually, Goldman quit the project in August 1980 and United Artists pulled out.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: When Wolfe showed no interest in adapting his own book, Kaufman wrote a draft in eight weeks. His draft restored Yeager to the story because "if you're tracing how the future began, the future in space travel, it began really with Yeager and the world of the test pilots. The astronauts descended from them."


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: After the financial failure of "Heaven's Gate", the studio put "The Right Stuff" in turnaround. Then The Ladd Company stepped in with an estimated $17 million.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Actor Ed Harris auditioned twice in 1981 for the role of John Glenn. Originally, Kaufman wanted to use a troupe of contortionists to portray the press corps, but settled on the improvisational comedy troupe Fratelli Bologna, known for its sponsorship of "St. Stupid's Day" in San Francisco. The director created a locust-like chatter to accompany the press corps whenever they appear, which was achieved through a sound combination of (among other things) motorized Nikon cameras and clicking beetles.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Most of the film was shot in and around San Francisco between March and October 1982, with additional filming continuing into January 1983. A waterfront warehouse there was transformed into a studio. Location shooting took place primarily at the abandoned Hamilton Air Force Base north of San Francisco which was converted into a sound stage for the numerous interior sets. No location could substitute for the distinctive Edwards Air Force Base landscape, so the entire production crew moved to the Mojave Desert to shoot the opening sequences that framed the story of the test pilots at Muroc Army Air Field, later Edwards AFB. Additional shooting took place in California City in early 1983. During the filming of a sequence portraying Chuck Yeager's ejection from an NF-104, stuntman Joseph Svec, a former Green Beret, was killed when he failed to open his parachute because he may have been unconscious from smoke.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In 1982 the iconic scene of the wives of the astronauts watching the television broadcast was filmed on military housing in Novato, CA.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Yeager was hired as a technical consultant on the film. He took the actors flying, studied the storyboards and special effects, and pointed out the errors. To prepare for their roles, Kaufman gave the actors playing the seven astronauts an extensive videotape collection to study.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The effort to make an authentic feature led to the use of many full-size aircraft, scale models and special effects to replicate the scenes at Edwards Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Special visual effects supervisor Gary Gutierrez said the first special effects were too clean for the desired "dirty, funky, early NASA look." So Gutierrez and his team started from scratch, employing unconventional techniques, like going up a hill with model airplanes on wires and fog machines to create clouds, or shooting model F-104s from a crossbow device and capturing their flight with up to four cameras. Avant garde filmmaker Jordan Belson created the background of the Earth as seen from high-flying planes and from orbiting spacecraft.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Kaufman gave his five editors a list of documentary images he needed, sending them off to search for film from NASA, the Air Force, and Bell Aircraft vaults. They also discovered Russian stock footage not viewed in 30 years. During production, Kaufman met with resistance from the Ladd Company and threatened to quit several times. In December 1982, one reel of cut workprint of the film that included portions of John Glenn's flight disappeared from Kaufman's editing facility in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. The missing reel of cut workprint was never found, but was reconstructed using a black and white duplicate copy of the reel as a guide and reprinting new workprint from the original negative, which was always safely in storage at the film lab.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Although "The Right Stuff" was based on historic events and real people, some substantial dramatic liberties were taken. Neither Yeager's flight in the X-1 to break the sound barrier early in the film or his later, nearly fatal flight in the NF-104A were spur-of-moment, capriciously decided events, as the film seems to imply –- they actually were part of the routine testing program for both aircraft. Yeager had already test-flown both aircraft a number of times previously and was very familiar with them.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Jack Ridley had actually died in 1957, even though his character appears in several key scenes taking place after that, most notably including Yeager's 1963 flight of the NF-104A.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: "The Right Stuff" depicts Cooper arriving at Edwards in 1953, reminiscing with Grissom there about the two of them having supposedly flown together at the Langley Air Force Base and then hanging out with Grissom and Slayton, including all three supposedly being present at Edwards when Scott Crossfield flew at Mach 2 in November 1953. The film shows the three of them being recruited together there for the astronaut program in late 1957, with Grissom supposedly expressing keen interest in becoming a "star-voyager". According to their respective NASA biographies, none of the three was posted to Edwards before 1955 (Slayton in 1955 and Grissom and Cooper in 1956,) and neither of the latter two had previously trained at Langley. By the time astronaut recruitment began in late 1957 after the Soviets had orbited Sputnik, Grissom had already left Edwards and returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he had served previously and was happy with his new assignment there. Grissom did not even know he was under consideration for the astronaut program until he received mysterious orders "out of the blue" to report to Washington in civilian clothing for what turned out to be a recruitment session for NASA.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: While the film took liberties with certain historical facts as part of "dramatic license", criticism focused on one: the portrayal of Gus Grissom panicking when his "Liberty Bell 7" spacecraft sank following splashdown. Most historians, as well as engineers working for or with NASA and many of the related contractor agencies within the aerospace industry, are now convinced that the premature detonation of the spacecraft hatch's explosive bolts was caused by mechanical failure not associated with direct human error or deliberate detonation by Grissom. This determination had been made long before the film was completed. Many astronauts, including Schirra, Cooper and Shepard, were critical of "The Right Stuff" for its treatment of Grissom, who was killed in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in January 1967 and thus unable to defend himself when the film was being made.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Other notable inaccuracies include: early termination of Glenn's flight after three orbits instead of seven (in reality, the flight was scheduled for at most three orbits); the engineers who built the Mercury craft are portrayed as Germans (in reality, they were mostly Americans).


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: A large number of film models were assembled for the production; for the more than 80 aircraft appearing in the film, static mock-ups and models were used as well as authentic aircraft of the period. Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Wilmore, USAF (Ret) acted as the United States Air Force liaison to the production, beginning his role as a technical consultant in 1980 when the pre-production planning had begun. The first draft of the script in 1980 had concentrated only on the Mercury 7 but as subsequent revisions developed the treatment into more of the original story that Wolfe had envisioned, the aircraft of the late-1940s that would have been seen at Edwards AFB were required. Wilmore gathered World War II era "prop" aircraft including:


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The first group were mainly "set dressing" on the ramp while the Confederate Air Force (now renamed the Commemorative Air Force) B-29 "Fifi" was modified to act as the B-29 "mothership" to carry the Bell X-1 and X-1A rocket-powered record-breakers.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Other "real" aircraft included the early jet fighters and trainers as well as current USAF and United States Navy examples. These flying aircraft and helicopters included:


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: A number of aircraft significant to the story had to be recreated. The first was an essentially static X-1 that had to at least roll along the ground and realistically "belch flame" by a simulated rocket blast from the exhaust pipes. A series of wooden mock-up X-1s were used to depict interior shots of the cockpit, the mating up of the X-1 to a modified B-29 fuselage and bomb bay and ultimately to recreate flight in a combination of model work and live-action photography. The "follow-up" X-1A was also an all-wooden model.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The U.S. Navy's Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket that Crossfield duelled with Yeager's X-1 and X-1A was recreated from a modified Hawker Hunter jet fighter. The climactic flight of Yeager in a Lockheed NF-104A was originally to be made with a modified Lockheed F-104 Starfighter but ultimately, Wilmore decided that the production had to make do with a repainted Luftwaffe F-104G, which lacks the rocket engine of the NF-104.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Wooden mock-ups of the Mercury space capsules also realistically depicted the NASA spacecraft and were built from the original mold.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: For many of the flying sequences, scale models were produced by USFX Studios and filmed outdoors in natural sunlight against the sky. Even off-the-shelf plastic scale models were utilized for aerial scenes. The X-1, F-104 and B-29 models were built in large numbers as a number of the more than 40 scale models were destroyed in the process of filming. The blending together of miniatures, full-scale mock-ups and actual aircraft was seamlessly integrated into the live-action footage. The addition of original newsreel footage was used sparingly but to effect to provide another layer of authenticity.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: "The Right Stuff" had its world premiere on October 16, 1983, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to benefit the American Film Institute. It was given a limited release on October 21, 1983, in 229 theaters, grossing $1.6 million on its opening weekend. It went into wide release on February 17, 1984, in 627 theaters where it grossed an additional $1.6 million on that weekend. Despite this, the movie bombed at the box office with $21.1 million. The failure of this and "Twice Upon a Time" caused The Ladd Company to shut down.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: As part of the promotion for the film, Veronica Cartwright, Chuck Yeager, Gordon Cooper, Scott Glenn and Dennis Quaid appeared in 1983 at ConStellation, the 41st World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: "The Right Stuff" received overwhelming acclaim from critics. The film holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 8.80/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Right Stuff packs a lot of movie into its hefty running time, spinning a colorful, fact-based story out of consistently engaging characters in the midst of epochal events." On Metacritic — which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 91 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert named "The Right Stuff" best film of 1983, and wrote, "it joins a short list of recent American movies that might be called experimental epics: movies that have an ambitious reach through time and subject matter, that spend freely for locations or special effects, but that consider each scene as intently as an art film". He later named it one of the best films of the decade and wrote, ""The Right Stuff" is a greater film because it is not a straightforward historical account but pulls back to chronicle the transition from Yeager and other test pilots to a mighty public relations enterprise". He later put it at #2 on his 10 best of the 1980s, behind Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull". Gene Siskel, Ebert's co-host of "At the Movies", also named "The Right Stuff" the best film of 1983, and said "It's a great film, and I hope everyone sees it." Siskel also went on to include "The Right Stuff" at #3 on his list of the best films of the 1980s, behind "Shoah" and "Raging Bull".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In his review for "Newsweek", David Ansen wrote, "When "The Right Stuff" takes to the skies, it can't be compared with any other movie, old or new: it's simply the most thrilling flight footage ever put on film". Gary Arnold in his review for the "Washington Post", wrote, "The movie is obviously so solid and appealing that it's bound to go through the roof commercially and keep on soaring for the next year or so". In his review for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby praised Shepard's performance: "Both as the character he plays and as an iconic screen presence, Mr. Shepard gives the film much well-needed heft. He is the center of gravity". Pauline Kael wrote, "The movie has the happy, excited spirit of a fanfare, and it's astonishingly entertaining, considering what a screw-up it is".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Colin Greenland reviewed "The Right Stuff" for "Imagine" magazine, and stated that "It is the film's willingness to question [...] idealism, while laying down some very fine footage of things that are moving "very" fast, which makes The Right Stuff thoroughly absorbing for nearly three and a quarter hours."


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Tom Wolfe made no secret of his dislike for the film, especially because of changes from his original book. William Goldman also disliked the choices made by Kaufman, writing in his 1983 book "Adventures in the Screen Trade": "Phil [Kaufman]'s heart was with Yeager. And not only that, he felt the astronauts, rather than being heroic, were really minor leaguers, mechanical men of no particular quality, not great pilots at all, simply the product of hype."


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: The Mercury Seven astronauts were mostly negative about the film. In an early interview, Deke Slayton said that none of the film "was all that accurate, but it was well done." However, in his memoirs, Slayton described the film as being "as bad as the book was good, just a joke". Wally Schirra liked the book a lot, but expressed disappointment and dislike for the movie, and he never forgave the producers for portraying Gus Grissom as a "bungling sort of coward", which was totally untrue. In an interview, Schirra said: "It was the best book on space, but the movie was distorted and warped... All the astronauts hated [the movie]. We called


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: it "Animal House in Space"." In another interview, Schirra said: "They insulted the lovely people who talked us through the program - the NASA engineers. They made them like bumbling Germans". Scott Carpenter said that it was a "great movie in all regards". Alan Shepard harshly criticized both the movie and the book: "Neither Tom Wolfe nor [Philip Kaufman] had talked to any of the original seven guys, at any time... "The Right Stuff" [both the film and the book] is fiction... The movie assumed that Grissom had panicked, which wasn't true at all. The movie made him look like a bad guy for the whole movie. They were very hard on John Glenn's wife, who had a mild speech problem. They made Lyndon Johnson look like a clown. It was just totally fiction."


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Chuck Yeager said of his characterization: "Sam [Shepard] is not a real flamboyant actor, and I'm not a real flamboyant-type individual ... he played his role the way I fly airplanes".


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Robert Osborne, who introduced showings of the film on Turner Classic Movies, was quite enthusiastic about the film. The cameo appearance by the real Chuck Yeager in the film was a particular "treat" which Osborne cited. The recounting of many of the legendary aspects of Yeager's life was left in place, including the naming of the X-1, "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife and his superstitious preflight ritual of asking for a stick of Beemans chewing gum from his best friend, Jack Ridley.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: On June 23, 2003, Warner Bros. Pictures released a two-disc DVD Special Edition that featured scene-specific commentaries with key cast and crew members, deleted scenes, three documentaries on the making of "The Right Stuff" including interviews with Mercury astronauts and Chuck Yeager, and a feature-length PBS documentary, "John Glenn: American Hero". These extras are also included in the November 5, 2013 release of the 30th Anniversary edition, which also includes a 40-page book binding case, with the film in Blu-ray format. The extras are in standard DVD format.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: In addition, the British Film Institute published a book on "The Right Stuff" by Tom Charity in October 1997 that offered a detailed analysis and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.


title: The Right Stuff (film)

text: Although an album mix had been prepared by Bill Conti in 1983 (and indeed the poster contains the credit "Original Soundtrack Available On Geffen Records"), the soundtrack album release was cancelled following the film's disappointing box office. In 1986, Conti conducted a re-recording of selections from the score and from his music for "North and South", performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and released by Varèse Sarabande The original soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande on September 20, 2013, prepared from the 1983 album mix (as the original masters of the complete score were lost).


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Jennifer Odessa Nettles (born September 12, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Nettles is the lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush, and prior to this she fronted the Atlanta-based bands Soul Miner's Daughter and Jennifer Nettles Band. She also charted as a duet partner on the country version of rock band Bon Jovi's 2006 single "Who Says You Can't Go Home", a number-one hit on the "Billboard" country chart. Throughout her career, she has acquired numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards, four Country Music Association Awards, and an American Music Award for her work both as a soloist and as one half of the duo Sugarland.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Nettles was born and raised in the small town of Douglas, Georgia, United States, graduating from Coffee High School and Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Nettles married Todd Van Sickle in 1998, but the couple divorced in 2007. On November 26, 2011, Nettles married her boyfriend of two years, Justin Miller, in a sunset ceremony at Blackberry Farm in East Tennessee. On June 18, 2012, Nettles and her husband announced they were expecting their first child in November 2012. Their son was born in December 2012.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Nettles began performing at school assemblies, her Southern Baptist church, and in community theater. She was also a member of Georgia 4-H's Clovers & Company performing arts group from 1986 to 1993.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Nettles studied Spanish and Anthropology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and graduated in 1997. While a student there, Nettles and Cory Jones (who at the time was studying classical guitar at the University of Georgia) formed the group Soul Miner's Daughter. Performing as both an acoustic duo and with a band, they released two albums: "The Sacred and Profane" in 1996 and "Hallelujah" in 1998, both of which were composed of songs written collaboratively by Jones and Nettles. Soul Miner's Daughter was invited to perform at the Atlanta installment of Lilith Fair in 1999.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: In 1999, she formed the Jennifer Nettles Band, with which she released three studio albums and two live albums. The band, which in addition to Nettles included Brad Sikes (drums), Scott Nicholson (piano), Wesley Lupold (bass), and Mike Cebulski (percussion), was selected the grand prize winner from more than 2000 bands in "The Big Deal $100,000 Music Search" presented by Mars Music.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: In 2003, Nettles teamed up with Kristen Hall and Kristian Bush to form Sugarland. In 2006, Kristen Hall left the group and Nettles and Bush continued on as a duo releasing "Enjoy the Ride" in November 2006. Their third album, titled "Love on the Inside", was released on July 22, 2008. Regarding the trio's collaboration, she said:


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: We really wanted to get out of where we had all been as artists and move beyond that to something bigger. Consequently all the songs reflect that; 'Fly Away,' 'Baby Girl,' all of those songs - you speak to the human condition and write what you know in your life.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: Sugarland was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best New Artist category in 2006. Although they did not win the award, Nettles and Bush performed for the awards show and Nettles presented both a Lifetime Achievement Award to Merle Haggard and the award for Best Country Group.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: A duet performance with rock band Bon Jovi, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", reached No. 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. The video for the song won a CMT Music Award in 2006 for Collaborative Video Of The Year. In February 2007, Nettles and Bon Jovi won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: In an interview on Fox News with Martha MacCullum, Nettles expressed interest in appearing in a Broadway play, stating in particular that she would like to play the role of Elphaba in "Wicked".


title: Jennifer Nettles

text: In early December 2008, Sugarland received three Grammy Award nominations and performed on the 51st Annual Grammy Awards show on February 8, 2009. They won awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.