​Stan Lee, who died at the age of 95, was the last of the great comic book writers. He was former President of Marvel Comics and created lasting characters like The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man. His superheroes weren’t one dimensional characters but people we could identify with. While they had great powers – strength, speed, or mental powers – they were also incredibly human and with that, human faults.

Born Stanley Lieber in New York City in 1922, he took the pen name Stan Lee to save his real name for more literary pursuits. Fortunately for comic book fans across the globe,  those pursuits never came. Instead, Lee devoted more than six decades to the comics industry, co-creating Spider-Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man and Daredevil. In 1970, he successfully challenged the restrictive Comics Code Authority with a story about drug abuse in Spider-Man.

The increased complexity of Marvel's characters broadened their appeal to older audiences. Lee, always a savvy businessman, spearheaded the expansion of Marvel Comics from a division within a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation which of course included multi-billion dollar film franchises.

These sprawling film franchises that created a universe of cross-pollinating characters turned superhero movies into the lifeblood of Summer blockbuster industry – a domain that used to be held be Steven Spielberg – and prompting Disney to buy Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. The movie business wouldn't look like it does today without him. Stan Lee probably couldn't have envisioned when he first put ink to paper in 1939 that he'd be dreaming up some of the most iconic, recognizable characters in pop culture.

After entering the comics industry as a teenager and helping the medium to mature and expand, Lee's impact on comics was recognized with numerous awards including the American National Medal of Arts in 2008.

After 95 years, Stan remained remarkably consistent. Walking down the street, he’d move faster than you, even in his tenth decade. He’d happily wave at people who would stop for autographs. He appeared as a cameo in Marvel movies, much like Alfred Hitchcock before him, stamping his name on his creations.

Lee's first original creation was the Destroyer, who debuted in Mystic in 1941, but he put comics on hold while he served in the Army in World War II. He rejoined what would later become Marvel Comics in the 1950s and worked in a variety of genres, comics then being a primary source of entertainment for boys and girls that included detective, romance, Westerns, horror and sci-fi stories.
​
When he was on the verge of quitting the whole business, Marvel tasked him with creating superheroes to rival The Flash, the Justice League of America and whatever else DC Comics was churning out.  Lee with the help of Jack Kirby's first answer was The Fantastic Four, in 1961.
They would go on to create the characters who would make up The Avengers, as well as revive World War II-era heroes such as Captain America and the Sub-Mariner.

Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko created the most iconic superhero of all – rivaling even Superman. The Amazing Spider-Man would become Marvel's best-selling title in 1966 and most successful character of all time.

After Kirby's departure from the company, Lee became publisher of Marvel Comics and became the face of the Marvel Universe—a status that wouldn't change even when the business was no longer in his control.

Lee died Monday. He had been in frail health for some time, but still had been doing what he loved – writing, producing and appearing in his cameo projects.

This Remembrance Day, many of us are thinking about those who fought and died in war. Thankfully fewer and fewer of us are actually going to war or know what war is like. That is why war films are an important part of our culture. They remind us of the amazing sacrifice veterans went through so we could preserve our freedom.  

Themes explored in these war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of gallant sacrifice and struggle, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and intelligent and profound explorations of the moral and human issues.

More films have been made about World War II than about any other armed hostility in history, including the Vietnam War. But that doesn’t’ mean we can forget about the First World War or the Korean War or even more recent ones like the Iraq or Afghanistan War.

This list ranks of best movies about war, battles, and military conflicts. It’s not an exhaustive list by any means and there are many great war films that have been left out. These films recreate some of the most significant events in world history from a variety of perspectives and with a variety of purposes and intentions. 

Saving Private Ryan
Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic drama war film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, the film is notable for ...more
 
Full Metal Jacket
Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers. The film ...more
 
Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic adventure war film set during the Vietnam War. Produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Robert Duvall.
 
Platoon
Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films.
 
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 World War II epic film directed by David Lean, based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai by Pierre Boulle.
 
Black Hawk Down
Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, Orlando Bloom
Black Hawk Down is a 2001 American-British war film directed by Ridley Scott. It is an adaptation of the 1999 book of the same name by Mark Bowden based on his series of articles.
 
Braveheart
Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Brendan Gleeson
Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical medieval war drama film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson portrays William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish warrior who led the Scots against the English.
 
Schindler's List
Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama, directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and scripted by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the novel Schindler's Ark.
 
Patton
George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Paul Frees
Patton is a 1970 American epic biographical war film about U.S. General George S. Patton during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates and Karl Michael Vogler.
 
Glory
Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick
Glory is a 1989 American drama war film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. The screenplay was written by Kevin Jarre.
 
We Were Soldiers
Mel Gibson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jon Hamm
We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers.
 
Das Boot
Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Uwe Ochsenknecht
Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach.
 
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Jason Robards Jr., Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten
Tora! Tora! Tora! is a 1970 American–Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an ensemble cast.
 
The Great Escape
Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner
The Great Escape is a 1963 American World War II epic film based on an escape by British and Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II.
 
The Deer Hunter
Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken
The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steelworkers and their service in the Vietnam War.
 
Gettysburg
Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger, Sam Elliott
Gettysburg is a 1993 epic war film written and directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, adapted from the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil.
 
The Longest Day
Sean Connery, John Wayne, Richard Burton
The Longest Day is a 1962 war film based on the 1959 history book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about D-Day, the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, during World War II.
 
Enemy at the Gates
Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Ed Harris
Enemy at the Gates is a 2001 war film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. The film's title is taken from William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, which was one of the deadliest conflicts in World War 2.
 
Letters from Iwo Jima
Ken Watanabe, Ryan Kelley, Kazunari Ninomiya
Letters from Iwo Jima is a 2006 Japanese-American war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya.
 
The Dirty Dozen
Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich, released by MGM, and starring Lee Marvin. The picture was filmed in England and features an ensemble supporting cast.
 
A Bridge Too Far
Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford
A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 epic war film based on the 1974 book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, adapted by William Goldman. It was produced by Joseph E. Levine and Richard P. Levine and ...more

Lara Rossi is Obi Washington - a Human survivor on the Nazi moon base. She is also the daughter of Earthologist Renate Richter and astronaut James Washington.

​Her first ever appearance is in Iron Sky: The Coming Race.

Her big break came with the leading female role and main role in Iron Sky 2 - The Coming Race. The sequel to the successful crowdfunded movie Iron Sky. Her next appearance is in the all new Robin Hood (2018) movie staring alongside Taron Egerton (Robin of Loxley), Jamie Foxx (Yahya/John), Ben Mendelsohn (Sheriff of Nottingham). 

There's only 70 days left before the World Premiere of Iron Sky The Coming Race. That means it's time for the third teaser trailer. Enjoy 111 seconds of brand new VFX shots, Steve Jobs worshipping cultists and Nazi punching!

We list all release dates and distribution information on our website as soon as we get deals and dates confirmed.

If your country doesn't have a distributor listed on our release dates page, you can help us to bring the movie to your favorite theaters by demanding the release on our website.

© 2018 Iron Sky Universe, All rights reserved.

When people bemoan Hollywood’s lack of imagination they often look at how films copy each other.  Two different studios put out the exact same movie only months or even sometimes weeks a part.

Recently The First, a new drama about an astronaut trying to become the first man on Mars, launched on television. It arrives as First Man plays in cinemas, Ryan Gosling as the all-American hero Neil Armstrong. Was this coincidence? Some renewed interest in space exploration?

Or is it just lazy film making or is there something else that does on that the general population isn’t aware of?

Don’t forget there was Deep Impact and Armageddon, both disaster movies about asteroids set to hit Earth, and Liberty Stands Still and Phone Booth, thrillers where someone answers a ringing phone and is then pinned to the spot by a sniper on the other end of the line.

Later in 2005 and 2006 there were Capote and Infamous respectively, both centering on Truman Capote the charismatic author who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Often, the clash is simply down to several screenwriters and producers reacting to the same event. For example the death of Steve Jobs. When the Apple co-founder took medical leave because of cancer in 2011, screenwriter Matt Whiteley began working on the film that would eventually become the biopic staring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs. At the same time, Steve Jobs himself asked author Walter Isaacson to write a biography on him, for which Sony Pictures acquired the rights in October of that year, the same month Jobs passed away. The delay while the film is actually made might make movies feel less reactive by the time they open in cinemas, but often they were conceived on the very same day.

In some cases, copycat films are the result of one project’s knowledge of the other. When Charlton Heston was chosen over Kirk Douglas to star in Ben-Hur, Douglas put his own Roman epic into production, optioning the novel Spartacus. It’s of course not only the actors who can pinch ideas. Hollywood, after all, is not a big industry and staff are constantly moving between studios, scripts picked up by one studio will usually have already been shopped at others before it, and word of a new film usually reaches the Hollywood trade magazines very early on in their development. That is all to say that Hollywood is very incestuous and the studios feel the need to compete with strong ideas for box office results.

In 1998 we had Pixar release A Bug’s Life compete with Antz which was produced by Dreamworks. This was a result of an all-out war between the two studios. John Lasseter told Jeffrey Katzenberg – the two had collaborated on Toy Story together – that he was planning on creating a film about ants. Katzenberg, if reports are to be believed, stole the idea and created Antz. Although the story of Antz might have been created completely independently, it got pushed through to compete directly with Antz.

As we can see, there are many reason that copycat films are created. Hollywood is an industry like any other and they need to produce films in order to sell tickets and make money. This means that originality is often an after thought. 

Swiss Production company Jeridoo Universe AG is pleased to announce a partnership with the Finnish Film Franchise Company Iron Sky Universe, to co-produce and co-finance future Iron Sky properties, which will include upcoming films, TV series and Games.

Together the companies are dedicated to bringing entertainment, films and filmmaking into the 21st Century with exciting new content across traditional and emerging media.
First and foremost, Jeridoo Universe AG has joined as Executive Producer of the upcoming Science-Fiction Action adventure “Iron Sky – The Coming Race “which will be released in 2019.

​The film, directed by Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky) and staring Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines), is the 20-million-dollar sequel to the blockbuster hit “Iron Sky” (2012) and will have its world premiere in Helsinki January 16th, 2019, followed by an international theatrical release soon thereafter. It is set twenty years after the events of Iron Sky, in the core of the Earth where the truth behind the creation of humankind is revealed when two old powers fight to save humanity – or destroy it.
​

Iron Sky Universe Ltd is a production company focusing on expanding the Iron Sky Franchise in collaboration with its global fanbase through audience engagement. The company was founded in 2013 by Tero Kaukomaa and Timo Vuorensola from Finland. Iron Sky Universe includes over 500 shareholders from over 30 countries.
​

Jeridoo Universe AG is a production company with over 2,000 catalogued films and a leading worldwide financer, supplier, and producer of international award-winning films.

​Jeridoo Universe has vast experience in producing a wide range of film and television content, both within Switzerland and across the globe, and is especially excited to work with the Iron Sky franchise in the upcoming years.
​

More information Iron Sky Universe: www.ironsky.net
More information Jeridoo Universe: www.jeridoo.com
​

#ironsky #ironsky2 #thecomingrace #jeridoo #universe #udokier #tomgreen #nazis #adolfhitler

When Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012 for just over $4 billion, it was one of Hollywood’s biggest acquisitions of all time.  For Disney, there was little doubt that it was a good move. It brought two family-friendly brands under one roof. However, the successful of the Star Wars franchise has probably surprised even the most optimistic Disney shareholder.

Five years after the deal Disney has made back its entire investment, solely by the combined worldwide box-office sales of The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi. All three have raked in just over $4.06 billion.  Of course, this doesn't take into account the marketing budgets for the three films – but it also doesn’t include their merchandising sales from toys or theme park rides. However, you look at it, it’s safe to say the the 2012 deal was a steal and maybe even Disney’s best business move. Since taking over George Lucas' franchise, Disney has built up the Star War universe into a massive empire of comic books, amusement park attractions, and spin-offs that have been huge successes.
Disney’s CEO Bob Iger is no stranger to making big acquisitions. He bought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion and Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion. Both production companies have gone on to make billions at the box office — a whopping $17 billion for Marvel across 20 films and $13.2 billion for Pixar over 13 films.

Lucasfilm is poised to do the same, as its first three films all made over $1 billion at the global box office — "The Force Awakens" made $2 billion. "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was the only film that was widely panned at the box office, making under $400 million worldwide.

When it was time again to revisit the Star Wars universe, Lucas, who wanted to handover the reigns, hired Kathleen Kennedy, an industry veteran and long-time associate of Steven Spielberg and with the special effects team at Lucasfilm. She became the perfect person to broker a deal between Disney and Lucasfilm. Kennedy would become the head of Lucasfilm after it was sold to Disney.
Shares of Walt Disney are up 15.6 percent since last year and more than a whopping 127 percent since Disney purchased Lucasfilm six years ago. Disney continues to plans to release a Star Wars saga movie every other year and a stand-alone title in the opposite year. It's reasonable to think that the movies which advance the ongoing Skywalker of Solo saga and will be at least as successful as the previous films.

That would mean that Disney would earn about $1 billion, which would be profit after paying off the debt owned from the purchase of Lucasfilm, just from box office every two years from its purchase of Lucasfilm. Add the other Star Wars revenue, like the estimated $500 million in licensing and retail revenue Disney made in the first year after The Force Awakens was released, and it's very clear Disney got a bargain buying Lucasfilm.

As it’s Halloween time, people tend to watch scary movies. Most horror films fall into one of three categories:  the slasher films (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween), the psychological horror (The Fly, Jacob’s Ladder, Rosemary’s Baby) and the monster films (Dracula, Frankenstein, and any zombie film). Of the three only the psychological horror film can be said to have any originality. Fans of vampire shows like Vampire Dairies and True Blood might bet to differ, but if you look closer you’ll see more similarities than differences.

Halloween just came out with a part sequel part reboot, that made $75 million on opening weekend on a budget of $35 million. I can safely say I’m not giving away any surprise plot twists when Michael, the psychopath villain, escapes from a mental institution to start killing people. This is the exact same plot as all the other Halloween films before it and since this film did so well, it will likely be the same plot as the next one. Indeed most horror films can be said to be the same. So why do horror films continue to be so popular? 

People go to horror films because they want to be frightened. You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That's certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects.

The psychoanalyst Dr. Carl Jung believed horror films “tapped into primordial archetypes buried deep in our collective subconscious – images like shadow and mother play important role in the horror genre”.

The three main factors that make horror films alluring are death, suspense and acting out Fantasies
 
Acting Out Fantasies
We watch violent and frightening films as a way of purging negative emotions and or as a way to relieve pent-up aggression (an argument also proposed as a reason as to why some people love to play violent video games).

We are drawn to horror simply because it's entertaining. It acts as a means to fend off boredom and acting out our darkest fantasies. As humans, we are a mixture of good emotions and bad emotions – these are natural. In modern society, we know not to act out on those bad emotions so humans have done in the past so do it through entertainment.
 
Explaining Death
A big reason we are drawn to the darkest of film darkness is that the horror film is a way of unraveling death. For all the religion and modern science, humans still don’t understand death or what comes after it. The juxtaposition of death is, of course, life and the seeming randomness of it. We can die at any time. It is constantly there, hanging in our subconscious. Horror films remind us of the randomness of death and that we are never really safe from it no matter how advanced technology may cause our lives to be prolonged. This is a huge subject which we can’t possible cover all here but surface to say we have always been fascinated with death and will likely to continue to be until we find a way to live forever.
 
Explanation of the Unknown
We love to be scared. There will always be a portion of us that are thrill seekers, that like to explore the unknown.  
​
The horror film is one of the oldest film genres. Dating back to the silent film period of the previous turn of the century, we have been dreadfully delighted with this particular type of film.

Although society as a whole, don’t believe that there is some unknown force of pure evil, we are still fascinated by the subject.  This fascination propels us to watch and will likely keep horror films popular for the foreseeable future.

​We’re told don’t judge a book by its cover, but in the case of Netflix – which boasts the title of the world's leading internet entertainment service – it becomes even more true. Netflix has built it’s multi-billion-dollar streaming company on ‘suggested viewing” but some viewers believe Netflix has taken it too far. Netflix has been accused of changing the film posters that appear on screen depending on who the intended audience is.  For example, some black viewers claimed that black actors featured in its advertising of films despite the fact they had minor roles and the major roles were primarily white.

Some film audiences have cited the popular example of Love Actually. The film primarily stars white actors Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, but the advertising poster that many black viewers saw featured the black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor despite only having a minor in the film.

Similarly, black viewers noticed that actors from ethnic minorities were shown on the artwork detective series Lewis rather than its white stars, Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox. Many viewers have called Netflix marketing misleading and intrusive.  Other film audiences believe that this could become a much bigger problem as Netflix algorithms become more knowledgeable in what could become similar to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

This controversy comes after Netflix introduced a brand new algorithm that provides personalized movie posters to its 137 million subscribers around the world.  With this new algorithm, different images are generated for each title to cater towards what Netflix believes a specific user may be most interested in clicking on.

Netflix has long used AI learning and its proprietary algorithms to parse nuanced trends within its content and user data to A/B test into more than two thousand taste groups. From there it not only recommends television shows and movies that viewers might like but actually creates shows based upon the data they have created. Netflix found that many of its viewers liked political dramas so it decided to make House of Cards with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.

The inclusion of minor characters on the posters suggests that these individuals have larger roles than they actually do has given rise to claims to false advertising which can lead to lawsuits or even jail time under the Consumer Protection Act.

Netflix responded to accusations of basing posters on a subscriber’s ethnicity by replying that they don’t ask members for their race, gender or ethnicity so we cannot use this information to personalize their individual Netflix experience. The only information we use is a member’s viewing history. Since the algorithms are proprietary we can only take Netflix’s word for it.