1. Jamie Lee Curtis

Arise, your Majesty. Graced with a killer combo of legs and lungs, Curtis ran screaming through the genre. Debuting in Halloween, she survived six slashers in five years (including The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train). Tender yet tough, Curtis redefined horror heroines forever. Her mother must have been proud…

2. Janet Leigh

Like mother, like daughter. Janet Leigh gave birth to a) Jamie Lee Curtis and b) the greatest scream in cinema history. Between screeching violins and slashing edits, her scheming bitch was sliced to naked ribbons in the shower in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Legend has it, she only took baths after that.

3. Fay Wray

Grabbing a blonde wig and a $10,000 paycheque, 5ft 3ins Fay Wray went iconic versus 50ft King Kong. She’d warmed up her vocals in ‘30s Technicolor horrors like Doctor X and The Vampire Bat, but becoming the beauty that killed the beast would seal her rep as cinema’s very first “Queen of Scream”.

4. Neve Campbell

Sharp as a knife. Campbell became postmodern horror’s belle du jour in the hipster Scream trilogy, surviving by wising up to the rules of the genre. While cleavage-heaving bimbos were put to the sword, she played horror at its own game – and won. She even grabbed an extra slice of The Ghostface Killer in Scream 4.

5. Debbie Rochon

Don’t recognise her? Hardcore horror fans worship her. Once voted “Scream Queen Of The Decade”, Rochon is the cult star of more than 100 B-movie fear-flicks, including Troma classics Tromeo And Juliet and Terror Firmer. Even a prop machete that nearly severed her right hand couldn’t stop her.

6. Asia Argento

Italian scaremonger Dario Argento used to read his daughter horror scripts as bedtime stories. No wonder little Asia grew into a tough-grrrl for the Suicide Girls generation: raven-haired, tattooed, naked. Dad put her through the ringer in Trauma and The Stendahl Syndrome before she kicked zombie ass in George A Romero’s Land Of The Dead. More than just sweet meat on the slab.

7. Sarah Michelle Gellar

Surviving her role in Scream 2, Gellar became the face of I Know What You Did Last Summer and J-horror remakes The Grudge and The Grudge 2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also played Daphne in the Scooby Doo movies. Horrors, in both senses of the word.

8. Naomi Watts

Surprised? Think again. With The Ring, King Kong and Funny Games, Watts has completed the unholy trilogy of horror opponents: ghost, monster and psycho. She’s not done yet. Apparently, Watts is first in the queue to star as the new Tippi Hepdren in a remake of Hitchcock’s The Birds.

9. Danielle Harris

Not even Jamie Lee Curtis as appear in as Halloweens as Harris, who has also starring in everything from Urban Legend to Cheerleaders Must Die!. As if that wasn’t enough, she even had a real-life stalker experience, when an obsessed fan rocked up at her house armed with a teddy bear and a shotgun.

10. Adrienne Barbeau

Cheekily nicknamed “Adrienne Barboobs”, the former Broadway star turned lung-busting lovely thanks to a role in husband John Carpenter’s The Fog. She went on to channel (literally) naked fear in in Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing and George Romero/Stephen King’s Creepshow. Recognise her sultry voice? She’s Catwoman in Batman: The Animated Series.

Published: MSN HIM

1. Steve Martin

Clever comedy smackdowns are three-time Oscar host Steve Martin’s special move. He’s taken down everyone from Michael Moore (“It was so sweet backstage, the teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo”) to Meryl Streep (Anyone who has ever worked with Meryl Streep says the exact same thing. ‘Can that woman act?’ and ‘What’s up with all the Hitler memorabilia?’”). But his finest moment is this.

2. Jon Stewart

“Normally when you see a black man or a woman president, an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty.” Jon Stewart there, two-time Oscar host and a very, very funny man. Political, sure. But very funny. “Away From Her is about a woman who forgets about her husband. Hillary Clinton called it the feelgood movie of the year.”

3. Chris Rock

Motormouth Chris Rock got a standing ovation when hosted the 2005 Oscars. Before he’d even said a word. He duly ordered Hollywood’s biggest stars to, “Sit your asses down!” After calling Tobey Maguire “just a boy in tights”, he couldn’t resist a dap of race humour: “Black movies don’t have real names, they have names like Barbershop. That’s not a name, it’s just a location.”

4. Johnny Carson

“Two hours of sparkling entertainment spread over four hours,” grinned chatshow host Johnny Carson, who took over from Bob Hope as longterm host. Five-time host Carson was fast, witty, classy and not afraid to have a gentle dig at star vanity. “I see a lot of new faces,” he quipped once. “Especially on the old faces.”

5.  Bob Hope

Bob Hope hosted the Oscars 18 times. Bob Hope starred in 66 films. Bob Hope won zero Oscars. All of which provided the ammo for some brilliant comic routines – aimed straight at himself: “Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as they’re known in my house, Passover.”

6. Billy Crystal

Frizzy funnyman Billy Crystal took over in 1990 and became of the Oscars’ most successful hosts. On each of the eight times he presented (so far), his favourite gag involved editing himself into key scenes from the year’s nominated movies. One year, he was even rolled on stage as Hannibal Lecter.

7.  David Niven

Stand up and be proud. Brit smoothie David Niven instantly became one of the great Oscar co-hosts when he was confronted by a streaker, flashing a peace sign and, er, everything else. Niven just smiled coolly: “Just think, the only laugh that man will probably ever get is by stripping and showing his shortcomings.”

8. Chevy Chase

Having already co-hosted with Goldie Hawn and Paul ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Hogan (seriously), Caddyshack comedy icon Chevy Chase took centre stage in 1988 and manage to put Tinseltown’s nose out of joint with his very first line: “Good evening, Hollywood phonies.” Everyone tittered politely. Chase wasn’t asked back.

9. Frank Sinatra

Women were never safe when Rat Pack rogue Frank Sinatra was on the loose. Even when he was hosting the Oscars in 1963. Even if they were the Mona Lisa. “The chick just sits there and smiles,” he shrugged, before introducing Sophia Loren as “the greatest pizza-maker in the world”.  What a gent.

10. David Letterman

Eccentric talk-show gaffer David Letterman only hosted the Oscars once. For a reason. When his “Oprah, Uma. Uma, Oprah” joke fell flat at the 1995, he didn’t move on. He did it again. And again. Until Oprah boycotted the ceremony for 10 years. Probably the worst Oscars host ever. Which is pretty funny in itself.

Publication: MSN Movies.

1. Hadrian’s Wall National Trail

WHERE: Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyneside

AS SEEN IN: The tree at Sycamore Gap in Hadrian’s Wall is the one that Kevin Costner walloped Norman soldiers under in the film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.

BEST FOOTAGE: Costner was supposed to be rambling from Dover to Nottingham, so quite how he ended up at Hadrian’s Wall is anyone’s guess. Taking 10 years and £6 million to create, Hadrian’s Wall National Trail follows the 84-mile line of the Roman monument from coast to coast – but you can see Sycamore Gap by tackling a 7-mile stretch starting at Cawfields Quarry. Don’t be alarmed if you see giant black frogs in The Quarry Pond – frequently used for scuba training. This challenging walk will take you across rugged terrain climbing to 345 metres at Winshields Crag, the highest point of Hadrian’s Wall, before continuing to Steel Rigg. Head past Crag Lough on your way to the end of the walk at Housesteads.

ESSENTIAL PROP: A Muslim friend who’s willing to let you call him “Azeem” for the day. Failing that, sling a longbow over your shoulder.

FURTHER INFO: nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall

2. Sleddale

WHERE: Lake District, Cumbria.

AS SEEN IN: Cult Brit comedy Withnail And I. Squalid, struggling London actors Richard E Grant and Paul McGann go “on holiday by mistake” in Cumbria – only to encounter Withnail’s predatory gay Uncle Monty.

BEST FOOTAGE: This relaxing 7km (4.3 mile) walk begins at Wet Sleddale Reservoir car park and offers you some spectacular views across the Lake District Fells. There’s a bit of climbing involved to get you to the run-down Sleddale Hall – named Crow Cragg in the film – where Uncle Monty forces himself on Paul McGann’s I. Just before reaching Sleddale Hall, you’ll cross the ancient stone bridge where the booze-blurred Withnail jumped into the water and tried fishing with a shotgun. Finish at The Greyhound Pub at the gateway to the Northern Fells in Shap village. Don’t ask for “the finest wines known to humanity”.

ESSENTIAL PROP: A grubby trenchcoat. Useful for protecting you from the elements. And deviant uncles.

FURTHER INFO: visitcumbria.com

3. The Saxon Shore Way

WHERE: Cliffe, Kent.

AS SEEN IN: Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam war opus Full Metal Jacket, in which green US army recruits are transformed into mean killing-machines. Remarkably, ‘Nam was created in the English countryside.

BEST FOOTAGE: Starting on Gravesend Town Pier, the oldest remaining cast-iron pier in the world, you make your way alongside the River Thames. Heading up Cliffe Creek via the Cliffe pools – a series of old flooded gravel pits – you’ll see the Cliffe Marshes on your left. These doubled for paddy fields, where Private Joker and his platoon stalked the Viet Cong in the second half of Kubrick’s film. You’ll finish at St James’ Church on Cooling Road.  The children’s gravestones here are what inspired Charles Dickens to write the opening of Great Expectations.

ESSENTIAL PROP: Replica M16 assault rifle. While marching, chant: “This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fight and this is for fun.”

FURTHER INFO: rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/c/cliffepools/index.aspx

4. Methyr Mawr

WHERE: Mid Glamorgan, West Glamorgan.

AS SEEN IN: Laurence Of Arabia, David Lean’s spectacular, sweeping epic about a British Lieutenant’s who becomes an Arabian freedom fighter in World War One. It was originally intended to be shoot entirely in Jordan, until director David Lean discovered this unique environment was once part of the largest dune system in Europe. Lawrence Of Wales didn’t quite have the same ring to it, mind.

BEST FOOTAGE: Careful, you can easily get lost in the epic sand dunes. Remember to save your energy for the ‘big dipper’. This giant sand dune, the second highest in Europe, is what many athletes (including the Welsh rugby team) visit Merthyr Mawr specifically to run up. Starting in Candlestone Car Park, this 7-miler takes you all the way around the coast from Merthyr Mawr to finish at Southerndown. Crossing the River Ewenny – there are 52 stepping stones –will also take you to Ogmore Castle. Be sure to fill your lungs with the salty sea air while you take in the dramatic coastal views in the second half of the walk.

ESSENTIAL PROP: Wrap a white table cloth round your head, a la Larry.

FURTHER INFO: bridgend.gov.uk

5. The South West Coast Path

WHERE: Lyme Regis, Undercliff, Dorset-Devon border. SY 340914

AS SEEN IN: Heartbreaking romantic tragedy The French Lieutenant’s Woman, based on John Fowles novel and set in the coastal town of Lyme. Meryl Streep plays the woman jilted by a French Naval officer, who spends her time at the Cobb, staring mysteriously out to sea. As the sea crashes against the stone wall, she’s captivates moustachioed gentleman Jeremy Irons and begins a tempestuous affair.

BEST FOOTAGE: A huge breakwater that dominates the seashore in the beautiful town of Lyme, the Cobb is one of England’s most iconic structures. It’s here that you’ll start, before taking path marked “Coast Path — West” to Seaton. This steep, winding path is tougher than it looks – no sidepaths, lots of steps – but you’ll be rewarded with breathtaking views over Lyme Bay. You’ll need 4-5 hours for the 8 miles walk, which runs through the nearest thing to a British rainforest: the Undercliff, a wildly overgrown savage-land created by a series of landslips and one of the first of Britain’s National Nature Reserves. A lonely, isolated, suitably captivating walk.

ESSENTIAL PROP: A big, black hooded cape that billows in the sea breeze. Men should grow a moustache and large sideburns.

FURTHER INFO: lymeregis.org

6. The West Highland Way

WHERE: Appin, Argyll, Scotland

AS SEEN IN: Monty Python And The Holy Grail. While the other castle scenes were filmed in Doune Castle, the iconic Castle Stalker appears in the final scene as Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh. Frenchman John Cleese(!) taunts King Arthur (Graham Chapman) from its battlements, goading him into a massive attack on the castle – which comes to a bizarre end when police arrest everyone.

BEST FOOTAGE: Perched alone on a tiny island and viewed by appointment only, the 16th-century Castle Stalker is one of Scotland’s most photographed castles. Start at Appin and follow the old railway line that heads for Lock Laich. Crossing a pretty wooden bridge here will give you a great close-up view of Stalker. Once you’ve finished hurling insults (“I fart in your general direction!”) at Stalker, follow the coastal path west until the road curves away from Loch Laich for the final mile to Port Appin. This is one of the most beautiful places in Scotland. Serving as a ferry point for the island of Lismore, the views are stunning.

ESSENTIAL PROP: A pair of cocoanut shells to clip-clop during the walk. They’re not really coconuts. They’re your mighty steed, see.

FURTHER INFO: westhighlandway.co.uk

7. Alnwick Castle to Hulne Park

WHERE: Northumberland. NU 185 136

AS SEEN IN: The Harry Potter Saga. Alnwick’s stunning medieval castle is better known as Hogwarts School of Witches and Wizardry. Well, the outside of it anyway. BlackAdder (1983) and even The Fast Show (1995), have also used it as a (comic) backdrop.

BEST FOOTAGE: For a relaxing three-hour walk sure to please Harry Potter fans of any age, start on the road in front of Alnwick Castle and take a good look at Hogwarts. Now follow the path all the way into the peaceful Hulne Park to end with a visit to the remains of 13th century Hulne Priory. Well worth stopping off at Alnwick Garden, a multi-million-pound garden that boasts the UK’s largest cascading fountain: the Grand Cascade pipes out 7,260 gallons of water every minute. If the weather is just as wet, duck into Alnwick Garden’s giant wooden treehouse, linked by suspended walkways, or go for a pint at dubiously named pub the Hairy Lemon.

ESSENTIAL PROP: Fashion your own magic wand from a fallen tree-branch.

FURTHER INFO: alnwickcastle.com

8. Carsaig Bay

WHERE: Isle Of Mull.

AS SEEN IN: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going,  a metaphysical romance and wonderful love-letter to the landscape. A young woman heads to the Isle Of Mull where she plans to marry for his money. But when bad weather halts her journey, she finds herself falling for a local man.

BEST FOOTAGE: During this long walk (8 miles, including your return), you’ll discover that the telephone box next to the waterfall seen in the movie was not a prop and still exists half down Carsaig Pier, where you’ll start you walk. Just as in I Know Where I’m Going, The picturesque bay of Carsaig is grassy amphitheatre of 700ft cliffs, spectacular seaviews and varying wildlife.. Follow the shoreline all the way to Carsaig Arches, an impressive sight on the jagged skyline. in roughly an hour you’ll arrive at a break in the cliffs, known as the “Nuns’ Pass”, and the “Nuns’ Cave”. Return via the same route – but take care, especially in wet conditions.

ESSENTIAL PROP: A coat. You’ll thank us when you get there.

FURTHER INFO: holidaymull.co.uk

Publication: Walk

When asked to speak at a convention of cinema-owners in Las Vegas, the star of Big Daddy and Little Nicky addressed the crowd with the following words: “My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.” Everyone laughed.

It summed up the baffling, phenomenal nature of Adam Sandler’s entire career. Like it or not, for the past decade, this clowning buffoon has been one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He’s one of the few actors who can command $25 million per movie. And, according to the numbers, he’s worth it. In 2007, his movies averaged $9 of gross income for each dollar he got paid. The two movies he put out 2008 – Bedtime Stories and You Don’t Mess With The Zohan – were critically obliterated but raked in more than $200m each at the box-office. They helped Sandler climb to No2 on Forbes’ list of Hollywood’s highest earning stars in 2009. Only Harrison Ford – thanks to Indiana Jones And The Aliens – earned more than Sandler’s $54.9m. Blockbuster heroes Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks can’t touch him.

People love Adam Sandler. The Hollywood producers who greenlight every script he buys. The actors who keep on calling. The Oscar-winning directors desperate to cast him. It’s just that no one knows why. “That’s Adam Sandler, who’s just fucking funny, you know?” shrugs Paul Thomas Anderson. “I don’t know what it is about him and I spent two years with him.”

What’s really incredible is that Sandler has done it all himself. Goon goldmines like Billy Madison, The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore and Zohan are all Sandler’s own character creations. But people don’t turn up to see Madison or Gilmore. They turn up to see Sandler. And each time, he’s the same: an idiotic man-child who learns – usually via slapstick, shouting and scat-gags – to be a better person. It’s a genius combination. Teenage boys (the most powerful demographic at the box-office) like the slap and scat. (Weirdly, this could also be the secret to Sandler’s global success. Like Jerry Lewis – who was loved by the French – he represents, in part, the ugly American.) But more importantly, Mom and Dad like the message. This second part of “The Sandler Effect”, as it’s been dubbed, is the most powerful key to unpacked the secret to his success.

“I like how vulnerable Adam is even when he’s at his craziest,” says Mike Binder, who cast Sandler straight in post-9/11 drama Reign Over Me. “When you get to know Adam, you don’t think, ‘Boy, this guy got lucky’ or ‘This guy’s been smart.’ There’s a humanity to this guy that people are smelling and seeing coming off the film.”

The trick at the heart of stardom is the ability to make an audience feel two things simultaneously about a star: that this person is way out of your reach and yet also your next door neighbour. Like Hanks and James Stewart before him, Sandler is an American everyman. He’s not cleverer than you. His body isn’t better than yours. He never has a better job than you. But neither Hanks, Stewart or perhaps any actor in history has embodied the American Everyman so completely. With his close-cropped hair, smooth skin and crumpled t-shirt, he’s an action-man figure come to life. If K-Mart sold an Average American doll, it would look like Adam Sandler.

ENTER SAND-MAN

Like most people, Sandler wasn’t born rich. His mother was a nursery-school teacher and his father was an electrical engineer. He graduated from watching Caddyshack at home to clowning in class to stand-up in New York to MTV to Saturday Night Live to Hollywood in just over a decade. His movie career began with roles in cult comedies Shakes The Clown and Airheads. But from Billy Madison, which Sander wrote, produced and starred in, The Sandler Effect began. He played the fully grown man attempting to repeat grades 1–12 to earn his father’s respect – and his father’s multi-million-dollar inheritance. It set the template for his career: BAD reviews, BIG box-office.

Adam Sandler had accidentally created his own genre. But what’s even more special about Sandler is that he recognised it – and harnessed it. Forming his own production company Happy Madison, Sandler has written, produced or exec-produced nearly every one of his films since The Waterboy. He’s also backed features by his old SNL alumnus, such as Rob Scheider’s brain-child Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.

He could do it because people kept watching. People you wouldn’t even think. While he was editing Magnolia, the masterpiece that would cementing his rep as the cosmic lovechild of Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson watched Adam Sandler movies to relax. “I can’t stand any more cancer. I can’t stand any more sadness,” remembers Anderson. “At the time, the chicken-noodle soup to that was Adam’s movies. Just really like, ‘I want a piece of /that/. I want to learn how to do that. I was in a good mood. Feeling happy.”

Anderson wrote Punch-Drunk Love specifically for Sandler, who was subverted and showcased by blue-suited powerkeg Barry Egan. Forcing him deep into his own angsty, angry persona, the movie brought raves for Sandler’s performance. How did Anderson know it was there? What make him think Sandler could actually act? “I think I was just paying attention,” says the There Will Be Blood director. “It’s weird, because part of me wants to be mad that there are those kind of questions, but I can see that other people refer to his movies a different way than I do. I really love them and they shouldn’t be so easily dismissed.”

Both Stewart (via Hitchcock) and Hanks (via Sam Mendes) hinted at the darkness that rages under their happy-apple-pie surfaces. Sandler, in his own clumsy way, has been doing that from day one. “There are two kinds of angry people – explosive and implosive,” explains Jack Nicholson in Anger Management. “Explosive is the type of individual you see screaming at the cashier for not taking his coupon. Implosive is the cashier who remains quiet day after day and then finally shoots everyone in the store. You’re the cashier.” Sandler shakes his head: “No, no, no. I’m the guy in the frozen food section dialing 911. I swear.” Do we believe him? In Punch-Drunk Love, he and Emily Watson pillow talk about how they’d like to chew each other’s eyeballs. In Spanglish, he wants to “set my hair on fire and punch myself in the face.”

Where does Sandler’s buried rage come from? His life looks like a greetings card: happily married to actress Jacqueline Samantha Titone, with two daughters called Sadie and Sunny. But Sandler never really talks in-depth about his own parents and upbringing, despite occasional hints towards a tough father to win over. “I don’t come from a place of where I was tortured and needed to let something out,” he said once. “I came from a very happy home. I liked it the most when my father laughed at my stuff. Going into this business, my mother was very encouraging, but my father was more like, ‘I think you’re going to have to be a funny salesman.’ But my career wasn’t about getting his approval. I was just happy to make some cash and let my father rest.”

Wherever it came from, Hollywood’s hottest filmmakers have all found The Sandler Effect irresistible. Tim Burton tried to cast him as Willy Wonka in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, while Martin Scorsese considered him to play Joey Bishop in his undeveloped Dean Martin biopic Dino. Michael Mann wanted him to take on Tom Cruise in Collateral but Sandler backed out to make Spanglish, allowing Jamie Foxx to pick up an Oscar-nomination. Tarantino wanted Sandler, a lifelong baseball fan, to play Jewish skull-smasher Sgt Donnie Donowitz in Inglourious Basterds, but the comedian was already contracted to Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Sandler walking out of that cave, bat in hand, would have been an infinitely more delirious sight than that of Eli Roth. Fascinating to imagine what might have been.

PLAYING DUMB

It fast became apparent that Sandler wasn’t as dumb as he was acting. But neither did he seem ambitious or energetic or interested. Adam Sandler was clearly best when he wasn’t in Adam Sandler movies – and he did seem to try more serious work after Punch-Drunk Love. Rags-to-riches remake Mr Deeds confirmed his Capra-esque status, but Reign Over Me’s post-9/11 drama and bromance I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry left audiences confused. Why wasn’t he hitting someone with a golf club and yelling, “The price is wrong, bitch!”?

Perhaps Sander had been stuck in arrest development too long. How old was he now? Click (another Capra redux) and 50 First Dates (another phone call from Wedding Singer co-star Drew Barrymore) both teasingly played on Sandler’s spin-cycle career.

Meanwhile, comic legend Albert Brooks compared Sandler to cancer in a comedy panel discussion held in Los Angeles. “Let’s do what else America likes!” he exclaimed. “How about cancer? They all seem to get that. Must be good! People keep getting it!” Dumb, lazy, unoriginal, rude, annoying. Sandler infuriates his critics. This, after all, is a millionaire actor whose pet dog Meatball was best man at his wedding - dressed in a tux with a yarmulka on his head.

But the funnyman’s finest hour came six weeks after 9/11. Dressed as an opera singer, he sang the week’s news – throwing in random Italian words – at a historic concert in Madison Square Garden arranged by Sir Paul McCartney and headlined the likes of  David Bowie and Mick Jagger. He sang about New York and about Osama bin Laden shitting in a cave and he made the crowd of emergency workers, survivors, and mourning families laugh – perhaps for the first time since the tragedy. Ben Stiller had refused to host Saturday Night Live that month, claiming it was “impossible to be funny at times like this”. Sandler proved otherwise.

Judd Apatow has known Sandler for years, shared a room with him when they were both struggling stand-ups in LA. He’s still the only filmmaker other than PTA to successfully harness Sandler for deeper means. Having helped “punch up” the dialogue on The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore – still Sandler’s two best comedies – Apatow had been recruited to help salvage something from Sandler’s latest creation: Israeli hitman turned New York hairdresser Zohan. Even Hollywood’s reigning comedy kingpin couldn’t do much with it. But, like so many other filmmakers, Apatow found The Sandler Effect impossible to resist. But once again, the role of a jaded former stand-up with terminal illness in Funny People was Sandler essentially playing himself.

Apatow disagrees: “I think Adam is a brave artist. He said to me, ‘I’m going to do whatever you ask me to do and I’m not going to question it. I want you to make the movie you’re going to make.’ And there’s nobody in show business who will do that! That was during the writing process, shooting and editing. He never came into editing and said, ‘Don’t do that – it makes me look like a jerk.’ Adam has shown over and over in his career that he’s willing to commit fully to what he’s doing. I love what he did in Reign Over Me and he has this side to his work that is very vulnerable – and that was what I think was most exciting about working with him.”

…AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU

Sandler isn’t just big – he’s getting bigger. Last year’s Bedtime Stories was Sandler’s first family film (PG, no swearing) and, more significantly, his first under the Walt Disney banner. “Scary Madison” is a new horror genre label under the Happy Madison umbrella, producing thriller The Shortcut next year. Under his deal with studio Sony, he’ll also produce Richard Pryor biopic Is It Something I Said? Written by Bill Condon and starring Marlon Wayans, it will be Happy Madison’s first major dramatic production.

Obviously, despite pushing out in new directions, Sandler is still sticking to what he knows. Like voicing a monkey. But ‘toon comedy Zookeeper just marks time until Grown Ups, a high-school-reunion comedy that reteams him with Sand-men Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade. Jennifer Aniston will becoming his highest-profile leading lady in rom-com Just Go With It, which will test how far Sandler’s mainstream appeal is stretching.

But there are no more PT Anderson movies on the horizon right now. Unlike Jim Carrey or Robin Williams, Sandler never seems in pursuit of darker, more interesting roles. They just happen. He’s just… happy. “I’m not looking to get away from anything,” says Sandler. “I like what I’ve done, I enjoy working with my friends and I love those movies.” That simple. And really, there’s no obvious reason to doubt him. There’s no career strategy here. No blueprint for his next five movies. “I don’t know any formulas, but I do know that I don’t know,” he says with typically deflective simplicity. “I can’t tell you what works and doesn’t work, but it’s nice to see a crowd of people having an experience like that.”

Is that really all these is to earning $25m per movie? “My mother saw Judd do the Re-Do ‘My Head on a Baby’,” he remembers, suddenly. “I was at dinner, going, ‘Ma, check this out’ on the iPhone. And she was looking at it, going: ‘You have a very cute face.’”

Maybe that’s it.

Publication: Total Film

1. The Party At Kitty And Stud’s

“I’d been bounced out of my apartment and had slept four nights in a row at the Port Authority bus terminal, trying to avoid the cops. I owned two shirts, three pairs of underwear, a pair of pants and a jacket – all of which I had on at the same time since I had no place to put them. I mean, I was desperate. I read in a trade paper about this film that was paying $100 a day – for a $100 a day I would wreak havoc. So I showed up and found myself literally standing in the valley of the skanks. There was no real sex involved, just bad imitations and the close proximity of skankalicious skin. After I made Rocky, someone tried to blackmail me with the tape, wanting a million dollars. I said, ‘For a million dollars I’ll remake the film.’ Actually, I hated the process so much that it is pretty obvious by my appendage, which is trying to retreat in my body, seeking safe haven…”

2. Rocky I-VI

“I started writing scripts right after Easy Rider. Before Rocky came along, I had probably written 10 or so. I pretty much barricaded myself in the room and started to pound away, thinking, “What would be an interesting vehicle if I had one shot to perform?” I was influenced by Mean Streets and Marty and I always had an affection for sports. Three and a half days later, I had a shabby 89 pages of a script called Rocky. Of this hand-written script, maybe only 10 percent was usable, but I enjoy rewriting. I know everyone assumes the original Rocky would be my favourite, but I have to say that Rocky Balboa was the most emotional and fulfilling journey of all the Rocky films. Maybe it’s because I learned to appreciate what is really valuable in life, which is the love of others and what is the most terrifying, which is the prospect of a life filled with loneliness.”

3. Nighthawks

“Nighthawks was a very difficult film to make namely because no one believed that urban terrorism would ever happen in New York, thus felt the story was far-fetched. It was a better film before the studio lost faith in it and cut it to pieces. What was in the missing scenes was extraordinary acting by Rutger Hauer and the finale was a blood-fest that rivalled the finale of Taxi Driver. But it was a blood-fest with a purpose. Rutger Hauer is a little demented, so he was fantastic work with. He took a lot of pain on that shoot, especially when a squid placed on his abdomen was flipped backwards and the explosive charge blew right into his flesh. Most guys would have gone to the hospital – he kept working, reeking blood and all. The stunts in the film were pretty extraordinary because they were invented along the way.”

4. Rambo I-IV

“Without a doubt, Rambo is a very, very difficult screenplay because I have to backtrack to a time when character was at the forefront over action. Rambo is the unwanted child of an insensitive military machine. He’s kinda like the Frankenstein monster who didn’t ask to be built and then is pursued to his demise by haunted memories. In James Cameron’s original draft, it took nearly 30-40 pages to have any action initiated and Rambo was partnered with a techie sidekick. So it was more than just politics that were put into the script. There was also a simpler story line. If James Cameron says anything more than that, then he realises he’s now doing the backstroke badly in a pool of lies. Finally, Joe Eszterhas wrote a script that was nearly 400 pages and was more of a novel than a shootable screenplay. A great deal of work was done by myself, along with Norman Jewison, to hammer it into shape. The fellow I really wanted to kill the most (while in character) was Harold Diamond, who was my stick-fighting opponent in Rambo III and truly a legitimate badass. That was, without exception, a brutal scene to shoot.”

5. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

“The worst film I’ve ever made by far. Maybe one of the worst films in the entire solar system, including alien productions we’ve never seen. A flatworm could write a better script then Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. In some countries – China, I believe – running Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot once a week on government television has lowered the birth rate to zero. If they ran it twice a week, I believe in 20 years China would be extinct. The best part of the SNL show I did was when I tried to pull a couple of victims from a car, but they would rather die than be saved by the man who made Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. Hey, if you don’t laugh at yourself, eventually other people will, and that’s not a good thing. There’s an old saying: ‘To those who think, life is a comedy, to those who feel, life is a tragedy.’”

6. Cliffhanger

“No matter how hard I tried I could not prepare myself mentally. Until we got to the mountains, I was so consumed with acrophobia, the height, I would have to psyche myself up every day. I’d take these long walks: ‘You’ve gotta get to the edge, you’ve gotta get to the edge. Do it. Forget who you are. Try to pretend you’re the character.’ Actually, the director’s cut was met with a lot of disapproval at the screening and received some alarmingly low scores – mainly because the stunts were absurdly overblown. For example, the average man can jump maybe 12ft across a gorge and the stunts had me leaping maybe 300ft or more. Situations like that had to be pared down and still were fairly extreme. So you’re probably better off with this regular cut. I hear they are going to remake it. You know you’ve been around when they start to remake your own movies when you’re still alive.”

7. Judge Dredd

“I think the biggest mistake I ever made was the sloppy handling of Judge Dredd. I think that could have been a fantastic, nihilistic interesting vision of the future – judge, jury and executioner. I think, from what I recall, the whole project was troubled from the beginning. The philosophy of the film was not set in stone. By that I mean, ‘Is this going to be a serious drama or with comic overtones like other science fiction films that were successful?’ So a lot of pieces just didn’t fit smoothly. It was sort of like a feathered fish. Some of the design work on it was fantastic and the sets were incredibly real, even standing two feet away, but there was just no communication. I knew we were in for a long shoot when, for no explainable reason, Danny Cannon, who’s rather diminutive, jumped down from his director’s chair and yelled to everyone within earshot, ‘FEAR me! Everyone should FEAR me!’ Then jumped back up to his chair as if nothing happened. The British crew was taking bets on his life expectancy.”

8. Cop Land

“The people I respect are the ones who take it on the chin every day, the ones who don’t have a lot of money or a lot of muscles or a lot of genetic gifts, but what they have is an abundance of heart. The only film in which I’ve portrayed a person like that is Cop Land. Cop Land was the first film where I completely dispersed with all tricks. That’s why I’m so proud of it and everyone who pushed me into it, because I never would have done it on my own. I loved doing Cop Land for the involvement of being surrounded by so many good actors who expected to annihilate ‘the action guy’ and leave me gasping for breath. Just the opposite occurred. I really enjoyed the ensemble work and knowing that everyone had each other’s back. Make no mistake about it, everyone’s ego arrived to the set 10 minutes before them, but once the camera rolled, it all meshed together. Yes, gaining the weight was very important for me, to understand the sombre nature of the character and change my body mechanics, so the poor, semi-deaf sheriff moved through this world with a sense of burden.”

9. The Expendables

“This is the hardest film I’ve ever worked on. Man, it was seven guys, kicking each other’s ass, one guy tougher than the next. No joke, our stunt guys were begging for mercy. You think I’m joking? We got extras in this movie that could conquer countries. Actually, my fight with Stone Cold Steve Austin was so vicious that I ended up getting a hairline fracture in my neck. I’m not joking. I had to have a very serious operation afterwards. I now have a metal plate in my neck. Let’s say we just dug up The Wild Bunch, gave them one more shot. These guys don’t fit in this kind of world; they are the Expendables, that is why they are called that. It’s an ‘80s movie with today’s technology. I just felt that if you are going to do a story about a mercenary, which is always a fascinating character, you try to put him in a situation where he can find certain redemption.”

Publication: Total Film.

Read more in the incredible Sly Stallone mega-interview at Ain’t It Cool News.

1. The Legend Of The Drunken Master

Masterpiece. Playing a man who’s unstoppable when he’s had a skinful of booze (you know the feeling), Jackie Chan wallops home an amazing one-two combo of comedy and kung fu. The climactic eight-minute sequence is one of the most thrilling, inventive and outrageous pieces of fight choreography ever filmed. Once you’ve watched Chan crawling through a bed of hot-coals for a few seconds of slapstick fun, you realise why his physical abilities burnt out so fast. Right here, he’s on fire.

2. Ong-Bak

Elbow, knees and blows. Unquestionably the most exciting martial-arts star alive, Muay Thai superhuman Tony Jaa arrived like a flying elbow-smash to skull – everyone else suddenly looked like lumpen pub brawlers. Ong-Bak is still his top trump: a teeth-rattling genre actioner that ditches wire-fu, CG and personal safety for full-contact ultraviolence and gravity-defying gymnastic balleticism. The only thing that comes close to watching Jaa fight is watching him flee: through barbed-wire coils, between sheet glass corridors, over shambling cyclists and under moving trucks…

3. Fist Of Legend

With this hi-octane remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist Of Fury, Hong Kong superstar Jet Li finally became an icon. Executed with concussive agility and electric speed by Li, each kinetic mega-fight carries bone-snapping force in this classic story of Chinese versus Japanese combat. Master action-choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping’s incredible work here won him gigs with The Wachowskis, Tarantino and Ang Lee. Nothing they did ever matched this.

4. Enter The Dragon

Although Way Of The Dragonpacks Bruce Lee’s epic showdown with hairy Chuck Norris, this remains his most legendary fight film. Choreographing the carnage himself, Lee smashes through an island of martial-arts stars to revolutionise Hollywood action scenes forever. Wait for the bit where Lee accidentally breaks actor Bob Walls’ sternum with a running thrust-kick. Ouch.

5. SPL (aka Kill Zone)

Hong Kong police thriller turns ruthless all-star brawl-‘em-up, as Sammo Hung (kung fu legend), Wu Jing (wushu champ touted as the next Jet Li) and Donnie Yen (MMA innovator) go head-to-head in some sensationally fast, furious unarmed combat. Don’t miss Yen’s Flash Point, either: it climaxes with the greatest Mixed Martial Arts duel ever put on the big-screen.

6. Bloodsport

There must be JCVD – and Bloodsport is his fightiest. Breaking out as a wonky-accented American (real-life US fighter Frank Dux) competing in an underground Hong Kong battle royale, Jean-Claude Van Damme showcases a groundbreaking variety of fighting styles from around the world. Highlight? Split-kicking Van Damme goes zen warrior after being blinded by enormous nutter Chong Li.

7. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Oh Riki… The most mad-crazy cult fight movie of all time. Sent to prison after avenging his girlfriend’s death, a young man with superhuman strength must fight for his life against the corrupt warden and his henchmen. Result? The most hilariously gory fist-fights in cinema history. Jawbones evaporate in a puddle-splash of blood. Eyeballs pop out. Ricky is strangled with someone’s intestines. Seek it out.

8. Hard Times

Speaking barely 500 words in the entire film, Charles Bronson (the man director John Huston once summed up as “a grenade with the pin pulled”) lets his fists do the talking. Ol’ stone face gives one of his most iconic performances here, as a Depression-era streetfighter slugging it out in illegal bare-knuckle brawls. This bruising, brutal film (the debut of The Warriorsdirector Walter Hill) makes you feel every grubby, stinging, sweaty punch.

9. The Karate Kid 

It didn’t matter that there’s actually no such thing as the ‘Crane Technique’. Back in the ‘80s, kids everywhere went running to the nearest dojo and painting Asian people’s fences when Mr Miyagi (Oscar-nommed Pat Morita, who beat Toshiro Mifune to the rule) taught Daniel-san (Ralph Macchio) to wax on/wax off the bullies at Cobra Kai. Three decades on, this kick-ass coming-of-age tale – directed by Rocky helmer John G Avildsen – is daft, dated and impossible not to love.

10. 300

This. Is. SPARTA! Watchmendirector Zack Snyder’s abs-and-stabs actioner is one long cascade of blood-drunk fighting, as Gerard Butler’s 300 born-to-fight Spartans use brain and brawn to tear through videogame levels of invading marauders. Shot in stylised, swooping slo-mo against greenscreen, the 360-degree scraps have rarely been matched for ferocity and choreography.

Publication: MSN Movies.

Bobbing helplessly like a tiny cork, a 12-year-old boy drifts alone in the middle of the freezing Atlantic Ocean. With every minute, he’s dragged further and further away from his father, who’s also been caught in the rip current that’s left them treading water far out to sea.

Darkness falls. By now, the father can barely see the boy. He’s scared. His son has autism. Jellyfish begin to sting them both.

The man calls into the night: “To infinity…”

“And beyond!” cries out the boy, laughing faintly, now nearly three miles away from his father. The man can’t see it, but the boy is pumping his fist in the air like Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear.

It carries on like this, until, more than 12 hours later, a Coast Guard crew picks them up, cold but alive. After that, no one could say that watching cartoons was bad for you.

That true story, reported by newspapers in 2008, was just one more incredible triumph for Pixar. Since Toy Story, the animation geniuses have become the one of most critically acclaimed film studios in the history of cinema. They’ve earned 24 Oscars and more than $5 billion in worldwide box-office. Just as much as James Cameron and Avatar, John Lasseter and Toy Story invented a revolutionary new way of making movies.

Thank Lasseter’s mother. As an art teacher, she actually encouraged him to get up early on Saturdays to watch cartoons. “Even back when I was a kid I remember thinking, ‘Cartoons, that’s the job for me!’” he says. In high school, Lasseter wrote to the Disney studios and they quickly snapped him up – as a sweeper in Disneyland. After graduating in 1979, Lasseter went to work in the Mouse House for real. But Walt’s kingdom wasn’t the magical place he’d dreamed of.

“Disney was really sort of dead when I got there,” recalls Lasseter. “You got the feeling after a while that Disney animation had reached a certain plateau technically with 101 Dalmatians. People like me and Tim Burton were looked at as rabble-rousers.” Apart from the loud Hawaiian shirts that matched his pink, eager young face, Lasseter was just another Disney animator. Until two of his friends showed him a sequence from an experimental movie called Tron.

As he sat in a darkened screening room watching neon bikes streak and shatter across a 3D grid, Lasseter realised he was looking at the future. “The minute I saw the light-cycle sequence, which had such dimensionality and solidity, it was like a little door in my head opening to a whole new world,” he says.

Lasseter tried to enthuse Disney about CG by animating 30 seconds of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are using computer-generated backdrops. In an amusing case of myopia, Disney was too busy trying to figure out how to battle years of slumping box-office to worry about experimenting with untested technology.

It was 1981 and there was no such thing as a CG animated feature. Even the most spectacular examples of CGI made up just a few minutes of the running time. Three years later, Lasseter pitched The Brave Little Toaster, based on a children’s book told from the point of view of toys. Disney passed. Lasseter moved on.

He took a job at the computer-graphics unit of Lucasfilm, where he immediately helped conjure CG milestones including the ‘Genesis Effect’ in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan and the Stained-Glass Knight in Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes.

EXODUS

George Lucas wasn’t having anywhere near as much fun. His divorce, a drop-off from Star Wars revenues following the release of Return Of The Jedi and the catastrophic performance of Howard The Duck had left the beardy Hollywood mogul unusually strapped for cash.

Lasseter had been working for Lucasfilm for three years when Lucas decided to sell off his computer division to focus on filmmaking. Enter Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, who handed $5 million to George and pumped another $5 million into his new company. They renamed it Pixar, a made-up Spanish verb taken from the word “picture”. 

Jobs’ core group of about 45 Lucasfilm hotshots, including Lasseter, was initially used by Disney to figure out a faster, slicker process for laborious 2D animation. They designed a revolutionary 3D graphics program called RenderMan, capable of creating a 3D animated scene packed with colour and detail. It was expensive and time-consuming, but the results were amazing: it allowed Pixar’s animators to achieve a realistic CG never before seen on the big screen. James Cameron became one of its biggest fans, using it for The Abyss and Terminator 2.

Lasseter had been busy, too. His witty, wonderful short Luxo Jr – about anthropomorphic desk lamps, one an exasperated parent, the other a playful child – was the first massive step forward for Pixar, becoming the first 3D computer-animated movie to be Oscar nommed.

Then he went one better: 1988′s Tin Toy won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. A series of hit TV ads confirmed Lasseter as Pixar’s golden boy. Disney’s new honchos Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg realised they’d let a serious talent slip through their fingers and tried to woo the director back. No chance. “I was having too much fun,” says Lasseter. “I felt I was on to something new – we were pioneers.”

But Pixar’s future looked black. The company had already lost $60 million of Jobs’ money. He was depressed and thinking of selling. So when Katzenberg, hugely impressed by Pixar’s shorts and software, offered them a contract to produce three feature films, Pixar’s staff were stunned. Not least because they were pretty sure CG feature films wouldn’t be possible for another five years.

To make it happen, Pixar needed money for more staff and more equipment. Katzenberg told Jobs that he never paid more than $15 million for an animated film and Jobs finally accepted. Katzenberg had outfoxed him – Beauty And The Beast had cost more than $32 million to produce. Pixar’s first film had to be a hit or the company was doomed. They turned to Lasseter.

STORY TIME

It was a slow start. Lasseter was an animator, he’d never written a feature-length script. But his team hit on an image that ended up in the middle of their film: a car driving off and abandoning a toy in the middle of nowhere. “We all had that lost toy that we felt was looking for us as much as we were looking for it,” says co-scripter Andrew Stanton. Based on Lasseter’s Oscar-winning Tin Toy, their treatment followed a tin soldier called Tinny trying to make its way home after being lost by a child at a highway rest stop.

Leaning on the ideas of screenwriting theorist Robert McKee, Toy Story quickly evolved into a buddy movie like 48 Hrs or The Defiant Ones. Tinny became a spaceman whose named changed from Lunar Larry to Morph to Tempus and finally Buzz Lightyear (after Buzz Aldrin). Named after Western actor Woody Strode, Buzz’s partner began life as a ventriloquist’s dummy. But when Disney execs decided his flapping jaw looked “creepy”, Woody became a stuffed cowboy doll with a pull-string, based on Lasseter’s favourite childhood toy, a Caspar The Friendly Ghost. “My parents knew I’d fallen asleep when Casper stopped talking,” he says. “It still talks today, only it’s so worn out that I’m the only one who understands what it’s saying.”

They were the perfect odd-couple. The old and the new. Roy Rogers and Buck Rogers. When Lasseter eventually put together a 30-second trailer to show off the characters and the animation technique, Disney executives were blown away. They appointed Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow and later Joss Whedon to help develop the script. Toy Story was a go.

The Toy box filled up quickly. Hasbro approved Mr Potato Head but not GI Joe. Pixar renamed him Combat Carl and used him anyway. Whedon thought Barbie was perfect to save Woody and Buzz from their destructive next-door-neighbour Sid. “She’s T2′s Sarah Connor in a pink convertible, all business and very cool,” he said. Mattel execs refused to let their girl play and the team went with the docile Bo Peep instead. Interestingly, Pixar has been criticised for its lack of female protagonists ever since. The upcoming Brave, with Reese Witherspoon, will be their first movie with a female lead. (Look closely at one of the Sid’s mutant toy experiments, though, and you’ll see legs that look suspiciously like Barbie’s.)

Right from the start, Lasseter wanted Tom Hanks to voice Woody. Still gaunt and goateed after Philadelphia, the actor agreed to watched 30 seconds of test footage that Lasseter had soundtracked with his voice from Turner And Hooch. Hanks roared with laughter: “When do we start?” Billy Crystal turned down Buzz – he regretted it later – and Katzenberg took the role to Home Improvement star Tim Allen.

Neither man had done an animated movie before. Neither were paid superstar salaries. Neither knew what they’d sign up for: more than two years spent standing alone at a microphone on a soundstage reading from sheets of paper stapled onto cardboard to stop them rustling. Hanks began dreading his recording sessions every six months. “I felt like Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner,” he says. “I’m standing there yelling, saying the same things over and over. I was not prepared for how tough it was. I had to get into this almost quasi-hypnotic state of delirium imagining I’m in this other place.”

Still, things were going well, until Disney’s executive vice president of animation turned to Lasseter and said, “Gee, John, when are the characters going to sing?” Never, Lasseter curtly informed him. Understandably, Disney weren’t happy. They’d won four Best Song Oscars and four Best Score Oscars in the last six years. But they finally allowed Lasseter to hire Randy Newman to score the movie instead. The director’s victory would be short-lived.

BLACK FRIDAY

Ten months after production began, Pixar presented an early draft of the film. Disney took one look at it and immediately shut down production. Why? “The original Woody was a thundering asshole,” admits screenwriter Whedon.

Attempting to avoid cutesiness and layer the film with adult wit, Pixar had gone too far. The movie wasn’t fun. Buzz was a do-gooder. Woody was sarcastic. “Guys, no matter how much you try to fix it,” Disney animation chief Peter Schneider told them, “t just isn’t working.” That day, 19 November 1993, would dubbed “Black Friday” by Pixar staff.

Given three months to save the movie, Lasseter was enrolled in a screenwriting class. He reemerged with a new script, a more likeable Woody and a theme of that would run through every Pixar movie to come: a character ventures out into the real world and learns to appreciate his friends and family. Good news for Toy Story, bad for Hanks and Allen. “We had to go back and rerecord every single line of dialogue,” remembers Hanks, with a wince.

MAKING IT

If Hanks thought he had it tough, he should have spoken to the animation team. Lasseter’s 27 animators were digital puppeteers who had to coax winning performances out of the programmers’ 400 computer models. Woody was most complex of all, with more than 723 motion controls to animate his actions. His mouth alone was operated by 58 controls. “It’s easy to make things look perfect,” says Lasseter. “We had to make things look more organic. Every leaf and blade of grass had to be created. We had to give the world a sense of history. So the doors are banged up, the floors have scuffs.”

It was in these tiny emotional details that Lasseter discover the secret to what made Pixar’s films connect with audiences –from Slinky Dog’s foot twitching in his sleep to the softness in the eyes of Woody and Buzz. “John was able to take animation that was limited to special effects,” says Disney exec Thomas Schumacher, “that was perceived as cold, unappealing and slick, and project into it his warmth and charm and dimensionality.”

When a difficult phase of the production was achieved, a calypso band would appear unannounced in the Pixar hallways and the team would form a spontaneous conga line and go dancing through the offices. That was Pixar’s creative culture. Employees skateboarded through mazelike hallways filled with sweetie jars, arriving at offices packed with toys. Lasseter’s production team even created a special director’s chair for him: a wheelchair fitted with a drink holder, a horn and multi-coloured bike-streamers. Even Uncle Walt never had one of those.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

After four years and 800,000 machine-hours, Pixar had a 77-minute final cut. Each one of the movie’s 1,560 shots had been created on computers – Toy Story had unlocked a new doorway to making fully CG cinema. Disney’s tradition cel-based animation looked like watching paint dry by comparison. “In 2D cel animation, if you want to slow down an arm movement 15 percent, you have to go back and erase all the animation and redraw it,” explains Lasseter. “Here we just move a key frame, and it’s done quickly.” Where The Lion King cost $45 million and employed 800 animators, Toy Story had a $30 million budget and staff of 110. Still, Disney spent $100 million promoting the film. If it flopped, it would flop big.

On opening weekend, Toy Story recouped its production costs by earning $39.1 million. One week after opening day, Pixar went public on the stock exchange and more than doubled its value instantly, turning Jobs into a billionaire. By the end of Toy Story’s theatrical release, the film had earned more than $200 million. Pixar was now a buzzword for brilliance. CG animation had arrived.

Along with Toy Story’s gratifying Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Lasseter received an Academy Special Achievement Award in 1996 “for the development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film.”

Today, with Disney having bought back Pixar for a staggering $7.4 billion, the company is still building on the revolution that Toy Story ignited. After Up became their first movie in 3D and their first to be nominated for Best Picture, now Toy Story 3 is going stereoscopic too.  You know where the rest of the story goes. To infinity…

Publication: Total Film

You might have heard about it already, but there’s some sort of international football tournament being played in South Africa this month. To celebrate England’s impending victory in the World Cup, we could have given you a list of the greatest football movies ever. But we’re better than that. So here, lacing up their boots in dreamland, are the movie characters who’d make our starting eleven.

1. GOALKEEPER: Elastigirl (Holly Hunter, The Incredibles)
Despite Uma Thurman’s giant hands pushing hard for a start between the sticks, The Incredibles’ Elastigirl grabs the yellow jersey thanks to her superhuman s extendable reach. No ball can escape her outstretched fingertips – she can claim corners without even jumping.

2. RIGHT-BACK: Rocky Balboa (Sly Stallone, Rocky)
Anyone who’s seen Rocky in action know that he just can’t get out of the way of opponents’ shots. Not only is Rocky a born shot-blocker, he’s strong as an ox and not afraid to keep moving forward (out of defence) right to the final bell/whistle.

3. LEFT-BACK: Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise, The Firm)
Having once trained in law, Mitch is great in defence. While keeping things tight at the back, he’s got the youth and ambition to go on a run when the team’s under pressure. A real player, this boy.

4. SWEEPER: Bert (Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins)
A jack-of-all-trades who came from the street, this mockney utility player is the best sweeper in the game. Just take a look at that
footwork: he can effortlessly dance out of defence with the ball. Some call Bert a dirty player – in truth, he does needs a bath. Luckily, his WAG is a nanny.

5. CENTREBACK: Hulk (Edward Norton, The Incredible Hulk)
Try getting past this smashing defender. Named after Porto’s Brazilian striker, Hulk looms in the centre of the back four with his incredible size and strength. Disciplinary record is appalling, unfortunately. He’ll always see red.

6. HOLDING MIDFIELDER: T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Terminator)
Always scanning the pitch, he’s the team’s engine in the middle of the park and a real machine. He can’t be bargained, can’t be reasoned with, he doesn’t feel pity or remorse, and he absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are fed with the ball.

7. RIGHT WINGER: Robin Hood (Brian Bedford, Walt Disney’s Robin Hood)
The quintessential swashbuckling winger and a real fox in the box. Stealing in round the back to pick defender’s pockets with arrowing runs, this energetic, agile marauder is also a deadly marksmen. If you’re caught in possession, he’s never afraid to shoot from distance.

8. ATTACKING MIDFIELDER: Tony Manero (John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever)
Always living for the weekend, Manero comes alive on the pitch, unleashing the kind of breathtaking footwork that has the crowd
chanting his name. His skill moves and ladykiller looks make him the Cristiano Ronaldo of Hollywood. When he’s on the ball, you can’t look the other way.

9. STRIKER: Neo (Keanu Reeves, The Matrix)
He is the nine. An unparalleled ability the read the game, great at striking with both feet, can shoot from any angle and he’s good in the air too. Neo’s incredible reactions often makes opponents look like their playing in slow-motion.

10. CENTRE FORWARD: James Bond (Daniel Craig, Quantum Of Solace)
A hitman who always scores. Physical but cultured, Bond’s the result of government training programme that’s developed him into a ruthless finisher. Shoots on sight and, after learning a hard lesson early in his career, never lets his emotions get the better of him.

11. LEFT WINGER: John Reed (Warren Beatty, Reds)
They don’t come more left wing than Reedy, the radical journalist who tried to bring the Communist Revolution to the US and the only American to be buried next to the Kremlin wall. Always looking for freedom out on the left and a true team player.

MANAGER: John Keating (Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society)
Father figure and master motivational speaker, Keating inspires his boys to suck the marrow out of every match with the help of Assistant Manager Walt Whitman. Treating football as a game of life, he’s affectionately (and somewhat confusingly, in footy terms) referred to as “Captain” by the team. Carpe Diem!

Publication: MSN Movies

1. The real… Rocky Balboa

It ain’t how hard you can hit… Sly Stallone based Rocky Balboa on no-hope heavyweight slugger Chuck Wepner after seeing him battle invincible world champion Muhammad Ali in an extraordinary fight in 1975. No one expected Wepner to last three rounds. But he took everything Ali could throw – then floored the champ with a bodyshot in the ninth. “Hey, I knocked him down!” grinned Wepner as he went back to his corner. “Well done,” replied his trainer. “But he looks really pissed off now…” Sure enough, Ali battered Wepner – breaking his nose, tearing open cuts above both his eyes – but the bloodied challenger hung on until the referee stopped the bout in the 15th round. Ding ding.

2. The real… Dude (The Big Lebowski)

Jeff Bridges’ rug-loving stoner star of the Coen brothers’ is mostly based on producer Jeff Dowd. Few remember it, but The Dude’s real name is in fact Jeff Lebowski. Meeting the Coens while they were promoting their debut film Blood Simple, Dowd had previously been a member of anti-war radical group the Seattle Seven (mentioned in the film by The Dude) and was jailed briefly for contempt of court following a violent protest against the Vietnam war in 1970. He later moved to Los Angeles and became an independent movie producer, co-exec-producing Fern Gully – The Last Rainforest, the cartoon eco-fantasy that bares remarkable resemblance to James Cameron’s Avatar.

3. The real… Dirty Harry

Remarkably, ‘70s San Francisco homicide inspector Dave Toschi had already inspired Steve McQueen iconic cop Bullitt – who sports Toschi’s specially designed upside-down shoulder holster – when he became the template for Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan. The Magnum-wielding enforcer’s hunt for the ‘Scorpio’ killer is directly based on Toschi’s agonising investigation of the unsolved Zodiac murders. It led to him being played for a third time by Mark Ruffalo in David Fincher’s crime thriller Zodiac, on which Toschi also worked as an advisor. During that film, in some kind of Charlie Kaufman mind-bender, Ruffalo’s Toschi goes to see Dirty Harry at the cinema.

4. The real… Jerry Maguire

“Show! Me! The Money!” Real-life sports agent Leigh Steinberg is the inspiration behind Jerry Maguire, a role written by Cameron for Tom Hanks that ended up winning Tom Cruise an Oscar nomination. Steinberg has repped stars including heavy weight boxing champions Lennox Lewis and Oscar de la Hoya and American football Hall Of Famers Bruce Smith and Troy Aikman. But interestingly, it was one of his partners, David L Dunn, who did a Maguire: breaking away to form his own agency and taking about 50 NFL players with him. Steinberg cameos at the end of Crowe’s film as Aikman’s agent and was a consultant on American football drama Any Given Sunday.

5. Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)

Arthur Bremer didn’t drive a cab. But like Taxi Driver’s powder-keg killer Travis Bickle, he was a lonely, depressed young man who was rubbish with women. Also like Bickle, after wrecking a rare relationship with a woman by showing her pornographic pictures, he shaved his head and began writing diaries about his plans to assassinate either Richard Nixon or George Wallace. Joining a Wallace rally, Bremer began clapping loudly. Then, at a second rally, he emptied a .38 revolver into Wallace’s stomach. He was wearing dark glasses and a “Wallace in ‘72” campaign badge. None of which was lost on screenwriter Paul Schrader and director Martin Scorsese.

7. The real… Neil McCauley (Heat)

The spectacular shootout at the climax of Michael Mann’s crime thriller Heat happened for real on the morning of 28 February 1997. Dressed in body armour and armed with heavy weaponry, bank robbers Larry Phillips Jr and cohort Emil Matasareanu took on more than 300 law enforcement officers in a running gun battle through the LA streets. With bullets bouncing harmlessly off his armour, Phillips blazed at police with an assaulted rifle and a pistol. Finally, when a bullet caught him in the right hand, he retrieved his pistol and fired a round into his own head. He and Matasareanu had fired about 1,300 rounds, been hit by at least 10 bullets and wounded 17 people. See it on YouTube.

8. Leatherface (and Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill)

An insane man who skinned bodies to make furniture, wears a human face as a mask and ruthlessly kills without reason, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s inbred monster is horrific beyond belief. Except he’s not. When police arrested Ed Gein in 1957, they dug up the corpses of countless women who’d reminded him of his beloved dead mother. Then it got worse. Inside Gein’s house, they discovered a horrorshow: he’d skinned their bodies to make lamp shades, masks, socks and a “woman suit” which he’d wear, along with bowls made from human skulls and organs in the fridge. Psycho’s Norman Bates and Silence Of The Lamb’s Buffalo Bill were born here. 

9. The real… Frank Costello (The Departed)

Unlike Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning gangster thriller The Departed, Boston’s Irish mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger never waved a dildo around. But Nicholson’s crime kingpin Frank Costello is otherwise loosely based on him – former members of Bulger’s crew even served as advisors for Scorsese’s film. Through decades of extortion, murder and drugs, Bulger was Boston’s underworld king. He had an agent inside the FBI acting as his mole – but he himself was also secretly working as an informant for the Feds. On the run since 1995, He’s still on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list with a reward of $2m on his head. Last confirmed sighting? London…

Publication: ShortList

“I’ve seen the movie. It’s fantastic,” says Prince Of Persia’s star Jake Gyllenhaal. His director Mike Newell is even more pleased with it. “It’s colossal,” he nods. Their producer Jerry Bruckheimer backs them both up. “I thought it was brilliant,” he declares. “I loved it. It was just amazing.”

Typical. Hollywood types giving themselves a big pat on the back. Actually, no. They’re not talking about Prince Of Persia. They’re talking about the movie that everyone’s (still) talking about. Cruising past Titanic’s record and still screening strong after two months in cinemas, James Cameron’ seismic 3D sci-fi adventure Avatar has become the highest grossing movie ever at the worldwide box-office and changed the cinematic landscape forever.

How does anyone compete with that? If one man stands a chance, it’s the man behind the last billion-dollar franchise to rock Hollywood. “I hate to compare our film to anybody’s, but James certainly makes it hard,” admits Jerry Bruckheimer, who counts Avatar in his top three of 2009 along with The Hangover and The Hurt Locker. “We just need to try to make you feel better when you walk out than went you walked in.”

As ever, you have to marvel at the size of Bruckheimer’s balls. Roughly around the same time that Cameron began shooting Avatar, the Pirates Of The Caribbean producer bought the rights to smash-hit videogame series Prince Of Persia. For once, no one ventured that great videogames never make good movies. “We took a lot of heat from the media that we were making this movie based on a theme-park ride,” he shrugs. “Then we put Johnny Depp in it and they thought we were really crazy. You go with your instincts.”

If videogame adaptations are the cyanide pills of Hollywood filmmaking, does Bruckheimer know something no one else does? “If there was a recipe, a lot of people would be making huge hit movies,” he shrugs. “It comes down to what’s in the writer’s head, always.” There are four names on Prince Of Persia’s screenplay. Jordan Mechner, creator of the game, wrote the initial script. Disney then hired The Day After Tomorrow screenwriter Jeffery Nachmanoff, whose work, if any, has not been credited. Overhauls were done by Boaz Yakin (whose last produced script was Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) and Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (the duo behind horror flop The Uninvited).

Four writers, four reasons to be worried. Brit director Mike Newell, surprise-signed by Bruckheimer to direct his first blockbuster, was worried. “I heard terrible stories of other movies of this type,” he explains. “Where people had gone in to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on nothing more than a 15-page treatment. And I vowed that would not happen to me.” Despite helming the excellent Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Newell was known less for blockbuster than for dramas (Donnie Brasco) and character comedies (Four Weddings And A Funeral and Donnie Brasco).

And it’s here that Prince Of Persia starts to make sense. Newell couldn’t give a damn about videogames. He told his assistant to play the game for him and started watching movies instead. “I looked at epics like Lawrence Of Arabia and Gladiator to see what would an audience expect,” he remembers. “What I found was these other epics lacked one thing that my story had in spades: mystery and magic.” But one movie offered an even better template. “Yes, Indiana Jones was pretty important to me,” he says. “You couldn’t say the characters are the same, but it has that mixture of action and a wonderful comedic touch.” And the script? “The script is there. The script is very, very good.”

That script travels back to magical, medieval Persia, where heroic Prince Dastan must battle human and inhuman foes to stop a bitter villain from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the entire world. At the eye of the storm is the Dagger of Time, weapon of incredible power. “If you press the jewel on its hilt, you go back in time,” explains Newell. “You can avoid death. You can, in effect, see the future.” explains Newell. “Every time you see the dagger perform that trick, it’s very, very exciting. Because you’re absolutely not expecting it.” He frowns. “Except it’s not now because you’re going to tell them all and spoil the surprise!”

An even bigger surprise was coming: the man playing Prince Of Persia’s action hero is best known for spooning Heath Ledger in a tent. “Jerry said, ‘Who do you want to play Dastin? And I said, ‘I want Jake Gyllenhaal.’” Bruckheimer didn’t even blink. “With Tom Cruise in Top Gun it worked for us,” retorts the producer. “With Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, two comedians, in Bad Boys it worked for us again. Johnny Depp, you never saw him in a big adventure. Nic Cage, we put him in The Rock and I don’t think you ever saw him in a role like that. He’d just got an Academy Award for Leaving Las Vegas. Not exactly an action hero, you know?”

But there’s no getting around it, dropping a $200m franchise on the shoulders of a sleepy-eyed 27-year-old who’s barely thrown a punch in his career was another massive gamble. “Yeah, sure it is,” says Newell. “But I’ve known Jake since he was a little boy and I’d seen this quality on screen. He’s not like John Wayne, who’s a massive block of wood. You can always see into him. He has a very soft and gentle side to him but Jake is an action hero made in heaven.”

Faced with the biggest role of his career, Gyllenhaal rebuilt himself completely. He hit the gym and the fridge for four months, stacking on six pounds of lean muscle, even more than his buff-up for Iraq drama Jarhead. Donnie Darko disappeared behind a wall of muscle, a shoulder-length mane of hero-hair and a steely glint in the eye. Well, he’d almost disappeared. “I went out of for dinner and I had two people come up to me and go like, ‘Donnie Darko is the best film in the world!’” he laughs. “I was like, ‘Are you stoned?’ I really think they were. But I mean, yes and no. I’m still dealing with the mystery of time! I care about this one as much as I care about that one. So I don’t think I’m far away at all. But yes, I have grown up a lot. And yeah, this movie is huge.”

This movie isn’t just huge. It’s the biggest of Gyllenhaal’s career. If he fails, the movie fails too. “Um… Huh!” Gyllenhaal goes quiet for a second. Then laughs. “Wow, yeah, you’re right! Yeah, thanks a lot! You’re totally freaking me out… Look, I think there is a legacy of these films. People who’ve done them and pulled them off. And those who haven’t. Indiana Jones is one of my favourite films ever. That’s what I want to challenge and that was the pressure I felt. It’s me every day. I’m the guy.”

For 105 days, in sweltering Morocco and on Pinewood Studio’s soundstages, Gyllenhaal had the chance to prove it. “Everything was based in reality,” says Gyllenhaal. “Any action had to be actually done. In the videogame, you see the Prince running on walls. So how do we do that? We had David Belle, the so-called inventor of parkhour. He can jump from building to building /without/ wires.”

Mostly, though, it was Gyllenhaal himself. Running, jumping, horseriding, punching, ducking, swordfighting… “If an actor takes it into his head to be wet about stuff, there’s no part of him in the scene,” says Newell. “And a tremendous amount of the time – much, much more than you would find in a normal movie – it’s Jake actually doing that stuff. So it immediately takes on a realism and an electricity that it wouldn’t otherwise have.”

That’s Prince OF Persia other answer to Avatar’s blue-screen mo-cap magic: a bracing dose of the reality. Opening with a giant scene of a Persian city that wowed even Bruckheimer, Newell’s movie kept Gyllenhaal thankful of those four months in the gym. “The bad guys all have different powers, so I fight them in all different ways,” he says. “There’s a great fight, where one of them has these whips with blades on the end. Then I fight another guy who has blades for hands. And another one who shoots spikes. And there’s some great chases in the movie, involving sword fighting and parkhour… um, and humour! Which is the hardest part of action.”

He’s only half-kidding. As the priestess princess who forms a love-hate relationship with Dastan, Gemma Arterton also stepped up to the biggest role of her life and one of the juiciest female leads since, well, a James Cameron movie. “She could definitely give as good as she got!” laughs Gyllenhaal. “She stands up for herself, she fights for herself, she’s funny and sexy and be herself with or without the leading man.” According to Newell, Jake and Gemma’s comic spark is going to be the separator from this year’s other big blockbusters. “The humour in the script is one of the reasons I wanted to the thing in the first place,” he says. “If anything is my first love, it’s making people laugh and there’s a wonderful series of characters here who do that.”

After rolling cameras for more than 100 days, Newell was racing to finish the movie in time its release in July 2009. “Then, just a month or two into post-production, we suddenly heard, no, we’re going to go out nearly a year later,” remembers Newell. “Nobody had even seen the movie yet – I hadn’t finished it. And I said, ‘Why, for fuck’s sake? Does nobody trust the movie?’ they said, ‘No, it’s the reverse of that.’ It’s that they think those summer months are congested and we wanted to avoid that.” ‘That’ being Transformers 2, slotted to assault cinemas just a week before Prince Of Persia. Gyllenhaal was big. But no one wanted to slug it out with an army of 30ft robots. “Now the other thing they may have said to themselves is, ‘Jesus, we’re never going to get this CGI stuff done in six months,’” adds Newell. “And think they were absolutely right. It would have looked cheap.”

That, as Newell discovered, was never going to be an option. Bruckheimer was on his A-game. “I would show him a cut of the movie and I’d say, ‘So what do you think, Jerry?’ And he’d say, ‘Well, what do you think?’ I’d say, ‘I think it’s terrific.’ And he’d say, ‘My shit detector goes off.’ And I would say to myself, ‘Well, I pride myself on my shit detector.’ I know there is such a thing as a shit-detector. It’s a very, very important instrument. And if his shit detector is going off, why? I’ve never worked for anybody like that before. I’d always felt like I could dominate proceedings. How did that feel? It feels uneasy. You bet!”

All told, Newell had just over two years to complete the film. Instead of slugging it out with Transformers 2, it’ll charge into cinemas between Robin Hood and Sex And The City 2. Avatar’s theatrical run will have finished. Probably. Not that it matters to Bruckheimer, anyway. Truth be told, he acts almost like Pandora had never been discovered. There were never any plans to shoot in 3D (“No, it takes enormous amount of time and it’s very expensive”) and or raise the tech-bar (“We’re not trying to do that, the point of our movie is the story.”).

But just how big a gamble is that? Does he have any doubts about a director who’s never direct an epic and a star who’s never played an action hero in a $200 million videogame adaptation of an epic adventure? Does he know same audiences that made a billion dollars for Pirates Of The Caribbean and Avatar show up to launch Prince Of Persia as another Bruckheimer super-franchise? “From your lips to God’s ears, I hope so,” says the producer. “Sam Goldwyn says that individually the audience isn’t very bright. But collectively they’re geniuses. Would I want to see this movie? Yes. That’s why I made it.”

And that’s as much as he’ll give away about the risky business of blockbuster franchise-building. “Can I give something away to you?” asks Gyllenhaal, before grinning and dropping his voice to a low whisper. “The movie’s really, really good.” This time, he’s not talking about Avatar.

Publication: Total Film