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How 'The Big Short' director turned the financial collapse into a big, celebrity-stacked comedy

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the big short

Adam McKay is best known for directing some of Will Ferrell’s biggest movies — “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Step Brothers.” But with the release of “The Big Short” this weekend, McKay has stepped away from Ferrell’s large shadow.

But he needed his comedy talents to tell the story of one of the largest financial collapses in history.

Based on the Michael Lewis best-selling book of the same name, “The Big Short” looks at the housing bubble during the 2000s. It stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, and Brad Pitt as a handful of the few people in the financial world who saw it coming.

But to connect with moviegoing audiences while tackling such a complex subject, McKay decided to add a little sugar to his medicine. Not to mention brief flashes of pop culture, including an interlude featuring celebrities Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, and Selena Gomez explaining financial terminology (which will no doubt rankle Wall Street).

“I feel if you do this movie like, say, ‘The Insider' — which I think is a great movie — you wouldn’t be doing this story justice,” McKay told Business Insider, referring to the more somber Russell Crowe film about a tobacco-industry whistleblower. “I wouldn’t want to see that movie.”

But McKay admits he didn’t write the script intending on getting laughs. It came from the material in Lewis’ book that is so outlandish you can only help but laugh, which McKay did while reading it in one sitting in 2010.

Highlights include Michael Burry (Bale) only listening to heavy metal music and Mark Baum (Carrel) who is so attached to his phone that he takes a call in the middle of asking a question at a major public conference in Las Vegas.

Shooting the film with a handheld, documentary-like atmosphere, and allowing his actors to improvise, McKay shaped a film that would turn out to be very different from how Hollywood had previously looked at the financial collapse (“The Company Men,” “Too Big to Fail”). Could audiences still get the underlying message?

Adam McKay Michael Bowles Getty“I thought the film was really starting to fit well in rough assembly, which never happens,” McKay said. “So we got 300 people and did a screening, for us, not for the studio. This was at a running time of two hours and twenty minutes. It was long, but sitting there, I could feel the energy. The audience understood what we were talking about.”

McKay’s enthusiasm and proof that “real people” appreciated the movie caused Paramount Pictures to set its release date smack in the middle of awards consideration.

The film has become a frontrunner of the season, having recently received Golden Globes nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy for both Carell and Bale and Best Screenplay for McKay and his co-writer Charles Randoph.

But McKay does admit there is one line in the movie that he purposely wrote for a laugh.

“I almost cut it out of the movie,” McKay said, “but it’s where the Vinny (Jeremy Strong) character says, ‘It looks like someone hit a pinata of white guys who suck at golf.’ I knew that line would get a laugh.”

“The Big Short” opens in limited release Friday and everywhere December 23.

SEE ALSO: The crazy story of how "The Big Short" got Led Zeppelin to approve song rights

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Sony offers free admission for NFL players to 'Concussion'

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Concussion Columbia Pictures

Sony is offering free admission to all NFL players and their families to "Concussion," the drama that centers on the doctor who discovered CTE, a football-related brain trauma, and his fight against the NFL.

NFL players can see the film at any time during its theatrical run after it opens on Christmas Day. As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, Sony has already held several private screenings for players, and hundreds of active and former players have already watched the film, including New York Jets Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis, who called it "educational."

Will Smith stars in "Concussion," playing Dr. Bennet Omalu, the real-life forensic neuropathologist whose research of chronic traumatic encephalopathy — deadly brain trauma in football players — was met with resistance by the NFL.

"This is a movie for the players, so we wanted to give them a chance to see it before its nationwide release and free admission during its run in theaters," a statement from producers Ridley Scott and Giannina Scott said. "The movie is so inspiring — Will Smith gives one of the best performances of his career as Dr. Bennet Omalu, a man who shined a light on the truth.

"The odds were stacked against him, but he had the truth on his side, and now, his discovery is all anyone's talking about. We think the players will enjoy watching this movie about Dr. Omalu's incredible courage — courage that changed the game."

Players can receive complimentary admission for themselves and one guest by presenting their NFLPA membership card at any Cinemark theater nationwide.

NFL Players Association executive George Atallah told THR that the film, which is directed by Peter Landesman based on the GQ article "Game Brain" by Jeanne Marie Laskas, had already made a difference: "The story has already forced the NFL to be held accountable to improve health and safety standards in football. I want to see the film change football not just at the NFL level but at every other level of the game, from the NCAA down to youth."

SEE ALSO: Here's why Will Smith's new movie "Concussion" can legally use NFL logos without the league's consent

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NOW WATCH: NEW RESEARCH: 96% of the brains in an NFL study tested positive for disease

The best 1-star Amazon reviews by people who hated 2015’s most successful movies (AMZN)

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matt damon martianEveryone's a critic, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Amazon reviews section.

Even the most well-respected movies, books, and albums get ripped to shreds by semi-anonymous commenters. It can be truly wonderful to behold.

Earlier this week, my colleague Alex Morrell put together a comprehensive list of the most successful movies of 2015. He ranked them based on global box-office performance, critic reviews, and fan ratings. In short, these are the films that took over the world this year.

But not everyone was a fan of these films. We combed through the one-star reviews of the 13 most successful movies of 2015, and selected the best ones.

These 13 reviews are absurd, hilarious, and often completely valid — sometimes all at once. Find them below, along with a rundown of how the movie actually did with the rest of the world:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 50 most successful movies of 2015

No. 13: "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Amazon one-star reviewer says:

I would give it no stars but that's not an option. My girlfriend and I saw this in the theater (both big Mad Max fans) and it was about what we expected it to be--complete garbage. Horribly underdeveloped characters. Virtually no plot. One car crash after another. Completely ridiculous stunts. And worst of all, Max is reduced to nothing more than a supporting character. Tom Hardy has the goods to play a wonderful replacement for Mel Gibson, but it seemed he was dealt a s***** hand in this debacle.

I honestly don't get why everyone thinks this is such a great film and I certainly don't understand why everyone thinks it's better than the original 3 films. But movies these days seem to stick to cater to the masses with insane gore and total mayhem, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I like a little bit of a story to go with it.

All in all, don't waste your time. Maybe if you catch it on a movie channel or the like but I wouldn't even recommend that. Seriously it's that bad. 

How it did:

Global box office sales: $375.8M

Production budget: $150M

Box office profit: $225.8M

Critic rating:89

Fan rating:8.2



No. 12: "Ant-Man"

Amazon one-star reviewer says:

Ant-Man? Really? Marvel Comics is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Why not Bug-Man or Man-Man? Caterpillar-Man? Sicada-Man? Empty Toilet-Paper-Roll-Man? ENOUGH is ENOUGH Marvel. Don't even TRY to come up with anymore Superhero franchises because the well has run drier than dry.

How it did:

Global box office sales: $518.6M

Production budget: $130M

Box office profit: $388.6M

Critic rating:64

Fan rating:7.5



No. 11: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2"

Amazon one-star reviewer says:

It sucks worst ending ever.

How it did:

Global box office sales: $595.5M

Production budget: $160M

Box office profit: $435.5M

Critic rating:65

Fan rating:7.0



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's the intense mountain-man boot camp Leonardo DiCaprio went through for 'The Revenant'

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The Revenant

To depict mountain men in the uncharted frontier of the 1800s US for his new movie "The Revenant," director Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Birdman") was obsessed with making every aspect of the film as authentic as possible.

For the actors, that involved going through a one-week mountain-man boot camp. The production hired a man named Clay Landry to head it. Landry works as a historical consultant at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming.

In late September 2014, Landry worked with the actors on everything from how to shoot a black-powder rifle to how to start a fire with only flint.

"Alejandro told me, 'I want these guys to look like they have been handling these guns all their lives,'" Landry told Business Insider.

the revenant kimberly french 20th Century Fox

To accomplish that, Landry didn't just have Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and the other cast do target practice all day. He also made them go by foot on trips along the river and hills in Canada where part of the film was shot, and he gave them some history lessons.

"I would do a little bit of a lecture at the start of each day," Landry said. "Because the first thing we realized was most of these actors were from places other than the United States of America, so we had to give them some context of what the whole era was about and why these men were in the mountains."

Landry said that the actors took to the boot camp quickly. They would even compete in tomahawk-throwing contests when they broke for lunch.

But Landry's job wasn't done after the weeklong boot camp. During filming, he was on set answering any questions the cast and crew had. Landry recalls that because it rained often, he had to correctly show how the rifles would be covered in those conditions.

revenant leo900

"We went over this in the boot camp, and I was happy to see the actors remembered when shooting, but in rainy conditions back then you always had to cover your rifle, especially the action part of the gun," Landry said. "Because any moisture gets into that black power, it won't ignite. So we had the right stuff there on-screen because a mountain man walking around in a rainstorm without his gun covered would just not happen."

But sadly, you won't see Landry's biggest highlight in "The Revenant." During the Indian attack scene that opens the film, Iñárritu wanted extras who were skinning beaver to talk like they would in the 1800s, though their dialogue and even some of their faces did not make the final cut.

A photo posted by @chivexp on

"So I actually sat down with one of the second assistant directors and we wrote a script for the extras so they would be talking about correct stuff of that period while they were shooting," Landry said.

What were the lines they came up with?

"Stuff like 'What do you think the price of beaver in St. Louis is now?' or 'Did you see that girl back in town? She was really something' — that kind of stuff," Landry said with a laugh.

"The Revenant" opens in limited release on Christmas Day and everywhere January 8.

SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie is a brilliant, gory revenge tale that could win him his first Oscar

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NOW WATCH: This astronaut spacewalk looks like a scene straight out of the movies

A physicist just wrote a paper on why destroying the Death Star would have wiped out the Ewoks

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death star orbits endor moon 1

"The Ewoks are dead. All of them."

That's the disturbing first line of a white paper a physicist exclusively submitted to Tech Insider.

With "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"storming movie theaters, we had to know if George Lucas overlooked a critical moment where the last film in the series, "Return of the Jedi," left off 32 years ago.

In that movie, a moon-size weapon called the Death Star II orbits the forest moon Endor. The Rebel Alliance eventually blows up the colossal terror device, then celebrates among the trees with a race of hairy, intelligent friends called the Ewoks.

But detonating a giant metal sphere above the Ewok's lush green world is a terrible idea, according to 11 different physicists we asked. In fact, most agreed it'd trigger an "Endor holocaust."

Dave Minton, a planetary scientist at Purdue University and devoted "Star Wars" fan went so far as to provide a draft white paper. (We've embedded it at the end of this post if you want to get right to it.)

The "Endor Holocaust" fan theory dates back to 1997, when it first appeared on a website called TheForce.net. Curtis Saxton, an astrophysicist and "Star Wars" super-fan, argued in a 10,000-word essay that the doom of Endor and the Ewoks who live there "is an inevitable consequence of observable facts."

But many of Saxton's various measurements are open to interpretation, since depictions of the Death Star, Endor, and other details are inconsistent from one scene to the next, which is why we asked 11 physicists what would happen to Endor if the Death Star blew up.

Minton's dire conclusion is based a detailed, to-scale hologram projected in "Return of the Jedi."

death star endor hologram map shield generator

From that image Minton extrapolated diameters, masses, velocities, and orbital paths of Endor and the Death Star.

His calculations show that the Death Star II is about 213 miles in diameter.

Since Ewoks, storm troopers, and rebels move like they do here on Earth, he assumes that the gravity of Endor is the same as our home planet's and therefore so is its mass. As the moon is much smaller than Earth, however, it's got to be incredibly dense.

"I estimate that the bulk density of Endor is about 14,350 kg/m3," Minton wrote in his paper for Tech Insider. "This is more than iron (8000 kg/m3) and less than uranium (19,100 kg/m3), so while the composition of Endor must be quite unusual, it is not impossible."

Minton also noted that the Death Star is in a unnaturally stable orbit given how close it is to the moon.

"So I have to assume that the Death Star is being maintained in its position using something like [anti-gravity] repulsorlifts," he wrote.

When the rebels and Ewoks destroy the shield generator on Endor — a device that protected the Death Star — Minton assumes the repulsorlifts there got destroyed, too. He also figures the Death Star is not vaporized and mostly shatters into a field of loose rubble.

"[M]ore or less what happens after the destruction is that the entire mass of the Death Star simply falls onto the location of the shield generator," he said.

Minton said the falling rubble field would look something like a colossal asteroid striking the Earth.

asteroid impact strike hit nasa

Striking Endor at more than 6,000 mph, "a Death Star-mass ball of fragments will leave behind a 700 km diameter crater,"Minton said. "This is almost 4 times larger than the Chicxulub crater in Mexico that is associated with the dinosaur extinction."

"The aftermath of this impact would be to obliterate everything on the surface," he wrote. "No Ewok could withstand an impact of that magnitude."

And it gets worse.

"It is likely that the atmosphere would be so heated up ... that every body of water on the entire world would be flash heated to steam, and every forest would ignite into a global firestorm."

Read Minton's full draft white paper here.

Note: If you're a planetary scientist or physicist who can run simulations that test ideas critical to the Endor Holocaust theory, Tech Insider would love to hear from you. Please reach out to us at science@techinsider.io with "Endor Holocaust simulation" as the subject line.

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NOW WATCH: Neil deGrasse Tyson explains what 'Star Wars' gets right about science

One dad came up with an insane theory about the new 'Star Wars' villain

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kylo ren

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Do not read this fan theory if you don't want to know what happens in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

Now that it's been nearly a week since "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" premiered in theaters, fans are donning their best tinfoil hats to come up with elaborate theories about the franchise.

Whether it concerns Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke, or the mysterious Rey, there are lots of plot points J.J. Abrams left fans to mull over while we wait until 2017 for Episode VIII.

This is your last chance to stop reading for spoilers.

kylo ren rey star wars force awakens

Tumblr user Lele saw the movie twice with her father before the two came up with their own fan theory — and it's gaining traction online.

"Ok so my dad just came up with the coolest theory on the reason Kylo Ren turned to the dark side and my life will never be the same," Tumblr user Lele wrote on Saturday.

The theory goes something like this: Kylo Ren didn't turn to the dark side beause of his own selfish ambitions, but in order to kill Supreme Leader Snoke, the ominous bad guy in the film. Lele's dad reasons that Kylo was forced to kill his own father Han Solo to become a full Sith, which requires you to sacrifice someone you love to complete your training.

The reason he needed to become a full Sith, according to Lele and her father, is that both the dark and light sides are necessary to destroy Snoke.

"They are always saying that the dark side and the light side are together in the force," Lele wrote on Tumblr. "They need the personification of both sides (Kylo and Rey) in order to be strong enough to destroy Snoke."

The theory is interesting, but not without its problems. Lele argues that Kylo Ren is driven by his obsession with Darth Vader because he wants to help 'finish what Anakin started,' but Abrams has said before that it's the idea of Darth Vader and his power that drives Kylo Ren, not the actual person behind the mask.

Lele and her father also believe that Luke and Rey may know about Kylo Ren's plan as well, an idea with little evidence from the actual film.

And while we're pretty confident Kylo Ren didn't join the dark side to take down Snoke, the idea that the dark and light sides are necessary to defeat someone as evil as Snoke is intriguing. Perhaps Kylo and Rey will be the two to defeat Snoke in the end, not unlike Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker killing Emperor Palpatine together in "Return of the Jedi."

"It'll be literally the dark side and the light side joining up to defat [defeat] one enemy as one, which is basically what the force is," Lele wrote.

You can read the entire Tumblr post in its all-caps entirety below:

OK SO WE GOT OUT OF OUR SECOND THE FORCE AWAKENS SHOWING AND MY DAD WAS DRIVING US HOME AND OUT OF NOWHERE HE WAS LIKE: Oh my god. WHAT IF KYLO REN CHOSE TO GO TO THE DARK SIDE SO HE COULD HELP THE LIGHT SIDE! AND I WAS LIKE WHAT! SO HE WAS LIKE HEAR ME OUT WHAT IF HE WENT TO THE DARK SIDE JUST SO HE COULD KILL SNOKE!!!! 

AND THATS WHY HE’S SO CONFLICTED, AND THATS WHY HE FEELS THE TEMPTATION OF THE LIGHT SIDE STRONGER THAN THE DARK!!!!! 

THATS WHY HE TALKS TO VADER’S HELMET, BECAUSE HE IS GONNA FINISH WHAT ANAKIN, THE CHOSEN ONE, STARTED!!! 

HE HAD TO COMPLETELY TURN AWAY FROM HIS FAMILY IN ORDER TO DO THAT! TO BECOME A SITH FULLY AND COMPLETELY YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE SOMEONE YOU LOVE TO DEATH, IN HIS CASE IT WAS HAN! 

THATS WHY HE TELLS HAN HE FEELS LIKE HE’S BEING TORN APART INSIDE, BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT TO DO IT AT ALL, BUT IT’S THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY TO BECOME A SITH AND COMPLETE HIS TASK!!!!!   KYLO LITERALLY UTTER THE WORDS “WILL YOU HELP ME” TO HAN, AND HAN SAYS “ANYTHING YOU NEED” (OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT I CANT REMEMBER)! WHAT HE’S ASKING IS IF HAN WILL DIE IN ORDER FOR HIM TO COMPLETE HIS TASK.

THATS WHY IT LOOKED LIKE HE KNEW WHO REY WAS, BECAUSE HE NEEDS TO PROTECT HER THATS WHY HE OFFERS HER TO BE HER TEACHER, HE NEEDS SOMEONE AS POWERFUL AS REY IT’LL BE LITERALLY THE DARK SIDE AND THE LIGHT SIDE JOINING UP TO DEFEAT ONE ENEMY TOGETHER AS ONE, WHICH IS BASICALLY WHAT THE FORCE IS.

THEY LIVE SIDE BY SIDE IN IT THATS WHY HE’S SO CONFLICTED ALL THE TIME, THATS WHY HIS FIGHT STYLE ISNT LIKE A SITH’S AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE ALWAYS SAYING THAT THE DARK SIDE AND THE LIGHT ARE TOGETHER IN THE FORCE.

THEY NEED THE PERSONIFICATION OF BOTH SIDES (KYLO AND REY) IN ORDER TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO DESTROY SNOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HE LITERALLY HAS TO BECOME A SITH TO JOIN FORCES WITH A JEDI 

BECAUSE THE LIGHT IN HIM IS SO MUCH STRONGER THAN THE DARK AND HE HAS TO GET RID OF IT IN ORDER TO DO WHAT HE HAS TO DO AND SAVE THE GALAXY WITH REY AND LUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

HE NEEDS TO KNOW WHERE LUKE IS AT ALL TIMES SO THE FIRST ORDER WONT CAPTURE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT IF THEY STAGED LUKE’S JEDI ORDER MASSACRE!!! WHAT IF LUKE KNOWS EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT IF KYLO KNOWS THEY LEFT HER IN JAKKU SO SNOKE WOULD THINK SHE DIED IN THE MASSACRE ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER JEDIS!!!!!!!! AND THATS WHY HE REACTED THAT WAY WHEN THE GUY SAID THE DROID HAD “HELP FROM A GIRL IN JAKKU”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

You know how a lot of people are saying: OH BUT IT LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE EPISODE IV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!! I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S ON PURPOSE!!!!!! BECAUSE THE PATH THEY ARE TAKING IS GONNA BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! EPISODE VII WAS LITERALLY JUST AN INTRODUCTION!!!! CALM DOWN PEOPLE PLEASE IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME! 

THIS IS STAR WARS WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. A PLOT TWIST LIKE THIS IS MANDATORY WE ARE NOT GETTING “REMAKES” OF THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY I PROMISE YOU.

[I don’t know] if you like it but I THINK ITS SO F***ING AWESOME IF THATS THE REASON — IT’S THE ONLY POSSIBLE GOOD EXPLANATION IN MY HEAD. 

WHY [WOULD] SOMEONE THAT HAS LEIA AS HIS MOTHER, HAN AS HIS FATHER, AND LUKE SKYWALKER AS HIS UNCLE TURN TO THE DARK SIDE?

HAN DYING WOULDN’T BE FOR NOTHING, HE LITERALLY DIED SO HIS FAMILY COULD FINISH SAVING THE GALAXY.

REY, KYLO, LUKE, LEIA, FINN, AND POE ARE GONNA DESTROY THE LAST SITH TOGETHER AND BRING BALANCE TO THE FORCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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NOW WATCH: Everyone is obsessed with these 2 ‘Star Wars’ theories about the movie’s deepest mystery

This will be the biggest year at the box office ever because of 'Star Wars,' say analysts

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the force awakens finn poe

Rentrak is giving Hollywood and theater owners an early Christmas present, projecting on Tuesday that domestic box-office revenue will reach a record $11 billion in 2015, the first time total ticket sales have hit that mark.

The industry leader for box-office grosses is making the call based on the formidable early performance of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which has crossed a record $300 million in its fifth day in release, and the lucrative Christmas rush yet to come.

If revenue comes in at $11 billion, that would beat the record set in 2013 with $10.9 billion. It would also put North American ticket sales up 6.3 percent over 2014 ($10.4 billion). Through Tuesday, year-to-date revenue is roughly $10.5 billion. "Star Wars" is expected to continue to do huge business over the holidays. A flurry of other new titles are also hitting the marquee on Christmas Day, including "Daddy's Home,""Concussion" and "Joy." And for families, there's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip."

Joy 20th Century Fox final

Because of increased ticket prices, record revenue doesn't equal record attendance. And it's been a year of dramatic highs and lows, with some Hollywood studios seeing huge misses, most notably Warner Bros.

"Even if attendance were flat or even slightly down over the past few years, the fact that we are breaking records left and right in 2015 proves that, despite a level of competition from the small screen and from myriad entertainment options that is stronger than ever before in our history, the robust nature of the movie industry today is a total win for a decidedly old-school (and arguably the most singular and impactful) way of consuming filmed entertainment," said Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian.

To date, the five top-grossing 2015 movies in North America are "Jurassic World" ($652.3 million), "Avengers: Age of Ultron" ($459 million), "Inside Out" ($356.5 million), "Furious 7" ($353 million) and "Minions" ($336 million). "Force Awakens" is already No. 6 and is climbing fast. It could come in at $325 million or higher by the end of Tuesday and reach close to $600 million by Dec. 31.

inside out gg

Universal and Disney — whose titles account for 40 percent of 2015 domestic box-office revenue to date at 22.3 percent and 17.3 percent, respectively — own the list. Universal is home to "Jurassic World,""Furious 7" and "Minions," while Disney is home to Marvel's "Age of Ultron," Pixar's "Inside Out" and Lucasfilm's "Force Awakens."

Said Dergarabedian, "From 'American Sniper' to 'Jurassic World' to 'Straight Outta Compton,' 'Creed' and, of course, now 'Star Wars' and a slew of great indie fare in between, this was a year that should dispel any notion that the movie-theater experience is an outmoded or irrelevant pastime."

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Quentin Tarantino movie from best to worst

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NOW WATCH: Animated map shows the history of immigration to the US

Quentin Tarantino reveals his favorite movie of 2015, and it's a fan favorite

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tarantino mad max

It has become something of a holiday tradition for director and noted film geek Quentin Tarantino to tell fans about the best movies he saw in a given year.

Back in 2013, when he was less busy making and promoting a new movie, Tarantino offered a top-10 list that included critical darlings like "Before Midnight" and, for whatever reason, the total bomb "The Long Ranger."

Tarantino was recently asked on the red carpet in France for his movie "The Hateful Eight" (in theaters this week) about the best movie he saw in 2015, and he was forthcoming. He said "Mad Max: Fury Road," the latest in the "Mad Max" series, topped his list.

That's not a surprising choice. "Fury Road" was hugely popular among fans of the series (Tarantino is one of them), and the summer blockbuster has found its way onto plenty of year-end critics' lists.

"I got a print of 'Mad Max' on 35mm and I watched it in my house," Tarantino said. "And I had it all weekend, and I ended up watching it three different times."

But he said he had some reservations at first.

"I resisted seeing it, for a while, because I was like, 'Mad Max? Without Mel Gibson? Forget that.' In a world where Mel Gibson exists, how can you cast Tom Hardy? Then I saw the movie. 'OK, it's terrific.' And he's pretty good in it, I have to admit," Tarantino added.

And he didn't even have to leave his house to see it.

Watch the video interview below:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Quentin Tarantino movie from best to worst

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NOW WATCH: Adam Savage from 'MythBusters' has an incredible connection to the 'Star Wars' franchise


'Star Wars' animator says 'I took LSD' while working on 'Return of the Jedi'

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jabba the hutt return of the jedi

Phil Tippett has had a rich and varied career in Hollywood.

He started in stop-motion animation with the original 1977 "Star Wars," creating the masks of the Cantina aliens. That started a relationship with George Lucas that then branched out into work in visual effects on "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,""RoboCop," and more recently the "Twilight" films.

But in a new video interview with Vice profiling his work, Tippett admits he was under the influence for at least one of the "Star Wars" movies.

"I took LSD when I was working on 'Return of the Jedi,'" he says in the opening of the video. "And it's fine. It was, like, very calming."

To anyone who grew up with the nightmarish sight of Jabba the Hutt and his palace, in retrospect, this may not seem like a huge surprise. But Tippett said it did end up hindering his work.

"And so I decided to go back to work. When I walked into the blue-screen stage, it was like, 'Ahhh.' I took way too much," he continued.

It certainly didn't stop him, though. The bearded Tippett, based in Berkeley, California, is one of the most admired visual effects supervisors in the business.

Watch the Vice profile of "Star Wars" animator Phil Tippett below:

 

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NOW WATCH: There's a conspiracy theory that the Miss Universe disaster wasn't really Steve Harvey's fault

The awesome new 'Deadpool' trailer is here with a Christmas message from the Ryan Reynolds superhero

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deadpool

We're finally getting some real footage of "Deadpool," and it's as exciting as we'd hoped.

In a world of overly serious superhero blockbusters, the upcoming Ryan Reynolds movie featuring the Marvel comic-book mercenary looks like a relief. It's funny and smart, but also looks like it's packing brutal action.

The movie just released a preview for a new trailer that will be out Christmas Day, but here's a 51-second preview of it. We'll post the full trailer when it's up.

We see Deadpool facing down tough guys on the highway, and how he got that way, all with a heavy dose of Reynolds' wisecracks.

"Deadpool" is out February 12, 2016.

Watch the Christmas-themed trailer preview here:

 

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NOW WATCH: Dave Chappelle is using a brand new technology that’ll eliminate the most annoying part about attending live shows

'Die Hard' is definitely not a Christmas movie, according to most Americans

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die hard 20th Century Fox

Americans have decided on one of the country's most heated cinematic debates: "Die Hard" is not a Christmas movie.

That's the opinion of 62% of Americans who responded to a new Christmas-themed national poll of voters from Public Policy Polling. Only 13% of respondents believed Bruce Willis' pivotal 1988 action movie can be considered a Christmas movie.

"Americans have spoken and have an emphatic message: Die Hard is not a Christmas movie," PPP director Tom Jensen wrote.

Why this is even a debate: "Die Hard" is a popular, if slightly unconventional, pick around this time of year for Christmas-related viewing. It's recommended over and over again alongside more obvious picks like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Home Alone." Business Insider even put "Die Hard" on our list of the 12 best holiday movies ever.

The primary reason for this is that "Die Hard" takes place over Christmas. New York Police Department officer John McClane (Willis) tries to save his wife and others who are taken hostage by German terrorists during a Christmas office party.

die hard bruce willisEven though he admits the plotline doesn't have that much more to do with the holiday, MovieFone writer Drew Taylor argued in his article, "Why 'Die Hard' Is the Greatest Christmas Movie Ever Made," that the film expresses certain notable Christmas motifs:

During the course of the movie, McClane is transformed. When he emerges, bloodied and burnt, at the end of the movie, his wife can barely recognize him. And how does she address him? "Jesus Christ," the kid whose birth we're ostensibly celebrating on Christmas Day. But his transformation is also spiritual. At the end of the movie, you get the sense that he's recommitted to being a fully present parent (and there is some evidence to suggest that he followed through, at least in the second movie).

Maybe, as time passes, more people will come to see Taylor's point and "Die Hard" will become widely accepted in the US as a Christmas classic like "A Christmas Carol" and "Miracle on 34th St."

But for now, Americans are pretty clearly against categorizing "Die Hard" as a Christmas movie.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 best movies of 2015

MORE: RANKED: The 10 best TV shows of 2015

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NOW WATCH: The most popular Christmas traditions have nothing to do with Jesus

Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie is a brilliantly gory revenge tale that could win him his first Oscar

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The Revenant

Many movies set in the 1800s frontier have boasted authenticity. Wrangling in experts to make sure the audience is thrust into a less-civilized time, the movies in this subgenre get increasingly bleak and real.

It has gotten to a point where it's hard for any new movie in that setting to deliver anything that surprises the audience.

But then Alejandro González Iñárritu went and made "The Revenant," which proves there's still new ground to cover in the frontier movie, and that he's one of the best directors working today.

On the heels of winning the best director Oscar at this year's Academy Awards for "Birdman" (which also won best picture), Iñárritu could certainly pull off back-to-back wins in both categories this year.

the revenant kimberly french 20th Century Fox"The Revenant" is a masterwork of filmmaking that is as cringeworthy violent as it is beautifully lush to look at.

In the film, Leonard DiCaprio plays a Wyoming scout named Hugh Glass who has been hired, along with his son, to lead a group of fur trappers on their expedition. Domhnall Gleeson plays the captain of the expedition, Andrew Henry, while Tom Hardy is John Fitzgerald, a money-hungry fur trader who contradicts everything Glass and Henry do.

Without giving too much away: Glass is mauled by a bear, left for dead, and is determined to find Fitzgerald and the others who left him behind.

The story is a simple revenge tale, but trust me: There's a lot to it.

Iñárritu, who adapted the story from part of a Michael Punke novel of the same name, was determined to make the film as true to life as possible. That meant little to no computer graphics and shooting the movie in natural light. Filmed mostly in remote locations in Canada and Argentina, the film contains scenes that appear as if Glass is the first person to ever set foot there.

the revenant 20th century foxThe photography, by Emmanuel Lubezki (he won Oscars the last two years for "Gravity" and "Birdman," respectively), is breathtaking. On one hand, it captures the frantic pace of an attack by Native Americans against the fur trappers or of Glass fighting a bear. The latter sequence is horrific (though perhaps not as horrific as a rumored bear rape scene), with the camera so close to the action that the snorting by the bear makes the camera lens foggy. Between those moments of brutality, there are gorgeous wide shots that show off the natural wonder of the frontier.

But the heart of the movie is DiCaprio. Always known to go all in with his roles, he goes beyond that playing Glass, who is based on a real person who traveled cross-country after being injured by a bear. Along with sustaining the mauling, which is likely a mix of real bear and CGI, though Iñárritu won't go into detail yet about how it was pulled off, DiCaprio eats real bison liver and in one scene guts a horse and goes inside it for warmth during a heavy snowstorm.

Though Glass doesn't say much in the movie, it's DiCaprio's eyes and grunts that say more than words can. Most of the movie he does this growl as he breathes. Almost like, dare I say, a bear.

the revenant youtube wbIn a year with an unpredictable awards season and few sure things, it will be interesting to see what kind of upset wins take place. But it's hard to deny the performance DiCaprio gives in this film when it comes to thinking of the best actor category.

Awards aside, "The Revenant" is a tour de force that rarely comes around anymore in the comic-book-obsessed film world we live in. So go experience it.

"The Revenant" opens in limited release on Christmas Day and everywhere January 8.

SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio ate live bison liver and slept inside an animal for his new movie

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The rise of the 'remakequel': How this one type of movie ruled the box office in 2015

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If you felt that some of the biggest movies this year were very familiar to those you’d seen in your youth, you’re not alone.

Four of the most gigantic blockbusters in 2015 heavily extracted movie plots and characters that were popular decades ago to create hits that are hard to define — a relatively new, unique, and apparently successful breed in Hollywood.

Some have called them “legacyquels” or “remakequels.” They're ostensibly sequels, but ones that closely follow the models of their franchises' origins, and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," already clearly the biggest movie of the year, is a prime example.

However you want to label them, Hollywood sees their worth — so expect more.

But let’s look back on why we had a sense of deja vu watching these four movies.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 best movies of 2015

“The Force Awakens”

Global box office: $766 million (and counting) 

After years of going through prequels in which George Lucas attempted to show us the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader, director J.J. Abrams and writer Lawrence Kasdan decided to delve back into the original trilogy to make “Episode VII: The Force Awakens.” And I don’t just mean bringing back familiar faces like Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Luke. The structure of “The Force Awakens” feels like you’re watching a hyped-up version of “Episode IV: A New Hope.” Everything from an attack on a giant globe-like space station to the lead character being a loner from a desert planet who has a special talent — it's designed to take us back to our first encounter with this universe.



“Jurassic World”

Global box office: $1.7 billion

Director Colin Trevorrow and writing partner Derek Connolly also geeked out on the past, with a blessing from Steven Spielberg himself, to bring the “Jurassic” franchise back. In “Jurassic World," the legacy of Jurassic Park is seeped in the storyline. A technician can’t help but show off his vintage t-shirt with the park’s old logo. And when kids Gray and Zach find themselves stuck inside the park with the dinosaurs, it’s coming across the welcome center from the old park that gets them out of trouble. Not to mention that the hit of “Jurassic Park,” the T-Rex, shows up in grand fashion at the end of the movie.



“Creed”

Global box office: $97.6 million

To bring life back into the “Rocky” franchise, director Ryan Coogler moved the focus to the Creed family, specifically an illegitimate son named Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) who dreams to one day be as great as his father, Apollo. Like “The Force Awakens” does with "A New Hope," Coogler uses a similar arc from the original “Rocky” to tell the story. An underdog — this time, though, with a pedigree surname — who trains his butt off, yes, even sprinting down the streets of Philly, as he prepares for a fight that will make or break his career. And then there’s Rocky Balboa being Adonis’ manager, an obvious homage to Mickey managing Rocky in the earlier films.



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RANKED: The 12 best Christmas movies ever

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A Christmas Story

Like horror movies in October, December is the only time you absolutely must watch your favorite holiday classics — no exceptions.

Some of these movies, like the holidays themselves, are very warm. Others are darker than you might expect.

We've come up with a list of what to watch while you are spending the holidays with your family, from the classics to a few choice curveballs.

These are the 12 best holiday movies to catch up on or enjoy all over again:

SEE ALSO: The best shows to binge-watch over the holidays

12. Yes, Seth Rogen's raunchy ensemble comedy "The Night Before" was just released this year, but it already feels like something that people will watch for years to come. It's a hilarious, dark, and surprisingly sweet Christmas movie for people who just can't connect to the Christmas Spirit.



11. Based on the classic children’s book, "The Polar Express" has CGI wizard Robert Zemeckis bringing to life a boy's magical ride to the North Pole. Tom Hanks is along for the ride as the voice of numerous characters. If you're a fan of the book, the visuals in the movie go beyond anything you imagined.



10. In "Bad Santa," Billy Bob Thornton plays an alcoholic conman who poses as a mall Santa every year to make out with all the money, jewels, and clothes he can get his hands on. But things change this year as he befriends a troubled kid. If you want to be anti-holiday (while also still being pretty holiday) this year, there's no better movie to watch.



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Quentin Tarantino reveals his two favorite scenes he's ever written

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Quentin Tarantino

Even when pressed for time, Quentin Tarantino can still give a good response to a meaningful question.

Toward the end of the San Diego Comic-Con panel for "The Hateful Eight" this past July, Tarantino was asked by one fan what his favorite thing was that he's ever written in a movie.

"That's actually such a good question I don't even know if I have an answer for it, especially with this pressed-for-time bulls---," the director of this week's "The Hateful Eight" told the crowd.

Still, he revealed that his favorite scene from his filmography is the opening of "Inglourious Basterds."

Inglourious Basterds

"My favorite thing I think I've ever written is the scene at the French farmhouse at the beginning of 'Inglourious Basterds,'" Tarantino said.

The scene Tarantino refers to is the very first one of his brutal World War II epic. In the scene, SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) arrives at a remote dairy farm in France that is suspected of hiding Jewish people. Landa sits down with the farmer (Denis Menochet) and questions him about the whereabouts of the Dreyfus family. 

The scene is a tense and sneaky psychological mind game in which a Nazi plays detective.

Inglourious Basterds

The unique part about this entire scene is that it clocks in at around 20 minutes long.

Most movie scenes are about a third of that length and typically aren't as dialogue-heavy. As with most Tarantino scripts, he avoids exposition and instead loves to trail off into incredibly long, windy, tangent-filled conversations.

Inglourious Basterds

Take this four-and-a-half minute stretch of the opening, where Landa stops interrogating and instead talks about why he enjoys being called "The Jew Hunter":

Tarantino wouldn't reveal exactly why this was his favorite scene that he has written, but it seems like almost everything he had written up to this point was building up to this conversational scene. Tarantino loves writing for bad guys, but he has never had to make somebody this evil become as terrifyingly charming.

And Tarantino was working on this script for about 10 years. During that time, it changed drastically. Many of the action scenes he had planned would eventually be used in "Kill Bill."

But before he wrote this scene and filmed it, he thought there was another scene from very early in his career that he could never top. 

True Romance

"Before that it was, in my very first script, 'True Romance,' it was the whole Sicilian speech. That was the one to beat." Tarantino said. "And then when I finally wrote that scene in 'Inglorious Basterds,' I was like, 'Oh, I think I finally beat that one!'"

He is referring to the profanity-laden and hilarious speech made by Dennis Hopper. In a DVD commentary, Tarantino called this scene one of the "proudest moments" of his career.

"True Romance" was released in 1993, one year after Tarantino's directorial debut, "Reservoir Dogs," and one year before "Pulp Fiction" would make him the hottest filmmaker in Hollywood.

True Romance

"True Romance" was actually not directed by Tarantino, but rather by the late Tony Scott. And yet, Tarantino's brilliant writing still made it on the screen completely intact. This was back during a time when he had far less clout than he does today.

This scene clocks in at 10 minutes long. Like the "Basterds" scene, that's much longer than the typical film scene, especially one that doesn't exactly move the plot forward. 

There is a big gap between "True Romance" and "Inglourious Basterds," the latter of which came out in 2009. Between those two films, Tarantino won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for "Pulp Fiction." (He would win again later for "Django Unchained.")

Based on what we saw in "The Hateful Eight," including a memorable monologue from Samuel L. Jackson that is too profane to write out here, it looks like Tarantino has something new to boast about.

"The Hateful Eight" is out in theaters on December 25. It expands nationwide on December 31.

The "True Romance" speech starts at around five minutes into the clip below. (Warning: This scene is very NSFW.)

 

SEE ALSO: Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' is the best, most thoughtful Western movie in ages

SEE ALSO: Nobody ever believed Quentin Tarantino and this legendary composer would work together — now it's happening

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NOW WATCH: Here’s the first trailer for Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' next movie ‘Bridge of Spies’


26 Wall Street movies to watch over Christmas

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It's Christmas and you're probably away from the trading desk and spending some quality time with your family.

That doesn't mean you can't get a little Wall Street in your day, though. Why not kick back on the couch and watch one of these Wall Street movies?

Or head to the theater to watch the lastest Wall Street movie, "The Big Short."

You'll definitely enjoy yourself, and you might even learn something.

 

 

"It's A Wonderful Life" (1946)

In a sentence: It's a heartwarming classic that will never get old. 

Plot: A guardian angel shows businessman George Bailey what life would be like if he never existed. 

Genre: Family



"Trading Places" (1983)

In a sentence: No movie about Wall Street is funnier than the 1983 comedy "Trading Places."

Plot: Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are at their best as director John Landis tells the tale of how one man's fall from Wall Street is another man's blessing. Watching Murphy talk about futures and markets is hilarious and unparalleled in humor.

Genre: Comedy



"Trader" (1987)

In a sentence: Brilliant ... If you can find it.

Plot: Made in 1987 during the raging bull market, this little-known documentary stars Paul Tudor Jones and chronicles his day-to-day life as an active investor. Jones uses techniques like historical chart reading, taken from Jesse Livermore, to predict the Black Monday crash on film. Even though it portrays Jones in a positive light, finding a (legitimate and legal) copy of this movie is nearly impossible to find as it's rumored that Jones bought all 1,000 copies in existence.

Genre: Documentary



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CITADEL: Yoda 'would have made a great investor' (dis)

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yoda attack clones

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" hit theaters on Friday, and a group of analysts from the hedge fund Citadel sat down to discuss the Disney-owned movie franchise.

Among other things, analysts Stephen Parlett, Evan Ericson, Joe Pasqualichio, and Steven Rosenberg discussed which extraterrestrial character would fare best on Wall Street.

So which is it?

"Yoda. I think he would have made a great investor," Pasqualichio said. "He's wise, patient, and has an extremely long-term outlook, so I think he'd be able to find significant alpha."

And their least favorite characters?

"Let's just say Jar Jar Binks was not the greatest 'Star Wars' character of all time," Ericson said.

Citadel, founded and led by Ken Griffin, has $25 billion in assets under management. The firm held a stake in Disney until the third quarter.

Read the full Q&A transcript here.

And here's a clip of the Q&A session:

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How that infamous bear-attack scene in 'The Revenant' was made, and other secrets of the movie revealed

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Director Alejandro González Iñárritu may have insisted on making his new movie "The Revenant," which came out on Christmas Day, as authentic as possible — including having actors go through a week-long boot camp to correctly portray mountain men in the 1800s — but there was still some movie magic needed to pull off this gory revenge tale.

That's where legendary production designer Jack Fisk comes in. He's best known for the beautifully designed period settings in movies like "The Thin Red Line,"" The New World," and "There Will Be Blood" over his three-decade career.

Here, Fisk reveals some of the secrets behind the making of "The Revenant," including how that now-legendary bear scene came to be.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

SEE ALSO: We asked Michael Moore about the gun-violence epidemic, his new movie, and why Donald Trump will get the Republican nomination

There was no real bear used in the filming of the grizzly attack scene.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is the incredible bear attack on Leonardo DiCaprio's character Hugh Glass. The scene is intense, violent, and, according to Fisk, completely done though stunt men and CGI. And, no, of course there is no rape.

So there wasn't even a trained bear for some of it?

"None. We had no real bears on set," Fisk said. "We looked at bears, but they were all so fat. These trained bears in captivity that you see on TV shows, they don't look like a wild grizzly bear from the 1800s."

According to Fisk, the scene was rehearsed with the stunt department for months before they even got on set in Squamish, British Columbia. Then on the day, he dressed the area where the attack took place with 25-foot rubber trees so when DiCaprio smashed into them, he wouldn't get injured. The actor was then strapped to harnesses attached to cables the stunt team used to yank him around. The grizzly was then added digitally in postproduction.



Fake horses were created for the scene in which DiCaprio cuts one open to stay warm.

The bear scene was certainly not the only jaw-dropping sequence in "The Revenant." Later in the movie, as Glass sets out to enact his revenge on the people who left him after the grizzly attack, he must run from a group of angry Native Americans. To escape them, he and his horse jump a cliff and land on a giant pine tree. As it begins to snow, Glass cuts open the horse, takes out its guts, and crawls inside until the storm passes.

"The horse was built and the guts inside were created out of latex and hair," Fisk said. The props department built one horse for DiCaprio to crawl inside and another horse for the chase scene in which they go off the cliff.

"We brought in 15 big pine trees, some of them 50 feet tall. And we snowed in the area," Fisk said. "Like the bear scene, the snow around the horse was always being trampled on, so between takes we were constantly using the snow machine."



The location where DiCaprio finds the bison herd was discovered by accident.

Fisk says the biggest challenge he had on the film was finding the remote locations for shooting. That's largely because, as the movie was shot with only natural light, Fisk had to find locations with a south or southwest vista.

In one striking scene, Glass comes across a herd of bison, leading to a part with a Native American offering Glass the liver of one of the bison he's eating. Fisk said that that location was found by accident.

"We were checking out a river one day, stopped the boats at a point, and, walking up this hill, we found this large vista," Fisk said. "The sun was setting, it was the perfect time of day to see it. Everyone thought, 'My God, this is what we've been looking for.'"

Fisk and his team lined the top of the hill with bushes. Computer graphics were used to create the herd of buffalo. Fisk said only one prop bison was created for the liver scene.

"The AD said, 'Where's the second one?' and I told him a man can eat maybe 10 pounds of meat. Between the two of them they wouldn't even put a dent in it."

Fisk recalls seeing DiCaprio eat the real bison liver: "I thought Leo was vegetarian, but he went for it."



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This 16-minute sci-fi short is the best movie of the year

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It began back in January. As is often the case, the Sundance Film Festival kicked off the conversation about the year’s best, but this time something unusual kept popping up amongst the buzz about the indie features and documentaries showing in Park City. Everyone was talking about an animated short called World of Tomorrow.

After a trailer hit the web with more distinct and honorable praise than is typically found with Sundance sensations, the film became one of the must-see titles of SXSW, and then it arrived online in late March for all to see and believe the hype. Nobody seemed to be disappointed with it, certainly not any of our team. Unlike all other contenders for our choice for 2015 movie of the year, this one sparked no debate.

World of Tomorrow (not to be confused with Tomorrowland) is the latest from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt (Rejected), and his first fully digitally animated work. The sci-fi adventure, which follows more of the director’s typical stick-figure characters, covers more ground for the genre in its brief 16-minute running time, including time travel and space travel, than any feature we saw in the past 12 months.

At its center, though, is simply the most lovable character of the year, a four-year-old girl named Emily. She’s voiced by Hertzfeldt’s young niece, Winona Mae, who provided her lines unscripted while the two drew pictures together. There’s an authentic, almost documentary quality to the character, then, even while she’s spending the whole film traversing and commenting on strange things she encounters in the distant future.

Her guide is an adult clone of herself, a few generations down the line (voiced by fellow animator Julia Pott). While they explore the universe and Emily Clone’s memories of strange romances and strange art exhibits and the melancholic spectacle of dead people burning through the atmosphere, the elder, later version narrates what they’re seeing. However, it’s little Emily Prime who provides the more significant (and definitely more adorable) commentary.

Everything you could want from a sci-fi movie is in here, including aliens and robots and paradoxes, plus new ideas like the Outernet. But it also deals with more real and universal human concepts like the wise innocence of youth and the things we learn and the things we let go of as we get older — or replicate. We forget we’re watching crude drawings of people amidst surreal landscapes as we find identification within such a strange story.

A big reason we’re so excited to honor World of Tomorrow with the title of movie of the year is that it’s the rare short film that is treated by many fans as an equal to all other movies released in 2015 (and at any time). Film School Rejects has been a champion of shorts from the start, showcasing them daily when we can. And Hertzfeldt has been a favorite of ours, whether we’re seeing his work at festivals or streaming them online.

These days, there’s no reason to discriminate shorts like this when considering the best of the year. Even if you want to disregard something, still, for being distributed on the web, World of Tomorrow is undeniably a cinematic work, one we as a team (namely Rob) and as a community first saw on the big screen. Not everyone can make it to festivals, though, and brilliant shorts deserve to be seen. In 2015, no short should be hidden.

But they also shouldn’t necessarily be free, which is another thing that can cause shorts to be thought of as lesser films. World of Tomorrow is available to rent, because it’s not just something produced by a filmmaker looking to get notice on the way to bigger things. Hertzfeldt is already a big deal, and his latest has a lot of value on its own.

Check it out below via Vimeo On Demand if you haven’t — or even if you have, since it gets better and better with each viewing — and see what everyone’s been talking about.

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Here's what everyone in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' was reportedly paid — from the highest to the lowest

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With "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"shattering box-office records over the weekend, the inevitable question now is how much did everyone in the movie get paid?

Variety looked into the question, and what it found is that seniority in a galaxy far, far away certainly helped at the negotiating table — especially for Harrison Ford.

We broke down the reported figures for all the main actors here:

SEE ALSO: The new 'Star Wars' movie took a big piece of inspiration from the expanded universe

Harrison Ford: $10 million to $20 million

There's a report by the Daily Mail that Ford had a $25 million payday to return as Han Solo, but according to the studio insiders Variety spoke to, that's untrue. But there's no disputing that Ford walked away with the biggest check of the actors. A big reason for that is [SPOILER ALERT] this is ol' Han's final appearance in the "Star Wars" saga. But it also clearly has something to do with Ford's stardom and experience relative to his costars.



Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher: Low seven-figures

Though neither had a lot of screen time in "The Force Awakens," both had salaries in the millions for the movie, and those will rise as their involvement in the upcoming films grows. According to Variety, Disney instituted a "legacy pay scale" in 2014 before casting the new roles so talent from the original trilogy would have a bump compared to the new actors.



Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac: Mid-to-high six-figures

From the new cast, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac reportedly landed on the high side for salaries. This is because of their previous TV and movie work, which gives them fixed rates. Isaac has been in "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "Ex Machina," among others. Driver has worked on "Lincoln," HBO's "Girls," and more.



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