document_title: The Sound of Music (film)

question_text: who played the role of maria in the sound of music film

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text: The Sound of Music (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Maria is a free-spirited young Austrian woman studying to become a nun at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg in 1938. Her love of music and the mountains, her youthful enthusiasm and imagination, and her lack of discipline cause some concern among the nuns. The Mother Abbess, believing Maria would be happier outside the abbey, sends her to the villa of retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp to be governess to his seven children—Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. The Captain has been raising his children alone using strict military discipline following the death of his wife. Although the children misbehave at first, Maria responds with kindness and patience, and soon the children come to trust and respect her. Liesl, the oldest, is won over after Maria protects her from discovery when she is nearly caught sneaking back into the house after meeting Rolfe, a delivery boy she is in love with.

tag: p

text: While the Captain is away in Vienna, Maria makes play clothes for the children and takes them around Salzburg and the surrounding mountains, and she teaches them how to sing. When the Captain returns to the villa with Baroness Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite, and their mutual friend, Max Detweiler, they are greeted by Maria and the children returning from a boat ride on the lake that concludes when their boat overturns. Displeased by his children's clothes and activities, and Maria's impassioned appeal that he get closer to his children, the Captain orders her to return to the abbey. Just then he hears singing coming from inside the house and is astonished to see his children singing for the Baroness. Filled with emotion, the Captain joins his children, singing for the first time in years. Afterwards, he apologizes to Maria and asks her to stay.

text: Impressed by the children's singing, Max proposes he enter them in the upcoming Salzburg Festival but the suggestion is immediately rejected by the Captain as he does not allow his children to sing in public. He does agree, however, to organize a grand party at the villa. The night of the party, while guests in formal attire waltz in the ballroom, Maria and the children look on from the garden terrace. When the Captain notices Maria teaching Kurt the traditional Ländler folk dance, he cuts in and dances with Maria in a graceful performance, culminating in a close embrace. Confused about her feelings, Maria blushes and breaks away. Later, the Baroness, who noticed the Captain's attraction to Maria, hides her jealousy while convincing Maria that she must return to the abbey. Back at the abbey, when Mother Abbess learns that Maria has stayed in seclusion to avoid her feelings for the Captain, she encourages her to return to the villa to look for her life. After Maria returns to the villa, she learns about the Captain's engagement to the Baroness and agrees to stay until they find a replacement governess. The Captain's feelings for Maria, however, have not changed, and after breaking off his engagement the Captain marries Maria.

text: While they are on their honeymoon, Max enters the children in the Salzburg Festival against their father's wishes. When they learn that Austria has been annexed by the Third Reich in the Anschluss, the couple return to their home, where a telegram awaits informing the Captain that he must report to the German Naval base at Bremerhaven to accept a commission in the German Navy. Strongly opposed to the Nazis and the Anschluss, the Captain tells his family they must leave Austria immediately. Many of the Von Trapp's friends are prepared to accept the new regime, including Rolf, who Liesl is devastated to see has joined the Hitler youth. That night, as the von Trapp family attempt to leave, they are stopped by a group of Brownshirts waiting outside the villa. When questioned by Gauleiter Hans Zeller, the Captain maintains they are headed to the Salzburg Festival to perform. Zeller insists on escorting them to the festival, after which his men will accompany the Captain to Bremerhaven.

text: Later that night at the festival, during their final number, the von Trapp family slip away and seek shelter at the nearby abbey, where Mother Abbess hides them in the cemetery crypt. Brownshirts soon arrive and search the abbey, and the family is discovered by Rolf. Upon seeing Liesl, he hesitates raising the alarm long enough to allow the family time to flee, and the family is able to escape using the caretaker's car. When the soldiers attempt to pursue, they discover their cars will not start as two nuns have removed parts of the engines. The next morning, after driving to the Swiss border, the von Trapp family make their way on foot across the frontier into Switzerland to safety and freedom.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp
Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp

Bill Lee as Captain von Trapp's singing voice

Eleanor Parker as Baroness Elsa von Schraeder
Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler
Peggy Wood as the Mother Abbess
Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp
Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp
Heather Menzies as Louisa von Trapp
Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp
Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp
Debbie Turner as Marta von Trapp
Kym Karath as Gretl von Trapp
Anna Lee as Sister Margaretta
Portia Nelson as Sister Berthe
Ben Wright as Herr Zeller
Daniel Truhitte as Rolfe
Norma Varden as Frau Schmidt
Gil Stuart as Franz
Marni Nixon as Sister Sophia
Ada Beth Lee as Sister Catherine
Doreen Tryden as Sister Agatha
Evadne Baker as Sister Bernice
Doris Lloyd as Baroness Ebberfeld

tag: ul

text: Background[edit]

text: The Sound of Music story is based on Maria von Trapp's memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949 to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband Georg in 1947.[5] Hollywood producers expressed interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told.[5] In 1956, German producer Wolfgang Liebeneiner purchased the film rights for $9,000 (equivalent to $81,000 in 2017), hired George Hurdalek and Herbert Reinecker to write the screenplay, and Franz Grothe to supervise the soundtrack, which consisted of traditional Austrian folk songs.[6] The Trapp Family was released in West Germany on October 9, 1956 and became a major success.[5] Two years later, Liebeneiner directed a sequel, The Trapp Family in America, and the two pictures became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years.[5] Their popularity extended throughout Europe and South America.[5]

text: In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English-language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria.[5] The studio eventually dropped its option, but one of its directors, Vincent J. Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for Mary Martin.[5] Producers Richard Halliday and Leland Heyward secured the rights and hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for State of the Union.[6] They approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to compose one song for the musical, but the composers felt the two styles—traditional Austrian folk songs and their composition—would not work together.[6] They offered to write a complete new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed work on Flower Drum Song.[7] The producers quickly responded that they would wait as long as necessary.[7] The Sound of Music stage musical opened on November 16, 1959 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City and ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.[8] In June 1960, Twentieth Century Fox purchased the film adaptation rights to the stage musical for $1.25 million (equivalent to $10,300,000 in 2017) against ten percent of the gross.[9][Note 1]

text: Production[edit]

text: For the film, Richard Rodgers added two new songs, "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good", for which he wrote the lyrics as well as the music (Hammerstein having died in August 1960), while three of the original stage songs were omitted,[10] "How Can Love Survive", "No Way To Stop It" and "An Ordinary Couple". Arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal prerecorded the songs with a large orchestra and singers on a stage prior to the start of filming, and later adapted instrumental underscore passages based on the songs. Choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had worked with Andrews on Mary Poppins, worked out all new choreography sequences that incorporated many of the Salzburg locations and settings. The Sound of Music was filmed from March 26 through September 1, 1964, with external scenes shot on location in Salzburg, Austria, and the surrounding region, and interior scenes filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios in California. The movie was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Ted McCord and produced with DeLuxe Color processing and six-track sound recording.

text: Screenplay and pre-production[edit]

text: In December 1962, 20th Century Fox president Richard D. Zanuck hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of the stage musical.[11] Lehman reviewed the original script for the stage musical, rearranged the sequence of songs, and began transforming a work designed for the stage into a film that could use the camera to emphasize action and mood, and open the story up to the beautiful locations of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps.[12] The "Do-Re-Mi" sequence in the play, for example, was originally a stagnant number; Lehman transformed it into a lively montage showing some of the beautiful sites of Salzburg, as well as showing Maria and the children growing closer over time.[12] Lehman also eliminated two songs, "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It", sung by the characters of Elsa and Max.[12] In January 1963, he saw the Fox English-dubbed version of the two German films, was not especially impressed, and decided to use the stage musical and Maria's memoir for most of his source material.[13] While Lehman was developing the screenplay, he and Zanuck began looking for a director. Their first choice was Robert Wise, with whom Lehman had worked on the film adaptation of West Side Story, but Wise was busy preparing work for another film, The Sand Pebbles.[14] Other directors were approached and turned down the offer, including Stanley Donen, Vincent J. Donehue, George Roy Hill, and Gene Kelly.[15]

text: In January 1963, Lehman invited one of his favorite directors, William Wyler, to travel to New York City with him to see the Broadway musical. After seeing the show, Wyler said he hated it, but after two weeks of Lehman's persuasion, Wyler reluctantly agreed to direct and produce the film.[16] After hiring musical supervisor Roger Edens, Wyler, Lehman, and Edens traveled to Salzburg to scout filming locations.[17] In two weeks they managed to see approximately seventy-five locations—an experience that helped Lehman conceptualize several important sequences.[18] During that trip, Lehman began to have reservations about Wyler's commitment to the project, and communicated this to Zanuck, who instructed the writer to finalize the first draft of the screenplay as quickly as possible.[19] Lehman completed the first draft on September 10, 1963 and sent it to Wyler, who had no suggestions or changes.[19] At that time, Lehman also secretly gave a copy of the script to the agent of Robert Wise, whom Lehman still wanted as the director.[19] Later that month, Wyler's agent approached Zanuck asking that production on the film be delayed so Wyler could direct The Collector. Zanuck told him to tell Wyler to make the other film, and that they would move ahead on schedule with another director, ending Wyler's participation.[19]

text: Meanwhile, Wise, whose film The Sand Pebbles had been postponed, read Lehman's first draft, was impressed by what he read, and agreed to direct the film.[20] Wise joined the picture in October 1963,[21] and flew to Salzburg with associate producer Saul Chaplin and members of his production team to scout filming locations, including many that Wyler had identified.[22] When he returned, Wise began working on the script. Wise shared Lehman's vision of the film being centered on the music, and the changes he made were consistent with the writer's approach—mainly reducing the amount of sweetness and sentimentality found in the stage musical.[21] He had reservations about Lehman's opening aerial sequence because they'd used a similar opening in West Side Story, but decided to keep it.[21] Other changes included replacing "An Ordinary Couple" with a more romantic number, and a new song for Maria's departure from the abbey—Rodgers provided "Something Good" and "I Have Confidence" especially for the film.[23] Lehman completed the second draft on December 20, 1963,[24] but additional changes would be made based on input from Maria von Trapp and Christopher Plummer about the character of the Captain. Plummer especially helped transform a character lacking substance into a stronger, more forceful complex figure with a wry sense of humor and a darker edge.[25] Lehman completed his final draft on March 20, 1964.[26]

text: Casting and rehearsals[edit]

text: Lehman's first and only choice for Maria was Julie Andrews.[27] When Wise joined the project, he made a list of his choices for the role, which included Andrews as his first choice, Grace Kelly, and Shirley Jones.[28] Wise and Lehman went to Disney Studios to view footage from Mary Poppins, which was not yet released. A few minutes into the film, Wise told Lehman, "Let's go sign this girl before somebody else sees this film and grabs her!"[27] Andrews had some reservations—mainly about the amount of sweetness in the theatrical version—but when she learned that her concerns were shared by Wise and Lehman and what their vision was, she signed a contract with Fox to star in The Sound of Music and one other film for $225,000 (equivalent to $1,780,000 in 2017).[29] Wise had a more difficult time casting the role of the Captain. A number of actors were considered for the part, including Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Sean Connery, and Richard Burton.[30] Wise had seen Christopher Plummer on Broadway and wanted him for the role, but the stage actor turned down the offer several times. Wise flew to London to meet with Plummer and explained his concept of the film; the actor accepted after being assured that he could work with Lehman to improve the character;[31] Plummer later described himself as having become quite arrogant at the time, "spoiled by too many great theater roles".[32]

text: Wise also spent considerable time and effort on casting the secondary characters. For the role of Max Detweiler, Wise initially considered Victor Borge, Noël Coward, and Hal Holbrook among others before deciding on Richard Haydn.[31] For the character of Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Wise looked for a "name" actress—Andrews and Plummer were not yet widely known to film audiences—and decided on Eleanor Parker.[33] The casting of the children characters began in November 1963 and involved over two hundred interviews and auditions throughout the United States and England.[34] Some of the child-actors interviewed or tested, who were not selected, included Mia Farrow, Patty Duke, Lesley Ann Warren, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Fabares, Teri Garr, Kurt Russell, and The Osmonds.[35] Most of the actors selected had some acting, singing, or dancing experience. Charmian Carr, however, was a model who worked part-time in a doctor's office and had no ambition to pursue a career as an actress.[36] After a friend sent her photo to Wise's office, she was asked to interview. Wise later recalled, "She was so pretty and had such poise and charm that we liked her immediately."[36] The last person to be cast was Daniel Truhitte in the role of Rolfe.[36]

text: Rehearsals for the singing and dance sequences began on February 10, 1964.[37] The husband-and-wife team of Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had worked with Andrews on Mary Poppins, worked out the choreography with Saul Chaplin on piano—the arrangements could not be altered under Rodgers and Hammerstein's contract.[38] The stage choreography was not used because it was too restrictive.[39] Breaux and Wood worked out all new choreography better suited for film that incorporated many of the Salzburg locations and settings.[39] They even choreographed the newly added puppet dance sequence for "The Lonely Goatherd".[40] The choreography for the Ländler strictly followed the traditional Austrian folk dance.[39] The musical arranger Irwin Kostal prerecorded the songs with a large orchestra and singers on a stage prior to the start of filming.[41] In her book, The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie, Julia Antopol Hirsch says that Kostal used seven children and five adults to record the children's voices; the only scene where the child-actors actually sing is when they sing "The Sound of Music" on their own after Maria leaves.[42] Charmian Carr refuted the claim that the voices of the child actors were dubbed in the film and on the soundtrack. Carr contended that all of the children who are in the film sing on the track, but four other children were added to most of the songs to give them a fuller sound, they did not replace them as singers.[43] The voices of some of the adult actors had voice doubles, including Peggy Wood and Christopher Plummer.[44]

text: Filming and post-production[edit]

text: Principal photography began on March 26, 1964 at 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles, where scenes from Maria's bedroom and the abbey cloister and graveyard were filmed.[45] The company then flew to Salzburg where filming resumed on April 23 at Mondsee Abbey for the wedding scenes.[46] From April 25 through May 22, scenes were filmed at the Felsenreitschule, Nonnberg Abbey, Mirabell Palace Gardens, Residence Fountain, and various street locations throughout the Altstadt (Old Town) area of the city.[46] Wise faced opposition from city leaders who opposed him staging scenes with swastika banners. They relented after he threatened instead to include actual newsreel footage of crowds cheering Hitler during a visit to the town.[32] On days when it rained—a constant challenge for the company[47]—Wise arranged for scenes to be shot at St. Margarethen Chapel and Dürer Studios (Reverend Mother's office).[48] From May 23 to June 7, the company worked at Schloss Leopoldskron and an adjacent property called Bertelsmann for scenes representing the lakeside terrace and gardens of the von Trapp villa.[49] From June 9 to 19, scenes were shot at Frohnburg Palace which represented the front and back façades of the villa.[49] The "Do-Re-Mi" picnic scene in the mountains was filmed above the town of Werfen in the Salzach River valley on June 25 and 27.[49] The opening sequence of Maria on her mountain was filmed from June 28 to July 2 at Mehlweg mountain near the town of Marktschellenberg in Bavaria.[50][Note 2] The final scene of the von Trapp family escaping over the mountains was filmed on the Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps.[51]

text: The cast and crew flew back to Los Angeles and resumed filming at Fox studios on July 6 for all remaining scenes, including those in the villa dining room, ballroom, terrace, living room, and gazebo.[52] Following the last two scenes shot in the gazebo—for the songs "Something Good" and "You Are Sixteen"—principal photography concluded on September 1, 1964.[52] A total of eighty-three scenes were filmed in just over five months.[53] Post-production work began on August 25 with three weeks of dialogue dubbing to correct lines that were ruined by various street noises and rain.[54] In October, Christopher Plummer's singing voice was dubbed by veteran Disney playback singer Bill Lee.[55] The film was then edited by Wise and film editor William Reynolds.[56] Once the film was edited, Irwin Kostal, who orchestrated the musical numbers, underscored the film with background music consisting of variations on Rodgers and Hammerstein's original songs to amplify or add nuances to the visual images.[55][56] When dubbing, editing, and scoring were complete, Wise arranged for two sneak-preview showings—the first one held in Minneapolis on Friday January 15, 1965[57] at the Mann Theater, and the second one held the following night in Tulsa.[58] Despite the "sensational" responses from the preview audiences, Wise made a few final editing changes before completing the film.[58] According to the original print information for the film, the running time for the theatrical release version was 174 minutes.[1] The film was eventually given a G rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.[1]

text: The Sound of Music was filmed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Ted McCord and produced with DeLuxe Color processing.[59] Aerial footage was photographed with an MCS-70 camera.[59] The sound was recorded on 70 mm six-track using a Westrex recording system.[1][59] The sets used for the film were based on the storyboards of sketch artist Maurice Zuberano,[60] who accompanied Wise to Austria to scout filming locations in November 1963.[61] Wise met with the artist over a ten-week period and explained his objective for each scene—the feeling he wanted to convey and the visual images he wanted to use.[60] When Zuberano was finished, he provided Wise with a complete set of storyboards that illustrated each scene and set—storyboards the director used as guidance during filming.[60] Zuberano's storyboards and location photos were also used by art director Boris Leven to design and construct all of the original interior sets at Fox studios, as well as some external sets in Salzburg.[62] The von Trapp villa, for example, was actually filmed in several locations: the front and back façades of the villa were filmed at Frohnburg Palace, the lakeside terrace and gardens were a set constructed on a property adjacent to Schloss Leopoldskron called Bertelsmann, and the interior was a constructed set at Fox studios.[63] The gazebo scenes for "Something Good" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" were filmed on a larger reconstructed set at Fox studios, while some shots of the original gazebo were filmed on the grounds at Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg.[64][65][Note 3]

text: Release[edit]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: Robert Wise hired Mike Kaplan to direct the publicity campaign for the film.[66] After reading the script, Kaplan decided on the ad line "The Happiest Sound in All the World", which would appear on promotional material and artwork.[66] Kaplan also brought in outside agencies to work with the studio's advertising department to develop the promotional artwork, eventually selecting a painting by Howard Terpning of Andrews on an alpine meadow with her carpetbag and guitar case in hand with the children and Plummer in the background.[67][68][Note 4] In February 1964, Kaplan began placing ads in the trade papers Daily Variety, Weekly Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter to attract future exhibitor interest in the project.[66] The studio intended the film to have an initial roadshow theatrical release in select large cities in theaters that could accommodate the 70-mm screenings and six-track stereophonic sound.[69] The roadshow concept involved two showings a day with reserved seating and an intermission similar to Broadway musicals.[69] Kaplan identified forty key cities that would likely be included in the roadshow release and developed a promotional strategy targeting the major newspapers of those cities.[67] During the Salzburg production phase, 20th Century Fox organized press junkets for America journalists to interview Wise and his team and the cast members.[67]

text: Critical response[edit]

text:
"No one is comfortable with an excess of hearts and flowers, but there is no valid reason for hiding honest emotion. This has always been a major element in the theatre, and it's my conviction that anyone who can't, on occasion, be sentimental about children, home or nature is sadly maladjusted."[70]

Richard Rodgers

tag: div

text: The film had its opening premiere on March 2, 1965 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City.[71][72] Initial reviews were mixed.[73] Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, criticized the film's "romantic nonsense and sentiment", the children's "artificial roles", and Robert Wise's "cosy-cum-corny" direction.[74] Judith Crist, in a biting review in the New York Herald Tribune, dismissed the movie as "icky sticky" and designed for "the five to seven set and their mommies".[71] In her review for McCall's magazine, Pauline Kael called the film "the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat", and that audiences have "turned into emotional and aesthetic imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs".[75] [Note 5] Wise later recalled, "The East Coast, intellectual papers and magazines destroyed us, but the local papers and the trades gave us great reviews".[69] Indeed, reviewers such as Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "three hours of visual and vocal brilliance",[69] and Variety called it "a warmly-pulsating, captivating drama set to the most imaginative use of the lilting R-H tunes, magnificently mounted and with a brilliant cast".[69] The "wildly mixed film reviews" reflected the critical response to the stage musical, according to The Oxford Companion to the American Musical.[77] After its Los Angeles premiere on March 10, The Sound of Music opened in 131 theaters in the United States, including a limited number of roadshow events.[69] After four weeks, the film became the number one box office movie in the country, and held that position for thirty out of the next forty-three weeks in 1965.[78] The original theatrical release of the film in America lasted four and a half years.[78]

text: A few months after its United States release, The Sound of Music opened in 261 theaters overseas—the first American movie to be completely dubbed in a foreign language, both dialogue and music.[79] The German, French, Italian, and Spanish versions were completely dubbed, the Japanese version had Japanese dialogue with English songs, and other versions were released with foreign subtitles. The film was a popular success in every country it opened, except the two countries where the story originated, Austria and Germany.[80] In these countries, the film had to compete with the much-loved Die Trapp-Familie (1956), which provided the original inspiration for the Broadway musical, and its sequel Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958)—both films still widely popular in German-speaking Europe and considered the authoritative von Trapp story.[80] Austrians took exception to the liberties taken by the filmmakers with regard to the costumes, which did not reflect traditional style, and the replacement of traditional Austrian folk songs with Broadway show tunes.[80] The film's Nazi theme was especially unpopular in Germany, where the Munich branch manager for 20th Century Fox approved the unauthorized cutting of the entire third act of the film following the wedding sequence—the scenes showing Salzburg following the Anschluss. Robert Wise and the studio intervened, the original film was restored, and the branch manager was fired.[81]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The Sound of Music is one of the most commercially successful films of all time.[82] Four weeks after its theatrical release, it became the number one box office movie in the United States, from revenue generated by twenty-five theaters, each screening only ten roadshow performances per week.[78] It held the number one position for thirty of the next forty-three weeks,[78] and ended up the highest-grossing film of 1965.[83] One contributing factor in the film's early commercial success was the repeat business of many filmgoers.[79] In some cities in the United States, the number of tickets sold exceeded the total population.[79][Note 6] By January 1966, the film had earned $20 million in distributor rentals from just 140 roadshow engagements in the United States and Canada.[84] Overseas, The Sound of Music broke previous box-office records in twenty-nine countries,[85] including the United Kingdom, where the film earned £4 million in rentals and grossed £6 million—more than twice as much as any other film had ever taken in.[85] It was also a major success in Holland, Hong Kong and Tokyo, where it played for as long as two years at some theaters. It was not a universal success, however, with the film only enjoying modest success in France and it was a flop in Germany. It also initially performed poorly in Italy, but a re-release after the Oscars brought better results.[86] By November 1966, The Sound of Music had become the highest-grossing film of all-time,[85] surpassing Gone with the Wind, which held that distinction for twenty-four years.[87][Note 7]

text: In November 1969, The Sound of Music completed its initial four-and-a-half year theatrical release run in the United States, having earned $68,313,000 in North American (United States and Canada) rentals and $44,168,000 in foreign rentals, for a worldwide total of $112,481,000 in gross returns.[86] It was the first film to gross over $100 million.[88] The film was re-released in 1973,[89][90] and increased its North American rentals to $78.4 million.[91] By the end of the 1970s, it was ranked seventh in all time North American rentals, having earned $79 million.[92] The film's re-release in 1990[90] increased the total North American admissions to 142,415,400—the third highest number of tickets sold behind Gone with the Wind and Star Wars—and about 283.3 million admissions worldwide.[93][94] The Sound of Music eventually earned a total domestic gross of $163,214,076, and a total worldwide gross of $286,214,076.[95] Adjusted for inflation, the film earned about $2.366 billion at 2014 prices—the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.[93][96]

text: Historical accuracy[edit]

text: The Sound of Music film, like the stage musical, presents a history of the von Trapp family that is not completely accurate. The filmmakers used artistic license to convey the essence and meaning of their story. Georg Ludwig von Trapp was indeed an anti-Nazi opposed to the Anschluss, and lived with his family in a villa in a district of Salzburg called Aigen. Their lifestyle depicted in the film, however, greatly exaggerated their standard of living. The actual family villa, located at Traunstraße 34, Aigen 5026, was large and comfortable but not nearly as grand as the mansion depicted in the film. The house was also not their ancestral home, as depicted in the film. The family had previously lived in homes in Zell Am See and Klosterneuburg after being forced to abandon their actual ancestral home in Pola following World War I. Georg moved the family to the Salzburg villa shortly after the death of his first wife in 1922.[97] In the film, Georg is referred to as "Baron", but his actual family title was "Ritter" (German for "knight"), a hereditary knighthood the equivalent of which in the United Kingdom is a baronetcy. Austrian nobility, moreover, was legally abolished in 1919 and the nobiliary particle von was proscribed after World War I, so he was legally "Georg Trapp". Both the title and the prepositional nobiliary particle von, however, continued to be widely used unofficially as a matter of courtesy.[97]

text: Georg was offered a position in the Kriegsmarine, but this occurred before the Anschluss. He was heavily recruited by the Nazis because he had extensive experience with submarines, and Germany was looking to expand its fleet of U-boats. With his family in desperate financial straits, and having no other marketable skills other than his training as a naval officer, he seriously considered the offer before deciding he could not serve a Nazi regime. Rather than threaten arrest, the Nazis actually continued to woo him.[97] In the film, Georg is depicted initially as a humorless, emotionally distant father. In reality, third child Maria von Trapp (called "Louisa" in the film) described her father as a doting parent who made handmade gifts for the children in his woodshop and who would often lead family musicales on his violin. She has a different recollection of her stepmother, whom she described as moody and prone to outbursts of rage. In a 2003 interview, Maria remembered, "[She] had a terrible temper ... and from one moment to the next, you didn't know what hit her. We were not used to this. But we took it like a thunderstorm that would pass, because the next minute she could be very nice."[98]

text: Maria Augusta Kutschera had indeed been a novice at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg and had been hired by the von Trapp family. However, she was hired only to be a tutor to young Maria Franziska ("Louisa" in the movie), who had come down with scarlet fever and needed her lessons at home, not to be a governess for all of the children.[97] Maria and Georg married for practical reasons, rather than love and affection for each other. Georg needed a mother for his children, and Maria needed the security of a husband and family once she decided to leave the abbey. "I really and truly was not in love," Maria wrote in her memoir, "I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children." They were married in 1927, not in 1938 as depicted in the film, and the couple had been married for over a decade by the time of the Anschluss and had two of their three children together by that time. Maria later acknowledged that she grew to love Georg over time and enjoyed a happy marriage.[97]

text: The von Trapp family lost most of its wealth during the worldwide depression of the early 1930s, when the Austrian national bank folded.[97] In order to survive, the family dismissed the servants and began taking in boarders. They also started singing onstage to earn money—a fact that caused the proud Georg much embarrassment.[99] In the film, the von Trapp family hike over the Alps from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis, which would not have been possible; Salzburg is over two hundred miles from Switzerland. The von Trapp villa, however, was only a few kilometers from the Austria–Germany border, and the final scene shows the family hiking on the Obersalzberg near the German town of Berchtesgaden, within sight of Adolf Hitler's Kehlsteinhaus Eagle's Nest retreat. In reality, the family simply walked to the local train station and boarded a train to Italy. Although Georg was an ethnic German-Austrian, he was also an Italian citizen, having been born in the Dalmatian city of Zadar, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later fell into Italian territory after World War I. From Italy, they traveled to London and ultimately the United States.[97]

text: The character Max Detweiler, the scheming family music director, is fictional. The von Trapps' family priest, the Reverend Franz Wasner, was their musical director for over twenty years and accompanied them when they left Austria.[97] The character of Friedrich (the second oldest child in the film version) was based on Rupert, the oldest of the real von Trapp children. Liesl (the oldest child in the film) was based on Agathe von Trapp, the second oldest in the real family. The names and ages of the children were changed, in part because the third child (who would be portrayed as "Louisa") was also named Maria, and producers thought that it would be confusing to have two characters called Maria in the film.[97] The von Trapp family had no control over how they were depicted in the film and stage musical, having given up the rights to their story to a German producer in the 1950s who then sold the rights to American producers.[97] Robert Wise met with Maria von Trapp and made it clear, according to a memo to Richard Zanuck, that he was not making a "documentary or realistic movie" about her family, and that he would make the film with "complete dramatic freedom" in order to produce a "fine and moving film"—one they could all be proud of.[100]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The soundtrack to The Sound of Music was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostal, who also adapted the instrumental underscore passages.[citation needed] The soundtrack album was released by RCA Victor in 1965 and is one of the most successful soundtrack albums in history, having sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[101][102]

text: The album reached the number one position on the Billboard 200 that year in the United States.[103][104] It remained in the top ten for 109 weeks, from May 1, 1965 to July 16, 1966,[105][106] and remained on the Billboard 200 chart for 238 weeks.[103] The album was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 1965, 1966 and 1968 and the second best-selling of the entire decade, spending a total of 70 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart.[107] It also stayed 73 weeks on the Norwegian charts, becoming the seventh best-charting album of all time in that country.[108] In 2015, Billboard named the album the second greatest album of all time.[109][110]

text: The album has been reissued several times, including anniversary editions with additional tracks in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015.[104]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text:
Award
Category
Nominee
Result
Ref

Academy Awards
Best Picture
Robert Wise
Won
[111]

Best Director
Robert Wise
Won
[111]

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Julie Andrews
Nominated
[111]

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Peggy Wood
Nominated
[111]

Best Music (Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment)
Irwin Kostal
Won
[111]

Best Cinematography (Color)
Ted D. McCord
Nominated
[111]

Best Art Direction (Color)
Boris Leven (art direction);
Walter M. Scott and Ruby R. Levitt (set decoration)
Nominated
[111]

Best Costume Design (Color)
Dorothy Jeakins
Nominated
[111]

Best Sound Recording
James Corcoran and Fred Hynes
Won
[111]

Best Film Editing
William H. Reynolds
Won
[111]

BAFTA Awards
Best British Actress
Julie Andrews
Nominated
[112]

Directors Guild of America
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
Robert Wise
Won
[113]

Golden Globe Awards
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Robert Wise
Won
[113]

Best Director – Motion Picture
Robert Wise
Nominated
[113]

Best Motion Picture Actress – Musical or Comedy
Julie Andrews
Won
[113]

Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Peggy Wood
Nominated
[113]

Laurel Awards
General Entertainment
The Sound of Music
Won
[114]

Musical Performance – Female
Julie Andrews
Won
[114]

National Board of Review
Top Ten Films of 1965
The Sound of Music
Won
[113]

New York Film Critics Circle
Best Actress
Julie Andrews
2nd place
[114]

Writers Guild of America
Best Written American Musical
Ernest Lehman
Won
[114]

tag: table

text: AFI recognition[edit]

text: The Sound of Music has been included in numerous top film lists from the American Film Institute.

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – No. 55[115]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 40[116]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No. 41[117]
AFI's 100 Years of Musicals – No. 4[118]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – No. 27[119]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

"The Sound of Music" – No. 10[120]
"My Favorite Things" – No. 64[120]
"Do-Re-Mi" – No. 88[120]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: In 1966, American Express created the first Sound of Music guided tour in Salzburg.[121] Since 1972, Panorama Tours has been the leading Sound of Music bus tour company in the city, taking approximately 50,000 tourists a year to various film locations in Salzburg and the surrounding region.[121] Sing-along Sound of Music revival screenings began in London in 1999, leading to a successful run at the Prince Charles Cinema which is ongoing as of 2016.[107][122] During the screenings, audience members are often dressed as nuns and von Trapp children and are encouraged to sing along to lyrics superimposed on the screen.[122] In July 2000, Sing-along Sound of Music shows opened in Boston and Austin, Texas.[122] Some audience members dressed up as cast members and interacted with the action shown on the screen.[122] The film began a successful run at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City in September 2000, with the opening attended by cast members Charmian Carr (Liesl), Daniel Truhitte (Rolfe), and Kym Karath (Gretl).[123] Sing-along Sound of Music screenings have since become an international phenomenon.[124]

text: In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[82] The Academy Film Archive preserved The Sound of Music in 2003.[125]

text: Television and home media[edit]

text: The first American television transmission of The Sound of Music was on February 29, 1976 on ABC, which paid $15 million for a one-time only broadcast that became one of the top-rated films ever shown on television to that point.[126] The movie was not shown again until NBC acquired the broadcast rights and telecast the film on February 11, 1979.[127] NBC continued to air the film annually for twenty years.[126] During most of its run on NBC, the film was heavily edited to fit a three-hour time slot—approximately 140 minutes without commercials. The thirty minutes edited out of the original film included portions of the "Morning Hymn and Alleluia" sung by the nuns, part of the dialogue between Mother Abbess and Maria in the abbey, part of Liesl and Rolfe's dialogue preceding "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", Liesl's verse of "Edelweiss" sung with the Captain, the Captain and Baroness waltzing at the party, and minor dialogue cuts within existing scenes.

text: The film aired in its uncut form (minus the entr'acte) on April 9, 1995, on NBC. Julie Andrews hosted the four-hour telecast which presented the musical numbers in a letterbox format. As the film's home video availability cut into its television ratings, NBC let their contract lapse in 2001. That year, the film was broadcast one time on the Fox network, in its heavily edited 140-minute version. Since 2002, the film has aired on ABC, generally during Christmas week, and has been broadcast on its sister cable network, Freeform, periodically around Easter and other holidays. Most of its more recent runs have been the full version in a four-hour time slot, complete with the entr'acte. ABC first broadcast a high definition version on December 28, 2008. On December 22, 2013, the annual broadcast had its highest ratings since 2007; the increase in ratings were credited to NBC's broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!—a live television adaptation of the original musical which aired earlier that month.[128]

text: In the United Kingdom, the film was first aired on BBC One on 25 December 1978 and, as of December 2016, fifteen times since, mostly around Christmas time. As the BBC channels in Britain are not funded by advertising there was no need to cut scenes to fit within a timeslot and the film was screened in the full 174-minute version without breaks.[129]

text: The film has been released on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD numerous times. The first DVD version was released on August 29, 2000 to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the film's release.[130] The film is often included in box sets with other Rodgers & Hammerstein film adaptations.[130] A 40th anniversary DVD, with "making of" documentaries and special features, was released on November 15, 2005.[130] The film made its debut issue on Blu-ray Disc on November 2, 2010, for its 45th anniversary.[130][131][132] For the Blu-ray release, the original 70 mm negatives were rescanned at 8K resolution, then restored and remastered at 4K resolution for the transfer to Blu-ray, giving the most detailed copy of the film seen thus far. On March 10, 2015, Fox Home Entertainment released The Sound of Music 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition—a five-disc set featuring thirteen hours of bonus features, including a new documentary, The Sound of a City: Julie Andrews Returns to Salzburg.[130][133] A March 2015 episode of ABC's 20/20 entitled The Untold Story of the Sound of Music featured a preview of the documentary and interviews by Diane Sawyer.[134]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Twentieth Century Fox also purchased the rights to the two German films for distribution in the United States. Fox combined the two films, Die Trapp-Familie and Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika, dubbed them in English, and released them as a single 106-minute film titled The Trapp Family, which was released on April 19, 1961.[9]
Jump up ^ Maria's morning run back to Nonnberg Abbey would have been about 11 miles (18 km).
Jump up ^ At the conclusion of filming at Schloss Leopoldskron, 20th Century Fox left behind the original gazebo as a gift to the city. The film's later popularity, however, led many fans to trespass onto the private and secluded lakefront property. To provide fans easier access to the famous structure, the city moved it to its present location at Hellbrunn Palace Park.[64]
Jump up ^ Terpning also created the poster artwork for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Sand Pebbles, The Guns of Navarone, and the 1967 theatrical re-release of Gone with the Wind.[68] He is also known for his numerous magazine covers and his paintings of the American West and the Plains Indians.[68]
Jump up ^ Pauline Kael's review for McCall's generated a significant negative response from readers and contributed to her dismissal from the magazine.[75][76]
Jump up ^ In Salt Lake City, Utah (population 199,300), for example, 309,000 tickets were sold in forty weeks.[79] In Albany, New York (population 156,000), 176,536 tickets were sold in twenty-seven weeks.[79] In Orlando, Florida (population 88,135), 105,181 tickets were sold in thirty-five weeks.[79]
Jump up ^ The Sound of Music remained the highest-grossing film of all time for five years until 1971, when Gone with the Wind recaptured the crown following its successful 1967 widescreen rerelease.


document_title: I Am Legend (film)

question_text: what happened to will smith's family in i am legend

question_tokens: what happened to will smith 's family in i am legend

text: I Am Legend (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 2009, a genetically re-engineered measles virus, originally created as a cure for cancer, turns into a lethal strain which kills 90% of those it infects, mutates 9% into predatory, nocturnal and vampiric mutants, who are extremely vulnerable to sunlight, with only 1% immune. Three years after the outbreak, US Army virologist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville (Will Smith) lives an isolated life in the deserted ruins of New York City, unsure if any other uninfected humans are left in the world.

text: Neville's daily routine includes experimentation on infected rats to find a cure to the virus and venturing through Manhattan to search for food and supplies, as well as waiting each day for any human survivors who have responded to his continuous recorded radio broadcasts, which instruct any uninfected people to meet him at midday at the South Street Seaport.

text: Flashbacks reveal that his wife (Salli Richardson) and daughter (Willow Smith) died in a helicopter accident during the chaotic evacuation of Manhattan, prior to the military-enforced quarantine of the island in 2009, when Neville stayed behind on the island as military personnel.  Neville's only mitigation for his loneliness is his German Shepherd named Samantha, a.k.a. Sam (given to him by his daughter as a puppy to protect him before she died in the helicopter crash), interaction with mannequins he has set up as patrons at a video store, and recordings of old television broadcasts. At night, he barricades himself and Sam inside his heavily fortified Washington Square Park home to hide from the Darkseekers. One day, while waiting for survivors, Sam follows a deer into a dark building. Neville cautiously goes in after her and finds the deer's corpse along with Sam, but the building is infested by a colony of Darkseekers. Both manage to escape unharmed and the attacking Darkseekers are killed by the sunlight.

text: Neville finds a promising treatment derived from his own blood, so he sets a snare trap and captures a female Darkseeker from the colony building, while a male Darkseeker (termed "Alpha Male" in the script, and played by Dash Mihok)[6] tries to go after them, but is blocked by the sunlight and returns to the shadows. Back in his laboratory in the basement of his house, Neville treats the female without success. The next day, he is ensnared in a trap similar to the one he used to capture the female; by the time he manages to escape, the sun is setting and he is attacked by infected dogs. Neville and Sam manage to eliminate them, but Sam is bitten in the fight. Neville injects her with a strand of his serum, but when she shows signs of infection, Neville is forced to strangle her to death. Heartbroken and driven over the edge of insanity by his dog's death, he ventures out and suicidally attacks a group of Darkseekers the next night. He kills a large number of Darkseekers but the rest overwhelm him and he is nearly killed, but is rescued by a pair of immune survivors, Anna (Alice Braga) and a young boy named Ethan (Charlie Tahan), who have traveled from Maryland after hearing one of his broadcasts. They take the injured Neville back to his home, where Anna explains that they survived the outbreak aboard a Red Cross evacuation ship from São Paulo and are making their way to a survivors' camp in Bethel, Vermont. Neville angrily argues that no such survivors' camp exists.

text: Neville once again attempts to administer a potential cure to the infected woman in his laboratory, but the next night, a group of Darkseekers, who had followed Anna and Neville back the night before, attacks the house. Neville, Anna, and Ethan retreat into the basement laboratory, sealing themselves in with the female Darkseeker on which Neville has been experimenting. Discovering that the last treatment was successful, Neville tries to assess the situation as the alpha male deliberately rams himself against a glass door to break in. Neville draws a vial of blood from the woman he cured and gives it to Anna, before shutting her and Ethan inside a coal chute in the back of the lab. He then takes a grenade and kills the Darkseekers at the cost of his own life, saving the cure. The next day, before dusk, Anna and Ethan discover that her theory is right as they arrive at the survivors camp in Vermont. They are greeted by military officers and other human survivors before Anna is shown handing the cure to military personnel.

text: Director's Cut ending[edit]

text: During the lab attack, the alpha male makes a butterfly-shaped smear on the glass. Neville realizes that the alpha male is identifying the female which he was experimenting on by her butterfly tattoo and that it wants her back. Neville puts his gun down and returns the female. Neville and the alpha male stare each other down as the former apologizes to the latter. The alpha male accepts it and the Darkseekers leave. Shocked, Neville looks over the pictures of his numerous test subjects and the implications of his research methods begin to dawn on him. Neville, Anna, and Ethan then drive to the survivors' camp in Vermont with the antidote.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville: A former U.S. Army medical doctor and scientist before the worldwide plague, he loses his wife and daughter in a helicopter crash shortly after Manhattan is quarantined and spends the next three years trying to find a cure while defending himself against the Darkseekers. He is immune to the virus and uses vials of his blood to try to create a cure.
Alice Braga as Anna Montez:[7][8][9] A survivor from Brazil, she spent days harbored on a Red Cross ship in Philadelphia. After the city was overrun, she stayed with Ethan and several other survivors on the ship, but eventually, only Ethan and she survived since they were immune and the others were either infected or killed. She followed Neville's broadcasts to track him.
Charlie Tahan as Ethan: A boy from Philadelphia, who spent time on the Red Cross ship with Anna and accompanied her when the ship was overrun.
Dash Mihok as the Darkseekers' alpha male
Emma Thompson as Dr. Alice Krippin: The doctor who creates the cancer cure, she inadvertently brings mankind to the brink of extinction; Neville dubs the virus "the Krippin virus". Her performance is uncredited.
Salli Richardson as Zoe Neville, Robert's wife
Willow Smith as Marley Neville, Robert's daughter
Joanna Numata as Darkseekers' alpha female
Darrell Foster as Mike
Pat Fraley as voice of the President of the United States
Mike Patton as voices of the Darkseekers

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: The science-fiction horror genre reemerged in the late 1990s.[10] In 1995, Warner Bros. began developing the film project, having owned the rights to Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend since 1970[11] and having already made the 1971 adaptation The Omega Man. Mark Protosevich was hired to write the script after the studio was impressed with his spec script of The Cell. Protosevich's first draft took place in 2000 in San Francisco, and contained many similarities with the finished film, though the Darkseekers (called 'Hemocytes') were civilized to the point of the creatures in The Omega Man and Anna was a lone morphine addict, as well as the fact that a Hemocyte character named Christopher joined forces with Neville. Warner Bros. immediately put the film on the fast track, attaching Neal H. Moritz as producer.[10]

text: Actors Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas,[12] and Mel Gibson[10] had been considered to star in the film,[12] using a script by Protosevich and with Ridley Scott as director; however, by June 1997, the studio's preference was for actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In July, Scott and Schwarzenegger finalized negotiations,[13] with production slated to begin the coming September,[12] using Houston as a stand-in for the film's setting of Los Angeles.[14] Scott had Protosevich replaced by a screenwriter of his own choosing, John Logan, with whom he spent months of intensive work on a number of different drafts. The Scott/Logan version of I Am Legend was a mix of sci-fi and psychological thriller, without dialogue in the first hour and with a sombre ending.[10] The creatures in Logan's version were similar to the Darkseekers of the finished film in their animalistic, barbaric nature. The studio, fearing its lack of commercial appeal and merchandising potential, began to worry about the liberties they had given Scott – then on a negative streak of box office disappointments – and urged the production team to reconsider the lack of action in the screenplay. After an "esoteric" draft by writer Neal Jimenez, Warner Bros. reassigned Protosevich to the project, reluctantly working with Scott again.[10]

text: In December 1997, the project was called into question when the projected budget escalated to $108 million due to media and shareholder scrutiny of the studio in financing a big-budget film.[15] Scott rewrote the script in an attempt to reduce the film's budget by $20 million,[16] but in March 1998, the studio canceled the project due to continued budgetary concerns,[17] and quite possibly to the box office disappointment of Scott's last three films, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall, and G.I. Jane.[10] Likewise, Schwarzenegger's recent films at the time (Eraser and Warner Bros. own Batman & Robin) also underperformed, and the studio's latest experiences with big budget sci-fi movies Sphere and The Postman were negative, as well.[10] In August 1998, director Rob Bowman was attached to the project,[18] with Protosevich hired to write a third all-new draft, far more action-oriented than his previous versions,[10] but the director (who reportedly wished for Nicolas Cage to play the lead) moved on to direct Reign of Fire[19] and the project did not get off the ground.

text: In March 2002, Schwarzenegger became the producer of I Am Legend, commencing negotiations with Michael Bay to direct and Will Smith to star in the film.[20] Bay and Smith were attracted to the project based on a redraft that would reduce its budget.[21] However, the project was shelved due to Warner Bros. president Alan F. Horn's dislike of the script.[22] In 2004, Akiva Goldsman was asked by head of production Jeff Robinov to produce the film.[23] In September 2005, director Francis Lawrence signed on to helm the project, with production slated to begin in 2006. Guillermo del Toro was originally approached to direct by Smith, but turned it down to direct Hellboy II: The Golden Army.[24] Lawrence, whose film Constantine was produced by Goldsman, was fascinated by empty urban environments. He said, "Something's always really excited me about that... to have experienced that much loss, to be without people or any kind of social interaction for that long."[23]

text: Goldsman took on the project as he admired the second I Am Legend film adaptation, The Omega Man.[25] A rewrite was done to distance the project from the other zombie films inspired by the novel,[20] as well as from the recently released 28 Days Later, although Goldsman was inspired by the scenes of a deserted London in the British horror film to create the scenes of a deserted New York City.[25] A 40-page scene-by-scene outline of the film was developed by May 2006. When delays occurred on Smith's film Hancock, which was scheduled for 2007, it was proposed to switch the actor's films. This meant filming would have to begin in 16 weeks: production was given a green light, using Goldsman's script and the outline.[23] Elements from Protosevich's script were introduced, while the crew consulted with experts on infectious diseases and solitary confinement.[25] Rewrites continued throughout filming, because of Smith's improvisational skills and Lawrence's preference to keep various scenes silent.[23] The director had watched Jane Campion's film The Piano with a low volume so as to not disturb his newborn son, and realized that silence could be very effective cinema.[26]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Will Smith signed on to play Robert Neville in April 2006.[27] He said he took on I Am Legend because he felt it could be like "Gladiator [or] Forrest Gump—these are movies with wonderful, audience-pleasing elements, but also uncompromised artistic value. [This] always felt like it had those possibilities to me."[25] The actor found Neville to be his toughest acting challenge since portraying Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001). He said that "when you're on your own, it is kind of hard to find conflict." The film's dark tone and exploration of whether Neville has gone insane during his isolation meant Smith had to restrain himself from falling into a humorous routine during takes.[28] To prepare for his role, Smith visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. He also met with a person who had been in solitary confinement and a former prisoner of war.[29] Smith compared Neville to Job, who lost his children, livelihood, and health. Like the Book of Job, I Am Legend studies the questions, "Can he find a reason to continue? Can he find the hope or desire to excel and advance in life? Or does the death of everything around him create imminent death for himself?"[20] He also cited an influence in Tom Hanks' performance in Cast Away (2000).[25]

text: Abbey and Kona, both three-year-old German Shepherd dogs, played Neville's dog Sam.[30] The rest of the supporting cast consists of Salli Richardson as Zoe, Robert's wife,[31] and Alice Braga as a survivor named Anna.[31] Willow Smith, Will Smith's daughter, makes her film debut as Marley, Neville's daughter.[32] Emma Thompson has an uncredited role as Dr. Alice Krippin, who appears on television explaining her vaccine for cancer that mutates into the virus.[33] Singer Mike Patton provided the guttural screams of the infected "hemocytes", and Dash Mihok provided the character animation for the infected "alpha male". Several filler characters with uncredited roles were in old news broadcasts and flashbacks, such as the unnamed President's voice (Pat Fraley), and the cast of The Today Show.

text: Filming[edit]

text: Akiva Goldsman decided to move the story from Los Angeles to New York City to take advantage of locations that would more easily show emptiness.[11] Goldsman explained, "L.A. looks empty at three o'clock in the afternoon, [but] New York is never empty . . . it was a much more interesting way of showing the windswept emptiness of the world."[28] Warner Bros. initially rejected this idea because of the logistics,[23] but Francis Lawrence was determined to shoot on location, to give the film a natural feel that would benefit from not shooting on soundstages. Lawrence went to the city with a camcorder, and filmed areas filled with crowds. Then, a special effects test was conducted to remove all those people. The test had a powerful effect on studio executives.[26] Michael Tadross convinced authorities to close busy areas such as the Grand Central Terminal viaduct, several blocks of Fifth Avenue, and Washington Square Park.[23] The film was shot primarily in the anamorphic format, with flashback scenes shot in Super 35.[34]

text: Filming began on September 23, 2006.[35] The Marcy Avenue Armory in Williamsburg was used for the interior of Neville's home,[28] while Greenwich Village was used for the exterior.[20] Other locations include the Tribeca section of lower Manhattan, the aircraft carrier Intrepid, the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.[11] Weeds were imported from Florida and were strewn across locations to make the city look like it had been overgrown with them.[23] The closure of major streets was controversial with New Yorkers. Will Smith said, "I don't think anyone's going to be able to do that in New York again anytime soon. People were not happy. That's the most middle fingers I've ever gotten in my career."[20]

text: A bridge scene was filmed for six consecutive nights in January on the Brooklyn Bridge to serve as a flashback scene in which New York's citizens evacuate the city. Shooting the scene consumed $5 million of the film's reported $150 million budget, which was likely the most expensive shoot in the city to date. The scene, which had to meet requirements from 14 government agencies, involved 250 crew members and 1,000 extras, including 160 National Guard members.[36][37] Also present were several Humvees, three Strykers, a 110-foot (34 m) cutter, a 41-foot (12 m) utility boat, and two 25-foot (7.6 m) response boat small craft, as well as other vehicles including taxis, police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances.[38] Filming concluded on March 31, 2007.[35] Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used to depict the main spans of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge collapsing as missiles from passing military jets blew them up to quarantine Manhattan island.

text: Reshoots were conducted around November 2007. Lawrence noted, "We weren't seeing fully rendered shots until about a month ago. The movie starts to take on a whole other life. It's not until later that you can judge a movie as a whole and go, 'Huh, maybe we should shoot this little piece in the middle, or tweak this a little bit.' It just so happened that our re-shoots revolved around the end of the movie."[39]

text: Effects[edit]

text: A week into filming, Francis felt the infected (referred to as "Darkseekers" or "hemocytes" in the script), who were being portrayed by actors wearing prosthetics, were not convincing. His decision to use CGI resulted in an increased budget and extended post-production, although the end results were not always well received.[40][41] The concept behind the infected was that their adrenal glands were open all of the time and Lawrence explained, "They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can't get out of people in the middle of the night when they're barefoot. And their metabolisms are really spiked, so they're constantly hyperventilating, which you can't really get actors to do for a long time or they pass out."[23] The actors remained on set to provide motion capture.[28][42] "The film's producers and sound people wanted the creatures in the movie to sound somewhat human, but not the standard", so Mike Patton, lead singer of Faith No More, was engaged to provide the screams and howls of the infected.[43]

text: In addition, CGI was used for the lions and deer in the film, and to erase pedestrians in shots of New York. Workers visible in windows, spectators, and moving cars in the distance were all removed. In his vision of an empty New York, Lawrence cited John Ford as his influence: "We didn't want to make an apocalyptic movie where the landscape felt apocalyptic. A lot of the movie takes place on a beautiful day. There's something magical about the empty city as opposed to dark and scary that was the ideal that the cast and crew wanted."[25]

text: Release[edit]

text: I Am Legend was originally slated for a November 21, 2007, release in the United States and Canada,[44] but was delayed to December 14.[45] The film opened on December 26, 2007, in the United Kingdom,[46] and Ireland, having been originally scheduled for January 4, 2008.[28]

text: In December 2007, China temporarily suspended the release of all American films in the country,[47] which is believed to have delayed the release of I Am Legend. Will Smith spoke to the chairman of China Film Group about securing a release date, later explaining, "We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in."[29]

text: Premieres were held in Tokyo, New York, and London. At the London premiere in Leicester Square, British comedian and actor Neg Dupree was arrested after pushing his way onto the red carpet and running around shouting "I am Negend!".[48] The stunt was part of his "Neg's Urban Sports" section of comedy game show Balls of Steel.

text: Marketing[edit]

text: The film's teaser was attached to the screenings of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And a tie-in comic from DC Comics and Vertigo Comics has been created, I Am Legend: Awakening.[49] The project draws upon collaboration from Bill Sienkiewicz, screenwriter Mark Protosevich, and author Orson Scott Card. The son of the original book's author, Richard Christian Matheson, also collaborated on the project. The project will advance from the comic to an online format in which animated featurettes (created by the team from Broken Saints) will be shown on the official website.[50]

text: In October 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures, in conjunction with the Electric Sheep Company, launched the online multiplayer game I Am Legend: Survival in the virtual world Second Life. The game is the largest launched in the virtual world in support of a film release, permitting people to play against each other as the infected or the uninfected across a replicated 60 acres (240,000 m2) of New York City.[51] The studio also hired the ad agency Crew Creative to develop a website that would be specifically viewable on the iPhone.[52]

text: Box office[edit]

text: I Am Legend grossed $77,211,321 on its opening weekend in 3,606 theaters, averaging $21,412 per venue, and placing it at the top of the box office. This set a record for highest-grossing opening for a film for December.[53] The film grossed $256,393,010 in North America and a total of $585,349,010 worldwide.[54] The film was the sixth-highest grossing film of 2007 in North America, and as of April 2014, it remained among the top 100 all-time highest-grossing films both domestically and worldwide (unadjusted for ticket price inflation).[54]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The film was released on DVD on March 18, 2008, in two editions: a one-disc release, including the movie with four animated comics ("Death As a Gift", "Isolation", "Sacrificing the Few for the Many", and "Shelter"), and other DVD-ROM features, and a two-disc special edition that includes all these extras, an alternative theatrical version of the movie with an alternate ending,[55] and a digital copy of the film.[56] On the high-definition end, the movie has been released on the Blu-ray Disc format and HD DVD format along with the DVD release, with the HD-DVD version being released later on April 8, 2008.[57] Both HD releases include all the features available in the two-disc DVD edition.[57] A three-disk Ultimate Collector's Edition was also released on December 9, 2008.[58]

text: The film has sold 7.04 million DVDs and earned $126.2 million in revenue, making it the sixth-best-selling DVD of 2008.[59] However, Warner Bros. was reportedly "a little disappointed" with the film's performance on the DVD market.[60]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
I Am Legend
Film score by James Newton HowardReleased
January 15, 2008Length
44:00Label
Varèse SarabandeProducer
James Newton HowardJames Newton Howard chronology

The Water HorseString Module Error: Match not foundString Module Error: Match not found

I Am Legend

text: The soundtrack for I Am Legend was released on January 15, 2008, under the record label Varèse Sarabande. The music was composed by James Newton Howard. This Also features Bob Marley songs Redemption Song,Three Little Birds and I Shot The Sheriff

text: I Am Legend SoundtrackNo.TitleLength1."My Name Is Robert Neville"2:502."Deer Hunting"1:163."Evacuation"4:264."Scan Her Again"1:415."Darkseeker Dogs"2:166."Sam's Gone"1:457."Talk to Me"0:558."The Pier"5:179."Can They Do That?"2:0910."I'm Listening"2:0911."The Jagged Edge"5:1512."Reunited"7:4913."I'm Sorry"2:2114."Epilogue"4:13Total length:44:00

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film had an approval rating of 69% based on 211 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "I Am Legend overcomes questionable special effects and succeeds largely on the strength of Will Smith's mesmerizing performance."[61] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[62]

text: A. O. Scott wrote that Will Smith gave a "graceful and effortless performance" and also noted the "third-act collapse". He felt that the movie "does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization".[63] Dana Stevens of Slate wrote that the movie lost its way around the hour mark, noting that "the Infected just aren't that scary."[33] NPR critic Bob Mondello noted the film's subtext concerning global terrorism and that this aspect made the film fit in perfectly with other, more direct cinematic explorations of the subject.[64] Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review on the television program At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, commending Will Smith as being in "prime form", also saying there are "some amazing sequences" and that there was "a pretty heavy screenplay for an action film."[65] The film has been criticized for diverging from Matheson's novel, especially in its portrayal of a specifically Christian theme.[66] Much of the negative criticism concerned the film's third act,[40][41][67] with some critics favoring the alternative ending in the DVD release.[55] Doug Walker said the alternate ending was "powerful, thought provoking, and challenging", and the theatrical ending was "a betrayal" and "castration" of both the film's tone and of what made the original story so impactful.[68]

text: Popular Mechanics published an article on December 14, 2007,[69] addressing some of the scientific issues raised by the film:

text:
the rate of deterioration of urban structures, infrastructure, and survival of fauna and flora
the plausibility of a retrovirus spreading out of control as depicted in the film (The measles virus depicted in the film, however, is not a retrovirus, but is in fact a part of the Paramyxovirus family.)
the mechanics of the Brooklyn Bridge's destruction

tag: ol

text: The magazine solicited reactions from Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us, virologist W. Ian Lipkin, MD, and Michel Bruneau, PhD, comparing their predictions with the film's depictions. The article raised the most questions regarding the virus' mutation and the medical results, and pointed out that a suspension bridge like the Brooklyn Bridge would likely completely collapse rather than losing only its middle span. Neville's method of producing power using gasoline-powered generators seemed the most credible: "This part of the tale is possible, if not entirely likely," Popular Mechanics editor Roy Berendsohn says.

text: Philosopher Slavoj Zizek criticized the film politically as being the most regressive adaptation from the novel. He said that while the original novel had a progressive multicultural message where Neville became a "legend" to the new creatures and is subsequently killed by them (much like vampires were legends to humans), the 2007 film finds a cure for the Darkseekers and it is delivered by a survivor through apparent divine intervention. According to Zizek, this misses the original message and "openly opt[s] for religious fundamentalism."[70]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
I Am Legend earned four nominations for the Visual Effects Society awards,[71] and was also nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards,[72] Outstanding Film and Actor at the Image Awards,[73] and Best Sound at the Satellite Awards. In June 2008, Will Smith won a Saturn Award for Best Actor.[74]
Will Smith also won the MTV Movie Awards for Best Male Performance.[75]

text: Future[edit]

text: Director Francis Lawrence said in 2008 that there would be a prequel and that Will Smith would be reprising his role. The plot of the film would reveal what happened to Neville before the infected took over New York. D. B. Weiss was hired to write the script, while Lawrence was in negotiations to return as director on the contingent that the story was interesting enough. Smith later discussed the premise, which would have his character and a team going from New York City to Washington, D.C., as they made their last stand against those infected with the virus.[76] The film would again explore the premise of what it is like to be alone. Lawrence stated, "... the tough thing is, how do we do that again and in a different way?"[77] In May 2011, Francis Lawrence stated that the prequel was no longer in development saying, "I don't think that's ever going to happen."[78]

text: In 2012, Warner Bros. announced that negotiations had been made to produce another installment, with the intention of having Will Smith reprise his role.[79] In April 2014, the studio attained a script entitled A Garden at the End of the World, described as a post-apocalyptic variation of The Searchers. Studio executives found so many similarities to I Am Legend in the screenplay, they had the writer Gary Graham rewrite it so it could serve as the next film. Serving as a reboot of the story, the studio hopes to create a franchise of films. Will Smith, who is known for his reluctance to appear in sequels,[80] has not commented on whether he will appear or not.[80]

text: Bibliography[edit]

text: I Am Legend, Richard Matheson, Tor Books; Reissue edition (October 30, 2007), ISBN 0-7653-1874-1


document_title: List of Ed, Edd n Eddy characters

question_text: who plays jimmy on ed edd and eddy

question_tokens: who plays jimmy on ed edd and eddy

text: List of Ed, Edd n Eddy characters

text: Creation

text: According to cartoonist and Ed, Edd n Eddy creator Danny Antonucci, he based the characters on real people in his life; the personalities of Ed, Edd, and Eddy are based on his own traits, and the activities of his two sons while the cul-de-sac children and the Kanker sisters were all based on children he grew up with.[1] Rolf is based on himself and his cousins, since he was part of an immigrant family, and grew up in a first generation foreign household with different customs and ways of living, compared to those born in Canada.[2] Jimmy is based on one of his cousins, who spent most of his time playing with girls than boys and was rather feminine.[3] Jonny and Plank are inspired by one of Antonucci's childhood friends, a loner who spent most of his time outside with his blanket.[3] He stated that he believed it was important to add Plank, a board of wood, to the show, and that he "thought it would be really cool to do the show with Plank taking on a character of his own" and to cause Jonny to do things he would usually never do.[1] Some wanted Plank to be able to talk, smile and blink as if he was alive, but Antonucci insisted that it should be treated as a piece of wood, brought to life by Jonny's imagination.[3]

text: All the children have multicolored tongues; Antonucci said that the idea came after he saw his son and his friends with different-colored tongues because of eating different candy while he was working on a storyboard.[3] The characters went through a number of "walking cycles", a process used to determine how each character should walk or run, turn around, blink, etc. before the crew came up with the final product.[3]

text: Protagonists

text: Eddy

text: Eddy (Tony Sampson) is the self-appointed leader of the Eds. He is arrogant, selfish, loud-mouthed, immature, greedy, and hot-tempered. He loves money, jawbreakers (which he likes to spend his ill-earned money on), dirty magazines (as hinted in "Luck of the Ed"), his room, and Chunky Puffs. Eddy ordinarily comes up with the plans for scamming people, but they usually fail, much to his frustration. Eddy will often, especially in the early seasons, slack off by suntanning or drinking a soda while his fellow Eds do all the work. His prized possessions include his magazines, king-sized bed, and disco ball. He also has a Barry White album and is a fan of Tom Jones. Eddy is the shortest of the Eds and takes this very seriously, hating the thought of people calling him short, suggesting he may have a Napoleon complex. Eddy sometimes boasts about his older brother and uses this to his advantage to gain respect. Like Kevin, Eddy can be cruel and acerbic, with a tendency to tease his peers, but deep down, Eddy only wants to be liked by everyone.

text: Edd (Double D)

text: Edd (Samuel Vincent) is the smartest of the Eds and the most polite, mature, and considerate of the three. As a result, he is more socially accepted  by the rest of the kids than Ed and Eddy, usually acting as a peacemaker or offering the rest of the kids advice. To differentiate his homophonic name from Ed and Eddy, he is referred to as Double-D. Edd has a high IQ and is top of the class in most subjects at school, though he is the physically weakest of the Eds and despises P.E. and other sporting activities. As the most creative of the trio, he is able to construct things like planes, rocket cars, and roller coasters with junk he comes across and enjoys doing so. He also is able to play pedal steel guitar, but does not like to do so often. He often speaks using complex words and struggles to speak normally in high anxiety situations. His clothing usually consists of an red/orange shirt, purple shorts, red socks, and cyan shoes. He sleeps in a footed onesie, and in the later seasons and the movie, he wears a tie when going to school. He more famously wears a black ski hat with two white lines on each side of it. It is unknown what lies under Edd's hat; Ed and Eddy see Edd twice without his hat on. Whatever his hat hides, Edd is self-conscious about it, caving in whenever Eddy says that he will use it as leverage. He is also self-conscious about a significant gap in his front teeth, thanks to Eddy poking fun at it.  He is the only one of the trio to be an only child, and his parents leave sticky notes around his house as a means of communicating with him.

text: Like the other two Eds, Edd's personality is largely based upon series creator Danny Antonucci, who has said "there's my Edd side, neurotic, analytical, must be organized. Also if Eddy and Ed (single D) were not around, Edd would be happy with his own company, something that works for me too." Antonucci has also explained that the habit of Double Dee's parents to communicate with him through sticky notes was based on a habit of his own parents.[4]

text: Ed

text: Ed (Matt Hill) is the strong, airheaded, and usually quite random dogsbody of the group who has very short hair. He wears a red-and-white striped shirt, a green jacket with two white stripes on each sleeve and purple-blue jeans. His skin is yellow, unlike the other characters, and he is known to laugh a lot and is happy most of the time. Ed has amazing physical strength, which is humorously worked into many of the show's plots.[5] He has no chin and a prominent unibrow (which has led to the nicknames of "Funnelhead" and "Monobrow" by Eddy). His mind is a subculture grab-bag full of comics and monster movies,[5] which he often confuses with reality, and which leads him to speak in non sequiturs almost all the time. Ed (to the misfortune of many people) is utterly at the mercy of his tyrannical younger sister Sarah and is an easy target of her manipulations, with Sarah threatening to tell their mother if she does not get her way.

text: Ed is kindhearted, good-natured, and has a positive attitude towards almost everything and everyone, even to those who are not accommodating to him. He cares about the welfare of the other two Eds. He often sacrifices himself for his two best friends, the other cul-de-sac children, and even Sarah, for whom he cares deeply, though she treats him badly. He is absentminded and naive, making him the perfect candidate to help Eddy with his scams, as Ed hardly ever questions them. Even so, Ed never feels abused by Eddy.

text: Ed enjoys buttered toast, gravy, cereal (namely Chunky Puffs), pudding skin, chickens, comics and monster movies. Much to the dismay of mysophobic Edd, he has poor personal hygiene, even to the point of being terrified of soap and liking the smell of sweaty boots. Though the Eds were outcasts throughout the series, in the series' TV movie finale Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, the three become friends with all the cul-de-sac children; even Sarah starts treating Ed nicely.[6]

text: Creator Danny Antonucci explained Ed's inspiration saying, "Ed is...me, following his own path and slightly dysfunctional, a daydreamer who while people are doing one thing, will be busy thinking of another."[4] He also described Ed as "slow, living in his own world and he really doesn't fit in with the rest of the crowd,"[7] and explained that it was hard to decide who would voice him.[8] Ed ended up being voiced by Matt Hill.[8]

text: Supporting characters

text: Jonny

text: Jonny, also known as Jonny 2x4 (David Paul Grove), is a loner and considered by his peers to be a nuisance.[5] Jonny is often made fun of for his big head (Eddy usually refers to him as "Melonhead") and has a tendency of getting his head caught in branches when climbing trees. He talks a lot, and frequently gets on the other kids' nerves. He is rarely seen without his imaginary friend, a 2x4 wooden board with drawn-on eyes and a mouth, aptly named Plank.[5] Jonny seems innocent and gullible, and often forgives people no matter what they do. He does not seem to mind the antics of the Eds, and is often the most friendly out of all the cul-de-sac kids towards them. He is very protective of Plank, and will burst into acts of bravery or extreme aggression if Plank is stolen or harmed in some way. He does not seem to acknowledge that Plank is just an inanimate, silent, 2x4 piece of wood, and when asked for help with an imaginary friend, he claimed to have no clue what the Eds are talking about. He and Plank both have superhero alter egos (Captain Melonhead and Splinter the Wonderwood, respectively), which they assumed twice throughout the series; first in "Robbin' Ed" to thwart Eddy's "Thingamajig" scam and to fight Eddy's own one-time only alter ego, Professor Scam, and then in "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show" to hunt down and get revenge on the Eds. After "Big Picture Show," he and Plank become The Gourd and Timber the Dark Shard in order to take revenge on the entire cul-de-sac.

text: Jimmy

text: Jimmy (Keenan Christenson) is an insecure child, with a propensity to cry, and Sarah's best friend whom he is most often seen spending his time with.[5] Jimmy is highly accident-prone, often seen sporting bandages, casts, and braces (particularly headgear), and is considered the weakest kid in the cul-de-sac.[5] Though Jimmy has a cowardly, delicate, and effeminate personality, he truly wishes to be strong and muscular, and many episodes demonstrate his desire for fame and stardom. He can be crafty when motivated, and had twice made scams that were very successful. Jimmy has shown how deeply attached he is to Sarah when someone tries to take her away from him. For most of the series he wore a retainer to correct his teeth,[5] due to a bowling pin accident during one of Eddy's scams.

text: Sarah

text: Sarah (Janyse Jaud) is Ed's grouchy, abusive, spoiled, short-tempered, whiny, and extremely selfish younger sister who acts cute and kind to the Eds only when it suits her. She is commonly depicted with a disgruntled facial expression and treats her intimidated, trembling older brother, frightened by his sister's constant threats of tattling on him, with complete disdain. Imposing, Sarah frequently orders people (sometimes even those of higher rightful authority than her) around, and her desires often have to be met or else she will fling herself into a violent temper tantrum or threaten the person in question. Throughout the course of the series, Sarah has been shown to possess an infatuation with Edd, but still occasionally subjects him to abuse due to guilt by association with the other Eds.

text: Kevin

text: Kevin (Kathleen Barr) is a stereotypical jock.[5] He is cynical, sarcastic and can be cruel at times.[5] Kevin has a garage full of jawbreakers, due to the fact that his father works at a jawbreaker factory. He loves customizing his bike, skateboards, and snowboards. When not riding his trusty bike, he usually hangs out with Rolf and Nazz in the Lane. He hates the Eds to the point of paranoia, but his animosity towards them is mostly geared towards Eddy; the two are mortal enemies and often go entirely out of their way to humiliate or physically harm each other at the first opportunity (with Eddy referring to Kevin as "Shovel Chin"). He tends to call the Eds "dorks" and has a habit of coming up with words merged with "dork" to suit the situation. Like Edd, Kevin normally wears a hat and rarely takes it off; in the episode "Boys Will be Eds", Kevin takes off his hat for the first time and is shown to be bald, though a flashback episode reveals that he used to have long hair. In some episodes, he is shown to have a great fear of Eddy's brother; Eddy knows this and frequently uses his brother as leverage against Kevin.

text: Rolf

text: Rolf (Peter Kelamis) is a quirky, odd, and usually happy immigrant[5] of an undetermined origin and culture with odd customs (which he displays frequently, and it often involves a wide variety of meat) and has a thick accent to match.[5] He works on his parents' small farm within the cul-de-sac, and leads a scouting group called the "Urban Rangers," which includes Jimmy, Plank, and Jonny. Rolf usually refers to himself in third person, as well as being the son of a shepherd, in which he takes pride. His faithful farm animals are three pigs (one named Wilfred), a goat named Victor, at least six chickens (two named Bridget and Gertrude), a cow named Beatrice, and five sheep. He appears to be friendly with the Eds (whom he calls the "Ed boys") unless they make a fool out of him or offend him in some way, after which he is not afraid to use brute force. He seems to be very muscular, but this is usually only shown when he is angry. Rolf confuses the rest of the kids to no end with his unusual customs and food-making.

text: Nazz

text: Nazz Van Bartonschmeer (Tabitha St. Germain; Jenn Forgie; Erin Fitzgerald) is a good-natured, sweet, mature yet somewhat ditzy, fashionable local girl who normally treats her peers (including the Eds) respectfully; however, when antagonized she will react violently to the cause of her agitation or partake in harming the Eds as discipline for an alleged misdeed that they have committed. A majority of the male characters featured in the series are smitten with her, and an entire episode once chronicled their many failed attempts at wooing her. She also possesses a number of humorous eccentricities, such as the ability to yodel, substandard skills at playing a rather large tuba and is often depicted with poor table etiquette. Edd seems to be the Ed that Nazz is closest to, as he was the first character she'd kissed in the series in "The Day the Ed Stood Still", took him trick-or-treating in the Halloween special, and got him to dance with her at the school dance in "May I Have this Ed?". She appears to have a crush on Kevin, though he is mostly oblivious to this; he favors his bike more. Although the most mature of the neighborhood kids, she occasionally displays traits of the stereotypical "dumb blonde". She is presumably of Dutch descent, based on her surname.

text: Other characters

text: Kanker Sisters

text: Lee (Janyse Jaud), Marie (Kathleen Barr), and May (Erin Fitzgerald; Jenn Forgie) are three half-sisters who serve as the main antagonists towards the cul-de-sac and its inhabitants.[5] Lee is the leader with curly red hair that covers her eyes, Marie has blue hair, and May is the buck-toothed blonde. They live in the nearby trailer park[5] called Park 'n' Flush. The mere presence of the Kankers is enough to terrify the cul-de-sac residents, and they have been shown to have volatile and destructive tempers. While all the Kankers supposedly like the Eds,[5] it has been shown that May prefers Ed, Marie prefers Edd, and Lee prefers Eddy. Throughout the series, each of the Kankers repeatedly get the Eds and privately force themselves onto them with romantic intention, much to their horror.

text: Eddy's Brother

text: Eddy's Brother (Terry Klassen) is mentioned frequently throughout the series, mostly by Eddy, though his name is never revealed. Eddy mentions how his brother taught him much about how to scam, and to be a con artist, and throughout the series many of the children are shown to have a great fear and respect for him. He was previously an unseen character, but he finally makes an appearance in the movie Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show. Eddy's brother at first seems to be everything the other kids imagined, but it turns out that all of the folklore surrounding him was made up by Eddy to impress the other kids, and in reality he is a sadistic individual who refers to Eddy as a "pipsqueak" and bullies him mercilessly, which ultimately caused Eddy to become who he is. He works at the "Mondo a-Go Go" amusement park, but his specific job is unknown.

text: Reception, appearances in other media and merchandising

text:
In 2004, the Eds also appeared in a short series of basketball commercials with NBA All-Star Steve Francis.[9] All three Eds have been the main roles in four Ed, Edd n Eddy-based video games, including Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers! (2002),[10] Ed, Edd n Eddy: Giant Jawbreakers (2004),[11] Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures (2005),[12] and Ed, Edd n Eddy: Scam of the Century (2007),
[13] as well as appearing as playable characters in a number of Cartoon Network-based video games, including 2003's Cartoon Network: Block Party[14] and Cartoon Network Speedway.[15] All three Eds appear as Non-playable characters in the MMOG Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.[16] They also appear as Nanos (items that help the user or his/her party).[16] The Eds and Sarah have also been free toys in children's meals for Subway.[17] The three have also appeared on a number of Ed, Edd n Eddy T-shirts available for purchase on the Cartoon Network Shop.[18]  A series of Ed, Edd n Eddy DVDs have been released.[19][20][21][22]
The three have made a cameo appearance in a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode, along with Dexter of Dexter's Laboratory,[23] and in a crossover of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Codename: Kids Next Door entitled "The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door."[24] Ed appeared in the "Cartoon Network Elections 2004" with Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as a team, and they ended up winning, due to the highest number of votes by viewers.[25]