title: Amway

text: "Dateline's story on Quixtar boiled down to the complaints of three former Independent Business Owners (IBOs) – one of whom is a competitor – and ignored the hundreds of thousands of IBOs powered by Quixtar who are achieving their goals."


title: ALF (TV series)

text: The title character is ALF (an acronym for "Alien Life Form" whose real name is Gordon Shumway) who crash-lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family. The series stars Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. ALF was performed by puppeteer Paul Fusco, who co-created the show with Tom Patchett. However, in the scenes in which the character appeared in full body, a small costumed actor was briefly used (then uncredited in that role), the Hungarian-born Michu Meszaros.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Produced by Alien Productions, "ALF" ran for four seasons and produced 99 episodes, including three one-hour episodes ("Try to Remember", "ALF's Special Christmas" and "Tonight, Tonight") that were divided into two parts for syndication, totaling 102 episodes. The series proper concluded with an unresolved cliffhanger, but a later TV movie, "Project: ALF", served as a series finale for the franchise.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In August 2018, Warner Bros. Television announced development of an "ALF" reboot. These plans were cancelled in November of that year. In February 2022, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired distribution rights to the "ALF" titles, and would "develop new "ALF"-related content."


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Gordon Shumway is an alien from the planet Melmac who follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners, a suburban middle-class family who live in the San Fernando Valley area of California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory) and their pet cat Lucky (whom Gordon wishes to consume). Willie Tanner gives Gordon the nickname ALF ("Alien Life Form").


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force (part of the U.S. military specializing in aliens) and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John La Motta and Liz Sheridan), until ALF can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed ALF's home planet Melmac exploded, due to nuclear war. In the season one episode "Pennsylvania 6-5000", ALF tries to convince the President of the United States to stop the nuclear program, as ALF fears Earth might suffer a fate similar to Melmac's, though miscalculating his words causes the President and national security to call the FBI to arrest Willie. ALF was off the planet when it was destroyed because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF is homeless, but is not the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock, survivor guilt, general boredom, despair and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners. Despite the problems and inconveniences his presence brings into their lives, they grow to love him, though some episodes make it clear they are also afraid of how their lives would be turned upside down if word got out he has been living with them.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: While most of the science fiction of "ALF" was played for comedic value, there were a few references to actual topics in space exploration; for example, ALF uses a radio signal as a beacon in the pilot episode. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF tells Brian, who is building a model of the solar system for his science project, that there are two planets beyond Pluto called "Dave" and "Alvin" (as in David Seville and Alvin from the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" franchise), which gets Brian in trouble at school. However, after ALF makes a call to an astronomical organization and states that "Dave" "is" known by the organization, Willie comes to believe that "Dave" could be the planetoid Chiron or "Object Kowal". ALF then shows Willie exactly where "Dave" is on an intergalactic map of the universe.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Episodes dealt with ALF learning about Earth and making new friends both within and outside the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's widowed mother Dorothy (Anne Meara) with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship, her boyfriend (and later husband) Whizzer (Paul Dooley), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake), a psychologist named Larry (Bill Daily) and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) who never figures out that ALF is not human (although she is aware through touch that he is short and hairy).


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Changes occur within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (the reason for adding a baby in the series being that Anne Schedeen was pregnant at the time); ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie converted into an "apartment" and the death of Lucky in season four's "Live and Let Die"; in this instance, as ALF finds, despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, as cats are the equivalent of cattle on Melmac, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains. When ALF acquires a new cat with the intent of eating it, he actually grows fond of it and allows it to be adopted by the family, although he admits to the Tanners he has become the worst kind of Melmackian, a "cat lover". In the 1996 movie "Project ALF", which stars ALF after his capture by the USAF, the Tanners do not appear – they have relocated to Iceland.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Producer Bernie Brillstein was approached to see Fusco's audition with a puppet character but was initially uninterested, having managed Jim Henson for years and regarding Henson as the best puppeteer in showbiz. However, Fusco's brief performance as ALF won over Brillstein, who thought the character was hilarious and strong enough to be the focus of a series.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Fusco co-produced the series with Tom Patchett. Patchett also co-created, wrote, and directed the series. The series was first syndicated by Warner Bros. Television and Lorimar-Telepictures. The US syndication rights were eventually passed over to Debmar-Mercury when its parent company, Lionsgate, owned home video rights. Now Shout! Factory controls all distribution rights to the series.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Due to the inherent nature of producing a show featuring hand-operated puppets ("à la" Jim Henson's "The Muppet Show"), "ALF" was technically difficult and extremely demanding on series creator Fusco as well as its four lead actors. All confirmed during a 2000 "People" magazine interview that there were constantly high levels of tension on the set. Max Wright stated that he despised supporting a technically demanding inanimate object that received most of the good lines of dialogue. He admitted to being "hugely eager to have "ALF" over with." Artie Lange, who later worked with Wright on "The Norm Show", told of a time when Wright had become "crazed" and physically attacked ALF, causing producers to have to pull Wright off the puppet. Anne Schedeen said that on the last night of taping the final episode, "there was one take and Max walked off the set, went to his dressing room, got his bags, went to his car and disappeared... There were no goodbyes." Schedeen herself said "there was no joy on the set...it was a technical nightmare – extremely slow, hot and tedious... A 30-minute show took 20, 25 hours to shoot." While fond of her on-screen children, Schedeen said some adults had "difficult personalities. The whole thing was a big dysfunctional family." Schedeen added, "It's astonishing that "ALF" really was wonderful and that word never got out what a mess our set really was." Andrea Elson, who suffered from bulimia during the second season of shooting, stated, "If "ALF" had gone one more year, everybody would have lost it." Wright later admitted that as the years passed he looked back at "ALF" with less animosity and conceded that "It doesn't matter what I felt or what the days were like, "ALF" brought people a lot of joy." In reference to the tension, Fusco commented in 2012 that "It was just the nature of the beast. There was no way we could have made it go any further or any faster," he insisted. "I think it was frustrating that it would take so long, but people got paid for what they did. Despite what people thought, that there was a lot of tension on set, there really wasn't."


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Fusco was notoriously secretive about his character up until the series' premiere. During the show's production, Fusco refused to acknowledge that the puppet ALF was anything other than an alien. All involved with the production were cautioned not to reveal any of ALF's production secrets.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: The set was built on a platform raised four feet above the ground, with trap doors constructed at many points so that ALF could appear almost anywhere; Fusco operated him from underneath, so the unoccupied holes all over the floor were deep and treacherous. The trap doors had to be reset multiple times, sometimes during a single scene. Principal puppeteer Paul Fusco (who was mainly left-handed when puppeteering) used his left hand to control ALF's mouth, while his right hand controlled ALF's right arm. Another puppeteer, Lisa Buckley, who would go on to perform on "Sesame Street", assisted Fusco beneath the stage, operating ALF's left arm. At times when ALF's full body was shown in the sitting position, Lisa controlled ALF's left hand by cable allowing slight finger movements. There was additionally a third puppeteer, Bob Fappiano, who controlled ALF's facial and ear movements via a radio control offscreen. During tapings, Fusco would wear a head-mounted microphone to record ALF's voice. The process resulted in numerous mistakes and retakes, making it impossible to record "ALF" in front of a live audience. A laugh track was added during post-production.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: To avoid wear and tear on the principal ALF puppet, the performers rehearsed with a crude early version of ALF, nicknamed "RALF" For ("Rehearsal Alien Life Form"). Fusco did not like to rehearse, and would often substitute his hand or RALF for the real ALF puppet during rehearsals.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In an interview on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", Tina Fey said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th-anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were hidden from everyone else. After ALF's cameo alongside former "Family Ties" star Michael Gross, ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately removed from the building.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: While a puppet was usually used for ALF, there were some shots of the tiny alien running or walking around. This was accomplished by the 2' 9" (84 cm) actor Michu Meszaros wearing an ALF costume. This can be seen in one of the series' intros, which concludes with the Tanner family getting their picture taken; ALF (played by Meszaros) walks over to be part of the photo. However, Meszaros' services became too costly as well as time-consuming, and the full ALF costume was abandoned after the first season.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: "ALF" scored its highest ratings during Season 2 (reaching tenth place in the Nielsen ratings). Ratings remained at a steady fifteenth place during Season 3, but plummeted to 39th place during Season 4. NBC moved the show from its traditional Monday night slot to Saturday in March 1990 and eventually moved to Sunday, but ratings continued to fall.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: The season-ending cliffhanger "Consider Me Gone" became an unintentional series finale when NBC gave Alien Productions a verbal commitment for a fifth season, but ultimately withdrew its support. ABC resolved the cliffhanger on February 17, 1996, with the TV movie "Project: ALF". NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff later told Fusco that the network regretted cancelling "ALF" prematurely, saying "It was a big mistake that we cancelled your show, because you guys had at least one or two more seasons left."


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Fusco commented in 2007 that his most enjoyable experience on "ALF" was sitting in the Writers' Room and pitching jokes while pushing the limit as to what NBC censors would allow. Fusco commented that, "the greatest things were the jokes we "couldn't" put in the show." Specifically, puns dealing with ALF eating cats and other pets were problematic after NBC reported that a child placed a cat in a microwave after watching the show. In the pilot episode "A.L.F.", ALF is seen consuming a beer with Brian. Fusco defended the premise saying that "ALF is 285 years old, he can drink beer, he's old enough." However, as "ALF" became more popular with children, NBC told Fusco "you can't have him drinking; the kids are watching, it's a bad role model." Even though Fusco believed that ALF was "an adult: he can do it," the alcohol consumption concept was discarded by the end of the first season. with the exception of the episode "Varsity Drag" where he inspires an alcoholic to check into rehab after a night of drinking with her and making her think he was a hallucination. The cat-eating concept carried sporadically into the second season, with references including the "wedding cat" in the episode "Something's Wrong With Me," the Melmacian equivalent of a wedding cake.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: For the hour-long season 1 episode, "Try to Remember," originally broadcast on February 9, 1987, ALF tries to simulate a jacuzzi by bringing Kate's electric mixer into the bathtub, thus receiving an electrical shock that caused amnesia. Fusco ended the original episode with a public service announcement from ALF himself, warning of the dangers of mixing water and electricity. Despite this, NBC reported that a child attempted to recreate the scenario and nearly electrocuted himself in the process (Fusco confirmed that the child was unharmed); Fusco was forced to refilm the opening sequence, replacing the electric mixer with a manual egg beater. ALF's amnesia is instead caused by a cranial concussion received after slipping in the shower (a "thud" is heard rather than a "zap"), with all mentions of being shocked either overdubbed with new dialogue or deleted entirely (including ALF's public service announcement). This edited version was used for a Fall 1988 rebroadcast, as well as all future U.S. and Canadian syndicated airings.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In 2010, blooper footage surfaced in which ALF was made to deliver racial jokes and sexual comments. He was actually mocking a then-recent episode of "L.A. Law" dealing with Tourette syndrome. Asked to comment, producer Steve Lamar stated that the footage was from an era when things were not so "ridiculously PC".


title: ALF (TV series)

text: "ALF" was very popular in Germany after it began airing on ZDF. The actor who dubbed ALF's voice in German, Tommi Piper, recorded two albums and four singles as ALF between 1988 and 1991.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Between 2004 and 2006, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released all four seasons of "ALF" on DVD in Region 1. All releases contained syndicated versions, with running times of 21 minutes, compared to the original length of 24 minutes. Episodes are arranged in production order, rather than broadcast order. However, the 60-minute episodes "Try to Remember" and "ALF's Special Christmas" (from season one and season two, respectively), were presented in their original hour-long formats (though "Try to Remember" was presented in its censored version and "ALF's Special Christmas" has a minor scene using the song "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" excised). The 60-minute episode "Tonight, Tonight", however, was split into two parts for syndication. The season four episode "Make 'Em Laugh" was presented in nearly its original length, with a single line of dialogue edited out.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: The "To Be Continued..." disclaimer was also removed from the series finale, "Consider Me Gone", as NBC canceled "ALF" after its initial airing.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In addition, most copyrighted music was excised from selected shows, shortening the running time by up to six minutes. (The DVD release of "The Odd Couple" also suffered from this practice.)


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Lionsgate insisted they had to utilize syndicated versions for the DVD release of "ALF", saying it would be cost prohibitive to remaster the original NBC-TV broadcast versions for release. This resulted in heavy criticism.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Video Service Corporation previously released two other DVDs of "ALF". "The ALF Files" was released exclusively in Canada on November 1, 2002. The hour-long episodes "Try to Remember", "ALF's Special Christmas" and "Tonight, Tonight" were presented in their original hour-long format. "Try to Remember", however, contains the re-edited version pertaining to ALF's electric shock in the bathtub.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: On September 13, 2005, "Project: ALF" was released. Both DVDs featured optional commentary by creator Paul Fusco, with co-creator Tom Patchett joining him on the first release.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: On February 24, 2022, it was announced that Shout! Factory acquired the distribution rights to the series.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Warner Home Video released the first season of "ALF" in Germany on September 4, 2009, and in the Netherlands and France on September 9. The DVDs are in PAL format, with English-language menus. The language selections available are English, French, German and Spanish (except for season 2 which, despite being dubbed, oddly doesn't feature Spanish, and the episode "Tonight, Tonight" which had not dubbed into German), with subtitles available in French, Dutch, Spanish, English and German.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: The episodes span four discs and are complete, unlike their American edited counterparts, with a few exceptions:


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In Region 4, Warner Home Video released the first two seasons of "ALF" on DVD in Australia and New Zealand on April 7, 2010. Seasons 3 and 4 have yet to get released in Region 4.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In the U.S., "ALF" has won numerous awards. In 1987, the show won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Program; in 1988 it won Favorite Show at the Kids' Choice Awards; and at the 1989 Kids' Choice Awards, ALF himself won Favorite TV Actor. Benji Gregory and Andrea Elson were also nominated in various Young Actor categories for their work on ALF at the Young Artist Awards during 1987–1989, with the show also receiving a nomination for Best Family Television Series.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Reruns of "ALF" entered off-network syndication in September 1990 when NBC replaced it with "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". Repeats of the show debuted on cable in 1999 on the Odyssey Network, remaining on the schedule after Hallmark took full control and airing until 2002. It also ran on Nick at Nite for a short time in 2001, and aired on the Hub Network from 2012 to 2014.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In the Philippines, the show aired on GMA Network with a simulcast on ABS-CBN and RPN-9 from 1986-1990. It moved to ABC-5, where it aired while dubbed in Tagalog from 1999-2002.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: To capitalize on the success of the series, a spin-off animated series was produced, airing Saturday mornings on NBC. "ALF: The Animated Series", set on ALF's home planet of Melmac, ran from 1987 to 1988 and was produced by DIC Entertainment. This was a prequel series, set on Melmac before the planet exploded. The show focused on ALF, his family, his friends, and girlfriend Rhonda and their various exploits. Each episode was book-ended by a live-action sequence involving ALF talking to the television viewers, setting up the episode and commenting on it afterward. When the cartoon entered its second season, it was paired in a one-hour block with its own spin-off "ALF Tales", which took Gordon and the cast of characters from season one, and recast them as characters from assorted classic fairy tales.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Select episodes of both shows are included as special features on the "ALF: Season 2" DVD as well as the cartoon-specific releases "ALF Animated Adventures – 20,000 Years in Driving School and Other Stories" and "ALF and The Beanstalk and Other Classic Fairy Tales".


title: ALF (TV series)

text: In 2004, "ALF's Hit Talk Show" debuted on U.S. cable channel TV Land, which featured ALF as a Johnny Carson-type TV talk-show host and co-starring Ed McMahon as his sidekick. Guests included Drew Carey, Tom Green, and Merv Griffin. It ran for seven episodes.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: Following the end of the series a made-for-television movie was produced, in 1996, intending to give the series a proper end. "Project: ALF" starts right after the series final episode but, especially because of the absence of the Tanners, it failed at obtaining success.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: On May 21, 2012, Paul Fusco said he was pitching an "ALF" movie. In August 2012, it was reported that Sony Pictures Animation had acquired the rights to ALF and would develop the property into a CGI-Live action hybrid feature. "The Smurfs" producer Jordan Kerner, would also produce the film, along with Tom Patchett and Paul Fusco.


title: ALF (TV series)

text: On August 1, 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. would produce an "ALF" reboot. The reboot would have likely focused on ALF returning to Earth, with a new family and characters. In November 2018, it was reported that the reboot was cancelled.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: Paresh Rawal (born 30 May 1955) is an Indian actor, comedian, film producer and politician known for his works notably in Hindi films, and Telugu, and a few Gujarati and a few Tamil films. He has appeared in over 240 films and is the recipient of various accolades. In 1994, he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in the films "Woh Chokri" and "Sir". For the latter, he received his first Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. This was followed by Ketan Mehta's "Sardar", which saw him playing the lead role of freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel, a role that got him national and international acclaim. He was honoured with Padma Shri from the Government of India in 2014.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: He has received recognition for his villainous roles in Telugu box office hits such as "Kshana Kshanam" (1991), "Money" (1993), "Money Money" (1995), "Govinda Govinda" (1994), "Rikshavodu" (1995), "Bavagaru Bagunnara" (1998).. His other notable works in Hindi cinema are "Naam" (1986), "Shiva" (1990), "Mohra" (1994), "Tamanna" (1996), "Aitraaz" (2004), "Table No. 21" (2013) and "Zilla Ghaziabad" (2013).


title: Paresh Rawal

text: Rawal has gained acclaim with comedy and few intense supporting roles in Hindi films as some of his notable roles are in "Andaz Apna Apna" (1994), "Chachi 420" (1997), "Hera Pheri" (2000), "Nayak" (2001), "Aankhen" (2002), "Awara Paagal Deewana" (2002), "Hungama" (2003), "Garam Masala" (2005), "Phir Hera Pheri" (2006), "Chup Chup Ke" (2006), "Malamaal Weekly" (2006), "Welcome" (2007), "Mere Baap Pehle Aap" (2008), "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!" (2008), " De Dana Dan" (2009), "Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?" (2010), "Ready" (2010), "OMG" (2012), "Welcome Back" (2015), "Tiger Zinda Hai" (2017), "Sanju" (2018), "" (2019). His most remembered role is of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in the cult classic "Hera Pheri" comedy franchise, and he also appeared in Tamil film "Soorarai Pottru" (2020).


title: Paresh Rawal

text: In 1987, Rawal married Swaroop Sampat, an actress and winner of the Miss India contest in 1979. Paresh and Swaroop have two sons, Aditya and Anirudh. He is an alumnus of Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, Vile Parle, Mumbai.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: Rawal made his debut with the 1985 film "Arjun" in a supporting role. He was also part of the cast of the Doordarshan TV Serial, Bante Bigadte. It was the 1986 blockbuster "Naam" that established him as an actor with great talent. He then appeared in over 100 films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, mostly as the main villain, such as in "Roop ki Rani Choron Ka Raja", "Kabzaa", "King Uncle", "Ram Lakhan", "Daud", "Baazi" and so many more. In the 1990s, he also starred in the cult comedy "Andaz Apna Apna" in which he played a double role. Rawal was perceived as a character actor by both audiences and critics until the 2000 Bollywood cult classic "Hera Pheri", after which he starred in many Hindi mainstream films as a lead actor or main protagonist. Rawal played the dim-witted, boisterous and kind-hearted Marathi landlord Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in the film "Hera Pheri", who takes in Raju (Akshay Kumar) and Shyam (Sunil Shetty) as paying in his house. Rawal's acting was a key reason for the major nationwide success the film received. For his performance, he won the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. He reprised his role as Baburao in the sequel to the film "Phir Hera Pheri" (2006), which was also successful.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: Another notable lead role came in 2002 when Rawal portrayed one of three blind bank robbers in the hit film "Aankhen", co-starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aditya Pancholi, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal and Sushmita Sen. Rawal, for the remainder of the 2000s, was seen in mainly comedy oriented multi-starrers, mostly amongst the lead protagonists such as in "Awara Paagal Deewana" (2002), "Hungama" (2003), "Hulchul" (2004), "Garam Masala" (2005), "Deewane Huye Paagal" (2005), "Malamaal Weekly" (2006), "" (2006), "Chup Chup Ke" (2006), "Bhagam Bhag" (2007), "Shankar Dada MBBS" (Telugu), "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", "Welcome", "Mere Baap Pehle Aap" (2008) and "De Dana Dan" (2009). In 2010, Rawal acted in the movie "Aakrosh", based on honour killing.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: In 2012, Rawal played the lead role in the movie "OMG – Oh My God!". Akshay Kumar was seen supporting him, and both won rave reviews for their roles.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: He has also had a very successful acting career in Gujarati plays, the latest one being "Dear Father".


title: Paresh Rawal

text: For television he has produced several Hindi soaps including Zee TV's "Teen Bahuraaniyaan", Sahara One's "Main Aisi Kyunn Hoon" and Colors' "Laagi Tujhse Lagan".


title: Paresh Rawal

text: His latest notable release is Rajkumar Hirani's "Sanju" with Ranbir Kapoor. He plays actor Sunil Dutt's role in the movie.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: He is also reprising his role as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in "Hera Pheri 3" which was going to be released in 2024, but is 'on hold' as of May 2023.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: On 10 September 2020 he was appointed as the chief of the National School of Drama, by the President of India


title: Paresh Rawal

text: In 2021, Rawal appeared in sports drama "Toofaan", a film directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, alongside Farhan Akhtar, who is playing a national level boxer. The film was streamed worldwide on 16 July 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: His other upcoming films are "Aankh Micholi", "Shehzada", "Hera Pheri 3" and "The Storyteller" in which he will portray Satyajit Ray's famous character Tarini Khuro.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: He won as the Bharatiya Janata Party's Member of Parliament (MP) from Ahmedabad East constituency in the 2014 Indian general election. In 2014, he was awarded Padma Shri.


title: Paresh Rawal

text: On 21 May 2017, Rawal tweeted addressing an incident where the Indian Army tied a Kashmiri stone pelter as a human shield on an army jeep: "Instead of tying stone pelter on the army jeep, tie Arundhati Roy." It was presumed that he wanted Roy to be used as a human shield. Rawal's tweet provoked controversy. He was criticised by fellow actor Swara Bhaskar. Rawal was also criticised by Congress leader Shobha Ojha. while filmmaker Ashoke Pandit supported his tweet.


title: A View to a Kill

text: A View to a Kill is a 1985 spy film and the fourteenth in the "James Bond" series produced by Eon Productions, and is the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's 1960 short story "From a View to a Kill", the film has an entirely original screenplay. In "A View to a Kill", Bond is pitted against Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken), who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley.


title: A View to a Kill

text: The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who also wrote the screenplay with Richard Maibaum. It was the third James Bond film to be directed by John Glen, and the last to feature Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, who frequently took umbrage with the effects of Moore's advanced age on his performance, it was a commercial success, with the Duran Duran theme song "A View to a Kill" performing well in the charts, becoming the only Bond theme song to reach number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Song.


title: A View to a Kill

text: MI6 agent James Bond is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 and recover a Soviet microchip. Q analyzes the microchip, establishing it to be a copy of one designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse, made by government contractor Zorin Industries. Bond visits Ascot Racecourse to observe the company's owner, Max Zorin. Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a racehorse trainer and MI6 agent, believes Zorin's horses, which win consistently, are drugged, although tests proved negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets with French private detective Achille Aubergine, who informs Bond that Zorin is holding a horse sale later in the month. During their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is assassinated by Zorin's bodyguard May Day, who subsequently escapes.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Bond and Tibbett travel to Zorin's estate for the horse sale. Bond is puzzled by a woman who rebuffs him; he discovers Zorin has written her a cheque for $5 million. That night, Bond and Tibbett infiltrate Zorin's laboratory, where he is implanting adrenaline-releasing devices in his horses. Zorin identifies Bond as an agent, has May Day assassinate Tibbett, and attempts to have Bond killed. General Gogol of the KGB confronts Zorin for trying to kill Bond without permission, revealing that Zorin was initially trained and financed by the KGB, but has now gone rogue. Later, Zorin unveils to a group of investors his plan to destroy Silicon Valley, which will give him and the potential investors a monopoly over microchip manufacture.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Bond travels to San Francisco and meets with CIA agent Chuck Lee, who says that Zorin is the product of medical experimentation with steroids performed by Dr. Carl Mortner, a Nazi scientist who is now Zorin's veterinarian and racehorse-breeding consultant. Bond then investigates a nearby oil rig owned by Zorin, and while there finds KGB agent Pola Ivanova recording conversations and her partner, Klottoff, placing explosives on the rig. Klottoff is caught and killed by Zorin, but Ivanova and Bond escape. Later Ivanova takes the recording but finds that Bond had switched tapes with one of Japanese music.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Bond tracks down state geologist Stacey Sutton, the woman Zorin attempted to pay off, and discovers that Zorin is trying to buy her family's oil business. The two travel to San Francisco City Hall to check Zorin's submitted plans. Having been alerted to their presence, Zorin kills the Chief Geologist, traps Bond in a lift between floors, and sets fire to the building to both frame Bond for the murder and kill him. Bond and Stacey flee from the police in a fire engine to Zorin's mine.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Infiltrating Zorin's mine, Bond and Stacey discover his plot to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward and San Andreas faults, which will cause them to flood and submerge Silicon Valley. A larger bomb is also in the mine to destroy a "geological lock" that prevents the two faults from moving simultaneously. Once in place, Zorin and his security chief Scarpine flood the mine and kill the workers. Stacey escapes while Bond fights May Day; after realising Zorin abandoned her, she helps Bond remove the larger bomb, putting the device onto a handcar and riding it out of the mine, where it explodes and kills her.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Escaping in his airship with Scarpine and Mortner, Zorin abducts Stacey while Bond grabs hold of the airship's mooring rope. Zorin tries to knock him off, but Bond moors the airship to the framework of the Golden Gate Bridge. Stacey attacks Zorin to save Bond, and in the fracas, Mortner and Scarpine are temporarily knocked out. Stacey flees and joins Bond out on the bridge, but Zorin follows them out with an axe. The ensuing fight between Zorin and Bond culminates with Zorin falling to his death in the sea. Mortner attempts to kill Bond with dynamite, but Bond cuts the airship free, causing Mortner to drop the dynamite in the cabin, whereupon it promptly detonates, blowing up the airship and killing himself and Scarpine. Later, General Gogol awards Bond the Order of Lenin for foiling Zorin's scheme, whilst Bond romances Stacey at her home.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Maud Adams filmed a cameo as an extra in the background of a Fisherman's Wharf scene. However, she cannot be clearly identified in the crowd, with some fans speculating her scene may have been cut from the final edit. If she is in the film, this would have been her third Bond film appearance.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Along with the other stories in Ian Fleming's 1960 anthology "For Your Eyes Only," the original short story "From a View to a Kill" was originally envisioned as an episode of an abandoned 1958 CBS "James Bond" television series"." "A View to a Kill" was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Wilson also co-authored the screenplay along with Richard Maibaum. Broccoli initially wanted to rehire George MacDonald Fraser from "Octopussy" to co-write the screenplay but he was unavailable. Originally Maibaum's script included Zorin manipulating Halley's Comet into crashing into Silicon Valley, but Wilson insisted on a more realistic plot. At the end of "Octopussy", the "James Bond Will Return" sequence listed the next film as "From a View to a Kill", the name of the original short story, but later the title was changed. When a company with a name similar to Zorin (the Zoran Corporation) was discovered in the United States, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that Zorin was not related to any real-life company. This is the first Bond film to have a disclaimer ("The Living Daylights" had a disclaimer about the use of the Red Cross).


title: A View to a Kill

text: Roger Moore had originally signed a three-film contract with Eon Productions, His original contract had been for three films ("Live and Let Die" in 1973, "The Man with the Golden Gun" in 1974 and "The Spy Who Loved Me" in 1977) which was fulfilled. Moore's following three films ("Moonraker" in 1979, "For Your Eyes Only" in 1981 and "Octopussy" in 1983) were negotiated on a film-by-film basis. Uncertainty surrounding his involvement in "Octopussy" in 1983 led to other actors being considered to take over but was convinced to come back as he was competing against Sean Connery in "Never Say Never Again". Eon convinced Moore to do "A View to a Kill" but he announced in December 1985, 6 months after the release of "A View to a Kill", that he would retire from the role after seven films.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Early publicity for the film in 1984 included an announcement that David Bowie would play Zorin. He initially accepted the role, but later decided against it, saying "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs." The role was then offered to Sting, who turned it down, and finally to Christopher Walken.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Priscilla Presley was originally going to be cast as Stacey Sutton, but she had to be replaced by Tanya Roberts because of her contract with "Dallas". The original script had Barbara Bach reprising her role as Major Anya Amasova from 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me". However, Bach declined the role, and so an entirely new character, Pola Ivanova, was created, played by Fiona Fullerton.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Patrick Macnee, as Bond's ally Tibbett, became the fourth former star of "The Avengers" television series to appear in a Bond film, following Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Joanna Lumley. David Yip's character Chuck Lee was originally scripted as Felix Leiter, but he was rewritten into a new Asian-American character in order to capitalize on the setting of San Francisco.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Dolph Lundgren has a brief appearance as one of General Gogol's KGB agents. Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time, was visiting her on set when one day an extra was missing, so the director John Glen then asked him if he wanted to attempt the role. Lundgren appears during the confrontation between Gogol and Zorin at the racetrack, standing several steps below Gogol.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Principal photography began with the horse racing scenes at Ascot Racecourse on 1 August 1984. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in London, Iceland, Switzerland, France and the United States with the budget initially being $35 million. Several French landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, its Jules Verne restaurant and the Château de Chantilly were filmed. The rest of the major filming was done at Fisherman's Wharf, Dunsmuir House, San Francisco City Hall and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Lefty O'Doul Bridge was featured in the fire engine chase scene.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Production of the film began on 23 June 1984 in Iceland, where the second unit filmed the pre-title sequence. On 27 June 1984, several leftover canisters of petrol used during filming of Ridley Scott's "Legend" caused Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage to burn to the ground. The stage was rebuilt, and reopened in January 1985 (renamed as Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage) for filming of "A View to a Kill". Work had continued on other stages at Pinewood when Roger Moore rejoined the main unit there on 1 August 1984. The crew then departed for shooting the horse-racing scenes at Royal Ascot Racecourse. The scene in which Bond and Sutton enter the mineshaft was then filmed in a waterlogged quarry near Staines-upon-Thames and the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in West Sussex.


title: A View to a Kill

text: On 6 October 1984, the fourth unit, headed by special effects supervisor John Richardson, began its work on the climactic fight sequence. At first, only a few plates constructed to resemble the Golden Gate Bridge were used. Later that night, shooting of the burning San Francisco City Hall commenced. The first actual scenes atop the bridge were filmed on 7 October 1984.


title: A View to a Kill

text: In Paris it was planned that two stunt parachutists, B.J. Worth and Don Caldvedt, would undertake two jumps from a (clearly visible) platform that extended from a top edge of the Eiffel Tower. However, sufficient footage was obtained from Worth's jump, so Caldvedt was told he would not be performing his own descent. Caldvedt, unhappy at not being able to perform the jump, parachuted off the tower without authorisation from the City of Paris. He was subsequently sacked by the production team for jeopardising the continuation of filming in the city.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Airship Industries managed a major marketing coup with the inclusion of its Skyship 500 series blimp in the film. At the time Airship Industries was producing a fleet of blimps which were recognisable over many capitals of the world offering tours, or advertising sponsorship deals. As all Bond films have included the most current technology, this included the lighter than air interest. The blimp seen in the climax was then on a promotional tour of Los Angeles after its participation in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics. At that time, it had "Welcome" painted across the side of the gasbag, but was replaced by "Zorin Industries" for the film. During the summer of 1984, the blimp was used to advertise Fujifilm. In real life, inflating the airship would take up to 24 hours, but during the film it was shown to take two minutes.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Despite filming going over schedule by two weeks, the production was completed $5 million under budget at $30 million according to John Glen. Filming completed on 16 January 1985.


title: A View to a Kill

text: The soundtrack was composed by John Barry and published by EMI/Capitol. The theme song, "A View to a Kill", was written by Barry and Duran Duran, and performed by the band. "May Day Jumps" is the only track that uses the "James Bond Theme". Barry's composition from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was modified for use in the songs "Snow Job", "He's Dangerous" and "Golden Gate Fight" of "A View to a Kill." "A View to a Kill" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, thus becoming the peak song in the James Bond series. The 2015 track "Writing's on the Wall" later out performed the song in the UK by reaching number one.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Duran Duran was chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor, a lifelong Bond fan, approached producer Albert Broccoli at a party, and somewhat drunkenly asked "When are you going to get someone "decent" to do one of your theme songs?"


title: A View to a Kill

text: During the opening sequence, a cover version of the 1965 Beach Boys song "California Girls", performed by tribute band Gidea Park with Adrian Baker, is used during a chase in which Bond snowboards; it has been suggested that this sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding.


title: A View to a Kill

text: This was the first Bond film with a premiere outside the UK, opening on 22 May 1985 at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. The British premiere was held on 12 June 1985 at the Odeon Leicester Square cinema in London. It achieved a box office gross of US$152.4 million worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the film grossed £8.1 million ($13.6 million). On its opening weekend in the US and Canada it grossed $13.3 million from 1,583 theaters over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, the biggest opening for a Bond film ever at the time, but not enough to beat "" which was number one for the weekend with a gross of $25.2 million from 2,074 theaters. It went on to gross $50.3 million in the United States and Canada. Other large international grosses include $11.7 million in Germany, $9.1 million in Japan and $8.2 million in France.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Although its box office reception was excellent, the film's critical response was mostly mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 38% based on reviews from 61 critics, which is the lowest rating for the Eon-produced Bond films on the website. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 40% based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: A View to a Kill

text: One of the most common criticisms was that Roger Moore was 57 at the time of filming—and that he had visibly aged in the two years that had passed since "Octopussy". "Washington Post" critic Paul Attanasio said, "Moore isn't just long in the tooth—he's got tusks, and what looks like an eye job has given him the pie-eyed blankness of a zombie. He's not believable anymore in the action sequences, even less so in the romantic scenes—it's like watching women fall all over Gabby Hayes." Sean Connery declared that "Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I'm too old. Roger's too old, too!" In a December 2007 interview, Roger Moore remarked, "I was only about four hundred years too old for the part."


title: A View to a Kill

text: Moore also said that, at the time, "A View to a Kill" was his least favourite Bond film, and mentioned that he was mortified to find out that he was older than his female co-star's mother. He was quoted as saying, "I was horrified on the last Bond I did. Whole slews of sequences where Christopher Walken was machine-gunning hundreds of people. I said 'That wasn't Bond, those weren't Bond films.' It stopped being what they were all about. You didn't dwell on the blood and the brains spewing all over the place".


title: A View to a Kill

text: Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" said, "The James Bond series has had its bummers, but nothing before in the class of "A View to a Kill". You go to a Bond picture expecting some style or, at least, some flash, some lift; you don't expect the dumb police-car crashes you get here. You do see some ingenious daredevil feats, but they're crowded together and, the way they're set up, they don't give you the irresponsible, giddy tingle you're hoping for." Kael also singled out the dispirited direction and the hopeless script. "Director John Glen stages the slaughter scenes so apathetically that the picture itself seems dissociated. (I don't think I've ever seen another movie in which race horses were mistreated and the director failed to work up any indignation. If Glen has any emotions about what he puts on the screen, he keeps them to himself.)"


title: A View to a Kill

text: However, not all reviews were negative. Lawrence O'Toole of "Maclean's" believed it was one of the series' best entries. "Of all the modern formulas in the movie industry, the James Bond series is among the most pleasurable and durable. Lavish with their budgets, the producers also bring a great deal of craft, wit and a sense of fun to the films. Agent 007 is like an old friend who an audience meets for drinks every two years or so; he regales them with tall tales, winking all the time. The 14th and newest Bond epic, "A View to a Kill", is an especially satisfying encounter. Opening with a breathtaking ski chase in Siberia, "A View to a Kill" is the fastest Bond picture yet. Its pace has the precision of a Swiss watch and the momentum of a greyhound on the track. There is a spectacular chase up and down the Eiffel Tower and through Paris streets, which Bond finishes in a severed car on just two wheels. But none of the action prepares the viewer for the heart-stopping climax with Zorin's dirigible tangled in the cables on top of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge." And although O'Toole believed that Moore was showing his age in the role, "there are plenty of tunes left in his violin. James Bond is still a virtuoso, with a licence to thrill."


title: A View to a Kill

text: Brian J. Arthurs of "The Beach Reporter", however, said it was the worst film of the Bond series. Chris Peachment of the "Time Out Film Guide" said, "Grace Jones is badly wasted." Norman Wilner of MSN also chose it as the worst Bond film, while IGN picked it as the fourth-worst, while "Entertainment Weekly" ranked it as the fifth-worst.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Danny Peary had mixed feelings about "A View to a Kill" but was generally complimentary: "Despite what reviewers automatically reported, [Moore] looks trimmer and more energetic than in some of the previous efforts ... I wish Bond had a few more of his famous gadgets on hand, but his action scenes are exciting and some of the stunt work is spectacular. Walken's the first Bond villain who is not so much an evil person as a crazed neurotic. I find him more memorable than some of the more recent Bond foes ... Unfortunately, the filmmakers – who ruined villain Jaws by making him a nice guy in "Moonraker" – make the mistake of switching May Day at the end from Bond's nemesis to his accomplice, depriving us of a slam-bang fight to the finish between the two (I suppose gentleman Bond isn't allowed to kill women, even a monster like May Day) ... [The film] lacks the flamboyance of earlier Bond films, and has a terrible slapstick chase sequence in San Francisco, but overall it's fast-paced, fairly enjoyable, and a worthy entry in the series."


title: A View to a Kill

text: Also among the more positive reviews was "Movie Freaks 365"s Kyle Bell: "Good ol' Roger gave it his best. ... Whether you can get past the absurdity of the storyline, you can't really deny that it has stunning stunt work and lots of action. It's an entertaining movie that could have been better." Walken was also praised by online critic Christopher Null for portraying a "classic Bond villain". Bond historian John Brosnan believed "A View to a Kill" was Moore's best Bond entry. He said Moore looked in better shape than the previous Bond film, "Octopussy". Brosnan, an airship enthusiast, especially admired the dirigible finale.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Neil Gaiman reviewed "A View to a Kill" for "Imagine" magazine, and stated that "When Grace Jones went to bed with Moore, I was sure the producers had hit upon a way to kill the old fellow off with dignity, but when Bond was seen wandering around fresh as a daisy the next morning I realised how escapist this all is. Unless he just rolled over and went to sleep, of course, which is what I was strongly tempted to do."


title: A View to a Kill

text: Roberts was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actress, but she lost the trophy to Linda Blair, who appeared in "Night Patrol", "Savage Island" and "Savage Streets".


title: A View to a Kill

text: This film was adapted into two video games in 1985. The first, titled "A View to a Kill", was published by Domark. It was available for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Oric 1 and Oric Atmos, and MSX. The second, titled was a text adventure for DOS and Apple II computers. It was developed by Angelsoft, Inc. and published by Mindscape Inc.


title: A View to a Kill

text: The film was loosely adapted into a series of four "Find Your Fate" adventure game books: "Win, Place, or Die"; "Strike it Deadly"; "Programmed for Danger"; and "Barracuda Run", which were released in 1985.


title: A View to a Kill

text: Furthermore, a tabletop role-playing game adventure for the "James Bond 007" game system was released under the film's name.


title: A View to a Kill

text: May Day was a playable multiplayer character in the 1997 and 2000 video games "GoldenEye 007" and "" for the Nintendo 64. In the 2002 game "", May Day and Max Zorin also appears as bots. Other references include Nikolai Diavolo, a character in the 2004 game "", claiming Zorin to be his mentor and friend. In "", a multiplayer level is the summit of the Golden Gate Bridge, including the Zorin blimp, which would fire on players when activated. Players are also able to climb the suspension cables (similar to the events of the film).


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She is known for her role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" (2010–2014). She also appeared in the films "Rounders" (1998), "Celebrity" (1998), "The Thirteenth Floor" (1999), "The Notorious Bettie Page" (2005), in which she played the title character, "" (2007), and "Manchester by the Sea" (2016).


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol was born on November 8, 1972, in Deep River, Connecticut, where her mother, Janet (née Morgan), is an artist and teacher, and her father is a teacher at RHAM High School. She went to high school with Broadway actor Peter Lockyer, with whom she performed in school musicals and plays. Her brother, Jim Mol, is a director and editor in the film industry. Mol attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and graduated from the William Esper Studio. She took a job for a while as an usher at Angelika Film Center in New York. She had followed her brother there when he was in NYU film school.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol's acting career began in summer stock theatre in Vermont where she played a variety of roles, including "Godspell" and "110 in the Shade". She played Jenny in Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" on stage in both London and New York in 2001, in a role she reprised in the film version, released in 2003. The "New York Times" critic Ben Brantley, in his review of the play (which he disliked), wrote, "[Mol] gives by far the most persuasive performance as the unworldly Jenny, and you wind up feeling for her disproportionately, only because she seems to be entirely there, in the present tense". In 2004, Mol spent a year singing and dancing as Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of "Chicago". In 2014–2015, Mol played the role of Emily in the Broadway debut of Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, "Disgraced".


title: Gretchen Mol

text: While major roles have been sporadic, Mol has been in more than 30 feature films. She made her film debut in Spike Lee's 1996 film, "Girl 6." She said, "I was auditioning for "Guiding Light" and I was happy I got a Spike Lee movie, which was a tiny part, but all of a sudden I had Spike Lee on my resume. I didn't audition for day player anymore".


title: Gretchen Mol

text: After "Girl 6", New York filmmaker Abel Ferrara took notice and cast her in two movies, "The Funeral" (1996) and "New Rose Hotel" (1998). She had a small role in "Donnie Brasco" (1997), but by now, she was being typecast as "the girlfriend", which she attempted to change by taking a role opposite Jude Law in "Music from Another Room" (1998), a romantic comedy. The film went virtually unnoticed by critics and audiences.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: In 1998, she appeared in several notable films, including "Rounders", starring Matt Damon and Woody Allen's "Celebrity" opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1998, she also came to prominence when she was featured on the cover of "Vanity Fair", dubbed the "It Girl of the Nineties" by the magazine.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: For her second film with Woody Allen, 1999's "Sweet and Lowdown," she played a minor role which the "Greenwich Village Gazette" called "notable". She played the female lead role in the 1999 film "The Thirteenth Floor". She played the victim of a con artist in the 2003 film "Heavy Put-Away", based on the Terry Southern story. In 2006, she shared the lead in a romantic comedy, "Puccini for Beginners", in which her character has a lesbian affair.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol worked with Mary Harron for two years as the director struggled to finance "The Notorious Bettie Page": "I kind of felt like I lived with it for a while; certainly not as long as Mary Harron did but I got a good chance to really feel like I knew something about Bettie so by the time the role was mine and I was on set, I was pretty confident. I felt like I really worked for it."


title: Gretchen Mol

text: The next year, 2007, was one of her busiest, with four films in production or in release, including a remake of "" starring Russell Crowe, and "An American Affair", in which her character, Catherine Caswell, has an affair with John F. Kennedy. When released in February 2009, the film was harshly criticized by "New York Times" critic Stephen Holden, though he said that Mol's part was "quite well acted".


title: Gretchen Mol

text: In April 2008, she began filming "Tenure" in Philadelphia, working opposite Luke Wilson and Andrew Daly. Though it had received some good reviews after being screened at several film festivals, it was released direct-to-video in February 2010.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol's first television work was in a Coca-Cola commercial. Mol had a small role of Maggie Tilton in the 1996 miniseries "Dead Man's Walk", based on the Larry McMurtry novel. She also was in a few episodes of "Spin City". She was among the three lead actresses in David E. Kelley's 2002 series "girls club", though it ended after its second episode due to underwhelming ratings.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: She appeared in two TV remakes of classic films: "Picnic" (2000), in the role of Madge Owens, and "The Magnificent Ambersons" as Lucy Morgan (2002). She made a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie in January 2007, starring in "The Valley of Light", a story set in post-World War II based on a novel by Terry Kay. It was her second Hallmark production. She had a minor role in "Calm at Sunset" in 1996.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: She played Norah in "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" which aired on The Lifetime Channel in the U.S. in April 2008.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: She played NYPD Officer Annie Norris in the ABC series "Life on Mars", the U.S. remake of the British show of the same name. It started airing in the U.S. on October 9, 2008 and ran 17 episodes, concluding on April 1, 2009.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol had a recurring role on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" as Gillian Darmody, a showgirl at the Beaux Arts and mother and incestuous lover to gangster Jimmy Darmody (played by Michael Pitt). The actress shared two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with the cast in 2010 and 2011.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: In February 2018, she played attorney Sam Henessy in the Netflix series "Seven Seconds". On April 18, 2018, Netflix confirmed the show would not have a second season, deeming it a limited series.


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Interviewed by the Associated Press in Baltimore in December 2006, Mol commented about how she maintained her confidence as an actress: "It is an ongoing struggle. Confidence is something that sometimes you have and sometimes you don't. And the older you get, hopefully, the more you have some tools to at least fake it".


title: Gretchen Mol

text: She married film director Tod Williams on June 1, 2004. Their first child, a son, was born in September 2007. In February 2011, Mol gave birth to their second child, a daughter. Since becoming a mother, Mol has only taken jobs close to her home in New York City. "I told my agent I didn't want to work in L.A., even if it was the greatest job in the world. I didn't want to compromise."


title: Gretchen Mol

text: Mol serves as the national spokesperson in the United States for the PMD Foundation, which funds research and awareness of Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease, a neurological disorder which affects children worldwide. Mol became involved with PMD after one of her cousins died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (familiarly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease").


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Cowboy Bebop is a 2021 American science fiction television series. It is a live action series based on the 1998 Japanese anime series of the same name and the 2001 Japanese anime . Set in the year 2171, the series focuses on the adventures of a ragtag group of bounty hunters chasing down criminals across the Solar System on the "Bebop" spaceship.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The series was developed by Christopher Yost, with André Nemec serving as showrunner, and stars John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda, Elena Satine, and Alex Hassell. The 10-episode series was released on Netflix, and drew criticism from both fans and critics for its writing, special effects, editing, action sequences and its cast. In December 2021, Netflix cancelled the series after only one season.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Additionally, Blessing Mokgohloa portrays Santiago, and Molly Moriarty plays Kimmie Black, Jet's daughter.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: On June 6, 2017, it was announced that an American live action adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" was being developed for television by Tomorrow Studios—a partnership between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios, alongside Sunrise Inc., which also produced the original anime—with Christopher Yost serving as the series writer. On November 27, 2018, Netflix announced that the live action series would be heading to its streaming service. One of the Tomorrow Studios' producers, André Nemec, was appointed as the showrunner who previously discovered the anime through his brother around 2011. In an interview with "Vanity Fair" on October 26, 2021, Yost said he had already started planning a second season for the series before writing the first season, which is something Nemec also hinted at. However, on December 9, 2021, Netflix canceled the series after one season.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: On April 4, 2019, "Variety" reported that John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda and Alex Hassell were all cast in lead roles as Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Vicious in the series. On August 22, 2019, it was announced that Elena Satine was cast as Julia. On November 19, 2020, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Geoff Stults, Tamara Tunie, Mason Alexander Park, Rachel House, Ann Truong and Hoa Xuande have been cast as Chalmers, Ana, Gren, Mao, Shin and Lin. James Hiroyuki Liao had joined the cast by August 2021, along with Blessing Mokgohloa as Santiago and Molly Moriarty as Kimmie Black. On September 25, 2021, Jan Uddin and Lydia Peckham, Adrienne Barbeau, Josh Randall, Rodney Cook, and Ira Munn and Lucy Currey were officially cast as Asimov and Katerina Solensan, Maria Murdock, Pierrot Le Fou, Teddy Bomber, and Punch and Judy. Cali Nelle was also confirmed to play Abdul Hakim.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: When Cho came across the project, he remarked about the anime, "It's really interesting and smart and funny...All the characters are coming from places of loss, and there are a lot of defense mechanisms to deal with that sense of loss that informs the whole show." He continued, "I investigated the anime and just thought this was the most unique piece of entertainment I had seen in a long time: the combination of genres, characters, the music." He later called Aneesh Chaganty, director of "Searching""," to talk about the project. Cho remembered that Chaganty encouraged him saying, "You have to do it.”


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: On October 27, 2021, in an interview with "SyFy Wire", Nemec explained he purposely cast older actors and defended his choice that it would build richer stories for the characters, saying, "I think that really became clear to me that to really feel for these characters, to really want to track and live with them, they needed real depth of life experience in their soul. And that was something that John brought. I can't imagine anyone being Spike Spiegel but John Cho because John brings a depth to the character. He's incredibly facile with humor. He's quick-witted. He can be laconic like Spike Spiegel. I think the anime had true moments of ennui, and true moments of dramatic pain that really did require someone, again, with that depth that John brought. While in the anime, it's okay to sort of play the younger version. But in today's world and in live action, the actor needed to be able to bring that essence as well. And that just required a more mature actor."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Several of the original Japanese voice actors from the anime are involved in the live action adaption, reprising their roles for the Japanese dub of the show and there will be an addition of a few new voice actors. The Japanese voice actor for Spike, Kōichi Yamadera said, "I have long anticipated a live action version. I can feel the strong respect it has toward the anime. I hope that viewers will see the atmosphere of the Spike character that I previously portrayed in John Cho's performance, who is skillfully taking on the role in this version. There are also many settings and developments that can only be pulled off in a live action series. I hope that both people who love "Cowboy Bebop" and those who are new to the title can enjoy this new series!"


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The casting of newcomer Eden Perkins as Radical Ed was announced on the day of the series' release to Netflix, though only appears in the final scenes of the tenth episode. According to Nemec, "To keep the mystery around the character was to not necessarily want to promise that this was going to be a season that was inclusive of Ed, to not necessarily put something that many may find is disappointing out into the world. But in fairness, Ed doesn't show up in the anime until many episodes in, maybe about a third of the way through the entire series. So, it felt fair to also keep Ed from showing up [in live-action]."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Nemec and the writers also looked beyond the source material to the movies that influenced the original anime director, Shinichirō Watanabe when developing the anime with studio Sunrise in the 1990s. The Netflix "Cowboy Bebop" team researched Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" (1946), the classic Sergio Leone spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), the New Hollywood classic Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Stanley Kubrick's (1968), the neo-noir action thriller "Dirty Harry" (1971), as well as buddy cop comedy "Lethal Weapon" (1987), and even the macabre action drama "The Crow" (1994) to represent "Cowboy Bebop" through the reality of cinema. "We put a pretty extensive and expansive list together, and we spent a lot of time really looking at the inspirations," Nemec said. The showrunner did not watch much other anime or even live-action anime adaptations in preparation for the show.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Nemec also stated that it was important to be faithful to source material and also carve their own story for the live action adaptation. He mentioned, "I think a lot of it was that there were so many things that work [in the anime] but at the same time, not wanting to do a one-to-one translation because I wanted to be served, if I were a fan, a different meal."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Regarding on Faye Valentine's wardrobe changes, Pineda stated, "You know, we tried with the original. But in the original outfit, which is so lovely, it's hard to hide stunt pads and gel pads and back plates and things you need when you're falling and kicking and doing stunts." She worked with head of costume design Jane Holland to figure out a functioning outfit for the character in real life. Holland stated, "I do have to say, as a woman, I felt resistant to the idea of the lead female character being gratuitous or overtly sexualized. It's not about it not being revealing, it's not about any of that, it's actually got all of those elements. But my take on it is that it's designed by a woman and it was made by a lot of women, and it's worn by a woman. So the same elements are there but they have just manifested in a different way." Holland also mentioned it would be easier for Pineda to work in this outfit than if she was dressed how Faye is in the anime. The costume designer said, "It's definitely aesthetically driven but there's a practical element as well...There's a lot of action. we filmed over a long period of time through different seasons. We had a lot of night shifts in Oakland so Jet and Spike were fine, because they had practical, much more practical clothing, in the anime. [Pineda] needed that as well."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The cast initially trained with 87eleven Action Design, the same stunt team of the film franchise, "John Wick". They later worked with New Zealander stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton of Cunning Stunts on "Cowboy Bebop".


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Filming for the series took place in 185 locations around Auckland, New Zealand between July 2019 and March 2021 including the former Auckland Railway Station, Ardmore Airport, St Matthew's Church, Spark Arena, Waitawa Regional Park, and Kingsland railway station. 150 locals were involved in the series' art and construction teams. According to production manager Clayton Tikao, Auckland was picked since its urban environment fitted with the series' "grottier" aesthetic.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: In October 2019, Cho sustained a knee injury, which set back production by about eight months. Cho's injury and delay also gave the showrunners extra time to bring in some of the planned second season elements into the first season, such as introducing characters and casting for them. This included introducing Mason Alexander Park as Gren, who originally was introduced in the thirteenth episode of the series.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: On April 17, 2020, further news was provided about the project, that episodes would be one-hour in length allowing for more in-depth storytelling, and second season script has been noted as a possibility. On May 19, 2020, in an interview with "SyFy Wire", Adelstein revealed that three episodes had already been completed, and that they had shot at least six before Cho's knee injury. During the same interview, it was also revealed that the director of the anime series, Shinichirō Watanabe, would be involved as a creative consultant. Watanabe later stated in November 2019, “I read the initial concept and provided my opinions, but I'm not sure if they will be reflected in the final product. I have no choice but to pray and hope that it will turn out good. Also, for "Cowboy Bebop", I don't have any right to stop it. Those rights are in the hands of Sunrise, so if you have a complaint, please send it to them.” In October 2021, "Entertainment Weekly" confirmed that Watanabe had served as a consultant for the series. He provided production with early "Cowboy Bebop" concept art for reference. Sunrise provided books, which are original character concept drawings, ships, props, sets, and locations for the team to use as references. Watanabe stated, "For me, it's a great surprise and honor that the "Cowboy Bebop" universe has thrived for over 20 years and will continue onward." When Nemec is directly asked about Watanabe in interviews, he only mentioned Sunrise staff.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Production resumed on September 30, 2020, after the New Zealand government gave the green light to continue following the nation's COVID-19 shutdown. Filming officially wrapped on March 15, 2021. In August 2021, it was revealed that original show creator Hajime Yatate, actually a pseudonym for the collective Sunrise animation staff, was interested in writing episodes of the series.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Yoko Kanno is the composer for the series while "Tank!" played in the series' opening credits. In an August 2021 interview with the "Vulture" magazine, Cho mentioned about accepting his role and Kanno's involvement with the live action adaptation, "I made sure that she was locked in before saying yes. I didn't think the show should go forward without her involvement. [She is] too integral to the show. Our iteration minus her would suffer too much." On September 8, 2021, Nemec stated in a "Polygon" interview, "Yoko's involvement in this show to me was paramount to almost everything else."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: A first look video, from the point-of-view of Ein, was released by Netflix in October 2019. Set to music from the original series, the clip showed off some of the sets and the main cast, with the trademark sign-off phrase "See You Space Cowboy..." appearing at the end. Netflix resumed the show's marketing campaign in June 2021 with a new teaser set to the original show's opening theme, "Tank!", to announce that Kanno would be scoring the series after having previously provided the soundtrack for the 1998 anime. In August 2021, along with the reveal of a November release date, Netflix released first-look preview images for the show, including pictures of Spike, Jet, Faye and Ein in various environments recreated from the anime, including the "Bebop" spaceship and the cathedral where Vicious and Spike had their first confrontation. During Netflix's TUDUM event, they revealed the show's opening credits which replicate the anime's opening incorporating "Tank!" and including live action recreations of the original. It took 3 days to film.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: A special standalone teaser called "The Lost Session", shot separately from and not including any footage from the actual show, was released by Netflix on October 19, 2021 in anticipation for the trailer release. Directed by Greg Jardin, the short featured Cho, Shakir, and Pineda as their respective characters. The first official trailer was released by Netflix on October 26, 2021.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The series was originally slated to release in 2020, but was delayed due to Cho's injury and the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on November 19, 2021.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The series was canceled after one season on December 9, 2021, less than three weeks after its release. According to insiders, Netflix's renewal rate for a scripted series is at 60 percent and their decision is based on balancing the show's viewership and cost. Although "Cowboy Bebop" was on Netflix's Top 10 with almost 74 million viewing hours worldwide since its debut, viewership dropped by 59 percent the following week from November 29, 2021 to December 5, 2021.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: In "The Bebop Beat" podcast interview, the showrunner André Nemec talked about what would happen in season two: the reveal of the Cosmonaut; Ed finds out the true meaning of family; Jet's mechanical arm trips out; while Jet is tripping out, his arm is unusable and plays the saxophone with one hand; Spike's demons of the Blue Crow massacre will be put to bed; Faye finds who she is; Julia discovers "Heavy is The Head That Wears The Crown"; Vicious is reborn and Ein saves the day.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Critical response to the series was described as "mixed", and "negative". On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 46% based on 81 critics, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Maybe next time, Space Cowboy — this live-action "Bebop" has a fun enough crew to spend time with, but it disappointingly replaces the soulfulness of the source material with kitsch." According to Metacritic, which calculated an average score of 47 out of 100 from 28 reviews, the series received "mixed or average reviews".


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: "Total Film"s Bradley Russell gave the series four stars out of five, stating that the show is "overflowing with charm, personality, and style – becoming a worthy companion piece to the original series". Matt Kim of "IGN" felt that the show "whole-heartedly embraces its source material and succeeds more often than it fails." "Rolling Stone"s Alan Sepinwall described the series as "a hangout show as much as it is a thriller, a space opera, and so on", ultimately giving it three-and-a-half stars out of five. Nina Metz of the "Chicago Tribune" felt that "if you're able to watch [the series] with eyes unencumbered by comparisons, it's a hoot".


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Many reviewers felt the series did not live up to the original series. Kambole Campbell of "Empire" gave "Cowboy Bebop" two stars out of five, declaring it "a hollow re-enactment" of the anime. "Entertainment Weekly"s Christian Holub described the series as "a lot less embarrassing" than previous live-action anime adaptations, while also noting that "it still doesn't quite live up to the power of the original series". Mike Hale of "The New York Times" also said the show can't live up to the original because of its "resolute ordinariness". Maureen Ryan of "Vanity Fair" however said that "This version of "Cowboy Bebop," in many ways, improves on the original."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The series was heavily criticized for its writing and pacing by many reviewers. Cecilia D'Anastasio writing in "Wired" described the writing as "corny writing and muddled subplots". Russell felt that many of the supporting characters' motivations were "glossed over and occasionally undercooked", while "a handful of episodes feel rushed to meet its runtime". He also noted that the Vicious–Julia subplot was "by far the weakest element" of the show. Several reviewers noted how the increased episode length did not translate into better episodes, but instead bloat. Judy Berman writing in "Time" magazine called the decision to expand the show from 25 minutes to an hour "baffling". "Variety"'s Caroline Framke opined that the series suffered from "Netflix bloat", where the story is needlessly stretched "seemingly for the sake of retaining eyeballs for more minutes at a time". Rob Owen of the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review" wrote, "When the show leans more heavily into Spike's serialized plot – "Cowboy Bebop" loses its sense of fun and bogs down in tired soap operatics."


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The show's visual aesthetic polarized critics. Rohan Naaha of "The Indian Express" wrote that the show "apes only the most obvious aspects of the cartoon — the aesthetic. But funnily enough, it never comes across as a show that is mimicking Westerns of noir films; it comes across as a show that is mimicking another show's impression of what Westerns and noir films are." He also criticized the excessive use of dutch angles. D'Anastasio was critical of the sets and described them as "cheap-looking. Russell, meanwhile, noted that "some sets clearly need a more sizeable budget, but the sheer attention to detail by the production designers helps overcome that handicap". Graeme Virtue of "The Guardian" described the show as a "visually amped-up space western that feels stylised and swaggering to near saturation". Sepinwall wrote, "The visual palette is a blend of high and low elements, blending modern special effects with Fifties-style green screen in a way that looks simultaneously primitive and cool, so even the sequences that seem cheap pop off the screen in appealing ways." Conversely, "The Hollywood Reporter"'s Angie Han described the show as "a knockoff "Firefly", made for a fraction of the budget", with "muddy CG" and "shoddy-looking sets". Hale compared the show's visual effects to "Doctor Who", calling them adequate but cheesy.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Several reviewers also criticized the action scenes for their cinematography, editing and fight choreography. However, Brian Lowry of "CNN" described the action sequences in the series "stylishly choreographed" despite the overall series was lacking and dull.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Critics, including those who criticized the series, praised the performances of the cast. Naaha described the cast as the "only saving grace" of the series in an otherwise critical review. Francisco stated, "If there's a high mark the show hits, it's the fact that its all-star main cast was successfully assembled to begin with." Shirley Li of "The Atlantic" wrote, "The trio of protagonists aboard the Bebop have an electric chemistry: The actor John Cho embodies Spike's swagger, Mustafa Shakir captures Jet's stoicism, and Daniella Pineda suffuses Faye with endearing candor." "GameSpot"s Mason Downey wrote, "absolutely everyone feels perfectly cast".


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: When it was announced "Cowboy Bebop" would not receive a second season on December 9, 2021, there were mixed reactions. However, this also prompted a petition called "Save the live action Cowboy Bebop." Science fiction author Wesley Chu tweeted a link after comparing the show to "Firefly". The petition gained over 150,000 signatures including Steve Blum, the English voice actor for Spike in the anime, who has been very supportive of the live action and cast.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: The series was nominated for Outstanding Main Title Design at the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2022.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: In August 2021, it was announced that Netflix had partnered with Titan Books to publish several books based on the series, with the first book, a prequel novel entitled "Cowboy Bebop: A Syndicate Story: Red Planet Requiem", released on December 7, 2021. An art book, "Cowboy Bebop: Making The Netflix Series", which has concept art, behind-the-scenes photography, and cast and crew interviews, was released on June 21, 2022.


title: Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)

text: Titan also published a four-issue comic miniseries based on the show from January 26, 2022, to June 22, 2022, with a trade collecting all four issues released on November 15, 2022, as "Cowboy Bebop: Supernova Swing". The story is by Dan Watters and art by Lamar Mathurin. First issue art cover are by Artgerm (Stanley Lau) with variant covers by Claudia Ianniciello, Afu Chan, and Yishan Li. The following issues continued to have different cover artists.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively "Nessim "or" Nissim"; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist whose work concerns problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. "The Sunday Times" called his 2007 book "The Black Swan" one of the 12 most influential books since World War II.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb is the author of the "Incerto", a five-volume philosophical essay on uncertainty published between 2001 and 2018 (of which the best-known books are "The Black Swan" and "Antifragile"). He has been a professor at several universities, serving as a Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering since September 2008. He has been co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal "Risk and Decision Analysis" since September 2014. He has also been a practitioner of mathematical finance, a hedge fund manager, and a derivatives trader, and is currently listed as a scientific adviser at Universa Investments.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb criticized the risk management methods used by the finance industry and warned about financial crises, subsequently profiting from the late-2000s financial crisis. He advocates what he calls a "black swan robust" society, meaning a society that can withstand difficult-to-predict events. He proposes what he has termed "antifragility" in systems; that is, an ability to benefit and grow from a certain class of random events, errors, and volatility as well as "convex tinkering" as a method of scientific discovery, by which he means that decentralized experimentation outperforms directed research.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb was born in Amioun, Lebanon, to Minerva Ghosn and Nagib Taleb, a physician/oncologist and a researcher in anthropology. His parents were of Antiochian Greek descent, holding French citizenship. His grandfather, , and his great-grandfather, , were both deputy prime ministers in the 1940s through the 1970s. His paternal grandfather Nassim Taleb was a supreme court judge and his great-great-great-great-grandfather, Ibrahim Taleb (Nabbout), was a governor of Mount Lebanon in 1866. Taleb attended a French school there, the Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais in Beirut. His family saw its political prominence and wealth reduced by the Lebanese Civil War, which began in 1975. He is a Greek Orthodox Christian.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb received his bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the University of Paris. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (1983), and a PhD in management science from the University of Paris (Dauphine) (1998), under the direction of Hélyette Geman. His dissertation focused on the mathematics of derivatives pricing.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb has been a practitioner of mathematical finance, a hedge fund manager, and a derivatives trader. He is a scientific adviser at Universa Investments.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb considers himself less a businessman than an epistemologist of randomness, and says that he used trading to attain independence and freedom from authority. He was a pioneer of tail risk hedging (now sometimes called "black swan protection"), which is intended to mitigate investors' exposure to extreme market moves. His business model has been to safeguard investors against crises while reaping rewards from rare events, and thus his investment management career has included several jackpots followed by lengthy dry spells.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: He has also held the following positions: managing director and proprietary trader at Credit Suisse UBS, worldwide chief proprietary arbitrage derivatives trader for currencies, commodities and non-dollar fixed income at First Boston, chief currency derivatives trader for Banque Indosuez, managing director and worldwide head of financial option arbitrage at CIBC Wood Gundy, derivatives arbitrage trader at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank), proprietary trader at BNP Paribas, independent option market maker on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and founder of Empirica Capital.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb reportedly became financially independent after the crash of 1987 and was successful during the Nasdaq dive in 2000 as well as the financial crisis that began in 2007, a development he attributed to the mismatch between reality and statistical distributions used in finance. After that crisis, Taleb became an activist for what he called a "black swan robust society". Since 2007 he has been a Principal/Senior Scientific Adviser at Universa Investments in Miami, Florida, a fund based on the "black swan" idea, owned and managed by former Empirica partner Mark Spitznagel. Some of its separate funds made returns of 65% to 115% in October 2008. In a 2007 "Wall Street Journal" article, Taleb claimed he retired from trading in 2004 and became a full-time author. He describes the nature of his involvement as "totally passive" from 2010 on.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb changed careers and became a mathematical researcher, scholar and philosophical essayist in 2006, and has held positions at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, at University of Massachusetts Amherst, at London Business School, and at Oxford University. He has been Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University Tandon School of Engineering since 2008. He was Distinguished Research Scholar at the Said Business School BT Center, University of Oxford from 2009 to 2013.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb is co-Editor in Chief of the academic journal "Risk and Decision Analysis" (since September 2014), jointly teaches regular courses with Paul Wilmott in London (19th time, March 2015), and occasionally participates in teaching courses toward the Certificate in Quantitative Finance. He is also co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: In late 2015, Taleb, Robert J. Frey and Raphael Douady formed the Real World Risk Institute "to build the principles and methodology for what we call real-world rigor, in decision making and codify a clear-cut way to approach ... to provide executive education courses and issue two certificates."


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb's five volume philosophical essay on uncertainty, titled Incerto, covers the following books: "Fooled by Randomness" (2001), "The Black Swan" (2007–2010), "The Bed of Procrustes" (2010), "Antifragile" (2012), and "Skin in the Game" (2018). It was originally published in November 2016 including only the first four books. The fifth book was added in August 2019.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: His first non-technical book, "Fooled by Randomness", about the underestimation of the role of randomness in life, published in 2001, was selected by "Fortune" as one of the smartest 75 books known.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: His second non-technical book, "", about unpredictable events, was published in 2007, selling close to three million copies (as of February 2011). It spent 36 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, 17 as hardcover and 19 weeks as paperback, and was translated into 31 languages. The book has been credited with predicting the banking and economic crisis of 2008.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: A book of aphorisms, "The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms", was released in December 2010.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: The fourth book of his "Incerto" series—"Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder"—was published in November 2012.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: The fifth book of his "Incerto" series—"Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life"—was published in February 2018.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb's non-technical writing style has been described as mixing a narrative, often semi-autobiographical style with short philosophical tales and historical and scientific commentary. The sales of Taleb's first two books garnered an advance of $4 million, for a follow-up book on anti-fragility.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb's book "" summarizes the central problem: "we humans, facing limits of knowledge, and things we do not observe, the unseen and the unknown, resolve the tension by squeezing life and the world into crisp commoditized ideas". Taleb disagrees with Platonic (i.e., theoretical) approaches to reality to the extent that they lead people to have the wrong map of reality, rather than no map at all. He opposes most economic and grand social science theorizing, which in his view, suffers acutely from the problem of overuse of Plato's theory of forms. Based on these and other constructions, he advocates for what he calls a "black swan robust" society, meaning a society that can withstand difficult-to-predict events.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: He has also proposed that biological, economic, and other systems exhibit an ability to benefit and grow from volatility—including particular types of random errors and events—a characteristic of these systems that he terms "antifragility." Relatedly, he also believes that universities are better at public relations and claiming credit than generating knowledge. He argues that knowledge and technology are usually generated by what he calls "stochastic tinkering" rather than by top-down directed research, and has proposed option-like experimentation as a way to outperform directed research as a method of scientific discovery, an approach he terms "convex tinkering."


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb has called for cancellation of the Nobel Prize in Economics, saying that the damage from economic theories can be devastating. He opposes top-down knowledge as an academic illusion. Together with Espen Gaarder Haug, Taleb asserts that option pricing is determined in a "heuristic way" by operators, not by a model, and that models are "lecturing birds on how to fly". Teacher and author Pablo Triana has explored this topic with reference to Haug and Taleb, and says that perhaps Taleb is correct to urge that banks be treated as utilities forbidden to take potentially lethal risks, while hedge funds and other unregulated entities should be able to do what they want.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: In his writings, Taleb has identified and discussed the error of comparing real-world randomness with the "structured randomness" in quantum physics where probabilities are computable or games of chance such as casino gambling in which the probabilities are purposefully constructed by the proprietors. Taleb calls this the "ludic fallacy". He argues that predictive models suffer from Platonism, gravitating towards mathematical purity and failing to take some key ideas into account, such as: the impossibility of possessing all relevant information, that small unknown variations in the data can have a huge impact, and flawed theories/models that are based on empirical data and that fail to consider events that have not taken place, but could have taken place. Discussing the ludic fallacy in "The Black Swan", he writes, "The dark side of the moon is harder to see; beaming light on it costs energy. In the same way, beaming light on the unseen is costly, in both computational and mental effort."


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: In the second edition of "The Black Swan", he posited that the foundations of quantitative economics are faulty and highly self-referential. He states that statistics is fundamentally incomplete as a field, as it cannot predict the risk of rare events, a problem that is acute in proportion to the rarity of these events. With the mathematician Raphael Douady, he called the problem "statistical undecidability" (Douady and Taleb, 2010).


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb has described his main challenge as mapping his ideas of "robustification" and "antifragility", that is, how to live and act in a world we do not understand and build robustness to black swan events. Taleb introduced the idea of the "fourth quadrant" in the exposure domain. One of its applications is in his definition of the most effective (that is, least fragile) risk management approach: what he calls the "barbell strategy" which is based on avoiding the middle in favor of linear combination of extremes, across all domains from politics to economics to one's personal life. These are deemed by Taleb to be more robust to estimation errors. For instance, he suggests that investing money in 'medium risk' investments is pointless, because risk is difficult, if not impossible to compute. His preferred strategy is to be both hyper-conservative and hyper-aggressive at the same time. For example, an investor might put 80 to 90% of their money in extremely safe instruments, such as treasury bills, with the remainder going into highly risky and diversified speculative bets. An alternative suggestion is to engage in highly speculative bets with a limited downside.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb asserts that by adopting these strategies a portfolio can be "robust", that is, gain a positive exposure to black swan events while limiting losses suffered by such random events. Together with Donald Geman and Hélyette Geman, he modeled the "maximum entropy barbell" which consists in "to constrain only what can be constrained (in a robust manner) and to maximize entropy elsewhere", based on an insight by E. T. Jaynes that economic life increases in entropy under regulatory and other constraints. Taleb also applies a similar barbell-style approach to health and exercise. Instead of doing steady and moderate exercise daily, he suggests that it is better to do a low-effort exercise such as walking slowly most of the time, while occasionally expending extreme effort. He claims that the human body evolved to live in a random environment, with various unexpected but intense efforts and much rest.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: He appeared as a special guest on "The Ron Paul Liberty Report" on May 19, 2017, and stated his support for a non-interventionist foreign policy. Taleb subsequently appeared with Ron Paul and Ralph Nader on their respective shows in support of "Skin in the Game", which was dedicated to both men.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb wrote in Antifragile and in scientific papers that if the statistical structure of habits in modern society differ too greatly from the ancestral environment of humanity, the analysis of consumption should focus less on composition and more on frequency. In other words, studies that ignore the random nature of supply of nutrients are invalid.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb co-authored a paper with Yaneer Bar-Yam and Joseph Norman called "Systemic risk of pandemic via novel pathogens – Coronavirus: A note". The paper published on January 26, 2020, took the position that the SARS-CoV-2 was not being taken seriously enough by policy makers and medical professionals.


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: In a 2008 article in "The Times", the journalist Bryan Appleyard described Taleb as "now the hottest thinker in the world". The Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman proposed the inclusion of Taleb's name among the world's top intellectuals, saying "Taleb has changed the way many people think about uncertainty, particularly in the financial markets. His book, "The Black Swan", is an original and audacious analysis of the ways in which humans try to make sense of unexpected events." Taleb was treated as a "rock star" at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos in 2009; at that event he had harsh words for bankers, suggesting that bankers' recklessness will not be repeated "if you have punishment".


title: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

text: Taleb contends that statisticians can be pseudoscientists when it comes to risks of rare events and risks of blowups, and mask their incompetence with complicated equations. This stance has attracted criticism: the American Statistical Association devoted the August 2007 issue of "The American Statistician" to "The Black Swan". The magazine offered a mixture of praise and criticism for Taleb's main points, with a focus on Taleb's writing style and his representation of the statistical literature. Robert Lund, a mathematics professor at Clemson University, writes that in "Black Swan", Taleb is "reckless at times and subject to grandiose overstatements; the professional statistician will find the book ubiquitously naive." However, Lund acknowledges that "there are many points where I agree with Taleb," and writes that "the book is a must" for anyone "remotely interested in finance and/or philosophical probability."