title: Grimoire

text: A grimoire ( ) (also known as a "book of spells" or a "spellbook") is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities, and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, although in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires (such as the Bible) have been believed to have supernatural properties intrinsically. The only contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondences. In this manner, while all "books on magic" could be thought of as grimoires, not all "magical books" should be thought of as grimoires.


title: Grimoire

text: While the term "grimoire" is originally European—and many Europeans throughout history, particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have used grimoires—the historian Owen Davies has noted that similar books can be found all around the world, ranging from Jamaica to Sumatra. He also noted that in this sense, the world's first grimoires were created in Europe and the Ancient Near East.


title: Grimoire

text: It is most commonly believed that the term "grimoire" originated from the Old French word "grammaire", which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. By the 18th century, the term had gained its now common usage in France, and had begun to be used to refer purely to books of magic. Owen Davies presumed this was because "many of them continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts".


title: Grimoire

text: However, the term "grimoire" later developed into a figure of speech amongst the French indicating something which was hard to understand. In the 19th century, with the increasing interest in occultism amongst the British following the publication of Francis Barrett's "The Magus" (1801), the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic.


title: Grimoire

text: The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), where they have been found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets that archaeologists excavated from the city of Uruk and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on amulets and other items. The Egyptian magical system, known as heka, was greatly altered and expanded after the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, invaded Egypt in 332 BC.


title: Grimoire

text: Under the next three centuries of Hellenistic Egypt, the Coptic writing system evolved, and the Library of Alexandria was opened. This likely had an influence upon books of magic, with the trend on known incantations switching from simple health and protection charms to more specific things, such as financial success and sexual fulfillment. Around this time the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus developed as a conflation of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes; this figure was associated with writing and magic and, therefore, of books on magic.


title: Grimoire

text: The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that books on magic were invented by the Persians. The 1st-century AD writer Pliny the Elder stated that magic had been first discovered by the ancient philosopher Zoroaster around the year 647 BC but that it was only written down in the 5th century BC by the magician Osthanes. His claims are not, however, supported by modern historians.


title: Grimoire

text: The ancient Jewish people were often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which, according to legend, they had learned from Moses, who had learned it in Egypt. Among many ancient writers, Moses was seen as an Egyptian rather than a Jew. Two manuscripts likely dating to the 4th century, both of which purport to be the legendary eighth Book of Moses (the first five being the initial books in the Biblical Old Testament), present him as a polytheist who explained how to conjure gods and subdue demons.


title: Grimoire

text: Meanwhile, there is definite evidence of grimoires being used by certain—particularly Gnostic—sects of early Christianity. In the "Book of Enoch" found within the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, there is information on astrology and the angels. In possible connection with the "Book of Enoch", the idea of Enoch and his great-grandson Noah having some involvement with books of magic given to them by angels continued through to the medieval period.


title: Grimoire

text: Israelite King Solomon was a Biblical figure associated with magic and sorcery in the ancient world. The 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus mentioned a book circulating under the name of Solomon that contained incantations for summoning demons and described how a Jew called Eleazar used it to cure cases of possession. The book may have been the "Testament of Solomon" but was more probably a different work. The pseudepigraphic "Testament of Solomon" is one of the oldest magical texts. It is a Greek manuscript attributed to Solomon and was likely written in either Babylonia or Egypt sometime in the first five centuries AD; over 1,000 years after Solomon's death.


title: Grimoire

text: The work tells of the building of The Temple and relates that construction was hampered by demons until the archangel Michael gave the King a magical ring. The ring, engraved with the Seal of Solomon, had the power to bind demons from doing harm. Solomon used it to lock demons in jars and commanded others to do his bidding, although eventually, according to the "Testament", he was tempted into worshiping "false gods", such as Moloch, Baal, and Rapha. Subsequently, after losing favour with God, King Solomon wrote the work as a warning and a guide to the reader.


title: Grimoire

text: When Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman Empire, the early Church frowned upon the propagation of books on magic, connecting it with paganism, and burned books of magic. The New Testament records that after the unsuccessful exorcism by the seven sons of Sceva became known, many converts decided to burn their own magic and pagan books in the city of Ephesus; this advice was adopted on a large scale after the Christian ascent to power.


title: Grimoire

text: In the Medieval period, the production of grimoires continued in Christendom, as well as amongst Jews and the followers of the newly founded Islamic faith. As the historian Owen Davies noted, "while the [Christian] Church was ultimately successful in defeating pagan worship it never managed to demarcate clearly and maintain a line of practice between religious devotion and magic." The use of such books on magic continued. In Christianised Europe, the Church divided books of magic into two kinds: those that dealt with "natural magic" and those that dealt in "demonic magic".


title: Grimoire

text: The former was acceptable because it was viewed as merely taking note of the powers in nature that were created by God; for instance, the Anglo-Saxon leechbooks, which contained simple spells for medicinal purposes, were tolerated. Demonic magic was not acceptable, because it was believed that such magic did not come from God, but from the Devil and his demons. These grimoires dealt in such topics as necromancy, divination and demonology. Despite this, "there is ample evidence that the mediaeval clergy were the main practitioners of magic and therefore the owners, transcribers, and circulators of grimoires," while several grimoires were attributed to Popes.


title: Grimoire

text: One such Arabic grimoire devoted to astral magic, the 10th-century "Ghâyat al-Hakîm", was later translated into Latin and circulated in Europe during the 13th century under the name of the "Picatrix". However, not all such grimoires of this era were based upon Arabic sources. The 13th-century "Sworn Book of Honorius", for instance, was (like the ancient "Testament of Solomon" before it) largely based on the supposed teachings of the Biblical king Solomon and included ideas such as prayers and a ritual circle, with the mystical purpose of having visions of God, Hell, and Purgatory and gaining much wisdom and knowledge as a result. Another was the Hebrew "Sefer Raziel Ha-Malakh", translated in Europe as the "Liber Razielis Archangeli".


title: Grimoire

text: A later book also claiming to have been written by Solomon was originally written in Greek during the 15th century, where it was known as the "Magical Treatise of Solomon" or the "Little Key of the Whole Art of Hygromancy, Found by Several Craftsmen and by the Holy Prophet Solomon". In the 16th century, this work had been translated into Latin and Italian, being renamed the "Clavicula Salomonis", or the "Key of Solomon".


title: Grimoire

text: In Christendom during the medieval age, grimoires were written that were attributed to other ancient figures, thereby supposedly giving them a sense of authenticity because of their antiquity. The German abbot and occultist Trithemius (1462–1516) supposedly had a "Book of Simon the Magician", based upon the New Testament figure of Simon Magus. Simon Magus had been a contemporary of Jesus Christ's and—like the Biblical Jesus—had supposedly performed miracles, but had been demonized by the Medieval Church as a devil worshiper and evil individual.


title: Grimoire

text: Similarly, it was commonly believed by medieval people that other ancient figures, such as the poet Virgil, astronomer Ptolemy, and philosopher Aristotle, had been involved in magic, and grimoires claiming to have been written by them were circulated. However, there were those who did not believe this; for instance, the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon (c. 1214–94) stated that books falsely claiming to be by ancient authors "ought to be prohibited by law."


title: Grimoire

text: As the early modern period commenced in the late 15th century, many changes began to shock Europe that would have an effect on the production of grimoires. Historian Owen Davies classed the most important of these as the Protestant Reformation, and subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation; The Witch-hunts, and the advent of printing. The Renaissance saw the continuation of interest in magic that had been found in the Medieval period, and in this period, there was an increased interest in Hermeticism among occultists and ceremonial magicians in Europe, largely fueled by the 1471 translation of the ancient "Corpus hermeticum" into Latin by Marsilio Ficino (1433–99).


title: Grimoire

text: Alongside this, there was a rise in interest in the Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah, which was spread across the continent by Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. The most important magician of the Renaissance was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), who widely studied occult topics and earlier grimoires and eventually published his own, the "Three Books of Occult Philosophy", in 1533. A similar figure was the Swiss magician known as Paracelsus (1493–1541), who published "Of the Supreme Mysteries of Nature", in which he emphasised the distinction between good and bad magic. A third such individual was Johann Georg Faust, upon whom several pieces of later literature were written, such as Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", that portrayed him as consulting with demons.


title: Grimoire

text: The idea of demonology had remained strong in the Renaissance, and several demonological grimoires were published, including "The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy", which falsely claimed to having been authored by Cornelius Agrippa, and the "Pseudomonarchia Daemonum", which listed 69 demons. To counter this, the Roman Catholic Church authorised the production of many works of exorcism, the rituals of which were often very similar to those of demonic conjuration. Alongside these demonological works, grimoires on natural magic continued to be produced, including "Magia Naturalis", written by Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615).


title: Grimoire

text: Iceland held magical traditions in regional work as well, most remarkably the Galdrabók, where numerous symbols of mystic origin are dedicated to the practitioner. These pieces give a perfect fusion of Germanic pagan and Christian influence, seeking splendid help from the Norse gods and referring to the titles of demons.


title: Grimoire

text: The advent of printing in Europe meant that books could be mass-produced for the first time and could reach an ever-growing literate audience. Among the earliest books to be printed were magical texts. The "nóminas" were one example, consisting of prayers to the saints used as talismans. It was particularly in Protestant countries, such as Switzerland and the German states, which were not under the domination of the Roman Catholic Church, where such grimoires were published.


title: Grimoire

text: Despite the advent of print, however, handwritten grimoires remained highly valued, as they were believed to contain inherent magical powers, and they continued to be produced. With increasing availability, people lower down the social scale and women began to have access to books on magic; this was often incorporated into the popular folk magic of the average people and, in particular, that of the cunning folk, who were professionally involved in folk magic. These works left Europe and were imported to the parts of Latin America controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the parts of North America controlled by the British and French empires.


title: Grimoire

text: Throughout this period, the Inquisition, a Roman Catholic organisation, had organised the mass suppression of peoples and beliefs that they considered heretical. In many cases, grimoires were found in the heretics' possessions and destroyed. In 1599, the church published the "Indexes of Prohibited Books", in which many grimoires were listed as forbidden, including several mediaeval ones, such as the "Key of Solomon", which were still popular.


title: Grimoire

text: In Christendom, there also began to develop a widespread fear of witchcraft, which was believed to be Satanic in nature. The subsequent hysteria, known as The Witch-hunts, caused the death of around 40,000 people, most of whom were women. Sometimes, those found with grimoires—particularly demonological ones—were prosecuted and dealt with as witches but, in most cases, those accused had no access to such books. Iceland—which had a relatively high literacy rate—proved an exception to this, with a third of the 134 witch trials held involving people who had owned grimoires. By the end of the Early Modern period, and the beginning of the Enlightenment, many European governments brought in laws prohibiting many superstitious beliefs in an attempt to bring an end to the Witch Hunts; this would invariably affect the release of grimoires.


title: Grimoire

text: Meanwhile, Hermeticism and the Kabbalah would influence the creation of a mystical philosophy known as Rosicrucianism, which first appeared in the early 17th century, when two pamphlets detailing the existence of the mysterious Rosicrucian group were published in Germany. These claimed that Rosicrucianism had originated with a Medieval figure known as Christian Rosenkreuz, who had founded the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross; however, there was no evidence for the existence of Rosenkreuz or the Brotherhood.


title: Grimoire

text: The 18th century saw the rise of the Enlightenment, a movement devoted to science and rationalism, predominantly amongst the ruling classes. However, amongst much of Europe, belief in magic and witchcraft persisted, as did the witch trials in certain areas. Governments tried to crack down on magicians and fortune tellers, particularly in France, where the police viewed them as social pests who took money from the gullible, often in a search for treasure. In doing so, they confiscated many grimoires.


title: Grimoire

text: Beginning in the 17th century, an new, ephemeral form of printed literature developed in France; the "Bibliothèque bleue". Many grimoires published through this circulated among a growing percentage of the populace; in particular, the "Grand Albert", the "Petit Albert" (1782), the "Grimoire du Pape Honorius", and the "Enchiridion Leonis Papae". The "Petit Albert" contained a wide variety of magic; for instance, dealing in simple charms for ailments, along with more complex things, such as the instructions for making a Hand of Glory.


title: Grimoire

text: In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, following the French Revolution of 1789, a hugely influential grimoire was published under the title of the "Grand Grimoire", which was considered particularly powerful, because it involved conjuring and making a pact with the devil's chief minister, Lucifugé Rofocale, to gain wealth from him. A new version of this grimoire was later published under the title of the "Dragon rouge" and was available for sale in many Parisian bookstores. Similar books published in France at this time included the "Black Pullet" and the "Grimoirium Verum". The "Black Pullet", probably authored in late-18th-century Rome or France, differs from the typical grimoires in that it does not claim to be a manuscript from antiquity, but told by a man who was a member of Napoleon's armed expeditionary forces in Egypt.


title: Grimoire

text: The widespread availability of printed grimoires in France—despite the opposition of both the rationalists and the church—soon spread to neighbouring countries, such as Spain and Germany. In Switzerland, Geneva was commonly associated with the occult at the time, particularly by Catholics, because it had been a stronghold of Protestantism. Many of those interested in the esoteric traveled from Roman Catholic nations to Switzerland to purchase grimoires or to study with occultists. Soon, grimoires appeared that involved Catholic saints; one example that appeared during the 19th century, and became relatively popular—particularly in Spain—was the "Libro de San Cipriano", or "The Book of St. Ciprian", which falsely claimed to date from c. 1000. As with most grimoires of this period, it dealt with (among other things) how to discover treasure.


title: Grimoire

text: In Germany, with the increased interest in folklore during the 19th century, many historians took an interest in magic and in grimoires. Several published extracts of such grimoires in their own books on the history of magic, thereby helping to further propagate them. Perhaps the most notable of these was the Protestant pastor Georg Conrad Horst (1779–1832) who, from 1821 to 1826, published a six-volume collection of magical texts in which he studied grimoires as a peculiarity of the Medieval mindset.


title: Grimoire

text: Another scholar of the time interested in grimoires, the antiquarian bookseller Johann Scheible first published the "Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses"; two influential magical texts that claimed to have been written by the ancient Jewish figure Moses. "The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses" were among the works which later spread to the countries of Scandinavia, where—in Danish and Swedish—grimoires were known as black books and were commonly found among members of the army.


title: Grimoire

text: In Britain, new grimoires continued to be produced throughout the 18th century, such as Ebenezer Sibly's "A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology". In the last decades of that century, London experienced a revival of interest in the occult which was further propagated by Francis Barrett's publication of "The Magus" in 1801. "The Magus" contained many things taken from older grimoires—particularly those of Cornelius Agrippa—and, while not achieving initial popularity upon release, it gradually became an influential text.


title: Grimoire

text: One of Barrett's pupils, John Parkin, created his own handwritten grimoire "The Grand Oracle of Heaven, or, The Art of Divine Magic", although it was never published, largely because Britain was at war with France, and grimoires were commonly associated with the French. The only writer to publish British grimoires widely in the early 19th century was Robert Cross Smith, who released "The Philosophical Merlin" (1822) and "The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century" (1825), but neither sold well.


title: Grimoire

text: In the late 19th century, several of these texts (including "The Book of Abramelin" and the "Key of Solomon") were reclaimed by para-Masonic magical organisations, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis.


title: Grimoire

text: "The Secret Grimoire of Turiel" claims to have been written in the 16th century, but no copy older than 1927 has been produced.


title: Grimoire

text: A modern grimoire, the "Simon Necronomicon", takes its name from a fictional book of magic in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft which was inspired by Babylonian mythology and the "Ars Goetia"—one of the five books that make up "The" "Lesser Key of Solomon"—concerning the summoning of demons. "The Azoëtia" of Andrew D. Chumbley has been described by Gavin Semple as a modern grimoire.


title: Grimoire

text: The neopagan religion of Wicca publicly appeared in the 1940s, and Gerald Gardner introduced the "Book of Shadows" as a Wiccan grimoire.


title: Grimoire

text: The term grimoire commonly serves as an alternative name for a spell book or tome of magical knowledge in fantasy fiction and role-playing games. The most famous fictional grimoire is the "Necronomicon", a creation of H. P. Lovecraft.


title: Jason Connery

text: Jason Joseph Connery (born 11 January 1963) is a British actor and director. He is the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento. On screen, he is best known for appearing in the third series of the ITV drama series "Robin of Sherwood" in 1986. He took over the main role after Michael Praed's character was killed off at the end of the second series.


title: Jason Connery

text: Connery was born in Rome and raised in London. He is the son of Australian actress Diane Cilento and Scottish actor Sean Connery. He attended Millfield School, a co-educational independent school in the town of Street, in Somerset, England, and later the independent Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland. He was later accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.


title: Jason Connery

text: Connery performed many roles in theatre and subsequently had parts in several B-films. His film début was in "The Lords of Discipline" (1983). He appeared in the "Doctor Who" serial "Vengeance on Varos" in 1985. He also portrayed Robin Hood in the final series of the television series "Robin of Sherwood" in 1986.


title: Jason Connery

text: He later portrayed James Bond creator Ian Fleming in the 1990 television drama "". In 1997, he appeared in a fantasy film (originally intended as a pilot episode for a longer series) playing the title role of Merlin in "", directed by David Winning. He appeared in "Faithful Dealing" (2001) in London, an English Restoration Whodunit, produced by Dominic Madden. In 2003, he toured with a stage production of "The Blue Room". In 2004 he was a main character in the children's show "Shoebox Zoo" and returned in the second series in September 2005.


title: Jason Connery

text: Connery had starring roles in several horror films, including "Lightspeed" (2006), "Night Skies" (2007) and "Brotherhood of Blood" (2007).


title: Jason Connery

text: In 2014 he took part in BBC One's "Celebrity MasterChef" and featured in the sitcom "George Lopez" (2002).


title: Jason Connery

text: In 2008 he made his directorial début with the film "Pandemic" and in 2009 directed "The Devil's Tomb". Connery directed the 2011 "After Dark Originals" film "51", and "The Philly Kid" (2012) for the "After Dark Action" series.


title: Jason Connery

text: In 2016, Connery directed "Tommy's Honour", a film celebrating the lives of golf pioneers Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris. The film opened the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival on 15 June 2016, and won Best Feature Film at the 2016 British Academy Scotland Awards.


title: Jason Connery

text: Connery met American actress Mia Sara during the making of "Bullet to Beijing" in Russia. They married in 1996, and their son, Dashiell Quinn Connery, was born in June 1997. The couple divorced in 2002.


title: Putin's Palace

text: "Putin's Palace" () is an Italianate palace complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The complex first came to public attention in 2010 after whistleblower Sergei Kolesnikov published an open letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev exposing the construction of the palace. Kolesnikov also stated that the undertaking was run by Nikolai Shamalov who was acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Alexander Ponomarenko was later reported to have ownership.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The complex drew more substantial public attention in 2021, when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti Corruption Foundation (FBK) released an investigative documentary film about it which detailed a corruption scheme allegedly headed by Putin and claimed that the palace was built for the president's personal use. The FBK investigation estimated the cost of the build to be over 100 billion rubles (US$956 million) at 2022 prices. Putin denied that the palace belonged to him, with the Kremlin saying that it is a private venture owned by various businessmen whose names cannot be revealed by the state. Following the release of the film, Arkady Rotenberg, who has close ties to Putin, claimed ownership of the palace.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The residence is located at on Cape Idokopas, near the village of Praskoveyevka. Cape Idokopas () is a promontory on the Black Sea coast of Russia near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai. The headland is lined with cliffs but is mostly flat on its summit, which is heavily forested with Turkish pine trees. It is bordered by a reef that makes offshore navigation hazardous. The residence overlooks Russia's Black Sea coast, and is built on a block of land with a total area of . The airspace around the palace (see image) is regulated as Prohibited Special Use Airspace P116 (i.e. a no-fly zone), for which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) stated was to protect an FSB border-post in the area from increased foreign intelligence activity.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The buildings on the palace complex include a house with an area of , an arboretum, a greenhouse, a helipad, an ice palace, a church, an amphitheater, a "tea house" (guest house), a gas station, an bridge and a special tunnel inside the mountain with a tasting room.


title: Putin's Palace

text: Inside the main building are a swimming pool, aquadiskotheque arrangement, spa, saunas, Turkish baths, meat and fish, vegetable and dessert shops, a warehouse, a reading room, a music lounge, a hookah bar, a theater and a cinema, a wine cellar, a casino, and about a dozen guest bedrooms. The master bedroom is in size.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The house is designed by the Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo, who has designed properties for many of Russia's elite.


title: Putin's Palace

text: Russian government official Vladimir Kozhin told reporters from the Russian daily "Kommersant" that the Russian government had approved the construction of the estate by the Lirus group, and that the government maintained a stake in the project until 2008, when it sold its share.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In March 2011, it was reported that Alexander Ponomarenko, a businessman and billionaire who made his money in sea ports, banking, commercial real estate and airport construction, acquired the company "Idokopas" which owned the palace. At the time of the purchase, Idokopas owned around 67 hectares of recreational land near the settlement of Praskoveyeka, including a guesthouse complex amounting to 26,000 square meters. Ponomarenko also said he had bought a second company, the Azure Berry Company (), which owned 60 hectares of agricultural land near Divnomorsk, a settlement 13 kilometers from Praskoveyevka. Ponomarenko bought the unfinished complex from Shamalov and his partners. At the time of the purchase, Ponomarenko did not disclose the value of the deal, but hinted he had been able to purchase the property for a very good price – the asset was heavily encumbered with debts and the developers had run out of money to complete the project. When asked about the projected value of the complex once complete, he conceded that suggestions it could be as much as $350 million "were close to the truth". According to Vedomosti, however, experts estimated the value of the property at $20 million. In July 2011, the Azure Berry Company was sold to SVL Group, controlled by Boris Titov, the owner of champagne factory "Abrau-Durso". Ponomarenko's media representatives told Forbes in 2021 that Ponomarenko had withdrawn from the project in 2016.


title: Putin's Palace

text: On 11 May 2016, RBC reported that Alexei Vasilyuk () through his ownership of the Moscow registered LLC “Southern citadel” () has exclusive rights since 25 March 2016 to the water along the coastline between Cape Idokopas and for the production of mussels and oysters and that on 20 April 2016 “Southern citadel” has received a 25-year lease to two land plots totaling along the Black Sea next to “Putin's Palace”. The RBC article also stated that Ponomarenko is the owner of “Putin's Palace” through his Complex LLC () which is the owner of the land under “Putin's Palace” since May 2013 and the owner of the structure “Putin's Palace” since March 2015 and that the British Virgins Islands firm Savoyan Investments Limited has been the owner of Complex LLC since September 2013. According to a 13 May 2016 "The Moscow Times" article, the exclusive ownership of the nearby coastline is to prevent ships from approaching the coastline near “Putin's Palace”. On 3 March 2017, Alexander Ponomarenko obtained a 100% stake in “South Citadel” and thus obtained an additional two plots of land next to “Putin's Palace” and had the exclusive rights to the water along the coastline near “Putin's Palace”.


title: Putin's Palace

text: On 30 January 2021, the billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who has close links to Putin, said that he had purchased the estate "a few years ago." He also said that the property when completed would become an apartment hotel.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In 2010, Russian businessman Sergei Kolesnikov wrote an open letter to Dmitry Medvedev, at that time the Russian President, stating that a dentist named Nikolai Shamalov was building a grand Black Sea estate for Putin or Medvedev. Kolesnikov said the construction of the estate was draining funds available for his work, which included the state-commissioned renovations of hospitals in collaboration with Shamalov and businessman Dmitry Gorelov. Kolesnikov further said that he had worked on the estate project until he was removed because he voiced concerns about corruption, that the estate was still under construction, and the cost was one billion dollars, funded by bribery and theft.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In 2011, the "Novaya Gazeta" wrote that it had obtained a contract for the palace signed by the presidential property manager in 2005, when Putin was the Russian president. A website called the "Russian Wikileaks," RuLeaks.Ru, posted photographs of the estate, but could not confirm its ownership. Medvedev replied that neither he nor Putin had any relationship to the property.


title: Putin's Palace

text: Speaking to the BBC in 2012, Kolesnikov said that the estate was still under construction, and that the project was being organized sometimes by Shamalov, or sometimes by a deputy of the president, Igor Sechin. Kolesnikov said that Shamalov never questioned his role, adding, "There was a tsar - and there were slaves, who didn't have their own opinion." According to the BBC, the estate was owned by a company Shamalov partly owned, and it was unclear if Putin had any relationship to the property.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In Kolesnikov's initial letter and in subsequent media interviews, including to "Novaya Gazeta", David Ignatius of "The Washington Post" and Masha Gessen of Snob.ru, he provided an account of how the construction of the estate was financed by corruption. Kolesnikov said that in early 2000, Nikolai Terentievich Shamalov, a representative of the multinational company Siemens AG in North West Russia and somebody thought close to Russia's new President Vladimir Putin, approached Kolesnikov with a business proposition. The two men had known each other through business since 1993–1994, when Kolesnikov was deputy director general of Petromed, a St. Petersburg-based firm that specialised in the procurement of medical supplies. It was also through Petromed that Kolesnikov had got to know Putin, on whose behalf Shamalov said he made the approach. Putin had been head of the St. Petersburg Council on External Economic affairs which when Petromed became a private company in 1992 held a 51% stake.


title: Putin's Palace

text: Kolesnikov told Masha Gessen that Putin held 94% of shares in Rosinvest, with Kolesnikov, Shamalov and Dmitry Vladimirovich Gorelov (director of Petromed and another friend of Putin from his time in Saint Petersburg) taking 2% each. Rosinvest's interests included shipbuilding, construction, and lumber/timber processing. Kolesnikov is reported as saying that Abramovich and the other donors to health projects acted 'nobly', implying they were unaware that a significant proportion of their donations was being diverted into an investment vehicle allegedly run for the benefit of the President and his partners in Rosinvest. This is despite the huge sums involved and disputed claims that the relationship between Putin and Abramovich has been very close.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The chart below shows the scheme of interaction between companies and cash flows involved in financing of the construction, according to Kolesnikov.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In February 2011, members of the group "Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus" and a journalist visited the site to investigate concerns that the construction violated laws protecting the area's ecology. They said that they were harassed and detained by members of the Federal Protective Service (FSO), the agency responsible for guarding state property and high-ranking officials. Despite the confiscation of their equipment they were able to publish additional photographs of the site. Activists made another sortie into the property in June 2011, when they claimed to have found an illegally constructed marina.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The 11 May 2016 RBC article "Oyster farming will begin in front of the "Putin's palace" near Gelendzhik" () revealed that Ponomarenko is the owner of "Putin's Palace". The publishing of the RBC article contributed to Mikhail Prokhorov, who has the majority ownership of the RBK Group after he purchased a 51% stake in it in 2009, to fire Maxim Solus, the editor-in-chief of RBC newspaper, which further resulted in the resignations of both , rbc.ru's chief editor, and Yelizaveta Osetinskaya, RBC's chief editor.


title: Putin's Palace

text: On 19 January 2021, two days after Alexei Navalny was detained by Russian authorities upon his return to Russia, an investigation by him and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was published accusing President Vladimir Putin of using fraudulently obtained funds to build the estate for himself in what he called "the world's biggest bribe." Navalny said that the estate is 39 times the size of Monaco and cost over 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion) to construct. His video showed aerial footage of the estate via a drone and a detailed floorplan of the palace that Navalny said was given by a contractor, which he compared to photographs from inside the palace that were leaked onto the Internet in 2011. He also detailed an elaborate corruption scheme allegedly involving Putin's inner circle that allowed Putin to hide billions of dollars to build the estate.


title: Putin's Palace

text: After Navalny's arrest and the release of his video, protests in support of Navalny began on 23 January 2021. In response to the claims, Putin said that the palace had never belonged either to him or his family.


title: Putin's Palace

text: The BBC Russian Service spoke to several construction workers who said they worked on the palace between 2005 and 2020, confirming several of the allegations made in the FBK investigation, including that the palace was being rebuilt due to mould.


title: Putin's Palace

text: In January 2022, the FBK leaked 479 photographs of the palace while it was under construction. The photographs show the exterior and interior of the house including photographs of rooms that were described as a strip club and a hookah lounge.


title: Putin's Palace

text: Journalists from the online newspaper "Meduza" interviewed people who were involved in the construction of the residence. Many interviewees said the residence is connected with Putin and is guarded by the FSO, who also supervise construction. "Meduza" had documents with the names and signatures of the FSO employees, including Colonel Oleg Kuznetsov. The article described vast and extravagant luxuries in the estate.


title: Putin's Palace

text: On 29 January 2021, the pro-Kremlin Mash Telegram channel gained access to the palace, which showed that the palace was under construction. While it attempted to contradict Navalny's claims, Navalny's team said that it supported their previous reporting that the palace had to be redone due to mold issues.


title: Putin's Palace

text: On 13 May 2021, BBC News Russian published its own investigation based on official documents of the sale and meeting notes.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing (1 lb 5.92 oz), discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine. In April 1905, it was put on sale in London, but despite considerable interest, it was still unsold after two years. In 1907, the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan and Prime Minister Louis Botha presented it to Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom, who had it cut by Joseph Asscher & Co. in Amsterdam.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan produced stones of various cuts and sizes, the largest of which is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, and at (3.74 ounces) it is the largest clear cut diamond in the world. The stone is mounted in the head of the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross. The second-largest is Cullinan II or the Second Star of Africa, weighing , mounted in the Imperial State Crown. Both are part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Seven other major diamonds, weighing a total of , were privately owned by Elizabeth II, who inherited them from her grandmother, Queen Mary, in 1953. The Queen also owned minor brilliants and a set of unpolished fragments.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: The Cullinan is estimated to have formed in Earth's mantle transition zone at a depth of 410–660 km (255–410 miles) and reached the surface 1.18 billion years ago. It was found below the surface at Premier Mine in Cullinan, Transvaal Colony, by Frederick Wells, surface manager at the mine, on 26 January 1905. It was approximately long, wide, deep, and weighed . Newspapers called it the "Cullinan Diamond", a reference to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who opened the mine in 1902. It was three times the size of the Excelsior Diamond, found in 1893 at Jagersfontein Mine, weighing . Four of its eight surfaces were smooth, indicating that it once had been part of a much larger stone broken up by natural forces. It had a blue-white hue and contained a small pocket of air, which at certain angles produced a rainbow, or Newton's rings.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Shortly after its discovery, Cullinan went on public display at the Standard Bank in Johannesburg, where it was seen by an estimated 8,000–9,000 visitors. In April 1905, the rough gem was deposited with Premier Mining Co.'s London sales agent, S. Neumann & Co. Due to its immense value, detectives were assigned to a steamboat that was rumoured to be carrying the stone, and a parcel was ceremoniously locked in the captain's safe and guarded on the entire journey. It was a diversionary tactic – the stone on that ship was fake, meant to attract those who would be interested in stealing it. Cullinan was sent to the United Kingdom in a plain box via registered post. On arriving in London, it was conveyed to Buckingham Palace for inspection by King Edward VII. Although it drew considerable interest from potential buyers, Cullinan went unsold for two years.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Transvaal Prime Minister, Louis Botha, suggested buying the diamond for Edward VII as "a token of the loyalty and attachment of the people of the Transvaal to His Majesty's throne and person". In August 1907, a vote was held in the Legislative Council on the Cullinan's fate, and a motion authorising the purchase was carried by 42 votes in favour to 19 against. Initially, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, then British Prime Minister, advised the king to decline the offer, but he later decided to let Edward VII choose whether or not to accept the gift. Eventually, he was persuaded by Winston Churchill, then Colonial Under-Secretary. For his trouble, Churchill was sent a replica, which he enjoyed showing off to guests on a silver plate. The Transvaal Colony government bought the diamond on 17 October 1907 for £150,000, which adjusted for pound-sterling inflation is equivalent to £ in . Due to a 60% tax on mining profits, the Treasury received some of its money back from the Premier Diamond Mining Company.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: The diamond was presented to the king at Sandringham House by Agent-General of the colony, Sir Richard Solomon, on 9 November 1907 – his sixty-sixth birthday – in the presence of a large party of guests, including the Queen of Sweden, the Queen of Spain, the Duke of Westminster and Lord Revelstoke. The king asked his colonial secretary, Lord Elgin, to announce that he accepted the gift "for myself and my successors" and that he would ensure "this great and unique diamond be kept and preserved among the historic jewels which form the heirlooms of the Crown".


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: The king chose Joseph Asscher & Co. of Amsterdam to cleave and polish the rough stone into brilliant gems of various cuts and sizes. Abraham Asscher collected it from the Colonial Office in London on 23 January 1908. He returned to the Netherlands by train and ferry with the diamond in his coat pocket. Meanwhile, to much fanfare, a Royal Navy ship carried an empty box across the North Sea, again throwing off potential thieves. Even the captain was unaware that his "precious" cargo was a decoy.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: On 10 February 1908, the rough stone was split in half by Joseph Asscher at his diamond-cutting factory in Amsterdam. At the time, technology had not yet evolved to guarantee the quality of modern standards, and cutting the diamond was difficult and risky. After weeks of planning, an incision deep was made to enable Asscher to cleave the diamond in one blow. Making the incision alone took four days, and a steel knife broke on the first attempt, but a second knife was fitted into the groove and split it clean in two along one of four possible cleavage planes. In all, splitting and cutting the diamond took eight months, with three people working 14 hours per day to complete the task.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: "The tale is told of Joseph Asscher, the greatest cleaver of the day," wrote Matthew Hart in his book "Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession" (2002), "that when he prepared to cleave the largest diamond ever known … he had a doctor and nurse standing by and when he finally struck the diamond … he fainted dead away". Lord Ian Balfour, in his book "Famous Diamonds" (2009), dispels the fainting story, suggesting it was more likely Joseph would have celebrated, opening a bottle of champagne. When Joseph's nephew Louis heard the story, he exclaimed "No Asscher would ever faint over any operation on any diamond".


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan produced 9 major stones of in total, plus 96 minor brilliants and some unpolished fragments weighing . All but the two largest stones – Cullinans I and II – remained in Amsterdam by arrangement as the fee for Asscher's services, until the South African government bought them (except Cullinan VI, which Edward VII had purchased and given to his wife Queen Alexandra in 1907), and the High Commissioner for Southern Africa presented them to Queen Mary on 28 June 1910. Mary also inherited Cullinan VI from Alexandra, and she left all her Cullinan diamonds to her granddaughter Elizabeth II in 1953. Cullinans I and II are part of the Crown Jewels, which belong to the King in right of the Crown.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Asscher sold the minor stones to the South African government, which distributed them to Queen Mary; Louis Botha, then prime minister of South Africa; the diamond merchants Arthur and Alexander Levy, who supervised the cutting of Cullinan; and Jacob Romijn (later Romyn), who co-founded the first trade union in the diamond industry. Some were set by Mary into a long platinum chain, which Elizabeth never wore in public, saying that "it gets in the soup". In the 1960s, two minor Cullinan diamonds owned by Louis Botha's heirs were analysed at the De Beers laboratory in Johannesburg and found to be completely free of nitrogen or any other impurities. Cullinans I and II were examined in the 1980s by gemologists at the Tower of London and both graded as colourless type IIa.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan I, or the Great Star of Africa, is a pendeloque-cut brilliant weighing and has 74 facets. It is set at the top of the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross which had to be redesigned in 1910 to accommodate it. Cullinan I was surpassed as the world's largest cut diamond of any colour by the brown Golden Jubilee Diamond in 1992, but is still the largest clear cut diamond in the world. In terms of clarity, it has a few tiny cleavages and a small patch of graining. The diamond is fitted with loops and can be taken out of its setting to be worn as a pendant suspended from Cullinan II to make a brooch. Queen Mary, wife of George V, often wore it like this. In 1908, the stone was valued at US$2.5 million (equivalent to US$ million in )– two and a half times the rough Cullinan's estimated value.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan II, or the Second Star of Africa, is a cushion-cut brilliant with 66 facets weighing set in the front of the Imperial State Crown, below the Black Prince's Ruby (a large spinel). It measures . The diamond has a number of tiny flaws, scratches on the table facet, and a small chip at the girdle. Like Cullinan I, it is held in place by a yellow gold enclosure, which is screwed onto the crown.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan III, or the Lesser Star of Africa, is pear-cut and weighs . In 1911, Queen Mary, wife and queen consort of George V, had it set in the top cross pattée of a crown that she personally bought for her coronation. In 1912, the Delhi Durbar Tiara, worn the previous year by Mary instead of a crown at the Delhi Durbar, where her husband wore the Imperial Crown of India, was also adapted to take Cullinans III and IV. In 1914, Cullinan III was permanently replaced on the crown by a crystal model. Elizabeth II frequently wore Cullinan III in combination with Cullinan IV as a brooch. In total, the brooch is long and wide. Cullinan III has also been used as a pendant on the Coronation Necklace, where it occasionally replaced the Lahore Diamond.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan IV, also referred to as a Lesser Star of Africa, is square-cut and weighs . It was also set in the base of Queen Mary's Crown but was removed in 1914. On 25 March 1958, while she and Prince Philip were on a state visit to the Netherlands, Queen Elizabeth II revealed that Cullinan III and IV are known in her family as "Granny's Chips". They visited the Asscher Diamond Company, where Cullinan had been cut 50 years earlier. It was the first time the Queen had worn the brooch publicly. During her visit, she unpinned the brooch and offered it for examination to Louis Asscher, nephew of Joseph Asscher, who split the rough diamond. Aged 84, he was deeply moved that the Queen had brought the diamonds with her, knowing how much it would mean to him seeing them again after so many years.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan V is an heart-shaped diamond set in the centre of a platinum brooch that formed a part of the stomacher made for Queen Mary to wear at the Delhi Durbar in 1911. The brooch was designed to show off Cullinan V and is pavé-set with a border of smaller diamonds. It can be suspended from the VIII brooch and can be used to suspend the VII pendant. It was often worn like this by Mary.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan VI is marquise-cut and weighs . It hangs from the brooch containing Cullinan VIII and forming part of the stomacher of the Delhi Durbar parure. Cullinan VI along with VIII can also be fitted together to make yet another brooch, surrounded by some 96 smaller diamonds. The design was created around the same time that the Cullinan V heart-shaped brooch was designed, both having a similar shape.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan VII is also marquise-cut and weighs . It was originally given by Edward VII to his wife and consort Queen Alexandra. After his death she gave the jewel to Queen Mary, who had it set as a pendant hanging from the diamond-and-emerald Delhi Durbar necklace, part of the parure.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan VIII is an oblong-cut diamond weighing . It is set in the centre of a brooch forming part of the stomacher of the Delhi Durbar parure. Together with Cullinan VI it forms a brooch.


title: Cullinan Diamond

text: Cullinan IX is smallest of the principal diamonds to be obtained from the rough Cullinan. It is a pendeloque or stepped pear-cut stone, weighs , and is set in a platinum ring known as the Cullinan IX Ring.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Licence to Kill is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the "James Bond" series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues the drug lord Franz Sanchez, who has ordered an attack against Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter and the murder of Felix's wife after their wedding.


title: Licence to Kill

text: "Licence to Kill" was the fifth and final Bond film directed by John Glen, the last to feature Robert Brown as M and Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny. It was also the last to feature the work of the screenwriter Richard Maibaum, the title designer Maurice Binder and the producer Albert R. Broccoli, all of whom died in the following years.


title: Licence to Kill

text: "Licence to Kill" was the first Bond film to not use the title of an Ian Fleming story. Originally titled "Licence Revoked", the name was changed during post-production due to American test audiences associating the term with driver's license. Although its plot is largely original, it contains elements of the Fleming novel "Live and Let Die" and the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity", interwoven with a sabotage premise influenced by Akira Kurosawa's film "Yojimbo".


title: Licence to Kill

text: For budget reasons, "Licence to Kill" became the first Bond film shot entirely outside the United Kingdom: principal photography took place on location in Mexico and the US, while interiors were filmed at Estudios Churubusco instead of Pinewood Studios. The film earned over $156 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the stunts, but attracted criticism for its darker tone, which carried into Dalton's portrayal of Bond.


title: Licence to Kill

text: DEA agents collect MI6 agent James Bond and his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, on their way to Leiter's wedding in Key West, to have them assist in capturing drugs lord Franz Sanchez. Bond and Leiter capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez's plane and pulling it out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter. Afterwards, Bond and Leiter parachute down to the church in time for the ceremony.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Sanchez bribes DEA agent Ed Killifer and escapes. Meanwhile, Sanchez's henchman Dario and his crew ambush Leiter and his wife Della and take Leiter to an aquarium owned by one of Sanchez's accomplices, Milton Krest. Sanchez has Leiter lowered into a tank holding a tiger shark. When Bond learns that Sanchez has escaped, he returns to Leiter's house to find that Leiter has been maimed and that Della has been murdered (and by implication raped). Bond, with Leiter's friend Sharkey, start their own investigation. They discover a marine research centre run by Krest, where Sanchez has hidden cocaine and a submarine for smuggling.


title: Licence to Kill

text: After Bond kills Killifer using the same shark tank used for Leiter, M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond resigns after turning down the assignment, but M suspends Bond instead and revokes his licence to kill. Bond becomes a rogue agent, although he later receives unauthorised assistance from Q.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Bond boards Krest's ship "Wavekrest" and foils Sanchez's latest drug shipment, stealing five million dollars in the process. He discovers that Sharkey has been killed by Sanchez's henchmen. Bond meets and teams up with Pam Bouvier, a pilot and DEA informant, at a Bimini bar, and journeys with her to the Republic of Isthmus. He seeks Sanchez's employment by posing as an assassin for hire. Two Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers foil Bond's attempt to assassinate Sanchez and take him to an abandoned warehouse. They are joined by Fallon, an MI6 agent who was sent by M to apprehend Bond. Sanchez's men rescue him and kill the officers, believing them to be the assassins. Later, with the aid of Bouvier, Q, and Sanchez's girlfriend Lupe Lamora, Bond frames Krest by planting the $5 million in "Wavekrest". Sanchez shuts Krest into a decompression chamber and cuts the oxygen cord, causing Krest to explosively decompress to his death. Bond is then admitted into the inner circle.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Sanchez takes Bond to his base, which is disguised as the headquarters of a religious cult. Bond learns that Sanchez's scientists can dissolve cocaine in petrol and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers. The televangelist Joe Butcher serves as middleman, working under Sanchez's business manager Truman-Lodge, who uses Butcher's TV broadcasts to communicate with Sanchez's customers in the United States. During Sanchez's presentation to potential Asian customers, Dario enters the room and recognises Bond. Bond starts a fire in the laboratory, but is captured again and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick-cocaine into a giant shredder. Bouvier arrives and shoots Dario, allowing Bond to pull Dario into the shredder, killing him.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Sanchez and most of the others flee as fire consumes his base, taking with him four tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mixture. Bond pursues them by plane, with Bouvier at the controls. During the course of a stunt-filled chase through the desert, Bond destroys three of the tankers and kills several of Sanchez's men. Sanchez attacks Bond with a machete aboard the final remaining tanker, which crashes down a hillside. A petrol-soaked Sanchez attempts to kill Bond with his machete. Bond then reveals his cigarette lighter—the Leiters' gift for being the best man at their wedding—and sets Sanchez on fire. Sanchez stumbles into the wrecked tanker, causing a big explosion and killing himself. Bouvier arrives shortly afterward, and picks up Bond.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Later, a party is held at Sanchez's former residence. Bond receives a call from Leiter telling him that M has congratulated him for his work and offers him his job back. He then rejects Lupe's advances and romances Bouvier instead.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Shortly after "The Living Daylights" was released, producer Albert R. Broccoli and writers Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum started discussing its successor. The film would retain a realistic style, as well as showing the "darker edge" of the Bond character. For the primary location, the producers wanted a place where the series had not yet visited. While China was visited after an invitation by its government, the idea fell through partly because the 1987 film "The Last Emperor" had removed some of the novelty from filming in China. By this stage the writers had already talked about a chase sequence along the Great Wall, as well as a fight scene amongst the Terracotta Army. Wilson also wrote two plot outlines about a drugs lord in the Golden Triangle before the plans fell through out of Broccoli's concerns that the Chinese government would censor the script. The writers eventually decided on a setting in a tropical country while Broccoli negotiated to film in Mexico, at the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City. In 1985, the Films Act was passed, removing the Eady Levy, resulting in foreign artists being taxed more heavily. The associated rising costs to Eon Productions meant no part of "Licence to Kill" was filmed in the UK, the first Bond film not to do so. Pinewood Studios, used in every previous "Bond" film, undertook only the post-production and sound re-recording.


title: Licence to Kill

text: The initial outline of what would become "Licence to Kill" was drawn up by Wilson and Maibaum. Before the pair could develop the script, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike and Maibaum was unable to continue writing, leaving Wilson to work on the script on his own. Although both the main plot and title of "Licence to Kill" owe nothing to any of the Fleming novels, there are elements from the books that are used in the storyline, including a number of aspects of the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity", such as the character Milton Krest. The novel "Live and Let Die" provided the material surrounding Felix Leiter's mauling by a shark, whilst the film version of the book provided the close similarity between the main villain, Mr. Big, and "Licence to Kill"s main villain Sanchez. The screenplay was not ready by the time casting had begun, with Carey Lowell being auditioned with lines from "A View to a Kill".


title: Licence to Kill

text: The script—initially called "Licence Revoked"—was written with Dalton's characterisation of Bond in mind, and the obsession with which Bond pursues Sanchez on behalf of Leiter and his dead wife is seen as being because "of his own brutally cut-short marriage". Dalton's darker portrayal of Bond led to the violence being increased and becoming more graphic. Wilson compared the script to Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", where a samurai "without any attacking of the villain or its cohorts, only sowing the seeds of distrust, he manages to have the villain bring himself down". Wilson freely admitted that the idea of the destruction-from-within aspect of the plot came more from "Yojimbo" and Sergio Leone's remake of that film, "A Fistful of Dollars", than from Fleming's use of that plot device from "The Man with the Golden Gun".


title: Licence to Kill

text: For the location Wilson created the Republic of Isthmus, a banana republic based on Panama, with the pock-marked Sanchez bearing similarities to General Manuel Noriega. The parallels between the two figures were based on Noriega's political use of drug trafficking and money laundering to provide revenues for Panama. Robert Davi suggested the line "loyalty is more important than money", which he felt was fitting to the character of Franz Sanchez, whose actions were noticed by Davi to be concerned with betrayal and retaliation.


title: Licence to Kill

text: The United Artists press kits referred to the film's background as being "Torn straight from the headlines of today's newspapers" and the backdrop of Panama was connected to "the Medellín Cartel in Colombia and corruption of government officials in Mexico thrown in for good measure." This use of the cocaine-smuggling backdrop put "Licence to Kill" alongside other cinema blockbusters, such as the 1987 films "Lethal Weapon", "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "RoboCop," and Bond was seen to be "poaching on their turf" with the drug-related revenge story.


title: Licence to Kill

text: After Carey Lowell was chosen to play Pam Bouvier, she watched many of the films in the series for inspiration. Lowell had described becoming a Bond girl as "huge shoes to fill", as she did not see herself as a "glamour girl", even coming to audition in jeans and a leather jacket. While Lowell wore a wig for the scenes set in the United States, a scene where Bouvier is given money and told by Bond to go and buy some new clothes (and, going off and doing so, also has her hair cut) was added so that Lowell's own short hair style could be used.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Robert Davi was cast following a suggestion by Broccoli's daughter Tina, and screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who had seen Davi in the television film "Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami". To portray Sanchez, Davi researched the Colombian drug cartels and how to do a Colombian accent, and since he was method acting, he would stay in character off-set. After Davi read "Casino Royale" for preparation, he decided to turn Sanchez into a "mirror image" of James Bond, based on Ian Fleming's descriptions of Le Chiffre. The actor also learned scuba diving for the scene where Sanchez is rescued from the sunken armoured car.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Davi later helped with the casting of Sanchez's mistress Lupe Lamora, by playing Bond in the audition. Talisa Soto was picked from twelve candidates because Davi said he "would kill for her". David Hedison returned to play Felix Leiter, sixteen years after playing the character in "Live and Let Die". Hedison did not expect to return to the role, saying "I was sure that ["Live and Let Die"] would be my first – and last" and Glen was reluctant to cast the 61-year-old actor, since the role included a scene parachuting.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Up-and-coming actor Benicio del Toro was chosen to play Sanchez's henchman, Dario, for being "laid back while menacing in a quirky sort of way", according to Glen. Wayne Newton got the role of Professor Joe Butcher after sending a letter to the producers expressing interest in a cameo because he always wanted to be in a Bond film. The President of Isthmus was played by Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., the son of Pedro Armendáriz, who played Ali Kerim Bey in "From Russia with Love".


title: Licence to Kill

text: John Rhys-Davies claimed he was asked to reprise his role from the previous film as General Pushkin in a cameo appearance, but declined since he felt the character was not necessary to the plot.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Principal photography ran from 18 July to 18 November 1988. Shooting began in the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico, which mostly doubled for the fictional Republic of Isthmus: locations in Mexico City included the Biblioteca del Banco de Mexico for the exterior of "El Presidente Hotel" and the Casino Español for the interior of "Casino de Isthmus" whilst the Teatro de la Ciudad was used for its exterior. Villa Arabesque in Acapulco was used for Sanchez's lavish villa, and the La Rumorosa Mountain Pass in Tecate was used as the filming site for the tanker chase during the climax of the film. Sanchez's Olympiatec Meditation Institute was shot at the Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya. Other underwater sequences were shot at the Isla Mujeres near Cancún.


title: Licence to Kill

text: In August 1988, production moved to the Florida Keys, notably Key West. Seven Mile Bridge towards Pigeon Key was used for the sequence in which the armoured truck transporting Sanchez, following his arrest, is driven off the edge. Other locations there included Ernest Hemingway House, Key West International Airport, Mallory Square, St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church for Leiter's wedding and Stephano's House 707 South Street for his house and patio. The US Coast Guard Pier was used to film Isthmus City harbour. As production moved back to Mexico City, Broccoli became ill, marking the first time during the James Bond film series where he was not present during filming.


title: Licence to Kill

text: The scene where Sanchez's plane is hijacked was filmed on location in Florida, with stuntman Jake Lombard jumping from a helicopter to a plane and Dalton himself being filmed atop the aircraft. The plane towed by the helicopter was a life-sized model created by special effects supervisor John Richardson. After filming wide shots of David Hedison and Dalton parachuting, closer shots were made near the church location. During one of the takes, a malfunction of the harness equipment caused Hedison to fall on the pavement. The injury made him limp for the remainder of filming. The aquatic battle between Bond and the henchmen required two separate units, a surface one led by Arthur Wooster which used Dalton himself, and an underwater one which involved experienced divers. The barefoot waterskiing was done by world champion Dave Reinhart, with some close-ups using Dalton on a special rig. Milton Krest's death used a prosthetic head which was created by John Richardson's team based on a mould of Anthony Zerbe's face. The result was so gruesome that it was shortened and toned down to avoid censorship problems.


title: Licence to Kill

text: For the climactic tanker chase, the producers used an entire section of Mexican Federal Highway 2D in La Rumorosa, Baja California, which had been closed for safety reasons. Sixteen eighteen-wheeler tankers were used, some with modifications made by manufacturer Kenworth at the request of driving stunts arranger Rémy Julienne. Most were given improvements to their engines to run faster, while one model had an extra steering wheel on the back of the cabin so a hidden stuntman could drive while Carey Lowell was in the front and another received extra suspension on its back so it could lift its front wheels. Although a rig was constructed to help a rig tilt onto its side, it was not necessary as Julienne was able to pull off the stunt without the aid of camera trickery.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Initially Vic Flick, who had played lead guitar on Monty Norman's original 007 theme, and Eric Clapton were asked to write and perform the theme song to "Licence to Kill" and they produced a theme to match Dalton's gritty performance, but the producers turned it down and instead Gladys Knight's song and performance was chosen. The song was based on the "horn line" from "Goldfinger", seen as an homage to the film of the same name, which required royalty payments to the original writers. The song gave Knight her first British top-ten hit since 1977. The end credits feature the Top 10 R&B hit "If You Asked Me To", sung by Patti LaBelle.


title: Licence to Kill

text: John Barry was originally intended to score but was not available at the time due to throat surgery after suffering a rupture of the esophagus in 1988 and it was considered unsafe to fly him from his home in New York to London to complete the score, post-production was extended to allow Barry time to recover. The soundtrack's score was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen, who was known for scoring many action films at the time, such as "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard". Glen said he picked Kamen, feeling he could give "the closest thing to John Barry."


title: Licence to Kill

text: Film ratings organisations had objections to the excessive and realistic violence, with both the Motion Picture Association of America and the British Board of Film Classification requesting content adaptations, with the BBFC in particular demanding the cut of 36 seconds of film. "Licence to Kill" became the first Bond film to receive a PG-13 rating from the MPAA’s ratings board, a rating that has been applied to every Bond film since. The 2006 Ultimate Edition DVD of "Licence to Kill" marked the first release of the film without cuts. It remains the only Bond movie to be originally rated 15 by the BBFC.


title: Licence to Kill

text: "Licence to Kill" premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on , raising £200,000 (£ in 2022 pounds) for The Prince's Trust on the night.


title: Licence to Kill

text: There were also issues with the promotion of the film: promotional material in the form of teaser posters created by Bob Peak, based on the "Licence Revoked" title and commissioned by Albert Broccoli, had been produced, but MGM decided against using them after American test screenings showed 'Licence Revoked' to be a common American phrase for the withdrawal of a driving licence. The delayed, updated advertising by Steven Chorney, in the traditional style, limited the film's pre-release screenings. MGM also discarded a campaign created by advertising executive Don Smolen, who had worked in the publicity campaign for eight previous Bond films, emphasising the rougher content of the film.


title: Licence to Kill

text: At the box office, "Licence to Kill" grossed $156.2 million ($373.3 million in 2022 dollars) on its budget of $32 million ($78.9 million in 2022 dollars), grossing an inflation-adjusted profit of $287.2 million, making it the twelfth biggest box-office draw of the year. The film grossed a total of £7.5 million (£ million in 2022 pounds) in the United Kingdom, making it the seventh-most successful film of the year, despite the 15 certificate which cut down audience numbers. In the US and Canada, it grossed $34.6 million, making "Licence to Kill" the least financially successful James Bond film in the US, when accounting for inflation. A factor suggested for the poor takings was fierce competition at the cinema, with "Licence to Kill" released alongside "Lethal Weapon 2", "Ghostbusters II", "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (starring former Bond Sean Connery), and "Batman".


title: Licence to Kill

text: Other large international grosses include $14.2 million in Germany, $12.4 million in France, $8.8 million in Japan, $8.7 million in the Netherlands and $8.6 million in Sweden.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Despite grossing more than 4.3 times its budget, "Licence to Kill" has made the lowest inflation-adjusted box-office return—as well as having the lowest profit margin—out of all 25 of the official "Bond" films as of 2022. Interestingly, the only other "Bond" movie with "Kill" in the title—"A View To a Kill", which was also directed by John Glen—has the "second"-lowest inflation-adjusted return of any "Bond" movie. However, "Licence to Kill"'s return ratio of 4.3 ranks it 18th out of the 25 official film entries from the series.


title: Licence to Kill

text: Derek Malcolm in "The Guardian" was broadly approving of "Licence to Kill", liking the "harder edge of the earlier Bonds" that the film emulated, but wishing that "it was written and directed with a bit more flair." Malcolm praised the way the film attempted "to tell a story rather than use one for the decorative purposes of endless spectacular tropes." Writing in "The Guardian"s sister paper, "The Observer", Philip French noted that "despite the playful sparkle in his eyes, Timothy Dalton's Bond is ... serious here." Overall French called "Licence to Kill" "an entertaining, untaxing film". Ian Christie in the "Daily Express" excoriated the film, saying that the plot was "absurd but fundamentally dull", a further problem being that as "there isn't a coherent storyline to link [the stunts], they eventually become tiresome."


title: Licence to Kill

text: David Robinson, writing in "The Times", observed that "Licence to Kill" "will probably neither disappoint nor surprise the great, faithful audience", but bemoaned the fact that "over the years the plots have become less ambitious". Robinson thought that Dalton's Bond "has more class" than the previous Bonds and was "a warmer personality". Iain Johnstone of "The Sunday Times" pointed out that "any vestiges of the gentleman spy ... by Ian Fleming" have now gone, and in its place is a Bond that is "remarkably close both in deed and action to the eponymous hero of the "Batman" film" that was released at the same time as "Licence to Kill".


title: Licence to Kill

text: Adam Mars-Jones of "The Independent" gave the film a mixed review, pointing out that it took out some of the more dated ideas from the Fleming novels, such as imperialism; he wrote that the writers were "trying in effect to reproduce the recipe while leaving out ingredients that would now seem distasteful". Overall Mars-Jones thought that:


title: Licence to Kill

text: For the Canadian newspaper "The Globe and Mail", Rick Groen wrote that in "Licence to Kill" "they've excised Bond from the Bond flicks; they've turned James into Jimmy, strong and silent and (roll over, Britannia) downright American", resulting in a Bond film that is "essentially Bond-less". Summing up, Groen thought "Actually, that dialogue ... ain't bad. The silence looks good on Timothy Dalton".


title: Licence to Kill

text: Gary Arnold of "The Washington Times" wrote that a number of factors "fail to prevent the finished product from jamming and misfiring with disillusioning frequency". Arnold opined that "demanding that he [Dalton] play Bond's wrathfulness in a transparently seething and hotheaded manner" means that Dalton "seems to waste away on this second outing as Bond." Overall Arnold sees that there is a "failure to recognize that Bond productions are simply too extravagant to permit an uncompromised return to first principles." The critic for "The New York Times", Caryn James, thought Dalton was "the first James Bond with angst, a moody spy for the fin de siecle", and that "Licence to Kill" "retains its familiar, effective mix of despicably powerful villains, suspiciously tantalizing women and ever-wilder special effects", but was impressed that "Dalton's glowering presence adds a darker tone". James concluded that "for all its clever updatings, stylish action and witty escapism, "Licence to Kill" ... is still a little too much by the book."


title: Licence to Kill

text: Roger Ebert for the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 3 stars out of 4, saying "the stunts all look convincing, and the effect of the closing sequence is exhilarating ... "Licence to Kill" is one of the best of the recent Bonds." Jack Kroll, writing in "Newsweek", described "Licence to Kill" as "a pure, rousingly entertaining action movie". Kroll was mixed in his appraisal of Dalton, calling him "a fine actor who hasn't yet stamped Bond with his own personality", observing "Director John Glen is the Busby Berkeley of action flicks, and his chorus line is the legendary team of Bond stunt-persons who are at their death-defying best here". For "Time" magazine, Richard Corliss bemoaned that although the truck stunts were good, it was "a pity nobody – not writers Michael G. Wilson, and Richard Maibaum nor director John Glen – thought to give the humans anything very clever to do." Corliss found Dalton "misused" in the film, adding that "for every plausible reason, he looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth."


title: Licence to Kill

text: Opinion on "Licence to Kill" has changed with the passing of time: some reviews are still mixed, though film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a positive 77% rating from 53 reviews. Tom Hibbert of "Empire" gives the film only two of a possible five stars, observing that "Dalton ... is really quite hopeless". Hibbert concluded that "he may look the part, but Timothy Dalton fails the boots, the scuba gear, or the automobiles left him by Moore and Connery." In 2006, IGN ranked "Licence to Kill" fifteenth out of the then 21 Bond films, claiming it is "too grim and had strayed too far from the Bond formula." Norman Wilner of MSN considered "Licence to Kill" the second worst Bond film, above only "A View to a Kill", but defended Dalton, saying he "got a raw deal. The actor who could have been the definitive 007 ... had the bad luck to inherit the role just as the series was at its weakest, struggling to cope with its general creative decline and the end of the Cold War". In October 2008, "Time Out" re-issued a review of "Licence to Kill" and also thought that Dalton was unfortunate, saying: "one has to feel for Dalton, who was never given a fair shake by either of the films in which he appeared".


title: Licence to Kill

text: Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film, "Esquire"s Bob Sassone urged readers to give it a second look. "High-Def Digest" awarded it four out of five stars when re-released on Blu-ray. British "GQ" considered it the most underrated in the series, thinking the change in tone caused upset among fans. Digital Spy called Dalton the best Bond of the six actors, praising his depth, terming "Licence to Kill" a "violently enjoyable 007 detour". "Far Out Magazine" praised the originality of the storyline: "Licence to Kill holds one of the best scripts in the series, partially because it was inspired by Akira Kurosawa‘s liturgical Yojimbo, an essay on man’s malleability in the face of great greed."


title: Licence to Kill

text: Some critics, such as James Berardinelli, saw a fundamental weakness in the film: the "overemphasis on story may be a mistake, because there are times when "Licence to Kill"s narrative bogs down." Berardinelli gave the film three out of a possible four stars, adding ""Licence to Kill" may be taut and gripping, but it's not traditional Bond, and that, as much as any other reason, may explain the public's rejection of this reasonably well-constructed picture." Raymond Benson, the author of nine Bond novels, said of the film: "It boggles my mind that "Licence to Kill" is so controversial. There's really more of a true Ian Fleming story in that script than in most of the post-60s Bond movies." John Glen has said "Licence to Kill" "is among my best Bond films, if not the best".


title: Licence to Kill

text: The "Licence to Kill" screenplay was novelised by the then-novelist of the Bond series John Gardner. It was the first Bond film novelisation since "James Bond and Moonraker" in 1979.


title: Licence to Kill

text: "Licence to Kill" was also adapted as a forty-four-page, colour graphic novel, by writer and artist Mike Grell (also author of original-story Bond comic books), published by Eclipse Comics and ACME Press in hardcover and trade editions in 1989. The adaptation closely follows the film story, although the ending is briefer, and James Bond is not drawn to resemble Timothy Dalton after Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be licensed. Domark also published a video game adaptation, "", to various personal computers.


title: Licence to Kill

text: The 2012 video game "007 Legends" features a level based on "Licence to Kill" with Carey Lowell reprising her role by providing the voice for the Pam Bouvier character.


title: Amy Madigan

text: Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film "Twice in a Lifetime". Her other film credits include "Love Child" (1982), "Places in the Heart" (1984), "Field of Dreams" (1989), "Uncle Buck" (1989), "The Dark Half" (1993), "Pollock" (2000), and "Gone Baby Gone" (2007). She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her portrayal of Sarah Weddington in the 1989 television film "Roe vs. Wade".


title: Amy Madigan

text: Madigan was born September 11, 1950, in Chicago to a third-generation Roman Catholic Irish American family. Her father, John J. Madigan (1918–2012), was a well-known journalist who worked for "Newsweek" and provided political commentary on programs such as "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation". He interviewed a range of political figures, from Richard Nixon to Martin Luther King Jr., and hosted his own show with WBBM (AM). Her mother was Dolores (; 1921–1992), an administrative assistant and amateur actress who performed in community theatre. She has two brothers, Jack and Jim.


title: Amy Madigan

text: Madigan attended Chicago's St. Aquinas Dominican High School, where she performed in school plays. In the 1960s, she studied piano at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and went on to attend Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she earned a B.A. in philosophy. She moved to Los Angeles in 1974. She later studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.


title: Amy Madigan

text: In the 1970s, Madigan pursued a career as a musician, singing lead vocals for the band Jelly, whose only album, "A True Story" (1977), was released by Asylum Records. She appeared in "Playboy" (June 1978) nude and covered in jelly, to promote her band. She toured the United States performing with several bands through the late 1970s.


title: Amy Madigan

text: In the 1980s, Madigan transitioned from a singing career to acting, and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Her first television role was Adele on an episode of "Hart to Hart" in 1981; she then had role in the television film "Crazy Times". The following year, she made her film debut as Terry Jean Moore in "Love Child", for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. In 1983, she starred as Alison Ransom in the television film "The Day After".


title: Amy Madigan

text: In 1984, she portrayed McCoy in the film "Streets of Fire", and had a supporting role as Viola Kelsey in "Places in the Heart". In 1985, she starred in the television film "The Laundromat," written by Marsha Norman, opposite Carol Burnett. She won a CableACE Award for her performance as Deedee Johnson. She then co-starred as Glory Scheer, with her husband Ed Harris, in "Alamo Bay", directed by Louis Malle. Also in 1985, she portrayed Sunny Mackenzie-Sobel in "Twice in a Lifetime", for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.


title: Amy Madigan

text: Madigan made her Off-Broadway debut in 1987, portraying Sue Jack Tiller in "The Lucky Spot" by Beth Henley, for which she won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 1988, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance in "The Prince of Pennsylvania". That year, she performed in "A Lie of the Mind" at the Mark Taper Forum. In she played the wife of Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams", which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture; and played Chanice Kobolowski, the girlfriend of John Candy's character, in the John Hughes film "Uncle Buck". Also in 1989, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance as Sarah Weddington in the television film "Roe vs. Wade".


title: Amy Madigan

text: In 1990, Madigan starred opposite Paula Kelly in "Stevie Wants To Play The Blues" by Eduardo Machado, for which she won a Drama-Logue Award. In 1991, she starred opposite Olympia Dukakis in the Emmy-nominated television film "Lucky Day". She made her Broadway debut in the role of Stella Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1992, opposite Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin, and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. In 1996, she and Harris produced and starred in the television film "Riders of the Purple Sage". She then starred with Tilda Swinton in "Female Perversions". In 1997, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Brett Armerson in the film "Loved". In 2000, she portrayed Peggy Guggenheim in the film "Pollock", starring her husband, which he also directed and produced.


title: Amy Madigan

text: In 2002 she had a supporting role as Reggie Fluty, the officer who responded to aid the dying Matthew Shepard in the television film "The Laramie Project". In 2003-2005, Madigan had the supporting role of Iris Crowe/Irina, sister of villain Justin Crowe, in HBO's series "Carnivále". In 2005, she starred as Lori Lansky in "Winter Passing", directed by Adam Rapp. The following year, she had a supporting role as Patricia Carver, a CIA headquarters analyst, in the Emmy-winning television film "The Path to 9/11". In 2007, she played the sister-in-law of Helene (Amy Ryan), Beatrice "Bea" McCready, in the film "Gone Baby Gone", directed by Ben Affleck. In 2008, she played Dr. Katharine Wyatt on several episodes of ABC's medical drama series "Grey's Anatomy". She then guest-starred on TNT's crime drama series "Saving Grace" as Gretchen Lagardi. In 2011, she guest-starred in the final episode of TNT's drama series "Memphis Beat". In 2016, she starred as Halie in the revival of Sam Shepard's play "Buried Child" for The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center. It move to the West End's Trafalgar Studios in November 2016, where Madigan reprised her role.


title: Amy Madigan

text: Madigan has been married to actor Ed Harris since November 21, 1983. They have one daughter. Madigan and Harris have been frequent collaborators during their careers.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Sky High is a 2005 American superhero comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Paul Hernandez and "Kim Possible" creators Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. The film stars Michael Angarano, Danielle Panabaker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kelly Preston and Kurt Russell. It also features Bruce Campbell, Cloris Leachman, Jim Rash, Steven Strait, Lynda Carter, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald. It tells the story of Will Stronghold, the son of two superheroes who is enrolled in an airborne high school for teenage superheroes where his powers kick in; he must deal with a growing distance from his old friends, a threat from a mysterious supervillain and get the girl of his dreams.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: The film was theatrically released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution on July 29, 2005, and grossed $86.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $35 million. While it did receive generally positive reviews from critics and audiences during its original theatrical run, in the years since its release, its reputation has improved considerably, to the point of being regarded by some as a cult film.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: High school freshman Will Stronghold is the son of world-renowned superheroes Steve "The Commander" and Josie "Jetstream" Stronghold but has no superpowers of his own. Upon arriving at Sky High, an airborne high school for future superheroes, freshmen with stronger powers are assigned to "Hero" courses; while Will, his longtime best friend Layla Williams, who can control plants, and others with weaker powers are assigned as socially outcast "Sidekicks". The school nurse tells Will that a child of two superheroes may never gain powers. Will and Layla begin taking the Sidekick curriculum, where they befriend the other sidekicks. One evening, Will confesses to Steve that he has no powers, but Josie eventually convinces her husband not to worry.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: One day at lunch, Will accidentally runs afoul of the pyrokinetic Warren Peace, whose supervillain father Steve incarcerated. After a brawl, Warren threatens Will's friends, and Will's paternal super strength awakens. Will is moved to the Hero curriculum and is partnered with technopath Gwen Grayson in a "mad science" class. As they grow closer, Will spends less time with the sidekicks. He asks Layla to meet for dinner to make up for lost time but forgets this when Gwen unexpectedly visits his house and invites Steve and Josie to be guests of honor at the homecoming dance. Will walks Gwen home, where she gets him to ask her to homecoming. Warren finds Layla stood up and encourages her to ask Will to homecoming, but upon learning the next day that Will is going with Gwen, Layla and Warren plan to go together to make Will jealous.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Gwen tricks Will into hosting a party at his house. Will takes her to his parents' Secret Sanctum, and while they kiss, one of Steve and Josie's battle mementos, Royal Pain's Pacifier, is stolen by Speed. Layla enters the party, but Gwen lies by saying that Will wants nothing to do with her. Will breaks up with Gwen upon learning about the girls' exchange after Layla angrily bids him farewell and refuses to go to homecoming due to being depressed about Gwen's betrayal, but he soon discovers one of his parents' old yearbooks has a photo of a girl named Sue Tenny holding the Pacifier. Seeing a resemblance between her and Gwen and realizing that the Pacifier is gone, Will deduces that Gwen is Royal Pain's daughter. During the "Hero of the Year" award presentation for Steve and Josie, Gwen unveils herself as Royal Pain and uses the Pacifier to turn almost everyone into babies. Layla, Warren, and the sidekicks escape, and they reunite with Will, who apologizes for his behavior and kisses Layla. As Will goes to face Gwen, the sidekicks defeat her henchmen, and Layla learns from Penny that Gwen sabotaged the school's anti-gravity generator.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Gwen informs Will that she is Sue Tenny, who was turned into a baby when the Pacifier backfired during her first battle with Steve and Josie and now intends to raise the de-aged superheroes as villains. She and Will fight until she throws him off the school, but he survives when his maternal flight power awakens. Will defeats Gwen, but the school starts falling. Will tries to slow the school's descent as sidekick Magenta uses her guinea pig shapeshifting powers to access and repair the generator. The Pacifier is reconfigured to restore its targets' normal ages, and Steve and Josie give their award to the sidekicks, declaring them full-fledged heroes. The party resumes in celebration, and Will and Layla kiss in midair. Will narrates what happened to the villains, how bus driver Ron Wilson got his own superpowers, and that, in the end, "my girlfriend became my archenemy, my archenemy became my best friend, and my best friend became my girlfriend".


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Exterior shots of the Sky High school were filmed at the Oviatt Library at California State University in Northridge in late 2004.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: In between working on the first and second seasons of the animated series "Kim Possible", creators Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle had begun writing a script for a live-action adaptation, which ultimately never came to fruition. Impressed with their work, the filmmakers asked them to look into re-writing the script for "Sky High", which had been previously shelved. McCorkle believes they were recruited for "Sky High" because "they liked the idea of a superhero high school. I think, reading how we wrote teens in "Kim Possible", they felt like, 'This feels good and contemporary, and maybe you can apply that to this project for us.' Similar to "Kim Possibl"e, Schooley and McCorkle wrote "Sky High" to be equally appealing to both children and adults. According to scifi.com, Disney was attracted by the "original concept" of "children of superheroes going to high school", originally conceived by screenwriter Paul Hernandez in the 1990s.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: After recruiting Schooley and McCorkle to update Hernandez's script (they only wrote the beginning and ending sequences) Disney hired several comedians such as Kevin McDonald, Dave Foley, and Kevin Heffernan for supporting roles. For the main roles, the casting was a mix of established and new teenage actors: while Michael Angarano and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were already successful, Danielle Panabaker was little-known and former model Steven Strait was hired after his first audition ever.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Director Mike Mitchell said that Sky High functions on two premises: "the adults are all insane" and "the girls are smarter than the boys": the adults portrayed in the film tend to be caricatured, while the teenage girls are written as more assertive and powerful than the boys. The film also employed extensive usage of Dutch angles. For the treatment of the teenage actors, Mitchell also stated that the actors all had their own trailers and were generally kept separated, because "we did not want them to date after the second week and break up after the fourth", which would have made filming difficult.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Mitchell, a science fiction fan, admitted that this project "was a dream", because it brought him together with four of his favorite SF cult heroes: Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter), Snake Plissken actor Kurt Russell, Ash Williams actor Bruce Campbell, and Cloris Leachman, who earned fame as Frau Blücher in "Young Frankenstein".


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: The soundtrack album for the film was released by Hollywood Records on July 26, 2005, and is composed of covers of songs from the 1980s (with the exception of "Just What I Needed", which was from 1978). While none of the film's score, composed by Michael Giacchino, was included on the album, a limited edition of his score was released by Intrada Records in 2017.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: AllMusic rated the album 2.5/5, saying that it "stumbles more than it succeeds" and is "painfully conventional."


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: On an estimated budget of US$35 million, the film grossed just under $64 million in the US, and another $22 million internationally, bringing the total to $86 million.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus states: "This highly derivative superhero coming-of-age flick is moderately entertaining, family-friendly fluff." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 62 based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on a scale of A+ to F.


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Joe Leydon of Variety magazine praised the film calling it: "Smartly written and sprightly played, "Sky High" satisfies with a clever commingling of spoofy superheroics, school-daze hijinks" and "this lively live-action Disney release stands on its own merits as a tongue-in-cheek fantasy with cross-generational appeal."


title: Sky High (2005 film)

text: Neil Smith at BBC.com wrote: "While originality is hardly the film's strongest suit, its agreeable mix of knowing spoof and kid-pleasing fantasy makes it considerably more engaging than some of the 'straight' superhero blockbusters we've suffered recently."


title: Brainfuck

text: Notable for its extreme minimalism, the language consists of only eight simple commands, a data pointer and an instruction pointer. While it is fully Turing complete, it is not intended for practical use, but to challenge and amuse programmers. Brainfuck requires one to break commands into microscopic steps.


title: Brainfuck

text: The language's name is a reference to the slang term "brainfuck", which refers to things so complicated or unusual that they exceed the limits of one's understanding, as it was not meant or made for designing actual software but to challenge the boundaries of computer programming.


title: Brainfuck

text: In 1992, Urban Müller, a Swiss physics student, took over a small online archive for Amiga software. The archive grew more popular, and was soon mirrored around the world. Today, it is the world's largest Amiga archive, known as Aminet.


title: Brainfuck

text: Müller designed Brainfuck with the goal of implementing the smallest possible compiler, inspired by the 1024-byte compiler for the FALSE programming language. Müller's original compiler was implemented in machine language and compiled to a binary with a size of 296 bytes. He uploaded the first Brainfuck compiler to Aminet in 1993. The program came with a "Readme" file, which briefly described the language, and challenged the reader "Who can program anything useful with it? :)". Müller also included an interpreter and some quite elaborate examples. A second version of the compiler used only 240 bytes. There are currently many brainfuck compilers in the web.


title: Brainfuck

text: As Aminet grew, the compiler became popular among the Amiga community, and in time it was implemented for other platforms.


title: Brainfuck

text: Except for its two I/O commands, Brainfuck is a minor variation of the formal programming language P′′ created by Corrado Böhm in 1964, which in turn is explicitly based on the Turing machine. In fact, using six symbols equivalent to the respective Brainfuck commands codice_1, codice_2, codice_3, codice_4, codice_5, codice_6, Böhm provided an explicit program for each of the basic functions that together serve to compute any computable function. So the first "Brainfuck" programs appear in Böhm's 1964 paper – and they were sufficient to prove Turing completeness.


title: Brainfuck

text: A version with explicit memory addressing (rather than relative moves on a stack) and a conditional jump (instead of loops) was introduced by Joachim Lambek in 1961 under the name of the Infinite Abacus, consisting of an infinite number of cells and two instructions:


title: Brainfuck

text: He proves the Infinite Abacus can compute any computable recursive function by programming Kleene set of basic μ-recursive function.


title: Brainfuck

text: His machine was simulated by Melzac's machine modeling computation via arithmetic (rather than binary logic) mimicking a human operator moving pebbles on an abacus, hence the requirement that all numbers must be positive. Melzac, whose one-instruction set computer is equivalent to an Infinite Abacus, gives programs for multiplication, GCD, prime number, representation in base , sorting by magnitude, and shows how to simulate an arbitrary Turing machine.