title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: On December 19, 2017, Syfy renewed "Van Helsing" for a 13-episode third season, which premiered on October 5, 2018. Syfy renewed the series for a 13-episode fourth season on December 18, 2018. After three seasons, Neil LaBute stepped down as showrunner, with series writer Jonathan Walker taking over as showrunner for season 4. On December 17, 2019, Syfy renewed the series for a fifth and final season. The fifth season premiered on April 16, 2021.


title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: It was announced on May 14, 2019, that Tricia Helfer had been cast as Dracula in the fourth season, and that Richard Harmon, Nicole Munoz, Keeya King and The Big Show will join the series in its fourth season, in undisclosed roles.


title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: All the episodes in Season 3 were named after songs by Soundgarden. In addition, the penultimate episode's title is the censored version of "Jesus Christ Pose".


title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: Syfy aired a commercial-free preview of the pilot on July 31, 2016; this was followed by the series premiere on September 23, 2016.


title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: The series was originally slated to premiere in Canada on Super Channel, but because of Super Channel's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, the series was ultimately dropped from their schedule and instead premiered on Netflix on December 23, 2016.


title: Van Helsing (TV series)

text: The series' pilot episode received 4.5 stars from "Den of Geek". In his review of "Van Helsing", Keith Uhlich of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote: "It's pretty good... or is at least, to quote that old critic's saw, 'better than it has any right to be'."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Chicken Little is a 2005 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The 46th animated film produced by the studio, it was directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Steve Bencich, Ron J. Friedman, and Ron Anderson, based on a story by Dinal and Mark Kennedy, loosely inspired on the European folk tale "Henny Penny", known in the United States as "Chicken Little". In this version, the title character is ridiculed by his town for causing a panic, thinking that the sky was "falling". A year later he attempts to fix his reputation, followed by an unexpected truth regarding his past being revealed. The film is dedicated to Disney artist and writer Joe Grant, who died before the film's release. This also marked the final film appearance of Don Knotts during his lifetime, as his next and final film, "Air Buddies" (another Disney-produced film that was released just over a year later), would be released posthumously.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: "Chicken Little" was animated in-house at Walt Disney Feature Animation's main headquarters in Burbank, California. It is Disney Animation's first fully computer-animated feature film, as "Dinosaur" (2000) was a combination of live-action and computer animation which in turn was provided by Disney's The Secret Lab.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: "Chicken Little" was Disney's second adaptation of the fable after a propaganda cartoon made during World War II, serving as a loose remake to the cartoon. The film is also the last Disney animated film produced under the name Walt Disney Feature Animation before the studio was renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios. "Chicken Little" premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on October 30, 2005, and had its wide release on November 4, in Disney Digital 3-D (the first film to be released in this format) and 2D. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $314 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2005 (behind "Madagascar").


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In the town of Oakey Oaks, Ace "Chicken Little" Cluck rings the school bell and warns everyone to run for their lives. This sends the whole town into a frenzied panic. Eventually, the Head of the Fire Department calms down enough to ask him what is going on. He explains that the sky is falling because a piece of the sky shaped like a stop sign had fallen on his head when he was sitting under the big oak tree in the town square; however, he is unable to find the piece. His father, Buck "Ace" Cluck, who was once a high school baseball star, assumes that this "piece of sky" was just an acorn that had fallen off the tree and had hit him on the head, making Chicken Little the laughingstock of the town.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: A year later, Chicken Little has become infamous in the town for being prone to ruin everything accidentally. His only friends are outcasts like himself: Abby Mallard (nicknamed "Ugly Duckling"), Runt (who is a gigantic pig), and Fish Out of Water (who wears a helmet full of tap water). Trying to help, Abby encourages Chicken Little to talk to his father, but he only wants to make his dad proud of him. He joins his school's baseball team to recover his reputation and his father's pride but is made last until the ninth inning of the last game. Chicken Little is reluctantly called to bat by the coach (even though the coach is sure that he will lose the game for them and urges him not to swing). Chicken Little hits the ball and makes it past first, second, and third bases but is met at home plate by the outfielders. He tries sliding onto the home plate but is touched by the ball. While it is presumed he lost the game, the umpire brushes away the dust to reveal Chicken Little's foot is barely touching home plate, thus declaring Chicken Little safe and the game won; Chicken Little is hailed as a hero for winning the pennant.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Later that night back at home, Chicken Little is hit on the head yet again by the same "piece of the sky" — only to find out that it is not a piece of the sky, but a panel that blends into the background (which would thereby explain why Chicken Little was unable to find it last time). He calls his friends over to help figure out what it is.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: When Fish pushes a button on the back of the hexagon, it flies into the sky, taking Fish with it. It turns out to be part of the camouflage of an invisible UFO piloted by two aliens in metallic armor. After Chicken Little, Abby and Runt rescue Fish, they discover that the aliens are heading to Earth. The two aliens find and attack the group, chasing them through a cornfield. They rush back to the school, where Chicken Little rings the bell to warn everyone, but the aliens escape, leaving an orange alien child behind. No one believes the story of the alien invasion and Chicken Little’s reputation is thus ruined. The next morning, he and his friends discover the orange alien named Kirby, and a few minutes later, a whole fleet of alien ships descend on the town and start what appears to be an invasion. The invasion is a misunderstanding, as the two aliens are looking for their lost child and attack only out of concern. As the aliens rampage throughout Oakey Oaks, vaporizing everything in their path, Chicken Little realizes he must return Kirby to his parents to save the planet. First, though, he must confront his father and regain his trust.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In the invasion, Buck, now regaining his pride and trust in his son, defends him from the aliens until they get vaporized. It is then discovered that the aliens weren't vaporizing people but teleported aboard the UFO. It turns out the aliens were touring Earth and came across the town for its acorns. It also reveals that the alien family's ship has a broken camo panel that "could fall and hit someone on the head." After everything is explained, the apologetic aliens return everything to normal, and everyone is grateful for Chicken Little's efforts to save the town.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Another year later, Chicken Little, Buck, his friends and the citizens of Oakey Oaks watch an in-universe movie depicting an extremely fanciful retelling of the events that transpired, portraying Chicken Little as an action hero named Ace.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In September 2001, director Mark Dindal developed the idea for "Chicken Little", with its title character envisioned as an paranoid female chicken with the voice of Holly Hunter that went to summer camp to reduce her anxiety, as well as repair her relationship with her father. At the summer camp, she would uncover a nefarious plot that her camp counselor, who was to be voiced by Penn Jillette, was planning against her hometown. Dindal would later pitch his idea to Michael Eisner who suggested it would be better to change Chicken Little into a male because as Dindal recalled, "if you're a boy and you're short, you get picked on." However, Dindal later clarified that the decision was made, in part, due to market research at the time stating, "I remember being told, 'Girls will go see a movie with a boy protagonist but boys won't see a movie with a girl protagonist,'... "That was the wisdom at the time, until "Frozen" comes out and makes $1 billion."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In January 2003, when David Stainton became Disney's new president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, he decided the story needed a different approach. He told the director the script had to be revised, and during the next three months, it was rewritten into a tale of a boy trying to save his town from space aliens.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: During the rewriting process, Dindal, along with three credited writers and nine others, threw out twenty-five scenes to improve the character development and add more emotional resonance with the parent-child relationship. Dindal admitted that "It took us about 2½ years to pretty much get back to where we started... But in the course of that, the story got stronger, more emotional, and Amazing, too."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: When originally envisioned as a female character, Holly Hunter provided the voice for the title character for eight months, until it was decided for Chicken Little to be a male. Michael J. Fox, Matthew Broderick and David Spade were originally considered for the role. Against forty actors competing for the title role, Zach Braff auditioned where Dindal noted he "pitched his voice slightly to sound like a junior high kid. Right there, that was really unique — and then he had such great energy."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In April 2002, "Variety" reported that Sean Hayes was to voice a character named the Ugly Duckling, but the character was rewritten into a female. Now conceived as Abby Mallard, Hunter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jodie Foster, Geena Davis, and Madonna were considered, but Joan Cusack won the role for her natural comedy. In December 2003, it was announced Braff and Cusack were cast, along with other cast members including Steve Zahn, Amy Sedaris, Don Knotts, Katie Finneran, and Garry Marshall.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Marshall was asked to provide a voice for "Kingdom of the Sun", which was re-conceived into "The Emperor's New Groove" and directed by Dindal, but was removed from the project for being "too New York". When he was approached to provide the voice for Buck Cluck, Marshall claimed "I said I don't do voices. You want a chicken that talks like me, fine. So they hired me and they didn't fire me, and it was like a closure on animation."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Australian comedian Mark Mitchell was hired to re-voice the character of Buck Cluck for the Australian release of the film, as a decision by Disney to get a local personality to publicize the film.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: To visualize this story, Disney selected 50 percent of its 2D animation staff to put them in a CGI animation team, and placed them through a rigorous eighteen-month training program with George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, which included an introductory to Alias's Maya that would serve as the main 3D animation software used on the project. This was due to Disney CEO Michael Eisner announcing that the studio would move to computer animation in response to a downturn caused by rising competition from Pixar and DreamWorks Animation computer animated features, as well as the unsatisfactory box office performances of "The Emperor’s New Groove", "Atlantis: The Lost Empire", "Treasure Planet" (2002), and "Home on the Range" (2004). As some of the animators had worked on "Dinosaur" (2000), which used live-action backgrounds, the animation team took inspiration for its staging, coloring, and theatrical lighting from Mary Blair's background designs featured in "Alice in Wonderland" (1951) and "Peter Pan" (1953).


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: For the aesthetics in the background designs, the background layout artists sparingly use digital matte paintings to render out the naturalistic elements, including the trees and the baseball diamond, but they were retouched using Adobe Photoshop as background cards featured in the film. The lighting department would utilize the "Lumiere" software to enhance virtual lighting for the shading form and depth and geometric rendering for the characters' shadows, as well as use real lighting to create cucaloris.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: For the characters' designs and animation style, Dindal sought to capture the "roundness" as seen in the Disney animated works from the 1940s to 1950s, by which the characters' fluidity of motion was inspired from the Goofy cartoon "How to Play Baseball" (1942). Under visual effects supervisor Steve Goldberg who spearheaded the department, the Maya software included the software program "Shelf Control" that provided an outline of characters that can be viewed on-screen and provided a direct link to the controls for specific autonomy, as well as new electronic tablet screens were produced that allowed for the artists to draw digital sketches of the characters to rough out their movements, which was then transferred to the 3D characters.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: All of the characters were constructed using geometric polygons. For the title character, there were approximately fourteen to fifteen character designs before settling the design composed of an ovular egghead shape with oversized glasses. The final character was constructed of 5,600 polygons, 700 muscles, and more than 76,000 individual feathers, of which 55,000 are placed on his head.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Following the casting of Braff, supervising animator Jason Ryan adapted Braff's facial features during recording sessions to better combine the dorkiness and adorability the filmmakers desired. "He's got this really appealing face and eye expressions," Ryan said, adding that he was amazed by Braff's natural vocal abilities. Next, the animators would utilize the software program "Chicken Wire," where digital wire deformers were provided for the animators to manipulate the basic geometric shapes to get their desired facial features. Lastly, a software development team constructed XGen, a computer software program for grooming fur, feathers, and generating leaves.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: The film was originally scheduled for release on July 1, 2005, but on December 7, 2004, its release date was pushed back to November 4, 2005, the release date that was originally slated for Disney/Pixar's "Cars". The release date change was also the day before DreamWorks Animation changed the release date of "Shrek the Third", from November 2006 to May 2007. "Cars" was later released on June 9, 2006.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: At the time of the release of "Chicken Little", the co-production deal between Disney and Pixar was set to expire with the release of "Cars" in 2006. The result of the contentious negotiations between Disney and Pixar was viewed to depend heavily on how "Chicken Little" performed at the box office. If successful, the film would have given Disney leverage in its negotiations for a new contract to distribute Pixar's films. A failure would have allowed Pixar to argue that Disney could not produce CGI films.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: On October 30, 2005, the film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre, with the cast and filmmakers as attendees, which was followed with a ballroom bash at the Hollywood and Highland Center. Along with its standard theatrical release, the film was the first Disney in-house release to be rendered in Disney Digital 3D, that was produced by Industrial Light & Magic, and exhibited via Dolby Digital Cinema servers at approximately 100 selected theaters in twenty five top markets. To describe the process, Dindal remembers that it was a last minute decision, as it was suggested just 11 months before its release. For the 3D conversion, Dindal had a specific way he wanted the film to look: he wanted it to feel like a moving View-Master. As he puts it,


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: The first trailer was released online in early 2004. It was also attached to the DVD release of "Brother Bear". Accompanied with the theatrical release, Disney Consumer Products released a series of plush items, toys, activity sets, keepsakes, and apparel.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: "Chicken Little" was first released on DVD on March 21, 2006, in a single disc edition. The DVD contained the film accompanied with deleted scenes, three alternate openings, a 6 part making-of featurette, an interactive game, a karaoke sing along, two music videos, and animation test footage of the female Chicken Little. The DVD sold over 2.7 million DVD units during its first week accumulating $48 million in consumer spending. Overall, consumer spending on its initial home video release grossed $142.6 million. The film was released for the first time on Blu-ray on March 20, 2007, and contained new features not included on the DVD. A 3D Blu-ray version was released on November 8, 2011.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: A VHS version was also released, but only as a Disney Movie Club exclusive, presented in a rare fullscreen aspect ratio.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In its opening weekend, "Chicken Little" grossed $40 million and debuted at #1, being the first Disney animated film to do so since "Dinosaur". It also managed to claim #1 again in its second week of release, earning $31.7 million, beating Sony's sci-fi family film, "Zathura". The film grossed $135.4 million in North America, and $179 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $314.4 million.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: This reversed the slump that the company had been facing since 2000, during which time it released several films that underperformed, most notably "Fantasia 2000" (1999), "" (2001), "Treasure Planet" (2002), and "Home on the Range" (2004).


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes, reports that of surveyed critics gave positive reviews; the average score is . The critical consensus states: "Disney expends more effort in the technical presentation than in crafting an original storyline." Metacritic, gave the film an average score of 48 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: James Berardinelli, writing his review for "ReelViews", gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four stating that "It is bogged down by many of the problems that have plagued Disney's recent traditional animated features: anonymous voice work, poor plot structure, and the mistaken belief that the Disney brand will elevate anything to a "must-see" level for viewers starved for family-friendly fare." On the syndicated television program "Ebert & Roeper", critics Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert gave the film "Two Thumbs Down" with the former saying "I don't care whether the film is 2-D, 3-D, CGI, or hand-drawn, it all goes back to the story."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: In his print review featured in the "Chicago Sun-Times", Roger Ebert stated the problem was the story and wrote, "As a general rule, if a movie is not about baseball or space aliens, and you have to use them, anyway, you should have started with a better premise." Ebert concluded his review with, "The movie did make me smile. It didn't make me laugh, and it didn't involve my emotions, or the higher regions of my intellect, for that matter. It's a perfectly acceptable feature cartoon for kids up to a certain age, but it doesn't have the universal appeal of some of the best recent animation."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Writing in "The New York Times", film critic A.O. Scott stated the film is "a hectic, uninspired pastiche of catchphrases and clichés, with very little wit, inspiration or originality to bring its frantically moving images to genuine life." "Entertainment Weekly" film reviewer Lisa Schwarzbaum, who graded the film a C, wrote that the "banality of the acorns dropped in this particular endeavor, another in a new breed of mass-market comedy that substitutes self-reference for original wit and pop songs for emotional content."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: However, Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" gave the film a positive review saying the film was "shiny and peppy, with some solid laughs and dandy vocal performances". Olly Richards of "Empire Magazine" gave the film a three out of five stars, saying, "Beyond a cheeky, twisty bit of genre-tinkering, there's more here for the under-tens than over-, but it's still charming, amusing and energetic enough to win you over."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Angel Cohn of "TV Guide" gave the film three stars alluding the film that would "delight younger children with its bright colors and constant chaos, while adults are likely to be charmed by the witty banter, subtle one-liners, and a sweet father-son relationship." Peter Rainer, writing in "The Christian Science Monitor", graded the film with a A- applauding that the "visuals are irrepressibly witty and so is the script, which morphs from the classic fable into a spoof on "War of the Worlds". I prefer this version to Spielberg's."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: "Plugged In" wrote, "A postscript for parents: A single “mistake” defines Chicken Little, and he spends “the rest of his life” trying to live it down. As he puts it, “One moment destroyed my life.” Later, another single moment—his home run—redefines him as a hero to his friends and his dad, who says, “I guess that puts the whole ‘sky is falling’ incident behind us once and for all.” Insecure (and observant) young viewers may latch on to this kind of oversimplification and use it as license to magnify the significance of their own bumblings, whatever they might be." Common Sense Media gave the film a three out of five stars, writing, "Cute, sometimes-frantic movie has peril, potential scares."


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: At the 2005 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, this film won the award for Worst Animated Film. At the 33rd Annie Awards, it received four nominations for Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Effects, Best Character Design, and Best Production Design, losing all to "". At the 2006 Kids' Choice Awards, it was nominated for Favorite Animated Movie, but lost to "Madagascar".


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: The soundtrack album contains an original score composed and produced by John Debney, who had previously worked with Dindal on "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000), with music by a wide range of artists, some musical veterans, such as Patti LaBelle and Diana Ross, as well as others. Uniquely for a Disney animated film, several of the songs are covers of classic popular songs, such as Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," Carole King's "It's Too Late," and the Spice Girls' signature hit "Wannabe." However, the film does include one original song, "One Little Slip" by Barenaked Ladies. The soundtrack was released on November 1, 2005, by Walt Disney Records.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: "Chicken Little" spawned two video games. The first, "Chicken Little", is an action-adventure video game released for Xbox on October 18, 2005, by Buena Vista Games. Two days later it was released for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance (October 20, 2005), and later Microsoft Windows (November 2, 2005). "Chicken Little" for Game Boy Advance was developed by A2M, while BVG's recently acquired development studio, Avalanche Software, developed the game for the consoles.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: The second video game, "", is a multi-platform video game, for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 2 inspired by the "superhero movie within the movie" finale of the film. It features Ace, the superhero alter ego of Chicken Little, and the Hollywood versions of his misfit band of friends: Runt, Abby, and Fish-Out-of-Water.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Chicken Little himself appears as a summon in the video game "Kingdom Hearts II". His inclusion is somewhat noteworthy as "Kingdom Hearts II" debuted before the film in Japan, with the character's inclusion serving as a promotion for the then-upcoming movie.


title: Chicken Little (2005 film)

text: Disneytoon Studios originally planned to make a direct-to-video sequel to" Chicken Little", tentatively titled "Chicken Little 2: The Ugly Duckling Story". Directed by Klay Hall, the story would involve Chicken Little in the middle of a love triangle between his childhood sweetheart, Abby Mallard, and a beautiful newcomer, Raffaela, a French sheep. Being at a great disadvantage, Abby would go to great lengths to give herself a makeover. According to Tod Carter, a story artist on the film, early screenings of the story reel were very well received, prompting Disney to think about increasing the budget to match the production quality with the quality of the story. Soon after 2006, when John Lasseter became Walt Disney Animation Studios' new chief creative officer, he called for all sequels and future sequels that Disneytoon had planned to be cancelled. According to Carter, this was a reaction to the sales figures for current projects and the overall market, adding: "The executives didn't feel that the original film had a wide enough market to draw upon to support the sequel."


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Traffic is a 2000 American crime drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Stephen Gaghan. It explores the illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: users, enforcers, politicians, and traffickers. Their stories are edited together throughout the film, although some of the characters do not meet each other. The film is an adaptation of the 1989 British Channel 4 television series "Traffik". The film stars an international ensemble cast, including Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Luis Guzmán, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jacob Vargas, Tomas Milian, Topher Grace, James Brolin, Steven Bauer, and Benjamin Bratt. It features both English and Spanish-language dialogue.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: 20th Century Fox, the original financiers of the film, demanded that Harrison Ford play a leading role and that significant changes to the screenplay be made. Soderbergh refused and proposed the script to other major Hollywood studios, but it was rejected because of the three-hour running time and the subject matter—"Traffic" is more of a political film than most Hollywood productions. USA Films, however, liked the project from the start and offered the filmmakers more money than Fox. Soderbergh operated the camera himself and adopted a distinctive color grade for each storyline so that audiences could tell them apart.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: "Traffic" was released in the United States on December 27, 2000 and received critical acclaim for Soderbergh's direction, the style, the complexity, the messages, and the performances (particularly del Toro's). "Traffic" earned numerous awards, including four Oscars: Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio del Toro, Best Adapted Screenplay for Stephen Gaghan and Best Film Editing for Stephen Mirrione. It was also a commercial success with a worldwide box-office revenue total of $207.5 million, well above its estimated $46 million budget.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: In 2004, USA Network ran a miniseries—also called "Traffic"—based on this film and the 1989 British television series.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: In Mexico, police officer Javier Rodriguez and his partner Manolo Sanchez stop a drug transport and arrest the couriers. Their arrest is interrupted by General Salazar, a high-ranking Mexican official who decides to hire Javier. Salazar instructs him to apprehend Francisco Flores, a hitman for the Tijuana Cartel, headed by the Obregón brothers. Salazar expresses that he wishes to shut down the Obregón cartel and that Flores will be the first step in doing so.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Back in Tijuana, Flores, under torture, gives Salazar the names of important members of the Obregón cartel, who are soon arrested. Javier's and Salazar's efforts begin to cripple the Obregón brothers' cocaine outfit, but Javier soon discovers the truth. While transporting a woman under Salazar's orders, Javier and Manolo discover the house they arrive at is the home of Porfirio Madrigal, "The Scorpion"; the drug lord of the Juárez Cartel.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: The two officers deduce that Salazar is a pawn for the Juárez Cartel, and that the Mexican anti-drug campaign is a fraud. Salazar has been wiping out the Obregón cartel for profit, secretly being aligned with Madrigal and his Juárez operation. Manolo attempts to sell the information of Salazar's true affiliation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) but Salazar discovers his plot and has him murdered in the desert with Javier being forced to watch. No longer able to handle working for Salazar, Javier arranges a deal with the DEA. Javier expresses grief for turning against his government, but agrees to exchange his testimony for electricity in his neighborhood. If the neighborhood has electricity then the children will be able to play baseball at night where it's safe, instead of being lured into the toxic underworld of drugs and crime. Eventually, all of Salazar's secrets are revealed and he is placed under arrest. Soon after Salazar is shown dying in the same prison where Flores was tortured.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: As the film ends, Javier is later shown sitting among other people on some bleachers at night. The people watch as young children laugh and play with one another during a game of baseball, none the wiser to the dark events of the drug world beyond them. Javier looks on knowing that, for a moment, the cycle of crime and pain has been stopped.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Robert Wakefield, a conservative Ohio judge, is appointed to head the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy, taking on the title drug czar. Robert is warned by his predecessor and several influential politicians that the War on Drugs is unwinnable. Robert's teenage daughter, Caroline, a highly accomplished honors student, has been using cocaine, methamphetamine, and soon begins using heroin. Almost immediately, Caroline becomes addicted after her boyfriend Seth introduces her to freebasing. One night after a fellow student overdoses on cocaine, Caroline and her friends are arrested while trying to anonymously dump the student in front of the hospital. As Robert and his wife Barbara struggle to deal with the problem, Robert discovers that Barbara has known about their daughter's drug use for over six months. One night after an argument with his wife, Robert catches Caroline freebasing in the bathroom, completely high. Furious, Robert sends her to rehab before setting off to meet with General Salazar in Mexico City.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: On a visit to Mexico, he is encouraged by Salazar's successful efforts in stifling the Obregón brothers cartel. Feeling the strain from his daughter's situation, Robert asks Salazar how the Mexican government is handling treatment of addiction. Robert is forced to hide his panic, when Salazar coldly replies that addicts "treat themselves" by overdosing. During this time, Caroline has managed to escape from her rehab facility and has run away.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: She returns to Cincinnati to procure more drugs and ends up sleeping with Seth's drug dealer, high, as payment. By this time, Robert has learned that General Salazar has been arrested and has in fact been working against the anti-drug campaign. Then after finding that Caroline has stolen jewelry and money, Robert sets out desperately to find her himself. He drags Seth out of school and the two head for the drug dealer's location. Upon arrival, the dealer angrily refuses to give any information on Caroline and orders the two to leave at gunpoint. Later, Robert follows Seth to a seedy hotel the two had used before, and finds a semi-conscious Caroline about to be prostituted to an older man. Finding her alive, Robert breaks down in tears as Seth quietly leaves. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Robert prepares to give his speech on a "10-point plan" to win the war on drugs. But when he cites drug addicts as the "enemy," he falters upon realizing the tragedy of his own situation. He states that the War on Drugs implies a war even on some people's own family members, which he can no longer endorse, and walks out of the press conference to return to his family.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Robert and Barbara go to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting with their daughter, where she remarks on the progress she's made. Robert responds with support for his daughter, and their full intention to "listen" moving forward.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: In San Diego, an undercover DEA investigation is led by Montel Gordon and Ray Castro following a tip from an anonymous source. This leads to the arrest of Eduardo Ruiz, a high-stakes dealer posing as a storage-locker business owner. After some initial pressure, Ruiz decides to take the dangerous road to immunity by giving up his boss: drug lord Carl Ayala, the biggest distributor for the Obregón brothers in the United States. Ayala is indicted by a prosecutor chosen by Robert Wakefield, intending to send a message to the Mexican drug cartels.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: As the trial against Ayala begins, his pregnant wife Helena learns of her husband's true profession from his associate, Arnie Metzger. Facing the prospect of life imprisonment for her husband and death threats against her child, Helena decides to step into Carl's underworld and looks into some of his contacts. She then hires Francisco Flores to assassinate Eduardo Ruiz; knowing that killing Ruiz will effectively end the trial "nolle prosequi". Flores plants a car bomb on a DEA car in an assassination, but Ruiz tells the agents he wants to walk to the hotel instead of taking the car; Helena orders Flores to shoot Ruiz on the sidewalk. As he goes to pull the trigger, Flores is shot by a cartel sniper for his cooperation with Javier and General Salazar, while the DEA guns him down in the confusion. Amidst the chaos Agent Castro runs to retrieve the car and is killed instantly, but leaving Gordon and Ruiz unharmed.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Helena, knowing Ruiz will soon testify, meets with the drug lord Juan Obregón, head of the Obregón cartel. While they negotiate, Obregón speculates Ruiz and Ayala's downfall is due to a leak within their own organization. After a tense exchange, Helena and Obregón come to an agreement. In exchange for an undetectable and state-of-the-art cocaine distribution, the Ayala family will become the sole distributor of Obregón cocaine, will have their debt forgiven, and Eduardo Ruiz will be killed. On the day of his testimony, Ruiz is murdered after an Obregón associate poisons his breakfast disguised as a bellboy. Ruiz dies in agony with Gordon helpless, effectively ending the trial and setting Ayala free. During a phone conversation between Ayala and Metzger, Ayala deduces that it was Metzger who originally informed on Ruiz. Evidently in a bid for power with the Juárez cartel in Mexico, Metzger accepted $3 million to inform on Ruiz to the FBI and facilitate the Ayala and Obregón organization's downfall. As Ayala hangs up the phone, Metzger looks up to see two hitmen entering his office. Suddenly, Gordon bursts into the Ayala home during his homecoming celebration. Bodyguards wrestle him to the ground, but Gordon is able to surreptitiously plant a listening bug under Ayala's desk. Gordon is forced from the property, smiling to himself, knowing that there is now a new opportunity to trap Ayala and Helena.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: At one point in the film, an El Paso Intelligence Center agent tells Robert his position, official in charge of drug control, doesn't exist in Mexico. As noted in the original script, a Director of the "Instituto Nacional para el Combate a las Drogas" was created by the Attorney General of Mexico in 1996.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Steven Soderbergh had been interested in making a film about the drug wars for some time but did not want to make one about addicts. Producer Laura Bickford obtained the rights to the United Kingdom mini-series "Traffik" (1989) and liked its structure. Soderbergh, who had seen the mini-series in 1990, started looking for a screenwriter to adapt it into a film. They read a script by Stephen Gaghan called "Havoc", about upper-class white kids in Palisades High School doing drugs and getting involved with gangs. Soderbergh approached Gaghan to work on his film, but found he was already working for producer/director Edward Zwick. Bickford and Soderbergh approached Zwick, who agreed to merge the two projects and come aboard as a producer.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: "Traffic" was originally going to be distributed by 20th Century Fox, but it was put into turnaround unless actor Harrison Ford agreed to star. Soderbergh began shopping the film to other studios, but when Ford suddenly showed interest in "Traffic", Fox's interest in the film was renewed, and the studio took it out of turnaround. Fox CEO Bill Mechanic championed the film, but he departed from the studio by the time the first draft was finished. It went back into turnaround. Mechanic had also wanted to make some changes to the script, but Soderbergh disagreed and decided to shop the film to other major studios. They all turned him down because they were not confident in the prospects of a three-hour film about drugs, according to Gaghan. USA Films, however, had wanted to take on the movie from the first time Soderbergh approached them. They provided the filmmakers with a $46 million budget, a considerable increase from the $25 million which Fox offered.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Soderbergh had "conceptual discussions" with Gaghan while he was shooting "The Limey" in October 1998, and they finished the outline before he went off to shoot "Erin Brockovich". After Soderbergh was finished with that film, Gaghan had written a first draft in six weeks that was 165 pages long. After the film was approved for production, Soderbergh and Gaghan met two separate times for three days to reformat the script. The draft they shot with had 163 pages with 135 speaking parts and featured seven cities. The film shortens the storyline of the original mini-series; a major character arc, that of a farmer, is taken out, and the Pakistani plotline is replaced with one set in Mexico.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Harrison Ford was initially considered for the role of Robert Wakefield in January 2000 but would have had to take a significant cut in his usual $20 million salary. Ford met with Soderbergh to flesh out the character. Gaghan agreed to rework the role, adding several scenes that ended up in the finished film. On February 20, Ford turned down the role, and the filmmakers brought it back to Michael Douglas, who had turned down an earlier draft. He liked the changes made and agreed to star, which helped greenlight the project. Gaghan believes Ford turned down the role because he wanted to "reconnect with his action fans".


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: The filmmakers sent out letters to many politicians, both Democrat and Republican, asking them to make cameo appearances in the film. Several of the scenes had already been shot using actors in these roles, but the filmmakers went back and re-shot those scenes when real politicians agreed to be in the film. Those who agreed, including U.S. Senators Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Orrin Hatch, Charles Grassley, and Don Nickles, and Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, were filmed in a scene that was entirely improvised.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: The project was obtained from Fox by Initial Entertainment Group, and was sold to USA Films by IEG for North American rights only. Steven Soderbergh never approached USA Films, and the film was fully funded by Initial Entertainment Group.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: After Fox dropped the film in early 2000 and before USA Films expressed interest soon after, Soderbergh paid for pre-production with his own money. USA Films agreed to give him final cut on "Traffic" and also agreed to his term that all the Mexican characters would speak Spanish while talking to each other. This meant that almost all of Benicio del Toro's dialogue would be subtitled. Once the studio realized this, they suggested that his scenes be shot in both English and Spanish, but Soderbergh and del Toro rejected the suggestion. Del Toro, a native of Puerto Rico, was worried that another actor would be brought in and re-record his dialogue in English after he had worked hard to master Mexican inflections and improve his Spanish vocabulary. Del Toro remembers, "Can you imagine? You do the whole movie, bust your butt to get it as realistic as possible, and someone dubs your voice? I said, 'No way. Over my dead body.' Steven was like, 'Don't worry. It's not gonna happen.'" The director fought for subtitles for the Mexico scenes, arguing that if the characters did not speak Spanish, the film would have no integrity and would not convincingly portray what he described as the "impenetrability of another culture".


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: The filmmakers went to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Customs early on with the script and told them that they were trying to present as detailed and accurate a picture of the current drug war as possible. The DEA and Customs pointed out inaccuracies in the script. In addition, they gave the production team access to the border checkpoint to Mexico, as shown in the film during the scene in which Wakefield and his people talk with border officials. Despite the assistance, the DEA did not try to influence the content of the script. Soderbergh said "Traffic" had influences from the films of Richard Lester and Jean-Luc Godard. He also spent time analyzing "The Battle of Algiers" and "Z", which, according to the director, had the feeling that the footage was "caught" and not staged. Another inspiration was Alan J. Pakula's film "All the President's Men" because of its ability to tackle serious issues while being entertaining. In the opening credits of his film, Soderbergh tried to replicate the typeface from "All the President's Men" and the placement on-screen at the bottom left-hand corner. Analyzing this film helped the director deal with the large cast and working in many different locations for "Traffic".


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Half of the first day's footage came out overexposed and unusable. Before the financiers or studio bosses knew about the problem, Soderbergh was already doing reshoots. The insurers made him agree that any further mishaps resulting in additional filming would come out of the director's own pocket. Soderbergh shot in various cities in California, Ohio and Texas, on a 54-day schedule and came in $2 million under budget. The director acted as his own cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews and operated the camera himself in an effort to "get as close to the movie as I can," and to eliminate the distance between the actors and himself. Soderbergh drew inspiration from the cinema verite style of Ken Loach's films, studying the framing of scenes, the distance of the camera to the actors, lens length, and the tightness of eyelines depending on the position of a character. Soderbergh remembers, "I noticed that there's a space that's inviolate, that if you get within something, you cross the edge into a more theatrical aesthetic as opposed to a documentary aesthetic". Most of the day was spent shooting because a lot of the film was shot with available light.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: For the hand-held camera footage, Soderbergh used Panavision Millennium XLs that were smaller and lighter than previous cameras and allowed him to move freely. In order to tell the three stories apart, he adopted a distinctive look for each. For Robert Wakefield's story, Soderbergh used tungsten film with no filter for a cold, monochrome blue feel. For Helena Ayala's story, Soderbergh used diffusion filters, flashing the film, overexposing it for a warmer feel. For Javier Rodriguez's story, the director used tobacco filters and a 45-degree shutter angle whenever possible to produce a strobe-like sharp feel. Then, he took the entire film through an Ektachrome step, which increased the contrast and grain significantly. He wanted to have different looks for each story because the audience had to keep track of many characters and absorb a lot of information and he did not want them to have to figure out which story they were watching.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Benicio del Toro had significant input into certain parts of the film; for example, he suggested a simpler, more concise way of depicting his character kidnapping Francisco Flores that Soderbergh ended up using. The director cut a scene in which Robert Wakefield smokes crack after finding it in his daughter's bedroom. After rehearsing this scene with the actors, he felt that the character would not do it; after consulting with Gaghan, the screenwriter agreed and the filmmakers cut the scene shortly before it was scheduled to be shot.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: The first cut of "Traffic" ran three hours and ten minutes. Soderbergh cut it down to two hours and twenty minutes. Early on, there were concerns that the film might get an NC-17 rating and he was prepared to release it with that rating, but the MPAA gave it an R.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: "Traffic" was given a limited release on December 27, 2000, in four theaters where it grossed on its opening weekend. It was given a wide release on January 5, 2001, in 1,510 theaters, grossing $15.5 million on its opening weekend. The film made $124.1 million in North America and $83.4 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $207.5 million, well above its estimated $46 million budget.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Soderbergh successfully pulls off the highly ambitious "Traffic", a movie with three different stories and a very large cast. The issues of ethics are gray rather than black-and-white, with no clear-cut good guys. Terrific acting all around." On Metacritic the film has received an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn't preach. It is so restrained that at one moment—the judge's final speech—I wanted one more sentence, making a point, but the movie lets us supply that thought for ourselves". Stephen Holden, in his review for "The New York Times", wrote, ""Traffic" is an utterly gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or rather it is several interwoven thrillers, each with its own tense rhythm and explosive payoff". In his review for "The New York Observer", Andrew Sarris wrote, ""Traffic" marks [Soderbergh] definitively as an enormous talent, one who never lets us guess what he's going to do next. The promise of "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" has been fulfilled".


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film an "A" rating and praised Benicio del Toro's performance, which critic Owen Gleiberman called, "haunting in his understatement, [it] becomes the film's quietly awakening moral center". Desson Howe, in his review for the "Washington Post", wrote, "Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, who based this on a British television miniseries of the same name, have created an often exhilarating, soup-to-nuts exposé of the world's most lucrative trade". In his review for "Rolling Stone", Peter Travers wrote, "The hand-held camerawork – Soderbergh himself did the holding—provides a documentary feel that rivets attention". However, Richard Schickel of "Time", in a rare negative review, finds the film's biggest weakness to be that it contains the "cliches of a hundred crime movies" before concluding that "Traffic, for all its earnestness, does not work. It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied". In an interview, director Ingmar Bergman lauded the film as "amazing".


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: "Traffic" appeared on several critics' top ten lists for 2000. Some of the notable top-ten list appearances are:


title: Traffic (2000 film)

text: In the United States the film was released on DVD on May 28, 2002 by The Criterion Collection. In Australia, Traffic was released on DVD by Village Roadshow, with an MA15+ rating. Despite the Australian packaging stating the length to be 124 minutes in length, the actual version on the DVD is just over 141 minutes in length.


title: I May Destroy You

text: I May Destroy You is a British black comedy-drama television limited series created, written, co-directed, and executive produced by Michaela Coel for BBC One and HBO. The series is set in London with a predominantly Black British cast. Coel stars as Arabella, a young writer in the public eye who seeks to rebuild her life after being raped. The series premiered on 7 June 2020 on HBO and on 8 June 2020 on BBC One.


title: I May Destroy You

text: According to Metacritic, "I May Destroy You" was the most critically acclaimed television programme of 2020, and was described by "The New York Times" as "the perfect show for an anxious world." It won the BAFTAs for Best Mini-Series, , Best and Best Actress, in addition to two RTS Programme Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, a Gotham Award, a GLAAD Media Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Peabody Award.


title: I May Destroy You

text: The series received nine nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series; it won two awards including Outstanding Writing for Coel.


title: I May Destroy You

text: Arabella (Michaela Coel) is a young Twitter-star-turned-novelist in her late twenties who found fame with her debut book "Chronicles of a Fed-Up Millennial" and is publicly celebrated as a Millennial icon. While struggling to meet a deadline for her second book, she takes a break from work to meet up with friends on a night out in London. The following morning, she struggles to remember what happened to her, but recalls the events of the night with the help of her friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu).


title: I May Destroy You

text: The series premiered on 8 June 2020 on BBC One in the United Kingdom. The first episode had already premiered in advance on 7 June 2020 on HBO in the United States.


title: I May Destroy You

text: Coel stated in a lecture at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe that she had been sexually assaulted while writing "Chewing Gum", and that the experience provided inspiration for the series.


title: I May Destroy You

text: Originally titled "January 22nd", the series is produced by Coel's production company, FALKNA Productions. It is executive produced by Coel, Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni, and Jo McClellan for BBC One. Coel is also co-director and writer for "I May Destroy You". Coel turned down a $1 million (£800,000) offer from Netflix for the show because the deal would have taken full rights ownership away from the creator. Coel subsequently made a deal with the BBC which allowed Coel full creative control and ownership rights of her project and the BBC brought on HBO as a co-producer to help fund the project.


title: I May Destroy You

text: The series was predominantly filmed in the London Borough of Hackney with some scenes filmed in Italy.


title: I May Destroy You

text: School interior and exteriors for the flashback scenes were shot at Acland Burghley School in the London Borough of Camden.


title: I May Destroy You

text: "I May Destroy You " holds an average score of 86 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 72 reviews are positive, with an average score of 8.55/10. The website's critical consensus is, ""I May Destroy You" is at once brave and delicate, untangling the trauma of sexual assault with dark humour and moments of deep discomfort all held together on the strength of Michaela Coel's undeniable talent."


title: I May Destroy You

text: Writing for "The New York Times", critic Mike Hale called the series "touching and quietly hilarious." He praised Coel and the show's willingness to push boundaries. In her review for "Time", critic Judy Berman noted the show's unique and complex telling of a story centred on sexual assault after the Me Too movement.


title: I May Destroy You

text: The show featured heavily on year-end lists. Metacritic listed it as the best TV show of the year based on critic top 10 lists, with more than thirty #1 placements.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Joseph Gilles Henri Villeneuve () (January 18, 1950 – May 8, 1982) was a Canadian racing driver, who spent six years in Grand Prix motor racing with Ferrari, winning six races and widespread acclaim for his performances.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: An enthusiast of cars and fast driving from an early age, Villeneuve started his professional career in snowmobile racing in his native province of Quebec. He moved into single seaters, winning the US and Canadian Formula Atlantic championships in 1976, before being offered a drive in Formula One with the McLaren team at the 1977 British Grand Prix. He was taken on by reigning world champions Ferrari for the end of the season and drove for the Italian team from 1978 until his death in 1982. He won six Grand Prix races in a short career at the highest level. In 1979, he finished second by four points in the championship to teammate Jody Scheckter.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve died in a crash caused by a collision with the March car driven by Jochen Mass during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. The accident came less than two weeks after an intense argument with his teammate, Didier Pironi, over Pironi's move to pass Villeneuve at the preceding . At the time of his death, Villeneuve was extremely popular with fans and has since become an iconic figure in the history of the sport. His son, Jacques Villeneuve, became Formula One World Champion in 1997 and, to date, the only Canadian to win the Formula One World Championship.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve was born to piano-tuner Seville Villeneuve and his wife Georgette (née Coupal) in the province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in Berthierville. In 1970, he married Joann Barthe, with whom he had two children, Jacques and Mélanie. During his early career Villeneuve took his family on the road with him in a motorhome during the racing season, a habit which he continued to some extent during his Formula One career. At the time of his death Gilles was reportedly considering divorce from Joann: he had long been having an extramarital affair with a Torontonian woman.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve often claimed to have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in Formula One, he was already 27 years old and took two years off his age to avoid being considered too old to make it at the highest level of motorsport.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: His younger brother Jacques also had a successful racing career in Formula Atlantic, Can Am and CART. Gilles' son, also named Jacques, won the Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1995 and became Formula One World Champion in 1997.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve started competitive driving in local drag-racing events, entering his road car, a modified 1967 Ford Mustang. He was soon bored by this and entered the Jim Russell Racing School at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant to gain a racing licence. He then had a very successful season in Quebec regional Formula Ford, running his own two-year-old car and winning seven of the ten races he entered. The next year he progressed to Formula Atlantic, competing there for four years, running his own car again for one of those seasons. He won his first Atlantic race in 1975 at Gimli Motosport Park in heavy rain. In 1976, teamed with Chris Harrison's Ecurie Canada and factory March race engineer Ray Wardell, he dominated the season by winning all but one of the races and taking the US and Canadian titles. He won the Canadian championship again in 1977.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Money was very tight in Villeneuve's early career. He was a professional racing driver from his late teens, with no other income. In the first few years the bulk of his income actually came from snowmobile racing, where he was extremely successful. He could demand appearance money as well as race money, especially after winning the 1974 World Championship Snowmobile Derby. His second season in Formula Atlantic was part-sponsored by his snowmobile manufacturer, Skiroule. He credited some of his success to his snowmobiling days: Every winter, you would reckon on three or four big spills — and I'm talking about being thrown on to the ice at 100 miles per hour. Those things used to slide a lot, which taught me a great deal about control. And the visibility was "terrible"! Unless you were leading, you could see nothing, with all the snow blowing about. Good for the reactions — and it stopped me having any worries about racing in the rain.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt by beating him and several other Grand Prix stars in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, Hunt's McLaren team offered Villeneuve a Formula One deal for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season. Villeneuve made his debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix, where he qualified 9th in McLaren's old M23, separating the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass who were driving newer M26s. In the race he set fifth fastest lap and finished 11th after being delayed for two laps by a faulty temperature gauge. The British press coverage of Villeneuve's performance was generally complimentary, including John Blunsden's comment in "The Times" that "Anyone seeking a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Despite this, shortly after the British race McLaren's experienced team manager Teddy Mayer decided not to continue with Villeneuve for the following year. His explanation was that Villeneuve "was looking as though he might be a bit expensive" and that Patrick Tambay, the team's eventual choice for 1978, was showing similar promise. Villeneuve was left with no solid options for 1978, although Canadian Walter Wolf, for whom Villeneuve had driven in Can-Am racing, considered giving him a drive at Wolf Racing. Rumours circulated that Villeneuve was one of several drivers in whom Ferrari's team was interested, and in August 1977 he flew to Italy to meet Enzo Ferrari, who was immediately reminded of Tazio Nuvolari, the pre-war European champion. "When they presented me with this 'piccolo Canadese' (little Canadian), this minuscule bundle of nerves, I immediately recognised in him the physique of Nuvolari and said to myself, let's give him a try." Ferrari was satisfied with Villeneuve's promise after a session at Ferrari's Fiorano test track, despite the Canadian making many mistakes and setting relatively slow times, and Villeneuve signed to drive for Ferrari in the last two races of 1977, as well as the full 1978 season. Villeneuve later remarked that: "If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari..."


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve's arrival was prompted by Ferrari driver Niki Lauda quitting the team at the penultimate race of the 1977 season, the at Mosport Park near Toronto, having already clinched his second championship with the Italian team. Villeneuve retired from his home race after sliding off the track on another competitor's oil. He also raced in the last race of that season, the at the Mount Fuji Speedway near Tokyo but retired on lap five when he tried to outbrake the Tyrrell P34 of Ronnie Peterson. The pair banged wheels causing Villeneuve's Ferrari to become airborne. It landed on a group of spectators watching the race from a prohibited area, killing one spectator and a race marshal and injuring seven people. After an investigation into the incident no blame was apportioned and, although he was "terribly sad" at the deaths, Villeneuve did not feel responsible for them.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: The 1978 season saw a succession of retirements for Villeneuve, often after problems with the new Michelin radial tyres. Early in the season, he started on the front row at the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach, but crashed out of the lead on lap 39. Despite calls in the Italian press for him to be replaced, Ferrari persisted with him. Towards the end of the season, Villeneuve's results improved. He finished second on the road at the , although he was penalised a minute for jumping the start, and ran second at the before his engine failed. Finally at the season-ending , this time at the Circuit Notre Dame Island in Montreal (a circuit that was eventually named after him) Villeneuve scored his first Grand Prix win after Jean-Pierre Jarier's Lotus stopped with engine trouble. To date, he remains the only Canadian to win the Canadian Grand Prix.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve was joined by Jody Scheckter in 1979 after Carlos Reutemann moved to Lotus. Villeneuve won three races during the year and even briefly led the championship after winning back to back races in Long Beach and Kyalami. However, the season is mostly remembered for Villeneuve's wheel-banging duel with René Arnoux in the last laps of the 1979 French Grand Prix. Arnoux passed Villeneuve for second place with three laps to go, but Villeneuve re-passed him on the next lap. On the final lap Arnoux attempted to pass Villeneuve again, and the pair ran side by side through the first few corners of the lap, making contact several times. Arnoux took the position but Villeneuve attempted an outside pass one corner later. The cars bumped hard, Villeneuve slid wide but then passed Arnoux on the inside at a hairpin turn and held him off for the last half of the lap to secure second place. Villeneuve commented afterwards, "I tell you, that was really fun! I thought for sure we were going to get on our heads, you know, because when you start interlocking wheels it's very easy for one car to climb over another." At the a slow puncture collapsed Villeneuve's left rear tyre and put him off the track. He returned to the circuit and limped back to the pit lane on three wheels, losing the damaged wheel on the way. On his return to the pit lane Villeneuve insisted that the team replace the missing wheel, and had to be persuaded that the car was beyond repair. Villeneuve might have won the World Championship by ignoring team orders to beat Scheckter at the , but chose to finish behind him, ending his own championship challenge. The pair finished first and second in the championship, with Scheckter beating Villeneuve by just four points. During the extremely wet Friday practice session for the season-ending , Villeneuve set a time variously reported to be either 9 or 11 seconds faster than any other driver. His teammate Jody Scheckter, who was second fastest, recalled that "I scared myself rigid that day. I thought I had to be quickest. Then I saw Gilles's time and — I still don't really understand how it was possible. Eleven seconds!"


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: The 1980 season was sub-par for Ferrari. Villeneuve had been considered favourite for the Drivers' Championship by bookmakers in the United Kingdom, though he only scored six points in the whole campaign in the 312T5 which had only partial ground effects. Scheckter scored only two points and retired at the end of the season.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: For the 1981 season, Ferrari introduced their first turbocharged engined F1 car, the 126C, which produced tremendous power but was let down by its poor handling. Villeneuve was partnered with Didier Pironi who noted that Villeneuve "had a little family [at Ferrari] but he made me welcome and made me feel at home overnight ... [He] treated me as an equal in every way." Villeneuve won two races during the season. At the Villeneuve kept five quicker cars behind him for most of the race using the superior straight-line speed of his car. After an hour and 46 minutes of racing Villeneuve led second-placed Jacques Laffite by only 0.22 seconds. Fifth-placed Elio de Angelis was only just over a second further back. Harvey Postlethwaite, who was hired by Ferrari to design the follow-on and much more successful 126C2 that won the Constructors' Championship in 1982, later commented on the 126C: "That car...had literally one quarter of the downforce that, say Williams or Brabham had. It had a power advantage over the Cosworths for sure, but it also had massive throttle lag at that time. In terms of sheer ability I think Gilles was on a different plane to the other drivers. To win those races, the 1981 GPs at Monaco and Jarama — on tight circuits — was quite out of this world. I "know" how bad that car was." At the 1981 Canadian Grand Prix Villeneuve damaged the front wing of his Ferrari and drove for most of the race in heavy rain with the wing obscuring his view ahead. There was a risk of being disqualified but eventually the wing detached and Villeneuve drove on to finish third with the nose section of his car missing.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: He was offered a deal by team owner Ron Dennis to rejoin McLaren in 1982, which he rejected because he was nervous over ending his contract with Ferrari but optimistic that the Italian team would be competitive. The first few races of the 1982 season saw Villeneuve leading in Brazil in the new 126C2, before spinning into retirement, and finishing third at the United States Grand Prix West before being disqualified for a technical infringement. The Ferraris were handed an unexpected advantage at the as an escalation of the FISA–FOCA war saw the FOCA teams boycott the race, effectively leaving Renault as Ferrari's only serious opposition. With Renault driver Prost retiring from fourth place on lap 7 followed by his teammate Arnoux on the 44th lap Ferrari seemed to have the win guaranteed. In order to conserve fuel and ensure the cars finished the Ferrari team ordered both drivers to slow down. Villeneuve believed that the order also meant that the drivers were to maintain position but Pironi passed Villeneuve. A few laps later Villeneuve re-passed Pironi and slowed down again, believing that Pironi was simply trying to entertain the Italian crowd. On the last lap Pironi passed and aggressively chopped across the front of Gilles in Villeneuve corner and took the win. Villeneuve was irate as he believed that Pironi had disobeyed the order to hold position. Meanwhile, Pironi claimed that he had done nothing wrong as the team had only ordered the cars to slow down, not maintain position. Villeneuve stated after the race "I think it is well known that if I want someone to stay behind me and I am faster, then he stays behind me." Feeling betrayed and angry Villeneuve vowed never to speak to Pironi again.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: In 2007, John Hogan, the retired Vice President of Marketing at Ferrari sponsor Phillip Morris and later Jaguar Racing team principal who was at the sponsor during Villeneuve's career, disputed the claim that Pironi had gone back on a prior arrangement with Villeneuve. He said: "Neither of them would ever have agreed to what effectively was throwing a race. I think Gilles was stunned somebody had out-driven him and that it just caught him so much by surprise." A comparison of the lap times of the two drivers showed that Villeneuve lapped far slower when he was in the lead, suggesting that he had indeed been trying to save fuel.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: On May 8, 1982, Villeneuve died after an accident during the final qualifying session for the at Zolder. At the time of the crash, Pironi had set a time one-tenth of a second faster than Villeneuve for sixth place. Villeneuve was using his final set of qualifying tyres; some say he was attempting to improve his time on his final lap, while others suggest he was specifically aiming to beat Pironi. However, Villeneuve's biographer Gerald Donaldson quotes Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri as saying that the Canadian, although pressing on in his usual fashion, was returning to the pit lane when the accident occurred. If so, he would not have set a time on that lap.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: With eight minutes of the session left, Villeneuve came over the rise after the first chicane and caught Jochen Mass travelling much more slowly through "Butte", the left-handed bend before the "Terlamenbocht" double right-hand section. Mass saw Villeneuve approaching at high speed and moved to the right to let him through on the racing line. At the same instant Villeneuve also moved right to pass the slower car. The Ferrari hit the back of Mass' car and was launched into the air at a speed estimated at . It was airborne for more than before nosediving into the ground and disintegrating as it somersaulted along the edge of the track. Villeneuve, still strapped to his seat, but now without his helmet, was thrown a further from the wreckage into the catch fencing on the outside edge of the "Terlamenbocht" corner.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Several drivers stopped and rushed to the scene. John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled Villeneuve, his face blue, from the catch fence. The first doctor arrived within 35 seconds to find that Villeneuve was not breathing, although his pulse continued; he was intubated and ventilated before being transferred to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital in Leuven where a fatal fracture of the neck was diagnosed. Villeneuve was kept alive on life support while his wife travelled to the hospital and the doctors consulted specialists worldwide. He died at 21:12 CEST (UTC+2). An inquiry into the accident was led by Derek Ongaro, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) safety inspector. It concluded that an error from Villeneuve caused him to strike Mass' car and exonerated the latter of any responsibility for the accident.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Overall Villeneuve competed in 67 Grands Prix, won 6 of them and took 13 podium finishes. At the funeral in Berthierville former teammate Jody Scheckter delivered the eulogy: "I will miss Gilles for two reasons. First, he was the most genuine man I have ever known. Second, he was the fastest driver in the history of motor racing. But he has not gone. The memory of what he has done, what he achieved, will always be there." In Villeneuve's entry in "The Canadian Encyclopedia", Bob Ferguson and Michael Gee wrote that retrospective comments were complimentary of his driving, and said he was approachable and spoke informally to the media and fans. Niki Lauda said of him: "He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1... The fact that, for all this, he was a sensitive and lovable character rather than an out-and-out hell-raiser made him such a unique human being".


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve is still remembered at Grand Prix races, especially those in Italy. At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the venue of the San Marino Grand Prix and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, a corner was named after him and a Canadian flag is painted on the third slot on the starting grid, from which he started his last race. There is also a bronze bust of him at the entrance to the Ferrari test track at Fiorano. At Zolder the corner where Villeneuve died has been turned into a chicane and named after him.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: The racetrack on Notre Dame Island, Montreal, host to the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, was named Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his honour at the Canadian Grand Prix of 1982 and a sign reading “Salut Gilles” was placed at the start/finish line. His homeland has continued to honour him: In Berthierville a museum was opened in 1992 and a lifelike statue stands in a nearby park which was also named in his honour. Villeneuve was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame at their inaugural induction ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel, Toronto, Ontario on August 19, 1993. He was also inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1983. In June 1997 Canada issued a postage stamp in his honour.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: There is still a huge demand for Villeneuve memorabilia at the race-track shops and several books have been written about him. The number 27, the number of his Ferrari in 1981 and 1982, is still closely associated with him by fans. Villeneuve's son, Jacques, drove the No. 27 during his IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 winning season with Team Green, and has also used the number for occasional drives in NASCAR and the Speedcar Series. Canadian driver Andrew Ranger used number 27 in the 2005 and 2006 Champ Car seasons, and continued using the number at NASCAR Canadian Tire Series since 2007. Canadian driver and 2011 IndyCar Rookie of the Year James Hinchcliffe adopted the number 27 for the 2012 season when he joined Andretti Autosport (former Andretti Green Racing).


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: A film based on the biography by Gerald Donaldson was announced in 2005, to be produced by Capri Films Inc, and with Christian Duguay named as the director, but the film has yet to materialise.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: The popular French comics series "Michel Vaillant" by Jean Graton is set in the world of motor racing and, although largely fictional, often includes real-life figures including drivers, officials and journalists. Villeneuve appears in a number of stories, and in "Steve Warson contre Michel Vaillant" ("fr:" "Steve Warson versus Michel Vaillant") becomes the 1980 World Champion (though in the 1981 season, covered in "Rififi en F1" ("Trouble in F1"), Graton acknowledges Alan Jones as the real Champion) and Quebec progressive rock and pop band The Box based their 1984 song "Live on TV" inspired by Villeneuve's televised death. In 2017, Italian rock band, The Rock Alchemist wrote the song, "27" for their "Elements" album as a tribute to Gilles Villeneuve's #27 Ferrari F1 car.


title: Gilles Villeneuve

text: Villeneuve's helmet carried a stylised 'V' in red on either side — an effect he devised with his wife Joann. The base colour was black. His son, Jacques, used the same basic design, but like his contemporary, Christian Fittipaldi, he has changed the colours. British driver Perry McCarthy also used this design and colour scheme on his helmet, but with the design in reverse.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Gunpowder Milkshake is a 2021 action thriller film directed by Navot Papushado, with a script co-written by Papushado and Ehud Lavski. The film stars Karen Gillan as a young hitwoman who must team up with her estranged mother (Lena Headey) and her former colleagues (Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, and Angela Bassett) in order to save a young girl (Chloe Coleman) from rival assassins led by head of the HR department for The Firm, Nathan (Paul Giamatti).


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: The film's production was announced at the American Film Market in 2018. Casting announcements were made throughout 2019, starting with Gillan in January, and principal photography took place from June to August 2019 in Berlin. It is a co-production between The Picture Company, Babelsberg Studio and StudioCanal's German branch with the participation of French television channels Canal+ and Ciné+.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: "Gunpowder Milkshake" was released in the United States on July 14, 2021, by Netflix with a simultaneous limited theatrical release. It was released theatrically by StudioCanal in France on July 21, and in Germany on December 2, 2021. The film received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel is in development.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: In a flashback at a diner, twelve-year-old Sam learns that her assassin mother, Scarlet, is skipping town after a job gone wrong. Armed men arrive to kill Scarlet, but she kills them and escapes, leaving an upset Sam behind to be cared for by Nathan.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Fifteen years later, Sam works as an assassin for Nathan, the human resources head for the same firm Scarlet worked for. Nathan gives Sam a new job, killing a man who stole money from The Firm and returning the money. Sam goes to a weapons armory disguised as a library to exchange her weapons for new ones. There, she meets Anna May, Madeleine, and Florence - three former accomplices of Scarlet. They consider killing her for showing up unannounced, but change their minds when they learn her identity. They provide her with clean weapons for the job.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Sam infiltrates a hotel room to retrieve the stolen money and shoots the man responsible in the abdomen when he lunges for his ringing phone. Listening in on the call, she learns that he stole the money to save his kidnapped young daughter and must bring it to a nearby bowling alley to exchange for her. Sam takes him to a firm-affiliated private doctor for treatment and agrees to handle the exchange herself.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Nathan learns of her plan and sends three henchmen to stop her and retrieve the money; Sam incapacitates them before continuing with her plan. Masked men give her the girl, Emily, before retreating with the money; Sam pursues them, but the men turn on one another, resulting in their deaths and the destruction of the stolen money.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Meanwhile, Nathan learns that one of the henchmen Sam killed in an earlier job was the son of Jim McAlister, the head of a powerful criminal empire. To avoid conflict, Nathan gives up Sam's information and location to be killed. Sam returns to the doctor to reunite Emily with her father, but they learn that he did not survive. Nathan's three henchmen are also at the doctor seeking treatment for their prior fight and they receive orders to kill her. The doctor injects Sam with a serum that renders her arms useless. Sam asks Emily to tape a knife and a gun to her hands and she uses them to fight and kill the three henchmen. More henchmen arrive, but Sam and Emily escape in Sam's car, with Emily steering and Sam working the pedals.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Sam receives a text from Nathan, giving her the address to a safe house where she can find supplies to help her escape. She and Emily travel there and run into Scarlet, who reveals she has been watching Sam from afar for 15 years. When henchmen arrive to kill Sam, Scarlet guides them through a hidden escape route.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: They manage to escape and return to the library, where the librarians angrily demand why Scarlet never tried to contact them when she disappeared. They are interrupted by arriving gunmen. Sam attempts to hold them off, but, after she is overpowered, Scarlet intervenes to save her. The librarians consider fleeing with Emily, but they decide to join the fight.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: All the gunmen are killed except for Virgil, Jim McAlister's nephew, who kills Madeleine and kidnaps Emily. Virgil calls Sam, who offers to turn herself in at the diner in exchange for Emily's freedom. Sam arrives to meet Jim McAlister who explains that his late son had four older sisters that Jim could not relate to as he does not understand women. Jim intends to torture Sam and make Emily watch, but Scarlet, Anna May, and Florence arrive with guns to free them. Sam takes Emily and leaves the diner before the three women kill Jim and all his henchmen.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Sometime later, Sam apologizes to Emily for killing her father and Emily forgives her. Emily goes to Nathan's home disguised as a Girl Scout. Sam threatens his life unless he returns to The Firm and calls off the hit on her. Sam, Emily, Scarlet, Anna May, and Florence then drive down the coast together.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Additionally, Samuel Anderson appears as David, Emily's father, Ivan Kaye plays Yankee, the leader of the assassins sent by The Firm after Sam. David Burnell IV and Jack Bandeira complete the group as Shocker and Crow while Mai Duong Kieu portrays a nurse at Dr. Ricky's clinic.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: The project was announced during the annual American Film Market in April 2018, with StudioCanal and The Picture Company procuring the rights to the film. In January 2019, Karen Gillan was cast in the film. In February, Lena Headey was cast, with Angela Bassett joining in April, and Paul Giamatti, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino and Ivan Kaye joining in May. In June 2019, Adam Nagaitis and Ralph Ineson joined the cast of the film. Filming began on June 3, 2019, and finished on August 20, 2019, in Berlin.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: On December 16, 2019, it was announced that Frank Ilfman was hired to compose the film's score. The score album was released on July 14, 2021, by Milan Records.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: In February 2020, STXfilms acquired distribution rights to the film in the United States. In April 2021, Netflix bought the American distribution rights from STXfilms. "Gunpowder Milkshake" was released on Netflix in the United States, Canada, and the Nordic countries on July 14, 2021. In the United States, it also received a simultaneous limited theatrical release. It was the most watched film of the week in the country upon its release, according to Nielsen.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: The film was released theatrically by StudioCanal in France on July 21, 2021. In Germany, the film was originally scheduled for release on September 2 but it was postponed and was later released on December 2, 2021.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Sky Cinema released the film simultaneously with the theatrical release in the United Kingdom and Ireland on September 17, 2021.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: "Gunpowder Milkshake" was released in France digitally on October 21, 2021, and on Blu-ray, and DVD on November 3 by StudioCanal with distribution handled by Universal Pictures Vidéo France. On television, the film premiered on Canal+ on January 22, 2022, and was released simultaneously on streaming on MyCanal.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: In Germany, the film was released on April 14, 2022, on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD by StudioCanal with distribution handled by Koch Media.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: In France, "Gunpowder Milkshake" was released alongside "", "", "Old" and "Spiral". The film grossed only $63,795 from 103 theaters during its first week, finishing 22nd at the box office behind "Nomadland" ($70,923 in its seventh week). In France, the film grossed only $76,803 during its theatrical run.


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though it runs dangerously close to being a pure sugar rush with no substance, "Gunpowder Milkshake" is a brutal blast that will absorb audiences into its neon infused universe." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and stated, "If you're going to do an insanely over-the-top, deeply stylized, bullet-riddled and female-centric riff on the "John Wick" movies, you might as well give it a fantastically ridiculous title." Cody Corrall of the "Chicago Reader" gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and stated, "The emotional highs and lows never really level out, and the special effects feel more schlocky and dated than overtly stylistic, but "Gunpowder Milkshake" manages to corral a dynamic roster of performers to have fun and blow shit up." Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" gave the film a positive review and stated, "It's the sort of movie that inspires that ultimate discerning critical comment: It's a movie you'll like if you like this sort of thing." Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated, "The film is a little jarring at times, as unreal as a video game but perhaps best taken as one, its cartoonish flourishes then easier to allow." John Anderson of "The Wall Street Journal" gave the film a positive review and stated, "Not everyone's cup of mayhem, assuredly. As compensation for the busy visuals, the storyline will be a comfortable one, especially to fans of "La Femme Nikita", "", "Gloria" and any number of large-caliber ancestors." Caroline Siede of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a B and stated, "The novelty of watching the film's impressive female ensemble bounce off one another never wears off, even if "Gunpowder Milkshake" feels like it only ever scratches the surface of what each of its leads can do."


title: Gunpowder Milkshake

text: On April 30, 2021, "Deadline Hollywood" announced that The Picture Company and StudioCanal were working on a sequel. On July 6, 2021, StudioCanal confirmed during a special presentation for its 30th anniversary in Cannes that a sequel is officially in development.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the Pennsylvania Attorney General since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the governor-elect of Pennsylvania.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Raised in Montgomery County, Shapiro studied political science at the University of Rochester and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004, defeating former Republican U.S. Congressman Jon D. Fox. He represented the 153rd district from 2005 to 2012.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011, marking the first time Republicans lost control of Montgomery County. Serving on the board from 2011 to 2017, he held the position of chairman and in 2015 was also appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency by Governor Tom Wolf.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro ran for Pennsylvania attorney general in 2016, defeating Republican John Rafferty Jr., and was reelected in 2020. As attorney general, he released the findings of a statewide grand jury report that revealed the abuse of children by priests and coverup by church leaders; he also helped negotiate $1 billion for Pennsylvania as part of a national opioid settlement.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In 2021, he announced his candidacy for governor of Pennsylvania in the 2022 gubernatorial election. He ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican nominee Doug Mastriano in the general election by a 14.8% margin.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro was born on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri, to a father serving in the Navy, and was raised in Dresher, a part of Upper Dublin Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Steven Shapiro, a pediatrician. At a young age, Shapiro started a worldwide letter-writing program, known as Children for Avi, on behalf of Russian Jewish refuseniks. He attended high school at Akiba Hebrew Academy, now known as Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, and then located in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. Shapiro played basketball in high school and was one of the team's captains during his senior year.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: He attended the University of Rochester, where he majored in political science and became the first freshman to win election as the student body president of the University of Rochester in 1992. He graduated "magna cum laude" in 1995. While working on Capitol Hill, he enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center as an evening student and earned a Juris Doctor in 2002.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: After graduating from Rochester, Shapiro moved to Washington, D.C. He started as legislative assistant to Senator Carl Levin, then served as a senior adviser to Representative Peter Deutsch, and then a senior advisor to Senator Robert Torricelli. While working for Torricelli, Shapiro planned foreign affairs tours in the Middle East and Asia, including a trip to North Korea.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: From 1999 to 2003, he worked as Chief of Staff to Representative Joe Hoeffel, who represented parts of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In 2004, Shapiro ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 153rd district. He faced the Republican nominee, former Congressman Jon D. Fox. Shapiro trailed in polling during the beginning of the race, but knocked on 10,000 doors and ran a campaign centered around increasing education funding and better access to health care. He was elected by a margin of ten points over Fox. He was reelected in 2006, 2008, and 2010.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: As a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he built a reputation as a consensus builder, who was willing to work across the aisle on a bipartisan basis. Following the 2006 elections, Democrats controlled the Pennsylvania State House by one seat, but the party was unable to unite behind a candidate for Speaker of the House. Shapiro helped to broker a deal that resulted in the election of moderate Republican Dennis O'Brien as Speaker of the House. O'Brien subsequently named Shapiro as deputy speaker of the house.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: While a state representative, Shapiro was one of the first public backers of then-Senator Barack Obama for president in 2008. This was in contrast with much of the Pennsylvania political establishment, which supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: From 2006 through 2017, Shapiro also practiced corporate law at the firm Stradley, Ronon, Stevens, and Young in Philadelphia.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro won election to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011; the election marked the first time in history that the Republican Party lost control of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Shapiro became chairman of the board of commissioners, initially serving alongside Democrat Leslie Richards and Republican Bruce Castor.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro's commission duties centered around social services and administration. Castor, the only Republican member of the board during Shapiro's tenure, praised Shapiro's work, calling him "the best county commissioner I ever knew" and "very good at arriving at consensus." In 2016, Shapiro voted for an 11% tax increase, which was an average increase of $66 in property taxes. During his tenure, the board of commissioners implemented zero-based budgeting and shifted county pension investments from hedge funds to index funds. Democrats retained a majority on the board of commissioners in the 2015 election, as Shapiro and his running mate, Val Arkoosh, both won election.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In April 2015, Governor Tom Wolf named Shapiro the Chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania Attorney General in January 2016. While he had practiced with Philadelphia's Stradley Ronon firm and chaired the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, he had never served as a prosecutor. Shapiro campaigned on his promise to restore the office's integrity following Kathleen Kane's resignation and also promised to work to combat the opioid epidemic and gun violence. His campaign was supported by President Barack Obama, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and businessman and former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, who was among the largest donors to Shapiro's campaign. He won the Democratic primary for attorney general in April 2016, defeating Stephen Zappala and John Morganelli with 47% of the vote. In November 2016, Shapiro narrowly defeated the Republican nominee, State Senator John Rafferty Jr., with 51.3% of the vote.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro was reelected in 2020, defeating Republican nominee Heather Heidelbaugh with 50.9% of the vote. He received 3,461,472 votes, the most of any candidate in Pennsylvania history, and outran Joe Biden in the concurrent presidential election.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In 2017, Shapiro announced the roundup of a "Million Dollar Heroin Ring" under "Operation Outfoxed" in Luzerne County. All the charges in Operation Outfoxed were dismissed after allegations that Shapiro had mishandled the sealing of wiretapped recordings.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro joined several other state attorneys general in opposing President Donald Trump's travel ban, and also sued Trump and the Roman Catholic organization Little Sisters of the Poor to block the implementation of a rule that would have made it easier for employers to deny health insurance coverage of contraceptives. He also joined a lawsuit against ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit educational institute, that resulted in a $168 million settlement (with about $5 million of that settlement going to Pennsylvania students). In 2018, he reached an agreement with federal officials to prevent the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed firearms. In 2019, he came out in support of the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults, joining Governor Tom Wolf and other leading Pennsylvania Democrats.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Before Shapiro took office in 2016, the Pennsylvania Attorney's General office launched an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church. Shapiro chose to move forward with the investigation, and, in August 2018, released the results of an extensive grand jury report. The report alleged the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children at the hands of over 300 priests. It prompted similar investigations in other states into the Catholic Church, such as an inquiry launched by then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In January 2018, Centre County District Attorney Bernard Cantorna referred the case of the death of Tim Piazza, a Penn State student who was hazed, to Shapiro, because Cantorna had previously served as a criminal defense attorney for one of the defendants. Multiple defendants pleaded guilty.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In August 2018, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner referred the case of the fatal shooting of Jeffrey Dennis by a Philadelphia police officer to Shapiro, because Krasner had previously served as Dennis's criminal defense attorney. Dennis was in his car when he was "box[ed] in" by undercover officers in unmarked vehicles; three officers were injured after Dennis tried to evade them. In December, Shapiro announced no charges would be filed against the officers, saying, "violations of police procedure do not always rise to the level of criminal charges". Dennis's family subsequently sued the officer and city of Philadelphia for the incident.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In 2019, Shapiro led efforts to ensure that insurance holders of Highmark, a healthcare company, can receive treatment at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The settlement allowed 1.9 million insurance recipients to continue using their existing doctors as in-plan providers rather than being forced to switch either medical providers or insurance providers.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro was one of 20 electors selected by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to vote in the Electoral College for Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris in 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: Shapiro announced an opioid settlement in 2021 with Johnson & Johnson and three other U.S. pharmaceutical distributors that resulted in Pennsylvania receiving $1 billion. The settlement resolved thousands of lawsuits against the companies for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: As attorney general, Shapiro has charged members of his own party with corruption. In December 2019, he charged State Representative Movita Johnson-Harrell with perjury and theft of funds from her supposedly nonprofit charity on such things as vacations and clothing. In July 2021, Shapiro charged State Representative Margo L. Davidson with theft by deception, solicitation to hinder apprehension, and Election Code violations after stealing from the Commonwealth by filing fraudulent overnight per diem requests and various other expenses through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Comptroller's Office as well as hindering a state prosecution.


title: Josh Shapiro

text: In August 2021, Shapiro settled the largest prevailing wage criminal case in U.S. history. Under the plea, Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc., paid nearly $21 million to 1,267 Pennsylvania workers.