title: Automotive industry in China

text: According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (C.A.A.M), automakers in China delivered 28,226,616 passenger and light commercial vehicles in 2017. Volkswagen remained the best-selling brand followed by Honda. In 2017, Geely surprised everyone by rocketing to become the third best-selling brand in China and the top Chinese brand in the market. Korean and American brands suffered from lackluster sales with Hyundai dropping from the top ten and GM and Ford both falling below local Chinese brands. Below is a breakdown of the deliveries by brand.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The best selling specific model in 2017 was the Wuling Hong Guang minivan made in partnership with SAIC-GM, formerly known as Shanghai General Motors Company Ltd. In fact, five of the top-15 models were produced by SAIC-GM. Volkswagen had three models in the top-15, including the number-two Lavida while Geely, Great Wall, and Guangzhou Automotive Corp (GAC) models accounted for several models on that list. Number three of the top-15 belonged to the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy/Sylphy, number four to the Haval H6 and number five to the VW New Santana.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Some BYD cars have historically appeared similar to those of other brands including Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes Benz, and Porsche.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: GM executives claimed design duplication of the Chery QQ to the Daewoo Matiz, which may extend to interchangeable parts. GM China Group stated the two vehicles, "shared remarkably identical body structure, exterior design, interior design and key components." After initial mediation attempts failed, GM Daewoo brought a case against Chery in a Shanghai court, but by 2005, jurisdiction had been moved to the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Around that time Chinese state officials, including a vice-minister of commerce and a vice-director of the State Intellectual Property Office, publicly supported Chery. It was suggested that GM may have not patented its technology.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Fiat has claimed that a Great Wall A-segment car, the Peri ("Jing Ling" in China), is a copy of its 2nd-generation Fiat Panda.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: A 2008 Italian Turin court ruling substantiated the claim stating that the Great Wall Peri, “doesn't look like a different car but is a Fiat Panda with a different front end.”


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Landwind, a new joint venture between Changan Auto and Jiangling Motors, launched the Landwind X7 SUV in 2014. Jaguar Land Rover regarded it as a copy of the Range Rover Evoque, which is produced locally by Chery Jaguar Land Rover, and tried unsuccessfully to stop its production. Although the designs of the cars are similar, the X7 was almost three times as cheap as the Evoque when the former hit the market. Prices of the X7 started at 135,000 renminbi (US$21,700 as of August 2015), while the starting price of the Evoque amounted to ¥398,000 (US$64,000 as of August 2015). Kits for the X7 are sold in China in order to make the car look more like the Evoque. Such kits include the grille, logos, and badges of the Evoque.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Jaguar Land Rover's first response came during the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2014, when car designer Ian Callum, who works for Jaguar, tweeted pictures of the car and pointed out the resemblance between the X7 and the Evoque. Furthermore, the company stated that it was investigating whether the Evoque's design elements were copied by Jiangling Motors, Landwind's parent company, and that it would "take whatever steps are appropriate to protect its intellectual property." Jaguar Land Rover later went to court in China, but its complaints were dismissed in early 2015. At the 2015 edition of Auto Shanghai, Jaguar Land Rover's CEO Ralf Speth said he regretted "that all of a sudden, copy-paste is coming up again." He added that his company could not do anything, since there were no laws against copying cars.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Both Jaguar Land Rover and Jiangling Motors had filed design patents for the Evoque and the X7, respectively, but both patents were annulled in 2016. The patent for the exterior design of the Evoque in China was declared invalid in April by the Chinese intellectual property regulator, because the car was unveiled before the patent was filed in China in November 2011. The nullification happened at the request of Jiangling Motors. The X7's patent was annulled on May 16 at Jaguar Land Rover's request, because the design was too related to the Evoque's design.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In June 2016, Jaguar Land Rover took legal action against Jiangling Motors again in a Beijing court. The car manufacturer blamed Jiangling for copyright infringement and unfair competition. It was a rare move; most non-Chinese car manufacturers choose not to go to court over design copying by Chinese companies because of the small likelihood of winning such lawsuit. In the same month, an unnamed source said to "Reuters" that Jiangling had agreed with Jaguar Land Rover it would not export the X7 to Brazil. According to that same source, both companies had also discussed what would be acceptable in a design update for the X7.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The Shuanghuan Noble has caused numerous controversies, with Mercedes-Benz even filing a lawsuit against Shuanghuan because of its similarities with the Smart Fortwo. Mercedes-Benz also persuaded the Italian court to prohibit the car from being exhibited at the Bologna Motor Show, but the Shuanghuan Noble car was put on display anyway.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In May 2009, a Greek judge ruled against Daimler and cleared the car allowing sales to begin in Greece. The judge answering to Daimler's demand to ban the Chinese vehicle from entering the Greek market said that "The impression the Noble makes on a third and informed party by its visual appearance is different to the one that is made to the same person by the Smart... It is commonly accepted that the decision over buying a new car cannot be based only on the exterior characteristics but many other technical specifications such as the power of the engine, fuel consumption, trim specification, retail price and dealers’ network."


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The ruling states that the latter party's doings "cannot possibly misguide the public" as the German company claimed in its legal request. The judge noted the salient fact that "the plaintiff is no longer selling the specific generation of the Smart which claims to have been copied, but a different vehicle, with much different characteristics."


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The Today Sunshine M1 electric microcar shares multiple design features with the second-generation Mini Countryman, monst notably in the front end.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: German automaker Porsche threatened Zotye with legal action after it revealed the Zotye SR9 in 2016, which is said to resemble the Porsche Macan. The car has been described as a "complete knockoff", with many aspects of the exterior and interior resembling the Macan.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The Zotye SR9 gained notoriety on Chinese social media after a woman dumped her boyfriend for claiming that his SR9 was in fact a Porsche. The two vehicles are priced at 170,000 RMB and 588,000 RMB, respectively.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Ora's Lightning Cat model looks very similar in appearance to the current Porsche 911 and it's body style looks like Porsche Panamera.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the government of China will be forcing foreign carmakers to disclose their electric vehicle technology secrets before the vehicles are allowed to be sold in China. The current Chinese automotive policy states that a foreign carmaker must form a joint-venture with a Chinese carmaker if the former plans to sell its electric vehicles there, with the Chinese carmaker owning 51% of the joint venture.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Due to this supposed threat by the Chinese government, Toyota postponed the launch of the current-generation Prius until they learn more about the plan.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: According to "The New York Times", GM was asked to disclose key technological information on the Volt. Failure to do so would result in not qualifying for substantial (up to $19000) subsidies.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In 2011, China was believed to be behind the theft of information from Renault. In 2013 a US couple was sentenced to jail time for revealing GM trade secrets to Chery.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In 2014 it was noted there are "stringent" and "extreme" requirements for intellectual property transfer in order to sell to the Chinese market. Imported electric vehicles are subject to high taxes and no subsidies.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: China encourages the development of clean and fuel efficient vehicles in an effort to sustain continued growth of the country's automobile industry (see Fuel economy in automobiles). By the end of 2007, China plans to reduce the average fuel consumption per 100 km for all types of vehicles by 10%. The proportion of vehicles burning alternate fuel will be increased to help optimize the country's energy consumption. Priority will be given to facilitating the research and development of electric and hybrid vehicles as well as alternate fuel vehicles, especially CNG/LNG. Major cities like Beijing and Shanghai already require Euro-3 emission standards. On March 10, 2008, Beijing became the first city to require light-duty vehicles to meet China-4 emission standard, which was equivalent to Euro-4. Beijing shifted its emission standards to the fifth-stage standards for light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles in January 2013 and August 2015, respectively. On 12 April 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) released the proposal for light-duty China-6 standard.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Due to serious air pollution problems and ever-increasing traffic, alternative-energy vehicle production is an area of strong focus for the Chinese government, and several NEV-friendly policies have appeared at the national and local level as a result. In many cities, free licenses — otherwise a significant expenditure for traditional vehicles — are provided for electric vehicle owners, along with exemptions for registry lotteries. These kinds of policies have created strong interest in new energy vehicles within China.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The Chinese Automotive Industry Plan, announced on the main Web site of China's central government, said China aims to create capacity to produce 500,000 new energy vehicles, such as battery electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The plan aims to increase sales of such new-energy cars to account for about 5% of China's passenger vehicle sales. At the 2010 Beijing Motor Show, more than 20 electric vehicles were on display, most of which came from native automakers. As of May 2010, at least 10 all-electric models have been reported to be on track for volume-production. The first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car (BYD F3DM), all-electric minivan (BYD e6) and all-electric long-range bus (BYD K9) are Chinese.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: New energy vehicle sales between January 2011 and March 2016, totaled 502,572 units, of which, over 92% were sold between January 2014 and March 2016. These figures include heavy-duty commercial vehicles such buses and sanitation trucks. These figures only include vehicles manufactured in the country as imports are not subject to government subsidies. , the Chinese stock of plug-in electric vehicles consist of 366,219 all-electric vehicles (72.9%) and 136,353 plug-in hybrids (27.1%).


title: Automotive industry in China

text: , China is the world's largest electric bus market, and by 2020, the country was expected to account for more than 50% of the global electric bus market. China also is the world's leader in the plug-in heavy-duty segment, including electric buses, plug-in trucks, particularly sanitation/garbage trucks.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: A September 2018 update by CNBC included a prediction that the market share of China's electric vehicles will grow by 40% in the short term and that China expected total annual sales of electric and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to be 2 million by 2020. The government was encouraging the purchase of such cars with a short wait time for a new license plate and with government-backed discounts of up to 40% on electric vehicles. In 2018, new-energy vehicles accounted for about 3% of China's new car sales; that was expected to increase to over 30% by 2030 according to an estimate by the Japanese Mizuho Bank.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The country has a significant benefit over others. Some two-thirds of the world's lithium-ion batteries are made in China and the country's EV manufacturing facilities are close to the source these components. In October 2018, Tesla purchased land for the construction of an EV manufacturing plant in Shanghai's Lingang area. By then, VW had already begun construction of its EV factory, with a planned annual capacity of 300,000 SAIC-VW MEB-platform vehicles, starting with three battery-electric vehicles and two plug-in hybrids. Toyota Motor had already launched sales of an EV branded under Guangzhou Automobile Group; the two companies have a joint venture in China.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In China, authorized car dealership are called 4S car shops. The 4S represents Sales (整車销售 ), Spare parts (零配件), Service (售後服务) and Survey (信息反馈).


title: Automotive industry in China

text: In most cases, brand-name new cars can only be purchased from 4S shops. For new cars in high demand, a high premium is added for instant delivery or just placing an order.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: The profit of car dealers in China is quite high compared to the rest of the world, in most cases 10%. This is supposedly due to the 'non-transparent invoice price' as announced by manufactures and to the premiums they charge for quick delivery. Due to the lack of knowledge for most customers, dealers can sell add-ons at much higher prices than the aftermarket.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: There is no regulation by either the government or associations but some retailers are members of the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).


title: Automotive industry in China

text: , exports of Chinese automobiles were about 1 million vehicles per year and rapidly increasing. Most sales were made to emerging economies such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Mexico, North Korea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, or Turkey where a Chinese-made automobile such as a Geely, Great Wall, or Chery sells for about half of what a comparable model manufactured by a multinational brand such as Toyota does. Cars made in China by multinational joint ventures are generally not exported. The quality of Chinese cars is increasing rapidly but, according to J. D. Power and Associates in 2012, it was not expected to reach parity with multinational manufacturers until about 2018.


title: Automotive industry in China

text: Most of cars manufactured in China are sold within the country; in 2011, exports totalled 814,300 units. China's home market provides its automakers a solid base and Chinese economic planners hope to build globally competitive auto companies that will become more and more attractive and reliable over the years. In 2017, the country exported roughly 891,000 vehicles. In that year, the value of exports was nearly $70 billion in auto parts and $14 billion in cars, while total imports (parts and vehicles) totalled about $90 billion.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainment in the United States and internationally. It also owns and operates entertainment venues, and manages the careers of music artists.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: The company has faced criticism over its role in the consolidation of the live events industry, allegations that it engages in anti-competitive practices, poor handling of the ticket sale process for highly popular events, and injuries and deaths that have occurred at some of its events.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In 2009, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, a concert promotion firm and ticketing company, reached an agreement to merge. The new company received regulatory approval and was named Live Nation Entertainment. Michael Rapino, then-CEO of Live Nation, became the new company's CEO, while Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff was named executive chairman.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: The merger was approved first in Norway and Turkey in 2009. The United Kingdom's Competition Commission provisionally ruled against the merger, but reversed its decision on December 22, 2009.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: The merger was opposed in the U.S. by some regulators, artists, fans, and competing firms, who argued it would reduce competition in the industry and increase ticket costs. Artist Bruce Springsteen was one vocal opponent of the merger at the time.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: On January 25, 2010, the United States Justice Department approved the merger pending certain conditions. Ticketmaster had to sell ownership of its self-ticketing company, Paciolan, and license its software to Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which would allow it to compete "head-to-head" with Ticketmaster for business. AEG was given the option after five years to buy the software, replace it with something else, or partner with another ticketing company. Additionally, Live Nation Entertainment was placed under a 10-year court order prohibiting it from retaliating against venues that choose to accept competing ticket contracts.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In 2013, the company acquired the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and announced a joint venture with Insomniac Events, a promoter focused on electronic dance music. The company later acquired C3 Presents (2014), Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (2015), and Founders Entertainment (2016), the parent company of the Governors Ball Music Festival.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In August 2015, Live Nation announced it would form Live Nation Germany, in partnership with German promoter Marek Lieberberg. Live Nation Germany would also have oversight over Live Nation events in Austria and Switzerland. In February 2016, Live Nation acquired Canada's largest independent concert promoter, Union Events. The following month in March 2016, Live Nation acquired Big Concerts International, South Africa's leading concert promoter.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In October 2016, Live Nation Entertainment bought Knoxville-based AC Entertainment. The company continued to invest in music festivals and promoters in 2017, purchasing a controlling interest in BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival, Salt Lake City-based concert promoter United Concerts, and CT Touring, as well as Israeli promoter Blue Stone Entertainment and the UK's Cuffe & Taylor. In 2017, Live Nation Entertainment reported revenue of $10.3 billion.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In 2018, the company acquired majority stakes in Frank Productions, Emporium Presents, and Red Mountain Entertainment. In May 2018, Live Nation Entertainment also acquired a majority stake in Brazil's Rock in Rio festival (including from previous stakeholder SFX Entertainment, which was involved in a failed attempt at a U.S. version of the event in Las Vegas), with its founder Roberto Medina continuing to manage the festival's operations, and providing consulting to Live Nation.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In April 2018, the United States Department of Justice launched an investigation following allegations by AEG that Live Nation pressured them into using Ticketmaster and intentionally avoided booking acts for AEG venues. Live Nation stated that decisions in selecting venues were not punitive, and were instead based on size and management.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In October 2019, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in David Grutman's Groot Hospitality, which includes several nightclubs and restaurants in the Miami area.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In 2020, Live Nation was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with essentially all concerts and sporting events around the world on hold. The company has been sued as it has been reluctant to offer full refunds to customers, though it has since amended its refund rules to address those complaints. On February 25, 2021, Live Nation released its full-year 2020 financial results, of which the company saw revenues fall by 84%.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In April 2020, it was disclosed that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) had recently acquired a 5.7% stake in Live Nation, as of April 28, 2020, the investment was valued at just shy of $500 million. The transaction, performed on the open market, made the PIF Live Nation's third-largest shareholder.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In 2021, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in streaming entertainment company Veeps. On April 25, 2022, Live Nation acquired the Filipino promoter Music Management International (MMI) to create its local branch.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: Live Nation Entertainment's business segments are concerts, ticketing, and sponsorship and advertising. The company promotes and operates live music events and manages artists under its concerts division Live Nation Concerts. Live Nation Entertainment's artist management arm, called Artist Nation, is included within its concerts division and also includes Front Line Management and Roc Nation. Live Nation Entertainment owns and operates venues, including the House of Blues. The company sells tickets to live events through Ticketmaster.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: The company has faced various lawsuits alleging ticket price fixing, hidden fees and anti-competitive practices. Live Nation has been linked to at least 200 deaths and 750 injuries at its events in seven countries since 2006. From 2016 to 2019, they had also been cited for at least ten OSHA violations, fined for several more serious incidents, and sued civilly at least once for a concert incident.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: Destiny's Child manager Mathew Knowles unsuccessfully sued Live Nation in 2011, asserting that the company had spread false information about his business dealings with Beyoncé.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In June 2013, Live Nation was charged with violating Ontario health and safety laws following a stage collapse at a Radiohead concert that killed one crew member. A 2019 inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In November 2021, a crowd crushing incident occurred at Astroworld Festival—a concert event in Houston organized and headlined by rapper Travis Scott and promoted by Live Nation—which resulted in 10 fatalities and nearly 5,000 injuries. Live Nation, Scott, and other parties involved have been named in over 387 lawsuits related to the incident, which in January 2022 were combined down into a single case. In December 2021, the United States Congress House Oversight Committee announced a bipartisan investigation into Live Nation's role in the incident.


title: Live Nation Entertainment

text: In May 2022, Representative for New Jersey's 9th congressional district Bill Pascrell stated that he had issued letters to the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice calling for Live Nation to be unwound and broken up, citing its safety record and other factors. These calls were repeated in November 2022 after the Taylor Swift (The Eras Tour) Ticketmaster controversy.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" is the final episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones", and the sixtieth overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Cersei Lannister plots to destroy all her immediate enemies with one swift stroke; Jon Snow is declared King in the North by the lords of the Northern houses; Bran Stark learns that Jon is actually the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen; Samwell Tarly arrives at the Citadel; and Daenerys Targaryen begins heading to Westeros alongside Tyrion Lannister, her entire army, her three dragons, as well as the Ironborn loyal to Yara Greyjoy, the Tyrells, the Sand Snakes, and their respective fleets.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" received universal acclaim from critics, listing it as one of the series' best episodes as well as one of the best television episodes of all time. Critics praised the Great Sept explosion, Lena Headey's performance, Arya's revenge on the Freys, the resolution to the Tower of Joy flashback, and Daenerys going to Westeros as highlights of the episode. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 8.89 million in its initial broadcast, making it the highest rated episode in the series' history at that time. It was nominated for several awards, including Headey for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Costumes for a Period/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Movie.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: This episode marks the final appearance for Natalie Dormer (Queen Margaery Tyrell), Dean-Charles Chapman (King Tommen Baratheon), Finn Jones (Ser Loras Tyrell), Eugene Simon (Lancel Lannister), Ian Gelder (Kevan Lannister), Jonathan Pryce (The High Sparrow), Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Mace Tyrell), Julian Glover (Grand Maester Pycelle), and Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis).


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Arya Stark gets revenge on Walder Frey by killing his sons and baking them into a meat pie. Disguised as a servant girl, she serves him the pie before slitting his throat.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Ser Loras confesses to his crimes and atones by giving up his name and title, and joining the Faith Militant. After Cersei fails to appear, Lancel finds a wildfire cache about to explode. The wildfire destroys the Great Sept, killing everyone inside, including Margaery, Loras, Mace, Kevan, Lancel and the High Sparrow. Tommen witnesses the explosion from the Red Keep. After being informed of Margaery's death, he commits suicide by jumping out of a window. With her last child dead, Cersei is crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Samwell and Gilly report to the Citadel, and Sam is scheduled to meet the Archmaester. In the meantime, he is granted access to the library.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: An enraged Ser Davos confronts Melisandre about her role in Shireen's death; she admits to burning her alive, but declares that she did it for the Lord of Light. Jon banishes Melisandre from the North and he and Davos threaten to execute her if she ever returns. Jon and Sansa discuss who will lead the united Stark forces, with each deferring to the other.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Littlefinger reveals to Sansa that his ultimate goal is to sit on the Iron Throne with her at his side. Sansa rejects his offer.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Jon gathers the various Northern lords, the Knights of the Vale, and the Wildlings to plan for the fight against the White Walkers. After Lyanna Mormont shames the Northern lords that did not come to Jon's aid, all lords present declare a reluctant Jon the new King in the North.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Olenna Tyrell meets with Ellaria and the Sand Snakes concerning the possibility of an alliance against Cersei. Ellaria presents Varys, who offers Olenna vengeance by allying with Daenerys.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Bran re-enters the vision of Ned Stark at the Tower of Joy. Ned finds Lyanna covered in blood from childbirth. With her dying breath, Lyanna pleads with Ned to protect her son, who is revealed to be Jon Snow.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Daenerys informs Daario that he will not accompany her to Westeros, as she needs him to keep order in Meereen while she invades Westeros. Daenerys proclaims Tyrion the Hand of the Queen, and the two of them, along with their extensive forces, depart for Westeros.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The episode was the longest in the show's history, to that point, with a run time of 68 minutes.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: In the "Inside the Episode" segment published by HBO shortly after the airing of the episode, Benioff spoke about the relationship between Sansa Stark and Jon Snow at this point in the season, saying "Over the course of this season they've come to really rely upon each other, but she doesn't really trust him completely. She didn't tell him about the meeting with Littlefinger, she didn't tell him that she summoned the Knights of the Vale, there's definitely a little hint of conflict there. So I think there's a little bit of anger about that and a little bit of jealousy, and that relationship will be crucial to watch." Benioff continued by referencing the declaration of Jon Snow as King of the North, noting "We see the second 'King in the North!' scene with Jon and I think it was important to us that it evoked in that first 'King in the North!' scene. Very different circumstances, different environment. In some ways, the evocation of the first one is meant to be a little worrisome because it was a very triumphant moment when Robb is named King in the North but it didn't go so well for the previous King in the North. So I think we have to be a little worried for Jon and at the same time it's a pretty big reversal and, you know, for a character who was dead at the beginning of the season to be declared king at the end of it. He's done well. He's done well in ten short episodes."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Weiss also noted about the death of King Tommen Baratheon, "Meanwhile, while the explosion is happening, Tommen is alone. This fragile, malleable, devastated child, basically, is sitting there without anybody to comfort him, and if she had been there, he wouldn't have gone out that window. She failed him, and she alone failed him here." Benioff continued about portraying the mindset of Cersei Lannister, saying "I think the idea of Cersei without her children is a pretty terrifying prospect. It was the one thing that really humanized her, you know, her love for her kids. And as much of a monster as she could sometimes be, she was a mother who truly really did love her children, and now those children are gone, and all she's got is power." In a subsequent interview after the episode airing, Weiss stated that Cersei's mindset following the ramifications of this episode will play an important role in the story for the next season.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: In an interview with Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who portrays Bran Stark in the series, Wright was asked about the significance of Bran witnessing the scene at the Tower of Joy, saying "I don't think Bran knows why this is significant, but he knows that it is significant because he wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't earth-shattering, because everything we've learned so far during his visions has been pretty big and important, from the creation of the first White Walker to the origins of Hodor. This is clearly another important milestone in the history of Westeros. For Bran, he sat there thinking, 'This isn't my brother. This is my cousin somehow, but who's the dad? And why have I been shown this? If I find out who the dad is and why I need to know who the dad is, then let Jon know quick.'" The scene reveals neither Lyanna Stark's son's name nor his father's, with the transition between the newborn's face and Jon Snow's visually conveying the identity. HBO released an infographic shortly after the episode aired, confirming Ned Stark as Jon's guardian, and Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen as his parents.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: In regards to Arya Stark's transformation following her time as a disciple of the Many-Faced God, Weiss noted in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, "We all see where she's coming from, she's seen so many atrocities. It's a worrisome narrative; she started as this tough and plucky girl and turned into someone who's capable of slitting a man's throat and smiling as she watches him as he bleeds out."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: For the final shot of the season, Benioff felt that the shot of Daenerys making her way to Westeros was a monumental part in the series's history, saying "That shot of Dany's fleet making its way out of the Slaver's Bay towards the Narrow Sea and home is probably the biggest thing to happen on the show thus far, that's the thing we've been waiting for since the pilot episode of the first season." He continued, "It hasn't been a smooth road. That's the shot we're going to leave everyone with; it was a real thrill to see her, with Tyrion by her side, heading west."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" saw the departure of several cast members and recurring guest actors from the series. Notables included Dean-Charles Chapman, whose character, King Tommen Baratheon, committed suicide in the episode. Before appearing in the role of Tommen, which was originally portrayed by actor Callum Wharry, Chapman appeared in the third season of the series as Martyn Lannister, a minor character who was also killed off. Chapman stated that he found out about his character's death the night before the initial table read for the season, saying "I was in my hotel, minding my own business, and I got a phone call. I picked up the phone, and instantly, I knew it was coming. It was David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two creators of the show, and they stated the facts. But they did it really nice. I couldn't have asked for a better way to have that news broken to me. Them telling me beforehand really helped me out, otherwise I would have been in a state when I read it in the scripts. I probably would have cried."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Actress Natalie Dormer, who was cast to play Queen Margaery Tyrell in the show's second season, also made her final appearance as a main cast member for the series. In contrast to Chapman, Dormer found out about her character's impending death approximately six months before the rest of the cast, saying "I requested while making season 5 that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss release me from working on the show earlier than usual so I could do another project, and they ended up phoning me — and that was The Call. But I got it six months ahead of normal. They were like, 'We weren't going to tell you this for a few more months, but we're not going to release you now, so you can't do that job you really want to do and we're really sorry about that. But on the bright side, we are going to release you proper in the not-so-distant future.' It was good news, bad news — no you can't do this, but don't worry, you're going to have lots more opportunities very soon." Dormer also stated about her departure, "It's the longest time I've ever spent playing a character. I'll always have a little yellow rose after my heart, and I think it was just the right length of time, to be honest. It's time for the Westeros story to move on and it's a perfect time for her to exit."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: After appearing as a recurring guest actor in the fifth season, actor Jonathan Pryce was promoted to regular cast member for the sixth season. Prior to being cast as the High Sparrow, Pryce was approached to play another role in one of the previous seasons and refused the part. After being approached with the role of the High Sparrow, Pryce stated that he accepted the role because "If the role hadn't been what it turned out to be for High Sparrow, I probably would not have been involved. I remember starting out and my agent said 'does the character change the situation or is he just a functionary' and this character changes the situation." Pryce added, "Once I started work on "Games of Thrones" I was incredibly impressed with the organization, the crew and they're really good at their job and story telling so I have become a fan of the show."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Recurring guest actors for the series Eugene Simon, Julian Glover, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Finn Jones, and Ian Gelder, who portrayed Lancel Lannister, Pycelle, Mace Tyrell, Loras Tyrell, and Kevan Lannister, respectively, also made their final appearance in the series. Finn Jones, who was cast concurrently in the leading role for the upcoming television series Marvel's "Iron Fist", spoke about his departure saying, "I had been on "Thrones" for six years. It was yearly employment. Now I was at a crossroads and I had to think of what the future is. I was very blessed that something like this has come along at the right moment," referring to "Iron Fist". Eugene Simon also spoke about his learning of his departure, saying that the showrunners promised a "huge scene" for his character in the season finale, with Simon responding, "for everything that you've done for the last six years, thank you. This is a wonderful way to go. I really, really appreciate it, and I look forward to doing it for you."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: For the scene at the Tower of Joy, Lyanna Stark was portrayed by actress Aisling Franciosi. The Danish comedian Frank Hvam portrayed the clerk at the Citadel, although his lines may have been dubbed as he was not a confident English speaker.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" was directed by Miguel Sapochnik. He previously directed the fifth season episodes "The Gift" and "Hardhome", and the sixth season episode "Battle of the Bastards". In an interview, Sapochnik spoke about the scenes at the beginning of the episode, which mostly lacked any dialogue, saying "Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of smart and witty dialogue. This is something that "Game of Thrones" is probably quite famous for and rightly so, but I love non-verbal film making more than anything probably." He continued by drawing a comparison to the film "Heat" starring Robert De Niro, noting "To me, this is truly wonderful filmmaking. And so any opportunity I can get to try my hand at that I welcome. From that perspective, I really hit the jackpot this year and I'm very grateful."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: In another interview, Sapochnik revealed that the wildfire explosion at the Sept of Baelor was originally going to only be seen from the outside, but after storyboarding the sequence with shots of the High Sparrow also being engulfed, Sapochnik was able to convince Benioff and Weiss to make the change for the sequence. Sapochnik also stated about the sequence, "The main chunk of the sequence was essentially a courtroom drama and then lots of little scenes surrounding it shot in many different sets and locations and even countries so it took a long time to get all the pieces into the editing system and start actually editing." He also said that the main goal of the scene was to "bring all these intersecting storylines surrounding King's Landing together and end them," and that the music in the scene played an important role in reflecting how the scenes played out on screen tonally, praising Ramin Djawadi's opening score. The Girona Cathedral in Girona, Spain stood in for the exterior shots of the Sept of Baelor.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Dean-Charles Chapman, who portrayed King Tommen Baratheon, spoke about filming his death scene, saying "I was jumping onto a crash mat. Height-wise, I think if I was standing on the floor, it was up to my chest. But the crash mat was pretty thick. I must have done that about 50 times. My face was pretty bruised up. My face took it a little bit." Eugene Simon, who portrayed Lancel Lannister, also spoke about his death scene revealing about his discussions with Sapochnik, "the note was when Lancel was dragging his body, there was a sense of someone who is trying to put aside their pain of being stabbed and being paralyzed as much as possible in order to try to defend what little hope there is left of trying to save the sept and also to save their life. It really only comes down to the very last few nanoseconds of footage that you realize the cause is lost." Simon also stated about the filming of Jonathan Pryce's, who portrays the High Sparrow, final scene, "we had a very big nice round of applause when that took place. I remember that scene very well; we had 200 or so supporting actors in there, all of whom were so committed. They stayed there all day and did wonderful reactions to all the really intense bits. When the first part of the bomb goes off, all of them really, really performed that there was a full-on nuclear explosion going on underneath them." He continued, "We had a big round of applause and celebration after that scene was done because I think we all knew it was going to be pretty monumentous. We said goodbye to countless Tyrells, Kevan Lannister my father, the High Sparrow and dozens of other. It was a pretty extraordinary day." In regards to the non-verbal exchange between Jaime and Cersei Lannister when she is sitting on the Iron Throne, Sapochnik stated "I thought that non-verbal exchange was a very interesting moment but it wasn't clear from the script what exactly Benioff and Weiss wanted. So we just tried a few things, following our noses, drawing from what we knew about these characters and what you see was one of the versions we shot. Interestingly in the edit I still couldn't find a version I felt worked so I actually dropped the moment entirely out of my cut but David and Dan reinstated and to great effect. In fact, I can't really remember the sequence without it anymore. I think he's saying 'don't' and she's saying 'too late.'" He continued "The wonderful thing about filmmaking is you make and remake your film or episode a number of times over the duration of its existence. Firstly in the script stage, second is in prep when you plan how you're going to execute it. Third is in production when you actually get there and have to change everything and finally, in the edit, when you realize what you thought something meant means something totally different when put before or after another juxtaposing or complementary image."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: In the same interview, Sapochnik was also asked about how he went about creating a sense of emotion in the 'King in the North' scene, saying "It wasn't hard. I think as fans we'd been waiting for it for so long. That said, it was a very difficult scene to shoot. Mainly because it was unusually hot over the two days we shot it, everyone was wearing heavy furs and armor, Kit was actually pretty ill and everyone was crammed into this space full of plates of sheep's tongues and chicken carcasses so it got quite smelly and sticky. It's also quite a long scene and yet Bella did it probably more than a hundred times, only forgetting a line once in the entire time. When we finished the scene she got a standing ovation from all the cast and crew."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Sapochnik was asked in an interview what the most difficult shot was to direct, responding "The final sequence of seeing the armada on its way to Westeros was complicated because it involved so many different ships, and we only had one that we had to redress and shoot again and again. It was also raining and freezing when we shot it, and it was meant to be a Mediterranean climate. Emilia Clarke got so cold, her jaw started shaking uncontrollably and she totally lost her thread as far as what she was meant to be thinking in that moment, the cold will do that. She asked me to help, so I suggested that she just hum the theme to "Game of Thrones" in her head while we were rolling the cameras, and apparently that worked because it's the take we used in the final cut!"


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Costume designer Michele Clapton designed most of the newly introduced costumes and jewelry in "The Winds of Winter". Clapton had initially left the series, but returned for the final two episodes of the season to design four different costumes. In an interview, Michele Clapton spoke about the process and meaning behind Cersei Lannister's gown and crown in the season finale. Clapton stated that she had four to five weeks to create the gown, but once she received the script for the episode, she was "immediately sure" of how the dress should look. She stated in the interview, "I knew it had to be leather and I knew it had to be linked to Tywin. I wanted a distinct, strong silhouette, so I squared her shoulders. I also wanted the dress to skim her ankles, so that you could see her feet—again, strength. The silver shoulders are decorated in a similar manner to Jaime's gold hand—the one person that she still has something with." Clapton also noted that every part of the dress represents something, saying, "There is no 'decoration' to Cersei." She stated that she additionally chose to make the dress black in order to represent mourning, as well as a "deadness inside her."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Clapton, in a separate interview, was also asked about the meaning and representation of Cersei's crown, saying "I chose to make it in silver with just wisps of gold to try to show her isolation, her mental disentangling from her family. There is no reference to Baratheon; there is no need anymore. She doesn't have to try and prove a link. The center of the crown is the lion sigil abstracted — its mane represents the Iron Throne, her desire. She has made it her own — she is reborn." Clapton revealed as well that King Tommen Baratheon's costume was intended to show how heavily his responsibilities weigh on him, as he is weighted down with jeweled finery, with Clapton saying "He was a nice boy. Too nice for this."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: The musical score for "The Winds of Winter" was composed by Ramin Djawadi. Djawadi has worked on the series since its inception, and additionally composed the show's main theme. In an interview, Djawadi spoke about the score he created for the beginning of the episode, titled "Light of the Seven", which largely consisted of piano, something unusual for the series. Djawadi stated, "The interesting thing to me was the use of the piano. When we started the season, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and Miguel Sapochnik, the director of the episode, reached out to me and said, 'There's something coming up in episode 10.' We talked about 'The Light of the Seven', and how it needed to be a new piece of music. Any kind of character theme could tip it, and we didn't want to tip the audience. Miguel brought it up: 'What about the piano?' We discussed it. The piano is not really in the language of the "Game of Thrones" score."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: He continued, "It all felt like a perfect fit. What's great about the scene, too, is there's hardly any dialogue. It's nine minutes long. I knew I had to start minimal and give it space. Let notes ring, then give it space, and build up the anticipation from there, without tipping in either direction." Djawadi stated that he refrained from using the typical Lannister theme, "The Rains of Castamere", in order to create more of a mystery. The piece also featured vocals by two young boys singing in unison, with Djawadi describing how he pieced all of the separate pieces of the music together by saying "The boys I recorded completely separate. The strings I recorded all together. Even the solo instruments, I recorded them separately — the solo violins and solo cellists were recorded separately. The piano, I played. And the organ as well."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Asked in a separate interview about the overall process of composing the music and how it is used in the episode, Djawadi revealed "I sit with David and Dan and we do what's called a spotting session where we watch the entire episode and then discuss when music should start and stop. Everybody's very involved with that. And it constantly gets played with. What I love about "Game of Thrones" is that the positioning of the music is so well done, because it's not overdone. When the music cuts in, it really has something to say." "Light of the Seven" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Spotify Viral 50 chart on its release.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: The episode also featured the show's main theme during the "King in the North" scene with Jon Snow at Winterfell. Critical praise was directed towards the musical score for the episode, with Lili Loofbourow of "The Week" calling it the "real winner" of the season finale.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" was viewed by 8.89 million American households on its initial viewing on HBO, significantly higher than the previous week's rating of 7.66 million viewers for the season's penultimate episode "Battle of the Bastards", making it the most watched episode in the series' history, until surpassed by the seventh-season premiere, "Dragonstone". The episode also acquired a 4.35 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night, and topping its previous best of 4.0, set twice earlier in the season. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 2.498 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel. It also received 0.153 million timeshift viewers.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: "The Winds of Winter" received widespread acclaim from both critics and viewers, praising it as one of the series' best episodes. It has received a 99% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 58 reviews with an average score of 9.7 out of 10. The site's consensus reads "'The Winds of Winter' makes the most of its extended run time, and is potentially the best season finale in the series' history." The episode had received a perfect 10 out of 10 score on IMDb for several weeks after its release. As of June 23, 2022, it holds a rating of 9.9/10, being one of the few episodes ever to get a 9.9 or higher on the website.


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Matt Fowler of IGN wrote in his review for the episode "The stories in the North and Meereen stayed a bit quiet as all their action got taken care of last week, leaving Cersei's big plot to destroy the Sept and everyone in it as this finale's big suspenseful and explosive set piece. Elsewhere, there were big reveals and revenge kills that helped everything add up to a very surprising and satisfying season finale." He continued by praising how the trial sequence played out on screen, writing "The actual staging and pacing of the trial and violent reckoning was really cool, with everyone getting dressed and little puzzle pieces falling into place, little birds leading men to their deaths, and Ramin Djawadi's excellent score." He gave the episode a 9.5 out of 10. Michael Calia of "The Wall Street Journal" similarly gave praise to the episode, writing "It's a good thing ... that the season finale was full of massive developments, tying up several plot threads while leaving some others dangling in the most tantalizing way. This was the most complete episode of "Game of Thrones" yet, and possibly the best." He also wrote, "Dany and her fleet are finally sailing to Westeros, her great dragons casting shadows over the waves. It's on."


title: The Winds of Winter (Game of Thrones)

text: Jeremy Egner of "The New York Times" also praised the direction of the King's Landing story, and Lena Headey's portrayal of Cersei, saying in his review "Ms. Headey's performance was but one element in a sequence that, technically, ranks among the show's best. Miguel Sapochnik, who directed last week's battle-heavy episode, brought a different kind of precision and urgency to Sunday's installment. Cersei's scheme unspooled amid insistent strings and a series of shots — those vicious little birds taking out Pycelle, Lancel and the dwindling candle-fuse, Margaery's growing concern and rising tension in the Sept — that built inexorably to the High Sparrow's realization that he wasn't as smart as he thought." James Hibberd of "Entertainment Weekly" stated he felt the episode introduced new conflicts to look forward to in the next season, saying "Though the finale shifted from the battlefield, the events were, if anything, far more seismic, with game-changing revelations and huge moves from every corner of the realm that established some very clear new conflicts going into season 7." Sarah Larson of "The New Yorker" wrote in her review, "It's a beautiful image. Boats, clouds, sun, dragons, and two female ship captains, pointing their armada toward a Westeros ruled by a queen." James Hunt of WhatCulture wrote in his review, "What a way to go out. Season 6 has already proved to be a great season of TV, but it saved its best for last." Tim Surette of TV.com called the episode, "the best episode ever." Brian Lowry of CNN wrote in his review for the episode, "At this point it's hard to second-guess producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who, working with Martin, have created a series for the ages." Willa Paskin of "Slate" wrote in his review, "Revenge, a dish "Game of Thrones" has almost always made taste awful, served hot or cold, became, in the finale, a delicacy. "


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is a 2002 American spy action comedy film written, shot, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez also produced with Elizabeth Avellán. It stars Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Mike Judge, Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor, Christopher McDonald, and Steve Buscemi.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The second installment in the "Spy Kids" film series, which began with 2001's "Spy Kids", the film premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on July 28, 2002. Dimension Films theatrically released the film on August 7, 2002. Upon release, "Spy Kids 2" received mostly positive reviews from critics and grossed over $119 million worldwide.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The OSS now has a full child spy section, of which Carmen Cortez and Juni Cortez are now Level 2 agents. Although they are the first of the new Spy Kids Division, they face fierce competition from Gary and Gerti Giggles, the children of Donnagon Giggles (the agent whom Carmen and Juni rescued on their first mission). Carmen defends Gary, as she has a crush on him, straining her relationship with Juni.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: At the OSS awards banquet, Donnagon hacks into the president's TelePrompTer, and is named director of the OSS instead of Gregorio Cortez. In his acceptance speech, Donnagon announces his two children are being promoted from Level 3 to Level 1. A fight ensues when a group of Magna Men arrive, rendering all adults unconscious. They are seeking the "Transmooker", a highly coveted device which can shut off all electronic devices around the world. Juni recovers it, but drops it when Gary tries to grab it. Gary blames Juni for the loss, resulting in him being fired.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The next morning Carmen hacks into the database, reinstating Juni as an agent. They take a mission meant for Gary and Gerti to recover the Transmooker. Using some hints from their former arch-nemesis, Alexander Minion, they follow the trail to a mysterious island where no electronics work. Meanwhile, Gary and Gerti are rerouted to the Gobi Desert and while trying to pinpoint their position fall into a pit of camel feces, whereupon they swear revenge.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Shortly after arriving at the island, Carmen and Juni meet Romero, a scientist and sole human inhabitant of the island who has been attempting to create genetically miniaturized animals to sell to kids as "miniature zoos." After creating hybrid animals, Romero accidentally poured a growth concoction over them, greatly increasing their size. He fears being eaten, so is unwilling to leave his lab. As both Gregorio and Ingrid are tracking where Juni and Carmen are, they are joined by Ingrid's parents who want to help them find their children.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Carmen is captured by a Spork, a flying pig, and dropped into its nest with Gerti, who tells her that Gary is genuinely evil. Her feelings for Gary change after he tries to kill Juni, and she protects him. Romero, encouraged by Juni, leaves his lab and discovers his creatures are much friendlier than he thought. Carmen and Juni eventually find and recover the Transmooker, and are surprised when their family joins them. Donnagon then confronts the group, takes the Transmooker and, after a fight with Gregorio tries to destroy the Cortez family with it, but it malfunctions. Gerti reveals she sabotaged it and threatens Donnagon with telling everything to her mother.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The President and his staff arrive on the island. He and his daughter Alexandra fire Donnagon; Gary is temporarily disavowed, and Alexandra appoints Gregorio as director of the OSS on her father's behalf. Even though offered a promotion to Level 1, Juni resigns due to the impersonal treatment he had received by the OSS after being framed. As the Cortez family leaves the island, Romero gives Juni a miniature spider-monkey as a gift, and the island's inhabitants bid farewell to the Cortez family.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: During the credits, Machete hosts a concert featuring Carmen (with a microphone which helps her sing, and a belt that helps her dance), and Juni (with a guitar that plays itself), but realizes too late that he never put any batteries in the devices before they went onstage. When he breaks this news to Carmen and Juni, this shocks them, realizing they have musical talent. Meanwhile, Dinky Winks, the owner of Troublemakers theme park, paddles to Romero's island to offer a business deal.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: "Spy Kids 2" was filmed entirely on High Definition digital video. After seeing George Lucas using digital video for "", Rodriguez tested the technology during re shoots for the first "Spy Kids" film. Rodriguez used the cameras unfiltered.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Despite using over twice the amount of special effects than the first film, Rodriguez did not ask the producers for a larger budget; he said "...I told the studio I don't want more money. I just want to be more creative". Rodriguez picked some visual effects companies who were eager and less established, as well as starting up his own Troublemaker Studios, and reemploying Hybrid, who had worked with him on the first film. Gregor Punchatz, the film's lead animator, employed a certain technique to make the movements of the computer generated creatures resemble the stop-motion work of filmmaker Ray Harryhausen, who has a cameo in the film. The scene with the army of live skeletons was shot on a real rock formation, with the two young actors on safety wires, and the computer generated skeletons added later to over three dozen shots.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The film score was co-written by director Robert Rodriguez and composer John Debney, who had also co-written the score for "Spy Kids". The sound is a mix of rock, pop, and indie rock, and includes songs performed by Alan Cumming and Alexa Vega. Unusually, the orchestral score was recorded in the auditorium of a local high school in Austin, Georgetown High School.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Additional music not on the soundtrack album includes "Oye Como Spy", which is an adaptation of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va", performed by Los Lobos (the song is on the soundtrack album from the first "Spy Kids" film).


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: The film was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on February 18, 2003. The film is also available to download on iTunes. A Blu-ray re-release was scheduled for August 2, 2011 to coincide with the fourth film.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams" opened theatrically on August 7, 2002 in 3,307 venues and earned $16,711,716 in its first weekend, ranking third in the North American box office behind "XXX" and the second weekend of "Signs". The film ended its run on January 12, 2003, having grossed $85,846,429 in the United States and Canada, and $33,876,929 overseas for a worldwide total of $119,723,358.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams" has a 75% approval score based on 136 reviews and an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Though the concept is no longer fresh, "Spy Kids 2" is still an agreeable and energetic romp." Metacritic reports a 66 out of 100 rating based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and commented, "With ""Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams"," the "Spy Kids" franchise establishes itself as a durable part of the movie landscape: a James Bond series for kids." Kenneth Turan of the "New York Times" gave it 4 out of 5 stars said, "The movie is a gaudy, noisy thrill ride -- hyperactive, slightly out of control and full of kinetic, mischievous charm." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, "The antics are a tad more frantic, and the gizmos work overtime, as if ... Robert Rodriguez felt the hot breath of el diablo on his neck. On the other hand, the inventiveness is still superior and the network of and family is extended." Michael Wilmington of Metro mix Chicago, noting how Rodriguez borrows many elements from television and earlier films, stated that, "Rodriguez recycles and refurbishes all these old movie bits with the opportunistic energy of a man looting his old attic toy chest -- but he also puts some personal feeling into the movie. This is a film about families staying together, children asserting themselves and even, to some degree, Latino power".


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: It was followed up in 2003 by a third film in the series, "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over," and in 2011 by a fourth film, "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World".


title: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

text: Talk Miramax Books released a novelization of the movie in June/July 2002. The novel was written by children's book author Kiki Thorpe. The posters and end of the credits even say "Read the Talk/Miramax Books", telling the viewers to read the print retelling.


title: George Smiley

text: George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels "Call for the Dead", "A Murder of Quality", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy", and "Smiley's People", and a supporting character in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Looking Glass War", "The Secret Pilgrim" and "A Legacy of Spies". The character has also appeared in a number of film, television, and radio adaptations of le Carré's books.


title: George Smiley

text: Le Carré created Smiley as an intentional foil to James Bond, a character whom he believed depicted an inaccurate and damaging version of espionage life. Short, overweight, balding, and bespectacled, Smiley is polite and and frequently allows others to mistreat him, including his serially unfaithful wife; these traits mask his inner cunning, excellent memory, mastery of tradecraft, and occasional ruthlessness. His genius, coupled with other characters' willingness to underestimate him, allows Smiley to achieve his goals and ultimately become one of the most powerful spies in Britain.


title: George Smiley

text: The character is held in high esteem in Britain, where he has become a pop-culture icon on par with Bond. "The Guardian" has called him "the sort of spy [Britain] believes it ought to have: a bit shabby, academic, basically loyal, and sceptical of the enthusiasms of his political masters."


title: George Smiley

text: In contrast to other spies of the era, Smiley is described as being short, overweight, balding, and middle aged, and he is frequently compared to either a toad or a mole. While cinematic adaptations tend to depict him in dark, three piece suits, the novels describe his clothing as being "really bad", with other characters remarking that he "dresses like a bookie"; characters and narration clarify that this refers to his clothes being very loose and baggy, the result of his tailor taking advantage of Smiley's ignorance of men's fashion to charge him more money for the extra fabric. He wears thick, round glasses, (le Carré does not describe the style or nature of the spectacle frames) and tends to clean the lenses on the 'fat' end of his tie while contemplating something of great significance; the gesture is ubiquitous enough that other characters consider it to be something of a trademark.


title: George Smiley

text: The American scholars Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen described Smiley as the fictional spy most likely to be successful as a real spy, citing le Carré's description of him in "A Murder of Quality":


title: George Smiley

text: Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim, he learns to love the crowds who pass him in the street without a glance; he clings to them for his anonymity and his safety. His fear makes him servile—he could embrace the shoppers who jostle him in their impatience and force him from the pavement. He could adore the officials, the police, the bus conductors, for the terse indifference of their attitudes.<br>But this fear, this servility, this dependence had developed in Smiley a perception for the colour of human beings: a swift, feminine sensitivity to their characters and motives. He knew mankind as a huntsman knows his cover, as a fox the woods. For a spy must hunt while he is hunted, and the crowd is his estate. He could collect their gestures, record the interplay of glance and movement, as a huntsman can record the twisted bracken and broken twig, or as a fox detects the signs of danger


title: George Smiley

text: Polmar and Allen wrote that Smiley's banal qualities together with his intelligence and a talent for intrigue made him ideal as a spy even though he was very far from the popular stereotype of what a spy should be like. Smiley's wife Ann calls him "breathtakingly ordinary", which Polmar and Allen wrote was an advantage for a spy, the very nature of their profession which requires them to be as inconspicuous as possible. In 1980, le Carré defined Smiley's politics as: "I think he stands where I stand; he feels that to pit yourself against any 'ism' is to strike a posture which is itself ideological and therefore offensive in terms of practical decency. In practice almost any political ideology invites you to set aside your humanitarian instincts". The world of espionage presented by le Carré in his novels was a world where lies, betrayal, intrigue and paranoia were the norm for both sides, and much of the appeal of Smiley was that of a moral man trying his best to stay decent in a profoundly amoral world.


title: George Smiley

text: Although Smiley ages through his appearances over a half-century, Le Carré has frequently retconned elements of his backstory so that he exists on something of a floating timeline. In his initial appearance in 1961's "Call for the Dead", Smiley is somewhere around 55 years of age; changes to his birth year in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", set between 1973 and 1974, make him about 58 during the events of that story. He ages into his sixties during the subsequent two novels, "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People", the latter of which depicts him in declining physical health as he grows older and heavier. However, although no reference is made to his age in 2017's "A Legacy of Spies", set in 2017, he does not appear to be substantially older than he was in his last appearance, although he should be at minimum 102 years old during the events of the book (or 111 if the "Call for the Dead" chronology is in effect). This has led Dwight Garner of "The New York Times" to observe that Smiley is "one of those ashen Englishmen, like the poet Philip Larkin, who seem to be permanently 60 years old."


title: George Smiley

text: Although Smiley has no concrete biography beyond that offered briefly at the beginning of "Call for the Dead", le Carré does leave clues in his novels.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley was born to middle-class parents in the South of England in the early part of the 20th century (his birth date is retconned from 1906 to 1915 in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"), and spent at least part of his childhood in Germany near the Black Forest. He attended a minor public school and an antiquated Oxford college of no real distinction (in the 1982 BBC television adaptation of "Smiley's People", he refers to himself as a fellow of Lincoln College, le Carré's alma mater in real life), studying modern languages with a particular focus on Baroque German literature. One July, while considering post-graduate study in that field, he was recruited into the Circus by his tutor, Jebedee.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley underwent training and probation in Central Europe and South America, and spent the period from 1935 until approximately 1938 in Germany recruiting networks under cover as a lecturer. In 1939, with the commencement of World War II, he saw active service not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland and Sweden. Smiley's wartime superiors described him as having "the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin". During this time, he met and recruited Dieter Frey, who would go on to become an East German intelligence operative running the intelligence circle that was the main plot point of Le Carré's first novel, "Call for the Dead".


title: George Smiley

text: In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at Circus headquarters, and in 1945 successfully proposed marriage to Lady Ann Sercomb, a beautiful, aristocratic, and libidinous young lady working as a secretary there. Ann would soon prove herself chronically unfaithful, engaging in numerous affairs and occasionally leaving Smiley entirely, though she always returned to him after the initial excitement of the separation ended. In the same year, Smiley left the Service and returned to Oxford. However, in 1947, with the onset of the Cold War, Smiley was asked to return to the Service, and in early 1951 moved into counter-intelligence work, where he would remain for the next decade. It is reported with a reference to the real life Gouzenko affair that "the revelations of a young cipher clerk in Ottawa had created a new demand for men of Smiley's experience". In 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet cipher clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, defected and revealed a widespread Soviet spying network in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada that came as a considerable shock to the leaders of western nations. During that period, Smiley first met his Soviet , Karla, in a Delhi prison. Karla proved impossible to crack, though an increasingly desperate Smiley inadvertently revealed his own weakness – his affection for his wife, Ann – during the interrogation. After he offered Karla the use of his cigarette lighter – a gift from his wife – Karla stole it, keeping it as a symbol of his victory over Smiley. The incident would continue to haunt Smiley for the remainder of his career.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley first appears in "Call for the Dead", le Carré's debut novel. After an introductory chapter documenting Smiley's wartime bravery, the narrative moves to 1960, which finds the formerly heroic Smiley working a menial intelligence job, security-clearing civil servants. After a man he interviewed apparently commits suicide in despair over being a suspected communist, Smiley resigns from the Circus in disgust; the revelation that the man's death may in fact have been a murder spurs Smiley to launch an independent investigation with the help of his protege, Peter Guillam, and police detective Oliver Mendel. Smiley's investigation uncovers that the "suicide" was in fact a murder perpetrated by an East German spy ring operating in the UK and being operated by one of his own former agents, whom he accidentally kills in a physical altercation. Although the Circus offers him his job back as a reward, Smiley declines, instead leaving England for a tentative reunion with Ann, who had earlier left him for a racing car driver. Smiley spends much of the story bemoaning the loss of the talented agents who were his mentors prior to the war, and their replacement by such talentless bureaucrats as the current head of service, Maston, who is widely, if secretly, mocked.


title: George Smiley

text: It is while pursuing a sedate life of scholastic research in German literature at a university in the West Country (probably Exeter) that he is called upon to investigate a murder at a fictional public school in le Carré's next novel, "A Murder of Quality".


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley next reappears as a minor but pivotal character in "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold", his third novel. Smiley is revealed to have come back into the service of the Circus as the top aide to Control, Maston's mysterious successor as the Circus' chief. It's revealed that, following the events of "Call for the Dead," Smiley and Guillam succeeded in turning Mundt, the sole survivor of the spy ring, into a British double agent, and sent him back to East Germany. Fearing that Mundt's cover is about to be blown, Smiley and Control manipulate agent Alec Leamas into posing as a defector and sending him to Germany under the assumption that he is going to orchestrate Mundt's death. Along the way, Smiley learns that Leamas blew his own cover to his girlfriend, a nineteen-year-old communist sympathiser named Liz Gold, and arranges to incorporate her into the plot. Although Liz's unwitting role ultimately ensures the mission's success, it also results in her death, prompting a grief-stricken Leamas to give up and let himself be shot dead at the Berlin Wall as Smiley attempts to extricate him.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley plays a small but pivotal role in "The Looking Glass War", le Carré's fourth novel, occupying the "North European desk" at the Circus. He appears sporadically throughout the book as a liaison to "The Department," a military intelligence agency, which attempts to surreptitiously conduct a dangerous and unnecessary operation without the Circus' knowledge. Smiley's appearance here is notable in that "War" is the only book of the series to depict his and Control's personal relationship in great detail. The climax of the novel bears witness to Smiley's ruthlessness, as he is dispatched by the Circus to end the Department's operation and force the abandonment of a Department employee to ameliorate the damage they have caused.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley does not appear in either of le Carré's next two works, only one of which dealt with espionage.


title: George Smiley

text: Several years pass between Smiley's appearance in "The Looking Glass War", set circa 1964, and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", which takes place in 1973. During this period, Smiley's position in the Circus comes to be threatened by his contemporary Bill Haydon, proteges Toby Esterhase and Roy Bland, and ambitious newcomer Percy Alleline. Alleline develops a personal feud with Control due to the latter's class and ethnic prejudice against Percy's Scottish heritage, prompting factions to form within the Circus, with Control, Smiley, and Peter Guillam on one side and Alleline, Haydon, Esterhase, and Bland on the other. When Control is eased out of the Circus in late 1972 after the capture of agent Jim Prideaux in Czechoslovakia, Smiley too is forced out. The Circus is taken over by Alleline, with Haydon running "London Station", a branch overseeing all of the service's spy networks. Guillam remains in the Circus as Smiley's sole resource/ally, albeit in a greatly diminished position.


title: George Smiley

text: In September or October 1973, the events of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" take place, with Smiley successfully managing to expose Haydon as the long-term Soviet agent, or "mole", codenamed "Gerald" and reporting directly to Smiley's nemesis, Karla, head of Moscow Centre. Following the revelation, Alleline is drummed out of the Circus for his failure to identify Haydon himself and for permitting such a breach of national security to occur on his watch. Smiley is installed by Whitehall as the new head of the Circus and tasked with both tying up loose ends left by Haydon's treachery and launching a successful espionage mission to prove the organisation's viability.


title: George Smiley

text: "The Honourable Schoolboy", set in 1974, finds Smiley having assembled a new team, made up of former colleague Connie Sachs; Doc di Salis, a Jesuit priest who is an expert on communist China; Guillam; and a rehabilitated Esterhase. After learning that Karla has been making exorbitant payments to a heretofore unknown Chinese source, Smiley tasks agent Jerry Westerby with going to Hong Kong disguised as a reporter and identifying the spy. Westerby identifies the man as Nelson Ko, the brother of prominent Triad member Drake Ko. However, he also falls in love with Drake's mistress Lizzie and attempts to betray the Circus as a result. Smiley's bodyguard, Fawn, assassinates Westerby, and then disappears from the Circus, presumably fired by Smiley. Concurrently, the CIA takes Nelson into custody, cutting off Circus access to him. The incident prompts Smiley's dismissal as Circus boss, with Guillam contemplating the possibility that Smiley permitted the CIA to succeed to get himself removed from the position.


title: George Smiley

text: "Smiley's People", set in late 1977, finds a retired Smiley launching an investigation into the death of an elderly Estonian general, nationalist activist, and former Circus agent. A convoluted trail leads Smiley to discover that Karla has an illegitimate daughter whose existence he has gone to great lengths to hide, and who Karla smuggled through France and into Switzerland to receive desperately needed treatment for a severe case of schizophrenia. Smiley uses his knowledge of Karla's daughter to blackmail him into defecting, and in December 1977 Smiley greets Karla at the Berlin Wall as part of a contingent of Circus agents including Guillam and Esterhase. Karla is taken into British custody, with Esterhase congratulating Smiley on the accomplishment of a lifetime, though Smiley appears to reproach himself for the methods he used to achieve it.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley was absent in the three le Carré novels of the 1980s. He re-surfaced for a penultimate time in 1990 when he appeared in "The Secret Pilgrim", enjoying a happy retirement and in better spirits than his protege, the novel's narrator Ned, has ever seen him. Ned reveals that, shortly before the events of the book, he temporarily returned to the Circus to chair the "Fishing Rights Committee", a body set up to explore possible areas of co-operation between British and Russian intelligence services. The end of the book finds Smiley politely requesting that he never be brought out of retirement again, and departing for a vacation in Oceania.


title: George Smiley

text: Smiley appears in le Carré's 2017 novel "A Legacy of Spies", set after 2010. At the end of the novel, which explores fallout from the events depicted in "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold", Smiley meets with the novel's central character, Peter Guillam. The nonagenarian Smiley is now a resident of Freiburg, Germany, where he lives in a small apartment and conducts research at a library. The novel portrays him as still visited occasionally by his wife, Ann, and in touch with his old associate Jim Prideaux. Speaking with Guillam, he contends that his work had ultimately been for the benefit of Europe.


title: George Smiley

text: In 1995, le Carré said that the character of George Smiley was inspired by his one-time Lincoln College, Oxford tutor, the former Rev. Vivian Green—a renowned historian and author with an encyclopaedic knowledge. However, other than the thick glasses, loud clothes, and Green's habit of disappearing into a crowd, there were too many dissimilarities between the loquacious Green and the reticent Smiley to make this a clear match, and so other sources for Smiley continued to be named. It has been suggested that le Carré subconsciously took the name of his hero from special forces and intelligence officer Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley. More commonly, it was rumoured that Smiley was modelled on Sir Maurice Oldfield, a former head of British Intelligence, who physically resembled him. Le Carré denied the rumours, citing the fact that Oldfield and he were not contemporaries, although he and Alec Guinness did lunch with Oldfield while Guinness was researching the role, and Guinness adopted several of Oldfield's mannerisms of dress and behaviour for his performance. During the lunch, Oldfield denied to Guinness that he was the inspiration for Smiley, saying he was not like Smiley at all. In 1986, le Carré denied that Oldfield was the inspiration for Smiley, saying: "I never heard of Sir Maurice either by name or in any other way until long after the name and character of George Smiley were in print".


title: George Smiley

text: Oldfield himself believed that, although Green probably inspired le Carré, the character of Smiley was primarily based on John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, who had been le Carré's boss when he originally joined MI5 prior to his career in MI6. In 1999, le Carré confirmed that Bingham was also an inspiration for Smiley, and in 2000 went further, writing in an introduction to a reissue of one of Bingham's novels that "He had been one of two men who had gone into the making of George Smiley. Nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in my first novel".


title: George Smiley

text: And it is no surprise to me that, when I came to invent my leading character, George Smiley, I should give him something of Vivian Green's unlikely wisdom, wrapped in academic learning, and something of Bingham's devious resourcefulness and simple patriotism also. All fictional characters are amalgams; all spring from much deeper wells than their apparent counterparts in life. All in the end, like the poor suspects in my files, are refitted and remoulded in the writer's imagination, until they are probably closer to his own nature than to anybody else's. But now that Bingham is dead ... it seems only right that I should acknowledge my debt to him: not merely as a component of George Smiley, but as the man who first put the spark to my writing career.


title: George Smiley

text: In the popular TV comedy series "The Two Ronnies", Ronnie Barker played Smiley along the lines of Alec Guinness' portrayal in a sketch called "Tinker Tailor Smiley Doyle". This was a joint send-up of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "The Professionals" TV series, with Ronnie Corbett playing a bungling version of Martin Shaw's Doyle. Barker's Smiley provides the brains to the brawn of Corbett's Doyle and actually comes out the better. He is shown as something of an obsessive tea drinker. The sketch guest-starred Frank Williams from "Dad's Army". The name of Smiley's enemy Karla can be seen on a secretary's computer screen. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse performed a sketch in 2012 about there being two George Smileys: a reference to the vastly different portrayals in the filmed versions of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Jamal Edwards (24 August 1990 – 20 February 2022) was a British music entrepreneur, DJ and founder of the online R&B/Hip-Hop platform SB.TV.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards was an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a youth charity which helps young people set up their own businesses. In 2021, Edwards set up Jamal Edwards Delve, a project aimed at refurbishing and reopening youth centres.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards was born in Luton, England, and spent his early years there before moving to Acton, West London, where he lived with his mother Brenda Edwards, his stepfather, Patrick, and his younger sister, Tanisha. Edwards' family originate from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As a child, he was introduced to stage school by his mother, who came fourth in the second series of "The X Factor" in 2005. She wanted him to pursue acting and drama; however, he aspired to be successful in the music industry. He attended Acton High School and enjoyed the subjects of ICT and music. However, he struggled to attain the grades he needed for college, and as a result, had to study for an extra year. He then attended Ealing Green College, part of West London College, where he received a BTEC diploma in Media Moving Image. During his school years, he started rapping and would film videos with his friends that would then be posted on YouTube. These videos would eventually become his business and the beginning of SBTV. Edwards worked for the retail chain Topman for four years to support himself financially while he ran SBTV.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards was the founder of SBTV – an online media platform to discover emerging artists. It launched in 2006 and has helped to launch the careers of many artists including Ed Sheeran, Jessie J, Stormzy and Emeli Sandé. As of 2019, the SBTV YouTube channel had more than one million subscribers.When Edwards was 15, he was given a video camera, filmed friends rapping and performing and uploaded them to his YouTube channel. Then, he created the channel SBTV for his videos, taking the initials from "SmokeyBarz", the name he had briefly used as a rapper. After he left school, he worked for the clothing company Topman, while continuing to make videos. His videos became more popular with hundreds of thousands of views. He was able to leave Topman to concentrate on SBTV. Initially, the channel's content was grime dance music, but he then began to explore other musical genres.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards filmed some artists before they became well-known such as Jessie J's first acoustic video (apart from videos on her personal YouTube channel). He also filmed others such as Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Dave, Emeli Sandé, Rita Ora, Krept & Konan, Yungen, Mic Righteous, Nines, Tori Kelly, Bugzy Malone, Mist, English Frank, Aaron Unknown and Cadet.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2011, SBTV was featured in a Google Chrome advert. The ad caused the SBTV site to crash due to the traffic and it became the second-most popular UK YouTube video of the year. As a result, this attracted the attention of the rapper, Dr. Dre, who invited Edwards to film him on a tour of Asia.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2016, SBTV worked with the youth-focused news service, Press Association to expand into more of a mainstream multichannel video. Over the years Edwards constructed collaborations with some of the world's biggest stars, conducting the first online UK-based interviews with Drake, Nicki Minaj and Wiz Khalifa.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: As well as his online platform, Edwards released a headwear collection on Topman (his previous place of employment) with American Freshman. The collection featured limited editions of snapbacks and bucket hats that were designed by Edwards himself. As part of the "GQ" Heroes series in 2019, Edwards hosted an open forum discussion with Adwoa Aboah on mental health. In 2017 he made a documentary about male suicide. Edwards walked in the Hermès: Step into the Frame catwalk show at London's Nine Elms.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2019, Kurt Geiger revealed Edwards as one of the faces of its "Characterful Style" campaign for AW19. Later that year, Edwards was also announced as one of the faces of the Primark AW19 collection, celebrating 50 years of the brand.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2013, Edwards released an ebook, "Self Belief: The Vision: How To Be a Success on Your Own Terms". His book achieved success and was the number-one bestselling ebook series according to iBooks. It sold so well that Virgin Books bought the rights for a print edition.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2019, Edwards directed the Chelsea FC remix video of grime artist Capo Lee's "Style and Swag". The video featured players including Callum Hudson Odoi, Ruben Loftus Cheek, Ngolo Kante, Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham and Michy Batshuayi.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In November 2021, Edwards launched the 8BARS app: a ground-breaking platform supporting up-and-coming music stars. The app received investments from the likes of British rapper Nines, as well as early Spotify investors. It also launched with an exclusive pilot partnership with SoundCloud.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2021, Edwards created the pseudonym Jamal Artman to launch his DJ career, paying homage to his birth name. Under this pseudonym, Edwards launched the house and dance music event night "Cultivation".


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Securing funding from Google and the Wellcome Trust, in 2019 Edwards founded Jamal Edwards Delve (JED), a grassroots youth-centre project. As of October 2019, Edwards had refurbished and reopened four youth centres in Acton. As of December 2020, more than 150 people have engaged across the four centres.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2021, Edwards was signed to RadicalMedia as a director. He later produced commercial content in partnership with the likes of Subway and Depop. Edwards also teamed up with singer-songwriter Jake Bugg in 2021. Edwards directed a brand-new series to showcase the unseen side of Bugg’s story, including his early years in Nottingham and inspiration behind his music style and lyrics.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In December 2021, Edwards directed Ed Sheeran's "Bad Habits" Remix, featuring Tion Wayne and Central Cee. Shortly afterwards, Edwards went on to direct Fireboy DML's "Peru" Remix with Ed Sheeran.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2017, the National Portrait Gallery, London acquired a portrait of Edwards by photographer Simon Frederick for its permanent collection.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2018, Edwards was announced as the first ambassador for Mercedes-Benz X-Class, through his ambassadorship Edwards launched his own YouTube series JE:SELF-BELIEF and JE:WHAT'S YOUR DRIVE. Edwards was keen to inspire other creatives and entrepreneurs through his vlogs, exploring the challenges and dreams of a true entrepreneur of the digital native era. The vlogs presented an unparalleled insight into Edwards's busy life, featuring artists, broadcasters, filmmakers, social influencers and more as he travelled around London and the UK showing off his pick-up truck.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2020, Edwards announced a partnership with the Department for Education, a three-part campaign encouraging young creatives to consider undertaking an apprenticeship. The partnership involved the grime MC P Money.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2021, Jamal joined his mother, Brenda Edwards, on ITV's show "Loose Women", where he shared "How He Built a Multi-million Pound Business & How His Mum Brenda Inspired Him". Edwards was also named as an ambassador for Google Pixel.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: In 2014, Edwards helped launch the Queen's Young Leaders Programme with an image of Edwards, Prince William and Prince Harry captured by a Twitter mirror.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards also worked to raise awareness surrounding mental health. In March 2017, he made a documentary with "The Guardian" about male suicide, in which he spoke to his childhood friends who suffer with mental health problems. Later that year, Edwards continued his work and explored mental health in the music industry.


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards was open about his own struggles, stating in an interview with "Music Week": "Anxiety comes over me at the most random times. I wanted to create awareness. As much as music is my entry point, I feel a responsibility to talk about these other issues. I wanted to get people talking to each other and they have been, I'm happy."


title: Jamal Edwards

text: As well as his documentary work, Edwards collaborated with the mental health charity CALM, and wrote a column that discussed the issue for the online site "The Book of Man".


title: Jamal Edwards

text: Edwards died of a cardiac arrhythmia caused by recreational drugs at his mother's home in Acton, London, on 20 February 2022, at the age of 31. Friends and family had previously stated that the cause of death was a "sudden heart attack" or "sudden illness", without any mention of drugs. The day before his death, Edwards had been DJing at a gig in north London. Celebrities and other figures gave out their statements responding to his death after it was announced. Lady Leshurr, who also worked with Edwards on SBTV, said the news was "heartbreaking" and that Edwards "gave [her] opportunity after opportunity to showcase [her] talent from Brum into London. We need to keep his name and brand alive." King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, founder of The Prince's Trust of which Edwards was an ambassador, wrote that "His work in music but also as an ambassador for a new generation, including his work for The Prince’s Trust, were an inspiration to so many". In August 2022 an inquest into Edwards's death found the cause to be "cardiac arrhythmia, following cocaine use".


title: Be More Chill (musical)

text: Be More Chill is a musical with original music and lyrics by Joe Iconis, and a book by Joe Tracz, based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini. After a 2015 regional theatre production, the musical premiered off-Broadway in 2018. A Broadway production began previews on February 13, 2019, and officially opened on March 10, 2019. The Broadway production closed on August 11, 2019. An Off West End production opened on February 18, 2020 and temporarily closed on March 16, 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with the production being cancelled on June 3, 2020. In 2021, it was announced that the production, featuring the original London cast, would resume performances on the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre for a 10-week run starting June 30. A Chicago production was set to open in July 2020.


title: Be More Chill (musical)

text: The musical premiered on May 30, 2015 at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. It ran until June 28, 2015. The production was directed by Stephen Brackett and featured orchestrations by Charlie Rosen, music direction by Nathan Dame, and choreography by Chase Brock. It featured Will Connolly as Jeremy, Eric William Morris as The SQUIP (an acronym for "Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor"), George Salazar as Michael, and Stephanie Hsu as Christine, as well as Katie Ladner, Lauren Marcus, Jake Boyd, Gerard Canonico, Katlyn Carlson, and Paul Whitty. The musical was commissioned by Two River Theater in 2011 as part of their new play development program.


title: Be More Chill (musical)

text: After mixed reviews in its out of town tryouts, the show did not receive another production. In early 2017, the show began to gain traction online. A cast recording of the original production entered Billboard Cast Album chart's Top 10 in July 2017. This led to the show getting an Off-Broadway production in 2018.


title: Be More Chill (musical)

text: "Be More Chill" ran Off-Broadway at the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center. It began previews July 26, 2018, officially opening on August 9, 2018. It was originally scheduled to close on September 23, 2018 but was given a one-week extension after selling out and closed on September 30, 2018. This production featured several original cast members including Hsu, Salazar, Canonico, Carlson, and Marcus reprising their respective roles. New cast members included Will Roland as Jeremy, Jason Tam as the SQUIP, Britton Smith as Jake, Tiffany Mann as Jenna, and Jason "Sweettooth" Williams as Mr. Heere. The production also added Emily Marshall as music director.