The AnswerBank Articles

When is the next Bond movie released

A. A release date has been locked in for November 29 2002, which conveniently marks the 40th anniversary of the series, and Bond producers Eon have struck a deal with Uk actors' union Equity, to00:00 Mon 31st Dec 2001

Who were the people behind Spitting Image

A. A team of craftsmen, writers and actors began work on producing Spitting Image in 1984. The men who made the controversial puppets were Peter Fluck and Roger Law, produced by John Lloyd, who with00:00 Mon 31st Dec 2001

Why do Oxo always use a family in their ads

A. Oxo's love affair with the family image started as long ago as 1958. The initial storyline - about a couple whose main interests semed to be casserole and gravy -captivated an audience for 1800:00 Mon 24th Dec 2001

The cast of Lord of the Rings is huge - how many extras were involved

A. More than 20,000 extras were cast in the epic Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The movie, out now, cost over 264 million to make and took 274 days of filming. In all, 1,2000 suits of00:00 Mon 24th Dec 2001

How much cash do British films get from the Lottery

A. The Government has set up National Lottery-funded film franchises which amount to around 33 million. Money from the Lottery has gone into making a number of high-profile films in 2001, but there00:00 Mon 24th Dec 2001

Why is everyone talking about pulp movies

A. American cinemas have been fascinated by the dark pathologies of pulp cinema since the 1930s. The genre thrived up until 1950, and an updated film version of the 1947 crime novel The Blank Wall00:00 Mon 17th Dec 2001

How many real stars played in the football film Escape To Victory

A. The 1981 film attracted a host of foobtall stars, including Pele, winner of three World Cups, scorer of over 1,200 goals and a player with the New York Cosmos which turned him into a global00:00 Mon 17th Dec 2001

Why is Hollywood so interested in Narnia

A. After Harry Potter's Hogwarts and Lord of the Rings' Middle Earth, Narnia is the latest magical fantasy world to receive the Hollywood treatment. The first live-action film of C.S. Lewis's The00:00 Mon 17th Dec 2001

Why hasn't Lord of the Rings been made into a film before

A. It's supposedly the most popular novel of the 20th century (and is Tony Blair's favourite), but there have been problems bringing the JRR Tolkien film to screen. There was a 1970s cartoon of the00:00 Mon 10th Dec 2001

Where can I silent Charlie Chaplin movies online

A. There are several sites where you can purchase Chaplin films. Go to www.amazon.com or www.silentmovies.com as they've got a huge list of Chaplin classics. Grapevine video have four volumes from00:00 Mon 10th Dec 2001

Is Harry Potter officially the biggest film of all time

A. The film has been number one at the box office in the UK and the States since it opened last month, but Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone may not beat the biggest film of all time, a record00:00 Mon 10th Dec 2001

Where can I get a movie map of Britain

A. The British Tourist Authority (BTA) has this month published an updated Movie Map of the UK, available on their website at www.visitbritain.com/moviemap. The map was first published in 1996, but00:00 Mon 03rd Dec 2001

How many films did Walt Disney make

A. Walt Disney was responsible for 40 of the Disney animated features during his lifetime. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5 1901, the son of a building contractor. He never finished High00:00 Mon 03rd Dec 2001

Why has Apocalypse Now been re-released

A. Twenty-two years after Francis Ford Coppola released Apocalypse Now, he had decided to re-edit his masterpiece an add an extra 50 minutes of film. He has called it Apocalypse Now Redux. The Oxford00:00 Mon 26th Nov 2001

What was the Beeb's most successful drama series

A. It's widely considered to be The Forsyte Saga, which was the last major serial to be made in black and white. it was the first drama series from the West to be bought by Russia; it marked the00:00 Mon 26th Nov 2001

What makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer so successful

A. When Buffy the Vampire Slayer was first screened in the UK in 1997, it was much less popular than Star Trek: The Next Generation, in fact, it just made it into BBC2's top 20. By the third series,00:00 Mon 26th Nov 2001

What was Coronation Street originally called

A. The show was the braindchild of Tony Warren, a 23-year-old actor and writer who was being paid 30 a week by Granada Television to write scripts. He was working on the Biggles adventures when he00:00 Fri 19th Jan 2001

Why is Gwyneth Paltrow in hot water in Hollywood

A. Paltrow has donned a fat suit in a comic tale about inner beauty. Shallow Hal is the story of would-be Lothario (Jack Black from Inner Beauty) hynotised so he only sees a woman's inner beauty. The00:00 Mon 19th Nov 2001

Why isn't the London Film festival as popular as Cannes

A. The 45th London Film Festival, although it attracts a host of big name stars and directors, doesn't offer big-name juries or high-profile prizes. At one time, the festival was branded elitist;00:00 Mon 19th Nov 2001

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Persil Tablets were the result of 7 years' development. The average Briton eats 8,568 peas a year -and in 2000 Birds Eye Wall's planted 33,000 acres of peas to help feed this hunger for peas. To make00:00 Mon 19th Nov 2001