Top 10 Amazing Facts about World War 2

Perhaps the most destructive conflicts in human history, second world war can be described as the result of the ill managed and biased reparations program of the World war 1. The reparations demanded by the Allies in the year 1919, was set at a staggering 132 billion gold marks; Germany was obliged to pay that amount but unfortunately didn’t have much it could actually pay and hence, the total reparation amount paid by Germany from 1920-1931 was only about 5 billion US dollars, hence this had left them humiliated, frustrated and even more fierce than the first time and laid the much needed baseline work for the greatest devastation in human history the World War 2.
World war 1 has brought many revolutions and advancements in the physical world and it sort of catapulted our day to day technology use in terms of infrastructure a bit more farther than our time. This small leap has proved to be very important in the advancement of the quality of life in the 21^st Century.

10. Casualties

The country with the most numbers of World War 2 casualties was Russia. With over 21 million dead, it was over 30% of the entire casualties of the war period. The dead in second world war totaled between 50 and 70 million people. More than 80% of these casualties were from four countries; Russia, China, Germany and Poland. Almost half the casualties were believed to be civilians, most of whom were women and children.

9. Inhumane Animals

Here’s one fun fact about American army that fought in the Second World War. Out of the 16.1 million soldiers in the United States armed forces at that time, approximately 600,000 were Jews. More than 35,000 of them were killed, severely wounded, captured or missing.  Around 8,000 of them died fighting. However, the peculiar thing is that my friends; only two of the soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor in World War 2. Many Jews were also victims of gruesome medical experiments, done by the Nazi doctors. They would bombard the testicles of men and the ovaries of women with X-rays, break bones repeatedly to see how many times it could be done before a bone could not heal, hit people’s heads with hammers just to see how much force a human skull could withstand.

8. The Angel of Death

Talking about gruesome experiments and animal behavior; during Second World War the Nazi’s had some of the most ruthless, nastiest, and perhaps the most maddening science experimenters the world has ever seen or would ever see again. Dr. Josef Mengele, better known as the Angel of Death was very infamous for his grisly human experiments, on children, especially twins. He took about 3000 twins, 6000 children mostly Romany and Jewish children, for his painful genetic experiments. Only around a 200 of them survived. His experiments were really extreme and something not at all meant for the faint hearted. Taking out one’s eyeball and attaching it on the back of other, changing their eye color by injecting dye. Once, two Romany twins were sewn together in an attempt to create conjoined twins; that was just a small example of how crazy he was.

7. The SS

During the World war 2, a Germanic group called the SS short for Schuftzstaffel carried out massive executions of political opponents and ethnic minorities. Headed by Heinrich Luitopold Himmler (1900-1945), it was initially formed as a personal protection service for Hitler. It is estimated that this group killed about 1.4 million Jews. They would force the Jews to dig a pit and then shoot them so they would fall into an open grave. Not only that, the secret group SS even ran a brothel named ‘’The Kitty Salon’’ especially for foreign diplomats in Berlin. The whole place was wire-tapped and 20 prostitutes underwent special training and were specifically trained to glean information from clients through seemingly innocuous conversations.

6. The Rise of the US & USSR

As the result of Second World War Europe was sent on a downfall from its position as the center of world power and made way for the rise of the United States and Russia as the super powers. This was the reason for the set up of the cold war between the US and the USSR. This was also the sole reason that gave rise to the nuclear age. Just the conditions both of them wanted and perhaps still don’t want to change.

5. The Swastika

The sign that Nazi’s used on their flags were in fact the ancient religious Hindu symbol Swastika. It is derived from the Sanskrit name for a hooked cross, which was used by ancient Greek, Hindu civilizations as a symbol of fertility and good fortune. That kept aside, the Nazis murdered approximately 12 million people in the war, nearly 6 million of those being Jews killed in the Holocaust due to burnt bodies.

4. Balloon Bombs

The Japanese launched more than 900 ‘wind ship weapons’ made out of paper and rubberized-silk balloons that carried incendiary and anti-personnel bombs to the U.S during WWII. More than a thousand balloons hit their targets and reached as far east as Michigan. The only deaths reported from a fallen balloon bomb were an American family of 6, including five children and a pregnant woman whilst on a picnic in Oregon.

3. 442^nd regimental

One of the most celebrated and decorated unit of U.S history is the 442^nd regimental Combat Team. Their motto was ‘Go for Broke’. It was summed up of Japanese-American volunteers; together they won 4,667 major medals, awards and citations, including 560 Silver Stars, 4000 Bronze Stars and 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, and one Medal of Honor, plus 54 other decorations. It even held the distinction of never having case of desertion. Something to think about, isn’t it?

2. Double ‘O Seven

The ‘’007’’ character that we all know was in fact based on the Yugoslavian-born spy Dukso Popov (1912-1980). Author Ian Fleming got all his insight for the character from this spy from the WWII, speaking at least five languages he even came up with his own formula for invisible ink. He was the first ever spy in history to use microdots, which are basically photos shrunk down to the size of dots. He had deciphered the vital information about the Japanese planning an air strike on Pearl Harbor, he told the FBI about it, but they did not act on his warning. Popov later lived in the U.S. in a luxury penthouse and created a reputation of a playboy. He wrote an account of all his wartime activities and things he came across in his novel, Counterpy (1974).

1.   Powerless President

After the Pearl Harbor attack, the President of the U.S. at that time President Roosevelt wanted to buy and searched for a bulletproof car. However, the government regulations didn’t allow him to spend more than $750 to buy a car. Hence, as no bulletproof car could be afforded at that price, all they could find was Al Capone’s limo, which had been seized by the Treasury Department after he was arrested for tax evasion. The FDR had said, ‘’I hope Mr. Capone won’t mind.’’ So much for being the U.S. President, believed to be the most powerful and perhaps the most influential person in the world.
Final Conclusion: It’s funny how most of the Americans believe that the U.S. won the war single-handedly. If you look at the entire war period with keen concentration, you will find that everything seems to have been planned to be carried out exactly the way it was carried out till the very end of it all. Every single detail of it seems interconnected somehow. Well… then again, it could just be me, and all of it could just be a bunch of weird and peculiar coincidences but what if it was all a well rehearsed dance of destruction, what would you have done? I guess we’ll never find out.

Resource From: http://www.elist10.com

25 must-see movies of 2014

25. RoboCop

This much-publicised remake has plenty going against it, not least the weight of history: Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop is rightly regarded by many as being among the best films of the 1980s, with its heady cocktail of graphic violence, black comedy and corporate satire. Now, we certainly don't expect next year's Robo remake to better the original, but there's at least one reason to look forward to it with some sense of optimism: the track record of Brazilian director Jose Padilha.
If you haven't heard of him, Padhila began his career with the documentary Bus 174, which told the remarkable true story of a man who took a busload of passengers hostage and ended up in the middle of a media circus. His next two feature films, Elite Squad and its sequel The Enemy Within, mixed action and suspense with a thought-provoking account of life and death in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.
Whether Padilha can (or will even be allowed) to bring the sense of realism and intensity of Elite Squad to his RoboCop remake remains to be seen, but we await the results with cautious enthusiasm.

24. Noah

Truth be told, we're a bit torn on Noah. There are two biblical epics arriving in cinemas next year, with Ridley Scott's Exodus the other, and we're in two minds about both of them. Noah in particular has been in the news due to apparent disagreements between its director and Paramount over the final cut. That director? Darren Aronofsky, and it's his name that sneaks Noah onto our countdown.
Darren Aronofsky is comfortably one of the most interesting directors working in America right now, and Noah marks his belated move into big budget filmmaking (after he pulled out of making The Wolverine). His cast features Russell Crowe, Emma Watson, Jennifer Connelly, Logan Lerman and Anthony Hopkins, and the scale of the story - and presumably the film - suggests that we're going to get a big screen spectacle at the very least. However, if Aronofsky gets his cut, then it's going to be quite something to see what the man behind Pi, Black Swan and The Fountain can do with an awful lot more money to spend.

23. Calvary

The last time John Michael McDonagh made a film, we got the exceptional - and very funny - The Guard. His follow-up, Calvary, reunites him with the star of that movie, Brendan Gleeson, but we're getting a very different movie here. This one seems a lot darker for a start, although it's still being described in some quarters as a comedy/drama.
Gleeson headlines as a priest who's threatened while taking a confession. The crux of the film is that said priest is a good man, who finds himself in the midst of not so good things. In fact, the character's arguably a reversal of the The Guard's Gerry Boyle.
The cast is rounded out by Aidan Gillen, Kelly Reilly and Chris O'Down, amongst others. We'd by lying if we said that it wasn't the reunion of Gleeson and McDonagh that sold us on the movie, though...

22. Need For Speed

In most instances, movies based on videogames are shot, released and then despatched straight into the nearest cultural landfill site. But while Need For Speed is based on EA's long-running and ever-changing racing game franchise, it has a better pedigree than most. For one thing, it stars the great Aaron Paul as a street racer on a mission of vengeance across the highways of America, and he's backed up by a supporting cast which includes Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots and Michael Keaton.
The script's by George Nolfi, who wrote Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and both wrote and directed The Adjustment Bureau. And while it's seldom a good idea to judge a movie by its trailer, the first promo for Need For Speed really does look exciting - and there's even a bit of drama and artistic lighting in evidence between all the requisite tyre squealings, crashes and bangs.

21. Selfless

Tarsem Singh's visually ornate movies - The Cell, The Fall, Immortals, Mirror Mirror - could be described as an acquired taste, but his style is immediately recognisable and, whether you like them or not, his films are seldom dull. We don't know a great deal about Selfless yet, but we do know that it's a science fiction thriller, and appears to be about a dying man whose consciousness is put into the body of a younger, healthier man (possibly the one belonging to Ryan Reynolds, who's the star). Unfortunately, that younger, healthier body has a murky past that has something to do with a murderous secret organisation.
Matthew Goode - who was marvellous in Park Chan Wook's Stoker this year - Natalie Martinez and Sir Ben Kingsley round out the supporting cast. If nothing else, we're intrigued to see how Singh's unique, often surreal filmmaking style will affect what sounds like a futuristic action thriller.

20. Muppets Most Wanted

The job doesn't get easier for the team behind The Muppets. The wide success of the 2011 movie makes this follow-up of sorts an even bigger challenge. After all, how do you top the last film and keep the momentum going?
Jason Segel isn't on board this time around, but Nicholas Stoller, who co-wrote the last film, shares scripting duties with James Bobin. Bobin is directing once again (before he heads off, it seems, to direct Alice In Wonderland 2, with Johnny Depp).
This time, it's a crime caper we're getting, one that sees the Muppets heading across Europe in the midst of a dastardly plan by the world's number one criminal. We'll keep the identity of said criminal secret (although it won't be by the time the film comes out), but perhaps the biggest bone of contention surrounding this new film is the decision to cast Ricky Gervais as said criminal's sidekick. Gervais is the human lead in the film, and his casting has already proven divisive. From what we've seen, he fits his specific role well (he's hardly reprising the kind of role that Segel took on in the first movie), although it'll be March 2014 before we see if we're proven right there.
Alongside Gervais are Ty Burrell and Tina Fey, with plenty of cameos still yet to be confirmed. Walter leads the familiar felted faces who will also be back. You don't need us to tell you we're looking forward to this a lot.

19. The LEGO Movie

Chris Miller and Phil Lord are the only directors to have two films on this list, and they're two of the three helmers of the eagerly-awaited LEGO Movie. Chris McKay makes up the rest of the trio, and between them, they're bringing the visual style of LEGO to the big screen for the first time.
The film will feature lots of DC characters in LEGO form, with Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern and Batman all present and correct. But the focus will be on a character by the name of Emmet, voiced by Chris Pratt, who finds himself unwittingly recruited to help save the world from a foe with predictably dastardly plans.
The visual style alone lends itself to lots of fun here, but then you factor in that Lord and Miller previously gave the world the first Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs movie, and what a comedy treat that turned out to be. The LEGO Movie is certainly shaping up to follow in its path, and don't be surprised if this turns out to be a sizeable hit.
Please note: in those three paragraphs we didn't do one brick joke. You don't know how much restraint that took.

18. Stretch

Joe Carnahan's The Grey gave Liam Neeson arguably his best big screen role of the last few years. And whilst Carnahan's attempts to reboot Daredevil got caught up in rights expiration (bah), his next film nonetheless looks like it could be a 2014 surprise.
It's called Stretch, and follows a chaffeur who takes a job for a very, very rich man. Said rich man proceeds to make his life a living hell. Patrick Wilson is taking on the role of Stretch, and interestingly, Chris Pine is taking a less pleasant turn by playing the billionaire. Ed Helms and James Badge Dale are also in the cast.
Few directors can blend action, drama and comedy in quite as stylish a way as Joe Carnahan can, and when it works, you get no shortage of value for your ticket price. Stretch might just be the latest evidence of that.

17. Fury

Having first established himself as a writer of thrillers - Training Day, The Fast And The Furious, S.W.A.T. - David Ayer then moved into directing, with the so-so Harsh Times (2005) and Street Kings (2008) followed up by the excellent police drama End Of Watch. With that film proving such a critical and financial success, Ayer now has two films coming up in 2014: the first is Sabotage (formerly known as Ten), an action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The second - and the one we're most looking forward to - is Fury, a World War II action drama about the final days of the battle in Europe. Brad Pitt stars as a tank commander in a hopeless situation behind enemy lines, with Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman and Jon Bernthal among his crew. We like Ayer. We like tanks. Both reasons enough to be excited about an increasingly rare entry in the war film genre.

16. Gone Girl

Since he adapted The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher has been concentrating more on the small screen, with the successful Netflix-backed US take on House Of Cards. While he's been doing that, the promised English language version of The Girl Who Played With Fire hasn't come to light, and Fincher has instead opted to adapt another novel, the hugely successful, unpredictable thriller, Gone Girl.
The book in question is written by Gillian Flynn, and she's also penned the screenplay. Fincher has cast Ben Affleck in the pivotal role of Nick Dunne, the narrator of the book and one of its main characters. It's arguably a far trickier role than the Bruce Wayne/Batman combo he has coming up, although there was less notable controversy when he landed this particular job.
Rosamund Pike co-stars (hopefully in better fitting clothes than she was made to wear in Jack Reacher), alongside Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris, and the plan is for Fincher's tenth film to be in cinemas around October 2014. Given that even Fincher's less interesting movies have much to recommend about them, Gone Girl should be a grown-up, uncompromising thriller, from a man who's very, very good at making them.

15. 22 Jump Street

Who would have thought that a seemingly by-the-numbers remake of an 80s TV show would turn out to be one of the funniest films of 2012? Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs) clearly had a great time making this high school comedy thriller, and Channing Tatum showed off his knack for comic timing alongside Jonah Hill in an improv-heavy, good-natured hit. Can the same team of actors and filmmakers pull off the same trick twice with next year's sequel? We certainly hope so.

14. The Monuments Men

Delayed from a 2013 release, where it had a whiff of Oscar buzz about  it, The Monuments Men is the latest directorial effort from George Clooney (he co-wrote the script as well). This one's been delayed for good reasons, too: Clooney wouldn't have had time to meet the original end of 2013 release date, and so all concerned agreed to put the release back to February 2014, to give him some valuable extra weeks.
Clooney's uncovered a fascinating story to tell, that of Roosevelt ordering a small platoon of soldiers being sent into Germany in World War II, with the aim of recovering artistic masterpieces deep behind enemy lines.
He's got some cast, too. As well as Clooney himself, the call sheet features Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin and Hugh Bonneville. And all in a quest to save some cultural heritage. Clooney's an excellent director on his day - Good Night And Good Luck, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind - and whilst The Monuments Men may have slipped out of awards season, there's still lots to be interested in.

13. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel has two terrific looking films lined up for 2014, and if Captain America: The Winter Soldier picks up some of the themes we saw so well explored in the first movie, this could be a real highlight. Marvel's already been talking about the movie as a political thriller of sorts, a tease backed up by the casting of Robert Redford as the head honcho of S.H.I.E.L.D. And it's also revealed that this is the film that does a good deal of the bridging work between The Avengers and 2015's Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
We're promised a sizeable role for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow here, and there's also room in the film for Hayley Atwell, Samuel L Jackson, Toby Jones and Cobie Smulders to make return appearances. Plus, Chris Evans in the title role of course. Meanwhile, Anthony Mackie is Sam Wilson (aka Falcon), and Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Georges St-Pierre and Sebastian Stan are all onboard.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have the underwhelming movie Me, You And Dupree to their name, but more interestingly, a whole bunch of brilliant Community episodes. Marvel deserves credit once more for working hard to find interesting directors, and count us amongst the many excited to see what the Russos have come up with here.

12. Jupiter Ascending

Ever since The Matrix put the Wachowskis on the Hollywood power list, the filmmaking duo have been using their clout to pursue their own unusual projects. Let's face it, few other filmmakers could have got the financing and cast together to make an adaptation of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, and while the results weren't perfect, the movie had some unforgettably striking moments.
Jupiter Ascending sees the Wachowskis continuing to forge their own individual path. It's essentially a science fiction fairytale, with Mila Kunis playing a Russian toilet cleaner whose DNA somehow threatens the reign of someone called the Queen of the Universe. An eclectic cast has gathered, including Channing Tatum (whose character has "wolf DNA", we're told), Sean Bean, Tuppence Middleton, James D'Arcy and even Terry Gilliam, who shows up in a "small but vital part".
Jupiter Ascending sounds like it could be a work of madness, which is probably why we're genuinely looking forward to watching it.

11. The Imitation Game

It feels like we've been talking about The Imitation Game for years, for it's certainly taken its time getting itself before the cameras. Originally a project in which Leonardo DiCaprio was set to star, this historical drama about the life and work of Alan Turing - who broke the German Enigma code during World War II, only to later be persecuted, and prosecuted, for his sexuality - now features Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role.
He's joined in the cast by Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode, with Morten Tyldum - who made the wonderful movie Headhunters - now directing. There have already been accusations levelled at the film regarding how little prominence it apparently gives Turing's homosexuality, but the producers have been firm in insisting that's not the case.
We're fascinated to see how the final film pans out, and if it is indeed a quality testament to a man whose heroic acts were ultimately deemed less important than his sexuality.

10. X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Great though 2011's X-Men: First Class was, it's exciting to have Bryan Singer back in the chair for Days Of Future Past, an adaptation of the 1981 comic book run which aims to tie the two timelines in the X-Men cinematic universe. To this end, we'll have both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart playing Professor X in two separate epochs, and Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen playing Magneto.
Having a fight for mutant survival play out across two points in time could prove too much for some directors, but Singer's The Usual Suspects is evidence that he can handle complex storylines with ease. Among the expected cast, including Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and a returning Anna Paquin as Rogue, there's also Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, and the great Peter Dinklage as scientist Bolivar Trask.
If Singer can make another comic book movie as good as X2, we should be in for a real treat. Certainly on the basis of the first trailer, he's heading very much in the right direction.

9. How To Train Your Dragon 2

There are some terrific-looking animated movies that we simply didn't have space to squeeze into this countdown - Mr Peabody & Sherman and Big Hero Six chief amongst them. But our animated movie of choice for 2014 is the eagerly awaiting How To Train Your Dragon 2.
The first film was a triumph for DreamWorks Animation, and arguably one of its very best films. And whilst co-director Chris Sanders went off to make The Croods (and is now working on The Croods 2), the other co-director - Dean DeBlois - has been calling the shots on this sequel. In fact, he's also knee deep too in How To Train Your Dragon 3, which is scheduled to land in 2016.
For the purposes of chapter two, five years have moved on, so when we meet Hiccup and his friends again, they're late teenagers. But Hiccup is no ordinary teenager - he's not spending hours locked in his room looking at 'educational' YouTube videos - as he finds himself in the midst of a new conflict between humans and dragons. Oops.
We've already had a trailer for How To Train Your Dragon 2, and it went down a treat. Here's hoping the final cut of the film does when we finally get to see it June 2014.

8. Guardians Of The Galaxy

In truth, Guardians Of The Galaxy may not turn out to be the best Marvel movie of 2014. But on paper, it's comfortably the biggest gamble. Not for the first time, Marvel is taking a property that the mass audience isn't particularly familiar with, and giving it to a director who isn't the most obvious choice.
So, we get a space-based adventure, from the man who directed Slither and Super (films we like, we should point out), that includes a talking tree, Bradley Cooper voicing a raccoon, Karen Gillan with no hair, and a cast of characters that don't easily lend themselves to the shelves of Toys R Us.
Bluntly, we can't wait. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Benicio del Toro and Michael Rooker are amongst the rest of the cast, and it seems clear that if you were looking for a comic book movie that's happy to resist the usual template, Guardians Of The Galaxy is looking like your best bet. How will it gel together with the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe? We're already getting clues and teases for that through mid-credits sequences. But we look forward to finding out more on August 1st.

7. The Raid 2

When Gareth Evans' The Raid appeared in 2011, its effect felt like a solid punch between the eyes. With some lightning fast martial arts moves from Iko Uwais, a simple high-concept premise - about the storming of a drug lord's high-rise lair by a group of cops - and some incredibly intense, almost horror-like direction from Evans, The Raid was a truly thrilling action film.
The Raid 2 again stars Uwais - it's safe to say his former job in a call centre is now firmly behind him  - who this time goes undercover in a Jakarta gang. Only time will tell whether Evans can create the same air of menacing intensity as the previous film, but with characters listed on IMDb with names like Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man, we can't wait to see how it all turns out.

6. Big Eyes

Tim Burton stormed back into form with the wonderful Frankenweenie in 2012, and Big Eyes builds on that, as he reteams with his Ed Wood writers - Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski - for a biopic that could by one of 2014's standouts.
Made for a modest price, Big Eyes stars Christoph Waltz as Walter Keane, who came to fame in the 1950s and 1960s for paintings that featured big-eyed children. Only they weren't his paintings: they were the work of his shy wife, Margaret, who's played in the film by Amy Adams.
Burton's film will frame this through the divorce battle that eventually occurred between Walter and Margaret, where the latter accused the former of stealing her work. The last time Burton made a low budget biopic, the aforementioned Ed Wood, the result was his best film, and an Oscar for Martin Landau. Might Big Eyes be the movie to finally get Amy Adams a gong? Maybe, maybe not. But it's most definitely one of our must-sees of 2014, and - for the first time in a while - a Tim Burton live action film that we're absolutely aching to see.

5. Birdman

Looking for an actor to play a one-time big screen superhero who's fallen out of the public eye? We're curious if Michael Keaton actually had to audition for Birdman, the new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, and we certainly wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.
Birdman, billed as a comedy, sees Keaton as Riggan Thomson, once the man who played Birdman, but now desperately trying to put on a Broadway play (in this instance, Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love). Barriers to him doing so? Ego, family, insecurity. On top of the usual stuff.
Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galafianakis, Naomi Watts and Amy Ryan co-star. But the wildcard here might be Iñárritu himself - it looks, on paper, like a change of tone from the man who brought us the amazing Amores Perros, and films such as 21 Grams and Babel.
If nothing else, the chance to see Keaton in a big, major lead role is comfortably enough to sell us a ticket. It's been too long...

4. How To Catch A Monster

As if Ryan Gosling wasn't an enviable enough figure, he's also turning his hand to directing with How To Catch A Monster. He's assembled an equally enviable cast for his debut, including Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Matt Smith, Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn. It's described as a fantasy neo-noir, about a single mother and her young son, and the discovery of a path to a city under the sea. If Gosling's directing's as good as his acting, this one could be marvellous.

3. Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's a notoriously secretive filmmaker, and like Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, specific details surrounding Interstellar are difficult to come by. According to some sources, the story's about scientists trying to use wormholes in space to find arable land for a starving planet. Officially, though, all that's been confirmed is that it's about the discovery of a wormhole, and a team of scientists' voyage through it.
The cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck and John Lithgow, and filming has been underway since August in locations including Canada and Iceland. The screenplay, rewritten by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, is based on the work of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, so we should be in for something approaching the more cerebral science fiction of, say, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If Inception's anything to go by, the synopsis and marketing will only give us a vague idea of the final film's true nature. We can't wait to see what filmmaking tricks Nolan has in store for us.

2. Godzilla

With 2010's Monsters, director Gareth Edwards proved that he could make an engaging sci-fi drama on a miniscule budget. And with Godzilla as his second picture, we'll get to see what he can do with a larger effects department and an entire team of technicians behind him.
The 1998 Godzilla adaptation may have played fast and loose with Japan's most famous kaiju, but there are signs everywhere that Edwards plans to make his film in the mode of Ishiro Honda's dark, sombre 1954 original. This is certainly backed up by the cast, which is full of actors capable of bringing the requisite gravitas: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe and David Strathairn are just a few of the most prominent names.
A recently leaked Comic Con trailer fuelled our excitement further, with its ominous soundtrack and images of a devastated city establishing the mighty Godzilla as a truly intimidating force of nature.

1. Transcendence

Since Memento in 2000, cinematographer Wally Pfister became known as a regular collaborator with Christopher Nolan, and since that low-budget classic, the pair worked together on a string of projects, each more grand than the last. Transcendence marks Pfister's first project as director, and it sounds extremely exciting.
It's set in a future where scientists are on the cusp of creating a computer intelligence superior to our own, and a terrorist organisation is doing its best to prevent a technological singularity from occurring. Johnny Depp stars as a computer scientist whose consciousness is uploaded to the internet, and Rebecca Hall joins him as his wife and scientific colleague.
"Is it really Will who is interacting with humanity in order to make things better," reads the intriguing synopsis for the film, "or a sinister clone bent on the termination of the world as we know it?"
The premise alone sounds fantastic, and Pfister's presence means it'll be beautiful to look at, too. And while Pfister may have taken on a mammoth task in this potentially expensive, star-laden movie, let's not forget that he's spent more than a decade working with one of the finest mainstream film directors currently working. Transcendence could be the moment where Mister Pfister strikes out as a brilliant storyteller in his own right.

Resource From: http://www.denofgeek.com

10 Best Hidden Movie Secrets

The 10 Best Hidden Movie Secrets are sometimes funny and often quirky. These features range from advertising subtly placed to references to other films. Take a look and see if you recognize these often missed features.

1. Pizza Planet Truck. One hidden movie secret that children might recognize long before their adult counterparts is the Pizza Planet Truck. This truck is used in every single Pixar movie release, but is not mentioned or given any attention in the majority of the flicks.
2. Ghost in the Window. A hidden movie secret that rocked the online world was a supposed ghost appearing in a window during the movie "Three Men and a Baby". The truth revealed that the "ghost" was actually a cardboard cut-out of actor Ted Danson, placed on set as a joke.
3. The Hanging Munchkin. A legendary hidden movie secret occurs in the classic "The Wizard of Oz". Over the years, viewers have mistaken a loose boom crane arm as a Munchkin committing suicide.
4. "All Good Girls Take Their Clothes Off". The controversial hidden movie secret from the movie "Aladdin" had parents in an uproar. The phrase has never been official explained by the studio.
5. The Dark Side of the Moon. A questionable hidden movie secret is the idea that the album "Dark Side of the Moon" by rock band Pink Floyd. Thousands of fans of the band believe it to be some great connection, but the fact is the running time is simply the same.
6. "The Lion King" Controversy. A hidden movie secret that aroused tempers of parents occurs when dissipating clouds supposedly reveal the word "sex" . Disney claims it is a complete coincidence.
7. "The Little Mermaid" video cover. Another hidden movie secret that had Disney in a bind was the controversial video cover for the movie "The Little Mermaid". A fully erect penis appears to be part of the castle. Supposedly, a disgruntled employee was responsible.
8. Song in reverse. A crazy hidden movie secret comes from the film "Eyes Wide Open". If you play the strange ballroom song backwards, you hear an Eastern European prayer song.
9. It's Hitchcock himself. A fun hidden movie secret is the fact that director Alfred Hitchcock appeared in every one of his own films. Typically, as in the movie "The Birds" he plays a passerby or person in the crowd.
10. Author appearance. A final hidden movie secret is from the movie "The Outsiders". The author of the book appears as the hospital nurse announcing that Johnny's mother is there to visit him in the hospital.

 Resource From: http://www.screenjunkies.com

63 Magical Disney Movie Facts You Should Know

1. The iconic song “Part of Your World,” was almost cut from The Little Mermaid.

 

2. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was also almost cut from The Lion King. Elton John, who saw the film with the song removed, told producers they needed to put it back in.

3. Aladdin’s face was modeled after Tom Cruise’s.

4. And Ariel was partially modeled after Alyssa Milano.

5. The Jungle Book was the last animated film Walt Disney personally supervised; it was released 10 months after his death. 

6. John Lennon turned down Walt Disney Studios’ request for the Beatles to provide the voices of the vultures in The Jungle Book.

7. Walt Disney planned a short film sequel to Snow White, titled “Snow White Returns.” The film was even storyboarded, but it never left the preproduction stage and no reason is known why the studio decided against making it.

8. Sleeping Beauty’s Prince Phillip was named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

9. In 1989, Ariel became Disney’s first new princess in 30 years, the last princess film had been Sleeping Beauty, which was released in 1959.

10. The Black Cauldron was Disney’s first animated film to get a PG rating.

11. Contrary to popular belief, Tinkerbell is not based on Marilyn Monroe, but on reference model Margaret Kerry.

12. Beyoncé refused to audition for the role of Princess Tiana and expected to be offered the role. She lost the role to her Dreamgirls co-star Anika Noni Rose. 

13. Alicia Keys actually auditioned three times for the role of Princess Tiana.

14. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first film to ever release a motion-picture soundtrack.

15. With a total of only 18 whole lines, Princess Aurora is the Disney Princess with the least amount of dialogue.

16. One minute of The Nightmare Before Christmas required an entire week of filming.

17. And more than 400 distinctly different Jack Skellington heads were used.

18. Pumbaa is the first Disney character to ever fart. 

 

19. Christian Bale voiced the character of Thomas in Pocahontas.

20. Idina Menzel — the voice of Elsa in Frozen — originally auditioned for a role in Tangled, but was passed over. But the recording she did for that audition, a rendition of the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” led to her getting early consideration for Frozen.

21. Frozen’s co-director, Jennifer Lee, is the first female to direct a Disney animated movie.

22. The penis on the cover of the original VHS release of The Little Mermaid was unintentional. According to the artist who drew it, he was just in a rush to finish and was neither disgruntled nor on the verge of being fired.

23. The sorcerer, from Fantasia’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment, is named Yen Sid, which is Disney spelled backward. 

 

24. Producers originally wanted Sean Connery to voice Mufasa.

25. James Earl Jones (who voiced Mufasa) and Madge Sinclair (who voiced Sarabi) were also the king and queen in Coming to America.

26. The original conceived version of Beauty and the Beast was a darker, non-musical adaption; it also took place in 18th-century France.

27. Although Matthew Broderick is accomplished Broadway singer, he does not sing “Hakuna Matata” or “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”

28. Actress Eleanor Audley voiced two notable Disney villains: Cinderella’s Lady Tremaine and Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent. Also, both characters’ facial expressions were based on hers.

29. Frank Welker, the actor who voiced Abu, is also the voice of Transformers’ Megatron, Scooby-Doo’s Fred Jones, and Stripe in Gremlins.

30. And the voice of Eeyore is also the voice of Transformers’ Optimus Prime.

31. The people who voiced Minnie and Mickey Mouse were married in real life.

32. Bernard from The Rescuers suffers from triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. 

33. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was originally supposed to be sung by Timon and Pumbaa.

34. Bea Arthur was considered for the voice role of Ursula in The Little Mermaid, but it went to Pat Carroll.

35. Dwarf names that didn’t make the cut in Snow White were: Jumpy, Deafy, Dizzy, Wheezy, Hickey, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty, and Burpy.

36. Walt Disney was presented with an honorary Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, presented in one normal-sized statuette and seven miniature Oscars.

37. Walt Disney played Peter Pan in a school play. 

38. Tramp from Lady and the Tramp was almost named Homer, Rags, or Bozo.

39. Aladdin cut a song called “Proud of Your Boy” from the animated film, but it’s now in the Broadway show.

40. During the Snow White production, Walt Disney kept a menagerie of animals on the studio lot as live reference for the animators.

41. “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” from Frozen is sung in part by a little girl named Katie Lopez, the daughter of the writers of the song.

42. Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel, makes a cameo appearance in Enchanted. She plays a secretary at a law firm.

43. Judy Kuhn, the singing voice of Pocahontas, also makes a quick cameo in Enchanted. She plays a mom.

44. Disney was sued by a biologist for the “defamation of hyenas” in The Lion King. 

45. In 101 Dalmatians Pongo has 72 spots, and Perdita has 68.

46. Samuel E. Wright, the voice of The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian, also played Mufasa in the original cast of The Lion King on Broadway.

47. Christina Aguilera’s debut single was actually “Reflection” from Mulan. “Genie in a Bottle” was released a year later.

48. Beauty and the Beast was the first ever animated film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Film.

49. Mortimer Mouse was the name originally meant for Mickey, but Walt’s wife convinced him to change it because Mortimer sounded pompous.

50. When Simba flops down onto the ground and clouds of dust appear, it seems to spell “SEX” in the sky. Disney claims it actually reads “SFX” and was put there by the effects team like a signature. (Yeah right.)

51. The Rescuers Down Under was Disney’s first animated sequel.

52. Wreck It Ralph has 180 unique characters. For comparison, Tangled had 64.

53. The Great Mouse Detective is actually based on the children’s book series Basil of Baker Street.

54. Rapunzel’s 70 feet of golden hair consisted of more than 100,000 individual strands.

55. The Black Cauldron was Disney’s first animated feature to use CGI.

56. Animator Glen Keane designed the character Tarzan based on his teenage son Max, who liked performing skateboarding stunts.

57. Pride Rock and the Gorge in The Lion King are modeled after Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya.

58. Chicken Little has the lowest rating of any Disney animated feature on Rotten Tomatoes and Pinocchio has the highest.

59. The original title for Emperor’s New Groove was “Kingdom of the Sun.”

60. Belle, Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, and Pumbaa all make a cameo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame during the song “Out There.”

61. Tangled’s Rapunzel and Flynn Rider make an appearance at Elsa’s coronation in Frozen.

62. Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Kermit the Frog, and Donald Duck all make cameos during the scene where Triton arrives at the concert hall in The Little Mermaid.

63. Basically all Disney characters make surprise appearances in one another’s films.

Resource From: http://www.buzzfeed.com

10 Important Fact About World

1. California Is Bigger than You Think

France is only 30% larger than the state of California. It makes you think about all the countries that France has invaded and defeated in its long history. Also makes you wonder what would happen if California gave global domination a try.

2. The Great Wall of China

One great world fact is that that the Great Wall of China is NOT the only man made construction to be seen from space. This is another one of those world geography facts that is often misunderstood. From space, by using just their eyes, astronauts have seen plenty of man-made objects. The Great Wall of China can be seen from space, but it is very difficult to pick out because it is a brown line nestled on a brown terrain. The British built a big white millennium dome in the year 2000, which is a big white tent. This is easier to see from space, as are a great many highways at night. Cities also light up and are easily seen from space at night.

 

3. Enclosed Countries

Geographically, the fact is that the Vatican City is only one of three countries that lie within another country. The other two countries are Lesotho which is completely within in South Africa, and San Marino, which like the Vatican City, is inside Italy.

 

4. The Shortest Geographical Name

One easy to remember world geography fact is that the shortest area name is A. Of all the world geography facts this is the easiest to describe. There is a district called ‘Å’ in Sweden and Norway. It means “river”.

 

5. The World’s Biggest Country

The biggest country in the world is not China. China has the most people in, but Russia is still the biggest country in the world. World geography facts are often confused when it comes to the size of a country area and the population mass.

 

6. The World’s Smallest Country

The smallest country in the world is in-fact the Vatican City This is a country within a country and is only two square miles. Most American towns are bigger than that, and yet Vatican City is a country all of its own - with its own government, taxes and police force.

 

7. Peaks And Troughs

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, but geographically a trench is the world’s lowest point. There is a trench underwater called the Marianas Trench. If you were to fall from the top of Mount Everest to sea level bottom, you would not fall as far as if you were falling from sea level to the bottom of the trench.

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8. Water, Water, Everywhere

The Waterworld movie could actually be right. In the movie, it shows the world being flooded because the ice caps melted. Did you know that the frozen glaciers hold over 80% of the world’s fresh water? If they keep melting, we will have to start growing food on floating farms. This is one of the scariest of world geography facts.

9. The Great Pyramids

Possibly, the most misunderstood of geography facts is that the world’s biggest pyramid is NOT in Egypt. It is in Mexico. Most people think that the Egyptian Giza pyramid is the biggest, but it is not. Pyramids were not just an Egyptian thing. The largest pyramid in the world is called the Cholula pyramid that is covered in mud and grass. From a distance, it looks like a big hill with a church on top. It is in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is 180 feet high, with a base that measures 1300 feet by 1300 feet. It was built to praise the god Quetzalcoatl, who some may remember as being a god in the Final Fantasy 7 & 8 games.

10. Up North

It seems that most people in the world want the top bunk for a reason. The Northern Hemisphere holds over 90% of the entire human race. Maybe early humans were afraid they would fall off of the bottom so they stuck to the top.
Popular belief has made a lot of people misunderstand common world geography facts. When people hear that there are thirteen Chinese people to every one American, they think that China must be the biggest country. People hear about the famous pyramids and think the Egyptians invented it. All is not as it seems.

 Resource From: http://travel.allwomenstalk.com

 

 

 

11 Facts About Global Hunger

1. 13.1 percent of the world’s population is hungry. That’s roughly 925 million people who go undernourished on a daily basis, consuming less than the recommended 2,100 calories a day.
2. The world produces enough food to feed all 7 billion people who live in it, but those who go hungry either do not have land to grow food or money to purchase it.
3. The difference between hunger and malnutrition is that malnutrition means the body does not have the necessary vitamins and nutrients necessary to grow or fight off disease. In developing countries where sanitation is poor, lack of nutrition only makes children and adults more vulnerable to illness.
4. Poverty is the main cause of hunger, and hunger is a cause of poverty. When people go malnourished, they lose brain functionality and the mental resources to be a productive asset in society or earn money.
5. In 2010, an estimated 7.6 million children — more than 20,000 a day — died from hunger.
6. Nearly 98 percent of worldwide hunger exists in underdeveloped countries. Hunger is often passed from mother to child. Each year, 17 million children are born underweight because their mothers are malnourished.
7. Almost 1 in every 15 children in developing countries dies from hunger.
8. While hunger exists worldwide, 62.4 percent of the hunger exists in Asia/South Pacific. .
9. More than 20 percent of children in Asia and Africa are underweight for their age.
10. When a mother is undernourished during pregnancy, the baby is often born undernourished, too. Every year, 17 million children are born this way due to a mother’s lack of nutrition before and during pregnancy.
11. Similarly, women in hunger are so deficient of basic nutrients (like iron) that 315,000 die during childbirth from hemorrhaging every year. 

Resource From: https://www.dosomething.org

7 World Top Conspiracy Theories Off All Time

Conspiracy theories have floated around for generations with new ones popping up all the time. Here is a list counting down the World’s 7 biggest conspiracy theories of all time.

1. Life on Mars and the Annunaki:
Ever since photo’s of Mars were taken from the Viking orbiter in 1976, the answer to the question of if there was life on Mars seems to be yes. Photos depicting an enormous face staring up from the surface proved to be eerie. The pictures also include a sphinx and a 5-sided pyramid. When Zecharia Sitchin released findings of tablets in what used to be Sumeria, Sitchin describes the writings telling of the Anunnaki, a superior alien race that came down and taught the Sumerians new technology.  Many speculate that the formations on Mars surface were built by the Anunnaki which also opened up the idea that the great pyramids were built by aliens using humans as slave workers.

2. Vaccination and autism:
Celebrity Jenny McCarthy has fought this fight for years and even Robert Kennedy Jr. voiced his opinion saying the politician believes there is a conspiracy between scientists and the vaccine industry to hide the truth about the ingredients in vaccine shots. McCarthy has said that mother’s from all over the world who have children with autism have said for years that, “We vaccinated our baby and something happened.”

3. Digital television and subliminal advertising:
Many conspiracy theorists believe that cameras and microphones have been secretly built into televisions so that the government could spy on people. Another theory along with this one is that subliminal messages are being broadcast to influence the viewers with what the government and big industries want people to believe.

4. Global Warming:
Global warming has been a hot topic ever since Al Gore brought it to the world’s stage but many theorists believe this to be a ruse in order to control the populations way of life, raise taxes and intended to lead to more controlling, tyrannical government.


5. The Holocaust:
Believe it or not there are many theorists out there who believe that the Holocaust is a hoax. Conspiracy theories claim that the Nazis never murdered over 6 million Jews during World War II but claims of the Holocaust was conspired by the Jews to advance their own interests and to justify the creation of Israel. The deniers claim that any deaths which occurred in concentration camps were from starvation or disease and not because of Nazi policy to exterminate the Jews. The Diary of Anne Frank the conspiracy theorists believe is a forgery.

6. The Shroud of Turin:
Ever since the Shroud of Turin was brought forth to the public, it has caused much controversy. Believed to be the cloth which covered the body of Christ, some say that it proves that Jesus survived the crucifixion and that the Vatican had tampered with the carbon dating results in order to protect the faith. Of course the Vatican denies that but the discussion of its authenticity continues.

7. The death of Princess Diana:
Soon as the news spread of Princess Diana’s death, conspiracies were popping up everywhere. All of which claiming that the Princess was murdered by the Royal Family to stop Diana from releasing embarrassing and damaging information about ex-husband, Prince Charles. In 2013, Scotland Yard announced that it was reopening the case of Diana’s death on the basis of a claim that the fatal car accident was set up by the British Special Forces. Though the British and French governments have ruled Diana’s death as an accident, the fuel behind the conspiracy theories that Diana was killed to silence the Princess, remains.