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The History of American Cinema: 2004

1/1 -

A new California law allowing filmgoers to make citizen's arrests if they see someone in a cinema illegally recording movies comes into force. [ADD]

5/1 -

Figures reveal that box-office admissions declined by 5% in 2003 – the largest fall in a decade – although total revenue only fell by 1.1% to $9.2 billion.   The fall is attributed to a 29% decline in admissions to independent films. [ADD]

7/1 -

Writers Guild of America West President Victoria Riskin resigns following accusations from an independent investigator that she is ineligible to hold office because she hasn’t recently earned enough income as a writer to qualify for active membership in the Guild. [ADD]

9/1 -

A group of animators fired by Disney following the closure of its Florida animation studios last year form Legacy Animation Studios and announce their intention to work from studios in Winter Garden, Florida.   Eddie Pittman is the new company’s Managing Director. [ADD]

13/1 -

A screener of Something's Gotta Give sent to 69-year-old actor and Oscar voter Carmine Caridi turns up on the internet.   Warner Bros also inform the Academy that an Oscar screener of The Last Samurai is also being illegally distributed on the net. [ADD]

15/1 -

Another screener, this one for Cold Mountain, is found on a file-sharing website.   It is also reported that the actual VHS screener of DreamWorks' House of Sand and Fog sent to Academy member Ivan Kruglak was put up for auction on the eBay website. [ADD]

22/1 -

Russell W. Sprague, Sr. is arrested by the FBI for illegally uploading Oscar screeners for The Last Samurai, Mystic River, Calendar Girls, and Something's Gotta Give onto the internet.   Sprague acquired the screeners from veteran actor Carmine Caridi, who alerted the FBI, claiming he was a film buff and only wanted the films for his own use. [ADD]

25/1 -

Shane Carruth's Primer wins the Grand Prize for drama at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, while the Special Jury Prize goes to Rodney Evans for Brother to Brother and Vera Farmiga for Down to the Bone. [ADD]

3/2 -

Carmine Caridi is expelled as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after giving over copies of his Oscar screeners to a friend, Russell Sprague. [ADD]

3/2 -

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces plans to back a $200-million motion-picture museum in Los Angeles. [ADD]

25/2 -

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which tells the story of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus (Jim Caviezel), is released. [ADD]

29/2 -

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins Best Picture at the 76th Annual Academy Awards.   The films wins 11 awards in total, matching record-holders Titanic (1997) and Ben-Hur (1959). [MORE]

19/3 -

Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  is released.   Written by Charlie Kaufman, the film stars Jim Carrey, who decides to have his memories of his ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslet) erased when he discovers she has done the same, only to have second thoughts as he is undergoing the procedure.   Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Wilkinson also star. [ADD]

25/3 -

The Writers Guild of America announces a new election for president is to be held on 20^th September after the departure of Charles Holland following claims he had lied about serving in an elite military intelligence unit and attending college on a sports scholarship.   Holland replaced Victoria Riskin as president in January of this year. [ADD]

7/4 -

Sony Films sells its Culver Studios to a private investment group for $125 million.   The group, which is called Studio City Los Angeles, includes Lehman Brothers, Pacific Coast Capital Partners, and Pacifica Ventures. [ADD]

13/4 -

Russell Sprague pleads guilty to uploading Oscar screeners he received from Carmine Caridi onto the internet.   He faces up to 3 years in jail. [ADD]

10/4 -

Two men, Min Jae Joun and Ruben Centeno Moreno are arrested for illegally recording a film in a cinema after an audience member and a projectionist at a screening of The Passion of the Christ in Los Angeles tip off police.   The arrests are the first under the new law which makes use of a camcorder in a cinema illegal. [ADD]

22/4 -

Daily Variety reports that the majors’ total revenue for 2003 was $41.9 billion.   The large increase is due mainly to the rise in sales of DVDs. [ADD]

14/5 -

Troy, Wolfgang Petersen’s account of the ancient war fought between the Greeks and Trojans is released.   Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, with Orlando Bloom as the Prince of Troy and Diane Kruger the beauty he steals away from Spartan King Menelaus (Brendon Gleeson).   Brian Cox, Eric Bana, Peter O’Toole and Sean Bean also star. [ADD]

19/5 -

DreamWorks release Shrek 2.   Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz reprise their roles as the green ogre and his new wife, and Eddie Murphy also returns as Donkey.   New voices for this sequel include Jennifer Saunders, Rupert Everett, Julie Andrews and John Cleese. [ADD]

28/5 -

Roland Emmerich’s disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow is released.   Dennis Quaid stars as a scientist who searches for his son in a world recently plunged into a visually stunning ice age.   Jake Gyllenhaal also stars. [ADD]

23/6 -

The American Film Institute names ‘Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz (1939) the best movie song off all time.  Numbers two and three respectively were ‘As Time Goes By’ from Casablanca (1942) and the title song from Singin’ in the Rain (1952). [ADD]

25/6 -

Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, an intense examination of the Bush administration from its election in 2000 to the present day, is released. [ADD]

28/6 -

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 earns $23.9 million in its opening weekend to become the first documentary to ever top the US box-office charts and the highest-grossing documentary of all time. [ADD]

30/6 -

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is released.   Tobey Maguire once again stars as the eponymous hero, with Kirsten Dunst reprising her role as Mary Jane.   James Franco, Rosemary Harris and Alfred Molina (as the evil Doc Ock) also star. [ADD]

1/7 -

Marlon Brando dies of pulmonary fibrosis in Los Angeles at the age of 80.   Brando was a two-time Oscar winner and a seven-time nominee during a career that spanned half a century. [ADD]

2/7 -

Before Sunset, Richard Linklater’s belated sequel to his 1995 independent hit, Before Sunrise, is released.   Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy repeat their roles as Jesse and Celine who spent one night together in Vienna in the earlier film and are unexpectedly reunited in Paris nine years later. [ADD]

15/7 -

Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Supremacy, a follow-up to Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity (2002) is released.   Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne who is framed for a botched CIA operation. [ADD]

16/7 -

I, Robot, Alex Proyas' adaptation of Isaac Asimov's robot tales, is released.   Will Smith stars as a cop in 2035 Chicago investigating the apparent suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), the scientist responsible for a new age of robotics technology.   Bruce Greenwood and Bridget Moynahan also star. [ADD]

16/7 -

Joshua Marston’s debut feature, Maria Full of Grace, is released.   Catalina Sandino Moreno stars as a 17-year-old Colombian girl who becomes a drugs mule to earn money for her poverty-stricken family. [ADD]

21/7 -

Film composer Jerry Goldsmith dies of cancer in Beverly Hills at the age of 75.   Goldsmith won the Oscar for his score for the 1976 movie The Omen. [ADD]

28/7 -

Zach Braff's independent film Garden State is released.   Braff also wrote and stars as a bit-part actor who emerges from a drug-induced haze to attend his mother’s funeral in New Jersey.   Ian Holm and Natalie Portman also star. [ADD]

10/8 -

Charlie Lustman, owner of the Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood, cancels a planned screening of D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation following protests from the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP and a group called the National Alliance for Positive Action. [ADD]

23/8 -

Daniel Petrie Sr, director of A Raisin in the Sun, Fort Apache the Bronx, Lifeguard, and Cocoon: The Return and father of Writers Guild of America President Daniel Petrie Jr dies of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 83. [ADD]

27/8 -

Yimou Zhang’s Hero becomes the first foreign-language film to open at No. 1 at the US box-office. [ADD]

2/9 -

The Los Angeles Times reports that Time Warner is offering $4.5 billion in cash for MGM, although majority shareholder Kirk Kerkorian is reportedly demanding a minimum of $5 billion. [ADD]

9/9 -

Animator Frank Thomas – one of Disney's famed "Nine Old Men," – dies in Flintridge, CA at the age of 92.   Thomas worked on Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). [ADD]

13/9 -

Time Warner withdraws its interest in MGM after Sony increases its bid to nearly $5 billion. [ADD]

17/9 -

Kerry Conran’s sci-fi and CGI bonanza Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is released.   Filmed entirely on blue screen, the film’s sets and locations are all computer-generated.   Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Giovanni Ribisi and Angelina Jolie also star. [ADD]

28/9 -

The House of Representatives passes the Family Movies Act of 2004 as part of Bill HR 4077.   The act indemnifies companies who re-edit film to remove ‘offensive’ scenes and dialogue. [ADD]

20/9 -

Dreamworks releases Shark Tale.   The studio’s answer to Pixar’s Finding Nemo features voice characterisations from Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie. [ADD]

3/10 -

Janet Leigh, famed for being one of the victims of Norman Bates’s ‘mum’ in Psycho, dies of complications from a vascular disease in Beverly Hills at the age of 77. [ADD]

10/10 -

Superman star Christopher Reeve dies from a systemic infection arising from a pressure wound (bed sore) at the age of 52.   Reeve had been paralysed for the last nine years of his life following a riding accident on 27^th May 1995. [ADD]

22/10 -

David O. Russell's comedy I Heart Huckabees is released.   Jason Schwartzman stars as an angst-ridden environmentalist who employs two ‘existential detectives’ (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to discover the meaning to his life.   Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, and Isabelle Huppert also star. [ADD] 

22/10 -

Alexander Payne's Sideways is released.   Paul Giamatti stars as miserable teacher and failed writer, Miles, who goes on a ‘stag’ holiday with his friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) to the vineyards of Southern California's Santa Ynez Valley.   Virginia Madsen is the sweet-natured waitress who may (or may not) turn Miles’ life around. [ADD]

29/10 -

Ray, Taylor Hackford's biopic of legendary blind R&B pianist Ray Charles, is released.   Jamie Foxx plays Charles’ music while miming to his voice, while Kerry Washington plays his long-suffering wife, Della Bea.   Margie Hendricks also stars as the backing singer with whom Charles had an affair. [ADD]

5/11 -

Pixar's The Incredibles, written and directed by Brad Bird, is released.   The story takes place in a world in which superheroes are banned, but Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) still has a yearning for the glory days and flies back into action when the psychotic Syndrome (Jason Lee) poses a threat to the world.   Holly Hunter voices Mr Incredible’s wife, Elastigirl, while Spencer Fox and Sarah Vowell play their offspring. [ADD]

12/11 -

Writer-director Bill Condon’s Kinsey, the biopic of pioneering sexual researcher Alfred Kinsey, is released.   Liam Neeson stars as the Indiana University biology professor who opens a whole can of worms when he decides to research whether mating insects have anything in common with humans.   Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton, Lynn Redgrave and William Sadler also star. [ADD]

19/11 -

Jon Turteltaub’s adventure-thriller National Treasure is released.   Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a quirky historian on the trail of treasure hidden by the Knights Templar.   Diane Kruger, Jon Voight and Justin Bartha also star. [ADD]

20/11 -

Wes Anderson 's comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou premieres in Los Angeles.   Bill Murray stars as Zissou, a seafaring adventurer hoping to resurrect his career to hunt the mythological ‘jaguar shark’ that ate his colleague.   Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson also star. [ADD]

24/11 -

Carmine Caridi, the 70-year-old actor and Academy member whose screeners ended up on the internet after he loaned them to a friend, is ordered to pay more than $600,000 in damages and attorney's fees to Columbia and Warner Bros. studios. [ADD]

3/12 -

Mike Nichols' Closer is released to mixed reviews    Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen star. [ADD]

15/12 -

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) broadcasts restored prints of 1927 Best Picture nominee The Racket and winner for Best Comedy Direction Two Arabian Knights.   The films had not been seen since their initial release and were believed lost until prints were found in a collection of Howard Hughes memorabilia at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. [ADD]

15/12 -

Million Dollar Baby, which Clint Eastwood both stars in and directs, is released.   He plays a grouchy boxing coach who reluctantly takes Hilary Swank’s aspiring boxing champion under his wing. [ADD]

24/12 -

Nicole Kassell’s debut feature, The Woodsman, is released.   Kevin Bacon stars as a paroled pedophile who finds life tough on the outside. [ADD]

25/12 -

The Aviator, Martin Scorsese’s lavish biopic of troubled multi-millionaire  movie mogul and aviation engineer Howard Hughes is released.   Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the obsessive-compulsive Hughes who ended up a mentally disturbed hermit.   Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale and Gwen Stefani star. [ADD]

29/12 -

Michael Radford's adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is released. Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes star. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 2004