certificate of english competency - warner bros

7/28/2019 CERTIFICATE OF ENGLISH COMPETENCY - Warner Bros.

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/certificate-of-english-competency-warner-bros 1/36

“Traian” National College

THESIS FOR

CERTIFICATE OF

ENGLISH COMPETENCY

Coordinating teachers: Candidate:

George Popescu Blue Fallen Star

Cătălina Popescu

Grade XII E

Mathematics-Computer Science Bilingual English

May 2013




Forward ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Introduction ………………………………………………………………..…….………..……. 5

Chapter One: History ……………………………………………………………………... 6

Founding …………………………………………………………………………………... 7

Sound, Color, Style …………………………………………………………...... 9

Pre-code realistic period ……………………………………………………. 13 Code era …………………………………………………………………………………. 15

1930: Birth of Warner's cartoons …………………………………… 17

World War II ……………………………………………………………………….. 18

After World War II: changing hands …………………………….. 19

Warner Bros. Television …………………………………………………….. 21

New Owners ………………………………………………………………………….. 22

Since 1995 …………………………………………………………………………….. 24

Chapter Two: Film Library …………………………………………………………... 26

1940s ……………………………………………………………………………………… 27

1970s ………..……………………………………………………………………………. 28

1980s ……………………………………………………………………………………… 29

1990s ……………………………………………………………………………………… 30

2000s …………………………………………………………………………………….. 32 2010s ……………………………………………………………………………………… 34

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………. 36

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 37




We live in an era in which movies have the power. Asking our partner out fora date, our siblings for a fun night or our friends for their birthdays. Where?At the cinema, of course. Or maybe renting a Blu-ray or a DVD. It really doesn’tmatter. We’d be doing the same thing. Watching a movie.

Everybody – a movie amateur or not – has definitely watched, or at leastheard of, movies such as Casablanca, Goodfellas, The Matrix or SlumdogMillionaire. These are masterpieces in the industry of film – made by one greatcompany – Warner Bros.

I have always been a movie lover. Movies like Training Day, Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves, Million Dollar Baby or Constantine remind me of my childhood.My adolescence was shared with The Departed, Inception, Blood Diamond, GranTorino… and many many others. I kept watching… haven’t ever stopped.

Movies have had a slight impact on my life, on the way I see things, I seethis world. Maybe someday I’ll become a movie director or a script writer. Butuntil then, I chose to write this paper about the company behind my favouritemovies.




Warner Bros. Entertainment,

Inc., also known as Warner Bros.

Pictures or simply Warner Bros isone of the major film studios in theworld, a producer of film, television,and music entertainment. Itsheadquarters are located in

Burbank, California and in NewYork.

When we were children, wewere watching cartoons. Tom and

Jerry or Looney Tunes , forexample. And what were we lookingat all the time when those series

started or ended? It’s simple. A logo. The Warner Bros. logo! Afterwards, we advanced. We started watching movies. Good movies. Old or

new movies. The same logo has always been there. WB. Does it seem familiar?Yes! It’s the signature of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, moviecompany that has ever existed.

Its history goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century. At first, asmall business run by the smart Warner brothers, it has become in time aworldly affair. It’s not all about the money; it’s about the passion of creating, ofmaking, of producing films. Of entertaining people.

Innovative, imaginative, inventive, the people behind the company havemanaged across the time to bring changes, to leave a mark in the movie industry.The first all-talking movie, the first all-color-all-talking movie. The end of silentera. The end of black-and-white era. The beginning of a new era.

Today, the company produces and distributes 18-22 movies a year as well asa number of primetime television series (Fringe, Person of Interest ). Argo , this year’s Academy Award winner, is one of the movies made by Warner Bros. in2012. Drama, fantasy, romance, action, thriller, music, horror, crime, sci-fi… 2 Dor 3D… diversity is encouraged, quality is required, results are inevitable.




1903–25

The corporate name honors the four founding Warner brothers (bornWonskolaser) —Harry (born Hirsz), Albert (born Aaron), Sam (born Szmul), andJack (Itzhak or to some sources Jacob). Harry, Albert, Sam and their Jewishparents emigrated to North America from the part of Poland that had beensubjugated to the Russian Empire following the 18th-century partitions of thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth near present-day Ostrołęka, Poland. Jack, the

youngest, was born in Canada. The three elder brothers began in the movietheatre business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed

films in the mining towns ofPennsylvania and Ohio. Theyopened their first theater, theCascade, in New Castle,Pennsylvania in 1903. (The siteof the Cascade later becamethe Cascade Center, a shopping,dining and entertainmentcomplex honoring its WarnerBros. heritage, though in late2010 all of the businesses haveclosed and the complex iscurrently for sale.) When thisoriginal theatre building in New

Castle was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called themodern building owners, and arranged a 3 way in hopes of saving it, between

three men, Warner Bros, and the modern owners. The owners noted the factthat they were taking phone calls from all over the country in reference to thehistorical significance of the humble building that should be saved historically.

In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement &Supply Company, to distribute films. In 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditornamed Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producingfilms, and in 1918 the brothers opened the Warner Bros. studio on SunsetBoulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, whileHarry and Albert Warner and their auditor and now controller Chase handled

finance and distribution in New York City. It was during World War I and their




first nationally syndicated film was My Four Years in Germany based on apopular book by former American Ambassador James W. Gerard. On April 4,1923, with help from a loan given to Harry Warner by his banker Motley Flint,they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated.

However, as late as the 1960s, Warner Bros. claimed 1905 as its founding date.The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights to

Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, from theatricalimpresario David Belasco. However, what really put Warner Bros. on theHollywood map was a dog, Rin Tin Tin, brought from France after World War Iby an American soldier. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North

Begins . The movie was so successful that Jack Warner agreed to sign the dog tostar in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became

the top star at the studio. Jack Warner nicknamed

him "The Mortgage Lifter" and the successboosted Darryl F. Zanuck's career. Zanuckeventually became a top producer for the studioand between 1928 and 1933 served as JackWarner's right-hand man and executive producer,

with responsibilities including the day-to-dayproduction of films. More success came after Ernst

Lubitsch was hired as head director. Lubitsch's filmThe Marriage Circle was the studio's most successful film of 1924, and was on

The New York Times best list for the year.Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners was still unable to

achieve star power. As a result, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actorJohn Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel . The film was so successful thatHarry Warner agreed to sign Barrymore to a generous long-term contract; likeThe Marriage Circle, Beau Brummell was named one of the ten best films of the year by The New York Times. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguablythe most successful independent studio in Hollywood, but it still competed with"The Big Three" Studios (First National, Paramount Pictures, and MGM). As a

result, Harry Warner – while speaking at a convention of 1,500 independentexhibitors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – was able to convince the filmmakers tospend $500,000 in newspaper advertising, and Harry saw this as an opportunityto finally be able to establish theaters in big cities like New York and LosAngeles.

As the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan. With this new money, the Warnersbought the pioneer Vitagraph Company which had a nation-wide distributionsystem.

.




1925–35Warner Bros. was a pioneer of films with synchronized sound (then known as

"talking pictures" or "talkies"). In 1925, at the urging of Sam, the Warnersagreed to expand their operations by adding this feature to their productions.Harry, however, opposed it, famously wondering, "Who the heck wants to hearactors talk?" By February 1926, the studio suffered a reported net loss of$333,413.

After a long period of denying Sam's request for sound, Harry agreed to

accept Sam's demands, as long as the studio's use of synchronized sound wasfor background music purposes only. The Warners signed a contract with the

sound engineer company Western Electric andestablished Vitaphone. In 1926, Vitaphone beganmaking films with music and effects tracks, mostnotably, in the feature Don Juan starring JohnBarrymore. The film was silent, but it featured alarge number of Vitaphone shorts at the beginning.To hype Don Juan's release, Harry acquired the

large Piccadilly Theater in Manhattan, New Yorkand renamed it the Warner Theater.

Don Juan premiered at the Warner Theater inNew York on August 6, 1926. Throughout the early

history of film distribution, theater owners hired orchestras to attend filmshowings and provide soundtracks. Through Vitaphone, Warner Bros. producedeight Vitaphone shorts (which aired at the beginning of every showing of DonJuan across the country) in 1926, and got many film production companies toquestion the necessity. While Don Juan was a success at the box office, it did

not recoup its production cost and Lubitsch left Warner for MGM. By April1927, the Big Five studios (First National, Paramount, MGM, Universal, andProducers Distributing) had put the Warner brothers in financial ruin, andWestern Electric renewed Warner's Vitaphone contract with terms thatallowed other film companies to test sound.

As a result of the financial problems the studio was having, Warner Bros.took the next step and released The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. This movie,which has very little sound dialogue but does feature sound segments of Jolsonsinging, was a sensation. It signaled the beginning of the era of "talking




pictures" and the twilight of the silent era. However, as Sam died, the brotherswere at his funeral and could not attend the premiere. Jack became sole headof production. Sam's death also had a great effect on Jack's emotional state,as Sam was arguably Jack's inspiration and favorite brother. In the years to

come, Jack ran the studio with an iron fist. Firing of studio employees soonbecame his trademark.

Thanks to the success of The Jazz Singer, the studio was cash-rich.Jolson's next film for the company, The Singing Fool was also a success. Withthe success of these first talkies (The Jazz Singer, Lights of New York, TheSinging Fool, and The Terror), Warner Bros. became one of the top studios inHollywood and the brothers were now able to move out from the Poverty Rowsection of Hollywood and acquire a big studio in Burbank, California. They werealso able to expand studio operations by acquiring the Stanley Corporation, a

major theater chain. This gave them a share in rival First National Pictures, ofwhich Stanley owned one-third. In a bidding war with William Fox, Warner Bros.bought more First National shares on September 13, 1928; Jack Warner alsoappointed producer Darryl Zanuck as the studio's manager of First NationalPictures.

In 1929, Warner Bros bought the St. Louis-based theater chain SkourasBrothers. Following this take-over, Spyros Skouras, the driving force of thechain, became general manager of the Warner Brothers Theater Circuit inAmerica. He worked successfully in that post for two years and managed to

eliminate the losses and eventually increase profits.Harry Warner was able to acquire a string of music publishers and form

Warner Bros. Music. In April 1930, the Warner Bros. acquired BrunswickRecords. Harry obtained a string of radio companies, foreign sound patents, anda lithograph company. After establishing Warner Bros. Music, Harry appointedhis son, Lewis, to serve as the company's head manager.

In 1929, Harry produced an adaptation of a Cole Porter musical titled Fifty

Million Frenchmen . Through First National, the studio's profit increasedsubstantially. After the success of the studio's 1929 First National film Noah's

Ark , Harry agreed to make Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbankstudio. Mort Blumenstock, a First National screenwriter, became a top writer atthe brothers' New York headquarters.

In the third quarter of 1929, Warner Bros. gained complete control of FirstNational, when Harry purchased the company's remaining one-third share fromFox. The Justice Department agreed to allow the purchase if First National wasmaintained as a separate company. When the Great Depression hit, Warner

asked for and got permission to merge the twostudios. Soon afterward Warner Bros. moved to the




First National lot in Burbank. Though the companies merged, the JusticeDepartment required Warner to produce and release a few films each yearunder the First National name until 1938. For 30 years, certain Warnerproductions were identified (mainly for tax purposes) as 'A Warner Bros. – First

National Picture.'In the latter part of 1929, Jack Warner hired George Arliss to star in

Disraeli , which was a success. Arliss won an Academy Award for Best Actor andwent on to star in nine more movies with the studio. In 1930, Harry acquiredmore theaters in Atlantic City, despite the beginning of the Great Depression.

By 1931 the studio began to feel the effects of the Depression as the publicbecame unable to afford the price of a movie ticket. In 1931, the studioreportedly suffered a net loss of $8 million, and an additional $14 million thefollowing year.

Around that time, Warner Bros. head producer Darryl Zanuck hiredscreenwriter Wilson Mizner. While at the studio, Mizner had hardly any respectfor authority and found it difficult to work with studio boss Jack Warner, butbecame a valuable asset.

In 1928, Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking

feature . Due to its success, the movie industry converted entirely to soundalmost overnight. By the end of 1929, all the major studios were exclusivelymaking sound films. In 1929, National Pictures released their first film withWarner Bros., Noah's Ark. Despite its expensive budget, Noah's Ark was

profitable. In 1929, Warner Bros. released On with the Show , the first all-colorall-talking feature. This was followed by Gold Diggers of Broadway which was sopopular it played in theatres until 1939. The success of these two color picturescaused a color revolution (just as the first all-talkie had created one fortalkies). Warner Bros. released a large number of color films from 1929 to 1931,including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930), Golden

Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), Song of the Flame (1930), Song of the

West (1930), The Life of the Party (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A

Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931),

Woman Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), andManhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features werereleased with Technicolor sequences, as well as numerous short subjects. Themajority of these color films were musicals.

Three years later, audiences had grown tired of musicals, and the studio wasforced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertisethem as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals withcolor, and thus the studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had acontract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a




result, the first horror films in color were produced and released by the studio:Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. Thestudio focused on making 'quota quickies' for the domestic British market and

Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, HarryWarner officially purchased the Teddington Studios.

In February 1933 Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street , a very successfulmusical that saved the company from bankruptcy.

In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced profitable musicals.These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by BusbyBerkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley wasarrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year,people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio – after the hugeprofits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood – shifted its focus on producingErrol Flynn swashbucklers.




1931–1935

With the collapse of the market for musicals, Warner Bros., underproduction head Darryl F. Zanuck, turned to more socially realistic storylines,"torn from the headlines" pictures many in the media said glorified gangsters;Warner Bros. soon became known as a "gangster studio". The studio's firstgangster film, Little Caesar , was a great box office success and Edward G.Robinson was a star in many of the subsequent wave of Warner gangster films.The studio's next gangster film, The Public Enemy , made James Cagney arguably

the studio's new top star, and Warner Bros. was nowconvinced to make more gangster films.

Another gangster film the studio produced wasthe critically acclaimed I Am a Fugitive from a

Chain Gang , based on a true story and starring PaulMuni. In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni wasalso given a big push as one the studio's topgangster stars after appearing in the successfulfilm, which got audiences to question the legalsystem in the United States. In January 1933,Georgia chain gang warden J. Harold Hardy – whowas also made into a character in the film – sued

the studio for displaying "vicious, untrue and false attacks" against him in thefilm. After appearing in the film The Man Who Played God , Bette Davis becamea top star for the studio.

In 1933, relief for the studio came after Franklin D. Roosevelt becamepresident and was able to stimulate the economy with the New Deal; because ofthis economic rebound, Warner Bros. again became profitable. The same year,longtime head producer Darryl F. Zanuck resigned and established his owncompany. In the wake of Zanuck's resignation, Harry Warner agreed to againraise the salary for studio employees.

In 1933, Warner was able to bring newspaper tycoon William RandolphHearst's Cosmopolitan films into the Warner Bros. fold. Hearst had previouslybeen signed with MGM, but ended the association after a dispute with thecompany's head producer Irving Thalberg.

In 1934, the studio lost over $2.5 million, of which $500,000 was the result

of a fire at the Burbank studio at the end of 1934, destroying 20 years worth




of early Vitagraph, Warner Bros., and First National films. The following year,Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) failed at the box office and the studio's net loss increased. During thistime, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six other movie studio figures

were indicted of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, through anattempt to gain a monopoly over theaters in the St Louis area. In 1935, Harrywas put on trial; after a mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theaters, atleast for a short time, and the case was never reopened. 1935 also saw thestudio rebound with a net profit of $674,158.00.

By 1936, contracts of musical and silent stars were not renewed and newtalent, tough-talking, working-class types, were hired who more suitably fit inwith these sort of pictures. Stars such as Dorothy Mackaill, Bebe Daniels, FrankFay, Winnie Lightner, Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Alice White, and Jack

Mulhall that had characterized the urban, modern, and sophisticated attitude ofthe 1920s gave way to stars such James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Edward G.Robinson, Warren William, and Barbara Stanwyck who would be more acceptableto the common man. The studio was one of the most prolific producers of Pre-Code pictures and had a lot of trouble with the censors once they startedclamping down on what they considered indecency (around 1934). As a result,Warner Bros. turned out a number of historical pictures from around 1935 inorder to avoid confrontations with the Breen office. In 1936, following the

success of The Petrified Forest , Jack

Warner also signed Humphrey Bogart toa studio contract. Warner, however, didnot think Bogart was star material, anddecided to only cast Bogart in infrequentroles as a villain opposite either JamesCagney or Edward Robinson over thenext five years.

After Hal B. Wallis succeeded Zanuckin 1933 and the Hays Code began to be

enforced in 1935, the studio was forcedto abandon this realistic approach in

order to produce more moralistic, idealized pictures. The studio naturallyturned to historical dramas which would not cause any problems with thecensors. Other offerings included melodramas (or "women's pictures"),swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with stars like Bette Davis,Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn.




This period also saw the disappearance of a large number of actors andactresses who had characterized the realistic pre-Code era but who were notsuited to the new trend into moral and idealized pictures. Warner Bros.remained a top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but this changedafter 1935 as other studios, notably MGM, quickly overshadowed the prestigeand glamor that previously characterized Warner Bros. However, in the late1930s, Bette Davis became the studio's top draw and was even dubbed as "TheFifth Warner Brother."

In 1935, Cagney sued Jack Warner for breach of contract. Cagney claimedWarner had forced him to star in more films than his contract required. Cagneyeventually dropped his lawsuit after a cash settlement. Nevertheless, Cagneyleft the studio to establish an independent film company with his brother Bill.The Cagneys released their films though Grand National Films, however theywere not able to get good financing for their productions[cph 34] and ran out ofmoney after their third film. Cagney then agreed to return to Warner Bros.,after Jack Warner agreed to a contract guaranteeing Cagney would be treatedto his own terms. After the success of Yankee Doodle Dandy at the box office,

Cagney again questioned if the studio would meet his salary demand and againquit to form his own film production and distribution company with his brother.

Another employee with whom Warner had troubles was studio producerBryan Foy. In 1936, Wallis hired Foy as a producer for the studio's low budgetB-films leading to his nickname "the keeper of the B's". Foy was able to garnisharguably more profits than any other B-film producer at the time. During Foy's

time at the studio, however, Warner fired him sevendifferent times. During 1936, the studio's film The

Story of Louis Pasteur proved a box office success andPaul Muni, the film's star, won the Oscar for Best Actorin March 1937. The studio's 1937 film The Life of

Emile Zola gave the studio its first Best PictureOscar.

In 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radioannouncer Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-filmactor, Warner Bros. was impressed by his performance in the final scene ofKnute Rockne

,All American

, and agreed to pair him with Errol Flynn in their film




Santa Fe Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films. After his performancein the studio's 1942 Kings Row , Warner decided to make Reagan a top star andsigned him to a new contract, tripling his salary.

In 1936, Harry Warner's daughter Doris read a copy of Margaret Mitchell's

Gone with the Wind and was interested in making a film adaptation. Doris thenoffered Mitchell $50,000 for the book's screen rights. Jack, however, refusedto allow the deal to take place, realizing it would be an expensive production.

Another studio actor who proved to be a problem for Jack Warner wasGeorge Raft. Warner had signed Raft in 1939, hoping he could substitute ingangster pictures when either Robinson or Cagney were on suspension. Raft haddifficulty working with Bogart and refused to co-star in any film with him.Eventually, Jack Warner agreed to release Raft from his contract. FollowingRaft's departure, the studio gave Bogart the role of Roy Earl in the 1941 film

High Sierra , which helped establish him as one of the studio's top stars;following High Sierra, Bogart was also given a role in John Huston's successful1941 remake of the studio's 1931 failure, The Maltese Falcon .




Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman and Isingstudio. From 1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh Harman and Rudolf Isingproduced a series of musical cartoons for Leon Schlesinger, who sold the shortsto Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their character Bosko in the firstLooney Tunes cartoon, Sinkin' in the Bathtub , and created a sister series,Merrie Melodies , in 1931.

Harman and Ising broke away from Schlesinger in 1933, taking Bosko withthem to MGM. As a result, Schlesinger started his own studio, Leon Schlesinger

Productions, which continued with Merrie Melodies while starting production onLooney Tunes starring Buddy, a Bosko clone. By the end of the decade, a newSchlesinger production team was formed that developed a fast-paced,irreverent style that made their cartoons immensely popular worldwide.

In 1936, Avery directed a string of cartoons, starring Porky Pig, whichestablished the character as the studio's first bona fide star. In addition toPorky Pig, Warner Bros. cartoon characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny alsoachieved star power. By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed WaltDisney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the

United States.Warner Bros eventually bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944 as a

division, renamed it as Warner Bros. Cartoons. Unfortunately, the unit wasindifferently treated by senior management, beginning with the installation ofEdward Selzer as senior producer, whom the creative staff considered aninterfering incompetent. Furthermore, Jack Warner, who had little regard forhis company's short film product sold off the unit's pre-1948 library for a mere$3000 each, which proved a short sighted transaction in light of theconsiderable long term value that the company's animation product proved to

have.Warner Brothers Cartoons continued, with intermittent interruptions, until

1969 when it was dissolved when the parent company ceased film shortproduction entirely. Regardless of this treatment, its characters such as BugsBunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, and Porky Pig became central to thecompany's image in subsequent decades. In fact, it was the success of thecompilation film, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie in 1980, featuring thearchived film of these characters that prompted Warner Brothers to organizeWarner Brothers Animation as a new production division to restart production

of original material.




According to Jack Warner in his autobiography, prior to the United Statesentering World War II, the head of Warner Bros. sales in Germany, PhilipKauffman, was murdered by the Nazis in Berlin in 1936. Harry Warner producedthe successful anti-German film The Life of Emile Zola (1937). After that,Harry supervised the production of several more anti-German films, includingConfessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), which made King PhillipII an equivalent of Hitler, Sergeant York , and You're In The Army Now (1941).After the United States officially entered World War II, Harry Warner

decided to focus on producing war films. Also, one-fourth of the studio'semployees, including Jack Warner and his son Jack Jr., were drafted orenlisted.

Red Cross collected 5,200 pints of plasma from studio employees, and 763 ofthe studio's employees served in the armed forces, including Harry Warner'sson-in-law Milton Sperling and Jack's son Jack Warner Jr. Following a disputeover ownership of Casablanca's Oscar for Best Picture, head producer Hal B.Wallis broke with Warner and resigned. After Casablanca made Bogart one ofthe studio's top stars, Bogart found his relationship with Jack Warnerdeteriorating. In 1943, Olivia de Haviland (whom Warner was now loaning todifferent companies) sued Warner for breach of contract.




The record attendance figures of the World War II years made the Warnerbrothers rich. The gritty Warner image of the 1930s gave way to a glossierlook, especially in women's pictures starring Davis, de Havilland, and Crawford.The 1940s also saw the rise of Bogart. In the post-war years, Warner Bros.continued to create new stars, like Lauren Bacall and Doris Day. The studioprospered greatly after the war. By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 aweek and net profit $19.4 million.

One problem for Warner Bros., however, was Jack Warner's refusal to meetScreen Actors Guild salary demands. In September 1946, the employeesengaged in a month-long strike. By the end of 1947, the studio reached a recordnet profit of $22 million. This dropped 50% the following year.

In 1948, Bette Davis, still the studio's top actress and now fed up with JackWarner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her colleaguesleft the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest .

Warner was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case of the 1940s. This action, brought by the Justice Department and

the Federal Trade Commission, claimed the five integrated studio-theater chaincombinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in1948, and ruled in favor of the government. As a result, Warner and four othermajor studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In 1949, thestudio's net profit was only $10 million.

In the early 1950s, the threat of television had grown greatly, and in 1953,Jack Warner decided to take a new approach to compete with the rising threat.

In the wake of United Artists successful 3D filmBwana Devil , he decided to expand into 3D films

with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax .Unfortunately, despite the success of House ofWax, 3D films soon lost their appeal amongmoviegoers.

In 1952, Warner Bros. made their first film(Carson City) in "Warnercolor", the studio's namefor Eastmancolor.

3D almost caused the demise of the WarnerBros. cartoon studio. Having completed a 3D Bugs Bunny

cartoon, Lumber Jack-Rabbit , Jack Warner ordered the animation unit to be




shut down, erroneously believing that all cartoons hence would be produced inthe 3D process. Several months later, Warner relented and reopened thecartoon studio. Fortunately, Warner Bros. had enough of a backlog of cartoonsand a healthy reissue program so that there was no noticeable interruption in

the release schedule.After the downfall of 3D films, Harry

Warner decided to use CinemaScope infuture Warner Bros. films. One of thestudio's first CinemaScope films, The High

and the Mighty enabled the studio to show aprofit.

Early in 1953, the Warner theaterholdings were spun off as Stanley Warner

Theaters; Stanley Warner's non-theaterholdings were sold to Simon FabianEnterprises, and its theaters merged withRKO Theatres to become RKO-Stanley Warner Theatres. By 1956, however, thestudio was losing money. By the end of 1953, the studio's net profit was $2.9million and ranged between $2 and $4 million for the next two years. InFebruary 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of the studio's pre-1950films to Associated Artists Productions (which merged with United ArtistsTelevision in 1958).

In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on themarket. Jack, however, secretly organized a syndicate – headed by Bostonbanker Serge Semenenko – to purchase 800,000 shares, 90% of the company'sstock. After the three brothers sold, Jack – through his under-the-table deal – joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, 200,000 shares.Shortly after the deal was completed in July, Jack – now the company's largeststockholder – appointed himself new president. By the time Harry and Albertlearned of their brother's dealings, it was too late. Shortly after the deal wasclosed, Jack Warner announced the company and its subsidiaries would be

"directed more vigorously to the acquisition of the most important storyproperties, talents, and to the production of the finest motion picturespossible."




By 1949, with the success of television threatening the film industry moreand more, Harry Warner decided to shift his focus towards televisionproduction. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would notpermit it. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bossesto switch their focus to television, Harry abandoned his television efforts.

Jack began his hatred of television with problems with Milton Berle beinghired by the studio to make an unsuccessful film Always Leave Them Laughing

during the peak of his television popularity. Warner felt that Berle was notstrong enough as a lead to carry a film and that people would not pay to see theman they could see on television for free. However Jack Warner was pressuredinto using Berle, even replacing Danny Kaye with him. Berle's outrageousbehaviour on the set and the film's massive failure led to Jack Warnerforbidding television sets appearing in the studio's film sets.

On March 21, 1955, the studio was finallyable engage in television through thesuccessful Warner Bros. Television unit run by

William T. Orr, Jack Warner's son-in-law.Warner Bros. Television provided the ABCwith a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents ;the show featured a rotating series of showsbased on three of the studio's filmsuccesses, Kings Row, Casablanca andCheyenne , followed by a promotion for one ofWarner's big screen films. It was not a

success. The studio's next effort would be making a weekly series out of

Cheyenne. Cheyenne was television's first one hour Western, with two episodesplaced together for feature film release outside the United States. In thetradition of their B pictures, the studio followed up with a series of rapidlyproduced popular Westerns, such as writer/producer Roy Huggins' criticallylauded Maverick as well as Sugarfoot, Bronco, Lawman, The Alaskans and Colt .The success of these series helped to make up for the losses on the film side.As a result, Jack Warner decided to emphasize television production. Warnersthen produced a series of popular private detective shows beginning with 77

Sunset Strip (1958–64) followed by Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963), Bourbon Street

Beat (1960) and Surfside Six (1960–1962).




Warner Bros. rebounded in the late 1950s, specializing in adaptations ofpopular plays like The Bad Seed (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), andGypsy (1962).

With his health slowly recovering from a car accident whilst on holiday toFrance in 1958, Jack returned to the studio and made sure his name wasfeatured in studio press releases. In each of the first three years of the1960s, the studio's net profit was a little over $7 million. Warner paid anunprecedented $5.5 million for the film rights to the Broadway musical My Fair

Lady in February 1962. In 1963, the net profit dropped to $3.7 million. By the

mid-1960s, motion picture production was in decline. There were few studio-produced films and many more co-productions (for which Warner providedfacilities, money, and distribution), and pickups of independently made pictures.

With the success of the studio's 1965 Broadway play The Great Race , as wellas its soundtrack, Warner Bros. Records became a profitable subsidiary. Thestudio's 1966 film Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Was a huge success at thebox office.

In November 1966, Jack gave into advancing age and the changing

times, selling control of the studioand its music business to Seven ArtsProductions, run by the Canadianinvestors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman,for $32 million. The company,including the studio, was renamedWarner Bros.-Seven Arts. JackWarner did, however, remain studiopresident until the summer of 1967,when Camelot failed at the boxoffice and Warner gave up hisposition to the studio's longtimepublicity director, Ben Kalmenson;Warner did, however, remain on

board as an independent producer and vice-president. With the success of thestudio's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde , Warner Bros was making profits once again.

Two years later, the Hymans, now fed up with Jack Warner, accepted acash-and-stock offer from an odd conglomerate called Kinney National Company




for more than $64 million. Kinney owned a Hollywood talent agency, Ashley-Famous, and it was Ted Ashley who led Kinney head Steve Ross to purchaseWarner Bros. Ashley became the new head of the studio, and the name waschanged to Warner Bros., Inc. once again. Jack Warner, however, was outraged

by the Hymans' sale, and decided to retire.Although movie audiences had shrunk, Warner's new management believed in

the drawing power of stars, signing co-production deals with several of thebiggest names of the day, among them Paul Newman, Robert Redford, BarbraStreisand, and Clint Eastwood, carrying the studio successfully through the1970s and 1980s. Warner Bros. also made major profits on films built aroundthe characters of Superman and Batman, owned by Warner Bros. subsidiary DCComics.

From 1971 until the end of 1987, Warner's international distribution

operations were a joint venture with Columbia Pictures, and in some countries,this joint venture also distributed films from other companies (like EMI Filmsand Cannon Films in the UK). Warner ended the venture in 1988 and joined upwith Walt Disney Pictures; this joint venture lasted until 1993, when Disneycreated Buena Vista International.

In 1972 in a cost-cutting move, Warner and Columbia Pictures formed apartnership called The Burbank Studios in which they would share productionfacilities utilitizing the Warner lot in Burbank. The partnership ended in 1990when Columbia moved into the former MGM studio lot in Culver City.

To the surprise of many, flashy, star-driven Warner Communications mergedin 1989 with the white-shoe publishing company Time Inc. Though Time and itsmagazines claimed a higher tone, it was the Warner Bros. film and music unitswhich provided the profits. The Time Warner merger was almost derailed whenParamount Communications launched a $12.2 billion dollar hostile takeover bidfor Time Inc., forcing Time to acquire Warner for $14.9 billion dollarcash/stock offer. Paramount responded with a lawsuit filed in Delaware court tobreak up the merger. Paramount lost and the merger proceeded.

In 1992, the division Warner Bros. Family Entertainment was established to

produce various family-oriented films.In 1997, Time Warner sold the Six Flags unit. The takeover of Time Warner

in 2000 by then-high-flying AOL did not prove a good match, and following thecollapse in "dot-com" stocks, the AOL name was banished from the corporatenameplate.




In 1995, Warner and station owner Tribune Company of Chicago launchedThe WB Network, finding a niche market in teenagers. The WB's earlyprogramming included an abundance of teenage fare like Buffy the Vampire

Slayer, Smallville, Dawson's Creek , and One Tree Hill . Two dramas produced bySpelling Television, 7th Heaven and Charmed also helped bring The WB into thespotlight, with "Charmed" lasting eight seasons and being the longest runningdrama with female leads and "7th Heaven" surviving eleven seasons and beingthe longest running family drama and longest running show for The WB. In

2006, Warner and CBS Paramount Television decided to close The WB andCBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television Network. In 1999, TerrySemels and Robert Daly resigned as heads of the studio after a career of 13Oscar nominated films. Many of Warner's top stars were considering quittingbecause of their absence. Daly and Semels were said to popularize the modernmodel of partner financing and profit sharing for film production.

In the late 1990s, Warner obtained rights to the Harry Potter novels, andreleased feature film adaptations of the first in 2001, the second in 2002, the

third in June 2004, the fourth in

November 2005, and the fifth on July11, 2007. The sixth was slated for

November 2008, but Warner movedit to July 2009 only three monthsbefore the movie was supposed tocome out, citing the lack of summer

blockbusters in 2009 (due to theWriter's Strike) as the reason. The

decision was purely financial, and Alan Hornsaid, "There were no delays. I’ve seen the

movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able tohave it out in November.” This resulted in a massive fan backlash. The seventhand final adaptation was released in two parts: Part 1 in November 2010 andPart 2 in July 2011.

Warner Bros. played a large part in the discontinuation of the HD DVDformat. On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announced that they would dropsupport of HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc. HD DVDs would continue to be

released through May 2008 (when their contract with the HD DVD promotion




group expired), but only following Blu-ray and DVD releases. This started achain of events which resulted in HD DVD development and production beinghalted by Toshiba on February 16, 2008, ending the format war.

In 2009, Warner Bros. became the first studio in history to gross more than

$2 billion domestically in a single year.Warner Bros. is responsible for the Harry Potter film series, the highest

grossing film series of all time, both domestic and international without inflationadjustment. It is also responsible for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as Warner Bros.' highest grossing movie ever (the former was The DarkKnight).

IMAX Corp. has finalized a pact with Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros.Pictures unit to release as many as 20 giant-format films through 2013.

Since 2006, Warner Bros operated a joint venture with China Film Group

Corporation and HG to form Warner China Film HG to produce films in HongKong and China, including Connected, which is a remake of the 2004 thriller filmCellular , they have co-produced many other Chinese films as well.

•A panoramic view over today'sstudio premises.




Bogart and Bergman

Casablanca(1942)

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by MichaelCurtiz and based on the unpublished stage play Everybody Comes to Rick's byMurray Burnett and Joan Alison. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, IngridBergman, and Paul Henreid. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn

between, in the words of onecharacter, love and virtue.

Initially, Casablanca

received "consistently goodreviews". Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times wrote,"The Warners... have a picturewhich makes the spine tingleand the heart take a leap." Thenewspaper applauded thecombination of "sentiment,humor and pathos with taut

melodrama and bristling intrigue".Over the years, the film has grown in popularity. Murray Burnett called it

"true yesterday, true today, true tomorrow". According to Roger Ebert,Casablanca is "probably on more lists of the greatest films of all time than anyother single title, including Citizen Kane" because of its wider appeal. Ebert saidthat he has never heard of a negative review of the film, even though individualelements can be criticized, citing unrealistic special effects and the stiffcharacter/portrayal of Laszlo.

Rick's toast to Ilsa, "Here's looking at you, kid ", used several times, is not in

the draft screenplays, but has beenattributed to something Bogart said toBergman as he taught her poker betweentakes. It was voted the 5th most memorableline in cinema in AFI's 100 Years…100 MovieQuotes by the American Film Institute.




A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange, starring Malcolm McDowell, is a 1971 film written,directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, adapted from Anthony Burgess'1962 short novel A Clockwork Orange. It features disturbing, violent images,facilitating its social commentary on psychiatry, youth gangs, and other social,political, and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain.

Despite the film's controversialnature, A Clockwork Orange was a hit

with American audiences, grossing morethan $26 million on a conservativebudget of $2.2 million, and was criticallywell received and nominated for severalawards, including the Academy Awardfor Best Picture. In 2008, the AFI's 10Top 10 rated A Clockwork Orange as the

4th greatest science-fiction movie to date.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist is a 1973 horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted byWilliam Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name. Inspired by the1949 exorcism case of Roland Doe, it deals with the demonic possession of a

young girl and her mother's desperateattempts to win back her daughterthrough an exorcism conducted by twopriests. The film features Ellen Burstyn,Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee J. Cobb,Linda Blair, and (in voice only) MercedesMcCambridge.

The film has had a significant influenceon popular culture. It was named thescariest film of all time by Entertainment

Weekly and Movies.com and by viewers ofAMC in 2006, and was No. 3 on Bravo'sThe 100 Scariest Movie Moments.




GoodfellasGoodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a

film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, whoco-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. The film follows the rise and fall ofLucchese crime family associates Henry Hill and his friends over a period from1955 to 1980.

To prepare for their roles in the film, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and RayLiotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from

writing the book. According toPesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsalswhere Scorsese gave the actorsfreedom to do whatever theywanted.

Goodfellas performed well atthe box office, grossing $46.8million domestically, well above

its $25 million budget. It alsoreceived overwhelmingly positivereviews from critics. The filmwas nominated for six Academy

Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.The film was named Best Film of the year by various film critics groups.

Goodfellas is often considered one of the greatest films ever, both in the crimegenre and in general, and was deemed "culturally significant" and selected forpreservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of

Congress.

Contact

Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from theCarl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Jodie Foster portrays the film's protagonist, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, aSETI scientist who finds strong evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen

to make first contact.




The film was released on July 11, 1997,to mostly positive reviews and grossedapproximately $171 million in worldwidebox office totals. Internet reviewer

James Berardinelli called Contact "one of1997's finest motion pictures, and is aforceful reminder that Hollywood is stillcapable of making magic."

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 American–Australian science fiction action film writtenand directed by The Wachowski Brothers and starring Keanu Reeves, LaurenceFishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving. It depicts adystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually asimulated reality or cyberspace called "the Matrix", created by sentientmachines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heatand electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer"Neo" learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, whichinvolves other people who have been freed from the "dream world".

The Matrix was first released in the United States on March 31, 1999, andgrossed over $460 million worldwide. It was generally well-received by critics,and won four Academy Awards as well as other accolades including BAFTAAwards and Saturn Awards. Reviewers praised The Matrix for its innovativevisual effects, cinematography and its entertainment.

The film has since appeared in lists of the greatest science fiction films, andin 2012, was added to the National Film Registry for preservation. The successof the film led to the release of two feature film sequels, both written anddirected by the Wachowskis, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions .The Matrix franchise was further expanded through the production of comicbooks, video games, and animated short films in which the Wachowskis were

heavily involved.




V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a 2005 action thriller film directed by James McTeigue

and written by The Wachowski Brothers, based on the 1982 comic book of the

same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Set in London in a near-future

dystopian society, Hugo Weaving portrays V — a bold, charismatic freedom

fighter, attempting to ignite a revolution against the brutal fascist regime led

by Adam Sutler (John Hurt) that has subjugated his country. Natalie Portman

plays Evey, a working-class girl caught upin V's mission and Stephen Rea portrays

the detective leading a desperate quest

to stop V.

The film had been seen by manypolitical groups as an allegory ofoppression by government; libertariansand anarchists have used it to promote

their beliefs.The critical reception of the film was

generally positive. Roger Ebert stated that V for Vendetta "almost always hassomething going on that is actually interesting, inviting us to decode thecharacter and plot and apply the message where we will".

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle,written by Simon Beaufoy. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) byIndian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Set and filmed in India, the film tellsthe story of Jamal Malik, a young manfrom the Juhu slums of Mumbai whoappears on the Indian version of Who

Wants to Be a Millionaire? and exceedspeople's expectations, thereby arousingthe suspicions of cheating; Jamal recounts

in flashback how he knows the answer to

The Norsefireregime takestotalitarian

imagery frommany sources,both historicaland fictional.




each question, each one linked to a key event in his life.A sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was universally acclaimed, being praised

by the plot and soundtrack. Also it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in2009, winning eight, the most for any film of 2008. Roger Ebert of the Chicago

Sun Times gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, stating that it is, "a breathless,exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating."

Gran Torino

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed by, produced by, andstarring Clint Eastwood. It also stars Bee Vang and Ahney Her.

The story follows Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed Korean War veteranalienated from his family and angry atthe world. Walt's young neighbor, ThaoVang Lor, is pressured into stealingWalt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino byhis cousin for his initiation into a gang.Walt thwarts the theft andsubsequently develops a relationship withthe boy and his family.

Gran Torino was a critical andcommercial success, grossing nearly

$270 million worldwide. It was recognized by the American Film Institute asone of the Ten Best Films of 2008. In 2010, the film was named Best ForeignFilm at the César Awards in France.

The Hangover

The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film, co-produced and directed byTodd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley

Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, andJeffrey Tambor. The Hangover tells the story of Phil Wenneck, Stu Price andAlan Garner, who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate theirfriend Doug Billings' impending marriage.

The Hangover was released on June 5, 2009, becoming a critical andcommercial success. It became the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009, with aworldwide gross of over US$467 million. Critics praised the film's comedicapproach but criticized it for its vulgarity. The film won the Golden GlobeAward for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other

accolades.




Inception

Inception is a 2010 science fiction thriller film written, co-produced, anddirected by Christopher Nolan. The film stars a large ensemble cast thatincludes Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page,Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a thief who commitscorporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He isoffered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to beimpossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's

subconscious.A box office success, Inception

has grossed over $800 millionworldwide becoming one of thehighest-grossing films of all time.Inception has received wide criticalacclaim and numerous critics havepraised its originality, cast, score,and visual effects. Roger Ebert of

the Chicago Sun-Times awardedthe film a full four stars and said

that Inception "is all about process, about fightingour way through enveloping sheets of reality and dream, reality within dreams,dreams without reality. It's a breathtaking juggling act."

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close is a 2011American drama film adaptationof the novel of the same name byJonathan Safran Foer, directedby Stephen Daldry and written byEric Roth. It stars Thomas Horn,Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max

von Sydow, Viola Davis, John




Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, and Zoe Caldwell.Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film was nominated for two Academy

Awards, Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Max von Sydow. BetsySharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was a "handsomely

polished, thoughtfully wrapped Hollywood production about the national tragedyof 9/11 that seems to have forever redefined words like unthinkable,unforgivable, catastrophic".

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 epic fantasy adventurefilm directed by Peter Jackson. It is the first of a three-part film adaptationof the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The story is set in Middle-earth sixty years before The Lord of the Rings,and tells the tale of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who isconvinced by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to accompany thirteen dwarvesled by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on a quest across Middle-earth toreclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon.

The Hobbit has grossed over $1 billion at the box office and was nominatedfor three Academy Awards. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticised the film'suse of "48 frames per second… Couple that with 3D and the movie looks sohyper-real that you see everything that's fake about it… “The 169 minutes ofscreen time hurts, since the first 45 minutes of the film traps us in the hobbithome of the young Bilbo Baggins," but continued, "Once Bilbo and the dwarvesset on their journey… things perk up considerably. Trolls, orcs, wolves andmountainous monsters made of remarkably pliable stone bring out the best inJackson”.




Books:

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - Steven Jay SchneiderLondon: Cassell Illustrated, 2003

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.imdb.com/ http://www.warnerbros.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/


http://www.imdb.com/


http://www.warnerbros.com/








Warner Bros. We’ve all heard of it. We’ve all seen its movies, its televisionseries or its cartoons. And now, we know its history and its accomplishments.And, most importantly, we know how it has changed the world, whatimprovements it has brought and what records it has set. Clearly, WB is not justa logo; it is not something famous that doesn’t deserve its place or something

flawless that has always dominated the film industry.Struggling not to go bankrupt or making huge profits. Why? The answer is

not easy. It is simple. The movies – the movies the company has produced acrosstime. They have managed to save the company, to raise it, to make it shine and

to turn it into one of the most respected, diversified and successful filmcompanies from the third millennium.

Everything began with the passion for film offour brothers: Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack.They not only established the studio, but theyalso brought sound to movies, reinvented themusical and introduced the first “four-leggedstar.” What is essential is that, through theirfilms, they succeeded in having an impact on the

society of their times.Today, the dream goes on. Promoting new

directors and actors, winning awards, scoring highon box-office and ratings. Revolutionizing thefilm world. Satisfying the critics. Entertaining

people. It all changed, and yet everything remained the same. The purpose. Youdo it because you like, because you want to, not because you must.

certificate of english competency - warner bros

Documents