title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The second unit filmed part of the prologue's 1912 segment from August 29 to September 3. The main unit began two days later with the circus train sequence at Alamosa, Colorado, on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. They filmed at Pagosa Springs on September 7, and then at Cortez on September 10. From September 14 to 16, filming of Indiana falling into the train carriages took place in Los Angeles. The production then moved to Utah's Arches National Park to shoot more of the opening. A house in Antonito, Colorado was used for the Jones family home. The production had intended to film at Mesa Verde National Park, but Native American representatives had religious objections to its use. When Spielberg and editor Michael Kahn viewed a rough cut of the film in late 1988, they felt it suffered from a lack of action. The motorcycle chase was shot during post-production at Mount Tamalpais and Fairfax near Skywalker Ranch. The closing shot of Indiana, Henry, Sallah and Brody riding into the sunset was filmed in Amarillo, Texas in early 1989 by the second unit, directed by Frank Marshall.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Mechanical effects supervisor George Gibbs said the film was the most difficult one of his career. He visited a museum to negotiate renting a small French World War I tank, but decided he wanted to make one. The tank was based on the Tank Mark VIII, which was long and weighed . Gibbs built the tank over the framework of a excavator and added tracks that were driven by two automatic hydraulic pumps, each connected to a Range Rover V8 engine. Gibbs built the tank from steel rather than aluminum or fiberglass because it would allow the realistically suspensionless vehicle to endure the rocky surfaces. Unlike its historic counterpart, which had only the two side guns, the tank had a turret gun added as well. It took four months to build and was transported to Almería on a Short Belfast plane and then a low loader truck.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The tank broke down twice. The distributor's rotor arm broke and a replacement had to be sourced from Madrid. Then two of the device's valves used to cool the oil exploded, due to solder melting and mixing with the oil. It was very hot in the tank, despite the installation of ten fans, and the lack of suspension meant the driver was unable to stop shaking during filming breaks. The tank only moved at , which Vic Armstrong said made it difficult to film Indiana riding a horse against the tank while making it appear faster. A smaller section of the tank's top made from aluminum and which used rubber tracks was used for close-ups. It was built from a searchlight trailer, weighed eight tons, and was towed by a four-wheel drive truck. It had safety nets on each end to prevent injury to those falling off. A quarter-scale model by Gibbs was driven over a cliff on location; Industrial Light & Magic created further shots of the tank's destruction with models and miniatures.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Michael Lantieri, mechanical effects supervisor for the 1912 scenes, noted the difficulty in shooting the train sequence. "You can't just stop a train," he said, "If it misses its mark, it takes blocks and blocks to stop it and back up." Lantieri hid handles for the actors and stuntmen to grab onto when leaping from carriage to carriage. The carriage interiors shot at Universal Studios Hollywood were built on tubes that inflated and deflated to create a rocking motion. For the close-up of the rhinoceros that strikes at (and misses) Indiana, a foam and fiberglass animatronic was made in London. When Spielberg decided he wanted it to move, the prop was sent to John Carl Buechler in Los Angeles, who resculpted it over three days to blink, snarl, snort and wiggle its ears. The giraffes were also created in London. Because steam locomotives are very loud, Lantieri's crew would respond to first assistant director David Tomblin's radioed directions by making the giraffes nod or shake their heads to his questions, which amused the crew. For the villains' cars, Lantieri selected a 1914 Ford Model T, a 1919 Ford Model T truck and a 1916 Saxon Model 14, fitting each with a Ford Pinto V6 engine. Sacks of dust were hung under the cars to create a dustier environment.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Spielberg used doves for the seagulls that Henry scares into striking the German plane because the real gulls used in the first take did not fly. In December 1988, Lucasfilm ordered 1,000 disease-free gray rats for the catacombs scenes from the company that supplied the snakes and bugs for the previous films. Within five months, 5,000 rats had been bred for the sequence; 1,000 mechanical rats stood in for those that were set on fire. Several thousand snakes of five breeds—including a boa constrictor—were used for the train scene, in addition to rubber ones onto which Phoenix could fall. The snakes would slither from their crates, requiring the crew to dig through sawdust after filming to find and return them. Two lions were used, which became nervous because of the rocking motion and flickering lights.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Costume designer Anthony Powell found it a challenge to create Connery's costume because the script required the character to wear the same clothes throughout. Powell thought about his own grandfather and incorporated tweed suits and fishing hats. Powell felt it necessary for Henry to wear glasses, but did not want to hide Connery's eyes, so chose rimless ones. He could not find any suitable, so he had them specially made. The Nazi costumes were genuine and were found in Eastern Europe by Powell's co-designer Joanna Johnston, to whom he gave research pictures and drawings for reference.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The motorcycles used in the chase from the castle were a mixed bag: the scout model with sidecar in which Indy and Henry escape was an original Dnepr, complete with machine gun pintle on the sidecar, while the pursuing vehicles were more modern machines dressed up with equipment and logos to make them resemble German army models.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Gibbs used Swiss Pilatus P-2 army training planes standing in for Messerschmitt Bf 109s. He built a device based on an internal combustion engine to simulate gunfire, which was safer and less expensive than firing blanks. Baking soda was applied to Connery to create Henry's bullet wound. Vinegar was applied to create the foaming effect as the water from the Grail washes it away.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: At least one reproduction Kübelwagen was used during filming despite the film being set two years prior to manufacture of said vehicles.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) built an foam model of the Zeppelin to complement shots of Ford and Connery climbing into the biplane. A biplane model with a wingspan was used for the shot of the biplane detaching. Stop motion animation was used for the shot of the German fighter's wings breaking off as it crashes through the tunnel. The tunnel was a model that occupied 14 of ILM's parking spaces for two months. It was built in eight-foot sections, with hinges allowing each section to be opened to film through. Ford and Connery were filmed against bluescreen; the sequence required their car to have a dirty windscreen, but to make the integration easier this was removed and later composited into the shot. Dust and shadows were animated onto shots of the plane miniature to make it appear as if it disturbed rocks and dirt before it exploded. Several hundred tim-birds were used in the background shots of the seagulls striking the other plane; for the closer shots, ILM dropped feather-coated crosses onto the camera. These only looked convincing because the scene's quick cuts merely required shapes that suggested gulls. ILM's Wes Takahashi supervised the film's effects sequences.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Spielberg devised the three trials that guard the Grail. For the first, the blades under which Indiana ducks like a penitent man were a mix of practical and miniature blades created by Gibbs and ILM. For the second trial, in which Indiana spells "Iehova" on stable stepping stones, it was intended to have a tarantula crawl up Indiana after he mistakenly steps on "J". This was filmed and deemed unsatisfactory, so ILM filmed a stuntman hanging through a hole that appears in the floor, above a cavern. As this was dark, it did not matter that the matte painting and models were rushed late in production. The third trial, the leap of faith that Indiana makes over an apparently impassable ravine after discovering a bridge hidden by forced perspective, was created with a model bridge and painted backgrounds. This was cheaper than building a full-size set. A puppet of Ford was used to create a shadow on the by model because Ford had filmed the scene against bluescreen, which did not incorporate the shaft of light from the entrance.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Spielberg wanted Donovan's death shown in one shot, so it would not look like an actor having makeup applied between takes. Inflatable pads were applied to Julian Glover's forehead and cheeks by Nick Dudman that made his eyes seem to recede during the character's initial decomposition, as well as a mechanical wig that grew his hair. The shot of Donovan's death was created over three months by morphing together three puppets of Donovan created by Stephan Dupuis in separate stages of decay, a technique ILM mastered on "Willow" (1988). A fourth puppet was used for the decaying clothes, because the puppet's torso mechanics had been exposed. Complications arose because Alison Doody's double had not been filmed for the scene's latter two elements, so the background and hair from the first shot had to be used throughout, with the other faces mapped over it. Donovan's skeleton was hung on wires like a marionette; it required several takes to film it crashing against the wall because not all the pieces released upon impact.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Ben Burtt designed the sound effects. He recorded chickens for the sounds of the rats, and digitally manipulated the noise made by a Styrofoam cup for the castle fire. He rode in a biplane to record the sounds for the dogfight sequence, and visited the demolition of a wind turbine for the plane crashes. Burtt wanted an echoing gunshot for Donovan wounding Henry, so he fired a .357 Magnum in Skywalker Ranch's underground car park, just as Lucas drove in. A rubber balloon was used for the earthquake tremors at the temple. The film was released in selected theaters in the 70 mm Full-Field Sound format, which allowed sounds to not only move from side to side, but also from the theater's front to its rear.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Matte paintings of the Austrian castle and the Berlin airport were based on real buildings; the Austrian castle "Schloss Brunwald" is Bürresheim Castle near Mayen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, that was made to look larger. Rain was created by filming granulated Borax soap against black at high speed. It was only lightly double exposed into the shots so it would not resemble snow. The lightning was animated. The Administration Building at San Francisco's Treasure Island was used as the exterior of Berlin Tempelhof Airport. The structure already had period-appropriate art deco architecture, as it had been constructed in 1938 for planned use as an airport terminal. ILM added a control tower, Nazi banners, vintage automobiles and a sign stating "Berlin Flughafen". The establishing shot of the Hatayan city at dusk was created by filming silhouetted cutouts that were backlit and obscured by smoke. Matte paintings were used for the sky and to give the appearance of fill light in the shadows and rim light on the edges of the buildings.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: A son's relationship with his estranged father is a common theme in Spielberg's films, including "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Hook".


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film's exploration of fathers and sons coupled with its use of religious imagery is comparable to two other 1989 films, "" and "Field of Dreams". Writing for "The New York Times", Caryn James felt the combination in these films reflected New Age concerns, where the worship of God was equated to searching for fathers. James felt that neither Indiana nor his father is preoccupied with finding the Grail or defeating the Nazis, but that, rather, both seek professional respect for one another in their boys' own adventure. James contrasted the temple's biblically epic destruction with the more effective and quiet conversation between the Joneses at the film's end. James noted that Indiana's mother does not appear in the prologue, being portrayed as already having died before the film's events began.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film's teaser trailer debuted in November 1988 with "Scrooged" and "". Rob MacGregor wrote the tie-in novelization that was released in June 1989; it sold enough copies to be included on the "New York Times" Best Seller list. MacGregor went on to write the first six "Indiana Jones" prequel novels during the 1990s. Following the film's release, Ford donated Indiana's fedora and jacket to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: No toys were made to promote the film; Indiana Jones "never happened on the toy level", said Larry Carlat, senior editor of the journal "Children's Business". Rather, Lucasfilm promoted Indiana as a lifestyle symbol, selling tie-in fedoras, shirts, jackets and watches. Two video games based on the film were released by LucasArts in 1989: "" and "". A third game was produced by Taito and released in 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ryder Windham wrote another novelization, released in April 2008 by Scholastic, to coincide with the release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Hasbro released toys based on "The Last Crusade" in July 2008.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film was released in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, May 24, 1989, in 2,327 theaters, earning a record $37,031,573 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend. The gross was boosted by high ticket prices in some venues ($7 a ticket). Its 3-day opening weekend figure of $29,355,021 was surpassed later that year by "Ghostbusters II" and "Batman", which grossed more in its opening 3 days than "The Last Crusade" in 4. Its Saturday gross of $11,181,429 was the first time a film had made over $10 million in one day. It broke the record for the best seven-day performance with a gross of $50.2 million, beating the $45.7 million grossed by "Temple of Doom" in 1984 on 1,687 screens. It added another record with $77 million after twelve days, and earned $100 million in a record nineteen days. In France, the film broke a record by selling a million admissions within two and a half weeks. In the UK it opened in three London theaters before opening two days later on 361 screens nationally, setting an opening weekend record of £1,811,542 ($2,862,200), breaking the one set the year before by "Crocodile Dundee II". It spent six weeks at number one in the UK.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film eventually grossed $197,171,806 in the United States and Canada and $277 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $474,171,806. At the time of its release, the film was the 11th highest-grossing film of all time. Despite competition from "Batman", "The Last Crusade" became the highest-grossing film worldwide in 1989. In North America, "Batman" took top position. Behind "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Raiders", "The Last Crusade" is the third-highest grossing Indiana Jones film in the United States and Canada, though it is also behind "Temple of Doom" when adjusting for inflation. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 49 million tickets in North America. The film was re-released in 1992 earning $139,000.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film was released along with its two predecessors as part of a trilogy DVD box set in 2003. It contained extra materials and a special documentary covering the production of the films. Sales figures for the box set were extremely successful and 600,000 copies were sold in the US on the first day of release. In 2012, the film and was released on Blu-ray along with the three other films in the Indiana Jones film series at the time. In 2021, a remastered 4K version of the film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, produced using scans of the original negatives. It was released as part of a box set for the then four films in the Indiana Jones film series.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Lighter and more comedic than its predecessor, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" returns the series to the brisk serial adventure of "Raiders", while adding a dynamite double act between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Jay Boyar of the "Orlando Sentinel" said that while the film "lacks the novelty of "Raiders", and the breathless pacing of "Temple of Doom", it was an entertaining capper to the trilogy." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" remarked the film was "the wildest and wittiest Indy of them all". Richard Corliss of "Time" and David Ansen of "Newsweek" praised it, as did Vincent Canby of "The New York Times". "Though it seems to have the manner of some magically reconstituted B-movie of an earlier era, "The Last Crusade" is an endearing original," Canby wrote, calling the revelation that Jones had a father who was not proud of him to be a "comic surprise". Canby believed that while the film did not match the previous two in its pacing, it still had "hilariously off-the-wall sequences" such as the circus train chase. He also said that Spielberg was maturing by focusing on the father–son relationship, a call echoed by McBride in "Variety". Roger Ebert praised the sequence depicting Jones as a Boy Scout with the Cross of Coronado, comparing it to the "style of illustration that appeared in the boys' adventure magazines of the 1940s". He said that Spielberg "must have been paging through his old issues of "Boys' Life" magazine...the feeling that you can stumble over astounding adventures just by going on a hike with your Scout troop. Spielberg lights the scene in the strong, basic colors of old pulp magazines." "The Hollywood Reporter" felt Connery and Ford deserved Academy Award nominations.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: It was panned by Andrew Sarris in "The New York Observer", David Denby in "New York" magazine, Stanley Kauffmann in "The New Republic" and Georgia Brown in "The Village Voice". Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" called the film "soulless". "The Washington Post" reviewed the film twice; Hal Hinson's review on the day of the film's release was negative, describing it as "nearly all chases and dull exposition". Although he praised Ford and Connery, he felt the film's exploration of Jones's character took away his mystery and that Spielberg should not have tried to mature his storytelling. Two days later, Desson Thomson published a positive review praising the film's adventure and action, as well as the father–son relationship's thematic depth.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing; it also received nominations for Best Original Score and Best Sound (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy and Tony Dawe), but lost to "The Little Mermaid" and "Glory" respectively. Connery received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Connery and the visual and sound effects teams were also nominated at the 43rd British Academy Film Awards. The film won the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture Drama at the Young Artist Awards. John Williams's score won a Broadcast Music Incorporated Award, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: The prologue depicting Jones in his youth inspired Lucas to create "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" television series, which featured Sean Patrick Flanery as the young adult Indiana and Corey Carrier as the 8- to 10-year-old Indiana. The 13-year-old incarnation played by Phoenix in the film was the focus of a "Young Indiana Jones" series of young adult novels that began in 1990; by the ninth novel, the series had become a tie-in to the television show. German author Wolfgang Hohlbein revisited the prologue in one of his novels, in which Jones encounters the lead grave robber—whom Hohlbein christens Jake—in 1943. The film's ending begins the 1995 comic series "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny", which moves forward to depict Jones and his father searching for the Holy Lance in Ireland in 1945. Spielberg intended to have Connery cameo as Henry in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008), but Connery turned it down as he had retired.


title: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

text: Petra's use for the movie's climactic scenes greatly contributed to its popularity as an international tourist destination. Before the film's release, only a few thousand visitors per year made the trip; since then it has grown to almost a million annually. Shops and hotels near the site play up the connection, and it is mentioned prominently in itineraries of locations used in the film series. Jordan's tourism board mentions the connection on its website. In 2012, the satirical news site The Pan-Arabia Enquirer ran a mock story claiming that the board had officially renamed Petra "That Place from "Indiana Jones"" to reflect how the world more commonly refers to it.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 epic high fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro, based on the 1937 novel "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is the first instalment in "The Hobbit" trilogy, acting as a prequel to Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The story is set in Middle-earth sixty years before the main events of "The Lord of the Rings" and portions of the film are adapted from the appendices to Tolkien's "The Return of the King". "An Unexpected Journey" tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to accompany thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. The ensemble cast also includes Ken Stott, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt, Elijah Wood, and Andy Serkis, and features Sylvester McCoy, Barry Humphries, and Manu Bennett.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" premiered in Wellington on 28 November 2012, and was then released on 12 December in New Zealand and on 14 December in the United States, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was almost nine years after the release of "". The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $1.017 billion at the box office, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2012. The film received numerous accolades; at the 86th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Approaching his , the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins begins writing down the full story of his adventure 60 years earlier for the benefit of his nephew, Frodo.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Long before Bilbo's involvement, the Dwarf king Thrór brought an era of prosperity for his kin under the Lonely Mountain until the arrival of the dragon Smaug. Destroying the nearby town of Dale, Smaug drove the Dwarves out of their mountain and took their hoard of gold. Thrór's grandson, Thorin, sees King Thranduil and his Wood-elves on a nearby hillside, and is dismayed when they leave rather than aid his people, resulting in Thorin's everlasting hatred of Elves.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: In the Shire, 50-year-old Bilbo is tricked by the wizard Gandalf the Grey into hosting a dinner for Thorin and his company of Dwarves: Balin, Dwalin, Fíli, Kíli, Dori, Nori, Ori, Óin, Glóin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur. Gandalf's aim is to recruit Bilbo as the company's "burglar" to aid them in their quest to enter the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo is unwilling to accept at first, but has a change of heart after the company leaves without him the next day. Bilbo races to join the company. Travelling onward, the company is captured by three Trolls. Bilbo stalls the Trolls from eating them until dawn, and Gandalf exposes the trolls to sunlight, turning them to stone. The company locates the Trolls' cave and finds treasure and Elven blades. Thorin and Gandalf each take an Elf-made blade, Orcrist and Glamdring, respectively; Gandalf also finds an Elven dagger, which he gives to Bilbo.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The wizard Radagast the Brown finds Gandalf and the company, and recounts an encounter at Dol Guldur with the Necromancer, a sorcerer who has been corrupting Greenwood with dark magic. Chased by Orcs, Gandalf leads the company through a hidden passage to Rivendell. There, Lord Elrond discloses a hidden indication of a secret door on the company's map of the Lonely Mountain, which will be visible only on Durin's Day. Gandalf later approaches the White Council — consisting of Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman the White — and presents a Morgul blade, a weapon of the Witch-king of Angmar, which Radagast obtained from Dol Guldur as a sign that the Necromancer is linked to an eventual return of Sauron. While Saruman presses concern to the more present matter of the Dwarves' quest, requesting that Gandalf put an end to it, Gandalf secretly reveals to Galadriel he had anticipated this and had the Dwarves move forward without him.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The company journeys into the Misty Mountains, where they find themselves amid a colossal battle between Stone Giants. They take refuge in a cave and are captured by Goblins, who take them to their leader, the Great Goblin. Bilbo becomes separated from the Dwarves and falls into a crevice where he encounters Gollum, who unknowingly drops a golden ring. Pocketing the ring, Bilbo finds himself confronted by Gollum. They play a riddle game, wagering that Bilbo will be shown the way out if he wins or eaten by Gollum if he loses. Bilbo eventually wins by asking Gollum what he has in his pocket. Noticing his ring is lost, Gollum realises that Bilbo possesses it and chases him. Bilbo discovers that the ring grants him invisibility, but when he has a chance to kill Gollum, Bilbo spares his life out of pity and escapes while Gollum shouts his hatred towards the hobbit Baggins.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Meanwhile, the Great Goblin reveals to the Dwarves that Azog, an Orc war-chief who killed Thrór and lost his forearm to Thorin in battle outside the Dwarven kingdom of Moria, has placed a bounty on Thorin's head. Gandalf arrives and leads the Dwarves in an escape, killing the Great Goblin. Bilbo exits the mountain and rejoins the company, keeping his newly obtained ring secret. The company is ambushed by Azog and his hunting party, and takes refuge in trees. Thorin charges at Azog, who overpowers and severely injures him with his Warg. Bilbo saves Thorin from the Orcs and challenges Azog, just as the company is rescued by eagles summoned by Gandalf. They escape to the safety of the Carrock where Gandalf revives Thorin, who renounces his previous disdain for Bilbo after being saved by him.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: They see the Lonely Mountain in the distance, where the sleeping Smaug is awoken by a thrush knocking a snail against a stone.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The characters of Galadriel, Saruman, and Frodo Baggins appear in the novel "The Lord of the Rings", but not in the novel "The Hobbit". (Radagast was also dropped from the film version of "Lord of the Rings", merely being mentioned in passing). Gandalf, Gollum, Bilbo Baggins, Elrond and the Necromancer appear in both novels, although the latter is referred to in "Lord of the Rings" as Sauron. Only Bilbo is portrayed by a different actor in the two sets of films, as the age difference affects his character more. The older Bilbo (Ian Holm) appears in the prologue section of this film.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Cameos in the film include director Peter Jackson and editor Jabez Olssen as Erebor Dwarf refugees running from the dragon Smaug in the opening prologue; picture double Hayden J. Weal as a dwarf carrying gems during Thranduil's visit in Erebor; James Nesbitt's then-wife Sonia Forbes-Adam as Belladonna Took, Bilbo's mother; Nesbitt's daughters Peggy and Mary as children of Dale; Luke Evans as Girion; and production designer Dan Hennah as the Old Took, Belladonna's father. Peter Jackson's daughter, Philippa Boyens's second son, and Andy Serkis' children appeared in the Old Took's party; and Jabez Olssen's wife and children, Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor's children, and set decorator Ra Vincent's children can all be seen in the market scene. Writer for Ain'tItCoolNews.com, Eric Vespe, portrays Fredegar Chubb, the fish seller at the market. The appearances in the Old Took's party and the market scene are shown only in the extended edition.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: A film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" (1937) was in development for several years after the critical and financial success of "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy (2001–2003), co-written, co-produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. Jackson was initially going to produce and write a two-film adaptation of "The Hobbit", which was to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro left the project in May 2010, after about two years of working with Jackson and his production team, due to delays caused in part by financial problems at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jackson was announced as director that October. "The Hobbit" films were produced back to back, like "The Lord of the Rings" films. Principal photography for "The Hobbit" films began on 21 March 2011 in New Zealand and ended on 6 July 2012, after 266 days of filming. Pick-ups for "An Unexpected Journey" were filmed in July 2012 as well. Work on the film was expected to be completed on 26 November, just two days prior to the film's Wellington premiere.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Jackson had said that del Toro's sudden exit created problems as he felt he had very little preparation time remaining before shooting had to begin, with unfinished scripts and without storyboards, which increased the difficulty to direct it. Jackson stated, "Because Guillermo del Toro had to leave and I jumped in and took over, we didn’t wind the clock back a year and a half and give me a year and a half prep to design the movie, which was different to what he was doing. It was impossible, and as a result of it being impossible I just started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all. You’re going on to a set and you’re winging it, you’ve got these massively complicated scenes, no storyboards and you’re making it up there and then on the spot". Jackson also said, "I spent most of "The Hobbit" feeling like I was not on top of it. Even from a script point of view, Fran [Walsh], Philippa [Boyens] and I hadn’t got the entire scripts written to our satisfaction, so that was a very high pressure situation". However, Jackson goes on to explain in the DVD/Blu-ray featurettes the various ways in which he and his crew overcame the obstacles encountered during filming. They found ways of making things work, even in a "very high pressure situation" in which he and his crew found themselves, especially the shooting of the Battle of the Five Armies which was shifted from 2012 to 2013 to be properly planned and shot.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" used a shooting and projection frame rate of 48 frames per second, becoming the first feature film with a wide release to do so. The new projection rate was advertised as "High Frame Rate" to the general public. However, the majority of cinemas projected the film at the industry standard 24 fps after the film was converted.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The musical score for "An Unexpected Journey" was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. It was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Voices and Tiffin' Boys Choir and featured several vocal soloists. The score reprised many themes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy but also introduced numerous new themes, including Shore's orchestral setting of the diegetic "Misty Mountains" song.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: At the facility where about 150 animals were housed for the production of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", up to 27 animals died. The animals in question were horses, goats, chickens and one sheep.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The first trailer for "An Unexpected Journey" was first screened before the Jackson-produced "The Adventures of Tintin" in the US on 21 December 2011, and released on the Internet on the same day. Geoff Boucher of the "Los Angeles Times" said, "While it was all too fleeting there was enough in it to stir the heart of fans." Jen Chaney of "The Washington Post" stated, "Visually and tonally, this preview for ["An Unexpected Journey"] looks like a perfect match for the Frodo Baggins tales that released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. […] But plot isn't the main matter at hand in the trailer… This clip is all about reacquainting us with Middle-earth."


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Jackson, Freeman, McKellen, Armitage, Serkis, Wood, and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens appeared at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International promoting the film and screening 12 minutes of footage.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: On 8 October 2012, Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown announced that for the week of the premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", the capital of New Zealand would be renamed the "Middle of Middle-earth".


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The world premiere of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" took place on 28 November 2012 at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, with a full theatrical release in New Zealand on 12 December. The film was released 13 December 2012 in Europe, 14 December 2012 in India, Canada and United States, and 26 December 2012 (Boxing Day) in Australia. It was also screened at the 65th Royal Film Performance in London on 12 December 2012, an event held in aid of the Film & TV Charity.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Around 100,000 people lined the red carpet on Courtenay Place for the film's premiere, and the entire event was broadcast live on TV in New Zealand, as well as streaming over the internet.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: An extended edition of the film had a limited re-release on 5 October 2015, accompanied by a special greeting from Peter Jackson.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on 19 March 2013, with an extended edition, with 13 minutes of additional footage and three bonus discs containing approximately nine hours of special features, released on 5 November 2013.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" was released in Ultra HD Blu-ray on 30 November 2020 in the United Kingdom and on 1 December 2020 in the United States, along with the other films of the trilogy, including both the theatrical and the extended editions of the films.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" grossed $303 million in the United States and Canada and $718.1 million elsewhere for a worldwide total of $1.017 billion, becoming the 15th film in history to reach $1 billion. It is the fourth highest-grossing film of 2012. It scored a worldwide opening weekend of $222.6 million, including $15.1 million from 452 IMAX theatres around the world, which was an IMAX opening-weekend record for December.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" earned $13.0 million during its midnight run, setting a December midnight record (previously held by "Avatar"). It then topped the box office on its opening day (Friday, 14 December 2012) earning $37.1 million from 4,045 theatres (midnight earnings included), setting a December opening-day record (previously held by ""). By the end of its first weekend it grossed $84.62 million, finishing in first place and setting a then December opening-weekend record (previously held by "I Am Legend"). 3D showings accounted for 49% of weekend ticket sales while IMAX showings generated $10.1 million (12% of the weekend gross). The film held onto the top spot for a second weekend, despite declining 57% to $36.7 million. "An Unexpected Journey" remained at the top of the box office during its third weekend, dropping only 11% to $32.9 million.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" earned $11.2 million on its opening day (Wednesday, 12 December 2012) from 16 markets. Through its first Sunday, it managed a five-day opening-weekend gross of just under $138.0 million. It topped the box office outside North America on two consecutive weekends. In Sweden, it scored the second-largest five-day opening with $6.20 million (behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2"). Its three largest openings occurred in the UK, Ireland, and Malta ($18.8 million); Russia and the CIS ($17.8 million), and Germany ($17.1 million).


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: After the New Zealand premiere, "Television New Zealand" noted that critical responses were "largely positive" but with "mixed responses to the film's technological advances". After the film's international release, "Forbes" called reviews "unenthusiastic" and the "Los Angeles Times" said the critical consensus is that the film "stumbles". The film holds a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 305 reviews, with an average score of 6.50/10. The site's consensus reads "Peter Jackson's return to Middle-earth is an earnest, visually resplendent trip, but the film's deliberate pace robs the material of some of its majesty." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100 based on collected reviews from 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The main contention of debate was regarding the film's length, its controversial High Frame Rate, and whether or not the film matched the level of expectation built from "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, while the film's visual style, special effects, music score, and cast were praised, especially the performances of Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, and Andy Serkis. Audiences polled by CinemaScore, during the opening weekend, gave the film an "A" grade on a scale from A+ to F.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" criticised the film's use of "48 frames per second… Couple that with 3D and the movie looks so hyper-real that you see everything that's fake about it… The 169 minutes of screen time hurts, since the first 45 minutes of the film traps us in the hobbit home of the young Bilbo Baggins," but continued with "Once Bilbo and the dwarves set on their journey… things perk up considerably. Trolls, orcs, wolves and mountainous monsters made of remarkably pliable stone bring out the best in Jackson and his "Rings" co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens." Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" gave the film two stars out of five and said "Thank heavens for Andy Serkis, whose riddling return as Gollum steals the entire film. It is the only time the digital effects and smoother visuals underline, rather than undermine, the mythical drama of Bilbo's adventure. As a lover of cinema, Jackson’s film bored me rigid; as a lover of Tolkien, it broke my heart." He thought the film was "so stuffed with extraneous faff and flummery that it often barely feels like Tolkien at all – more a dire, fan-written internet tribute." "Time Out" magazine's Keith Uhlich called the film "a mesmerizing study in excess, Peter Jackson and company's long-awaited prequel to the Lord of the Rings saga is bursting with surplus characters, wall-to-wall special effects, unapologetically drawn-out story tangents and double the frame rate (48 over 24) of the average movie." "The Guardian" magazine's Peter Bradshaw commented on use of high frame rate technology and length of the film, writing "After 170 minutes, I felt that I had had enough of a pretty good thing. The trilogy will test the stamina of the non-believers, and many might feel ... that the traditional filmic look of Lord of the Rings was better." Richard Lawson from "The Atlantic Wire" commented on the film's "video game"-like visual effects, saying "this is a dismally unattractive movie, featuring too many shots that I'm sure were lovely at some point but are now ruined and chintzified by the terrible technology monster."


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: Matthew Leyland of "Total Film" gave the film a five-star rating and said that it is "Charming, spectacular, technically audacious… in short, everything you expect from a Peter Jackson movie. A feeling of familiarity does take hold in places, but this is an epically entertaining first course." Ed Gonzalez of "Slant Magazine" awarded the film three stars out of four and called it "The first of an arguably gratuitous three-part cine-extravaganza." Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" said that "Jackson and his colleagues have created a purist's delight… [And leads to] an undeniably exciting, action-packed climax." McCarthy did however think that "Though there are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was… there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well, especially in the early going." Kate Muir of "The Times" gave the film four out of five stars, saying Martin Freeman "perks up" the film as Bilbo Baggins and that Jackson's use of 48 frames per second 3D technology gives the film "lurid clarity". Dan Jolin of "Empire" gave the film four out of five stars and thought "The Hobbit plays younger and lighter than Fellowship and its follow-ups, but does right by the faithful and has a strength in Martin Freeman's Bilbo that may yet see this trilogy measure up to the last one" and he stated that "There is treasure here".


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: The film received three Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling as well as praise from critics organisation Broadcast Film Critics Association and from critics groups, such as the Houston Film Critics Society, Phoenix Film Critics Society and Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association. The film's team won an Academy Scientific and Technical Award—the Scientific and Engineering Award for inventing a technique which has made huge advances in bringing to life computer-generated characters such as Gollum in the film to the screen. In January 2013, it was announced "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" was nominated in the Best Live Action Motion Picture category at the Cinema Audio Society Awards, awarded on 16 February.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" led the nominations at the 39th Saturn Awards with nine, more than "" which earned eight nominations at the time of its release. These nominations included Best Director (Peter Jackson's eleventh Saturn Award nomination), Best Actor for Martin Freeman, Best Supporting Actor for Ian McKellen (his third nomination for playing Gandalf) and Best Music for Howard Shore. It won Best Production Design for Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright.


title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

text: "An Unexpected Journey" also earned five nominations at the 18th Empire Awards, winning in two categories, Best Actor for Martin Freeman and Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film. It also earned two nominations at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards in the categories Best Scared-as-S**t Performance and Best Hero for Martin Freeman. Freeman won the latter award for his performance. It has gathered 6 nominations at the 2013 SFX Awards, including Best Film, Best Director for Peter Jackson and four acting nominations.


title: Apple TV+

text: Apple TV+ is an American subscription streaming service owned and operated by Apple Inc. Launched on November 1, 2019, it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service was announced during the Apple Special Event of March 2019, where entertainers from Apple TV+ projects appeared on-stage, among them Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.


title: Apple TV+

text: The service can be accessed through Apple's website and through the Apple TV app, which has gradually become available for many Apple devices and some major competing streaming devices, including some smart TV models and video-game consoles. Apple plans to expand the services' availability, and there are workarounds for subscribers whose device is not presently supported. Access is included in the Apple One subscription bundle. Most of the content is available in Dolby Vision profile 5 and Atmos.


title: Apple TV+

text: Upon its debut, Apple TV+ was available in about 100 countries, fewer than the reported target of 150. A number of countries were excluded from service despite other Apple products being available. Commentators noted that the fairly wide initial reach of the service offered Apple an advantage over other recently launched services such as Disney+, and that because Apple distributes its own content through the service instead of distributing licensed third-party content (as, for example, Hulu does) it will not be limited by licensing issues during its expansion.


title: Apple TV+

text: By early 2020, Apple TV+ had poor growth and low subscriber numbers relative to competing services. In the middle of that year, Apple began to license older television programs and films, attempting to stay competitive with other services, attract and retain a viewership for its original content, and convert into subscribers users who were trialling the service.


title: Apple TV+

text: The service has become the home to critically-acclaimed content: between September 2021 and March 2022, Apple TV+ netted a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series with "Ted Lasso" and the Academy Award for Best Picture with "CODA," whose win marked the first Best Picture win for a film distributed by a streaming service.


title: Apple TV+

text: Apple TV+ (along with the simultaneously announced a-la-carte premium-video subscription aggregation service Apple TV Channels) is part of a concerted effort by Apple to expand its service revenues.


title: Apple TV+

text: Apple had long been rumored to have an interest in beginning a streaming television service, and in 2015 entered into negotiations with various television studios and programmers to aggregate their content for a live-television streaming bundle. Negotiations fell apart over differing views on how to value the content, lack of transparency on details, and the personality of Apple's chief negotiator, Eddy Cue.


title: Apple TV+

text: In October 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook was reported as saying that television is "of intense interest to me and other people here." He added that Apple has "started focusing on some original content" which he called "a great opportunity for us both from a creation point of view and an ownership point of view. So it's an area we're focused on."


title: Apple TV+

text: In June 2017, Apple began to take the first major steps in forming its new television unit by hiring the co-presidents of Sony Pictures Television, Jamie Elricht and Zack Van Amburg, to oversee all aspects of worldwide video programming. A few months later, in August 2017, Matt Cherniss was hired as Head of Domestic Creative Development, reporting directly to Van Amburg and Erlicht. For the rest of 2017, Apple continued to fill out its executive team for Apple TV+, with Kim Rozenfeld joining as Head of Current Programming and Unscripted, Jay Hunt joining as Creative Director for Europe, Morgan Wandell joining as Head of International Creative Development, Tara Sorensen joining as Head of Kids Programming, and Max Aronson, Ali Woodruff, Carina Walker, and Michelle Lee joining as development and creative executives.


title: Apple TV+

text: Throughout 2019, Apple continued to build out its unscripted content team, with Molly Thompson being hired as Head of Documentaries in April 2019. Several months later, in November 2019, Kim Rozenfeld stepped down as Head of Current Programming and Unscripted to focus on producing content again with a first-look content production deal with Apple under his Half Full Productions. Cherniss took over Rozenfeld's duties overseeing current scripted programming.


title: Apple TV+

text: In May 2018, it was reported that Apple was expected to start a sister project to its original content service, and begin selling subscriptions to certain video services directly via its TV application on iOS and tvOS, rather than asking Apple device owners to subscribe to those services through applications individually downloaded from Apple's application store.


title: Apple TV+

text: In October 2018, it was reported that Apple would be distributing their future original content through a still-in-development digital video service to be located within their TV application that is pre-installed in all iOS and tvOS devices. The service was expected to feature both original content, free to owners of Apple devices, as well as subscription "channels" from legacy media companies such as HBO and Starz, which would allow customers to sign up for online-only services. Later that month, it was further reported that Apple intended to roll out the service in the United States during the first half of 2019 and that it would expand its availability to around 100 countries in the months following its initial launch.


title: Apple TV+

text: On March 25, 2019, Apple held a press event to announce Apple TV+. At the event, Apple showed a teaser of its upcoming original content and formally announced some of its content, with actors and producers attached to the content appearing on stage. The announced content included "Helpsters", the first series from Sesame Workshop, the producer of "Sesame Street", and Oprah Winfrey's first projects for Apple TV+, including a documentary under the working title "Toxic Labor" about workplace sexual harassment, a documentary series about mental health as well as a revival of Oprah's Book Club as a standalone television series.


title: Apple TV+

text: On September 10, 2019, Apple announced that Apple TV+ would launch on November 1, 2019, at $4.99 per month (with a 1-week free trial) for an account that can be shared with up to six family members. Apple also announced that they would be giving away a year of Apple TV+ for free to anyone who bought a new Apple TV, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch beginning that same day. Student subscribers to the monthly Apple Music service at a discounted rate also have Apple TV+ bundled in at no additional cost for the time being.


title: Apple TV+

text: From the start of Apple TV+ on November 1, 2019, Apple offered a free one-year subscription to anyone buying certain of its hardware products (an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod Touch, or Mac). Apple initially extended the free year that was due to end on November 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, but then announced in mid-January 2021 that they would be extending it a second time until July 31, 2021.


title: Apple TV+

text: In mid-June 2021, Apple added a note to their website advising customers that new users subscribing after June 30, 2021, would only receive three months of free subscription instead of the previous year.


title: Apple TV+

text: On October 24, 2022, Apple announced it was to increase pricing of Apple TV+ (along with Apple Music and Apple One) subscriptions in many regions. The monthly plan increased US$2 to $6.99/month, and the Annual plan increased $20 to $69/year.


title: Apple TV+

text: During the announcement of Apple TV+, Apple announced a number of prominent names of writers, directors, and stars that will be featured in the service. Apple decided to use the very large budget set aside for the service to pay for celebrity entertainers and high-profile talent as a "catnip" to draw viewers to Apple TV+.


title: Apple TV+

text: , five of the upcoming series had already completed production, with six more already well into filming. On September 10, 2019, Apple announced that Apple TV+ would have eight original series (seven scripted and one non-scripted) and one original documentary available at launch, with plans to launch new original content every month thereafter. Most series are expected to launch with three episodes, with a new episode being released weekly thereafter, although Apple has stated that not all series will follow this model and that some series might instead launch all at once.


title: Apple TV+

text: Early critical reaction to the bulk of the service's programming was mixed to poor, but with commentators predicting that Apple would have time to grow into its new role as a content provider and to produce well-regarded content, especially as the free year of the service provided with many Apple product purchases would entice users to continue watching, and for some to eventually pay for a subscription, as new series are released.


title: Apple TV+

text: On March 13, 2020, Apple suspended all active filming on Apple TV+ shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all production on series was postponed for an undetermined period of time.


title: Apple TV+

text: Apple's decision in mid-2020 to license large swaths of existing older content for the Apple TV+ service was viewed, in part, as buying time for its original content production during the pandemic difficulties, by keeping users engaged and in a habit of visiting the service regularly, so that a viewer base would be in place by the time new sets of Apple original content are released.


title: Apple TV+

text: In addition, the service endeavored to gain new high-profile content, taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of theatrical film releases. Among these acquisitions were the 2020 feature film "Greyhound" starring Tom Hanks, which was purchased from Sony for $70 million. In July 2020, the service won a heated bidding war for "Emancipation", a slavery-based action-thriller starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Apple paid a record $105 million for the rights, which will possibly exceed $120 million after all backend deals are completed. Apple also reportedly considered a $350 to $400 million offer for the rights to stream the James Bond film "No Time to Die", which was far short of the $650 to $800 million studio MGM was willing to accept.


title: Apple TV+

text: In October 2017, following reports of sexual abuse allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, Apple announced that they were severing ties with The Weinstein Company and cancelling a planned biopic series about Elvis Presley.


title: Apple TV+

text: In April 2018, Apple signed Kerry Ehrin to a multi-year deal to produce original content. Ehrin and Apple renewed the multi-year deal in May 2020.


title: Apple TV+

text: In June 2018, Apple signed the Writers Guild of America's minimum basic agreement and Oprah Winfrey to a multi-year content partnership. That same month, Apple announced that they given a multi-series order to Sesame Workshop to produce various Live action and animated series as well as a single puppet-based series.


title: Apple TV+

text: In September 2018, it was reported that Apple had decided to shelve "Vital Signs", a six-episode biopic television series centering on the life of hip-hop producer and performer Dr. Dre and starring Ian McShane, Sam Rockwell, and Michael K. Williams, due to concerns about the show's content being too graphic with moments cited including characters using cocaine, instances of gun violence, and an explicit orgy scene. Reports further indicated that Apple CEO Tim Cook was taking a hands-on approach in regards to the company's Worldwide Video Unit with programming decisions reportedly being aligned to Cook's personal tastes, with a preference for family-friendly shows. Various programs in different stages of production have apparently had their content altered including the toning down of the Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston morning show drama series and the removal of crucifixes from a scene in the M. Night Shyamalan drama series. Additionally, Apple reportedly passed on a television series from comedian Whitney Cummings about the #MeToo movement because it was "too sensitive a topic." The Cummings series was ultimately put into development by Amazon Video in October 2018.


title: Apple TV+

text: In November 2018, Apple entered into a multi-year agreement with entertainment company A24 to produce a slate of original films in partnership with their Worldwide Video Unit.


title: Apple TV+

text: That same month, Apple signed a deal with DHX Media (now WildBrain), and its subsidiary Peanuts Worldwide, to develop and produce original programs, including new series, specials and shorts based on the "Peanuts" characters created by Charles M. Schulz. One of the first productions created through the deal was an original short-form, STEM-related series featuring astronaut Snoopy. Also that month, Apple signed Justin Lin, and his production company Perfect Storm Entertainment, to a multi-year overall deal to produce original television content.


title: Apple TV+

text: In January 2019, Apple signed Jason Katims, and his production company True Jack Productions, to a multi-year overall production and development deal to produce original television content. That same month, Apple signed a first look deal with Imagine Documentaries to develop non-fiction features and series. In February 2019, Harpo Productions hired Terry Wood as executive Vice President in which Wood will oversee Harpo's production of original programming for Apple as part of the multi-year agreement between Oprah Winfrey and Apple. In March 2019, it was reported that five television series commissioned by Apple had finished filming and six series would finish filming in the next few months.


title: Apple TV+

text: On April 10, 2019, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, announced on Instagram that he was working alongside Winfrey on the mental health documentary series as a co-creator and executive producer.


title: Apple TV+

text: In January 2020, Apple signed a five-year production deal with Richard Plepler, the former CEO and chairman of HBO. Under the production deal, Plepler's production company Eden Productions will create television series, documentaries and feature films exclusively for Apple TV+. Also in January 2020, Apple signed a multi-year deal with Lee Eisenberg, ahead of the premiere of his series "Little America", as well as another multi-year deal with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Louis-Dreyfus is set to develop new projects as both executive producer and star.


title: Apple TV+

text: In May 2020, Apple signed a two-year production deal with Annie Weisman, the creator of "Almost Family". As part of her deal with Apple, Weisman will create television projects exclusively for Apple TV+.


title: Apple TV+

text: In July 2020, Apple signed a multi-year deal with The Maurice Sendak Foundation, to produce new children's television series and specials based on the books and illustrations of Maurice Sendak.


title: Apple TV+

text: In August 2020, Apple signed a multi-year first look deal with Leonardo DiCaprio's film and television production company, Appian Way Productions. Also in August 2020, Apple signed a multi-year first look deal with Martin Scorsese's film and television production company, Sikelia Productions.


title: Apple TV+

text: In September 2020, Apple officially acquired the film "Cherry", which is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and stars Tom Holland in the lead role, for around $40 million. It was released in theatres on February 26, 2021, before streaming exclusively on Apple TV+ on March 12.


title: Apple TV+

text: In October 2020, Apple announced it had struck a deal with comedian and former anchor of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show", Jon Stewart, to host a regular, hour-long series on topics of national interest, entitled "The Problem with Jon Stewart", expected to become available beginning in fall 2021.


title: Apple TV+

text: In November 2020, Steven Lightfoot signed a multi-year overall production deal with Apple, starting off as showrunner of the upcoming drama, "Shantaram".


title: Apple TV+

text: In January 2021, Apple TV+ announced a new show called "WeCrashed" that follows the launch, rise, and fall of WeWork. Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway will be playing the parts of Adam and Rebekah Neumann. In addition, Apple bought the Sundance Film Festival hit "CODA", about a girl who is the only person in her family who can hear, paying a festival-record $25 million for the worldwide rights to the film.


title: Apple TV+

text: In February 2021, it was reported that Apple and Skydance Animation entered into a multi-year partnership to develop animated kids and family films and television programs. A few months prior, Apple acquired the global distribution rights to Skydance's upcoming "Luck" and "Spellbound" films.


title: Apple TV+

text: In March 2021, Apple announced a multi-year programming partnership with Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. Apple also signed a multi-year, first-look deal with Imagine Entertainment's film division, in addition to extending its first-look deal with Imagine Documentaries. Additionally, Natalie Portman and production partner Sophie Mas signed a multi-year first-look deal with Apple for television projects developed and produced under their new production company MountainA. March also brought an overall multi-year first-look deal with Tracy Oliver, reportedly worth well into the "eight-figure range".


title: Apple TV+

text: In June 2021, Sian Heder, the director of the Apple-acquired Sundance hit "CODA", signed a multi-year overall deal to exclusively write and develop series for Apple, in addition to signing a first-look deal for any films written by Heder.


title: Apple TV+

text: In July 2021, Misha Green, the creator and showrunner of "Lovecraft Country", signed a multi-year overall deal with Apple to exclusively create and develop new television series for Apple TV+. In July, Apple also signed a first-look deal with Alexander Rodnyansky's production company, AR Content, for future Russian-language and multilingual television series. Additionally, Apple signed a multi-year, first-look deal with Adam McKay's production company, Hyperobject Industries, for upcoming scripted feature films.


title: Apple TV+

text: In October 2021, Sam Catlin signed an overall deal with Apple to develop scripted TV series for Apple TV+ under his Short Drive Entertainment.


title: Apple TV+

text: In November 2021, John Skipper and Dan Le Batard, under their content company Meadowlark Media, signed a multi-year first-look deal with Apple to produce documentary films and unscripted series for Apple TV+. Meadowlark Media hired Deirdre Fenton as an executive director of unscripted programming to lead the relationship with Apple.


title: Apple TV+

text: In January 2022, Apple ordered to series a television continuation of the MonsterVerse produced by Legendary Entertainment. The series will see Godzilla and other various creatures appear. The same month, producer Kevin J. Walsh signed a multi-year deal to produce film and television for the streamer.


title: Apple TV+

text: In March 2022, Apple announced that they would air "Friday Night Baseball", a weekly doubleheader of Major League Baseball games with live pre- and postgame shows on Apple TV+ in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom starting in the 2022 Major League Baseball season.


title: Apple TV+

text: In June 2022, Apple secured a 10-year exclusive agreement for the rights to every Major League Soccer match, free of any local blackout restrictions. The matches will be streamed on a new service in the Apple TV app although a selection of games will be also be available to Apple TV+ subscribers. This $2.5 billion deal will take effect in 2023.


title: Apple TV+

text: In mid-2020, Apple began discussions with film and television studios to license their previously released content as part of an effort to build a back catalog of non-original films and television shows for the streaming service. The shift was designed to help the service better compete against the large content libraries offered by competitors like Netflix. This represented a pivot for Apple, which had initially attempted to build the service entirely on original content, avoiding licensing fees to help keep monthly subscription fees low, and relying on its Apple TV Channels content partners to supply other content users wanted.


title: Apple TV+

text: Analysts believed that the addition of older, highly re-watchable content like popular sitcoms and well liked films would help to retain the slowly growing subscriber base, while Apple continues to develop original content. The shift was also an acknowledgement of poor growth, especially relative to competing services.


title: Apple TV+

text: The back catalog development was also seen as a move by Apple to attempt to persuade free trial users to transition into paid users as the first wave of one-year trials was scheduled to expire in November 2020.


title: Apple TV+

text: On May 26, 2020, Apple announced their first acquisition of catalogue content would be the "Fraggle Rock" series. In addition to being the exclusive home of the 1983–1987 Jim Henson Company series, Apple will develop a new full length, rebooted "Fraggle Rock" series after the success of the "Fraggle Rock: Rock On!" short-form series on Apple TV+. On October 19, 2020, Apple announced the exclusive transmission rights of the various animated productions of the "Peanuts" franchise, withdrawing them from television after 55 years; as part of that agreement, Apple TV+ must make the major "Peanuts" specials available for free in short windows. After an outcry from fans of the specials, Apple sublicensed "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" to PBS for commercial-free airing. In 2021, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" also came to the PBS rotation. The PBS sublicensing arrangement ended prior to October 2022.


title: Apple TV+

text: Apple has announced a number of partnerships, bundles, and initiatives to increase subscriber growth in the service.


title: Apple TV+

text: It has included Apple TV+ in several reduced cost bundles designed to increase uptake and stickiness of subscriptions, including a bundle with Apple Music available for students, a bundle offering CBS All Access and Showtime for an additional US$9.99 monthly for TV+ subscribers, and a bundling of the service as part of the Apple One subscription package.


title: Apple TV+

text: It has partnered with large cable television MSOs and telecommunications mobile network operators, such as Altice USA, the UK's EE, and Ireland's Eir TV, to offer those systems' customers Apple TV+ as part of a bundle, sometimes including an Apple TV 4K set-top box.


title: Apple TV+

text: By February 2020, about 10 million people had signed up for Apple TV+. This included users who received a free one-year trial with the purchase of an Apple device, although it was estimated that less than 10% of Apple device owners eligible for the trial had activated it, perhaps out of Apple's failure to promote the service, Apple's desire to slow the uptake rate due to accounting concerns, or because of users' lack of interest in the service's perceived poor content options. About half of those 10 million users actively used the service.


title: Apple TV+

text: In late 2020, the continuing expansion of availability of the Apple TV app to a growing number of smart TV platforms and to newer lines of PlayStation and Xbox video game consoles (specifically, the PS4 and PS5, and the Xbox One, Series S, and Series X) was seen as potentially boosting subscriber numbers for Apple TV+, including as part of Apple One subscription bundle purchases. However, Apple has created no native TV app for the Windows and Android platforms, or an official method to stream the content to Chromecast or on the Android TV platform (except for select Sony Bravia television models), leaving users of those devices to use a web browser to view Apple TV+ content, where possible, or to employ other workarounds, especially for sending Apple TV+ content to a television set. On December 16, 2020, Google announced it would add the Apple TV app to its Chromecast with Google TV device in early 2021, and to its Android TV platform by June 1, 2021; Google subsequently made Apple TV available on its Chromecast with Google TV, as well as on select Sony and TCL smart TVs running the Google TV interface, on February 18, 2021. On December 18, 2020, the British Urban Film Festival announced that it was to be the first UK film festival to host all of its official selections on the Apple TV app.


title: Apple TV+

text: The service received several nominations for the 2021 Golden Globe Awards in both the television and film categories and was regarded as having "established an impressive track record for turning out consistently good — and sometimes great — programming for subscribers, despite offering a much, much smaller overall offering." Apple's series "Ted Lasso" won four Primetime Emmy Awards in 2021, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jason Sudeikis), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Brett Goldstein) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Hannah Waddingham).


title: Apple TV+

text: The service is the first streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Picture with CODA at the 94th Academy Awards.


title: Apple TV+

text: As of March 2022, Apple TV+ is estimated to have 25 million paid subscribers and an additional 50 million viewers who access the service via promotions.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: Seizing nine bridges with combined U.S. and British airborne forces (Market) followed by land forces swiftly following over the bridges (Garden).


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The airborne operation was planned and undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. Although the largest airborne operation of the war up to that point, Market Garden's ultimate outcome remains debated: The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, and limited V-2 rocket launching sites. However, it failed to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Highway 69 (later nicknamed "Hell's Highway") leading through the planned route was two lanes wide, partly raised above a surrounding flat terrain of polder or floodplain. The ground on either side of the highway was in places too soft to support tactical vehicle movement and there were numerous dikes and drainage ditches. Dikes tended to be topped by trees or large bushes, and roads and paths were lined with trees. In early autumn this meant that observation would be seriously restricted.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: There were six major water obstacles between the XXX Corps' jumping-off point and the objective of the north bank of the Nederrijn: the Wilhelmina Canal at Son en Breugel wide; the Zuid-Willems Canal at Veghel ; the Maas River at Grave ; the Maas-Waal Canal ; the Waal River at Nijmegen ; and the Nederrijn at Arnhem . Plans were made to seize bridges across all these obstacles nearly simultaneously – any failure to do so could result in serious delay or even defeat. In case bridges were demolished by the Germans, XXX Corps had plans to rebuild them. To this end, a vast quantity of bridging material was collected, along with 2,300 vehicles to carry it and 9,000 engineers to assemble it.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Although the area is generally flat and open with less than of variation in altitude, Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, commander of XXX Corps recalled that "The country was wooded and rather marshy which made any outflanking operation impossible." There were two important hill areas, high, that represented some of the highest ground in the Netherlands; one north and west of Arnhem and one in the 82nd Airborne Division's zone, the Groesbeek ridge. Seizure and defence of this elevated terrain was considered to be vital to holding the highway bridges.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Supreme Commander General Eisenhower's strategic goal was to encircle the heart of German industry, the Ruhr area, in a pincer movement. The northern end of the pincer would circumvent the northern end of the Siegfried Line, giving easier access into Germany across the north German plains, enabling mobile warfare. The prime aim of Operation Market Garden was to establish the northern end of a pincer, ready to project deeper into Germany. Allied forces would project north from Belgium, through the Netherlands, across the Rhine and consolidate north of Arnhem on the Dutch/German border, ready to close the pincer.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The operation made massive use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure the bridges and to allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to consolidate north of Arnhem. The operation required the seizure of the bridges by airborne troops across the Meuse River, two arms of the Rhine (the Waal River and the Lower Rhine), together with crossings over several smaller canals and tributaries. In contrast to this large airborne force, the ground forces were light, with only one corps moving north of Eindhoven, XXX Corps. XXX Corps took along 5,000 vehicles loaded with bridging equipment and 9,000 sappers.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The Allies captured several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen at the beginning of the operation. Horrocks' XXX Corps ground force advance was delayed by the initial failure of the airborne units to secure bridges at Son en Breugel and Nijmegen. German forces demolished the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal () at Son before it could be captured by the US 101st Airborne Division; a partly prefabricated Bailey bridge was then built over the canal by British sappers. This delayed XXX Corps' advance by 12 hours; however, they made up the time, reaching Nijmegen on schedule. The US 82nd Airborne Division's failure to capture the main highway bridge over the Waal River at Nijmegen before 20 September delayed the advance by 36 hours. XXX Corps had to first seize the bridge themselves, instead of speeding over a captured bridge onwards to Arnhem, where British paratroopers were still holding the north end of the bridge.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: At the northern point of the airborne operation, the British 1st Airborne Division initially encountered strong resistance. The delays in capturing the bridge at Nijmegen and constructing a Bailey bridge at Son gave time for German forces (the 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" and 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", which were in the Arnhem area at the start of the jump) to organize their counterattack. A small British force managed to capture the north end of the Arnhem road bridge, denying use of the intact bridge to German forces. After ground forces failed to relieve the paratroopers on time, they were overrun on 21 September. At the same time that XXX Corps' tanks moved over the Nijmegen bridge, 36 hours late, after seizing it from the Germans, the British paratroopers at the Arnhem bridge were capitulating, unable to hold on any longer. The remainder of the British 1st Airborne Division was trapped in a small pocket west of the Arnhem bridge, which was evacuated on 25 September after sustaining heavy casualties.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The Germans counter attacked the Nijmegen salient on September 30 but failed to retake any of the allied gains. The Allies, nevertheless, had failed to cross the Rhine, and the river remained a barrier to their advance into Germany until offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, and Rees and Wesel in March 1945. The failure of Operation Market Garden to form a foothold over the Rhine ended Allied hopes of finishing the war in Europe by Christmas 1944.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: After major defeats in Normandy in the summer of 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across France and the Low Countries towards the German border by the end of August. In the north, in the first week of September, the British 21st Army Group, under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, sent its British Second Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey advancing on a line running from Antwerp to the northern border of Belgium, while its First Canadian Army, under Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, was pursuing its task of recapturing the ports of Dieppe, Le Havre, and Boulogne-sur-Mer.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: To the south, the U.S. 12th Army Group under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley was nearing the German border and had been ordered to line up within the Aachen gap with Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges' U.S. First Army, in support of Montgomery's advance on the Ruhr. Meanwhile, the group's U.S. Third Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, moved eastward towards the Saarland. At the same time, the U.S. 6th Army Group under Lt. General Jacob L. Devers was advancing towards Germany after their landings in southern France.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Before D-Day, to disrupt German logistics efforts, the Allies spent considerable effort in bombing the French rail network, although aware this would also affect their own operations in the event of a breakout. The plan of Overlord had foreseen this, and it called for the exploitation of the ports in Brittany to move the supply points forward as the armies moved.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: By August, supply sources for the armies were still limited to the original invasion beaches, the nearby deep water port of Cherbourg at the tip of the Cotentin peninsula, and some minor ports in Normandy. Although over-the-beach supply operations outperformed expectations, September saw deteriorating weather and rising seas, and the end of their usefulness was clearly in sight. Additional deepwater ports were therefore required; Cherbourg was useful, but it was far from the front. The Brittany ports, still occupied by stiff German resistance, were equally unsuitable as they were situated along the western coast of France and were overcome by the rapid Allied advance toward the east.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: On 4 September, Montgomery's troops captured the massive port of Antwerp virtually intact, but the Scheldt Estuary leading to it was still under German control. Some argued that the capture of Le Havre and Antwerp made the original plan of clearing French ports further south unnecessary. Antwerp could have been opened sooner by the Canadian Army if Montgomery had given priority to clearing the approaches, but Eisenhower and Montgomery persisted with the original plans to capture many of the French ports.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The failure to open the harbours in Antwerp has been called "one of the greatest tactical mistakes of the war". The "Great Mistake" also included not cutting off the German Fifteenth Army of 80,000 men who were trapped on the coast west of Antwerp, and who were evacuated north over the Scheldt Estuary and then east along the Beveland Peninsula. These forces unexpectedly joined the battles for the bridges in the Eindhoven and Nijmegen sectors. Other important ports on the North Sea coast, such as Dunkirk, remained in German hands until May 1945.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Major efforts to reopen the French railroad network were started, and by the end of August, 18,000 men, including 5,000 prisoners of war, were engaged in railway construction. After many delays, the first trainload of supplies reached the U.S. Third Army depot at Le Mans on 17 August. But these efforts were far too late to have any effect on the battles taking place after Operation Cobra and the following breakout into France. Instead, all supplies for the armies had to be carried forward by truck, and there were simply not enough trucks for this effort. Advancing divisions of the U.S. 12th Army Group left all their heavy artillery and half their medium artillery west of the Seine, freeing their trucks to move supplies for other units. The 21st Army Group stripped two of its divisions of their transport, and four British truck companies were lent to the Americans.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Organization of the Red Ball Express did much to lessen the impact of the transport shortage but this "ad hoc" operation could not solve the problem. As the Allied pursuit across France and Belgium continued, distances increased beyond the range of a single truck, requiring fuel to be brought forward in those trucks to refuel the logistics further from the ports. Fuel consumption soared. Soon it took five gallons of fuel to deliver one gallon to the front. Fuel pipelines were constructed to shorten the supply lines, but were too time-consuming to build to be of much short-term use. By 28 August the Communications Zone could no longer guarantee fuel deliveries, and both the U.S. First and Third Armies reported less than a day's supply on hand. Furthermore, the stripping of the armies of their own transport had the effect of seriously slowing their own maneuverability.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: On 30 August, drastic steps were taken to suspend imports entirely; 21st Army Group would draw on its reserves in Normandy until the ports of Dieppe and Boulogne-sur-Mer could be opened. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that 1,400 British three-ton trucks were found to be useless because of faulty metal alloy used for pistons in both their original and their replacement engines – they could have moved 800 tons per day, enough for two divisions. Offensive operations slowed to a standstill, allowing the German forces their first respite in weeks.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Following the Allied breakout from Normandy, and the closure of the Falaise Pocket, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied armies on the Western Front, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, favored pursuit of the seemingly shattered German armies northwards and eastwards across the Seine, and ultimately to the Rhine on a broad front. While agreeing that Montgomery's drive towards the Ruhr should have priority, he still thought it was important to "get Patton moving again". To that end, in the first week of September 1944, Eisenhower authorized the U.S. First Army to cross the Rhine near Cologne, Bonn, and Koblenz while the U.S. Third Army crossed near Mannheim, Mainz, and Karlsruhe. Eisenhower relied on speed, which in turn depended on logistics, which he conceded were "stretched to the limit". This strategy was contested by his subordinates, particularly Montgomery, who argued that with the supply situation deteriorating, he would not be able to reach the Ruhr, but "a relocation of our present resources of every description "would" be adequate to get "one" thrust to Berlin". Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) did provide Montgomery with additional resources, principally additional locomotives and rolling stock, and priority for air supply.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Montgomery initially suggested "Operation Comet", a limited airborne "coup de main" operation that was to be launched on 2 September 1944. Comet envisioned using the British 1st Airborne Division, along with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, to secure several bridges over the Rhine River to aid the Allied advance into the North German Plain. The divisional headquarters for the British 1st Airborne Division, with the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were to land at Nijmegen, the British 1st Parachute Brigade was to land at Arnhem, and the British 4th Parachute Brigade was to land at Grave, Netherlands. However several days of poor weather and Montgomery's concerns over increasing levels of German resistance caused him to postpone the operation and then cancel it on 10 September.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Comet was replaced by a more ambitious plan to bypass the Siegfried Line by hooking around its northern end, allowing the Allies to cross the Rhine with large forces and trap the German Fifteenth Army by advancing from Arnhem to the shores of the IJsselmeer: Operation Market Garden. On 10 September Dempsey, the British Second Army commander, told Montgomery that he had doubts about this plan and that he instead favored an advance north-eastwards between the Reichswald forest and the Ruhr to Wesel. Montgomery replied that he had just received a signal from London that something needed to be done to neutralize the V-2 launch sites around The Hague (which were bombarding London) and that the plan must therefore proceed.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Angered by Eisenhower's reluctance, Montgomery flew to Brussels that afternoon to meet him. Montgomery demanded that Eisenhower's Chief of Staff leave the meeting while insisting that his own should remain. He then tore a file of Eisenhower's messages to shreds in front of him, argued for a concentrated northern thrust, and demanded priority in supplies. So fierce and unrestrained was Montgomery's language that Eisenhower reached out, patted Montgomery's knee, and said, "Steady, Monty! You can't talk to me like that. I'm your boss."


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Eisenhower stated his belief that advance on a broad front would soon provoke German forces to collapse. He allegedly told Montgomery why a "single thrust" toward Berlin was not going to be accepted.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: What you're proposing is this – if I give you all the supplies you want, you could go straight to Berlin – right straight (500 miles) to Berlin? Monty, you're nuts. You can't do it. What the hell[?] ... If you try a long column like that in a single thrust you'd have to throw off division after division to protect your flanks from attack.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Tedder however recorded at the time that "the advance to Berlin was not discussed as a serious issue, nor do I think it was so intended".


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Nevertheless, Eisenhower consented to Operation Market Garden, giving it "limited priority" in terms of supplies – and only as part of an advance on a broad front. Eisenhower promised that aircraft and trucks would deliver 1,000 tons of supplies per day. In vain, Montgomery complained about this to the Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff (VCIGS) in London, Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: For Market Garden, the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions would be maintained from British stocks for all common items such as food and fuel. Noncommon items like ammunition, ordnance, and signal and engineer stores were delivered by the Red Ball Express or by rail to No. 6 Army Roadhead at Grammont. Three newly arrived U.S. infantry divisions (the 26th, 95th, and 104th) were stripped of their transportation, which was used to form provisional truck companies. These were assigned to the Red Ball Express, releasing eight companies to Red Lion, a special route to support Market-Garden. Red Lion convoys exceeded their target, delivering 650 tons per day instead of 500. Half of the tonnage hauled was supplies for the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Eisenhower's decision to launch Market Garden was influenced by his desire to keep the retreating Germans under pressure. However, he was also under pressure from the United States to use the First Allied Airborne Army as soon as possible. After Normandy, the airborne forces (minus the British 6th Airborne Division, which remained in Normandy until early September) had been withdrawn to reform in England, re-forming into the First Allied Airborne Army of two British and three U.S. airborne divisions and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. In the following months, plans for eighteen airborne operations had been drafted but then cancelled at short notice, mostly when the rapidly moving Allied ground forces overran the intended drop zones.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Market would employ four of the six divisions of the First Allied Airborne Army. The U.S. 101st Airborne Division, under Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, would drop in two locations just north of XXX Corps to take the bridges north of Eindhoven at Son and Veghel. The 82nd Airborne Division, under Brigadier General James M. Gavin, would drop northeast of them to take the bridges at Grave and Nijmegen and the British 1st Airborne Division, under Major-General Roy Urquhart, with the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier General Stanisław Sosabowski, attached would drop at the extreme north end of the route, capturing the road bridge at Arnhem and the rail bridge at Oosterbeek. The 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division would be flown to the captured Deelen Airfield on D+5.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The First Allied Airborne Army had been created on 16 August as the result of British requests for a coordinated headquarters for airborne operations, a concept approved by General Eisenhower on 20 June. The British had strongly hinted that a British officer – Browning in particular – be appointed its commander. Browning for his part decided to bring his entire staff with him on the operation to establish his field HQ using the much-needed 32 Airspeed Horsa gliders for administrative personnel, and six Waco CG-4A gliders for U.S. Signals' personnel. Since the bulk of both troops and aircraft were American, Brereton, a U.S. Army Air Forces officer, was named by Eisenhower on 16 July and appointed by SHAEF on 2 August. Brereton had no experience in airborne operations but had extensive command experience at the air force level in several theaters, most recently as commander of Ninth Air Force, which gave him a working knowledge of the operations of IX Troop Carrier Command.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Market would be the largest airborne operation in history, delivering over 34,600 men of the 101st, 82nd and 1st Airborne Divisions and the Polish Brigade. 14,589 troops were landed by glider and 20,011 by parachute. Gliders also brought in 1,736 vehicles and 263 artillery pieces. 3,342 tons of ammunition and other supplies were brought by glider and parachute drop.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: To deliver its 36 battalions of airborne infantry and their support troops to the continent, the First Allied Airborne Army had under its operational control the 14 groups of IX Troop Carrier Command, and after 11 September the 16 squadrons of 38 Group RAF (an organization of converted bombers providing support to resistance groups) and a transport formation, 46 Group.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: The combined force had 1,438 C-47/Dakota transports (1,274 USAAF and 164 RAF) and 321 converted RAF bombers. The Allied glider force had been rebuilt after Normandy until by 16 September it numbered 2,160 CG-4A Waco gliders, 916 Airspeed Horsas (812 RAF and 104 U.S. Army) and 64 General Aircraft Hamilcars (large cargo gliders). The U.S. had only 2,060 glider pilots available, so that none of its gliders would have a co-pilot but would instead carry an extra passenger.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Because the C-47s served as paratrooper transports and glider tugs and because IX Troop Carrier Command would provide all the transports for both British parachute brigades, this massive force could deliver only 60 percent of the ground forces in one lift. This limit was the reason for the decision to split the troop-lift schedule into successive days. Ninety percent of the USAAF transports on the first day would drop parachute troops, with the same proportion towing gliders on the second day (the RAF transports were almost entirely used for glider operations). Brereton rejected having two airlifts on the first day, although this had been accomplished during Operation Dragoon, albeit with slightly more daylight (45 minutes) and against negligible opposition.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: 17 September was on a dark moon and in the days following it the new moon set before dark. Allied airborne doctrine prohibited big operations in the absence of all light, so the operation would have to be carried out in daylight. The risk of "Luftwaffe" interception was judged small, given the crushing air superiority of Allied fighters but there were concerns about the increasing number of flak units in the Netherlands, especially around Arnhem. Brereton's experience with tactical air operations judged that flak suppression would be sufficient to permit the troop carriers to operate without prohibitive loss. The invasion of Southern France had demonstrated that large scale daylight airborne operations were feasible. Daylight operations, in contrast to those in Sicily and Normandy, would have much greater navigational accuracy and time-compression of succeeding waves of aircraft, tripling the number of troops that could be delivered per hour. The time required to assemble airborne units on the drop zone after landing would be reduced by two-thirds.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: IX Troop Carrier Command's transport aircraft had to tow gliders and drop paratroopers, duties that could not be performed simultaneously. Although every division commander requested two drops on the first day, Brereton's staff scheduled only one lift based on the need to prepare for the first drop by bombarding German flak positions for half a day and a weather forecast on the afternoon of 16 September (which soon proved erroneous) that the area would have clear conditions for four days, so allowing drops during them.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: After one week preparations were declared complete. The planning and training for the airborne drops at Sicily and Normandy had taken months. One United States Air Force historian noted that 'Market' was the only large airborne operation of the war in which the USAAF "had no training program, no rehearsals, almost no exercises, and a...low level of tactical training."


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Gavin was skeptical of the plan. In his diary he wrote, "It looks very rough. If I get through this one I will be very lucky." He was also highly critical of Browning, writing that he "...unquestionably lacks the standing, influence and judgment that comes from a proper troop experience... his staff was superficial... Why the British units fumble along... becomes more and more apparent. Their tops lack the know-how, never do they get down into the dirt and learn the hard way."


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Garden consisted primarily of XXX Corps and was initially spearheaded by the Guards Armoured Division, with the 43rd Wessex and 50th Northumbrian Infantry Divisions in reserve. They were expected to arrive at the south end of the 101st Airborne Division's area on the first day, the 82nd's by the second day and the 1st's by the fourth day at the latest. The airborne divisions would then join XXX Corps in the breakout from the Arnhem bridgehead.


title: Operation Market Garden

text: Four days was a long time for an airborne force to fight unsupported. Even so, before Operation Market Garden started it seemed to the Allied high command that the German resistance had broken. Most of the German Fifteenth Army in the area appeared to be fleeing from the Canadians and they were known to have no "Panzergruppen". It was thought that XXX Corps would face limited resistance on their route up Highway 69 and little armour. Meanwhile, the German defenders would be spread out over trying to contain the pockets of airborne forces, from the Second Army in the south to Arnhem in the north.