Coordinates: 05h 30m 00s, +00° 00′ 00″
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Constellation | |
Abbreviation | Ori |
---|---|
Genitive | Orionis |
Pronunciation | /ɒˈraɪ.ən/ |
Symbolism | Orion, the Hunter |
Right ascension | 5h |
Declination | +5° |
Quadrant | NQ1 |
Area | 594 sq. deg. (26th) |
Main stars | 7 |
Bayer/Flamsteed stars | 81 |
Stars with planets | 10 |
Stars brighter than 3.00m | 8 |
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly) | 8 |
Brightest star | Rigel (β Ori) (0.12m) |
Messier objects | 3 |
Meteor showers | Orionids Chi Orionids |
Bordering constellations | Gemini Taurus Eridanus Lepus Monoceros |
Visible at latitudes between +85° and −75°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January. Click on to see large image |
Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous[1] and recognizable constellations in the night sky.[2] It is named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are blue-white Rigel (Beta Orionis) and red Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis).
History and mythology
The earliest known depiction linked to the constellation of Orion is a prehistoric (Aurignacian) mammothivory carving found in a cave in the Ach valley in West Germany in 1979. Archaeologists estimate that it is 32,000 to 38,000 years old.[3][4][5] The distinctive pattern of Orion is recognized in numerous cultures around the world, and many myths are associated with it. Orion is used as a symbol in the modern world.
Ancient Near East
The Babylonian star catalogues of the Late Bronze Age name Orion MULSIPA.ZI.AN.NA,[note 1] 'The Heavenly Shepherd' or 'True Shepherd of Anu' – Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms.[6] The Babylonian constellation is sacred to Papshukal and Ninshubur, both minor gods fulfilling the role of 'messenger to the gods'. Papshukal is closely associated with the figure of a walking bird on Babylonian boundary stones, and on the star map the figure of the Rooster is located below and behind the figure of the True Shepherd—both constellations represent the herald of the gods, in his bird and human forms respectively.[7]
In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose heliacal rising was the basis for the SolarEgyptian calendar, Sah was closely linked with Sopdet, the goddess who personified Sirius. The god Sopdu is said to be the son of Sah and Sopdet. Sah is syncretized with Osiris, while Sopdet is syncretized with Osiris' mythological wife, Isis. In the Pyramid Texts, from the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, Sah is one of many gods whose form the dead pharaoh is said to take in the afterlife.[8]
The Armenians identified their legendary patriarch and founder Hayk with Orion. Hayk is also the name of the Orion constellation in the Armenian translation of the Bible.[9]
The Bible mentions Orion three times, naming it 'Kesil' (כסיל, literally – fool). Though, this name perhaps is etymologically connected with 'Kislev', the name for the ninth month of the Hebrew calendar (i.e. November–December), which, in turn, may derive from the Hebrew root K-S-L as in the words 'kesel, kisla' (כֵּסֶל, כִּסְלָה, hope, positiveness), i.e. hope for winter rains.: Job 9:9 ('He is the maker of the Bear and Orion'), Job 38:31 ('Can you loosen Orion's belt?'), and Amos 5:8 ('He who made the Pleiades and Orion').
In ancient Aram, the constellation was known as Nephîlā′, the Nephilim are said to be Orion's descendants.[10]
Greco-Roman antiquity
In Greek mythology, Orion was a gigantic, supernaturally strong hunter,[11] born to Euryale, a Gorgon, and Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea. One myth recounts Gaia's rage at Orion, who dared to say that he would kill every animal on Earth. The angry goddess tried to dispatch Orion with a scorpion. This is given as the reason that the constellations of Scorpius and Orion are never in the sky at the same time. However, Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, revived Orion with an antidote. This is said to be the reason that the constellation of Ophiuchus stands midway between the Scorpion and the Hunter in the sky.[12]
The constellation is mentioned in Horace's Odes (Ode 3.27.18), Homer's Odyssey (Book 5, line 283) and Iliad, and Virgil's Aeneid (Book 1, line 535)
Middle East
In medieval Muslim astronomy, Orion was known as al-jabbar, 'the giant'.[13] Orion's sixth brightest star, Saiph, is named from the Arabic, saif al-jabbar, meaning 'sword of the giant'.[14]
China
In China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansionsSieu (Xiu) (宿). It is known as Shen (參), literally meaning 'three', for the stars of Orion's Belt. (See Chinese constellations)
The Chinese character 參 (pinyin shēn) originally meant the constellation Orion (Chinese: 參宿; pinyin: shēnxiù); its Shang dynasty version, over three millennia old, contains at the top a representation of the three stars of Orion's belt atop a man's head (the bottom portion representing the sound of the word was added later).[15]
India
The Rigveda refers to the Orion Constellation as Mriga (The Deer).[16]It is said that two bright stars in the front and two bright stars in the rear are The hunting dogs, the one comparatively less bright star in the middle and ahead of two front dogs is The hunter and three aligned bright stars are in the middle of all four hunting dogs is The Deer (The Mriga) and three little aligned but less brighter stars is The Baby Deer. The Mriga means Deer, locally known as Harnu in folk parlance. There are many folk songs narrating the Harnu. The Malay called Orion's Belt Bintang Tiga Beradik (the 'Three Brother Star').[citation needed]
Nataraja, 'the cosmic dancer', is often interpreted as the representation of Orion. Rudra, the Rigvedic form of Shiva, is the presiding deity of Ardra nakshatra (Betelgeuse) of Hindu astrology. [17]
The Jain Symbol carved in Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, India in 1st century BCE[18] has striking resemblance with Orion.
Bugis sailors identified the three stars in Orion's Belt as tanra tellué, meaning 'sign of three'.[19]
European folklore
In old Hungarian tradition, 'Orion' is known as (magic) Archer (Íjász), or Reaper (Kaszás). In recently rediscovered myths, he is called Nimrod (Hungarian 'Nimród'), the greatest hunter, father of the twins 'Hunor' and 'Magor'. The 'π' and 'o' stars (on upper right) form together the reflex bow or the lifted scythe. In other Hungarian traditions, 'Orion's belt' is known as 'Judge's stick' (Bírópálca).[20]
In Scandinavian tradition, 'Orion's belt' was known as Frigg's Distaff (friggerock) or Freyja's distaff.[21]
The Finns call Orion's belt and the stars below it Väinämöisen viikate (Väinämöinen's scythe).[22] Another name for the asterism of Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka is Väinämöisen vyö (Väinämöinen's Belt) and the stars 'hanging' from the belt as Kalevanmiekka (Kaleva's sword).
In Siberia, the Chukchi people see Orion as a hunter; an arrow he has shot is represented by Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), with the same figure as other Western depictions.[23]
Americas
The Seri people of northwestern Mexico call the three stars in the belt of Orion Hapj (a name denoting a hunter) which consists of three stars: Hap (mule deer), Haamoja (pronghorn), and Mojet (bighorn sheep). Hap is in the middle and has been shot by the hunter; its blood has dripped onto Tiburón Island.[24]
The same three stars are known in Spain and most of Latin America as 'Las tres Marías' (Spanish for 'The Three Marys').In Puerto Rico, the three stars are known as the 'Los Tres Reyes Magos' (Spanish for The three Wise Men).[25]
The Ojibwa (Chippewa) Native Americans call this constellation Kabibona'kan, the Winter Maker, as its presence in the night sky heralds winter.[citation needed]
To the Lakota Native Americans, Tayamnicankhu (Orion's Belt) is the spine of a bison. The great rectangle of Orion is the bison's ribs; the Pleiades star cluster in nearby Taurus is the bison's head; and Sirius in Canis Major, known as Tayamnisinte, is its tail. Another Lakota myth mentions that the bottom half of Orion, the Constellation of the Hand, represented the arm of a chief that was ripped off by the Thunder People as a punishment from the gods for his selfishness. His daughter offered to marry the person who can retrieve his arm from the sky, so the young warrior Fallen Star (whose father was a star and whose mother was human) returned his arm and married his daughter, symbolizing harmony between the gods and humanity with the help of the younger generation. The index finger is represented by Rigel; the Orion Nebula is the thumb; the Belt of Orion is the wrist; and the star Beta Eridani is the pinky finger.[26]
Polynesian
The seven primary stars of Orion make up the Polynesian constellation Heiheionakeiki which represents a child's string figure similar to a cat's cradle.
Contemporary symbolism
The imagery of the belt and sword has found its way into popular western culture, for example in the form of the shoulder insignia of the 27th Infantry Division of the United States Army during both World Wars, probably owing to a pun on the name of the division's first commander, Major General John F. O'Ryan.[citation needed]
The film distribution company Orion Pictures used the constellation as its logo.[27]
Depictions
In artistic renderings, the surrounding constellations are sometimes related to Orion: he is depicted standing next to the river Eridanus with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, fighting Taurus. He is sometimes depicted hunting Lepus the hare. He sometimes is depicted to have a lion's hide in his hand.
There are alternative ways to visualise Orion. From the Southern Hemisphere, Orion is oriented south-upward, and the belt and sword are sometimes called the saucepan or pot in Australia and New Zealand. Orion's Belt is called Drie Konings (Three Kings) or the Drie Susters (Three Sisters) by Afrikaans speakers in South Africa[28] and are referred to as les Trois Rois (the Three Kings) in Daudet's Lettres de Mon Moulin (1866). The appellation Driekoningen (the Three Kings) is also often found in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch star charts and seaman's guides. The same three stars are known in Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines as 'Las Tres Marías' (The Three Marys), and as 'Los Tres Reyes Magos' (The three Wise Men) in Puerto Rico.[25]
Even traditional depictions of Orion have varied greatly. Cicero drew Orion in a similar fashion to the modern depiction. The Hunter held an unidentified animal skin aloft in his right hand; his hand was represented by Omicron2 Orionis and the skin was represented by the 5 stars designated Pi Orionis. Kappa and Beta Orionis represented his left and right knees, while Eta and Lambda Leporis were his left and right feet, respectively. As in the modern depiction, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta represented his belt. His left shoulder was represented by Alpha Orionis, and Mu Orionis made up his left arm. Lambda Orionis was his head and Gamma, his right shoulder. The depiction of Hyginus was similar to that of Cicero, though the two differed in a few important areas. Cicero's animal skin became Hyginus's shield (Omicron and Pi Orionis), and instead of an arm marked out by Mu Orionis, he holds a club (Chi Orionis). His right leg is represented by Theta Orionis and his left leg is represented by Lambda, Mu, and Epsilon Leporis. Further Western European and Arabic depictions have followed these two models.[23]
Characteristics
Orion is bordered by Taurus to the northwest, Eridanus to the southwest, Lepus to the south, Monoceros to the east, and Gemini to the northeast. Covering 594 square degrees, Orion ranks twenty-sixth of the 88 constellations in size. The constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 26 sides. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 04h 43.3m and 06h 25.5m, while the declination coordinates are between 22.87° and −10.97°.[29] The constellation's three-letter abbreviation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is 'Ori'.[30]
Orion is most visible in the evening sky from January to March,[31] winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. In the tropics (less than about 8° from the equator), the constellation transits at the zenith.
In the period May–July (summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Southern Hemisphere), Orion is in the daytime sky and thus invisible at most latitudes. However, for much of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere's winter months, the Sun is below the horizon even at midday. Stars (and thus Orion) are then visible at twilight for a few hours around local noon, low in the North. At the same time of day at the South Pole itself (Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station), Rigel is only 8° above the horizon, and the Belt sweeps just along it. In the Southern Hemisphere's summer months, when Orion is normally visible in the night sky, the constellation is actually not visible in Antarctica because the sun does not set at that time of year south of the Antarctic Circle.[32][33]
In countries close to the equator (e.g., Kenya, Indonesia, Colombia, Ecuador), Orion appears overhead in December around midnight and in the February evening sky.
Navigational aid
Orion is very useful as an aid to locating other stars. By extending the line of the Belt southeastward, Sirius (α CMa) can be found; northwestward, Aldebaran (α Tau). A line eastward across the two shoulders indicates the direction of Procyon (α CMi). A line from Rigel through Betelgeuse points to Castor and Pollux (α Gem and β Gem). Additionally, Rigel is part of the Winter Circle asterism. Sirius and Procyon, which may be located from Orion by following imaginary lines (see map), also are points in both the Winter Triangle and the Circle.[34]
Features
Orion's seven brightest stars form a distinctive hourglass-shaped asterism, or pattern, in the night sky. Four stars—Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Saiph—form a large roughly rectangular shape, at the center of which lies the three stars of Orion's Belt—Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Descending from the 'belt' is a smaller line of three stars, Orion's Sword (the middle of which is in fact not a star but the Orion Nebula), also known as the hunter's sword.
Many of the stars are luminous hot blue supergiants, with the stars of the belt and sword forming the Orion OB1 Association. Standing out by its red hue, Betelgeuse may nevertheless be a runaway member of the same group.
Bright stars
- Betelgeuse, also designated Alpha Orionis, is a massive M-type red supergiant star nearing the end of its life. It is the second brightest star in Orion, and is a semiregular variable star.[35] It serves as the 'right shoulder' of the hunter it represents (assuming that he is facing the observer). It is generally the eleventh brightest star in the night sky, but this has varied between being the tenth brightest to the 23rd brightest by the end of 2019.[36][37] The end of its life is expected to result in a supernova explosion that will be highly visible from Earth, possibly outshining the Earth's moon and being visible during the day. This is most likely to occur within the next 100,000 years.[38]
- Rigel, also known as Beta Orionis, is a B-type blue supergiant that is the sixth brightest star in the night sky. Similar to Betelgeuse, Rigel is fusingheavy elements in its core and will pass its supergiant stage soon (on an astronomical timescale), either collapsing in the case of a supernova or shedding its outer layers and turning into a white dwarf. It serves as the left foot of Orion, the hunter.[39]
- Bellatrix is designated Gamma Orionis by Johann Bayer. It is the twenty-seventh brightest star in the night sky. Bellatrix is considered a B-type blue giant, though it is too small to explode in a supernova. Bellatrix's luminosity is derived from its high temperature rather than a large radius.[40] Bellatrix marks Orion's left shoulder and it means the 'female warrior', and is sometimes known colloquially as the 'Amazon Star'.[41] It is the closest major star in Orion at only 244.6 light years.
- Mintaka is designated Delta Orionis, despite being the faintest of the three stars in Orion's Belt. Its name means 'the belt'. It is a multiple star system, composed of a large B-type blue giant and a more massive O-type main-sequence star. The Mintaka system constitutes an eclipsing binary variable star, where the eclipse of one star over the other creates a dip in brightness. Mintaka is the westernmost of the three stars of Orion's Belt, as well as the northernmost.[34]
- Alnilam is designated Epsilon Orionis and is named for the Arabic phrase meaning 'string of pearls'.[34] It is the middle and brightest of the three stars of Orion's Belt. Alnilam is a B-type blue supergiant; despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun as the other two belt stars, its luminosity makes it nearly equal in magnitude. Alnilam is losing mass quickly, a consequence of its size. It is the farthest major star in Orion at only 1,344 light years.
- Alnitak, meaning 'the girdle', is designated Zeta Orionis, and is the easternmost star in Orion's Belt. It is a triple star system, with the primary star being a hot blue supergiant and the brightest class Ostar in the night sky.
- Saiph is designated Kappa Orionis by Bayer, and serves as Orion's right foot. It is of a similar distance and size to Rigel, but appears much fainter. It means the 'sword of the giant'
- Meissa is designated Lambda Orionis, forms Orion's head, and is a multiple star with a combined apparent magnitude of 3.33. Its name means the 'shining one'.
Proper name | Bayer designation | Light years | Apparent magnitude |
---|---|---|---|
Betelgeuse | α Orionis | 624 | 0.42 |
Rigel | β Orionis | 772 | 0.18 |
Bellatrix | γ Orionis | 245 | 1.64 |
Mintaka | δ Orionis | 916 | 2.20 |
Alnilam | ε Orionis | 1,342 | 1.69 |
Alnitak | ζ Orionis | 800 | 1.88 |
Saiph | κ Orionis | 650 | 2.07 |
Meissa | λ Orionis | 1,042 | 3.47 |
Belt
Orion's Belt or The Belt of Orion is an asterism within the constellation. It consists of the three bright stars Zeta (Alnitak), Epsilon (Alnilam), and Delta (Mintaka). Alnitak is around 800 light years away from earth and is 100,000 times more luminous than the Sun; much of its radiation is in the ultraviolet range, which the human eye cannot see.[42] Alnilam is approximately 1340 light years away from Earth, shines with magnitude 1.70, and with ultraviolet light is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun.[43] Mintaka is 915 light years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. It is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun and is a double star: the two orbit each other every 5.73 days.[44] In the Northern Hemisphere, Orion's Belt is best visible in the night sky during the month of January around 9:00 pm, when it is approximately around the local meridian.[2]
Just southwest of Alnitak lies Sigma Orionis, a multiple star system composed of five stars that have a combined apparent magnitude of 3.7 and lying 1150 light years distant. Southwest of Mintaka lies the quadruple star Eta Orionis.
Sword
Orion's Sword contains the Orion Nebula, the Messier 43 nebula, the Running Man Nebula, and the stars Theta Orionis, Iota Orionis, and 42 Orionis.
Head
Three stars comprise a small triangle that marks the head. The apex is marked by Meissa (Lambda Orionis), a hot blue giant of spectral type O8 III and apparent magnitude 3.54, which lies some 1100 light years distant. Phi-1 and Phi-2 Orionis make up the base. Also nearby is the very young star FU Orionis.
Club
Stretching north from Betelgeuse are the stars that make up Orion's club. Mu Orionis marks the elbow, Nu and Xi mark the handle of the club, and Chi1 and Chi2 mark the end of the club. Just east of Chi1 is the Mira-type variable red giant U Orionis.
Shield
West from Bellatrix lie six stars all designated Pi Orionis (π1 Ori, π2 Ori, π3 Ori, π4 Ori, π5 Ori and π6 Ori) which make up Orion's shield.
Meteor showers
Around 20 October each year the Orionid meteor shower (Orionids) reaches its peak. Coming from the border with the constellation Gemini as many as 20 meteors per hour can be seen. The shower's parent body is Halley's Comet.[45]
Deep-sky objects
Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword, consisting of the multiple stars θ1 and θ2 Orionis, called the Trapezium and the Orion Nebula (M42). This is a spectacular object that can be clearly identified with the naked eye as something other than a star. Using binoculars, its clouds of nascent stars, luminous gas, and dust can be observed. The Trapezium cluster has many newborn stars, including several brown dwarfs, all of which are at an approximate distance of 1,500 light-years. Named for the four bright stars that form a trapezoid, it is largely illuminated by the brightest stars, which are only a few hundred thousand years old. Observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory show both the extreme temperatures of the main stars—up to 60,000 kelvins—and the star forming regions still extant in the surrounding nebula.[46]
M78 (NGC 2068) is a nebula in Orion. With an overall magnitude of 8.0, it is significantly dimmer than the Great Orion Nebula that lies to its south; however, it is at approximately the same distance, at 1600 light-years from Earth. It can easily be mistaken for a comet in the eyepiece of a telescope. M78 is associated with the variable starV351 Orionis, whose magnitude changes are visible in very short periods of time.[47] Another fairly bright nebula in Orion is NGC 1999, also close to the Great Orion Nebula. It has an integrated magnitude of 10.5 and is 1500 light-years from Earth. The variable star V380 Orionis is embedded in NGC 1999.[48]
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Another famous nebula is IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula, near ζ Orionis. It contains a dark dust cloud whose shape gives the nebula its name.
NGC 2174 is an emission nebula located 6400 light-years from Earth.
Besides these nebulae, surveying Orion with a small telescope will reveal a wealth of interesting deep-sky objects, including M43, M78, as well as multiple stars including Iota Orionis and Sigma Orionis. A larger telescope may reveal objects such as Barnard's Loop and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), as well as fainter and tighter multiple stars and nebulae.
All of these nebulae are part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which is located approximately 1,500 light-years away and is hundreds of light-years across. It is one of the most intense regions of stellar formation visible within our galaxy.
Future
Orion is located on the celestial equator, but it will not always be so located due to the effects of precession of the Earth's axis. Orion lies well south of the ecliptic, and it only happens to lie on the celestial equator because the point on the ecliptic that corresponds to the June solstice is close to the border of Gemini and Taurus, to the north of Orion. Precession will eventually carry Orion further south, and by AD 14000, Orion will be far enough south that it will no longer be visible from the latitude of Great Britain.[49]
Further in the future, Orion's stars will gradually move away from the constellation due to proper motion. However, Orion's brightest stars all lie at a large distance from the Earth on an astronomical scale—much farther away than Sirius, for example. Orion will still be recognizable long after most of the other constellations—composed of relatively nearby stars—have distorted into new configurations, with the exception of a few of its stars eventually exploding as supernovae, for example Betelgeuse, which is predicted to explode sometime in the next million years.[50]
See also
- Hubble 3D (2010), IMAX film with an elaborate CGI 'fly-through' of the Orion Nebula
References
Explanatory notes
- ^The determiner glyph for 'constellation' or 'star' in these lists is MUL (𒀯). See Babylonian star catalogues.
Citations
- ^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Orion' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 276.
- ^ abDolan, Chris. 'Orion'. Archived from the original on 2011-12-07. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^Rappenglück, Michael (2001). 'The Anthropoid in the Sky: Does a 32,000 Years Old Ivory Plate Show the Constellation Orion Combined with a Pregnancy Calendar'. Symbols, Calendars and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture. IXth Annual meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC). Uppsala Astronomical Observatory. pp. 51–55.
- ^'The Decorated Plate of the Geißenklösterle, Germany'. UNESCO: Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^Whitehouse, David (January 21, 2003). ''Oldest star chart' found'. BBC. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^John H. Rogers, 'Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions', Journal of the British Astronomical Association108 (1998) 9–28
- ^Babylonian Star-lore by Gavin White, Solaria Pubs, 2008, page 218ff & 170
- ^Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 127, 211
- ^Kurkjian, Vahan (1968). 'History of Armenia'. uchicago.edu. Michigan. 8.
- ^Peake's commentary on the Bible, 1962, page 260 section 221f.
- ^'Star Tales – Orion'. www.ianridpath.com.
- ^Staal 1988, pp. 61–62.
- ^Metlitzki, Dorothee (1977). The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. United States: Yale University Press. p. 79. ISBN0-300-11410-9.
- ^Kaler, James B., 'SAIPH (Kappa Orionis)', Stars, University of Illinois, retrieved 2012-01-27
- ^漢語大字典 Hànyǔ Dàzìdiǎn (in Chinese), 1992 (p.163). 湖北辭書出版社和四川辭書出版社 Húbĕi Cishu Chūbǎnshè and Sìchuān Cishu Chūbǎnshè, re-published in traditional character form by 建宏出版社 Jiànhóng Publ. in Taipei, Taiwan; ISBN957-813-478-9
- ^Holay, P. V. (1998). 'Vedic astronomers'. Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India. 26: 91–106. Bibcode:1998BASI..26..91H.
- ^Srinivasan, Sharada (1998). 'Vedic astronomers'. World Archaeology. 36: 432–50. Bibcode:1998BASI..26..91H. doi:10.1080/1468936042000282726821. S2CID26503807.
- ^''Must See' Indian Heritage'. asimustsee.nic.in. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^Kelley, David H.; Milone, Eugene F.; Aveni, A.F. (2011). Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy. New York, New York: Springer. p. 344. ISBN978-1-4419-7623-9.
- ^Toroczkai-Wigand Ede : Öreg csillagok ('Old stars'), Hungary (1915) reedited with Műszaki Könyvkiadó METRUM (1988).
- ^Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 228.
- ^Elo, Ismo. 'Tähdet ja tähdistöt'. Ursa.fi. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^ abStaal 1988, p. 63.
- ^Moser, Mary B.; Marlett, Stephen A. (2005). Comcáac quih yaza quih hant ihíip hac: Diccionario seri-español-inglés(PDF) (in Spanish and English). Hermosillo, Sonora and Mexico City: Universidad de Sonora and Plaza y Valdés Editores.
- ^ ab'Home – El Nuevo Día'. Elnuevodia.com. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^'Windows to the Universe'. Windows2universe.org. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^Kim, Wook (2012-09-21). 'Mountain to Moon: 10 Movie Studio Logos and the Stories Behind Them'. Time.com. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
- ^'The Three Kings and the Cape Clouds: Two astronomical puzzles'. psychohistorian.org.
- ^'Orion, Constellation Boundary'. The Constellations. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
- ^Russell, Henry Norris (1922). 'The New International Symbols for the Constellations'. Popular Astronomy. Vol. 30. pp. 469–71. Bibcode:1922PA...30.469R.
- ^Ellyard, David; Tirion, Wil (2008) [1993]. The Southern Sky Guide (3rd ed.). Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN978-0-521-71405-1.
- ^'A Beginner's Guide to the Heavens in the Southern Hemisphere'. dibonsmith.com.
- ^'The Evening Sky Map Southern Hemisphere Edition'. skymaps.com.
- ^ abcStaal 1988, p. 61.
- ^'Variable Star of the Month, Alpha Ori'. Variable Star of the Season. American Association of Variable Star Observers. 2000. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Waiting for Betelgeuse: What's Up with the Tempestuous Star?'. December 26, 2019.
- ^'Betelgeuse'. Chris Dolan's Constellations. University of Wisconsin. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^Prior, Ryan. 'A giant red star is acting weird and scientists think it may be about to explode'. CNN.
- ^'Rigel'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Bellatrix'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Bellatrix'. Chris Dolan's Constellations. University of Wisconsin. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Alnitak'. Stars.astro.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^'Alnilam'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-11-24. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^'Mintaka'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-11-24. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^Jenniskens, Peter (September 2012). 'Mapping Meteoroid Orbits: New Meteor Showers Discovered'. Sky & Telescope. p. 22.
- ^Wilkins, Jamie; Dunn, Robert (2006). 300 Astronomical Objects: A Visual Reference to the Universe (1st ed.). Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books. ISBN978-1-55407-175-3.
- ^Levy 2005, pp. 99–100.
- ^Levy 2005, p. 107.
- ^'Precession'. Myweb.tiscali.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^Wilkins, Alasdair. 'Earth may soon have a second sun'. io9. Space Porn.
Bibliography
- Levy, David H. (2005). Deep Sky Objects. Prometheus Books. ISBN1-59102-361-0.
- Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2007). Stars and Planets Guide, Collins, London. ISBN978-0-00-725120-9. Princeton Universitl Press, Princeton. ISBN978-0-691-13556-4.
- Staal, Julius D. W. (1988), The New Patterns in the Sky, McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company, ISBN0-939923-04-1
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Orion. |
Orion Pictures | |
Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Film, television |
Founded | 1978 (original) 2014 (relaunch) |
Founders |
|
Defunct | 1999 (original) |
Fate | Bankruptcy; sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Worldwide | |
Key people |
|
Products | Motion pictures |
Brands | Orion Classics |
Owner | MGM Holdings (Sale to Amazon pending) |
Parent |
|
Subsidiaries | Orion Pictures Distribution Corporation Orion TV Productions, Inc. |
Website | orionpictures.com |
Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing LLC) is an American motion picture producer owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. During this early period, Orion was considered a mini-major studio.[3]
Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and several other prominent directors worked with Orion during its most successful years from 1978 to 1992. Of the films distributed by Orion, four won Academy Awards for Best Picture: Amadeus (1984), Platoon (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).[4] Two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Mississippi Burning (1988), were nominated for that same category.
Since 1997, Orion has been owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived the Orion name for television; a year later, Orion Pictures was relaunched by the studio.
History
1978–1981: Beginnings
In January 1978, three executives of Transamerica (TA)-owned studio United Artists (UA)—Arthur B. Krim (chairman), Eric Pleskow (president and chief executive officer), and Robert S. Benjamin (chairman of the finance committee)—quit their jobs. Krim and Benjamin had headed UA since 1951 and subsequently turned around the then-flailing studio with a number of critical and commercial successes. Change had begun once Transamerica purchased UA in 1967 and, within a decade, a rift formed between Krim and Transamerica chairman John R. Beckett concerning the studio's operations. Krim suggested spinning off United Artists into a separate company which was rejected by Beckett.[5]
The last straw came for Pleskow when he refused to collect and deliver the medical records of UA department heads to Transamerica's offices in San Francisco for the sake of confidentiality. The tensions only worsened when Fortune magazine reported an article on the clash between UA and TA in which Beckett had stated that, if the executives disliked the parent company's treatment of them, they should resign.[5] Krim, Benjamin and Pleskow quit United Artists on January 13, 1978, followed by the exits of senior vice presidents William Bernstein and Mike Medavoy three days later. The week following the resignations, according to the website Reference for Business, 63 important Hollywood figures took out an advertisement in a trade paper warning UA that it had made a fatal mistake in letting the five men leave. The 'fatal mistake' came true following the box-office disaster of Heaven's Gate[6] in 1980 which led to Transamerica selling UA to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[7]
In February 1978, the five men forged a deal with Warner Bros. The executives formed Orion Pictures Company, named after the constellation which they claimed had five main stars (it actually has seven or eight). The new company intended only to finance projects, giving the filmmakers complete creative autonomy; this ideal had been successfully implemented at United Artists. Orion held a $100 million line of credit and its films would be distributed by the Warner Bros. studio. Orion, however, was contractually given free rein over distribution and advertising as well as the number and type of films the executives chose to invest in.[8]
In late March 1978, Orion signed its first contract, a two-picture deal with John Travolta's production company. Contracts with actress and director Barbra Streisand; actors James Caan, Jane Fonda, Peter Sellers, Jon Voight, and Burt Reynolds; directors Francis Ford Coppola and Blake Edwards; writer/director John Milius; singer Peter Frampton; and producer Ray Stark soon materialized.[6][9] Orion also developed a co-financing and distribution deal with EMI Films.[6] In its first year, Orion had fifteen films in production and had a dozen more actors, directors and producers lining up to sign with them.[6]
In 1979, Benjamin died. Orion's first film, A Little Romance,[10] was released in April that year. Later that year, Orion released Blake Edwards' 10 which became a commercial success, the first for Edwards in over a decade (aside from installments of The Pink Panther franchise). Other films released by Orion over the next two years included a few successes such as Caddyshack (1980) and Arthur (1981); critically praised but underperforming films such as The Great Santini (1979), an adaptation of a Pat Conroy novel, and Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (1981); and pictures by young writer-directors such as Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers (1979) and Nicholas Meyer's debut Time After Time (1979); plus Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) which Orion only distributed in the United States. Out of the 23 films Orion released between April 1979 and December 1981, only a third of them made a profit.[11] Orion executives were conflicted over financing big-budgeted films and passed on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) for that reason.[12]
1982–1986: Split from Warner Bros.
By early 1982, Orion had severed its distribution ties with Warner. As part of the deal, the rights to Orion's films made up to that point were sold to Warner. Orion was now looking to have its own distribution network by acquiring another company with such capabilities. The four partners looked into Allied Artists and Embassy Pictures[13] before settling on Filmways.[14] Orion subsequently purchased Filmways and reorganized the flailing company. New employees were hired and all of Filmways' non-entertainment assets (Grosset & Dunlap and Broadcast Electronics) were sold off.[6][14]
Another result of the merger was that Orion entered television production. Orion's biggest TV hit was Cagney & Lacey which lasted seven seasons on CBS. In 1983, Orion Pictures introduced art-house division Orion Classics with executives who had previously run United Artists Classics.[14]
According to Reference for Business: 'Of the first 18 movies the company had released as Orion Pictures Corporation, ten had been profitable, five had broken even, and three had losses of less than $2 million.'[6] One such film, Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, was mired in legal troubles and Orion lost $3 million of its investment.[6] 'We've had some singles and doubles [but haven't] had any home runs,' lamented Krim.[6] In September 1984, Orion distributed Amadeus, which garnered many accolades, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[6]
For Orion, 1985 was a dismal year. All but two films, Desperately Seeking Susan and Code of Silence, made less than $10 million in the United States box office, including an unsuccessful attempt at a James Bond–type franchise, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.[6] Orion's haphazard distribution channels and unsuccessful advertising campaigns made it impossible to achieve a hit. Another factor was that Orion was about to venture into the video business and stopped selling off home use rights to its films. Furthermore, production of the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School was put on hold when a co-producer died, taking the film off of its Christmas 1985 release slate.[15]
Orion Label And Print Studio 2 521 -
In January 1986, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, producers of the Rambo films (the first film, First Blood, was distributed by Orion) attempted to buy $55 million worth of the studio's stock through the duo's company, Anabasis. Had they succeeded, Kassar and Vajna would have controlled the board and laid off every executive save for Krim.[15] Warburg Pincus subsequently limited its 20% stake in Orion to 5%; the remaining stock was acquired by Viacom International.[6] Viacom hoped to use Orion's product for its pay-TV channel Showtime.[16] Orion expanded into home video distribution with the formation of Orion Home Entertainment Corporation.[6]
1986–1991: Metromedia era
On May 22, 1986, Metromedia, a television and communications company controlled by billionaire (and a friend of Krim's) John Kluge, which had just divested of its television station group to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (which would form what is now the Fox network), purchased a 6.5% stake in Orion. Kluge's investment in the company came at the right time- Back to School was a success and ultimately earned $90 million at the box office.[6] By March 1987, the studio's fortunes increased dramatically with a succession of critical and commercial hits, including Platoon (which ultimately won a Best Picture Oscar), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, and the sports film Hoosiers. Orion's 1986 offerings totaled 18 Academy Award nominations, more than any other studio.[6] In 1987, Orion achieved further success with RoboCop and No Way Out.[6] By this time, Orion's television division had expanded into the lucrative syndicated game show market under the name Century Towers Productions, in reference to Orion's street address at the time. It produced revivals of format inherited from Heatter-Quigley Productions after the Filmways merger (as Filmways had previously acquired HQ in the late 1960s); this included The New Hollywood Squares, which ran from 1986 to 1989, and a revival of High Rollers which aired in the 1987–88 season.
In January 1987, Kluge faced big competition with the arrival of Sumner Redstone. His theater chain, National Amusements, purchased 6.42 percent of the company's stock. National Amusements later acquired Viacom, increasing their Orion stake at 21%, then 26%. Soon Kluge started buying more Orion stock, leading to his and Redstone's battling it out to take over the company.[17][18] Kluge ultimately succeeded when Metromedia took over approximately 67% of Orion on May 20, 1988, effectively giving him control of the studio.[6] One analyst commented on the takeover to The Wall Street Journal: 'This amount is probably so small to Kluge it doesn't matter. He probably burns that up in a weekend.'[6]
In 1989, Orion suffered from a disastrous slate of films, placing themselves dead last among the larger Hollywood studios in terms of box office revenue. Among its biggest flops that year were Great Balls of Fire!, the biography of Jerry Lee Lewis starring Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder; She-Devil, a dark comedy starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr; Speed Zone, an action comedy vehicle for SCTV alumni John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy; and Miloš Forman's adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses, Valmont, which competed with Dangerous Liaisons, also based on the same source material. Test screenings of the 'Weird Al' Yankovic comedy UHF were so strong that Orion had high expectations for it. It flopped at first,[6] but it has since attained a strong cult following.[19] Also that year, it inked a deal with Nelson Entertainment to distribute titles on videocassette and theatrically.[20][21]
In February 1990, Orion signed a deal with Columbia Pictures Entertainment in which the much larger studio would pay Orion $175 million to distribute Orion's movies and television programs overseas. Orion had previously licensed its films to individual distributors territory by territory.[6] That same month, Mike Medavoy left Orion and became head of Tri-Star Pictures.[22]
The box-office returns for Orion's 1990 releases were just as dismal as the previous year, with such failures as The Hot Spot and State of Grace. The only bright spot that year was Kevin Costner's western epic Dances with Wolves. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture,[23] and grossed $400 million worldwide. A few months later, Orion garnered another winner with The Silence of the Lambs, but these two films could not make up for years of losses. Only Kluge's continued infusions of cash were enough to keep the company afloat, but soon he had enough.
1991–1995: Bankruptcy
After failing to sell Orion to businessman (and former 20th Century Fox owner) Marvin Davis (Sony, which had recently purchased Columbia Pictures, was also interested),[24] Kluge took drastic steps. First, Orion shut down production. Second, Kluge ordered the sale of several projects, such as The Addams Family (which went to Paramount, though the international rights to the film were retained by Orion), in order to accumulate much-needed cash. Finally, in the spring of 1991, Kluge's people took over the company, leading to the departure of Arthur Krim.[25] Orion's financial problems were so severe, that at the 63rd Annual Academy Awards in March 1991, host Billy Crystal made reference to the studio's debt in his opening monologue, joking that 'Reversal of Fortune [is] about a woman in a coma, Awakenings [is] about a man in a coma; and Dances with Wolves [was] released by Orion, a studio in a coma.'[26]
It was during this time that ABC stepped in to co-finance and assume production over many of Orion TV's shows it had in production, such as American Detective and Equal Justice.
After Orion had to shut the television division down, it is reported that The Chuck Woolery Show, which Orion is producing may move to Group W Productions.[27] Gary Nardino, former employee of Orion Television Entertainment has moved on to producing for Lorimar Television, taking some of the projects like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, which is about to air on Fox, and Hearts are Wild, a co-production with Spelling Television, which is about to air on CBS, along with talent deals (Thomas Carter, Robert Townsend, Paul Stajonovich, Clifton Campbell and Deborah Joy Levine) with them.[28] On November 25, 1991, Orion sold its Hollywood Squares format rights to King World Productions after Orion closed down its television division.[29] On December 11, 1991, Orion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[6] Fileloupe media browser 1 1 1.
In December 1991, Orion was in talks with New Line Cinema, a successful independent film company, to acquire the bankrupt studio. By the following April, Orion and New Line Cinema cancelled their plans on the issue of price. Republic Pictures and the then-new Savoy Pictures also attempted to buy Orion, but no deal materialized.[30][31]
At the Academy Awards ceremony, broadcast on March 30, 1992, Crystal made another reference to Orion, this time about its demise:
Take a great studio like Orion: a few years ago Orion released Platoon, it wins Best Picture. Amadeus, Best Picture. Last year, they released Dances with Wolves wins Best Picture. This year The Silence of the Lambs is nominated for Best Picture. And they can't afford to have another hit! But there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Orion was just purchased, and the bad news is it was bought by the House of Representatives.[32]
The Silence of the Lambs swept all five major Academy Awards; however, a majority of key executives, as well as the talent they had deals with, had left the studio. Hollywood observers had doubts that Orion would be resurrected to its former glory.[33]
On November 5, 1992, Orion reemerged from bankruptcy. Its reorganization plan would allow for Orion to continue producing and releasing films, but financing for the features would be provided by outside sources, with the studio purchasing the distribution rights to them after their completion.[34][35]
Orion's bankruptcy also delayed the release of many films the studio had produced or acquired, among them: Love Field (1992), RoboCop 3 (1993), The Dark Half (1993), Blue Sky (1994), Car 54, Where Are You? (1994), Clifford (1994), The Favor (1994), and There Goes My Baby (1994). Orion started releasing these films after their reorganization. Blue Sky won star Jessica Lange an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995.
Head
Three stars comprise a small triangle that marks the head. The apex is marked by Meissa (Lambda Orionis), a hot blue giant of spectral type O8 III and apparent magnitude 3.54, which lies some 1100 light years distant. Phi-1 and Phi-2 Orionis make up the base. Also nearby is the very young star FU Orionis.
Club
Stretching north from Betelgeuse are the stars that make up Orion's club. Mu Orionis marks the elbow, Nu and Xi mark the handle of the club, and Chi1 and Chi2 mark the end of the club. Just east of Chi1 is the Mira-type variable red giant U Orionis.
Shield
West from Bellatrix lie six stars all designated Pi Orionis (π1 Ori, π2 Ori, π3 Ori, π4 Ori, π5 Ori and π6 Ori) which make up Orion's shield.
Meteor showers
Around 20 October each year the Orionid meteor shower (Orionids) reaches its peak. Coming from the border with the constellation Gemini as many as 20 meteors per hour can be seen. The shower's parent body is Halley's Comet.[45]
Deep-sky objects
Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword, consisting of the multiple stars θ1 and θ2 Orionis, called the Trapezium and the Orion Nebula (M42). This is a spectacular object that can be clearly identified with the naked eye as something other than a star. Using binoculars, its clouds of nascent stars, luminous gas, and dust can be observed. The Trapezium cluster has many newborn stars, including several brown dwarfs, all of which are at an approximate distance of 1,500 light-years. Named for the four bright stars that form a trapezoid, it is largely illuminated by the brightest stars, which are only a few hundred thousand years old. Observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory show both the extreme temperatures of the main stars—up to 60,000 kelvins—and the star forming regions still extant in the surrounding nebula.[46]
M78 (NGC 2068) is a nebula in Orion. With an overall magnitude of 8.0, it is significantly dimmer than the Great Orion Nebula that lies to its south; however, it is at approximately the same distance, at 1600 light-years from Earth. It can easily be mistaken for a comet in the eyepiece of a telescope. M78 is associated with the variable starV351 Orionis, whose magnitude changes are visible in very short periods of time.[47] Another fairly bright nebula in Orion is NGC 1999, also close to the Great Orion Nebula. It has an integrated magnitude of 10.5 and is 1500 light-years from Earth. The variable star V380 Orionis is embedded in NGC 1999.[48]
Print Studio Download
Another famous nebula is IC 434, the Horsehead Nebula, near ζ Orionis. It contains a dark dust cloud whose shape gives the nebula its name.
NGC 2174 is an emission nebula located 6400 light-years from Earth.
Besides these nebulae, surveying Orion with a small telescope will reveal a wealth of interesting deep-sky objects, including M43, M78, as well as multiple stars including Iota Orionis and Sigma Orionis. A larger telescope may reveal objects such as Barnard's Loop and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), as well as fainter and tighter multiple stars and nebulae.
All of these nebulae are part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which is located approximately 1,500 light-years away and is hundreds of light-years across. It is one of the most intense regions of stellar formation visible within our galaxy.
Future
Orion is located on the celestial equator, but it will not always be so located due to the effects of precession of the Earth's axis. Orion lies well south of the ecliptic, and it only happens to lie on the celestial equator because the point on the ecliptic that corresponds to the June solstice is close to the border of Gemini and Taurus, to the north of Orion. Precession will eventually carry Orion further south, and by AD 14000, Orion will be far enough south that it will no longer be visible from the latitude of Great Britain.[49]
Further in the future, Orion's stars will gradually move away from the constellation due to proper motion. However, Orion's brightest stars all lie at a large distance from the Earth on an astronomical scale—much farther away than Sirius, for example. Orion will still be recognizable long after most of the other constellations—composed of relatively nearby stars—have distorted into new configurations, with the exception of a few of its stars eventually exploding as supernovae, for example Betelgeuse, which is predicted to explode sometime in the next million years.[50]
See also
- Hubble 3D (2010), IMAX film with an elaborate CGI 'fly-through' of the Orion Nebula
References
Explanatory notes
- ^The determiner glyph for 'constellation' or 'star' in these lists is MUL (𒀯). See Babylonian star catalogues.
Citations
- ^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Orion' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 276.
- ^ abDolan, Chris. 'Orion'. Archived from the original on 2011-12-07. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^Rappenglück, Michael (2001). 'The Anthropoid in the Sky: Does a 32,000 Years Old Ivory Plate Show the Constellation Orion Combined with a Pregnancy Calendar'. Symbols, Calendars and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture. IXth Annual meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC). Uppsala Astronomical Observatory. pp. 51–55.
- ^'The Decorated Plate of the Geißenklösterle, Germany'. UNESCO: Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^Whitehouse, David (January 21, 2003). ''Oldest star chart' found'. BBC. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^John H. Rogers, 'Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions', Journal of the British Astronomical Association108 (1998) 9–28
- ^Babylonian Star-lore by Gavin White, Solaria Pubs, 2008, page 218ff & 170
- ^Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 127, 211
- ^Kurkjian, Vahan (1968). 'History of Armenia'. uchicago.edu. Michigan. 8.
- ^Peake's commentary on the Bible, 1962, page 260 section 221f.
- ^'Star Tales – Orion'. www.ianridpath.com.
- ^Staal 1988, pp. 61–62.
- ^Metlitzki, Dorothee (1977). The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. United States: Yale University Press. p. 79. ISBN0-300-11410-9.
- ^Kaler, James B., 'SAIPH (Kappa Orionis)', Stars, University of Illinois, retrieved 2012-01-27
- ^漢語大字典 Hànyǔ Dàzìdiǎn (in Chinese), 1992 (p.163). 湖北辭書出版社和四川辭書出版社 Húbĕi Cishu Chūbǎnshè and Sìchuān Cishu Chūbǎnshè, re-published in traditional character form by 建宏出版社 Jiànhóng Publ. in Taipei, Taiwan; ISBN957-813-478-9
- ^Holay, P. V. (1998). 'Vedic astronomers'. Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India. 26: 91–106. Bibcode:1998BASI..26..91H.
- ^Srinivasan, Sharada (1998). 'Vedic astronomers'. World Archaeology. 36: 432–50. Bibcode:1998BASI..26..91H. doi:10.1080/1468936042000282726821. S2CID26503807.
- ^''Must See' Indian Heritage'. asimustsee.nic.in. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^Kelley, David H.; Milone, Eugene F.; Aveni, A.F. (2011). Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy. New York, New York: Springer. p. 344. ISBN978-1-4419-7623-9.
- ^Toroczkai-Wigand Ede : Öreg csillagok ('Old stars'), Hungary (1915) reedited with Műszaki Könyvkiadó METRUM (1988).
- ^Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. p. 228.
- ^Elo, Ismo. 'Tähdet ja tähdistöt'. Ursa.fi. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^ abStaal 1988, p. 63.
- ^Moser, Mary B.; Marlett, Stephen A. (2005). Comcáac quih yaza quih hant ihíip hac: Diccionario seri-español-inglés(PDF) (in Spanish and English). Hermosillo, Sonora and Mexico City: Universidad de Sonora and Plaza y Valdés Editores.
- ^ ab'Home – El Nuevo Día'. Elnuevodia.com. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^'Windows to the Universe'. Windows2universe.org. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^Kim, Wook (2012-09-21). 'Mountain to Moon: 10 Movie Studio Logos and the Stories Behind Them'. Time.com. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
- ^'The Three Kings and the Cape Clouds: Two astronomical puzzles'. psychohistorian.org.
- ^'Orion, Constellation Boundary'. The Constellations. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
- ^Russell, Henry Norris (1922). 'The New International Symbols for the Constellations'. Popular Astronomy. Vol. 30. pp. 469–71. Bibcode:1922PA...30.469R.
- ^Ellyard, David; Tirion, Wil (2008) [1993]. The Southern Sky Guide (3rd ed.). Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN978-0-521-71405-1.
- ^'A Beginner's Guide to the Heavens in the Southern Hemisphere'. dibonsmith.com.
- ^'The Evening Sky Map Southern Hemisphere Edition'. skymaps.com.
- ^ abcStaal 1988, p. 61.
- ^'Variable Star of the Month, Alpha Ori'. Variable Star of the Season. American Association of Variable Star Observers. 2000. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Waiting for Betelgeuse: What's Up with the Tempestuous Star?'. December 26, 2019.
- ^'Betelgeuse'. Chris Dolan's Constellations. University of Wisconsin. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^Prior, Ryan. 'A giant red star is acting weird and scientists think it may be about to explode'. CNN.
- ^'Rigel'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Bellatrix'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Bellatrix'. Chris Dolan's Constellations. University of Wisconsin. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^'Alnitak'. Stars.astro.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^'Alnilam'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-11-24. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^'Mintaka'. Jim Kaler's Stars. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-11-24. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^Jenniskens, Peter (September 2012). 'Mapping Meteoroid Orbits: New Meteor Showers Discovered'. Sky & Telescope. p. 22.
- ^Wilkins, Jamie; Dunn, Robert (2006). 300 Astronomical Objects: A Visual Reference to the Universe (1st ed.). Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books. ISBN978-1-55407-175-3.
- ^Levy 2005, pp. 99–100.
- ^Levy 2005, p. 107.
- ^'Precession'. Myweb.tiscali.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^Wilkins, Alasdair. 'Earth may soon have a second sun'. io9. Space Porn.
Bibliography
- Levy, David H. (2005). Deep Sky Objects. Prometheus Books. ISBN1-59102-361-0.
- Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2007). Stars and Planets Guide, Collins, London. ISBN978-0-00-725120-9. Princeton Universitl Press, Princeton. ISBN978-0-691-13556-4.
- Staal, Julius D. W. (1988), The New Patterns in the Sky, McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company, ISBN0-939923-04-1
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Orion. |
Orion Pictures | |
Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Film, television |
Founded | 1978 (original) 2014 (relaunch) |
Founders |
|
Defunct | 1999 (original) |
Fate | Bankruptcy; sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Worldwide | |
Key people |
|
Products | Motion pictures |
Brands | Orion Classics |
Owner | MGM Holdings (Sale to Amazon pending) |
Parent |
|
Subsidiaries | Orion Pictures Distribution Corporation Orion TV Productions, Inc. |
Website | orionpictures.com |
Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing LLC) is an American motion picture producer owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. During this early period, Orion was considered a mini-major studio.[3]
Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and several other prominent directors worked with Orion during its most successful years from 1978 to 1992. Of the films distributed by Orion, four won Academy Awards for Best Picture: Amadeus (1984), Platoon (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).[4] Two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Mississippi Burning (1988), were nominated for that same category.
Since 1997, Orion has been owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived the Orion name for television; a year later, Orion Pictures was relaunched by the studio.
History
1978–1981: Beginnings
In January 1978, three executives of Transamerica (TA)-owned studio United Artists (UA)—Arthur B. Krim (chairman), Eric Pleskow (president and chief executive officer), and Robert S. Benjamin (chairman of the finance committee)—quit their jobs. Krim and Benjamin had headed UA since 1951 and subsequently turned around the then-flailing studio with a number of critical and commercial successes. Change had begun once Transamerica purchased UA in 1967 and, within a decade, a rift formed between Krim and Transamerica chairman John R. Beckett concerning the studio's operations. Krim suggested spinning off United Artists into a separate company which was rejected by Beckett.[5]
The last straw came for Pleskow when he refused to collect and deliver the medical records of UA department heads to Transamerica's offices in San Francisco for the sake of confidentiality. The tensions only worsened when Fortune magazine reported an article on the clash between UA and TA in which Beckett had stated that, if the executives disliked the parent company's treatment of them, they should resign.[5] Krim, Benjamin and Pleskow quit United Artists on January 13, 1978, followed by the exits of senior vice presidents William Bernstein and Mike Medavoy three days later. The week following the resignations, according to the website Reference for Business, 63 important Hollywood figures took out an advertisement in a trade paper warning UA that it had made a fatal mistake in letting the five men leave. The 'fatal mistake' came true following the box-office disaster of Heaven's Gate[6] in 1980 which led to Transamerica selling UA to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[7]
In February 1978, the five men forged a deal with Warner Bros. The executives formed Orion Pictures Company, named after the constellation which they claimed had five main stars (it actually has seven or eight). The new company intended only to finance projects, giving the filmmakers complete creative autonomy; this ideal had been successfully implemented at United Artists. Orion held a $100 million line of credit and its films would be distributed by the Warner Bros. studio. Orion, however, was contractually given free rein over distribution and advertising as well as the number and type of films the executives chose to invest in.[8]
In late March 1978, Orion signed its first contract, a two-picture deal with John Travolta's production company. Contracts with actress and director Barbra Streisand; actors James Caan, Jane Fonda, Peter Sellers, Jon Voight, and Burt Reynolds; directors Francis Ford Coppola and Blake Edwards; writer/director John Milius; singer Peter Frampton; and producer Ray Stark soon materialized.[6][9] Orion also developed a co-financing and distribution deal with EMI Films.[6] In its first year, Orion had fifteen films in production and had a dozen more actors, directors and producers lining up to sign with them.[6]
In 1979, Benjamin died. Orion's first film, A Little Romance,[10] was released in April that year. Later that year, Orion released Blake Edwards' 10 which became a commercial success, the first for Edwards in over a decade (aside from installments of The Pink Panther franchise). Other films released by Orion over the next two years included a few successes such as Caddyshack (1980) and Arthur (1981); critically praised but underperforming films such as The Great Santini (1979), an adaptation of a Pat Conroy novel, and Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (1981); and pictures by young writer-directors such as Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers (1979) and Nicholas Meyer's debut Time After Time (1979); plus Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) which Orion only distributed in the United States. Out of the 23 films Orion released between April 1979 and December 1981, only a third of them made a profit.[11] Orion executives were conflicted over financing big-budgeted films and passed on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) for that reason.[12]
1982–1986: Split from Warner Bros.
By early 1982, Orion had severed its distribution ties with Warner. As part of the deal, the rights to Orion's films made up to that point were sold to Warner. Orion was now looking to have its own distribution network by acquiring another company with such capabilities. The four partners looked into Allied Artists and Embassy Pictures[13] before settling on Filmways.[14] Orion subsequently purchased Filmways and reorganized the flailing company. New employees were hired and all of Filmways' non-entertainment assets (Grosset & Dunlap and Broadcast Electronics) were sold off.[6][14]
Another result of the merger was that Orion entered television production. Orion's biggest TV hit was Cagney & Lacey which lasted seven seasons on CBS. In 1983, Orion Pictures introduced art-house division Orion Classics with executives who had previously run United Artists Classics.[14]
According to Reference for Business: 'Of the first 18 movies the company had released as Orion Pictures Corporation, ten had been profitable, five had broken even, and three had losses of less than $2 million.'[6] One such film, Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, was mired in legal troubles and Orion lost $3 million of its investment.[6] 'We've had some singles and doubles [but haven't] had any home runs,' lamented Krim.[6] In September 1984, Orion distributed Amadeus, which garnered many accolades, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[6]
For Orion, 1985 was a dismal year. All but two films, Desperately Seeking Susan and Code of Silence, made less than $10 million in the United States box office, including an unsuccessful attempt at a James Bond–type franchise, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.[6] Orion's haphazard distribution channels and unsuccessful advertising campaigns made it impossible to achieve a hit. Another factor was that Orion was about to venture into the video business and stopped selling off home use rights to its films. Furthermore, production of the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School was put on hold when a co-producer died, taking the film off of its Christmas 1985 release slate.[15]
Orion Label And Print Studio 2 521 -
In January 1986, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, producers of the Rambo films (the first film, First Blood, was distributed by Orion) attempted to buy $55 million worth of the studio's stock through the duo's company, Anabasis. Had they succeeded, Kassar and Vajna would have controlled the board and laid off every executive save for Krim.[15] Warburg Pincus subsequently limited its 20% stake in Orion to 5%; the remaining stock was acquired by Viacom International.[6] Viacom hoped to use Orion's product for its pay-TV channel Showtime.[16] Orion expanded into home video distribution with the formation of Orion Home Entertainment Corporation.[6]
1986–1991: Metromedia era
On May 22, 1986, Metromedia, a television and communications company controlled by billionaire (and a friend of Krim's) John Kluge, which had just divested of its television station group to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (which would form what is now the Fox network), purchased a 6.5% stake in Orion. Kluge's investment in the company came at the right time- Back to School was a success and ultimately earned $90 million at the box office.[6] By March 1987, the studio's fortunes increased dramatically with a succession of critical and commercial hits, including Platoon (which ultimately won a Best Picture Oscar), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, and the sports film Hoosiers. Orion's 1986 offerings totaled 18 Academy Award nominations, more than any other studio.[6] In 1987, Orion achieved further success with RoboCop and No Way Out.[6] By this time, Orion's television division had expanded into the lucrative syndicated game show market under the name Century Towers Productions, in reference to Orion's street address at the time. It produced revivals of format inherited from Heatter-Quigley Productions after the Filmways merger (as Filmways had previously acquired HQ in the late 1960s); this included The New Hollywood Squares, which ran from 1986 to 1989, and a revival of High Rollers which aired in the 1987–88 season.
In January 1987, Kluge faced big competition with the arrival of Sumner Redstone. His theater chain, National Amusements, purchased 6.42 percent of the company's stock. National Amusements later acquired Viacom, increasing their Orion stake at 21%, then 26%. Soon Kluge started buying more Orion stock, leading to his and Redstone's battling it out to take over the company.[17][18] Kluge ultimately succeeded when Metromedia took over approximately 67% of Orion on May 20, 1988, effectively giving him control of the studio.[6] One analyst commented on the takeover to The Wall Street Journal: 'This amount is probably so small to Kluge it doesn't matter. He probably burns that up in a weekend.'[6]
In 1989, Orion suffered from a disastrous slate of films, placing themselves dead last among the larger Hollywood studios in terms of box office revenue. Among its biggest flops that year were Great Balls of Fire!, the biography of Jerry Lee Lewis starring Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder; She-Devil, a dark comedy starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr; Speed Zone, an action comedy vehicle for SCTV alumni John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy; and Miloš Forman's adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses, Valmont, which competed with Dangerous Liaisons, also based on the same source material. Test screenings of the 'Weird Al' Yankovic comedy UHF were so strong that Orion had high expectations for it. It flopped at first,[6] but it has since attained a strong cult following.[19] Also that year, it inked a deal with Nelson Entertainment to distribute titles on videocassette and theatrically.[20][21]
In February 1990, Orion signed a deal with Columbia Pictures Entertainment in which the much larger studio would pay Orion $175 million to distribute Orion's movies and television programs overseas. Orion had previously licensed its films to individual distributors territory by territory.[6] That same month, Mike Medavoy left Orion and became head of Tri-Star Pictures.[22]
The box-office returns for Orion's 1990 releases were just as dismal as the previous year, with such failures as The Hot Spot and State of Grace. The only bright spot that year was Kevin Costner's western epic Dances with Wolves. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture,[23] and grossed $400 million worldwide. A few months later, Orion garnered another winner with The Silence of the Lambs, but these two films could not make up for years of losses. Only Kluge's continued infusions of cash were enough to keep the company afloat, but soon he had enough.
1991–1995: Bankruptcy
After failing to sell Orion to businessman (and former 20th Century Fox owner) Marvin Davis (Sony, which had recently purchased Columbia Pictures, was also interested),[24] Kluge took drastic steps. First, Orion shut down production. Second, Kluge ordered the sale of several projects, such as The Addams Family (which went to Paramount, though the international rights to the film were retained by Orion), in order to accumulate much-needed cash. Finally, in the spring of 1991, Kluge's people took over the company, leading to the departure of Arthur Krim.[25] Orion's financial problems were so severe, that at the 63rd Annual Academy Awards in March 1991, host Billy Crystal made reference to the studio's debt in his opening monologue, joking that 'Reversal of Fortune [is] about a woman in a coma, Awakenings [is] about a man in a coma; and Dances with Wolves [was] released by Orion, a studio in a coma.'[26]
It was during this time that ABC stepped in to co-finance and assume production over many of Orion TV's shows it had in production, such as American Detective and Equal Justice.
After Orion had to shut the television division down, it is reported that The Chuck Woolery Show, which Orion is producing may move to Group W Productions.[27] Gary Nardino, former employee of Orion Television Entertainment has moved on to producing for Lorimar Television, taking some of the projects like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, which is about to air on Fox, and Hearts are Wild, a co-production with Spelling Television, which is about to air on CBS, along with talent deals (Thomas Carter, Robert Townsend, Paul Stajonovich, Clifton Campbell and Deborah Joy Levine) with them.[28] On November 25, 1991, Orion sold its Hollywood Squares format rights to King World Productions after Orion closed down its television division.[29] On December 11, 1991, Orion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[6] Fileloupe media browser 1 1 1.
In December 1991, Orion was in talks with New Line Cinema, a successful independent film company, to acquire the bankrupt studio. By the following April, Orion and New Line Cinema cancelled their plans on the issue of price. Republic Pictures and the then-new Savoy Pictures also attempted to buy Orion, but no deal materialized.[30][31]
At the Academy Awards ceremony, broadcast on March 30, 1992, Crystal made another reference to Orion, this time about its demise:
Take a great studio like Orion: a few years ago Orion released Platoon, it wins Best Picture. Amadeus, Best Picture. Last year, they released Dances with Wolves wins Best Picture. This year The Silence of the Lambs is nominated for Best Picture. And they can't afford to have another hit! But there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Orion was just purchased, and the bad news is it was bought by the House of Representatives.[32]
The Silence of the Lambs swept all five major Academy Awards; however, a majority of key executives, as well as the talent they had deals with, had left the studio. Hollywood observers had doubts that Orion would be resurrected to its former glory.[33]
On November 5, 1992, Orion reemerged from bankruptcy. Its reorganization plan would allow for Orion to continue producing and releasing films, but financing for the features would be provided by outside sources, with the studio purchasing the distribution rights to them after their completion.[34][35]
Orion's bankruptcy also delayed the release of many films the studio had produced or acquired, among them: Love Field (1992), RoboCop 3 (1993), The Dark Half (1993), Blue Sky (1994), Car 54, Where Are You? (1994), Clifford (1994), The Favor (1994), and There Goes My Baby (1994). Orion started releasing these films after their reorganization. Blue Sky won star Jessica Lange an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995.
1995–1997: Metromedia International Group
In November 1995, Orion, two other companies controlled by Kluge, and film and TV house MCEG Sterling (producer of the Look Who's Talking series) were merged to form the Metromedia International Group.[36] Few of the films released during the four years after bankruptcy protection were successful either critically or commercially.
In 1996, Metromedia acquired production company Motion Picture Corporation of America, and installed its heads, Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler, as co-presidents of Orion. Both received a six picture put picture distribution deal as a part of their contracts.[37]
In the years ahead, Orion produced very few films, and primarily released films from other producers, including LIVE Entertainment. Orion Classics, minus its founders (who had moved to Sony Pictures Entertainment and founded Sony Pictures Classics), continued to acquire popular art-house films, such as Boxing Helena (1993), before Metromedia merged the subsidiary with Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment in 1996.
1997–1999: Acquisition by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In July 1997, Metromedia shareholders approved the sale of Orion (as well as Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment and Motion Picture Corporation of America) to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This led to the withdrawal of 85 employees, including Krevoy and Stabler, while 111 other employees were to be laid off within nine months, leaving 25 of them to work at MGM. Orion also brought with it a two-thousand film library, ten completed movies and five direct-to-video features for future release[38] and the Krevoy and Stabler movie put picture distribution deal.[37] Krevoy and Stabler retained the right to the Motion Picture Corporation of America name and their three top movies. Metromedia retained Goldwyn Entertainment's Landmark Theatre Group.[38]One Man's Hero (1999) was the last film released by Orion for 15 years.
MGM kept Orion intact as a corporation thus to avoid its Warner Bros. video distribution agreement and began distributing Orion Pictures films under the Orion Home Video label. MGM acquired the 2/3 of pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library from Seagram in 1999 for $250 million, increasing their library holdings to 4,000. The PolyGram libraries were purchased by its Orion Pictures subsidiary so as to avoid its 1990 video distribution agreement with Warner.[39] In March 1999, MGM bought out its distribution contract with Warner Bros. for $225 million, effectively ending the distribution problem.[40]
2013–present: Revival
In 2013, Orion returned to television production (after its original TV unit was shut down during its bankruptcy era) with a new syndicated series, Paternity Court.[41]
The Orion Pictures name, also as Orion Releasing, was extended in fourth quarter 2014 for smaller multi-platform video on demand and limited theatrical distribution. Its name was first seen again on September 10, 2014, in front of the trailer for The Town That Dreaded Sundown that was released in October. The label's first release was the Brazilian film Vestido pra Casar.[42]
In September 2015, Entertainment One Films relaunched the Momentum Pictures banner with an announced deal with Orion Pictures to co-acquire and co-distribute films in the United States and Canada, and selected foreign markets, such as the United Kingdom (Momentum's country of origin). The initial films under the deal were The Wannabe, Fort Tilden and Balls Out.[43] Other films released by Orion Pictures and Momentum Pictures include Pocket Listing and Diablo.[44][45][46]
Starting in September 2016 with Burn Country, Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films paired in acquiring several films.[47][48][49][50]
In 2017, Orion TV added another court series, Couples Court, to its syndicated line up. The show is presided over by a husband-wife team and deals with marital issues primarily cheating.[51]
On September 6, 2017, MGM officially revitalized the Orion Pictures brand as a standalone, US theatrical marketing and distribution arm with the hiring of John Hegeman, who joined from Blumhouse Tilt (distributor of Orion's The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Belko Experiment) and incidentally got his start at the original Orion in the 1980s. Hegeman would serve as president of the expanded label and report to Jonathan Glickman, president of MGM's motion picture group. Under his leadership, the 'new' Orion will produce, market and distribute four to six modestly budgeted films a year across genres and platforms, and both wide and limited releases for targeted audiences. Its first release, the young adult romance drama Every Day, was released on February 23, 2018.[4][52][53][54]
In May 2018, it was announced that Orion Classics would be revived as a multiplatform distribution label, with 8 to 10 films being released per year.[55]
On February 5, 2019, MGM and Annapurna Pictures expanded their US joint distribution venture Mirror, rebranding it as United Artists Releasing. Beginning in April 2019, Orion Pictures' upcoming titles would be distributed through the UAR banner and Orion's theatrical distribution staff will move to UAR.[56] The first Orion film to do so was the remake of Child's Play,[57] which was released on June 21, 2019.
On August 20, 2020, it was announced that Orion would be relaunched again, with its focus shifting to films made by underrepresented filmmakers (including people of color, women, the LGBT community and people with disabilities) as part of the efforts to increase inclusivity in the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera, with the hiring of Alana Mayo as the president, replacing Hegeman by October.[1][2] The first film to be released with this new focus will be What If?, a coming-of-age drama which will be directed by actor Billy Porter in his directorial debut.[58] This effort continued in 2021 when they, along with Annapurna, acquired the US distribution rights to On the Count of Three two weeks after it premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.[59]
On May 17, 2021, online shopping company Amazon entered negotiations to acquire MGM and even made a bid for about $9 billion, with the intention to own the studio's library, including Orion's films, to grow the Amazon Prime Video catalog. The negotiations are made with Anchorage Capital Kevin Ulrich.[60][61] On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that the studio will be acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion.[62]
Film library
Notable films
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Orion's output included Woody Allen films, Hollywood blockbusters such as the first Terminator and the RoboCop films, comedies such as Throw Momma from the Train, This Is Spinal Tap, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Caddyshack, Something Wild, UHF, and the Bill & Ted films, and Best Picture Academy Award winners Amadeus, Platoon, Dances with Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs.[63]
Following is a list of the major Academy Awards (Picture, Director, two Screenplay and four Acting awards) for which Orion films were nominated.
Film (Year) | Major Oscars | Nominee | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
The Great Santini (1979) | Best Actor | Robert Duvall | Nominee |
Best Supporting Actor | Michael O'Keefe | Nominee | |
A Little Romance (1979) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Allan Burns | Nominee |
Arthur (1981) | Best Actor | Dudley Moore | Nominee |
Best Supporting Actor | John Gielgud | Winner | |
Best Original Screenplay | Steve Gordon | Nominee | |
Prince of the City (1981) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet | Nominee |
Amadeus (1984) | Best Picture | Winner | |
Best Actor | F. Murray Abraham | Winner | |
Tom Hulce | Nominee | ||
Best Director | Miloš Forman | Winner | |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Peter Shaffer | Winner | |
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) | Best Director | Woody Allen | Nominee |
Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Nominee | |
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) | Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Nominee |
Platoon (1986) | Best Picture | Winner | |
Best Director | Oliver Stone | Winner | |
Best Original Screenplay | Oliver Stone | Nominee | |
Best Supporting Actor | Tom Berenger | Nominee | |
Willem Dafoe | Nominee | ||
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) | Best Picture | Nominee | |
Best Director | Woody Allen | Nominee | |
Best Supporting Actor | Michael Caine | Winner | |
Best Supporting Actress | Dianne Wiest | Winner | |
Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Winner | |
Hoosiers (1986) | Best Supporting Actor | Dennis Hopper | Nominee |
Radio Days (1987) | Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Nominee |
Throw Momma from the Train (1987) | Best Supporting Actress | Anne Ramsey | Nominee |
Bull Durham (1988) | Best Original Screenplay | Ron Shelton | Nominee |
Mississippi Burning (1988) | Best Picture | Nominee | |
Best Director | Alan Parker | Nominee | |
Best Actor | Gene Hackman | Nominee | |
Best Supporting Actress | Frances McDormand | Nominee | |
Married to the Mob (1988) | Best Supporting Actor | Dean Stockwell | Nominee |
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) | Best Adapted Screenplay | Jean-Claude Carrière and Philip Kaufman | Nominee |
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) | Best Director | Woody Allen | Nominee |
Best Supporting Actor | Martin Landau | Nominee | |
Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Nominee | |
Alice (1990) | Best Original Screenplay | Woody Allen | Nominee |
Dances with Wolves (1990) | Best Picture | Winner | |
Best Director | Kevin Costner | Winner | |
Best Actor | Nominee | ||
Best Supporting Actor | Graham Greene | Nominee | |
Best Supporting Actress | Mary McDonnell | Nominee | |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Michael Blake | Winner | |
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | Best Picture | Winner | |
Best Director | Jonathan Demme | Winner | |
Best Actor | Anthony Hopkins | Winner | |
Best Actress | Jodie Foster | Winner | |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Ted Tally | Winner | |
Love Field (1992) | Best Actress | Michelle Pfeiffer | Nominee |
Blue Sky (1994) | Best Actress | Jessica Lange | Winner |
Ulee's Gold (1997) | Best Actor | Peter Fonda | Nominee |
Highest-grossing films
|
Orion's library today
Almost all of Orion's post-1982 releases, as well as most of the AIP and Filmways backlogs and all of the television output originally produced and distributed by Orion Television, now bear the MGM name. However, in most cases, the 1980s Orion logo has been retained or added, in the case of the Filmways and AIP libraries.
Most ancillary rights to Orion's back catalog from the 1978–1982 joint venture period remain with Warner Bros., including such films as 10 (1979), Caddyshack (1980), Arthur (1981), Excalibur (1981), and Prince of the City (1981). Some post-1982 films originally released by Orion — Lionheart (1987), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), and Amadeus (1984) (the latter two being Saul Zaentz productions) — are currently distributed by Warner Bros. as well. HBO also owns video distribution rights to Three Amigos (1986), as they co-produced the film and owns pay-TV rights. However, MGM owns all other rights and the film's copyright.[citation needed]The Wanderers is owned by the film's producers; however, the copyright is held by MGM/Orion. Orion also retains a controlling interest in The Cotton Club, although major rights are now with Lionsgate, which owns the library of presenting studio Zoetrope Corporation.
Woody Allen's films A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) and Zelig (1983) are the only Orion films from the original joint venture period now owned by MGM. Orion releases produced by the Hemdale Film Corporation and Nelson Entertainment are included in MGM's library as well, and are incorporated into the Orion library. MGM did not acquire the Hemdale films, (which include The Terminator, Hoosiers, and Platoon) or the Nelson films (including the Bill & Ted films), until MGM bought the pre-1996 library of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (the 'Epic Library'), which included both companies' libraries, although the television and digital rights to certain Nelson films are now held by Paramount Television, with television syndication handled on behalf of Paramount Television by Trifecta Entertainment & Media.
Many of the film and television holdings of The Samuel Goldwyn Company have now also been incorporated into the Orion library (with ownership currently held by MGM), and the copyright on some of this material is held by Orion, except The New Adventures of Flipper now carries the MGM Television Entertainment copyright.[citation needed]
MGM still holds distribution rights to the 1980s revival of Hollywood Squares and High Rollers the company produced, as well as the remnants of the Heatter-Quigley library that was not erased, including all remaining episodes of the original Squares; they do not own the rights to the format, which is currently owned by CBS Television Distribution, successor-in-interest to King World, who purchased the format rights in 1991 and produced another syndicated revival from 1998 to 2004.
Orion distributed the first Rambo film, First Blood (1982).[64] That film, like the rest of the Rambo franchise, is now owned by StudioCanal as a result of purchasing the library of its co-distributor, Carolco Pictures.[65]
References
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Further reading
- Medavoy, Mike; Young, Josh (2002). You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot. New York City: Atria Books.
External links
- Orion Pictures Corporation at IMDb‹The templateIMDb company is being considered for deletion.›