Birthday's to share this week : 8th - 14th January 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Fran Walsh does on 10th January - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 58, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 8th January

• John McTiernan - Born 1951, turns 66 - Director | Producer | Writer

Monday 9th January

• J.K.Simmons - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor
• Imelda Staunton - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actress
• Joely Richardson - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actress  

Tuesday 10th January

• Fran Walsh - Born 1959, turns 58 - Producer | Writer | Songwriter
• Walter Hill - Born 1942, turns 75 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Wednesday 11th January

• Jason Connery - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Amanda Peet - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actress  

Thursday 12th January

• Kirstie Alley - Born 1951, turns 66 - Actress | Producer | Writer
• Anthony Andrews - Born 1948, turns 69 - Actor | Producer
• John Lasseter - Born 1957, turns 60 - Producer | Director | Writer | Animator | Voice Actor
• Oliver Platt - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor
• Rob Zombie (aka Robert Bartleh Cummings) - Born 1965, turns 52 - Producer | Director | Writer | Actor | Singer | Songwriter | Composer  

Friday 13th January

• William B. Davis - Born 1938, turns 79 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Editor
• Bill Bailey - Born 1965, turns 52 - Writer | Actor | Television Personality | Singer | Composer
• Patrick Dempsey - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Michael Pena - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Producer
• Orlando Bloom - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Producer
• Liam Hemsworth - Born 1990, turns 27 - Actor
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actress | Producer | Singer  

Saturday 14th January

• Faye Dunaway - Born 1941, turns 76 - Actress
• Emily Watson - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actress
• Carl Weathers - Born 1948, turns 69 - Actor | Director
• Steven Soderbergh - Born 1963, turns 54 - Producer | Director | Writer | Cinematographer | Editor
• L.L.Cool J (aka James Todd Smith) - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Jason Bateman - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Director

Frances Rosemary Walsh was born in Wellington, on New Zealand's North Island, and she attended Wellington Girl's College where she had intentions on becoming a fashion designer, eventually gaining a more active interest in music. She performed from time to time in a Punk Band, named 'The Wallsockets' and attending the Victoria University of Wellington majoring in English Literature and graduating in 1981. 

She gained her first screen writing debut on the 1983 made for television film 'A Woman of Good Character' which she followed up with scripts for the TV show 'Worzel Gummidge Down Under'. Walsh met up with a young Peter Jackson during the mid-'80's whilst he was putting the final touches to his debut feature - the 1987 splatter Sci-Fi horror comedy film 'Bad Taste'. Jackson's next film was the musical black comedy 'Meet the Feebles' released in 1989 which was the first film for Jackson that Walsh collaborated on taking a Co-Writer credit. In the meantime, Walsh had married Jackson in 1987 and the two have been partners ever since, at home and at work. Following this the two joined forces on the slapstick splatter zombie horror film 'Braindead' (released as 'Dead Alive' in the US) which Walsh also gained a screen writing credit for. Although the film was a critical and commercial dud upon release in 1992, it has since risen to the ranks of cult status.

In 1994 Walsh and Jackson explored new territory with the dramatic true story of the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case with 'Heavenly Creatures' which Walsh and Jackson Co-Wrote. The film features Kate Winslet's screen debut as Juliet Hulme in which her obsessive relationship with close teenage friend Pauline Parker result in them killing Parker's mother in 1954. The film was critically acclaimed picking up seventeen award wins and a further fourteen nominations including an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay.

Next up was more familiar territory with the horror comedy 'The Frighteners' in 1996 starring Michael J. Fox in his last lead role in a live action feature film after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1991 aged just 29, and going public with it in 1998. Walsh and Jackson again Co-Wrote the Screenplay which Jackson Directed and Co-Produced, and it represented their first film with the backing of a major American studio. With so many ghosts appearing in the film, 'The Frighteners' was one of the most digital effects laden films up until that time, and proved to be a testing ground for Jackson's Weta Digital that had been in business just there years then. Walsh took an Associate Producer credit on the film too.

With Jackson looking at the fantasy genre for his next offering, in 1998 New Line Cinema agreed to back financially a trilogy adapted from Tolkien's classic books - 'The Lord of the Rings'. For the trilogy Walsh took Screenwriting credits, Producer credits and composer credits for certain songs appearing on the soundtrack for each film. The three films  - 'The Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King' were made for a combined US$281M and took an overall Box Office haul of US$2.91B. Additionally, the films received a collective 415 award wins and another 362 nominations including seventeen Academy Award wins in total. 

Following their success with 'The Rings Trilogy' Walsh and Jackson turned their attention back to a project they first muted in 1998 with Universal Studios - that of a remake of 'King Kong'. In 2005 Universal greenlit a remake of 'King Kong' with no hesitation, and so Walsh and Jackson took co-Writer and Co-Producer credits while Jackson Directed. The film cost US$207M to make and grossed US$551M at the global Box Office and starred Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow and Andy Serkis as Kong in motion capture. It picked up three Academy Award wins plus 39 other wins and 92 nominations.

'The Lovely Bones' followed in 2009 - a supernatural drama film based on the best selling novel of the same name from 2002 by Alice Sebold. Again Jackson Directed with Walsh and he carrying Co-Producer and Co-Screenwriting credits too. The film received mixed critical reviews but still picked up an Oscar nod, a Golden Globe nod and two BAFTA nods from its haul of ten award wins and forty other nominations, and it made back US$94M from its US$65M budget outlay.

Based on their prior success with 'The Rings Trilogy' it was almost inevitable that eventually Walsh and Jackson would turn attention to Tolkien's other notable works - 'The Hobbit'. Originally slated to be Directed by Guillermo del Toro over two instalments, Jackson stepped up to the Director's chair when del Toro exited stage left due to creative differences, and decided that three films was the go, however, del Toro still received a Screenwriters credit on all there films for his efforts. Once more Walsh and Jackson Co-Produced, Co-Scripted the works on 'The Hobbit' series, with Jackson Directing also. The three films were made for a combined US$690M and collectively took US$2.94B at the global Box Office, together with 31 award wins and  another 202 nominations.

Next up for Fran Walsh is the big screen adaptation of the Philip Reeve Sci-Fi steampunk novel of 2001 'Mortal Engines', the first in a series of four books. Co-Produced and Co-Written once again by Walsh and Jackson, this time Directed by Christian Rivers, the film is slated to hit our screens in December 2018 and is currently in pre-production.

All up Walsh has seventeen Screenwriting credits to her name, twelve as Producer, and seven Soundtrack credits as writer/lyricist on 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' films. She has so far amassed forty-four award wins, including three Academy Awards wins, one Golden Globe win, and two BAFTA wins, plus a further 57 nominations, including four Academy Award nods, and five BAFTA nods. It should be noted too that Walsh and Jackson have collaborated with Philippa Boyens on all their films since the 'The Rings Trilogy' and obviously shared in their collective success as Co-Writers and Co-Producers on all film projects including the upcoming 'Mortal Engines'. With Jackson she has two children, Katie (born in 1996) and Billie (born in 1995).

Fran Walsh - very private outside of the film making public eye, but one half of a truly great film production and scriptwriting family that has a proven track record dating back thirty years backed up by immense critical acclaim and huge commercial success with the accolades between them to prove it, and cement their places in cinema history. For your work behind the scenes that is so important to what we see on screen, Happy Birthday to you Fran, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-