# data[].attributes.body
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Directed by Jon Watts. With Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei. Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of…

# data[].attributes.body
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school and with the help of his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, he faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.

The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States the following year by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children and other awards in the US. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999, and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages, and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, as have all six of its sequels. The novel has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling book of all time.

Most reviews were very favourable, commenting on Rowling's imagination, humour, simple, direct style and clever plot construction, although a few complained that the final chapters seemed rushed. The writing has been compared to that of Jane Austen, one of Rowling's favourite authors; Roald Dahl, whose works dominated children's stories before the appearance of Harry Potter; and the ancient Greek story-teller Homer. While some commentators thought the book looked backwards to Victorian and Edwardian boarding school stories, others thought it placed the genre firmly in the modern world by featuring contemporary ethical and social issues, as well as overcoming obstacles like bullying.

The Harry Potter series has been used as a source of object lessons in educational techniques, sociological analysis and marketing.

Harry Potter lives with his neglectful uncle and aunt, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and their bullying son, Dudley. On Harry's eleventh birthday, Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant, delivers an acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, revealing that Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter, were wizards. When Harry was just a year old, a powerful but malevolent dark wizard named Lord Voldemort murdered his parents; Harry survived Voldemort's killing curse that rebounded and seemingly destroyed the Dark Lord, leaving a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Unknown to Harry, this act made him famous in the wizarding world.

Hagrid escorts Harry to Diagon Alley, the hidden wizard commerce and retail section in London. Harry's parents have left him a fortune kept in Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which he uses to buy school supplies and a wand from Ollivander's. The cores of Harry and Lord Voldemort's wands have feathers from the same phoenix bird, making them "brothers". Hagrid gifts Harry an owl, whom he names as Hedwig, as a birthday present. A month later, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross railway station's secret . En route to Hogwarts, Harry befriends fellow first year Ron Weasley and meets Hermione Granger, whom the two boys initially dislike.

Harry runs afoul of Draco Malfoy, the spoiled son of a prominent wizard. At Hogwarts, a magical Sorting Hat sorts the first years among four school Houses ( Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) that best suit their personalities and talents. Draco joins Slytherin, known for producing dark wizards, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sorted into Gryffindor.

Harry's broomstick flying ability earns him a place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as the Seeker. Harry comes to dislike Potions master Severus Snape, who favours Slytherin while seeking to fail Harry. Malfoy tricks Harry and Ron into risking expulsion by leaving their common room after curfew. Hermione, unable to stop them, tags along. Realising Malfoy's ruse, they hide in a forbidden corridor and discover a gigantic three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. Harry and Ron later save Hermione from a troll during a Halloween celebration and the three become best friends. Coupled with Snape's recent leg injury and suspicious behaviour, Harry, Ron, and Hermione believe he is attempting to enter the trapdoor.

During Harry's first Quidditch match, his broomstick attempts to buck him off. Snape's strange behaviour during the match convinces Hermione he jinxed Harry's broom. Harry receives an anonymous Christmas gift - his father's invisibility cloak. Using it to explore the school, he discovers the Mirror of Erised, which shows what the viewer most desires. Harry sees his parents.

A newspaper report later describes an attempted robbery at the same vault in Gringotts from which Hagrid retrieved an item for Hogwarts' headmaster Albus Dumbledore on the same day. The object beneath the trapdoor is the philosopher's stone, which grants its user immortality and the ability to turn any metal into pure gold. Firenze, a forest centaur, warns Harry that Voldemort is plotting to steal the stone to restore his body. When Dumbledore is lured from Hogwarts under false pretences, Harry, Hermione, and Ron fear the theft is imminent and descend through the trapdoor.

Various obstacles force Ron and Hermione to remain behind while Harry proceeds. Harry encounters Professor Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He jinxed Harry's broom and let the troll into the school; Snape was protecting Harry. Voldemort, whose face has regrown on the back of Quirrell's head, is revealed to be the professor's secret master. Harry is forced to stand before the Mirror of Erised. It recognises Harry's lack of greed for the stone and deposits it into his pocket. Quirrell attempts to seize the stone, but his flesh burns upon contact with Harry. Harry's scar begins hurting, and he passes out.

Harry awakens in the school's infirmary. He survived Voldemort because his mother sacrificing her life for him left a magical protective charm. Quirrell's hatred and greed caused him to burn upon contact with Harry; Voldemort abandoned him to die. Dumbledore reveals he sent Harry the invisibility cloak, while the philosopher's stone, that had been keeping the long-lived Nicolas Flamel alive, has been destroyed with Flamel's consent to prevent its being stolen. During the school's year-end feast, Gryffindor is awarded the House Cup. Harry returns to the Dursleys at Privet Drive until the next school year.

Harry Potter is an orphan whom Rowling imagined as a "scrawny, black-haired, green eyed and bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard." She developed the series' story and characters to explain how Harry came to be in this situation and how his life unfolded from there. Apart from the first chapter, the events of this book take place just before and in the year following Harry's eleventh birthday. Voldemort's attack left a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead, which produces stabbing pains whenever Voldemort is present. Harry has a natural talent for Quidditch and became the first person in a century to get on their team in their first year.

Ron Weasley is Harry's age, and Rowling describes him as the ultimate best friend "always there when you need him". He is freckled, red-haired, and quite tall. He grew up in a fairly large pure-blood family as the sixth born of seven children. Although his family is quite poor, they still live comfortably and happily. His loyalty and bravery in the face of a game of Wizards Chess plays a vital part in finding the Philosopher's Stone.

Hermione Granger, the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is a bossy girl who has apparently memorised most of the textbooks before the start of term. Rowling described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness". Despite her nagging efforts to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble, she becomes a close friend of the two boys after they save her from a troll and her magical and analytical skills play an important role in finding the Philosopher's Stone. She has bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

Neville Longbottom is a plump, diffident boy, so forgetful that his grandmother gives him a Remembrall, to remind him if he forgets something. Neville's magical abilities are weak and appeared just in time to save his life when he was eight. Despite his timidity, Neville will fight anyone after some encouragement or if he thinks it is right and important.

Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, with tangled black hair and beard, was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand was snapped in half (resulting in him never to use a wand again), however Professor Dumbledore let him stay on as the school's gamekeeper, a job which enables him to give lavish affection, care and even pet names (such as Norbert the dragon) on even the most dangerous of magical creatures. Hagrid is fiercely loyal to Dumbledore and quickly becomes a close friend of Harry, Ron and, later, Hermione, but his carelessness makes him unreliable.

Professor Albus Dumbledore, a tall, thin man who wears half-moon spectacles and has silver hair and a beard that tucks into his belt, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, and thought to be the only wizard Voldemort fears. Dumbledore, while renowned for his achievements in magic, shrugs off praise, though he is aware of his own brilliance. Rowling described him as the "epitome of goodness".

Professor Minerva McGonagall, a tall, severe-looking woman with black hair tied in a tight bun, teaches Transfiguration and is able to transform herself into a cat. She is Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House.

Petunia Dursley, the sister of Harry's mother Lily, is a thin woman with a long neck that she uses for spying on the neighbours. As a Muggle, she regards her magical sister as a freak and tries to pretend that she never existed.

Vernon Dursley, the husband of Petunia Dursley, is a heavily built man whose irascible bluster covers a narrow mind and a fear of anything unusual.

Dudley Dursley is an overweight, spoilt bully and Harry's cousin.

Draco Malfoy is a slim, pale boy who speaks in a bored drawl. He is arrogant about his skill in Quidditch, and despises anyone who is not a pure-blood wizard and wizards who do not share his views. His parents had supported Voldemort, but changed sides after the dark wizard's disappearance, claiming they had been bewitched. Draco avoids direct confrontations and tries to get Harry and his friends into trouble.

Oliver Wood is Harry's Quidditch captain and keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Professor Quirrell is a twitching, stammering, and nervous man who teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. Reputedly he was a brilliant scholar, but his nerve was shattered by an encounter with vampires. Quirrell wears a turban to conceal the fact that he is voluntarily possessed by Voldemort, whose face appears on the back of Quirrell's head.

Professor Severus Snape, who has a hooked nose, sallow complexion, and greasy black hair, teaches Potions, but would prefer to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Snape favours pupils in Slytherin, his own House and seizes every opportunity to humiliate others, especially Harry. Several incidents, beginning with the shooting pain in Harry's scar during the start-of-term feast, lead Harry and his friends to think Snape is aiding Voldemort.

Argus Filch, the school caretaker who knows the school's secret passages better than anyone else except, perhaps, the Weasley twins. His cat, Mrs. Norris, aids his constant hunt for misbehaving pupils.

Other members of staff include: the dumpy Herbology teacher and Head of Hufflepuff House Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, the tiny and excitable Charms teacher and Head of Ravenclaw House, the soporific History of magic teacher, Professor Binns, a ghost who does not seem to have noticed his own death, and Madam Hooch, the Quidditch coach, who is strict, but a considerate and methodical teacher. The poltergeist Peeves wanders around the castle causing trouble wherever he can.

In the book, Rowling introduces an eclectic cast of characters. The first character to be introduced is Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle. Most of the actions centre on the eponymous hero [Harry Potter, an orphan who escapes his miserable childhood with the Dursley family. Rowling imagined him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard" and says she transferred part of her pain about losing her mother to him. During the book, Harry makes two close friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron is described by Rowling as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him". Rowling has described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness".

Rowling also imagined a supporting cast of adults. The headmaster of Hogwarts is the powerful, but kind wizard Albus Dumbledore, who becomes Harry's confidant. Rowling described him as "the epitome of goodness". His right hand is severe Minerva McGonagall, the friendly half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who saved Harry from the Dursley family and the sinister Severus Snape. Professor Quirrell is also featured in the novel.

The main antagonists are Draco Malfoy, an elitist, bullying classmate, and Lord Voldemort, the most powerful evil wizard who becomes disembodied when he tries to kill baby Harry. According to a 1999 interview with Rowling, the character of Voldemort was created as a literary foil for Harry and his backstory was intentionally not fleshed-out at first:

The basic idea... Harry, I saw Harry very very very clearly. Very vividly. And I knew he didn't know he was a wizard. ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry-he tried to curse him. ... And-so-but for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since.

Development, publication and reception

The book, which was Rowling's debut novel, was written between approximately June 1990 and some time in 1995. In 1990, Jo Rowling, as she preferred to be known, wanted to move with her boyfriend to a flat in Manchester and in her words, "One weekend after flat hunting, I took the train back to London on my own and the idea for Harry Potter fell into my head... A scrawny, little, black-haired, bespectacled boy became more and more of a wizard to me... I began to write Philosopher's Stone that very evening. Although, the first couple of pages look nothing like the finished product." Then, Rowling's mother died and, to cope with her pain, Rowling transferred her own anguish to the orphan Harry. Rowling spent six years working on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and after it was accepted by Bloomsbury, she obtained a grant of £8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled her to plan the sequels. She sent the book to a literary agent and a publisher and then the second agent she approached spent a year trying to sell the book to publishers, most of whom thought it was too long at about 90,000 words. Barry Cunningham, who was building a portfolio of distinctive fantasies by new authors for Bloomsbury Children's Books, recommended accepting the book and the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury's chief executive said it was "so much better than anything else".

Imitation of the fictional Platform 9+ 3⁄4 at the real King's Cross railway station, with a luggage trolley apparently halfway through the magical wall

Bloomsbury accepted the book, paying Rowling a £2,500 advance and Cunningham sent proof copies to carefully chosen authors, critics and booksellers in order to obtain comments that could be quoted when the book was launched. He was less concerned about the book's length than about its author's name, since the title sounded like a boys' book to him and he believed boys preferred books by male authors. Rowling therefore adopted the pen name J. K. Rowling just before publication.

In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone with an initial print run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries. Her original name, "Joanne Rowling", can be found on the copyright page of all British editions until September 1999. (The 1998 first American edition would remove reference to "Joanne" completely.) The short initial print run was standard for first novels and Cunningham hoped booksellers would read the book and recommend it to customers. Examples from this initial print run have sold for as much as US$471,000 in a 2021 Heritage auction. Thomas Taylor created the cover for the first edition.

Lindsey Fraser, who had previously supplied one of the blurb comments, wrote what is thought to be the first published review, in The Scotsman on 28 June 1997. She described Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as "a hugely entertaining thriller" and Rowling as "a first-rate writer for children". Another early review, in , said: "I have yet to find a child who can put it down." Newspapers outside Scotland started to notice the book, with glowing reviews in The Guardian and The Sunday Times and in September 1997 Books for Keeps, a magazine that specialised in children's books, gave the novel four stars out of five. Sunday Times said: "comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified", while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit" and The Scotsman said it had "all the makings of a classic".

In 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. The Smarties award, which is voted for by children, made the book well known within six months of publication, while most children's books have to wait for years. The following year, Philosopher's Stone won almost all the other major British awards that were decided by children. It was also shortlisted for children's books awards adjudicated by adults, but did not win. Sandra Beckett commented that books that were popular with children were regarded as undemanding and as not of the highest literary standards - for example, the literary establishment disdained the works of Dahl, an overwhelming favourite of children before the appearance of Rowling's books. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 22 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won two publishing industry awards given for sales rather than literary merit, the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Booksellers' Association / Bookseller Author of the Year. By March 1999 UK editions had sold just over 300,000 copies and the story was still the UK's best-selling title in December 2001. A Braille edition was published in May 1998 by the Scottish Braille Press.

Platform , from which the Hogwarts Express left London, was commemorated in the real-life King's Cross railway station with a sign and a trolley apparently passing through the wall.

Scholastic Corporation bought the US rights at the Bologna Book Fair in April 1997 for US$105,000, an unusually high sum for a children's book. Scholastic's Arthur Levine thought that "philosopher" sounded too archaic for readers and after some discussion (including the proposed title "Harry Potter and the School of Magic"), the American edition was published in September 1998 under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Rowling later said that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time. Philip Nel has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy and the meaning of some other terms changed in translation, for example from " crumpet" to "muffin". While Rowling accepted the change from both the British English "mum" and Seamus Finnigan's Irish variant "mam" to the American variant "mom" in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she vetoed this change in the later books, which was then reversed in later editions of Philosopher's Stone. However, Nel considered that Scholastic's translations were considerably more sensitive than most of those imposed on British English books of the time and that some other changes could be regarded as useful copyedits. Since the UK editions of early titles in the series were published months prior to the American versions, some American readers became familiar with the British English versions owing to having bought them from online retailers.

On BookBrowse, a site that aggregates book reviews such as media reviews, the book received a from "Critics' Opinion".[35] At first the most prestigious reviewers ignored the book, leaving it to book trade and library publications such as Kirkus Reviews and Booklist, which examined it only by the entertainment-oriented criteria of children's fiction. However, more penetrating specialist reviews (such as one by Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, which noted complexity, depth and consistency in the world that Rowling had built) attracted the attention of reviewers in major newspapers.[36] Although The Boston Globe and Michael Winerip in The New York Times complained that the final chapters were the weakest part of the book,[20][37] they and most other American reviewers gave glowing praise.[20] A year later, the US edition was selected as an American Library Association Notable Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998 and a New York Public Library 1998 Best Book of the Year and won Parenting Magazine's Book of the Year Award for 1998,[21] the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. In 2012 it was ranked number 3 on a list of the top 100 children's novels published by School Library Journal.[38]

In August 1999, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone topped the New York Times list of best-selling fiction and stayed near the top of the list for much of 1999 and 2000, until the New York Times split its list into children's and adult sections under pressure from other publishers who were eager to see their books given higher placings. Publishers Weekly's report in December 2001 on cumulative sales of children's fiction placed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 19th among hardbacks (over 5 million copies) and 7th among paperbacks (over 6.6 million copies).

In May 2008, Scholastic announced the creation of a 10th Anniversary Edition of the book that was released on 1 October 2008 to mark the tenth anniversary of the original American release. For the fifteenth anniversary of the books, Scholastic re-released Sorcerer's Stone, along with the other six novels in the series, with new cover art by Kazu Kibuishi in 2013.

By mid-2008, official translations of the book had been published in 67 languages. By November 2017, the book had been translated into 80 languages, the 80th being Lowland Scots. Bloomsbury have published translations in Latin and in Ancient Greek, with the latter being described as "one of the most important pieces of Ancient Greek prose written in many centuries".

Philip Nel highlighted the influence of Jane Austen, whom Rowling has greatly admired since the age of twelve. Both novelists greatly encourage re-reading, because details that look insignificant foreshadow important events or characters much later in the story-line - for example Sirius Black is briefly mentioned near the beginning of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and then becomes a major character in the third to fifth books. Like Austen's heroines, Harry often has to re-examine his ideas near the ends of books. Some social behaviour in the Harry Potter books is reminiscent of Austen, for example the excited communal reading of letters. Both authors satirise social behaviour and give characters names that express their personalities. However, in Nel's opinion Rowling's humour is more based on caricature and the names she invents are more like those found in Charles Dickens's stories, and Amanda Cockrell noted that many of these express their owners' traits through allusions that run from ancient Roman mythology to eighteenth-century German literature. Rowling, like the Narnia series' author C. S. Lewis, thinks there is no rigid distinction between stories for children and for adults. Nel also noted that, like many good writers for children, Rowling combines literary genres‍-‌ fantasy, young adult fiction, boarding school stories, Bildungsroman and many others.

Some reviewers compared Philosopher's Stone to the stories of Roald Dahl, who died in 1990. Many writers since the 1970s had been hailed as his successor, but none had attained anything near his popularity with children and, in a poll conducted shortly after the launch of Philosopher's Stone, seven of the ten most popular children's books were by Dahl, including the one in top place. The only other really popular children's author of the late 1990s was an American, R. L. Stine. Some of the story elements in Philosopher's Stone resembled parts of Dahl's stories. For example, the hero of James and the Giant Peach lost his parents and had to live with a pair of unpleasant aunts‍-‌one fat and one thin rather like Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, who treated Harry as a servant. However Harry Potter was a distinctive creation, able to take on the responsibilities of an adult while remaining a child inside.

Librarian Nancy Knapp and marketing professor Stephen Brown noted the liveliness and detail of descriptions, especially of shop scenes such as Diagon Alley. Tad Brennan commented that Rowling's writing resembles that of Homer: "rapid, plain, and direct in expression". Stephen King admired "the sort of playful details of which only British fantasists seem capable" and concluded that they worked because Rowling enjoys a quick giggle and then moves briskly forward.

Nicholas Tucker described the early Harry Potter books as looking back to Victorian and Edwardian children's stories: Hogwarts was an old-style boarding school in which the teachers addressed pupils formally by their surnames and were most concerned with the reputations of the houses with which they were associated; characters' personalities were plainly shown by their appearances, starting with the Dursleys; evil or malicious characters were to be crushed rather than reformed, including Argus Filch's cat Mrs Norris; and the hero, a mistreated orphan who found his true place in life, was charismatic and good at sports, but considerate and protective towards the weak. Several other commentators have stated that the books present a highly stratified society including many social stereotypes. However Karin Westerman drew parallels with 1990s Britain: a class system that was breaking down but defended by those whose power and status it upheld; the multi-ethnic composition of Hogwarts' students; the racial tensions between the various intelligent species; and school bullying.

Susan Hall wrote that there is no rule of law in the books, as the actions of Ministry of Magic officials are unconstrained by laws, accountability or any kind of legal challenge. This provides an opportunity for Voldemort to offer his own horrific version of order. As a side-effect Harry and Hermione, who were brought up in the highly regulated Muggle world, find solutions by thinking in ways unfamiliar to wizards. For example, Hermione notes that one obstacle to finding the Philosopher's Stone is a test of logic rather than magical power, and that most wizards have no chance of solving it.

Nel suggested that the unflattering characterisation of the extremely conventional, status-conscious, materialistic Dursleys was Rowling's reaction to the family policies of the British government in the early 1990s, which treated the married heterosexual couple as the "preferred norm", while the author was a single mother. Harry's relationships with adult and juvenile wizards are based on affection and loyalty. This is reflected in his happiness whenever he is a temporary member of the Weasley family throughout the series, and in his treatment of first Rubeus Hagrid and later Remus Lupin and Sirius Black as father-figures.: 13-15, 47-48

The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and later, in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version. It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005 and sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release. The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published on 21 July 2007. The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.

An illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on 6 October 2015, with illustrations by Jim Kay. The book carries over 100 illustrations and will be followed by illustrated versions of all seven books from the series by the same artist.

In May 2020, a reading podcast by Spotify was created and entitled Harry Potter at Home: Readings. Each chapter is narrated by a celebrity guest from the Harry Potter and Wizarding World franchises.

6
The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters
20 May 2020

41 mins, 47 secs

Jamie Parker and cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

17
The Man with the Two Faces
16 July 2020

41 mins, 29 secs

Three families of Harry Potter fans, with a surprise appearance from J. K. Rowling

In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights of the first two Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million. Rowling demanded that the principal cast be kept strictly British, but allowed for the casting of Irish actors such as Richard Harris as Dumbledore and of foreign actors as characters of the same nationalities in later books. After extensive casting, filming began in September 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London, with production ending in July 2001. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in London on 14 November 2001. Reviewers' comments were positive, as reflected by an 81% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and by a score of 65% at Metacritic, representing "generally favourable reviews".

Five unique video games by different developers were released between 2001 and 2003 by Electronic Arts, that were loosely based on the film and book:

Writers on education and business subjects have used the book as an object lesson. Writing about clinical teaching in medical schools, Jennifer Conn contrasted Snape's technical expertise with his intimidating behaviour towards students. Quidditch coach Madam Hooch on the other hand, illustrated useful techniques in the teaching of physical skills, including breaking down complex actions into sequences of simple ones and helping students to avoid common errors. Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: "sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation; stratification and social inequality; social institutions; and social theory".

Stephen Brown noted that the early Harry Potter books, especially Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, were a runaway success despite inadequate and poorly organised marketing. Brown advised marketing executives to be less preoccupied with rigorous statistical analyses and the "analysis, planning, implementation, and control" model of management. Instead he recommended that they should treat the stories as "a marketing masterclass", full of enticing products and brand names. For example, a real-world analogue of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans was introduced under licence in 2000 by toymaker Hasbro.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Wikipedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. The first novel in the series and Rowling's debut novel, it follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

# data[].attributes.body
Keanu Charles Reeves

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Keanu Charles Reeves ( kee-AH-noo; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series (1984), before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). Reeves had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and (1994).

Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series , beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the film series, beginning in 2014. named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He plays bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia ( née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother is English, originating from Essex. His American father is from Hawaii, and is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Irish, and Portuguese descent. Reeves's paternal grandmother is Chinese Hawaiian. His mother was working in Beirut when she met his father, who abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when he was 13.

After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney, and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The couple moved to Toronto and divorced in 1971. When Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of Damn Yankees. Aaron remained close to Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania. Reeves's mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. Reeves and his sisters grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, with a nanny caring for them frequently. Because of his grandmother's ethnicity, he grew up with Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine. Reeves watched British comedy shows such as The Two Ronnies, and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood.

Describing himself as a "private kid", Reeves attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves said he was expelled because he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often... I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school". Reeves has dyslexia and has said, "Because I had trouble reading, I wasn't a good student". At De La Salle College, he was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper. Reeves had aspirations to become a professional ice hockey player for the Canadian Olympic team but decided to become an actor when he was 15. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him to get an education while working as an actor. Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles three years later. Reeves holds only Canadian citizenship.

1984-1990: Early work

In 1984, Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) youth television program Going Great. That same year, he made his acting debut in an episode of the television series, called . In 1985, he played Mercutio in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York, Ontario. He made further appearances on stage, including Brad Fraser's cult hit in Toronto. He also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1983, and in the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) coming-of-age, short film One Step Away.

Reeves later said that, when he was looking for work in the mid-1980s, his agents advised him to go by a different name because his first name was "too ethnic." He briefly initialized his first and middle name and attended auditions as "K. C." or "Casey" Reeves before reverting to Keanu.

Reeves made a foray into television films in 1986, including NBC's Babes in Toyland, Act of Vengeance and Brotherhood of Justice. He made his first motion picture appearances in Peter Markle's Youngblood (1986), in which he played a goalkeeper, and in the low-budget romantic drama, . He was cast as Matt in River's Edge, a crime drama about a group of high school friends dealing with a murder case, loosely based on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad. The film premiered in 1986 at the Toronto International Film Festival to a largely positive response. Janet Maslin of The New York Times describes the performances of the young cast as "natural and credible", with Reeves being described as "affecting and sympathetic".

Towards the end of the 1980s, Reeves starred in several dramas aimed at teen audiences, including as the lead in The Night Before (1988), a comedy starring opposite Lori Loughlin, The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988) and Permanent Record (1988). Although the latter received mixed reviews, Variety magazine praised Reeves's performance, "which opens up nicely as the drama progresses". His other acting efforts included a supporting role in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which earned seven nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. This was followed by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), in which he portrays a slacker who travels through time with a friend (portrayed by Alex Winter), to assemble historical figures for a school presentation. The film was generally well received by critics and grossed $40.5 million at the worldwide box office. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating with the critical consensus: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work".

In 1989, Reeves starred in the comedy-drama Parenthood directed by Ron Howard. Nick Hilditch of the BBC gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "feelgood movie" with an "extensive and entertaining ensemble cast". In 1990, Reeves gave two acting performances; he portrayed an incompetent hitman in the black comedy I Love You to Death, and played Martin, a radio station employee in the comedy Tune in Tomorrow. He also appeared in Paula Abdul's music video for which featured a Rebel Without a Cause motif, with him in the James Dean role.

1991-1994: Breakthrough with adult roles

In 1991, Reeves starred in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, with his co-star Alex Winter. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the sequel was "more imaginative, more opulent, wilder and freer, more excitingly visualized", praising the actors for their "fuller" performances. Film critic Roger Ebert thought it was "a riot of visual invention and weird humour that works on its chosen sub-moronic level [...] It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick". The rest of 1991 marked a significant transition for Reeves's career as he undertook adult roles. Co-starring with River Phoenix as a street hustler in the adventure My Own Private Idaho, the characters embark on a journey of personal discovery. The story was written by Gus Van Sant, and is loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and . The film premiered at the 48th Venice International Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in the United States on September 29, 1991. The film earned $6.4 million at the box office. My Own Private Idaho was positively received, with Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly describing the film as "a postmodern road movie with a mood of free-floating, trance-like despair[...] a rich, audacious experience". The New York Times complimented Reeves and Phoenix for their insightful performances.

Reeves starred alongside Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey in the action thriller Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow. He plays an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers. To prepare for the film, Reeves and his co-stars took surfing lessons with professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii; Reeves had never surfed before. Upon its release, Point Break was generally well-received, and a commercial success, earning $83.5 million at the box office. Reeves's performance was praised by The New York Times for "considerable discipline and range", adding, "He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles". Writing for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called Reeves the "perfect choice" and praised the surfing scenes, but opined that "the filmmakers have their characters make the most ludicrously illogical choices imaginable". At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Reeves won the Most Desirable Male award.

In 1991, Reeves developed an interest in a music career; he formed an alternative rock band called Dogstar, consisting of members Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller and Bret Domrose. Reeves played the bass guitar. A year later, he played Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's Gothic horror Bram Stoker's Dracula, based on Stoker's 1897 novel . Starring alongside Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins, the film was critically and commercially successful. It grossed $215.8 million worldwide. For his role, Reeves was required to speak with an English accent, which drew some ridicule; "Overly posh and entirely ridiculous, Reeves's performance is as painful as it is hilarious", wrote Limara Salt of Virgin Media. In a retrospective interview in 2015, director Coppola said, "[Reeves] tried so hard [...] He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted". Bram Stoker's Dracula was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning three in Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing and Best Makeup. The film also received four nominations at the British Academy Film Awards.

In 1993, he had a role in Much Ado About Nothing, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film received positive reviews, although Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor. The New Republic magazine thought his casting was "unfortunate" because of his amateur performance. In that same year, he starred in two more drama films, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Little Buddha, both of which garnered a mixed-to-negative reception. The Independent critic gave Little Buddha a mixed review but opined that Reeves's part as a prince was "credible". The film also left an impression on Reeves; he later said, "When I played this innocent prince who starts to suspect something when he has the first revelations about old age, sickness and death, it hit me. [...] That lesson has never left me."

He starred in the action thriller (1994) alongside Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper. He plays police officer Jack Traven, who must prevent a bus from exploding by keeping its speed above 50 mph. Speed was the directorial debut of Dutch director Jan de Bont. Several actors were considered for the lead role, but Reeves was chosen because Bont was impressed with his Point Break performance. To look the part, Reeves shaved all his hair off and spent two months in the gym to gain muscle mass. During production, Reeves's friend River Phoenix (and co-star in My Own Private Idaho) died, resulting in adjustments to the filming schedule to allow him to mourn. Speed was released on June 10 to a critically acclaimed response. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune lauded Reeves, calling him "absolutely charismatic [...] giving a performance juiced with joy as he jumps through elevator shafts [...] and atop a subway train". David Ansen, writing for , summarized Speed as, "Relentless without being overbearing, this is one likely blockbuster that doesn't feel too big for its britches. It's a friendly juggernaut". The film grossed $350 million from a $30 million budget and won two Academy Awards in 1995 - Best Sound Editing and Best Sound.

1995-1998: Continued acting efforts

I do love it [Shakespeare]. It's like this kind of code that once you start to inhabit it with breath and sound and feeling and thought, it is the most powerful and consuming and freeing at the same time. Just, literally, elemental in sound, consonants and vowels. What I found out in doing it [Hamlet] was that it brought up for me all the anger that was inside me for my mother. I mean, it surprised me, just what was there, and I hadn't seen that before.

Reeves's next leading role came in the 1995 cyberpunk action thriller Johnny Mnemonic, directed by artist Robert Longo and based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson. Set in 2021, it is about a man who has a cybernetic brain implant and must deliver a data package before he dies or is killed by the Yakuza. The film received mainly negative reviews and critics felt Reeves was "woefully miscast". Roger Ebert opined that the film is one of the "great goofy gestures of recent cinema, a movie that doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis but has a kind of idiotic grandeur that makes you almost forgive it." As part of the film studio's marketing efforts, a CD-ROM video game was also released.

He next appeared in the romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds (1995), which also garnered mixed-to-negative reviews. Reeves plays a young soldier returning home from World War II, trying to settle down with a woman he married impulsively just before he enlisted. Film critic Mick LaSalle opined that " A Walk in the Clouds is for the most part a beautiful, well-acted and emotionally rich picture", whereas Hal Hinson from The Washington Post said, "The film has the syrupy, Kodak magic-moment look of a Bo Derek movie, and pretty much the same level of substance".

Besides film work, Reeves retreated briefly to the theatre playing Prince Hamlet in a 1995 Manitoba Theatre Centre production of in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Sunday Times critic Roger Lewis believed his performance, writing he "quite embodied the innocence, the splendid fury, the animal grace of the leaps and bounds, the emotional violence, that form the Prince of Denmark ... He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet".

Reeves was soon drawn to science fiction roles, appearing in Chain Reaction (1996) with co-stars Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin Dunn and Brian Cox. He plays a researcher of a green energy project, who has to go on the run when he is framed for murder. Chain Reaction was not a critical success and gained mostly a negative reaction; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 16% and described it as "a man-on-the-run thriller that mostly sticks to generic formula". Reeves's film choices after Chain Reaction were also critical disappointments. He starred in the independent crime comedy Feeling Minnesota (1996), with Vincent D'Onofrio and Cameron Diaz, which was described as "shoddily assembled, and fundamentally miscast" by Rotten Tomatoes. In that year, he turned down an offer to star in Speed 2: Cruise Control, despite being offered a salary of $12 million. According to Reeves, this decision caused 20th Century Fox to sever ties with him for a decade.

Instead, Reeves toured with his band Dogstar, and appeared in the drama The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997), based on a 1950 letter written by Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac. Reeves's performance gained mixed reviews; Paul Tatara of CNN called him "void of talent [...] here he is again, reciting his lines as if they're non-related words strung together as a memory exercise", whereas magazine thought "Reeves gives the nearest thing to a performance in his career as the enthusiastic feckless drunk". He starred in the 1997 supernatural horror The Devil's Advocate alongside Al Pacino and Charlize Theron; Reeves agreed to a pay cut of several million dollars so that the film studio could afford to hire Pacino. Based on Andrew Neiderman's novel of the same name, the feature is about a successful young lawyer invited to New York City to work for a major firm, who discovers the owner of the firm is a devil. The Devil's Advocate attracted positive reviews from critics. Film critic James Berardinelli called the film "highly enjoyable" and wrote, "There are times when Reeves lacks the subtlety that would have made this a more multi-layered portrayal, but it's nevertheless a solid job".

1999-2004: Stardom with The Matrix franchise and comedies

Reeves promoting The Day the Earth Stood Still in Mexico, 2008

In 1999, Reeves starred in the critically acclaimed science fiction film , the first installment in what would become The Matrix franchise. Reeves portrays computer programmer Thomas Anderson, a hacker using the alias " Neo", who discovers humanity is trapped inside a simulated reality created by intelligent machines. Written and directed by the Wachowskis, Reeves had to prepare by reading Kevin Kelly's Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, and Dylan Evans's ideas on evolutionary psychology. The principal cast underwent months of intense training with martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping to prepare for the fight scenes. The Matrix proved to be a box office success; several critics considered it to be one of the best science fiction films of all time. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt it was a "wildly cinematic futuristic thriller that is determined to overpower the imagination", despite perceiving weaknesses in the film's dialogue. Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited Reeves for being a "strikingly chic Prada model of an action hero", and thought the martial arts stunts were the film's strongest feature. The Matrix received Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound.

After the success of The Matrix, Reeves avoided another blockbuster in favour of a lighthearted sports comedy, The Replacements (2000). He agreed to a pay cut to enable Gene Hackman to co-star in the film. Against his wishes, Reeves starred in the thriller The Watcher (2000), playing a serial killer who stalks a retired FBI agent. He said that a friend forged his signature on a contract, which he could not prove; he appeared in the film to avoid legal action. Upon its release, the film was critically panned. That year, he had a supporting role in another thriller, Sam Raimi's , a story about a woman (played by Cate Blanchett) with extrasensory perception asked to help find a young woman who disappeared. The film grossed $44 million worldwide. Film critic Paul Clinton of CNN thought the film was fairly compelling, saying of Reeves's acting: "[Raimi] managed to get a performance out of Reeves that only occasionally sounds like he's reading his lines from the back of a cereal box."

In 2001, Reeves continued to explore and accept roles in a diverse range of genres. The first was a romantic drama, Sweet November, a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. This was his second collaboration with Charlize Theron; the film was met with a generally negative reception. Desson Thompson of The Washington Post criticized it for its "syrupy cliches, greeting-card wisdom and over-the-top tragicomedy", but commended Reeves for his likability factor in every performance he gives. (2001) marked Reeves's attempt in another sports comedy. Directed by Brian Robbins, it is based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle. Reeves plays Conor O'Neill, a troubled young man who agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of obtaining a loan. Film critic Roger Ebert noted the film's desire to tackle difficult subjects and baseball coaching, but felt it lacked depth, and Reeves's performance was "glum and distant".

By 2002, his professional music career had come to an end when Dogstar disbanded. The band had released two albums during their decade together; Our Little Visionary in 1996 and Happy Ending in 2000. Sometime afterwards, Reeves performed in the band Becky for a year, founded by Dogstar band-mate Rob Mailhouse, but quit in 2005, citing a lack of interest in a serious music career. After being absent from the screen in 2002, Reeves returned to The Matrix sequels in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, released in May and November, respectively. Principal photography for both films was completed back-to-back, primarily at Fox Studios in Australia. The Matrix Reloaded garnered mostly favourable reviews; John Powers of praised the "dazzling pyrotechnics" but was critical of certain machine-like action scenes. Of Reeves's acting, Powers thought it was somewhat "wooden" but felt he has the ability to "exude a charmed aura". Andrew Walker, writing for the Evening Standard, praised the cinematography ("visually it gives full value as a virtuoso workout for your senses") but he was less taken by the film's " dime-store philosophy". The film grossed $739 million worldwide.

The Matrix Revolutions, the third instalment, was met with mixed reception. According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus was that "characters and ideas take a back seat to the special effects". Paul Clinton, writing for CNN, praised the special effects but felt Reeves's character was unfocused. In contrast, the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Meyer was highly critical of the special effects, writing, "[The Wachowskis] computer-generated imagery goes from dazzling to deadening in action scenes that favor heavy, clanking weaponry over the martial-arts moves that thrilled viewers of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded." Nevertheless, the film grossed a healthy $427 million worldwide, although less than the two previous films. Something's Gotta Give, a romantic comedy, was Reeves's last release of 2003. He co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, and played Dr. Julian Mercer in the film. Something's Gotta Give received generally favourable reviews.

2005-2013: Thrillers, documentaries and directorial debut

Reeves at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009

In 2005, Reeves played the title role in Constantine, an occult detective film, about a man who has the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons. The film was a respectable box office hit, grossing $230 million worldwide from a $100 million budget but attracted mixed-to-positive reviews. The Sydney Morning Herald's critic wrote that " Constantine isn't bad, but it doesn't deserve any imposing adjectives. It's occasionally cheesy, sometimes enjoyable, intermittently scary, and constantly spiked with celestial blatherskite". He next appeared in Thumbsucker, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. A comedy adapted from the 1999 Walter Kirn novel of the same name, the story follows a boy with a thumb-sucking problem. Reeves and the cast garnered positive critical reviews, with The Washington Post describing it as "a gently stirring symphony about emotional transition filled with lovely musical passages and softly nuanced performances".

Reeves appeared in the Richard Linklater-directed animated science fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly, which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Reeves played Bob Arctor/Fred, an undercover agent in a futuristic dystopia under high-tech police surveillance. Based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, the film was a box office failure. However, the film attracted generally favourable reviews; Paul Arendt of the BBC thought the film was "beautiful to watch", but Reeves was outshone by his co-star Robert Downey Jr. His next role was Alex Wyler in The Lake House (2006), a romantic drama adaptation of the South Korean film (2000), which reunited him with Sandra Bullock. Despite its box office success, Mark Kermode of The Guardian was highly critical, writing "this syrup-drenched supernatural whimsy achieves stupidity at a genuinely international level [...] The last time Bullock and Reeves were together on screen the result was Speed. This should have been entitled Stop". Towards the end of 2006, he co-narrated The Great Warming with Alanis Morissette, a documentary about climate change mitigation.

Next in 2008, Reeves collaborated with director David Ayer on the crime thriller Street Kings. He played an undercover policeman who must clear his name after the death of another officer. Released on April 11, the film grossed a moderate $66 million worldwide. The film's plot and Reeves' performance, however, were met with mostly unenthusiastic reviews. Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald stated, "It's full of twists and turns, a dead body in every reel, but it's not difficult to work out who's betraying whom, and that's just not good enough". The Guardian opined that "Reeves is fundamentally blank and uninteresting". Reeves starred in another science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, a loose adaptation of the 1951 film of the same name. He portrayed Klaatu, an alien sent from outer space to try to change human behaviour or eradicate humans because of their environmental impact. At the 2009 Razzie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Many critics were unimpressed with the heavy use of special effects; The Telegraph credited Reeves' ability to engage the audience, but thought the cinematography was abysmal and the "sub- Al-Gore environment lecture leaves you light-headed with tedium".

Tiger Chen and Reeves at the Fantastic Fest film festival, 2013

Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee was Reeves' sole release of 2009, which premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. The romantic comedy and its ensemble received an amicable review from The Telegraph's David Gritten; "Miller's film is a triumph. Uniformly well acted, it boasts a psychologically knowing script, clearly written by a smart, assertive human". In 2010, he starred in another romantic comedy, Henry's Crime, about a man who is released from prison for a crime he did not commit, but then targets the same bank with his former cellmate. The film was not a box office hit. Reeves' only work in 2011 was an adult picture book titled Ode to Happiness, which he wrote, complemented by Alexandra Grant's illustrations. Reeves co-produced and appeared in a 2012 documentary, Side by Side. He interviewed filmmakers including James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan; the feature investigated digital and photochemical film creation. Next, Reeves starred in Generation Um... (2012), an independent drama which was critically panned.

In 2013, Reeves starred in his own directorial debut, the martial arts film Man of Tai Chi. The film has multilingual dialogue and follows a young man drawn to an underground fight club, partially inspired by the life of Reeves' friend Tiger Chen. Principal photography took place in China and in Hong Kong. Reeves was also assisted by Yuen Woo-ping, the fight choreographer of The Matrix films. Man of Tai Chi premiered at the Beijing Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, and received praise from director John Woo. A wider, warm response followed suit; Bilge Ebiri of Vulture thought the fight sequences were "beautifully assembled", and Reeves showed restraint with the film editing to present the fighters' motion sequences. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "The brutally efficient shooting style Reeves employs to film master choreographer Yuen Woo-ping's breathtaking fights [...] is refreshingly grounded and old-school kinetic", while Dave McGinn of The Globe and Mail called the film "ambitious but generic". At the box office, Man of Tai Chi was a commercial disappointment, grossing only $5.5 million worldwide from a budget of $25 million. Also in 2013, Reeves played Kai in the 3D fantasy , a Japanese fable about a group of rogue samurai. The film premiered in Japan but failed to gain traction with audiences; reviews were not positive, causing Universal Pictures to reduce advertising for the film elsewhere. 47 Ronin was a box office flop and was mostly poorly received.

2014-present: Resurgence with John Wick

Reeves in 2015

After this series of commercial failures, Reeves' career rebounded in 2014. He played the title role in the action thriller , directed by Chad Stahelski. In the first instalment of the franchise, Reeves plays a retired hitman seeking vengeance. He worked closely with the screenwriter to develop the story; "We all agreed on the potential of the project. I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life", Reeves said. Filmed on location in the New York City area, the film was eventually released on October 24 in the United States. The Hollywood Reporter was impressed by the director's "confident, muscular action debut", and Reeves' "effortless" performance, which marked his return to the action genre. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised Reeves' fight scenes and wrote he is "always more comfortable in roles that demand cool over hot, attitude over emotion". John Wick proved to be a box office success, grossing $86 million worldwide. Next, Reeves starred in a smaller-scale horror feature, Knock Knock (2015), a remake of the 1977 film . Described as "over-the-top destruction" by the Toronto Star, Reeves plays a father, home alone, when two young women show up and start a game of cat and mouse. His other releases in 2015 were the documentaries , about crime on the dark web, and Mifune: The Last Samurai, about the life of a Japanese actor ( Toshiro Mifune) famous for playing samurai characters. He narrated both films.

Reeves appeared in five film releases in 2016. The first was , a crime thriller about a detective who investigates his partner's death and discovers police corruption along the way. The film received negative reviews for its confused plot, and Reeves was criticized for displaying limited facial expressions. His next release, the comedy , was better received. In it he voiced the eponymous kitten. Reeves then had a minor role in The Neon Demon, a psychological horror directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. He played Hank, a lustful motel owner who appears in Jesse's (played by Elle Fanning) nightmare. In his fourth release, he played a charismatic leader of a settlement in The Bad Batch. His final release of the year was The Whole Truth, featuring Gabriel Basso, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Renée Zellweger, and Jim Belushi. He played Richard, a defence attorney. Noel Murray of described it as "moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama", with a skilled cast but overall a "mundane" film. Reeves also appeared in Swedish Dicks, a two-season web television series.

In 2017, Reeves agreed to reprise his role for a sequel in the John Wick franchise, John Wick: Chapter 2. The story carries on from the first film and follows John Wick as he goes on the run when a bounty is placed on him. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $171.5 million worldwide, more than its predecessor. Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine praised Reeves' performance, which complemented his previous action roles ( Point Break and Speed). However, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described the picture as "a down-and-dirty B-picture with a lustrous A-picture soul". Besides to this large-scale feature, Reeves starred in a drama, , in which he plays a doctor helping a young woman with anorexia. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, followed by distribution on Netflix in July. Early reviews were positive, with praise for its non-glamorized portrayal of anorexia, although the New Statesman magazine thought it was irresponsible. That year, Reeves also made cameo appearances in the films A Happening of Monumental Proportions and .

Guillermo Amoedo and Reeves on the set of Knock Knock, in 2014

Reeves reunited with Winona Ryder in the 2018 comedy Destination Wedding, about wedding guests who develop a mutual affection for each other. They had worked together previously in Bram Stoker's Dracula, A Scanner Darkly and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Reeves also co-produced and starred in two thrillers. , in which he plays a diamond trader who travels to Siberia to search for his Russian partner, and , which tells the story of a neuroscientist who violates laws and bioethics to bring his family back to life after they die in a car crash. Siberia was critically panned; reviewers thought the plot was nonsensical and Reeves had little chemistry with co-star Ana Ularu. Replicas did not fare well with critics either; The A.V. Club praised Reeves' performance, but gave the film a grade D−, adding it is "garbage". It was also a box office failure, earning $9.3 million from a budget of $30 million.

Returning to the John Wick franchise, Reeves starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), the third feature in the series directed by Stahelski. The film takes place immediately after the events of John Wick: Chapter 2 and features new cast members including Halle Berry. The film was another box office hit, grossing $171 million in the United States and more than $155 million internationally. The Globe and Mail's reviewer gave the film three out of four stars, praising the fight scenes, but felt there was "aesthetic overindulgence" with the cinematography. The Guardian's Cath Clarke questioned Reeves' acting; she wrote that "he keeps his face statue-still [...] three movies in, franchise bloat is beginning to set in". Reeves was nominated for Favorite Male Movie Star of 2019 in the People's Choice Awards, and the film itself was nominated for Best Contemporary Film in the Art Directors Guild Awards. Reeves then voiced Duke Caboom in 2019's , the fourth instalment of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. In that same year on April 27 and 28, a film festival was held in his honour, called KeanuCon, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland. Over two days, nine of his films were screened for guests.

As early as 2008, Reeves and Alex Winter had shown enthusiasm for a third film, but the project went into development limbo. Finally in 2020, Bill & Ted Face the Music, the third film in the franchise was released. The critic from magazine was disappointed in Reeves' performance, but praised the film for its message that "music has the power to unite the world". Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade B, and complimented the onscreen chemistry between Reeves and Winter. He also appeared in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run as a tumbleweed named Sage. Reeves appears as Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077. In December 2021, Reeves returned to the screen for the fourth film in The Matrix franchise: The Matrix Resurrections. Carrie-Anne Moss also reprised her role as Trinity. The Matrix Resurrections was a box office disappointment; one critic praised Reeves' and Moss' performances, but thought the film was "no game-changer".

Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered on March 24, 2023; Reeves reprised his role as the title character. He also reprised his role as Johnny Silverhand in the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty.

Upcoming projects

In 2019, Reeves travelled to São Paulo to produce a Netflix series, Conquest. Details are being kept secret. A comic book series, , co-written by Reeves was published in March 2021. He is expected to star in a film adaptation of it. A fifth sequel to John Wick was planned, but Stahelski said he would like to give the franchise a "rest" for the time being.

Personal life

In 1998, Reeves met director David Lynch's assistant Jennifer Syme at a party thrown for his band Dogstar, and they started dating. On December 24, 1999, Syme gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to the couple's child, who was stillborn. The couple broke up several weeks afterward, but later reconciled. On April 2, 2001, Syme was killed when her vehicle collided with three parked cars on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles. Syme was impaired, and also not belted in. Reeves told investigators that they were back together, and had brunch together in San Francisco the day before the accident. Reeves acted as a pallbearer for Syme, who was buried next to their daughter. He was scheduled to film the sequels to The Matrix the following spring, but sought "peace and time", according to friend Bret Domrose of Dogstar.

Reeves has also been romantically linked to longtime friend and filmmaker Brenda Davis, whose child he is godfather to, and model-actress China Chow. In 2009, Reeves met Alexandra Grant at a dinner party; they went on to collaborate on two books together. They went public with their relationship in November 2019.

Reeves is discreet about his spiritual beliefs, saying that it is something "personal and private". When asked if he was a spiritual person, he said that he believes "in God, faith, inner faith, the self, passion, and things", and that he is "very spiritual". Although he does not formally practice Buddhism, the religion has left a strong impression on him, especially after filming Little Buddha. He said, "Most of the things I've come away with from Buddhism have been human-understanding feelings, impermanence, and trying to understand other people and where they're coming from."

When asked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2019 about his views on what happens after death, Reeves replied, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us".

In 2023, the lipopeptide Keanumycin, a substance deadly to fungi, was named in honor of Reeves.

Business and philanthropy

Mural of Reeves in Santiago de Chile

Reeves supports several charities and causes. In response to his sister's battle with leukemia, he founded a private cancer foundation, which aids children's hospitals and provides cancer research. In June 2020, he volunteered for Camp Rainbow Gold, an Idaho children's cancer charity. Reeves has said, "Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries". It was rumoured that Reeves gave away a substantial portion, estimated to be $35-$125 million, of his earnings from The Matrix to the special effects and makeup crews. However, this has been significantly embellished; Reeves negotiated a smaller deal, relinquishing his contractual right to a percentage of the sequels' profits in exchange for a more extensive special effects budget.

After filming John Wick: Chapter 4, Reeves, Chad Stahelski and Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Dave Camarillo, signed an exclusive training uniform that was put up for auction in March 2023 to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films, with friend Stephen Hamel. In 2011, Reeves, an avid motorcyclist, co-founded Arch Motorcycle Company, which builds and sells custom motorcycles, with Gard Hollinger. In 2017, Reeves, Jessica Fleischmann, and Alexandra Grant founded book publisher, X Artists' Books (also known as XAB). He has written two books: Ode to Happiness and Shadows, both of which are collaborations with Grant; he provided the text to her photographs and art.

Censorship

In 2022, Reeves's recitation of the Beat poem " Pull My Daisy" for a virtual benefit concert for Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, angered Chinese nationalists. Reeves's films have been banned from streaming platforms in China such as iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku.

In the media

Reeves' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

In a 2005 article for magazine, Lev Grossman called Reeves "Hollywood's ultimate introvert". He has been described as a workaholic, charming and "excruciatingly shy". During the production of Constantine, director Francis Lawrence commented on his personality, calling him "hardworking" and "generous". His co-star Shia LaBeouf said, "I've worked with him for a year and a couple of months, but I don't really know him that much". Erwin Stoff of 3 Arts Entertainment has served as Reeves's agent and manager since he was 16, and produced many of his films. Stoff said Reeves "is a really private person" and keeps his distance from other people.

In 2010, an image of Reeves became an internet meme after photographs of him were published, sitting on a park bench with a sad facial expression. The images were posted on the 4chan discussion board and were soon distributed via several blogs and media outlets, leading to the "Sad Keanu" meme being spread on the internet. An unofficial holiday was created when a Facebook fan page declared June 15 as "Cheer-up Keanu Day". He would later downplay the photo, saying, "Man, I was eating a sandwich. I was thinking-I had some stuff going on. I was hungry."

Reeves's casual persona and ability to establish rapport have been observed by the public, leading him to be dubbed the "Internet's boyfriend". In 2019, cited Reeves's unorthodox filmography and ability to appeal to nerd culture as the primary reasons for his internet popularity. While filming Bill & Ted Face the Music in July 2019, Reeves and other cast members came across a house with a banner reading "You're Breathtaking" and "Mini Keanu", two memes that had come out of Reeves's appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 for the game Cyberpunk 2077. Reeves took time to sign the banner, and talk to the family.

Reeves appeared on ' annual Celebrity 100 list in 2001 and 2002, at number 36 and 49, respectively. In 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter calculated that Reeves had earned $250 million for The Matrix franchise, making him one of the highest-paid actors. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him at number four on its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

Filmography and awards

Prolific in film since 1985, Reeves's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include: River's Edge (1987), Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999), John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Reeves has won four MTV Movie Awards, and received two Best Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards. He was nominated twice for a People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Movie Star and Favorite Action Movie Star, for his performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019).

In September 2021, Tae Kwon Do Life Magazine deemed Reeves the "#1 Martial Arts movie star in the world" based upon his multiple films in the genre, their popularity, and sheer box office gross.

Bibliography

Reeves, Keanu (text by); Grant, Alexandra (drawings by, book design by) (2011). Bergam, Janey (ed.). Ode to Happiness. Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869302096. OCLC 756797130.

Reeves, Keanu (text by); Grant, Alexandra (photographs by) (2014). Shadows: A Collaborative Project by Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves. Göttingen: Steidl Publishers. ISBN 9783869308272. OCLC 965117169.

(with Matt Kindt and Ron Garney, 12-issue mini-series, Boom! Studios, 2021, ISBN 9781684156856)

References

Further reading

DeAngelis, Michael (2001). Gay Fandom and Crossover Stardom: James Dean, Mel Gibson, and Keanu Reeves. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2728-7.

Ong, Soh Chin (May 15, 2003). "A Man of Many Faces". The Straits Times. Singapore.

"Pondering the mysterious Keanu Reeves". CNN. November 5, 2003. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008.

Smithey, Cole. "Seven magazine interview with Keanu Reeves". Seven magazine. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011.

External links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Keanu Charles Reeves ( kee-AH-noo ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, he made his acting debut in the Canadian television series (1984), before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986).

# data[].attributes.body
How great leaders inspire action

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers…

# data[].attributes.body
Can the Arts Inspire Better Leadership?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Željko Katušin, PMBA 2004

As I read through the articles on art and leadership, and in my reflections afterwards, I began relating the material to my past experiences and my personal opinions. The articles really made me think.

The arts are among the most popular and powerful phenomena of humankind. Art has existed since the beginning of civilization and has been a defining part of humankind ever since. The drivers of the arts are individual and group needs to express feelings and thoughts, document them in abstract or realistic forms, capture the sense of related phenomena, communicate with others and affect the senses. The arts are, at the most basic level, ways of experiencing, interpreting and representing our experiences of life.

On the other side, leadership is an integral part of organizational life and management. It too appeared at a very early stage of humanity. It is an outgrowth of the need to organize. Organizing has improved an individual's (and a group's) chances for survival and enables further growth on the evolutionary ladder. Leadership became an important aspect of this organizing behavior which provides one of the successful ways to compete and grow.
Arts and leadership, both having historic origins have been interacting with each other in the past, as well as today. Both disciplines depend on creativity for survival and progression.
The arts have often led as part of the avant-garde of human thinking and can therefore provide innovative and even inspirational ideas for the leadership of organizations.

On the surface, the fundamental concepts of the arts and business leadership seem different. The arts are seen as free, intuitive thought, whereas traditionally business has been seen as more disciplined, rational and organized.

Due to its variety, complexity and abstractness we can surely use the arts as an example, inspiration and model for eventual solutions for contemporary leadership issues. Studying arts issues can provide us with ideas to build new techniques, approaches and methods we can use in our managerial work. It can increase abilities and creative skills to find solutions to real life problems {Austin and Devin, 2003; Darso, 2004; Ibbotson, 2008; Reckenrich, Kupp& Anderson, 2010).

In short, examining the arts increases our ability in creative analyses of real life situations, for making sense of the complexity, taking decisions and providing us with action (Barry&Meisiek, 2010; Springborg, 2010). Through art one individual can, by using one's senses along with one's mind, come to common understandings of the environment in which one acts and therefore come to better decisions and actions.

The arts relate to the sensory-emotional aspects of human experience. Anyone can engage his/her senses, intuition and interpretation to interact with art. There is great potential in these human resources, a potential to engage people to use their senses, intuition and interpretive abilities to think differently. How do we mobilise this?

Thinking differently is a very important issue. For example, Albert Einstein held that we cannot solve today's problems with the same way of thinking used to create the problems. This highlights a central question for all responsible leaders: Do you dare to think differently and take the "other" way?

Reality beyond the obvious is many times "hidden" to the eyes of normal spectators. Daring to see, admit and deal with the whole subject opens the way to new solutions. For example, remember the old story about the Emperor's New Clothes. Here the writer, a creative artist, reminds us of the daring to think differently and presents the idea that it took a "naive" child to see that the Emperor was really naked.

The arts provide alternative ways to see and make sense of our world (Barry &Meisiek, 2010; Taylor & Ladkin, 2009). There are intuitive and qualitative skills, coming from different kinds of arts, available for leaders and their teams. Approaches from theater (Biehi-Missal, 2010; Stevenson, 1996; Wood, 2002), orchestras and bands (Atik, 1994; Koivunen&Wennes, 2011; Drucker, 1992) provide new ideas for team-building skills such as creative teamwork, discipline, focus on common goals, and acquisition of inspiration for repetitive actions - issues all very important for business success.

Just imagine the performance and perception skills of the orchestra musician, simultaneously playing his/her instrument and carefully observing and listening to the others as well as following the conductor's lead - wouldn't that kind of situation perfectly fit an ideal business environment? Why not try to learn and fit it into your team?

There are several practical examples of how to introduce arts methods into leadership practice. Taylor and Ladkin (2009) have suggested four methods in particular. The first is to transfer performing skills from the arts into organizations. The second is to use art's 'projective techniques' in order to express and reflect inner thoughts and feelings. Thirdly, they suggest the use of art's presentation and representation capacities for illustrations of the key ideas and essence of concepts. Finally they suggest getting engaged in the arts yourself by 'making', in order to express your inner self and enhance your creativity, something that can be a cathartic experience.

Business study related to arts increases development of the imagination, spatial thinking and abstract reasoning, which are all essential skills for today's students and future business professionals.

The question is whether the arts can, in reality, definitively help and inspire leadership for a better performance. The answer is vague as it all depends on an individual's beliefs, hopes, commitment and an organization's ability to introduce new methods and goals into organizational life.

The goals that are set in the organizations must go beyond the limits of tradition and profit margins. Art suggests that not only profit is enough to fulfill the needs of individuals and successfully complete the mission of an organization. There are more values behind the economic gains. The organizations who are ready to commit to the utilization of creative abilities and serve social good and ecological responsibility will evolve into desirable, modern organizations delivering innovations which will in turn increase their competitive advantage.

During my personal experience with art and leadership development I have often noticed how interconnected they are and how they can positively impact each other. In any respect I think it is worthwhile to stay in touch with art. Even if there is no direct interaction with management and leadership, art's ability to relax, inspire and encourage creative energy serves perfectly to diffuse the everyday stressful and exhausting work of managing.
I have benefited from arts experiences in film making, painting and playing music in a band. All these experiences have informed my work. What about my leadership experience?
My leadership perspective has changed over the past few years, due to several internal and external conflicts. I have grown personally and through my work experience, so did my perspectives change. Additional education in management has brought knowledge and skills, some of which I have implemented in my work. The company where I work has grown and evolved. Most importantly, the world has changed and requires innovative perspectives. The times are different and we have to cope with new situations every day.
Economics and the economy are known for their uncertainties and unpredictability. The present times in particular can be described, as Slovene economist Jože Mencinger has recently done, as to Columbus discovering the New World: when starting his journey he did not know where he was heading, when landing he did not know where he was.

Vision and hope were the main drivers that guided Columbus on his path through unknown territories. Following his innovative idea he was rewarded by additional discovery, which nobody predicted or expected. It isn't rare in life that brave and innovative acts are accompanied with additional unexpected gains and discoveries. "Those who dare, win", the motto is used also for extreme situations in order to ensure maximum faith and motivation of participants.

So much for the past experience, what about future benefits from my arts and leadership studies?

There are several trends that can be recognized in the modern world. The structure and relations of the world have changed through increased global interconnectedness and increased domination of market forces (Adler, 2006). Most important is the recognition that due to modern world changes we need to rethink who we are as human beings.

The standard models cannot cope anymore with the complexities of the present. The world of complexity is driven by discontinuous change, within the network of interconnected teams, acting simultaneously. Creative action is required for adequate strategies to deal with these problems. What needs to be done and how can we do it?

It is important for leaders to recognize, describe and implement the present seeds that will flower in the future, by using their imagination, creative and intuitive abilities without waiting for all the evidence to appear on their desks.

Business organizations shall need to embrace flatter systems, more networked, multi organizational structures including global strategic alliances, joint ventures and partnerships following the leaderless chamber orchestra model.

Managerial approaches shall move from planning-then-doing to simultaneous listening-and-observing-while-doing skills, first ensuring that atmosphere in the team is ready for improvisation and team members do trust their colleagues that they are taking care of the team's best interests.
(Adler, 2006)

Advanced computer technologies have changed the ways of creating new products, services and market relationships. The use of computerized models has enabled rapid and cheap iteration allowing creative leaders to dream new ideas worthy of testing, in that way substituting costly and time consuming experimentation for planning (Adler, 2006; Austin & Devin, 2003).

The most important is the trend of economy-focus change from efficiency oriented towards one based on significance and meaning (Adler 2006; Austin & Devin, 2003). The needs and expectations of the people have changed and economic success alone is no longer enough. There is a strong urge for contributions that make genuine and positive differences in all our lives.

The roles of leaders have changed and they need to be supported by their abilities based on courage and creativity. This courage is to envision new possibilities and challenge and inspire others - just like artists do.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Can the arts really help and inspire better leadership performance?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Željko Katušin, PMBA 2004 As I read through the articles on art and leadership, and in my reflections afterwards, I began relating the material to my past experiences and my personal opinions. The articles really made me think. The arts are among the most popular and powerful phenomena of humankind.

# data[].attributes.body
Follow the leader | Suli Breaks |

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Follow the leader | Suli Breaks | TEDxHousesofParliament

# data[].attributes.body
Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why is Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" considered a masterpiece? - James Earle

# data[].attributes.body
How Are Great Artists and Great Leaders Similar?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nancy Adler - How are great artists and great leaders similar?

# data[].attributes.body
Art and Leadership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I was raised in a home which held art in high regard. Both my grandfathers were artists - one a professional photographer and the other an architect and painter. My parents used to take me to art galleries when I was little and our flat was always full of pantings and albums full of paintings were all over our house. My father played music as a hobby and my mother has been into photography since I can recall.

As a kid I used to invent new songs and tape-record them. I wrote poetry. Later on I took drawing and painting lessons and was granted access to an art high school. I decided to leave myself more options and not focus on arts. In the mid-90's I became fascinated with the hip hop culture. For a few years I was a graffiti artist and rapped in a local band.

Art is a waste of time

I gave it all up when I landed my first job at the age of 19. Suddenly everything had to be „reasonble", „make sense" and „make ends meet". I put the artsy part of myself on the shelf and focused on learning how to do business. I gave up what was dear to me as I thought it was „useless".

Is that true? Looking from another perspective I realize that my early fascination was not only useful in my later career, but giving it up didn't make sense at all. Maybe I just lacked a good mentor at that time. If you are still reading this it means that you either experienced a similar dillema or you have not been into art that much, but consider getting into it from curiosity. There is a number of reasons it is worth a try, so let's dig into them.

Why art may matter to a leader

Courage to make new, imperfect things that nobody will understand.

When you write a poem or draw something with no intention to publish you can hush your internal self-critic. There are no limits to creativity and experiments. It is an excerise of courage. There is no need to worry if it fits the rules, if it is good or bad, it it is off the limits or not. You art is as it is. Doing so you can become more self-confident and willing to show your own style. This translates to your behavioral patterns in your professional life.

Openness to different perspectives.

If you go to a gallery and see a fridge standing in the corner painted with blue and yellow car spray. You may like it or not but as you are already there, you face it and may develop an opinion or just observe with curiosity. What is amazing about art is that it knows no boundries. It feeds on breaking the rules and the element of surprise. Interacting with it may help you develop openness.

Creativity helps in problem solving and programming.

To copy something that exists already is not easy but may require diligent work to reverse engineer an established process. To build something that has never existed is a challenge not only writers but also programmers or product managers face every day. And this is what art is all about - creating new objects in a World where „everything has already been told". Embracing the ability to come up with new ideas is invaluable.

Try painting an object and thinking about something else at the same time. Impossible. One of the reasons why doodling is believed to increase productivity is that it attaches you to the here and now. It turns off the busy mind and improves focus on the thing at hand. Writing or drawing can be the way to pause while your mind is overwhelmed with problems and cannot find a solution.

Hardly anyone can learn how to paint overnight. It requires hours of work and tons of paper to draw an apple that will resemble a real one. Imagine playing Bach after a few piano lessons. Art - as any skill - requires practice. I believe that great artists, just like athletes, build an artistic muscle that can help them overcome challenges in their career in business.

Hitting deadlines and crossing out tasks on the to-do list is obviously everything. Unfortunately, sometimes we may get in the mode when we feel as if nothing except work matters. As if tangible results are the only good reason to live. Doing something that „makes no sense" eg. doesn't give you fame or money, but just pure fun, may seem like a waste of time. Engaging in singing or knitting can bring just pure fun. The fun of creating for the sake of creating. That can bring true relief to a goal-oriented mind.

Is art for you?

Some of the benefits are available just by interacting and being curious about art. Some require becoming an artist. Anyone can become an artist - even if this means making one drawing a year and putting it at the bottom of a drawer. In my opinion it is the state of mind and openness to experiment that make an artist.

Nowadays I go to a gallery wherever I travel. This year I am going to take caligraphy classes and plan to use my own drawings to illustrate some of my writing (eg. the one above). I find it difficult to rewire myself for spending time with this „impractical" state of mind.
If you want to read more on this topic, the following books gave me a lot of joy and were of inspiration:

„What is Art" by Leo Tolstoy
„Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott
„If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland

How do you feel about art?

WRITTEN BY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Art and leadership - what does it have in common? - Greg Albrecht

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Art is a waste of time...Is that true? Looking from another perspective I realize that my early fascination was not only useful in my later career, but giving it up didn't make sense at all. Why art may matter to a leader? There is a number of reasons it is worth a try, so let's dig into them.

# data[].attributes.body
Picasso - A Leader in the Art World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous artists of the twentieth-century. Why? Because he was brilliant at drawing. People really loved his doodles. What do you think of the drawing above? Look at how he has used colour...how many colours can you see? What objects are in the picture?

Even as a child he was better at drawing than many adults. He could draw and paint just about anything, and in any style. He liked to experiment and try out new ideas, which is important if you are an artist, because the world is always changing. Picasso helped us see the world in new ways

the colourful stages of picasso's life

Picasso was so experimental, and created so many different kinds of art that historians have divided his life and the art he made into stages. The Blue Period and the Rose Period came first (when he used lots of blue and pink to make paintings). These were followed by primitivism, cubism, classicism (when he created more traditional or classic artworks), surrealism, wartime and Late Works.

What is Cubism?

a closer look at cubism

One of his most famous periods is the cubist period. The painting below is one of his cubist pictures. Cubism is when the artist paints an object, like a bottle, from lots of different angles all in the same picture. So you see the front, the back and the sides of the bottle at the same time. In a way, it's a bit like having x-ray eyes!

Picasso was born in Malaga in Spain in 1881, but in 1904 when he was 23 he moved to Paris. This is because Paris was the capital of the avant-garde, which means cutting-edge and very cool. Picasso became friends with lots of artists and writers, like Georges Braque who he invented cubism with; and a writer called Gertrude Stein who collected art wrote a cubist book. He became interested in art from other continents too. You can see some of these influences in his paintings.

Look how expressive this artwork is!

In 1937 the Spanish Civil War broke out. The picture below is called The Weeping Woman, and it was painted in protest to the bombing of a town called Guernica in Spain. The woman is crying but her face is all mixed up. This is because it is a cubist painting. If you look closely you can see that Picasso has painted both the front of the woman's face and the side of her face. Hold your hand up to the picture and cover the left side of her face. Can you see that she is now in profile? Picasso was trying to show us what pain and unhappiness looks like. What do you feel when you look at this painting?

But Picasso has also painted hope. The woman's right ear has turned into a bird that is drinking her tears away and there is a pretty flower in her hat, showing us that new life is just around the corner.

What do you think of Pablo's work? If you drew a portrait of your best friend in the style of Picasso, how would it look?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find out who is Pablo Picasso, cubism and Picasso's paintings with this art homework guide for kids. Read Picasso biography and facts for kids.

# data[].attributes.body
How Art Teachers are Helping Build the Next Generation of Leaders

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Some people, maybe even in our own buildings, view the art room as a chaotic place where kids "just go to color." But we know nothing could be further from the truth.

We know the art room is one of the places students feel free to express themselves. It's a place to learn the power of perseverance and build self-esteem through trial and error. It's a place to collaborate and learn how to work with others.

In short, the art room is a place where students gain a wide array of transferable leadership skills that will help them both in and out of school.

These leadership skills transfer to our students' everyday lives and future careers. Not every student is destined to be an artist, but art class provides students with important skills that contribute to a well-rounded education. These are skills will be beneficial to them no matter what path in life they choose.

Here are 6 leadership skills students gain through art.

1. Collaboration

Art provides an outlet for students to create work independently but it also lends itself to natural collaboration and collaborative projects. These experiences allow students to learn how to work with others.

One easy way to get students of any age collaborating is to have them work on a large drawing together. I've even done this with my kindergarten students! Simply divide students into groups, pass out large pieces of paper, give a simple theme, and let them go!

The last time I did this with my students, I gave locations as a theme. These included: beach, forest, neighborhood, city, etc. Students started with a simple horizon line, brainstormed a bit, and began creating. This is a great way to have students work toward a common goal.

2. Communication

There are many different ways to bring the idea of communication into the art room. In the previous example of a collaborative drawing, students needed to communicate with one another to create a cohesive drawing. Collaboration and communication often go hand-in-hand.

Aside from collaborative projects, artists also need to be able to communicate their ideas orally or through artist statements. These can be ideas about their own work or ideas about the work of others through class critiques.

Being able to collaborate and communicate effectively are definitely skills leaders in society need. They are essential skills in working well with others and maintaining positive work environments. I intentionally share this idea with students so they can make connections from art class to other areas of their lives.

If you'd like to share these ideas with students, download the poster for your classroom below!
Download Now!
3. Creativity

As Henri Matisse once famously said, "Creativity takes courage." This rings true today. Thinking outside the box and trying new ideas are skills students practice in the art room every day. Leaders need these skills in order to take their teams to the next level and approach problems with a fresh perspective.

The Innovative Teaching, Learning and Leadership Consultant, George Couros, says, "Often the biggest barrier to innovation is our own way of thinking." Art allows students the opportunity to think in different ways thus building their creative capacity. Learning how to deal with failure and explore a variety of techniques and processes will serve them well in the future.

4. Problem-Solving

Not a day goes by when students aren't practicing their problem-solving skills in the art room. Of course, there are the creative problems they solve in regards to the assignments, themes, or centers presented to them. But there are also the essential questions that run throughout an art curriculum.

Why do artists' create?

What can an artist do to create texture in their art?

How can you add movement to your artwork?

Whether students are trying to mix a certain color, build a structure with recyclables to stand on its own, or produce a certain design, they are using problem-solving skills. The leaders of tomorrow will undoubtedly come across countless problems to solve. Our artists will be ready!

5. Commitment & Perseverance

Artwork students create in our classrooms can take anywhere from a single class period to many weeks. The planning process alone can involve brainstorming, sketching, exploring media, and research. It takes perseverance and commitment to begin a project and see it through to completion. This is especially true if a student's idea morphs and changes as they work through problems.

Leadership positions require individuals to stay committed to their roles and plans, even when problems arise. Leaders must be able to stick with their vision and mission when the going gets tough. Practicing these exact skills in the art room can help set our students up for success.

6. Responsibility

Having a responsible person in a leadership position is important. Students have many opportunities to learn responsibility in the art room.

1. Have your students clean their own paintbrushes.

2. Have your students put away their own supplies in the correct places.

3. Have your students help you create and uphold the classroom expectations.

4. Require your students to follow all classroom procedures.

5. Encourage your students to be honest.

6. Make sure all students are helping during cleanup time.

7. Help your students develop strategies for staying on task during work time.

Make sure you have clear expectations, procedures, and consequences in your art room to help students learn responsibility.

Our students may not all grow up to be CEOs, principals, or managers, but that does not mean they can't lead others. We can teach our students they can be a positive influence on those around them no matter the position they're in. Instilling these skills in our students will be essential to their growth as individuals and citizens of their wider communities.

If you'd like to hear even more about Leadership, join me at the Summer 2017 Art Ed Now Online Conference for my talk Art Teachers as Leaders: Promoting Change and Creating Culture. I'll be talking about why we are on the leading edge of transforming education with our innovative practices. I hope you'll join me!
What other leadership skills do you believe are fostered through art? What tasks would you add to the list that make students responsible in the art studio?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Art Teachers are Helping Build the Next Generation of Leaders - The Art of Education University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Some people, maybe even in our own buildings, view the art room as a chaotic place where kids "just go to color." But we know nothing could be further from the truth. We know the art room is one of the places students feel free to express themselves.