We asked the genre-bending filmmaker and recent author of "Carsick," John Waters, how he manages his finances and his answers were surprisingly conservative. 

Produced by Sam Rega. Edited by David Fang.

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Amy Schumer is now a movie star thanks to her $30 million opening for Universal's Trainwreck.

But unlike many actors who line up new gigs immediately before or after an opening weekend, the busy stand-up comic and star of Inside Amy Schumer can afford to be choosy.

Still, sources say her next project likely will be an untitled comedy set up at Fox, about a mother and daughter who find themselves kidnapped while on vacation in Brazil.

Schumer, 34, and her sister, Kim Caramele, reworked an initial script by The Heat's Katie Dippold, putting the daughter character in Schumer's distinctive voice. (Dippold, who will serve as an exec producer, used her relationship with her mother as inspiration for the initial script.)

The studio and producers Paul Feig and Peter Chernin have been sizing up venerable names for the mother role (Sally Field, Meryl Streep and American Horror Story's Frances Conroy are on the wish list), but that casting hinges on first finding a director.

Insiders say the script came into the studio in mid-July and a directors shortlist quickly was drawn up, with Warm Bodies' Jonathan Levine and The Inbetweeners Movie's Ben Palmer, among those mentioned. Also in the running are Mike White (Year of the Dog), Little Miss Sunshine team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and Lucia Aniello, who directed episodes of Broad City.

Schumer (UTA, Mosaic, Schreck Rose) now finds herself with a vote in the director lottery. Although Fox would like to start shooting before the end of the year, sources say multiple factors would need to be worked out, including coordinating the scheduling with her Emmy-nominated sketch comedy series, which Comedy Central renewed for a fourth season in April.

And her newly upped fee, of course.

SEE ALSO: Amy Schumer's unique road to becoming an A-list comedy star

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NOW WATCH: Amy Schumer gives a brutally honest interview about her sex life

Cara Delevingne has been one of the biggest models for years now. She has garnered fame and a massive social media following, with nearly 16 million Instagram followers and 3.1 million Twitter followers. 

Now, she is her leap to Hollywood. Her first major leading role is in "Paper Towns," which was released in theaters Friday.

Prior to "Paper Towns,"Delevingne had roles in smaller films like" The Face of an Angel" and "Anna Karenina," as well as some other short films and music videos.  

She has already been cast in six more roles over the next two years, including as a main part of the cast for the highly anticipated "Suicide Squad" in 2016.

Delevingne will turn 23 next month, but she already has accomplished more than some ever do. Learn about how she got to where she is now.

Cara Delevingne - pronounced like “della-veen” - was born in London on August 12, 1992.

Her family history is extensive. She was born to Pandora and Charles Delevingne. She has two sisters, Poppy and Chloe. Poppy, pictured on the left below, is also a model. Her grandfather was a publishing executive and English Heritage chairman. Her grandmother was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Her godfather is a Condé Nast executive and her godmother is actress Joan Collins.

She went to Francis Holland School for girls in central London before she was 16 and then moved to Beadles School in Hampshire in the south east of London.

Kodak's 1965 Super 8 film camera “unleashed an amateur auteur in every household,” says the Denver-based film collective Lumenati.

The group, which just came out the Lumenati CS1 — the world's first "cinematic smartcase," hopes their invention will do the same for anyone with an iPhone 6.

“We believe that instead of fighting accessibility, let’s just improve the widely available camera that most people already own," Lumenati co-founder Scott McDonald told Business Insider. "The result is more accessible to the masses but certainly makes for better film-making."

"The CS1 gives everyone the opportunity to make better films and tell better stories,” McDonald said.

The group launched a Kickstarter campaign to make the CS1 a reality, and have already raised $170,000 — more than double of their original goal of $75,000 — with two weeks to go. Keep scrolling to see how the device works.

SEE ALSO: How to shoot great iPhone videos like the people in Apple's latest ads

For amateur cinematographers, the retro-style CS1 solves "both an ergonomics problem and a stylistic desire," said McDonald. "The CS1 is the first camera in a long time that can be slung over the shoulder like a fashion accessory.”

A Lumenati owner can simply pop her iPhone 6 into the device and begin filming by pulling the camera's trigger.

The case is lightweight, which makes it easy to transport and keep stable. For more involved shooters, there’s even a built-in option to attach lights, microphones, or extra handles for sports shooting. Wide angle, fisheye, and telephoto lenses can also be used.

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Judd Apatow is a famous director now, having written and directed some of modern comedy's greatest hits ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin", "Knocked Up"). Sure. But did you know he used to be sort of a creep? 

As a young man in the early 1970s, Apatow was a pre-teen obsessed with comedians. He washed dishes in a comedy club so he could watch sets. He hosted a radio show at his high school in order to interview comedians. He's since compiled many of those interviews for a new book, "Sick in the Head," which hit booksellers on June 16. 

That isn't the creepy part.

What's creepy is a story relayed within his new book about a young Judd Apatow meeting a young Steve Martin ... at Steve Martin's house ... uninvited. Apatow's grandmother lived in California, and, though he grew up in Long Island, N.Y., his family would visit every now and again. Apatow had tracked down Martin's then-address and, on each of these trips, Apatow would ask his grandmother to drive him past Martin's home. Here's how Apatow describes it in the book:

I begged her to drive by not because I thought I would see him – although I badly wished that would happen – but because I just couldn't believe there was a structure that actually contained him. It seemed impossible to believe he existed and was somebody you could talk to.

On one of these trips, Martin was actually outside of his house. A young Judd Apatow excitedly asked his grandmother to stop the car so that he and his brother could get out and hound "The Jerk" star Steve Martin. As you might expect, Apatow asked for an autograph. The story might've ended there, but Martin – understandably reserved about giving anything to a fan who approached him at his home – rebuffed young Apatow. 

Despite Apatow's protestations, Martin wouldn't give in.

Apatow left, defeated, so he could write a "long, crazy letter" to Martin, "the spirit of which was: I have bought everything you've ever made, and you wouldn't live in that house if it weren't for people like me. And then I demanded an apology," Apatow writes in "Sick in the Head." 

Adding to the craziness, Apatow hand-delivered the letter to Martin's mail box. Not weird at all!

Thankfully, this story has a heart-warming ending. Around six months after Apatow's first encounter with Martin, Apatow received a package in the mail from Martin. Beyond a nice, hilarious note, Martin included two copies of his book "Cruel Shoes" (one for Apatow, another for his brother).

Years later, the two comedians are friends – Apatow interviews Martin in his book, where they talk about everything from stand-up to banjo playing. It's on bookshelves now.

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A real-life bank robber on the run in Washington was arrested by U.S. Marshals Friday after appearing in a low-budget horror movie.

According to The News Tribune, investigators were tipped off to 44-year-old Jason Stange's location recently when multiple promotional photos for the movie "Marla Mae" — showing his face — surfaced in a local newspaper in Olympia, Washington.

Stange pleaded guilty in 2006 to an armed bank robbery. Last year, he violated his probation when he left his halfway house in Spokane without permission. A warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest.

Interestingly, Stange was very popular on set. 

"Marla Mae" producer Brandon Roberts told the Tacoma Times Tribune that Stange was "a great guy" and "really nailed the audition" for the part of Dr. Lourdes, a deranged abortion clinic doctor.

Despite his outlaw status, the first-time director Lisa van Dam-Bates, doesn't plan to cut Stange from the film, which had just wrapped when the arrest took place. Stange was nabbed when he left the set to buy cigarettes, but the arresting officers allowed him to return his costume before going to jail.

SEE ALSO: This new documentary about the Indonesian genocide is so crazy you won't believe it really happened

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NOW WATCH: Imagine the bleakest crime drama ever ... set in Minnesota

There’s a lot of literature that claims a successful Hollywood script can be broken down into a formula.

The most famous is the screenplay guide Save the Cat! by guru Blake Snyder, which has swept through the screenwriting world with its minute-by-minute formula for how to wow the audience.

Now one startup is taking a crack at the screenwriting formula from a machine learning perspective. Vault, an Israeli artificial intelligence company, has created a program that claims to be able to tell whether a film will be a hit or a flop, simply by reading the script.

But how?

David Stiff, Vault’s CEO and co-founder, says it hinges on an intensive analysis of 300,000 to 400,000 story “features,” which can be things like themes or level of violence. All these story features are pulled from the script by his program with no human input.

Vault trained its AI using script data from films going back to 1980, when Stiff says there was a shift in Hollywood toward the “blockbuster” model. The team fed the system the script, allowing it to compare data points to the box office performance data.

Stiff now claims his algorithm can predict the box office performance of a film with 65% to 70% accuracy. This an extremely high percentage given that only 20% of movies make their money back, he says.

When I press Stiff to reveal what factors are most important to a successful film, he cites themes. “If we take out themes from our predictions, our rates drop dramatically,” he says. This makes sense. There are themes that have been recycled from the time of Ancient Greece to now, and they still move us.

But one aspect Stiff thinks Hollywood puts too much emphasis on is the star power of actors. His AI can also suggest actors a studio could cast, based on the script, but the focus is on saving money. Stars can be useful at the box office, but a series of high-profile flops from actors like Johnny Depp prove that even an acting legend can’t save a sinking script. This thinking runs counter to the prevailing wisdom in Hollywood, which places screenwriters more toward the bottom of the food chain.

Stiff says if he had to write a film based on what he’s learned, he’d use no-name actors in an action comedy with a budget of $30 million. But he stresses that the formula is too complex to be “gamed” in a straightforward way. It would be easier for him to select a portfolio of 10 movies, he says.

This nod to diversification harkens back to the team's background in algorithmic trading. While Vault works with both studios and investors, Stiff envisions the program working particularly well for people who want to wade into the film-funding marketplace.

Vault started its analysis efforts with film because the team thought it would be hard, Stiff says. There are so many elements that go into a film besides the script, that if they could nail this, they could easily move into other industries. To that end, Stiff says the company plans to move into TV and even publishing.

And when has Vault been the most wrong?

Stiff said his AI thought that the latest Terminator movie was going to be a hit, but it’s looking like a disappointment at the box office. Maybe it was just a case of robots favoring robots.  

You can see Vault’s full 2015 predictions, a mixture of indie and studio films, by clicking here.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new music service could be an epic flop because of this one major issue

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While most celebrities tend to turn a blind eye toward the hateful tweets they recieve, actor James Woods has decided to make a multi-million dollar response to one of his Twitter bashers. 

Woods, 68, recently filed a $10 million lawsuit against an anonymous Twitter user for allegedly accusing Woods of being addicted to cocaine. 

Woods filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday. The suit accuses the anonymous owner of now-defunct Twitter account "Abe List" of orchestrating a "malicious on-line campaign ... to discredit and damage Woods' reputation."

The Twitter bashing allegedly started in December 2014, when Abe List began a campaign of "childish name-calling" in response to a number of Woods' tweets. "In the past, AL has referred to Woods with such derogatory terms as 'prick,' 'joke,' 'ridiculous,' 'scum' and 'clown-boy,'" the suit reads.

The tweet that "stepped over the line," however, was a response that List made to the "Once Upon a Time in America" actor on July 15, which read, "cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting."

According to the suit, Woods "is not now, nor has he ever been, a cocaine addict, and [Abe List] has no reason to believe otherwise." 

Woods' complaint states that List's "reckless and malicious behavior" on Twitter has now "jeopardized Woods' good name and reputation on an international scale."

On accusations of defamation and invasion of privacy by false light, the actor is seeking damages from the anonymous Twitter user "in an amount not less than $10 million."

Beyond looking for retribution, Woods' case seems intent on curing the ills of social media in general:

"AL, and anyone else using social media to propagate lies and do harm, should take note," the suit reads. "They are not impervious to the law.

SEE ALSO: James Woods, 66, Debuts His 20-Year-Old Girlfriend At 'White House Down' Premiere

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NOW WATCH: Hollywood Producers Reveal The Most Off-The-Wall Requests Actors Have Made

Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E — that's who most people reflect on when they think about 1980s rap group, N.W.A.

Many feel that "Straight Outta Compton," the film documenting the group's rise, got the casting just about right.

Ice Cube is played by his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Dr. Dre is played by Corey Hawkins, and Eazy-E is played by Jason Mitchell.

But one casting call for the film posted in July last year raised some eyebrows because many thought it to be incredibly racist.

At the time, Sande Alessi Casting posted the notice on several social media platforms in search of different types of women to be extras in the film.

In the post, the company classified the girls they were looking for into four categories: A, B, C, and D girls. 

The "A-Girls," according to the company, are "the hottest of the hottest," and could be "black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Mid-Eastern, or mixed race too."

But then, the company got particularly specific about the types of girls it was looking for.

"B-Girls," as the company described them, were "Fine girls, long natural hair, really nice bodies. Small waists, nice hips." Skin color was limited to "light-skinned ... Beyonce is a prototype here."

Further down the list, the casting call got even more selective.

"C-Girls" were described as "African American girls, light-to-medium skin tone with a weave."

"D-Girls" were to be "African American girls. Poor, not in good shape. Medium-to-dark skin tone."

The posting was removed from all social media shortly after it was posted. The casting company told Jet Magazine last July that the categorization of the girls "is not by any means a ranking of A is better than B." Adding, "We obviously don’t want to leave anything up that’s offensive to people."

The company later said it would use a different method to cast women as extras. 

As the film's release date nears, posts from last July — when the casting call was originally published — have re-surfaced on social media:

Universal Pictures, the company that produced the film, slammed the offensive casting call in a statement: "The filmmakers did not approve and do not condone the information in this casting notice," they said. "We regret and sincerely apologize for being in any way associated with the offensive descriptions it contained."

Business Insider has reached out to Universal Pictures for comment on how the casting process was changed.

"Straight Outta Compton" is not the first film to be called out for questionably racist casting. But this instance raises questions about where the line is drawn with regard to casting practices. 

A casting call for "The Hobbit" in 2010 was panned for requiring potential applicants to have "light skin tones." The casting agent was fired.

Here's a transcipt of the entire "Straight Outta Compton" casting call, via Gawker.

"Straight Outta Compton" releases in theaters Friday, August 14.

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NOW WATCH: Here’s how to get your own 'Straight Outta Compton' Facebook photo

It's been a long time since a movie has generated as much fervent anticipation as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Due in theaters this Christmas, the movie is expected by some to gross more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office.

Expectations are incredibly high for the JJ Abrams-directed sci-fi epic, but there's no guarantee that "The Force Awakens" will please everybody. 

Produced by Graham Flanagan. Camera by Corey Protin.

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During the D23 Expo, Star Wars : The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams invited the cast of the new film onto the stage to help him introduce a new poster for the film. The reveal of poster, designed by veteran film poster artist Drew Struzan, was followed by a surprise appearance by Harrison Ford.

Produced by Rob Ludacer

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China spent last week excoriating Japan for twisting the history of World War II while spreading distortions of its own on the 70th anniversary of the war's end.

Even China's Global Times, a tabloid owned by the People's Daily Communist Party newspaper, said China had gone too far by putting photos of an actor portraying Mao Tse-tung (now Mao Zedong) on posters for a movie on the Cairo Conference of 1943.

Mao was not in Cairo for the meeting on war strategy with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill but his arch-enemy, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was.

The Global Times quoted art critic Sima Pingbang as saying that "By featuring Mao, who was not present at the meeting, but excluding Chiang, the poster shows no respect for history nor to Mao."

China was playing up Mao's exploits during World War II ahead of the Sept. 3 military parade and commemoration of what is known in Beijing as the "Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War."

However, most historians say it was Chiang's Kuomintang (KMT) forces that bore the brunt of the fighting against Japan while Mao saved his troops for the 1945-49 civil war, which ended with Chiang fleeing to Formosa (Taiwan).

The Cairo film was one of more than 10 new movies,12 TV dramas, 20 documentaries and 183 war-themed stage performances in China leading up to Sept. 3, Reuters reported.

The military parade in Tiananmen Square has posed a dilemma for world leaders unwilling to attend a display of China's military might yet also unwilling to offend a world economic power.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would attend but the U.S., Britain, India and others have yet to commit. It was also not known if Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been sent an invitation.

Last Friday, as Japan marked the 70th anniversary, the conservative and nationalist Abe expressed "deep remorse" for Japan's actions but did not make an apology of his own. He also said that future generations of Japanese should not have to apologize.

The following day, the 81-year-old Emperor Akihito, whose father Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender, expressed his own sorrow over the war in what some Japanese commentators saw as a rebuke to Abe.

"Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated," Akihito said.

A commentary in China's official Xinhua news agency charged that the "revisionist" Abe had "shied away from assuming responsibility for launching a war of aggression upon other countries, saying Japan tried to 'overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock through the use of force.'"

The US left its response to National Security Council spokesman Ned Price who said in a statement that "We welcome Prime Minister Abe's expression of deep remorse for the suffering caused by Japan during the World War II era, as well as his commitment to uphold past Japanese government statements on history."

"We also value Prime Minister Abe's assurances of Japan's intent to expand upon its contributions to international peace and prosperity in the years ahead."

SEE ALSO: China is trying to use WWII history to shame Japan and weaken its alliances

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NOW WATCH: China has been upgrading its military and is now stronger than ever

Iris Barrel Apfel is someone who dresses to impress.

Never one to follow trends, her eclectic style is a mix of high-end, low-end, and vintage duds. 

A darling of the fashion set for years, her appeal has officially gone mainstream, thanks to an early aughts museum exhibit, a recent documentary, and modeling gigs with fashion brand Kate Spade, accessories designer Alexis Bittar, and cosmetics juggernaut MAC. 

By marching to the beat of her own drum, the former interior designer and textiles importer has become, as she puts it, "a 93-year-old cover girl."

Earlier this spring, a documentary on her life, "Iris," let fans meet the woman behind those signature giant glasses, and audiences were enchanted, as was one Kanye West (more on that below). 

Keep scrolling to get to know fashion's latest blooming star. 

SEE ALSO: Meet the woman who became the first Asian designer to head a French fashion house

Apfel was born in Astoria, Queens, on August 29, 1921. Her mother was a lawyer and her father was a fashion boutique owner. As a child, she delighted in styling store windows and going on design studio visits with her father.

Apfel studied fine arts at New York University and the University of Wisconsin. After working as a correspondent for Women's Wear Daily, she apprenticed for an interior designer and later stepped out on her own as a decorator and textiles importer.

She married Carl Apfel — who celebrates his 100th birthday in the film — in 1948 and started Old World Weavers, their design business that sourced and created unique textiles.

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The new film "Steve Jobs," written by Aaron Sorkin, and starring Michael Fassbender as the tech innovator himself, has been making waves on the internet for its unique and controversial portrayal. But will it live up to the hype?

Find out how it stands against other attempts to encapsulate the life of the man behind Apple.

"Steve Jobs" opens October 9.

 Produced by Lamar Salter

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If Huayi Brothers has spent the last ten years securing its status within the film industry, then over the next ten years, the company must develop out of the traditional film business and into new enterprises.

When it came out last year that Huayi Brothers were leaving the film studio that put out the top three highest-grossing domestic films, many took it as a sign they were “getting away from movies”, but from their actions, it seems the Huayi Brothers are actually getting closer to the Web.

Businesses under the Huayi Brothers brand have been organized into three groups: film and television, brand licensing and live entertainment, and online entertainment.

Online entertainment includes new media, games, and other Internet related products. In the first quarter of this year, online entertainment generated more than 410 million yuan in revenue, accounting for 66.65% of total revenue. Online entertainment accounted for the biggest portion of first-quarter revenue, and was also the fasted growing, increasing 14,000 times over last year.

“Huayi listed five years ago, so we’re just in time for this stage where the Internet in China is exploding,” said Huayi Brothers chairman, Wang Zhongjun. He continued by saying: “So now we have this huge business area, online entertainment.”

Wang Zhongjun put up the initial funding to develop Huayi Brothers’ online business. The most direct result of this is his generosity in giving out stock incentives. When the new media division underwent equity reform, almost 50% of stocks were given to the team. “We hope to encourage online innovation and use new shares to attract talent,” Wang explained.

According to a stock transfer report revealed by the National Small and Medium Enterprise Stock Transfer System, Huayi Brothers’ subsidiary, Beijing Huayi Brothers Chuangxing Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly Huayi Brothers New Media Technology Co., Ltd.), currently holds 53.14% of shares in Huayi Chuangxing, while Brothers & Sisters (Tianjin) Cultural Information Consulting Partnership holds 46.86%.

Huayi Chuangxing owns 100% of Beijing Huayi Brothers Digital Media Technology Co., Ltd., 100% of Star Movies Alliance (Tianjin) New Media Technology Co., Ltd., 100% of shares of Huayi Brothers New Media (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., and 19.61% of Yi Ming Commodities (Tianjin) E-commerce Co., Ltd.

Huayi Brothers New Media Company CEO Hu Ming revealed that in spinning off an independent online entertainment company, they intend for it to one day go public on its own.

It is clear that the core reason for the partition is the interaction between Huayi Brothers and New Media. They have different corporate genes, and partitioning reduces obstacles to online innovation.

Investing in all stages of the production chain, making games the focus

Internally, Huayi Brothers has made sufficient structural adjustments. Externally, the company is investing in and making acquisitions at all stages of the production chain.

In 2014, Huayi Brothers merged with online ticket sales platform Maizuo.com. At the same time, they invested in technology companies supplying 60% of China’s movie theaters with projection equipment.

In May, Chaofan, an online marketing platform in which Huayi Brothers owns shares, listed shares on Hong Kong’s Growth Enterprise Market. Chaofan provides digital marketing services, including digital advertising, social media management, and creative and technical services.

In July, Chinese life services platform, Dmall, reached a strategic partnership agreement with Huayi Brothers.

Huayi Brothers appears to be getting poised for the future. In April, a fully owned subsidiary of Huayi Brothers, Huayi Brothers (Tianjin) Interactive Entertainment Limited, invested 24 million yuan in Baofeng Magic Mirror, giving them an 8% share in the company. Baofeng Magic Mirror develops and operates virtual reality technology.

But what people are most interested in is what Huayi Brothers is doing in the gaming field. The company’s earnings report for the first half of 2015 estimates profits to be between 450 and 540 million yuan, an increase of 10 - 30% over the previous year. Profits from their primary business were estimated at 150 to 240 million yuan - triple last year’s profits. This can all be credited to Huayi Brothers’ gaming expansion.

In their June financial report for the first half of the year, not long after acquiring Yinhan Games, Huayi Brothers’ revenue from games was only 75 million yuan, just 15.5% of total income.

By the third quarter of 2014, the company’s reports showed game revenue at 289 million yuan, accounting for 30% of overall income.

Game revenue has since been grouped together under online entertainment, so it is impossible to know the exact numbers for Huayi Brothers’ game revenue. However, online entertainment is growing rapidly. In the first quarter of this year, online entertainment revenue was 419 million yuan, more than half as much as the total online entertainment revenue for all of 2014.

Game companies are more liquid than film and television companies. By acquiring stock in a gaming company and issuing consolidated financial statements, a film and television company can become more profitable.

At the same time, by developing and publishing games, the game company helps the film company to accumulate intellectual property. Wang Zhongjun himself said publicly: “I look forward to Huayi’s game business joining the troika of film, talent management, and television to become the fourth horse pulling our carriage.”

Tencent and Alibaba providing an Internet shot in the arm

Aside from Huayi Brothers’ own adjustments to its strategy described above, infusions from outside are also an important part of the company’s Internet strategy. On August 21, Huayi Brothers completed a 360 million yuan private placement, giving Alibaba, Tencent, and Ping An 8.08%, 8.08%, and 2% shares in the company respectively.

Following the completion of private placement, Huayi Brothers and Tencent will cooperate on intellectual property. Alibaba has stated that over the next three years, they will work with Huayi Brothers on film production, advertising, distribution and merchandising through their ecommerce platform.

As recently as the evening of July 27, Huayi Brothers released a public statement saying the company was planning a major foreign business investment project; the project would mainly involve film and the Internet, and the amount invested would exceed one billion yuan. 

This story was originally published by QQ.com. Translated by Tyler Olson.

SEE ALSO: The Red Carpet: Inside China's film industry

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Few items of fictional clothing are more iconic and easily recognisable as the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

Thanks to a combination of human error, poor record keeping and a sticky fingered ne’er-do-well, these simple pieces of footwear are now considered one of the most valuable film props in history.

Figuring out exactly how much the slippers are worth is no small feat because there are currently only four pairs known to exist and they very rarely appear at auctions.

To make things even more difficult, one of the pairs was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota in 2005, meaning there are only three pairs currently in existence that we know the whereabouts of.

One of these pairs currently resides at a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian where they’re displayed amongst other treasures from pop-culture history like one of Mr Rogers’ sweaters (made by his mother), one of Michael Jackson’s hats, and one of Tony Hawks’ skateboards. This particular pair were given to the museum by an anonymous donor who is believed to have bought them in an MGM auction in 1970 for $15,000 (about $88,000 today).

A second pair is currently in the possession of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who acquired them in 2012 when a collection of Hollywood bigwigs including Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg pooled their pocket change together to buy them at auction. The price they paid has never been revealed, but it’s rumored to be around the $3 million mark.

The third known pair were purchased by a private collector called David Elkouby in 2000 from an auction at Christie’s for $666,000 (Almost $1,000,000 today). Elkouby has yet to display the slippers and seemingly has no desire or need to sell them.

The final, stolen pair has been missing since 2005. However, in the years since, an anonymous and apparently very wealthy fan of the movie has put up a million dollar reward for information leading to their return.

As for how many pairs of the slippers existed in the first place, according to the film’s producer, Mervyn LeRoy, between 5 and 10 pairs were made, each sporting slight variations to better accommodate the lighting and look of different sets. For example, several pairs had a thin layer of orange felt along the sole to muffle the sound of steps and dancing. The pair reserved for close-ups didn’t need this felt and due to their minimal use, are in amazing condition, sporting only slight scuffs from Garland clicking her heals.

All of the shoes were created by legendary costume designer Adrian Adolph Greenberg who crafted them from plain white pumps that were dyed a deep shade of red before being coated in dark “reddish-orange” fabric, onto which thousands of sequins and eventually a large bow were attached.

Adrian coated the pumps in dark red sequins instead of bright red ones because the Technicolor process would have made bright red shoes look orange on screen. Likewise, the sparkling effect seen throughout the movie was added in post-production using optical effects. For this reason, surviving examples of the shoes are kind of underwhelming compared to how they look on screen.

Speaking of Technicolor, in the original Wizard of Oz novel, the shoes Dorothy wears are silver. However, the film’s screenwriter, Noel Langley, decided to make them bright red to better take advantage of Technicolor; he felt that silver shoes wouldn’t stand out against the bright yellow road Dorothy would be standing on for nearly half of the movie.

Although a great deal of care was put into making the shoes, after filming wrapped, the known surviving pairs were shoved into a wardrobe somewhere deep in MGM’s expansive costume department where they remained until the aforementioned 1970s bulk auction.

Seemingly the only person aware of the value of the shoes was a man called Kent Warner, an MGM costumer designer who quietly pilfered hundreds of items from MGM over the years, including a pair of the ruby slippers which he took while helping catalogue items for the 1970 auction.

Warner kept the best pair of the ruby slippers for himself, never displaying or sharing them with the public until he sold them in 1981 (this is the pair currently believed to be in the hands of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

Interestingly, until the 1970 MGM auction, it was believed that only one copy of the shoes existed and they belonged to a woman called Roberta Bauman who won them by placing second in a movie trivia contest in 1949. Bauman’s pair is considered to be the least valuable since they are believed to have belonged to Judy Garland’s stunt double, Bobbie Koshay, who had slightly larger feet. This is the pair purchased by Mr. Elkouby in 2000 for $666,000.

Bonus Facts:

• A fifth pair of ruby slippers only worn by Garland in test shots known as “the Arabian slippers” also is known to still exist. These slippers are far more ornate, sporting curled toes and brighter sequins. The design was passed over in favour of Adrian’s simpler, pump design which everyone felt suited Dorothy’s “farmgirl” image.
• In 1990,  a jeweller called Ron Winston made an actual pair of ruby shoes containing over 2000 rubies and 25 carats of diamonds to celebrated the 50th anniversary of the film. The pumps were valued at $3 million (about $5.5 million today) and were a petite size four. Winston loaned the shoes to the Make-A-Wish foundation to help with fundraising efforts.
• According to Frank Baum, the author of the original Wizard of Oz novel, the name “Oz” is a nonsense word he came up with while looking around his office.

SEE ALSO: 10 things you didn’t know about the background characters in the iconic 'Star Wars' cantina scene

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The "Mad Max" franchise has had a hardcore fan base since the original film was released in 1979.

The second and third sequels came out in 1981 and 1985, respectively. It took another 30 years for the fourth, "Mad Max: Fury Road," to hit theaters. It premiered in May 2015.

The release gave a jolt of energy to the franchise and sparked a new generation of "Mad Max" superfans. 

Thousands of them recently joined together for an annual four-day event they called Wasteland Weekend.

Held in the Mojave Desert of California, the weekend gave fans a chance to celebrate the film and even build their own post-apocalyptic world. 

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Wasteland Weekend started in 2010 and has gotten bigger every year since.

The crowd ranges from car builders to cosplayers like Desirae Hep, who makes for an intimidating "Immortan Joe."

There are activities throughout the day and night, including bounty hunting games, live music, car cruises, archery contests, and card games at the temporary casino.

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"Steve Jobs" scribe Aaron Sorkin is involved in biopic controversy. He and Apple CEO Tim Cook were engaged in a public disagreement over the upcoming film.

Produced by Jacqui Frank

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Spoiler Warning: This video mentions details from the film & novel!

In "The Martian", Matt Damon plays astronaut and botanist Mark Watney, who is abandoned on Mars and has to figure scientific ways to survive the harsh Martian climate until he can be rescued. Watney devises ways to grow food, generate power and heat and make repairs using the few supplies he has left and his knowledge of science.

Produced by Rob Ludacer

Original Reporting by Kelly Dickerson.

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