Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. joint production stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. Zodiac tells the story of the hunt for a notorious serial killer known as "Zodiac" who killed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, leaving several victims in his wake and taunting police with letters and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The case remains one of San Francisco's most infamous unsolved crimes. Fincher, screenwriter James Vanderbilt, and producer Brad Fischer spent 18 months conducting their own investigation and research into the Zodiac murders. During filming, Fincher employed the digital Thomson Viper Filmstream camera to shoot the film. Contrary to popular belief, Zodiac was not shot entirely digitally; traditional high-speed film cameras were used for slow-motion murder sequences. Reviews for the film were highly positive; however, it did not perform strongly at the North American box office. It performed better in other parts of the world, earning $84 million, with a budget of $65 million spent on its production.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_%28film%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1081:

The Komnenian dynasty came to full power when Alexios I Komnenos was crowned Byzantine Emperor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_Komnenos

1566:

A covenant of nobles in the Habsburg Netherlands presented Governor Margaret of Parma a petition to suspend the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_Nobles

1942:

Second World War: Carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy conduct the Easter Sunday Raid to disrupt the war effort of Commonwealth nations and force the British Eastern Fleet to leave Asian waters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sunday_Raid

1992:

Bosnian War: Unidentified gunmen killed two people while firing upon a large crowd of anti-war protesters in Sarajevo, marking the start of the four-year-long Siege of Sarajevo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo

2010:

An explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners in the United States' worst mining disaster in 40 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

reptilianness (n): The quality of the embodiment of reptile characteristics http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reptilianness

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

At the door of life, by the gate of breath,

There are worse things waiting for men than death; Death could not sever my soul and you,

As these have severed your soul from me. --Algernon Charles Swinburne http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Algernon_Charles_Swinburne