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62-571: Harlin's films have grossed over $ 520 million in the United States and over $ 1.2 billion in the worldwide aggregate box office, making him the 151st highest-grossing director in the global film market as of October 2022, and the most internationally successful Finnish filmmaker in terms of revenue. Harlin was born in Riihimäki , Finland. His father was Oiva Harjola (formerly Harlin), a chief physician at Riihimäki Hospital, and his mother

124-448: A cameo as Mordechai Fingers, but was fired after getting in a bar fight and attempting to expose himself to Davis while intoxicated. George Murcell eventually took his place. Shooting was delayed for various reasons, causing the budget to spiral out of control. When Harlin fired chief camera operator Nicola Pecorini following a dispute, more than two dozen crew members quit. In addition, broken pipes caused raw sewage to pour into

186-544: A biopic of the Finnish President and Marshal of Finland Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim , but budget constraints put the project on hold. Instead, Harlin made another foray into low-budget horror with The Covenant , which was another moderate commercial success. In 2007 the Mannerheim film project resumed temporarily and Harlin returned to Finland. The screenplay was written by Heikki Vihinen and Marko Leino, and

248-404: A budget of $ 11 million. More recently, his film The Misfits received U.S. and international deals. In 2021, he was selected as jury member at 11th Beijing International Film Festival for Tiantan Awards . Harlin was interested in making a biopic about fellow Finnish personality, composer and national hero Jean Sibelius . Die Hard 2 used Sibelius' Finlandia in an crucial scene, but

310-587: A buyer for a Finnish film distributor and met fellow Finn Markus Selin in Los Angeles in 1982. They became friends and started writing a screenplay called "Arctic Heat", which later evolved into Born American , with Mike Norris in the leading role. They secured financing from the U.S., and in 1986, Born American became the most expensive Finnish film ever. It opened in the U.S. in over 1,000 theaters. By July 9, 1986, he set up his own production company with partner Markus Selin , Larmark Productions, with

372-650: A cliff into the tide. After regaining consciousness, Shaw finds Reed, who leads him into a trap set by Dawg, Ainslee, and Scully, who have joined forces and intend to split the treasure. As Shaw is captured and they make their way out to sea with the gold, Morgan sneaks aboard the Morning Star and retakes it from Scully and the mutineers. The crew then tries to sneak attack the Reaper , but Dawg counterattacks. A sea fight ensues, during which Shaw escapes and Ainslee, his men, and Reed are killed by cannon fire. Morgan boards

434-525: A distinct lack of charm and stilted script make this adventure a joyless hodgepodge of the pirate genre's flotsam and jetsam." On Metacritic the film has a score of 37% based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F. Todd McCarthy from Variety said: "What seemed like a dubious proposition on paper plays even more dubiously onscreen, as Cutthroat Island strenuously but vainly attempts to revive

496-660: A more traditional horror version of Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), after the studio was unhappy with the version cut by director Paul Schrader , which was more of a psychological drama. Mindhunters was released in the US in 2005. Harlin directed the WWE Studios action movie 12 Rounds , starring John Cena . It was released in March 2009. In 2009, Harlin directed an independent war film in Georgia . The film, 5 Days of War ,

558-686: A single being, fearing that they both would begin developing fly-hybrid characteristics. In 1999, Harlin began developing the action-comedy Nosebleed at New Line Cinema , starring Jackie Chan as a window washer who foils a terrorist attack to destroy the World Trade Center . The film was delayed after changing studios to MGM in May 2001. After the September 11 attacks the plot was drastically rewritten ultimately before being completely shelved. Chan later told Oriental Daily News that

620-463: A trap set by authorities, Morgan Adams hunts down her uncle and fellow pirate Dawg Brown after he kidnaps her father, Black Harry. Harry has one of three pieces of a map to a huge stash of gold on the remote Cutthroat Island. Dawg has another piece, having stolen it after betraying and murdering his younger brother Richard, while a fourth brother, Mordechai, has the last piece. Refusing to give his piece to Dawg, Harry escapes with his daughter's help. Harry

682-424: A window too soon, rolled down the roof and under a carriage) and described the bruises and injuries she sustained while filming. The film's orchestral score was composed by John Debney . It is one of the film's aspects that has been critically acclaimed, compared with the classic works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold . Cutthroat Island had a total production budget of $ 92 million to $ 98 million (though some put

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744-491: Is a 1995 adventure swashbuckler film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman from a story by Michael Frost Beckner, James Gorman, Bruce A. Evans, and Raynold Gideon. It stars Geena Davis , Matthew Modine , and Frank Langella . It is a co-production among the United States, France, Germany, and Italy. The film had a notoriously troubled and chaotic production involving multiple rewrites and recasts. Critical reactions were mixed to negative, and

806-404: Is fatally wounded and tells Morgan the map piece is located on his scalp before he dies. After scalping her father for the piece, Morgan, now captain of her father's ship, the Morning Star , sets out to find the treasure. Unable to translate the map, they go to nearby Port Royal for a translator. There, they learn that a criminal being sold into slavery, a con man and thief named William Shaw,

868-578: Is fluent in Latin. After threatening a man determined to outbid her, Morgan wins the auction. When she is recognized from her wanted poster and barely escapes with her crew and Shaw, corrupt Governor Ainslee vows to find her after learning of the treasure's existence. He enlists the help of John Reed, an infamous chronicler of pirates and crew member of the Morning Star . The crew finds Mordechai in Spittlefield Harbor. Before they can learn where

930-526: Is located in Riihimäki, since railway tracks from Riihimäki lead to Helsinki, Tampere and Lahti . Several businesses also operate in Riihimäki. Notably, Würth Oy has its Finnish headquarters and logistics center in Riihimäki. Valio has a major dairy in the Herajoki part of Riihimäki. The famous Sako rifles are also produced in Riihimäki. The town is located in the province of Southern Finland and

992-529: Is part of the Tavastia Proper region . Its neighboring municipalities are Janakkala in the north, Hausjärvi in the east, Hyvinkää in the south and Loppi in the west. The town has a population of 28,663 (31 October 2024) and covers an area of 125.56 square kilometres (48.48 sq mi) of which 4.54 km (1.75 sq mi) is water. The population density is 236.86 inhabitants per square kilometre (613.5/sq mi). The municipality

1054-599: Is unilingually Finnish . Riihimäki is home to the Riihimäki Prison , which is, alongside Turku Prison, one of the prisons in the country with the highest security rating (A+), and is home to the country's most dangerous prisoners. Riihimäki was established around the Riihimäki railway station by the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway and is one of the original stations on Finland's first railway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna , which opened in 1862. It became

1116-456: The Sibelius movie was eventually directed by Timo Koivusalo in 2003. In the 1990s, Harlin was set to direct Flies , a sequel to Cronenberg 's The Fly with his then-wife Geena Davis reprising her role. The script by Richard Jefferies featured a story in which Davis' character gives birth to twin boys, and is later suspected of murder when she merges their untainted human genes into

1178-515: The Reaper and blows out the ship's bottom. She then duels Dawg while Shaw gets trapped below in rapidly rising water with the treasure. Morgan kills Dawg with a cannon and saves Shaw, forced to abandon the treasure to escape the sinking ship. Morgan had attached a marker barrel to the treasure beforehand, allowing them to retrieve it, and the newly rich crew sets sail for Madagascar . In addition, Angus Wright plays Captain Trotter (lieutenant in

1240-632: The 1992 Independent Spirit Awards and earned its star and Harlin's then-partner Laura Dern a Best Actress Oscar nomination at the 1992 Academy Awards . Harlin, Markus Selin and a number of other businessmen founded the indoor amusement park Planet FunFun in Kerava , Finland, in 1992, which included everything from a tropical park to a cinema park, the latter of which Harlin also gave his own special stamp to by loaning his film sets and props to special theme rooms. The park also hosted sports competitions and filmed television series . However Planet FunFun

1302-579: The United States from the mid-1980s until 2014, when he moved to China. After Harlin finished the shooting of the Finnish film Reunion 3: Singles Cruise in 2020, he moved to Sofia , Bulgaria. Riihim%C3%A4ki Riihimäki ( Finnish pronunciation: [ˈriːhiˌmæki] ; lit.   ' drying barn hill ' ) is a town and municipality in the south of Finland, about 69 kilometres (43 mi) north of Helsinki and 109 kilometres (68 miles) southeast of Tampere . An important railway junction

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1364-590: The adventure. Instead of being tattooed on his scalp, Morgan's father would hide his map piece in a lullaby that he sang to her as a child. Gorman and Frost Beckner's version, while still an adventure with comic elements, was also much darker than the finished film. Disney development staff backed the project. At one point it was even pitched to Michael Eisner as a potential Pirates of the Caribbean film, who turned it down. Gorman and Frost Beckner then presented it to Carolco, who bought it for $ 1.7 million. When

1426-436: The biggest box-office bomb of all-time. The list of biggest box-office bombs shows it is still no better (ranges vary) than the fifth worst money loser of all time, allowing for inflation, as of 2023. On Rotten Tomatoes Cutthroat Island has a 40% rating based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's consensus reads: " Cutthroat Island may aspire towards the earnest thrills of classic swashbucklers, but

1488-605: The cash-starved company cancelled its only other project in production, Crusade starring Arnold Schwarzenegger , costing it $ 13 million. It also sold a $ 20 million interest in Paul Verhoeven 's Showgirls , Last of the Dogmen , and Stargate , and aggressively marketed Cutthroat Island to overseas distributors, promising them it would be a sure hit. Michael Douglas originally agreed to play Shaw under two conditions: filming had to start immediately because he

1550-418: The coordinates to the island. Dawg pursues the Morning Star in his own ship, the Reaper . Morgan directs hers toward a coral reef and a gale to shake her pursuers off. Shaw manages to piece together the location of Cutthroat Island with his and Morgan's piece but is caught and thrown in the brig. During the storm, Reed secretly sends a carrier pigeon revealing their location to Ainslee. Meanwhile, most of

1612-466: The crew, led by the treacherous boatswain Scully, mutinies and maroons Morgan and those loyal to her in a boat. The tide takes them straight to Cutthroat Island. As Morgan goes after the treasure, Shaw steals the last map piece from Dawg. Shaw falls into quicksand and Morgan, realizing he has the piece, frees him. Together they find the treasure, only for it to be stolen by Dawg, forcing them to jump off

1674-567: The figure as high as $ 115 million). It debuted at number 13 at the US box office, and the total gross in the United States and Canada was only $ 10 million. Internationally, it did not fare any better and grossed $ 6 million, for a worldwide total of $ 16 million. In 2014, the Los Angeles Times listed the film as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time, while the Guinness World Records listed it as

1736-668: The film was one of the biggest box-office bombs in history, with losses of $ 147 million when adjusted for inflation. It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the biggest box-office bomb of all time, and significantly reduced the bankability and Hollywood production of pirate-themed films until 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . Its failure caused the closing of Carolco Pictures . In 1668 Jamaica , having escaped

1798-424: The film was produced, Geena Davis and director Renny Harlin were married. Harlin convinced producer Mario Kassar to cast Davis, who was until then known for light comedies, hoping it would turn her into an action-adventure star. Carolco Pictures , already deeply in debt when the film entered preproduction, initially budgeted $ 60 million for the project and pinned its hopes for survival on its success. To fund it,

1860-460: The film was scheduled to begin filming at the North Tower less than two hours before it was hit by American Airlines Flight 11 , and that he only escaped the attack because he made a last-minute decision to travel to Toronto to begin filming The Tuxedo instead. However, Chan's claim has been criticized as improbable since the production was delayed after the change in studios and since he

1922-728: The film would be acknowledged in the closing credits. The film was shot on location in Malta and Thailand . Indoor scenes were shot at Mediterranean Film Studios in Kalkara, Malta , and models were shot at the Paddock Tank at Pinewood Studios , in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England . Harlin required actors to do their own stunts whenever possible. While promoting the film, Davis appeared on talk shows with clips of her doing stunts over and over (including one take where she fell out of

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1984-404: The film's dialogue), while the film's director, Renny Harlin , has an uncredited cameo as a pirate with a musket. In a 2023 interview, original writers James Gorman and Michael Frost Beckner explained they had a development deal with Disney , after their Western spec script Texas Lead and Gold had created buzz in the early 1990s. Any material they created, they let Disney see first: one of them

2046-449: The film's distributor, was in the process of being sold and thus could not devote itself into financing a marketing campaign for the film. Carolco Pictures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month before Cutthroat Island ' s release. In another interview, Matthew Modine said that other factors contributing to the production costs running out of control included Harlin's cost-prohibitive habit of always having three cameras rolling at

2108-438: The film. It became the highest-grossing film in the series until the 2003 release of Freddy vs. Jason , and its budget was seven times greater than the original A Nightmare on Elm Street . After the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master , Harlin was set to direct the science-fiction thriller Alien 3 . He was attached to the project for a little over a year, but he left due to creative differences with

2170-457: The first railway junction in Finland when the Riihimäki – Saint Petersburg track's first section from Riihimäki to Lahti was opened in 1869. In 1907-1952 a narrow-gauge railway also operated between Riihimäki and Loppi . Today, the quickest way to travel between Riihimäki and Loppi is by car along the national road 54 , which runs between Tammela and Hollola . In 1910, a cavalry regiment

2232-543: The first two projects went low-budget, and it was a Los Angeles -based production company. Harlin moved to Los Angeles and got a job from Irwin Yablans , who offered him a script of Prison to film. The film was made with a low budget and distributed with only 42 copies. In the same year, 1988, he got a job from New Line Cinema to direct A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) after meeting producer Robert Shaye , who at first did not want Harlin to direct

2294-548: The locations and the set pieces: "The film is at its best in the gorgeous locations and the huge (we're talking Harlin - Die Hard 2 , Cliffhanger - huge) set-pieces, concluding in a wild sea battle that is more John Woo on water". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three-out-of-four-star rating, commenting: "This is, in short, a satisfactory movie – but it doesn't transcend its genre, and it's not surprising or astonishing. I saw it because that

2356-583: The men now in different social positions (like the Spaniard being the Governor of Portobello) and Shaw, a more ruthless character in this version, learning of the existence of the treasure. The villain was the mysterious "The Scar", hunting the men down for the map pieces. Morgan was also different, being the innocent daughter of the village doctor (the British privateer of the four men) who becomes embroiled in

2418-430: The need for more humour is superfluous. The plot's well worn". Janet Maslin of The New York Times said that "It's not possible to believe that Ms. Davis is the highly respected captain of a pirate ship, and it's not even fun to try." Empire gave the film two stars out of five, stating, "It's mindless entertainment, but its critical and commercial failure doomed the pirate genre to a watery grave," while complimenting

2480-511: The other being Hercules , starring Dwayne Johnson – it was critically panned and was a box-office bomb. Harlin directed the 2016 action comedy film Skiptrace , which starred Jackie Chan alongside Johnny Knoxville and Fan Bingbing . He then directed the 2018 film Legend of the Ancient Sword for Alibaba Pictures , based on a Chinese role-playing video game . The film was a box-office bomb, grossing only $ 1.25 million against

2542-411: The producers. The comedy The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and the action thriller Die Hard 2 were edited simultaneously and released a week apart in 1990. The former flopped, but the latter was a commercial success. Harlin achieved critical acclaim the following year when he produced Rambling Rose through his own Midnight Sun Pictures for director Martha Coolidge . The film won Best Feature at

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2604-404: The production of Walt Disney Pictures ' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. Scott Mendelson of Forbes stated on the film's 25th anniversary that the film, along with the similar box office disappointment of Aeon Flux nearly ten years later, contributed to the industry's move away from producing films with female leads before and during the 21st century, under

2666-458: The project was assigned to Dome Karukoski in August 2011. In 2007, it was announced that Harlin would direct an adaptation of the comic-book series Brodie's Law . In 2011 it was reported that he was planning a sequel to The Long Kiss Goodnight . On 16 June 2017 it was announced Harlin will direct Hanging Coffins for Shanghai Film Group and Shanghai New Wave Films. On 18 June 2017, it

2728-472: The same time; and Harlin and Davis spending large sums to have cases of V8 Vegetable Juice shipped out to the set in Malta for themselves. Towards the end of shooting, an entire room was found to be full of unopened juice and everyone present was obliged to drink it. The failure of Cutthroat Island is also credited with significantly reducing the bankability of pirate-themed films , which recovered only with

2790-509: The science fiction horror film Deep Blue Sea in 1999. Harlin wanted to direct a movie based on Formula One , but unable to secure the rights, he instead produced the film Driven in 2001, based on the American Champ Car series. Harlin took over directing the action mystery film Mindhunters when the original director Peter Howitt dropped out, but the release was delayed by studio conflicts. Harlin went on to re-shoot

2852-434: The second piece is, Dawg and his crew raid the harbor. A fight ensues, during which Mordechai is killed and Morgan is shot, while Shaw secretly finds the piece and keeps it to himself. After they escape on the Morning Star , Morgan collapses from her wound, but Shaw uses his limited medical knowledge to save her. The two start a romance. Morgan figures out that the words on the two map pieces, when read backwards, spell out half

2914-472: The thrills of old-fashioned pirate pictures. Giving most of the swashbuckling opportunities to star Geena Davis, pic does little with its reversal of gender expectations and features a seriously mismatched romantic duo in Davis and Matthew Modine." Time Out London commented that "we get Geena Davis doing the all-action honours, and a hotchpotch script that seems to think pirate movies are so funny in themselves

2976-513: The title role. Filming of the new Inspector Palmu should begin at the end of 2024. Harlin was married to actress Geena Davis from 1993 to 1998. He had a son, Lucas, with Davis' personal assistant in 1997, which prompted the divorce. Since September 2021, Harlin has been married to fitness athlete and school teacher Johanna Harlin (née Kokkila). They have a daughter, born July 2022 and a son born, April 2024, both in Miami, Florida. Harlin lived in

3038-435: The water tank where the actors were supposed to swim. Harlin spent $ 1 million of his own money to rewrite the script, as Carolco Pictures was in so much debt that they could not afford to pay further. The first week into production, the film's original cinematographer, Oliver Wood , fell off a crane and into one of the water tanks, breaking his leg; he had to be replaced by cinematographer Peter Levy . Wood's contributions to

3100-510: Was Liisa Koskiluoma, a nurse . Since 1987, Renny's surname has been Harlin, his father's original surname. Renny has a half-brother, Veli-Pekka Harjola , who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in sprint canoeing . After studying at the University of Art and Design Helsinki , Harlin started his career in the film business in the beginning of the 1980s, directing commercials and company films for companies like Shell . Later, he worked as

3162-544: Was a pirate script. Inspired by researching archives of pirate material at the Huntington Library, as well as the success of buddy action films, the pair sought to modernize the pirate genre. Among the differences from the later versions were the island being volcanic and more secret, and a backstory involving four men (including Spanish and British officers) sacking a gold shipment and hiding the treasure before being betrayed. The script would jump ahead in time, with

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3224-656: Was a story about the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia in the region of South Ossetia . The film included real-life figures, including Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili , played by Andy García . Harlin next directed the 2013 film Devil's Pass , set in Russia's Ural Mountains and loosely based on the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959, when nine experienced hikers were found dead. Harlin then directed The Legend of Hercules , which opened in theatres on 10 January 2014. One of two Hercules movies released in 2014 –

3286-589: Was also established in the city. In 1922, Riihimäki separated from Hausjärvi and became an independent market-town . Riihimäki got its city rights in 1960. It was home to the reputed Riihimäki Glass company that remained in business from 1910 through 1990. The Finnish Glass Museum with its permanent display created by famous designer Tapio Wirkkala was opened in 1981. Riihimäki is twinned with: [REDACTED] Media related to Riihimäki at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Riihimäki travel guide from Wikivoyage Cutthroat Island Cutthroat Island

3348-407: Was announced Harlin will direct Operation Somalia . The film's story, based on true events, revolves around a rescue operation against Somali pirates mounted by Chinese Special Operations Forces . On 8 May 2018, it was announced Harlin will direct Solara , a Chinese sci-fi epic revolving around an international team that must work together to save Earth from a global catastrophe. On 18 June 2018 it

3410-429: Was announced Harlin will direct Operation Wild . On January 19, 2021, it was announced that Harlin will direct the new Inspector Palmu film, based on a character created by Finnish writer Mika Waltari . Although the film is shot in Finland, unlike the previous Finnish-language Palmu films, Harlin's film is becoming an international English-language production, where an actor is also being sought internationally for

3472-515: Was available only for a limited time, and his character had to have the same amount of screen time as Davis. Douglas eventually pulled out, claiming that Davis's role was expanded at his character's expense, while Davis wanted to quit when Douglas did, but was contractually obligated to finish the film. After Douglas quit, Harlin was so preoccupied with trying to find a male lead that set construction and script work were done without his input. Consequently, Harlin did not like what he saw when shooting

3534-569: Was contracted for the production of The Tuxedo in Toronto months before the attacks. Harlin's next project after Driven was to be a movie adaptation of the Ray Bradbury short story A Sound of Thunder , but Harlin left the project after a disagreement with Bradbury. Although the director was changed, Harlin was credited as a producer when the finished film was released in 2005. In 2006, Harlin collaborated with Markus Selin to direct

3596-421: Was my job and, having seen it, I grant its skill, and award it three stars on that basis. But unless you're really into pirate movies, it's not a necessary film." Susan Wloszczyna from USA Today stated: "If the sight of half-naked, tattooed sailors firing cannons at each other shivers your timbers, climb aboard. Even passable pirate movies don't sail by every day," awarding the film 2.5 stars out of 4. Harlin

3658-420: Was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director for his work on the film, but "lost" to Paul Verhoeven for Showgirls . In a radio interview in 2011, Renny Harlin discussed the film's box office failure. He pointed out that Carolco Pictures was in ruin before shooting even began, but had to make the film since financing from foreign investors was already in place. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),

3720-566: Was scheduled to be the largest film production in Finnish history. Production began in 2008 with Mikko Nousiainen starring as Mannerheim, and the film was to premiere in Helsinki on January 15, 2010. However, 30% of the funding was cut by one of the financiers due to the Great Recession , and the delay meant that the time window for shooting the winter scenes during the spring of 2009 passed. Pre-production finally commenced in 2010, and

3782-414: Was set to begin, leading to expensive rebuilding and rewriting. Tom Cruise , Keanu Reeves , Russell Crowe , Liam Neeson , Jeff Bridges , Ralph Fiennes , Charlie Sheen , Michael Keaton , Tim Robbins , Daniel Day-Lewis and Gabriel Byrne all turned down the role of Shaw before Matthew Modine agreed to do the role, partly due to his experience as a fencer . Oliver Reed was originally cast for

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3844-538: Was short-lived, closing in 1995. 1993's action thriller Cliffhanger was Harlin's first film with Sylvester Stallone . Harlin's career suffered a blow with the pirate adventure film Cutthroat Island in 1995, which starred Harlin's then-wife, Geena Davis . Cutthroat Island was one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time , losing $ 147 million and leading to the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures . Harlin did go on to have moderate success with Long Kiss Goodnight , starring Samuel L. Jackson and Davis in 1996, and

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