On the night of Christmas Eve in the late-1950s, a boy witnesses a train called the Polar Express that is about to embark to the North Pole. [3] He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012. When the train goes to pick up Billy the Lonely Boy, the Hero Boy applies the emergency brakes to let Billy on board, who at first declined to board but changed his mind. Looking for a movie the entire family can enjoy? Tom Hanks does his best Gene Wilder on the whimsical and strangely unnerving title track, a wonderfully unhinged performance that will have Willy Wonka fans clamoring for more, and the winsome vocals of preteens Matthew Hall and Meagan Moore give the ballad "When Christmas Comes to Town" a real sense of wonder. William Teitler, Producer: The Polar Express. The Polar Express is a 2004 American computer-animated adventure film co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, who also served as one of the executive producers. [The Polar Express is also available in a special edition that includes a decorative box and artwork from the book. Looking for some great streaming picks? ], It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. His family moved again to East Grand Rapids where he attended middle school and high school. Composers Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri provide the latter, relying on swelling choral arrangements, tender ballads, and polarizing yuletide offerings from Stephen Tyler and Josh Groban. Steve Bing, a Hollywood producer, writer and financier who famously invested in the Tom Hanks movie “The Polar Express,” has died by suicide. She showed his work to an editor who contracted his first book The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, in 1979. William Teitler is a producer and production manager, known for, Streaming This Weekend: Mortal Kombat, Underwater, Just Mercy and More, Bad Therapy Clip Has Some Bad Advice for Alicia Silverstone [Exclusive], Rob Corddry & Alicia Silverstone in Trailer for RomCom 'Bad Therapy'. [The Polar Express is also available in a special edition that includes a decorative box and artwork from the book.] Steve Bing, philanthropist, film producer and prominent Democratic political donor whose producing credits included "The Polar Express" and "Get Carter," died Monday. After graduation, Van Allsburg set up a sculpture studio. See the full list of The Polar Express cast and crew including actors, directors, producers and more. Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. His art has also been featured on the covers of an edition of C. S. Lewis's series The Chronicles of Narnia, published by HarperCollins in 1994, as well as in three children's books written by Mark Helprin, "Caldecott Medal & Honor Books, 1938–Present", Association for Library Service to Children, "Candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards 1956–2002", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Van_Allsburg&oldid=982417541, Pages using Infobox writer with unknown parameters, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 8 October 2020, at 00:51. His family lived in an old farmhouse, but when he was three years old, they moved to a Grand Rapids home near an elementary school that Chris was able to walk to for class. LOS ANGELES: Hollywood producer Steve Bing, who financed Tom Hanks movie 'The Polar Express' and fathered a child with actress Liz Hurley, has died aged 55, US media reported Monday. He wrote and illustrated the 1985 book, The The book is now widely considered to be a classic Christmas story for young children. [6], Van Allsburg lives in Beverly, Massachusetts with Lisa Van Allsburg, his wife of 43 years. The Polar Express is a children's book written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985. The Polar Express is a 2004 American motion capture computer-animated musical Christmas fantasy film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg and has a much longer story. The Conductor lets the boy board the train. He was 55. Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist. William Teitler is a producer and production manager, known for The Polar Express (2004), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) and …