The last decade (2000s) was full of high grossing movies. Thousands of full- length films have been produced during the first decade of the 21st Century. Building on developments in the 1990s, computers are used to create effects that would have previously been more expensive, from the subtle erasing of surrounding islands in Cast Away (leaving Tom Hanks' character stranded with no other land in sight) to the spectacular battle scenes such as those in Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Matrix and 300. However, we lost several excellent movie stars in 2008 including Heath Ledger, Paul Scofield, Roy Scheider, Rob Knox, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Paul Newman, Anita Page, Estelle Getty, Guillaume Depardieu, Nina Foch, and more.