old age." In July 2005, it was reported that the Scottish actor and producer Sir Sean Connery had decided to retire, due to disillusionment with the "idiots now in Hollywood"' Telling The New Zealand Herald: "I'm fed up with the idiots... the ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and the people who greenlight the movies." The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won all the categories for which it was nominated. The film is tied for largest number of awards won with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). The Passion of the Christ, a 2004 American film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, was highly controversial and received mixed reviews; however, it was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million worldwide during its theatrical release. The superhero film genre experienced renewed and intense interest throughout the 2000s. With high ticket and DVD sales, several new superhero films were released every year. The X-Men, Batman and Spider-Man series were particularly prominent, and other films in the genre included Daredevil (2003), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Hulk (2003), Hellboy (2004), The Incredibles (2004), Fantastic Four (2005), the first two Marvel Cinematic Universe films (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk; both in 2008), and Watchmen (2009). Some media commentators attributed the increased popularity of such franchises to the social and political climate in Western society since the September 11 terrorist attacks, although others argued advances in special effects technology played a more significant role. The animated feature film market changed radically. Computer animated films became hugely popular following the release of Shrek. After the failures such as The Road to El Dorado, Rugrats Go Wild, Eight Crazy Nights, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Treasure Planet and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, studios have stopped their production of traditional 2D animated films, and gradually changed their focus into CGI animation in the late 2000s. Traditional 2D animated films that did well in the first half of the decade include Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Recess: School's Out, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and Lilo & Stitch. 20th Century Fox Animation's works in that