Worth a mention - 08/27/09

'Green Lantern' Shoot Delayed

(examiner.com) With the news yesterday that Green Lantern’s proposed Australian shoot is under threat after the rising Australian dollar has blown out production costs by about $20 million, two questions automatically come to mind. Does this mean the shoot is off? Or will it be moved to a different location?

The answers are - the film is definitely going to be shot, but it may not be shot in Australia. If Warner Bros. and the Australian government don't come to financial terms, the shoot which is set to begin in two weeks may be moved to the U.S.

Rumors and reports are flooding the internet about where the movie could move its shoot to, with the New Orleans area getting lots of buzz. /Film reports that director Martin Campbell has been scouting locations in Louisiana, which confirms that the production could move to the U.S.

This means that Warner Bros. has a backup plan. The down side of this is that filming will no longer begin in two weeks, with the goal now changed to start production by next year.

Will this effect the release date of June 17, 2011? We'll have to wait to see. Just glad it's still happening!

'Avatar' and 'Christmas Carol' Battle As The Next Big Animated Hit

(northernstar.info) “Avatar” and “A Christmas Carol”: Which looks more realistic?

This past weekend the trailer released for a movie that is already being hyped as the most revolutionary and visually stunning movie of the decade. Even before the 16-minute sneak peek took place this weekend, Internet hype about writer/director James Cameron’s newest revolutionary computer generated brain child “Avatar” has received the attention of many people around the world.

Why are so many people hyped about the December release of this movie?

Like Cameron’s first few claims-to-fame, the 1997 film “Titanic” and the “Terminator” series, it should provide a large amount of stunning computer graphic scenery and action to account for an overdone forbidden love-story all in a 3-D format.

Another reason for so much hype is that “Avatar” is the first movie to integrate live-action and CG animated characters interacting with each other on a 3-D plane of existence. Also, after viewing the trailer a dozen times, the CG in “Avatar” does look extraordinarily real and should be the first film to fully take advantage of the greatness that 3D movies have to offer.

While all the hype seems to focus on “Avatar,” there is another contestant for Internet hype addicts to revolve around and consider as the most visually revolutionary film of the decade.
It’s a story that everyone is already familiar; a film that embodies the Christmas spirit, but now with a fresh look that mimics real life. Robert Zemeckis’ new fully CG movie “A Christmas Carol” using Jim Carrey’s voice as Ebenezer Scrooge offers competition in the CG category against “Avatar”.

This film looks so real the viewer will feel as if the animated cast could walk the red carpet on premier night. Just wait until the end of “A Christmas Carol” trailer for the infamous “Ba-Humbug” scene when the CG really stands out.

In only watching the short theatrical trailer on-line the clip was stunning, and that’s without 3D glasses. As for the “Avatar” tralier, it was harder to view with the extremely bright colors and in-your-face action that seemed to pop out at the viewer.

Certainly, “Avatar” is attracting more hype, because it is a fresh and new concept revolving around heavy action between live-action and CG animated characters that should use 3D technologies to the fullest. Contrastingly, “A Christmas Carol” has nothing new to offer with story concept. However, that’s what makes “A Christmas Carol” such an exciting prospect. It takes an old story that everyone grew up with and puts it into a new way of visualizing the classic for the 21st century.

Both movies look like they will make use of 3-D technologies to its fullest capability, something not many movies have accomplished. Most recent films have used 3-D as a novelty to charge more money and haven’t really given people their money’s worth.





Marvel Boss Teases Avengers Movie

(escapistmagazine.com) It may be years away, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige seems to have the Avengers movie all figured out.

The Avengers movie may not be scheduled to even begin filming for another couple of years, but Kevin Feige, President of Marvel's movie division Marvel Studios is clearly a man who likes to think ahead. In an interview with CBR, Feige talked about the studio's plans for the 2012 movie.

We've already seen some cross-pollination between the movies, and that trend will continue, with Samuel L Jackson's Nicky Fury continuing to pop up all over the place. Fiege also said that Scarlett Johannsen has signed on to appear in the Avengers movie and that the appearance of the Hulk was also pretty likely, although was unsure whether or not Edward Norton would return to play the character.

With a Thor Movie in production and a Captain America movie scheduled to start shooting in October, and with the appearance of Hawkeye in Iron Man 2, it sounds like the line-up for is pretty much sorted. If all the upcoming Marvel movies are even half as good as Iron Man was, the Avengers movie is going to be quite an event.




Tom Cruise Hangs Out At Weta Workshop

(nzherald.co.nz)

A Hollywood superstar has spent 24 hours in the country.

Tom Cruise flew into New Zealand yesterday and flew out today.

Newstalk ZB reported the actor was met at Wellington Airport by filmmaker Peter Jackson.

Wingnut Films spokesman Matt Dravitski said Cruise knew Jackson and wanted to visit his studios.

Mr Dravitski said Cruise was not discussing any future projects with Jackson.

Wellingtonians reported seeing the Hollywood superstar arriving in Wellington and some say they saw him by the Weta Workshop studios in Miramar.

Jackson is producing The Dam Busters and The Hobbit.

He has just completed The Lovely Bones and was a producer for the critically acclaimed District 9.





"Deathly Hollows" Using Advanced Facial Capture Tech

(snitchseeker.com) Via his Twitter account Oliver Phelps has revealed that he has become the first British actor to receive a VFX MOVA facial capture scan, while working on Deathly Hallows.

Quote:
Right then MOVA is a system where by using 29 cameras and UV makeup and lighting can get very detailed motions of ones face.

Contour employs two separate-yet-synchronized camera systems to simultaneously record visual and geometric information of the subject. These two sets of data are combined to result in a high-resolution 3-D digital image. With this innovative, markerless, optics-based process, every subtle detail of a human performance\u2014from an arching eyebrow to widening eyes to a sly smile\u2014is recorded in real time, offering directors and producers a level of creative control that has never existed before. In essence, Contour ties together the traditional world of cinematography with digital computer animation, expanding the possibilities for both motion picture and video game makers.

Contour's high-definition, 3-D, volumetric representation of the action can be imported, modified, manipulated or retargeted to other characters using off-the-shelf CGI animation software. Contour can quickly and easily import true human behavior in all its distinct complexity into the virtual realm and works well with both marker-based motion capture and key frame animation systems.

Traditional marker-based motion capture is used to create incredibly realistic performances for skeletal captures, but was never designed to capture the intricacies of soft tissue motion, like pursing lips or billowing fabric. Contour captures the motion of any 3-D surface, deformable or not, with sub-millimeter precision at up to 120 frames second, at a resolution of over 100,000 polygons per frame. The result is a totally real, digitized performance that requires minimal manual clean up.

Previous movies that have used such equipment include; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eragon and Hulk

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/OliverPhelps/status/3563219599





Tintin CGI Faithful To Comic

(Movieline) Stunt Choreographer of the Year, Garrett Warren reveals some details about The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

This is how he described the "Tintin" movie:

It looks an awful lot like the cartoon. They really wanted to bring the cartoon to life. So if you know the cartoon, or have seen the books, that’s what it looks like. It’s beautiful. You would have thought to yourself that they would have tried to go for a more realistic look, but they’re actually trying to preserve the look and essence of the original Tintin characters.





NVIDIA to Jim Henson's Creature Shop: "Congrats on Winning Emmy Engineering Award!"

(7thspace.com) NVIDIA Corporation congratulates a premier technology partner, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, on winning an Engineering Emmy at the 61st Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards, held Saturday, Aug. 22 in Los Angeles.

The Engineering Emmy was awarded for the remarkably innovative Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a real-time animation system that allows performers to puppeteer and voice digital characters in real-time, dramatically reducing both animation time and cost. The revolutionary studio features multiple virtual camera production systems and real-time animation viewing systems, all powered by NVIDIA® Quadro® FX graphics processors.

This proprietary animation system has been utilized for the production of the highly successful, Emmy-nominated animated children’s program “Sid the Science Kid,” produced by The Jim Henson Company and KCET/Los Angeles, and has enabled the Creature Shop to generate 40 episodes of HD computer-generated imagery within a year.

“When we embarked on this project, we searched for the best technology out there, and NVIDIA quickly became our graphics solution of choice,” said Steffen Wild, director, Henson Digital Puppetry Studio. ”Since then, a great partnership has emerged, enabling us to achieve this new form of creative expression.”

In the studio, live performers are tracked to map their body movements onto digital puppets. Simultaneously, puppeteers who voice the characters also manipulate the facial motion and lip synch, using a special mechanical-input glove device developed for the right hand, and a joystick-type device for the left hand. This occurs with a director, camera and production crews exactly as it would on a live-action set, and comes together virtually, in real-time, using the Creature Shop’s proprietary software which marries the stage components with the show’s digital environments on the fly. This unique process can be replicated for any film, television, game or interactive production.



Michael Bay Aliens Get Mummy Scribes

(darkhorizons.com) Former "Smallville" showrunners and "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" scribes Al Gough and Miles Millar are set to pen "I Am Number Four" for Dreamworks Pictures reports Variety.

Based on the James Frey and Jobie Hughes novel about a group of nine aliens who flee to Earth, disguised as teenagers, when their home planet is destroyed.

The refugees assimilate into a high school on Earth when they discover that the enemy which wiped out their planet is now hunting them on their new turf.

Michael Bay will produce and possibly direct the film. Chris Bender and JC Spink will serve as executive producers.





Marvel Is Done With "Crappy" Movie Games

(escapistmagazine.com) Marvel has declared that from here on out, it's done with making "crappy" games to tie in with Marvel movies, hopefully meaning we never have to suffer through another Iron Man.

The movie game tie-in is a staple of the games business, and there is no more flagrant a culprit when it comes to these almost always godawful games than none other than comic and entertainment powerhouse Marvel. Remember Iron Man? Pretty decent movie. Not so decent game. Horrible game, even if all you played was the demo.

It'll never happen again, Marvel says. The company has turned over a new leaf and are hereby saying adios to what they specifically call crappy movie games. "We are not doing movie-based games anymore," Marvel's Ira Rubenstein said. "Actually, wait ... we are not doing crappy movie-based games anymore. You can quote me on that."

Rubenstein says that X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be the kind of thing Marvel is looking to do with its movie tie-ins now. That is, a game experience that stands on its own and relates to the movie property but isn't churned out as a cheap replication. Rubenstein has high hopes for the next Iron Man game and is optimistic for the Thor game as well.

When I was first starting out in this business I was asked to review the Hulk game for the DS. That's what they call hazing the new guy, or making the intern play the games nobody else wants to. I'm glad Marvel is now committed to quality, but this leaves us with a dilemma. What games will we use to torture interns now? Imagine Frogz, I'm looking at you.





'Christmas Carol' Cast Freed By New Technology

(mtv.com) Christmas is coming early this year before Thanksgiving, even and thanks to MTV's exclusive weeklong look at the fall's most anticipated movies, a sneak peek at Jim Carrey's "A Christmas Carol" is arriving even sooner.

And, oh, how much Jim Carrey there will be in this familiar story from Charles Dickens about penny-pinching senior citizen Ebenezer Scrooge and the series of apparitions who pay him visits on Christmas Eve. Carrey plays Scrooge and all three ghosts, but he didn't have to spend hours in the makeup chair to shape-shift from character to character. "Carol" utilizes the same motion-capture technology that was mocked in 2004's "The Polar Express" (those dreaded "dead eyes," which left Tom Hanks looking far from human) and commended in 2007's "Beowulf" (a sopping-wet Angelina Jolie rising provocatively from a shadowy lake).

As co-star Bob Hoskins explained to MTV News, the mo-cap technology has caught up with the demands of cinematic storytelling and has now liberated directors and actors from the confines of traditional moviemaking.

"It's extraordinary," he said. "Usually you've got to be aware technically what you're doing, the angle of the camera. Now they've got a 360-degree angle on you. They can take it from any position they like and surround you with a setting of their choice. There's an amazing freedom."

Perhaps the downside is dressing up each day in those silly looking skintight mo-cap suits with the sensors everywhere and a helmet with two cameras pointed directly at your face. "But no one's gonna see that ever!" laughed the 66-year-old British actor.

Hoskins plays two characters, Mr. Fezziwig and Old Joe ("Fezziwig is pure joy and Joe is pure craft," he said), who appear during Scrooge's ghost-assisted journeys through time. Joining Carrey and Hoskins in the cast are heavyweights Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.

Even as the capability of the mo-cap technology has increased to the point where eye movement can now be recorded, the question on the minds of many moviegoers will be, Does it look real, human? The filmmakers respond with an emphatic yes.

"I think you should be prepared to be blown away," Michael Lantieri, the special effects supervisor on the film, told MTV News in the spring. "I've seen some things that I haven't seen before."

That's an enticing proclamation coming from someone who has worked with "Carol" director Robert Zemeckis on groundbreaking special effects films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Back to the Future Part II." It's not only that the technical advancement of mo-cap has given filmmakers an entirely new sandbox in which to play. As Hoskins explained, the achievement of "Carol" (out November 6) is tied to Zemeckis' unique directorial approach.

"There's a lot of freedom working with Bob," he said. "He surrounds you with this technical brilliance, but within it you're completely free. Jim Carrey is free to do what he likes, and it's incredible."





Studio Mulls Legal Action over Cameron's Avatar

(nzherald.co.nz) A film studio is reportedly considering taking legal action against the makers of Avatar - director James Cameron's 3D sci-fi movie - over alleged similarities between the film and the studio's flop animated fantasy, Delgo.

Avatar marks Cameron's long-anticipated return to feature films, and involves the creative handiwork of New Zealand-based company Weta Digital who were hired to create visual effects, creatures and digital environments for the movie with a reported budget of US$237million.

The trailer for Avatar debuted online last week, and reactions quickly promoted online discussion about an alleged close resemblance between Cameron's big budget fantasy and the independently-produced 2008 CGI animation feature.

Fathom Studios, the Atlanta-based production company behind Delgo, have reportedly been barraged with emails regarding the alleged similarity of the two projects, and are believed to be considering taking legal action against Avatar's backers 20th-century Fox.

"From what we have seen, we are amazed by the visual similarities between the two films," the studio said in a statement.

"We are considering what legal options may be available to us."

Delgo, reportedly the first independent CGI animated feature to be made in America, starred Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt as love-struck aliens who fight to protect their worlds from conflict at the hands of a tyrant named Sedessa, voiced by Anne Bancroft.

The movie, budgeted at an estimated $40m, debuted in cinemas in 2008, but failed to set the box office alight, raking in a modest $700,000 from US cinemas.

Concept work on Avatar reportedly began in the late 90s, and production began in 2006, after a re-write of the script.

The creators of Delgo say "proof-of-concept" imagery was posted on the movie's official website, as early as 1998.

Several media outlets, including USA Today's Pop Candy Blog, New York Magazine and even Huffington Post, have joined in the discussion circulating on the net.

Renowned online movie critic, JoBlo, claimed Avatar and Delgo were "undeniably similar," adding that a comparison of the two movies was "pretty damn conclusive and practically warrant a likeness lawsuit from the lowest-grossing movie ever to be filed against the director of the highest-grossing movie ever".

Avatar will be released in cinemas in December.

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/movies/news/article.cfm?c_id=200&objectid=10593530

District 9, and the Failing of CGI Effects

(examiner.com) Computer graphics done right. It’s not easy. You only have to look at any number of today’s ‘blockbusters’ to see evidence of that. Two-dimensional lifts and vistas of 1s and 0s abound. Where in times gone past – say since movie cameras could shoot sound and not be locked down, 1929 or so, until 10 years ago - an airplane flyover would have been done practically. Now your average hack* will likely shoot a blue sky and paint in those planes in post. And it looks awful.

And fake.

To say that there is no imagination with CGI would be a lie, but it’s relatively close to the truth. To say there is no craft with CGI is spot on.

From Jaws onward, every summer blockbuster was looked on to provide the sense of wonderment and sense of place and presence that large-scale effects, whether they be model or practical, can provide. The money-shot in the trailer could drop jaws if done right. That is just not possible today (please see Avatar as case in point; $200 million and five years and the computer blue figurines still look like castoffs from World of Warcraft). Large-scale destructions of NYC now look so ho-hum that you have to wonder if the upcoming 2012 isn't some sort of tongue-in-cheek wink-wink to the audience done on an ultra large scale. Sort of a Naked Gun but with $135 million on the line.

And I was going to sit here and give District 9 out as an example of how it can be done, and done right. The mothership above Johannesburg is indeed a great example of a CGI effect that does not look as though it has been plastered into the frame with a sticking plaster. The aliens themselves, supporting characters in their own right, are well realized. And it’s all been done on a budget one eighth that of G.I. Joe.

But then I realized something: the mothership in Close Encounters, a film now over 30 years old, looks better, and looks realer. It is there before us in a tangible sense, in all its three dimensions, and it appears with a sense of wonderment that CGI could never equal. And I’ll take Rambaldi’s sensational robotic alien that appears at that film’s climax, in-camera with lens flare and surrounded with smoke, over the ‘prawns’ of District 9 any day of the week.