Worth a mention - 07/07/11

Riding High Off the Success of 'Rango,' Paramount Pictures to Launch In-house Animation Division

(insidemovies.ew.com) Look out, Pixar and DreamWorks, there’s a new (animated) sheriff in town.

After the success of their CG animated hit, the trippy Johnny Depp-lizard-western Rango, earlier this year, Paramount Pictures has announced that they will be launching their own in-house animated division called, fittingly, Paramount Animation.

According to Variety, the studio is planning to release their first title under their new division by 2014, though there is no announcement on what that movie will be (of course, between earning over $120 million at the domestic box office and raves from critics, a Rango sequel wouldn’t be entirely unexpected).

Paramount currently has a distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation — which most recently released the moderately successful Kung Fu Panda 2 and has the upcoming Puss in Boots – until 2012. A rep for DreamWorks Animation, however, says the studio has no comment on Paramount’s new venture into animation.



Warner Bros. Wins Control of ‘Wizard of Oz’ Characters; Changes For ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’?

(slashfilm.com) The small news for Sam Raimi‘s new Wizard of Oz film Oz: The Great and Powerful is that Abigail Spencer has been cast as “a young woman who is a willing subject of Oz’s magic tricks which the erstwhile magician is performing in Kansas.” The magician being the character played by James Franco, whose balloon eventually is blown off course, landing him in Oz, where he becomes the Wizard we know from the classic film.

But there is a bigger Oz story in play today, as today a ruling in the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals gave Warner Bros. quite a few powers over the characters depicted in The Wizard of Oz. This court decision could have serious ramifications going forward for any studio that seeks to make a film that will capitalize in some measure on an existing film owned by another company.

At issue in the court decision were rights to the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz, rights to which are owned by Warners, and the position of the characters in or out of the public domain, given that they are based on a 110-year old book.

The root of the issue here is a lawsuit brought by WB against nostalgia merchant AVELA, which several years ago bought out of copyright promo items for The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and some Tom & Jerry shorts, then went on to use images from those old promo materials on new merchandise.

While a few different fine points came out of this particular decision — the court ruled that some of AVELA’s actions were defensible, based on the lack of old copyright — THR parses the most important bit, saying, “in essence, the panel of justices finds that the features of film characters can be copyrighted even if these characters were based on prior work.”

Here’s the bit from the decision:

We agree with the district court’s conclusion that Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind, and Tom and Jerry each exhibit “consistent, widely identifiable traits” in the films that are sufficiently distinctive to merit character protection under the respective film copyrights….Put more simply, there is no evidence that one would be able to visualize the distinctive details of, for example, Clark Gable’s performance before watching the movie Gone with the Wind, even if one had read the book beforehand. At the very least, the scope of the film copyrights covers all visual depictions of the film characters at issue, except for any aspects of the characters that were injected into the public domain by the publicity materials.

(THR bolded the relevant bit there, and I preserved the bold.)

In other words, WB now seems to own very specific film depictions of characters in The Wizard of Oz, and could therefore lay claim to similar depictions created at other studios. Let’s say… Disney and Oz: The Great and Powerful, for example. No doubt this is going to be the beginning of many legal sparring matches, and I’m not well enough versed in legalese to guess how this could impact the various Oz films that are in development right now. L




CGI Jiggery Pokery: ‘Zookeeper’ Ads Digitally Inserted Into ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Reruns

(slashfilm.com) Is nothing sacred?!? How can we trust anything, if we can’t trust reruns of How I Met Your Mother?

A couple of eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that episodes of the show from several years back have been digitally altered in reruns to feature ads for Sony, Columbia or Screen Gems films. At least two instances of Zookeeper ads have been screencapped, and there’s a Country Strong ad inserted into another episode. Check ‘em out and add your own laugh track after the break.

All these examples come via Reddit (here and here), and I might as well crib one Reddit user’s post by echoing their exclamation: sorcery! Flickr user stjarna! noticed one of the instances of digitally enhancing the episode ‘Moving Day,’ from Season 2, originally aired on March 19, 2007. But when seen in syndication on June 30, 2011, the background of the episode had been given a new Zookeeper ad. Check out the images below for a couple more instances.

And while I can’t get upset about How I Met Your Mother being defaced with such advertising graffiti, I’d be pretty pissed off if I caught an episode of Twin Peaks and saw the characters sitting in front of a new ad for Resident Evil 9, or some such thing. And if it can happen with one show, it can happen with others.

Take a look: http://www.slashfilm.com/wtf-zookeeper-advertising-inserted-how-met-mother-reruns/



Inside the Paramount, DreamWorks Animation Standoff

(hollywoodreporter.com) The studios have grossed more than $4 billion with projects such as the "Shrek" sequels, but as Par enters the animation biz, DWA eyes new homes -- such as Warners.

Paramount’s decision, announced Wednesday, to launch its own animation division seems to be a clear sign that the studio’s five-year-old relationship with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation is in its closing act.

The question now is where Katzenberg will take his company. He has declined to comment on the new development at Paramount. But considering that the nine films that DreamWorks Animation has released through Paramount have grossed about $4.8 billion, he would appear to have an attractive deal to offer. While Warner Bros. would seem to be a likely match, sources cautioned that a number of obstacles may stand in the way.

A few weeks ago, according to a knowledgeable source, Paramount chief Brad Grey offered Katzenberg a one-year extension on the current distribution deal, which expires at the end of 2012. But he conveyed that any renewal would have to be on improved terms for the studio, which currently distributes DWA’s movies for an 8 percent fee. Katzenberg has yet to respond.

Paramount’s announcement that it will pursue its own animation unit “certainly is a statement of sorts [from Paramount] that we can do this without you,” says a high-level DWA source. But the source says it’s too soon to conclude that the relationship with Paramount has definitely broken down.

Katzenberg is said to have made efforts to sell his company but is now focusing on pursuing a studio distribution partnership. A top source at Universal parent Comcast says no deal is in the offing there. Fox, Sony and, of course, Disney have their own animation units. That leaves Warners as a possibility. A studio spokesman declined comment on that prospect, but an industry source says Katzenberg is proposing to distribute his company’s two to three films a year at Warners while also providing programming for the Cartoon Network, which is part of the Time-Warner family.

Sources say Katzenberg wants and needs companies that can distribute his product on multiple platforms. “You can’t have a [stand-alone] animation business any more with that kind of overhead when you can make pictures like Despicable Me [which Universal released] for $80 million and do $600 million,” says one.

An executive with ties to Warners says a deal with DreamWorks Animation “would fit in well,” but adds that Katzenberg “is so detail-oriented that he’s high maintenance.”

Another complicating factor is the perception that Katzenberg might have ambitions beyond running his animation business -- and that would not escape the notice of top executives at Warners who are in contention to succeed chairman and CEO Barry Meyer, set to retire at the end of 2013.

They include studio chief Jeff Robinov as well as television group president Bruce Rosenblum and home entertainment group president Kevin Tsujihara. A source familiar with the players said that the decision about DreamWorks Animation would rest largely with Robinov, adding, “I don’t think he’d fight it [because of] any personal or potential rivalry issues.”

At first glance, the tension between Katzenberg and Grey would seem baffling, given the success the two have enjoyed -- that has included launching the Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon franchises. Shrek the Third ($799 million worldwide) and Shrek Forever After ($752 million worldwide) are among the highest grossing titles that Paramount has released. But the acrimony seems to date back to the contentious relationship between DreamWorks and Paramount, which erupted in 2008 when DreamWorks announced it was ending the partnership. Even though DWA had already spun off from DreamWorks into a publicly-held company, Katzenberg was allied with his fellow DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.

That ill-will -- combined with Katzenberg’s desire to sweeten his company’s deal with the studio -- appears to have trumped all the success. “These guys have not hit it off,” says the DWA source. “Somehow they don’t seem to mesh."




Anim/VFX Wage Survey Deadline Extended to July 22

(animationguildblog.blogspot.com) To make sure everyone gets a chance to return their wage survey questionnaires, we're extending the deadline two weeks to July 22.

The rate of returns has slowed down in the last week, and we're still looking to see if we can beat last year's return percentage.

One piece of good news is that we've received more questionnaires by e-mail and fax than ever before. If you haven't yet returned the survey, or didn't receive one or or have misplaced it, you can:

Contact me by e-mail and ask to have the survey and the postpaid return envelope mailed to you, or
Download the form and mail, fax or e-mail it back to the attention of Jeff Massie. We will take the form and mix it with the ones we’ve received to guarantee your anonymity.

The wage survey results will be posted here, on the e-mail list and website, and in the August Peg-Board. You owe it to yourself and your fellow writers, artists and technicians to return the survey and help spread the word about salary conditions in our industry.




My Day At Sony Animation Or: How I Spent A Few Hours Torturing A Smurf

(cinemablend.com) A few weeks back I was invited to head down to Sony Pictures Animation to not only interview The Smurfs stars Hank Azaria and Jayma Mays as well as director Raja Gosnell and producer Jordan Kerner, but had the chance to both animate my own Smurf and hop in a recording booth to voice one of the characters. While I’ll be posting the second of my two interviews later tonight, read on to learn about my attempts – and ultimate failures – to bring a Smurf to life.

Following the interviews, a small group of other journalists and I were brought into a computer lab and briefly instructed how to animate our own Smurf. Using a 3D animation software called Maya, all of our screens featured a Smurf standing still on a grey background. We were then told to click and select one of the Smurf’s body parts, move it, and save it on the timeline at the bottom the screen. For example, selecting a spot towards the end of the timeline, I’d take the Smurf’s arm, drag it away from the body, and record the image in that position. Surprisingly simple in concept, after pressing play, the Smurf would move its own arm so that at point A it would be resting by the Smurfs side, and at point B the arm would be away from its body. Notice how I said “simple in concept” instead of “simple in execution.” It turns out that subtle movements are the best kind of movements in animation, a lesson that I learned when my Smurf’s leg suddenly buried itself 30 feet into the ground when I tried to make the creature jump, and its fist went through the skull in an attempt to simulate a wave. By the end of the experiment, I imagined that the Smurf whispering “Kill me!” much like Ripley’s clone in Alien: Resurrection.

Full Article: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/My-Day-At-Sony-Animation-Or-How-I-Spent-A-Few-Hours-Torturing-A-Smurf-25567.html



The Mill, Framestore, LAIKA/house, MPC Will Be Prominent In Spot Mix At SIGGRAPH

(shootonline.com) VANCOUVER, B.C. Commercials will be well represented at the Computer Animation Festival, one of the featured attractions at the annual SIGGRAPH confab which gets underway next month (8/7-11) in Vancouver. Prominent in the spot mix will be work out of such studios as Psyop (often in concert with Smuggler), Framestore, The Mill, The Moving Picture Company and LAIKA/house.
The Psyop/Smuggler tandem will have five ads in the Festival: AT&T's "A Whole New World" helmed by Eben Mears for BBDO New York; Fage yogurt's "Plain" for Boston agency Mullen; Fanta's "Bounce" out of Ogilvy New York; LG Electronics' "Something's Lurking" via Y&R New York; and Xbox Fable III's "Revolution" out of agencytwofifteen, San Francisco. The Psyop collective directed the Fage, Fanta, LG and Xbox spots.

Additionally Psyop has a solo entry slated for Fest screening: Schweppes Spring Valley's "Spring Fever" directed by Psyop for George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne, Australia.
Meanwhile Framestore has a trio of spots being showcased: Andrex Puppyworld's "It's The Little Things" for JWT London; Coca-Cola's "Siege" directed by FX & Mat of London animation studio Nexus for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; and Kia Soul's "This or That" directed by Antoine Bardou Jacquet of Partizan for David & Goliath, Los Angeles. Framestore's work will go beyond the ad arena at the Festival. For example, Framestore will have its work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 showcased.

A pair of spots in the Planters campaign--"Holiday Party" and "Tree-athlon"--featuring a contemporary Mr. Peanut from LAIKA/house each made the Computer Animation Festival grade. The stop motion fare had directors Mark Gustafson of LAIKA/house collaborating with director Ringan Ledwidge of Smuggler for New York agency BEING.
The Moving Picture Company also scored a couple of Festival slots--for Cadbury's "Spots V Stripes" directed by Nick Gordon via Academy Films for Fallon, London; and Sky Movies' "360" campaign out of Sky Creative.

The Mill had two commercials in the Electronic Theater portion of the Festival: AT&T's "No Spring Offer" out of The Mill New York, directed by Josh and Jonathan Baker (a.k.a. TWiN) of Rabbit for BBDO New York; and Volkswagen's "Black Beetle" from The Mill London, directed by Dante Ariola of MJZ for Deutsch LA.

Another Festival spot, Bridgestone's "Carma," comes from Method Studios; it was directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher for The Richards Group, Dallas.
Radium/Reel FX scored a pair of entries for music videos: Transfer's "Take Your Medicine" and Katy Perry's "Firework."
And Charlex will see its "Shapeshifter" gain Festival exposure; the project is set to a musical composition and prose performed by Gabriel Byrne.

3D Reel
The SIGGRAPH 3D Reel at the Computer Animation Festival includes the feature film Green Lantern with Sony Pictures Imageworks serving as the VFX house, Flamingo Pride and Paths of Hate.
The latter two projects have earned Computer Animation Festival honors. Paths of Hate, an animation short directed by Damian Nenow of Polish animation studio Platige Image, has taken the Jury Award. The film centers on two pilots, driven by blind hate, who chase each other in their airplanes and thereby write cryptic messages of madness into the firmament. On their way into the abyss they transform into inhuman and distorted creatures that finally become part of the history of hate.
Flamingo Pride, directed by Tomer Eshed of The Konrad Wolf Potsdam-Babelsburg Film and Television University, won the Best Student Project Prize. The protagonist is the only heterosexual flamingo in a gay flock. He falls in love with a lady stork who doesn't take him seriously, leading to his going through an identity crisis and a decision to make a bold move.

Best In Show
Named recipient of the Best In Show Award going into the Festival was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, and produced by Moonbot Studios.
Part of the Festival's Long Shorts Reel, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous piece on the curative powers of story. The film deploys a variety of techniques--miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation--in presenting a hybrid style of animation that hearkens back to silent films and Technicolor musicals.

Feature menu
In the Visual Effects for Live Action portion of the Festival showcase, feature films are prevalent, including: Arthur Christmas (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Battle: Los Angeles (Columbia Pictures--VFX by Cinesite), Clash of the Titans (Warner Bros.--VFX by Cinesite), Inception (Double Negative Visual Effects), Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (Animal Logic), Paul (Double Negative Visual Effects), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Industrial Light+Magic), Rango (Industrial Light+Magic), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Double Negative Visual Effects), The Smurfs (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Super 8 (Industrial Light+Magic), Transformers 3 (Industrial Light+Magic) and Zookeeper (Sony Pictures Imageworks).
Visual Effects for Live Action also features a 2011 Spotlight on Digital Domain.



'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' Sequel Will Be An Original Story

(firstshowing.net) In a perfect storm of animation that didn't come from Pixar this time, Sony Pictures Animation delivered a hilarious and fantastic movie in the form of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs back in 2009. We know that a sequel was put into development back in April of 2010, but directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller wouldn't be back to direct (they're on 21 Jump Street). Since the film was loosely based on the children's book of the same name, it was said the sequel book, titled Pickles in Pittsburgh, would inform the sequel. However, 24 Frames reports the sequel will instead be an original story, and there are new writers attached.

Apparently the writing team of John Francis Daley (formerly a star of "Freaks and Geeks" and "Bones") and Jonathan Goldstein are writing a new draft of the script. The duo have been on a hot streak lately having written Horrible Bosses and the upcoming magician comedy Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carell. Since the first film deviated so much from the original children's book, I'm not surprised the sequel won't be using the second book at all. Honestly, since Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs found a great comedic niche, I can't wait to see how the sequel turns out. As for who might direct, no names were given, but apparently the studio is looking to bring up someone from the first film who worked on developing the story to take over.




Pixar’s Brad Lewis Joins Digital Domain Media Group’s Tradition Studios

(cgw.com) Lewis joins Tradition Studios from co-­‐directing Cars 2 with John Lasseter, which opened in theaters June 24. A 10-­‐year Pixar veteran, Lewis was the producer on the Academy Award-­‐winning animated feature Ratatouille.

“Brad is truly one of the nicest and most talented people we’ve met in the film industry,” says DDMG chairman and CEO John Textor. “We are honored that he has chosen to join us, having come from an environment that we believe represents the finest traditions of storytelling.”

Prior to Pixar, Lewis was a producer on Antz and executive-­‐produced TV movies for PDI/Dreamworks, where he worked for more than 11 years, also serving as executive producer/vice president of production for Pacific Data Images. His television credits include Hanna-­‐Barbera’s The Last Halloween, for which he received an Emmy Award and the first 3D episode of “The Simpsons,” which earned him an Emmy nomination. Lewis received an Emmy for graphic design for ABC’s Monday Night Football and his commercial production work garnered him two Clio awards. Lewis also served as Mayor of the city of San Carlos, California.

Lewis says, “I am excited to join a company with Digital Domain’s talent and expertise and to have an opportunity to be a part of its team in creating family-­‐friendly stories and adventures. It’s going to be a fun ride.”




Daniel Craig Hated His Motion Capture Suit In “The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn”

(nickutopia.com) Daniel Craig, star of the latest James Bond films and the upcoming “Cowboys & Aliens,” will play the pirate Red Rackham in Nickelodeon Movies’ “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.” Director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson chose to make the film using motion capture technology, requiring the actors to wear tight bodysuits and helmet-mounted cameras. It looks as though Daniel Craig wasn’t a huge fan of the suit – stating his detest in a recent interview with Esquire Magazine.

We shot it in mo-cap. Which is like: f*** me, I’m literally in a leotard with a f***ing helmet on, and a camera strapped to it… Every f***er in the world comes to visit… Clint f***ing Eastwood… I’m gonna meet these people dressed like this? Playing a pirate, wearing a leotard and a camera?

Hopefully Daniel didn’t let the suit deter him from giving a great performance.

“The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn” will hit theaters in Europe on October 26 and the United States on December 23. You can also catch Daniel in “Cowboys & Aliens,” hitting theaters July 29.



DreamWorks: No Impact From Paramount's Animation Move

(online.wsj.com) DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s chief Jeffrey Katzenberg played down Paramount Pictures's decision to launch a rival animation division and said that his animation studio is not for sale.

"Their going into the lower-end of the animation business isn't going to impact DreamWorks at all," he said, on the sidelines of investment bank Allen & Co.'s media conference here.

Paramount, which is owned by Viacom Inc., announced its new division Wednesday, raising questions about whether it would seek to renew its deal to distribute animated films from DreamWorks Animation, maker of films including the "Shrek" series. That distribution agreement expires at the end of next year.

Mr. Katzenberg said whether the deal is renewed would be up to both companies and would be decided next year. "Next year is a moment of opportunity for us," he said. "We get to evaluate."

Wednesday, in an interview, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman declined to comment on the likelihood of a renewal beyond saying that the company had been willing to renew in the past.

A spokesman for Viacom couldn't immediately be reached to comment on Mr. Katzenberg's remarks.



The Archiver: An Incredible Fan-Made CG Film

(techeblog.com) Fan-made CG films don't get much cooler than "The Archiver" by Artfx. It's basically "an all-out sci-fi visual feast and no worse for it." Unfortunately, a synopsis was not provided.

Take a look http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/the-archiver-an-incredible-fan-made-cg-film






"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" Blows Up 4th of July With $416M Worldwide Open

(BoxOffice.com ) Any question that the box office was hurting was dispelled over the Fourth of July weekend as one of the most consistent filmmakers behind summer blockbusters, Michael Bay, once again showed his box office dominance with the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount), starring Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey and Alan Tudyk, as it set a number of new records.

Opening on Tuesday at 9pm in IMAX and 3D theaters, the movie brought in $5.5 million before midnight screenings, then added another $37.7 million on Wednesday, which was down nearly 39% from the opening of its predecessor Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen two years prior but also the biggest single day gross of 2011 so far. Helped by the four-day holiday weekend, the movie picked up on Friday with roughly $33 million leading to an estimated $97.4 million over the three-day weekend, besting the previous 4th of July record held by Sony's Spider-Man 2 with roughly $88 million. That three-day opening may be down 11% from the previous movie's opening weekend of $109 million, but with a better CinemaScore and reactions from audiences, it certainly picked up business from its opening on Wednesday. Including estimates for the 4th of July Monday, "Dark of the Moon" grossed $116.4 million over the extended four-day weekend bringing its total to $181.1 million for its first six (or so) days. It shouldn't have any problem becoming the first movie of 2011 to cross the $300 million mark.

Only time will tell if it will surpass Revenge of the Fallen's $400 million domestic gross, though. The previous "Transformers" sequel grossed $215 million in its first six days including the non-holiday Monday, while Spider-Man 2 ended up grossing $373 million domestically with a similar amount grossed in its first six days as "Dark of the Moon."

Internationally, Bay's latest brought in $235 million since opening earlier in the week, bringing its six-day worldwide total to $416 million. (Read that last bit again: Michael Bay's new movie has grossed more than $400 million in less than a week!)




VFX Supervisor Pitches Alien War Show

(comicbookmovie.com) Mark Savela, the visual effects supervisor of the late Stargate Universe, has come up with a concept for a sci-fi series called Echoes, starring SGU's Jennifer Spence, which he's shot a teaser for and is currently pitching.

Echoes postulates a future in which two warring alien species have waged their battle on Earth (considered a neutral zone of sorts) and now humanity is trying to move on after the devastating battle is over.

"I'm interested in seeing the journey that someone goes on to become a Sarah Connor or a Ripley," Savela explained. "You want a character that an audience can identify with and root for, a little bit like an underdog and someone who the viewers can throw their support behind.

"We've ... been working hard behind the scenes, pitching and trying to sell the show," Savela added. "The concept and its players have been well-received out in the market, and we hope to have more announcements very soon."




ILM Team To Attend 'Cowboys and Aliens' Greenwich Premiere

(newsshopper.co.uk) HOLLYWOOD is coming to Greenwich this summer as the Big Screen film festival and convention at The O2 unveils a stellar line-up of events, including star-studded premieres, exclusive screenings, masterclasses and live performances.

With an emphasis on commercial blockbusters, the three-day event, running from August 12 to August 14, aims to provide the average cinemagoer with an alternative to the indie/arthouse heavy line-up of London's other film festivals.

Big Screen will open with the UK premiere of summer blockbuster Cowboys and Aliens, starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, and close with the Colin Farrell comedy horror Fright Night.

As well as the chance to see exclusive sneak peaks of forthcoming blockbusters, including the Guillermo Tel Toro produced horror Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, James Cameron’s Titanic 3D and the Justin Timberlake sci-fi In Time, there will also be full length preview screenings of highly-anticipated films such as The Help and Real Steel.

The latter will also include a presentation from director Shawn Levy who will discuss the techniques he used in bringing the movie about cage fighting robots to the big screen.

And if that wasn't enough, Star Wars fans can geek out with a behind the scenes look at George Lucas's iconic film saga with key members of the team from Industrial Light and Magic, be photographed on part of a replica Star Wars set and take part in the Star Wars: Padawan Training School - a must for would-be Jedi everywhere.




Orwell's "Animal Farm" Gets Mo-Capped

(darkhorizons.com) Talking about his upcoming sci-fi feature "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", filmmaker Rupert Wyatt spoke with Empire Magazine (via The Playlist) about his possible next projects.

Aside from the three-part UK miniseries “The Echo Chamber" about British moles in the IRA, Wyatt revealed that he and actor Andy Serkis have discussed the prospect of a motion capture feature film take on George Orwell‘s classic 1945 novella “Animal Farm”.

The story of revolutionary animals on an English farm is a thinly veiled allegory about how the rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union over the preceding two decades. Its most famous adaptation so far has been a 1954 animated movie.

Serkis is an advocate of mo-cap and setup a studio for the technique through his production company Caveman Films.




Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Crosses the $1 Billion Mark

(Walt Disney Pictures) Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has surpassed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office! The film has earned $233.7 million domestically and $774 million internationally for a worldwide total of $1,007,703,000.

The Rob Marshall-directed film has climbed to the seventh spot on the all-time worldwide list and has become the third movie for Johnny Depp to earn more than $1 billion - including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.066 billion) and Alice in Wonderland ($1.024 billion). Adding Toy Story 3 ($1.063 billion), "On Stranger Tides" is the fourth Walt Disney Pictures release to surpass $1 billion. The studio's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is also in the top 10 having earned $963 million in 2007.

"On Stranger Tides" is the eighth film to reach the $1 billion threshold, is now the No. 3 film of all time at the international box office and is Disney's biggest international release ever.




Senior VFX Sup Michael Fink Departs From Prime Focus

(variety.com) Exclusive Michael Fink has ankled as CEO and senior visual effects supervisor for Prime Focus VFX North America.

Fink was a visual effects supervisor before taking the Prime Focus post. His credits include "The Golden Compass," which took an Academy Award for its vfx.

He told Variety he has been approached about directing opportunities and will also look for opportunities in visual effects.

During Fink's tenure at Prime Focus, the company roughly tripled its workforce and grew substantially in gross revenue. It expanded its facilities in Mumbai and Vancouver and added a 2D-to-3D conversion business. Recent Prime Focus credits include "Green Lantern" and "X-Men: First Class."

Prime Focus does not plan to fill the CEO post vacated by Fink. Jeremy Nicolaides has been promoted from senior stereographer to creative director for the 3D conversion business. Martin Hobbs, managing director for Prime Focus Film in London has added the title Managing Director for Prime Focus VFX Vancouver. He splits his time between London and Vancouver. His London responsibilities include overseeing both vfx and 3D conversion.

Contact David S. Cohen at david.cohen@variety.com




4 Sure Bets For Oscar

(indiewire.com) Last year at this time, we called all of the following:

* Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo will receive acting nominations for “The Kids Are All Right.”
* “The Kids Are All Right” will also be nominated for best original screenplay.
* “Inside Job” will be nominated for, and likely win, best documentary feature.
* “Toy Story 3” and “How To Train Your Dragon” will be nominated for best animated feature.
* “Toy Story 3” will also be nominated for best adapted screenplay.
* Randy Newman will receive his 19th Oscar nomination.
* “Inception” will receive at least six nominations, one of which will be best picture.

This year here are our sure bets I’m willing to bet money on seven months before Oscar gives us his nominations:

* Christopher Plummer and Vanessa Redgrave receive best supporting acting nominations.
* “Rango” is nominated for best animated feature.
* “The Tree of Life” is nominated for best cinematography.
* “Midnight in Paris” is nominated for best original screenplay.





"Count of Monte Cristo" Gets Sci-Fi Spin

Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up Ian Shorr's script which is described as a futuristic retelling of Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" reports Variety.

The original 1844 tale follows a young man wrongly imprisoned. After many years he escapes, transforming himself into the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and systematically destroys those who manipulated and enslaved him.

Kevin McCormick ("Arthur," "Gangster Squad") will produce the film which is being fast tracked and is already out to directors. The last major direct film adaptation was the 2002 Spyglass film starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris and a teenage Henry Cavill.

The news follows a similar story yesterday of a sci-fi take of Joseph Conrad's classic 1902 novel "Heart of Darkness" being put into development.




Thor Sequel Set For 2013 Release

(Deadline) Yesterday, it was reported that Marvel Studios will be rolling ahead with a sequel to their recent hit Thor for a release on July 26, 2013.

Although Kenneth Branagh is no longer directing and they need to find someone new, they'll first have to get a screenplay together and today, Deadline has the name of the screenwriter who'll be doing that: Don Payne, who was a credited writer on Thor and whose previous superhero experience includes Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and the Ivan Reitman comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend.




Franchise vs Creativity: Disney & Pixar on Collision Course

(nytimes.com) When the Walt Disney Company bought Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion in 2006, there was understandable concern that the media conglomerate that drove the famed Disney animation unit into the ground with duds like “Home on the Range” and “Chicken Little” would extinguish the creative flame that had nurtured the quirky and much-loved “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo.”

Since then, under the leadership of Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, and John Lasseter of Pixar, Disney/Pixar has unveiled a series of critical and commercial hits that were, if anything, even more brilliant and daring than Pixar’s early successes.

I watched “Ratatouille” on a plane, and found it so unexpectedly charming and deeply moving that I had to ask the flight attendant for a tissue. In choosing as their subjects a French rat who aspires to culinary greatness (“Ratatouille”), two speechless robots (“Wall-E”) and a 72-year-old widower (“Up”), it was as if Pixar’s creative minds had deliberately chosen characters and themes that were as unlikely as possible to lend themselves to theme park attractions and merchandise spinoffs.

The ultimate test of Pixar’s creative integrity under Disney ownership may have been last year’s “Toy Story 3,” a sequel whose predecessors had already started a multibillion-dollar merchandising bonanza. Remarkably for a second sequel, the critical reaction was rapturous: “Toy Story 3 isn’t merely the best movie of the summer but an immediate candidate for best of the year.” (The St. Petersburg Times); “Toy Story 3 continues Pixar’s near-perfect streak.” (The Oregonian); “As sweet, as touching, as humane a movie as you are likely to see this summer.” (A. O. Scott in The New York Times.) “Toy Story 3” was nominated for Best Picture and reaped over $110 million during its opening weekend. The film became the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time, making over $1.1 billion at the box office.

Even more remarkably, “Toy Story 3” was Pixar’s 11th consecutive creative and commercial hit, a streak that has earned it a place in animation and Hollywood history. Even the legendary Walt had a run of just seven animated hits starting with 1950’s “Cinderella” (and four after the 1937 “Snow White”). The holy grail of the film business has always been to be able to make only hits while avoiding flops, and the quest has spawned periodic manifestos and strategies that seemed to work — until they failed.

But Pixar appeared to have cracked the code, not just for box-office but also for creative success.

What was the secret? The exact nature of artistic success may always be elusive, but Mr. Lasseter of Pixar has thought deeply on the subject. “How have we been successful? What is the creativity of Pixar about?” he asked in a speech in February 2010 at Sonoma Academy, before answering his own questions. “It is about risk-taking and it is about open communication at all times from top to bottom. And it’s also about management, the leaders of the company doing kind of the opposite of what every other company does.” He added: “Most studios around the world, it’s like they want to do the safe thing, right? They want to kind of guarantee success out there where there’s a product, a movie, or something like that and they want to do what they know will be a success. And that’s why Hollywood makes how many movies a year, and how many are actually good? Right?”

But in February this year, Jay Rasulo, Disney’s chief financial officer, delivered a speech called “The Value of Franchises” that seemed to potentially put Disney and Pixar on a collision course. “ ‘Toy Story,’ ” Mr. Rasulo noted, “was clearly a franchise, and we started to exploit it across multiple geographies in multiple businesses.” He said he expected “Toy Story” to drive $10 billion in retail sales alone. As a result, Disney’s movie slate going forward “will be much more focused on franchises” — like the much-anticipated Pixar sequel “Cars 2.”

At Disney, Pixar and the studio entertainment division as a whole account for a relatively small percentage of Disney’s profits. (Media Networks, which includes the phenomenally profitable ESPN and cable TV ventures, is by far the most important.) Still, in fiscal 2010, studio entertainment earnings jumped to just under $700 million, thanks in large part to “Toy Story 3.” Nor does this include the billions in merchandise and other revenue extolled by Mr. Rasulo. Apart from the bottom line, Disney’s studio operations are disproportionally visible among the company’s divisions, with the success or failure of its movies avidly followed by the press and Wall Street analysts.

Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/business/02stewart.html




Transformers' Drives into Universal Studios Theme Park With $40+ Million Ride

(variety.com) Michael Bay may prefer to wreak havoc, destroying Chicago at multiplexes this weekend -- but when it comes to the offscreen lives of Hasbro's robots, the "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" director is in construction mode.

Helmer is giving his creative notes to "Transformers: The Ride -- 3D," a big-budget theme park attraction under construction on the lower lot of Universal Studios Hollywood that opens next spring.

The motion-based ride will tell an original "Transformers" story and use 3D animation, animatronics and the latest flight-simulator technology to place guests in the middle of a battle between the heroic Autobots and villainous Decepticons.

Because the films breathed new life into Hasbro's toy line in 2007, the toymaker chose to embrace the look of the shape-shifting characters from the pics for the ride, its first theme park attraction since exploiting its brands ("G.I. Joe," "Monopoly," "Battleship," "Ouija" and "Candyland," among others) across various entertainment platforms.

"We're always looking for ways to engage people and show our characters where people want to experience them," Aaron Archer, Hasbro's VP brand creative, brand design and IP development told Variety.

Exec has been overseeing the "Transformers" line for the past 12 years. He worked closely with Bay's art department and was part of the pitch that got the helmer interested in the property in the first place.

Audiences have grown accustomed to the look of the pics' bots after the first film earned $710 million worldwide and its sequel hauled in $836 million.

As a result, toy sales tied to the franchise generated $482 million for Hasbro after its first outing and more than $600 million around the second, providing a case study on how toymakers can capitalize on film and TV shows based on their popular playthings.

Hasbro, which owns the rights to the brand and how it's spun off, didn't necessarily have to stick with the design; its new animated "Transformers" series on kids cabler The Hub steers clear of the look.

"It's definitely set in the film universe," Archer said. "We wanted to have the best experiences of the movies come forward and bring it to life with all original content."

Chip Largman, senior VP of creative at Universal Studios Hollywood, calls the ride "a natural follow up to the films" that serves as "an extension" of what auds have already seen in theaters. "But it's not dependent upon your experience in seeing the film."

The move will benefit both Paramount, which can use the ride to promote its film franchise, and Universal, which is always looking for new attractions based on tentpoles.

Par, in particular, is looking to keep the films going. Although Bay has said the third installment is his swan song, it's only a matter of time before the studio reboots the series with a new helmer.

Given the popularity of the films, Hasbro is naturally eager to keep the property alive on the bigscreen, as well. Until more films are made, it has the ride to keep auds interested.

To do that, Hasbro enlisted Industrial Light and Magic to reprise its role from the films to create the photorealistic 3D characters and visuals and for the ride, and hired Peter Cullen to voice Optimus Prime and other actors from the series.

It also won't be cheap, with U said to be spending more than $40 million on the ride, around what it spent to build "The Simpsons Ride." An identical "Transformers" ride is also being built at Universal Studios Singapore.

The timing of next year's launch of the "Transformers" ride "had a lot to do with the amount of time truly needed to create and implement a technical feat," Largman said. "We were not in a position to do something that was lockstep in time with the release of the film."

The project, which replaces the former "Backdraft" attraction and Special Effects Stages, is the second time Universal Creative, which designs attractions for U's theme parks, has partnered with a major effects house on a ride after working with Weta Digital on Peter Jackson's "King Kong 360 3D" that opened last year.

Bay's collaboration on the ride also isn't new for U. It developed the King Kong ride with Jackson, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter park with J.K. Rowling, "The Simpsons" ride with the show's creators James L. Brooks and Matt Groening, and a number of attractions with Steven Spielberg, who is a creative consultant to the parks, and was an exec producer of the "Transformers" films.

Of course, Universal hopes "Transformers" becomes another main attraction at its Hollywood park, especially as rival Disney is readying to open its 12-acre "Cars Land" park inside California Adventure next summer.

"We've pushed the boundaries of 3D, hyperrealism and immersive visual effects to transport our guests, physically and viscerally, into the world of 'Transformers,' " said Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative.

Meanwhile, Universal is overhauling its "Spider-Man" ride at its Islands of Adventure park in Orlando, Fla., with updated, high-definition 3D footage to tap into the trend in theaters.

" 'Transformers' is about change and converting from one thing to another," said Archer. Over the years, "the brand has evolved from cars to animals and dinosaurs and now realistic cars that you can buy at a dealership. If you're a fan of these films this is one of the best ways to experience it."





‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Filming Sky Stunts In Scotland

(latinoreview.com) Men in black parachuting from a black jet were sighted in Scotland this week.

According to BBC News, the parachutists were in action at Cairngorm Gliding Club’s site at Feshie Bridge in the Scottish Highlands. Witnesses saw a chartered helicopter and a black jet on the club’s airstrip.

Additionally, a former United States military Hercules C130 transport aircraft was spotted making flights from the Inverness Airport.

BBC News could not confirm if the activity was just for preparation or for scenes in the film.

The local constabulary confirmed the police was asked to help with the project.

“We have been in contact with a private film company to assist with traffic management during private filming in the Badenoch and Strathspey area,” said a police spokeswoman to BBC News.

Transport Scotland, a Scottish government agency, confirmed they had been approached about using several road locations in Scotland.

“Scotland has some stunning landscapes which make a fantastic backdrop for films, and we are delighted that the nation continues to be such an attractive destination for film-makers to invest,” said a Transport Scotland spokeswoman to BBC News.

The film stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard.

The Christopher Nolan-directed “The Dark Knight Rises” will be released in theaters next July.




Watch out Hollywood: India Gets Tech-Savvy

(daily.bhaskar.com) Mumbai: What happens when a bunch of computer geeks, a tech-savvy scriptwriter and a director who loves animation put their heads together? They come up with a children's film that blends 2D and 3D animation with live action.

Touted as India's first movie with more than 85 % digital effects and a seamless integration of VFX and live action, 5ters — Castle of the Darkmaster is said to be one of the first of its kind in the action-animation genre in India.

"We wanted to make a film using indigenous talent and the latest technology. And this movie is a big step in that direction," said director G Venugopal.

Meanwhile, the biggest challenge the crew faced was of getting the young cast members to perform in front of green screens.

"It is very difficult for actors to emote even when there's actor facing them. And, we had five children," said Venugopal, who had a tough time explaining to his actors how the scenes would look after the graphics were added.

The Hindi film, which is based on ill-effects of global warming and the need for saving the environment, is dubbed in several languages including Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

"Children's films are doing very well here. But they're Hollywood films," the director lamented, while claiming that 5ters — Castle Of The Dark Master is technically at par with Hollywood films of the same genre. However, it was not all smooth sailing for the team which mainly consists of professionals who used to work in studios all over India and were part of many national and international projects.

"Nobody believed we could off a big project on our own. But fortunately, our producer Rajesh Kumar of Morphosys Information Pvt Ltd had faith in us," said scriptwriter Vijaylakshmi N S.

The makers said that they were inspired by the 3D classic, Chhota Chetan. "At that time, the film had become a trendsetter of sorts. I wanted to initiate a similar movement towards more live action-animation films with high-end computer graphics," Venugopal said. "We have proven that in India we have the required expertise and the imagination to make such films," he added.




"Snow White and the Huntsman" First In Trilogy

(darkhorizons.com) Producer Joe Roth ("Alice in Wonderland") says that the plan is to turn Universal's upcoming "Snow White and the Huntsman" into a potential trilogy.

"It's meant to be the first in a series of films. This story will end, but there will be questions remaining for these three characters" he tells Entertainment Weekly.

As previously explained, Snow White in this film "starts out not a damsel in distress, but innocent, and after 11 years of imprisonment by the Evil Queen, she escapes and learns the ways of a warrior in the woods."

Roth adds that "We retain the basic story in the same way we retain the basic story of Alice, a young girl meant to be the queen who is cast out. The Huntsman is a mercenary, in the sense that he's a guy who is very able in the woods, more able than most anyone. His job is to capture runaway girls, who are all fleeing the kingdom because of the queen. He's a nondescript bounty hunter, as we first meet him... He's not a nice guy, but not only that he’s someone who has lost hope and lost faith. He has lost his wife, given up on everything."




"Angry Birds" Movie Begins Flying

(darkhorizons.com0 Former Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel has been hired as special adviser to Rovio, the company behind the immensely popular game "Angry Birds" says Variety.

Maisel was instrumental in setting up Marvel Studios and the company's sale to Disney. His hiring here is seen as a major step into getting not only the proposed "Angry Birds" film adaptation headed into production, but turning the company into a major animated film producer.

Maisel has already begun conversations with screenwriters and directors to tackle the "Angry Birds" feature, and will serve as executive producer on the films. "There has been so much chatter about an 'Angry Birds' movie, but it's now real. The process is starting now" he says.

In the game, players use a slingshot to help a flock of animated birds destroy a group of evil pigs who stole their eggs. Over 250 million downloads of the game have taken place since its launch in late 2009


'Transformers 3' On Track For $200M 7 Day Weekend

(mtv.com) Last month, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" corralled $92.2 million over its opening weekend — the highest total of 2011. How could Jack Sparrow possibly complain? Well, that lofty sum was still well below the openings of both 2006's "Dead Man's Chest" ($135.6 million) and 2007's "At World's End" ($114.7).

The fact is, even the most robust of movie franchises tend to wane in terms of box-office bucks; the familiar pattern is a first film that sets the stage, a second installment that cashes in on the anticipation and then subsequent offerings that can't continue the upward trend. Such is the case with "Transformers."

There's much to celebrate with "Dark of the Moon," which enjoyed a first-day gross on Wednesday of $42.5 million (when you count midnight screenings), beating the first-day pull of "On Stranger Tides" (a Friday release, no less). That puts the third "Transformers" film on track for a seven-day debut of as much as $200 million or more. So why might Optimus Prime be dissatisfied with that opening? "Revenge of the Fallen" opened to $62 million on a Wednesday in 2009, on its way to a one-week total of almost $240 million.

Globally, "Dark of the Moon" might well eclipse the $836 million total of "Revenge of the Fallen" (just as "On Stranger Tides" could end up being the biggest "Pirates" flick when international grosses are factored in). Thus, Optimus rejoices!




IATSE Gets Aggressive To Unionize VFX Workers In Canada

(realfilmcareer.com) IATSE President Loeb has been shaking things up inside the entertainment industry’s largest union. He’s willing to thrust it into high-profile skirmishes on behalf of the nearly 120,000 behind-the-scenes workers who are its members.

By Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times

When rock star Bono and members of his band U2 recently showed up at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada, they were greeted not with cheers but jeers from more than 80 members of one of Hollywood’s most powerful unions.

Their beef: U2′s decision to hire a nonunion crew to film a documentary of the show that the band had come to finish shooting. “This is nothing short of union-busting,” declared Matt Loeb, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Taking on the world’s most famous rock group was just the latest example of Loeb’s willingness to thrust the typically low-key union into high-profile skirmishes on behalf of the nearly 120,000 stage hands, camera operators, grips, costume designers and others who work behind the scenes on scores of movies and TV shows.

The IA, as it is known, in November waged its first high-profile strike in Los Angeles in nearly two decades, in a highly publicized showdown with the producers of the hit reality TV show “The Biggest Loser.”

Unlike other Hollywood unions such as the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, the IA has traditionally avoided public confrontations with employers. It was an approach espoused by the union’s longtime former leader Tom Short, who placed a premium on maintaining smooth relations with the studios and keeping labor peace — even if it meant occasionally calling out other guild leaders for their tactics or militant rhetoric.

But since taking over from Short nearly three years ago, Loeb has put the IA on a more aggressive course, shaking things up inside the entertainment industry’s largest union. In one of his first interviews as president, Loeb spoke to The Times about the recent strike, as well as a controversial and ambitious plan to extend union contracts to visual-effects workers and his efforts to create a more open culture inside a labor organization that dates to 1886.

“I want the IA to have the highest profile it can have and be as strong as it can be,” he said. “Having a solid membership that understands why the union is there and what it does for them is key.”

More daunting is a campaign the IA has launched to bring union contracts to visual-effects artists. Historically, makeup artists and other special-effects craftspeople were covered under union contracts. But most computer graphics artists today work as freelancers and don’t have health insurance benefits and other union protections. “They are the only trade that works on a movie that is not represented,” Loeb said. “That’s astounding to me.”

The union has dedicated a full-time organizer to meet with workers, but Loeb acknowledges the effort has met with some resistance on the part of employers, especially in California, where many companies are struggling to compete with low-cost labor and tax incentives offered by foreign rivals.

Dan Schmit, owner of L.A. effects house Engine Room, said he sympathized with the goal of unionizing workers at major studios but said it would hurt small boutique firms like his that rely mainly on independent contractors. “My hands would be tied in terms of my ability to negotiate for bids,” said Schmit, who already offers health benefits to most of his 10 employees.

Still, Loeb also stresses common ground with employers in such areas as fighting piracy. The IA has a full-time lobbyist in Washington dedicated to supporting anti-piracy legislation, and Loeb has frequently spoken out against the damage piracy inflicts on residuals.

“The idea is to keep the industry healthy and keep our people working,” Loeb said. “That’s my job, that’s the CEOs’ job. It’s not necessarily a contradictory relationship.”

Full article: http://realfilmcareer.com/?p=6622




Winsor McCay Resurrection Project

(theatlantic.com) Winsor McCay is considered by many to be the “father of animation.” He is probably best known for his newspaper comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905-1914 and 1924-1927) and the animated short film, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). His work influenced countless generations of illustrators and animators including Walt Disney. Unfortunately, outside of film history books, Winsor never received the attention that he deserved.

The Flying House (1921)

In 1921, Winsor McCay created one of his greatest short films, The Flying House. Unfortunately for animation history, his boss William Randolph Hearst felt that the talented artist was neglecting his drawing duties at the paper, and demanded that he stop making films. So, sadly, The Flying House was McCay's last film. Who knows what great achievements he could have attained had he not given up his animation career. With his talent, he could have surpassed Walt Disney, whose Mickey Mouse was still 6 years in the future.

The Flying House (2011)

I discovered The Flying House a few years ago while watching a collection of McCay’s works on an old videocassette tape. I was amazed by the humor, great storytelling, and of course, the superior draftsmanship. But all that was hindered by too many intertitles, word balloons, and the lack of color, music, and sound. The biggest problem with the film is the terrible condition of the print. It has been neglected and badly handled for nearly 90 years. It's a mess of scratches, dust, and erosion. So, I took it upon myself to restore and update the film for a new generation. STEP 1: painstakingly clean every frame of the film by removing all the imperfections. STEP 2: color each frame, using reprints of Winsor’s color comics as a guide. Winsor loved color and even hand-colored some of his early films, like Little Nemo in Slumberland. STEP 3: record actors Patricia Clarkson and Matthew Modine to give voices to the two leading characters allowing us to remove the word balloons and intertitles. STEP 4: hire a musician and sound editor to add a stirring new soundtrack to compliment the beautiful new picture.

Contribute Today: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1632099201/winsor-mccay-resurrection-project?ref=NewsJun2911&utm_campaign=Jun29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter





Synopsis for Ridley Scott's Prometheus Released

20th Century Fox has released the official synopsis for director Ridley Scott's sci-fi film Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie and Logan Marshall-Green.

Written by Damon Lindelof, Jon Spaihts and Scott, the film is described as follows:

Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life's ultimate mystery.





The Best Anthropomorphic Creatures in Movie History

(egotvonline.com) Since the beginning of time, Man has wondered “wouldn’t it be great if I could imbue animals and other inanimate objects with the powers of speech and rational thought?” Thanks to the invention of film, we can do just that. Anthropomorphic characters have played a major role in the history of cinema, so I’m not counting characters from Disney movies or other animated features (CGI characters in live-action movies still count). Keeping that criteria in mind, here are the best anthropomorphic creatures in film history:
Amy the Gorilla

from Congo (1995)

amy the gorilla congo
After the success of Jurassic Park, movie studios began cranking out Michael Crichton adaptations like crazy. That is how Congo came to be. In the decade and a half since Congo hit theaters, it is chiefly remembered for two things: Tim Curry’s masterfully awkward performance, and the lovable ape Amy. Amy is a smart gorilla that knows sign language and wears a mobile computer in a No Fear backpack that vocalizes her hand gestures. She has a heart of gold and a penchant for finger painting. She loves rock n’ roll and occasionally trips out on Prozac. If she were human, Amy would be the perfect girlfriend for for a fat lonely dude majoring in art history. She is also a complete bad ass. At the end of Congo, Amy scares a pack of murderous mutant gorillas away simply by calling them “ugly” and telling them to “go away”. This chick is ten miles of bad road for evil mutant gorillas everywhere.
Treebeard

from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

treebeard lord of the ringsSpeaking in technical Tolkien terms, Treebeard is an ancient Ent, whose spirit was conjured by Eru IIuvatar and Vala Yavana in order to foster protection against the evil Morgoth. To the casual observer, he’s a giant scary tree that can walk and talk. Treebeard is a big tree with a beard (hence the name), and he’s absolutely terrifying. He’s so terrifying, in fact, that he freaks out all of the other terrifying creatures in Middle-earth. Even after saving two Hobbits from certain doom in The Two Towers, he still makes a concerted effort to be horrifying and curmudgeonly. Orcs, Hobbits, Elves, and probably even the Balrog seem to find sentient foliage unsettling. So, to review: Treebeard is a big weird creature that makes other big weird creatures say “holy crap, did you see that giant talking tree? That was weird!”

Full list: http://egotvonline.com/2011/06/28/the-best-anthropomorphic-creatures-in-film-history/





The First True Animation: Celebrating Winsor McCay

(theatlantic.com) Cartoonist and artist Winsor McCay (1869-1964) is often considered the father of true animation, pioneering the drawn image in film and influencing iconic creators for generations to come, from Walt Disney to Moebius to Bill Watterson. His celebrated Little Nemo comic strip appeared in the New York Herald and New York American newspapers between 1905 and 1911.

Upon the series end in print, McCay and J. Stuart Blackman, of Enchanted Drawing fame, co-directed a short silent film—though, at 10 minutes, it was practically feature-length by the standards of the early cinema era—about the process of creating comics. Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics, also referred to simply as Little Nemo, is commonly considered one of the first bits of true animation ever created, exploring the frontiers of a then-nascent storytelling medium that we have now grown to take for granted. (For more on McCay's work and legacy, I can't recommend Winsor McCay : His Life and Art enough.)

The real action starts at around 8:11—enjoy, and ponder the remarkable technology-driven creative and artistic empowerment we have witnessed in our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, a wonderful Kickstarter project is out to resurrect McCay's last film, The Flying House. The film is in terrible condition and animator Bill Plimpton has set out to painstakingly clean each frame, hand-color it using reprints of McCay's comics as color guides, and record voice actors for the two lead characters—an admirable effort to preserve a true gem of creative history.




George Lucas Gets his Midichlorians in an Uproar Over Greenpeace

(dailycaller.com) I didn’t think he’d do it, but he did it. That Greenpeace ad I showed you the other day, the one that parodies the Volkswagen ad with the little kid in the Darth Vader costume, has been taken down from YouTube: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Lucasfilm Ltd.”

The VW Star Wars protest: http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2011/07/vw-dark-side-greenpeace-protests.html




2D - 3D Hybrid Francis Ford Coppola Film Confirmed For Comic Con Presentation

(latinoreview.com) New Francis Ford Coppola Film Confirmed For Panel Presentation Francis Ford Coppola will be presenting portions of his upcoming film TWIXT at a panel discussion on Saturday, July 23 at Hall H. TWIXT stars Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning, and Ben Chaplin. Coppola describes the film as, “one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career.”

Coppola has a unique new approach to the presentation of the film that will incorporate live music by acclaimed independent performance artist Dan Deacon. Deacon will attend Comic-Con with Coppola to help demonstrate the interactive experience of the film. The film incorporates both 2-D and 3-D elements.

Like his most recent films, TWIXT follows three self-imposed mandates that Coppola requires in all of his new work: be his own original story and screenplay, have some personal element, and be self-financed. This particular story came to Coppola during a vivid dream he had while on a trip to Istanbul and is inspired by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The film also brings Coppola back to his horror roots that began during his apprenticeship with Roger Corman.

On attending Comic-Con Coppola says, “I fondly recall meeting the Comic-Con audience years ago when I brought them my DRACULA film. That experience made me not want to miss this chance to return with TWIXT."





Inside the New Harry Potter Movie's VFX Tech

(popularmechanics.com) The sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, opens today. Recently, PM's Digital Hollywood spoke with the film's visual-effects supervisor, Tim Burke, and with Tim Alexander of Industrial Light & Magic, about some of the technical effects behind the new wizarding film.

At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--the first Potter film in two years, out today--things are looking pretty grim not just for the boy wizard, but for everyone. Gray storm clouds roll ominously over London as pedestrians, eyes on the sky, hurry across the city's Millennium Bridge. Suddenly, the bridge begins to quake. Cables snapping, the bridge undulates and twists, pulling free of its piers, and crashes violently into the Thames. Voldemort has recently returned from the dead, and he isn't satisfied to wreak havoc only in the wizarding world: His Death Eaters take his campaign of violent mayhem into the Muggle realm by destroying the Millennium Bridge in the film's dramatic opening sequence.

The establishing shot of the 1241-foot steel suspension bridge is of the real bridge over the Thames River in London. But for the bridge's collapse, filmmakers switched to an all-virtual plate, building the bridge and London completely in the computer. Creating a photorealistic computer-generated copy of a bridge millions of people have walked across is no easy feat. Director David Yates and Half-Blood Prince's VFX supervisor Tim Burke tasked London-based VFX house Double Negative, which also created effects on three previous Potter films, with the job.

In addition to taking high-dynamic-range-image (HDRI) photography of the bridge and the area along the Thames River, Double Negative worked with the architects of the bridge. "They were given plans and CAD files that were used to recreate it as accurately as possible, down to every nut and bolt," Burke says. A team of five to 20 people spent several months building, texturing and rigging the bridge in 3D animating program Maya, using the HDRI photography to create the right texture and detail.

While the CG bridge is identical in every way to the actual Millennium Bridge, Burke acknowledges there was some artistic interpretation when it came to its collapse. This is magic, after all. "We did a dynamics simulation and proved that individual panels of the walkway would detach and fall into the Thames, but this was not as interesting as we wanted," Burke says. So filmmakers spent a lot of time watching footage of actual collapses--including the fall of Washington's Tacoma Narrows bridge in 1940. "It showed how a suspension bridge would twist and roll like a sine wave created through a vibration, which the Millennium Bridge suffered from itself when it first opened," Burke says. Londoners nicknamed the Millennium Bridge the Wobbly Bridge shortly after its opening; the bridge was closed and modified to eliminate the vibration. "We took this idea and then developed it for the collapse, having the Death Eaters fly around the bridge in a spiral motion to create the twisting that brings the bridge down."

The sixth Harry Potter film introduces viewers to Inferi, a form of zombie-like reanimated corpse programmed by Voldemort to do a particular task. Lurking underwater in a giant lake, thousands of these undead guard something very valuable to Voldemort, and are poised to strike should anyone but Voldemort disturb the water.

When creating the Inferi, Yates knew exactly what he didn't want: Typical zombies. He turned to George Lucas's VFX company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), to create the creepy creatures. "David wants the audience to feel for the Inferi because they're [victims of] Voldemort," says ILM's Tim Alexander. Filmmakers--including Yates, concept artist Rob Bliss and a team at ILM--studied photos of dead bodies and corpses that had been underwater to determine how that would affect the skin. They used that reference to create 2D concept art as well as a life-size clay statue, known as a maquette, of one of the creatures. The macquette was scanned three-dimensionally into the computer, and the reference was passed to ILM to begin the animation process, which was done mostly in Maya.

Once modeled, the Inferi went to a painter, who laid down the creatures' color and texture, while another designer put a skeleton inside the Inferi model to make it move. Next, animators began motion tests. Because Yates wanted to avoid zombie cliches, ILM spent a lot of time researching the movement of the Inferi. "It really came down to their expressions and movements to keep them out of zombie land," Alexander says. Yates cast actors and filmed their movements using motion-capture technology, which was eventually combined with hand animation, to create the Inferi's final movement. "Not having them groan and stick their arms out gets you away from the zombie look," Alexander says. Animators used an in-house software called Zeno to animate the Inferi crowds and the flocking above and below the surface of the lake.

Next, the look-development department took the textures from the painter and began rendering the Inferi with lighting, adding effects to make the Inferi look "fleshy," Alexander says.

Though they do break the surface, the Inferi lurk mostly underwater, and can be subdued with only one thing: Fire. Combining the two elements was a real effects challenge. "ILM developed the look of the fire and did all the R&D into how it behaved and interacted," Burke says. "I think it was quite challenging for them, but they did a great job--particularly creating the look of the fire with their in-house tools."

"The underwater world was difficult because of the sheer numbers of Inferi and the interactive light from the fire, all of which is computer-generated," Alexander says. "We developed an approach often used in video games to implement the Inferi as cards rather than full 3D objects and also re-light the Inferi [with the] interactive light from the fire." Called normal mapping, the technique allowed the filmmakers to maintain the 3D surface's directional information without including all of that information in the scene, which would have made it, in Alexander's words, "too heavy to render."

Creating the Inferi scene "was extremely challenging work," Alexander says. It took six people 45 weeks to create the Inferi; once they were created, the team needed 25 more artists to complete the necessary shots. The final result? Two very impressive minutes of screen time.




WETA to Provide Effects for BLAIR WITCH PROJECT Director's Bigfoot Film EXISTS

(dailyblam.com) Eduardo Sanchez has planned a trilogy of films based around the lore of everybody's favorite Sasquatch and Avatar effects gurus, WETA will create the monster.
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Eduardo Sanchez co-directed the film that spawned the rebirth of found footage horror, The Blair Witch Project. His upcoming project Exists, was written by himself and Seventh Moon scribe Jamie Nash. WETA and Spectral Motion will handle effects duties by digitally recreating the monstrous Bigfoot. Filming is expected to begin this Fall outside of Austin, Texas.

Sanchez confirms that Exists is the first film of a planned trilogy surrounding the myth of the elusive Sasquatch and hopes that the new franchise will "make Bigfoot scary again." Actor Brian Steele has been confirmed to play the monster himself which comes as great news to those who know the actor is notorious for portraying towering creatures in movies like Hellboy and Predators.




3D Movie Prop Printing The New Bootlegging

(techland.time.com) Never mind digital bootlegging, the new wave of counterfeiting is all about 3D printing and the creation of replica props from movies and television. Don't believe me? Then you're obviously not lawyers for Paramount Pictures, and you've clearly never heard of Todd Blatt.

Blatt was served with a Cease & Desist letter by Paramount lawyers for creating a digital model of one of the strange cube objects in JJ Abrams' summer hit Super 8, and uploading the file to Shapeways, a 3D printing company, so that they could produce one physical copy for him.

As he wrote on his blog:

"I designed the 3D cad file, uploaded it to [3D printing company] Shapeways, ordered one, and promptly (18 hours later) got a Cease and Desist email letter from Paramount's lawyers telling me to take down the file."

According to Blatt, the C&D email said that the studio had "learned that you are selling, distributing, and/or reproducing unauthorized Super 8 replicas on the websites located at http://www.shapeways.com and http://www.therpf.com," and "demand[ed] that you and all those who have acted in concert with you immediately cease all unauthorized sales, transmission, distribution, display, and/or other utilization of Super 8."

(MORE: Will 'PROTECT IP' Act Stop Piracy or Doom Online Innovation?)

As he told Ars Technica, this was something he was only too happy to do, saying, "I'm just a guy, y'know? I don't want to go to court and get sued and all that…"

Blatt is nowhere near the first person to use digital modeling and 3D printing as a way to recreate props from favorite media—therpf.com, the site named in Paramount's C&D letter, describes itself as the place "to find the most talented artists as well as industry insiders and the most in-depth discussions about sculpting, modeling, sewing, painting, molding, and displaying replica props, replica costumes, and scale models from movies, television shows and other media!"

But what may have motivated Paramount's quick action in this case is the fact that the studio has already sold the license to replicate Super 8's cubes to Quantum Mechanix, a manufacturer specializing in movie replicas. What complicates matters, however, is that the letter went out before Blatt has announced any intent to sell or profit from the object, raising the question: Is what is essentially fan art illegal? If so, this summer's Comic-Con may be a feeding ground for potential copyright infringement attorneys.