"Ghostbuster 3" To Scare Up Young Blood

(comingsoon.net)             

    After years of rumors, it appears that Ghostbuster 3 is finally moving forward and will likely do so with or without Bill Murray's involvement. Dan Aykroyd appeared on The Dennis Miller Show to discuss the project, dropping specific details about the sequel, hinting that the plan is to film in Spring of 2012 no matter what happens casting-wise.

"Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray," he says, "That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that 'Ghostbusters' is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold [Ramis], myself and Sigourney [Weaver]. The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of 'Ghostbusters 3' is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood."

The comedian also confirmed reports that the plot will revolve around a new generation of Ghostbusters and hinted at the states of his and Ramis' characters.

"My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the cadillac," he says, "He's got a bad knee and can't carry the packs... Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation."

As for who might be cast as the new characters, Aykroyd says that, while no decision has been made, he does have a fondness for one piece of prospective casting.

"I like this guy Matthew Gray Gubler from the 'Criminal Minds' show," he adds, "But there's going to be a casting. We're going to see everyone that wants to do it. We're going to need... three guys and a young woman."




VFX Supe To Direct Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Martial Arts Flick

(screenrant.com)                Visual effects supervisor Michael Gracey has been brought onboard to helm Disney’s ‘The Order of the Seven’, a martial arts epic inspired by ‘Snow White’.

With all the talk about next year’s dual Snow White movies, it’s easy to forget that Walt Disney Pictures has been developing its own unorthodox spin on the fairy tale since 2002. That live-action project was previously referred to as Snow and the Seven, but has now been re-dubbed The Order of the Seven.

Francis Lawrence​ (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants) was previously onboard to helm the picture, but has now been replaced by commercials director and visual effects supervisor Michael Gracey.

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The reasoning behind the title change is reportedly because the project has evolved into more of an original fantasy tale. That and studio heads were probably concerned that audiences might be suffering from Snow White​ movie fatigue by the time Order of the Seven reaches theaters.

Here is how Heat Vision describes the project, in its current state:

    In this iteration [of 'Snow White'], the seven are a 19th century-set disparate band of international warriors belonging to a centuries-old order who have lost their way. Their meeting with an Englishwoman being chased by an ancient evil is the catalyst for their redemption. While the project is set in China, the warriors will be from locales near (the U.S.) and far (Russia), and each warrior will have a unique fighting style.




Why Are Studios Canceling Soulless CGI-Infested 3D Movies? 

(startribune.com)                         Yesterday we noted that the “Ouija” movie was cancelled. This article wonders why is Hollywood getting so cheap all of a sudden:

    It's not as if Universal is the only one euthanizing mega-productions these days. Two weeks ago, Disney put the future of the more than $200 million budgeted "Lone Ranger" in limbo, even though Johnny Depp was attached to star and Jerry Bruckheimer was on board to produce. With ancillary revenue sources such as DVD sales constricting, studios throughout town are being forced to dial down the amount of money they spend on theatrical releases.

DVD sales is part of it. For a decade we were encouraged to build our own libraries of movies, so we could watch anything we liked any time - and then hey presto, streaming video comes along. Inferior picture, but $20 per DVD vs. $10 per month? Sure. Also, the economy is horrid, and no one wants to spend fifty bucks to take the family to some soulless CGI-infested 3D movie that beats you over the head and pokes things in your eyes. “Lone Ranger” with Johnny Depp would probably be fine, but they’re not gong to recoup $250 mil selling masks to little kids, and they can’t sell toy guns, so that’s another revenue stream dried up for good.

They might ask themselves why these things are so expensive in the first place. I’ve seen plenty of good little-known Alfred Hitchcock films that were made for the modern equivalent of a million dollars, and while they didn’t have enormous spaceships or people running away from fireballs or anything, they made up for it with curious, old-school tricks like “Acting,” “Script,” and “Story.”

Then there’s this:

    The studio has been in a costly rut in recent years, forced to shoulder costly failures such as last month's "Cowboys & Aliens," which has so far grossed just $108 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. "The Change-Up" was another disappointment, a movie the studio was convinced would be a sleeper comedy hit.

    "They're in a state of shock after 'Cowboys and Aliens,'" said one former studio executive. "They had back-to-back misfires, which reinforced their most conservative instincts. But all of them are playing defensively."

“The Change-Up” cost $52 million. Grossed half as much so far.

So the days of brave, risk-taking, interesting cinema are over? Not at all:

    Universal has some big projects on the horizon such as a sixth "Fast and Furious" film.

See, there’s hope.





King Kong Magic-Maker Teamed With his Father in Early Epics

(theage.com.au)              HARRY Redmond, a special effects artist who worked on the celebrated 1933 film King Kong and became widely sought after, has died aged 101.
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Originally conceived by Merian Cooper and British thriller writer Edgar Wallace as a low-budget B-movie, King Kong became an enormous box-office hit, making a star of its female lead, Fay Wray.

A crucial part of the picture's popular appeal lay in visual effects which, though crude by today's standards, were sensational in their day.

Redmond worked with his father, also called Harry, on the technical team assembled for the film by Willis O'Brian, an early master of model animation. Together they combined stop-motion photography and live action sequences projected onto a screen to give a vivid impression of the giant primate rampaging through New York.

Their technological inventiveness enthralled audiences, not least during the film's climax, when Kong climbs the recently completed Empire State Building and tries to fend off an aerial attack from biplanes while clutching a squirming Fay Wray in an enormous paw.

Redmond was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved with the family to California in 1925.

After finishing high school, he found a job in the prop department at First National Pictures before joining his father to work on special effects for the 1931 romantic drama Chances, set in France during World War I and starring Douglas Fairbanks jnr and Rose Hobart.

In 1932, the father and son team left First National and joined RKO, working together on a series of important pictures, including Flying Down to Rio, Little Women, the hastily produced Son of Kong (all 1933), Of Human Bondage (with Bette Davis), The Gay Divorce, Anne of Green Gables (all 1934); and The Informer (1935), starring Victor McLaglen.

In 1935, Redmond left RKO to freelance, creating some remarkable special effects for directors Frank Capra on Lost Horizon, John Cromwell on The Prisoner of Zenda (both 1937), and Howard Hawks, for Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Howard Hughes asked for him when filming The Outlaw(1943), with Jane Russell, and he worked with Andre de Toth on Dark Waters (1944), and with Orson Welles on his World War II chiller, The Stranger (1946). Redmond also helped ensure filmmakers got exactly the shot they required. On Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window (1944), Redmond worked with the director to achieve the striking transition shot of Edward G. Robinson at the film's end, capturing it in real time, with no cuts and no post-production work.

During World War II, he made training films for the US Army and met several technicians who had worked with his father in New York in the early 1920s. Redmond snr died in 1944.

In 1945, Redmond returned to Hollywood and worked on the Marx Brothers's A Night in Casablanca, followed by Angel on My Shoulder (both 1946), with Claude Rains and Anne Baxter. Two of Danny Kaye's most popular musicals, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and A Song is Born (1948), followed.

During the early 1950s, he met producer Ivan Tors while working on Storm Over Tibet (1952). A long and prolific association ensued, leading not only to Tors's early science fiction films such as The Magnetic Monster (1953) and Gog (1954), but to Redmond's role as associate producer on a succession of popular television shows, including Science Fiction Theatre, Sea Hunt, Daktari and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The pair shared film credits on the popular children's hits Flipper (1964), Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion and Zebra in the Kitchen (both 1965).

In the early 1970s, as films shifted emphasis to big budgets and enormous special effects costs, Redmond became increasingly disillusioned with the industry. But he never completely gave up on Hollywood, often helping young filmmakers on independent projects and giving lectures at school campuses across California well into his 90s.

In 1940, he married Dorothea Holt, a production designer and illustrator. She died in 2009, and he is survived by their son and daughter. TELEGRAPH




Goyer's "Invisible Man" Materializing

(darkhorizons.com)                   He's been developing it for a few years over at Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, now writer/director David Goyer says his new take on the H.G. Wells classic "The Invisible Man" is looking to go broader than originally planned.

“It’s a period film but it’s period like Downey’s ’Sherlock Holmes'. It’s period but it’s a reinvention of the character in the sort of way that Stephen Sommers exploded ‘The Mummy’ into a much bigger kind of mythology. That’s kind of what we’ve done with ‘The Invisible Man'” said Goyer in a recent interview with Hero Complex.

Goyer was set to write the script back in 2007 and many have wondered if the project has since stalled, but he says “It’s still alive. We did some pre-vis tests and things like that that they were very happy with. Now we’re going through the casting process. if they get the right lead, they’ll make it.”

At last report this version is being conceived as a sequel to Wells' original tale, the story centers on a British nephew of the original Invisible Man. Once he discovers his uncle's formula for achieving invisibility, he is recruited by British intelligence agency MI5 during WWII.

Several versions of the character have hit the screen from James Whale's famous 1933 film with Claude Rains, the 1992 Chevy Chase contemporary romance version and several American series on NBC and Sci-Fi. To date the most faithful adaptation was arguably the 1984 British mini-series.




Practical Effects Guru Pulls Back the Curtain on Film Props

(cgw.com)               Siggraph - Los Angeles, Calif. - The Gnomon Workshop's latest instructional video, "Prop Fabrication for Film," takes viewers inside the stellar design and fabrication lab of concept designer, creative fabricator, and practical effects artist Rick Hilgner's Creative Concepts Enterprises to quickly engineer, fabricate, and finish a sci-fi prop weapon using a few materials, common power tools, and a little creative know-how.

Hilgner addresses real-world motion picture prop construction, utilizing his 25 years of experience and the trusted toolset of his own hands. "Prop Fabrication for Film" covers concept design, pre-production, multi-material application and allocation, engineering design and application, base formation, as well as many other important and cost-effective tricks of the trade. Viewers are also walked through multiple phases of finishing, from filling gaps with putty to the addition of dirt, damage, and grime. 

Ever since he was a kid, Hilgner's dream was to come to Los Angeles and work in entertainment building models and toys. After 25 years of being a "hitman" for the visual effects and toy industries, Hilgner has worked on everything from low-budget shockers to massive Hollywood blockbusters--designing, engineering, and fabricating miniatures, props, sets and gadget effects, as well as toy prototypes and themed trade show installations. His company, Creative Concepts Enterprises, now strives to enhance the digital world by incorporating the knowledge of practical, hand-built magic and fun.




DreamWorks Anim Prod President Exits for MediaNavi

(reuters.com)                  John Batter, the president of production at DreamWorks Animation since 2007, is leaving to become CEO for MediaNavi, a subsidiary of Technicolor, TheWrap has confirmed.

Under Batter, MediaNavi will be focusing on emerging content distribution models, with a large consumer launch aimed for 2012. As an extension of DreamWorks Aimation's current strategic alliance with Technicolor, the company is entering the business of 2D to 3D conversion and is working on DWA's "Kung Fu Panda" as its first project.

DreamWorks Animation knows its 3D. All of its recent films have been released in 3D, and the format has found no bigger booster than CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Batter joined DWA in 2006 as head of production operations. Prior to that, he worked at Electronic Arts Inc., as GM of Electronic Arts Mobile, among other positions. And 1995 until 2000 -- before the animation division split into its own public company -- he worked at DreamWorks, where he was, among other positions, chief financial officer of DreamWorks Interactive.




Rise of the CGI = The Demise of the Makeup Effects

(cinemastyles.blogspot.com)                 By all accounts, Rise of the Planet of the Apes looks to be a very good movie. I've heard nothing but good and the critical consensus itself seems to be the movie is above average for a sci-fi thriller. I'm also a Planet of the Apes (POTA) fanatic so I know for a fact I'll be seeing this. And yet, why does it bother me so much that they went all CGI instead of using makeup? I never cared for the Tim Burton version but the makeup was superb. And if you're going to go to all this trouble...

... why not just put the damn actors in make-up?

I've read takes on the film praising the amazing quality of the CGI and yet, when I look at stills, trailers and hi-def clips from the movie, it looks to me, yet again, as fake as fake can be. Why? Why do others see great looking creations while I see elaborate cut-scenes from video games?

I don't know the answer to that, maybe I never will. Maybe I just hate the fact that the loss of great make-up artistry is a loss of great artists whose work took until 1981 to be recognized by the Academy and now, barely thirty years later, it's already disappearing.





"The Wolverine" Filming Begins Next Spring

(darkhorizons.com)                20th Century Fox looks to have pushed back production on "The Wolverine" by several months with filming now expected to begin in Spring 2012, not this Fall in Canada as previously reported (but never officially confirmed).

Deadline says that though the script and story are set in Japan, weather-related considerations has made shooting their a tricky proposition. The location might switch to Canada exclusively or involve a combination of the two countries.

James Mangold remains attached to direct the project which will begin shooting as soon as Hugh Jackman finishes the "Les Miserables" film adaptation.




Not-So-Special Effects

(thevine.com.au)              Having fallen into one of those afternoon internet vortexes yesterday, I found myself reading a terrific list of the 50 Best Special Effects Of All Time. All the greats were present and accounted for: Harryhausen, Baker, Winston, Trumbull, Cameron, Keaton.

The longer I browsed the ins and outs of cinematic magic, though, the more I became dissatisfied with the current state of special effects.

Not that I really needed any more fuel for that particular fire. For a number of years now, Hollywood has been seemingly stuck in a special effects quagmire, bereft of inspiration or innovation. It's a rinse, repeat culture.

(Obviously I'm talking about the general state of affairs; you couldn't accuse, say, James Cameron or the team at Weta of slacking off in the innovation department.)

As I mentioned in my review of Priest, general special effects are suffering from "same old" syndrome that sees certain SFX hallmarks appear again and again, whether they're monsters, aliens, demons, vampires, werewolves or spaceships: there's a distinct sense we've seen it all before. Generally, it's because we have.

It's hard not to see this as being due to Hollywood having reached such a fast turnover while simultaneously shrinking its frame of reference/inspiration that innovation and design has been ditched in favour of easy self-cannibalisation.

There are some obvious "trends" that spring to mind. There are bald, gaping-mawed demon thingies:

Montage of monsters:  http://www.thevine.com.au/blog/clembastow/not-so-special-effects20110825.aspx

And so on and on and on - that's but a shallow skimming of the obvious examples. A deep sense of deja vu pervades plenty more facets of big studio cinema than just sci-fi/fantasy.

Part of the problem seems to be - it can only be assumed, unless we're going to blame the collective unconscious - that SFX teams have stopped looking further afield for inspiration.

Where they might once have explored natural history, fine art, or industrial design, now it feels like they just pop down to Blockbuster and get a five-for-one deal on whatever genre it is they're about to wade into.

Such laziness, you can be almost certain, springs from the studios' lack of trust in their audiences. "We can't design a demon-vampire that doesn't have a bald head, clammy skin and a massive mouth," you can imagine them fretting, pacing around the board-room, "people won't know what it is!"

The problem is, in many cases, that thinking is probably spot on.

SFX has become a handy - read: lazy - shorthand for dunderhead cinemagoers who need everything to be signposted for them. It's the visual equivalent of "as you know, Bob..." dialogue.

Perhaps it's not surprising, given that 2011, as many have noted, will contain the highest volume of sequels and remakes in cinema history. Gawker memorably dubbed it "the end of ideas".

That's why occasional breaths of fresh SFX air are so invigorating - and tend to come from outside the major studios' reaches.

Take Gareth Edwards' 2010 alien road movie, Monsters: the film itself was a bit of a mess, but his aliens - psychedelic squidlike things with tentacles full of fairy-lights - were so original they lifted the movie.

Edwards, who did the special effects himself, reportedly brought the whole movie in for under $500,000.

Neil Blomkamp, another former SFX artist, created a similarly original vision for District 9 (which Monsters is inevitably compared to because, you know, there's that shorthand again).

The multiplex-courting fare isn't a complete lost cause, of course. There are new effects wizards coming to the fore, and the old guard remain as innovative as ever.

Despite the tragic loss of Stan Winston in 2008, many of his contemporaries are still creating brilliant work. Rick Baker is still kicking goals in makeup and creature effects, preparing a menagerie of new alien effects for the upcoming Men In Black III. Brilliantly, when you consider the enormous rant I've just been on, Baker is wittily incorporating Hollywood self-cannibalisation for his MIB3 effects:

"Right from the first movie, I was always saying to Barry [Sonnenfeld], ‘Let’s do aliens that look like aliens we’ve already seen. Let's say that Paul Blaisdell, who did the effects for Invasion Of The Saucer Men, actually had a real encounter with an alien and tried to recreate it on film, so there are saucermen in the Men In Black headquarters. And let's have E.T. in there, operating the phone.’ Barry didn’t like any of those ideas, he thought they were stupid. But when Men In Black III came along and I heard about the time-travel element, I said, ‘Okay, it’s set in 2012, so we’ll have aliens that look like 2012 aliens in that part of the film. But when we go back to 1969, wouldn’t it be cool to have retro aliens? Big brains, bug eyes, stuff like that?’ I thought they should have a totally different, retro feel. And they agreed to it, thank God. So I got to make a whole bunch of cool stuff.”

You see, that's recycling with a point. If only the rest of Hollywood could catch on.





Scotland's Visual Effects Research Network To Open

(digitaldundee.com)               Brian Cox is back in Scotland to open a new post-production facility at the University of Dundee.

A legendary actor, he’s most recently starred in “Rise of the Plant of the Apes” and “Ironclad”.

Part of the EU funded North Sea Screen Partners, the lab has been created to produce cutting edge visual effects and is also the focus for the new Visual Effects Research Network.

The €6 million project aims to help companies produce, shoot, post and learn across all media and the partners had Oscar success this year with “In a Better World” supported by Film Fyn in Denmark. Dundee itself is already a hub for the games industry.  The Lab offers companies the chance to work with the latest technology and the network is helping post-production companies to network and collaborate so they can get involved in bigger projects.

There’s more on NSSP at their website www.northseascreen.eu

Councillor Will Dawson, convenor of the City Development Department at lead partner, Dundee City Council says: [We’re delighted that the Lab has been developed in Dundee and adds to the city’s growing reputation in games and digital media.”]

Director is Peter Richardson.  He started directing music videos in 1990 with the first ever Blur video and went on to bands such as 808 State, The Stranglers and the Happy Mondays.  He’s also directed commercials including global campaigns for Proctor and Gamble, Chrysler Jeep and Pepe jeans.  His latest projects include a commercial for Nike, documentaries for UK broadcaster, Channel 4, and Fox Sports.

The NSSP project is funded by the EU’s North Sea Interreg Programme IVb.




Six Awesomely Bad CGI Sequences in Bigger Budget Movies

In theory, CGI should never break your suspension of disbelief (unless you’re watching a Syfy Original or Birdemic, in which case it was never there in the first place).  In practice, budgets get tight, time gets short, and even mega-blockbusters like Lords of the Rings or Harry Potter will have a couple of crappy looking scenes.

But sometimes movies that don’t even really need much CGI will toss it in for a short sequence, whether it’s just to show off,  save money, or even to mask Bill the microphone guy’s fuck up. Inevitably, though, at least one of those scenes ends up looking like the production company outsourced the job to someone’s Nintendo 64. When big budget movies have bargain basement special effects, everyone wins. And by “everyone,” I mean “no one,” and by “wins,” I mean “is paying attention to the movie anymore because they’re too busy laughing.”

The List:   http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/6-awesomely-bad-cgi-sequences-in-bigger-budget-movies-part-one.php




George Lucas on Steve Jobs’s Resignation

(google.com)                George Lucas and Steve Jobs go way back. In 1986, Jobs bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. from the “Star Wars” creator, a deal that led to the formation of Pixar Animation Studios. So Lucas didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts about the resignation of Jobs when asked on Thursday.

    Associated Press
    George Lucas poses in front of a Stormtrooper exhibit in 2005

“A person like Steve Jobs comes along once in a lifetime,” he said in an email, sent through a spokeswoman. “Steve’s contributions to technology, marketing and design are overwhelming. He has changed America forever — for the good — and has built a strong company that will continue to be creative and successful.”

Jobs, of course, eventually sold Pixar to Walt Disney in 2006 for $7.5 billion, which added to the fortune he made after founding Apple (Jobs’ stake in Disney is now worth more than $4.4 billion.)

He originally paid Lucas $5 million for the assets and team that became Pixar, plowing another $5 million investment into the new company. It took many years and millions of dollars in additional investment by Jobs before Pixar started churning out animated film hits, starting with the original “Toy Story” in 1995.