CGI Rules Box Offices Worldwide with Puss in Boots and Tintin
(spinoff.comicbookresources.
DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots grossed $33.6 million, beating out Johnny Depp’s latest Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary and the sci-fi thriller In Time for the top spot at the box office. The Hollywood Reporter notes Puss in Boots‘ haul is the highest ever for a Halloween weekend, beating out the previous champion, 2007′s Saw III.
Across the pond in Europe, another CGI movie made a big splash: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn raked in $55.8 million in 19 foreign markets.
Based on the strips of Belgian cartoonist Herge, the film was produced by Peter Jackson, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. It earned the top spot in 17 of those countries and will open in the United State on Dec. 21. Considering most Americans haven’t heard of Tintin, it will be interesting to see how the movie opens against The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Pixar's John Lasseter Gets Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
(stltoday.com) John Lasseter, who built Pixar Studios into the most important and creative force in animation, has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Tuesday ceremony was held on the sidewalk in front of the Disney-owned El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Pixar, co-founded by Apple's Steve Jobs, is now a division of Disney, and Lasseter is the parent company's chief creative officer, with a supervisory role in not only Pixar and Disney animation but the theme parks.
Lasseter, an Oscar winner for the short film "Tin Toy," personally directed "Toy Story," "Toy Story 2" and the recent "Cars 2" (newly available on home video but, ahem, not nearly as good as the first one).
Insult comic Don Rickles, who provides the voice of Mr. Potato Head in Pixar's "Toy Story" movies, was among the speakers at the ceremony.
Lasseter, 54, saved his final thanks for the late Jobs: "The only thing Steve Jobs ever asked of me was, ‘John, make it great’.”
Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim" Open Casting Call
(2011auditions.com)
There is a new release for open casting on the new film directed by Guillermo Del Toro named Pacific Rim. In this film aliens attack the human race on planet Earth threatening our very existence, giant robots are deployed piloted by humans to fight off the invasion. The film is being produced by Legendary Pictures.
A film of such a large scale is in need of possibly hundreds of extras to help with major battle scenes involving the destruction of entire cities. The cast for the film will include such actors like Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day, Idris Elba, Max Martini and Clifton Collins Jr. This can be a great opportunity to get some film credit and to make some valuable connections within the industry. The casting director is seeking men and women of all ages, including children of all racial backgrounds.
Source: http://www.2011auditions.com/movies-pacific-rim/
Visual Effects Are Entertainment Industry's "New Superstar"
(vancouversun.com)Tax, talent and time zone.
A competitive advantage in all three has allowed British Columbia to mature into a North American hub for film and television production during the past 40 years.
Now, thanks to technology, Hollywood North is evolving into a world leader in the industry's hottest sector: visual effects.
Visual effects, or VFX, aren't exclusive to science fiction and fantasy; even conventional television dramas rely on them as a cost-effective alternative to set building and location shooting, and they're also used to enhance special effects and physical stunts such as a car crash.
Eric Roth, a California-based spokesman for the VFX artists community, describes visual effects as the entertainment industry's "new superstar."
"When people plunk down $12 for their movie tickets, they're looking to see great effects, whether in 2-D, 3-D, in Imax or as a download. From Hollywood to Bollywood, visual effects is now the key to the entertainment industry's bottom line," Roth, executive director of the Visual Effects Society, said in an email.
Hollywood Reporter recently estimated that VFX now accounts for more than 2,200 jobs in Vancouver - with hundreds more coming in the months ahead.
The list of VFX and digital animation companies that have set up shop here, or plan to open in the near future, reads like a who's who of the entertainment industry, not including homegrown pioneers like Image Engine and Rainmaker Entertainment.
Your cost of shooting in a green room - essentially, an empty room with green walls where VFX artists superimpose a background after the actors have been filmed in it - could be one-fifth the expense of a physical set.
Los Angeles-based Zoic Studios was one of the first arrivals, adding a Vancouver operation in 2005 in the Sun Tower on Pender. They moved last December, over the course of a weekend amid a hectic production deadline, to expanded facilities in Gastown.
Motion Picture Company arrived in 2007.
Two years later, Prime Focus expanded an existing Vancouver facility and describes it as the "VFX hub" for North American operations.
Scanline, based in Europe, expanded to Vancouver in August 2011.
LOOK Effects announced Oct. 18 this year that it has opened a production facility in Gastown. Rhythm & Hues plans to open a fully operational studio here in January 2012.
Sony Picture Imageworks, Digital Domain (founded by film director James Cameron) and Disney's Pixar are other recent arrivals.
A Vancouver expansion by George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic is rumoured.
Richard Brownsey, president and CEO of BC Film + Media, calls the sector's growth here a "very interesting development" because it doesn't correspond to the industry ups and downs of "one-off" film productions.
"You see people investing in physical infrastructure, in equipment, in developing staff and all that kind of stuff," Brownsey said in a phone interview.
"It's [because of] competitive incentives, its proximity to Los Angeles and being in the same time zone. It's the availability of talent here, and it's also the ability to get senior international talent into the country.
"It's the fact that there is critical mass. When you've got three companies here, then the fourth says, 'There's something happening here,' and [will] establish as well."
In general terms, all of these companies are responding to DAVE, the Digital Animation or Visual Effects tax credit for film and TV productions that B.C. established in 2003 to attract visual effects companies.
VFX companies operating in this province get a refundable tax credit on labour costs if more than 50 per cent of an effect (such as an explosion) is created with digital technology. That makes Vancouver competitive with VFX markets around the world.
Synchronicity between studios is also a benefit for Vancouver; Los Angeles is in the same Pacific time zone so it's easy for artists in separate locations to collaborate.
Ongoing improvements in communications technology and software also help.
Zoic, for example, has 50 artists in its Gastown studio, plus support and management staff, linked to a Los Angeles facility three times as large.
Zoic's recent film assignments include Limitless, Friends with Benefits and District 9. TV shows include Fringe, V, Once Upon a Time and Pan Am.
The pace, Zoic Vancouver general manager Patrick Mooney said during a recent tour of the new facility, is furious.
In response, the company is pushing boundaries.
Full article: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/superstar+adds+ wrinkle+evolving+film+ industry/5663233/story.html
'Rise Of Planet Of The Apes' Sequel Greenlights
(ology.com)This past summer's Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed $435 million worldwide, so it's no surprise that 20th Century Fox is already developing a sequel with Andy Serkis on board to star and Rupert Wyatt to direct.
Rise, the prequel to the 1968 Charlton Heston film, is about a genetically mutated chimpanzee who uses his intelligence to free other apes from human control. The reboot was intended to relaunch the franchise and lay the foundation for a new film series. It's biggest hurdle was overcoming the shadow of the last Ape reboot from Tim Burton in 2001, which was a financial success, but was met with mixed criticism.
Andy Serkis is the first actor to be signed on to this sequel, with Fox heavily campaigning for an Oscar for his role. Serkis played the role of Caesar in motion capture equipment and was the obvious star despite solid performances from James Franco and Freida Pinto.
As for James Franco's return in the sequel, that decision is contingent on the script which has not yet been written.
The Adventures Of Tintin: VFX Supe Joe Letteri Interview
(enofgeek.com) With The Adventures Of Tintin out today in UK cinemas, we met with visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri to discuss the unique challenges the film posed…
Published on Oct 25, 2011
When signing up to adapt any much-loved literary character, there’s a certain amount of risk involved. But when Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson announced their intention to make a computer-generated version of The Adventures Of Tintin, the challenge they set themselves seemed almost insurmountable.
Given the tepid reception that greeted previous motion-captured outings such as Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol, The Polar Express and Beowulf, and the outright hostility that greeted the ill-fated Mars Needs Moms earlier this year, it was widely questioned whether a computer-animated Tintin could encapsulate the warm, joyous spirit of Hergé’s original stories and art.
As it turns out, we needn’t have worried. Not only does The Adventures Of Tintin possess much of the sense of adventure found in the books, but it also stands as Spielberg’s most satisfying mainstream blockbuster since Jurassic Park. Tintin’s a timely reminder, too, of just how good a motion-captured film can look.
As visual effects supervisor, Oscar-winning industry pro Joe Letteri brought all his skills to bear on bringing Tintin into the third dimension. And as The Adventures Of Tintin arrives in UK cinemas, we sat down to chat with Letteri about his work on the film, and the particular challenges it presented.
First of all, congratulations on Tintin. You must be very proud of it.
Yeah, yeah. It came out okay.
Full Interview: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1105908/the_adventures_ of_tintin_visual_effects_ supervisor_joe_letteri_ interview.html
MGM Acquires the Where's Waldo? Film Rights
(MGM) MGM's President of Motion Picture Group Jonathan Glickman today announced that the studio has secured feature film rights to bring Classic Media's "Where's Waldo?" to the big screen in a live-action family adventure.
Created by Martin Handford and first published in 1987, "Where's Waldo?" is one of the most recognizable characters in the world. With more than 55 million books sold worldwide from New York to Sydney to London to Tokyo, "Where's Waldo?" books are available in more than thirty-eight countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages. "Where's Waldo?" has also been spotted in gaming, selling more than 4.6+ million Apps for iPhone and iPad.
"We are thrilled to be bringing the search for Waldo to the big screen. Along with our partners at Classic Media, we look forward to making a worldwide adventure that will appeal to 'Where's Waldo?' fans of all ages," Glickman said.
"Waldo is the most searched-for character in the world," said Eric Ellenbogen, co-CEO, Classic Media. "With thanks to MGM, fans everywhere will find Waldo in movie theaters with his motion picture debut."
MGM's Cassidy Lange, Vice President, Production, will oversee the project for the studio with Ellenbogen and Handford's business partner Mike Gornall serving as Executive Producers.
Govt to Set Up National Centre for Animation, Gaming & VFX
(newsonair.nic.in)Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Uday Kumar Verma said that a National Centre for Excellence in Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects is being set up to meet the shortage of trained man power in this sector.
Mr. Verma said that the Centre will be a benchmark in providing quality training.
He described capacity building as a major challenge for any government, especially in the media and entertainment domain.
Mr. Uday Verma was speaking at the 48th Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, ABU General Assembly which began in New Delhi today.
The Secretary said that India can offer a lot to ABU in terms of capacity building, technology and content creation in this area.
He also said that ABU should seriously consider setting up world class broadcasting and training centre located in India and assured all possible help from the government.
Prasar Bharati Chairperson Mrinal Pandey while addressing the function said that the Corporation is in the process of expanding its network to reach the entire population in the country.
She said, the Radio covers 99 per cent of the population while the Television is the largest terrestrial network covering 93 per cent population.
Mrinal Pandey said, with FM emerging as a popular mode of Radio broadcasting, the Corporation is in the process of commissioning FM on 250 more stations apart from adding over 300 transmission centres.
Acting President of ABU, Datuk Ibrahim Yahaya also highlighted its role during disasters like Tsunami, Earthquake and floods.
"Akira" Casting Ramps Up
(Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter) Just days after it's been strongly rumored that Garrett Hedlund was in talks to play the role of Kaneda in Jaume Collet-Sera's adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's popular manga and anime Akira, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter seem to be in a competition to see who can name more potential candidates for the anticipated live action sci-fi epic.
THR has posted a massive casting report on some of what's going on around town, including two potential candidates for Tetsuo, who acquires deadly telekinetic powers after encountering a government experiment. They name Ezra Miller, the teen actor who has been getting rave notices for his role in We Need to Talk About Kevin and Alden Eherenreich, who made an impressive debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro, as two possible candidates.
Meanwhile, Deadline are claiming the exclusive on Christopher Nolan's Commissioner Gordon, Gary Oldman, being in line to play the Colonel, the military leader assigned to take down Tetsuo once they realize he may have enormous power.
THR also has mentioned both Helena Bonham Carter and Keira Knightley as actresses who have been approached for the movie in undisclosed roles.
Bernie Wrightson’s Heavy Metal Movie Short Gets Spin-off
(robot6.comicbookresources.com) Standing as the most prominent English animated film based on comics, 1981′s Heavy Metal featured a number of American and European cartoonists contributing art and stories. For American comics fans, chief amongst them was Swamp Thing artist Bernie Wrightson and his short, “Captain Sternn.” Now 30 years later, it’s getting a second life.
Longtime movie VFX artist Kevin Kutchaver (Lost, Return of the Jedi, Robocop) is joining with the Digital Animation and Visual Effects (DAVE) School to produce a new animated short based on Wrightson’s story. Kutchaver is a long-time fan of Wrightson’s work, and approached the artist about reviving the character in a new short. After being turned down by several studio execs, Kutchaver & Wrightson partnered with the DAVE School.
The short will be created as an in-class project for DAVE’s Block 4 Production class, with the students doing all aspects of the short. To watch for details as the project is developed, go to www.CaptainSternn.com
"Blade Runner" Sequel Not A Reboot
(darkhorizons.com)Film director Ridley Scott gave a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal about the announced follow-up to his 1982 film classic “Blade Runner” at Alcon Entertainment.
At last report it wasn't known what kind of follow-up would be - all that was certain is that it would NOT be a remake or reboot.
Now, Scott says the film he's directing is "liable to be a sequel" and he's been interviewing writers who can help him with the screenplay.
“I think I’m close to finding a writer that might be able to help me deliver. We’re quite a long way in, actually” says Scott.
Scott's upcoming "Prometheus" is a sort of prequel meets spinoff to 1979 "Alien" with a story featuring all new characters taking place in the same universe.
This 'Blade ' will also center on all new characters, and asked directly if Harrison Ford's Deckard would appear in the film Scott says "No, not really."
Andy Serkis of 'Apes' Being Promoted for Oscar
(Los Angeles Times)
Oscar's supporting actor race will be a hairy one this year — and something of a digital proving ground. Andy Serkis, who played Caesar, the hyper-intelligent chimp in this summer's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," is getting an awards push courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Serkis' performance — which tracks Caesar from his childhood raised by a human scientist (James Franco) through his political awakening as an adult chimp in a cruelly run primate sanctuary — was delivered via the same computer-graphics techniques used in "Avatar."
Fox's campaign for Serkis will test Oscar voters' willingness to acknowledge actors' work in the increasingly common performance capture field, in which the actions of human actors are recorded and used to animate digital character models. In Serkis' case, artists at the visual effects house Weta Digital transformed him from a curly-haired Englishman into a knuckle-dragging chimpanzee. Like John Hurt's Oscar-nominated performance in "The Elephant Man" in 1980, in which he was rendered unrecognizable by heavy prosthetic makeup, acknowledging the performance would require academy voters to take note of an actor without ever seeing his face.
Of "Avatar's" nine Academy Award nominations in 2010, none was for acting, and at the time of that film's release, many in Hollywood expressed skepticism about the nascent medium.
"Our job is to try to have people be aware of and recognize great performances, even when they come in this case in an unusual skin," said Tom Rothman, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment. "I think it's one of the great emotional performances ever. The challenge is to overcome preconceptions and certain prejudices, to have people understand that … the emotionality of the character on screen is not provided by the animators, it's provided by the actor."
For Serkis' campaign, Fox will hold screenings at the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Rothman said, with Serkis participating in Q&As via satellite from the set of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" in New Zealand, where he is reprising his role of Gollum from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and serving as second unit director. The studio will also make materials available in "for your consideration" ads showing how Serkis' performance in "Apes" looked before the artists at Weta enhanced it.
'Die Hard 5' VFX Previz at Ireland’s Screen Scene
(iftn.ie) Dublin based Screen Scene currently hard at work on Previsualization for ‘Die Hard 5’. With Irish director John Moore (Max Payne, Flight of the Phoenix) at the helm and Bruce Willis reprising his leading role as John McClane, ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ is the eagerly anticipated fifth film in the blockbuster action franchise.
Screen Scene VFX have declared themselves over the moon to be working on the project with VFX Supervisor, Ed Bruce saying ”We’re so excited to be involved and to have this opportunity to wok again with John Moore and to translate his vision to this feature. It’s going to be epic!” Hubert Montag, lead Animator added ”This is AWESOME, just awesome…pure awesomeness!”
The official plot synopsis for ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ reads: “Since the first ‘Die Hard’ in 1988, John McClane (Bruce Willis) has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the skills and attitude to always be the last man standing, making him enemy #1 for terrorists the world over. Now, McClane faces his greatest challenge ever, this time on an international stage, when his estranged son Jack is caught up in the daring prison escape of a rogue Russian leader, and father and son McClane must work together to keep each other alive and keep the world safe for democracy.”
Del Toro Producing "Alma" Animated Feature Adaptation
(darkhorizons.com)DreamWorks Animation is moving forward with a feature-length version of the doll-themed animated short film "Alma" reports The Los Angeles Times.
Former Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas, who created the short, will direct the feature. The original short followed a child who wanders into a creepy doll store and ends up in a compromised situation. You can watch the full short below.
Megan Holley ("Sunshine Cleaning") has been hired to pen the script while Guillermo del Toro is set to produce. del Toro will offer guidance on the project much like he did for DWA's just released "Puss in Boots".
ILM Boosts Pipeline with Katana 1.0
(billdesowitz.com)Industrial Light & Magic has provided a big boost to The Foundry by purchasing site licenses in both San Francisco and Singapore of its new Katana 1.0 look dev package (which it took over from Sony Pictures Imageworks).
Katana is specifically designed to address the needs of a highly scalable asset based workflow to:
* Allow updating of assets once shots are already in progress.
* Share lighting set-ups, such as edits and overrides, between shots, and sequences.
* Allow use of multiple renderers and specifying dependencies between render passes.
* Allow shot specific modification of assets to become part of the lighting “recipe” for shots to avoid having to deal with large numbers of shot specific asset variants.
Extensive APIs mean it integrates with current pipelines, shader libraries and workflow tools, whilst its collaborative nature allows it to scale to meet the needs of even the most demanding productions.
“We worked closely with The Foundry over the past year on specific features and functionality we wanted to see in Katana and after implementing it in production, we believe the package shows great promise and we look forward to our continuing relationship with The Foundry as we integrate technologies such as Katana into our production pipeline,” boasts John Knoll, ILM’s senior visual effects supervisor.
“We’re pleased to release Katana, a product highly anticipated by pipeline engineers and lighting supervisors,” adds Bill Collis, The Foundry’s CEO.
Pixar Launches Legacy Start Up in Vancouver, Air Mater Short Takes Flight
(blogs.indiewire.com)It’s been a great week for Pixar, writes TOH columnist Bill Desowitz in this week’s Immersed in Movies.
John Lasseter got a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, timed to the release of Cars 2 on Blu-ray/DVD from Disney Home Entertainment, and an opportunity to rev up the Oscar campaign for best animated feature. A little bumpier than usual, given that the Cars franchise is not in the upper echelon of Pixar achievements.
However, as part of the prestigious Pixar legacy, Cars continues to deliver craft and amusement in many ways, including the “Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales” brand of shorts for kids. The latest one, Air Mater, is the exclusive animated short on the Cars 2 collection.
Thompson on Hollywood
A follow-up short, Small Fry part of the “Toy Story Toon” brand, will play theatrically in front of Disney’s The Muppets (November 23). The legacy timing couldn’t be better to take advantage of Pixar’s 25th anniversary.
I recently visited the quaint studio located in the Gastown neighborhood of Vancouver. They’ve managed to fuse the organic look and feel of the suburban Emeryville studio in Northern California with the natural elements of the more urban Vancouver. Formerly a hotel that was nearly destroyed in a fire, the building has been transformed into an attractive work space by Pixar in the last couple of years, yet maintaining its original character. Pixar selected modern Eames-style furnishings to highlight the office’s gorgeous seaside views. The design also incorporates the indigenous Vancouver vibe, such as the use of locally sourced cedar wood.
Starting a new studio and hiring a team are daunting enough without having to simultaneously refurbish the building. But that’s what Pixar Canada was faced with under the guidance of VP/general manager Amir Nasrabadi (formerly with Disney), creative director Dylan Brown (a Pixar supervising animator), and chief technical officer Darwyn Peachey (a technical artist on Toy Story 3).
Even though a third of the 30,000-square-foot facility is still under construction, Pixar Canada has cut its teeth on two shorts and has begun to forge an identity. There are currently 75 people on staff (two-thirds are Canadian nationals and a dynamic mix of veteran and newly graduated animators) in a studio with computer rendering power of 2,000 CPUs.
The challenge, of course, has been creating a high level of production value worthy of Pixar (and there’s a world of difference between animating cars and humanoid toys), but also instilling the Pixar ethos among animators that have never worked together. “You have to make a constant effort to bring groups together; communication is always an issue, even for a company our size,” explains Nasrabadi.
But how do you transfer the Pixar legacy? That’s the biggest challenge, which Brown finds a bit amorphous. “We’re trying to take the core values and extend it,” Brown says. “You can try to create a collaborative environment and have fun, but it actually doesn’t mean anything until you start working. As it was being built, I would check out how [Air Mater] was doing or how this person that we’ve just hired reflects the values that we came here with. It’s about teaching by example but it’s also about [multi-tasking].”
For instance, when Brown suddenly had a hole to fill, he took an animator that specializes in control articulation and let him do a matte painting for Propwash Junction.
According to Air Mater director Rob Gibbs (a story artist on Up), the animators wanted to take the folksy tow truck all over the place, but in the end, Mater’s tall tale about becoming an ace aviator was all about the less is more philosophy.
By contrast, Small Fry, directed by Angus MacLane, in which Buzz gets left behind at a fast food joint when Bonnie accidentally takes home the meal toy version, is an exercise in pacing and riffing on the wonderful cheap quality of toys.
“I think it’s our job as leaders to make the connections and seize those opportunities,” Brown adds. Not to be too philosophic about it, but it ultimately becomes about maximizing our potential as a studio and helping individuals maximize their potential.”
Sounds like the Pixar legacy.
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