(english.cri.cri.c)
It cited unnamed Chinese government officials as saying that if negotiations between DreamWorks and Chinese counterparts proceed smoothly, the new company, to be called Oriental DreamWorks, would be established by the first quarter of next year in Shanghai.
DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is reported to have visited China's industry-related state departments early this month.
Officials told Caijing that the company would get a capital injection of up to US$2 billion in the five years after its launch to be invested in projects including motion pictures, musicals and Internet games.
Insiders revealed that theme park developments in China and elsewhere were also part of the new company's long-term plans.
China Media Capital would lead a Chinese capital syndicate to co-invest in the new company, according to the report. Shanghai Media Group is also reported to be a likely investor.
Katzenberg is said to have told Chinese officials that DreamWorks was placing key importance on seeking business partnerships with China and was expecting such cooperation would contribute to a re-shaping of the global market for animation movies.
"China's domestic animation production is growing quickly but in terms of technology, creativity or box office gains, it's no match for DreamWorks. Partnership with DreamWorks in the home market would boost development of all related segments of this industry, especially to help nourish the growth of domestic professionals in this field," an analyst told Caijing.
Insiders told the magazine that negotiations between DreamWorks and Chinese investors had been under way for months and they were likely to reach an agreement by the end of next month.
CG Dragon "Smaug" to be Performance Capture for "The Hobbit"
(theonering.net)Benedict Cumberbatch will not only provide the voice of the dragon Smaug The Magnificent, he will perform the role using the motion capture technology pioneered by Andy Serkis and Weta Digital, according to the actor himself.
The design of the most iconic villain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and indeed probably the greatest literary great worm of the 20th Century, remains a secret and a key ingredient of Peter Jackson’s two part movie adaptation due in December 2012 and December 2013. The actor, the title character acting opposite Martin Freeman in the BBC’s Sherlock, revealed to Collider during a press junket that he hasn’t done his Hobbit stint yet and that he will not only provide the voice for the creature but perform him as well.
Michael Bay in talks for TRANSFORMERS 4 with Hasbro
(napiersnews.com)It looks as though TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is not going to be Michael Bay’s last Transformers movie like he previously stated. THR reports that Bay is currently in active discussions along with producer Steven Spielberg to develop a fourth Transformers film for Hasbro. The pressure for more films makes sense with the last film bringing in over a billion dollars so far. I can’t say I blame the change in heart either, I would do the same if I was offered a big payday.
Hasbro continues to develop other projects based on its brands. The company has MICRONAUTS, OUIJA, CANDYLAND, RISK, STRETCH ARMSTRONG, CLUE and MONOPOLY. Hasbro will continue to work with studio partners and will not start making its own films like Marvel has done.
At this time it’s not known if anyone from the first three Transformers films would reprise their roles in a fourth movie. The film could implement some completely new human characters. I would rather see Bay in the director’s chair because Hasbro will get someone else to do it if Bay declines the offer.
DARK OF THE MOON was the best film in the franchise, so lets hope a fourth film will be even bett
Marshall on Board for More ‘Pirates’?
(torontosun.com)Filmmaker Rob Marshall, best known for his Broadway musicals and his Oscar-winning production of Chicago for the big screen, would happily sign on for another instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Asked if he would do another, Marshall recently told QMI Agency: "You know what? I might. Yeah, it is very possible. I had such a great experience on this one that I would absolutely entertain another one. But it's the classic cliche answer: Is there a script? Is there a story to be told? The last thing you ever want to feel is that we're just out there to make money. That wasn't my intention at all. My intention was to make a really fun film."
As an outsider dropped in to revive the franchise once it ran its course under Gore Verbinski, Marshall directed Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It just came to stand-alone DVD this week. In an odd twist for a major new title, the DVD drop was staggered from the Blu-ray combo pack releases, which debuted Oct. 18. There were two versions out then: One a standard Blu-ray combo pack, the other a 3D Blu-ray combo pack.
Despite Marshall's reference to making fun over making money, Pirates is a money machine. Taken together, the Blu-ray combo packs are best-sellers. The new stand-alone DVD is expected to reach those who don't want to bother with high-def or the niche market of home 3D. Marshall's movie already made a staggering profit in worldwide box office, shooting above the billion-dollar mark by $44 million. Among the three Pirates movies Gore Verbinski directed, only Dead Man's Chest exceeded that total -- by just $22 million. So Marshall pleased uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. He did not disappoint superstar Johnny Depp, who plays the central character, flamboyant pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.
"It is very interesting coming into a franchise, into the fourth in a series," Marshall says from his Hollywood office. "I wasn't sure what to expect but I was greeted with open arms. They were happy to have someone like me work on this film. Johnny was incredibly gracious and inviting to be directed this role that he knows so well. Jerry Bruckheimer was incredibly gracious. And Disney, too, all the people at Disney. They really wanted my input and feeling and I think they shared my vision for this movie."
Marshall says he focused on making "something that really reaches across generational lines, has a clarity of story and a simplicity of storytelling so you can enjoy the adventure."
Star Trek XII, Says Pre-Production is in an "Exciting Phase"
TrekWeb talks to Star Trek XII production designer Scott Chambliss in this exclusive chat. Interview : Gustavo Leao
1- Scott, how pre-production is going on the Star Trek sequel ?
Pre-production is in an exciting phase right now, as the story and the sequences are coming into focus and the settings are gaining depth, character, and scale.
2- What fans can look foward in terms of production design for the sequel ?
What I hope most is that, as with our first installation, the audience will encounter some visual surprises that make them happy plus a few that shake them up as well.
If you mildly please everyone across the board with everything, I think that means that the work was pitched to a rather low median denominator. The crushing blow would be a general "Eh, it was okay, but not nearly as good as the first one" response from the viewers.
3- There will be any changes on the USS Enterprise design, interior or exterior ?
Yes: the entire story is going to take place in the Budweiser Brewery.
Behind the Scenes With the 3D Magicians of 'Arthur Christmas'
(foxnews.com) Christmas has always been magical.
But creating “Arthur Christmas” -- the computer-generated 3D comedy that opens Wednesday and features a high-tech Santa capable of delivering toys in a Millennium Falcon-like spaceship -- was itself something of a small miracle, the special effects gurus at Sony Pictures Animation said.
“It was a lot of very long days,” lead animator Josh Beveridge told FoxNews.com. “It started out as nine hour days, and then eventually became a series of very long twelve hour days.”
Beveridge spent over a year in Bristol, England, where he worked with three other lead animators and a special effects supervisor to make the “Arthur Christmas” characters come to life. “He was like a satellite with a team of twelve people on the other side of the world, dialing in by video conference call,” explained first-time director Sarah Smith. “It was a big collaboration.”
Smith wanted to have her film rich with detail, which taxed Sony’s block-long computer room to its limits. “We had shots that took 24 hours per frame to render,” Smith said of the process; some scenes required almost month to make just one second of film. “There’s so much detail in those scenes that the computer is doing gigantic calculations in order to render that shot.”
“We use a Linux platform,” Beveridge explained. “Almost anything that we want to do in CG, we can -- it’s just a matter of rendering time.”
The incredible computing time the film required hearkens back to the very early days of CG thirty years ago, Smith told FoxNews.com. “Computing power has advanced since then ... but so has the ability for the team to build more visual information in the shots.”
“Arthur Christmas” tells the tale of the multi-generational Claus family, which mothballed the old family sleigh in favor of the high-tech S1, a mile-wide spaceship with stealth cloaking technology and a million elves, who work in “Mission: Impossible”-style teams of three to deliver presents in just 18.14 seconds.
The film is Sony Pictures Animation’s first collaboration with Aardman, the landmark British animation company best-known for the stop-motion films “Chicken Run” and “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
The Claus family consists of Santa and Mrs. Santa; Santa’s father, Grandsanta, who may still have a few tricks up his sleeve despite his advanced age; alpha-male son Steve, who is more concerned with efficiency than emotions; and the film’s hero, son Arthur, whose earnestness and wonder is matched only by his awkwardness and bad skin.
Arthur Xmas
“The Clauses are a little bit like the British Royal Family,” Smith said. “Arthur would be a little bit like Prince Edward since he’s the one who didn’t go into the army. Steve’s character is a little like Price Charles, in that every year, he’s thinking he’s going to become [king] and it doesn’t happen.”
Wanting to bring the traditional charm of Aardman’s characters to the world of CG, Smith spent over six years perfecting “Arthur Christmas.”
“It was ridiculously ambitious,” Smith admits of the laborious process. “It’s a little like childbirth: If you really knew exactly what was going to be involved, you probably would never start.”
The ability to create virtual sets allows wonderful creativity, but it’s deceptively challenging. Despite the computers creating the final film, animators still draw everything.
"It comes down to human labor, building every single thing that you see in every frame -- it’s not like they magically push a button and it happens," Smith told FoxNews.com. "Somebody has to model it and texture it and so on. CG animation is a seductive and dangerous thing, because you can theoretically do everything -- but you're limited by the human resources of your team.”
Of the many involved sets, Mission Control at the North Pole was the most challenging. “I think we were all pretty terrified by some of the render times,” said Smith. "They told me that there were shots that were taking three weeks to render. At the end of the process, we were terrified that there were some shots that weren’t going to even make it into the movie, because they were so complex to produce!”
But of all the technological achievements of “Arthur Christmas,” Smith is most proud of Arthur’s Christmas sweater. “I wanted it to have this really big, chunky effect, and (the animators) would kind of look at me and go, ‘Heavy knitwear? You have no idea how difficult that is to create. That’s like what water and fur used to be for CG.’” Smith said.
Now that “Arthur Christmas” has wrapped, Smith is taking a well-deserved break to work on her next magical venture.
“I had a baby in the middle of making the movie, so I’m spending time with her now -- she’s my new project!”
A Formidable Creature For John Carter Revealed
(Entertainment Weekly) The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features this new photo of a great White Ape from director Andrew Stanton's John Carter, based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs and coming to 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9th.
Stanton tells the magazine that the White Apes are "a formidable creature that you kind of hear about throughout the movie, but you never really witness." He says they they are "nocturnal, almost like moles — they stopped using their eyes, and just had a heightened sense of smell."
The director added that in the film, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) "needs an army to solve his big problem in the third act, and the only army he knows was his previous captors. When he goes back, the game has changed, and he gets incarcerated. This is what he has to get out of. He has to get out of jail and not get killed by these apes in order to get his bigger problem solved."
As you can see in the picture, Carter is chained up, which the Tharks did for entertainnment. "He has this one Superman-like ability where he can leap farther than we can here [on Earth]. But it's like being a man on the moon. It can't be forever. He can build up momentum... They give him a nice long length of chain, so he can bounce around, but he can't go out of the arena."
Take a look: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=84597
Mexico’s First 3D Animated Film ‘El Gran Milagro’ Debuts in Select US Cities Dec. 9
(hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)Dos Corazones Films announces that The Greatest Miracle, Mexico’s first 3D animated feature film will appear in theaters in Chicago and 49 other US cities on Fri., Dec. 9, 2011. In addition, the film’s producer Pablo Barroso will host a sneak-peak screening for members of the media at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, on Thurs., December 1st at 6:00 pm. To attend the screening, please RSVP at http://www.catholicmassmovie. com/rsvp/ and reserve your seat.
The Greatest Miracle was released in Mexico on Oct. 14, 2011 to praise from audiences and critics alike, and had the second highest per-screen average that weekend.
Directed by Bruce Morris (Disney’s Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog and Hercules), The Greatest Miracle explores the lives of three strangers at Catholic Mass one morning, who are experiencing difficult situations – Monica, a widowed mother, struggles to sustain her home with her son Diego; Don Chema, a bus driver, deals with his child’s incurable illness, and Dona Cata, an elderly woman who seeks peace. There, each person meets their guardian angel and is given the gift to see the world through spiritual eyes and then take full account of their blessings.
Weta Digital Hosts "Weta Digital Day"
(stuff.co.nz)The last day of visual effects, animation and games conference Animfx. Weta Digital is hosting a Weta Digital Day at Park Road Post in Miramar, where its visual effects gurus will give behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Adventures of Tintin. Wellington games firm Sidhe is hosting a party tonight at inner-city bar Red Square to cap off the conference with a bang.
Contender – Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Glass, The Tree of Life
(btlnews.com)Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life. (Photo by Merie Wallace. Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox).
The last time Below the Line caught up with Dan Glass, it was during his back-to-back “superhero” phase of supervising visual effects in Batman Begins and V for Vendetta (the former won a BAFTA nomination in the VFX category, while masks from the latter are currently on prominent display in various “Occupy” encampments).
A quick half-decade later, he’s not only an exec VP at Method Studios, but is in the nomination hunt once again for his work on filmmaker Terrence Malik’s The Tree of Life, the tale of a 1950s’-era family headed by Brad Pitt, a dad overwhelmed by the traditional “superhero” roles fathers were cast into, but has enough in the way of “foes” dealing with everyday life.
And while there were, as Glass notes, some “pretty minimal” digital considerations in what he terms the “contemporary” phase of the storytelling – the material set in the ’50s (and modern sequences with Sean Penn as one of the grown sons) – which involved removing rigging and watching for any visual anachronisms, that work isn’t what’s generating the buzz.
Instead, it’s the other phases or “realms,” as Glass calls them, that occasioned such startling imagery and an array of techniques – the “astrophysical,” the “microbial” and the “natural.” Each of these comes during a sequence that takes some of the motifs from the legendary “infinity” sequence in Kubrick’s 2001, and far outdoes them.
Below: Dan Glass and Douglas Trumbull discuss the VFX in The Tree of Life
It’s a section of the film that has alternately enthralled and frustrated critics, encompassing nothing less than the creation of the universe – from light to galaxies to cells to complex life – all the way back to the film’s “present moment.” It’s there either to show how one family – like all families – is an endpoint, a result of all the universe’s majesty (without even knowing it), or it’s there to show how the most overwhelming problems in lives – and lives themselves – are simply nano-grams in a much larger tapestry. Or both.
And the connection to 2001 may not be accidental: Glass had the help of Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick’s storied “special photographic effects supervisor” for that film, a title which he reprises here.
Glass gushes that Trumbull’s work was “fantastic,” allowing for a mix of techniques in an Austin-based “skunk works,” where Malick – himself Texas-based – could be kept apprised of the more “mechanical” effects he gravitated toward; using paint in other liquids (or liquid nitrogen) to replicate unfolding cosmic processes.
Those were mixed in with the more digital techniques they were already using, including using existing interstellar images from NASA, obtained at the highest possible resolution, and further augmented in postproduction.
It was a multi-year process for Glass, much like Malick’s usual filmmaking style. “There was a period of two years getting inside his head,” Glass adds about the director, so that everyone – including the VFX crew – was working on a more intuitive level, allowing the story to emerge from that.
But the journey up beyond the treetops works on a shorter timeline: He’s already at work on his next project, the currently-in-production Cloud Atlas for director Tom Tykwer.
Full article: http://www.btlnews.com/awards/contender-portfolios/ contender-visual-effects- supervisor-dan-glass-tree-of- life/
Star Wars: Identities Premiering at Montreal Science Centre in April
(Lucasfilm) Lucasfilm and X3 Productions have announced "Star Wars: Identities," a traveling exhibition. You can read the press release and watch a trailer below:
A stunning collection from the Lucasfilm Archives, a customized, interactive identity quest, and insightful scientific content will all work together in STAR WARS Identities to follow the dramatic journeys of Luke and Anakin Skywalker, cinema's most famous father and son duo. Visitors will develop a better understanding of what makes the characters of Star Wars who they are, and at the same time explore their own identity with one question, at once simple and profound: What forces shape you?
The Components of Identity
Working with the Montréal Science Centre exhibition developers and a committee of scientific advisers, STAR WARS Identities has divided its study of identity into three major themes: the origins of the characters, the influences that shape them, and the choices they make during their life. Within these three themes, ten components of human identity are explored: species, genes, parents, and culture in Origins; mentors, friends, and marking events in Influences; and occupation, personality, and values in the final zone, Choices.
These components form the backbone of the exhibition, exploring the complex notion of identity both in the real world and in creative fiction. Original content throughout the exhibition will shed light on each of the components of identity; simultaneously, "making-of" featurettes explore the stories behind the development of many iconic Star Wars characters, explaining how they became who they are, and showing how different creative choices might have made them different characters altogether.
Kyra Bowling, Exhibits Manager at Lucasfilm Ltd., says "the Star Wars saga continues to captivate audiences who find connection to its richly diverse cast of wonderful characters. Star Wars provides a natural lens through which to explore the themes of personal identity and character. This innovative exhibition lets visitors of all ages investigate, in a fun and educational way, the factors and forces that help shape who we are as individuals."
A vast and exclusive collection of close to 200 objects from the Lucasfilm Archives features props, models, costumes, and artwork from the Star Wars films. This rich collection spans the entire Star Wars canon, drawing from the classic (1977-83) and prequel (1999-2005) trilogies, as well as the animated feature The Clone Wars (2008) and the ongoing television series of the same name. Fan favourites like Darth Vader, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Yoda, the Millennium Falcon, and Anakin Skywalker's full-sized Podracer – among others – are sure to delight visitors of all generations.
Amazing Sets From Prometheus Hit The Web
(Entertainment Weekly) The latest edition of Entertainment Weekly features a series of all-new images from Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Stars Logan Marshall-Green, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and Charlize Theron are all represented. And so is the film's impressive production design.
You'll have to pick up the issue to read the two-page article that previews Fox's June 8, 2012 release, but you can check out scans of the photos at ShockTillYouDrop.com!
Take a look: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=22024
4 Motion Capture Characters and the Actors Who Played Them
(screenjunkies.com)Motion capture technology has allowed for completely computer generated characters to take on the lifelike qualities of the stars playing them. Turning what was once a lifeless hollow form into a conscience life-filled character. Some of these classic film roles have been played by actors who never physically appear on the screen.
Gollum
Truly taking form in “The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers”, Gollum captured audiences as the most life like computer animated character to ever be captured on film. Played masterfully by Andy Serkis, Gollum set a new standard for how people could relate to a CG character and paved the way for subsequent CG characters in film.
Neytiri
From the epic “Avatar” Neytiri proved that even an 8-foot-tall cat-person could still be sort of attractive. This is due in no small part to the acting talents of Zoe Saldana. In perfectly capturing her character Saldana molded a major performance in the highest grossing film of all time.
The Conductor
Tom Hanks used motion capture technology to play what seems like every character in “The Polar Express.” Most notably of course is that the character bears a striking resemblance to Hanks. This performance showed the ability to have on actor create many roles and truly stretch out as an artist using motion capture technology.
Kong
Once agai the master of motion capture hits a home run as Andy Serkis crafts an incredible performance as a 40-foot-tall ape in “King Kong”. Bringing realistic movement to Kong pushed the limits of CG characters and acting prowess. While many actors may attempt to use this technology, with this performance Serkis secured his spot as king of the motion capture actors.
Article with pics: http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/movie-lists/4-motion- capture-characters-and-the- actors-who-played-them/
Gremlins Video Game Announced 27 Years After Movie's Release
(gamepro.com) Warner Bros. and NECA are making a new video game based on Joe Dante's 1984 horror-comedy, Gremlins.
Warner Bros. Interactive and NECA have announced that a point-and-click adventure game based on 1984's horror comedy, Gremlins, is coming soon to DS and Wii. While this isn't the first video game based on the franchise, it's the first one in quite a long time.
Set to release this Friday, November 18, Gremlins Gizmo allows players to interact and play with the series' iconic mogwai, Gizmo, or one of his Furby-esque friends in a variety of mini-games.
The game doesn't look awful based on screens released for the game. And, don't get me wrong -- I loved both Gremlins movies, but do audiences even care enough about the franchise to justify a video game based on it 27-years after its release? Do kids today even know who Gizmo is? Either way, I'm curious to try this one out.
How Real-Time Rendering Will Change the Movies
(forwardthinking.pcmag.com)Real-time rendering of animation has been talked about for years, but until recently, it's always seemed a long ways away. So, when DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said last week that the company has been able to rewrite its software to perform real-time animation, I was eager to learn more.
For this, I turned to DreamWorks CTO Ed Leonard, who explained that the process actually involves multiple pieces of software. The software is in the early stages of validation and testing, with a rollout scheduled through the end of 2012, but "bits and pieces" are already in production, he said.
In general, what animators do on a desktop has been a small part of the overall computing required for a movie; typically they create a drawing and send it to a render farm for eight to ten hours of rendering.
"As processing power got faster, we've always found more ways to use that horsepower," Leonard said. As a result, the amount of time an artist has to wait has stagnated. Real-time rendering changes all that.
Leonard explained that animation is like a manufacturing line: it's a multi-step process but this one involves character animation, character effects (hair and clothing), and production lighting. Today, we don't have the ability to animate at full resolution with full lighting and effects in real-time. Animators can do some things in real-time, but not in full resolution. All that is changing with areas such as character animation and lighting rolling out. Once animators can do these steps in real-time, which he expects will be fairly soon, they will have more creative impact on such things.
Real-time rendering will help streamline a process that currently involves tens of thousands of files. The new tools "will represent more natural ways of animating," Leonard said.
"The future is about many cores, not faster cores," he said, but companies need to really think about how they use computing. The core software has to be rewritten to take advantage of multiple cores.
That works for DreamWorks because the company creates its own animation, lighting, and rendering software. It was able to work with Intel to create massively multi-core software. "The hard part is getting your software to work in a many-core environment," Leonard said, noting that it gets particularly difficult once you surpass eight or ten processor cores.
DreamWorks primarily runs on Intel-based HP computers running Linux. These are mostly dual processor Sandy Bridge-based workstations and server blades.
The company has used GPUs for various specialties, like some effects, but has resisted wide scale deployment because of both the complexity of writing software for GPUs and for deploying GPUs to the company's thousands of render farm nodes. Leonard expects things to get easier with the anticipated hybrid core platforms. He is excited about the concept of a many-integrated-core (MIC) processor, but the company is not using that yet either.
To date, the company's software works with standard workstations and servers. With software that automatically switches between the workstation and the cores on the render farm in the data center in a seamless fashion rendering is not constrained by what is available locally. In addition, most of render farm is moving to the cloud, so Leonard imagines that every artist can have as much computation as needed.
The lighting tools are in production now in the first implementation and it is expected that animation tools will be in production in a few months.
We should start seeing movies that have been made using this technology in 2013, Leonard predicted. It will enable very different kinds of movies, in terms of artistic capabilities.
Realistic Animatronic Turkey Replica Works on the 'According to Jim' Show
(youtube.com) Animal Makers has been creating animal replicas for movies, television.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmtYN_As7gY
Now it's for sale: http://animalmakers.com/store/products/Animatronic-Turkey- Puppet.html
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