(Paramount Pictures) The team behind the sequel to 2009's "Star Trek" got a late start. And because of that, there will be no "Star Trek 2" in 2012. Instead, it could be Paramount's summer tentpole in 2013.
That's the official word from Philippe Dauman, chief executive of Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures. He made those comments during an earnings conference call where Viacom reported triple earnings and revenue growth of 22 percent.
In fact, thanks to films like "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," Viacom actually earned $576 million in the quarter. That equated to about $1 per share, and was done on the worldwide take of more than $1 billion for Transformers, as well as $95 million for "Paranormal Activity 3," which cost only a fraction of that to produce. In fact, Paramount was about all Dauman could talk about with investors and analysts.
While Viacom wants to see such high revenue growth continue, the company knows it might be a little while for its venerable Star Trek franchise to contribute. The plan had been for a 2012 release for "Star Trek 2," but accommodating director J.J. Abrams' schedule took a little finesse, and filming isn't even expected to start until early 2012. Because so much time was needed for post-production, Paramount could've considered, at the earliest, a Christmas 2012 release.
However, reports continued to circulate once Abrams took the helm that the film would indeed be pushed to 2013, with Paramount wanting to once again push it to an early summer release. They had done the same with Abrams' first attempt at Star Trek, first setting it to premiere in Christmas 2008, but instead moving it to May 2009. "Star Trek" would go on to earn $257.7 million domestically and nearly $400 million worldwide -- topping all 11 previous films.
Now that audiences have had a chance to meet the new Kirk and Spock, and with about a four-year wait, there is a chance Star Trek could pull a "Dark Knight" and grab an even larger box office take, especially if Benicio del Toro signs on as previously reported.
Paramount Tapping Back Into Transformers Franchise
(airlockalpha.com)
Paramount is not giving up on the Transformers franchise, even though both its director and star of the first three films feel it's time to move on. The most recent installment earned $352.4 million domestically, second only to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." Despite its high production budget and poor reviews, Transformers continues to be a large box office draw, and Paramount is keen to remaining tapped into it.
Viacom also said it was considering a new live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, falling under its Nickelodeon brand, since the characters were going to return to the kids network in 2012 as a new cartoon.
UK Extends Film Tax Breaks, to Industry's Relief
LONDON (Reuters) - The British government on Thursday extended tax breaks for the film industry, worth an estimated 95 million pounds a year, until the end of 2015.
The industry welcomed the move, without which experts had warned the British movie business could shrink drastically.
Industry estimates cited by the BBC show that tax incentives on eligible films make Britain up to 40 percent cheaper than the United States and account for 1.4 billion pounds of GDP annually.
"The last year has seen massive success, both at home and abroad, for a whole host of UK films," Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement.
"I look forward to seeing the UK film industry continue to thrive over the coming years, supported by the government's film tax relief."
Recent productions assisted by the system range from "Brighton Rock" and "Coriolanus" to "Gnomeo & Juliet" and both blockbuster parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
To be eligible for the tax break, films must be released in the United Kingdom, with a quarter of their production costs spent in the country.
Greg Dyke, head of the British Film Institute, said the news was welcome at a time of economic and financial turmoil.
"This announcement will be greatly welcomed across the film industry and will give confidence, particularly amongst independent filmmakers, at a time when access to finance is increasingly difficult," he said.
"British film is riding high, reaching new audiences, creating jobs and making a significant contribution to the economy -- it is precisely this kind of support that is so vital to keep that momentum going."
As well as box office success through productions like the Potter films, British movie "The King's Speech" triumphed at the last Oscars, winning four statuettes including best actor for Colin Firth, best director and best picture.
"The huge success of British films at the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs this year is clear recognition of our world class talent and creativity," said Culture Minister Ed Vaizey.
"But as a vital creative industry, it also has huge potential for economic growth."
How The Lone Ranger Almost Blew $10 Million
(cinemablend.com) At this point many of you, if not most of you, know about the troubles going on behind the scenes of The Lone Ranger these past few months. Back in August the production was shut down when Disney decided that they didn't want to spend $250 million making a western (which is totally reasonable thing) and had producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp work on the movie to try and lower its costs. The proper moves and cuts were made and in the last couple weeks it was announced that the project will be moving forward with a $215 million budget and is now scheduled to be released on May 21, 2013. But exactly what changes were made that equated to $35 million in saved moolah? Bruckheimer recently spoke with THR about it and the answer is actually kind of disturbing.
While the producer did say that some scenes were cut - including a sequence involving "supernatural coyotes" and an "animated segment" - the big thing that ended up being changed was the production schedule. Bruckheimer said that they would be trying to avoid winter by having the production hop around to different states (including alifornia, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah), but that's not what's messed up about this story. According to the interview, one thing that has been changed is the structuring of shooting days, bunching together the scenes involving a lot of extras and the ones involving just the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Said Bruckheimer,
If we had a big crowd scene and then the next day we were shooting just Tonto and the Lone Ranger, we still had the crew "on" because you have them weekly. So we bunched the sequences that were big together, and for the smaller scenes [we] laid off the extras, the effects people, the makeup people. It costs an enormous amount with 150 extras on the set. It's not the extras, it's the people that support the extras. You're still carrying all the wardrobe, makeup and hair people. We bunched together scenes with Tonto and the Lone Ranger, so we had a much smaller crew. We saved about $10 million just by doing that.
Shyamalan's "One Thousand A.E" To Shoot In February
(Variety) Stephen Gaghan (Syriana, Traffic) has polished the script for M. Night Shyamalan's One Thousand A.E..
Shyamalan was credited as the sole writer on his first nine films he directed, but this project was written by Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli). Shyamalan rewrote Whitta's screenplay "to fit his needs", says the trade, but Gaghan was brought on board to get it ready for principal photography. Shooting is scheduled to start in February for a June 7, 2013 release.
Variety adds that "Will and Jaden Smith are set to star as a father and son who crash-land on Earth one thousand years after mankind has abandoned the planet. The crash leaves the elder Smith badly injured, and it's up to the boy to find help in what is now a strange and dangerous place."
Shyamalan and Will Smith are producing with the latter's Overbrook partners James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Classic Tintin Stop-Motion Animation from 1947
(blogs.indiewire.com)As a frame of reference for those of you eagerly awaiting the Jackson/Spielberg The Adventures of Tintin, which opened well in Europe this week, here's the first black-and-white stop-motion part of what some folks grew up on in Europe: Tintin and Snowy (or Milou) in Claude Missone's Le crab aux pinces d'or (The Crab with the Golden Claws, 1947). It's frame for frame the same as Herge's comic book of the same name.
There were also several TV series, including this one from 1991-1992.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/clip_ watch_classic_tintin_stop- motion_animation_from_1947_en_ francais
Why Is Weird Al Yankovic Wandering Around Pixar?
(blog.moviefone.com)Weird Al Yankovic is best known for spoofing famous songs ('Fat,' 'Amish Paradise' and 'It's All About the Pentiums' are some of our favorites), but he's also written and starred in movies and television shows. ('UHF,' FTW.) When he isn't doing all that, however, he apparently wanders the hallowed halls of Pixar studios. At least according to this photo tweeted by director Lee Unkrich ('Toy Story 3,' 'Finding Nemo'), which the weird one confirmed this on his Twitter account. So what is Weird Al doing at Pixar? Allow Moviefone to offer some guesses.
1. Weird Al wants Pixar to make an animated version of 'UHF'
2. A Pixar character is being modeled after Weird Al
3. Weird Al is recording a parody of 'You've Got a Friend in Me,' titled, 'You've Got Six Hens to Eat'
4. Pixar purchased Weird Al so he could be put on display in John Lasseter's office
5. Weird Al is there to steal that life-size version of Lightning McQueen
Pic: http://www.whosay.com/leeunkrich/photos/89533
Roland Emmerich Halts $175M Epic "Singularity"
(Heat Vision) Roland Emmerich has halted pre-production on his new $175 million sci-fi action movie Singularity in order to work on the script.
According to the trade, shooting was scheduled to start in March in Montreal, and the director was going to read with actors this week to stay on track for a May, 2013 release.
But Emmerich is reportedly not happy with the screenplay, "which focuses on a young man whose body is made up a swarm of nanobots, giving him all sorts of powers at the same time as it brings unwanted attention from an evil corporation."
Emmerich wrote the script with Harald Kloser. Now, futurist and A.I. specialist Ray Kurzweil is coming in to work on the script with Emmerich.
Dneg goes Autumn
(alexmacieira.blogspot.com)So, I was asked to create a decorated window for the HR department at Double Negative. I've come up with an Autumn theme where by characters of movies that we supplied visual effects for are interacting with the Autumn winds. I've tried to stick to each characters original style (should there be one). This is Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers soaring on an Autumn leaf. In the words of Hoban 'Wash' Washburne "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar".
Take a look: http://alexmacieira.blogspot.com/2011/10/dneg-goes-autumn. html
Weta & Peter Jackson Could Connect To "Ripleys Believe It Or Not"
(newstalkzb.co.nz)There's talk Sir Peter Jackson and Weta workshops may be involved in an up-coming movie based on the adventures of Robert Ripley.
The founder of the Believe It Or Not franchise spent 40 years travelling the globe searching for oddities and rated New Zealand among his favourite places to visit.
Hollywood funny-man Jim Carey is attached to the fictional movie based on actual events surrounding.
Vice President of exhibits and archives for Ripleys - Ed Meyer is in New Zealand promoting the release of Ripleys' new book 'strikingly true'
Meyer hints that Sir Peter Jackson and Weta workshops may have a role to play in the film.
"Well actually, yes indeed, we're seeing him on Monday. I can't say for sure but we're going to have a look around and see if there's a connection," he says.
Walt Disney Owns A Piece Of 'The Amazing Spider-Man'
(latinoreview.com)Walt Disney Owns A Piece Of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' As everyone surely knows, Walt Disney has owned Marvel for some time. They've been rounding up the film rights to several of their superheroes in order to put out the vision that they have instead of what other production companies may have. Many casuals out there may wonder why you don't see the 'X-Men' or 'Spider-Man' appear in 'The Avengers' film as they appear in the comics. It's because the film rights are tied up with other studios.
For several years, Sony Pictures has been holding onto 'Spider-Man.' Their latest is the reboot of the franchise, 'The Amazing Spider-Man.' Cosmic Book News spotted in the transcription of Walt Disney's fourth quarter earnings call from Seeking Alpha some interesting news that Disney and Sony have come to an agreement about the wall-crawler. It reads:
"In July, Sony Pictures will release The Amazing Spiderman. We're excited about the film and expect it will drive significant benefits for Spiderman consumer products.
To that end, we recently completed a transaction with Sony Pictures to simplify our relationship. And then in the deal, we purchased Sony Pictures' participation in Spiderman merchandising, while at the same time, Sony Pictures purchased from us our participation in Spiderman films. This transaction will allow us to control and fully benefit from all Spiderman merchandising activity, while Sony will continue to produce and distribute Spiderman films. We won't be specific about the economics of this 2-way transaction, but we expect it will drive attractive returns for Disney."
Unless Disney and Sony get even more chummy, it looks like the film universe of Marvel will continue to be disassembled to a degree.
For the readers: are you content with the way things are, or would you like to see 'Spider-Man' more interconnected with the world he's spawned from?
ILM & DNeg Have Nothing On Ra.One
(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)Those of you who worked on Iron Man at ILM and DNeg will get a kick out of this:
Ra.One is beyond a movie. It’s just outstanding. The special effects of Iron Man are nothing in front of the effects used in Ra.One
Not sure why Ra.One is being compared to Iron Man. Maybe because it’s a ripoff? Hollywood is all about hype and as long as you don’t believe your own, you’re fine.
I wrote about Ra.One a few months ago and pointed out that not only did they rely on VFX from outside of India, but the supervisors had some negative opinions of the quality of VFX education in India.
But I know, it’s all going to India no matter what I say. Ra.One follows a succession of attempts in India to blow the lid off how to do VFX cheaply. Yet they seem to keep getting more and more expensive.
VIDEO - Trailer: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/ilm-dneg-have- nothing-on-ra-one/
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