(The Hollywood Reporter) The RoboCop reboot is moving forward with director Jose Padilha and has just signed Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) to provide the screenplay. The Hollywood Reporter has the news, saying that MGM is tentatively targeting a summer start.
A reboot of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven film, RoboCop will again tell the story of a police officer who, after nearly being killed in the line of duty, is rebuilt as a crime-fighting cyborg. The original film spawned two sequels and multiple television series spinoffs.
"I have my take on it," Padilha told ComingSoon.net late last year, "And I can tell you this: In the first 'RoboCop' when Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts. How do you make RoboCop? How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"
Who Is the 'Visual Effects' Alpha Male?
(awardscircuit.com)
And the Nominees Are:
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″
Oscar scene: The climactic battle between Harry and Voldemort
“Hugo”
Oscar scene: The train crash
“Real Steel”
Oscar scene: The final robot boxing match
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
Oscar scene: The apes rising
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Oscar scene: The Decepticon wraps around a building
One of the more interesting categories out there for Oscar is Best Visual Effects. Many of the other technical categories are harder for the layman to comprehend and as such feel more exclusionary (Film Editing or Sound Mixing, for example), whereas this particular category is a lot simpler to wrap your head around. This year, we don’t especially have a lower key nominee as in years past (just look at Hereafter scoring a nod last year), so it’s pretty much going to be which film was the best feast for the eyes. Of the 5 nominees, it seems like a 3 horse race to me. Which 3 are they, you ask? Well, let’s dive right in and find out!
First a bit of history for everyone. The last dozen winners in this category have been Inception, Avatar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, King Kong, Spider-Man 2, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Gladiator. There’s not a whole lot you can take from this, but I’d say that it shows a little bit of the taste that the voters have, though not entirely. I’ll come back to this at the end, but why don’t we take a look at the films up for a nomination this year?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the first nominated film, and while I confess to never having seen it, there’s not denying that one thing that this franchise has done right is make it a visual treat. The men nominated for this work are Tim Burke, Greg Butler, John Richardson, and David Vickery. They could benefit from the Academy looking to give something to the franchise now that it’s complete, but I’d say that it’s the least likely of the most likely, if that makes any sense. In short, don’t count it out, but don’t bet on it either.
Hugo is the second nominated film, and the closest thing to a low key nominee we have this year. The integration of the effects to the overall story is the best of any flick in the hunt, but at the same time it lacks that “wow” factor that could be its Achilles’ heel. The nominated men for this movie are Ben Grossman, Alex Henning, Robert Legato, and Joss Williams. An improbably Hugo sweep would make this an easy call in favor of the film, but I think it’s going to come down to just how much voters were impressed by Martin Scorsese not calling attention to the effects themselves. It’s currently the #2 pick in my eyes.
Real Steel is the third nominated film, and easily the most surprising nominee in the field. I was quite surprised actually that it got nominated, especially with other contenders like The Tree of Life looking more likely for a nod. This isn’t to say that the effects aren’t good, just that the flick is an improbable nominee, and thusly is the long shot in the race. The gentlemen nominated for the film are Swen Gillberg, Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, and Danny Gordon Taylor. Honestly, I’d be shocked if this movie turned out to be the winner.
Andy Serkis becomes Cesar.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth nominated film, and the frontrunner if you ask me. It’s got the right combination of subtlety and opulence that voters seem to like. Just look at the acclaim that Andy Serkis got for his effects assisted performance in the flick. I think it’s a winning recipe. The guys looking to win the Oscar for their work on the flick are Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, and R. Christopher White. I expect them to be the winners when all is said and done, so bet on them if you’re so inclined. This is the alpha male of the group.
"Transformers" lost this award to "The Golden Compass"
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the fifth and final nominated film, and it’s more or less an expected filler nominee. 2 of the 3 films in the franchise have gotten this citation, and its yet to win. I expect that to continue, though it could be argued that their effects were better this time around. The men who did this work on the flick are Scott Benza, Matthew E. Butler, Scott Farrar, and John Frazier. It’s not the least likely movie to win, but I’m all but ready to dismiss it, and that has nothing to do with my distaste for the franchise. It’s just never been quite “winner” quality to the Academy.
Essentially, the race is between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Hugo, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The flick in the lead is Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but I look at Hugo as the possible spoiler. I’m not counting Potter out either, but that movie is a bit farther behind. I said that I’d get back to the history of the category, and here it is. Potter and Transformers are hurt by the fact that they’ve had previous installments of their franchises nominated without a win. It’s not a be all end all situation, but it’s not a help, that’s for sure. We’ll see what happens though, as this certainly isn’t a category that’s all wrapped up…not by any stretch.
Prediction: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Snubbed: Captain America: The First Avenger, Super 8, and The Tree of Life
Digital Domain Appoints New VP Of Feature VFX
(cgw.com) VENICE, CA — Digital Domain Productions (www.digitaldomain.com) has named David Lipman vice president of features visual effects production. The 30-year industry veteran has served as an executive at DreamWorks Animation, Framestore and USAnimation, and brings expertise in visual effects, animation, production and development.
He will be based in Digital Domain's Venice, CA, reporting to Jody Madden, who has been promoted to senior vice president of global studio operations.
Lipman will drive the features visual effects business, curating and guiding talent, and working closely with studios. He was managing partner at Framestore, where he founded the feature animation division, built the studio's animation pipeline and crew, and executive produced the company's inaugural project, The Tale of Desperaux.
He served as co-head of production at DreamWorks Animation for many years before moving to PDI/DreamWorks to become the co-executive producer on Shrek. He wrote and produced the stereoscopic attraction Shrek 4D for Universal Theme Parks and produced Shrek 2.
Prior to DreamWorks, Lipman served as executive in charge of production and supervising producer at Hanna Barbera. He was also vice president and executive producer for USAnimation, producing many television commercials and digital episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show, Beavis & Butthead and The Simpsons.
‘Marvel’s The Avengers’ Film Will Be In IMAX 3D
(latino-review.com) IMAX Corporation, Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Studios today announced that the epic super hero adventure Marvel’s The Avengers will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® 3D format and released in IMAX® digital theatres worldwide day-and-date on May 4, 2012.
Marvel’s The Avengers, based on the well-known Marvel comic book series, is written and directed by Joss Whedon and stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson.
Distributed by The Walt Disney Studios, Marvel’s The Avengers: An IMAX 3D Experience marks the third Marvel Studios film presented in IMAX, following the releases of Iron Man 2: The IMAX Experience in 2010 and Thor: An IMAX 3D Experience in 2011.
Burying the Lead - Dreamworks Animation to Make CGI/traditional Hybrid
(scottalanmendelson.blogspot.com) The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Dreamworks has lined it the three main vocal cast members for a newly-announced upcoming animated film. The picture, entitled Me and My Shadow, concerns the plight of a shadow (Bill Hader) who grows tired of being attached to human Stanley Grubb (Josh Gadd). To quote the piece, "When a crime in the shadow community puts both of their lives in danger, Stan is forced to take control of Stanley, thrusting both of them into an adventure featuring a shadowy villain, who intends to lead a rebellion to take over the human world." Kate Hudson will play Grubb's would-be love interest and I'll do my best to roll my eyes at a female character once again being merely described as 'the love interest'. It will be directed by Mark Dindal, who is best known for directing the best non-Pixar animated film of the 2000s, The Emperor's New Groove. Anyway, Me and My Shadow comes out November 13th, 2013. What is buried halfway down the article is this golden nugget, something that should make animation fans take notice of this project in a big way:
"The movie will mix up CG and traditional animation (the shadow world will be handrawn while the human world will be CG), which the studio hopes will be pioneering and create an experience not seen before."
Yup, that's right. Ten years after the costly Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (budget - $60 million, worldwide gross - $80 million) marked the end for 2D 'hand-drawn' animation at the House of Katzenberg, traditional animation will be getting somewhat of a reprieve. As it is, I actually stumbled upon Sinbad late last year and watched it for the first time. It's not so much a *bad* movie as it is a somewhat slight one, a relatively small-scale adventure film concerning only a few major characters and with only a couple fine second-act action sequences to merit a mild recommendation. But watching it did remind me of the genuine pleasures of 'hand-drawn' animated films, the way that gravity seems to apply only enough to give the various acts of daring do an appropriate physical weight. What is also reminded me of was the pre-Little Mermaid era, when Disney cartoons weren't expected to be world-conquering blockbusters, merely solid entertainment for family audiences. Sinbad's primary vice (other than casting Brad Pitt in a role that's tailor-made for Kevin Kline) was arguably is status as 'Dreamworks's big 2003 cartoon', with the $60 million price-tag (ah, when THAT was considered a big budget cartoon!) that came with it.
I'm certainly no snob against CGI animation (what was my favorite film of the year again?), but I do wish there was a bigger place for hand-drawn alongside CGI in large-scale animated features. Anyway, Me and My Shadow can bring traditional animation out of the dungeon where it's rested since Disney's 2004 toon Home On the Range, where not even the $267 million worldwide gross of The Princess and the Frog could free it, then Dreamworks will have done the medium a genuine service.
Star Wars Film-Restoration Exec Dies
(latimes.com) John D. Lowry, an entertainment technology innovator who founded Lowry Digital Images, the renowned movie restoration company in Burbank that worked its magic by returning film classics such as "Casablanca" and "Star Wars" to their pristine state for DVD release, has died. He was 79.
Lowry died Jan. 21 at his home in Camarillo, said his son David. The cause of death is unknown.
"John Lowry's passion for cinema and expertise in technology were essential in preserving the work of filmmakers for future generations to enjoy," George Lucas told The Times in a statement.
"He has rescued many movies from irreparable decay, making it possible to enjoy them forever as the artists envisioned, without the damage of time," Lucas said. "His legacy has ensured that filmmakers can preserve their legacies."
Full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-john-lowry- 20120201,0,5063592.story
The Best CG Car Crashes
VIDEO - Take a look: http://vfxjuice.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-cg-car-crashes. html
Pixar’s "Cloudbursting" Reignites the Debate: Art Versus Commerce
(cloudtweaks.com)Pioneer Pixar continues to push the envelope. The legendary animation studio recently announced their most serious entry to date into the cloud, with Renderman On Demand. The cloud-rooted rendering application was launched in collaboration with GreenButton, a respected cloud services company. Currently available on Microsoft Azure, and soon to be accessible via Linux later this year, Renderman On Demand is a seminal step forward in the integration of the cloud into both arts and entertainment.
Producing animation in 3D is a potentially highly lucrative enterprise for film studios; just last year, “Rio,” released in 3D, made nearly $500 million internationally for Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox. Yet the creation — or rendering — of three-dimensional animation requires partnership between artists and designers at fever pitch. The inundation of needs to compose, edit, redraft, and share documents between a fleet of animators and designers inevitably results in a skyrocketing demand in computing requirements.
Obviously, Pixar and other houses of animation aren’t the only companies who need this ability to magnify computing ability on the spot. Industries of all stripes stand to benefit from this technology, known as “cloudbursting,” or the accessing of a software application that harnesses internal computing resources and converts them into a private cloud. With RenderMan, demands on animation teams that once took 20 days are now completed in 20 hours. That’s an enormous figure.
RenderMan On Demand might be the shiniest new application themed on cloudbursting for animators (and which could potentially be expanded to businesses in similarly needy sectors). Yet the conversation Pixar has launched in the release of this application has extended into a larger web of questions.
Can the cloud potentially monetize art? Will cloud computing instead fuel art in the future, by making it more affordable and faster? What is cloud computing’s input into the ongoing debate between art and commerce? Tom Foremski, of Silicon Valley Watcher, has compellingly concluded that cloud computing is fueling a new wave in the impact of digital arts. Individual animators with their own companies that lack the computing horsepower of titans like Pixar can now compete on an even playing field with those big boys thanks to the cloud.
Applications like Elastic Compute Cloud from Amazon are thus enabling smaller figures in the computer arts; EC2 basically offers users the processing capacity of hundreds of computers at once, with users able to dial up or down the precise amount of power needed at any given moment.
So critical has the cloud become to the animation / digital arts community that even educational programs, like the Arts Institute, are discussing its relevance for the next generation of artists.
As long as animators desire to create works of multicolored beauty in motion, and patrons exist to pay them for their services, the cloud will continue to influence and direct the progression of how such creativity takes place on their computers.
Dragon Age Anime Film Due in Spring 2012
(joystiq.com)Hey, remember the Dragon Age anime? Back in 2010, EA and Funimation announced plans for an original direct-to-video animated feature based on the franchise, to be released in 2011. Funimation has finally unveiled Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, cleverly playing the delay off as an intentional Year of the Dragon placement.
You can see footage from the CG animated movie in the "Production Update" below. You'll be able to see the whole thing on DVD and Blu-Ray this spring.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/31/dragon-age-anime-film- due-in-spring-2012/
Effects Whiz Still Creating Otherworldly Adventures
(nytimes.com) WHEN the special-effects whiz and director Douglas Trumbull receives a special Oscar on Saturday — the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for filmmakers “whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry" — it could be taken as a valedictory tribute, the cap on a career that began with Stanley Kubrick and “2001: A Space Odyssey” and includes a best-picture nominee this year, “The Tree of Life.” But Mr. Trumbull, 69, is hardly finished with his contributions.
At his home and studio in the Berkshires, where donkeys and goats frolic outside, mad experiments in cinema are taking place. Mr. Trumbull is working on a new production paradigms and trying to engage the industry in the same kind of technical and artistic adventure he had on his first feature.
“Kubrick was pushing into this new, nonverbal territory that took the audience on an adventure in space,” Mr. Trumbull said, recalling his debut, as a visual effects supervisor on “2001.” “It wasn’t about the normal cinematic dynamics of close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots and reversals and conflicts and plot. He was trying to go into another world of first-person experience. I said, ‘Sign me up.’ ”
But the brave new world Mr. Trumbull glimpsed was soon eclipsed by Hollywood’s embrace of the blockbuster, and the results, he said, are now damaging the industry. “If you spend 150 to 200 million on a movie and take all of that value and try to cram it through this narrow slot,” he said, referring to the standard movie-house experience of small and underlighted screens, “you’re throwing away most of the production value.”
Over breakfast in Greenwich Village last month he explained that “you could massively amp up the effect of these kinds of movies” — like the ones he’s known for, “Blade Runner,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” — with a few simple changes. Make them brighter and bigger and run them at higher frame rates, that is, the speed at which individual pictures, or frames, are flashed in front of you.
Since the silent era the industry standard has been 24 frames a second. Peter Jackson is shooting “The Hobbit” at 48; James Cameron may well make “Avatar 2” at 60. Mr. Trumbull is talking 120.
Because of what is known as “persistence of vision,” the human eye is fooled into interpreting the rapid projection of individual images as motion. Think of a simple flip book, which does the same thing, to much clumsier effect. But though you may not realize it, at 24 frames per second, the eye is being presented with darkness more than half the time. The faster the frame rate, the more lifelike the image.
“There are really no words for it in English,” he said of his development, “but it’s a window onto reality.”
This isn’t the first time Mr. Trumbull has experimented with frame rate. In the ’70s for Paramount he started the Future General Corporation to develop new film technologies, including Showscan, an Imax-like format that used 70-millimeter film projected at 60 frames a second. “Showscan was my favorite,” he said, “because it was regaining, and going beyond, what I’d done with Kubrick.”
The film critic Joe Morgenstern saw a Showscan demonstration in Los Angeles in the late ’70s and said: “I remember the smoothness and richness of it, almost a three-dimensionality. It’s not just difficult to remember, but also to articulate, because the frame rate really does change everything. It provides a heightened sense of dimensionality.”
“Trumbull,” Mr. Morgenstern added, “was preaching the gospel before Cameron ever thought of it.”
As Mr. Trumbull describes it, Showscan “allows you to break the fourth wall of cinema, to allow performers to relate one-on-one to an audience, and it’s very hard to explain that.”
Paramount hired him to make the first feature in Showscan, which became “Brainstorm,” a film known less for its technical achievements than for the death of Natalie Wood, the event that led to Mr. Trumbull’s departure from his native Los Angeles.
First, the studio, MGM, wanted to shut down production after Ms. Wood’s death (in a case that was recently reopened), and Mr. Trumbull fought to finish it. When it was finally released, the film wound up trapped in a Catch-22.
“The theaters said, ‘We love it, but we’re not going to put in projectors unless all the studios shoot that way,’ ” Mr. Trumbull recalled. “And the studios said, ‘We’re not going to make movies like this unless the theaters put the equipment in.’ ”
“So when I couldn’t get that to happen,” he added, “and then had this whole tragedy with Natalie Wood on ‘Brainstorm,’ I just said, ‘I’m out of here for a while.’ I moved to the Berkshires and set up shop.”
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/movies/awardsseason/ douglas-trumbull-honored-for- technology-hes-still-creating. html
The Future of CGI w/ Michael Bay & Jon Favreau
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6ce41e448e/motion- capture-artists-paul-scheer- rob-huebel-with-jon-favreau- ray-liotta-michael-bay
The Origin of Tron
(tgdaily.com) Like with many great films, the stories behind the scenes can be just as entertaining as the movies themselves.
The origins of Tron can actually be traced all the way back to the late 70's. Writer/director Steve Lisberger had his own animation studio, Lisberger Films, back in Boston. A graduate of the city's School of the Museum of Fine Arts, he was creating animation regularly for networks such as ABC and PBS, but kept his eyes on a much bigger prize.
"When you have an animation studio you try to create your Mickey Mouse," Lisberger says. "It's no secret that animation studios survive by creating characters who are their actors they own, and we were a team of people in Boston who wanted to create a character."
On Lisberger's team were Roger Allers, who went on to direct The Lion King, and John Norton. Norton came up with an idea of a warrior who was made of neon. They called him Tron, but they didn't have a setting for him. Then one night Lisberger went to visit his in-laws, and everyone was crouched around the TV, playing Pong.
"They kept referring to the games, 'play the game,' and since I had been working on a project called Animalympics, the idea of games to me meant more than that, it meant Olympic or gladiatorial games. Then I thought, 'Well, our warrior should be in a gladiatorial game setting.' From there the whole thing started to snowball." Ultimately Tron would be about human characters who are sucked into, and have to fight their way through, a computer animated video game world.
The origin of Tron Lisberger Films was originally going to make Tron themselves. They had just finished Animalympics, a spoof on the Olympic games with animated animal athletes (Billy Crystal, Gilda Radner and Harry Shearer provided the voices).
It was going to run in segments during the 1980 Olympics between athletic events, but when America boycotted the games, the project fell apart and Lisberger Films no longer had the financial means to make Tron in-house. They reportedly took Tron to Warner Brothers, MGM and Columbia, who all turned it down, before it wound up at Disney.
Science fiction films that are heavily visual are often a tough sell. When George Lucas tried to set up Star Wars, he had a hard time drumming up any interest because it was completely unintelligible in treatment form. The Wachowski Brothers reportedly had to create extensive graphic novel style storyboards for The Matrix before Warner Brothers really got it. When Lisberger and company went out to sell Tron, they were ready.
"We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the project when we went to Disney," he says. "We had it storyboarded, we had designs, we had budgets, we had staff, we had schedules, we had sample reels, I mean we had everything but money."
Tron had a strong ally in Tom Wilheit, then the head of Disney's film division, who Lisberger calls a visionary. "Tom believed Tron was going to establish Disney as a force beyond the Herbie movies. The powers that be at the studio really resented the film with all these young conjurers, and Wilheit was looked down upon by the old Disney guard. But he took a shot on something really crazy during the brief time he ran the studio. He also was the one who was responsible for bringing Roger Rabbit into Disney."
Computer effects were being pitched to the major studios as far back as the 70s, but no one was interested. The CGI revolution was still far away and Disney hoped it would stay that way. "When we were making the movie at Disney, people used to hold up crosses when Tron walked through the halls," Lisberger recalls. "We were the undead. We were making a film that was from the netherworld. They were just very afraid. This was the future and it was rolling down the most conservative linoleum hallways on the earth."
Disney was stuck in the past and just couldn't move with the times. Their last live action hit at the time was apparently The Love Bug. Lisberger recalled two geriatric Disney executives arguing about the dearth of good live action films at the studio. One said they should have made E.T., and the other shot back, "We made E.T., it was called The Cat From Outer Space!"
Lisberger had a hell of a time casting the film because Disney's rep was so bad that an agent only sent their actors there if The Love Boat was on hiatus. "Back then if you told people you were trying to cast a Disney movie back they'd just hung up on you," he says. They just didn't want to know. Everybody was just fixated on: 'You can't work for Disney, no one works for that studio.'"
Yet the under-rated and always dependable Jeff Bridges clearly didn't care about the politics involved; he wanted to do the movie, pure and simple. "This sounds far out," he told Lisberg. And as we saw by the end result, indeed it was.
Source: http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/ 61149-the-origin-of-tron
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