(reelz.com) It seems box office receipts aren't the only way to get a sequel made these days.
Last week, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures decided to keep developing the sequel to director David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, despite Dragon Tattoo's mediocre box office numbers (currently at $106 million worldwide on a $90 million budget). Based on the first of Stieg Larsson's international best-selling "Millennium" trilogy of novels, Dragon Tattoo's holiday opening was ultimately seen as the movie's undoing (the movie's first trailer dubbed the thriller "the feel-bad movie of Christmas"). Nevertheless, Sony decided to not only move forward with The Girl Who Played with Fire, Steig's second novel in the trilogy, but also with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, anticipating that international box office could eventually bring in $200 million to $300 million worldwide.
Dragon Tattoo screenwriter Steven Zaillian (American Gangster) is already set to adapt both novels, but Fincher is still in question. The director revealed last month that he feels no "need" to make sequels to Dragon Tattoo, and he could be too busy with another, long-gestating project.
According to The Playlist, Fincher's schedule may not align with Sony's, as Fincher is looking to finally shoot his remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Originally, McG was going to direct 20,000 Leagues, but Disney scrapped the adaptation in 2009, allowing the studio to hire Fincher to start over with the project almost a year later.
Armed with a script written by Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) and Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) and based on Jules Verne's classic story, Fincher is now looking to shoot 20,000 Leagues "in the fall or early 2012", the exact same time Sony is hoping to shoot The Girl Who Played With Fire. The heavy CGI and 3-D production will reportedly require an extensive post-production period and, to make matters worse, Fincher is also planing to direct the pilot of an upcoming Netflix show titled House of Cards in the spring. That would keep Fincher busy until at least 2013, the year Sony hopes to release the Dragon Tattoo sequel.
Sony will retain stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, both of whom are already signed for The Girl Who Played With Fire, but retaining Fincher seems impractical. Of course, Sony could decide that they want to sign Fincher for the sequel anyway (for a payday that could exceed $10 million), change the release date plans, and push off production for a year, but, it seems unlikely — for now at least. Not that Fincher's concerned. According to the report, Fincher has an option for the sequel that will pay him $5 million whether he does or does not direct the movie, so Fincher has little reason to change his plans if he doesn't want to.
Disney's $250 Million "John Carter" Gamble
(TheWrap.com) The exit of Disney marketing president MT Carney on Monday creates yet more drama around "John Carter," the $250 million sci-fi epic that may be the biggest studio gamble since "Avatar."
The film doesn't hit theaters until March, but reports are rampant that "John Carter" has gone over budget and required costly reshoots.
A lackluster early trailer didn't help the buzz and now, without a marketing executive to lead the global rollout, the pressure on "John Carter" is more intense than ever.
"It doesn't just have to open big -- it has to be one of the top grossing films of all time," a rival studio executive told TheWrap.
A film of this size and scope typically requires a marketing budget of roughly $120 million, adding to the price tag.
All eyes are on Disney to see if the studio can turn the lead character from Edgar Rice Burroughs' once beloved, now largely forgotten 11-volume Mars series into a $700 million blockbuster. Its director, Andrew Stanton, admitted to the New Yorker in October that it will have to gross that much worldwide to justify a sequel.
That's more than "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" or "Iron Man" banked during their theatrical runs.
Only one March release, "Alice in Wonderland," has ever exceeded that benchmark, and it was able to rack up over $1 billion globally thanks in no small part to the combined talents of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
In contrast, "John Carter" is relying on untested "Friday Night Lights" star Taylor Kitsch and Stanton, who scored hits with "Wall-E" and "Finding Nemo" but is hardly a household name. Stanton has had great success with animation -- winning Oscars for both those movies -- but he's never shot a live-action film before.
Ironically, Kitsch is also starring in "Battleship," a $200-million-plus film from Universal that has set off rumors in the blogosphere of a similarly troubled production.
Subsequent "John Carter" trailers and TV spots have received a more favorable reception, and there's still time to build excitement for the outerspace adventure, but there's no denying the stakes.
Disney declined to comment.
Compounding those challenges is the ouster of Disney's controversial president of movie marketing Carney, who had been overseeing "John Carter"s' rollout. The movie opens in two months, but with Carney out and Disney still searching for her replacement, it will be left to the studio's inhouse team to handle the opening.
The studio has not hired an outside marketing consultant for "John Carter," nor does it plan to, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
Marketing issues aside, some industry observers tell TheWrap that a movie this risky should never have been made -- at least not at this budget. To them, "John Carter" is evidence of runaway production and profligacy.
"How does something like this get green lit?" one film financier told TheWrap. "It's insane. The only people who could justify a budget like this are true superstar filmmakers like Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. Guys who have a proven history and who have created billions."
Though the film was greenlit while Dick Cook served as the studio's chief, according to an individual with knowledge, it will test the regime of Rich Ross, who replaced him in 2009.
If Ross pulls it off, he will be credited with launching a potential film franchise that has both fascinated and bedeviled the film industry for decades.
The attempts to get the Burroughs story onto screens dates back to 1931, when Looney Tunes director Bob Clampett approached the author about plans to adapt the first book in his John Carter series, "A Princess of Mars," into a feature-length animated film.
Clampett's vision was abandoned over concerns it wouldn't play well to midwestern audiences, but starting in the 1980s the idea of filming Burroughs' story was kicked around at Paramount and Disney. At various points, everyone from Tom Cruise to Jon Favreau was attached to the film.
But the movie, which centers on a Confederate soldier (Kitsch) who is transported to Mars where he tries to put an end to interstellar civil war, has proven notoriously difficult to adapt.
There's a great deal of optimism that Stanton may have cracked the code. After all the boyish looking, Pixar dynamo has a reputation for taking films that on their face should never work -- "Wall-E" is a nearly silent movie about a robot -- and spinning them into celluloid gold.
One producer who works with Disney said that the studio is bullish about the project, and the New Yorker reports that an early test screening had 75 percent of the audience rating the science fiction epic as "good" or "excellent."
"I think it has a good shot of breaking even or turning a profit," J.C. Spink, a producer on "A History of Violence" and "The Hangover," told TheWrap. "At its core, it's a really cool story. I remember hearing rumors about 'X-Men' and 'Avatar,' and they turned out to be great movies. You can't make a judgment until a movie comes out."
That said, the early trailers and the studio's decision to abbreviate the film's title from "John Carter of Mars" to "John Carter" left some sensing that Disney doesn't quite know how best to sell what Stanton delivered.
"I've seen the trailer and they never explain what the hell is going on," the rival studio executive told TheWrap, adding: "Not releasing the film in the summer raises some eyebrows."
"The trailer felt weak," a film producer told TheWrap. "It felt like 'Cowboys and Aliens' with some guy running around the old west or I guess Mars."
A full trailer and a collection of TV spots released last month have received slightly better buzz. The new previews for the outer space epic positions its hunky hero as a freedom fighter in the "Gladiator" vein and overflows with shots of CGI-created aliens.
The geek crowd, which will be key to making the movie a hit, was more impressed.
"Can't deny it," Harry Knowles of Aint It Cool News wrote. "Little boy in me is being pretty insistent. It isn't my instant inclination to introduce the character in that fashion, but getting to really hear the sound ... it kinda' gives me goosebumps."
Phil Tippett Goes Dark For Animated Short
(onecoolthingaday.com)
VFX legend Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park) directs this dark animated short:
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.onecoolthingaday.com/today/2012/1/10/vfx- legend-phil-tippett-star-wars- jurassic-park-directs-this. html
X-Men: First Class Planning Sequel
(comingsoon.net)Maybe this isn't the biggest shocker, but Michael Fassbender told ComingSoon.net's SuperHeroHype tonight that he's pretty sure there will be another "X-Men" movie following a $353.6 million worldwide box office for X-Men: First Class.
SuperHeroHype caught up with the in-demand actor tonight at the National Board of Review Gala in New York CIty, where he received the Spotlight Award for his roles in four 2011 movies, including "First Class," and Fassbender told us that he is indeed in!
"I have no choice. They contracted me for two options. I gotta get down with it," he joked. "We're at the ground level, but yeah I think there's going to be another one."
You can next see Fassbender in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire on January 20th and then in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, opening in theaters on June 8.
George Lucas Celebrates ‘Red Tails’
(blogs.wsj.com) The premiere of the new World War II drama “Red Tails” in New York City drew many of the movie’s cast members–and some of the real-life airmen depicted in the film.
Inspired by actual events, “Red Tails” tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of African-American fighter pilots in the U.S. armed forces. “Star Wars” creator George Lucas executive produced the film, which was released under his Lucasfilm banner.
At last night’s screening at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City, Lucas said that the film was the result of “a lot of work by a lot of people.” He stood near the back of the theater as the crowds streamed in; he was recognized by some theatergoers, but many others didn’t notice the legendary filmmaker as they rushed to their seats to take in his latest project. Lucas, as he watched patrons arrive, seemed eager to see how the film would be received.
Lucas has a lot riding on “Red Tails”–in October his representative told Speakeasy that he has spent $58 million to make the film and $35 million more to distribute it.
Also on hand for the premiere were “Red Tails” stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Terrence Howard, who happily posed for pictures with female fans in the Ziegfeld lobby. Later, director Spike Lee joined Gooding and Howard in front of the cameras.
Cinesite Accepting Intern Applications
(variety) London vfx house Cinesite is accepting applications for its annual internship program, Inspire, now in its third year. Program now includes a new technical effects strand that specifically targets graduates with an interest in computer programming or technical effects. Antony Hunt, managing director, added the track to encourage a new-generation of programmers to consider the vfx industry as a viable option for their skills and to help budding effects artists demonstrate their technical ability. Cinesite internships are six-week paid summertime positions. "I'm always bowled over by the amount of submissions we receive for Inspire, and every year the quality of entries keeps getting better," said Hunt. Previous Inspire winners have worked on "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "John Carter" and "World War Z ." Since finishing their placements, all six winners have secured positions at Cinesite.
Brad Bird discusses future of The Incredibles
(tgdaily.com) Brad Bird was recently interviewed about Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - but ended up talking about The Incredibles, a CGI, family, super hero parody film from Pixar that hit theaters back in 2004.
Bird told MTV that he’s been working on the franchise in his head for years, and has a lot of ideas, most of which he concocted before making the first film.
Obviously, some had to be put off due to time constraints, as the film needed to explain a lot of backstory while establishing the characters, leaving little room for other devices. Future films wouldn’t have such constraints.
"I haven't got it all figured out yet," he said. "I have got a lot of ideas that I originally intended to be in the first movie, and you have to start throwing things out of the balloon at a certain point to get it up in the air, but a lot of the things you throw out are really cool, and would be good in a movie, so some of those things were intended for Incredibles, and there just wasn’t the space to get them in there. I love those characters and if I could make [a film] that was to Incredibles what the Toy Story sequels were to Toy Story, I'd do it.”
Bird goes on to explain that a part of the reason a new Incredibles film has not yet been made is that the number of super hero films currently coming out is so high, that it discourages more. "What the world [really] needs now is another superhero sequel," he says with sarcasm.
Despite the current glut of current super hero films, I believe The Incredibles is a unique project that a lot of fans would love to see more of, especially since it’s a sort of parody of the super hero genre. There is a lot of material out there right now to make fun of, and I don’t think it would suffer for a share of the audience.
Bakeoff Buzz: Heart Trumps Hardware
(variety.com)Visual effects have long been used for spectacle: spaceships, disasters, superheroes -- the kind of things that inspire the term "movie magic."
In truth, though, that sometimes leaves vfx pros feeling like carneys outside an opera house, good for some casual amusement but not to be taken as seriously as the real artists inside.
Vfx artists love it when their talents are used for more ambitious pictures, or at least to lend some real emotional punch to tentpole spectacles. Pros' desire to do serious work that's taken seriously helped shape this year's Academy vfx bakeoff, and it's likely to shape the results as well.
Emotion, not technology, fuels the buzz this year. Even "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" vfx supervisor Scott Farrar, talks first about emotion when asked what he means to highlight in his bakeoff reel.
"Of course everybody thinks it's explosions and things and that's certainly part of it," Farrar says. "But we have important exposition and acting moments, especially from Bumblebee, who can't talk. He's my favorite character. He tells a lot with his eyes and nuances of facial expression."
In the bakeoff is Terrence Malick's elegiac "The Tree of Life," an art film mostly about Malick's Texas upbringing. John Knoll, who was vfx supervisor on "Mission: Impossible 4," observes "Tree of Life's" 18-minute "origin of life" sequence is "beautifully executed (shots) that represent a lot of unconventional thinking about how these things are made." And it doesn't hurt that "Tree of Life" is an ambitious work from an established auteur.
Another auteurist pic in the competish, "Hugo," is also a bittersweet exercise in nostalgia, and uses its vfx elements, including vistas of Paris and its vanished 19th century train station, to create a stylized feel reminiscent of magic realism. Its vistas of Paris and the other digital environments are the more obvious vfx, but Farrar (who is a d.p. by training) hails its "elegant" shot design.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" fits the more traditional mold of vfx pics, and the performance-capture tech behind it is only a modest advance from previous winners. But it's Andy Serkis' performance as genetically altered ape Caesar that has vfx pros buzzing. The tech behind Lola Visual Effects' "Skinny Steve" shots in "Captain America: The First Avenger" is no major breakthrough, either, but the impact of seeing star Chris Evans go from scrawny to brawny is new.
Sometimes the vfx contribute to emotion by being believable enough not to take the aud out of the movie. That's arguably true on "X-Men: First Class," "Real Steel" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." "Potter" vfx supervisor Tim Burke, says, "Our goal from day 1 was to make (sets and vfx) so integrated that the audience would never know it was a heavy CG film."
On "Mission: Impossible 4," there some obvious vfx, such as the blowing up of the Kremlin, and while Tom Cruise really did cling to the outside of the towering Burj Khalifa in Dubai, he did it with the aid of safety rigs the vfx team had to painstakingly remove.
But Knoll is especially proud of a simpler scene: The hallway sequence with a projector that fools a guard. "I love that gag," he says. "Even though it was not super complicated work, we helped tell an amusing story. It's one of my favorite parts of the film."
So this year, as the vfx race heats up, look for more talk about art and less about new technologies. As "Hugo" vfx supervisor Rob Legato puts it: "My stress is about how beautiful it looks and how beautifully it represents the artistic point of view of the movie. Does the picture inspire you in some way? If so, it transcends the artifice of how it was done."
Breaking Dawn: The Other 600 Mundane FX Shots
(boomtron.com)Twilight fans know that bringing Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight to the big screen have required a fair share of special effects. Movie wizards have allowed giant wolves to share scenes with humans and vampires. They’ve given us glimpses and vampires, made of organic marble, who shimmer when sunlight hits them. They’ve utilized wires to make vampires kick butt in fast moving fight sequences. They’ve even made Kristen Stewart look like a sickly, bruised, pregnant woman. Well, you might not know it, but even more mundane areas required a touch from FX masters. Take a look at some behind the scenes video from Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, part one.
According to SPIN VFX supervisor Jeff Campbell, the Cullen house existed on a sound stage. Who knew? So, each and every window had to be set up with a green screen. Then, special effects artisans had to add reflections for fake glass and green vistas so that the house would appear to be located deep in the lush woods of Washington State.
Compositing supervisor Eric Doiron had to shoot tons and tons of views of the Cullen House from every conceivable angle, at various times of the day in order to get the lighting and reflections on the glass just right. Models of all of the furniture were used and believe it or not, even and digital body doubles for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were employed to figure out how they would reflect off of the glass. There was something like 600 shots taken over the course of three months. What a job!
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.boomtron.com/2012/01/robert-pattinson-and- kristen-stewart-breaking-dawn- fx/
Warhorse Tank Set for Museum
(dorsetecho.co.uk)FILM and history lovers are in for a treat as a tank used in Steven Spielberg’s latest blockbuster War Horse comes to Dorset.
The fully operational replica of a British Mk IV tank will be displayed at The Tank Museum in Bovington when the film is released later this week and will be used in its tank display later in the year.
Museum curator David Willey said: “The vehicle is a wonderful recreation with all the presence and menace of the real thing.
“But inside, it remains simple and modern.”
War Horse, based on Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 children’s book and stage adaptation of the same name, tells the story of Joey the horse, who is deployed as part of the cavalry during the First World War.
The play at the National Theatre has achieved West End success and won five Tony awards, including Best Play, at last year’s ceremony.
The full-sized replica tank used in the film was based on the museum’s own Mark IV, which was built in 1917.
Oscar award-winning special effects company Neil Corbould Special Effects LTD, whose credits include Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator, visited The Tank Museum to take measurements from the vehicle and copy original documents related to the MK IV tank from the museum’s archive in 2010.
The tank, which has been secretly kept at the museum until the film’s release, was built around the engine, transmission and track from a modern commercial excavator.
It makes a brief appearance in the film, symbolising the impact of technology on the battlefield and the changes in warfare that World War One ushered in.
David added: “We obtained this replica because with the World War One centenaries approaching, we wanted a working example of a tank that was representative of that conflict.
“For conservation reasons, we are no longer able to run any of our own vehicles from this period.
“We have long been investigating the possibility of building our own replica so when this vehicle became available to us we were eager to acquire it.”
The vehicle will be part of the museum’s Tankfest event in June and War Horse will be in cinemas from January 13.
• The Tank Museum, Bovington, holds the broadest collection of armoured vehicles in the world.
The 10 Best Visual Effects Scenes of 2011
(popularmechanics.com)There's a backlash building in Hollywood against the overuse of computer-generated imagery (CGI). For the most part, though, 2011's popcorn blockbusters still leaned heavily on green screens and render farms to produce the most spectacular visual effects (VFX) of the year. Here are our picks for the scenes that proved that pixels can still impress us (even when the movies they populate don't).
10. The Adjustment Bureau: Door-to-Door
Say what you will about the decision to turn one of Philip K. Dick's bleakest, most nihilistic stories into a metaphysical romance, but The Adjustment Bureau is filled with VFX shots so classy, you never realize that whole streets, crowds and environments were fake. The most dizzying sequence comes at the end, when Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's characters sprint through various magical doors, seamlessly teleporting from one New York location to another. They travel from a courthouse to Yankee stadium to a Manhattan street, and then to Liberty Island. Without the VFX house’s before-and-after highlight reel, the reality-warping illusion is impossible to see through.
9. Immortals: Clashing with Titans
Gods move in mysterious ways in Immortals. Or, rather, their victims do, hanging and twisting in midair after being killed—a way the filmmakers demonstrated the superhuman speed of the gods making war with Titans.
This effect shows up multiple times during the movie, but the brawl that follows the Titans' prison break is most stunning, as the gods' targets and their spattered blood instantly downshift to a new, slower speed, drifting through space while combat proceeds at a regular pace around them. Though copious CGI completed the effect, the VFX wizards smoothly integrated the different movement rates by filming different actors at different speeds. One shot combined motion-capture footage filmed at 48 frames per second (fps), and separate footage at 500 fps.
8. Hugo: Paris Overflight
Scorsese's surprise contribution to 3D and family-friendly cinema, Hugo, begins with an extended overflight of a snowy Paris in 1931. The entirely digital cityscape is convincing, but it's when the camera nosedives into the rail terminal, through the crowds and past the walls to follow the eponymous hero's hidden route among the station's pipework and clockwork gears that we realize what CG can do in the hands of a master director and cinematographer. The interior shots are mix of live and digital elements, but none of it comes across as a polished-up videogame cutscene. It's a fitting beginning to a movie-length tribute to cinema in general, and the father of visual effects, Georges Méliès, in particular.
VIDEO - The other seven: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/digital/visual- effects/the-10-best-visual- effects-scenes-of-2011?click= pm_news
What Went Wrong with Animation in 2011?
(blogs.indiewire.com)It certainly seems that way, since all I kept hearing over the holidays was disappointment: Carping about "Cars 2" and sneering about "Happy Feet Two" (which arguably offered no compelling reason to return to the dancing penguins of the Antarctic). At least you could say that "Puss in Boots" exceeded expectations and "Rio" transported us to a Brazilian paradise.
And all that complaining about too many sequels and a lack of originality didn't inoculate Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin" from criticism. While some were pleasantly surprised by his liberating adventure in virtual production, others questioned the wisdom of the performance capture and the whiz-bang pacing. On the bright side, "Arthur Christmas" was welcomed as a nice comeback for Aardman. No wonder the off-beat "Rango" stepped in early on to fill the creative void and has been the Oscar front runner ever since.
Best use of performance capture was "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," perhaps the animated triumph of the year for its astounding CG Caesar. Thanks to Weta Digital and Andy Serkis, we got both technical virtuosity and emotional catharsis. And it's that emotional component that truly separated the animated films of 2010 from 2011. There was no "Toy Story 3" or "How to Train Your Dragon" or "Despicable Me" last year. Period.
And, according to Box Office Mojo, it was reflected at the box office. Whereas 2010 was led by the record-breaking "Toy Story 3" ($415 million), "Despicable Me" ($251.5 million), "Shrek Forever After ($238.7 million), "How to Train Your Dragon" ($217.5 million), and "Tangled" ($200.8 million), all in the top 10, 2011 saw a huge drop-off in grosses for animated features.
Still, "Cars 2" led the way on the strength of the Pixar brand and boys' love of cars ($191.4 million), followed by "Kung Fu Panda 2" ($165.2 million), "Puss in Boots" ($145.5 million), "Rio" ($143.6 million), "The Smurfs" ($142.6 million), "Rango" ($123.2 million), "Gnomeo & Juliet" ($99.9 million), "Happy Feet Two" ($60.9 million), "The Adventures of Tintin" ($50.8 million since its Christmas debut), "Arthur Christmas" ($46.1 million), and "Winnie the Pooh" ($26.6 million).
But the biggest animation box office story of 2011 was "The Lion King" 3-D theatrical release, which brought home a staggering $94.2 million for Disney. With 3-D on the wane, but more Disney and Pixar evergreens slated for 3-D release this year, time will tell if this is more than just a one-off. In any event, the added revenue propelled "The Lion King" to second place on the all-time list of animated features, with $422.7 million (less than $19 million shy of "Shrek 2"). Talk about mixed messages: After the lackluster showing of "Winnie the Pooh," the future of Disney's hand-drawn legacy looks bleaker than ever.
Then again, it was more about technology than storytelling in 2011: "Cars 2" offered noteworthy tweaks from Pixar in lighting, painting, and driving performance befitting Formula 1 racing, gadget-driven action and virtual world building; "Kung Fu Panda 2" had its own lighting and rendering advancements from DreamWorks for virtual world building as well as new feathers, cloth, and rigging for the elegant baddie, Lord Shen; "Happy Feet Two" started from scratch with a new studio (Dr. D) and benefitted from a project-driven pipeline that improved animated performance and environmental richness; "Rio" saw Blue Sky create a whole new animated world for its birds of paradise and Carnival festivities; "Arthur Christmas" brought out the best in Aardman and Sony for designing and rendering marvelous misfits caught in a winter wonderland of yuletide dreams; and Weta finally proved with "Tintin" that performance capture has a rightful place in animation for hitting that sweet spot between photorealism and caricature. Indeed, Weta continues to stand at the forefront of the virtual production revolution with its breakthroughs.
However, Industrial Light & Magic made the biggest technical leap of the year with "Rango," its first animated feature (how ironic given that Pixar had its origins as ILM's computer graphics division). Leveraging its unrivaled VFX legacy for photorealism, ILM went outside the box for a down and dirty animated look that was more photosurreal. Now the studio is chomping at the bit to work on another animated feature. So, with Paramount in need of a new animation provider for its fledgling division, perhaps ILM will get the chance to evolve as new player. Let's hope so.
Meanwhile, the prospects for 2012 look much brighter: Illumination ("Despicable Me") is back with "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" (March 2); Pixar has its first fairy tale and female lead in the Scottish actioner, "Brave" (June 22); Sony has the intriguing monster mash-up, "Hotel Transylvania" (Sept. 21), directed by Genndy Tartakovsky ("Samurai Jack"); Disney has "Wreck-It-Ralph" (Nov. 2) about an arcade game baddie-turned hero, helmed by former" Simpson's" animation director Rich Moore; and DreamWorks has the imaginative "Rise of the Guardians" fairy tale/superhero mash-up (Paramount, Nov. 21).
Plus, three stop-motion features are slated for release in 2012: Aardman's "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" (Sony, March 30); Laika's "Coraline" follow-up, "ParaNorman" (Focus Features, Aug. 17); and Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie" (Disney, Oct. 5). The really good news is that there are only two high-profile sequels this year: DreamWorks' "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" (Paramount, June 8) and Blue Sky's "Ice Age: Continental Drift" (Fox, July 13).
Time Lapse Video of 'Albert Nobbs' Make-up Transformation
(makeupmag.com)On Jan. 9, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the seven films that remain in the running for this year’s Achievement in Makeup Oscar. Among the contenders is Albert Nobbs, which is directed by Rodrigo García and stars Glenn Close as a woman who disguises herself as a man to find work in 19th-century Dublin.
Special make-up effects artist Matthew Mungle designed the film’s prosthetics, which were applied by make-up department head Lynn Johnson. Below is a featurette on Close’s make-up and hair in Albert Nobbs.
For complete details on the Oscar contenders, pick up Issue 93 and Issue 94 of Make-Up Artist magazine. And visit this site soon for coverage of the 84th Academy Awards make-up Oscar finalists.
The 84th Academy Awards will air Feb. 26 on ABC. Check local listings for show times.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://makeupmag.com/news/newsID/905/
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine" Pirate Gets One Year In Prison
(splashpage.mtv.com)A few years ago, there was a lot of hubbub surrounding “X-Men Origins: Wolverine." (No, it wasn’t the way they messed up Deadpool.) About a month prior to the film’s release, an unfinished copy was uploaded to the Internet for crazed fans to download and peruse. Lacking CGI or careful editing, the version was still more or less intact, and fans were able to criticize to their heart’s content. (Again, mostly about Deadpool.)
Though the original source of the leak was never found, the U.S. attorney’s office nabbed one scapegoat for the affair: Gilberto Sanchez, who admitted to putting the workprint on Megaupload.com and spreading the link around the Internet. Yesterday, Sanchez was sentenced to a year in federal prison on one count of uploading copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution.
Sanchez said he bought a copy of the workprint on a Bronx steet corner, but prosecutors weren’t dismayed.
"The federal prison sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates," U.S. attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in a statement. "The Justice Department will pursue and prosecute persons who seek to steal the intellectual property of this nation."
A one-year sentence seems hardly fitting considering the movie still ended up grossing $373 million worldwide, but those limits are in place as a deterrent against other would-be pirates, and Sanchez has to bear the sole damage against the thousands who presumably downloaded the incomplete film. It’s a sad story, but hopefully Sanchez will come out of it without looking worse for the wear.
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