(ShadowMachine) Mila Kunis has joined cast of ShadowMachine's Hell & Back, the studio announced today. She'll star opposite the previously announced Nick Swardson, TJ Miller, Rob Riggle, Brian Posehn and Kumail Najiani.
The R-rated stop-motion animated comedy follows two best friends (Swardson and Miller) as they rescue their buddy who has been accidentally dragged to Hell. ShadowMachine’s Corey Campodonico, Eric Blyler and Alex Bulkley are producing the film directed by Tommy Gianas ("SNL," "Human Giant," "Tenacious D," "Pretend Time") along with Ross Shuman, with current writing revisions by Hugh Sterbakov.
Kunis' character is officially described as follows:
Deema is a female demon whose ability to navigate the underworld makes her the toughest rogue demon in Hell. Her independent streak may come from her greatest secret: She's half-human. She was sired by the Orpheus of myth when he traveled down the River Styx years ago. What the myths don't say is that he was nailing everything that moved. When Orpheus is revealed to be...well, a bit of a tool, frankly...Deema has to look inside to figure out what it means to be human. She's the Han Solo of the film.
The film marks ShadowMachine’s first R-rated adult stop-motion animation feature and one of several in the works for the production outfit.
Work Begins On "Muppets" Sequel
(darkhorizons.com)
Disney is moving forward with a sequel to "The Muppets" after the first film scored $154 million at the worldwide box office reports Variety.
Director James Bobin and co-writer Nicholas Stoller will pen the script for the sequel. Jason Segel may return to star in the sequel, but his various projects are keeping him too busy to pen the sequel.
Kermit and Miss Piggy previously already announced plans for the sequel a few weeks ago during their international publicity tour for the first film.
'John Carter', 'The Avengers' & The Risk Of VFX Tentpoles
(forbes.com) The 2012 blockbuster season kicks off next weekend with Disney’s John Carter, a $250 million sci-fi epic based on a story by Tarzan author Edward Rice Burroughs. But right now it’s looking like the film might not turn in a blockbuster performance at the box office. According to tracking from earlier this week, people are about as aware of the film as they are of another movie opening that weekend, 21 Jump Street. Roughly the same amount of people say they want to see the two films. That’s fine for Sony which produced the big screen update of the ’80s cops-in-high-school movie. That film likely cost only $60 million to make.
But it points to a rough road ahead for Disney. The Mouse House (like many studios) has become increasingly reliant on films with massive budgets that need to earn $700 million and up at the global box office to become profitable.
Those risks can mean big rewards. Last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also cost an estimated $250 million and it earned $1 billion at the global box office.
But when those movies don’t perform it can do a lot of damage. Nikki Finke recently wrote that John Carter could be the “biggest writeoff of all time.” That story was based on now-old tracking information but Jeff Bock, of Exhibitor Relations, says that not only does the movie need to open to at least $50 million, but it will have to pull an Avatar and hold onto that box office for weeks.
Big budget franchise films are a necessity now that the studios are all owned by major media conglomerates like News Corp., Comcast and Sony. For Disney a hit like The Help doesn’t mean that much down the line. Sure the film earned $206 million on a budget of $25 million and Octavia Spencer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar but don’t expect a sequel or Aibileen and Minny dolls or a cartoon series based on the movie any time soon. The film divisions of these media companies need to do more than just make small profitable films, they need to create small empires.
Disney executives know they have a tough product on their hands with John Carter and to be fair, the film might not be quite the disaster many are expecting. Chatter among the geek class has been increasingly positive about the film. Ain’t It Cool News loves the movie and that can sometimes help at the box office. Then there’s this video of people coming out of a screening of the film raving about it. There’s also always a chance that the film will perform much better overseas than it will in America. That was the case with the latest Pirates which earned 77% of its total box office internationally.
But if John Carter does fail to wow at the box office, that’s going to put even more pressure on Disney’s two other big films this year: The Avengers and Brave.
A new trailer for The Avengers hit the Internet yesterday and instantly became the most popular trailer on iTunes. (The first trailer boke records on iTunes when it debuted in October.) The superhero film looks to be as close to a sure bet as studios get these days. The characters are all Marvel heroes who have already starred in their own blockbuster films like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans). Little boys across the country are already playing with Captain America airplanes and throwing Thor hammers from the films last year so it’s a safe bet they’ll hit the theaters to see the heroes come together.
It’s too early to know exactly how well The Avengers is tracking (the film hits theaters May 4th) but this kind of Internet buzz two months before the film opens can only be a good thing.
Will the success of The Avengers be able to make up for any losses from John Carter? That’s the kind of struggle all studios are facing now. Brave is a bit more of a wild card for Disney. Pixar movies tend to do very well at the box office but Brave will be the first Pixar film to feature a female hero and its Scottish setting means that all of the characters have accents.
It’s wise not to bet against the creative folks at Pixar though. Who would have though an almost silent movie about a trash collecting robot would be a hit but Wall-E earned $521 million at the global box office. And Disney has Finding Nemo in 3-D hitting theaters this September which will help dump some money into the coffers. (Nemo director Andrew Stanton is also directing John Carter.)
But the situation at Disney speaks to the increasingly risky game studios are playing. It’s easy to say they should go back to focusing on mid-budget films that can offer good returns but that’s no longer the reality of the business.
Sony Adapting "Bloodshot" Comics
(darkhorizons.com)Sony Pictures has closed a deal to acquire the film rights to the comic series "Bloodshot" says Deadline.
The 1992 comic follows a ruthless killer for the mob who is framed for a murder, put into Witness Protection, and then betrayed and forcibly subjected to an experimental program.
Injected with nanites that rebuild his brain and body to become a weapon of superhuman strength, he escapes and tries to figure out who he was.
Jeff Wadlow will write the script while Neal Moritz, Jason Kothari and Dinesh Shamdasani will produce.
VFX Pros Declare Theater-Going Experience is Dead
(PRWEB) Three luminaries in the movie world’s visual effects industry – Dean Lyon, Doug Trumbull, and James Fancher – want to transform the way 3D movies are made, distributed, and experienced so that going to see a movie shot in 3D is a big event. To achieve this, the trio has launched The Lab, an endeavor aimed at addressing key challenges in the movie industry. Lyon, Trumbull, and Fancher are currently seeking funding for The Lab.
Dean Lyon, Dough Trumbull, and James Fancher believe that Hollywood is at a potentially game-changing crossroads when it comes to producing, distributing, and exhibiting 3D feature films. ”We want to change and improve the production process for 3D filmmaking, rather than shoe-horn a new process into an old, broken one,” says Dean Lyon, one of the visual effects supervisors on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and a member of Visual Effects Society since 2004.
“Continual improvement of the final product is not optional. Audiences are jaded, the market is crowded, and viewers’ expectations of 3D films are not being fully met. The current market for theatrical film exhibition is threatened by home theaters and streaming media,” said Lyon, head of Splinter Studios and a spokesperson for The Lab.
Doug Trumbull, visual effects veteran and filmmaker, challenged Hollywood last year when he posed a question: How do you make the experience of going to the movies so spectacular and so different from watching a film at home on your television, tablet, or smartphone screen that audiences will embrace 3D and pay a premium price to see it?
Trumbull’s – and The Lab’s – answer? Shoot 3D films at 120 frames per second (fps), five times today’s standard 24fps and project them onto giant screens at seven times the luminosity found in most standard theaters today. The Lab’s team has been busy making this vision a reality and has already built a prototype 120fps 3D workflow, which will be used on Doug Trumbull's next three 3D feature film projects.
According to Dean Lyon “Development of higher frame rates means that the viewer is more ‘fully immersed’ in the 3D experience,” thus differentiating a film shot at 120fps from other 3D offerings in the market. “Other filmmakers are keenly following The Lab’s progress – think 3D heavyweights like James Cameron (Avatar) and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings), among others.”
2012 is proving to be a big year for Doug Trumbull. He received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award – an Oscar® statuette – for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the motion picture industry at the Scientific and Technical Awards presentation on February 11. Additionally, Trumbull received the 2012 George Méliès Award on February 7 at the 10th Annual Visual Effect Society Awards. The award honors individuals who have “pioneered a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by a way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.”
About The Lab
Founded in 2010, The Lab is the brainchild of three visual effects luminaries – Dean Lyon, Doug Trumbull, and James Fancher – who want to reinvent the movie-going experience. By building ‘The Lab’, they will develop a neutral playground to showcase technology to filmmakers, (i.e. James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, JJ Abrams, and others), license technology to their projects, and provide consulting and services.
The Lab is seeking funding to develop software and patents for next generation 3D feature film production and distribution. This new technology will find immediate application in new productions being readied by Doug Trumbull and other creative pioneers.
The Hobbit Production Video Blog Shows Andy Serkis Directing
(liveforfilms.com)New Zealand is as gorgeous as ever, even with her somewhat temperamental weather. We get to see more of the actors in action, in costume. A little bit of the life on set. And of course interviews from the cast and crew, including the normally elusive Martin Freeman, Mr. Bilbo Baggins himself.
We also see Andy Serkis working as Second Unit Director and how that works with Peter Jackson. He’s not just Gollum you know.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D on December 14th 2012. The Hobbit: There and Back Again is out in 3D on December 13th, 2013.
Video - Take a look: http://www.liveforfilms.com/2012/03/01/the-hobbit- production-video-blog-shows- andy-serkis-directing/
JIM HENSON'S FANTASTIC WORLD Exhibition to Close
(art.broadwayworld.com)Jim Henson’s Fantastic World will be on view at Museum of the Moving Image for only one more week—closing on Sunday, March 4. The final weekend of the show, Saturday and Sunday, March 3 and 4, 2012, features several special programs to mark the close of the successful national tour of this Smithsonian traveling exhibition, organized in partnership with The Jim Henson Legacy. On these two days, the Museum will give away a free limited-edition commemorative bookmark to ALL visitors (while supplies last).
The special weekend programs open with Heather Henson’s Sing-along with The Muppet Movie on Friday, March 2, and Saturday, March 3. Full of interactive surprises and characters coming right out of the screen into the audience, Muppet fans of all ages will enjoy renewing their “rainbow connection” with Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the whole gang. On Sunday, March 4, the Museum will present a special closing program with guest speakers and a screening of an exclusive video compilation celebrating the life and legacy of Jim Henson. Also on Sunday, there will be a final screening of The Muppet Show, with episodes featuring Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly. Full details are included in the schedule below.
In addition, from Tuesday, February 28 through Friday, March 2, the Museum will present Jim Henson’s Oscar-nominated short film Time Piece (1965, 9 mins.) in the Video Screening Amphitheater. This experimental short film tells what Henson—who also stars in the film—called “the story of Everyman, frustrated by the typical tasks of a typical day.”
Please note: The Museum is closed to the public on Monday, February 27.
The exhibition Jim Henson’s Fantastic World features more than 120 artifacts, including drawings, storyboards, props, video material, and fifteen iconic original puppets of such characters as Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Bert, and Ernie. It has traveled to thirteen museums throughout the United States with Moving Image as the final presenter. Since the show opened at the Museum on July 16, 2011, the exhibition has been seen by more than 100,000 visitors. During this period, special guests including Frank Oz, Brian Henson, Cheryl Henson, Heather Henson, Jane Henson, Bob McGrath, Brian Froud, Kevin Clash, Fran Brill, Bonnie Erickson, and other performers and colleagues of Jim Henson have participated in public programs. Many of these programs were compiled and presented by Craig Shemin, President of the Jim Henson Legacy.
Casualties Of The VFX Subsidy Trade War: Imageworks Albuquerque
(vizworld.com)Big news from Sony Pictures Imageworks today as they drop the bomb that they’re closing their New Mexico offices. VFXSoldier has the best writeup I’ve seen on the topic, relating it to the ever-growing battle over government subsidies.
The good news for VFX professionals is that there are other Vancouver shops to jump to but this might be bad news for the facilities. Many are moving there to supply US studios with access to huge subsidies while they swallow huge costs to lure the talent there. With Rhythm, Sony, DD, Pixar, ILM, and others trying to hire a relatively smaller talent pool you can expect costs to rise rapidly.
The events of today are undeniable. They play into the narrative that I’ve written about for almost the last 2 years.
VFX Is Moving To Expensive Locations, Not Cheaper Locations
Ghostbusters 3′ in “Suspended Animation”
(flavorwire.com)It seems like we’ve been hearing rumors about a third Ghostbusters movie forever, so what’s the deal? Is it going to happen, with or without the participation of Bill Murray? Dan Aykroyd, the driving force behind the project, has told the British Telegraph that while he’s dying to make the movie, it may never happen. Confirming that Murray is, indeed, the main obstacle to a sequel, Aykroyd said, “At this point it’s in suspended animation. The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn’t want to be involved. He’s got six kids, houses all over America. He golfs in these tournaments where they pay him to turn up and have a laugh. He’s into this life and living it.” Still, he tells the paper that he isn’t angry at Murray: “He’s a friend first, a colleague second. We have a deep personal relationship that transcends business.”
Although Aykroyd has talked about wanting to keep the original cast intact, Ghostbusters purists may still have reason to worry. The paper reports that he’s considering recasting the role of Peter Venkman, but he’s clearly conflicted about that, too, maintaining, “We’re not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise.” Here’s hoping Aykroyd keeps his words.
Too Much CGI: How Special Effects Are Killing Good Scripts
(oxfordstudent.com)Almost as long as there have been films, there have been special effects, evolving through rockets in the Moon’s eye and a giant ape climbing landmarks to lightsabers, dinosaurs, and Michael Bay. They made the impossible filmable; they created some of the most iconic moments in cinema. With computers, we can go further than ever, the only limit – as the cliché goes – is the filmmaker’s imagination. It is fantastic to trace the medium’s development in just over a century, and wonderful how images can transform how we see the world.
However, like all innovations, there is the darker downside. Computers may have given us Andy Serkis’ Gollum, the world of Pandora, the existential dilemmas of Toy Story; they also produced Transformers, the Star Wars prequels, the fourth Indiana Jones. Special effects used to be matters of innovation – the 1933 King Kong utilised stop-motion, greenscreen, and much more, while Star Wars inspired a revolution – while today it is almost too easy; which in turn affects other aspects of the film-making process, such as writing.
One criticism (amongst many) of The Phantom Menace was its ratio of CG to credible story. This is a growing trend: the film which prioritises style over substance. Some have levelled the same accusation at Avatar, and certainly without computers the Transformers franchise would have crumbled long ago – nay, might have never existed. Try comparing and contrasting the two versions of ghost story The Haunting: one based on atmosphere, the other on painful 1990s CG. Computers are not single-handedly responsible for killing the art of cinematic story-telling – it’s an extreme argument, and at most they are just one factor – but they are tempting for supporting a film.
Moreover, CG means innovation is less necessary. Without this, do you really need to worry about how something will look; with no limits on possibility, should anything be rejected? Speed and ease removes an aspect of the creative process – practicality versus innovation – where ideas had to fit the possible. Editing is just as important for story. Alongside pioneers such as Pixar – who combine visuals with fantastic storytelling – there lies a growing tendency to blind audiences with pretty effects.
With giant budgets and the limitless potential of CG, has a key influence on story been removed? Have we lost something by way of clever cinematography? Are movies increasingly about spectacle rather than story? For the most part, yes. The impact of 3D, the possibilities of enough money, easy animation pushing out live-action acting: they are the unpleasant reality. It is easier to get terrible stories with enough money to animate anything, from effects to the entire film. No longer do poor films mean poor visuals. However, this is not the whole story. Studios may love CG, and things are slightly worse, but innovations continue, and good films are still made, with or without them. It is simply a shame how CG has come to dominate the industry, potentially distancing it. Hopefully the writing will catch up soon.
Why Artists Aren't Rock Stars
(huffingtonpost.com)I make a living as an artist, so you can imagine my surprise when I asked five of my closest friends to name five famous living artists, and the longest list I received had just three names. Second place was one name. The other three could name none. These are the close friends of an artist!
Throughout our most recent centuries, visual artists were highly regarded and celebrated along with musicians, poets, and other gifted individuals who shared their talents. Yes, we always hear the stories of the Van Gogh types who never achieved fame or recognition until they had passed on, but they are actually the exception, not the rule. Even as recently as the 1980s, visual artists were reaching a level of celebrity and recognition.
Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe are all names I remember hearing as I was growing up. I would be hard pressed to find a 12-year-old who could name a living artist today.
I don't believe it is a coincidence that the shift in focus and appreciation for more traditional art forms and artists coincided with the birth of personal computing, the Internet, and (what I call) ADD-TV programming. We receive information in a faster, more homogenized way than ever.
Today's celebrities are people whose talents can be seen and appreciated on an electronic device. Thank God for the Kindle and the iPad, or else books may have become extinct. Authors are only slightly more famous than artists, but at least they make it to the talk show circuit!
For the art community, the future may look a bit bleak. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Earnings for self-employed artists also vary widely. Many do not make enough money just from selling their art. Many artists will need to have a second job in order to support themselves financially."
This just in.
In order to survive, art needs to reinvent itself, just like every other industry had to do twenty years ago. More importantly, artists need to reinvent themselves as well. We are living in a digital era and the vast majority of artists are still working with an analog medium.
Andy Warhol said it best: "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
There is still, and will always be, a great value in tactile artwork. There is no better way to complete a home or business than with original art. Art can be very powerful and moving. It is also sometimes purely aesthetically pleasing.
The artist of the future will find a way to meet their end user halfway, between the canvas and the iPad. The galleries of the future will concern themselves far more with creating a good user experience, and far less about age-old values that have actually been dead for decades.
Thanks to the commercials during the Super Bowl, I can recognize the guys who created Words with Friends. Maybe soon they will recognize me.
Can a Pixar Whiz Conquer Live Action?
(businessweek.com)In the new Walt Disney (DIS) film John Carter, a Civil War veteran transported to Mars fights giant saber-toothed apes and four-armed, sword-wielding aliens. Things are only a little less scary here on earth, where the pricey picture—researcher Box Office Mojo pegs its cost at about $250 million, not counting marketing—is already battling bad buzz, reports of cost overruns, and criticism of Disney’s early marketing.
Hollywood studios in recent years have made fewer, more expensive films that can spawn sequels and become long-lived franchises. When it works, the payoff is big: The Harry Potter string of eight films has brought in $7.7 billion at the box office. But for every Toy Story, there’s a The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which made back less than a 10th its estimated $100 million budget through ticket sales.
John Carter is also a test of whether Disney can spread the magic of animation powerhouse Pixar, which it acquired in 2006 for $7.01 billion, to live-action films. Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of John Carter, previously co-wrote and directed Pixar hits Finding Nemo and WALL-E, for which he won Academy Awards. He was a writer on Monsters, Inc. and all three Toy Story movies. But John Carter isn’t just different because it uses real actors, it’s also more costly than any of Stanton’s previous films. Notes Vasily Karasyov, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group: “It can hurt earnings if it’s not huge.”
So far, John Carter, which opens March 9, isn’t looking huge. Entertainment website Boxoffice.com estimates the film will take in $60 million in its domestic theatrical run, based on the performance of similar films, the release date, and online chatter on websites such as Twitter and Facebook. “This is a movie that should be hitting the sweet spot of males age 18 to 34,” says Phil Contrino, editor of the site. “It better make a killing internationally.”
Stanton’s Nemo, produced for an estimated $94 million in 2003, took in some $868 million in global ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. WALL-E, a 2008 release, cost $180 million and grossed $521 million worldwide. That résumé hasn’t shielded Stanton from doubters. “When people make a $250 million picture, they’re putting themselves in the middle of a bull’s-eye,” says James Jacks, a producer of The Mummy, who himself spent eight years trying to bring the John Carter story to life at Paramount Pictures. Jacks says he liked Stanton’s film and told him so at the Feb. 22 premiere for industry notables. Still, he says, “I would have made it for a lot less money.”
Critics point to marketing gaffes, such as an initial trailer that appeared too similar to other movies, and the studio’s decision to drop the identifying words “of Mars,” from the title after Disney’s similarly named Mars Needs Moms bombed last year. “It doesn’t have an audience looking forward to it,” says Harry Knowles, a reviewer for the website aintitcool.com, who says he enjoyed the film. “Disney marketing has been lazy and too late.” Disney’s Marvel unit has published a series of John Carter comic books, while other merchandise, from action figures to costumes, has yet to appear.
John Carter joins Tangled and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as among the most expensive films Disney has produced, according to Box Office Mojo. First place goes to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End at $300 million, which had successful predecessor films before its large budget was set.
The movies are part of a trend at Disney of placing larger bets on fewer films. The studio expects to distribute 12 of its own pictures in the U.S. this year, down from 19 a decade ago, according to company filings. Disney put 80 percent of its fiscal 2011 production budget into multifilm franchises such as Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean, up from 40 percent in 2010, Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said last year.
Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, says some of John Carter may be unsuitable for small children, and it’s unlikely to spawn products elsewhere in the Disney universe, such as theme-park rides or cartoons. The film is based on a 100-year-old series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan. Stanton recalled reading the stories as a child and has long itched to bring them to the big screen.
Disney spokesman Paul Roeder says criticism of the film’s budget and marketing are unfounded. He says Stanton finished the film on time and stayed within the original budget. It’s also too soon to judge the still-unfolding marketing campaign, he says.
Stanton has already outlined two potential sequels should John Carter become a hit. Asked by a fan via Twitter on Feb. 24 whether he was nervous about the opening, Stanton replied: “Wouldn’t you be? (but it’s a good nervous.)”
The bottom line: Disney has spent an estimated $250 million on its sci-fi film John Carter. Analysts question whether it will be a hit.
CAA Signs Andy Serkis
(deadline.com) Andy Serkis has signed with CAA. The agency will rep him as an actor, writer and director, and will also rep The Imaginarium, the London-based performance capture studio for Serkis formed with producer Jonathan Cavendish. Serkis has developed a most interesting career since he came on the scene and played Gollum in The Lord of the Ring film series. After re-teaming with Peter Jackson to play the title character in King Kong, Serkis then brought the ape Caesar to life in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He’ll be back for the sequel, as well as The Hobbit. Serkis also directed second unit on the LOTR prequel. He also played Captain Haddock in Tintin. Serkis will continue to be managed by Principal Entertainment’s Larry Taube, and Lou Coulson Associated in the UK.
Practical Effects: Amazing Hogwarts Castle at the Warner Bros Studio Tour – IN PHOTOS
(anorak.co.uk) EVER wonder why the stars of The Harry Potter films are so small, all sons and daughters of stars from Michael Bentine’s Potty Time? It’s because they have to fit into Hogwarts. which is not larger than a small camper van. Jose Granell, model supervisor, has unviled a model of Hogwarts castle at the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Watford, London. The Hogwarts castle model was built for the first film ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, it was created for aerial photography and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct, it measures over 50 feet in diameter and has over 2,500 fibre optic lights.
Take a look: http://www.anorak.co.uk/313986/celebrities/film- celebrities/harry-potter- hogwarts-castle-at-the-warner- bros-studio-tour-in-photos. html/
Hogwarts castle model time-lapse at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: http://flipperdeflap.blogspot.com/2012/03/hogwarts-castle- model-time-lapse-at.html#!/ 2012/03/hogwarts-castle-model- time-lapse-at.html
Rango Designer Debuts CGI "Super Doggies"
(ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com)This is so odd, I simply had to share it with my readers. Super Doggies are a musical and 3D visual project created in 2012. The project depicts a "virtual band" of cartoon characters. This band has three animated dog members: Buffy, Abby and Bo and their universe is explored through the band's website and music videos, the first of which debuted today -and includes an appearance by President Obama. Other media will follow, such as short cartoons and an upcoming ‘live’ 3D tour.
Super Doggies are pursuing the dream to perform around the world, with the involvement of local communities, focusing on children. Concerned about their future, Super Doggies has focused its attention on the global issue of youth poverty. The Super Doggies are ‘good citizens’ who want to bring attention to the issue of poverty and work with local communities to highlight their plight. Super Doggies’s citizenship principles are founded on the conviction that the arts, business and social initiatives can, together, contribute to making a better world.
The press release:
The guy behind Rango – which just won an Oscar for best animated feature film – will help introduce a new cast of animated characters with a political bent for this election season – the Super-Doggies.
The trio of singing Super-Doggies includes Barack Obama’s dog, “Bo,” Vladmir Putin’s dog, “Buffy,” and “Abby,” the dog of a South African girl, Imani, who lives in the slums of Johannesburg.
In the 3:45 music video, Imani watches from her house how both Obama and Putin care for their dogs. All Imani has is a raggedy stuffed animal. At one point she writes to both men asking them for a real pet – and in a fantastic scene that climaxes into a dance party featuring both dancing world leaders and their dogs – she gets her wish (Obama joins the action at 2:47)
The story is timely on multiple levels. Both Russia and the US have national elections coming up (March 4th for Russia and November 6th for the US). In fact, there have been several stories in Obama’s campaign promoting how well he treats Bo considering his competitor, Mitt Romney, once placed his dog in a kennel and strapped it on top of his car for a cross-country trip.
The work of Rango’s character designer, Eugeniy Yelchin is familiar to many of us. He designed Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bears, worked on the Film, “The Brothers Grimm” and also designed the opening for HBO’s “Rome.”
For this project, Yelchin teamed up with Grammy Award winning producer Neal Pogue who works with musicians like Nicky Minaj, Lil Wayne, Outkast and Pink. The effort is also getting guidance from marketing veteran Bruce Kirkland who directed The Beatles Anthology project, and has produced albums for the Beastie Boys, the Spice Girls, Radiohead, and Everclear. The overall project is the brainchild of producer Eugeniy Kuritsyn of Global Media Line, a Moscow-based creative producing house with an impressive line of talent to realize this vision. Eugeniy wanted to create a new entertainment product that would ensure collaboration between the best representatives of international entertainment industry.
Later in the year, the Super-Doggies will go on a world tour, featuring holographic dancing and singing dogs combined with the world’s best dance talent and circus performers. A portion of the proceeds will go to animal welfare organizations to encourage people to adopt dogs.
Tour dates and other information will be announced later in the year on the Super-Doggies website: http://www.super-doggies.com/ where you can sign up for the newsletter for updates.
VIDEOS - Take a look: http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2012/02/rango- designer-debuts-super-bizarre. html
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