Director Gore Verbinski Getting Into The Xbox Business

(multiplayerblog.mtv.com)    

             Filmmaker Gore Verbinski is following in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, with plans to develop video game content and more for Microsoft. The Hollywood Reporter has detailed an agreement between Verbinski's Blind Wink Productions and Microsoft to create a Kinect-based XBLA game for the 360 to be released sometime late in 2012 as well as additional content--whatever shape that may take--for other Microsoft devices. There's no detail on the duration of the exclusivity agreement or what additional devices, type of content this will entail. I know a couple of years back, Microsoft tried to get into original video content, enlisting horror directors to create comedy shorts but since then there hasn't been any kind of deal of this nature.

I mention Jackson and Spielberg at the top because both present--well, not cautionary tales of big budget directors getting into gaming, but notice that it's not always that simple. Jackson was attached to develop some kind of Halo-related content for the longest time while Spielberg had a deal with EA, the only result being the (admittedly excellent) Wii game, Boom Blox.

This isn't, of course, Verbinski's first foray into the world of gaming: for a while, he was attached to direct Bioshock, but has since handed over the reins of the material to director Juan Carlos Fresnadillos while still remaining a producer on the movie.



Tentpole Budget Breakdown: What Are The Riskiest Films Of 2012?

(popwatch.ew.com)                        Robert Zemeckis had a beautiful dream. He thought performance-capture animation would save cinema. He believed in a glorious future where stars like Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks could play multiple roles in a single movie; where a beloved bulky Brit like Ray Winstone could play a glamorous six-pack-ripped action hero; where Seth Green could play a 9-year-old boy. Critics complained about the Uncanny Valley. “Bah,” responded Zemeckis, “I shall conquer the Uncanny Valley!”

The funny thing is, Zemeckis was probably right. After all, the highest-grossing movie in history was mostly created with performance-capture animation. Alas, not every movie is Avatar, and Zemeckis can now lay claim to having created one of the biggest flops in motion picture history. As reported by The New York Post, Mars Needs Moms — the final product of Zemeckis’ studio ImageMovers Digital — lost more than $125 million at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed just $21 million domestically and $17 million abroad, off a reported $150 million budget which was presumably significantly larger (since all Hollywood budgets are mysteries wrapped in riddles inside enigmas, and also lies).

The Post curiously adds Bucky Larson to their list, even though the low-grossing movie didn’t cost too much. (They also leave out the Conan the Barbarian remake, which only made $50 million off a reported $90 million budget.) Still, it’s good food for thought, and it’s a good time to peer into our financial crystal ball and ponder: What movies are most at risk of making this list in 2012? Some of next year’s biggest movies look functionally impervious to failure: The Avengers will combine three separate successful franchises, The Dark Knight Rises is the sequel to an era-defining mega-hit, and even if the first Hobbit movie is horrible (which, how could it be?) it could coast to massive grosses just on Lord of the Rings nostalgia. But there are some films carrying massive budgets that are a little less certain. Even a clear winner on opening weekend can wind up labeled an “underperformer” if it amounts to a mere fraction of the overall production cost.

(All budgets listed below are based on early estimates and do not include marketing costs, which will be exorbitant, or lies, which will also be exorbitant.)

John Carter — $250 million (or possibly $300 million)
The original title was John Carter of Mars, but Disney chopped off that last part not too long after Mars Needs Moms bombed. The film is based on a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I am a big fan of the Of Mars books, but only because my grandfather had a huge collection of them. Since most people didn’t have nerdy grampas, John Carter doesn’t come gilded with very much brand recognition. With a swing-for-the-fences budget and a curious mish-mash of genre tones — half sword ‘n sandals fantasy, half space-faring science fiction — this one is definitely a gamble. We’ll have to wait and see if it pays for Disney.

The Amazing Spider-Man — (Top-secret: somewhere between $80 million and $220 million. Let’s say $150 million)
The box-office track record of reboots is uncertain, to say the least. J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins rescued their respective franchises from the pop culture dumpster and accrued mega-millions. But those were franchises that had mostly been lying dormant for years, and both films were extremely unique takes on the material. Amazing Spider-Man is closer in spirit to recent attempted Marvel reboots The Incredible Hulk and Punisher: War Zone — neither of which performed particularly well. Well, Incredible made about $260 million worldwide. Amazing will have to make significantly more if rumors about its ever-expanding budget are true. The big question is: Do moviegoers want to see another Spider-Man origin tale less than a decade after Spider-Man 3?

Prometheus — $100 million
Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi looks fascinating and has been burning up the Internet with relentless “Is it an Alien prequel?” speculation. But Internet-buzz doesn’t always translate into actual box office: Shed another tear for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. If Prometheus is a genuine original property — if the title doesn’t quietly morph to Alien Origins: Prometheus in the next few months — then it will have to compete for attention in a summer filled with recognizable titles. (Note that all of 2011′s biggest flops were non-sequels.) And it’s been a long time since the movie-going public paid attention to a dark sci-fi movie not directed by Christopher Nolan. The film reportedly has a budget of $100 million, which isn’t much nowadays, but the need for a big marketing push makes this a gamble.

47 Ronin — $170 million
What’s that? You haven’t heard of this 3-D historical adventure, based on the famous true-life tale of 47 ex-samurai who plotted to avenge their dead master in the early 18th century? The film that somewhat controversially stars Keanu Reeves as a completely fictional half-white samurai? Hard to know what to expect — it may play well internationally. (Hey, The Last Samurai made money.) Best-case scenario is that this is exactly as interesting as it sounds.

Men in Black III — $215 million
The first Men in Black movie was one of the first modern blockbusters, cementing Will Smith’s status as the king of summer. The second movie grossed $400 million despite being fairly terrible. So the third movie should be a sure thing, right? Well… maybe. First off, 10 years is a long time for a new installment. Then there are the various problems that have dogged the threequel, including a production delay to allow a rotating team of writers to finish the screenplay, and scads of negative press about Will Smith’s imperial trailer. Smith is basically the last movie star in the world, but he hasn’t appeared in a movie since 2008 — when Hancock succeeded and Seven Pounds flopped. MIB3 will almost certainly open big, but it will be interesting to see how it fares in the long run and whether it catches up to that estimated $215 million.

The Great Gatsby — $125 million
A lavish 3-D adaptation of a novel everyone was required to read freshman year starring Leonardo DiCaprio using a non-Boston accent and runaway Spider-Man Tobey Maguire directed by a man whose only film in the last decade was Australia? Gatsby is hardly a sure thing. (But isn’t that part of the fun?)

Battleship — $200 million
Another day, another massive franchise-begging movie headlined by Taylor Kitsch. Next year’s most fascinating exercise in possibly satirical Hollywood movie-making takes a somewhat beloved children’s game, adds in aliens and Rihanna, and — to judge by the trailer — looks a little bit like Green Lantern crossed with Cowboys & Aliens with just a touch of Transformers. (Hey, one of those movies was successful!) No one really knows what to expect, and it’s entirely reasonable to think that Battleship — with its vision of incredibly attractive people fighting sci-fi monsters in a tropical landscape — could wind up being a fizzy summer hit. And maybe in the sequel, they can fight zombies!



Stan Lee's "The Annihilator" Heads To The Big Screen

(Magic Storm Entertainment)               Screenwriter Dan Gilroy has signed on to pen The Annihilator (working title) for Magic Storm Entertainment. CEO Eric Mika has announced that Gilroy would introduce a new Stan Lee superhero of Chinese heritage to global audiences with the company's first film project. Based on an original Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment treatment acquired by Magic Storm Entertainment, the story chronicles a young man who is given a second chance as an international superhero and returns home to mete out justice.



TRON Effects with No Post Production?

youtube.com)                No SFX, no post production, no cuts, everything you see here is 100% for real.

VIDEO - Take a look:             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrgWH1KUDt4&feature=youtube_gdata_player




For VFX Artists, A Token Payment

(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)                Are you a VFX artist looking for a job? Here is an opportunity of a lifetime:

   " LIBERATOR is a 20-minute short film/back door television pilot. It stars Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) as a disgraced, washed-up, ex-superhero whose attempts to get his life back on track go south when his secret black ops past comes back to haunt him. Also stars Peta Wilson (La Femme Nikita,) Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Ed Asner (Up).

    We are seeking VFX artists to handle a variety of shots from simple compositing and dust layers and green screen layering and finessing, to 3-D modeling and explosions. We have two excellent artists working on the film but need more to finish by our deadline, Jan 31. There is pay, but it’s only a token payment. There is very little money left in the budget. The ideal candidate will be excited about getting in on the ground floor of a new superhero franchise with this great cast, as well as imdb credit. This project is repped by New Wave Entertainment and also feature original comic art from former Marvel Comics Art Director Darren Auck."

Fellow VFXers, please don’t fall for this bullshit. As you can see from the video posted below  they spent all their budget on Z-list actors and Ed Asner in front of a green screen that they hope will have explosions and shit on it.

What I love is how they try to play it off as though a credit on their short film is appropiate compensation in lieu of pay. Do you think any of those people on the set agreed to those terms? I doubt it and nor should you.

I’ve written a bit on how some employers in the industry capitalize off the perceived prestige of their work. I call it the price of prestige.

VIDEO - Take a look:   http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/a-token-payment/




Michael Bay:  "I'm not decided on Transformers 4"

(comingsoon.net)                Michael Bay will be back behind the lens for a fourth Transformers film, Vulture reports. He's said to be close to finalizing a deal with Paramount Pictures and will likely begin work after shooting his smaller-budgeted passion project, Pain and Gain.

Word of a fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise first popped up in October, suggesting that Shia LaBeouf is unlikely to return in a leading role and that a fourth and fifth film could be shot back-to-back. Those reports remain unconfirmed.

Just yesterday, a report suggested that Bay is close to locking his leading men for the dark crime comedy with Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. Because of it's significantly smaller scale, Pain and Gain is planned for a shoot towards the beginning of 2012, leaving the end of the year open for work on a fourth Transformers.

UPDATE: Michael Bay posted the following response to the above report on his official site:

"Right now I'm not decided on Transformers 4

Studio's are passing rumors but I'm not sure what I'm doing? I know I'm going to do Pain and Gain early spring but that's it for right now. I'm leaving all my options on the table. I've got several Studio meetings in the next two weeks."



"Thor 2" Loses Director

(Deadline)                   Though she was confirmed by Marvel Studios as the film's director back in October, Deadline reports that Patty Jenkins has departed Thor 2. The search is now on for a replacement.

Patty Jenkins previously directed Monster starring Charlize Theron, who won an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Jenkins, who received an Emmy nomination for directing the pilot of AMC's acclaimed series "The Killing," has also directed episodes of "Entourage" and "Arrested Development."

The original article cites "creative differences" as the reason for Jenkins' departure, suggesting that the split is amicable and that she might return for a superhero non-sequel in the near future.

With a release date planned for November 15th, 2013, a new director is expected to be announced soon.




Rob Coleman, Animations From a Galaxy Far, Far Away ...

(smh.com.au)              Rob Coleman has gone from Yoda to Mumble. From California to Australia. From George Lucas to another acclaimed filmmaker with the same first name – George Miller.

After working as animation director on the three most recent Star Wars movies, the two-time Oscar nominee swapped countries to take the same role on Happy Feet Two.

And if getting penguins to sing and dance seems like a cushy gig, you only have to look at his office in the cavernous CarriageWorks building in Sydney's inner suburbs while more than 600 crew work to finish the movie.

His coffee mug – a jokey present – has a line reading, "One by one the penguins slowly steal my sanity". And his desk is stocked with vitamins, Berocca, aspirin, throat lozenges, coffee and fruit, which he explains are mostly preventative.

"I've been animation director since Men in Black," Coleman, 47, says during the last frantic weeks on the movie. "Every film I do, I get better at handling the stress.

"But over the last month we've been working seven days a week. I think I've done 21 days straight. The [animation] team upstairs have done 30 days straight, upwards of 12 hours a day."

The first Happy Feet, made by Miller with Animal Logic, showed that Sydney could produce world-class animated movies. But Coleman says the animation director's role is not confined to creating appealing creatures. Much more of traditional live-action movies than audiences realise is being created by animators because they can now replicate human-like qualities on computers.

Coleman cites Davy Jones, the character played by Bill Nighy in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Not only was his squid face created digitally but so were his eyes, based on the actor's "eye performance". Animators can now reproduce the way light passes through the top layers of human skin, the glow that comes from it being reflective and refractive.

Growing up in Toronto, Canada, Coleman loved to draw without realising that animation was a possible career.

"Some of my earliest memories are [when] my mother was a school teacher and she would bring home a 16-millimetre projector on the weekends," he says. "Back then, in the late '60s and early '70s, you could borrow 16-millimetre films from the library. So before VCRs and DVDs or any of that stuff, we would watch movies in the lounge.

"I vividly remember as a kid seeing my dad and mum spooling up the film and seeing all those little pictures one after another. I remember early on thinking, 'How is it that they move?' What I took away from that was that they were a bunch of still drawings. If you moved them incrementally, they would spring to life."

Coleman began dabbling in animation with his father's Super 8 camera until a defining event in his life – seeing Star Wars when it was released in 1977. He decided he wanted to make movies.

"I was a kid who understood computers," he says. "In my last couple of years at high school, we were the first class ever to get a computer. So I was dabbling in computer animation – unbeknownst to me – way earlier than a lot of people.

"I had skills that I didn't recognise on a world scale that I had in Toronto because, as it turns out, two of the major animation packages – Softimage out of Montreal and Alias out of Toronto – were the pre-eminent animation packages, created by Canadians. Later on I found out they did Jurassic Park with both those pieces of software."

In 1993, Coleman was hired by George Lucas's visual effects and animation company Industrial Light & Magic and became the animation director on the three Star Wars prequels. Having loved Sydney while visiting for the production of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith at Fox Studios, he jumped at the chance to work on Happy Feet Two.

Coleman remembers being surprised by the original Happy Feet when it was released.

"Most of us who were in the animation business in California, we think immediately of Pixar, we think of DreamWorks, we think of companies like Rhythm & Hues," he says. "So Animal Logic was off the radar. [Happy Feet] was off the radar until it came out.

"It was amazing. I thought, 'Wow'. I hadn't really considered that there could be another studio that could create top-level, A-level animated feature films."

So how does he compare George Lucas and George Miller?

"They're very different men," Coleman says. "But they're both extremely passionate filmmakers – they love movies, they love making movies.

"They recognise that they need talented people around them and for those of us who are lucky to be in that rarefied air – the heads of departments – they're very collaborative and very interested in analysing the work as it's going through its life as a film.

"Where they differ is George Miller is much more of a people person. He has no difficulty being in big crowds of people. George Lucas prefers to be in smaller groups of people. In a smaller group, he's very talkative and very open and funny to be around but he's uncomfortable when he's in a larger group."

While Lucas has a vast understanding of technology, Coleman considers Miller a "brilliant, brilliant man".

"They and other directors that I've worked for have an amazing eye – they can see one-24th of a second, no problem. When a film is running at normal speed [they will say], 'There's a bad frame there, there's an expression that pops, there's a lighting change right there. Go back'.

"And you roll back and, sure enough. Both of them are amazing at doing that.

Coleman says both filmmakers have photographic memories for images they have seen before. "Lucas could easily call out, 'There was an image on the wall in the office – it would have been last year or the year before – and it had a green thing on the front. I want that character to come forward again'. You go back to the archive and there it is.

"George Miller is the same. He'll look at a performance and say, 'No, we were looking at something the other day and it had a slightly different expression on it'. You roll back and, sure enough, it did."




Meet Andrew Baker: WETA 3D Character Designer/Digital Artist

(torontonewscorp.com)                    If you’re not familiar with the works of Andrew Baker, or even WETA for that matter, I’m sure you’re definitely familiar with movies such as The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Tin Tin and a number of Peter Jackson movies. WETA is a New Zealand based special effects company specialising in 3D character design, computer graphics, and the likes. Andrew Baker is a South African (East London) born Honours Graduate with exceptional talent. He took some time out to answer a few questions for an exclusive interview. This is what we asked, and what he had to say:

CE: You work at an Academy award-winning company, how did a guy from East London, South Africa end up working at an acclaimed company like WETA?

Sheer luck! But seriously I’ve always drawn for as long I can remember. Even in school, my books were filled with drawings more than school work. My father and sister are both amazing oil painters and influenced me greatly to become an artist as well, but there are many factors that have influenced what I do today.

CE: What credentials/courses/experience/design school does one need/attend to be a 3D designer for mainstream companies?

I have an Honours Degree in Computer Graphic design. This helped me to learn a lot about design language which I apply in all my illustrations/design work. But a lot of the 3D applications I’ve learnt, I taught myself. It’s very hard finding courses that cater specifically to the CG FX industry.

Full article:     http://torontonewscorp.com/general-interest/exclusive-interview-with-andrew-baker-weta-3d-character-designerdigital-artist/




Creator of Czech Krtek Cartoon Character Dies

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Zdenek Miler, the creator of Czech cartoon character Krtek (the Mole), which entertained children around the world for over half a century, died on Wednesday at the age of 90, Czech Television reported.

Miler created his first movie based on Krtek, "How the Mole Got His Trousers", in 1957 and it won popularity far beyond the borders of then-communist Czechoslovakia.

There are about 50 movies starring Krtek, or diminutively called "Krtecek" in Czech.

The movie shorts are mostly peaceful stories of the main character, a black-haired, big-eyed mole, and his animal friends. The films are watched in over 80 countries, including elsewhere in Europe and as far away as Japan.

A stuffed Krtek doll accompanied astronaut Andrew Feustel, whose wife is of Czech descent, on the second to last U.S. space shuttle fight.

Krtek's international appeal has been helped by the fact that none of the characters speak, using instead only non-verbal exclamations derived from recordings of Miler's two baby daughters.

VIDEO - Meet Krtek:          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtZ9WL8mp7s



'Resident Evil: Retribution's' Unknown Giant Creature

(bloody-disgusting.com)                   I'm expecting a pretty huge movie considering how long they've been filming Resident Evil: Retribution. And even if it's the norm for a big budget action-horror flick, it feels like an eternity in covering all of star Milla Jovovich's tweets and video blogs. This morning she dropped a pretty big bomb via the following lengthy tweet:

"Gmornin every1 where it's morning! Gevening to all those where it's evening! There's a HUGE wire stunt 2day here at camp evil as guess what?! Im not allowed 2 do it! Aargh! It's a 50 ft. Fly on a wire rig w a flip AND gunfire (sob) to kill a c, but the set is too tight and my incredible stunt double -Jo Anne Leach- has to land in2 crash pads 2 make it and the insurance company and my husband said Absolutely NOT. I'm bummed but there u go. Safety first.the sequence is gonna KILL tho n no matter what Jo is my girl and she's THE BEST, so trust me when u c it in the film it will b overwhelmingly awe inspiring! That's my news of the morning. Gotta get hair n make up on."

When she says "gynormous creature" I can only hope she means "a creature as tall as Godzilla". After five Resident Evil films, it would be nice to see writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson think outside the box for once.



Stop Motion Animation Created 'Rankin Bass' Style for Bing

(stopmotionmagazine.com)                     First I’d like to give StopMotionWorks.com credit for finding these gems.

In true Christmas styling, Bing has just released a series of Stop Motion christmas Commercials using the Rank and Bass “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer” characters. OMG, I just died and went to heaven!!!

Check them out below. AWESOME!!!


VIDEO - Take a look:      http://stopmotionmagazine.com/?p=244

Jurassic Park 4: "They’re Talking About It."

(collider.com)               

   Rumors of a Jurassic Park 4 have swirled for years, so when asked what it’s going to take to finally get the film off the ground, Kennedy sensibly answered that it all boils down to the script:

    “A great script is what it’s gonna take to get a fourth Jurassic Park. We have a very high bar for ourselves because we’re just like the audience, we don’t wanna make the movie if there’s not a reason to make the movie. So we’ve kinda created the dilemma ourselves because it was never intended to be a franchise, so there’s an argument to be made ‘Why are you doing a fourth Jurassic Park?’ So we’ve gotta find a good reason for why we’re doing a fourth Jurassic Park and we’re in the midst of working on that right now.”

It’s definitely good to hear that a fourth entry in the Jurassic Park franchise isn’t being rushed at the expense of a good story. Kennedy revealed that while a script isn’t currently being written, they’re “talking about it.” Given the recent success re-releasing older films in 3D, Kennedy confirmed that Universal has approached them about post-converting Jurassic Park to 3D. Whether or not they actually go forward with it depends on whether Spielberg has the time to revisit the pic:



AAFCA Honoring George Lucas At 3rd Annual Awards

(theurbandaily.com)                   The African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) will honor the special achievements of iconic actors Richard Roundtree and Hattie Winston, legendary filmmaker George Lucas and Sony Pictures Entertainment, during its 3rd live AAFCA Awards ceremony on Sunday, January 8, 2012, at Light Space Studios, located at the historic Helm Bakery in Culver City California. The organization will announce its complete list of winners during a special press conference at the Universal Hilton on Monday, December 12th.



Animated Films May Emerge as Visual Effects Oscar Contenders

(hollywoodreporter.com)              There's no longer an ocean of difference between animation and VFX, and that could mean stiffer competition for the visual effects category.

For most of Academy Awards history, animation and visual effects have competed in separate categories. But as the line between VFX and animation gets increasingly blurry, animated films like Kung Fu Panda 2 or Puss in Boots -- as well as the performance-capture-based The Adventures of Tintin -- could emerge as contenders in the VFX category.

The VFX branch made a loud statement about what constitutes a visual effect in 2007 when it put CG-animated Ratatouille and motion-capture-based Beowulf on its list of 15 Oscar contenders.

So what's the difference between animation and VFX? "It's ambiguous," admits DreamWorks Animation's Alex Parkinson, VFX supervisor on Kung Fu Panda 2. "Everything you see in an animated movie is a visual effect."

One notoriously tough effect to render in live action is computer-generated water -- which is also tough to animate. "The tools and techniques are exactly the same," says Parkinson. "The difference is that on a traditional live-action movie, you are matching a plate, which has its own complications, and on an animated movie, you are creating the world from scratch and defining the rules of the world a lot more."

That may amount to no difference at all in the animation-acclimated eyes of VFX branch voters. The CG water in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 could be judged alongside the CG water created for Tintin and Panda.

Not since Tim Burton's 1993 stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas has animation earned a VFX Oscar nomination. This time, 2012 could be the year.




Revisiting Super 8 VFX

(billdesowitz.com)                  Last week, Paramount Home Ent. hosted a screening of Super 8 at the Academy in honor of its Blu-ray release. It’s worth looking again at ILM’s retro VFX as the J.J. Abrams coming of age monster movie winds its way into the bakeoff.

“Our visual effects strategy was to use as few bluescreens as possible, plenty of roto, lots of image-based lighting, which everybody does nowadays,” explains production VFX supervisor Kim Libreri. “J.J. wanted to keep the nature of the creature [designed by Neville Page] quite secret to the very end, so when we were shooting the creature scenes there was no maquette — there was only a pole for how big the creature was to make sure we shot everything correctly. But other than that, it was a lot of make believe for the kids.”

For Dennis Muren, it was more of a homecoming since he worked at ILM during this period on Spielberg’s Close Encounters and E.T. He was brought in toward the end as a cinematic reality check.” Everything went through me to make sure it had the right kind of look that J.J. was after for that period,” he explains. “It was quite a gamut and each one offered its opportunities to be nostalgic in the look of it. One of the things of the period is that the colors were stronger and the shots lasted longer — there was more time to digest it. It’s a matter of specifying at the start of the shot here is how the lights have to be; here is how the dust has to be; here’s how the size of the debris has to be. The whole thing was played by what I call ‘peek-a-boo.’ That it’s not terribly clear at the beginning of the shot what you’re seeing, but by the time it’s done you’ve figured it out and it’s gone somewhere emotionally.”

That includes the mysterious alien: a spidery humanoid that evokes terror and pathos by the end, with the help of animation supervisor Paul Kavanagh and his team.

Source with trailer:    http://www.billdesowitz.com/?p=3050




Hugo: A Study of Modern Inventive Visual Effects

(animationpitstop.blogspot.com)                 Martin Scorsese’s Hugo tells the story of an orphan living in a 1930s Paris train station. But it is also a story of the birth of cinema and the film itself used a wide range of inventive solutions to both tell its tale and pay homage to the earliest masters of cinema. To help bring Hugo to life, Scorsese called on long-time collaborator Rob Legato as the film’s visual effects supervisor. “The whole film really is celebrating persistence of vision,” says Legato, “and what it meant to early filmmakers, and the film is so rich with homage and appreciate of that.”

Photo Essay:    http://animationpitstop.blogspot.com/2011/12/making-hugo-study-of-modern-inventive.html




Philip K. Dick's "Now Wait for Last Year" In Development

(Variety)              Lila 9th and Electric Shepherd Productions are planning on adapting the Philip K. Dick story Now Wait for Last Year for the big screen.

The synopsis from PhilipKDick.com:

Dr. Eric Sweetscent has problems. His planet is enmeshed in an unwinnable war. His wife is lethally addicted to a drug that whips its users helplessly back and forth across time -- and is hell-bent on making Eric suffer along with her. And Sweetscent's newest patient is not only the most important man on the embattled planet Earth but quite possibly the sickest. For Secretary Gino Molinari has turned his mortal illness into an instrument of political policy -- and Eric cannot tell if his job is to make the Male better or to keep him poised just this side of death.

Obviously this is not the first of Dick's writings to be adapted for a feature film. Last year we saw Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, and previously adaptations included Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.

Barry M. Osborne is producing with Cameon Lamb and Dick's daughter Isa Dick Hackett. Ted Kupper is writing the screenplay. Producers are hoping for a start date sometime in late 2012. No word on a director or cast just yet, but then again they don't even have a finished script, so it will be a bit before we hear more.



‘Star Tours’ Among Nominees for 2011 Annie Awards

(stitchkingdom.com)                    The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, today announced its nominations for the 39th Annual Annie Awards, recognizing the year’s best in the field of animation.

Industrial Light and Magic also finds themselves nominated for the ‘Star Tours: The Adventures Continue’ attraction at the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts (as well as Tokyo Disneyland in the near future) in the category of Best Animated Special Production.

Full article:    http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-pixar-star-tours-nominees-2011-annie-awards-18736/




Andy Serkis - Andy Serkis Slammed By Animators

(contactmusic.com)             Actor Andy Serkis has been "bombarded" with letters from several movie animators accusing him of taking too much credit for his characters in motion-capture films.

The Brit has found fame with a series of motion-capture performances, playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series and the title character in 2005's King Kong remake. He embraced the technology again this year (11) with roles in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin.

But Serkis reveals he has fallen foul of some experts who combined visual effects with his movements and facial expressions to bring his characters to life.

He tells the Hollywood Reporter, "I've been bombarded by hate mail from animators saying, 'How dare you talk about 'your' character when all these people work on it after the fact? We're actors as well.' They are actors in the sense that they create key frames and the computer will join up the dots, carefully choreograph a moment or an expression and accent it with an emotion.

"But that's not what an actor does. An actor finds things in the moment with a director and other actors that you don't have time to hand-draw or animate with a computer."




Mission: Impossible Hitting 200 International IMAX Theaters Early

(IMAX Corporation)                      "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The IMAX Experience" will begin previews in IMAX on Friday, Dec. 16 , five days in advance of the film's North American wide release on Dec. 21 . Domestically, the film will open in approximately 300 IMAX® theatres and play through the film's run at the box office.

Internationally, the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol will open on approximately 200 IMAX screens beginning on Dec. 14 , with several markets receiving an early window release in IMAX ahead of their wide release, including six days in the Netherlands, five days in the UK, three days in France and Poland, two days in Korea, Spain and Taiwan, and one day in various other countries worldwide.

In addition to the early window of engagement, the IMAX release of this fourth installment of "Mission: Impossible" features approximately 30 minutes of scenes shot with IMAX® cameras. These specific sequences, including the unbelievable stunt performed by Tom Cruise as he scaled the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, will expand to fill the entire screen, exclusively in IMAX, and further immerse the audience in the explosive action and vast scope of the film.



Dennis Muren Part 1

(youtube.com)              ILM Visual Effects Master Dennis Muren talks about working with Spielberg, his VFX breakthroughs with Cameron and Spielberg, and working on JJ Abrams' Super 8.

VIDEO - Take a look:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hn0m90OOzU



Rango Wins Best Anim Feature Award From The Washington Area Film Critics Association

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tinseltalk/2011/12/reactions-to-wafca-awards/



Star Trek Sequel Hits Setback

(Latino Review)                  It was just over a month ago that it was reported that J.J. Abrams was keen on casting Benicio Del Toro as an undisclosed villain character in his untitled Star Trek sequel. Today, Vulture reports that those negotiations have fallen apart and that the actor has ultimately turned down the role.




More Details On Pete Docters' Pixar Movie That ‘Takes You Inside The Mind’

(pixartimes.com)                    John Lasseter recently sat down with Charlie Rose for an extensive interview about Pixar, Steve Jobs, and Disney. He speaks at length about the beginnings of Pixar and how George Lucas sold the company to Steve Jobs, how important it is for the studio to focus on quality, and how animation is simply a medium for telling stories (just like in live-action films). Towards the end of the interview, Lasseter briefly describes Pixar’s upcoming slate – Brave, Monsters University, The Untitled Dinosaur Movie, and The Untitled Movie That Takes You Inside The Mind. The most mind-bending of those is easily the Pete Docter-directed Mind film and now we have a few more details on how the film will work.

The official premise, as given by Disney/Pixar is:

    Pixar takes audiences on incredible journeys into extraordinary worlds: from the darkest depths of the ocean to the top of the tepui mountains in South America; from the fictional metropolis of Monstropolis to a futuristic fantasy of outer space. From director Pete Docter (“Up,” “Monsters, Inc.”) and producer Jonas Rivera (“Up”), the inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind.

When Pete Docter first announced the project at the D23 Expo in August, he said the driving force of the film was the question, “What is going on in people’s heads?”. In the interview with Charlie Rose, John Lasseter elaborates on that (the video can be seen here, with the following quote starting at 52:29):

    Pete Docter, from Monsters, Inc. and Up, is doing a new film that takes place inside of a girl’s mind and it is about her emotions as characters, and that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

So now we know that the character whose thoughts we will be privy to is a girl (if she is a main character she would be another big female protagonist for Pixar!) and her emotions will have roles in the film. It sounds like her emotions will be embodied by fully-realized characters and will help to visually and creatively explain how the mind works through acting out their personalities. Still having a difficult time figuring out how this film will function? You’re not alone, but I continue to be fascinated by the premise.

Pete Docter is my favorite director at the studio, and seeing his genius at work in Up, I simply cannot wait for this one to hit the screen. We have a bit of a wait, though, as the film is not scheduled to hit theatres until May 30, 2014.




M. Night Shyamalan's Upcoming Sci-fi Epic "1000 A.E." Moves Forward

(The Hollywood Reporter)                  Zoe Kravitz and Sophie Okonedo are being eyed for roles in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming sci-fi epic, 1000 A.E., says a story at The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, already set to star Will Smith and his real-life son, Jaden, is set 1,000 years into the future and features a young boy who navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.

Kravitz, who recently appeared in X-Men: First Class, would play Will Smith's daughter and Okonedo (best known for her part in Hotel Rwanda) his wife.

Written by Shyamalan, Gary Whitta and Stephen Gaghan, 1000 A.E. is planning to shoot soon, targeting a June 7, 2013 release.




Peter Jackson Buys Wellington Theatre

(stuff.co.nz)          The iconic Wellington BATS Theatre building has been bought by movie moguls Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.

The couple purchased 1 Kent Tce, which has been the theatre's home for 22 years in the Courtenay Pl precinct, and granted the company a long term lease.

The three-storey 1923 building was offered for sale earlier this year by its previous owner, the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, for $1.19 million.

Jackson and Walsh plan to refurbish the theatre and enhance the performing space. 

"We are extremely fond of BATS and we're happy to help secure a permanent home for the theatre," Sir Peter said in a statement tonight.

"Wellington has been good to us and we wanted to give something back."

The Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes decided to sell in the middle of the year.

Walsh said BATS was a stepping stone for talent which was worth protecting.

"BATS has always fostered original Kiwi talent and provides an incredibly supportive environment for up-and-coming writers, directors, musicians and actors. We feel its unique voice is worth preserving and protecting and we look forward to refurbishing the theatre and enhancing the performance space."




So, How Do I Supervise My VFX Company Exactly?

(vfxtalk.com)           

    Hi Guys,
    I am an artist from India having 7 years of experience in the VFX Industry.Me along with some of my friends started a new VFX company here in India.
    I need help from you guys as i had got a chance to work on a high end VFX movie starting this year.
    Seriously it i a rewarding and challenging task for me.
    I have no practical experience on shoot and no prior experience as a supervisor.Can you guys refer to me
    some good books ,DVDS and any online source for VFX supervision.

Offer some help:          http://www.vfxtalk.com/threads/34535-VFX-Supervision-References

Spielberg Wants Bay For "Transformers 4"

(darkhorizons.com)           

     While Michael Bay has previously said he won't be coming back for a fourth "Transformers" film, series producer Steven Spielberg tells EW (via /Film that he hopes he will.

"I hope so, because I think he made the best of the three with this last one. I certainly can't imagine anybody other than Michael being equipped to make another 'Transformers.' He's invented a genre and he's got the secret formula" said Spielberg.

Bay has previously said he'd consider it but wants to make his small budget feature "Pain and Gain" first - "I'm going to do a tiny movie first, then we'll talk about it, if I potentially do it."

Spielberg was also quickly asked about a fifth "Indiana Jones". The filmmaker said “It’s up to George. We have already agreed on the genre of the fifth movie, we already have a concept in mind. I don’t know where George is with the story. There is no Indy 5 until George says there is.”



"Tintin" Sequel Dates Already Planned

(darkhorizons.com)                     A sequel to this year's "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" could hit by late 2014 or Summer 2015 according to producer Kathleen Kennedy.

With the well-reviewed first film already soaring past $200 million overseas in its first month and with the film still to open in several markets, including the United States, a sequel now seems a certainty at this point.

Kennedy and Peter Jackson produced the Steven Spielberg-directed first film and Jackson has already been slated to direct the second. The question hasn't really been if it would happen but rather more about scheduling - when would they shoot the motion capture elements for the film and when would it be out?

“It is being moved forward, in fact Steven and I were talking about it this morning. We’re working on a script right now, we’ll see a script probably February or March. If we can do some camera capture this summer, which I think we could do, then we would be on track to have the movie either Christmas 2014 or summer 2015, and so that’s what we’re looking at right now" Kennedy tells Collider.

The main mo-cap shoot for the first 'Tintin' took just under five weeks. Best guess would be Jackson would conduct that late next Summer once he wraps shooting on "The Hobbit" films and during a period when post-production requires the least amount of his involvement.



Annie Award Nominations Announced

(hollywoodreporter.com)               Nominations for the 39th Annual Annie Awards were announced on Monday by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood. Recognizing the year's best in the field of animation, the Annie Awards cover 28 categories and include Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Special Production, Commercials, Short Subjects and Outstanding Individual Achievements.

This year, DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda 2  leads the pack with 12 nods. Dreamworks Animation also picked up nine nominations for their Puss in Boots and Paramount's Rango also took nine nods. Pixar's Cars 2 received seven nominations and Disney's Winnie the Pooh grabbed eight.

Winnie the Pooh, however, did not receive a nomination for the night’s top award, Best Animated Feature, while the other top nominees did. (See the complete list of nominees for Best Animated Feature below.) DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon took home the top prize at the 2011 event.

"We are really excited about the expanded list of nominations this year…in all 28 categories," said Frank Gladstone, president, ASIFA-Hollywood.  "All of the major animation studios are represented, as are some of the independent productions from Europe and South America. This certainly is a testament to the wide reach and appeal of animation and the people who create it."

The 2011 Annie Award winners will be announced at the 39th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, at UCLA's Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA.

The Nominees for Best Animated Feature:

A Cat in Paris – Folimage
Arrugas (Wrinkles) - Perro Verde Films, S.L.
Arthur Christmas – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
Cars 2 – Pixar Animation Studios
Chico & Rita – Chico & Rita Distribution Limited
Kung Fu Panda 2 – DreamWorks Animation
Puss In Boots – DreamWorks Animation
Rango – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
Rio – Blue Sky Studios
Tintin – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshal




CGI Made Filming Man Of Steel Easier

(contactmusic.com)                    Michael Shannon is delighted he can rely on CGI in the new 'Superman' movie.

The Oscar-nominated actor plays General Zod in director Zack Snyder's upcoming comic book adaptation 'Man of Steel' and revealed he is thrilled he doesn't have to undertake all of the dangerous stunts himself thanks to the magic of computer generated imagery.

Speaking about Terence Stamp, who previously played the villain in 'Superman' in 1978, he told The Province.com: "Unfortunately for Mr. Stamp, they didn't have CGI back then. I'm being spared a lot of drudgery that he had to endure. From time to time I'm in a harness, but I don't think anywhere near as much as he was. It's no secret that a lot of the film is going to be assisted by computer designed animation."

While he is a fan of CGI, Michael admitted it can be "frustrating" to work with a green screen.

He said: "I guess it can be frustrating not having those tactile elements around you, being surrounded by the green but you're always trying to tell a story and be honest and you use your imagination regardless of whether there's a set or not."




Walt Disney Pictures ‘Lone Ranger’ Open Casting Call for Extras

(leadcastingcall.com)                 Walt Disney Pictures along with Jerry Bruckheimer, and Johnny Depp is back in production for the film remake of TV classic  The Lone Ranger. The set is currently being built in Grant County after being put on hold for several months.

Filming will take place in New Mexico starting in February through July 2012. Most of the film has been cast in Los Angeles. Supporting roles, smaller speaking roles, as well as extras and photo doubles are being cast in New Mexico.

The extras casting director is seeking the following types:

*Males with no facial hair,

*Males with lots of facial hair.

*Females of all sizes with long hair

*Native Americans

*Asians

*Hoseback Riders

Time & Date: Sunday December 11, 2011 9am til 4pm

Where: Far Horizon Studio 300 Washington SE Suite 304 Alburquerque, NM 87108

Come dressed in your best western look. Bring proper ID!

**Additional casting calls will be scheduled throughout filming.




Chris Columbus Ensures a Safer Science Fiction Universe
             
(latinoreview.com)            Chris Columbus Ensures a Safer Science Fiction Universe Chris Columbus' production company, 1492 Pictures, has won the rights to Charles Yu's 2010 debut novel, "How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe."

The novel won several science fiction awards and sounds kind of awesome. The Hollywood Reporter offers this brief description of the plot:

"The novel centers on a time travel machine repairman -- also named Charles Yu -- who has spent the past 10 years traveling back and forth in time in search of his father, who has disappeared. When the fictional Yu falls into a time loop he must find a way to change the future."

Columbus is only producing this one. Directing duties will fall to first timer Brendan Bellomo whose only real credit to date is an ambitious short called, "Bohemibot," which you have to admit is a catchy title. Hopefully this one turns out as promising as it looks.




RoboCop Joins the Star Trek Sequel

(Variety)               Peter Weller ("RoboCop" films) has joined the cast of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek sequel in an unknown role, reports Variety.

The film recently cast Benicio Del Toro as the villain and Alice Eve as reportedly a new character. John Cho, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin are set to return for the follow-up.

Abrams will direct from a script by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof. Abrams, Kurtzman, Orci, Lindelof, Bryan Burk and David Ellison will produce through Bad Robot and Skydance Productions.

Paramount will start filming in early 2012 for a May 17, 2013 release.




James Cameron's TED Talk

(alexandrosmaragos.com)       

            James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal TED Talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar.

VIDEO - Take a look:           http://www.alexandrosmaragos.com/2011/11/james-cameron-ted-talk.html





Jerry Bruckheimer Breaks His Silence on Disney's $215 Million 'Lone Ranger' Compromise

(hollywoodreporter.com)                   The producer tells THR how he slashed a $260 million megabudget to get Disney's green light on the Johnny Depp film, why the negotiations took so long and how he feels about the new release date.

Jerry Bruckheimer says he never had any doubt that The Lone Ranger would get made with star Johnny Depp. But the project proved to be the most difficult negotiation of his career after Disney halted production in August as the budget reportedly spiraled beyond $260 million. Disney CEO Robert Iger set a hard number -- $215 million, according to a knowledgeable source -- and agreed to go forward with Lone Ranger only if the filmmakers hit the target. In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bruckheimer explains how they got there.

THR: How did negotiations get to the point where Disney shut down the movie?

Bruckheimer: We had a script that we kept working on. It was evolving. You start looking at locations, you look at the menu and say: "I like all these desserts. I want 'em all." And you hit a number and they say, "We can't afford that." Then you start cutting it back. Disney wanted to stop the spending unless they felt the budget corresponded to the number that the boss [Iger] wanted. They had set a deadline [Aug. 12] for us to submit a budget, and we didn't hit their number. They said, "Can you hit it?" We didn't have enough time to really vet the budget, and we said we couldn't hit it right away. And they said, "We have to stop the bleeding." We understood what they were doing, but we wanted to keep working.

PHOTOS: Johnny Depp's Most Memorable Career Moments

THR: Were you shocked that they shut it down?

Bruckheimer: It's always a shock when they actually do it. But I was still very confident that we could get the picture made. It took us about four to six weeks to figure out how to make the movie more economically.

THR: How did you do it?

Bruckheimer: We redid the production plan. We originally laid it out to avoid winter. Every single location we had, there was winter -- 30s at night, 50s during the day, best-case scenario. We were jumping around. California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. If we had a big crowd scene and then the next day we were shooting just Tonto and the Lone Ranger, we still had the crew "on" because you have them weekly. So we bunched the sequences that were big together, and for the smaller scenes [we] laid off the extras, the effects people, the makeup people. It costs an enormous amount with 150 extras on the set. It's not the extras, it's the people that support the extras. You're still carrying all the wardrobe, makeup and hair people. We bunched together scenes with Tonto and the Lone Ranger, so we had a much smaller crew. We saved about $10 million just by doing that.

PHOTOS: Inside 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

Then we looked for the best break in tax incentives. We found that Louisiana gave us a better tax incentive than New Mexico -- that was another $8 million. We're still shooting in New Mexico, and we might [also] go to Louisiana. We're asking New Mexico to come closer to the Louisiana incentive.

We dropped our California location not because they didn't offer a tax break but because it was another production office that we had to open. Every time you have a new location, you have to use crew time setting it up for you. There are a lot of expenses.

THR: And there were deferments on fees?

Bruckheimer: Disney held back fees, and I put up some of my development money. I've done that before. [Director] Gore [Verbinski] and myself and Johnny and some vendors and creative people agreed to deferments. They will get paid at a certain point that Disney negotiated with them, as I will. It's a "favored nation" deal, so we all get paid at the same point when Disney recoups. That took a month or more. Then [on Oct. 13] we could finally start spending again. Some below-the-line people gave us reductions.

STORY: 'The Lone Ranger': A Timeline
Disney would have much preferred us cutting stuff out of the script. But the competition is fierce. You can't compete with The Hobbit, you can't compete with Transformers if you do that. The audience will stay home.

THR: Did you have to lose sequences from the script? There was talk that some train sequences were cut back.

Bruckheimer: We cut a sequence involving a coyote attack -- supernatural coyotes -- and a small animated segment. The train [scenes] are intact. We trimmed it a little bit. Gore made some sacrifices creatively, but nothing that would hurt the film. We had to work it out. The studio set a number, and it was always our responsibility to get to the number.

THR: What if the picture still goes over budget?

Bruckheimer: We are all sharing the burden on overages, including Disney.

STORY: Official: Disney's 'Lone Ranger' Sets May 31, 2013 Release Date

THR: Because you missed your original start date, how do you feel about Disney moving the release from December 2012 to May 31, 2013?

It's a better date. Before, we were up against The Hobbit and World War Z. Now we're a week after Fast and Furious and a couple weeks before Superman. The competition is not as bad. There are a lot of movies jammed in at Christmas. In the summer, you have a longer run. You're cut off after the first of the year on a Christmas release.

THR: Was this your most difficult negotiation ever?

Bruckheimer: It's been very hard. It's just the times. It's tough out there. The studios lost a real source of revenue in DVDs. It's much tougher, much harder. The studios are making fewer movies. In the past, there's always been something else [to make up lost revenue] that's jumped in there. There will be something, but it hasn't happened yet.

STORY: Disney's 'Lone Ranger' Close to Riding Again After Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski Reduce Fees

But I've had so many movies shut down. The first Pirates was shut down. Pearl Harbor was stopped. So was Armageddon. For me, this is normal. This is: "Get real. Let's get the budget where we can make it."

THR: How important is this movie to Verbinski?

Bruckheimer: He's certainly motivated to bring the picture in on budget.

THR: Where are you with Pirates 5?

Bruckheimer: We're in the outline phase. We will lay out a story. We have a script, but we decided we could do better.

THR: How are things going with Disney overall?

Bruckheimer: I'm there until 2014 or 2015. I'm happy with them, and I think they're happy with me.

THE CHANGING BUDGET FOR THE LONE RANGER

    * Original: $260 million
    * Revised: $215 million
    * Savings: $45 million

‘Rango’: On the Trail of Animation’s Outlaw Future?

(herocomplex.latimes.com)                Will “Rango” ride off into the sunset with an Academy Award? The Envelope is the awards insider for the Los Angeles Times and features the work of our Hero Complex writers. Here’s a look at one story from the upcoming animation issue of The Envelope; this one looks at the Gore Verbinski western that won over critics and should be a contender in the now-underway Oscar season.

"Rango" (Paramount Pictures)

When you think of Johnny Depp it’s hard not to think of Tim Burton — the movie star and director tandem have worked on seven feature films together — but with the success of “Rango”  it may be time to more carefully consider the collaboration of Depp and Gore Verbinski, the soft-spoken popcorn auteur who has now made four movies with the actor since 2003 and is now preparing a fifth.

Depp says the two directors will never be mistaken for each other, but that they do share a certain skill for making the real world feel especially animated and making animated worlds reach for an unexpected reality. Depp made three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films with Verbinski and the two will reunite (after considerable turbulence in the corner offices of Disney) for the 2013 revival of “The Lone Ranger,” but the actor said working with the filmmaker on the animated “Rango” was especially enlightening, just like working with Burton on 2005′s “The Corpse Bride.”

“Gore and Tim are very, very different but there is a similar thing in the incredible arena that they build and that they allow the actors to go into, a place where the actors can feel free to go ape,” Depp said. “They rein it in, hone it and make it special and pay close attention to the details. So there’s this freedom they both create and an organic approach. Gore amazed me right away with his technical ability … he knows cinema backwards and forward and he’s completely unafraid. When I saw ‘Rango’ I was pretty stupefied – it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.”

Johnny Depp at premiere of "Rango" on Feb. 14, 2011. (Gus Ruelas/Reuters)

Verbinski’s knowledge of cinema was on full display in “Rango,” the first animated feature film from Paramount Pictures and the first created by Industrial Light & Magic, the esteemed visual effects house. In the film, Depp gives voice to a thespian chameleon who ends up in a savage town called Dirt where a six-shooter drama unfolds with nods to “High Noon,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” ”Destry Rides Again” and a dozen other saddlebag classics. With especially scabby characters (like a chicken with an arrow through its eye) and existential subplots, ”Rango” was defiantly “un-cute” in this era of animation blockbusters defined by heartfelt appeal and a tidy, toy-driven aesthetic.

More than that, Verbinksi went against the conventional approach of animation today — instead of recording voices from voice actors who worked alone in the studio, he put his ensemble together on a soundstage with a 40-foot-long wooden saloon bar, whiskey glasses and swinging doors and even brought in a chuck wagon to help the cast ground their performance in the dusty territories of their imagination.

More than that, Verbinski sees a new frontier in animation where audacious outlaws may finally win. He said R-rated animation projects (such as David Fincher’s discussed adaptation of “The Goon“) may be pioneer projects to watch.

“There’s so much you can do in animation, and maybe what’s interesting is a movie where you don’t bring your 6-year-old,” Verbinksi said, adding that the the animation legacy of Ralph Bakshi and “Heavy Metal” may be a compass point for Hollywood as far as mature audience ambitions. “You can tell so many stories. I think where it’s going is very interesting if we let it be.”




Filmmakers Reviving Sci-fi With Lights, Miniatures, & Imagination

(techzwn.com)                 When it comes to special effects, nothing looks more realistic than reality itself, and filmmakers Derek Van Gorder and Otto Stockmeier hope to show this with their upcoming film, “C.”

The short sci-fi film begins in an interplanetary cold war, and follows the story of an idealistic flight officer who hijacks her own ship to search for other habitable worlds, and a better future. Gorder and Stockmeier are breaking the mould with this film—abandoning computer graphics and green screens for model ships, lights, and whole lot of creativity.

They elaborated on this via e-mail, noting while “CGI can be really beautiful and it’s an incredibly powerful tool,” science fiction films and others that are filled with special effects tend to move too far from principles of basic photography.”

“Light and the physical world plays such an important role in a filmmaker’s decisions, and through all those decisions nature is meeting you halfway,” Gorder and Stockmeier said.

The film’s trailer shows this concept in action. A ship soars through space, lights shining forward through the darkness. There is depth and shadow, and an that uncanny feel that sci-fi films once had.

The ship, after all, is a miniature model with real lights, and the shadows are not rendered by a computer—they’re real.

“When you create elements of a shot entirely in a computer, you have to generate everything that physics and the natural world offers you from scratch,” they said, noting that while having these tools on hand can be empowering to filmmakers, it’s still just animation, and “throwing it into the same frame as a real live human being or natural landscape is a bold choice, it’s mixing mediums.”

“I like the Pixar approach better, full CGI movies that just are what they are—you accept it, it feels natural within the world of the film,” Gorder said. “I’m looking forward to more CGI-based science fiction that accepts the medium for what it is rather than copy & pasting big scary monsters or ridiculous landscapes into an otherwise live-action movie.”

They also have a love for the old way of doing effect. “There’s a richness and texture when you’re working with lenses and light that can’t be replicated. The goal of special effects shouldn’t necessarily be to look realistic, they should be works of art themselves and help create a mood or tell a story,” they said.

Gorder and Stockmeier used the “Stargate” sequence from 2001 as an example—which they describe as neither realistic nor recognizable—yet still “communicates an enormous science fiction concept effectively.” The add the great sci-fi films that still hold a spot in the hearts of many-a-good-geek took their places by creating “unforgettable visions that remain timeless because they told great stories, and their effects blended seamlessly into that vision.”

Trying to do everything with CGI and green screens sets what they describe as a trap that promises an audience photorealism. Yet for filmmakers, “all of a sudden you’re lighting for chromakeying instead of lighting for a mood, and you risk missing storytelling opportunities.” The end product often gives CGI-heavy movies what they describe as a “plastic” feel.

Full article with pics &  video:     http://techzwn.com/2011/12/filmmakers-reviving-sci-fi-with-lights-miniatures-and-imagination/




‘Tron’ Vs ‘Tron: Legacy’ in a CGI Battle

(uponregistration.com)                     Twenty-eight years is a very long time to wait for a sequel, but loyal followers of “Tron” didn’t thoughts within the least. The 1982 movie was groundbreaking in its use of laptop graphics which opened up a brand new world of potentialities when it got here to laptop-generated imagery in a movie. Likewise, followers of “Tron” knew that the sequel would have to do one thing to push the envelope on CGI. Followers acquired simply that and extra as “Tron: Legacy” delivered CGI graphics not like any other movie has to date.

“Tron” gave us a unique look at the power computes had when it got here to movie making. When the characters have been derezzed, it was actually as though somebody pulled a plug out they usually vanished by giant laptop pixelation. Whereas the disks they used for the game grid and carried of their fits have been actually only a disk, they still did nothing special. The light cycles, which constructed partitions wherever they went and derezzed characters, have been additionally largely pixilated, but still effective. Although the surveillance programs have been clearly CGI, they have been no more than what appeared like a child’s building block toy collection that was put together to make a menacing wanting program. The CGI in “Tron” appeared nice for its time, but it can not examine to the CGI of “Tron: Legacy”

Since Programs do not age as Users do, writers and the CGI team needed to deal with this matter and make it believable. Flynn proven as a young father was an surprising surprise since the actor enjoying him, Jeff Bridges, shouldn’t be in his 30′s anymore, but appeared as though he were. It appeared so actual that it is sure to inspire different movies to use this method the place applicable.

Whereas the sunshine cycles have been a staple picture in “Tron” it is no wonder that they’d come back for use in “Tron: Legacy.” The wall that the cycles used appeared extra like a ribbon of sunshine than it did within the first film. The light cycle arena had additionally changed from a easy enjoying discipline space to a much more complicated recreation simulation that’s generally used in racing video games. The cycles themselves additionally received an upgrade from a easy wanting motorbike to a much more complicated motorbike that materialized when a easy wanting black baton was pulled aside while operating which materialized a bike to ride on.

The discs in “Tron: Legacy” additionally acquired an upgrade from being only a easy disc to turn out to be a extra excessive tech donut-shaped disc. Not only did these discs mild up, but they also acted as computers that could possibly be used to heal a Program if they’d been injured by simulated pictures of the proprietor, which appeared out of the center of the disc. When a Program was derezzed, they turned what actually appeared like small laptop chips breaking apart from every other. Although the CGI in “Tron” can not start to check with the complexity that “Tron: Legacy” was in a position to ship and bring to new heights, both movies have been equally groundbreaking the place CGI is concerned. Just as “Tron” changed the way a whole lot of movies after it have been being made, “Tron: Legacy” is sure to do the same.

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Pixar Premiere Animators' Occasion

(stuff.co.nz)                               Cameras set to roll on NZ's largest production lot McKenzie Muppet song gets Oscar tip Sione's cast prays pirates steer clear Love child of Gable, Young dies Streep tipped for Oscar glory Stuff's big entertainment quiz: December 1 The cat finally gets the cream No Conchords movie planned - HBO Kingdom Come film's deadline passes Creditors put squeeze on failed film

A small group of Kiwi animators and special effects artists have had a sneak peak at Pixar's latest film, as the industry gathers in Wellington for its annual conference.

The southern hemisphere premiere of short film La Luna was held at animation conference Animfx yesterday at Te Papa.

The film follows a working-class boy who sweeps up fallen stars on the moon with his father and grandfather, and is being considered for an Academy Award.

Pixar director Enrico Casarosa, who was a storyboard artist for the United States giant on films Ratatouille, Cars and Up, afterwards gave an insight into his directorial debut.

Despite lasting only seven minutes, La Luna took nine months to make, using 50 to 60 people at its peak, which is a "small team" for Pixar.

At first the characters appear to be fishermen as they row out to the moon – a throwback to Casarosa's childhood in Italy.

"I grew up with the sea right by. A lot of fishermen. At home we lived with my grandfather, but my dad and my grandfather never got along. I was always the little kid stuck in between these two guys.

"One would ask me a question, and the other would ask me a question, but they would never talk to each other."

There has been a strong turn-out at the conference in Wellington, underlining the importance of the industry to the capital.

Weta Digital was well-known overseas, said Casarosa, who is based in California.

"People are getting excited about The Hobbit again. It feels like there is a little bit of recapturing of some of that magic that was there a few years back during the Lord of the Rings. I think people are very curious about Tintin as well."

There have been claims that Weta Digital is now the world's second-largest special effects workshop after Pixar.

Graham Mitchell, chief executive of ultrafast broadband company Crown Fibre Holdings, said he had heard anecdotally that Weta had achieved the No2 spot.

"I don't think people realise how successful they are."

But Weta spokeswoman Amy Minty said the claim was not easy to quantify.

Although Weta was certainly one of the largest, it would be reluctant "to describe ourselves in such a definitive way". A Technology Investment Network report estimated Weta's revenues climbed by $10 million to $110m this year.

A tour of Weta Digital tomorrow promises to be one of the highlights at Animfx, which has attracted about 400 people in the conference's sixth year.




Andy Serkis Makes The Case For An Expanded Definition Of Acting

(thinkprogress.org)                    We’ve talked about this a bit before, but Andy Serkis makes the case for why he should be eligible for acting awards — which I agree with, I just don’t know that we can nominate him alone:

    There is no difference. Acting is acting. Performance capture is a technology, not a genre; it’s just another way of recording an actor’s performance. It’s very interesting being in two movies this year that are manifested completely differently but use the same process. The same visual effects company, Weta Digital, produced apes that look entirely real and a palette and a style that honors the source material of Tintin. What Steven was trying to do was to have the best of both worlds, where you can create the look and the feel and the sensibility of Herge [Tintin's cartoonist creator] but have emotionally truthful performances. The technology allows the actors to enter into those worlds…The technology has come to the point where we could shoot Gollum and the Hobbits in the same moment, as we did in Apes. In the original, I’d have to shoot against empty plates that were shot on the day, then repeat the process on the performance-capture stage, sometimes months later. Now we get it in one hit, so it’s much more actor- and director-friendly.

Obviously post-production and effects work exist on a continuum. But there’s a difference between technological alteration without which a performance could not exist, and post-production work that tweaks or modifies a performance or a set but that does not constitute the core of the work. Our current awards categories don’t provide appropriate recognition to the first category of technological and post-production work. I want Serkis to get piles of statues. I just think we have to find a way to acknowledge the interactive nature of the work. The fact that visual effects artists often don’t get properly credited is part and parcel of a system that involves visual effects studios giving up not just credit but profits in order to keep work, even though the industry increasingly relies on their work to satisfy audience expectations.

Maybe if Serkis gets a nomination or an award for a role where his face isn’t actually on-screen, it could trigger a special citation for the visual effects folks who translated his performance. I don’t know that it’s a perfect solution. But I think we need to reconsider the awards categories themselves, not just who fits into them.

Guillermo del Toro Shooting "Pacific Rim" Robot Shop

(comingsoon.net)             

     After Guillermo del Toro’s dream project — At the Mountains of Madness — was cancelled unceremoniously, he has thrown himself into a number of new projects. Currently, he’s directing Pacific Rim, starring Idris Elba and Charlie Day.

On how Pacific Rim is coming along, courtesy of io9, Guillermo del Toro said:

    “Very good, we’re at the end of our second week. We are shooting everything for the main complex in the movie, which is a huge complex in Hong Kong where the robots are maintained. We are doing that, while building downtown Hong Kong streets.”

Pacific Rim, in short, is about people in the future piloting giant robots to fend off an alien threat in the form of massive, ghastly monsters.




Full John Carter Trailer is Visual Effects Spectacle

(thehdroom.com)                  John Carter Trailer is Visual Effects SpectacleDisney has released the first full trailer for John Carter and its a visual effects showpiece not unlike the first trailer for Avatar, only replacing the lush forests of Pandora with the barren deserts of Mars.

It's not hard to draw comparisons between Avatar and John Carter based on this new trailer. The tall, lanky Martians, caught up in war, are similar in stature to the Na'vi of Pandora. A human fighting amongst them and huge effects sequences are also shared traits.

You could also draw comparisons of Carter taking on a giant blind white ape while in chains to the arena sequence in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones in which Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme were faced with battling large exotic alien beasts while chained up. I was a little surprised to see the end of the ape sequence appear in the trailer.

John Carter is based on the science fiction book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church in the story of a Civil War veteran who ends up on the surface of Mars and caught up in a massive war between races.

Directing John Carter is Pixar vet Andrew Stanton in what is his first live-action feature film. The inhabitants of Mars and much of the landscape is computer generated, so Stanton is still working in familiar territory. With a resume that includes WALL·E and Finding Nemo, there are great expectations that Stanton will deliver with John Carter when it hits theaters on March 9.

VIDEO - Take a look:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jfd3mW9B0&feature=player_embedded





DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg to Receive CinemaCon Honor

(comingsoon.net)                 The 2nd Annual CinemaCon exhibitors convention, to be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is roughly five months away, but they're already starting to announce the honorees with the first of them being DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is being presented with the 2012 "Pioneer of the Year" by the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation on Wednesday, April 25, 2012. ComingSoon.net should have full coverage of the show, but receiving this award is pretty major for Katzenberg, who has been a regular fixture at the show each year, often showing early footage or works-in-progress from DreamWorks Animation's slate.

You can read the full press release below:

The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation will present its 2012 "Pioneer of the Year" Award to Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., it was announced by Ted Cooper, President of the industry�s foremost charitable organization. Katzenberg will be honored on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at CinemaCon, the industry's largest and most important gathering of cinema owners and operators from around the world. CinemaCon 2012 will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

"We are honored in our own right to be able to single out someone like Jeffrey Katzenberg," noted Ted Cooper. "When it comes to passion for our industry and compassion for those in our industry who need help, Jeffrey has no equals. He is most deserving of this prestigious accolade. As well we thank our friends at NATO for their continued support as we could not imagine a better forum at which to honor Jeffrey than at CinemaCon 2012."





'G.I. Joe' Sequel Crew Member Dies After Accident On Set

(tmz.com)               A crew member working on the set of the movie "G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation" died yesterday after an accident on the New Orleans set ... TMZ has learned.

Officials at Paramount Pictures confirm ... the crew member was working on tearing down the set, when something went terribly wrong.

Sources connected to the production tell us ... the man was working on a high-powered scissor lift, when the machine tipped over and the man sustained fatal injuries.

Paramount released a statement saying, "Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the [crew member's] family at this time."

The statement continues, "The safety of our cast and crew is our top priority and the studio is fully cooperating with all investigating agencies as they examine the circumstances surrounding this unusual accident.”




A Look at the Lucas Empire

(Marin Independent Journal)                George Lucas' global filmmaking empire includes 6,100 acres at the Skywalker, Big Rock and Grady ranches in Lucas Valley, with development on less than 5 percent of the land.

• Skywalker Ranch. It's for pre- and post-production work, and home to Skywalker Sound and Skywalker Properties, as well as agricultural ranch facilities. Most of its 2,500 acres are preserved through the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. An on-site fire department provides the county with mutual aid response at no cost to taxpayers.

• Big Rock Ranch. It's a multimedia office for Lucasfilm Animation and the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Some 2,483 acres were set aside as agricultural preserve through MALT. Some 120 acres were fenced off to protect Marin dwarf flax, a threatened plant.

• Grady Ranch. Planned is a digital media production facility for movies and television, complete with costume storage, makeup and dressing rooms, production suites, guest suites, office suites, stages, screening rooms, a fitness center and café. Some 800 acres of the 1,039-acre ranch were donated to the county as open space, while another 187 will be private open space.

• Letterman Digital Arts Center. Based at the Presidio in San Francisco, this facility accommodates Lucasfilm's corporate operation, Industrial Light & Magic, LucasArts and
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video teams. The 23-acre campus includes four buildings and 17 acres of public park.

• Lucasfilm Singapore. Lucasfilm's first overseas production facility is under construction in Singapore. It features a production building with eight floors of office space, a data center, production facilities, a 100-seat theater, retail shopping and a public park and gardens.




MARI 1.4 Announced

(3dworldmag.com)             The Foundry continues to shake-up 3D Paint with the release of MARI 1.4

MARI has been widely adopted across the industry at leading film studios and post-production houses including Sony Picture Imageworks, DreamWorks, ILM, Pixar and Digital Domain to name a few.

Leading visual effects software developer The Foundry announces the release of MARI 1.4.

Designed from the ground up to meet the needs of the most demanding VFX texture and matte painting artists, MARI is a 3D digital paint tool that simplifies artist workflow.

Capable of handling vast numbers of pixels, MARI eclipses other 3D paint tools in speed, flexibility and processing capabilities. MARI allows artists to concentrate on painting detailed, multi-layered textures directly onto 3D models in a fluid and natural way.

Introducing Adobe Photoshop layered PSD import and export, industry standard colour management with OpenColorIO and triplanar projection, MARI 1.4 speeds up and simplifies workflow.

With MARI 1.4 artists can paint detailed, multi-layered textures directly onto 3D models, solve commonplace VFX problems, save time, and work in ways never thought possible before.

Hayden Jones, VFX Supervisor at Rushes said: “Using MARI to paint was a revelation! It’s immensely quick and intuitive. MARI allowed me to concentrate on the getting the artistic look right, without having to get bogged down in technicalities.”

Rob Bredow, Chief Technology Officer at Sony Picture Imageworks adds: “MARI streamlines our artist workflows on our most complicated assets. It is the latest addition to our pipeline as we provide artists with the right, innovative tools to meet any creative challenge.”

MARI 1.4 is available immediately and runs on Windows and Linux. It supports Ptex, Python OpenEXR, and C API.

MARI 1.4 is priced at $1,980/ £1,200 with maintenance costing $330/£200.

For more information and for video demos of MARI 1.4 go to www.thefoundry.co.uk




 It’s High Time For a Best Video Game Motion Capture Actor Award

(kotaku.com)       It's High Time For a Best Video Game Motion Capture Actor Award In today's lifelike edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter MarcianTobay says it's time to honor the motion capture actors, without whom our professionally-voiced video game characters would be nothing more than well-spoken robots.

Let's discuss Motion Capture. This will involve minor spoilers from a side-plot in Arkham City, so helmets on.

Watch this clip. Skip to 1:55 and watch the projection of The Riddler. I just got to this scene last night and I can't get it out of my head. Now, I love The Riddler more than any sane person should, so this entire clip was candy to me. One thing stood out, though; His movement.

It's High Time For a Best Video Game Motion Capture Actor Award Please watch the clip with the sound off. Skip ahead to that, and turn off your speakers. Even without the sound, you're still experiencing the Riddler. How he casually waves his cane around. The sarcastic way he dismisses the "unimportant" cops' lives. Even how he loses his gusto and flair whenever Batman calls him insane. There's no wasted gesture. There's no idle face in the corner looping the same non-synched lips for two minutes.

What fascinates me about this is how much we've advanced as an art form. Remember how we used to get still sketches of characters while beeps and boops signaled that they were talking? And now we have this. It's truly incredible. In fact, I dare say there is more acting in this brief clip than some star Hollywood beauties put on, but that's a different discussion.

My core question is: Why aren't we talking motion capture more? Why isn't the man or woman who played The Riddler getting acknowledgment? Yes, Mark Hamill VOICED The Joker, but who was the person that pantomimed that melodramatic gasp when Batman first says "Protocol Ten"? Who actually held the cigar and contemptuously sneered when Penguin first thought he killed Batman?

Yes, yes, everyone posts clips with confusion and surprise when we found out a man played Harley Quinn, but I advise things go further. Let's start recognizing the great motion capture artists. Let's have nominations for "Best Physical Actor" that go alongside "Best Voice Actor". Let's start getting them the respect they deserve.

Why is it that when Andy Serkis plays Gollum in Lord of the Rings, everyone talks about it for years to come, yet when video games have similar feats of immersion, people ignore it.

I'll start by asking YOU:

-What is your favorite physical performance in a video game?




Animation Catagory Snubbed by NY Film Critics

(nj.com)              The New York Film Critics Circle announced their annual prizes on Tuesday, marking the start of the end of the movie year, and the beginning of the Oscar-focused awards season.

The entire year’s slate of cartoons which so disappointed many voters (not me – I liked “Rango”) they voted not to give a best animation prize at all.

Full article:    http://www.nj.com/entertainment/movies/index.ssf/2011/11/ny_film_critics_choose_the_artist_as_best_picture.html




A 24/7 Global VFX Pipeline For "HUGO"

(broadcastnewsroom.com)                 DMN Newswire--2011-11-30--International visual effects company Pixomondo completed over 800 shots as the primary visual effects vendor on Martin Scorseses 3D epic adventure, Hugo. Independently produced by GK Films and distributed in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures, the film features shots contributed by ten of Pixomondo's eleven facilities across Germany, the US, Canada, China and the UK. Pixomondo's 24/7 global pipeline was instrumental in completing the project on time and budget while keeping up with the highly inventive creative vision of director Martin Scorsese and visual effects supervisor Rob Legato.

Employing stereo 3D as a narrative device driving an immersive audience experience, Scorsese was intent on pushing the capabilities of 3D filmmaking to extremes. With this mandate as the driving force, Pixomondo developed custom workflows not only to handle complex challenges in VFX, but also to capture in painstaking detail all of the live action production data required to accommodate the rigorous effects and post production demands of this project. Pixomondo began working on Hugo in July of 2010 and was integrated into the production from the outset with Pixomondo VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann and Digital Effects Supervisor Alex Henning on set in England and France working alongside Legato and Scorsese.

"Marty and I worked with Ben on Shutter Island so we already knew he was our first choice for Hugo," said Legato. "For this film, Pixomondo's ability to tap internal teams around the world was invaluable. It simplified everything from both a creative and logistical standpoint. This was a project with many moving parts, and Ben, Alex and the entire Pixomondo team worked tirelessly to cater to the demands of this show."



Bringing to Life 70,000 Parts For Transformers: Dark of the Moon's  "Driller"

(heyuguys.co.uk)                A glimpse into the creative process of those big, effects-heavy Hollywood blockbusters always offers a fun and fascinating prospect, and that’s precisely what happened when one of the industry big-hitters, Oscar-winning Visual Effects Supervisor Scott Farrar, recently took the stage to chat about his experiences working on Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

An employee of ILM for thirty years now (he worked on ‘Jedi’, and before that, the early Star Trek​ films), Farrar has lent his considerable talents to Michael Bay​ for over six years, and the third of the Transformers films presented the biggest challenge and most ambitious undertaking in his career so far. As well as a huge leap in digital effects this time around (giving ILM more than 200,000 hours of rendering power a day), Farrar and his team had to create a cityscape ravaged by a Decepticon onslaught, and unleash the awe-inspiring, building-devouring juggernaut referred to as the “Driller”, a giant snake-like creature with spinning rotator blades, knives and teeth (and comprised of over 70,000 parts!) All this was achieved while also factoring in the inclusion of 3D.

Full article:      http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/11/29/bringing-to-life-those-robots-in-disguise-the-vfx-of-transformers-dark-of-the-moon/




Evil Dead Remake Scares Up Distribution Team

(Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions)                  Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) and FilmDistrict have partnered with Ghost House Pictures on a worldwide deal--excluding U.K. and France--for Sony Pictures to distribute the remake of Evil Dead. The announcement was made by Steven Bersch, SPWA President, and Peter Schlessel, CEO of FilmDistrict. Lia Buman, FilmDistrict's EVP of Acquisitions, will oversee the project.

Original producing partners Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell (who also starred in the original franchise) and Sam Raimi will produce. Ghost House Pictures partners Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Nicole Brown and J.R. Young will oversee the project for Ghost House.




Men In Black 3 Actress Beams Aboard Trek Sequel

(Variety)                J.J. Abrams' untitled Star Trek sequel appears to have added Alice Eve to the cast. Variety has the word, suggesting that Eve will play an all-new character and not one previously established in Star Trek canon.

Eve is best known for her role in 2010's She's Out of My League and will appear next year in The Raven and Men in Black 3.

Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho and Anton Yelchin are expected to all reprise their roles as members of the Enterprise crew with Abrams back in the director's chair and a script again from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Benicio Del Toro has been named as Abrams' top choice for the film's lead villain, but nothing official has, as of yet, been announced.

Variety's article goes on to suggest that Del Toro's role is likely a familiar Trek character and that he'll be accompanied by another, older supporting villain that has yet to be cast.

The Star Trek sequel is expected to begin production in January, shooting in 3D, and will see a release on May 17, 2013.





Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" Looks For Character Ark

(Variety)         Though Christian Bale's name was originally associated with Darren Aronofsky's upcoming biblical epic, Noah, Variety reports that the star has passed on the project and that Michael Fassbender is now being eyed to play the ark-builder.

"Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family's journey," Aronofsky recently announced when Paramount Pictures and New Regency Productions stepped in to jointly fund the feature. "The imaginations of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It's my hope that I can present a window into Noah's passion and perseverance for the silver screen."

Fassbender appeared this year in Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class and A Dangerous Method with his next, Shame, opening this Friday. Next year, he'll appear in Steven Soderbergh's Haywire and Ridley Scott's Prometheus. After that's, he's set to re-team with Shame and Hunger director Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave and will likely return at some point for an as-of-yet-untitled X-Men: First Class sequel.




Glendale to Get 'Animated' in Image Makeover

(lacanadaonline.com)             Glendale is boring. Or at least that’s what more than a year of market research indicates.

Consultants hired to develop a new brand strategy for the city unveiled their findings Tuesday at City Hall, saying most people think of Glendale as the boring city between Burbank and Pasadena.

To combat that image, Nashville-based North Star Destination Strategies suggested a new marketing strategy centered on the tagline, “Your Life. Animated.”

With a nod toward Glendale-based animation studios such as DreamWorks Animation and Disney’s creative campus, the phrase comes with a new logo that includes the city’s name in lowercase letters surrounded by five multicolored curlicues.

“Glendale has long been content to be a quiet, productive, safe community, but now it’s time to let the secret out,” said Alison Maxwell, the city’s deputy director of economic development. “The dynamism, animation and creativity [here], it’s not something that’s presented and marketed to the world.”

The City Council approved the branding elements Tuesday on a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Dave Weaver dissenting. He called the rebranding project — with a budget of $1 million in redevelopment money — a waste of money.

The city has spent $139,000 on the project so far.

“I feel like Uncle Scrooge. I just don’t get it,” Weaver said after Maxwell clicked through a PowerPoint presentation outlining how the new logo and tagline can be used on city stationery, the municipal website, permits and street banners.

But Mayor Laura Friedman said the branding strategy is an important element in attracting good-paying jobs.

“We need to attract companies, and this branding will help us do that,” she said.

Maxwell said the tagline can be molded to fit different activities, such as using “Work. Animated” on business brochures. Local businesses could incorporate the tagline into their own advertising, pointing to an image of a Porto’s Bakery bus stop advertisement that said “Your Appetite. Animated.”

Acura of Glendale owner Jeanne Brewer said she could envision the Brand Boulevard of Cars dealerships dropping car emblems into the logo’s multiple curlicues in advertising ventures.

“We believe nothing is more important than a brand. We live it every day,” said Caruso Affiliated executive and past president of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce Rick Lemmo, adding that he liked where Glendale was going with its tagline.

Maxwell said the logo’s curlicues could also be used in other ways, such as creating a bicycle rack out of colorful swirls.

The point is to “help the logo get into people’s consciousness without being literal about it,” she said.

However, Maxwell added that a branding campaign doesn’t stop with a logo.

“The brand is the way that service, that agency, expresses itself to its customers, to its clients, to consumers,” Maxwell said.




Kickstarter Project:   SPACE OUT from High School to Outer Space

(kickstarter.com)                 Space Out is a short film that brings together a real-world high school experience with a science fiction space fantasy.

The film was created in collaboration with high school students from Envision Academy in Oakland, CA.

Please help us finish this film and make this dream a reality!

Check it out:    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/797589661/space-out-from-high-school-to-outer-space




Twilight Zone Heads Into Rewrites

(Variety)                 Invictus and Sherlock Holmes writer Anthony Peckham is in final negotiations to write The Twilight Zone for Warner Bros. Pictures and Appian Way.

Peckham will rewrite the original draft by Jason Rothenberg. Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) is set to direct.

Appian Way partners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran will produce with Michael Ireland, while Matt Cherniss will executive produce.

Based on the classic Rod Serling TV series, the movie is expected to start filming in the summer of 2012.