The Lorax' Breaks Pixar Record

(aceshowbiz.com)             

   Universal Pictures' environmental animated movie "The Lorax" secures the champion title on North American box office with a massive gross on its opening weekend. The family film based on Dr. Seuss' children book grabs an estimated $70.7 million, which is far above the studio's expectation.

The satisfying result marks the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel animated pic, breaking the record previously held by Pixar's "The Incredibles" which opened to $70.5 million in 2004. "Lorax" also marks the greatest box office performance by any animated film since 2010's "Toy Story 3", which debuted to $110.3 million, and "Shrek Forever After", which opened to $70.8 million.

"Lorax" scores the fourth top opening ever for any Universal's movie. Additionally, the Zac Efron and Taylor Swift-starring movie breaks the record of greatest opening in 2012, besting the $41.2 million scored by "The Vow" last February.

"The result is phenomenal," says Universal president of domectic distribution, Nikki Rocco, of the animation which production cost below $70 million. "Word of mouth was great, and that's why Saturday was up 80% from Friday. It's just spectacular."

Receiving an "A" CinemaScore, "Lorax" attracts to mostly parents and kids under the age of 12, which make up 70% of its ticket buyers. "I think there was a huge desire to see a Dr. Seuss 3D film from the creators of 'Despicable Me'," Rocco says.




LEGO Animated Film Designs Movie With Real LEGOs

(comingsoon.net)                In 2009, filmmakers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord made their mark with the Sony Animation hit Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and while their live action directorial debut, the Jonah Hill-Channing Tatum action-comedy 21 Jump Street, comes out on March 16, they still have their hands in animation as they move forward on development with the planned LEGO movie for Warner Bros. and are involved with the "Cloudy" sequel, currently (and tentatively) called Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to talk with Miller and Lord and get some updates on those other projects, especially their LEGO movie since there were and are still a lot of questions about what this movie is going to be since the project was first announced.

They're still working on developing the story with Animal Logic in Australia and co-director Chris McKay working with a unit in Los Angeles and Lord explained the approach they're taking with the film as "CGI with a stop motion feel to it and it's really weird in a great way."

"We're really building stuff with real LEGOs for the character design phase and the vehicle designs," Miller said. "We have LEGO experts and people literally building stuff and a room filled with LEGOs and the storyboard artist making things and shooting them on their phones, it's pretty nuts."




A Visit to a Ranch Far, Far Away...

(blogs.todayonline.com)              I have a place I need to see before I die.

In fact I have a list.

For most of them, I don’t expect to come true  (does anyone have a spare a ticket to the moon?) while some places are just within grasp (Alaska anyone?).

Was this moon the inspiration for the Moon of Endor?

But, like most Star Wars fans, I really want to go to the Skywalker Ranch. So much in fact, that very request used to be part of my regular prayers, along with good grades, a lightsaber and an epic Lego Millennium Falcon.

To be clear, I’m not a diehard fan. I cannot tell you what planet Admirer Ackbar is from or how Han Solo met Chewbacca. And I have no clue what happened to Luke Skywalker after Episode VI:  Return of the Jedi (I hear there are more twins involved) but I have seen on average all the Star Wars movies more than 10 times. Each. And I do annoy my friends by quoting Yoda every now and again.

I have four lightsabers now (replicas, not the real thing. That’s just silly). And I lugged back the epic Lego Millennium Falcon some years ago.

The forbidden road leading to George Lucas' office, which he works from frequently.

So to say I was excited to get an invite from Microsoft to visit the Skywalker Ranch as part of its Kinect Star Wars game press junket is a gross understatement. After all, this is the birthplace of THX and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), without which movies today would still be Charlie Chaplin-ish with no sound, and not a lot of colour.

I have imagined the Skywalker ranch to be filled with sand monsters, ewoks, droids and patrolled by stormtroopers and imperial guards. Can you blame me? The place is a virtual fortress; according to urban legend, ex-American President Ronald Reagan asked to visit the ranch and was turned down. If you are not hiding aliens or a millennium falcon, why all the secrecy?

Full Story:    http://blogs.todayonline.com/techtalk/2012/03/06/a-visit-to-a-ranch-far-far-away/




‘The Avengers’ Trailer Breaks iTunes Record

(latino-review.com)                   With two months to go before release, it looks like Marvel’s The Avengers is already breaking records.

We received a release from the Publicity Department at Disney that the trailer broke iTunes’ record for views in a 24 hour period. The Avengers trailer was viewed 13.7 million times on it first day alone. Wow. I know I watched it three separate times on different devices, so you’re welcome Disney.

From Disney:

    The new trailer, unveiled Wednesday, February 29, exclusively on iTunes, gives fans another quick look at “Marvel’s The Avengers”—the ultimate Super Hero team up—based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

    In “Marvel’s The Avengers” the world’s greatest Super Heroes assemble when Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) join S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to protect the world from the dangerous and powerful villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

    An exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is from Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Joss Whedon from a screenplay by Joss Whedon.

The Avengers hits theatres May 4.




Cartier Spends Two Years on VFX Post Work For A Movie About A Panther

(styleite.com)               Sure, Cartier has made mere commercials in the past, but it’s never made a short film that takes its viewers on a trip around the world in under four minutes. That’s what the storied French jewelry brand is doing now with its first fancy foray into making movies with L’Odyssee de Cartier.

The movie, which centers around the iconic Cartier Panthere (the house has a penchant for making bracelets that look like little precious gem panthers and leopards circling the wearer’s wrist) traveling around the world in search of inspiration. It comes to life after the lights go down in Cartier’s Paris flagship store, and then takes an intricate CGI journey around the world, visiting Russian royals taking a horse-drawn carriage ride, then conversing with a dragon that becomes the Great Wall of China, and then encountering one of India’s famous roving palaces (on top of an elephant, naturally) before being flown back to France by Alberto Santos-Dumont, the aviation pioneer for whom the Cartier Santos wrist watch0 is named. (The only reference to America is a team of gigantic Cartier Love bracelets, which were designed stateside in 1969.)

Cartier representatives say the movie is the product of over two years of work, six months of which it spent on post production and special effects — and when your movie features things like a diamond encrusted animal menagerie coming to life, that’s sort of understandable. Whether or not Cartier will be making another short film any time soon remains to be seen, but we think they did pretty well for their first attempt. Take a look at it below, and check out a few screen shots from the movie under that.

VIDEO - Take a look:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBNjTtCxd4&feature=player_embedded




RoboCop Reboot Finds Its Humanity

(Deadline)                   Jose Padilha's reboot of RoboCop looks to have found its lead as Deadline reports that Joel Kinnaman ("The Killing," Snabba Cash) has been offered the role of Officer Alex Murphy (played in the original by Peter Weller).

UPDATE: Deadline is confirming their earlier report, saying that Kinnaman has accepted the deal to play Alex Murphy in the RoboCop remake for MGM.

A reboot of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven film, RoboCop will again tell the story of a police officer who, after nearly being killed in the line of duty, is rebuilt as a crime-fighting cyborg. The original film spawned two sequels and multiple television series spinoffs.

"I have my take on it," Padilha told ComingSoon.net late last year, "And I can tell you this: In the first 'RoboCop' when Alex Murphy is shot, gunned down, then you see some hospitals and stuff and then you cut to him as RoboCop. My movie is between those two cuts. How do you make RoboCop? How do you slowly bring a guy to be a robot? How do you actually take humanity out of someone and how do you program a brain, so to speak, and how does that affect an individual?"

Recently, Gran Torino scribe Nick Schenk was brought about the project to rewrite. Production is still targeted for this summer.





Ralph McQuarrie, ‘Star Wars’ Concept Artist, Dies at 82

(blogs.wsj.com)                 Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who helped design the look of such “Star Wars” characters as Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca has died. He was 82 years old.

McQuarrie also worked on such films as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” as well as the the original “Battlestar Galactica” TV series. He won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1986 for his work on the movie “Cocoon.”

A statement on McQuarrie’s website reads “His influence on design will be felt forever. There’s no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say…’that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.’”

George Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars,” released this statement about McQuarrie’s passing: “Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘Do it like this.’”




Red Tails VFX Movie Magic Cutdown

VIDEO - Take a look:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF0cD1O3U8M




How Hollywood CGI Is Killing Classic Horror

(sabotagetimes.com)                 When it comes to scary movies they really don't make them like they used to: Stop-motion Medusa gave me nightmares. CGI Medusa gave me a semi.

Medusa is hella creepy, right? I’m talking about that stop-motion nightmare from Clash Of The Titans (1981). Everything about Ray Harryhausen’s creation chills me to the core. The green tangle of hissing snakes atop her hideous bonce. Those staring, unblinking eyes. Eyes that turn you to stone should you look into them. Her deadly accuracy with a bow and arrow. The fact that she’s half-human, half-reptile for Christ’s sake.

But most terrifying of all is the way she moves. That jerky, staccato movement that only a stop-motion model can produce. It scares the shit out of me. There’s something distinctly upsetting about it. Why? Because it’s almost human, but not quite. It’s otherworldly and alien. There’s just something incredibly jarring about Medusa’s off-kilter manoeuvrings that makes me want to scream.

    But most terrifying of all is the way she moves. That jerky, staccato movement that only a stop-motion model can produce. It scares the shit out of me

When I heard about the 2010 remake all I cared about was how Medusa would translate to CGI. I had high hopes. Peter Jackson’s Gollum was a triumph, after all. When CGI Medusa slithered into shot I was horrified. Not because she was scary, you understand. It was because she was just too damn pretty. Stop-motion Medusa gave me nightmares. CGI Medusa gave me a semi. I was ruddy furious (and a little horny).

For starters she has a supermodel’s face. After a few beers you’d overlook the snakey dreadlocks and hit here with your best chat up line. But what really kills the chills is the absence of stop-motion. CGI flows too smoothly and looks too pretty to induce any kind of scares. Parallels can be drawn to horror games. This is something that Jim Sterling explains brilliantly in The Ugly Secret Of Horror Games.

    For starters she has a supermodel’s face. After a few beers you’d overlook the snakey dreadlocks and hit here with your best chat up line.

Jim reckons the scariest game ever made is Friday The 13th (1985). He is, of course, absolutely right. I remember playing this on my Amstrad. I also remember having to quit after 5 minutes. Every time a kid was killed by Jason a pixely picture of a blood-soaked face flashed up accompanied by a high-pitched scream. It genuinely terrified me. But why? Jim says it best: “The fact the production values are so low it looks slightly shit, and slightly shit is what really sells horror.

He’s right. True horror lurks on crappy VHS tapes where the shoddy film quality somehow enhances the scares. I saw The Exorcist and Nightmare On Elm Street on dodgy bootlegged VHS cassettes and I absolutely shit a brick. Same with Reservoir Dogs. True, it’s not a horror film but that scene where Mr Blonde is torturing the cop seems even more voyeuristic and perverse when you’re watching it on poor quality tape.

The same concept applies to games. The better they look, the less scary they are. Which doesn’t bode well for next-gen horror fans. Shiny HD graphics and meticulously modelled super-babes do not lend themselves to horror. Same can be said for explodey set-pieces and pithy one liners (Resident Evil 6, I’m looking at you). Developers, if you want to scare us, strip away the Hollywood glamour and get your hands dirty. Drag us through the darkest recesses of your mind. The louder you make us scream, the more we’ll love you for it.




7 Blockbusters to Look Forward to in 2012

(universitytimes.ie)                  We all need a break sometimes. Occasionally, we have to watch films that are loud, fast-paced and contain either superheroes, CGI aliens, or giant robots; preferably a mixture of the three. This is why I have prepared for you a list of large scale blockbusters to look forward to in the coming year, to help you retreat into a world of fantasy in the best way possible.

John Carter

John Carter is actually coming out quite soon, at the end of March, so expect a proper review of it later this month. This sci-fi adventure is Disney’s live-action adaptation of a hugely influential series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I recently had a look through the first one, and it’s amazing how many tropes Burroughs had established for the genre, including ones that later appeared in such classics as Star Wars and Avatar. I also got a chance to take a look at a 10-minute preview while I was at the cinema, and I can confirm that the 3D actually looks quite nice, unlike the usual garbage Disney presents us with. Expect this to be a classic fun-filled sci-fi adventure – while I don’t think it will become the new Avatar, I do think that it will be sufficiently entertaining.

Prometheus

Another sci-fi film. Due to the viral nature of Prometheus’ marketing, many people still aren’t aware that this is a prequel to the Alien quadrilogy. It’s no secret that I love the first two Alien films very much (I placed the original on the No. 4 spot in my Top 10 Horror Films list), so I am extremely excited to see what Ridley Scott has to offer in his new instalment. Very little is known about the plot of the new film, and only two cryptic trailers have been released, which promise similarly terrifying and high-budget action sequences as we would have found in the originals. Sounds very promising indeed, look out for this one.

The Dark Knight Rises

I don’t think this one needs any explaining. The final part in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, this is a follow-up to the unbelievably successful The Dark Knight, which was a smash hit with critics and comic-book fans alike. Audiences were thrilled with the gritty, realistic version of Gotham City, and praised Heath Ledger’s unforgettable performance as Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. So what does the conclusion of the epic story have to offer us? Once again, not a lot of information has been released, but we do know of two characters who will definitely appear – Catwoman and Bane. It will be interesting to see such over-the-top characters in a realistic setting, and I’m sure that Christopher Nolan will not disappoint us with his interpretation. The trailer also showed street thugs taking over Gotham, a scene which will be instantly familiar to those who played last year’s excellent Arkham City. My only concern with this film is that it may collapse under the weight of its own hype – with two excellent predecessors, it will be difficult to top what has come before. Still, I have high hopes for Rises, and hope it will be a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.

The Avengers

Normally, I’m not really a fan of sequels, and particularly sequels to superhero films. What makes The Avengers different, however, is that it had been planned for several years, with clues about it being dropped casually into every single Marvel film since the 2006 The Incredible Hulk. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America – all these films are actually linked together, and are set to be concluded in The Avengers. With such a hit cast of characters, I find it very difficult to imagine that the films could be anything but outrageous fun. I can only see two things that could go wrong – the first is that the film had 3D added to it, meaning that we could get the terrible depth effects that we got in Thor; the second is that it looks like Loki could end up being the main villain – I don’t see him as a particularly strong character, which could end up hurting the film. I’ll still watch it though, just for the possibility of seeing Iron Man fight alongside the Hulk.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Thank God they decided to reboot it. Spider-Man 3 left me with feelings of uncontrollable rage – Venom, one of the best villains in the franchise, appeared for about fifteen minutes of the entire film, there was almost no humour to speak of, and don’t even get me started on the dancing scene. It appears that, for once, the producers decided to listen to the fans and completely change the tone of the series. From the trailers and previews that I’ve seen, the plot line stays very true to the comic books, Spider-Man is actually funny (which is such a key feature of his personality that I don’t know why they decided to take it out in the previous film), the love interest is Gwen Stacy instead of Mary-Jane (if you’re familiar with the lore, you know that that could lead to some interesting drama towards the end of the film) and the inclusion of the Lizard, a classic villain, makes the film feel like it’s a true love letter to the fans. While it won’t raise the bar for dramatic ‘mature’ superhero films like The Dark Knight, I feel like this could be an excellent addition to Marvel’s roster of big-screen adaptations.

Men in Black 3

Can you believe it’s been ten years since the last Men in Black film? That makes me feel really old. A bigger concern, though, is if the new one will be just another repeat of the first one, like the sequel was, or if it can provide a fresh experience. To be honest, I think the franchise can feel new again, due to the inclusion of a new plot element – time travel. Yes, in this instalment, K goes missing, and J has to go to the past to speak with the younger version of K in order to figure out where he has disappeared to. Confused yet? While the plot is definitely something we haven’t seen before, what I think will be even more interesting is the comedy provided both by the ‘fish-out-of-water’ situation of J in another time period, and from the glimpse we will get of K as a young man. Things could still go very wrong in terms of plot, but at least the premise is promising.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

What can I possibly say? It’s a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, one of the most popular franchises both in film and literature. It’s going to be split into two parts. The screenplay was partly written by Guillermo Del Toro. Are you hyped yet? Because you should be. This is one of the most exciting things to happen in the fantasy genre since the conclusion of the Harry Potter franchise last year. Many people are joking about how happy they are that the release date is before December 21st 2012 (the supposed date of the apocalypse), but they are partly right. You would definitely want to see The Hobbit before doomsday. The book itself has more of a fairy-tale feel to it than the epic high-fantasy novels that follow it, allowing for a simpler story, and a more magical experience. And if that’s not enough, we’ll also get to see Gollum again, who is one of the greatest characters in any medium. Let the wait begin.




Peter Jackson and 'The Hobbit' crew faced flood wrath in New Zealand

(mid-day.com)               Peter Jackson was forced to stop the filming of the 'Lord of the Rings' prequel, 'The Hobbit', in December, when local police issued a severe weather warning and urged him and his crew to pack up as driving rains and floods hit their remote New Zealand location.

Jackson has posted footage of the storms in his latest behind-the-scenes video blog from the set of the top secret movie.

"Our location shooting came to a pretty dramatic end because the police arrived and said they were about to issue a severe weather warning. I've never seen a crew pack up their gear so quickly", the Daily Express quoted him as saying in the video.

"The very next day, everywhere where we were standing was under floodwater. That was incredibly dramatic. The rise of the river level was, like, 20 or 30 feet," he added.

Jackson and his crew also faced harsh conditions when they shot scenes on the slopes of 'Mount Taranaki' as they had to create an elaborate scaffold walkway for the cast so that the ancient vegetation growing in the world's second oldest national park wasn't disturbed.




Vintage ILM Video Tour From Japan

(audio is in Japanese)

Start at 2:49:

YouTube - STARWARS ILM Tour 1:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyMnLaAPuH0

YouTube - STARWARS ILM Tour 2:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M18NpbBjPA8



Rango and the Recession

(idvfilms.com)               “With great privilege comes great responsibility.” So says the corrupt old turtle who runs the city Dirt in the new animated film Rango. Not long ago, Americans flocked to theaters to hear the truism that with great power comes great responsibility, in one of the biggest hits of the immediate post-9/11 era saw Peter Parker that he had no choice but to crusade against evil. The Americans wanted to believe to be a great power (or powers of Spiderman’s case) meant simply had to go out and beat up the bad guys. The Good Guy-Bad guy Matrix is ​​more confused today than it was in 2002, and corrupt mayor Dirt knows it – he engineers an economic crisis to lure the city’s residents out of their country. Large companies use their flexible friends in government to fool the public and reap a windfall. Where have we heard this before?

Equal parts of Chinatown, Blazing Saddles, Rango offers an inspired revision of some classic themes in American political culture. Its surreal visual style suggestions for Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino might recast the western genre, while its overall political narrative successfully connect the pulse of populist outrage behind many stories about the U.S. border to politics today’s major recession. The border was often the history of booms and busts, and the city Dirt speaks to a rich tradition of big dreams crashing into the bitter reality, given the country’s recent brush with financial disaster adventure a chameleon who tries to outwit the corrupt politicians and speculators seem too familiar.

This interpretation is not a stretch – the message of the film is so simple, only the most narrow Tea Parties may miss it. When Rango comes to town, the inhabitants of dirt clinging to a meager existence in the scorching desert, where water is the currency of everyday life. They pay their bills with water, and the operating bank in the water. The key ingredient that makes the farm for Community grizzled moles, mice and geckos to survive. “Control of water and you can control everything,” the wily mayor intones at one point, when he reroutes the local water supply for Las Vegas and uses the ensuing crisis to force peasants to give up their land. The political allegory works on two levels, one environmental and one economic. Politicians win so valuable resources are diverted to both large-scale human development and a small, rodent size suburb built on land the mayor hopes to steal, the memories of Chinatown in Los Angeles’s vampiric rise in the middle of southern California desert is sufficiently clear.

However, the mayor system also serves as an analogy of the bailout era. Money is not only a natural resource for the people of Dirt – the display is clearly a metaphor for the money or capital. A bank run breaks out when a panic villager announces, “There is no water in the bank!” The locals are like many Americans, who wondered how the country had so much money one day and then next they hear that jobs are disappearing, the budget cut, and banks no longer have money to lend. We used to have water – where did everything go? It just disappeared? The mayor and his cronies are caricatures of the financial and political elite. Turtle speaks of an old patrician voice, giggling with her Eurotrash cronies and golfing. As farmers, workers, and small businesses go belly up, they laugh about getting all the water for themselves. While Rango’s love interest (the requisite feisty heroine / sidekick) dreams of a better world, an impossible place, where “there is enough water for all.” She could think of a socialist promised land where everyone shares resources, but the vision is more likely that the classic American farmers / homeowners – landed independence and broadly shared prosperity. This is among the most resonant themes in American politics, popular culture, including economic policy. It reflects a concept of citizenship in which all should have a piece of cake, even share the same size, its critical weakness is the eternal conflict between the physical property – land, houses, farms – and Paper Power of shares, contracts and intellectual property. The message of Rango is that it is “enough water for all”, but malignant corporate interests and their willing collaborators in the government game to enrich themselves.

Rango course, is Obama. He is a stranger to the city – “not from here,” as one local points out. He uses his rhetorical gifts to spin stories that get city residents’ confidence, but their patience wears thin in the face of straitened circumstances and impending catastrophe. Rango warns people that they blindly would face each other if the water runs out, and a contagion of mob violence is a constant threat. An angry taxpayer Rango for his inability to finish the difficult times, said: “You said you’d bring back the water!” Rango implores people to hold on to hope, to believe in him and the rule of law, but all evidence indicates that the system is hopelessly corrupt.

More - Full Article:   http://www.idvfilms.com/rango-and-the-recession/




"Avatar 2" Director Has to Stay in NZ 44 Days a Year

(3news.co.nz)                Film-maker James Cameron will only have to spend 88 days over two years in New Zealand to become a resident here.

Cameron recently hit the headlines over his purchase of two large Wairarapa properties - a 250 hectare dairy farm and 817ha piece of land looking over Pounui Lake - reportedly worth $20 million.

Cameron's Overseas Investment Office (OIO) application, obtained by The Dominion Post, says the movie mogul applied for residency under the Investor Plus category. This means he is investing at least $10 million in New Zealand.

Requirements of this category are that Cameron must stay in New Zealand for 44 days each year for the final two years of the three-year residency application. He is not required to stay in the country during the first year.

At the end of the three years Cameron and his family - wife Suzy Amis and their three children - can apply for permanent residency.

"The Cameron family intends to take up their permanent visas in New Zealand as soon as possible and to permanently reside in New Zealand," the documents say.

Cameron also has an 18-year-old daughter with his ex-wife Linda Hamilton who starred in his Terminator films.

Cameron will reportedly start work on two sequels to his Avatar film when he moves to New Zealand.

Piracy accused Kim Dotcom gained New Zealand residency under the Investor Plus category.

Dotcom, of Germany, who faces a stream of piracy charges in the US relating to his file-sharing website Megaupload, is on bail awaiting an extradition hearing in August.




Movie Monster Size Chart

Take a look:    http://www.iwatchstuff.com/image.php?path=/2012/02/09/monster-movie-sizes.jpg

Stop-Motion Animation Goes to Hell & Back

(ShadowMachine)                Mila Kunis has joined cast of ShadowMachine's Hell & Back, the studio announced today. She'll star opposite the previously announced Nick Swardson, TJ Miller, Rob Riggle, Brian Posehn and Kumail Najiani.

The R-rated stop-motion animated comedy follows two best friends (Swardson and Miller) as they rescue their buddy who has been accidentally dragged to Hell. ShadowMachine’s Corey Campodonico, Eric Blyler and Alex Bulkley are producing the film directed by Tommy Gianas ("SNL," "Human Giant," "Tenacious D," "Pretend Time") along with Ross Shuman, with current writing revisions by Hugh Sterbakov.

Kunis' character is officially described as follows:

Deema is a female demon whose ability to navigate the underworld makes her the toughest rogue demon in Hell. Her independent streak may come from her greatest secret: She's half-human. She was sired by the Orpheus of myth when he traveled down the River Styx years ago. What the myths don't say is that he was nailing everything that moved. When Orpheus is revealed to be...well, a bit of a tool, frankly...Deema has to look inside to figure out what it means to be human. She's the Han Solo of the film.

The film marks ShadowMachine’s first R-rated adult stop-motion animation feature and one of several in the works for the production outfit.



Work Begins On "Muppets" Sequel

(darkhorizons.com)           

     Disney is moving forward with a sequel to "The Muppets" after the first film scored $154 million at the worldwide box office reports Variety.

Director James Bobin and co-writer Nicholas Stoller will pen the script for the sequel. Jason Segel may return to star in the sequel, but his various projects are keeping him too busy to pen the sequel.

Kermit and Miss Piggy previously already announced plans for the sequel a few weeks ago during their international publicity tour for the first film.



'John Carter', 'The Avengers' & The Risk Of VFX Tentpoles

(forbes.com)               The 2012 blockbuster season kicks off next weekend with Disney’s John Carter, a $250 million sci-fi epic based on a story by Tarzan author Edward Rice Burroughs. But right now it’s looking like the film might not turn in a blockbuster performance at the box office. According to tracking from earlier this week, people are about as aware of the film as they are of another movie opening that weekend, 21 Jump Street. Roughly the same amount of people say they want to see the two films. That’s fine for Sony which produced the big screen update of the ’80s cops-in-high-school movie. That film likely cost only $60 million to make.

But it points to a rough road ahead for Disney. The Mouse House (like many studios) has become increasingly reliant on films with massive budgets that need to earn $700 million and up at the global box office to become profitable.

Those risks can mean big rewards. Last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also cost an estimated $250 million and it earned $1 billion at the global box office.

But when those movies don’t perform it can do a lot of damage. Nikki Finke recently wrote that John Carter could be the “biggest writeoff of all time.” That story was based on now-old tracking information but Jeff Bock, of Exhibitor Relations, says that not only does the movie need to open to at least $50 million, but it will have to pull an Avatar and hold onto that box office for weeks.

Big budget franchise films are a necessity now that the studios are all owned by major media conglomerates like News Corp., Comcast and Sony. For Disney a hit like The Help doesn’t mean that much down the line. Sure the film earned $206 million on a budget of $25 million and Octavia Spencer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar but don’t expect a sequel or Aibileen and Minny dolls or a cartoon series based on the movie any time soon. The film divisions of these media companies need to do more than just make small profitable films, they need to create small empires.

Disney executives know they have a tough product on their hands with John Carter and to be fair, the film might not be quite the disaster many are expecting. Chatter among the geek class has been increasingly positive about the film. Ain’t It Cool News loves the movie and that can sometimes help at the box office. Then there’s this video of people coming out of a screening of the film raving about it. There’s also always a chance that the film will perform much better overseas than it will in America. That was the case with the latest Pirates which earned 77% of its total box office internationally.

But if John Carter does fail to wow at the box office, that’s going to put even more pressure on Disney’s two other big films this year: The Avengers and Brave.

A new trailer  for The Avengers hit the Internet yesterday and instantly became the most popular trailer on iTunes. (The first trailer boke records on iTunes when it debuted in October.) The superhero film looks to be as close to a sure bet as studios get these days. The characters are all Marvel heroes who have already starred in their own blockbuster films like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans). Little boys across the country are already playing with Captain America airplanes and throwing Thor hammers from the films last year so it’s a safe bet they’ll hit the theaters to see the heroes come together.

It’s too early to know exactly how well The Avengers is tracking (the film hits theaters May 4th) but this kind of Internet buzz two months before the film opens can only be a good thing.

Will the success of The Avengers be able to make up for any losses from John Carter? That’s the kind of struggle all studios are facing now. Brave is a bit more of a wild card for Disney. Pixar movies tend to do very well at the box office but Brave will be the first Pixar film to feature a female hero and its Scottish setting means that all of the characters have accents.

It’s wise not to bet against the creative folks at Pixar though. Who would have though an almost silent movie about a trash collecting robot would be a hit but Wall-E earned $521 million at the global box office.  And Disney has Finding Nemo in 3-D hitting theaters this September which will help dump some money into the coffers. (Nemo director Andrew Stanton is also directing John Carter.)

But the situation at Disney speaks to the increasingly risky game studios are playing. It’s easy to say they should go back to focusing on mid-budget films that can offer good returns but that’s no longer the reality of the business.




Sony Adapting "Bloodshot" Comics

(darkhorizons.com)                Sony Pictures has closed a deal to acquire the film rights to the comic series "Bloodshot" says Deadline.

The 1992 comic follows a ruthless killer for the mob who is framed for a murder, put into Witness Protection, and then betrayed and forcibly subjected to an experimental program.

Injected with nanites that rebuild his brain and body to become a weapon of superhuman strength, he escapes and tries to figure out who he was.

Jeff Wadlow will write the script while Neal Moritz, Jason Kothari and Dinesh Shamdasani will produce.




VFX Pros Declare Theater-Going Experience is Dead

(PRWEB) Three luminaries in the movie world’s visual effects industry – Dean Lyon, Doug Trumbull, and James Fancher – want to transform the way 3D movies are made, distributed, and experienced so that going to see a movie shot in 3D is a big event. To achieve this, the trio has launched The Lab, an endeavor aimed at addressing key challenges in the movie industry. Lyon, Trumbull, and Fancher are currently seeking funding for The Lab.

Dean Lyon, Dough Trumbull, and James Fancher believe that Hollywood is at a potentially game-changing crossroads when it comes to producing, distributing, and exhibiting 3D feature films. ”We want to change and improve the production process for 3D filmmaking, rather than shoe-horn a new process into an old, broken one,” says Dean Lyon, one of the visual effects supervisors on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and a member of Visual Effects Society since 2004.

“Continual improvement of the final product is not optional. Audiences are jaded, the market is crowded, and viewers’ expectations of 3D films are not being fully met. The current market for theatrical film exhibition is threatened by home theaters and streaming media,” said Lyon, head of Splinter Studios and a spokesperson for The Lab.

Doug Trumbull, visual effects veteran and filmmaker, challenged Hollywood last year when he posed a question: How do you make the experience of going to the movies so spectacular and so different from watching a film at home on your television, tablet, or smartphone screen that audiences will embrace 3D and pay a premium price to see it?

Trumbull’s – and The Lab’s – answer? Shoot 3D films at 120 frames per second (fps), five times today’s standard 24fps and project them onto giant screens at seven times the luminosity found in most standard theaters today. The Lab’s team has been busy making this vision a reality and has already built a prototype 120fps 3D workflow, which will be used on Doug Trumbull's next three 3D feature film projects.

According to Dean Lyon “Development of higher frame rates means that the viewer is more ‘fully immersed’ in the 3D experience,” thus differentiating a film shot at 120fps from other 3D offerings in the market. “Other filmmakers are keenly following The Lab’s progress – think 3D heavyweights like James Cameron (Avatar) and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings), among others.”

2012 is proving to be a big year for Doug Trumbull. He received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award – an Oscar® statuette – for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the motion picture industry at the Scientific and Technical Awards presentation on February 11. Additionally, Trumbull received the 2012 George Méliès Award on February 7 at the 10th Annual Visual Effect Society Awards. The award honors individuals who have “pioneered a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by a way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work.”

About The Lab
Founded in 2010, The Lab is the brainchild of three visual effects luminaries – Dean Lyon, Doug Trumbull, and James Fancher – who want to reinvent the movie-going experience. By building ‘The Lab’, they will develop a neutral playground to showcase technology to filmmakers, (i.e. James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, JJ Abrams, and others), license technology to their projects, and provide consulting and services.

The Lab is seeking funding to develop software and patents for next generation 3D feature film production and distribution. This new technology will find immediate application in new productions being readied by Doug Trumbull and other creative pioneers.




The Hobbit Production Video Blog Shows Andy Serkis Directing

(liveforfilms.com)                  New Zealand is as gorgeous as ever, even with her somewhat temperamental weather. We get to see more of the actors in action, in costume. A little bit of the life on set. And of course interviews from the cast and crew, including the normally elusive Martin Freeman, Mr. Bilbo Baggins himself.

We also see Andy Serkis working as Second Unit Director and how that works with Peter Jackson. He’s not just Gollum you know.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 3D on December 14th 2012. The Hobbit: There and Back Again is out in 3D on December 13th, 2013.

Video - Take a look:    http://www.liveforfilms.com/2012/03/01/the-hobbit-production-video-blog-shows-andy-serkis-directing/




JIM HENSON'S FANTASTIC WORLD Exhibition to Close

(art.broadwayworld.com)                Jim Henson’s Fantastic World will be on view at Museum of the Moving Image for only one more week—closing on Sunday, March 4. The final weekend of the show, Saturday and Sunday, March 3 and 4, 2012, features several special programs to mark the close of the successful national tour of this Smithsonian traveling exhibition, organized in partnership with The Jim Henson Legacy.  On these two days, the Museum will give away a free limited-edition commemorative bookmark to ALL visitors (while supplies last).

The special weekend programs open with Heather Henson’s Sing-along with The Muppet Movie on Friday, March 2, and Saturday, March 3. Full of interactive surprises and characters coming right out of the screen into the audience, Muppet fans of all ages will enjoy renewing their “rainbow connection” with Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the whole gang. On Sunday, March 4, the Museum will present a special closing program with guest speakers and a screening of an exclusive video compilation celebrating the life and legacy of Jim Henson. Also on Sunday, there will be a final screening of The Muppet Show, with episodes featuring Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly. Full details are included in the schedule below.

In addition, from Tuesday, February 28 through Friday, March 2, the Museum will present Jim Henson’s Oscar-nominated short film Time Piece (1965, 9 mins.) in the Video Screening Amphitheater. This experimental short film tells what Henson—who also stars in the film—called “the story of Everyman, frustrated by the typical tasks of a typical day.”

Please note: The Museum is closed to the public on Monday, February 27.

The exhibition Jim Henson’s Fantastic World features more than 120 artifacts, including drawings, storyboards, props, video material, and fifteen iconic original puppets of such characters as Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Bert, and Ernie. It has traveled to thirteen museums throughout the United States with Moving Image as the final presenter. Since the show opened at the Museum on July 16, 2011, the exhibition has been seen by more than 100,000 visitors. During this period, special guests including Frank Oz, Brian Henson, Cheryl Henson, Heather Henson, Jane Henson, Bob McGrath, Brian Froud, Kevin Clash, Fran Brill, Bonnie Erickson, and other performers and colleagues of Jim Henson have participated in public programs. Many of these programs were compiled and presented by Craig Shemin, President of the Jim Henson Legacy.




Casualties Of The VFX Subsidy Trade War: Imageworks Albuquerque

(vizworld.com)                  Big news from Sony Pictures Imageworks today as they drop the bomb that they’re closing their New Mexico offices.  VFXSoldier has the best writeup I’ve seen on the topic, relating it to the ever-growing battle over government subsidies.

    The good news for VFX professionals is that there are other Vancouver shops to jump to but this might be bad news for the facilities. Many are moving there to supply US studios with access to huge subsidies while they swallow huge costs to lure the talent there. With Rhythm, Sony, DD, Pixar, ILM, and others trying to hire a relatively smaller talent pool you can expect costs to rise rapidly.

    The events of today are undeniable. They play into the narrative that I’ve written about for almost the last 2 years.

    VFX Is Moving To Expensive Locations, Not Cheaper Locations




Ghostbusters 3′ in “Suspended Animation”

(flavorwire.com)                     It seems like we’ve been hearing rumors about a third Ghostbusters movie forever, so what’s the deal? Is it going to happen, with or without the participation of Bill Murray? Dan Aykroyd, the driving force behind the project, has told the British Telegraph that while he’s dying to make the movie, it may never happen. Confirming that Murray is, indeed, the main obstacle to a sequel, Aykroyd said, “At this point it’s in suspended animation. The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn’t want to be involved. He’s got six kids, houses all over America. He golfs in these tournaments where they pay him to turn up and have a laugh. He’s into this life and living it.” Still, he tells the paper that he isn’t angry at Murray: “He’s a friend first, a colleague second. We have a deep personal relationship that transcends business.”

Although Aykroyd has talked about wanting to keep the original cast intact, Ghostbusters purists may still have reason to worry. The paper reports that he’s considering recasting the role of Peter Venkman, but he’s clearly conflicted about that, too, maintaining, “We’re not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise.” Here’s hoping Aykroyd keeps his words.




Too Much CGI: How Special Effects Are Killing Good Scripts

(oxfordstudent.com)                  Almost as long as there have been films, there have been special effects, evolving through rockets in the Moon’s eye and a giant ape climbing landmarks to lightsabers, dinosaurs, and Michael Bay. They made the impossible filmable; they created some of the most iconic moments in cinema. With computers, we can go further than ever, the only limit – as the cliché goes – is the filmmaker’s imagination. It is fantastic to trace the medium’s development in just over a century, and wonderful how images can transform how we see the world.

However, like all innovations, there is the darker downside. Computers may have given us Andy Serkis’ Gollum, the world of Pandora, the existential dilemmas of Toy Story; they also produced Transformers, the Star Wars prequels, the fourth Indiana Jones. Special effects used to be matters of innovation – the 1933 King Kong utilised stop-motion, greenscreen, and much more, while Star Wars inspired a revolution – while today it is almost too easy; which in turn affects other aspects of the film-making process, such as writing.

One criticism (amongst many) of The Phantom Menace was its ratio of CG to credible story. This is a growing trend: the film which prioritises style over substance. Some have levelled the same accusation at Avatar, and certainly without computers the Transformers franchise would have crumbled long ago – nay, might have never existed. Try comparing and contrasting the two versions of ghost story The Haunting: one based on atmosphere, the other on painful 1990s CG. Computers are not single-handedly responsible for killing the art of cinematic story-telling – it’s an extreme argument, and at most they are just one factor – but they are tempting for supporting a film.

Moreover, CG means innovation is less necessary. Without this, do you really need to worry about how something will look; with no limits on possibility, should anything be rejected? Speed and ease removes an aspect of the creative process – practicality versus innovation – where ideas had to fit the possible. Editing is just as important for story. Alongside pioneers such as Pixar – who combine visuals with fantastic storytelling – there lies a growing tendency to blind audiences with pretty effects.

With giant budgets and the limitless potential of CG, has a key influence on story been removed? Have we lost something by way of clever cinematography? Are movies increasingly about spectacle rather than story? For the most part, yes. The impact of 3D, the possibilities of enough money, easy animation pushing out live-action acting: they are the unpleasant reality. It is easier to get terrible stories with enough money to animate anything, from effects to the entire film. No longer do poor films mean poor visuals. However, this is not the whole story. Studios may love CG, and things are slightly worse, but innovations continue, and good films are still made, with or without them. It is simply a shame how CG has come to dominate the industry, potentially distancing it. Hopefully the writing will catch up soon.




Why Artists Aren't Rock Stars

(huffingtonpost.com)                     I make a living as an artist, so you can imagine my surprise when I asked five of my closest friends to name five famous living artists, and the longest list I received had just three names. Second place was one name. The other three could name none. These are the close friends of an artist!

Throughout our most recent centuries, visual artists were highly regarded and celebrated along with musicians, poets, and other gifted individuals who shared their talents. Yes, we always hear the stories of the Van Gogh types who never achieved fame or recognition until they had passed on, but they are actually the exception, not the rule. Even as recently as the 1980s, visual artists were reaching a level of celebrity and recognition.

Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe are all names I remember hearing as I was growing up. I would be hard pressed to find a 12-year-old who could name a living artist today.

I don't believe it is a coincidence that the shift in focus and appreciation for more traditional art forms and artists coincided with the birth of personal computing, the Internet, and (what I call) ADD-TV programming. We receive information in a faster, more homogenized way than ever.

Today's celebrities are people whose talents can be seen and appreciated on an electronic device. Thank God for the Kindle and the iPad, or else books may have become extinct. Authors are only slightly more famous than artists, but at least they make it to the talk show circuit!

For the art community, the future may look a bit bleak. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Earnings for self-employed artists also vary widely. Many do not make enough money just from selling their art. Many artists will need to have a second job in order to support themselves financially."

This just in.

In order to survive, art needs to reinvent itself, just like every other industry had to do twenty years ago. More importantly, artists need to reinvent themselves as well. We are living in a digital era and the vast majority of artists are still working with an analog medium.

Andy Warhol said it best: "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."

There is still, and will always be, a great value in tactile artwork. There is no better way to complete a home or business than with original art. Art can be very powerful and moving. It is also sometimes purely aesthetically pleasing.

The artist of the future will find a way to meet their end user halfway, between the canvas and the iPad. The galleries of the future will concern themselves far more with creating a good user experience, and far less about age-old values that have actually been dead for decades.

Thanks to the commercials during the Super Bowl, I can recognize the guys who created Words with Friends. Maybe soon they will recognize me.




Can a Pixar Whiz Conquer Live Action?

(businessweek.com)                   In the new Walt Disney (DIS) film John Carter, a Civil War veteran transported to Mars fights giant saber-toothed apes and four-armed, sword-wielding aliens. Things are only a little less scary here on earth, where the pricey picture—researcher Box Office Mojo pegs its cost at about $250 million, not counting marketing—is already battling bad buzz, reports of cost overruns, and criticism of Disney’s early marketing.

Hollywood studios in recent years have made fewer, more expensive films that can spawn sequels and become long-lived franchises. When it works, the payoff is big: The Harry Potter string of eight films has brought in $7.7 billion at the box office. But for every Toy Story, there’s a The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which made back less than a 10th its estimated $100 million budget through ticket sales.

John Carter is also a test of whether Disney can spread the magic of animation powerhouse Pixar, which it acquired in 2006 for $7.01 billion, to live-action films. Andrew Stanton, the writer and director of John Carter, previously co-wrote and directed Pixar hits Finding Nemo and WALL-E, for which he won Academy Awards. He was a writer on Monsters, Inc. and all three Toy Story movies. But John Carter isn’t just different because it uses real actors, it’s also more costly than any of Stanton’s previous films. Notes Vasily Karasyov, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group: “It can hurt earnings if it’s not huge.”

So far, John Carter, which opens March 9, isn’t looking huge. Entertainment website Boxoffice.com estimates the film will take in $60 million in its domestic theatrical run, based on the performance of similar films, the release date, and online chatter on websites such as Twitter and Facebook. “This is a movie that should be hitting the sweet spot of males age 18 to 34,” says Phil Contrino, editor of the site. “It better make a killing internationally.”

Stanton’s Nemo, produced for an estimated $94 million in 2003, took in some $868 million in global ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. WALL-E, a 2008 release, cost $180 million and grossed $521 million worldwide. That résumé hasn’t shielded Stanton from doubters. “When people make a $250 million picture, they’re putting themselves in the middle of a bull’s-eye,” says James Jacks, a producer of The Mummy, who himself spent eight years trying to bring the John Carter story to life at Paramount Pictures. Jacks says he liked Stanton’s film and told him so at the Feb. 22 premiere for industry notables. Still, he says, “I would have made it for a lot less money.”

Critics point to marketing gaffes, such as an initial trailer that appeared too similar to other movies, and the studio’s decision to drop the identifying words “of Mars,” from the title after Disney’s similarly named Mars Needs Moms bombed last year. “It doesn’t have an audience looking forward to it,” says Harry Knowles, a reviewer for the website aintitcool.com, who says he enjoyed the film. “Disney marketing has been lazy and too late.” Disney’s Marvel unit has published a series of John Carter comic books, while other merchandise, from action figures to costumes, has yet to appear.

John Carter joins Tangled and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as among the most expensive films Disney has produced, according to Box Office Mojo. First place goes to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End at $300 million, which had successful predecessor films before its large budget was set.

The movies are part of a trend at Disney of placing larger bets on fewer films. The studio expects to distribute 12 of its own pictures in the U.S. this year, down from 19 a decade ago, according to company filings. Disney put 80 percent of its fiscal 2011 production budget into multifilm franchises such as Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean, up from 40 percent in 2010, Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said last year.

Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, says some of John Carter may be unsuitable for small children, and it’s unlikely to spawn products elsewhere in the Disney universe, such as theme-park rides or cartoons. The film is based on a 100-year-old series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan. Stanton recalled reading the stories as a child and has long itched to bring them to the big screen.

Disney spokesman Paul Roeder says criticism of the film’s budget and marketing are unfounded. He says Stanton finished the film on time and stayed within the original budget. It’s also too soon to judge the still-unfolding marketing campaign, he says.

Stanton has already outlined two potential sequels should John Carter become a hit. Asked by a fan via Twitter on Feb. 24 whether he was nervous about the opening, Stanton replied: “Wouldn’t you be? (but it’s a good nervous.)”

The bottom line: Disney has spent an estimated $250 million on its sci-fi film John Carter. Analysts question whether it will be a hit.




CAA Signs Andy Serkis

(deadline.com)               Andy Serkis has signed with CAA. The agency will rep him as an actor, writer and director, and will also rep The Imaginarium, the London-based performance capture studio for Serkis formed with producer Jonathan Cavendish. Serkis has developed a most interesting career since he came on the scene and played Gollum in The Lord of the Ring film series. After re-teaming with Peter Jackson to play the title character in King Kong, Serkis then brought the ape Caesar to life in  Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He’ll be back for the sequel, as well as The Hobbit. Serkis also directed second unit on the LOTR  prequel. He also played Captain Haddock in Tintin. Serkis will continue to be managed by Principal Entertainment’s Larry Taube, and Lou Coulson Associated in the UK.




Practical Effects:  Amazing Hogwarts Castle at the Warner Bros Studio Tour – IN PHOTOS

(anorak.co.uk)                 EVER wonder why the stars of The Harry Potter films are so small, all sons and daughters of stars from Michael Bentine’s Potty Time? It’s because they have to fit into Hogwarts. which is not larger than a small camper van. Jose Granell, model supervisor, has unviled a model of Hogwarts castle at the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Watford, London. The Hogwarts castle model was built for the first film ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, it was created for aerial photography and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct, it measures over 50 feet in diameter and has over 2,500 fibre optic lights.

Take a look:   http://www.anorak.co.uk/313986/celebrities/film-celebrities/harry-potter-hogwarts-castle-at-the-warner-bros-studio-tour-in-photos.html/

Hogwarts castle model time-lapse at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London:   http://flipperdeflap.blogspot.com/2012/03/hogwarts-castle-model-time-lapse-at.html#!/2012/03/hogwarts-castle-model-time-lapse-at.html




Rango Designer Debuts CGI "Super Doggies"

(ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com)                 This is so odd, I simply had to share it with my readers. Super Doggies are a musical and 3D visual project created in 2012. The project depicts a "virtual band" of cartoon characters. This band has three animated dog members: Buffy, Abby and Bo and their universe is explored through the band's website and music videos, the first of which debuted today -and includes an appearance by President Obama. Other media will follow, such as short cartoons and an upcoming ‘live’ 3D tour.

Super Doggies are pursuing the dream to perform around the world, with the involvement of local communities, focusing on children. Concerned about their future, Super Doggies has focused its attention on the global issue of youth poverty. The Super Doggies are ‘good citizens’ who want to bring attention to the issue of poverty and work with local communities to highlight their plight. Super Doggies’s citizenship principles are founded on the conviction that the arts, business and social initiatives can, together, contribute to making a better world.

The press release:
The guy behind Rango – which just won an Oscar for best animated feature film – will help introduce a new cast of animated characters with a political bent for this election season – the Super-Doggies.

The trio of singing Super-Doggies includes Barack Obama’s dog, “Bo,” Vladmir Putin’s dog, “Buffy,” and “Abby,” the dog of a South African girl, Imani, who lives in the slums of Johannesburg.

In the 3:45 music video, Imani watches from her house how both Obama and Putin care for their dogs. All Imani has is a raggedy stuffed animal. At one point she writes to both men asking them for a real pet – and in a fantastic scene that climaxes into a dance party featuring both dancing world leaders and their dogs – she gets her wish (Obama joins the action at 2:47)

The story is timely on multiple levels. Both Russia and the US have national elections coming up (March 4th for Russia and November 6th for the US). In fact, there have been several stories in Obama’s campaign promoting how well he treats Bo considering his competitor, Mitt Romney, once placed his dog in a kennel and strapped it on top of his car for a cross-country trip.

The work of Rango’s character designer, Eugeniy Yelchin is familiar to many of us. He designed Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bears, worked on the Film, “The Brothers Grimm” and also designed the opening for HBO’s “Rome.”

For this project, Yelchin teamed up with Grammy Award winning producer Neal Pogue who works with musicians like Nicky Minaj, Lil Wayne, Outkast and Pink. The effort is also getting guidance from marketing veteran Bruce Kirkland who directed The Beatles Anthology project, and has produced albums for the Beastie Boys, the Spice Girls, Radiohead, and Everclear. The overall project is the brainchild of producer Eugeniy Kuritsyn of Global Media Line, a Moscow-based creative producing house with an impressive line of talent to realize this vision. Eugeniy wanted to create a new entertainment product that would ensure collaboration between the best representatives of international entertainment industry.

Later in the year, the Super-Doggies will go on a world tour, featuring holographic dancing and singing dogs combined with the world’s best dance talent and circus performers. A portion of the proceeds will go to animal welfare organizations to encourage people to adopt dogs.

Tour dates and other information will be announced later in the year on the Super-Doggies website: http://www.super-doggies.com/ where you can sign up for the newsletter for updates.

VIDEOS - Take a look:     http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2012/02/rango-designer-debuts-super-bizarre.html

Sony Pictures Imageworks to Close New Mexico Visual Effects Office

(latimesblogs.latimes.com)   

            Sony Pictures Imageworks, one of Hollywood's leading visual effects companies, will close a satellite office in New Mexico this summer.

About 30 employees -- who worked on such big-budget films as "I Am Legend," "Green Lantern" and "Men in Black 3" -- were told this week that Sony would not renew the lease on its Albuquerque facility after it expires in July.

A spokesman for Sony Pictures Imageworks declined to elaborate on the reasons for the closure. The workers will be offered jobs at other Sony facilities, including those in Vancouver, Canada, and in Culver City, where the Sony Pictures Entertainment movie and television studio is based.

Sony opened the New Mexico effects office in 2007, moving more than 100 jobs from Culver City to a new studio in Albuquerque to take advantage of the state's generous film tax rebate, which at the time made New Mexico a major hub for production and arch rival to California.

But the facility suffered from a falloff in film activity in recent years, triggered in part by uncertainty over the future of New Mexico's film tax credit. Sony also had difficulty recruiting artists willing to move to Albuquerque, people familiar with the matter said.

Video - Employees Talk SPI Albuquerque :    http://www.abqfilm.com/2010/sony-imageworks-employees-speak-about-albuquerque/


Sci-fi Plant Monster "The Day of the Triffids" To Be RePotted

(comingsoon.net)           Neil Cross, the creator behind the acclaimed Idris Elba-led BBC series "Luther", has been hired to pen a new adaptation of the sci-fi classic "The Day of the Triffids" for Ghost House Pictures reports Heat Vision.

John Wyndam penned the 1951 post-apocalyptic classic which has since became a landmark of science-fiction literature.

Set in the near future, the story has a meteorite shower hitting the Earth which renders those who looked at it (almost the entire population) blind.

With civilisation having collapsed, triffids - tall, ambulatory, seemingly sentient genetically engineered plants with poisonous whip stingers - start to become the dominant life form on the planet.

The property was previously adapted to the screen three times - once into a British film in 1962, and twice for television. The first small screen attempt, a 1981 BBC mini-series, remains the most acclaimed translation of the work thus far with scenes from it inspiring moments in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" and Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds".

More recently came the second adaptation in late 2010, a critically slammed BBC1 mini-series starring Dougray Scott, Eddie Izzard, Brian Cox and Joely Richardson which pulled in 6.1 million viewers.

Cross also scripted two upcoming Guillermo Del Toro-produced genre films - "Mama" and "Midnight Delivery" - as well as for a polish of Del Toro's own 2013 monster mashup feature "Pacific Rim".

Mark Gordon, Michael Preger, Don Murphy, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce.




'Puss in Boots' Takes Over Top Spot From 'Breaking Dawn'

(hollywoodreporter.com)              New releases once again dominated the national home video sales charts the week ending Feb. 26, with retail deep-discounting on a temporary hiatus and Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 slowing down after nearly three weeks in stores.

DreamWorks/Paramount’s Puss in Boots debuted at No. 1 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert overall sales chart its first week in stores, with Universal Studios’ Tower Heist a distant No. 2. Breaking Dawn slipped to No. 3, although Nielsen data shows its week three sales count was just slightly less than first-week sales for Tower Heist, a $78 million-grossing comedy actioner with an all-star cast headed by Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.

Puss in Boots, a Shrek prequel that generated $149.3 million in U.S. theaters, sold more than twice as many units as either title, according to Nielsen.




Digital Domain Speeds Up 'The Cloud'

(storagereview.com)                Avere Systems has announced that Digital Domain Productions, a digital production company founded by James Cameron, has implemented Avere FXT Series NAS appliances at a Las Vegas co-location data center to maximize IOPS and minimize latency of its cloud-based infrastructure, ensuring quick access to their computer-generated imagery data.

Digital Domain uses render nodes co-located in Las Vegas, which access data centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. It then turns the data into media frames. However, without the ability to minimize the latency introduced by geography, it would derail Digital Domain’s efforts to leverage the co-location’s footprint in cities with much lower costs for space and power.

This is why they decided deploy Avere FXT at their Las Vegas location. With it, Digital Domain was able to reduce its latency to 0.1 milliseconds, translating into 250x faster performance. Additionally, Digital Domain also has Avere FXT appliances installed at its regional locations in order to provide improved local application performance with fast access to non-local storage. 

Avere’s FXT Series of appliances provide a 5:1 reduction in disks, power, and rack space with its tiered file system that organizes data across RAM, Flash, SAS and SATA tiers. The new FXT 3000 and FXT 4000 series models are designed for even greater scalability and efficiency by doubling the amount of appliances that can be clustered to 50 . They also provide as much as 7 TB of RAM and hundreds of terabytes of SAS or SSD capacity on a single cluster.



Animator Praises Unsung Artists at Heart of Genre

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - When animator Fraser MacLean thinks about his work on movies such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Space Jam," and "Tarzan," he's reminded of the Chartres cathedral, southwest of Paris.

The 13th century Gothic church was idealized in "F for Fake," the 1973 Orson Welles film, during a monologue by the director.

"The premier work of man perhaps in the whole western world and it's without a signature: Chartres," Welles said. "A celebration to God's glory and to the dignity of man."

The anonymous artists of Chartres represent the idea, as MacLean put it: Art isn't about signing your name in the corner of the canvas.

MacLean began his career as an unknown artist, doing shading on the animated characters in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which combined live action and animation.

"That idea that you would surrender your own creative abilities and your own technical mastery to something that would just be a delight to the people that saw it ... in some ways is actually liberating," he said.

MacLean, who grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, returned a decade ago and was surprised during his guest lectures at art colleges.

Students at some schools weren't required to do observational drawing. Having a background in fine art drawing landed MacLean his first job with Disney UK.

At the same time, MacLean was hearing about animation companies looking for students with drawing skills and being unable to find them.

He decided to write "Setting the Scene: The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout" about the importance of the layout department in animated feature films.

"The entire structure and choreography of all the action in the movie stems from the way that the layout artists develop what they find in the original story sketches," MacLean said.

He presented the book alongside layout artist Roy Naisbitt at the 31st Anima film festival in Brussels last week.

First recognized as a separate department by Disney with "Cinderella" in 1950, MacLean hit on a subject that made directors such as Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Ratatouille") and Pete Docter ("Up") unable to hang up the phone.

"A filmmaker often tries to convey a feeling, and attempts to do so in a sneaky way of which the audience isn't even conscious," Docter wrote in the foreword of MacLean's book. "The way a subject is presented can be the difference between making a connection with the audience and having them fall asleep."

MacLean also had access to Disney's Animation Research Library for the book, which was published in September.

One day, the Disney librarian opened a drawer and took out an original watercolor painting of Geppetto's workshop from "Pinocchio," Disney's second feature-length film from 1940.

MacLean said those early Disney films, including "Snow White" in 1937, left an enormous impression on his mother, who died in 2008 soon after he proposed the book.

"My mother and father and their parents, they all stood in line to go to see Snow White when it came out," he said. "My mother, even though she had dementia, she could tell me what seat she was sitting in at (the) cinema in Aberdeen."

Holding the painting in his hands, MacLean started crying.

The librarian assured him: That happens to a lot of people.

Seeing the artwork that was photographed in a movie with so much meaning to his parents was overwhelming.

"I still cannot tell you who painted that bit of artwork and I don't care."




Top Gun Sequel Stays Afloat

(The Hollywood Reporter)                 Paramount Pictures has brought aboard The Town screenwriter Peter Craig to draft a sequel to their 1986 hit Top Gun, says a story at The Hollywood Reporter.

The original film was directed by Tony Scott and starred Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Navy pilot. Late last year Cruise confirmed that he's been in talks with Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer about reprising the role of Maverick.

It was also confirmed last year that the original film is undergoing a 3D conversion and will be re-released theatrically sometime this year.




Weta Digital Renders New Universal Studio Logo

To mark the studio's 100th anniversary, visual effects artists from Weta Digital have animated a new version of the company's signature globe.

As part of its yearlong centennial celebration, Universal Pictures is unveiling a new on-screen logo that will be seen for the first time in theaters in front of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, the new animated movie from Universal and Illumination Entertainment, which opens March 2. The new logo will then appear on all Universal’s movies going forward.

The new animated logo, an updated variation of the studio’s signature globe, is the seventh version of the Universal logo in the studio’s 100-year history.

It was created by the visual effects artists at New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which also created the effects for The Lord of the Rings franchise. Playing off of the theme of  “global vision,” the logo is inspired by satellite imagery of the earth as seen from a clear night in space, but instead of focusing on the continents and what the studio describes as the “physical boundaries that separate people,” the new view is highlighted with tiny points of bright lights that pop across the globe — “symbolizing the thousands of communities brought together by their shared love of film," the studio explained.

“Our Centennial year is the perfect opportunity to create a new logo that reflects our future while honoring our past,” Ron Meyer, Universal Studios president and COO, said. “Universal’s new logo celebrates the studio’s extraordinary legacy in creating lasting movie memories and connecting viewers across the globe.”

New Logo - Take a look:          http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/universal-pictures-100th-anniversary-logo.jpg




New Visual Effects Studio Will Create 75 Jobs

(ebrsouth.wafb.com)                    Governor Bobby Jindal and Pixomondo CEO Thilo Kuther announced the creation of a new Pixomondo visual effects studio in Baton Rouge that will create 75 new direct jobs in film, TV, and commercial production work. The company’s work won an Oscar at the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26 for its visual effects work on Hugo. Pixomondo will occupy more than 6,000 square feet at Celtic Media Centre and will make an initial capital investment of $1.2 million.

Opening in May, the Pixomondo Baton Rouge studio will be the German company’s 12th international location. Annual salaries will average more than $65,000, plus benefits, and Pixomondo will hire 50 people in its first year, expanding to 75 by the end of its second year. The project will result in the creation of 49 indirect jobs, Louisiana Economic Development estimates, for a total of more than 120 jobs.

“When I took office, we had laws on the books that called for scaling back motion picture tax credits," Jindal said. "At the same time, other states were becoming more competitive and trying to attract the film industry to their states. Instead of just letting other states beat us and take our jobs, we made a commitment to strengthen our entertainment industry and make it bigger and better. That’s why it’s no accident that the film, TV and entertainment industries in Louisiana have more than tripled in size since we took office.

“Pixomondo already operates a dozen VFX studios worldwide and they could have chosen anywhere to create a new studio. Pixomondo’s decision speaks volumes about how far Louisiana has come in improving our business climate, in providing competitive incentives, in developing the 21st century workforce that companies demand, and in attracting a highly successful film industry. The bottom line is that Louisiana’s film industry and the Baton Rouge market have arrived in the big leagues of the entertainment world, and we’re here to stay.”

“Opening an office in Baton Rouge fits perfectly with our overall company vision,” said Kuther, the Pixomondo founder and CEO. “Louisiana offers a very generous production tax credit that we can pass on to our clients to bolster our project load as well as our growing teams in Los Angeles, London and Germany — not to mention China and Canada. Baton Rouge is a beautiful city with a wealth of resources. We’ve already connected with the Louisiana State University computer science department to help set up remote render farms and virtualization with our other studios.”

The state began working with Pixomondo six months ago to gauge the company’s interest in establishing a visual effects studio that could partner with major movie and TV productions in Baton Rouge and Louisiana, where annual film production now exceeds one billion dollars and ranks third behind the California and New York markets. The rapid growth of the Louisiana film industry attracted the company, as did Louisiana’s permanent tax credits of up to 35 percent for Louisiana-based payroll expenditures on digital media and film projects.

In 2009, Governor Jindal signed a law to strengthen the Louisiana Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, increasing the 25 percent tax credit to 30 percent — and, adding another 5 percent on Louisiana-based payroll for a total credit of up to 35 percent. For every dollar of tax credits spent on film production, Louisiana gains more than five dollars of economic activity.

The year before Governor Jindal took office, Louisiana saw 79 productions file for tax credits that planned to spend $408 million in Louisiana. In 2011, there were 151 applications for film projects in the state, and their planned expenditures in Louisiana amounted to $1.4 billion. That means over the past four years, Louisiana’s film and TV industry has grown by nearly 250 percent, more than tripling in size. Louisiana’s film industry is supporting more than 8,000 jobs now that were not around a decade ago.

The Baton Rouge studio will work with Pixomondo’s international locations on major projects that require around-the-clock production across different time zones. Project work will include visual effects for corporate campaigns as well as film and TV productions.

To secure the Pixomondo project, the state offered customized solutions from LED FastStart, ranked the No. 1 workforce development program in the nation. Pixomondo also is expected to utilize Louisiana’s digital media and film production tax credits and the Quality Jobs Program. In addition to LED, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, the Baton Rouge Film Commission, LSU and Celtic Media Centre all played key roles in attracting the project to Baton Rouge.



Effects Artist Aaron Sims To Direct Sci-fi "Archetype" Feature

(Heat Vision)                  Chronicle and I, Robot producer John Davis has picked up the film rights to Archetype, a sci-fi short directed by Aaron Sims.    Davis has a first-look deal with Twentieth Century Fox.

In the short, starring Robert Joy and David Anders, "RL7 is an eight-foot tall combat robot that goes on the run after malfunctioning with vivid memories of once being human. As its creators and the military close in, RL7 battles its way to uncovering the shocking truth behind its mysterious visions and past."

Heat Vision says that Sims runs the Aaron Sims Co., a previs and visual effects company with credits including War Horse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Thing. Sims would direct the feature from a script by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy. John Norris will produce with Davis.




Luxology Delivers Significant Updates To modo 601
   
(graphics.com)                   The latest version of Luxology's 3D modeling, animation and rendering software notably adds character animation and built-in dynamics.

Luxology claims modo provides one of the fastest paths to creating high-quality 3D content for game development, design visualization, film visual effects, video production and the graphic arts, with the end result being 3D models, associated color and normal maps, and ultra high-quality renderings. One of the attractions of modo is the degree to which it can be configured to meet the needs of users. For example, the interface can easily be changed to provide navigation and hotkeys similar to leading 3D packages such as Autodesk 3ds Max or Maya. Or if you're using it primarily as a 3D paint system, a preset layout is available for related tasks. You can also make modo act like a modeler, a UV editor or a renderer. The applications ships with over 1,500 pre-built assets including profile curves, realistic surface finishes, fur presets, 3D props, vegetation, animated rigs and professionally designed lighting environments that light a scene in two mouse clicks.

According to Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology, "modo 601 is our most significant release ever.” The new character animation functionality ranges from easy-to-use posing tools to the creation of fully articulated character rigs, which can be manipulated through a full-body inverse kinematics solver and a general purpose system of layered deformers. Rigid and soft body dynamics are now a standard part of modo and provide realistic simulations of mechanical and organic motion. New photorealistic rendering capabilities include volumetric rendering, render booleans, hair and skin shaders, and rounded edge control for hard surface models. Cel, contour and halftone shaders offer enhanced non-photorealistic rendering opportunities. Also worthy of note is the simplification of the rapid creation of clean models on top of imported geometry; the extension of the multi-purpose paint system to paint, scale, erase and smooth vertex (weight) maps on meshes; the ability to use the Preview Renderer for final image production, since it will progressively render an image to the desired resolution at full quality; and the ability to crease individual vertices and control display resolution while rendering at full quality.

modo 601 for Mac and Windows can be purchased on the Luxology site for $1,195. Users of Maya, 3ds Max, SoftImage, Houdini, CINEMA 4D and LightWave 3D are offered a crossgrade to modo for $795. A trial version is also available for download.




Live Action "Cinderella" Heads Into Development

(darkhorizons.com)               Chris Weitz ("The Golden Compass," "About a Boy") is in negotiations to rewrite a live-action take on "Cinderella" for Walt Disney Pictures says Heat Vision.

"The Devil Wears Prada" scribe Aline Brosh McKenna sold the pitch to Disney in 2010 which re-imagines the tale and sets up the new context of a "prince set for a politically arranged marriage, until the evil plan is threatened when the prince meets Cinderella."

Mark Romanek ("Never Let Me Go") is attached to direct while Simon Kinberg is producing.




Aggressive Animation Policy For India

(deccanherald.com)              Karnataka on Wednesday became the first State in the country to have a dedicated policy to provide impetus to sectors like digital arts.

The Karnataka Animation, Visual effects, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC) Policy, which was cleared by the Cabinet in January, was officially launched with the objective of making the State a favoured investment destination in the sector.

Speaking to reporters after the launch, Labour Minister B N Bachegowda said the policy was aimed at enhancing the investments and growth in the sector, besides helping aspirants from both the urban and rural areas of the State get jobs.

M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary for IT/BT, Science and Technology, pointed out that the industry had a business potential of Rs 10,000 crore by the end of 2012.  He said the policy would help the industry gain enough momentum so as to grow at over 40 per cent in the next three years.

He claimed the policy would lead to economic upliftment of the economically-weaker sections of society, especially in rural areas.

“We want to set up a Centre for Excellence here (Bangalore) with state-of-the-art facilities. This will act as a catalyst for the industry,” Vidyashankar said.
The Centre, he said, would be set up on a PPP model with both the Centre and State contributing financially.

While the Centre would contribute 30 per cent of the cost, the industry is expected to contribute 50 per cent. The remaining will be the State government’s share.
He said a venture capital fund with an initial investment of Rs 50 crore –– funded jointly by government and private venture capitalists –– will be set up to meet the needs of entrepreneurs.

Biren Ghose, President of the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI), pointing out that the sector had a business potential of reaching $2 billion in the coming years, said the policy would make the city the largest contributor to the sector.

He said that in line with the policy’s objective –– of reaching out to rural talent –– ABAI will set up digital art centres in 10 Government arts colleges in rural areas as a pilot project, at a cost of Rs 10 lakh each.




Disney's Sci-Fi Comedy 'The Pet' Gets Dynamite Director

(Variety)                   Walt Disney Pictures and producer Scott Rudin have brought back to life the sci-fi family comedy The Pet and set Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) to direct, reports Variety. Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor will produce with Rudin.

The project, originally written by Matt Lieberman, centers on an everyday guy who becomes the pet of a group of aliens.

Rudin has been attached for years and David Silverman was previously going to direct, but Ress is now taking over the project, which was recently rewritten by Tim Dowling (This Means War).

Hess's other credits include Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncos, as well as the new "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series.



Could Pixar's 'Secret Story Guidelines' Work for Your Team?

(blogs.hbr.org)              Believe it or not, Pixar was once a scrappy startup. The multi-billion dollar juggernaut with a near-perfect record of churning out hit after hit today was once "a bunch of guys going on their gut" according to Andrew Stanton, a co-founding filmmaker with the company whose credits include writing and directing Wall E and Finding Nemo.

Stanton explained at the TED Conference on Tuesday that back in these scrappy days of 1993, as this group was putting together its ideas for its first movies, it saw itself swimming upstream against the dominant forces — and mindsets — of animated films. Remember — at this time popular animated movies included song-and-dance hits like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King and Aladdin. Successful fare to be sure, but Pixar looked at the competition and saw an opportunity to make animated movies that were different. They didn't have to follow the mores the others felt. They could tell different kinds of stories in different way.

So this "group of guys" drafted a set of "secret story guidelines," as Stanton describes them, to help guide them internally against the prevailing winds in the animation world at the time.

Their secret guidelines:

    * No songs
    * No "I want" moments
    * No happy village
    * No love story
    * No villain

Against the context of what worked at the time for animated movies, these were pretty subversive. Even in today's Pixar-dominated landscape, they're pretty stark and some may have bent over time. But still, these rules established a clear set of parameters for the company. With them, they plotted a countervailing course, one that led the company to its unparalleled run of success today.

But Pixar's approach almost didn't come to pass. Disney, a key early investor in the company, grew worried that Pixar wasn't heading in the right direction after early setbacks in the making of Toy Story. So Disney hired a leading animation producer to help lend a hand to the scrappy bunch. This producer faxed Disney a set of rules (remember faxes?) that Pixar's team somehow got ahold of. The rules they needed to follow to make its story work, according to him?

    * You need songs
    * You need an "I want" moment
    * You have to have a happy village
    * You gotta have a love story
    * You need a villain

Pixar held its ground — "We were young enough not to care," said Stanton, and the rest, as they say in the movies, is history.

Now clearly, Pixar operates in a specific industry and these guidelines are very specific to that industry and their craft, so they probably aren't relevant outside of that realm. But the idea of taking the time to look around your industry, identify your opportunity, and list off a set of defiant (and slightly cheeky) guidelines that everyone on the team can hold onto proved incredibly powerful for Pixar. It's a pretty classic strategic trick for sure, but one that too few companies or teams likely employ. Given the impact and the success Pixar saw in part as a result of this device, establishing a set of "story guidelines" that work for your team — or your company — may be a tactic you want to consider.




Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Adds Three Fates

(The Hollywood Reporter)                   Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, the sequel to the 2010 book series adaptation Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, has added three to its cast. The Hollywood Reporter has word that Mary Birdsong, Yvette Nicole Brown and Missi Pyle have all signed on to play the Three Fates.

The sequel finds Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), the son of Poseidon, continuing his epic journey to fulfill his destiny, as he teams with his demigod friends (played by Alexandra Daddario and Douglas Smith) to retrieve the Golden Fleece, which has the power to save their home and training ground, Camp Half-Blood.

Both Birdsong and Pyle recently appeared in films nominated for Best Picture at last weekend's Academy Awards celebration. Birdsong had a role in The Descendants while Pyle appeared in the night's big winner, The Artist. Brown, meanwhile, is best known for her role as Shirley on NBC's "Community."

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters will be directed by Thor Freudenthal and is set for release on March 27, 2013.




Animation UK Steps Up Fight for Tax Credits

(broadcastnow.co.uk)               Animation UK has been keeping up the momentum of its tax credits campaign with an eleventh-hour meeting with the Treasury.

The lobby group met with chancellor George Osborne and Exchequer secretary David Gauke, who is responsible for shaping tax policy, last week. Culture minister Ed Vaizey was also present.

Led by chairman Oli Hyatt, the animators put forward the various economic and cultural arguments, highlighting the economic growth, inward investment, IP and jobs that could be created if the “distorted” tax regime were changed.

It was the “culmination of two years’ work”, said Hyatt. “We have given ourselves the best possible chance and we are firmly on the agenda. The Treasury is going to give our industry very careful consideration. We came away feeling hugely positive about the whole thing – we are certain we are past the stage of them just paying us lip service.”

Animation UK is now planning approaches to backbench MPs, whom it is hoped can keep the issue high on the government’s list of priorities. The group has already received assurances from several politicians that they will boost the issue’s profile ahead of the Budget on 21 March.

Cities of London and Westminster MP Mark Field, who has been supporting the campaign since it started, told Broadcast: “We have done our bit and are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be good news. The tax credit has support across the parties, so if it is proposed by the government, there is no question it would go through.

All that remains is to see whether the Treasury can be convinced.” The All Party Group for Children, Media and the Arts, chaired by Floella Benjamin, is hosting a reception at Westminster this month to highlight the problems facing the animation sector.



Sony Animation Moves Forward With The "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Sequel

(ComingSoon.net)                A Sony Pictures Animation print ad has revealed what appears to be the new title for the sequel to 2009's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. According to the below image, the new film will be released as Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers. The same ad also offers a new look at the monstrous animated characters that will be featured in the studio's Hotel Transylvania.

The Cloudy sequel is still without a release date, but is being directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. The original film featured the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg and Mr. T. and most are expected to return.

Transylvania, meanwhile, hits theaters on September 28th and stars the voice talents of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Cee-Lo Green, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and David Koechner.

Smurfs 2 is also featured in the ad, but with what is very likely a tentative logo.




Blizzard, Maker of World of Warcraft, Slashes 600 Jobs

(latimesblogs.latimes.com)                   Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard Inc., is eliminating 600 jobs, the Irvine game studio disclosed Wednesday.

The jobs represent 8.2% of the total workforce at Santa Monica-based Activision, which reported having 7,300 workers at the end of 2011.

Blizzard, which publishes the popular World of Warcraft title, said in a brief statement that 90% of the jobs being affected are not related to game development. As a result, the company said its game release schedule for upcoming titles Diablo III, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm remain intact.

"I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today's announcement," Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's chief executive, wrote in a blog post.

The company did not say what types of jobs were affected nor where the cuts were occurring. Calls to Blizzard spokeswoman Lisa Jensen were not returned.

Once regarded as an unstoppable growth and profit engine, Blizzard's key title in World of Warcraft has flagged in the last year. The number of subscribers who pay around $15 a month to play the online game peaked at 12 million in October 2010. That number fell to 10.2 million as of Dec. 31, the company reported three weeks ago along with its quarterly earnings.

Released seven years ago, World of Warcraft has had a remarkable run and a staggering profit margin that frequently exceeded 40%. But even hard-core fans have grown tired of the game. And many have migrated to other titles, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, an online game that has garnered 1.7 million subscribers since its December launch.

Blizzard is also duking it out with rival social games such as Kingdoms of Camelot that are increasingly targetting hard-core gamers. It's also seeing more competition from online games that are initially free to play but sell virtual items. Riot Games' League of Legends title, for example, has captured millions of players since being released in 2009.

Founded in 1991 by three UCLA graduates, Blizzard has a record of releasing a small number of high-quality titles that has earned it the loyalty of many fans. The company has said it is working on a new online game, but has declined to disclose any details.

Shares of its parent company, Activision, slipped 11 cents, or less than 1%, to $11.95 on Wednesday.