Ant-Man, Pixar Expansion & Iron Man Trilogy...
Marvel Boosts Film Slate: Thor, Captain America, & Ant-Man
(scifi.com) Former Marvel Comics chief Avi Arad, who is now a producer, said that his plate is full with upcoming Marvel film adaptations through 2010, starting with Iron Man and the sequel The Incredible Hulk. That's in addition to the upcoming sequel for The Punisher, a possible fourth Spider-Man film and a second Ghost Rider; the first one opens Feb. 16.
"We have Iron Man starting in March, and The Incredible Hulk is starting in June, and across town somewhere happening right now is a meeting about Punisher 2," Arad said. "And we will see what happens to Ghost Rider [2], but I would like to get that going."
Coming in 2007 are Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Further out are proposed movies based on Captain America, Bratz: The Movie and Ant-Man. Arad also confirmed that Wolverine and Magneto are coming as spinoffs of the X-Men movies. As for a fourth X-Men ensemble film? "That's a question for Fox," he said.
Films that seem less likely to be developed? Arad had nothing to say specifically about a Thor movie, which is also supposedly in the works. But Nicolas Cage, who stars in Ghost Rider, said that he is looking forward to Arad's proposed Sub-Mariner film.
"Iron Man" Will be a Trilogy
(rottentomatoes.com) Scott Weinberg writes: "Not all that surprising, really, but cool nonetheless: Jon Favreau's upcoming "Iron Man" movie is intended to be the first flick in a series of three. Sounds good to me!
AICN's Quint recently visited director Favreau at his "Iron Man" production offices and was treated to a whole bunch of pre-production artwork, most of which he describes right here -- in very thorough detail. Cool to know that a comics enthusiast found the artwork more than appealing, but the most interesting news was this:
"Spider-Man" style, the whole "Iron Man" cast (Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges) is apparently locked up for a three-picture run. Also hinted at: Terrence Howard's character will become the villain "War Machine," but not in the first movie.
Pixar Expansion - Output Increase?
(San Francisco Business Times) Pixar Animation Studios has
reinvigorated dormant expansion plans in Emeryville, a city official
said, in the clearest indication yet that it will remain and grow in
the Bay Area following its acquisition by Burbank-based Walt Disney
Co.
What's more, amendments to the company's plans, as described by a
source close to the project, indicate it is actually ramping up the
number of films it produces.
2007 Calvin Awards: Best Special Effects
(boxofficeprophets.com) Plot, character and theme are all important parts of a really good movie, but like a lot of multiplex goers, sometimes we just want to be wowed by some really dazzling effects. It's the hallmark of the summer movie season, and some creative use of special effects can really make a movie. Our winner for this year's Best Special Effects goes to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
While the first Pirates film offered some pretty entertaining eye candy (it placed third on this list in 2004), this second effort really kicked it into another stratosphere. Start with the main effect seen throughout the film, that of Davy Jones and his crew of damned sailors. Created with motion capture, the tentacles of Davy Jones, along with the various other sea creature effects, seemed all too real and slimy. And the film's piece d'resistance, the Kraken, was a classic movie monster creation. All in all, nothing looked sharper this year.
The third installment of the Mission: Impossible series took second place here, on the strength of a series of action sequences and explosions, as well with the trademark identity switching effects that it's become well known for. And hey, any film that can make it look like Phillip Seymour Hoffman is beating up on Tom Cruise has to be working with some kind of special effects black magic.
Third place goes to Pan's Labyrinth, the gothic horror thriller from Guillermo del Toro. His elaborately imagined fantasy world of demons and beasts was unlike anything we'd ever seen before, at least outside the time we had that nightmare after eating pizza too close to bedtime. Del Toro continues to be the go-to guy for grotesquerie in film, and the visual feast of Pan's Labyrinth may be his magnum opus in that regard.
While Superman Returns may have been a bit dull as a film, at least we got a bit of special effects magic to break up the scenes of Superman: Deadbeat Dad & Stalker. As well as the work that went into making Brendon Routh believable as the Man of Steel for today's effects savvy audiences, we also a couple of fantastic effects laden sequences involving an airplane crash averted, and Lex Luthor's attempts to destroy the world with, uh, crystals. Hey, don't look at us.
Fifth spot goes to Children of Men, which isn't effects laden in the traditional sense, but its extremely impressive in many technical senses. A huge number of unbroken scenes are filled with explosions, gun battles and even a birth. The film put us in the midst of a military action more thoroughly than any film since Saving Private Ryan, and without any cuts. Also, the Pink Floyd visual joke? Dynamite.
V For Vendetta is the sixth place film here. Although it can't compare to the effects work of the Wachowski Brothers' Matrix trilogy (and really, how could it?), Vendetta had some spectacular fight scenes and a little bit of landmark porn, but it also did something we love here - it used its effects in service of the plot, rather than just as a series of FX demo reels.
Poseidon was one of the year's biggest financial disappointments, but it wasn't because they spared the effects budget. Although a lot of the effects seem borrowed from The Perfect Storm, Titanic and/or Backdraft, we won't hold it against the film too much.
The Descent was an underrated little horror film this fall, which used its limited budget to rather impressive effect, producing subterranean creatures that inspired some of the best chills this year.
The latest installment of Bond offered up the usual impressive stunt sequences, leading Casino Royale to finish ninth in our voting. Still, to match the "back to basics" ethos of the film, they were not as outlandish as in previous years. Maybe that was for the best, as things like the car crash and the destruction of a building in the middle of Venice seemed all the more effective as a result.
Wrapping up the top ten in this category was X-Men: The Last Stand. Though filled with more effects than a lot of the films above it, it all seemed to be a bit of been there, done that. X2 finished fourth in this category in 2004, though that was a much better film overall and I probably wouldn't be amiss in guessing some personal feelings against the film got in the way of our voters.
Source: http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9913
Disney's CG American Dog Gets Extreme Makeover
(Jimhillmedia.com) It's often been said that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Well, I'm guessing that the folks at Walt Disney Feature Animation have never heard that expression. For they're right in the middle of an Extreme Makeover of their 2008 release, "American Dog."Given all the CG-based prep work that's already been done on this film, "American Dog" will remain on Disney's computer animation production track. Though -- that said -- Disney's marketing staff is allegedly already actively casting around for a new title for this project. With "Hollywood Dog" reportedly emerging as one of the top contenders.
Now I know -- particularly for all you Chris Sanders fans out there (Who were actively looking forward to seeing a new Disney animated film that would feature Chris' truly unique character design & story sense) -- that it must be disappointing to hear about all of the changes that are being made to this movie. To learn that virtually nothing that we've seen so far will wind up appearing in the finished version of this film.
But that said ... You have to understand that this is a
business, folks. And John Lasseter was just making the changes that he
felt were necessary in order to insure that "American Dog" would
ultimately be a success at the box office. As to whether or not these
decisions were actually the right ones (More importantly, is the Mouse
eventually going to come to regret letting a true talent like Chris
Sanders walk out the door?) ... Well, I guess we're just going to have
to wait 'til 2008 to see. When Chris Williams' quirk-free version of
this WDFA production finally arrives at a theater near you.
"The Watchmen" Greenlight Rests On
"300"
(bitsofnews.com) How has the universal praise for "300" assisted you with making "Watchmen" and possibly other projects?
Director Zack Snyder: I can't say it hasn't helped a lot. What it does do [is that] people have said to me, "What's going on with “Watchmen?” You’ve got to make sure you don’t f**k that up. What can I do to help?" And I said, "Go see '300.'" The truth is, "300" to the studio is a graphic novel movie. It's not a movie that they necessarily understand exactly when I pitch it on paper. They feel in some ways the same about "Watchmen." They don't understand why it's not "Fantastic 4." I have to remind them that it's much more "Strangelove" than it is "Fantastic 4" which they don't like hearing, but they believe that I know, and in that way, it helps. When they finally saw this movie, I think they felt, "Wow, we didn't know this was the movie you were necessarily making, but we like this movie." Maybe that will apply to "Watchmen."Alex Billington relates some of his thoughts on the use of CGi digital effects, or the partial lack of them, in the film:
The idea of Watchmen is not to do a CGI movie, but to do it when it's necessary. Like when Doc Manhattan goes to Mars, there's an issue here, we've got to figure that out. We can't go to Mars, I know, a lot people are going to be disappointed by that - but I just don't have the money. Antarctica also, there's no Carnac built there. I know, again, we should probably build it and then go film it there, but I don't think they're going let us do that. So those two things right off the bat you can think about. Dr. Manhattan himself, what do you do, how do you make him - how do you render him. Rorschach's mask. There's things that have to be dealt with and figured out. But I think that the appetite for me is to make a movie that feel's more like Taxi Driver than like Fantastic Four, again. So it's a balance.”
Sony Animation Hunts For Tax Breaks
(sfreporter.com) Feb. 2 packed the University of New Mexico’s Student Union Building with attendees of the Third Annual New Mexico Media Industries Conference. Or it was rumored to be packed—I wasn’t there, ’cause I’m a workin’ stiff, and thus cannot verify how packed it may or may not have been. Nor am I able to verify the white-hot rumor that seared across the state following a keynote speech by Barry Weiss, seniorvice president for animation at Sony Imageworks, that Sony's digital animation division is just a pixel away from a permanent presence in New Mexico.
Of course, it’s
old news that UNM and Imageworks have been chasing an “academic
partnership” that could manifest in a film school built near
Albuquerque Studios at the decidedly media- and movie-oriented Mesa del
Sol development south of the Duke City, but a production-oriented
animation arm would be something else. A more salient tidbit to these
ears is the way proposed legislation aims to institutionalize New
Mexico’s status in the film and media industries with a new state
department. Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Bernalillo, and Rep. Mimi Stewart,
D-Bernalillo, have both introduced identical bills in their respective
houses (SB 525 and HB 529) to create the Media Arts and Entertainment
Department, an entity that would roll the state Economic Development
Department’s Film Office, the Santa Fe-based Film Museum currently
operated by the Office of Cultural Affairs, the Governor’s Council on
Film and Media Industries and quite possibly the state’s Music
Commission into a single entity with a director serving, natch, at the
pleasure of the governor.
The
department
wouldn’t be cabinet-level, but would assume broad control over
implementing “a strategic plan for building a media arts and
entertainment infrastructure in New Mexico, including studios and
post-production facilities and a trained workforce to provide all
technical and professional services required by media arts and
entertainment, including video gaming, animation and other digital
visualization industries.” (And here, don’t miss the fact that “other
digital visualization industries” can mean military and surveillance
applications just as easily as it can mean clock radios). The point,
Stewart says, is to “consolidate the statutes, laws and practices
concerning arts and media, which are currently kind of all over the
place.” The effect is one of formalizing the relationships New Mexico
has built within the film industry, focusing the pursuit of new media
projects (I can’t wait to interview the state deputy director of video
games) and battening down the hatches of permanence on the kind of
incentives New Mexico has been offering to lure Hollywood projects
here. In addition to creating the new department, the bill tucks tax
credits and no-interest loans (SFR reported on these sometimes
controversial programs
into the fabric of its existence. But Robinson, who was instrumental in
creating the first incentives, and Stewart feel the industry has earned
it.
Fox Fight's Demons In The Dark
(scifi.com) Ian McShane (HBO's Deadwood) is starring in The Dark Is Rising, a fantasy film for 20th Century Fox and Walden Media, Variety reported. David Cunningham will direct, and Marc Platt will produce. Frances Conroy (Shopgirl) and Alexander Ludwig also star. Production begins this month in Romania.
Based on a volume in the five-book series by Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising focuses on a youth, Will Stanton (Ludwig), who discovers at age 11 that he's the last of a group of immortals—the Old Ones—dedicated to fighting a growing presence of dark forces. He comes to the realization he's charged with saving the world.
McShane will play Merriman Lyon, one of the Old Ones who serves as Stanton's mentor and shield. John Hodge (Trainspotting) is adapting the project for the big screen.
India To Produce Lord Of The Rings Sized Epic
(apunkachoice.com) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is slated to act in a fantasy flick, which will be something like "Lord Of The Rings".
No, the film will not be a copy of the Oscar-winning movie by Peter Jackson, but it will be based on an original story idea. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is producing the film while his assistant Ram Madhvani (who worked with Chopra for Mission Kashmir ) will direct it.
The movie, featuring Mr. Bachchan in a pivotal role, will have lots of special effects.
To ensure the international quality of special effects, experts from India and abroad will be roped in for the project.
In the meantime, Madhvani has shot a promo of the film with Mr. Bachchan.
Big B seems pretty impressed by Madhvani's skills. The filmmaker previously worked with Big B when he made a documentary on Bachchan called "8Everlasting Life".
Apart from Chopra's film, Mr. Bachchan will also be a part of Rohan Sippy's fantasy movie titled Aladdin .
Dreamworks Animation Tops In "Cashflow"
Close your eyes, Fool. Imagine that you're a billionaire financier with enough money to fund a takeover of any company of your choice (hostile or otherwise!). What exactly would you be thinking about? What would you be your main concerns? What type of things would you be looking for?
I've had this dream many times, and more often than not, my main objective would be to get back, preserve, and then grow exactly what was needed to buy the business in the first place -- cash.A Fool's guide to free cash
Investing, after all, is about putting money up front today to get more of it in return tomorrow. Here at the Fool, we're firm believers that free cash flow, as opposed to traditional accounting earnings, is the best gauge of a firm's profitability (or lack thereof). You can learn more about the importance of free cash flow here.
So with those cash flow lessons deeply ingrained in your Foolish subconscious -- or maybe just bookmarked as a "favorites" page -- I'll highlight three cash-cow favorites of our Motley Fool CAPS community.
(snip)
DreamWorks Animation is a free cash-flowing ruler that uses imagination, computer-generated images (CGI), and valuable brands -- such as its wildly popular Shrek franchise -- to hold a leadership position within the animated films space. Specifically, DreamWorks counts on higher production volume than its main competitors, aiming to release a sustained stream of two CGI films per year in order to generate superior returns and free cash flow.
"DreamWorks is a pace-setter and groundbreaker, and is limited only
by the imaginations of those working with its brand. Its
digital/celluloid offerings are right on par with Disney/Pixar.
Dreamed up originally by Spielberg and Geffen (and a few others), this
is a winning studio/company."
Source:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/02/13/3-more-kings-of-cash.aspx
Rapunzel Clip...
(animationnation.com) A very short (and I mean it) Rapunzel clip popped up on you tube. We've seen a still from this scene before. Whether this is a clip from the film or a test... well we don't know. But the title character is very expressive. Looks great in my humble opinion. I hope they let them finish in CGI
Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktZ5JVdDL7Y
Spielberg Calls Teaming With Muren A "match made in Heaven."
(spielbergfilms.com) The Steven Spielberg production of "Flags of Our Fathers" earned an "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture" award this Sunday at the 5th Annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards held in Los Angeles.
"Flags" bested its competition in the category for non-effects driven pictures, including work in the films "Blood Diamond," "Children of Men," and "The Da Vinci Code."
Steven Spielberg also had a presence at the ceremony via videotape in which he sent a message to long-time collaborator Dennis Muren, who was being honored with a VES Lifetime Achievement Award. Muren, of course, has worked with Spielberg throughout the years since 1977's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," perhaps most famously on the Oscar-winning "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and "Jurassic Park."
Spielberg said his work with Muren on their eight feature collaborations to date (not to mention various Amblin productions) was a "match made in Heaven." Scores of filmgoers would tend to agree.
Congratulations to the many artists who contributed to the "Flags of Our Fathers" win, and to Dennis Muren on his richly deserved honor.
The French Make Their Own CG "Puss in Boots"
( animated-news.com) Variety indicates that French studio MK 2 will release its own computer animated Puss in Boots movie in 2009 - two years before DreamWorks Animation’s Puss picture. “We aren’t jumping on the bandwagon,” Nathanael Karmitz, MK2’s managing director, commented on Friday. “Our film has been in development for more than two years. It’s just fortunate for us that we’ll be ready first.”
Budgeted at $24 million, the MK 2 Puss in Boots will be “in the spirit of the original story but it is a loose adaptation,” said Karmitz. “It’s more modern, with lots of action.”
"Wanted" Comic Aims For The Big Screen
(sneakpeektv.blogspot.com) Universal Pictures has set a March 28, 2008 release date for comic book-to-film "Wanted", based on the Top Cow graphic novel series.
To be directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the "Wanted" screenplay is by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan. Producers are Marc E. Platt, Jim Lemley and Jason Netter. Executive producers are Marc Silvestri and Adam Siegel.
Premise of "Wanted" focuses on 'Wesley Gibson', who morphs from a mild-mannered office worker into an avenging killing machine.
George Lucas Calls Empire Strikes Back Worst Of Star Wars
(slashfilm.com) On Wednesday, George Lucas said that Empire Strikes Back was the worst film in the Star Wars series. Sometimes I’m not sure if Lucas is trying to be funny. In this case I really hope so. He can’t be that clueless, can he?
Entertainment blogger David Poland recalls Lucas’ comment on Wednesday at the Publicist’s Guild luncheon: “George Lucas, giving the award to Sid Ganis, who was the in-house publicist on Star Wars: Episode Five - The Empire Strikes Back, said, ‘Sid is the reason why The Empire Strikes Back is always written about as the best of the films, when it actually was the worst one.’”
Empire is considered by many to be the best film in the series. The film has a user rating os a 8.8 with almost 150,000 votes, making it the 9th best film on imdb.com.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/02/11/geroge-lucas-says-empire-strikes-back-was-the-worst-star-wars-movie/New Mexico Beats NZ & Canada With 25% Tax Incentive
(sfreporter.com) “The entire industry has shifted in the past 10 years to be all about financial incentives,” Strout says. “We saw a lot of film productions going to places like Canada, Australia and Eastern Europe. But now it’s shifting back to the states and New Mexico is at the heart of that movement.”
The seismic shift that bumped industry politics in New Mexico off their axis was orchestrated by a small handful of influential people. Jon Hendry is among them.
“The incentive program has been the magnet that’s brought people here,” Jonathan Wacks, professor and chairman of College of Santa Fe’s Moving Image Arts Program, says. “It’s too good for companies to turn down. When I first got here, people came to shoot Westerns and that was it. Now they look at the incentives and say, ‘We could be doing An American in Paris here for chrissakes, let’s just build the Eiffel Tower.’ I think we have reached that point now because the incentives are so attractive.” Beauty, in this case, is in the eye of the beholder.
The two primary components of the incentive program—tax rebates and investment loans—have expanded considerably since they first were initiated about four years ago. The rebate program now offers a tax refund of up to 25 percent on all direct production expenditures.
“I think it is a win-win situation because this business would not be here otherwise,” Wacks says. “If there weren’t incentives, the revenue wouldn’t be coming into the state anyway. As a matter of fact, I think the state should go further and actually invest in films and not just give incentives.”
http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/cover-040506-tamalewood.php
It's Official: Dark Crystal 2 Gets The Greenlight
(side-line.com) "The Dark Crystal" is a 1982 fantasy film by Jim Henson and Frank Oz which must have been a favourite to many. The story itself related about another planet in another time about 1000 years ago. When the Dark Crystal is damaged by a Urskek an age of chaos begins. Jen the last of the Gelfings nearly exterminated by monsters controlled by the Skekses starts his dangerous journey to find the missing shard of the crystal.
Now, 25 years later, a second film is to be produced. It was SFX, a science fiction and fantasy magazine based in Britain, that brought the news out. Rumours had been floating the net for a while now and although it seemed that nothing would become of it, they now got a confirmation that a sequel will indeed be filmed. It was The Henson Company itself who confirmed the news.
The following statement came from Lisa Henson, the company's co-CEO and producer of the film: "The Jim Henson Company remains committed to producing "Power of the Dark Crystal". The film has not been 'cancelled' or 'put on hiatus' or any of the other rumored status changes that have been floating around. This film is an ambitious undertaking for us and it continues to move forward as we work to secure the financing and distribution that a project of this scope requires; and yes, these are factors that will most likely have an impact the production timeline. We are grateful to the fans who support Power of the Dark Crystal and we are excited to make this new chapter in the Dark Crystal story a reality."
The sequel, entitled "Power of the Dark Crystal", will be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. A detailed synopsis is already available online. asically the new film will be set many years after the events of the first movie. Jen and Kira have now become King and Queen and guardians of the Crystal. But they can't prevent the Crystal to split again.
The movie will incorporate a hybrid of live action animatronic characters and CG animation. And in the line of the Star Wars prequels, you may expect an introduction to the first film as well, albeit under the form of a manga. Titled "Legends of the Dark Crystal", it is scheduled for publication by TokyoPop on November 13, 2007. The manga is written by Barbara Randall Kesel, with art by Max Kim. The story will be set hundreds of years before the story in "The Dark Crystal", and before the Great Extermination.
