Band of Brothers 2, VES Nominations, & Transformers

VES Awards Nominees Announced

(digitmag.co.uk)               The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominations for its fifth VES Awards, which celebrate VFX work across film, broadcast and music videos. The largest number of film nominations were taken by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Charlotte's Web, while the current remake of Battlestar Galactica picked up the most TV nods.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest grabbed six nominations -- including nods for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture, Best Single Visual Effect of the Year, Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture, Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture, Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Live Action Motion Picture, and Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture.

Charlotte's Web was given three nods, including two for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture -- one each for the Templeton and Wilbur characters. It's also up for the main Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture gong. The VFX work was split between Rhythm & Hues, Fuel, and Tippett Studios.

The top Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture category is completed by Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.

Battlestar Galactica received four nominations overall, spread across multiple episodes. It's up for broadcast-focussed awards for Visual Effects, Animated Character, Models and Miniatures, and Compositing.

The music video award is between Tim Burton's promo for The Killers' Bones and U2 and Green Day's The Saints Are Coming Home.

British recognition includes nominations for Framestore's work on Children of Men, Double Negative and MPC for The Da Vinci Code, MPC for Sky One's Christmas offering The Hogfather, and the tag-team of Cinesite, Double Negative , Framestore and MPC for Casino Royale.

For a full set of nominations, see the VES Awards Web site.

Complete nominees list:   http://www.vesawards.com/5thvesnominee.pdf

Transformers Promises "Life Altering Movie-Going Experience"

(rottentomatoes.com)          Explosions! Car crashes! Robots in disguise! We already knew that "Transformers" would be an adrenaline-pumper, but producer Spielberg and director Bay promises everybody in Japan a practically life-altering movie-going experience. In Japanese!

From the new Transformers Japanese trailer:

    Spielberg: "Konnichi wa. Nihon-no mina san, Steven Spielberg-desu."

    Bay: "Michael Bay-desu."

    Spielberg: "Like my film 'War of the Worlds' and Michael's film 'Armageddon,' 'Transformers' will deliver a grand-scale experience with groundbreaking visual effects that will take your breath away."

    Bay: "We promise to give you an experience unlike anything you've ever seen."

You hear that? Michael Bay promises a good time, and a Bay promise is a promise kept...

"Transformers" stars Josh Duhamel, Jon Voight, Bernie Mac, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, and Shia LaBeouf, and will take the breaths of geeks away across the nation on July 4, 2007."

Watch for yourself:  http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/transformers/japanonly-transformers-trailer-throws-down-jdm-exclusive-goodness-225590.php

Spielberg Shoot Moves To Australia

(nzherald.co.nz)            Director Steven Spielberg may film his new multimillion-dollar mini-series in north Queensland later this year.

The Pacific, scheduled for release in 2009, is the follow-up to Spielberg's war blockbuster Band of Brothers, and is set to be filmed mostly in north Queensland, Victoria or Hawaii. The mini-series could begin production in July.