CG Anime Hurricane, Game Industry Needs Unions, & Become a Hobbit...

Are We In For A CG Anime Hurricane?

(io9.com)               It's a good year to be a comic book writer.
You can't throw a collectible at a Con without hitting a graphic novel
that's just been optioned for a movie. From Marc Guggenheim's
Resurrection to Hiding In Time, comics are the new Hollywood pitches.
And are Japanese manga and anime next? Astro Boy's studio Imagi just
got a hefty new investor, so it's looking more and more as if 2009
will be the year of the big-screen anime adaptation.

Imagi is selling shares in the company for an increase in funding that
will hopefully increase its " development of four full-length feature
computer graphics imagery animation movies, scheduled tentatively to
be released from 2009 to 2011." Imagi is already set to release movies
of the classics Astro Boy and Gatchaman. It's probably a safe bet that
the other two releases designated for those years (they'll put out a
movie every 8 months) will most likely be anime as well.

Hollywood is mad for live action anime remakes: Leonardo DiCaprio's
production company and Warner Brothers are set to bring Akira to life,
and Stephen Spielberg and DreamWorks are recreating the immensely
popular Ghost in the Shell, which will also be 3-D. But I'm most
excited for the re-creation of Robotech, and the mecha-warriors of the
future.

I'm looking forward to a year of introducing the world of anime to the
mainstream audience, I especially would like to see what everyone will
think of Takashi Murakami Planting the Seeds feature film.

It's a mere matter of months until we start seeing more American live
action flicks with school girl's toting around weaponry Mai HiME
style, and is it wishful thinking to hope for a epic fantasy remake of
InuYasha? I say the more girls in school outfits blowing up the world,
the better.

TRANSFORMERS Concept Art Appears Online

Want to see some original concept art, which was drawn for last summer's Transformers? Well, if you do, you're in luck. Conceptual artist Tim Flattery has posted 15 shots of art originally drawn for the first installment directed by Michael Bay. While some of the shots did make the final cut into the film, others were omitted like the aircraft carrier scene. Bay, who was impressed, said some might make it into the sequel while executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told media the opposite.

Take a look:  http://timflattery.com/transformers/popup.html

Can Wall-E Win Best Picture?

(time.com)                Wall-E, Pixar's lonely little post-Apocalyptic robot, is quickly collecting a lot of friends. Critics have applauded the animated film all the way to a 97% Fresh rating on the movie review web site Rotten Tomatoes   the year's best so far. Audiences have spent $128 million at the box office in Wall-E's first 10 days of release, placing the film seventh so far in 2008, and likely to climb closer to the heroes of May  Indiana Jones and Iron Man   as glowing word-of-mouth continues to drive ticket sales. Even though most of Hollywood's Oscar contenders have yet to hit theaters, all that critical and commercial affection is leading awards-watchers to ponder: Could Wall-E finally be The One?

I sprinted down the corridors of TIME this afternoon, eager to spread the news of the New York Film ...
They could Have Been (Oscar) Contenders

Ever since Wallace Beery won the Best Actor Oscar in 1932 for playing a boozy palooka in The Champ, ...
Winning the Pool

This is a tough year for Academy Award swamis. No epics. No blockbusters. A Best Picture fight betwe...
The Globes Atone for the Critics

Most of the nation's critics groups announced their year-end awards this past week, and all gave the...

No animated film has ever won Best Picture. Only one, Beauty and the Beast, in 1991has even earned a nomination. Since the creation of a Best Animated Feature category seven years ago, animated film has been trapped in Oscar's cartoon ghetto, even though reviewers consistently place Pixar's movies on their best-of-the-year lists.

Cries that Wall-E should be considered for a Best Picture nod began as soon as the film hit theaters on June 27. Writers at New York Magazine, TheMovieBlog.com and ObsessedWithFilm.com declared Wall-E worthy of a Best Picture, and high-profile movie critics are discussing the little robot's odds for that award among themselves.

But for Wall-E to have a shot at the big prize, Disney, Pixar's parent company, would have to foot the bill for a Best Picture campaign, and it is not clear the studio is ready to do that. "While it is certainly gratifying to know that the audience and critical response to Wall-E has sparked these types of discussions, it's premature to discuss our plans for the awards season," says Jasmine Madatian, Disney's Senior Vice President of Publicity.

It's not just modesty making Disney cautious; it's history. Praise for Disney classics like Dumbo and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and contemporary hits like The Lion King and Pixar's Finding Nemo, didn't convince the Academy those animated films deserved to be considered alongside live-action movies. That's because animated features enjoy scant support from the largest branch of the 6,000 film industry pros who select the Best Picture candidates every year: actors. "Actors tend to vote for live action performances," says Variety columnist Anne Thompson. "Lord of the Rings got to Best Picture without any heavily praised performances, but that's very unusual."

Even among non-actors, there's a feeling that animated films are somehow set apart from live-action movies. "The animated realm means an emphasis on digital as opposed to raw-grain realism, and the Best Picture realm still means more or less the opposite," says Oscar blogger Jeffrey Wells, of Hollywood Elsewhere. "[Wall-E is] a gem and a classic, but it's still "Hello? An animated film?"

Yet there are good reasons to think Wall-E may be an Obama-esque trailblazer. Since Toy Story in 1995, Pixar has steadily built momentum and begun collecting Oscar nominations in more and more categories. Last year's Ratatouille set a record with five, including original screenplay and score.

With its tale of a trash-strewn earth centuries in the future, Wall-E's environmental message should resonate with the typically liberal politics of most Oscar voters. The film also makes affectionate nods to films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, City Lights and Hello, Dolly! "There are a lot of little olive branches in Wall-E to the Academy," says The Movie Blog's John Campea.

More important than its homages to Hollywood classics may be Wall-E's status as an example of the kind of films Hollywood rarely makes anymore: well-crafted stories for a mass audience. Film-goers, it seems, have to choose between smart but dark, strange, independent or quasi-independent films, like last year's Best Picture, No Country For Old Men, or mind-numbing popcorn flicks, like the latest super-hero offering from Will Smith, Hancock. Wall-E, however, seems to be stimulating both hearts and minds.

"Every year there's a movie that captures the zeitgeist in some way. Wall-E does that," says Thompson. "I would love to think this movie would have a chance at Best Picture. But there has to be some kind of hue and cry lasting all the way through the end of the year." And, even more importantly, a decision by Disney to encourage it.

To Go Hollywood, Game Industry Needs Unions

(bit-tech.net)            Ron Gilbert, the developer behind many of
the old Lucasarts adventure games, thinks unions will play an
important part in the growth of the gaming industry and that before
the business can move forward the technology will need to slow to a
more manageable rate.

"I think technology is moving forward really rapidly, and part of what
a lot of teams do is exploring new technology, and I think that's kind
of hard to do with an ad hoc thing," said Gilbert, who is currently
working at Hothead Games on his new game, Deathspank.

The comments came as part of an interview with Gamasutra about the
future of the industry and what part episodic gaming will play.
Gilbert said that he thought that industry professionals would slowly
make the move to a more Hollywood like structure, but that several
things would have to change first.

One of the things that Gilbert thinks is integral to the future of the
games industry is unionisation - a way to band together all the
freelance developers.

"I don't think that you're going to be able to grab all of these
freelance people when you need them if there isn't some kind of a
union structure that's over the top of them. You can't really have a
bunch of animators just floating around from job to job with nothing
in between."

"I think there's going to have to be a lot more structure, and I think
that's going to have to come in the form of unions - which, you know,
I don't know that I really agree with that; I think unions bring a lot
of bad things to gaming, but I think they're going to be necessary for
us to move into that Hollywood model."

Source:   http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/07/ron-gilbert-developers-need-unions/1

Mummy 3 VFX Team Invents "Liquid Solid"

(shocktillyoudrop.com)           Director Rob Cohen was in another
part of Santa Monica supervising a few of the overwhelming amount of
The Mummy's CGI effects.

How did you take to the visual effects workload you laid out for yourself?

Cohen: My first effects film was Dragonheart. In those days there was
no Pixar, but to do a photo-real creature that spoke and had the
personality of Sean Connery in 1994 was a big leap. ILM and I really
conquered it, I think. Daylight had a lot of effects. Then I put a lot
of effects in Fast and Furious in a more limited type, XXX had it with
an avalanche sequence. Stealth was a major effects movie, then this
one is the most major thing that I've done. This is has 1,000 visual
effect with the most complicated 3-D work that you could possibly do.
We had to write all new algorithms for the liquid solids, as I called
them, to make the terracotta to move and not make it look like latex.
It was a challenge.

Tinker Bell, Tim Burton to Join Walk of Fame

(animationmagazine.net)            The Walk of Fame Committee of the
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced this year's list of
inductees, which includes an iconic character from the Disney animated
classic Peter Pan and the filmmaker behind the acclaimed animated
features The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Tinker Bell
and Tim Burton are among 25 public figures from the worlds of film,
television, music and radio set to receive their stars on Hollywood's
Walk of Fame sometime in 2009. These individuals and groups were
chosen from hundreds of nominees brought to the committee at a meeting
held on June 12.

"There was a significant increase of applications received this year
and so many deserving celebrities," comments Earl Lestz, chairman of
the Hollywood Walk of Fame Committee. "Our committee worked diligently
to select those stars which would appeal to the masses."

It's no coincidence that Disney Home Entertainment is releasing the
new CG-animated Tinker Bell movie on DVD and Blu-ray on October 28. A
special Collector's Edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas will
also be out on DVD and Blu-ray on August 26.

"Dragons" Take Flight In 4K IMAX

(darkhorizons.com)              Producer Charlotte Huggins ("Journey to the Center of the Earth, "Fly Me to the Moon") and Super 78 are teaming to produce the live-action feature "Flight of the Dragon" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Written and directed by Brent Young, "Dragon" is described as a hybrid documentary and fantasy that tells the story of a young boy's desire to discover China from the sky while flying with a mystical dragon over exotic and mysterious landscapes.

"Dragon" will be lensed entirely in mainland China starting in September, principally from aerial perspectives in locations across the country.

The film will be shot with the Red One digital camera in 4K resolution for release in Imax and other giant-screen venues.

Kung Fu Panda Plans 5 Sequels

(cgchar-animation.com)                Kung Fu Panda is number one in the box office with an opening weekend pull of more than $60 million.

Katzenberg is already talking sequels.  Five of them.  Whether the audiences will support that many is unknown, however, you can be sure that a follow up will be coming soon.

Interns Head To Pixar, Rhythm & Hues & Sony Imageworks

(animationmagazine.net)                   The Science and Technology
Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has
selected three students to participate in its second annual summer
internship program designed to provide real-world experience to
students interested in careers in motion picture computer graphics and
animation technology. Pixar Animation Studios, Rhythm & Hues Studios
and Sony Pictures Imageworks will each take one of the students under
their wings for an eight-week period and provide hands-on
opportunities in animation, production management, software
programming and visual effects.

Tony Fan from New York University will gain valuable experience at
Rhythm & Hues Studios, while Tiffany Houghton from Otis College of Art
and Design spends some time at Pixar Animation Studios and Liron Topaz
from Ringling College of Art and Design learns the ropes at Sony
Pictures Imageworks. In addition to the opportunity to work with and
learn from some of the best artists and technicians in the industry,
each student will receive a stipend of $4,000 from the Tech Council.

"Our mission is to cultivate the next generation of motion picture
technologists and researchers," says Barry Weiss, the Tech Council's
internship program chair. "The interns are placed into the center of
three companies that exemplify the high standards of artistic and
scientific excellence that the Academy seeks to foster in tomorrow's
talent."

Established in 2003 by the Academy's Board of Governors, the Science
and Technology Council provides a forum for the exchange of
information, promotes cooperation among diverse technological
interests within the industry, sponsors publications, fosters
educational activities and preserves the history of science and
technology of motion pictures.

Laika Animation Likes "Here Be Monsters"

(cgchar-animation.com)                    Phil Knight, whose Nike empire gives him an estimated worth of $7.9 billion, is bringing his muscle to showbiz, with ambitious plans for his Portland, Ore., animation studio to partner with a Hollywood major in a slate of toons.  Laika, which does both CG and stop-motion features, was created when Knight stepped in to buy the former Will Vinton Studios, famous for the California Raisins, after the company had fallen on hard times.

"Laika unveils development slate"
Source: Variety

This fall the company is wrapping production on its first feature, the stop-motion "Coraline," helmed by Laika supervising director Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas").

Laika is financing the film, based on the book by Neil Gaiman, with Focus Features to distribute. It is skedded for wide release beginning Feb. 6, 2009.

Lead animator on "Coraline" and head of animation for Laika is Travis Knight, son of the Nike founder. Travis Knight was already working as an animator at Vinton when his father bought the company and rebranded it.

Now, Laika is taking out three pitches, any one of which could be its next project. Ultimately, it may produce all three:

    * "Here Be Monsters!" from the books by Alan Snow, is a steampunk-flavored story set in a fantasy version of 1850s London. The hero is a 12-year-old who's grown up in an underground world beneath the city that is full of monsters but must find his way in the world when he moves to the surface to live like a normal boy.

British writer Irena Brignell is penning the script; Antony Stacchi ("Open Season") would direct.

Stacchi calls the project "Dickensian" and "Python-esque." It could be either CG or stop-motion.

    * "Jack and Ben," an original for CG animation, revolves around brother bluebirds who get into a dangerous road-rally-style race to Florida along the north-south migration route. Barry Cook ("Mulan") would direct, David Skelly is writing and Ric Sluiter ("Lilo & Stitch") is art director.

"What 'Finding Nemo' did under the water, we want to do in the air," said Fiona Kenshole, VP of development acquisitions for Laika.

Cook said the project features quirky characters inspired by the real-life Gumball Rally road race.

    * "Paranorman," an original idea by "Coraline" story chief Chris Butler, concerns a small town under a secret curse. Only a 13-year-old boy can keep the town from being overrun by zombies, but no one will listen to him.

Pic could be stop-motion or CG. Butler is writer and co-director. The project is being developed under Selick's close supervision.

For "Coraline," Laika put up the entire production budget of $50 million-$70 million. For all three pitches, however, the company is seeking 50-50 partnerships.

Kenshole said Laika is looking for a niche that is edgier than that of most of its competish, while still being commercial.

"We're to the left of Pixar and to the right of 'Nightmare Before Christmas,' " Kenshole told Daily Variety.

"There's a lot of people moving into animation, and what they do is copycat. The world isn't waiting for another Pixar and another DreamWorks. We want a slate that's uniquely ours, that hits the four quadrants and is commercial, but is really, really strong, based on good storytelling."

Laika is also well into development on three more projects to be pitched in future months:

    * "The Wall and the Wing," adapted by "Lost" co-creator Jeffrey Lieber from the novel by Laura Ruby. Story is about a parallel contemporary Manhattan where everyone can fly except one girl -- but she can make herself invisible.

    * An untitled comedy-adventure story based on a young-adult trilogy. Dick Clement and Ian La Franais ("The Commitments," "Flushed Away") are penning the script. Courtney Pledger and Sarah Radclyffe are attached as producers.

    * An original story about the origins of Halloween by Selick and John Carls. Carls ("Open Season") is producing.
      More than one option
          o (Film) Boys to Men
          o (Film) Lost

Phil Knight is "in this for the long run," said Nike vet and Laika CEO Dale Wahl. "One thing that points to his commitment is the fact that he went out and bought some land for a Laika campus."

The company expects to break ground later this year on that 30-acre campus in Tualitin, Ore. Designed by the same architects as the Nike campus, it will bring the CG and stop-motion operations together, though the company's commercials division, House, will likely remain closer to downtown Portland.

Laika now employs approximately 550 people, with some 100 in the House division.

Building the Ultimatge VFX Production Databases

(blog.janheinze.de)             As we are right now in the development
phase for the second generation of our in-house vfx production
management tool, I did a little research on the web to see what's out
there. I was researching to get some inspiration, but also to double
check if there is really no package that would fulfill our needs or
which could be integrated into our existing production pipeline. What
I was looking for is a production management tool for the visual
effects industry, focusing on project and information management.
Originally something that is "more then a shot database". I would like
to share the list of tools that I found and I would be super-happy to
get some links or feedback from you! The list is in now way meant to
judge over the tool. It is just a list of links, thoughts and ideas.

Showrunner
"Showrunner™ is the Ultimate Visual Effects Project Management Tool."
It is Filemaker based and seems to target especially freelance
producers and production managers. It has functionalities to work out
budgets and assist with I/O related stuff. It is not possible to
manage more the one project with a single installation of Showrunner.
Showrunner was some years ago an inspiration for our current in house
tool, which is also based on Filemaker. Their is a free and a
Pro-version for 99$ available.

shotrunner.com
"Shotrunner is an online web application for collaborating on and
tracking the production of VFX shots and other production assets. It
enables collaboration across a distributed post-production team. It
allows independent producers to breakdown and organize shows,
communicate, assign and track work, and track assets."
What I really like is the web based approach and that the developer
had a collaborative approach for distributed teams over the internet
in mind. The tool seams to be heavily under development. Unfortunately
there is no online demo, yet? I think that it is – even though it is
in a very early stage of development and has to proof itself in
production first – the most interesting approach so far.

Missing Link
"The web-based software Production Kit is an innovative solution
designed for a better workflow and an efficient project management,
especially when dealing with company wide or distributed content
creation. This can be the case, if for example more than two parties
are involved in an international co-production."
Missing Link is focusing on workflows within a production and is based
on a quite interesting approval and documentation concept.
Unfortunately their is no price list on the website but I think that
costs are higher then 10.000€/year?

Mathilda
"For several years, idagrove|filmeffects has put much effort into the
development of a database system, which manages information, quotes
and workflows within visual effects projects, increasing transparency
and efficiency at every point in time."
Mathilda has a quite similar approach as showrunner. It is focusing on
managing single projects and thereby should be most interesting for
freelance supervisors, producers and production managers. Mathilda is
clearly the tool with the most advanced budgeting and controlling
functionalities in the list. The Producer license of Mathilda costs
1.899€ (3000$)

Most of the listed tool could perfectly fulfill the needs for managing
smaller and bigger shows. Except of Missing Link, all the packages
seems to mainly target freelance producers as they do not provide any
functionality for their integration into an existing production
pipeline or to share data with standard ERP systems like SAP.

What I miss in the listed systems:

   * Nearly all of them are limited to the management of single projects.

   * It is not possible to share/manage resources across projects

   * Almost no integration into an existing production pipeline
(Editorial, Render Management, Department communication)

   * No connection to existing ERP software

   * No integration into LDAP Directories or Active Directory to
easily maintain user information

   * Most of the systems seem to work as a black box. This stands in
contradiction to the idea of a (vfx) production pipeline in which
tools are integrated by exchanging data with each other or a central
instance (e.g. a database)

   * I know this seems secondary to most producers but the user
interface (design) of nearly all listed packages is really mediocre ;)

I think it would be super interesting to start an open source
approach/project to develop standards, concepts and the tools to
manage projects and information within a company and between different
vendors working together on a visual effects project.

Lucasfilm Ltd. Unplugged, For a Price

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Vampire Sequel "New Moon" for December '09?

(ShockTillYouDrop.com)           It's just a rumor at this point, but
word was leaked on the internet that Summit Entertainment, who will be
releasing a movie based on Stephenie Meyer's #1 New York Times
best-selling novel Twilight on December 12, has also optioned the
movie rights to the second novel in the series, New Moon, with plans
to adapt it for release in December '09.

This would confirm what Twilight producer Wyck Godfrey told Ryan
Rotten back in March which you can read here, saying that the script
for the sequel was ready to go:

"The goal is, we've got the [sequel] script ready to go and come
December we want to shoot it for about the same time - for the weather
and stuff we don't want to be in the heat of the winter. Obviously,
you know the next book and know we can go out into the sun a little
bit more. Hopefully, we'll have it ready to go and ready to start
prepping for the beginning of next year."

Be in The Hobbit movie!

(thehollywoodnews.com            It could become a reality. THE HOBBIT director Guillermo del Toro recently spoke to MTV where he revealed that there may be some upcoming contests that will see the winners appearing in the huge LORD OF THE RINGS prequel. He had this to say:

"I believe as the film comes to happen, in either of the two films, [fans] have a good chance of being there... Sleep with a lot of people if you can! That's a very good piece of advice. But don't bribe anyone. It will be wasted money... We will set some rules and some contests and some fans will definitely get the chance of being extras. Go and apply for those roles!"