CGI Gets A Veterinarian, Elves Go Big, & Fresh Pixels For New Deal Studios...

Columbia Acquires "Mythological Veterinarian"

(Variety)                    Columbia Pictures has acquired Mythological Veterinarian, a comic pitch that will be written by Andrew Kurtzman and produced by Jimmy Miller, says Variety.

The project is about a modern-day veterinarian who's recruited by a secret society that watches over the world's mythological creatures.

Principal Entertainment's Danny Sherman will be executive producer.

"Dark Knight"  Pre-sales Out Pace Indy, Pirates, Matrix & Rings

(darkhorizons.com)               There's still over a week before "The Dark Knight" hits theaters.

Yet with almost all of the 1,500 midnight Thursday night showings next week sold out, theaters have been adding 3am and 6am pre-opening showtimes to meet demand.

Fandango reports that "The Dark Knight" is poised to be the year's top advance ticket-seller in wide release and is already easily outpacing "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones 4" and "Sex and the City" at the same point in those films' sales cycles.

MovieTickets.com meanwhile reports that the pre-sales for the film's tickets are already higher than such major openers as "Spider-Man 3", "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest", "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Passion of the Christ".

"Elfquest" is Coming to the Big Screen

(The Hollywood Reporter)                  Elfquest, the cult comic by Wendy and Richard Pini, is heading to the big screen courtesy of Warners Bros. and Rawson Thurber.

The Hollywood Reporter says Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) will write, direct and produce the feature, whose format is undetermined.

The original comic, which the Pinis initially self-published starting in 1978, followed a tribe of elves known as the Wolfriders in their attempts to survive and link with other dispersed elves on an Earth-like planet with two moons while on the lookout for tribes of humans and trolls, both of which acted as allies and enemies.

CG People Don't Go Outside Enough

(comingsoon.net)                       The name Eric Brevig might not mean much to those who don't read the full credits at the end of a movie but for over 20 years, he's been involved with the special FX and stunts from some of the biggest summer blockbusters from Men in Black to Pearl Harbor and The Day After Tomorrow. If you've been to a summer movie in the past ten years, chances are that you have likely seen some of Brevig's handiwork, although the cutting edge CG work from James Cameron's The Abyss will always stand out as a milestone.

After working on so many big movies, it was time for Brevig to finally take the reins and direct his first feature length film, and he had the unenviable task (or is it an honor?) of directing the first full 3D live action movie using the latest RealD technology, something we've discussed a lot here on ComingSoon.net. (Read The 3D Explosion! or our Final Destination 4 Set Visit for more on 3D.)

Question: You must have known going into this how much CG and green screen you'd have to do, but what was your approach to mixing and matching what you shot on location and what you did on sets you built on the soundstages?
Brevig: It was based on twenty five years of doing visual effects with actors on stages in second unit direction. I know that actors need some tangible environment to play in to really give their best performance. That means they have to physically be able to touch the things that are surrounding them. If they're walking, they need to be jostled by an uneven floor. They can't just do that in their head because it's too much to try and pull off, and a lot of actors need that sensation. I said early on, "This is a movie about a small group of people looking at big things. I want to build the sets so that whatever they're touching, I'm going to have as a physical set so that they have something." It may just be the side of this little section of the room, ten foot by ten foot, but that's going to be a service that they can react to and it gives them the sense of what they're working with, and the rest that they're looking at, I could put that in computer graphics. There's another reason for doing that, which is that by photographing the set, I've now told the computer graphics artist, "This is what the set looks like, it's not up to your little imagination." A lot of times CG people don't go outside enough and don't know what photography does to complex textures and they make it up and it looks like a videogame. Here, it's like, "This is what it looks like. Take pictures of this. Use still photographs of the small piece of set to build your base set, and it will all look the same." These are just tricks I've learned over a long time of watching it not be done right and then be done right, so that it did two things. In the post-production, it raised their game by setting the bar of reality at what we had, and it also allowed the actors to respond to things that were physically around them.   

Question: You've been creating CG effects for a long time including the groundbreaking CG work in "The Abyss." Was there anything you had to do different in order to create the CG effects within this 3D environment?
Brevig: It was just much harder because in traditional 2D effects you cheat everywhere you can and you composite something together and just because you stick it in front so it's blocking the background, we all perceive it as being in front, in 3D it might actually be further away you from the background and you see it through a hole in the background, so that the tolerance level of all the layered composites becomes infinitesimally accurate, and that's what made it very tricky.

Question: That's what I was saying about it not being so forgiving, that you can't cheat things so much when working in 3D.
Brevig: Exactly. You can't build sets that have forced perspectives built into them either, or cast a shadow on something hoping that it looks like it's just receding in the distance because you have two eyes in a 3D movie going, "That thing's flat and it's got a shadow on it," so those rules whether it's working on a computer, a virtual world, or on the set, those rules had to be maintained.

Question: Before I forget, I wanted to ask about the scientific accuracy of the movie.
Brevig: Its 100% accurate! (laughs)

More:   http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46407

"Red Dawn" Remake Deploys

(The Hollywood Reporter)               Screenwriter Carl Ellsworth has been hired to rewrite MGM's Red Dawn, the ultimate homeland invasion story about a new generation of besieged high schoolers.

Dan Bradley, a second unit director and/or stunt coordinator on The Bourne Ultimatum, Spider-Man 3 and the forthcoming Quantum of Solace, will move into the director's chair for the update. Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce.

"The tone is going to be very intense, very much keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we're in," says Ellsworth, "As 'Red Dawn' scared the heck out of people in 1984, we feel that the world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease, so why not scare the hell out of people again?"

Ellsworth will be working from a story written by Jeremy Passmore. Vincent Newman (A Man Apart) is also acting in a producer capacity.

Practical SPFX Company 'New Deal Studios' Expands Digital Division

(VFXworld.com)           Award-winning New Deal Studios, best known for design and production of miniature and practical effects for feature films, has expanded the company's digital effects division, positioning itself as a full service visual effects studio.

New Deal provides clients with comprehensive visual effects services from design and pre-visualization through practical and digital effects production to a state-of-the art DI suite; making NDS one of the few studios in the world with this full range of capabilities.

For Matthew Gratzner, co-founder and creative director, the expansion of the Digital Division may be new, but the NDS dedication to excellence remains the same. "Our goal is to always achieve the highest quality, photorealistic effects possible," Gratzner said. "The expansion of our Digital Division allows us to fully utilize our resources, both practical and digital, to create the best images for any given project."

Digital Effects Producer Michael Theurer agrees that the NDS commitment to creativity and quality sets it apart from competitors. "We have an enormous palette of tools to choose from, and as a self-contained studio, everything we need is right here. This allows us to be creatively flexible with our clients and our artists." NDS goes one step further by cross-training their artists in both practical and digital production, giving their teams a creative edge.

Because NDS has a reputation for stellar management matched with extraordinary creativity, they are able to attract the best talent in the industry and provide an environment that allows artists to flourish and contribute to each project.

In addition to the talents of the founders, the expanded division offers the expertise of Digital Effects Supervisor Robert Chapin as well as a pool of senior artists who bring decades of experience in digital visual effects. For Chapin, the expansion of the New Deal Digital Division means his team has all of the latest digital resources and practical assets at hand. "We have a truly full-service studio all under one roof. If we need to shoot elements on the spot, we can do it and pipe them back into our digital workstations instantly."

More Talking CG Animals For Walden Media

(The Hollywood Reporter)                Walden Media has acquired a new family-oriented tale titled Housebroken which takes a comedic look at a group of talking animals forced to live under the same roof when the two halves of the couple that owns them moves in together. It's based on a pitch from Made of Honor screenwriter Adam Sztykiel, who will write the screenplay.

Housebroken will combine CG and live action in the manner of such Walden films as Charlotte's Web and the "Chronicles of Narnia" series. The movie likely would be released by Fox under the studio's deal with Walden.

Mike DeLuca will produce, with Aaron Kaplan and Sean Perrone, who conceived the story, executive producing.

Andy Serkis Talks "Tintin" Movies

(thehollywoodnews.com)          Andy Serkis has been talking to Radio 1's Newsbeat about his role as Captain Haddock in the upcoming TINTIN series of movies that will be directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

"I'm really excited about it. We've done a few (screen) tests and we're just about to start shooting principal photography in September." He said.

"There isn't a finished script as yet so I don't really know exactly which way it's going to go.

"We've had a look at some sequences and done some test sequences which may or may not be in the movie."Serkis added.

Favreau Set For "Iron Man 2"

(darkhorizons.com)                  Marvel Studios and "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau have apparently reached a deal for him to helm the sequel due out in 2010 reports Deadline Hollywood Daily.

Marvel Studios has apparently put out a "definitely richer offer" to Favreau to helm the next installment after a drawn out, two-month and quite public negotiating impasse.

With no screenplay as yet set, Favreau last month expressed a justifiable concern that the April 2010 deadline is unrealistic.

Indian Animation Industry Firing Artists?

(cgarena.com)          The internet is buzzing with bad news for the Indian Animation Industry.  Indian production houses Prana, Crest, Tata Elxsi and many others are firing the artists from the studio. Some stopped recruting the "freshers".  Many are asking, "Now what happen to the institutes which giving you the job placement assurance?"

Quoted from recent artist blogs: 

"Prana fired around 150 artists and same for others like 50+ from tata and so on."

"Everyone firing by saying your performance is not good but actually don't have much projects and poor economy conditions. "

"Regarding institutes, i never like the idea of giving placement guarantee before joining or seeing the work, so i don't care. Good talent find the job and place easily."

"This happening in China too."

"Hellboy II" Epecting $42M Weekend

What's It All About: Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, a demon employed by the U.S. government to do battle against the things that go bump in the night. Denizens of a mystical world of supernatural creatures are about to wage war upon humanity, and Hellboy, the scarlet skinned scourge of evil, must stop them. Also returning are Doug Jones as the aquatic Abe Sapien (voicing the character himself this time, and not being dubbed by David Hyde Pierce) and Selma Blair as the pyrokinetic Liz.

Why It Might Do Well: In a nutshell: Guillermo del Toro. The man behind the original Hellboy film is back. In addition to being rejoined by the original cast, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola collaborated on the script. Also, we're talking 90% from Rottentomatoes.com.

Why It Might Not Do Well: Who's going to go see a movie based on a comic book? Oh, wait...

Number of Theaters: 2,900

Prediction: $42 million

"Transformers 2" To Resume Shooting Soon?

(tformers.com)               Some principal photography rumors for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" have started about filming in the Los Angeles, CA area. Since the filming wrapped up in Princeton, NJ at the end of June, not too much news has been heard regarding the movie, but a new casting call found on LACasting.com reveals that a shoot is coming "sometime in July."

The casting call description reads the following:

      Transformers 2 Background Male / 20 to 40 / All Ethnicities, AfricanAm, Am-Indian, Asian, Caucasian, East-Ind, Hispanic, MidEastern, Mixed, PacificIsland To work sometime in July to play Egyptian/Jordanian solders. Must have short hair.

The casting call is only open to members of LACasting.com and was reposted on Optibotimus.com for all to read.

In possible related news, the Transformers Live Action Movie Blog reports that the filming crew will be at Edwards Air Force Base on July 10th and 11th.

The blog also states that there has been a casting call for military personnel as extras.

The military base is located approximately two hours out of the city of Los Angeles vicinity and was featured in "Transformers."

"Nelson," administrator of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" Director Michael Bay's official website Shoot For the Edit, has stated principal photography would make a stop in LA.

The filming of the movie halted after Princeton, NJ wrapped up most likely in preparation of a possible Screen Actors Guild strike. However, since the contract expired on June 30th and SAG has still not authorized a strike, the crew may feel it's safe to film again.

Weta Attends Comic Con 08 in San Diego 24-27 July

(actionfigureinsider.com)          Weta, New Zealand's multi Academy Award winning visual effects house will be traveling to California to meet the fans at the 2008 Comic Con International at the San Diego Convention Center.

Weta will be showing for the first time their full ranges of collectible sculptures from Disney's The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian and BBC's TV series Doctor Who.

Also available for a close look is The Victorious Mongoose 1902 Concealable Ray Pistol from Dr Grordbort's range of Rayguns.

Several new and exciting products and Comic Con specials are destined to make an appearance. More detail will follow in the weeks leading up to the show.