Day The Earth Stood Still Greenlight, Hulk In Toronto, & Creepy - Eerie Become movies...
Indiana Jones 4 Starts Filming June 18
Paramount will release the anticipated film on May 22, 2008. Other than Harrison Ford, no cast members have been officially announced.
The Day The Earth Stood Still Gets Greenlight From
Fox
(sneakpeektv.blogspot.com) According to reports, a
feature update of the 1950's classic film "The Day The Earth Stood
Still" has been greenlit by Fox, for a May 9, 2008 release.
Premise of the original feature, directed by Robert Wise, based on the short story "Farewell To The Master", appearing in pulp magazine "Astounding" (October-1940) by author Harry Bates, starts with a flying saucer circling the world, then landing in Washington D.C. where a man (Michael Rennie) and seven foot tall robot emerge.
VFX & Robert Downey, Jr. : Our Kind of Guy
(tmz.com) Introducing the Oscar for Best Visual Effects with Naomi Watts, Robert Downey, Jr. won us over all over again.
"Visual effects: They enable us to see aliens, experience other
universes, move in slow-motion, or watch spiders climbing high above
the city landscape." (a beat) "For me, just a typical weeknight in the
mid-Nineties."
Sweeney
Todd Starts Principal Photography
(comingsoon.net) Principal photography has begun in London
on Sweeny Todd, starring Johnny Depp in the Tim Burton directed screen
adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller.
The DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. co-production presents Depp as Sweeney
Todd, a man unjustly sent to
prison, who vows revenge not only for that cruel punishment but for the
devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter.
When he returns to reopen his barber shop, he becomes the Demon Barber
of Fleet Street who "shaved the heads of gentleman who never thereafter
were heard from again."
"I've always wanted to do a musical and 'Sweeney Todd'
is my favorite,"
said Tim Burton. "Stephen's blend of humor, horror and emotion is
something that has always connected with me."
"Sometimes a story or stage production has to wait a
long time until
the right people come together to turn it into a motion picture," said
Stephen Sondheim. "That's what has happened with 'Sweeney Todd' and I'm
excited as well as confident that it will be a first-rate and startling
movie."
This will be the sixth collaboration between Depp and
Burton who worked previously together on Tim Burton's Corpse Bride,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ed Wood, Edward
Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. Depp comes fresh from
completing the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" film in the Academy
Award nominated role of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Also starring in the Parkes/MacDonald and Zanuck Company
production is
Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett who creates her diabolical meat
pies while becoming Sweeney's amorous accomplice. Alan Rickman is the
evil Judge Turpin who sent him unfairly to prison, thereby sowing the
seeds of Sweeney's vengeance. Timothy Spall plays the Judge's wicked
associate Beadle Bamford. Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber, the
flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli, and Christopher Lee takes on the role
of the gentleman ghost.
Rounding out the cast are Jamie Campbell Bowen as the
young sailor
Anthony, Jayne Wisener as Johanna, Laura Michelle Kelly as the beggar
woman, and newcomer Ed Sanders plays Toby.
All the stars will do their own singing from Stephen
Sondheim's music and lyrics.
The film is produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter
Parkes, Laurie
MacDonald, and John Logan from a screenplay by Logan. The original
Broadway production had Sondheim's music and lyrics and a book by Hugh
Wheeler based on a play by Christopher Bond. It won eight Tony Awards
including Best Musical.
Its mix of the shockingly macabre, comic and dramatic,
supported by
Sondheim's movie-like score has had hundreds of productions through the
world, most recently a highly acclaimed production on Broadway. What
once might have been taboo and ghoulish became deliciously entertaining.
Joining Burton at Pinewood to create his vision is
director of photography Dariusz Wolski ("Pirates of the Caribbean, I, II, III), production designer Academy
Award winner Dante Ferrati (The Aviator), costume designer two
time Academy Award winner Colleen Atwood (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago),
hair and make up designer Academy Award winner Peter Owen ("The Lord of
the Rings"), and editor Chris Lebenzon.
The film will be distributed domestically by Paramount
for a late 2007 release and distributed internationally by Warner Bros.
Zombie "War" Enlists JMS & Pitt
J. Michael Straczynski, the man who created what remains one of TV most complex serial dramas "Babylon 5", is set to write the adaptation of "World War Z" by Max Brooks for Paramount Pictures reports IGN.
The novel, a clever collection of retrospective interview anecdotes, covers the accounts of nearly four dozen people from all walks of life who played different parts in a virus pandemic that turned most of the world's population into zombies and threatened to overwhelm the globe until we fought back.
Various chapters have some strong political bents - an ex-Apartheid official develops an inhumane but effective solution to the zombie plagues, Israel undergoes a controversial self-quarantine, North America becomes a wasteland whilst Cuba prospers, and China is essentially responsible for the outbreak thanks to the ecological disruption caused by the Three Gorges Dam.
"I'm adapting that for Paramount. For Brad Pitt potentially -- we'll see what happens. He might be the star in it. It's very political, very smart, very cagey" says Straczynski.
The
Incredible Hulk to Shoot in Toronto
The film's executive producer Jim Van Wyck (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Armageddon), shot in the city two years ago on the action flick 16 Blocks and said he found the Toronto film community to be "exceptional," lauding the co-operation from the city and the province.
The Incredible Hulk is expected to begin shooting this summer for about four months. The cast has yet to be announced.
Universal Pictures will distribute the picture on June 13, 2008.
Face
Robot Installed for Zemeckis Performance Course
"Performance capture has changed the way I make movies," Zemeckis said. "I want to share the techniques and strategies in this class that I have learned over the years to help filmmakers understand and master the complexity of performance capture and facial expressions to convey a full range of realistic and exaggerated emotions--while retaining the human element in their productions. SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT will expand the horizons of what the students can accomplish creatively during a very short production cycle."
Students in the Performance Capture class will write the material and direct actors in a short scene relying on motion and performance capture techniques. Using the Vicon MX motion capture system with 16 cameras, motion capture intermediate software and SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT facial animation software, Zemeckis and USC co-instructor Eric Furie will guide students through the process of creating the two-minute sequence. Building on characters generated by Darwin Dimensions' Evolver program, students will cut and edit the rendered video on Avid Media Composer software.
"When we began creating FACE ROBOT several years ago, the goal was to provide an more efficient environment for artists focused on creating realistic facial performance for characters in both film and 3D games," said Marc Stevens, vp/gm for Softimage. "Softimage continues to innovate to help artists create realistic digital character performances. We are excited that the USC School of Cinematic Arts is using FACE ROBOT software in its Performance Capture class."
Nick Horns In On Unicorn
(scifi.com) Nick Movies has bought Unicorn, Joe Aucoin's comedy fantasy spec script, and set it up with producer John Jacobs at his Smart Entertainment company.The story centers on a workaholic single father in Manhattan, who has to deal with his 5-year-old daughter's desire for a unicorn of her own. Smart Entertainment's Colin O'Reilly will executive-produce.
Lucasfilm Headquarters Hosts Coppola Screening
(sfgate.com) Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" was shown to invited guests at Lucasfilm's headquarters in the Presidio. The filmmaker's invitation stressed that the movie, Coppola's first in 10 years, is intended to be particularly personal, in keeping with "the great cinema of Europe and Japan that had first inspired me to become a filmmaker myself." In other words, this isn't a standard Hollywood film-by-committee.
There was a late-night party afterward at Coppola's Cafe Zoetrope. Many of Coppola's movie friends had come from afar, the trip made easier for some because they would be in California for Sunday's Oscars. Among them: Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Andy Garcia, Matt Dillon, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, the Hughes brothers, Ed Zwick, Catherine Hardwicke, Alfonso Cuarón, Gus Van Sant and Fred Roos, who joined a local community of pals/staff/supporters that included Phil Kaufman, George Lucas, Tom and Monique Luddy, Terry Zwigoff, Tony Dingman, John Korty, Lynne Hale, Diane Roby and Dave Eggers.
I didn't see the movie, but all the talk at the party -- in awestruck tones indicating that Coppola's aim had been fulfilled -- was about imagination and metaphor and vision. The director himself sat deep inside his restaurant, surrounded by friends and greeting new arrivals with the words of a generous host in his own kitchen: "Do you want something to eat?'' When we left at 1 a.m., the party was still in full swing.
Creepy and Eerie May Be On Their Way To The Big Screen
(cinematical.com) Creepy and Eerie, a pair of anthology horror comics whose original run stretched from the mid 1960s through 1983, have been acquired for film and TV development by Submarine Entertainment and Grand Canal Film Works, according to Variety. The two entities will join forces to form New Comic Co., which will oversee development. Dan Braun, co-head of Submarine Entertainment, says the properties are likely to be used for feature films, though television and digital media have not been ruled out. Projects are currently being developed as independents, but may end up at a studio. Creepy is expected to be developed as a horror project, while Eerie will focus on science fiction.
Rights to the properties were purchased from James Warren who published the original Creepy and Eerie comic magazines, as well as Forrest J. Ackerman's seminal monster magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. Creepy and Eerie were black and white magazine-size comics very much in the tradition of the E.C. Comics, publishers of Tales From the Crypt, and Vault of Horror to name a few. Warren's magazines used many of the same artists as E.C., including Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta. Like the Crypt Keeper in Tales From the Crypt, Creepy and Eerie featured the characters Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie who would act as host and narrator for their respective magazines. Acquisition of the property represents the end of a seven year negotiation with Warren who re-acquired the rights after a legal battle with Harris Publishing. The acquisition was announced at the New York ComicCon.
Pixar Isn’t Disney
(2719hyperion.blogspot.com) Well, it kinda is.
Not even counting the recent merger of the two companies that establishes that Pixar is Disney, Pixar has always been a spiritual successor of sorts to the traditions of Disney animation, especially over the course of the last ten years.
While WDFA floundered and then ultimately imploded under the bureaucratic and creatively stagnant leadership of David Stainton and his fellow executives, it was John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird and company that kept alive the basic tenants of Disney animation. It was in fact Pixar that built upon the wildly successful and Disney-dominated feature animation renaissance of the late 1980s-early 1990s, and carried the animation torch successfully into the 21st century. While The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King set a gold standard and revitalized a fading movie form, Pixar innovated and expanded animation with the advent of CGI, not unlike the way Walt Disney himself embraced technical advances such as sound synchronization, three-color Technicolor and stereophonic systems, and married them with smart storytelling and creative artistry.
It also appears to some extent that Pixar is feeling backlash relating to the recent flood of CGI animation that has been represented by a lot of recent mediocre-to-bad features. And many of these films are using MOCAP technology, a process that is viewed by many as an antithesis of traditional animation techniques. What has emerged, particularly among much of the Disney faithful, is a CGI-BAD!/traditional animation-GOOD! mentality. What is especially ironic is that John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are largely responsible for bringing back traditional animation by green lighting the upcoming Frog Princess and initiating production on new cartoon shorts.
More: http://2719hyperion.blogspot.com/2007/02/arguably-they-have-been-studio-that-has.html
Transformers Changes English Into Marketing Speak
"...an innovative concept that will
help eventize this exciting
4th of July tentpole film."
Gerry Rich, President of Worldwide Marketing, Paramount
"It represents the perfect intersection of
entertainment, marketing and design."
Mike Jackson, GM North America, VP of marketing and advertising
I wanna hit something so bad right now. Forget movie reviews. Why not just run marketing quotes instead. Those were for Transformers, the upcoming Hasbro Gary Busey Matchbox K-FedEx GM Paramont Michael Bay film. And just how many people are gang-branding this thing anyway with their tentpole? Read more fun here with language guaranteed to leverage global equity platforms: http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=19027
I love that brands are making movies, don't get me wrong, it's the logical next step. Comic books like Marvel have licensed their titles. Hasbro is doing it here. Geico could even pull off a caveman movie. It's just that somewhere along the line, you still need to make a good movie.
Rings Director Demands Studio Audit To Find His Precious
(gaapweb.com) The long-running accounting dispute between Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson and the studio, New Line, has taken another strange turn.
Jackson is currently trying to force New Line to undergo a financial audit on the budgets of the £1.6 billion grossing movies, but the studio is refusing.
The New Zealand-born director believes that he is owed more money from the films, but this cannot be confirmed unless accountants undertake an audit at New Line.
Now, another director, James Cameron, has entered the debate. In a recent interview with Premiere Magazine, the Titanic director said that he thought New Line's decision to refuse an audit was "bizarre".
Talking about his own financial relationship with Fox, the production company the director has enjoyed a 20-year history with, Cameron told the magazine that the company had "always been very transparent financially".
"It's almost automatic that you do an audit," he added.
The dispute between Jackson and the studio has already delayed the production of Lord of the Rings prequel, the Hobbit.
VFX Oscar "Thank-You-Cam"
(abclocal.go.com) Who knows? If not for the new "Thank-You Cam," Sunday night's nearly four-hour Oscar telecast might have run six hours.
Producer Laura Ziskin came up with the idea: Winners could blather on as long as they wanted, but not on-air. Instead, they could do so backstage in front of the Thank-You Cam, and their words would be relayed onto the Internet through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Web site. The videos will remain posted until next year's Oscar show.
Almost every winner took advantage of the offer.
ILM on the Thank-You Cam:
http://oscar.com/video/index?channel=5173#
Virgin Comics Goes To The Movies
(reuters.com) Sci Fi Channel has teamed with Richard Branson's Virgin Comics to create comic books that also will be developed into content for feature film, television, digital and gaming.
Five new comic book titles will kick off the joint venture, dubbed Sci Fi/Virgin Comics. Details on those titles are forthcoming, but the idea is to create original properties that will be eyed across all media.
Sci Fi and its parent company, NBC Universal, will have first look
at any projects that come out of the partnership. Sci Fi and Virgin,
who are equal partners in the joint venture, said they want to attract
some of the biggest names and talent who work in comic books,
television and movies.
An eight-member editorial board -- representing comic books,
television, movies, digital, gaming, licensing and merchandising --
will be responsible for determining which stories make the cut. The
first Sci Fi/Virgin titles, distributed by Diamond Comics, are expected
to be available to consumers this year.
The Fallout From The Happy Feet Win
(cartoonbrew.com) The win by Happy Feet will reinforce to the powers-that-be in Hollywood that motion capture is a vaild subsitute for authentic character animation. That live action writers, directors and actors can make a “cartoon” without the skills honed by decades of accomplishment created by Walt Disney and his successors.
Oscar winning animator and Academy member Gene Deitch sent us
his thoughts:
So, exactly as I feared, a Performance-Capture movie has won the Oscar, masquerading as an Animated Film.
HAPPY FEET is a good movie, full of charm, and with something important to say. Bravo!
But now, what about us? To paraphrase what General Douglas MacArthur once said, “Old animators never die, they’ll just fade away.” I just read that Disney will be setting up a new studio, dedicated to performance-capture production. I’m personally lucky. I’ve had five of my shorts nominated, one which actually won the Oscar. So I’ve had it.
Even better, my long-time client - nearly 40 years - Weston Woods/Scholastic, is virtually immune from mo-cap and even CGI, as they produce short films adapted from children’s picture books. Practically the only way they can be made is with tradtional drawn animation. So my harangues against accepting performance-capture films for the Animation Feature Film category have not been in any way an effort to save my personal skin. I grieve for our craft in general, and for those skilled traditional animators, who will increasingly be shunted off into special-effects work. Their only hope of getting back into the big time of feature film animation will be if a powerful enough producer, with a powerful enough story, brave enough to finance a grapically advanced production - something that can only be drawn - immune from mo-cap - who will give frame-by-frame animation a chance to live. Aardman is still clinging to clay, and they may survive, but where is there a future for feature-length drawn animation?.
May the Power of Pegholes be with us!
The plus side? 2007 is an exciting year for authentic animated
features. Between Brad Bird’s latest, Shrek III, Bee Movie, the
stop motion Coraline and the hand drawn Simpsons there
seems to be some potential - both at the box office and with the
Academy - to reverse Hollywood’s mind in this matter.
More:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/oscar-07-the-fallout-from-the-happy-feet-win
Shazam Feature Going Through Big Changes
The property has gone through numerous creative changes over the years, but Uslan confirmed Peter "Anger Management" Segal will direct "Shazam", from a screenplay by Bryan Goluboff and William Goldman.
Created in 1940, by artist CC Beck and writer Bill Parker for comic book publishers Fawcett Publications, the premise of 'Captain Marvel' focused on homeless young newspaper seller 'Billy Batson', confronted by a stranger who leads him into the New York subway system, carrying them both to the lair of the wizard 'Shazam'.
From Happy Feet To Star Wars TV Series
(news.com.au) The group of UTS graduates and one student formed an important part of the 500-strong team working on Happy Feet."Winning was such a surprise, really, even though we knew the production was quality," 33-year-old animator Aidan Sarsfield said.
"It was a labour of love and it is satisfying to know our work has been celebrated."
Student Evan Jacobson, 26, is currently in Singapore on a one-year stint with George Lucas' 72-episode TV series of Star Wars, providing animation for the character Yoda.
"It is exciting, I'm so happy for the whole team," he said.
The success of Sydney animators like Aidan and Evan can be attributed to the bold university program employed at UTS.
Thanks to cutting-edge technology and dedication to the art form, the university has produced a plethora of quality animators.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21299780-5001021,00.html
