Expensive MoCap Is History, Sci-Fi Vampires, & Pixar Pirated
Paramount Picks Up Nostradamus Comic Book
(cinematical.com) I used to be into in the prophesies of
Nostradamus, but for some reason I lost interest in the 16th century
seer after watching that boring biopic where he's played by Tchéky
Karyo. Anyway, I thought most of the prophesy appeal died out with the
event-less turn of the millennium. Seven years later, after the
devastation of 9/11, Katrina, the tsunami and other disasters, maybe
it is time to check back on Nostradamus' quatrains to see if there's
any other upcoming tragedies we might be able to avert.
This idea of making sure Nostradamus's' predictions don't come true is
already on the way to comic book racks and movie theaters. Boom
Studios' comic The Foundation is about a secret organization,
originally set up by Nostradamus himself, which deciphers and
investigates the quatrains in order to change the future. That would
certainly explain why so many of Nostradamus' prophesies seem to be
false. Seeing as how The Foundation sounds like a perfect mix of
Quantum Leap, Men in Black and (as Boom's website mentions) The
X-Files and 24, it makes sense that Hollywood would be interested
before the first issue even hits stores. Paramount has locked the
rights to the comic and they've got Boom founders Andrew Cosby and
Ross Richie producing.
Cosby and Richie had previously sold the movie rights to two of Boom's
other titles, both to Universal. Talent is like the television series
Lost except that it deals with only one sole plane crash survivor who
seems to suddenly possess the talents of the 148 passengers who
perished. Tag is described by Boom as, "spine-snapping horror in the
tradition of the movie The Ring!" Boom has only been around for about
two years now, but if Cosby and Richie keep developing comics they can
compare to TV shows and movies, then I predict the company will have a
long life and a lasting relationship with Hollywood.
long life and a lasting relationship with Hollywood.
Motion Capture in Expensive Studios is History
(earthtimes.org) ENSCHEDE, The Netherlands, June 28
/PRNewswire/ -- Xsens Technologies B.V. announced today the launch of
the ground-breaking new motion capture system 'Moven'. Moven, a
comfortable suit with integrated inertial sensors, captures human
motion in real-time with unprecedented life-like fluidity and
ease-of-use. Moven can be used anywhere, whether indoors or outdoors,
without the need for a fixed setup.
"Motion capture in specially equipped expensive studios is now a thing
of the past", says Per Slycke, CTO of Xsens. "With Moven you can do
mocap on location, with the actor wearing clothing over the suit
without ever needing to worry about occlusion or missing markers.
What's more, the wireless system makes mocap easy to use and the
advanced biomechanical modelling used in Moven makes complicated,
lengthy calibrations unnecessary". In addition, Moven is offered a
price point that enables a much wider uptake of mocap technology in
the industry, starting today.
More: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,130851.shtml
Pixar Animation on Display
(theage.com.au) THE SIMPLE origins of elaborate
computer-animated films including Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Cars are
on show in Melbourne.
One woolly character in Monster's Inc. has more than two million
computer-created individual hairs, but the curator of Pixar: 20 Years
of Animation said the exhibition displayed the basic artistry -
sketches, paintings and models - behind the stories.
"You use computers, but also markers, paper, sculpture ... anything to
get the idea out of (artists) head's so that people can look at them"
Elyse Klaidman said yesterday.
"We work with the material of each artist, whatever that is."
The studio has released just six feature-length films since the
premiere of Toy Story in 1995, but they have grossed more than $2
billion at the box office.
Their latest film, Ratatouille, follows a rat who dreams of being a
top chef. It opens August 30.
The exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is
part of the State Government funded Winter Masterpiece's program which
has seen thousands flock to the city's major galleries in the past
three years.
The studio's chief creative officer, John Lasseter, said the visitors
would be surprised by the contents of the exhibition, which runs until
October 14.
"What people don't see is how much beautiful traditional art ... is
used in the making of our (films)," he said in a video message.
Pixar staff are teaching at local institutions including the Victorian
College of the Arts as well as giving public lectures in the coming
week.
New Line Looking to Take Over Conan
(Variety) Weeks after Warner Bros. lost the rights to Conan
the Barbarian, New Line has moved into prime position to make a movie
based on Robert E. Howard's mythical conqueror, reports Variety.
After posting a bid of mid-six against seven figures for an 18-month
option with one extension, the studio entered into negotiations after
CAA staged an auction for rights holder Paradox Entertainment.
Reinventing Conan didn't come easy for WB, which spent the last seven
years trying for a film that veered from the testosterone-laced
beefcake fests that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger to something more
reverential toward Howard's original pulp novels.
Larry and Andy Wachowski, John Milius (who directed the original and
wrote the script with Oliver Stone) and Robert Rodriguez took turns
developing it. Rodriguez got closest but left the project for
Grindhouse. Boaz Yakin was hired last year to start again.
If New Line makes the deal, the studio will have to start from
scratch, as Warners owns the various drafts it developed.
See A City Change In Four Dimensions
(newscientisttech.com) "BERKELEY Square is turning at this
moment into a sort of well, sandwiched in between monster blocks of
windows scraping as much of the sky as the by-laws will allow."
So said the poet John Betjeman in a January 1939 radio broadcast in
which he lamented the growing number of high-rise buildings in London.
Now we can watch for ourselves the way great cities have grown upwards
through time, using software that creates a virtual historical tour.
Called 4D Cities, the software can automatically sort a collection of
historical city snapshots into date order. It then constructs an
animated 3D model that shows how the city has changed over the years.
The idea is to give architects, historians, town planners,
environmentalists and the plain curious a new way to look at cities,
says Frank Dellaert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta,
who built the system with his colleague Grant Schindler and Sing Bing
Kang of Microsoft's research lab in Redmond, Washington.
"The system shows the city changing over time as old buildings are
demolished and new ones are constructed," says Schindler. "You'll be
able to see what the view out of your window looked like 100 years
ago."
To create a model of Atlanta, the researchers scanned in numerous
historical photos of the city that had been snapped from similar
vantage points. The software is designed to identify the 3D structures
within the image and break them down into a series of points. It then
compares the view in each one to work out why some of these points are
visible in some of the images but not others. Was the building simply
out of shot? Or was the view of one building blocked by another? "If
we can rule out those two possibilities, then we know that the reason
we don't see a building is because it didn't exist when the image was
taken. Either it was not yet built or it had already been demolished,"
says Schindler.
The software continually rearranges the order of the images taken from
each vantage point until the visibility patterns of all the buildings
are consistent, Schindler says. "Buildings are not allowed to vanish
and then reappear without explanation."
The result is that the images appear in time order, allowing the
researchers to construct and animate a 3D graphic of the city through
which users can travel backwards or forwards in time
(www.cc.gatech.edu/~phlosoft).
The researchers plan to extend the system to create models of other
cities, and to improve the software's ability to recognise whether
different photos are showing exactly the same scene. This can be
difficult as some cityscapes change so profoundly. Once they do this,
they will be able to tackle much larger sets of time-sequenced images,
says Schindler.
Take a look: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~phlosoft/mov/03_4D_Flythrough.mov
The Rebirth of Optimus Prime
(wired.com) "Michael Bay" means, among other things, car
chases. So, as you might expect from a Michael Bay movie about robots
that turn into vehicles, Transformers contains a car chase guaranteed
to hit fans in their crumple zone. A car chase so smashtacular, he may
never do another one.
Watching the scene from Bay's monitors (with Bay helpfully replaying
the sequences he doesn't think you've fully appreciated), one can't
help but believe him: Down a crowded freeway streaks benevolent
Bumblebee, now a yellow Camaro (muscled up from his origins as a VW
Beetle). He's carrying our human heroes, teenagers Sam (Shia LaBeouf,
breakout star of Disturbia and the newly announced Indiana Jones
sequel) and Mikaela (Megan Fox, in the role of standard Bay hottie) in
the backseat. Behind them chugs Prime, in roaring-semi mode, fending
off a massive minesweeper called Bonecrusher, an evil Decepticon.
At 90 miles per hour — and here's where the brain begins to
record-scratch a bit — Bonecrusher transforms into a bipedal robot the
size of a small building. He then rollerblades (there's no other way
to describe it) through the traffic, effortlessly sweeping unlucky
commuters out of his path. Prime morphs, too, going from hog-nosed
Peterbilt to hulking robot in a headlong flinging of struts and
panels, digging his big blue clodhoppers into the asphalt and
reversing course.
Prime and Bonecrusher collide with molar-rattling impact, then tumble
vertiginously over the concrete lip of the overpass to the roadway
below, where Prime slams a boxcar-sized fist into Bonecrusher's jaw.
Bonecrusher's face erupts in a skittering, dazzling spray of CG
shrapnel. Oh, the lack of humanity!
How does this kind of catastrophe happen? With hard work, strict
storyboarding, and a computing capacity that is measured not in megs
or gigs, but in assloads. In scenes with multiple robots, rendering a
single frame of film can take up to 38 hours. "Dealing with the moment
where the trade-off from semi wheels to robot feet happens was the
most challenging part of the transformation," recalls Industrial Light
& Magic's Scott Farrar, who served as visual effects supervisor. "It
was important to Michael that they transform in a believable way."
(Believability isn't cheap: Production on the movie cost $150 million.
Still, that's about half as much as every other blockbuster out this
summer.)
More: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-07/trans_movie
Warners Pushes First "Blue Screen" VFX Commentary
(hdtvuk.tv) Warner Home Video has announced that its
forthcoming "300" movie will contain the first HD DVD In-Movie
Experience (IME) featuring "Blue Screen Picture in Picture".
It will feature the film's director, Jack Snyder, presenting the
pre-CGI-enhanced version right through to the finished film, allowing
viewers to compare the first draft to the completed film.
This functionality — along with an interactive game, a favourite scene
picker, and web downloads — won't be available on the Blu-ray version,
though all other features on the two formats will be identical. It's
due out (Stateside at least) on 31st July.
Sci-Fi Vampire 'Daybreakers' Gets Dafoe
(cinematical.com) A veteran screenwriter once told me never
to write a script about vampires. "People will laugh at you; the
vampire genre is dead," he said. Really? Then how come every time I
turn around, another vamp flick is gearing up for production? And how
much can you really do with vampires that hasn't already been done ...
and done ... and done? Well, for one, you can stick them in the
future; in a world that's populated by vampires who are running out of
real humans to suck dry. We already told you that Ethan Hawke signed
up to star in Daybreakers; a futuristic vampire flick set to shoot in
Australia. At the time, it was being reported that he wasn't going to
play a blood sucker, but instead some sort of research guy. According
to Star Pulse, that's changed ... and some new blood has just been
added to the cast.
Says Hawke: "I'm going to make a vampire picture and I'm going to chew
on some necks. Willem Dafoe and I are dueling vampires. It's a vampire
movie set way in the future where everyone is a vampire and we're all
eating our own resources, so we're trying to get off on foreign
humans. We're trying to get off of trying to create blood substitutes.
It's a big analogy about what's going on now. It's really dark and
weird and everybody's sucking each other's blood." That sounds ...
interesting. I am pretty stoked about Dafoe joining the cast; in my
opinion, the guy is already living as a vampire in secret -- and,
heck, he's also got a pretty good vampire-related track record having
starred in Shadow of the Vampire back in 2000. Hawke, on the other
hand, I'm not so sure about. Hopefully he won't break a record for
being the most boring vampire of all time. Sam Neill has also been
cast in the flick, which was written and will be directed by the
Spierig Brothers.
A 2008 release is currently planned.
Academy Sci-Tech Council Starts Up Internship Program
(news.awn.com) The Science and Technology Council of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched a new summer
internship program designed to provide real-world experience to the
selected students interested in careers in computer graphics and
animation technology. The Sci-Tech Council will provide a stipend of
$4,000 to each student.
Pixar Animation Studios, Rhythm & Hues Studios and Sony Pictures
Imageworks will each provide an eight-week internship to give students
hands-on opportunities in animation, production management, software
programming and visual effects.
"This groundbreaking program is designed to develop the next
generation of technologists and digital artists. Each of the host
studios will provide an intensive program that exposes the intern to
the exceptional talent and cutting-edge technology at the company,"
said Barry Weiss, the Sci-Tech Council's internship program chair.
The 2007 Science and Technology Council interns are:
* Blake Johnson, Brigham Young University -- Pixar Animation Studios
* Ben Beech, Ringling College of Art and Design -- Sony Pictures Imageworks
* Max Abrahams, Brown University -- Rhythm & Hues Studios
The Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence (IPAX) program, which
involves a consortium of colleges and universities offering digital
technology curricula, supports the internship program by acting in a
coordinating capacity among the studios, schools and interns.
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.
Additional information about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences and the Academy Foundation may be found at www.oscars.org.
Bell in Tune for Repo! The Genetic Opera
(MTV.com) Tobin Bell tells MTV that he will reteam with "Saw"
franchise director Darren Lynn Bousman for Repo! The Genetic Opera.
"'Repo' [is] my next film and it's a rock opera," Bousman said. "There
is definitely camp to it, but it is much more serious than the 'The
Rocky Horror Picture Show'. It is more violent than 'Saw' too; in
fact, it makes all of the 'Saw' movies look like Disney films."
'Spider-Man 3' owns box office record claimed by Disney's 'Pirates,' Sony says
(latimes.com) Walt Disney Co.'s claim that its "Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End" is the new global box-office champion
doesn't mean Jack.
At least that's the position of rival Sony Pictures Entertainment,
which Tuesday insisted that its "Spider-Man 3" still wears the crown.
The feud marks a rare public spat over box-office bragging rights.
Although Hollywood executives are more than willing to denigrate
another studio's boasts, they nearly always prefer to do so off the
record.
But Sony came out swinging, suggesting in a statement "some
irregularities" in the way Disney counted the loot in proclaiming that
Capt. Jack Sparrow and crew beat Spidey worldwide by grossing $404
million in six days.
Sony, whose "Spider-Man 3" grossed $382 million in its worldwide
launch over six days, said Disney was fudging its numbers by including
ticket sales from early openings in Italy and France on Tuesday, May
22, instead of starting with Wednesday, May 23's totals everywhere.
Sony accused Disney of "adding a seventh day of grosses into 'Pirates'
'six-day record.'"
"We believe that as more and more 'day-and-date' releases enter the
marketplace, there should be a consistent standard in international
box-office reporting," Sony spokesman Steve Elzer said.
He noted, "for the record," that "Spider-Man 3" grossed $418 million
in its first seven days of release worldwide.
Sony's accusations brought squeals of protest from the Mouse House.
Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion picture group, said Disney
did nothing unusual and would easily have global bragging rights even
without including the early overseas sales.
"A limited number of evening previews were held in Italy and France
prior to the official opening day in those countries," Zoradi said,
"but the grosses from those previews amounted to only $1.4 million of
the total."
In international markets, he said, it is "customary and common
practice" to include evening previews in the following opening day
numbers.
"We are enormously proud of 'Pirates' record-breaking worldwide
opening gross of $404 million," Zoradi said. "We look forward to the
film's subsequent openings in China and India."
National Lampoon Spoofing Sword-and-Sandal Films
(Variety) National Lampoon has set a fall start for National
Lampoon's 301: The Legend of Awesomest Maximus Wallace Leonidas, a
spoof of such sword-and-sandal films as 300, Troy, Gladiator and
Braveheart. Jason Burinescu wrote the script.
The protagonist is Awesomest, an out-of-shape Spartan general who
fails forward on a path to greatness. The film will be produced by
National Lampoon, Dan Farah and Burinescu.
"As we aggressively move into the inhouse film production business,
'301' is the kind of project we get very excited about," CEO Daniel
Laikin said. "This will be a great complement to our library."
King Kong In Blackpool
(blackpoolcitizen.co.uk) Matt Titherington general manager of
Louis Tussaud's Waxworks with the new arrival
Blackpool tourist attraction Louis Tussaud's Waxworks has taken
delivery of its latest arrival, King Kong.
The giant ape from the fictional Skull Island, famous for the 1933
blockbuster movie, has been described as the eighth wonder of the
world.
And staff at Louis Tussaud's had their work cut out getting the 15ft
model of King Kong's head into the building.
Now in the building, the head takes centre stage in the King Kong set,
alongside the giant ape's six foot hand, where guests can stand in the
giant's palm playing the damsel in distress or the fearless hero.
The new arrival took over three months to create and has moving
animatronic eyes, with his coat made up of yak hair, which has been
individually sewn into a silicone skin.
Photo: http://www.blackpoolcitizen.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1496173.0.king_kong_in_blackpool.php
Pirates Cash In On Pixar's Ratatouille
(star-ecentral.com) Local DVD pirates are cashing in on the
latest Disney's animated film Ratatouille which is scheduled to be
released in the United States tomorrow.
A visit to most DVD outlets selling pirated films here found that the
title easily available.
DVD traders interviewed by The Star said they had been doing good
business selling the pirated version in the past month.
"The current recopy version is not perfect but watchable if you want
to be among the first to watch the film," said a DVD peddler.
Another vendor said he started selling Ratatouille DVDs about a month
ago but was unable to reveal from where the film originated.
The pirated copy, which is fairly a good recopy with reasonable sound
quality, is believed to have been recorded with a camcorder.
Ratatouille is a story about a rat, Remy, who wants to be a chef in a
Paris restaurant despite being a rodent. It is schedule to be screened
in Malaysia in August.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry chief enforcement officer
Fahmi Kassim believed the pirated version was recorded at a preview in
the United States.
"It is rare to find a pirated copy released ahead of the premiere.
Normally, pirated films are found on the day the titles are released,"
he said.
Hollywood Scrambles as Strike Looms
(nytimes.com) Though it's unclear whether the forthcoming
contract expirations of the entertainment industry's writers, actors
and directors will lead to a work stoppage over the next year,
Hollywood is nonetheless frantically hedging its bets.
Producers, executives, agents and filmmakers are aware that even a
hard-working star can most likely squeeze in no more than two movies
before June 30 of next year, when the last of the deals end. After
that date no studio wants to be caught with filming on its schedule,
especially under expensive "pay or play" deals. (Such arrangements
require companies to pay actors or others even if the movie isn't
made.)
And that has turned moviedom's midsummer months into an unusually
tense season. Deal makers are frantically trying to line up top actors
for their presumed two-picture limit, even as they try to avoid
thinking about the inevitable vacuum that will come after the contract
expiration dates, with or without a strike, because no films are being
set to shoot next July.
"We're trying to do in six months what we usually do in 12," said
Patrick Whitesell, a partner with the Endeavor agency, which
represents Mr. Sandler and others caught up in the chase.
Mr. Sandler, as it happens, is supposed to start "You Don't Mess With
the Zohan" for Sony Pictures soon, and is probably locked up on
"Bedtime Stories" for Disney after that. Mr. Vaughn, meanwhile, has
been mentioned in connection with a half-dozen projects, but his plans
are complicated by the prospect of a heavy promotional schedule for
the comedy "Fred Claus," already shot and awaiting release by Warner
Brothers in the fall.
The squeeze can be particularly painful for directors, who can easily
invest 18 months in preparing, shooting and refining a picture, and
may find themselves out of work for a year or more if they do not pin
down studio, star and script in the next few weeks.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/movies/27acto.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
No Dark Side For Builders of 'Star Wars' Model
(nwherald.com) CRYSTAL LAKE – May the force be with you.
Or rather, the float.
The center of the model TIE fighter is a huge duct tape, steel and
mirrored globe that, if open, would be large enough to hold a grown
person. All told, it will be a 16-foot-by-20-foot, 1,000-pound rolling
reproduction of George Lucas's battleship from "Star Wars."
Although the model is not yet complete for Sunday's Crystal Lake Gala
Parade, it already is attracting a lot of attention from film
enthusiasts throughout the Chicago area. It will be the centerpiece of
the Raue Center for the Arts float in Sunday's parade, and at least a
dozen Star Wars re-creators are expected to march at its sides.
"We have people coming from three hours away," said Lake in the Hills
resident Cheryl Whitaker, a character re-creator and Star Wars
enthusiast.
Between 15 and 20 people from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin are
expected to don the costumes of three factions of Star Wars characters
and march along the TIE fighter. Empirical Stormtroopers will march
with rebel allies and lightsaber-wielding Jedi Knights, Whitaker said.
The parade steps off at 1 p.m. Sunday from the city municipal complex
at Woodstock Street and Walkup Avenue, and will wind south on Dole
Avenue to the Dole Mansion.
"People find it a tradition," Gala co-chairwoman Louise Steinbach said
of the parade. "Families come down there and set up their entire spot,
have a little picnic lunch, and go all-out."
Glenn Chelius, a Crystal Lake magician and longtime supporter of the
Raue Center, created the float theme to tie in with the film's 30th
anniversary. Five volunteers, including Chelius, logged more than 400
man-hours designing and building the life-sized ship.
"We'd love for Lucas to be in Crystal Lake for the Gala," Chelius said
with a grin. "We were going to go smaller, but I thought 'Ahhh, that's
cheesy.' "
Source: http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/06/28/news/local/doc46821dc05bfc4653298723.txt
