Lucasfilm's Red Tails Wraps, CGI Babies, & 'Alien' Remembered in Pics...
Lucasfilm's "Red Tails" Completes Shooting
(theforce.net) Our friend Gyld from French site Kamuiweb.com sent over the following news regarding Red Tails, Lucasfilm's upcoming movie about the Tuskagee Airmen of WWII:
"The shooting of Red Tails (the last movie wriiten and produced by George Lucas) has just finished, after 48 days of shooting in Croatia and Czech Republic...
Optimus Prime Presents Top Ten List On David Letterman
(tformers.com) To help promote the box office king for two weeks in a row that is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Optimus Prime stopped by The Late Show with David Letterman last night to help him do the Top Ten list.
The topic was "things that sound cool when spoken by a giant robot," which included just random quotes of random things. In fact, it's so random, it actually works. I'm not a fan of David Letterman, but this is kinda funny.
It's unknown if Peter Cullen voiced Optimus Prime in this segment, but it sounds very much like him.
Take a look: http://tformers.com/transformers-optimus-prime-presents-top-ten-list-on-david-letterman/11949/news.html
Harrison Ford Back for Fifth Indiana Jones in 2011?
(newsinfilm.com) Last month, Shia LaBeouf made headlines when he mentioned Steven Spielberg had \u201ccracked the story on Indiana Jones 5. It was later confirmed by veteran producer Frank Marshall, who added that the script was "progressing" but still in the research phase. The usual team has to sign off on the script once it's completed, including Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford, so my prediction was a summer 2011 release date at the very earliest.Turns out I wasntt far off. Though it isn't exactly the most reliable source, The Insider is reporting Harrison Ford has agreed to play Indiana Jones again, but it will not be released before 2011.
The anonymous source (always a red flag), says it will be filmed next year and be Ford's last adventure as the archeologist explorer. Indiana JonesThat seems a bit obvious considering Ford turns 67 in a week and he would be a year shy of 70 when the fifth film hit theaters. The Hollywood star topped the Forbes list for highest paid actors last month with $65 million in annual earnings, a massive paycheck for essentially just Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I'm not all that thrilled about another Indy flick, especially if the rumors are true about passing the franchise to LaBeouf. Though I could be convinced if John Williams returned again and he wrote a score that included the brown note.
In news that isn't purely speculation, LucasArts is re-releasing
the original Indiana Jones video games to Steam in digital form. "This
effort is going to make it possible to introduce a whole new generation
of gamers to LucasArts' classic games, said LucasArts president
Darrell Rodriguez. The company has also licensed the popular Monkey
Island series for a new series of games, which I'm incredibly excited
about. "Tales of Monkey Island" is due out tomorrow. I know.
"Blade" Prequel Trilogy In The Works
(darkhorizons.com) Following on from a story first appearing in The Sunday Mail last year, Comics2Film reports that a "Blade" prequel trilogy is in the works.Stephen Dorff and director Stephen Norrington worked together on the first "Blade" back in 1998, and last year Dorff said that a prequel to the "Blade" films was planned. "Deacon's story. It's a new trilogy the director has created. It will [be] cool" said Dorff, referring to his character Deacon Frost who was the first film's primary villain.
This week, Norrington confirmed the news but added that the film is "not exactly how the article describes but close." The original concept has since "evolved into a very interesting story...the linkage to 'Blade' is still big in the equation".
Though "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" made it mainstream, the first "Blade" was the first of the new wave of comic book film adaptations and took in a strong $131 million worldwide along with good reviews. After a well-received sequel, the series petered out with the poorly received flop "Blade: Trinity" and a direct-to-cable series that barely rated.
Norrington meanwhile followed up "Blade" with the highly troubled
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in 2003, an experience that
soured him on filmmaking altogether. After years away, he's getting
back behind the camera though for the reinvention of "The Crow"
franchise currently in the works, this "Blade" follow-up is expected to
get underway once that's complete.
The Hobbit Movie Will not Have a Game Tie-in
(examiner.com) Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and the upcoming Hobbit feature film, told MTV that although he is an avid gamer, he does not plan on having a game tie-in with the Hobbit film.
Stating, “It’s too ambitious to try and tackle that along with ‘The Hobbit’. We have such tight release dates.”
Basically, Del Toro doesn't want the writing of a game script to interfere with the making of the movie. Perhaps after the movie is finished, work on a game will begin.
California Film Tax Incentives Spurn "Pricey Action Spectaculars"
(dailynews.com) California is about to join the rest of the union - or, at least, the 40 other states that offer incentives for movie and television production.
The California Film Commission will begin accepting applications today for tax credits - $100 million worth that will be available each of the next five fiscal years for a limited range of qualifying productions.
California's 20 percent tax breaks are being offered to feature films with budgets of $1 million to $75 million, made-for-television movies, miniseries and some new TV series produced for basic cable.
The incentive goes up to 25 percent for independent features with budgets under $10 million and existing television series that relocate to California from out-of-state.
"Production tax incentives will help make California competitive, generate jobs and much needed revenue for the state."
With the $75 million budget cap, though, how many big films they will keep in California is debatable.
"Well, that knocks out a lot of studio movies," noted Thomas Tull, whose Legendary Pictures co-produced such pricey action spectaculars as "The Dark Knight" and "Watchmen."
(sliceofscifi.com) During our Slice of SciFi opening, you can hear Brian Brown observe that watching golf is better than "Lake Placid 2."
Now comes the question is whether golf will be better than "Lake Placid 3."
Yes, we're getting a third installment. The movie will be part of the SyFy Saturday movies and will star actor Colin Ferguson, better known as Carter on "Eureka."
And while the actor didn't care for the second installment, he said the third script " actually has some fun stuff."
"What I actually thought was interesting was they've got the massive croc and then they have these little raptor crocs, that sort of run in doorways and everything," Ferguson told io9. "So they've got the massive one and the little guys working in unison."
The movie is currently filming in Bulgaria.
Demon Fantasy "The Gate" Remake Secures German Funding
(firstshowing.net) Another day, another remake. But this is one I'm actually looking forward to seeing. Way back in February we wrote about a remake of Stephen Dorff's 1987 creature feature The Gate that was going to be directed by one Bill S. Preston, Esquire, aka Alex Winter. At the time this was only in the early development stages, however, Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that H20 Motion Pictures, the production company behind this remake, has received the funding it needs to get this into production this year. Multiple German investors have given them roughly $3.1 million to make this Germany's first 3D live action film. Anyone excited?
The Gate, directed by Hungarian filmmaker Tibor Takács and starring Stephen Dorff, was about three kids who accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from a hole in their backyard. I guess you could say it's kind of a cult classic now, but apparently it was pretty scary when it came out in 1987. After starring in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Winter directed Freaked and the indie thriller Fever. Shooting on this remake will start this summer at a studio in Cologne, Germany. The visual effects will be handled by Pixomondo, whose recent work includes Roland Emmerich's 2012 and James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin.
Can CGI Alone Make a Good Film?
(therattle.co.uk) Let’s leave Transformers aside for a second because another film that sparked my interest in this subject was the trailer of Roland Emmerich’s next world goes down the shitter movie 2012 being released on the net, its already generating some pretty good buzz for its amazing special effects with people saying ‘This film looks frickin’ awesome, the best CGI EVER!!!!!!’
2012My question is though; can CGI alone make a film worth watching?
With Roland Emmerich’s past movies it can easily be seen that this is a director that depends completely on CGI to try and make good movies, well that or Will Smith kicking alien asses. In other words you never get a story to go with the spectacle, normally they are stuffed full of needless characters with needless stories that involve them basically running away from what’s trying to kill them and 2012 looks no different, although saying this I will probably go and see this film at theatres so I’m just as a big of a hypocrite as everyone else.
I was one of the naive people who looked at the Transformers 2 trailer and sighed ‘WOW’ this is going to be awesome, I can honestly say my anticipation was paramount. But as I sat down in the cinema, popped open my Minstrels and started chomping I found myself more satisfied by the chocolaty goodness from my snack than the movie.
The first film gave us characters; it gave us a few laughs and also gave us some bitchin’ Robot fights. But the main aspect of the film was a story, transformers--shia-and-bayyes it was simple and incredibly linear but the plot was the spine that the action surrounded and it made me sad when it seemed that story had taken a back seat to watching about an hour of crazy robot fights. In my opinion what must have happened was that Bay had choreographed all the fights before writing the script and then Michael Bay being Michael Bay had just told Orci and Kurtzman to join the dots with what witty dialogue that they could muster.
It seemed like I failed in Film 101, never EVER rely on Michael Bay. He will most of the time leave you feeling dirty for being seduced into his games, like a cheap prostitute on Prom Night.
My friend’s opinion on the other hand was that the film was exactly what he ordered, pure eye candy. He told me for entertainment value alone it was one of the best films he had seen in years and even compared it to T2 (I didn’t take that comparison lightly).
I don’t know if it is my now critical eye with films and looking them to satisfy me on all fronts but it seems that people are lapping Transformers 2 up and loving the insanely amazing CGI and wishing there was more robot fighting as you can see from the film’s success at the Box Office.
I honestly don’t get the entertainment value of watching shiny special effects being waved in front of your eyes and not caring about story. With a story there is no film, it might as well just be another form of Expressive Art.
(Box Office Mojo) Final figures show that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen edged out Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for the win. "Revenge of the Fallen" earned $42.32 million while "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" took in $41.69 million.
VFX Studio 'Big Machine Design' To Build A Futuristic Cityscape Ravaged by Warfare
Front Mission Evolved is poised to become the newest game in the wildly popular Front Mission video game franchise. Created by world-class game developer Double Helix, on behalf of Square Enix, a leading video game producer, the games main interactive elements are giant armored humanoid battle vehicles known as "Wanzers," which are controlled by the player within an overall context of military conflict and political tension that takes place in a future society. Front Mission Evolved advances the Front Mission series by extending gameplay to a third-person shooter perspective.
Some Snapshot Memories from the Film 'Alien' - 1979
This period was a fantastic time in the film industry and I remember well the relaxed and thoughtful ways we all set about making the models under the guidance of Effects Supervisors Brian Johnson and Nick Allder. Ron Hone was the boss in the model shop, it was like a large family when we would plough into the canteen at Bray Studios for breakfast ( I can still taste it now! ) and exit contented knowing that the day was going to be creative. I didn't know anyone who didn't like their job and and for about 5 more years that spirit endured throughout various movies until the 80's arrived......from then on the accountants took over!
Take a look behind the scenes: http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/Alien.html
Weta Digital Purchases Nuke Site License
(broadcastnewsroom.com) DMN Newswire--2009-7-6--Leading visual effects software developer, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk), today announced that Weta Digital, New Zealand's premier multi-award winning VFX studio, has purchased a site license of Nuke to enhance its in-house pipeline.
Weta Digital was formed in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers including Peter Jackson to create effects for his Heavenly Creatures project.
Since receiving critical acclaim for its VFX work on this project, the company has gone from strength-to-strength producing astonishing effects for Jackson's subsequent blockbusters King Kong and The Lord of The Rings. Weta Digital's talents have also been employed by many other Hollywood directors and can be seen on box office hits including I, Robot, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Jumper. In total its efforts have netted the company five Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects
Paul Ryan, chief technology officer at Weta Digital, commented: "With ambitious projects on the slate, we need to ensure we have the best tools at our disposal. Our long-standing relationship with The Foundry and our faith in their product development, support and focus on producing a truly useful artist tool set, have given us the confidence to make this investment. We have a lot of challenges ahead and are looking forward to seeing the difference that Nuke makes to our workflow."
Mat Welford, head of 2D at Weta Digital, added: "We have been employing The Foundry's software here at Weta since purchasing Furnace for some tricky work on The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Since taking on the development and support of Nuke, The Foundry has demonstrated the same commitment they have always applied to their plug-in business. Nuke is a great compositing tool that extends the parameters that a 2D artist usually works within. My team and I are looking forward to putting it through its paces on a large project."
Won't Someone Think Of The CGI Children?
After that dancing baby, and those yapping E-trade babies, and the entirety of the Look Who's Talking franchise, there comes a point where we as a society have to wonder: Where did we go wrong? Why do all of our CGI children runaway from their CGI homes at such a young age only to end up on the street, dancing, involved in some kind of fly-by-night stock scheme, or debasing themselves in John Travolta/Kirstie Alley romantic comedies\u2014anything to get a little taste of CGI formula and maybe some clean CGI diapers. Make no mistake: this isn't just the fault of a few bad CGI parents. We are all to blame here. It takes a CGI village to raise a CGI child, and we have all ignored this problem for far too long. Just look at what these poor, sick, runaway CGI babies are being forced to do in order to survive:
They don't even have enough money for a new boombox. Evian didn't even give them enough to buy rattles, which means they'll be utterly defenseless in the naptime rumble with the E-trade CGI babies.
Sure, you may think they're harmless, creepy rollerbabies now. But in a few months they'll start teething, and pretty soon you won't be able to make it through the CGI park without shin-guards.
Video: http://www.avclub.com/articles/wont-someone-think-of-the-cgi-children,30043/
MPC Helps Evian Make Skating Babies
(vizworld.com) MPC helped Evian make their latest commercial where a group of choreographed roller-skating babies dance to The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight. They filmed 134 different babies and then matched live-action heads with CG bodies over motion tracked data.
MPC's team of animators used Autodesk Maya to create the baby
skaters' bodies. To ensure the babies appear fully realistic, it was
important to carefully match movements, paying special attention to
interaction between the shoulders, neck and head. To help achieve
this, full CG babies were created and their heads were replaced later
by the live action versions from the shoot by MPC's compositing team
led by Ludo Fealy.
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