MEG, Ratouille, Stardust & Gallactica's Demise
Will Prehistoric "MEG" Ever Be Made?
(cinematical) Several years back I read a book called MEG by Steve Alten. It's about a massive prehistoric shark who ascends from the deepest depths of the Marianas Trench and caused all sorts of high-end mayhem. (Picture a shark about the size of a blimp.) I distinctly remember thinking as I read the novel: Wow, it'd be really expensive, but darn this could make for a pretty slick movie!
And then Disney bought the movie rights, which they held on to for a while before New Line came in and picked the property up "in turnaround." Since then we've learned that Jan De Bont has been signed to direct the big shark adventure and that action veteran Shane Salerno would be on adaptation detail ... so where's the production date? Where are all the casting reports?
Well, according to Variety, New Line might be just a little bit stingy with the purse-strings these days, what with big projects like Rush Hour 3 and The Golden Compass demanding so many resources -- but De Bont is still confident that MEG will see the inside of a multiplex, most likely sometime in 2008. Obviously it's the mega-pricey FX work that's causing MEG to swim extra slowly -- or for all we know New Line might just decide to ashcan the whole darn thing.
Indiana Jones 4 Starts Filming in June
(The Hollywood Reporter) The Hollywood Reporter has learned more details about the Indiana Jones 4 production after George Lucas announced on Friday that the project is a go for a release in May, 2008.
After years spent in script development, the fourth installment of the successful franchise is set to begin production in June in locations around the world and in the U.S.
Although he has been developing other projects, including a biopic about Abraham Lincoln with Liam Neeson attached to star, Spielberg has decided the "Indiana Jones" sequel will be his next directorial outing.
"George, Harrison and I are all very excited," Spielberg said. "We feel that the script was well worth the wait. We hope it delivers everything you'd expect from our history with Indiana Jones."
The film will be produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and released worldwide by Paramount Pictures, the parent company of DreamWorks. Frank Marshall will serve as producer, with Lucas and Kathy Kennedy joining him as executive producers.
David Koepp, who has written such previous Spielberg projects as Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds, wrote the screenplay that finally got the stamp of approval from Lucas and Spielberg. An earlier screenplay by Frank Darabont had been shelved when Lucas turned thumbs down on it.
For the moment, the title of the new film as well as its story line are being kept under wraps.
Although a spokesman for Spielberg said Monday that no casting has begun, Lucas and Ford have said that they would like to include Sean Connery, who played Indiana Jones' father, Professor Henry Jones, in "The Last Crusade."
Witches, Goblins and Gnomes
(The Hollywood Reporter) Ian McKellen ("The Lord of the Rings," "X-Men," The Da Vinci Code) has signed on to voice the narrator role in Matthew Vaughn's romantic fantasy Stardust for Paramount Pictures, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The film, which boasts a cast including Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Charlie Cox, wrapped production in the fall. McKellen is recording his part during postproduction before the film's July 27 release date.
Stardust, based on Neil Gaiman's novel, centers on a young man who promises his beloved that he will retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the Faerie realm, where he encounters witches, goblins, gnomes, talking animals and evil trees.
Gaiman's fairy tale debuted in 1997 as a four-issue DC Comics miniseries with illustrations by Charles Vess. It was published as a single book the following year.
Pixar's "Ratouille" Expected To Make Less Than "Cars"
(jimhillmedia) How's this for irony? The Walt Disney Company (Whose mascot is a mouse) still hasn't figured out how to properly market "Ratatouille" (Pixar's next release, which stars a rat).
At least that's the word coming out of the Mouse House this week. As Disney gears up for the coming year, making sure that all of its upcoming releases are properly positioned & promoted to insure the greatest possible market share.
"So what exactly is the problem with 'Ratatouille' ?," you ask. Well, to be honest, a lot of the concerns that are currently associated with this Brad Bird film can be traced back to "Cars." Which Disney's marketing department thought that they had put together a terrific promotional campaign for. Only to have that John Lasseter movie miss all of the studio's internal financial projections.
As one studio insider explained it to me last week:
"The feeling now is that we all may have been a little too close to 'Cars.' That we were too in love with this film before it was released. Which is why it's now considered a mistake in-house to buy into the old 'Everyone goes to Pixar movies' idea.
Sure, it seems ridiculous to be complaining about the second highest grossing film of the year. But the fact of the matter is that there are 75 million NASCAR fans out there. And -- before 'Cars' opened -- we had convinced ourselves that every one of those people was going to buy a ticket to Pixar's next movie. Which is why we were really expecting that 'Cars' would rack up 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles' -sized grosses.
But when that didn't happen ... Well, the first place that we looked was at 'Cars' marketing. We started asking ourselves: 'Did we position this picture properly? Should we have gone with another poster? Or a different set of TV commericials?' You always wind up second-guessing yourself in situations like this."
And all of the second guessing that went on after 'Cars' missed its financial projections is now having a trickle-down effect on "Ratatouille." Given that the folks at Disney PR no longer really buy into the old "Everybody goes to Pixar movies" idea ... Well, they're now trying to decide who exactly they should be marketing this Brad Bird movie to.
But -- as the lackluster grosses for DreamWorks Animation's "Flushed Away" recently proved ( That Aardman co-production only grossed $61 million during its initial domestic release) -- marketing movies that star a rat can be a rather tricky affair.
Don't believe me? Then just ask the guys who work for Disney Consumer Products. They've had a hell of a time trying to convince Disney's licensees to take a flyer on the "Ratatouille" characters. As a direct result, this coming summer, you'll only see about a third as many "Ratatouille" -related products on store shelves as there were "Cars" -related products during the Summer of 2006.
And without that retail safety cushion to fall back on (Which really made the difference when Wall Street finally passed judgment on "Cars" overall performance. The general perception now is that -- while this John Lasseter movie did not sell nearly as many tickets as it had originally been expected to -- the retail side of "Cars" did make up for that box office shortfall. Which is why Pixar's most recent release is now considered a qualified success. Translation: A worldwide gross of $461 million is nothing to sneeze at. But that's still $400 million less than "Finding Nemo" made. Which is why the investment community is looking for Pixar to do much better the very next time that this animation studio gets up at bat) ... Well, that puts "Ratatouille" in a rather precarious position.
You see, according to Disney's own internal projections, "Ratatouille" is already expected to sell far fewer tickets than "Cars." How many fewer tickets ? ... Well, no one wants to say just yet. But this is why it's doubly important that Disney's marketing department put together the best possible marketing campaign for this Brad Bird film. To not only improve this animated feature's chances at the box office, but also to help with Disney's damage control efforts.
"What damage control efforts ?," you query? Well, should "Ratatouille" only do 2/3rds of the business that "Cars" did domestically ... That downward trend -- coupled with the fact that there's no possible way that the sale of "Ratatouille" -related merchandise could ever make up for this particular film's box office shortfall -- would then re-open the door for discussion about whether or not the Walt Disney Company significantly over-paid when it acquired Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion.
What's that you say? It's a little premature to be discussing the box office prospects for a film that doesn't actually open for another six months? Well, that's the other reason that Disney's marketing department is really sweating the promotional campaign for this Brad Bird movie.
VFX Artist Lands Supporting Role
(Hollywoodreporter) "Heroes" star and special effects artist-turned-actor Masi Oka is in talks to play a supporting role in Columbia Pictures' casino-set thriller 21, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is inspired by the true story of a group of men who learned the art of card counting and won millions of dollars gambling. The film is based on Ben Mezrich's best-seller "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions."
Jim Sturgess will star in the long-gestating project, which picked up steam last year when director Robert Luketic dropped out of a big-screen adaptation of Dallas to helm 21. The blackjack tale is scheduled to begin shooting in February in Boston and Las Vegas.
Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca are producing.
Oka is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as Hiro Nakamura on "Heroes."
Galactica Sputters, DVD Movie Rises
(moviehole) Over on the appropriately named Geek Monthly, they’ve got a story on how Ron Moore is planning to do a direct-to-DVD “Battlestar Galactica” movie.
“If it goes forward, the two hour telefilm will shoot in March during the series hiatus and prior to the commencement of production on the series fourth season in June. While there is no story for the telefilm at present, plans are afoot to come up with a screenplay that doesn’t step on existing continuity for the series, but utilizes most of its existing sets. There is also speculation the telefilm will somehow tie into the mythology for the Galactica spin-off series, Caprica, which has not been officially greenlit by SciFi Channel”, tells the site.
Yeah, apparently “Battelstar” has had a big drop-off of late, in terms of viewers, so the direct-to-video movie idea might be the network’s way of getting rid of the series – apparently a fourth series hasn’t been decided on yet by the network - as we know it, but continuing it on DVD.
I guess it worked, in some aspect, for the “Babylon 5” and “Farscape” series’ – and there’s, of course, a couple of “Stargate” movies in the works, too, so it’s definitely a trend. Could be more feasible. I dunno. Sad though. I mean, are there are many good action/adventure series’ left on TV? Most of us are still reeling over the death of “Angel” (Speaking of which, Joss Whedon originally wanted to do a series of “Buffy” movies direct-to-DVD…. But they didn’t work out).
Light your candles for “Battlestar”…um, and, Starbuck.
"Flyboys" VFX Master Just Can't Figure Out The Movie Business.
(RioRancherObserver) The Rio Rancho resident, a master - "guru" may be a better term - at creating special effects on a computer, said Americans' film tastes are what puzzle him.
He said he recently went to see "Flyboys," a movie about World War I, but couldn't figure out why the theater wasn't filled for the action-packed drama.
Later, he learned why: "Jackass: Number 2" had bludgeoned the box office that week, "Flyboys" got shot down and was yanked from the first-run theaters to die a slow death at the "dollar shows" and via later release on DVD.
"It's just sad, though," he said. "I was worried ('Flyboys') would be awful. There was fighting action, dogfights, interesting characters, no sex or bodies cut upNobody went to see it."
Conti's first real film, "The Sorcerer's Gem," probably had more fans than "Flyboys."
In fact, he recalled recently, it earned him a standing ovation and a rare opportunity to have one of his high school's better-looking girls to actually come up and talk to him.
Conti, who has worked his magic on movies such as "Black Hawk Down," "Men In Black" (he did the dragonfly at the beginning of the movie), and even "Army of the Dead," which was mostly filmed in Rio Rancho (He's sold a lot of props from that movie on eBay, he said), plus the television series "Star Trek: The Next generation" and "Seaquest DSV," which he produced for Spielberg.
Today, Conti, who stays busy primarily making movies for the SciFi Channel, is a key member of the Rio Rancho Film Commission.
"It takes an army of people to make a film," he said. "It's amazing we have that resource here, help the community realize what kind of environment we want for supporting the industry."
The commission, which serves as an advisory council to the Rio Rancho Film Office, was formed to take film to an entirely new level for Rio Rancho.
"We are very excited that Joe Conti is part of our film commission," said Judi Snow, director of the Rio Rancho Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Joe, working as a producer and director, has an insider's perspective on what filmmakers want from a city film office. He knows what works and what doesn't.
"When Lionsgate Studios arrives, we want them to know that we are working to help build a sustainable film industry for Rio Rancho and New Mexico," Snow added.
Jesse Herron, the city's new film liaison, said people with Conti's expertise can play integral roles in the city's success in the industry.
"Judi and I are not in the film industry," he said. "Our film commission, however, plays a very active role in the film industry. Not only will we utilize them for their expertise and film knowledge, we also hope to gain some key contacts through them."
Conti, 44, won't make any guarantees that Steven Spielberg will someday choose Rio Rancho for a movie location, but the two know each other, and Conti will never forget being a guest of Spielberg in his private screening room to watch one of the master's new films.
Growing up on the Atlantic coast of New Jersey, Conti said he originally wanted to be an engineer.
Then came an epiphany that altered his pathway to a career.
"After seeing 'Star Wars,' my life changed," he said.
He was only 14 at the time.
Enthralled with the movie's special effects, and bizarre characters, he said, "I started my own equipment to make visual effects. I took my dad's 8-mm camera and I got to make student films in a film class in high school.
"Everyone else made simple films," he recalled, and later, students gathered in an auditorium to watch what had been made. "When my film came up, the auditorium was packed - it was silent for the full 15 minutes, and then everyone applauded.
"I thought, 'I really like this film stuff,'" Conti recalled. "The Sorcere's Gem" had featured space ships and aliens, and he had filmed it on sand dunes near the ocean.
In those pre-computer-generated effects days, Conti learned how important it was to be creative.
"I thought lots of people were doing this stuff. I did what I wanted to do and read magazines," he said. "In a very short period of time, I was working for John Dykstra and Richard Edlund; John developed the tools to do 'Star Wars.'"
A Web page notes Dykstra "designed and built the first computer-controlled motion control system. This system was dubbed the "Dykstraflex."
During a special 10th anniversary celebration of "Star Wars" in L.A., Conti met Eklund and Dykstra, "and told them I wanted to do special effects."
Conti, whose birth name is Joseph Contegiacomo, said that meeting was among several in his life "filled with miracles."
Once he had left the Army, Conti was in L.A. for the Star Wars anniversary celebration. He stayed with a friend who had a personal computer. That was something new to Conti, who had felt "isolated" while he was in the Army.
"Somehow I had been left behind. I always wanted to work in movies," he said, and when his friend told him he would be welcome to use his PC, "I had to learn it quickly."
He remembers spending $300 for a used computer "at a used computer store in Albuquerque; I was a self-taught expert in two months. I knew at some point computers would be very instrumental in doing film."
He moved to L.A. from Albuquerque, where he had been living with his brother after leaving the Army, and soon had a job on the Bruce Willis action flick, "Diehard."
"That was my first film," Conti said. "Back then, I was hanging out at a computer store with other computer kids. I applied my computer knowledge to the special effects world ; almost overnight, I became a sensation."
On "Diehard," he said, Conti was "one of five that built a building that explodes and did the helicopter explosion, characters falling down an elevator shaft. We used a 'green screen.'"
Conti was on his way. "Then I started getting calls to be a consultant; people would call and ask, 'Can you do a UFO?' 'I don't know, but I'll try.' I came out not only with a way of making it look good, but affordable.
"Steven Spielberg asked me to build a special effects studio for him, so Conti created Amblin Imaging, as part of Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, shortly after Spielberg's work on "Jaws."
"I set it up, and trained the staff. I was doing Seaquest DSV" at the end of 1992; I was the only one in Los Angeles that figured out how to do all this whiz-bang magic."
Conti was offered special effects jobs on "Jurassic Park" and "Titanic," but he turned both of them down. "Jurassic Park" was turned down, he said, because he would be working on "Seaquest DSV," and he said no to "Jurassic Park" to move back to New Mexico.
When Spielberg was contemplating "Jurassic Park," Conti said, "He wanted mechanical dinosaurs, with stop-motion animation."
Ultimately, the effects were created on computer, Conti said, terming it a "quantum leap" and that, "Basically, it's magic."
He seems to have had enough with the Hollywood scene, having learned, "People want to see the creature, monster and special effects instead of dialog" when they go to the movies, and he "would rather slave away on my own movies, rather than be a hired hand."
He's found a good market on the SciFi Channel, for which he's produced "Bugs."
"Nine out of 10 (movies) won't make money in theaters but will via DVD," he said.
"If I live here, make movies and make money, I'm more than happy," he said. "Every time I go to L.A., it's awful."
Conti, who said his favorite movie for special effects is "Forrest Gump," said he was honored to be asked to join the city's film commission; he feels like a vital part of Rio Rancho, and he and family members own three homes on the same block.
In his spare time, he said, he enjoys building experimental airplanes, making and racing Baja motorcycles, and skydiving.
-H
