Peter Ellenshaw Passes, Transformers Previewed, & No 3D Star Wars...

The appearance of each new vehicle or robot — sometimes mixed with hoax images — sparks furious debate among devotees of the pop-culture touchstone of 1980s childhood, and it has put Bay and studio DreamWorks on the defensive before their characters are truly ready for their close-ups.

Today, coinciding with the annual Toy Fair in New York, the studio plans an official debut of scenes and characters from the movie, in theaters July 4.

The leaked images have raised the bar for DreamWorks to impress those who think they've already seen it all.

In some ways, it's a high-end problem: What studio would not want people to be so curious about a film that they're breaking down firewalls to see parts of it?

"We're trying to protect the surprise. And you like to be judged on the final product," producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says. "Ultimately, it's fantastic that they care this much. And it forces us to ask ourselves every single question going into it, because you don't want to disappoint."

Di Bonaventura and Bay say art department computers registered thousands of hack attacks during the production. "Someone hacked into my own personal computer and got my script," Bay says. "We know that because it had some of my changes on it. Isn't that insane?"

In another major reveal, the yellow vehicle Bumblebee was showcased online in the early days of the shoot last year, and some purists slammed Bay for changing the character from a Volkswagen Beetle to a sportier Chevrolet Camaro.

Photos of a full-scale mockup of Bumblebee in robot form, apparently snapped by a crewmember, were met with greater approval. Says Bay: "They took big pictures of it and put it on the Internet, and everybody thought it looked cool. But I was like, 'That is not what he looks like' because we couldn't do all the fine detail (on the stand-in)."

Though the leaks sometimes got ahead of the movie's marketing plan, they may have only created more curiosity about the Transformers movie, which is being executive-produced by Steven Spielberg.

Ryan Yzquierdo, 30, of Chicago, features some of the early shots on his Transformers fansite Seibertron.com, and says he is optimistic about the movie and liked the script, though some of the character designs disappointed him.

"But my family and friends who aren't Transformers fans love the new designs and think they're awesome," he says. "So maybe I'm wrong."

Abrams in Talks for Dark Tower

Remembering VFX Wizard Peter Ellenshaw : 1913 - 2007
 
(jimhillmedia.com)                We lost one of Hollywood's true visual effects wizards yesterday.

By that I mean: Peter Ellenshaw could do what only a handful of artists could do. Which is take a piece of glass & a few tubes of paint. And then he'd create these impossible places & things. A long-forgotten Viking colony that was hidden high up in the Arctic. A leprechaun's throne room that was piled high with gold. A secret seabase that had been built inside the caldera of a long-dormant volcano. This elegant long spacecraft that was parked at the edge of an immense black hole.

All of these places exist in Disney films because Peter Ellenshaw was an absolute master of matte painting. He could take these rough bits of film that Walt or Bill Walsh or Robert Stevenson would hand him and then -- with just a few flicks of a brush -- extend a half-built set. Or make a miniature seem downright enormous. That way, Mary Poppins would then have a proper looking English park to take Jane & Michael Banks to. Or Eglantine Price would then have a properly moody English moor on which to battle Nazis.

So much of the magic that we took for granted in those Walt Disney Productions of the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s was a direct result of Ellenshaw's talent & artistry. His ability to take those blank bits of screen and make them seem real. Which is why we believed that Jim Douglas & Tennessee Steinmetz actually did live in an old San Francisco firehouse with Herbie the Love Bug. Or that Jim Hawkins & Long John Silver really did drop anchor at Treasure Island.

But you know what else was great about Ellenshaw? In spite of his obvious talent & given all that he'd accomplished in life, Peter was still this incredibly humble, very accessible guy. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with this man at a few VES events. And even though I was just this lowly dweeb who wrote for the Web, Ellenshaw was still incredibly generous with his time. Telling me all these great tales about what it was actually like to work for the Mouse while Walt was still alive.

And you know what struck me about Peter? That even then -- literally decades after Disney had personally invited Ellenshaw to come work at his studios, because Walt had recognized what a huge talent Peter was -- Ellenshaw was still grateful that Disney had taken a chance on this poor artist from the U.K.

Which perhaps explains why -- when Walt was at his absolute lowest, as he lay dying in St. Joseph's hospital in December of 1966 -- Peter wanted to do something to try & comfort his boss. As he recounted in his excellent memoir, "Ellenshaw Under Glass" :

    "I tried to see (Walt) in the hospital, but his secretary told me he would see no one. I decided to do a little painting of a desert smoke tree, knowing how much he loved the desert, hoping I would be able to give it to him.

    I called his secretary, Tommie Wilck, who told me, no, (Walt) didn't want anyone to see him in the condition he was in, but she would take it to him. Later, she told me it was hung on the wall so he could look at it, and he would proudly tell the nurses how one of his boys painted it for him."

To me, that one act of kindness, using his paintbrush to try & bring a little comfort to Walt Disney while he lay on his deathbed ... That just spoke volumes about Peter's true character. What a genuinely kind & caring guy he was. Which is why -- out of all of the great images that Ellenshaw created over his lifetime -- I chose that particular painting to illustrate today's tribute.

Anyway ... If the world seems a little less magical today ... There's a reason. We lost a great artist as well as a good & gentle man yesterday.

Harry Potter 6 Production Already Underway

(cinemablend.com)              Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Underway The fifth Harry Potter movie is still months away, but according to Newsweek, the sixth movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is already being worked on.

The news comes from an interview with Stuart Craig, who has served as art director on all five of the previous Potter movies. Craig tells them that the sixth film has to be impressive and beautiful and poignant. So I'm looking forward to doing that.

Though they are already underway creating the look of the movie, it's likely to be some time before any of the cast shows up to start filming. They'll start doing press to promote the fifth film soon, and that should keep all of them pretty occupied through the summer.

Right now the sixth movie is scheduled for a November 21st, 2008 release date, so there's no rush. The fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix arrives July 13th of this year.

LucasArts Delivers The Force Unleashed

GEORGE Lucas is a toy-maker as much as a creator of films. While his movies have always set the standard for special effects, they have also broken new ground in terms of marketing. Every release has been tied to grand releases of licensed merchandise.

Now, he's extending his reach and breaking new ground by progressing the Star Wars story in a new video game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Lucas's embracing of the gaming industry is nothing new his San Francisco-based game development studio, LucasArts, has been releasing software since the mid-1980s. But the degree to which he is now licensing out and marketing the upcoming release, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, is indicative of exactly how much the video game industry has matured. It also points to the fact video game release are now seen by many as more lucrative than a cinematic release.

Hayden Blackman, project lead on The Force Unleashed, says he expects the video game release to be hailed as "the next big thing" by Star Wars fans.

"This is the next chapter in the Star Wars saga," Blackman enthused. "The next story. The next event."

This kind of responsibility meant LucasArts wouldn't be tackling this endeavour alone. "In order to realise that vision, of creating that next chapter, we've had to work very closely with George Lucas. All the characters and some of the key story moments, even some of the core technology behind the gameplay concepts, were all developed in collaboration with George."

More:    http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21225504-7642,00.html

Google to replace Microsoft Exchange & Office at Pixar?

(stress-free.co.nz)                 This Business Week article 'Google Steps Into Microsoft's Office' is interesting because it is the first time I have seen a rather large corporate entity (Pixar/Disney) express an interest in moving to a non-Microsoft, Web-based platform like Google Apps for your Domain. The other interesting point to note is published user-base of Microsoft Office Live which is sitting at 250,000 businesses, quite a respectable number for a new, non-free service.

I have been a user of Google Apps for your Domain for a while now on a number of domains and have got a few other well entrenched in-house email fans to sign up as well. By far and away the best things about it has been the spam protection and the fact that within an evening you can have a fully functioning email and calendar service up and running with no fuss at all. It has been slightly disappointing that the applications list has not grown to cover the Docs and Spreadsheets products already and many of the new GMail features such as the very handy retrieve mail service or increased storage sizes have not become available to Apps users sooner.

Orig article:  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_07/b4021070.htm

Oscar Watch: Best Visual Effects

(bww.cinematical.com)                If you want to know about the specific achievements in visual effects made by this year's Oscar nominees, the CG Society website has a great spotlight on the VFX supervisors of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Poseidon and Superman Returns. Obviously we can see on screen the end results of each effect team's work, but there is a lot of interesting information that isn't so apparent, like how ILM had to invent new software for Pirates and how Poseidon actually created some innovative effects in addition to the simulated tidal wave.

Through the interviews with the four men (two are from Pirates), and some great visual aids, you can get a better understanding of how and why these three films were chosen, what sequences were shown to voters during the shortlist "bakeoff" event and what each supervisor thinks of his competition. In case it wasn't already a given, Pirates seems the best bet to win, evident in the detailing of what was achieved and in the compliments given by the other two films' supervisors (plus it won the BAFTA Award and top honors at the VFX Society Awards). One thing that everyone also agrees on is that Charlotte's Web should have at least been shortlisted for the award.

VFX Spotlights:  http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3934

Transformers Previewed In NY

Director Michael Bay previewed about 25 minutes of his upcoming SF action film Transformers to a crowd of enthusiasts at New York's Toy Fair on Feb. 13, Variety reported. The footage from Paramount and DreamWorks' movie met with approval from the audience of consumer-product executives, toy collectors and fans of the franchise, which is based on Hasbro's revived 1980s toy line.

The preview included four sequences from the movie, featuring plenty of Bay's signature automatic-weapons fire, rumbling car engines and sweaty military dialogue ("Bogey in the weeds, and he's not squawking!"), the trade paper reported.

A brief panel session preceded the footage with Bay, DreamWorks production chief Adam Goodman and Brian Goldner, chief operating officer of Hasbro and an executive producer.

Speed Racer Starts Shooting in May

(The Hollywood Reporter)                 The Wachowski brothers are returning to Studio Babelsberg to shoot Speed Racer, the high-octane action film based on the classic 1960 Japanese anime.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Warner Bros. production is currently preparing and plans to shoot at the German studio in May.

Andy and Larry Wachowski picked Babelsberg for James McTeigue's V For Vendetta, which the brothers produced and co-wrote.

In addition to Speed Racer, Babelsberg has snagged another big Hollywood production: The Bourne Ultimatum. The film shot four days at the studio in January.

More Sound Stages A Must For NZ Film Industry

(stuff.co.nz)           New Zealand will struggle to get more Hollywood feature films shot here until more international-quality sound stages are built, Auckland director Andrew Adamson says.

Adamson is back home from his Los Angeles base to start shooting for Prince Caspian, the second film in the Narnia series.

Most of the first film, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, was shot near Auckland, including most of the scenes requiring an indoor studio.

But a much greater percentage of Prince Caspian will be shot outside New Zealand, including studio scenes.

Budget and time pressures – especially with the wish to shoot more of the seven Narnia films before the child actors at the centre of the stories grew up too much – made good sound stages necessary, and Adamson said New Zealand did not have enough.

"We shot a lot of the first film in equestrian centres, in tin sheds, and I spent a long time re-looping dialogue or re-recording dialogue," he said.

"It slows you down not having the facilities – not being able to rig lights easily, not having good sound, having motorcycles going past outside and rain on tin roofs."

Adamson said New Zealand had a lot to offer in terms of quality of locations and their close proximity to cities but a lack of stages made it less attractive, particularly in Auckland.

However, he said it wasn't necessarily the Government which should pay for a new stage.

"I think it would be great if it had Government support. On the other hand the Government is very supportive of the film industry here so I don't feel comfortable asking for anything more than that," he said.

"I think there's certainly a lot of opportunity for private enterprise."

Adamson said the desire to shoot continuously over summer was another reason why some Northern Hemisphere locations were being used, especially as summer seemed to be getting later in New Zealand.

"We got caught with a lot of weather situations last time. It snowed outside of Christchurch on the 18th of December, which was unheard of," he said.

"So this time I'm going to shoot in what is actually summer – February and March. Then we go into stage in Europe and then we come out for the European summer."

Prince Caspian is the second in the Narnia books written by C S Lewis.

The four children who are the central characters – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – find themselves back in Narnia 1000 Narnian years after they left it, when the evil King Miraz has taken over the land and the talking animals are nearly extinct.

It is their role to try to overthrow the king and replace him with Narnia's rightful ruler, Prince Caspian.

The four child stars from the first film will be returning – William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy) – though Keynes and Henley were starting to grow up quickly, Adamson said.

No actor has been cast to play King Miraz yet but another young English actor, Ben Barnes, has been cast as Prince Caspian.

Adamson said Prince Caspian would be a little darker in tone than the first film, though there were no scenes as dark as that when the lion Aslan was killed in the first.

Adamson and producer Mark Johnson hope to shoot all seven of the Narnia books but Adamson doesn't expect to be directing any more of the films, bar Prince Caspian.

"I don't think so. One of the challenges we have is we actually want to put three of these films out very close together, and in actual fact, I'll probably be finishing this one when we start the next one (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) so it's unlikely that I'll be able to do both."

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which had a budget of about $US180 ($NZ267) million, grossed an estimated $US739m worldwide, the 22nd-highest grossing film of all time according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Adamson was recruited to the Narnia project after his huge success with the animated films Shrek and Shrek 2, ranked 58th and 9th on IMDB's worldwide gross list. He said Shrek 3 was expected to be released in May.

VFX-filled Silent City Available For Download

(digitmag.co.uk)              You'll have seen the trailer and VFX breakdown videos for Ruairí Robinson's effects-filled short film Silent City on this month's Digit CD. Now you can download the whole film online on Robinson's Web site.

The film places three soldiers in a dusty broken landscape that may or may not be on earth, and leaves them to try to survive. It stars Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins and 28 Days Later), Don Wycherley and Garvan McGrath.

As well as directing, Robinson edited the film and created its stunning visual effects on an almost-non-existent budget. He also recently worked on the VFX for Nick Ryan's A Lonely Sky, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2002 for his animated short Fifty Percent Grey.

The film is available online in SD and HD versions.

Get it now:  http://www.ruairirobinson.com/main.htm

VFX Sup Talks Terabithia

(comingsoon.net)               Bridge to Terabithia revolves around a young boy named Jess who comes from a poor background. The story is also about Leslie, a new girl in the neighborhood. The two become friends when they don't fit in with the other kids at school. Jess and Leslie discover a new world together that takes them on a fantastical journey complete with exotic creatures and a castle. It's a special place where their imaginations can run free and they can put aside the problems they face in the real world.

Mythological creatures in the film possess various similarities to certain people, including the bullies that Jess and Leslie come in contact with in their daily lives. Magnificent creatures called squogres that resemble squirrels and fairy-like dragonflies come to life as the children enter their magical kingdom. Hairy vultures and an odd looking leafy giant add more mystic to this whimsical land the children go to when they need an escape from reality.

In Bridge to Terabithia, the special effects were an important and integral part of the film. Matt Aitken was the visual effects supervisor on the set. He worked with a talented team of experts to create just the right look for each creature that was designed specifically for the movie.

It was important that Aitken know the story portrayed in the film so he could maximize the effectiveness of the creatures on screen. "Yeah." he said. "As the visual effects supervisor, the first thing I do is read the script. I read the novel as well so that I had that background information, and then, I'm listening very carefully to the direction that Gabor is giving us in terms of the way he wants the emotional story to play out. It is very important that we, as a component of the overall filmmaking process, understand the whole picture. It's not enough for us to just come in and do a little bit; we are contributing to the overall arc of the story. It's important to have that picture, yeah."

More:   http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=18911

Dimensionalized  Star Wars Unlikely?

(canmag.com)           When Rob Coleman came out and said that the 3D-animated Star Wars series was making progress with two episodes done, I had the gall to ask what happened to the re-release of both film trilogies in the dimensionalized format. Though my question was hypothetical, 'Stewart' responded with some new information on the postponement of the project.

The good people over at X-Realms have posted an interview with Neil B. Feldman. Though the discussion was based entirely on the future success of a 3D format, Feldman responds to the official post from LucasFilm that they would not go forward with re-releasing the Star Wars films in the medium.
  
There's been a lot of excitement amongst Star Wars fans since the Dimensionalized footage was shown at Showest. Many assumed that a 3D theatrical release for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope would be a cert for the 2007 30th Anniversary celebrations, but were disappointed to read on the official site that the project was not moving forward. Is George Lucas too busy with his TV projects or is he still holding back until there are enough digital 3D projection systems deployed to recoup his investment?

Neil B. Feldman:
     
"I can't speak for Mr. Lucas. But he certainly will not go forward until he can see that he will fully recoup the costs involved and make a profit. Keep in mind that the cost of Dimensionalizing a movie is still far less than the cost of publicizing and marketing it in re-release. All these factors have to be examined in light of the fact that there are not enough 3D equipped theatres (yet) out there."

Source:  http://www.canmag.com/nw/6713-star-wars-3d