Transfromers 2, The Fly On Stage, & Ghost Rider's VFX Reviewed...

Pirates of The Caribbean 3 To Premiere at Disneyland

(magicalmountain.net)               The Disneyland Resort website has announced that Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End, will be premiering at Disneyland on May 19, 2007.

The movie will be shown on a screen that will be constructed on Tom Sawyer Island, which has been closed for refurbishment. The audience will be seated on a stage currently being constructed at the Rivers of America water front.

Guests who are planning to attend the premier that day, or even just the park in general, should be prepared. Park hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and areas such as Adventureland, Frontierland, Critter County, and New Orleans Square will be closing around 3:00p.m. to allow for setup. Parade schedules and guided tours will also most likely be affected that day. California Adventure will be open that day with extended hours from 10:00a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Bay Talks Bigger Transformers 2

(cinematical.com)               Director Michael Bay recently sat down for a fanboy-style interview with MTV about Transformers -- the kind that starts out with the interviewer announcing "it seems like the planets are aligned for an insane movie event." Bay starts out by spouting some meaningless figures like "robots transform at 85 miles an hour" and "Ironhide's gun has 10,000 parts to make that gun" before dropping some interesting tidbits, like the fact that we should not expect to hear the voices of name-actors popping up. He also says that almost all of the robot voices people have heard up to now in footage are simply stand-ins, and casting for the finished voices is underway now. Will he use any voice actors from any previous incarnations of Transformers? He refuses to say.

Would Bay be interested in doing a sequel? "Yeah, of course you want to create a franchise, but it's just like the show LOST -- the writers don't know the ending.....if we do Transformers 2, you definitely have to go bigger....I can't tell you yet, because the script's not written...." He also implies that the budget for this film was not excessive, stating "the movie cost $150 million, whereas some of the Pirate movies cost $280 [million]." Bay also bristles when the interviewer asks if he considers Transformers to be a 'personal' film, perhaps sensing an insult where none was implied. "Oh, come on...it's not personal, this is popcorn," Bay says, before adding "there is totally my stamp, all over the place, because I basically write my own action. I do that to keep myself from getting bored." What about detractors? "There are tons of people that hate me, hate my movies, but hey, my movies have made a lot of money around the world...in everything you do, you're going to have lovers and haters."

Ghost Rider VFX Reviewed

(firstshowing.net)    If you don't stare in awe at the visual effects in this then you are blind. They are some of the best of the year so far, as the film is visually fulfilling and often a joy to watch. It's these effects and the set pieces that add much of the entertainment to the otherwise rough story. This is not a story to be compared with such Sunday-afternoon basic-cable fare as the recent flops Catwoman, Elektra, or Daredevil, and its visual effects are comparable to those seen in 2006's Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Ghost Rider is worth seeing for the visual effects and eye-candy factor alone, if not for a marginal story.

(Cinematical)    The special effects for Ghost Rider himself are actually decent, alternating between a guy in a blue-screen suit and a completely computer animated character atop a devilishly tricked-out bike. However, the decency stops there when we’re introduced to a scene in which Ghost Rider lassos a CG helicopter that resembles a cross between a Lego kit and a Monty Python cartoon. When the Rider defies gravity to drive up the side of a towering industrial building, thoughts of both Ultraviolet and Transporter 2 surfaced in the back of my mind. And they are two of the worst movies ever made.

(dallasnews.com)       Ghost Rider is a work that could only exist in this age of CGI effects. It achieves an emotional resonance and sheer enjoyability that, like a fine wine, complements the accompanying cheese.

(nypost.com)       When Ghost Rider gets fully fired up, his look doesn't so much say "hell's envoy" as "Duraflame" or maybe "sterno from my tenth grade French Club fondue night." Flame is tricky to do with CGI, but if they had simply hired a guy to follow Cage with one of those butane torches pastry chefs use for crŠme brulée, the effect could not have been less frightening.

VFX Tenpoles From Walden Media Aim To "Inspire" Reading

(townhall.com)              Along came Walden Media in 2000, and in seven short years this new studio has taken Hollywood by storm with its commitment to retelling great literature, especially the most popular and well-loved children's literature. The visionary behind Walden is business tycoon Philip Anschutz. A deeply private man, Anschutz hasn't given a press interview in 30 years, but you just have to like how he summed up before a Christian school audience in 2004 his decision to enter the gates of Hollywood: "I decided to stop cursing the darkness." Rather than complaining how Hollywood isn't making good movies, he decided to make them himself.

As Walden President Mike Flaherty points out, "We have a paradoxical mission statement, which is to use films to get kids reading." While many parents think movies and television are replacing the printed word, Walden is employing the delight of visual media to create delight in great stories between bound covers.

Walden is most serious about this task. The studio is in contact with more than 100,000 teachers and librarians every year, always looking for what Flaherty calls "the canon of literature that everybody has read." C.S. Lewis, meet Hollywood. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," the first of the Narnia series, was a blockbuster success, grossing over $750 million, and two sequels now are in production. "Charlotte's Web" was another commercial success. The newest Walden movie, "The Bridge to Terabithia," won the Newbery Medal as the best children's book of 1977.

Flaherty cites how Lewis talked about the paradox that "great fantasy heightens the readers' sense of reality and responsibility." J.R.R. Tolkien said the same about his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Heroes give children a more heroic imagination and worldview, a joy "beyond the walls of the world."

That's not to say that the Walden folks are lost in a fantasy land. Asked to define the Walden brand in one word, Flaherty responds: to "inspire." Walden not only strives to deliver a product parents can trust, but also produce movies that "spark conversations about big ideas." Hence, the Walden interest with inspirational films about history.

It is a sad reality: Very few adults, and virtually no child, can recognize the name William Wilberforce, the man Abraham Lincoln claimed was known to "every schoolboy" in America in 1858. Then there's this: "Amazing Grace" is the most recognizable hymn in the land -- but how many people can tell you its origin? To the rescue comes Walden again, with the movie "Amazing Grace," which tells the true and beautiful story of William Wilberforce, the brilliant British orator and parliamentarian who fought relentlessly to ban the slave trade in Great Britain and who ultimately succeeded, against all odds, decades before the United States fought a bloody civil war to do the same.

The movie title pays homage to John Newton, the English slavemaster-turned-Anglican clergyman who became Wilberforce's minister and inspiration. Newton had participated in the transportation of more than 20,000 slaves and converted to Christianity after being saved from death on a sinking slave ship. He not only converted, but dedicated himself to the abolition of this practice, even in declining health and facing the loss of his sight.

The movie is typically Walden -- a celebration of courage and the human spirit, leaving the viewer in stunned appreciation with the understanding, finally the understanding, of the words we've sung so many, many times. "I once was lost, but now am found/Was blind but now I see."

No good movie can compare to the great literature on which it is based. But it can inspire the soul and maybe, just maybe, inspire a child to crack a book and delve beyond the walls of the world. Treat your family to Amazing Grace on Feb. 23.

Source:  http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/BrentBozellIII/2007/02/17/waldens_big_idea

Stage version of The Fly to debut in Paris

(theglobeandmail.com)            Toronto-born film director David Cronenberg once described his most famous movie The Fly as being "very operatic." Almost 14 years after making that observation, he's getting the opportunity to test its validity by agreeing to direct a new opera based on the 1986 science-fiction horror film, featuring a score by long-time collaborator and fellow Torontonian Howard Shore.

The opera production of The Fly was announced yesterday in Paris by Placido Domingo, the general director of Los Angeles Opera, and Jean-Luc Choplin, head of Paris's Théâtre de Châtelet.

Both companies will mount the work in their respective cities in 2008, with Paris getting the world premiere on July 1, followed by a run in Los Angeles starting Sept. 7. Mr. Domingo, a famous opera performer in his own right, will conduct the orchestra in both cities.

More:     http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070217.FLY17/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Music/

Bill Nighy Looks Davy Jones In The Eye

(aintitcool.com)              Can you give us some clues--I realize there may be some sort of confidentiality agreement--a few clues about what Davy Jones gets into AT WORLDS END, and does he still have some surprises for us?

BN: Yeah, there’s big surprises with Davy. Big, big surprises. I am not at liberty to say, ’cause they would, I don’t know, kill my film career.

C: Here’s what I’m curious about: I know you shot the films concurrently, but I also know you did additional shooting after the second PIRATES film was released. Did seeing the finished Davy in the second film in any way alter your performance for the third film?

BN: Now that’s an interesting thing. Well, not really, no, because I’d already shot half of #3, but then we had to go back and shoot some more. And, yes, I think it probably did for the latter half of #3, because I was emboldened, apart from anything, by the fabulousness of the creature. I mean, the guys and girls who made the creature are just incredible, you know, and I’m a new boy to all that kind of stuff.

They always said they were going to inform the creature with my performance, and my performance would inspire everything. I didn’t think that they were misleading me, I figured they were well intended, but I didn’t think that technologically it was possible--not to the degree that they did it. And, when I saw it, it was tremendous to see that all the little facial things, all the physical things I did, all the little so-called idiosyncrasies that I threw in, God knows why, they actually, you know, somebody or several people sat in front of computers and translated it into creature form. I was actually very moved by it.

Flaming hell, they really did. It was very touching to me, because they always said they would, but these things go forward, and the technology sometimes gets ‘off the skin.’ Currently, this is state-of-the-art, so I was privileged to be a part of that. And, when I saw it, yeah, it did change a bit. Both Gore Verbinski and I were in uncharted waters, really. How do you pitch the performance, you know, you’re playing a Scottish pirate who’s been transformed into a squid--half squid, half crab--and how do you…you know, the first couple of times I do stuff and he’d say, “Well, Bill that’s a little big.” And, you think, well, then you have another look at the picture of this creature that’s supposed to be the most feared thing on the ocean waves. Well, you know, what’s big? So, therefore, I may have been emboldened to pitch it just slightly higher once I’d seen it.

Source:  http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31564

Fanboys Shape Transformers / Batman Sequel

(media.www.lavalleystar.com)              A "fanboy" is defined as an overzealous fan of geek culture, like anime, video games, science fiction or fantasy. Years of ridicule have led the fanboy into exile, hiding behind the computer keyboard or in the basement hosting another round of Dungeons & Dragons.

Ever since Hollywood began using comic books and graphic novels as a breeding ground for cash cow franchises, for example "X-Men," "Batman," and "Sin City," fanboys serve as built-in focus groups and double as watchdogs over their beloved paper heroes.

The key ingredient to making a good film great has been the presence of the much maligned and utterly crucial fanboy. The movie industry may see this as demographic upkeep. Movie fans should consider them a shield of vision and integrity to the superheroes many have grown up with.

Having a directly indirect influence on some of the most anticipated films, fanboys have the ability influence the portrayal of characters or the aesthetics during movie production via the all-powerful message board.

The "Transformers" movie is most recent example of this newfound power. Producer Don Murphy displayed early prototypes of transformers Optimus Prime and Megatron seeking fan input. Murphy has even posted message boards on the official movie website for constant fan participation.

Through the message boards, fanboys are responsible for changing the design of Megatron by condemning the original prototype, creating the movie tagline, and most importantly, aiding in the return of Peter Cullen, the original voice of Prime.

The message board is an equally powerful tool in generating movie buzz. "Transformers" is still in production, but leaked photos have made their way to many fansites and every photo has a film copyright. Articles in magazines like "Empire" and "Sight and Sound" are great, but the hardcore fans are going to find the photos on fansites days before the magazine's release.

This technique is also used to leak names for high profile roles in upcoming films such as "The Dark Knight," the sequel to "Batman Begins." Within minutes that information is posted all over fansites, eliciting reactions from fanboys.

Although "The Dark Knight" doesn't come out until next year, devoted fansites were eager to announce Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker before the official press release. The script is still being written for "The Dark Knight," but fans already speculate about wjhich villains will be written into the story and who will play them.

This new era of constant information, speculation, and fan participation might seem invasive, but in an increasingly cutthroat business, producers want to make a hit. Does a movie made for the people by the people necessarily equal box office success?

Fanboys have the power to determine whether a movie will be a success with their support. Conversely, constant negative skepticism could cause a movie to fail before it hits the theatres.

While some directors only care about the newest technology, someone needs to defend artistic vision. It's not the mob that rules, it's the fanboys.