starranise’s Neighborhood

   Hoodwinked Too Gets Hoodwinked And Pushed Back It’s still hard to believe that Hoodwinked was successful. It had terrible animation that I could have made on my very first Acer PC, running Windows 98. The voice acting was awful, just a slew of big names who showed up to read lines. And the plot, while interesting, was executed sloppily. Despite all of this, the movie made millions and warranted a sequel. But it won’t be coming as soon as we thought.

According to the LA Times, The Weinstein Company has decided to push back the release of Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil from its original January 15 release date to some time in February. A Weinstein executive cited their desire to push Youth in Revolt (coming out January 8) as well as the need to tweak some of the animation. There are also fast food tie-in deals that have yet to be closed.

The original film was released on January 15 and obviously did very well, so it’s hard to say how this move will affect the flick (it may have to go up against Shutter Island or Kevin Smith’s Cop Out). But really, is anyone waiting for this to come out anyway? While Hoodwinked was initially successful, it definitely doesn’t have half the staying power of a Pixar movie.





From 'The Jazz Singer' to 'Avatar': A Look at Historic Technological Movie Tricks

(jacksonville.com)                James Cameron's "Avatar" mixes live-action filming with an array of technological tricks: 3-D, motion capture, computer animation and green-screen technology, among them. It hasn't been cheap; the movie's budget is said to be at least $300 million. But early reviews have been largely positive, and many in Hollywood are hoping that "Avatar's" technological wonders can transform the movie industry at a time when it needs a jolt. Here's a look at other movies that popularized some technological advances in movie-making — some that stuck around, and some that didn't.

"The Jazz Singer" (1927) featured a few lines of actual people speaking, as Al Jolson uttered these famous lines: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet." The talkies had arrived ...

"King Kong" (1933) couldn't have been told without stop-motion animation. It had been done for decades before, but legendary special-effects wiz Willis O'Brien, moving a King Kong puppet a tiny bit for each new frame of film, really wowed the masses.

"Becky Sharp" (1935), based on Thackery's novel, "Vanity Fair," is credited with being the first feature film shot entirely in Technicolor - though filmmakers had been experimenting with color techniques almost since the beginning. It was followed by hits such as "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (1936) and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938). And though black-and-white dominated for years afterward, the new technology's promise was made clear in 1939, when Dorothy arrived in Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" and when Atlanta burned in "Gone With the Wind."

Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) was the first full-length animated feature, and it holds up just fine today.

"The Thief of Bagdad" (1940) won an Oscar for its many special effects, including the technique of shooting actors in front of a blue screen, then blending their images with other footage - allowing the fantasy film's fantastical images to come to life. The technology has been used by TV meteorologists and hundreds of films since.

"Bwana Devil" (1952), an African adventure yarn, kicked off a short-lived 3-D craze in the '50s. It's been used fitfully since then, most recently in "Avatar" and at last weekend's Dallas Cowboys football game (most fans didn't seem that thrilled with the images on the big stadium screens).

"The Robe" (1953) was a biblical epic that introduced audiences to widescreen Cinemascope, as movie execs tried to find a way to lure viewers away from tiny TVs.

"Scent of a Mystery" (1960) introduced audiences to Smell-O-Vision, in which scents were pumped into the auditiorium at the appropriate time. Audiences quickly said "No thanks."

"Tron" (1982) didn't do great at the box office, but it was the first feature to make wide use of computer-generated images - images that exist only digitally - as it took us along with a programmer who enters the world of his computer. A no-doubt flashier sequel is planned for next year.

Cameron's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1989) really showed the potential for CGI, with its liquid-metal villain, the first main character to be created entirely digitally.

"Toy Story" (1995) was the first feature-length computer-animated film, so successful it pretty much pushed hand-drawn animation to the sideline (though it's mounting a comeback with "The Princess and the Frog").

"Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" (2002) was the first major live-action feature to be shot entirely digitally, without film.

In "The Polar Express" (2004), Robert Zemeckis used motion-capture technology (in which actors' performances are digitally tinkered with) for an entire movie. He would do the same in "Beowulf" and this year's "A Christmas Carol."

Blu-ray 3D Standards Finalised

(darkhorizons.com)                The Blu-ray Disc Association has announced that a 3D Blu-ray specification standard has been finalized reports CNet.

Using the new MVC codec, an extension of the MPEG-4 AVC codec currently used by most Blu-ray discs, 3D films will require around 50% more space than their 2D counterparts while the discs should be backwards compatible with existing Blu-ray players.

To take advantage of it though it will require a 3D capable Blu-ray player, PS3 owners will get an operating system update that will make theirs 3D capable. However it will likely also require a new TV set capable of supporting stereoscopic 3D which may be a hitch as none have really hit the market yet, and there's simply not enough titles to take advantage of 3D capability.





Morpheus to Fight Predators

(ShockTillYouDrop.com)                 Laurence Fishburne ("CSI," "The Matrix" trilogy) has joined the cast of Robert Rodriguez's Predators, now filming in Austin, Texas under the direction of Nimrod Antal.

Fishburne is playing a character named Roland in the film. He joins a cast that includes Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins and Alice Braga.

They play a disparate group of people who land on the Predator home planet only to discover "unspeakable horrors."

20th Century Fox is targeting a July 7, 2010 release for the film.




Stunning Demo Reel of VFX Impresses

(infoaddict.com)               Wow. Stargate Studios, founded in 1989, has worked created special effects for a ton of movies and television shows. They are now showing off their proprietary Virtual Backlot Library that offers real-time compositing. Compositing is a popular, cheap method of adding background to live-action via a traditional green screen, but Stargate has elevated the art to new heights, as is evidenced by this newly released demo reel. This is impressive work indeed.

Take a look:              http://www.infoaddict.com/stunning-demo-reel-of-green-screen-special-effects-impresses




Toy Story 3 to Get IMAX 3D Release

(IMAX Corporation)              IMAX Corporation and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures today announced that Toy Story 3 will be released to IMAX 3D theatres simultaneously with its wide release on June 18, 2010. Toy Story 3 will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of "The IMAX Experience" with proprietary IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) technology.

Commenting on the announcement Bob Chapek, president, Distribution, The Walt Disney Studios, said, "We're very excited to once again unite Disney Digital 3D with The IMAX Experience, and to do it for the long-awaited release of 'Toy Story 3' is a real treat. A film like this is designed to take audiences on an exciting thrill-ride adventure, making it a perfect match for both 3D and IMAX."

"We have always envisioned the 'Toy Story' franchise as an ideal fit for 'The IMAX Experience' and we're very happy to finally turn that vision into a reality," said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond. "This film also fits nicely into our 2010 lineup, ensuring that families will be able to start the summer holidays with a fun Disney release in IMAX."




2,400 Hours to Make 1 Second of Action

(nypost.com)                   Hundreds of of graphic artists linked up the world’s third-biggest computer setup and invented new camera systems to create the astonishing 3-D futuristic world of “Avatar,” James Cameron’s new sci-fi thriller.

With a whopping $489 million budget, the groundbreaking movie — the most expensive ever made and Cameron’s first since 1997’s “Titanic” — is meant to immerse audiences in high-tech imagery and ensure they leave the theater asking: “How did they do that?”

Cameron’s team hired WETA Digital, the same New Zealand company behind Gollum and other special effects in “The Lord of the Rings” films, to create the artificial yet realistic-looking images in “Avatar.”

“WETA Digital ended up having more than 800 employees just working on their effects,” said Jon Landau, Cameron’s co-producer.

Some of the film’s shots required 100 computer hours for each frame — or 2,400 hours of computing time for each second of film, figuring each second requires 24 frames.




Dan O'Bannon Dead at 63

(examiner.com)                    Some sad news from the world of film making yesterday. Screenwriter, director and actor Dan O'Bannon has passed on at age 63.

O'Bannon was responsible for some of the favorite sci-fi/horror myths of our generation. He wrote the screenplay for a little film called Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, (you may have heard of it), and worked on all the sequels. He was also responsible for The Return of the Living Dead, the amazing George Romero zombie satire, and he worked on the Total Recall script and created the B-17 sequence in Heavy Metal. Not only that, but he provided the screenplay and served as Special Effects Supervisor on the John Carpenter flick, Dark Star, and he worked on a film called Star Wars. You may have heard of that one, too.





When VFX Become 'Vomit Inducing'

(abcnews.go.com)          "Avatar" is one of the most expensive movies ever made. This year's most eagerly awaited release cost $237 million to make and another $150 million to market. One of its stars, Sigourney Weaver, described "Avatar" as "like 'Gone with the Wind' in space."
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The movie's special effects may bring some unpleasant side effects.

James Cameron's last opus was of course "Titanic," the highest-grossing movie of all time. Early reviews of Avatar were very positive, the film is being hailed by some as "The future of cinema."

The epic, which runs two hours and 41 minutes, premiered in London to wild applause. But some see Cameron as a vainglorious auteur and seek to puncture his perceived pretension. One anonymous critic claimed the ground-breaking 3D effects in "Avatar" are, I quote, "vomit inducing." Word quickly spread through the blogosphere.




Does Your Work Space Repulse Women?

(arstechnica.com)                New research suggests that a stereotypical programmer's workspace—Star Trek posters, empty Mountain Dew/beer cans and all, according to the article—may be a significant reason why more women are not entering into computer science disciplines and fields. While my formal training is as a chemical engineer, I have been programming since my parents enrolled me in computer camp when I was eight and didn't have many friends at home. In the intervening 23 years, I can probably count on one hand the number of times my computer workspace has been clean as opposed to looking like a bomb went off, but it has never looked like a sophomore male's dorm room... except my second year of college when I took all those computer science classes.

Where other STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are seeing the percentage of women enrolled increase, computer science is going through a decline. The study, published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finds that the feeling of ambient belonging—a sense of how well one feels they fit into a field—is not there for women in computer science. "When people think of computer science the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science fiction memorabilia and junk food," said Sapna Cheryan, a University of Washington assistant professor of psychology.

The authors describe this feeling as one that is garnered on a first impression of a space. "You look at the objects and make an instant appraisal of how you would fit with the objects and the people who are typically found in that environment. You also make a judgment of 'I like it here' or 'I don't belong here,'" said Cheryan.

To assess such a feeling, the authors set up a series of four experiments that were designed to aid understanding of whether stereotypical surroundings may cause women to choose fields of study over computer science.

The participants, over 250 male and female students not enrolled in a computer science course of study, and were ushered into a classroom that was either filled with stereotypical computer science objects, or one with generic crap. They were told the room was being shared with another class, and after a few minutes were asked to fill out a questionnaire probing their feelings about the room.

The survey found that women's who sat in the stereotypically decorated room expressed less interest in computer science than those who sat in the control room. Men, on the other hand, did not show a similar drop in interest. This lead the researchers to conclude that choices of classes or even major can be influenced simply by the decor of the offices, classrooms, and labs that a department has.

In a continuation on the theme, the researchers conducted three similar experiments. When faced with the choice of joining one of two all-female teams, the only difference being the objects found in the team's workroom—stereotypical versus nonstereotypical—women overwhelmingly (82 percent of the time) choose to work with the team based in the nonstereotypically decorated room.

When men and women were asked about job offers at two companies who both had a 50/50 gender ratio, where one was decorated with the usual computer science gear and the other more generic stuff, both genders preferred the nonstereotypical setting, women more so than men. The final experiment probed thoughts about working at a nondescript Web design company; again, women would choose a work environment that was not decorated in the stereotypical computer science way.

The work does show a definitive trend of nontechnical people not liking work environments that have stuff a 17-year-old male would have hanging on the walls of his room. However, outside of the occasional computer science TAs office or undergraduate dorm room, I cannot see how this stereotypical setup seems very, well... stereotypical—especially in the latter of the three experimental setups. While my personal workspace may look like an utter mess, it is not the image that my company (or any I have visited, worked with, or interviewed at) as a whole projects themselves to potential hires and customers.

Judging simply from the image that accompanys this article, the brightly colored Star Trek poster and game boxes strongly draw one's eyes and attention—after all, it's what they were designed to do! I would be curious if the disparity in ambient belonging remains if even just these two focal objects were removed from the "stereotypical computer science" workspace. Technical books and papers are one thing, but a huge color poster and unrelated video games are not what I would consider to be present in any sort of professional environment (short of a movie studio, or game development office), nor what I would think appropriate for a general use classroom at a University.

Prior work has shown that kids and teens (and by extension, I'll wager college-aged young adults) don't actually feel that the common stereotypes are descriptive of people who work in STEM fields. While I will agree that certain aspects of technical fields can be off-putting to individuals who don't know the field—compounded by arrogant jerks who revel in their smug superiority over such unenlightened people—it has been shown that by and large, people are interested if someone gives them the time of day to answer questions.

Many STEM fields suffer from a chicken-and-egg type problem. A group that is not adequately represented in teaching or high-ranking positions is by definition not present to mentor new people from that group, hence perpetuating a cycle that is very hard to break. While cleaning up the first impressions that may be perceived by those outside or new to the field will help, it will not instantly resolve the underlying issues. As the cryand for more  competent technical individuals increases, however, every little bit of information that helps bring more people in is good.

  Out doing promotion for "Sherlock Holmes", British thesp Mark Strong ("Body of Lies," "Rocknrolla") tells Cinema Blend that most of his work on the upcoming "John Carter of Mars" film will not involve much CG.

"My character doesn't actually get involved in any of the motion-capture stuff. All the stuff is live action. Although I can shift my shape, so I have to be photographed by a 360-degree camera. I can adapt into anything. That's going to be my particular talent" says Strong who plays Matai Shang, the ruler of the Thems.

He adds that "there's some filming in Utah, but most of it is in a studio outside of London". Joining him are the likes of Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Haden Church and James Purefoy.

Andrew Stanton helms the project currently scheduled for a Summer 2012 release.





Roy Edward Disney Dies at 79

(forums.cgsociety.org)               In the 1980s after establishing financial independence, he paved the way for a new management team that brought back to life the art form that defined Walt Disney Co.
Roy E. Disney

Roy Edward Disney, seen in his Burbank office in 1985, was the billionaire nephew of entertainment icon Walt Disney. Roy E. Disney so closely resembled his uncle's physical appearance that when he made outings to Disney theme parks or was out promoting the company's animated films, people in public would ask him if he was Walt Disney's brother. (Los Angeles Times)


Roy Edward Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney whose commitment to his uncle's creative spirit prompted him to mount revolts that led to the unseating of two of the company's chief executives and a revival of the studio's legendary animation unit, died Wednesday. He was 79.

Disney, who had been battling stomach cancer, died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, according to Clifford A. Miller, a spokesman for Disney's company Shamrock Holdings.

Disney toiled for years in the shadow of his famous uncle and his father, Disney Studios co-founder Roy O. Disney, who ran the business side of the company for his brother. But the quiet scion would emerge as a forceful protector of Disney traditions when he believed that the company that bore the family name was headed in the wrong direction.

"People always underestimated Roy," Peter Schneider, the former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, said recently. "You underestimate Roy at your peril, as many people have learned."





3D Computer Graphics Patents Deemed Invalid

(vizworld.com)              In a victory for software patent haters everywhere, a patent on “improving 3D computer graphics through provision of an improved method for performing visibility calculations” was recently overturned because it was considered related to calculations and algorithms, and therefore not patentable.

    Patents “directed to improving 3D computer graphics through provision of an improved method for performing visibility calculations” were invalid under In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc), cert. granted, — U.S. —, 129 S.Ct. 2735 (2009) because they failed to claim patentable subject matter. “[Plaintiff] concedes that its patent claims are not transformative, but nevertheless argues that they are tied to a particular machine; to wit, a computer. . . . The claim language clearly states that these claims are drawn to mathematical calculations and algorithms for calculating whether certain surfaces are visible or invisible in 3D computer graphics. This is exemplified by the language of the claims, which specify a sequence of calculations that involve identifying,comparing,determining, and ignoring; data. Though the calculations may be performed on a computer, they are not tied to any particular computer. For these reasons, the claims of the [patents-in-suit] fail to pass muster under the Bilski machine implementation test for patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101.”




Bryan Singer Will Direct X-Men: First Class!

(MySpace.com)            James Cameron's Avatar had its premiere in Los Angeles tonight, and MySpace had a television crew on-hand at the "blue carpet" to interview arrivals.

One of the people there was director Bryan Singer, who directed X-Men and X2: X-Men United for Avatar distributor 20th Century Fox at the start of the decade. In recent interviews, Singer has been asked about possibly directing the planned prequel X-Men: First Class, and he always seemed interested, but earlier this evening he let slip that he has in fact just signed the deal with Fox to direct the next "Origins" film, which will reportedly look at the early days of Cyclops, Jean Grey and others at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

You can see for yourself what Bryan Singer told the interviewer about signing to do X-Men: First Class if you go to the Official MySpace site, click on "Next Slide" at the bottom left and then scroll forward to the 27-minute mark where he's asked about what he has coming up next. He tells the interviewers without any hesitation and complete seriousness: "I'm ramping up to do a movie called 'Jack the Giant Killer' at Warner Bros, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an 'X-Men: First Class Origins' picture, which is kind of cool. I'm very excited."





"District 9"  VFX Studio Expands - Bank Provides $2.2M Financing

VANCOUVER, Dec. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Image Engine Design Inc., a Vancouver-based production studio specializing in visual effects for movies, today announced the expansion of its studio facilities to help meet growing business demand. The acquisition of a new building was made possible through a $2.2 million financial loan package from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

Image Engine, founded in 1995, began providing visual effects for feature films in 2006. Most notable of these early years was a significant body of work for Marvel Studios' The Incredible Hulk. The company, which started out doing work for television, gained experience and respect with its work on the popular TV series Stargate as well as several other television productions, including one for Stephen King where its creature work garnered a coveted VES award.

A turning point occurred with the opportunity to provide visual effects on District 9, the breakout film for Writer/Director Neill Blomkamp. The film gave Image Engine the chance to show what a Vancouver, Canada facility could accomplish under tight budgetary constraints and an extremely challenging creative agenda. Since the movie's release in August of this year, the alien shots delivered by Image Engine have received critical acclaim from the visual effects industry, including recognition from District 9 Producer, Peter Jackson, of "Lord of the Rings" fame.

For Greg Holmes, CEO of Image Engine, BDC's support and understanding of the company's expansion plans were key to helping prepare for future successes: "BDC was very supportive, and able to qualify risk and characterize it differently than traditional banks. Their years of experience in supporting entrepreneurs and matching a decent business model to a property acquisition opportunity helped them understand where we were going."

BDC Financing Account Manager in Vancouver, Kobie Lofty-Eaton, says "a sound and solid evaluation of risk factors can lead a project on the path to success. This is part of the expertise we offer at BDC. The movie industry is a good example. No matter how big or how risky the project, with the right tools we can help our clients show that their expertise is second to none worldwide."

Greg Holmes points out that there are lessons to be learned from playing at a high level in this very competitive business: "Knowing your appetite and capability for risk and execution is important. This industry is driven by gifted artists and talented people, but without a solid business backbone to carry the weight of that risk, it is difficult to achieve results that are sustainable".






Avatar VFX Revolutionary?

(movieviral.com)             Special effects are big thing for me. For years, they were an addition to what was going on on the screen; something to help your imagination along. I find that the Star Trek franchise sums this point up for me. Watch any of the early original episodes and the special effects are laughable, but they helped to set the scene. This was fine for years but then along came Star Wars. It has to be recognised as a milestone in cinema history, because it changed what we saw on screen. The ripple effect this brought to film can be seen up to this day, and the pioneer, ILM, is still the biggest and best in the business.

The problem I now have with special effects is the part it plays in a films today. 2012 may be the perfect example of this. If you read Dan’s review, you will remember his issues with the effects, that there far too many things going on to take in. For films like this, the special effects are the story, with everything gearing up to that set piece, where the White house is destroyed, or a big explosion rips through the Manhattan skyline. It takes away from the imagination of the audience, and I fear, the writers as well. But people are starting to notice and perhaps the biggest rebellion centered around Transformers 2. The effects were big, but the story was terrible and the acting even worse. It seems we, the film-going audience, have started to see past the effects now.

Up until this week, my film of the year for special effects was Star Trek. The effects were beautiful, well-crafted, and subtle. They add to the film but don’t take over it. If you look at the shuttle hanger scene for instance, you’re watching the film, not the effects, because they are subtle, believable. I was worried that Avatar would err on the overpowering side, after all, at least 75% of the film is special effects, but wow, you’d better be ready.

Avatar

My advice for your trip to the cinema? You’ll need to do some preparation work first. Buy some energy drink and some saline solution, mix them up and soak your eyes in it! You’ll need it. The effects are amazing. It’s as simple as that.

You might have cringed when you saw the first trailer. I know I did. These big blue creatures walking around just didn’t quite sit right with me, but when you see them on the big screen in all their 3D glory, you very quickly forget that these creatures are not real. The animation is flawless in their movement and their interaction with the scenery. It is like nothing you have seen before, and Cameron must be applauded for waiting all these years (upwards of 10 if you’re counting) until the technology could keep up with his imagination.  The marines’ weaponry and machinery is just as amazing to watch and looks so damn realistic and plausible that I expect to see them hit the battlefield sometime in the future. Cameron enjoys taking us to places that we have never been before. Just watch the doc “Return to Titanic” to see his perseverance, and in Pandora, he has once again showed us a place that is so wondrous and intriguing that you want to spend more time there.

My one admission I have to make is that I watched this in a normal cinema rather than on IMAX (we’ll update the review though when we do), and as such I don’t know if my criticism of the 3D will ring true with those that do get to see it as the director intended. In parts the 3D worked very well, but there are other moments that I would have been just as happy watching the 2D version. The scene at the start of the film which sees Jake Scully landing on Pandora is a good example of 3D that works, but at other points, particularly when the Navi are on screen, the 3D seemed to be lacking. There are some scenes where you are following Navi Scully through the trees at a great height, and this should have been the money shot, but it just didn’t materialize. As I said, this may not be the case in IMAX, so if you’re torn between your local Multiplex or IMAX, choose IMAX for sure.

So, in terms of the special effects thats a big A+. This is the Star Wars for our generation, and your kids will be watching this for several Christmases to come. It will change cinema.





CGI Vampire & Werewolf Take On Animated Zombies

(Variety)                     DreamWorks Animation has hired Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris to write Gil's All Fright Diner, an adaptation of the A. Lee Martinez novel that has Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct.

Gil's All Fright Diner revolves around a vampire and a werewolf. They are mismatched partners who battle zombies and try to save the world, after they stop in a diner in the desert that is a conduit for the supernatural.

Kirk De Micco was the first writer on the film.

Reiff and Voris' credits include Kung Fu Panda and the upcoming Robin Hood.





Award Winning VFX Studio Pixomondo Expands For Commercials

(shootonline.com)           Pixomondo, with studios in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, London, Shanghai, Beijing and Santa Monica – and with a Paris office opening soon - is launching a new commercial digital production company, called Public Art. Public Art is aimed to service the advertising community and features a collection of live action directors, designers, animators, visual effects artists and flash developers.

Pixomondo's feature effects division had many shots in the recently released movies "2012" and "Ninja Assassin". Currently they are engaged on work for several features including "Suckerpunch", "Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief", "Hindenburg" and a number of other movies.





Rob Marshall On Fourth "Pirates" Status

Out doing promotion for his new musical adaptation "Nine", director Rob Marshall talked with Coming Soon about his hiring to direct the next sequel in the 'Pirates' franchise, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", for Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

Marshall says it may not have progressed as far as you might have thought - "We're still trying to figure out if it's going to all happen. If it happens--I think Johnny's doing a movie with Angelina Jolie in the spring ("The Tourist") - so if it happens, we'll start in the summer, and we'll see. I'm excited. If it happens, it happens. I'd be thrilled. I just love Johnny and I'm excited about the genre."

When asked about the film's visuals, he said "I would need a script first. It all comes from the script and the story. You serve the story and you find out what the story is and then you work from there, that's it. It's simple."




NY Anim Company to Create VFX for 'Ghost Whisperer' Director

(webwire.com)            Walsh Family Media, an independent animation company and visual effects studio in NY, was selected to provide visual effects cinematography for the upcoming film White Irish Drinkers. The film is an independently funded venture by renowned writer/director John Gray whose projects include Ghost Whisperer, Empire and Helter Skelter.

Walsh Family Media was asked to digitally recreate a crowd of screaming fans at the concert of a legendary rock band. The scene was originally filmed at Lafayette Theater in New York where producers John Gray, Paul Bernard, Melissa Peltier, and James Scura had only 100 extras on hand for the scene. Using state-of-the-art composite and visual effects, Walsh Family Media helped transform the meager crowd of 100 into a roaring crowd of 3,000, the number of seats in Lafayette Theater.

According to producer Paul Bernard, the visual effects provided by Walsh Family Media helped the film overcome budget restraints. "It’s hard to fill a 3,000 seat venue on a small budget so we turned to WFM Services to help create a crowd scene deserving of legendary rock fame" said Bernard. "It’s amazing what these guys can do on the computer.”





Spider-Man 4 In Trouble?

(cinemablend.com)             Director Sam Raimi is hung up on a few major issues, mostly notably that they still don’t have a completed script. And why is it incomplete? Why it’s Spider-Man 3 all over again. Raimi is butting heads with the studio over who the villain should be. That same conflict is how we got a Spider-Man 3 overloaded with too many villains, at least half of whom Raimi seemed to have absolutely no interest in shooting. If this is true, it sounds like Sony has learned absolutely nothing from the last movie and they’re still unwilling to simply let Raimi, a proven commodity, do whatever the hell he wants.

So word is that Raimi wants Vulture to be the bad guy and Sony wants anyone but Vulture to be the bad guy. Now I can see Sony’s point of view here, Vulture is pretty much the worst villain in the web-head’s rogues gallery. He’s more of a punchline than a villain really and I’m pretty sure that very few Spidey fans actually care about seeing him on screen. On the other hand, Raimi is Raimi and it probably doesn’t matter whether or not Vulture sucks in the comics, on film he has the ability to make the character awesome. There’s only one reasonable decision here and that’s for Sony to get the hell out of the way. We don’t need another Venom debacle.





VFX Games Artists Ready For Pool Party & Awards Show

(gamesindustry.biz)               San Diego will be the new Host City for the previously-Canadian awards ELAN Awards Show which honors artistry and innovation in the video games industry.

Today the highly anticipated announcement of the Official Categories for the 2010 ELAN Awards.

Three days of celebrating are in place for the video game, animation and visual effects industries beginning with a pool party on Saturday, July 17th, followed by a street party on Sunday night and wrapping up with a four-part-party including the awards ceremony itself on Monday, July 19th, the evening prior to Comic-con.

Every year the ELANS go to the industry to determine their award categories, a practice they believe to be crucial to staying on top of what's important in such a rapidly changing industry. "This year's categories were a bit tougher than previous year's in that we're not quite done with some that are on their way out meaning they're still very relevant, and ones that were too new a year ago have proven themselves worthy now and must be included," says Carinci, explaining her thirty award category show. "And there will be more," she smiles, "as we're adding 4 exciting sponsored awards which we'll announce on January 4th, the day submissions officially open." An Industry-only newsletter containing all pertinent information for submissions pertaining to the entire judicial process and submissions will be delivered Monday, December 21st just prior to the holidays.

And now, the Official Categories for the 2010 ELAN Awards are:

21. BEST REAL-TIME VISUAL EFFECTS in a VIDEO GAME PRODUCTION

Recognizing outstanding achievement in visual effects in a video game, the ELAN in this category is awarded to the vfx artist, vfx team or vfx director that exhibits excellence in real-time game engine-rendered visual effects within a video game. This category is open to vfx teams hired outside of the video game company.

Full Press:       http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-elan-awards-award-categories-announced---all-30-of--em





Over 350 Avatar Screenings Already Sold Out

(cinemablend.com)             Over 350 Avatar Screenings Already Sold Out Avatar is less than 24 hours away from exploding onto the screen, with thousands of midnight screenings kicking off tonight. Early ticket sales are already giving an idea of just how big the movie may be.

Given the heavy focus on the movie's visual effects and 3D nature, it's no surprise the movie will open on a record number of 3D screen. Of the 3,457 theatres showing the movie, 2,032 will be running it in 3D, including more than 190 IMAX theaters. Also unsurprisingly, almost 90% of all ticket sales at some major movie ticket sites are for 3D screenings.

Already more than 350 showings have sold out online, with many others filling up. That's no indication the movie will be breaking New Moon's midnight or opening day records, but it's a healthy sign that audiences are excited.

One thing is for sure: guys are far more excited for this movie than the ladies. MovieTickets.com reports that 78% of its tickets are being bought-up by the boys. I guess shirtless characters with well-defined abs only get the ladies going if they're werewolves, not blue aliens.

    This time last year, a rumor emerged that "Avatar" director James Cameron might step up to helm a remake (of sorts) of the sci-fi classic, "Forbidden Planet." The possibility was sort of substantiated by Latino Review, who reported that Cameron had seen the script and "flipped" for it.

Shortly after, we had the opportunity to follow up with "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski, who was reportedly developing the "Planet" script. As he told MTV News at the time, "I’ve always wanted to do something involving 'Forbidden Planet.' It’s my favorite science-fiction film of all time. I’ve watched the rights go from one company to the next. I heard that the rights at Dreamworks were about to expire and I went to Joel Silver and said I think if you move quickly you can grab it and I can write it. And he did. It’s the dream of a lifetime to play in that universe."

Straczynski went on to explain that he has a very specific plan for the project, something unique and fresh. "It’s not a remake. It’s not a reimagining. It’s not exactly a prequel," he explained at the time. "You’ll have to see it. It’s something that no one has thought of when it comes to this storyline." With all of this in mind, MTV's Josh Horowitz had to ask what was up with "Planet" when he spoke to Cameron recently at the "Avatar" junket in London.

"That's a project that I'm actively involved in, but I haven't made any decisions about it yet," Cameron said, adding "I love 'Forbidden Planet.'"

So the rumor as it was originally reported isn't quite accurate. Yet, anyway. Cameron certainly could still step up to direct, but something tells me he's probably going to want to dive back in for an "Avatar" sequel if this week's sci-fi epic performs as expected. And it should, given how freaking awesome it is.

Besides, it's not like Cameron can make a decision before he gets a feel for where the project is. Which he hasn't yet. "I haven't seen it yet," he said of Straczynski's script. "I'm supposed to get it here pretty soon."

So there you have it. Cameron is definitely interested in "Forbidden Planet," but he's not making any commitments to it yet. Publicly, anyway. All that said, I expect we'll eventually see this project blast into space. I'm just not sure that Cameron will be at the helm.




42 Crazy Awesome VFX Breakdowns

(ae.tutsplus.com)                       Are you ready to get pumped up? I could literally watch VFX Breakdowns all day and night... which probably explains my lack of sleep this past week. Well, I'm willing to suffer for your enjoyment... that's just the type of guy I am. Here are 42 of the most killer VFX breakdowns I could find on the web. Hold on to your jaw because it's about to hit the floor. I'm not liable for dental bills.

Take a look:     http://ae.tutsplus.com/articles/roundup/42-crazy-awesome-vfx-breakdowns/




Stop-Motion Artists Get Shout-Outs For "Coraline" Golden Globe Nom

(awn.com)             Henry Selick, director/screenwriter and producer: "This Golden Globe nomination is sweet validation for the years of hard work it took to bring 'Coraline' to life using stop-motion animation with the greatest crew of animators, artists, and technicians I've ever been privileged to work with. I share this nomination with all of them and we all share our thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press."

Bill Mechanic, producer:  "It is a very pleasant surprise and honor for our movie to be recognized with this nomination.  The hundreds of artists who worked so hard and for so long on CORALINE all share in the joy."




Getting Wild About Facial Animation

(awn.com)               At first, Spike Jonze wasn't sold on a CG approach to the facial animation for the creatures that populate his adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. He wanted to try animatronics, but his good friend David Fincher convinced him otherwise by showing him some of the early tests they were doing on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which, ironically, Jonze turned down). And that gave him the faith he needed to go down this path.

Not surprisingly, it was an unusual path -- even for CG.

The creatures were defined; the movie had been shot; and there was a rough cut, but the faces were static because of the masks. But the emotional impact was still apparent.

In steps Daniel Jeannette as animation/visual effects supervisor, who had previously worked on Happy Feet at Animal Logic after a prestigious stint at ILM.

 "Early on, somebody said you should use CG creatures because it gives you the freedom to do what you want," Jeannette recounts. "It gives you a lot of control, but there's also a lot of limitation that comes with it. And, ultimately, you're talking about a lot of greenscreen work. This didn't work with Spike's vision of shooting on location or the core of the story, which is the relationship between Max and the creatures. It was better to have him interacting with actors in costumes. It was real, the performances were nuanced and emotionally it hits you in the gut."
Image
However, Framestore wound up doing all of the animation and vfx. Jonze was very hands on: directing and helping supervise the delicate and crucial task of "making sure these creatures lived and had a soul." Photo by Sonny Geras.

They tried a lot of techniques before realizing that the best approach would be limited facial animation enhancement whenever they needed lip-synch. In other words, strictly for the movement of the face, they only animated the eyes, lips, teeth and tongue.

And the faces in Wild Things were brought to life at London-based Framestore primarily using a new twist on an old technique known as "sequence projection" or "projection mapping," often used to create talking animals. For Wild Things, however, it had to be taken to a new technical and artistic level. Character suit performances were filmed with static faces. The faces or heads were tracked in 3D and a CG articulated head was animated on top to achieve the appropriate performance to match suit and dialogue.

Full Press with pics:    http://www.awn.com/articles/article/getting-wild-about-facial-animation





Avatar : How Many People Does it Take to Make a Movie?

Take a look:    http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/anorak-city/2009/12/avatar-how-many-people-does-it.html




When to Outsource Your 3D Model and Rendering Services

(max3dmodels.com)                Imagine that your launch was successful and now customers want your animation in a 3D scene futuristic city model. You are an expert in animation, but not in 3D modeling and 3D models of the city are known to take weeks to do! 3D animation using the plan took 2 weeks and now wants a more complicated than a week. . . In the medium term and more to do. You can customize a stock 3D models of the futuristic city scene or subcontract. This project has an aggressive deadline and you're not very good at adapting 3D models of the city quickly. . . and outsourcing can allow you to focus on animation.

Sound familiar? Outsourcing 3D modeling and rendering and do it at home is a common problem 3D Model Animation Studios and artists face, especially when in a hurry to make 3D projects. When is a good time to outsource their 3D modeling? A golden rule of one of our customers is that "If anyone can do it in half the time I … Then it's time to give it away. My time is too valuable. "Normally, customers outsource 3D modeling and rendering 3D model, such as 3D scene of the city, you can customize or very effective by custom 3D services like 3D personal flat pyramid. For example, creating a 3D model of downtown New York scene in max, obj or 3ds file format. What could take weeks to do can make 3D model builder expert who specializes in 3D cities just a few days. So you get less frustration, turn faster and higher quality of results, it is worth spending money on. Here are some tips to help you know when outsourcing can work for you:

 – Runs on something you're not very good and is not part of its powers. Also it will take time to learn and become more efficient at it.
– You have too many projects 3D trapped in the pipe and a limited budget prevent you from taking on more 3D artists on staff.
– 3D project is a cycle and thus avoid cuts in the future to ensure that you only need the right people at all times.
– 3D project is a project for a while.
– Positive for project bids 3D model as 3D models of the city.
– It's more productive and profitable for you to have custom 3D services experts agree. Even when you outsource 3D modeling to increase profits, as it saves more than half of the 3D project costs due to savings in labor costs. Outsourcing experts agree that having someone else do the areas that are not within its competence, can do more, and you can take advantage of lower labor costs and increase profits. Account can not do everything and there are other options and ways to improve your 3D development cycle and get your 3D projects to its customers and / or customers much faster and cheaper than the competition
– or face losing customers.

Once you've decided the best thing for you to outsource, consider using the experience of a 3D model of artists with a wide range of experience in custom 3D modeling and rendering, including 3D models of the city.





Star Trek 2 Probably Not Happening Soon

(411mania.com)                In an interview with the New York Times, Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey seemed to indicate that Star Trek 2 is a ways off.

    "As for J. J. Abrams, a producer and the director of Star Trek," the article reads, "Mr. Grey is looking for Star Trek 2. And Mission: Impossible IV. And possibly before either, what he called another 'tentpole' film to be directed by Mr. Abrams, and yet to be announced. … 'We have been wildly ambitious,' Mr. Grey said of his plans. 'It has much to do with the fact that we are feeling as strong as we are.'"

Obviously if JJ Abrams has to do another new "tentpole" film first, Star Trek 2 would have to be pushed back a bit.

The "tentpole" film in question may be Mystery on Fifth Avenue, a new adventure film that is apparently a cross between National Treasure and Jumanji.




'Avatar' Fails to Make AFI Cut

The American Film Institute largely avoided bigger studio movies and focused on smaller indie efforts as it compiled its list of the year's top 10 movies.

Announced on Sunday, the list, devoted to U.S. productions, included Pixar/Disney's 3D-animated "Up" (the No. 3 film to date with $293 million in domestic grosses) and Warner Bros.' boys-gone-wild comedy "The Hangover" (No. 4 with $277 million) but did not include James Cameron's "Avatar," which already is being lauded for its groundbreaking effects work.

Instead, the 13-person AFI jury opted for a second 3D-animated film, "Coraline"; two movies dealing with the impact of the Iraq War, "The Hurt Locker" and "The Messenger"; "Precious," the tale of an abused inner-city teenager; "A Serious Man," which follows a Job-like character as he faces life's setbacks; "A Single Man," which centers on a gay widower; "Sugar," a sports drama about a Dominican-born baseball player; and "Up in the Air," which focuses on a corporate-downsizing expert.




FBI makes arrest in 'Wolverine' Uploading Case

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was uploaded to a file-sharing network last spring, before its release to theaters.
(Credit: 20th Century Fox)

Update 7:50 a.m. PT: To include new information from FBI that suspect may not be source of the leak.

The FBI has accused a man of copyright infringement for allegedly uploading to the Web the feature film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" last spring.

Gilberto Sanchez, 47, was arrested in the Bronx, N.Y., early Wednesday morning by FBI agents without incident, law enforcement sources told CNET. A spokeswoman from the FBI's Los Angeles field office, which led the investigation, confirmed the arrest.

If convicted, Sanchez faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or gross loss attributable to the offense, whichever is greater.

When the feature film from 20th Century Fox was leaked to the Internet in April, it caused panic in Hollywood because the movie, which reportedly cost $100 million to make, was not scheduled for theatrical release until May. The fear was that Internet distribution of an unauthorized copy would hurt ticket sales.

By the time the movie screened in theaters, the unauthorized copy had been watched 4.1 million times, according to market researcher BigChampagne.

According to a copy of a grand jury indictment that was unsealed last week in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Sanchez is accused of uploading the film to file-sharing network Megaupload.com under one of his online aliases, which include "theSkilled1" and "SkillyGilly."

The indictment does not say, however, how Sanchez allegedly obtained a working copy of the film and Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, declined to provide those details. She did say that the agency has not ruled out more arrests. What this means is that Sanchez may not have been the source of the leak.

The copy that made the rounds online was rough. Many of the computer-generated graphics had not been inserted yet and the cables holding actors to simulate flying were visible.

The major studios say that films being leaked to the Web is a huge problem, and they have gone to great lengths to increase security. In this case, when the film first leaked, executives at Fox said they were confident that the person who leaked the movie would be caught because of forensic marks on the film copy.

Watermarks are inserted into varying film copies so that they can be identified and any leaks can be traced.

However, some proponents of content sharing claim that such leaks and the publicity they stir actually help ticket sales by building interest in a movie prior to its release--provided that the film is any good.

In 2003, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to copyright infringement charges after uploading the superhero film "Hulk" to the Web weeks before its theatrical release. In that case, the man was sentenced to six months house arrest and ordered to pay a $7,000 fine.





George Lucas Loses Court Appeal Over Star Wars Costume Copyright

(timesonline.co.uk)                  George Lucas’s empire failed to strike back in the Court of Appeal today as he lost a multimillion-pound legal battle with the British creator of the Star Wars stormtrooper helmets.

Andrew Ainsworth recently began selling replicas of helmets and armour made from his original mould, prompting a $20 million (£12 million) lawsuit from Lucasfilm, Mr Lucas’s company. But yesterday a court agreed that he had not broken any British law — because his creations were not art.

“It’s taken five years but I think this should be just about the end of it,” Mr Ainsworth told The Times this morning. He is now recruiting sales and marketing staff and planning a big expansion of his memorabilia company.

Lucasfilm vowed to take the case to Britain’s new Supreme Court, saying that famous props such as the Daleks from Doctor Who could be freely copied under the Appeal Court’s ruling.
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Mr Ainsworth was a young industrial designer in Twickenham when he made the helmets in 1976, on a plastic forming machine that was usually “churning out kayaks and watersports stuff”. He was recruited via a friend who was working with Mr Lucas at the nearby Shepperton Studios.

“We just made it on spec. I didn’t even know it was for a film to begin with,” he said. Mr Ainsworth made 50 helmets, for which he was paid £20 each. He also made equipment for numerous other characters, earning about £30,000 from the Star Wars films. Lucasfilm’s earning from merchandise are estimated at several billion dollars.

In 2004, Mr Ainsworth closed his watersports equipment factory and dug out his original models. Realising that “the memorabilia market had really kicked off”, he began selling replicas.

Lucasfilm, acting to crush the rebel force, immediately sued him in the US. He did not defend the case — “taking on Lucas on his home patch is not a good idea” — and a California court awarded $20 million in damages against him, even though he had only sold 19 models in the US.

When Lucasfilm tried to enforce this in Britain, Mr Ainsworth appealed through the pages of The Times for legal help. “I got calls from about a dozen good lawyers,” he said.

During the battle that followed, Court 52 of the Royal Courts of Justice was invaded by stormtroopers and a fighter pilot from the forces of Emperor Palpatine.

Mr Justice Mannn ruled that they were not sculptures and so did not have copyright protections. They were instead industrial designs, which could be protected for only 15 years.

Yesterday Lord Justices Rix, Jacob and Patten agreed, dismissing Lucasfilm’s appeal. They said the helmet and armour had a “utilitarian” rather than artistic purpose, so “neither the armour nor the helmet are sculpture”.

They also ruled that Lucasfilm could not enforce its US copyright in Britain, but agreed with Mr Justice Mann that Mr Ainsworth did not himself own the copyright in the helmets.

Mr Ainsworth said yesterday “Anybody can now make them — but they’re not me. I make the original ones.”

He has been left with a legal bill of more than £2.5 million, although he will seek to recover many of his costs from Lucasfilm.

Asked how he might be celebrating his victory, Mr Ainsworth said, “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll go and find another galaxy.”

       I'm not going to ask why Avatar isn't on the Academy's short list for Best Animated Oscar because the answer to that question is obvious… it wasn't submitted. Perhaps that's just the problem though. Why not? And don't go jumping to a quick decision. Let me give you a little food for thought. I might be able to make a case that will have you considering it much more than you may think.

How much of Avatar is CGI and how much is live-action? In reading an article at Gawker recounting a Hollywood Reporter article it says, "When completed, Cameron expects Avatar to be about 60% CG animation, based on characters created using a newly developed performance capture-based process, and 40% live action, with a lot of VFX in the imagery." That works for me considering there's most likely no real way to tell for sure.

Taking this into account, let's follow that up with a peek at the first part of the Academy's rules for what is and what isn't an animated film, at least in Oscar's eyes:

    An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of at least 70 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time.

Now the big question… Is Avatar animated? The first place I went in search for an answer to this question was the production notes for the film where it actually includes a separate section labeled IS IT ANIMATION? The section begins as such:

    Ask the animators at WETA, and they'll tell you that the avatars and Na'vi are animated. Ask Jim Cameron, and he'll say the characters were performed by the actors. The truth is that both are right. It took great animation skill to ensure that the characters performed exactly as the actors did. But at the same time, no liberties were taken with those performances. They were not embellished or exaggerated. The animators sought to be utterly truthful to the actors' work, doing no more and certainly no less than what Sam, Zoo or Sigourney had done in the Volume. Of course the animators added a little bit, with the movement of the tails and ears, which the actors could not do themselves. But even here, the goal was to stay consistent with the emotions created by the actors during the original capture. So when Neytiri's tail lashes and her ears lower in fury, they are merely further expressing the anger created by Zoe Saldana in the moment of acting the scene.

One way of looking at the information above is to say instead of putting actors in rubber suits or makeup all James Cameron did was apply makeup and creature effects with CGI. Sort of like last year's Best Makeup Oscar-winner, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

However, to the point of staying faithful to the actors performances similar techniques have been used in hand-drawn animation forever such as when the role of Snow White was acted out by Marge Champion as reference material for Disney animators for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Also, as you can see in the video to the right, Helene Stanley was used for Sleeping Beauty. Obviously this is not the exact same thing as performance capture, but with this conversation it seems we're getting into varying shades of gray and it will ultimately come down to your interpretation of the facts.

Take all of this into consideration and what do you come up with? Is Avatar animated and if so, is it animated enough to be considered in the Best Animated Oscar category? What about the films I mentioned at the opening? The ones included on the short list for consideration.

To the question of how much of Avatar is CG and how much is live-action the answer was 60% CG and 40% live-action. Adding to this and having seen the film, I would put good money down saying there isn't a single frame of that film that doesn't include CG animation, let alone a scene that has more live-action elements than it does CGI. Compare this to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in which the only animation is six of the film's characters and based on that alone I think Avatar is already more of an animated film.

I already touched up on it a little bit, but how about performance capture? Like Avatar, Disney's A Christmas Carol is a performance capture feature with characters portrayed inside CG environments and it is considered animation. Doesn't this mean Avatar should be considered animation as well?

Look at the clip from Avatar to the right, to my knowledge there isn't a single element of that image that isn't CGI, it's simply performance capture, animated creatures and CG environments.

Finally, the one thing the four contending films listed above have in common is they all employ CGI, just like Avatar and many, many other films we could open this discussion to. I bring this up because it has pretty much been agreed upon around the Internet Avatar will be taking home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which creates an interesting conundrum. Why is the CG in Avatar considered visual effects while the CG employed for a Pixar or DreamWorks film simply considered animation? If Avatar is up for Oscar's Best Visual Effects award shouldn't Up and Monsters vs. Aliens be as well? The fact they aren't, but A Christmas Carol is, interests me.

Perhaps the real question is When is CGI no longer considered visual effects and when is it considered animation? The line has to be drawn somewhere because it seems extremely grey at the moment.





New Director Boards Creature From the Black Lagoon

(Los Angeles Times)             Universal's Creature from the Black Lagoon has found a new mate in director Carl Eric Rinsch.

The L.A. Times reports commercial helmer Rinsch (and one time contender for the Alien prequel) has been tapped to direct the long-gestating remake.

Gary Ross penned the script, but Universal is starting over in the story stage.

Meanwhile, the man who was supposed to bring the Creature back to life, Breck Eisner, is moving on to The Brood remake.





Hollywood FX Artist to Direct Mexico's Biggest Film Ever

(cinematical.com)                     Everyone in Hollywood just wants to direct, but when it comes to visual effects artists becoming full-fledged filmmakers, the results aren't always great. Among those who've made the transition, for better or worse, are Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), Eric Brevig (Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D), Colin and Greg Strause (Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem) and Neil Blomkamp (District 9).

Joining them now is Dean Wright, Oscar-nominated for effects work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and a veteran artist who had a hand in Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Kangaroo Jack and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Wright, who got some of his directing experience handling the second unit filming for The Return of the King, is already at work on a Jesus biopic called Kingdom Come, slated for release in 2010. And now, according to Variety, he's already set up his follow-up, another epic, titled Cristiada.

Scripted by Michael James Love (Gaby: A True Story) the historical film will tell of Mexico's Cristero War, which took place in the late 1920s between Catholic rebels and the anticlerical Mexican government of the time. While the actual war lasted from 1926 to 1929, its roots were in the 1857 Constitution of Mexico, which aimed to rid the nation of its heavy Catholic influence. Following the Mexican Revolution, the new 1917 Constitution revisited such provisions for religious persecution.

Cristiada will reportedly be Mexico's biggest production ever, though the film will be in English. Coming off the LOTR and Narnia films, we can probably expect large battle sequences and great set pieces, yet it's hard to imagine Wright needing to apply his visual effects experience here. Between this and his Biblical epic Kingdom Come, it's presumable the filmmaker is now less interested in fantasy and science fiction than movies celebrating Christianity. Considering The Passion of the Christ grossed around the same domestically as each of the LOTR installments, it doesn't seem like a lesser direction to go in, either.





Framestore's Avatar VFX Crew Pulls 11 hour days for 7 Months

(thenational.ae)                 The buzz from the production company Fox is that Avatar represents a quantum leap for special effects, akin to the likes of King Kong, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jurassic Park. But many fear that, due to its heavy reliance on digital effects, Avatar is just as likely to become the next Phantom Menace.

Despite these early reservations, the small number of reviews that have emerged in the past few days have been largely positive. The trade paper Variety called Cameron’s new world “a place worth visiting” and The Hollywood Reporter refered to the “jaw-dropping wonder” of Avatar.

“Special effects have become more than just embellishments within films, now they seem to be the driving force behind the way films are conceived and marketed,” says Simon Hunter, the president of the New York Film Academy, Abu Dhabi.

“Home cinemas have changed the reasons why we go to the movies, and now Hollywood is looking to create event pictures with extraordinary special effects that force people to see something on the big screen.”

Throughout his career, Cameron has pioneered the use of computer-generated imagery in films such as Titanic, Terminator 2 and The Abyss. Although much of Avatar is computer-generated, its live-action elements were filmed using the Fusion 3D camera system, invented by Cameron for the project.

“The potential pitfall is that when you have too many toys to play with and the focus becomes the toys and not the story. Story is still everything in filmmaking,” warns Hunter.

Avatar also uses the same actor-driven motion-capture technology that brought Gollum to life in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and can currently be seen in Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol.

To craft the most technically ambitious film in cinema history, Cameron enlisted the services of three of the world’s top visual-effects companies: Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital, George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic and the London-based outfit Framestore.

“It involved a hideous number of man hours. We simply didn’t do conventional working days,” says Jonathan Fawkner, a VFX supervisor at Framestore. The company won an Academy Award for its work on the 2007 film The Golden Compass and has also provided digital effects for the Harry Potter films, as well as The Dark Night and many others.

Avatar demanded that nearly 150 of Framestore’s artists and animators work 11 hour days for seven months – all for just three of the films special-effects sequences. By contrast, the team at Weta Digital spent almost four years on the film.

Having worked so intensely on Avatar, and with an acute awareness of the technological challenges involved, Fawkner believes that the film’s reputation as a giant leap forward in the evolution of special effects is well deserved.

“Does Avatar represent a pinnacle? I think so,” he says. “The technology is the best that’s available and James Cameron doesn’t set the bar low. There’s no wool to be pulled over his eyes. If he could have come to London and pushed a mouse around, he probably would have.”





Thor Writers to Pen Vampire Apocalypse

(The Hollywood Reporter)               Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, who wrote Thor for Marvel Studios, will pen the futuristic vampire project Damn Nation at Paramount.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Dark Horse Entertainment is producing the adaptation, which is based on a comic by Andrew Cosby and art by Jason Alexander (not the "Seinfeld" actor).

Set in a U.S. evacuated after an attack from "inhuman nocturnal predators," the comic tells the tale of the survivors after the government has been forced to relocate to London while scientists search for a solution.





300 Prequel Moves Forward

(Los Angeles Times)                Frank Miller says the new project, his follow-up to 300, now titled Xerxes, begins about 10 years before the events of 300, and Zack Snyder has expressed interest in it as a film property as well. "It's the battle of Marathon through my lens," Miller said. "I've finished the plot and I'm getting started on the artwork."

Miller said that during his research trips to Greece he realized that the myth and history overlap begins to blur, which adds to the storytelling allure. "The fact and the myth are inseparable and, believe me, when you go sailing for a while in the Aegean Sea, you start believing in Poseidon."

300 earned $456 million in theaters worldwide.






'Star Trek' Sequel To Reflect Contemporary War Issues 

(latimesblogs.latimes.com)               Here's what Roberto Orci, one of the show's key creators, had to say:

    "We’ve literally had two meetings now. We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas. We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.’ We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.

I asked Orci somewhat flippantly if that meant we might see Starfleet grappling with the ethics of torture or dealing with a rising terrorist threat or perhaps a painful, politicized war with the Klingons.

    "Well yeah, those are the kind of issues we're talking about. Wow, you're good! But seriously that's the way we're thinking, that's an approach. So if you have any ideas ... "






Avatar Scores Best Motion Picutre Nom for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards

(The Hollywood Foreign Press Association)               The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominations for "The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards" this morning which you can view below. The awards will take place Sunday, January 17, 2010, at The Beverly Hilton with a live telecast airing on NBC at 8 PM (EST).


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Coraline
The Princess and the Frog
Up


BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Up in the Air






Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor Joins With Infiniti To Build $200 Million-plus Fund

(Variety.com)                   Hong Kong private equity firm Infiniti Capital has set up a fund with the Chengdu-based Green Leaf Film Studios and Richard Taylor, co-founder of the Weta vfx house in New Zealand, to raise between $200 million and $400 million to invest in film, TV and other projects for the Chinese market.

The fund, called Panda Screen Prods., will focus on animated and visual effects-driven live-action products, especially those with merchandising potential. Some products will be China-focused, while others will have broader appeal.

Infiniti Capital’s Hong Kong subsidiary, Infiniti Advantage, will manage the fund.

Chinese productions will be co-produced by Green Leaf Film Studios and the team is in discussions with entertainment industry experts to support the project. The group is also in talks with the regional government about access to facilities, land and resources.

Milestone Capital, a New Zealand-based private investment group, helped set up the fund.

Infiniti Capital also has offices in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia.





What Might -- and Might Not -- Win the Visual Effects Oscar

When it comes to the Academy Award for best visual effects, you might think there are too many possible contenders to put on one ballot. And you'd be right. That's why the Academy Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee has narrowed it down to a list of 15 semifinalists, from which the nominees and eventual winner will be chosen. Here's what's in the running now:

Angels & Demons, Avatar, Coraline, A Christmas Carol, District 9, G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 2012, Watchmen, and Where the Wild Things Are.

In a couple weeks, the committee will narrow the list down even further, to seven entries, and then 15-minute excerpts of those seven films will be shown to all the members of the Academy's Visual Effects Branch. The branch will then vote to determine the three actual nominees.

Scanning the list of 2009 releases, I note the following films that might conceivably have been nominated for this award but that didn't make the shortlist:

Drag Me to Hell, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Land of the Lost, New Moon, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Ninja Assassin, Surrogates, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Considering a lot of the CGI work in shortlisted Sherlock Holmes is aggressively bad, I would argue that something like Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian should have taken its place, but I don't think I can muster enough energy to be truly outraged at any of the omissions. Can you?