THE TEN, a feature film directed by David Wain featuring Paul Rudd, Wionan Ryder, and Jessica Alba features a seven-minute animated segment called, THE LYING RHINO, animated by Augenblick Studios. Produced by Wain, Jonathan Stern and Paul Rudd, THE TEN is a THINKFilm release opening Aug. 3, 2007.
Masters of comedy Wain and Ken Marino team up behind the scenes and in front of the camera to create THE TEN; a smart, and irreverent film about breaking all the rules. Directed by Wain and written by Wain and Marino, THE TEN presents a series of interconnected comic sketches designed to reinterpret -- and reinvent -- the Ten Commandments, making them “meaningful†(and funny) to a young, hip, audience of contemporary sinners. Each story is told in a different style, but contains overlapping characters and themes.
THE LYING RHINO is the only animated section of the movie illustrates, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." It's about a rhino whose penchant for lying leads his entire community to perish from a deadly sex orgy. "My style is very highly influenced by the early animated films of the 1930s. said Aaron Augenblick, producer and founder of Augenblick Studios. "I wanted it to look very classically drawn and animated while still remaining weird and new. I tried to imagine what Fleischer Studios would create if they were hired to make a cartoon today. The subject matter is actually very dark, so we tried to counter it with visuals that were vibrant and goofy.
"LYING RHINO was created here in my studio in Brooklyn with a small team of amazingly talented artists: Chris Burns, Jeremy Jusay, Mike Wartella, and Kristofer Wollinger," added Augenblick.
Adam Brody, Gretchen Mol, Famke Janssen, Rob Corddry, Liev Schreiber, Oliver Platt, Justin Theroux and Marino are also part of the all-star cast that puts the sin back in cinema.
Augenblick founded Augenblick Studios (
www.augenblickstudios.com ) in 1999, an animation production facility located in Brooklyn, New York. His company has produced a wide variety of works for television, film, and the Internet. Clients include MTV, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, PBS, Nickelodeon, AT&T and Spike Lee. In addition to commercial projects, Augenblick Studios has produced a string of critically acclaimed independent short films. RAMBLIN MAN (2000), DRUNKY (2001) and PLUGS MCGINNISS (2003) have been seen at film festivals throughout the world, including Annecy, South by Southwest, Florida and Slamdance.
Augenblick Studios created the animated content for two seasons of WONDER
SHOWZEN, a cult favorite for MTV. In 2006, Augenblick wrote and directed GOLDEN AGE, a faux-documentary that examined the scandalous private lives of iconic cartoon characters from the past. The 10-episode series was originally created for Comedy Central’s broadband channel Motherload and was later released as a 22-minute short film. GOLDEN AGE was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and played in numerous festivals throughout the world.
Augenblick Studios is working on SUPERJAIL, a new animated series for Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network.
