Category: Visual Effects

Sony has hired a writing team to pen SPIDER-MAN spinoff focused on Venom, according to SCI FI WIRE.

Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (ZOMBIELAND) are at work on the script, they told reporters in a group interview. Rabid fan scrutiny is already on their minds, even though they are under strict orders not to divulge secrets: "Absolutely. I'm terrified," Reese said with a nervous laugh. "It's source material that everybody knows and everybody's familiar with and everybody loves. There's a burden on you to meet the expectations of people. A lot of people are curious about Venom."

cmiVFX | cmiStudios launches a brand new video for Autodesk's Softimage ICE product line. cmiVFX sought the help of ICE Master, Thiago Costa, who is currently dealing with ICE on several projects in a professional production pipeline. This video is available now at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store at http://cmivfx.com/store/Browse.aspx?Category=30

Introduction to ICE workflow:

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED, the new film from director Richard Curtis (LOVE ACTUALLY, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) is an ensemble comedy that features several key sequences with VFX from Double Negative. The centers on the lives and adventures of a band of DJs that captivate 1960s Britain, playing the music that defines a generation from their pirate radio station based on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The cast reads like a who's who of British cinema with Billy Nighy, Kenneth Brannagh and Rhys Ifans to name a few.

Universal Pictures, starting up their three-year deal with Dark Horse Comics, will make UMBRELLA ACADEMY into a feature film, per VARIETY.

UMBRELLA was created by Gerard Way, the lead singer of rock band My Chemical Romance, and will have a script by RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN's Mark Bomback.

First published in 2007 and spinning of a second series, the property is about a disbanded group of superheroes who reunite after the death of their adoptive father, who was an alien. They carry out his plan to save the world.

Kyle Gallner (THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, SMALLVILLE) has joined the cast of New Line's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake, per VARIETY.

Gallner joins as a teen lead, opposite Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. Samuel Bayer will direct and Wesley Strick wrote the script.

Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form at Platinum Dunes and John Rickard will co-produce.

Gallner will appear in Fox Atomic's upcoming thriller JENNIFER'S BODY and plays the Flash on CW's SMALLVILLE.

For all those job-hunters in creative fields who need a strategic edge in the salary negotiation process -- or who simply could benefit from the motivation salary knowledge can provide, Industry Wages Inc. has delivered a new tool. The company has launched the website VFXWages.com (http://www.vfxwages.com) as a free way for these professionals and students to determine the latest information on salaries and hourly wages in their market.

Ralph Fiennes is in advanced negotiations to star as Hades in CLASH OF THE TITANS at Warner Bros., per VARIETY.

He would join Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Alexa Davalos and Sam Worthington in Louis Leterrier's film. Liam Neeson was set to play Zeus, but the death of his wife Natasha Richardson last month has made his involvement uncertain.

Fiennes will return to the role of Voldemort in the final HARRY POTTER installment, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART II, set to begin production in the fall.

Book publisher HarperCollins is preparing two new Michael Crichton books for late this year and late 2010, per VARIETY.

The author of JURASSIC PARK, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, CONGO, RISING SUN and others died last year of cancer at age 66.

fxphd.com, the project-based online visual effects training resource led by visual effects professionals, is launching a ground-breaking series of courses based on vfx material it produced for the brand new RED DWARF miniseries, RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH, which was commissioned exclusively by Dave, the home of witty banter.

The lead roles in RIVERWORLD and THE PHANTOM -- two of SCI FI Channel and RHI Entertainment's recently-announced trio of four-hour movie events --- have been cast and production on both back-door movie pilots has started.

Sony will adapt SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, a popular videogame at sister division Sony Computer Entertainment, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Risky Biz Blog.

Justin marks (20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA) is attached to write the script with Kevin Misher to produce.

The game was developed for the PlayStation 2 and released in 2005. It's story follows Wander, who travels with his horse Agro across a Western-style landscape, fighting enemies known as Collosi to save his love, Mono.

British director Mike Newell is set to helm Brilliant Films' adaptation of John Masefield's children's novel BOX OF DELIGHTS, per VARIETY.

The 1930s classic book follows a boy who is entrusted with a magic box that he uses to travel through time. Frank Cottrell Boyce is producing.

Brilliant Films' Joe Abrams and Rory Gilmartin will exec produce with Newell with Sarah Radclyffe, Courtney Pledger and Esther Douglass to produce.