Category: Visual Effects

Sony Electronics is teaming with FOX Sports and a roster of technology providers to deliver the first live 3-D presentation of next month's college football FedEx Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game between the University of Florida and University of Oklahoma. The announcement was made during the Sports Video Group annual League Technology Summit.

THE SPIRIT team of Frank Miller and Odd Lot Ent. are close to reuniting to make a film adaptation of sci-fi property BUCK ROGERS, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Odd Lot's Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete are in negotiations to option the rights from Nu Image/Millennium, who obtained them earlier this year from Dille Trust. Millennium will get a credit on the finished film, but will not be involved in production.

New York-based design and VFX studio Click 3X recently produced title sequences for two feature films from Academy Award-winning directors, Jonathan Demme's RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, and Davis Guggenheim's IT MIGHT GET LOUD. Both projects involved heavy stylistic experimentation and hands-on collaboration with the directors to develop sequences that embody and introduce the subject, complement the film openings, and add to the overall storylines.

Award-winning writer-producer-director Christopher Nolan will receive the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Board of Governors Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to advancing the art of filmmaking. Nolan will be feted during the 23rd Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration on February 15, at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Director Adam Shankman, signing onto two projects this week, is in final negotiations to direct Sony's SINBAD and will helm Disney's BOB THE MUSICAL, reports VARIETY.

SINBAD, which is a long-in-the-works project at the studio, has Neal Moritz producing under his Sony-based Original Film banner, with Original's Toby Jaffe exec producing with Shankman and Jennifer Gigbot, Shankman's sister.

The story centers on Sinbad and his crew, who are marooned off the coast of China and start out on a quest to find Aladdin's lamp.

This week The Gnomon Workshop releases a wide range of new titles to help you end 2008 on a very positive note. From THE SKINNED CHARACTER RIG to WATERCOLOR AND GOUACHE PAINTING, these DVDs offer something for everyone.

COLOR THEORY: THE MECHANICS OF COLORAPPLIED AND THEORETICAL COLOR WITH RICHARD KEYES

DVD and Blu-ray sales for THE DARK KNIGHT have broken records this week with 1.7 million Blu-ray discs sold and more than 13.5 million total DVDs and Blu-ray discs sold so far worldwide.

Global sales include U.S., U.K., Canada, Japan, Benelux and Australia and consist of consumer sales and rental sales in one week. More than one million Blu-ray discs were sold in the U.S. alone.

The trial to determine whether rights to WATCHMEN are controlled by Twentieth Century Fox or Warner Bros. has been delayed by a Los Angeles federal judge to January 20, reports VARIETY.

The two-week delay was set by Judge Gary Allen Feess on Monday, who noted that he is required to handle a criminal matter on January 6, the original trial date. Feess refused a pre-trial summary judgment that was requested by both sides because the contracts between Fox and WATCHMEN producer Larry Gordon are so open to interpretation that a trial is required.

Gore Verbinski (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) and Universal have bought the rights to a WALL STREET JOURNAL article depicting the detrimental effect that online fantasy role-playing games have on people's real lives, per VARIETY.

The 2007 article, by Alexandra Alter, focuses on a married man who spends upwards of 20 hours a day at his computer, role playing as a muscled entrepreneur, when he is in fact a diabetic, chain-smoking 53-year-old.

Midway Games has to lay off 25 percent of its staff and has canceled several projects in early development in order to cut costs as a $150 million debt payment looms, reports VARIETY.

The January deadline for Midway's outstanding notes was triggered when Sumner Redstone sold the videogame publisher to a private investor, Mark Thomas, several weeks ago. Midway is working with advisory firm Lazard to find a way to pay off or renegotiate debt, as it is lacking the cash to pay it off.

The official site for CORALINE, the first 3-D stop-motion animated feature, is now live.

Produced by Oregon-based Laika Ent., directed by Henry Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) and based on Neil Gaiman's novella, CORALINE opens Feb. 6, 2009 from Focus Features. It's a Grimm-inspired fairy tale about a melancholy young girl who discovers a hidden passageway in an old house to an opposite world.