Veteran ICM agent Ben Smith has been tapped by Ludlum Ent. to become President of its newly established production entity, which maintains a first look arrangement with Universal Pictures.
Who is Watching the Watchmen? Now, iTunes customers can watch special WATCHMEN features exclusively available as free downloads on the iTunes Store.
Available on iTunes and the Apple App Store at www.itunes.com/watchmenmovie are: an exclusive WATCHMEN film sequence, previously only shown at San Diego's Comic-Con Convention; the "Essential WATCHMEN" app for iPhone and iPod touch; multiple behind-the-scenes video journal podcasts; film clips; trailers; and other features exploring the creation of one of the most anticipated films of 2009.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL will be released day-and-date in theaters, IMAX theatres domestically and internationally and, for the first time ever, a deep space release.
The first deliberate deep space transmission of the science fiction thriller will begin this Friday, December 12, 2008, to coincide with the film's opening day on Planet Earth. If any civilizations are currently orbiting Alpha Centauri, they will be able to receive and view the film approximately four years from now -- in the year 2012.
Universal Pictures made several major changes to their 2009 release schedule on Tuesday, per VARIETY.
Horror franchise hopeful THE WOLFMAN will move from April 3 to November 6 to give it a more high-profile release, and Ridley Scott's NOTTINGHAM with Russell Crowe has been moved to sometime in 2010.
FAST & FURIOUS, the fourth installment of the racing franchise, is complete already, so Universal has moved it up from June 12 to April 3, taking WOLFMAN's place.
VFX facility CafeFX has announced their 2009 visual effects production slate. CafeFX has been awarded work on films from directors like Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Stephen Sommers and Brad Silberling, as well as a major theme park attraction.
To meet the creative needs of a production pipeline in high gear and to provide accessibility and convenience for its Westside clients, CafeFX has expanded its art department to the fourth floor of the building it shares with The Syndicate, its Santa Monica-based sister company.
Luxology has released two new sets of videos focused on architectural subjects. Using modo 302, Luxology's artist-friendly 3D content creation software, the "Architectural Modeling" video training album demonstrates how to create an architectural model from a given set of dimensions, and the "Architectural Interior: Lighting and Rendering" video album provides techniques for creating compelling day and night shots of a contemporary interior living space. To expedite the learning experience, Luxology provides pre-built models and images with each tutorial.
Autodesk, Inc. will be exhibiting at SIGGRAPH Asia conference and exhibition, held in Singapore, Dec. 10-13, 2008. The inaugural conference is expected to be the region's largest computer graphics event.
Tim Connors has been named Chief Operating Officer of Marvel Studios, the Hollywood subsidiary of Marvel Ent. In his new role, Connors will manage Marvel Studios' day-to-day business operations as well as oversee the business transactions for all studio productions including the anticipated releases of IRON MAN 2 on May 7, 2010, THOR on July 16, 2010, THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA on May 6, 2011, THE AVENGERS in July 15, 2011 and ANT MAN.
Los Angeles-based vfx and design company Asylum has signed award-winning animation director Piotr Karwas.
Karwas brings more than 10 years of experience in the film industry to Asylum. While working for visual effects facility Digital Domain, he played an integral part in several high-profile feature films, including Peter Jackson's THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, Alex Proyas' I, ROBOT and Tim Burton's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
BOXX Technologies, an innovator in high-performance computing systems for vfx, design professionals, and advanced visualization, has posted a peak of 102 for the benchmark SPECfp_rate_2006 on its 3DBOXX 8450 Special Edition Workstation.
The Original Crew of the Starship Enterprise are roaring to the iPhone and iPod touch from IDW Publishing and iVerse Media.
Available immediately, STAR TREK ARCHIVES: THE BEST OF PETER DAVID #1 is the first issue of the ongoing digital comics series that reprints some of the best comics from Star Trek's illustrious history. Peter David is one of the most popular and respected STAR TREK writers, known for his mingling of humor and popular culture.
The fantasy comic series FABLES, from DC Comics, got a pilot commitment from ABC, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Published by DC's Vertigo imprint and created by Bill Willingham, the story follows characters from fairy tales and folklore living in exile in modern-day New York. Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner are writing the hourlong pilot script at Warner Bros. TV. The duo won't say yet which characters will be featured in the TV series, but Big Bad Wolf and Snow White will have a similar central role in the show as they do in the comics.
Summit Ent. and director Catherine Hardwicke jointly announced Monday that the filmmaker will not be directing the next installment in the newly minted TWILIGHT film franchise. Summit's targeted end of 2009 or early 2010 release of the film, NEW MOON, does not work with Hardwicke's required prep time to bring her vision of the film to the big screen. Thus as has been done before with many successful film franchises, the studio will employ a new director for NEW MOON.
NVIDIA Corporation has announced its full support for the newly-released OpenCL 1.0 specification from the Khronos Group. OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a new compute API that allows developers to harness the massive parallel computing power of the GPU. The addition of OpenCL is another major milestone in the GPU revolution that gives NVIDIA developers another powerful programming option.
This week The Gnomon Workshop releases a new series of three DVDs by renowned concept artist James Clyne. Clyne brings his vast production experience to these titles that focus on designing environments for feature films. Using three different scenarios (a futuristic cityscape, a historical castle siege scene and a contemporary loft set), he demonstrates how he uses Photoshop to efficiently render his concepts for films.
Transform everyday projects into masterpieces in motion with expert tips from Artbeats' new video podcast. World-renowned for its extensive library of royalty-free stock footage, Artbeats is now widely recognized as a source for creative inspiration and educational tools for incorporating motion into your everyday projects.
HOTEL FOR DOGS, the videogame based on the upcoming feature film, HOTEL FOR DOGS from DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, will jump, sit and stay in North America in January 2009 -- good dog! Coming to the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Windows-based PC, HOTEL FOR DOGS features the likenesses and voices of the movie's two young stars, Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin. And, of course, lots and lots of dogs.
Sci-fi comicbook ATLANTIS RISING will be turned into a feature film from DreamWorks, with Len Wiseman onboard to direct, per VARIETY. Wiseman, director of the UNDERWORLD series and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD also recently signed on to direct DreamWorks' upcoming thriller MOTORCADE.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will produce for DreamWorks. The duo brought the project to the studio back when it was under Paramount.
SMALLVILLE creators Al Gough and Miles Millar's spec script SALISBURY was picked up for Disney, and will soon make their feature directing debut, per VARIETY.
Gough and Millar will also produce the film in a deal worth seven figures. The duo just produced the HANNAH MONTANA movie for the studio and have a first-look deal there.
Plot is under wraps, but the title refers to a fictional town, and the plot will somehow revolve around a young cast and a supernatural element. Film's cost is estimated at $40 million.
The inaugural 3D Entertainment Summit wrapped up Wednesday, concluding two days of industry expert commentary, panel discussions defining business models and creative technique, 3D presentations of trailers, videogames and never-before-seen sneak previews of test footage and technology demonstrations.
Vanguard Films' John H. Williams bought the rights to cult comic series EMO BOY, with Kyle Newman onboard to direct, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The comic's writer-artist Stephen Edmond is writing the screenplay.
Sue Rowe, one of the U.K.'s most experienced Visual Effects Supervisors, has won the 2008 Panalux Craft Award, at the annual Women in Film and Television Awards, held at the Hilton Hotel at lunchtime earlier Friday.
The award is given to women who show excellence in the crafts involved in the production of film, television and digital media, and was presented to Rowe by Sir Patrick Stewart.
i3DTutorials, creators of training products for computer animation software, including SOFTIMAGE|XSI and Autodesk 3ds Max, are kicking off the holiday season with drastically reduced prices on all products.
Learn efficient and fast modeling techniques for creating 3D assets through the use of polygon and subdivision surfaces with the following products:
INTRODUCTION TO POLYGON MODELINGINTRODUCTION TO SUBD MODELING IN SOFTIMAGE|XSI
Warner Bros. Pictures is bringing THE DARK KNIGHT back for a return engagement in theatres and IMAX on January 23, 2009, giving audiences one more chance to see the film on the big screen. The film will re-open nationwide.
ComingSoon.net chatted with George Lucas at last night's American Cinemathque award honoring Samuel L. Jackson in Hollywood.
Lucas said they are seriously looking at a fifth INDIANA JONES film, but are hunting for that elusive "MacGuffin, which is an object that he goes after. They're very hard to come by," Lucas added.
