Former Goodby, Silverstein and Partners' Creative Director Randy Sotwell has merged with One Man Crime Wave's Jeff Linnell and Exec Producer Julia Scahill to launch a creative production company in San Francisco's Potrero Hill.
Autofuss will officially open on November 20.
IMAX Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox have reached agreement on material terms to release the highly anticipated 3-D motion picture AVATAR in IMAX 3-D simultaneously with the motion picture's premiere in conventional 3-D theatres on December 18, 2009.
With today's traditional workstation model pricing, many organizations can only afford to deploy professional graphics solutions to select designers and engineers, leaving a significant portion of the workforce with sub-optimal products. NVIDIA Quadro FX 470 is the first integrated professional motherboard GPU, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 370 Low Profile (Quadro FX 370 LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics boards for small form factor systems.
Relativity Media is in the final stages of negotiating with actor Henry Cavill to star as Theseus in WAR OF THE GODS by director Tarsem Singh, per VARIETY.
Warner Bros., for their part, is talking to Sam Worthington to play Perseus in their Louis Leterrier-helmed CLASH OF THE TITANS.
While different in plot, the two films are both themed in Greek mythology and will use the greenscreen technique 300 used to great success, while keeping the respective budgets under $100 million.
As the largest in-town shopping and leisure destination in Europe, Westfield London is aiming to create a real stir with shoppers of all stripes. Having opened in W12 on October 30, 2008, the complex keeps late evening hours for shopping and even later hours for dining. So a spectacular launch spot was planned, featuring a host of people sprouting wings and launching themselves, moth-like, towards the seductive glowing light in the west at night.
Jack Black will play the title role in Twentieth Century Fox's adaptation of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, per VARIETY.
SHARK TALE director Rob Letterman will direct the film about free-spirited travel writer Lemuel Gulliver, who washes ashore on an island of tiny people called Lilliputians while on assignment in the Bermuda Triangle. This new version would be a contemporary re-imagining of the classic 1726 tale from author Jonathan Swift.
Paul Pope's unreleased graphic novel BATTLING BOY will be turned into a film from Paramount and Brad Pitt's Plan B production shingle, per VARIETY.
Coming spring 2010 by First Second Books, the story follows the son of a god or superhero who comes down from the mountaintop to rid a city of monsters.
Pope is known for his HEAVY LIQUID and BATMAN: YEAR 100 comics series, and has won multiple Eisner Awards. Writing and illustrating his own work, he worked for years at Japanese manga publisher Kodansha.
For Q3 2008, Marvel reported net sales of $182.5 million and net income of $50.6 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, compared to net sales of $123.6 million and net income of $36.3 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, in Q3 2007. The year-over-year improvement reflects an earlier-than-expected recognition of approximately $60 million in film revenues associated with the box office performance of Marvel's IRON MAN feature film.
However, with the lack of a new film scheduled for 2009, Marvel Chairman Morton Handel expects next year to be more modest.
Actor Steve Carell, who signed a three-year first look deal with Warner Bros. recently, is reportedly on board for a GET SMART sequel -- but would like a pay raise, says the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.
Carell's deal with WB does not include a GET SMART follow-up, for which the studio earned $130 million domestically and $230 internationally on the original. Carell, who was paid in the range of $500,000 just three years ago, has a market worth of about $15 million now. "He would like more money to do the sequel," a studio insider told the DAILY NEWS.
GameRecruiter, a recruitment agency for the interactive entertainment industry, has announced the five winners of their debut 3D artwork contest, the "Battle of the SuperModelers."
Digital-Tutors, an Autodesk Authorized Publisher and leader in video-based training, today announced RENDER PASSES IN MAYA 2009 -- the latest release in a library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using Maya 2009. RENDER PASSES IN MAYA 2009 contains two hours of project-based training and provides artists with methods to gaining precise control over render outputs and time-saving techniques to optimizing the interoperability between Maya and compositing software such as Toxik.
Academy Award-winning digital production studio Digital Domain announced a number of major feature films that are currently in production at its studio:
--THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, directed by David Fincher, releasing December 25, 2008 from Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures.--TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, directed by Michael Bay, releasing in June 2009 from DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures.--2012, from director Roland Emmerich, releasing in July 2009 from Columbia Pictures.
Fox's upcoming release THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, is currently featuring a contest on the official movie site for users to create their own interpretation of GORT, the robot sent to destroy Earth.
Highest-rated fan entries will be displayed in select IMAX theatres and featured on the DVD edition.
Enter your art and view the gallery at http://www.thedaytheearthstoodstillmovie.com/gortlives/. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL comes to theaters and IMAX on December 12, 2008.
Welcome to November, as we provide a sneak peek at the top 10 Holiday VFX movies (Digital Domain ages Brad Pitt seamlessly in David Fincher's highly anticipated THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and Weta Digital re-imagines THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL). Plus Pete Rizkalla discovers what it's like to be Bond, James Bond, in the new QUANTUM OF SOLACE game from Activision, which bows this week. And in latest excerpt from THE OFFICIAL LUXOLOGY MODO 301 GUIDE, we learn all about Shader Tree fundamentals.
Bill DesowitzEditor
Bestselling author Michael Crichton, who wrote thrillers JURASSIC PARK, TIMELINE and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, has died at age 66, reports the ASSOCIATED PRESS.
His family said he succumbed Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after a private battle against cancer.
"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.
SAW V's Exec Producer, Dan Heffner, hired Jon Campfens as the visual effects supervisor and his studio Switch VFX for the fifth installment of the highly successful franchise. Toronto-based Switch VFX has been involved in the SAW franchise since SAW III, creating all the visual effects for the last three films and the head title sequences for the last two films.
For SAW V, Switch VFX had to create 155 shots for the film and were also responsible for the opening title sequence as well. The majority of the visual effects worked on were invisible effects work.
Royale, the year-old creative design/production studio led by Creative Directors Jayson Whitmore and Brien Holman, and Exec Producer Jennifer Lucero, got in on the joke with Comedy Central -- creating the entire branding for the network's "Indecision 2008" political coverage, as well as a hilarious segment of THE DAILY SHOW in which host Jon Stewart introduces the Royale created look. ''This year you won't have settle for their over-promising graphics and underperforming anchors,'' Stewart says before counting down the launch, ''This year you can settle for ours."
Universal Pictures beat out three other studios on Sunday for EA's unreleased and unannounced videogame DANTE'S INFERNO (working title), per VARIETY. Set to hit the marketplace next year, the videogame is the second EA title in a week to go to Universal.
ARMY OF TWO was purchased by the studio for Scott Stuber to produce (via EA) and Scott Z. Burns (THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM) to write.
Leading visual effects software developer The Foundry is now shipping Ocula -- the unique collection of plug-in tools that solve common problems with stereoscopic imagery, boost productivity in post production, and ultimately help to deliver a more rewarding stereoscopic viewing experience.
Ocula plug-ins are designed to automatically replicate key processes on left and right channels and help artists polish and refine stereoscopic material, literally removing headaches from the final viewing experience.
VES is now accepting entries for its first-ever Student Award. The deadline for submissions is December 5, 2008, and the winning student will receive the award live at the 7th Annual VES Awards Show, to be held on February 21, 2009 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are in the midst of discussions with Sony Pictures to help finance their TINTIN trilogy, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
TINTIN is set up a Paramount Pictures, but Jackson and Spielberg are trying to get Sony to help co-finance and co-distribute the films. Universal Pictures just finalized a seven-year distribution with the newly Paramount-free DreamWorks, but they declined to finance half of the first film at a hefty $130 million price tag.
Digital-Tutors, an Autodesk Authorized Publisher and leader in video-based training, has announced MODELING INTERIORS IN 3DS MAX -- the newest release in a library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using 3ds Max. MODELING INTERIORS IN 3DS MAX provides artists with five and a half hours of project-based training to learning a production workflow to interior set modeling and time-saving modeling techniques for use feature film, game design, and architectural visualization industries.
24, the Emmy Award-winning series starring Kiefer Sutherland, will premiere with a special two-night, four-hour event Sunday, January 11 and Monday, January 12 (8-10 p.m. ET/PT) on FOX. The series, returning for its seventh season, celebrates its milestone 150th episode during the fourth hour of the not-to-be-missed two-night premiere.
Opening in the U.K., France and Sweden two weeks before the U.S. Sony/MGM's QUANTUM OF SOLACE earned a huge $38.6M in 2,123 playdates over the weekend, per VARIETY.
The new Bond flick took in 70 percent of the British box office for the weekend, making $25.3M in 1,150 theaters and breaking HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE's three-day launch. The Daniel Craig-starrer set a Friday record with $8M, about 23 percent higher than 2005's GOBLET.
In an unusually early bidding war, four studios are battling for a new videogame from Electronic Arts -- that hasn't yet been announced publicly, per VARIETY.
About a journey through the depths of hell, sources say the game is likely to be titled DANTE'S INFERNO, and while EA has cleared the title for use, it has not officially titled it. EA and its representation declined to comment Thursday evening.
