Marvel Ent. has promoted Simon Philips to President, Worldwide Consumer Products. Philips, who was previously President, Marvel International, will also remain in the role as Marvel's Head of Worldwide Animation.
Software training video provider Lynda.com has launched online training for the just-released Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family.
With more than 100 hours of instructional videos on Creative Suite 4 training, comprised of 34 different product training tutorials, with dozens of additional courses planned for the coming months, this collection of training is being called "CS4U" and can be accessed at www.lynda.com/CS4U.
You can experience the heart-pounding adventure of the new thriller EAGLE EYE first hand with 10-minute interactive game: EAGLE EYE FREE FALL.
Don't just watch the movie, live it.
Marking Maya's 10th anniversary with the release of the 2009 edition, Ellen Wolff recounts some of the highlights and latest achievements with Autodesk's Kevin Tureski. Meanwhile, Tom McLean finds out how Sony Pictures Imageworks utilized a new in-house renderer called Arnold to help with the real-world look for the thriller EAGLE EYE. And this weekend marks the first 5D conference devoted to "The future of Immersive Design" at Cal State University Long Beach, organized by production designer Alex McDowell (WATCHMEN). The team has put together quite an impressive lineup.
Industrial Light & Magic touted its work on IRON MAN at a recent press event in conjunction with today's DVD and Blu-ray release from Paramount Home Ent. Ben Snow (vfx supervisor), Hal Hickel (animation director) and Aaron McBride (vfx art director) were on hand to demo and discuss their work.
Director Michael Bay will shoot key sequences of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN with IMAX cameras. The IMAX footage will be integrated with CGI for the sequel to last year's box office hit, TRANSFORMERS.
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, from DreamWorks and Paramount, will be released to IMAX theatres simultaneously with the movie's wide release on June 26, 2009.
Paramount Pictures will distribute Marvel Studios' next five self-produced feature films on a worldwide basis.
The deal, an extension of the original agreement made by Brad Grey when he arrived as CEO and Chairman of Paramount, includes theatrical distribution in foreign territories previously serviced by Marvel through local distribution entities (Japan, Germany, France, Spain and Australia/New Zealand). This new worldwide distribution pact capitalizes on Marvel and Paramount’s successful efforts with IRON MAN, which has grossed $574 million worldwide for Marvel.
Sci Fi Channel has acquired the U.S. television rights to the two STARGATE films STARGATE: THE ARK OF TRUTH and STARGATE: CONTINUUM, which will mark their U.S. television premiere on the channel. Both films are set to air in spring 2009.
With 3-D productions on the rise, advances in stereoscopic motion picture technology enable filmmakers to reach audiences in more ways than ever before. On Friday, October 17, at 8 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council will offer an in-depth analysis of 3D techniques in "Getting Perspective II: The Art and Science of 3-D Motion Pictures."
Softimage training partner Digital-Tutors have released THE ICE NODES REFERENCE LIBRARY, the first online, non-linear approach to learning every unique ICE Node in SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7, the newest version of the complete 3D package for modeling, animating, rendering, and character development. The ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) platform in XSI is a multi-threaded scalable platform that allows artists to create 3D tools and effects through connecting ICE Nodes.
Director and actor Kenneth Branagh is in negotiations to direct Marvel Studios' THOR, per VARIETY.
THOR is set for a July 16, 2010 release date, just more than two months after IRON MAN 2 bows on May 7, 2010. Branagh, known best for his Shakespeare films, has not directed a film heavy on action since HENRY V in 1989, about the play about the English king's bloody conquest of France.
5D: The Future of Immersive Design Conference has added two industry luminaries to its program, scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday on the California State University at Long Beach (CSULB) campus.
Evan Hirsch, Creative Director of Microsoft Live Labs, will join the Saturday panel, "Narrating Space," while Emmy-winning production designer J. Michael Riva will participate during the Sunday session, "Bigger Bang: Colliding Science and Design."
Pixologic Inc. has launched the ZBrush Turntable Gallery. The first of its kind, the ZBrush Turntable Gallery allows viewers to interactively rotate a 3D model a full 360 degrees.
The gallery will allow artists to further appreciate and study ZBrush sculptures in a way that could not be done with just a still image. With every turn of the model, new forms and details are revealed, giving you an entirely new image to study.
LipSync Post has completed full post-production, including vfx, titles, DI and audio on independent British film, HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE, starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges. The film, which follows a British writer's struggles to fit in at glossy New York magazine, is also the highest profile film to date to come out of LipSync's film production division.
Luxology's Nexus technology was used to jointly develop PhotoView 360, the new design visualization application that is bundled with SolidWorks Premium and Professional 2009 editions.
Designed to deliver new levels of interactivity, the software features physically based lighting, a library of realistic surface appearances and a collection of studio-quality lighting environments. Nexus is the core rendering technology behind PhotoView 360. Information on PhotoView 360 and the complete SolidWorks 2009 offering is available at www.solidworks.com.
Comic WAR HEROES by Mark Millar has been purchased by Sony for Michael DeLuca to produce, per VARIETY.
Sony's Columbia Pictures is looking for a writer to adapt the books, which were published starting in June from Image Comics. Sony won the six-part property over several other studios.
Millar will exec produce with Zach Schiff Abrams. The story is about an experimental military program that gives soldiers superpowers. A hero amongst the ranks rises up to stop a rogue group of soldiers who use their powers for criminal misdeeds.
The estate of THE LORD OF THE RINGS author J.R.R. Tolkien lost a round in its ongoing dispute with New Line Cinema, per VARIETY (via THE ASSOCIATED PRESS). A judge has barred the estate from seeking punitive damages against the studio who brought the highly-profitable trilogy to the big screen.
Tolkien's heirs content that New Line did not pay them any royalties from the estimated $6 billion the films have grossed worldwide. The lawsuit seeks more than $150 million in compensatory damages based on breach of contract, fraud and other claims.
Warner Bros. is offering Academy members the option to receive screeners in Blu-ray format instead of the traditional watermarked DVDs, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The winner here, is Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT, which is the rare summer mega-blockbuster to garner awards-season buzz as well and could benefit from a Blu-ray screener.
Finish have just completed post on an endearing new commercial for Ireland's EasiSingles cheese slices.
The commercial opens with a little boy returning from a day at school looking very sorry for himself, a little dark and stormy cloud hovering above his head pouring rain onto him. His loving mother soon gets some EasiSingles cheese on toast and pops it under the grill. As soon as he sees it this his mood lifts, the little cloud getting lighter until his first bite when the storm completely disperses and the sun comes out.
In an interview with Roger Ebert, director Spike Lee may have let it slip that George Lucas has finally hired a director for his long-awaited war movie RED TAILS, about the Tuskegee Airman, per COMINGSOON.net.
Earlier this year, Lucas mentioned he wanted to move forward with RED TAILS. There have been rumors of directors attached to the project, including Samuel L. Jackson in his directorial debut, ever since.
SplutterFish, creators of Brazil Rendering System, are working with a new rendering technology, and are offering cash prizes in exchange for help from the 3ds Max community. Brazil r/s is already one of the most advanced renderers available, and SplutterFish is developing the next generation of the product -- a technological leap that will transform the creative workflow of visual effects artists, industrial designers and architects worldwide.
ABC Family has pre-bought the basic cable rights to air upcoming HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE and the 2007 release HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, per VARIETY.
The network already has a contract with the four previous HARRY POTTER films. The films are a cornerstone of ABC Family's annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming slate and often get prime airing slots, according to Tom Zappala, SVP of program acquisitions and scheduling for ABC Family.
Mobile game developer and publisher Magmic Games, and Paramount Digital Ent., have launched a mobile game version of EAGLE EYE, based on DreamWorks' race-against-time thriller directed by D.J. Caruso and exec-produced by Steven Spielberg starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie and Billy Bob Thornton. The game has been designed in parallel with the movie's climactic plot.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) along with the journal SCIENCE, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), have announced the winners of their sixth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.
Illustrators, photographers, computer programmers, and graphics specialists from around the world were invited to submit visualizations that would intrigue, explain, and educate. More than 180 entries were received from 21 countries.
Santa Monica/NYC design/production studio Blind Visual Propaganda breathes life into the financial pages, navigating investors through uncertain terrain in a new campaign for OppenheimerFunds, out of Euro RSCG, New York.
