THE SIMPSONS MOVIE director David Silverman will develop and direct THE PET, a live-action sci-fi family comedy for Disney, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Scott Rudin and Craig Perry will produce, Sheila Hanahan Taylor and Mark Roybal are executive producing and Brigham Taylor and Casey Wolfe are overseeing for Disney.
Matt Lieberman wrote the script, which is about an average guy who becomes the pet of a group of aliens.
Opening tomorrow, IRON MAN could already have a sequel, if the movie does well, that is.
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT chatted with Viacom exec. chairman Sumner Redstone and Paramount CEO Brad Grey at the IRON MAN premiere, and said if the movie does as well as expected, the studio will look to release a sequel in 2010.
COMINGSOON.NET speculates that IRON MAN 2 could feasibly open on April 30, 2010, essentially giving it the same opening as IRON MAN. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER has claimed the first summer weekend that year, May 7.
Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as HALF-LIFE and COUNTER-STRIKE) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), released the Steamworks Software Development Kit (SDK). Steamworks is a complete suite of publishing and development tools that offers PC game developers and publishers access to the game features and services available through Steam.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take audiences on a special behind-the-scenes journey into the making of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY during a program hosted by special effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull and actor Tom Hanks, on Wednesday, May 21, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Presented by the Academy's Science and Technology Council, "2001 in 2008: A Cinematic Odyssey" will feature never-before-seen images of and an onstage discussion about the technology used in the making of Stanley Kubrick's Academy Award-winning sci-fi epic.
BOXX Technologies has released a Special Edition 3DBOXX workstation that delivers unmatched dual- processor workstation performance by maximizing the power of two Intel Core 2 Extreme processors.
Benchmarks computed by BOXX Labs indicate 23.2 percent more performance on Cinebench 10 for the Special Edition compared to the world-record setting 3DBOXX 8400SE.
We end the month with Ryan Lesser's review of 3ds Max 2009 from Autodesk, which contains new lighting, rendering (with mental ray's Pro materials in action) and navigation tools, along with a template system in the exporter with presets for Mudbox. Plus, Janet Hetherington takes a look at three recent live-action shorts with noteworthy vfx: HOLE IN THE PAPER SKY, TERMINUS and LITTLE MINX EXQUISITE CORPSE: COME WANDER WITH ME. And Robert Powers (AVATAR and TINTIN) explores the significance of a new "Virtual Filmmaking Age" we have entered.
Bill DesowitzEditor
Senator Ent. will produce CLOCK TOWER for Weinstein Co. per VARIETY. Martin Weisz is set to direct the Capcom bestselling survival horror video game series.
Senator's Marco Weber will produce. Eric Poppen wrote the script. The hero in CLOCK TOWER must solve puzzles and use her surroundings to hide while following the story line.
The late Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku (BATTLE ROYALE) directed the third game in the series, CLOCK TOWER 3.
The SIGGRAPH 2008 Technical Papers Program is the premier international forum for presenting the world's best research innovations within the computer graphics industry.
Technical papers presented in this forum have had a dynamic impact on the entertainment and film industries. This year's elite jury of industry experts and innovators sorted through a record-breaking 518 submissions from around the globe before selecting 90 papers for presentation at SIGGRAPH 2008.
Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of PRINCE CASPIAN (out May 16 from Disney/Walden Media), an excerpt from unit publicist Ernie Malik's book THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN follows:
Making a full-scale motion picture like PRINCE CASPIAN is a journey unto itself -- not only a physical one that took hundreds of filmmakers thousands of miles across two hemispheres, but also a spiritual and emotional voyage for the film's family members.
Allegorithmic announced that WhiteMoon Dreams, a new independent game studio, has chosen ProFX to complement its use of professional texturing solution MaPZone for development of its next-generation console titles.
MaPZone was selected for its ability to rapidly author high-quality textures with maximum control, providing a cost-effective solution for game development pipelines. ProFX was selected for its ability to produce extremely small texture files. WhiteMoon Dreams will utilize ProFX and MaPZone to create assets for an upcoming XBox Live Arcade title.
Integrated Design Tools of Tallahassee, Florida stopped the NAB Show in Las Vegas earlier in April with a powerful combination of innovative technology and a little help from Einstein himself.
IDT introduced the Digital Cinema Edition of its slow motion products at the show through a powerful short feature film entitled THE MYSTERY OF TIME.
After running into difficulty last week trying to launch its initial public stock offering, Venice-based vfx/commercial studio Digital Domain is now considering raising capital through private equity. According to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, Digital Domain was not able to close the deal at its asking price of 6 million shares at $12 to $14 a piece. The studio was trying to raise $70 million after expenses.
20th Century Fox has obtained the rights sci-fi thriller video game ZERO-G, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The project is still in conceptual form at Union Ent., but will revolve around a major U.S. city being attacked by a devastating, never-before-seen weapon.
Fox is eyeing the project as a tentpole. Union's Richard Leibowitz, Temple Hill Ent.'s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen and the Gotham Group's Ellen Goldsmith-Vein are producing.
Universal Studios has optioned Oni Press comic series RESURRECTION by ELI STONE co-creator Marc Guggenheim, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Universal's Scott Stuber is producing along with Eric Gitter of Closed on Mondays Ent., the producing arm of Oni Press.
The story centers around the aftermath of an alien invasion, in which the human survivors try to take back control of the planet.
Illustrated by Dave Dumeer, the comic was first published in October, with the third issue recently released.
Feature film visual effects facility CafeFX produced extensive visual effects for HBO Films' epic seven-part miniseries JOHN ADAMS, which premiered on Sunday, March 16, 2008. The work is a vivid and authentic evocation of time and place, seamlessly underlying the drama that unfolds over John Adams' lifetime.
Smoke and Mirrors New York and @radical.media's Tarsem create the beertastic world for BBH and brew masters at Miller Lite. The ever-elusive Beer Heaven is revealed to our hero, Mark, as he spots the descending stairwell into the promised land. What he finds is a bar where the taps and shelves are fully stocked with the perfect combination of taste and refreshment. Mark is the star of the bar -- everyone knows his name and the barstool reflects that notion.
New York-based editorial and vfx/motion design shop Version2 will partner with CG animation and vfx shop, Special Branch, forming Special Branch@V2 (SB@V2).
The partnership expands V2's current presence, ability, and scope allowing them to deliver a wider range of services and talent depth to its clients. Special Branch is run by Partners/Artists Fran Roberts and Ed Manning. The SB@V2 deal provides an additional dimension to the growing resources available at the vfx /motion design division of V2.
Becker Group, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, will bring worldwide audiences "Harry Potter: The Exhibition," a state-of-the-art exhibition highlighting artifacts from the Warner Bros. films based on J.K. Rowling's book series. The 10,000 square foot experience will premiere in spring 2009 in a major market, and will appear in 10 or more cities around the world throughout a five-year span.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release Part One of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS on November 19, 2010, per ComingSoon.net.
Part Two will follow sometime in summer 2011.
The official announcement from Warners earlier this year saying the studio was splitting up the final HARRY POTTER book did not have a firm date.
David Yates (HALF-BLOOD PRINCE and ORDER OF THE PHOENIX) will direct a Steve Kloves script with returning stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
Director Brian De Palma's THE FURY, a 1978 supernatural horror flick, is being revived by Fox 2000, per VARIETY.
Fox has hired Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman to write a contemporary reimagining of the film, to be centered on a young man with heightened kinetic powers who is abducted by the government.
The original starred Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes, was released by 20th Century Fox and was based on John Farris' 1976 novel of the same name.
Mike Weber will executive produce; Ted Field will produce via his Radar Pictures.
CP Productions and Mississippi-based Ghostrider Ent. will co-finance a slate of 10 horror films over the next three years, per VARIETY.
CP Prods. Principals Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters have started a genre division for the films, which are expected to be budgeted at between $8 and $20 million.
Eric Thompson, who most recently ran Maverick Films' genre label Maverick Reds, will head the new division. He came to CP when he signed his Doomsday Twins Productions label to a first-look deal with CP.
dvGarage has released "dpMatte," a greenscreen keyer for Apple's Aperture 2.1. Based on technology used in dvGarage's existing keyer, dvMatte, the new background replacement tool is the first plug-in to be released using Aperture's brand new SDK.
dvGarage founder, Alex Lindsay said, "We view the photography industry as a massive growth market and we're glad Apple has opened Aperture to third party development."
Through its in-house branding and design group DesignWorks, creative design and digital production studio The Syndicate recently provided end-to-end production on LIGHTS, a spot for CONSOL Energy.
PAN'S LABYRINTH director Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct THE HOBBIT and its sequel for New Line-MGM.
This is a major step forward for the LORD OF THE RINGS prequels, which had been held up in litigation for several years.
The official announcement came Friday from executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, New Line president Toby Emmerich and Mary Parent, chief of MGM's Worldwide Motion Picture Group.
