Category: Visual Effects

The latest James Bond adventure in the longest running film franchise, BOND 22 (a working title), has commenced principal photography at Pinewood Studios in London. Daniel Craig (CASINO ROYALE) reprises his role as agent 007. Marc Forster (THE KITE RUNNER) has signed on to direct the franchise's first direct sequel. Kevin Tod Haug, who has collaborated previously with Forster on THE KITE RUNNER, STRANGER THAN FICTION and FINDING NEVERLAND, is visual effects designer.

THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES continues on DVD with Volume Two, THE WAR YEARS ($69.99), from Lucasfilm Ltd., CBS Home Ent. and Paramount Home Ent., as the teenaged hero heads into World War I. From the Battle of the Somme to the fringes of the African jungle and the heart of revolutionary Russia, the DVD collection explores history with hours of all-new documentary programming to complement creator George Lucas' Emmy-award winning series.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) announced its nominations for the 6th Annual Awards, with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END capturing seven nods and TRANSFORMERS grabbing five, both from Industrial Light & Magic.

Following close behind with four nominations were SPIDER-MAN 3 and I AM LEGEND from Sony Pictures Imageworks, SURF'S UP from Sony Pictures Animation, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and RATATOUILLE.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the seven films remaining in contention for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 80th Academy Awards. Along with such expected contenders as TRANSFORMERS (considered the favorite to win the Oscar), PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END, THE GOLDEN COMPASS and 300, were such surprises as THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and EVAN ALMIGHTY. Industrial Light & Magic is well represented this year with its lead work on TRANSFORMERS, AT WORLD'S END and EVAN ALMIGHTY.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted the Gordon E. Sawyer Award to David A. Grafton, a pioneering designer of lenses for optical effects printers, which at the time of their development were adopted by nearly every visual effects facility in the movie industry.

The award, an Oscar statuette, will be presented to Grafton at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner on Feb. 9 at The Beverly Wilshire.

Vicon provided state-of-the-art motion-capture systems and support to Sony Pictures Imageworks on the performance-capture hybrid BEOWULF from Paramount Pictures.

The film is the most ambitious project to date employing Vicon motion capture systems, and achieved many "firsts," including shooting with 200+ MX 40 cameras, and capturing the movement of more than 20 performers simultaneously.

The Pixel Farm Ltd. has released PFTrack 4.1 Personal Learning Edition (PLE). The free learning edition of The Pixel Farm's industry-leading tracking and matchmoving application allows students, digital artists and facilities to evaluate, learn and master PFTrack 4.1 without the need for a permanent or temporary software license. The complete toolset of PFTrack 4.1, including geometry tracking, image-based modeling, z-depth extraction and multiple-motion solves, is included in PFTrack 4.1 PLE.

With last week's highly anticipated 25th anniversary release of BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT from Warner Home Video on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD, it's a very opportune time to publish some of director Ridley Scott's comments at a press roundtable, which VFXWORLD participated in.

Prior to embarking on the FINAL CUT, Scott decided to screen a print for the first time in about 12 years to make notes. However, he was so surprised and elated at how well the film holds up, that he wound up not taking any notes.