Due to Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox pulling out of the project, Peter Jacksons WingNut Films and Microsoft have had to halt production on the feature adaptation of the videogame, HALO, despite reports earlier that said they were continuing without studio backing.
WingNut Films has released the following statement regarding the halt in production.
Moviegoers were ready for horror this past Halloween weekend, as they turned out to watch SAW III (with vfx from Switch VFX), giving Lionsgate Films its biggest bow in the company's history, topping the box office chart for the weekend ended Oct. 28, 2006, taking in $33.6M.
Oddworld Inhabitants' co-founders, Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, have teamed with John Williams' Vanguard Animation to develop CITIZEN SIEGE, an original CG animated feature. Lanning will direct and Williams will produce the politically edgy sci-fi action thriller. McKenna will exec produce with Vanguard execs Terry Botwick and Margaret French Isaac.
Warner Bros. Pictures has hired Bryan Singer to direct and produce a sequel to SUPERMAN RETURNS, reports VARIETY. Legendary Pictures is expected to fund half of the films budget. Studio hopes the film will be ready for a summer 2009 release, but as of yet there is not script.
The trade paper states that insiders feel Warners and Legendary will insist that the films budget come in under $200 million after the first film didnt meet expectations, grossing $390 million worldwide. SUPERMAN RETURNS production budget is estimated at $209 million.
Hyde Park Ent. and Capcom Ltd. have teamed to transform the famed videogame franchise STREET FIGHTER into a new feature film, according to VARIETY. Justin Marks has been hired to pen the script.
The plotline is being kept on the QT, but it has been announced that it will center on the games popular female character, Chun Li.
Nina Saxon Design, a leading design production studios, has completed main title designs sequences for four upcoming and new feature films and a new television series.
Veteran animator Phil Nibbelink reports his self-produced animated feature, ROMEO & JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS, sees a limited releases in select theaters in California today, Oct. 27, 2006.
Fox Animation has revived the languishing toon adaptation of Roald Dahl classic THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX, reports VARIETY. Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach adapted the script with Anderson set to direct as well as produce with Scott Rudin. The film will use multiple animation style, but will primarily use stop-motion.
The book centers on a fox that tries to outwit three stupid farmers, who have resorted to extreme actions to stop the fox from stealing their chickens.
Rogue Pictures has inked a two-picture deal with horror writer Scott Milam, according to VARIETY. Milam has his script WICHITA in development at Dimension with SAW III helmer Darren Bousman attached to helm.
For Rogue, his first screenplay will be an extreme horror set in a gruesome world of sideshow freaks and other carnival horrors. Michael Zoumas will produce.
The second project is a blind script deal.
Universal Pictures has obtained the rights to cult comicbook COBALT 60, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Zack Snyder, helmer of the forthcoming adaptation of Frank Millers graphic novel 300, will direct as well as produce with Debbie Snyder.
Set in a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with mutants, superhero Cobalt 60 sets out to kill Strontium 90, who murdered his parents.
Disney has bought the rights to ANIMATED AMERICAN, a live-action/animation hybrid that deals with the issue of teens trying to fit in, VARIETY reports. Producers will be Bob Cooper's Landscape Ent. and ImageMovers partners Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke.
Peter Ackerman (ICE AGE) is set to write the screenplay, which will follow an animated outsider, who lives in a live-action world and must deal with his girlfriend leaving him while hes away at sea.
IMAX Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox announced that Night at the Museum, directed by Shawn Levy (THE PINK PANTHER and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN) and starring Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, would be simultaneously released to both IMAX and conventional theaters on Dec. 22. The adventure comedy with vfx from Rhythm & Hues, The Orphanage, Rainmaker and Gentle Giant marks the seventh IMAX DMR film secured for 2006, the largest number of Hollywood blockbusters slated for release to IMAX theaters in a single year.
On the heels of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS bowing last weekend with an impressive $3.2M in Disney Digital 3-D, comes word that Robert Zemeckis all-CG/performance capture BEOWULF will be released in more than 1,000 theaters worldwide in digital 3-D on Nov. 16, 2007. That marks the largest day-and-date large-format release of all time. The movie is presented in REAL D and other large-format 3-D theaters simultaneous with its conventional release through Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
Adlabs Films Ltd., a leading Indian media conglomerate, and kids apparel giant Gini & Jony have joined hands to produce an animated feature based on the characters, Gini and Jony.
We are optimistic about the future of Indian Animation content and believe GINI & JONY characters are well established in the Indian kids mind space, said Manmohan Shetty, chairman of Adlabs Films Ltd. We continue our focus on the Indian animation industry and will soon announce more projects.
Hollywood-based Look Effects recently completed vfx work on Darren Aronofskys THE FOUNTAIN (Warner Bros., Nov. 22). The film, which takes place over the span of one thousand years, stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.
Switch VFX has completed visual effects production for SAW III (opening Oct. 27 for Halloween from Lionsgate). As the sole effects house, Switch VFX created more than 130 shots under the supervision of vfx supervisor Jon Campfens for the psychologically extreme film.
Chris Nolans magic thriller, THE PRESTIGE, rose to the top of the box office chart for the weekend ended Oct. 22, 2006, conjuring $14.8M for Buena Vista (with vfx from French-based buf).
Microsofts feature film adaptation of HALO has lost a lot of its sheen with its studios Fox and Universal backing out, reports VARIETY.
Both studios had agreed to co-finance the film, which had a budget growing north of its initial $135 million pricetag. However, the real reason the studios jumped ship was due to their unsuccessful attempt to get Microsoft and the producers to lower their profit participation.
Tim Burtons THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS makes its debut today (Oct. 20, 2006) in a Disney Digital 3-D version in 168 theaters. It began its engagement at Hollywoods El Capitan Theatre yesterday.
The enormously popular stop-motion animated feature from 1993, directed by Henry Selick, is the first movie in industry history to be released exclusively in Digital 3-D, and represents the first time that a 3-D feature has been created from an existing animated classic.
The cat was already out of the bag so to speak at Comic Con last summer, but now The Jim Henson Co. (TJHC) officially confirms it is in development on a full-length feature about the Fraggles, stars of the 1980s television show, FRAGGLE ROCK.
Emmy winner Jeremy Piven (ENTOURAGE) and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE alum Molly Shannon have joined the voice cast of Exodus Film Groups CG-animated feature IGOR. Piven will voice the role of Dr. Schadenfreude, Igors nemesis, with Shannon voicing the role of Eva, a giant, indestructible Monster invented by Igor. They join Steve Buscemi, John Cleese and Christian Slater.
Dimension Films is in final talks with SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION director Frank Darabont to helm his adaptation of Stephen Kings 1985 short story, THE MIST, reports VARIETY. Thomas Jane is in negotiations to star.
King originally granted the rights to the story to Darabont when the filmmaker had a deal at Paramount. Darabont is in talks to regain the script rights from Paramount.
Dimension co-chairman Bob Weinstein and production president Richard Saperstein hope to start filming in the spring.
The debut of Tim Burton's THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS in Disney Digital 3-D on Oct. 20, 2006, comes on the heels of the long run of SUPERMAN RETURNS, which had scenes converted to IMAX 3-D. With word that STAR WARS, enhanced by similar conversion perhaps for next year in honor of the 30th anniversary, this trend gains real momentum.
Along with the recent success of 3D-animated films, from POLAR EXPRESS to OPEN SEASON, 3-D has captured the viewers imagination.
Helena Bonham Carter (THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) will join the cast of SWEENEY TODD, the DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. co-production that will star Johnny Depp as The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Tim Burton is set to direct the film based on the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical.
Carter will play the diabolical Mrs. Lovett who dispenses her victims' bodies in her meat pies and becomes Sweeney's amorous accomplice.
Rogue Pictures has obtained the right to the forthcoming vampire comicbook titled "BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon (CAVITE) have been hired to adapt and direct the project. Zoom Ent.s Michael Zoumas and Blatant Pictures Barry Levine are the producers.
In BLOOD, a rash of murders in the New York subway system make citizens believe a serial killer is on the loose, but it turns out the killings are the work of a vampire living under the city since the days it was known as New Amsterdam.
