Search form

Category: Films

Headline News

Sony to Launch Monster House in Digital 3D

Columbia Pictures' all-CG feature, MONSTER HOUSE, the second production to utilize the new performance capture technique developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, will be released in more than 100 theaters in REAL D's digital 3D format day-and-date with its regular national release on July 21, 2006.

The imagery for the ImageMovers/Amblin production of MONSTER HOUSE is being overseen by Imageworks, which also oversaw the first performance capture feature, THE POLAR EXPRESS, which was a phenomenal success in IMAX 3D with the help of Imageworks.

Digital Headline News

Charlie Has Sweetest July Opening for Warner Bros.

Tim Burtons CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (with delightful vfx from MPC, Framestore CFC, Cinesite and Digital Domain), which opened with a very sweet $56.1M for the weekend ended July 17, 2005, proved to be the best July opening ever for Warner Bros. It was also the best opening ever for a PG-rated movie in July as well as Johnny Depps best bow.

Headline News

Neeson Confirmed as Voice of Narnia’s Lion King

Walt Disney Pictures confirmed at San Diegos Comic-Con on Sunday that Liam Neeson will be voicing Aslan the Lion in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, opening Dec. 9. Aslan, the noble ruler of the magical world of Narnia, is mostly a CG character, except for a crucial scene involving animatronics from K.N.B. EFX under the supervision of Howard Berger.

Artists Headline News

Leading Visual Artists Invited to Interpret The Fountain

Director Darren Aronofsky (PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), Regency Enterprises and Warner Bros. Pictures have invited 15 artists, including top graphic artists from the comic book world, to create original works of art interpreting Aronofskys forthcoming sci-fi fantasy film, THE FOUNTAIN, which will be released this fall (tentatively in December).

Beginning in mid-August, these images will be released on the films official website at www.thefountainmovie.com. A new interpretation will appear approximately once per week leading up to the films release.

Dreamworks Headline News

Transformers Feature to Open July 4, 2007

The TRANSFORMERS live-action feature, based on the globally popular franchise will open July 4, 2004, announced DreamWorks, Hasbro Inc. and Paramount Pictures.

The movie will be directed by Michael Bay (THE ISLAND and ARMAGEDDON) from a screenplay being written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (THE ISLAND). Steven Spielberg is exec producing with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto (the first two X-MEN) and Don Murphy (THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN) serving as co-exec producers.

Headline News

Fantastic Four Ends Box Office Skid

Twentieth Century Foxs FANTASTIC FOUR exceeded all expectations with a fantastic $56M debut for the weekend ended July 10, 2005, signifying the fifth best opening for a comicbook movie. Coupled with solid holdover business from WAR OF THE WORLDS and BATMAN BEGINS, FANTASTIC FOUR (with vfx principally from Giant Killer Robots, Stan Winston Digital and Soho VFX) helped snap the 19-week year-to-year box office skid.

Headline News

More Switch VFX's Land of the Dead Work With Exclusive Pics

Switch VFX, a Toronto-based visual effects studio, recently completed work on LAND OF THE DEAD, the latest installment in legendary filmmaker George A. Romeros DEAD horror franchise.

Switch VFX was responsible for 155 of the films more than 300 shots. Headed up by visual effects supervisor Jon Campfens, Switch VFX created complex zombie decapitations, digital gore, matte paintings and greenscreen composites.

Series Headline News

Olson Tapped To Adapt Monster Manga

New Line Cinema has tapped Josh Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) to adapt Naoki Urasawas best-selling manga series, MONSTER, into a live-action feature, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. In addition, Olson will write a treatment for a sequel, which he would also write.

Headline News

Paramount & Columbia Ready 9/11 Pics

Both Paramount and Columbia are readying their own 9/11 films.

Paramount Pictures will finance and distribute an untitled feature about the rescue of two Port Authority police officers from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Oliver Stone will direct with Nicolas Cage starring. Double Features partners Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher will produce alongside Moritz Borman, the former Intermedia ceo who produced Stone's ALEXANDER. Andrea Berloff has penned the script.

Headline News

DiCaprio Ices Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company is set to develop and produce a feature adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's CAT'S CRADLE, reports VARIETY. Appian Way will partner with manager-producer Hillard Elkins' Elkins Ent. on the project.

James V. Hart (SAHARA) and his son Jake Hart (GLENGARRY, BOB ROSS) have adapted the novel, which is an apocalyptic tale following humans race to recover the world's most dangerous substance, Ice-Nine, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.

Headline News

War of the Worlds Attacks Box Office

There definitely were fireworks for Steven Spielbergs WAR OF THE WORLDS, which hauled in $77M for the Independence Day holiday weekend ended July 4, 2005. It ranks second only to SPIDER-MAN 2s $88.2M for Independence Day holiday bows. Overall, WAR OF THE WORLDS grabbed $112.7M in its first six days, the best opening for Paramount Pictures, the best single-day opener for star Tom Cruise and the fastest movie to cross the $100M mark for Spielberg.

Imax Headline News

IMAX Batman Begins on Record Setting Pace

BATMAN BEGINS: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE continued to post impressive box office results over the holiday weekend, according to IMAX and Warner Bros., grossing approximately $1.45 million on 55 North American IMAX screens from July 1-4, 2005. The film has shown strong legs since debuting in IMAX theaters, setting numerous records for a Hollywood simultaneous release, including best seven-day opening and fastest grossing 2D IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) title.

Film Headline News

Fincher Signs On for Zodiac & Benjamin Button

David Fincher, director of PANIC ROOM and FIGHT CLUB, has signed with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures to helm two pictures ZODIAC, starring Mark Ruffalo, and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, reports VARIETY.

Story Headline News

Fox Scares Up Tokyo Ghost Story

20th Century Fox has bought the rights to Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon's TOKYO GHOST STORY script for Davis Ent. to produce, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The supernatural thriller is based on the Japanese Yurei myth, where the ghost of a jilted lover who commits suicide returns to torment and ruin their former lover.

Peter Kang will oversee the film for the studio. Davis Ent.'s evp production Brian Manis brought the script to Davis president Wyck Godfrey, who took it to Kang.

Headline News

Highlander Continues at Lions Gate

Lions Gate has secured the North American rights to HIGHLANDER THE JOURNEY CONTINUES, the fifth film in franchise, reports VARIETY. Sales agent IAC Film struck this deal, along with 20 others, via its work at this years Cannes.

Creator Davis Panzer is planning three HIGHLANDER features over the next two years, starting with THE JOURNEY CONTINUES, directed by Bret Leonard and starring Adrian Paul as the immortal Scottish swordsman.

Farmer Headline News

Dungeon Siege Sees Stars

Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys Davies, Ron Perlman, Matthew Lillard, Burt Reynolds and Kristanna Loken are set to star in director Uwe Boll's the sword-and-sorcery videogame DUNGEON SIEGE, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The $60 million adaptation starts filming July 3, 2005, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Headline News

War of the Worlds Debuts with $34.6M Worldwide

Steven Spielbergs WAR OF THE WORLDS bowed with the seventh highest Wednesday opening ever of $21,256,483 in 3,908 theaters domestically (SPIDER-MAN 2 holds the record with $40.4M). Meanwhile, the $135M sci-fi remake grabs an estimated $13.350M overseas in 46 territories, though it has yet to open in 10 markets, including the U.K., France, Belgium and Korea.

The opening day number represents the largest in Paramount history and for star Tom Cruise.

Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.

Headline News

Ghost House Casts Untitled Pang Brothers Project

Ghost House Pictures announced that Kristen Stewart (PANIC ROOM), Dylan McDermott (TVs THE PRACTICE), Penelope Ann Miller (THE RELIC, CARLITO'S WAY) and John Corbett (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, TVs SEX AND THE CITY) have joined the Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project, which started shooting recently in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Headline News

Fox To Animate Emily the Strange

Twentieth Century Fox has bought the rights to the character "Emily the Strange" with the intention to the turn the property into a live-action/animation feature, reports VARIETY. Twentieth Century Fox Animation president, Chris Meledandri, struck the agreement with creator Rob Reger and his Cosmic Debris Etc. Meledandri along with vp John Cohen will shepherd the project.

Film Headline News

yU + co Retraces Herbie’s History for Fully Loaded Main Titles

yU + co charted the incredible story of the lovable VW Bugs life in the main title sequence for the new Disney film, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED. In an execution brimming with style and wit, the studios design and production team used fanciful newspaper clippings, scenes from previous Herbie films and other cleverly concocted media to retrace the anthropomorphic VWs storied rise and fall.

Headline News

G7 Signs Margolis to Star as Major Babe

Friedman 3D, will be starting a new semester on July 5th, 2005. Instruction will be provided in award-winning Alias Maya from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday through Friday. There will be an additional class offered in Adobe After Effects that runs from 3:00-6:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The cost for classes is $75 and $25 respectively, plus a $25 registration fee. Those collecting unemployment benefits from EDD may qualify for collecting those benefits while a full-time student at Friedman 3D.

Digital Headline News

Chicken Little To Hatch Disney Digital 3D Experience

Disney Digital 3D, a brand new three-dimensional digital experience in movie theaters, will be launched with the release of the studios first 3D-animated feature, CHICKEN LITTLE, on Nov. 4.

In collaboration with Disney, Dolby Laboratories plans to install its Dolby Digital Cinema systems in approximately 100 high-profile theaters in 25 top markets that will present the 3D film with special glasses. Industrial Light & Magic, meanwhile, will render the movie in 3D with new proprietary software so it can be played on Dolby Digital Cinema servers in theaters.

Total Headline News

Bewitched No Match for Batman

Warner Bros. BATMAN BEGINS (with vfx from Double Negative, MPC, Rising Sun Pictures and BUF) continued its box office reign for the weekend ended June 26, 2005, grabbing $27.5M and a two-week cume of $122.5M. Sonys BEWITCHED (with vfx from Sony Pictures Imageworks) bowed in second place with $20.1M. However, it wasnt enough to prevent the overall domestic box office from slumping for the 18th consecutive week.

Pages