NVIDIA Corp. introduced the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra mobile GPU. Available immediately, the Dell Inspiron XPS Gen2 is the first notebook with the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra mobile GPU and features unprecedented notebook gaming performance achieving more than two times the performance of the previous Inspiron XPS, based on industry-standard benchmarks.
Sheer Force of Will Pictures Llc, a new feature film production company, has opened in Glendale, California. The new company is owned by co-founders Kevin Kutchaver, a visual effects veteran who concurrently remains head of visual effects design and production company HimAnI Prods. and feature film producer Linda Drake. Sheer Force of Will Pictures plans to produce two-three original feature films a year. The duo also announced the start of production on the companys first feature film, RESCUE ROCKET X-5, which begins in late February 2005 in Los Angeles.
Burbank-based Furious FX enters its sophomore year with a wide assortment of their first years work erupting into theaters and onto DVD shelves. Currently in production are MR. AND MRS. SMITH and FEVER PITCH.
The newly ignited facility has completed nearly 500 shots in the last 12 months. Their work is featured in more than 15 high profile films, including THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, SPIDER-MAN 2, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, the upcoming UNDERCLASSMAN, as well as Sundance indie CHRYSTAL starring Billy Bob Thornton.
With the Academy Awards just around the corner on Sunday, I had the chance to speak with three of the supervisors vying for the visual effects Oscar: John Dykstra (SPIDER-MAN 2), Andy Jones (I, ROBOT) and Tim Burke (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN).
SCI FI Channel has renewed BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for a second season. The critically-acclaimed show has been a ratings powerhouse catapulting SCI FI to the top spot in cable among P25-54 for five consecutive Fridays. With an order for 20 episodes, BATTLESTAR will begin production in Vancouver in March for a summer premiere, returning as the anchor of the channel's SCI FI Friday block of primetime original series.
MATRIX producer Joel Silver confirmed that BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER creator Joss Whedon is being talked with to write and direct a new film version of WONDER WOMAN, reports SCI FI WIRE.
"I'm trying," Silver said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Feb. 19, 2005. "I'm trying to work a deal with Joss... I was just in the other room [where Whedon was talking about his upcoming SF movie, SERENITY]. I don't know if I could work that out. It's a complicated deal to do, but I would love him to do it. It would be great if he could do it."
NaturalMotion Ltd. will launch version 2.0 of endorphin, its award-winning 3D animation software, at GDC 2005 (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco (March 9-11, 2005, booth #548). Scheduled to ship on the same date, endorphin 2.0 boasts major new features, including multi-layer behaviors, support for the Avid Alienbrain Studio asset management and Perforce software configuration management systems, an improved GUI (including layered behavior support on the timeline) and further enhanced adaptive behaviors.
NewTek Inc. unveiled TriCaster, a new class of production and presentation tool for enterprise and corporate communications professionals who want to get their message across video. The portable live production suite was publicly demonstrated for the first time last week at DEMO.
Texas Instruments DLP Cinema technology, the digital cinema projection system deployed in movie theaters worldwide, played a supporting role during the production and post-production process for Martin Scorseses THE AVIATOR, which garnered 11 Oscar nominees.
Luc Bessons dazzling THE FIFTH ELEMENT, already a reference quality Superbit DVD, has been upgraded to the Ultimate Edition (Columbia TriStar Home Ent., $24.96). Its hard to believe that this is the first edition to contain supplemental features, but they provide plenty of context and perspective to all that wonderful eye candy and sci-fi hokum from Besson and French comic book artists Jean-Claude Mézières and Mobius.
Italian digital studio Videa VFX has signed on to do visual effects work on LAUGHING WATER, an Italian, British and Czech co-production based on the German novel, MINE HA HA, about the mysterious disappearance of girls at a school surrounded by a fairy tale atmosphere with dark forests and gloomy lakes.
VFXWORLD contributor Gianluca Dentici will serve as vfx supervisor, with John Irvin directing and Dante Ferretti doing the production design. Jacqueline Bisset co-stars as the headmistress.
THQ Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Ent. have released CONSTANTINE for PlayStation2, Xbox retailers across North America. The game, developed by Bits Studios, is based on the Warner Bros. Pictures motion picture CONSTANTINE, an adaptation of the DC Comics/Vertigo HELLBLAZER graphic novels.
Warner Bros. has secured the screen rights to Welsh author Jenny Nimmos MIDNIGHT FOR CHARLIE BONE and the four additional books in the fantasy series, reports VARIETY. WB-based Thunder Roads Basil Iwanyk and Alysia Cotter will produce. Neil Alsip will adapt the books. WB execs Lynn Harris and Geoff Shaevitz will oversee the project for the studio.
STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH will open the 58th Cannes Film Festival on May 11, reports Londons DAILY MAIL. The final STAR WARS film, which hits theaters on May 19, will kick off proceedings on the Croisette, joining a long tradition of high-profile launches.
Alias released full details of their updated Maya Platinum and Silver Membership Services Programs. Originally launched at SIGGRAPH 2004, the Membership Services Programs replace the previous Full Annual Maintenance Program. The new features are available immediately and launch in conjunction with the availability of Maya 6.5.
It was SPIDER-MAN 2 and THE AVIATOR running neck and neck for the most awards, taking three each, at the 3rd Annual VES Awards Wednesday night, Feb. 16, 2005, but it was HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN that pulled out with the top honor for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture at a black-tie gala at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
SMPTE Seminar 2005, presented in cooperation with the Entertainment Technology Center at USC and USC School of Cinema-Television, has been rescheduled for March 4-5, 2005. Originally the event was to run in December 2004, but was postponed due to the logistics of the holidays.
Columbia-based Escape Artists has hired I, ROBOT director Alex Proyas to helm the supernatural thriller, KNOWING, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Originally DONNIE DARKO director Richard Kelly was attracted to direct and Proyas will film off Kellys rewrite of Ryne Pearsons original screenplay. Steve Tisch, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and David Alper are set to produce.
fmx, a key event in animation, visual effects, games and other 3D content, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year (April 27-30 in Stuttgart, Germany) by continuing to offer a holistic, cinematic and integrated approach to the booming CGI industry. You can see the changes in CGI reflected in the new design for the fmx/05 logo and trailer, based on the clip, Timeless, by Filmakademie graduate student Linus Ewers.
When the VES announced that it was bestowing its first George Méliés Pioneer Award on the late Bob Abel, Ellen Wolff, one of VFXWORLDs regular contributors, expressed an interest in writing a remembrance of this frustrated magician turned vfx pioneer. Ellen, who knew Abel quite well and wrote his speeches and SIGGRAPH presentations, wanted to let us know what Bob wouldve thought of such an honor.
The Houdini family of 3D programs from Side Effects Software played a key role in several of the nominees at the 3rd Annual VES Awards, Feb.
DONNIE DARKO, Richard Kellys disturbing 2001 indie cult about teen angst, time tripping and a giant demonic rabbit, hit a little too close to home with its eerie 9/11 parallels. Plus its confusing, elliptical narrative polarized moviegoers. Still, this 88 treatise on urban legends starring Jake Gyllenhaal became an instant one itself, prompting further elaboration in this expanded cut. Released theatrically last year and released on DVD Feb.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND was one of last years most intriguing movies, fashioned from the wild imaginations of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry. Erasing a love from ones memory shook Jim Carrey and Oscar nominated Kate Winslet to the very core of their existence, and this new two-disc collectors edition DVD (Universal Home Ent., $27.98) offers more than an hours of bonus features. Vfx provided by Buzz Image Group and Custom Film Effects. However, as Gondry illustrates, he definitely prefers old fashioned, in-camera tricks to CGI.
Turbo Squid, which touts the largest collection of royalty-free 3D products available for download, announced that the 100,000th 3D product has been posted for sale.
Universal Pictures has secured the rights to Terry Brooks' book series MAGIC KINGDOM FOR SALE, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. THE MUMMY director Stephen Sommers will direct and produce. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel will adapt the screenplay. Sommers Universal-based Sommers Co. partner Bob will produce with Circle of Confusions David Alpert.
The first volume of the series follows a widowed attorney who leaves his old life behind when he responds to a mysterious ad and spends his fortune to purchase a magical kingdom.
