Search form

Category: Visual Effects

Production Headline News

Madsen Last Minute Draw for Number 23

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 12:00am

With production starting Jan. 23, 2006, New Line has hired Virginia Madsen to replace Elisabeth Shue in the thriller THE NUMBER 23, which also stars Jim Carrey, reports VARIETY. The film is being directed by Joel Schumacher and also stars Danny Huston and Rhona Mitra. Contrafilms Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson are producing from a screenplay by Fernley Phillips.

The story follows a man who becomes obsessed with a book, featuring the number 23 throughout, which seems to mirror his life, except that it ends with a murder.

Visual Headline News

VES Presents SHOW AND TELL 2006

The Visual Effects Society (VES) will offer SHOW AND TELL 2006, its version of the Academy vfx Bake-Off, on Jan. 21, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, at Skirball Cultural Center (2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, 90049).

The event is free for VES members and open to the public at $20 per ticket. Tickets available by calling the VES office in advance at (310) 822-9181.

Headline News

Ballistic Publishing Releases Painter

Ballistic Publishing is now offering PAINTER, showcasing a collection of the world's finest digital artwork created with the natural media painting program, Corel Painter. PAINTER exhibits 209 works by 135 artists across diverse categories such as Portraits, Concept Art, Fantasy, Editorial Illustration and Abstract art. PAINTER is presented in a high quality volume consisting of 192 pages and is available in a leather-bound Special Edition and Soft Cover.

Media Headline News

Walden Media Acquires Rights to Cold Trilogy

Walden Media has acquired the rights to the Isabel Allende trilogy featuring young adventurer Alexander Cold, which marked the famed author's first foray into young adult literature. CITY OF THE BEASTS, the first book, will be produced by Barrie Osborne (THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy). David Rothenberg (MODOC) will adapt from Allende's novel and co-produce. The books are published by HarperCollins, which partnered with Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures on the successful launch of the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA film franchise.

Dreamworks Headline News

SCI FI Greenlights 12-Hour Spielberg Miniseries Event

SCI FI Channel will team again with Steven Spielberg, screenwriter Les Bohem and DreamWorks Television, for the ambitious 12-hour miniseries event NINE LIVES, it was announced Jan. 12, 2006, at the Television Critics Press Tour. The group's last collaboration was 2003's groundbreaking, Emmy Award-winning 20-hour miniseries, Steven Spielberg Presents TAKEN. NINE LIVES is slated to air in 2007.

Series Headline News

SCI FI Unveils '06 Production & Development Slate

SCI FI Channel unveiled its production and development slate for the new year at the Television Critics Press Tour (Jan. 12, 2006) that includes both scripted and reality projects with top Hollywood talent and production companies.

Special Headline News

Goblet of Fire Ignites On DVD in March

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE DVD will debut on March 7, 2006, from Warner Home Video. GOBLET OF FIRE will be available on a Single-Disc DVD for $28.98 in full frame and widescreen formats. The Two-Disc Special Edition DVD will be available at $30.97 and the Harry Potter Special Edition four-pack at $73.92; both in widescreen format only. The film will also be available in UMD format for PSP.

Disney Headline News

Sarandon Dons Enchanted Crown

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon will don the crown of the evil queen in Walt Disney Pictures' ENCHANTED, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The film has Sarandons Queen Narissa banishing a princess-in-waiting (Amy Adams) from a 2D animated world to the live-action world of New York City where the princess actually finds true love with a modern prince (James Marsden). The modern fairy is being directed by Kevin Lima from a script by Bill Kelly.

Headline News

Piranha Remake Gains Dimension

The Weinstein Co.'s Dimension Films has hooked the domestic distribution rights to PIRANHA, a remake of the 1978 cult classic, VARIETY reports. Chuck Russell will direct in spring. Dimension will handle all English-speaking territories.

Set at Arizona's Lake Havasu, a vacation spot becomes a blood bath when a savage school of piranha swims through a crack in a crater formed by a prehistoric eruption at the bottom of the lake.

Headline News

AJA Introduces KONA 3

AJA Video, a leading manufacturer of professional video interface and conversion solutions, announced KONA 3, the new top-of-the-line HD/SD video capture card. Offering 40% more processing power than the industry-leading KONA 2, the new KONA 3 is the ultimate uncompressed capture card for SD, HD and Dual Link 4:4:4:4 HD for PCI Express Apple G5 Power Macs and Apple Final Cut Pro. The new card will ship worldwide on Jan. 30.

Headline News

Spike TV Brings Blade to TV In June 2006

Spike TV is set to bring BLADE to television with a two-hour original drama that marks the network's first foray into scripted entertainment. Produced by New Line Television, BLADE premieres on Spike TV in June 2006.

"BLADE is perfectly suited for Spike TV and its male viewers," says Pancho Mansfield, evp, original programming at Spike TV. "The new "Blade" promises to capture what men want to see: thrilling action and effects combined with an intelligent and highly creative story."

Headline News

David Fincher Finds Torso Untouchable

Paramount Pictures has tapped SEVEN-helmer David Fincher to direct an adaptation of the graphic novel TORSO, which was written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, reports the trades. THE RING scribe Ehren Kruger will write the adaptation, which will be produced by Pandemonium's Bill Mechanic, Angry Films' Don Murphy and comic artist Todd McFarlane.

Square Headline News

Square Enix Installs Vicon MoCap System

Vicon has installed a 44-camera Vicon MX40 system for facial, hand and full-body capture to leading game company Square Enix Co. Ltd.

Square Enix acquired the system to take advantage of the immediate performance gains of Vicon MX when recording actors for cinematic sequences and in-game play, and to support higher camera counts and complexity for motion capture on next-gen titles.

Square Enix has created such popular game franchises as FINAL FANTASY and DRAGON QUEST, and has been an experienced motion capture user for many years.

Headline News

Academy Announces Scientific and Technical Achievements

Pixar's Ed Catmull is among the recipients of Technical Achievement Certificates, which will be handed out among the 17 achievements to be honored at the Academy's annual Scientific and Technical Awards dinner on The Beverly Hilton Feb. 18, 2006.

He shares the honor for his original concept with Tony DeRose and Jos Stam for their scientific and practical implementation of subdivision surfaces as a modeling technique in motion picture production.

Subdivision surfaces has become a preferred modeling primitive for many types of motion picture computer graphics.

Effects Headline News

Zoic Contributes to Bolder Battlestar Galactica VFX

For the climactic Jan. 13 episode of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA titled "Resurrection Ship, Part 2," Zoic Studios worked on a scale greater than anything previously imagined for the small screen. Choreographing and executing all the effects for the episode, Zoic relied on a combination of live-action greenscreen and CG animation. The episode airs at 10:00 pm on SCI FI Channel.

Headline News

King Kong Wins Acting Awards

The Broadcast Film Critics' 11th annual Critics' Choice Awards honored KING KONG with a special Distinguished Achievement in Performing Arts Award to recognize the blend of visual effects with Andy Serkis' motion capture performance. This honor coincides with the VES nominating Kong for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture, citing Andy Serkis, Atsushi Sato, Guy Williams and Eric Saindon.

Digital Headline News

Imagina 2006 Conference Schedule Announced

Imagina 2006, to be held Feb. 1-3 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, has released details of its conference schedule.

Feb. 1* 2:00 pm 3:30 pmKeynote: Ken Perlin (professor, Information Science department), Media Research Laboratory, New York UniversityTHE ILLUSION OF LIFE - REVISITEDProcedural animation has reached a degree of verisimilitude, which enables an interactive virtual actor to express emotions. Videogames are thus gaining access to a type of narration that was previously limited to the cinema.

* 3:45 pm 4:45 pm

Imax Headline News

Goblet of Fire Sets IMAX Box Office Record

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE is now IMAX's highest grossing digitally re-mastered 2-D release. With total grosses of more than $16 million on 89 IMAX screens worldwide, it passes the record set by BATMAN BEGINS: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE, which grossed $15.9 million last year.

Headline News

Warner Bros. Turns To Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are

Warner Bros. has snatched up the rights to WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, which was in turnaround at Universal, according to VARIETY. Warner wants to put the Spike Jonze-directed, Dave Eggers-written adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book into production later this year. Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary GGoetzman will produce with Sendak and John Carls.

Headline News

VFX Continues to Dominate Domestic Box Office

The final box office numbers for 2005 are in and, not surprisingly, seven of the top 10 finishers were vfx-intensive blockbusters. Foxs STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH led the way with $380.2M. Following in second, third and fourth place were Warner Bros. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE with $278.6M, Paramounts WAR OF THE WORLDS with $234.2M and Buena Vistas THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE with $232.1M.

Headline News

Caved In Debuts on SCI FI Jan. 7

The SCI FI Channel opens 2006 with giant killer beetles in its original movie, CAVED IN: PREHISTORIC TERROR, premiering Jan. 7 at 9:00 pm with a repeat at 1:00 am and an encore airing Jan. 12 at 9:00 pm.

CAVED IN, a cavernous adventure starring Christopher Atkins (THE BLUE LAGOON), Colm Meany (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) and Angela Featherstone (ARMY OF DARKNESS), was produced by CineTel Films Inc. in conjunction with the SCI FI Channel.

Pages