Los Angeles visual effects and design company A52 earned an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design on HBO's CARNIVÀLE series. The award was presented during the 2003-2004 Creative Arts Primetime Emmys segment of the 56th Annual Emmy Awards presentation at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sept. 12.
A52s work on this project also earned the PROMAX Gold Award in the category of Non-Promotional Animation earlier this year.
Finally, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW opens this Friday, after all the buzz about the vintage look and CGI wonder. As many of you are already aware, it boasts the most elaborate bluescreen compositing work ever done for a feature, containing some 2,000 shots, nearly half of which was outsourced to more than a dozen vfx studios. Will its sweet and innocent retro vibe catch on? Or will it polarize people like MOULIN ROUGE with its accent on artifice?
With Universal recently hiring CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE director Andrzej Bartkowiak, the studio has now secured one lead with a second in negotiations to star in its DOOM adaptation. BOURNE SUPREMECY baddie Karl Urban is set to star with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in talks to join the cast. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and John Wells are producing from a script by Dave Callahan. The film will follow the zombie blasting plotline of the recently released DOOM 3 videogame. The film is set to go before cameras in mid October.
Nine new members have been appointed by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Frank Pierson to the organization's year-old Science and Technology Council, bringing the number of members to 23.
The new members are Peter W. Anderson, visual effects branch; Clay M. Davis Jr., sound; David W. Gray, sound; Richard Hollander, visual effects; Brad Hunt, associates; George Joblove, visual effects; Takuo Miyagishima, members at large; Daryn Okada, cinematographers; and Richard Patterson, visual effects.
Massive Software founder and product manager Stephen Regelous has been nominated for a World Technology Network Award in the entertainment category. Determined by a vote of industry peers, the awards are presented by the World Technology Network (WTN) to recognize work that has a high level of innovation and lasting significance in such fields as biotechnology, space, energy, ethics, design and entertainment. Winners will be named Oct. 8 at the World Technology Awards in San Francisco.
While George Lucas blockbuster STAR WARS trilogy DVD set, which streets Sept. 21, 2004, is getting all the buzz both positive and negative Lucas debut from 1971, THX 1138, makes its welcome DVD bow on Sept. 14 (Warner Home Video, $26.99). This DIRECTORS CUT, like the STAR WARS films, contains extended footage with ILM-produced CGI; however, it merely adds greater scope and detail to the underground factory, where Robert Duvall and company work in a dull, depressing and dehumanized futuristic society.
IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. will jointly produce their second original IMAX 3D film, DENIZENS OF THE DEEP (working title). This is Warner Bros. Pictures' sixth film commitment to IMAX theaters in the past 18 months, and follows on the successful release of NASCAR 3D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE, which set opening weekend box office records for an original IMAX film, and has already grossed more than $18 million.
Boris FX announced the upcoming release of Boris Blue. This standalone application renders broadcast-quality 3D compositions in realtime regardless of the complexity of the 3D scene or materials. Boris Blue allows users to create stunning looks by combining innovative "pixel shaders" to paint objects with bump maps, noise patterns or natural materials along with light reflections and 3D shadows.
Weta Digital has purchased two Discreet lustre digital grading and color correction systems as part of a strategic collaboration between Discreet and Weta Digital that spans multiple products.
Universal Pictures has secured the services of director Andrzej Bartkowiak (CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE) for the feature adaptation of legendary videogame DOOM, reports VARIETY. Bartkowiak will be replacing Enda McCallion, who was to make his directorial debut on the film. McCallion had to leave for personal reasons. Filming is set to start in mid-October. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and John Wells are producing the film from a screenplay by Dave Callaham. The zombie hacking videogame was produced by id Software and Activision.
Warner Bros. Pictures has tapped scribes Robert and Michelle King (ANGELS IN THE INFIELD) to adapt the screenplay for the sci-fi thriller COSMONAUT, reports VARIETY. Mace Neufeld (LOST IN SPACE) and Teddy Tenenbaum (writer on TVs DEAD ZONE) have been developing the project for the studio and will serve as producers along with Basil Iwanyk (K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER). Warner Bros. Pictures vp of production Aditya Sood is overseeing the project.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Awards Committee will review 17 scientific and technical achievements for 77th Academy Awards consideration, according to committee chair Richard Edlund, but its not too late to submit entries.
Imagineer Systems announced that London-based film post-production company Cineimage has purchased one of the first monet systems - the product was launched in the U.K. in August. In addition to the monet start-to-finish solution for replacing elements in film and video, Cineimage has also purchased a mokey licence to complete its digital compositing workflow.
With the original STAR WARS trilogy making its monumental DVD bow on Sept. 21 in a four-disc set, Fox Home Ent. and Lucasfilm held a little sneak peek this morning at the Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood (of all places). Thanks to the fastidious work of Lowry Digital Images, who also cleaned up the INDIANA JONES trilogy and THX 1138 for DVD, the STAR WARS classics have never looked sharper and crisper, after some 10 million pieces of dirt were removed from the first film alone. Plus theyve been remixed for the first time in Dolby Digital 5.1.
NewTek Inc. has reached an agreement with the software team of H2MW to collaborate in the management, further development and support of LScript, LightWave 3D's scripting language. LScript provides the ability for users to easily create scripts that automate all functionality of LightWave, ranging from simple and repetitive tasks to highly specific and complex applications.
Sci Fi Channel has partnered with Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR) and Tony Scott (MAN ON FIRE) to revisit the Michael Crichton bestseller, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, while Frank Darabont (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) joins Sci Fi for a re-invention of the sci-fi thriller, THE THING.
Now in its third year, the Visual Effects Societys (VES) awards season opened for submissions on Sept. 1. This years awards slate features new categories, an optional day of live in-person presentations and an online view and vote system.
In reproducing the famed spider walk from THE EXORCIST for the prequel, EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, Pixel Magic of Toluca Lake, California (www.pixelmagicfx.com), called on the 3D scanning expertise of Eyetronics.
Principal photography is set to begin in September on Peter Jacksons KING KONG. Jackson will shoot the epic action flick on location in his native New Zealand. Set to star in the Universal Pictures release is Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts (21 GRAMS), Golden Globe nominee Jack Black (SCHOOL OF ROCK) and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (THE PIANIST).
Devils Due comics AFTERMATH line has been licensed for film, TV and videogames to producers Adrian Askarieh (SPY-HUNTER) and Daniel Alter, reports VARIETY. The comic titles include BLADE OF KUMORI, a modern female samurai; DEFEX, college students who alter their DNA; BREAKDOWN, the private life of the world's first superhero; and INFANTRY, the survivor of a military experiment.
With Bill Desowitz up at ILM for the VAN HELSING DVD press junket, Im back this week with what's new in our neck of the woods. With the premiere of FATHER OF THE PRIDE, VFXWORLD has an article chronicling how DreamWorks worked with Chinese studio Imagi to bring the series to life.
Released to retail stores on August 31, 2004, Mel Gibsons controversial film THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST has sold 2.5 million DVD and VHS units within its first 12 hours of release. 20th Century Fox Home Ent. exec said that surprisingly customers were buying more than one copy, averaging 1.8 per person. On its current pace, the film is set to rank up with home entertainment powerhouses SHREK and FINDING NEMO, which sold 6 million units within the first three days of release.
e-on software, a leader in nature simulation software, will start shipping Vue 5 Esprit, the latest version of its award-winning scenery rendering and animation software, in late September 2004. Meanwhile, you can view a "Coming Soon" video, entirely rendered with Vue 5 Esprit, at www.e-onsoftware.com/Press/PR.php?date=August%2030,%202004.
Vue 5 Esprit combines ease-of-use and creativity with the latest advances in rendering technology. With a dedicated toolkit for the creation and rendering of realistic scenery, Vue 5 Esprit brings Natural 3D to everyone's hand.
Oscar winning star of the upcoming live-action AEON FLUX feature, Charlize Theron, was injured on the set of the Paramount production, which has put the film in limbo, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The production shut down could last up to six weeks.
The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports that she was injured during a wire-fu stunt. Unit publicist Jeanmarie Carrasco said, "She sustained an injury, and we are closing down for a few weeks so that she can be 100% when she returns. She wasn't hospitalized, but I can't comment on anything specific about her injuries."
National Geographic Channel employs some of the best CGI techniques to help explain to viewers how but not always why an unimaginable disaster can happen, from the crash of the Concorde to the Oklahoma City bombing and more in a new series, SECONDS FROM DISASTER, that premieres at 8:00 pm on Aug. 31, 2004 on NGC.
