Tagged With: Visual

Hollywood, California-based production house Cinesite will be providing visual effects for the 20th Century Fox feature X-MEN 2, scheduled to be in theaters May 2, 2003. In this sequel to 2000's X-MEN, Brian Cox (THE BOURNE IDENTITY) portrays the villainous Stryker, a former Army commander who holds the key to Wolverine's past - as well as the future of the X-MEN. The original cast from X-MEN will return, joined by Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, a mutant who can teleport himself from one point to another almost instantaneously.

The final numbers from this weekend's box office have been tallied, and it was a close one! Although Disney officials predicted the traditionally animated duo LILO & STITCH will take the number one spot over the powerful combination of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, it was not to be. It was down to the wire, but Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT, with primary visual effects by ILM, prevailed, edging out LILO & STITCH for the number one spot with $35.7M.

The CIA thriller THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, with visual effects by Rhythm & Hues, came in at number one again this weekend, earning $18.7M for a two-week total of $61.7M. The Ya-Ya's battled the Clones to take second, as chick-flick THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD earned $16.3M in its debut weekend and STAR WARS: EPISODE II, with visual effects by ILM, dropped to third with $13.8M and a four-week cume of $254.9M.

The editors of The Little Black Book of Visual Effects have partnered with entertainment consulting company Razorview, Inc. to launch lbbvfx.com, an online resource for the visual effects community. The print version of The Little Black Book of Visual Effects currently lists approximately 4,900 qualified visual effects professionals, all of whom are now part of the online resource. All new applicants to lbbvfx.com are provided with a basic listing for free as long as they have verifiable credits and references.

Film Roman, Inc. continues to expand, this time into the visual effects arena. The company best known for THE SIMPSONS has announced plans to acquire visual effects house VanHook Studios and to form a new visual effects division called Forum Visual Effects, to be based out of Film Roman's North Hollywood studios.

A four-part seminar examining the art of visual effects will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences beginning April 30, 2002, at 7:00 pm. The series will continue for three additional Tuesday evenings - May 7, 14 and 21 - and will feature participants who have garnered 25 Academy Award nominations among them. Each session of "The State of the Visual Effects Arts" will focus on a specific area of the visual effects field and will be moderated by Jamie Price, who created the visual effects for THE TIME MACHINE and BICENTENNIAL MAN.

The new psychological thriller CHANGING LANES topped the box office this week, despite a strong performance from PANIC ROOM, which fell to second in its third week. CHANGING LANES debuted with $17.5M, while PANIC ROOM, with visual effects by ComputerCafe, scared up $11.3M for a three-week total of $74.1M. The girl buddy comedy THE SWEETEST THING took the third spot with $10M. Showing that family-friendly films are holding their own at the box office, ICE AGE is in fourth place after five weeks in release.

Despite mixed reviews, David Fincher's PANIC ROOM, with visual effects by ComputerCafe, managed to stay number one at the box office this weekend, despite a challenge from another thriller HIGH CRIMES, which came in second. PANIC ROOM took in $18.5M for a two-week total of $58.8M, while HIGH CRIMES, with visual effects by FX Concepts, debuted with $15M. ICE AGE is still going strong in its fourth week, slipping just one spot to third with $14.3M and a cume of $141.4M. Disneys family-friendly baseball flick THE ROOKIE slid into fourth place with $11.7M and $35M to date.

Broadcast and commercial design collective V12 recently completed designing the new look for the X Games, the extreme sports version of the Olympics. Debuting at the Winter X Games and continuing through to the Summer Games, V12, lead by creative directors Juan Delcan and David J. Hwang, created all of the on-air packaging and design including logo ids, information graphics, backgrounds and on-screen scoreboards. For the visual transitions, V12 treated the live action footage to mirror the style of propaganda posters and provided an entire reel from which the client could choose.

Visual effects artists Andrew Orloff and Steve Meyer have joined digital visual effects studio Radium. Orloff has been appointed head of CG in Los Angeles and will work closely with his San Francisco-based co-head of CG, Andrew Sinagra. Formerly the head of 525 Post's 3D department, Orloff first came to Radium as a freelance visual effects artist before officially joining the company in January 2002. A graduate of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television with an emphasis in animation, Orloff is also an instructor at Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

Santa Monica-based visual effects house Company 3 has hired Henry artist and visual effects supervisor Alex Brodie and visual effects producer Christine Carr. Both arrive from 525 Post Production, which curtailed operations in December. Brodie has a list of high profile credits in music videos and commercials including recent efforts like the Garbage music video "Cherry Lips," which featured an "invisible" band. In the spot, Brodie removed the bands heads and limbs to make it appear as though empty suits were playing guitars and other instruments.

Three new films held the top spots this weekend, with Arnold Schwarzeneggers terrorist drama COLLATERAL DAMAGE leading the pack. The film, with visual effects by Digital Film Works, earned $15.1M in its first weekend out. A remake of the 1975 film ROLLERBALL managed to debut in the number three spot despite generally lackluster reviews. The futuristic actioner took in $9M. BLACK HAWK DOWN, last weeks number one film, fell to fourth. The war epic, with visual effects by The Mill and Asylum, earned $8M for a total of $86.7M to date.