Framestore CFCs thriving film department has a new senior producer. Sandra Scott joins the company from Industrial Light & Magic, where she produced vfx work for projects such as THE MUMMY, MISSION TO MARS and PLANET OF THE APES.
SPY-HUNTER producers Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon have obtained the feature rights to Midway's PSI-OPS videogame, reports VARIETY. The producers hope to secure a director and pitch the project to various studios by the beginning of September. The story follows a psionic agent who has had his memory erased that must infiltrate a band of rogue agents who were in training with him.
Warner Home Video has announced that it will release a 10-disk MATRIX collection in December. THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION will include the trilogy, THE ANIMATRIX and 35-hours of bonus material as well as a Neo bust and 80-page book.
The disks include:* THE MATRIX - containing a new digital transfer of the film with two new commentaries* THE MATRIX REVISITED
Paramount Pictures and Cruise/Wagner Productions have made it official J.J. Abrams will make his theatrical directing debut onMISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3. Originally set to hit theaters next summer, the film will now start shooting in the summer of 2005. Abrams is best known as the creator and director of such hit series as FELICITY, ALIAS and his new series LOST. Previously, NARC director Joe Carnahan had long been attached to direct the film, but had "creative differences" with the studio, leading to his stepping down from the film earlier this year.
After seven years as CaféFX's senior effects producer and supervisor, Vicki Weimer has been promoted to exec producer. Weimer, a 30-year veteran of the motion picture industry, will handle team building and oversee all CaféFX feature film projects.
"Vicki has been an incredible asset to us during her tenure here at the Café. She has actually been doing the EP role here for years. We are just making it official," said Jeff Barnes, ComputerCafé Group's president/ceo.
Avid Technology Inc. has introduced a new digital asset library module for its Alienbrain VFX asset management system. The Internet-based module offers unprecedented archiving and retrieval functionality to teams producing large volumes of graphics files for complex visual effects and computer-generated feature projects. The new digital asset library module was unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2004.
Atari Inc. is collaborating with best-selling author Dale Brown and Eugen Systems on ACT OF WAR: DIRECT ACTION, scheduled to be released in spring 2005. The upcoming near-future, geopolitical techno-thriller is being developed by Eugen Systems with a storyline and game universe created in cooperation with Brown, 15-time New York Times best-selling author and expert on U.S. military, global conflict and future military technology.
HP introduced groundbreaking new software at SIGGRAPH 2004 that allows customers in graphics-intensive fields such as engineering and graphic design to collaborate with teams across geographically dispersed regions in realtime.
It looks like the heavy vfx duties on the new WAR OF THE WORLDS feature from Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks will be done by vfx supervisor Dennis Muren and Industrial Light & Magic, according to the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Steven Spielberg is directing the remake of H.G. Wells novel with Tom Cruise set to star in the pic stet to shoot in November 2004.
Ben Kingsley has been signed to play the vampire Kagan, the evil ruler of an army of bloodsuckers, in the film adaptation of the videogame BLOODRAYNE, opposite Kristanna Loken (TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES), the ASSOCIATED PRESS reported. The film chronicles the adventures of a half-vampire, half-human in 18th-century Romania who has the super strength of a monster countered by the emotions of a person.
Project postponements have freed up actor Tom Cruise and director Steven Spielberg to team up again in the re-make of H.G. Wells THE WAR OF THE WORLDS for a fast track investment for DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures.
Cruise had been set to work on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 until a delay while Spielbergs untitled project on the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics has also been pushed back. Cruise and Spielberg collaborated successfully on MINORITY REPORT.
Kaydara Inc., and Alias announced from SIGGRAPH 2004 the forthcoming release of MOTIONBUILDER 6, the newest version of the company's award-winning character animation software. This comes on the heels of the recent news that Alias has signed an agreement to acquire Kaydara.
When the purchase closes (which it is expected to within two months), then MOTIONBUILDER will be rebranded Alias MOTIONBUILDER.
VFXWorld and AWN are at the SIGGRAPH Conference in full right now. VFXWorld's editor Bill Desowitz is walking the convention floor, checking out all that is new in the world of technology and visual effects. As for new articles on VFXWorld, continuing in the SIGGRAPH mode, we have an article from Mary Ann Skweres about Dr. Paul Debevec's pioneering 3D works as well as his newest short, THE PARTHENON, which premiered at SIGGRAPH 2004's famed Electronic Theater. As well, we have an article from J.
Apple announced at SIGGRAPH 2004 it has begun shipping Motion, the revolutionary new application that delivers high-performance, realtime motion graphics design. Motion offers the creative freedom and power for artists to deliver stunning, professional quality results, quickly and intuitively, with realtime previews, procedural behavior animation and integration with both Final Cut Pro(R) HD and DVD Studio Pro(R) 3, all at a breakthrough price of $299.
Digital Domain and Barnet Bain Films have acquired the film rights to Richard Bach's bestselling novel ILLUSIONS: THE ADVENTURES OF A RELUCTANT MESSIAH, according to DAILY VARIETY.
French filmmaker Yann Samuell is reportedly set to direct the adaptation, the inspirational account of an encounter with a modern-day messiah. The book has sold 15 million copies for author Bach, who also penned JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL.
According to TrendWatch, previsualization is rapidly gaining acceptance among producers and directors, with 39% of all studios/facilities currently doing previs tasks along with eight out of 10 vfx studios.
This TrendWatch Fast Fact is good news in terms of shrinking budgets and shorter production cycles.
TrendWatch Inc. (www.trendwatch.com) is a market research firm located in Mill Valley, California.
Avid Technology announced new pricing for its SOFTIMAGE|XSI product line, ushering in 3-Democracy, the company's plan for making its comprehensive 3D content creation software accessible to all levels of CG professionals. Now a greater number of artists can purchase the award-winning 3D software in three new affordable configurations, starting with the unprecedented price of $495 for SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.0 Foundation.
DreamWorks is in negotiations with Ewan McGregor (BIG FISH) to star in Michael Bay's next sci-fi feature, THE ISLAND, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Caspian Tredwell-Owen (BEYOND BORDERS) wrote the spec screenplay, which chronicles a harvested being" who tries to escape the utopian facility he is housed in. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (TV's ALIAS) have been hired to polish the script. Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Ian Bryce (CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) are set to produce. Marc Haines will oversee the project for the studio, which hopes to starting filming in the fall.
Immersion Corp. has announced that Kaydara has certified Immersion's new VirtualHand for MOCAP plug-in for MOCAP software. With this new combination, professional filmmakers, motion-capture directors, visual effects artists and game developers can use Immersion's CyberGlove hand-sensing hardware to capture hand motion, then edit and blend the animation in MOCAP. The CyberGlove provides high-performance hand measurement and real-time motion capture.
Kelseus will launch Antics Pre-Viz, its own previs product that uses intelligent realtime 3D animation technology, at SIGGRAPH 2004, Aug. 10-12, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in booth #1355.
20th Century Fox has pulled the plug on X-MEN helmer Brian Singer's two-year first look deal, now that the director has signed on to direct Warner Bros. SUPERMAN, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Singer's Bad Hat Harry production company, which was based on the Fox lot, was asked to clear out its offices. Singer, who is working on SUPERMAN out of the Warner lot, does not have a overall deal with Warner, despite his development of the remake of LOGAN'S RUN.
Howard Shore, the world-renowned film composer who composed the scores for THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, will compose game music for Webzen Inc.s next in-house developed game, SUN: SOUL OF THE ULTIMATE NATION. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) will be first introduced in early 2005 and launched later in the year. The original SUN soundtrack will be distributed for sale globally.
Imagineer Systems announced the release of monet, its new product for broadcast, film and video post-production markets. monet is uniquely offers a start-to-finish solution for replacing elements in film and video. monet offers precision, lens distortion aware, 2D motion tracking with tools that allow accurate adjustments of the track to be made. It allows properties of the source material, such as lens distortion, shadows, highlights and grain/noise easily to be applied to the new element.
REALVIZ will debut StoryViz 1.0, the latest addition to its award-winning software portfolio, at SIGGRAPH 2004, Aug. 10-12, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
