The Three Stooges Remake................WHY ????

For some reason 20th Century Fox have decided to remake The Three Stooges as a feature length film set in the modern day. I am not sure why they have done this as its clear from the trailer that its a awful idea.

Directed by the Farrelly Brothers and starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos the movie is due for release in the US in April 2012.

We need more fresh ideas not all these sequels and remakes that we are being bombarded with. The Three Stooges weren't that funny originally so I can't think for one minute that a "re-birth" will change that.

I wouldn't normally post a trailer for a film that looked so bad but I just couldn't resist.

Good luck if you can last the whole 1min 46sec of the trailer !

Full Length "John Carter" Trailer

Disney have recently released a brand new full length trailer for the upcoming Sci-Fi adventure "John Carter" (formerly titled "John Carter From Mars"), based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Wall-E & Finding Nemo), this new trailer looks like the film has some promise. The original teaser trailer looked a little too Conan for my liking but this final trailer, whilst maybe still looking a bit Conan with a bit of Avatar thrown in, looks exciting and I can't wait for its release in March 2012.

Ridley Scott - Prequels and Sequels

First of all sorry for the lack of updates.

Now onward !

One of my all time favourite directors Ridley Scott recently announced he was to revisit one of his greatest films to date, Blade Runner. At the time of the announcement he didn't let on if the planned project was to be a sequel or a prequel, and most people were surprised to hear that Scott was going to revisit Philip K Dick's universe at all as Dick never wrote a follow up to his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", to which Scott's film was based.

Scott has now confirmed that the project will be a sequel and is close to finding a writer. From that nugget of information its probably safe to say that we won't be seeing anything on screen for at least a couple of years yet then. The 73yr old Director also confirmed that Harrison Ford would not be reprising his role as Rick Deckard. No surprise there as its no secret that Ford did not get on well with Scott during filming of the original Blade Runner.

So will this be any good ? 

Is Ridley Scott messing with perfection and risking what George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels ?

Well the answer is Yes and No to both questions. Scott is one of the best directors in the business and has more that proved his status with films such as Alien, Bladerunner, Gladiator, Legend and American Gangster but the trouble is he has also missed the mark on more than one occasion with films like G I Jane and Kingdom of Heaven. I am also surprised that he wants to revisit one of his original titles at all. Up until now he has avoided directing any sequels to his own films (he wasn't tempted to return for Aliens and instead passed the baton to James Cameron) and this news has surprised a lot of people, especially as its hot on the heels of his return to the Alien franchise......more below

All in all I have a lot of faith that Ridley will get it right. Blade Runner was panned on its original release and, like The Shawshank Redemption, found its home in the Home Video Market. From there it slowly gained a cult following and is now regarded as not only one of the best Sci-Fi films of all time but one of the best films ever, topping many critics lists. Scott has a lot to live up to but at least he is revisiting his own baby and not trying to re-imagine somebody else's past creation. Time will of course tell and I will keep you updated with any further news as it comes.

As I mentioned before Scott is also returning to the Alien franchise.....in a manner of sorts.

Prometheus has just finished filming and is currently in the early stages of post production.

The plot follows a team of explorers as they discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. 

It was originally intended as a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, but Scott decided to turn it into an original film with Noomi Rapace (who was already set to star in the prequel) still in the cast as one of five main characters. Some time later however it was confirmed that while the movie will take place in the same universe as Alien, and greatly reference that movie, it will, for the bigger part, be an original movie and not a direct prequel. 

With a screenplay by Damon Lindelof (Lost) and a cast including Charlize Theron, Idris Elba (Luther), Rafe Spall and Guy Pearce I think this is looking promising and I hope to bring you a trailer within the next couple of months.

In Focus.........Embargo Films "I, Anna"

Embargo Films is a small British production company specialising in high quality international feature films.

Based in London, Embargo was set up by Barnaby Southcombe and Felix Vossen to develop in house material as well as producing and co-producing British and International feature films.

Barnaby is the son of Charlotte Rampling and a very accomplished Television director with  Waterloo Road, Bad Girls and Teachers to his credits but he is breaking onto the big screen with his first feature directorial debut "I, Anna" starring his mother Charlotte and Gabriel Byrne in the lead roles.

Bernie, (Gabriel Byrne) a police detective dazed by his own rocky marriage, is distracted from his duties at the scene of a brutal murder by a brief encounter with the striking, enigmatic Anna (Charlotte Rampling). Going through the motions at work, Bernie persists in his romantic pursuit of Anna, but when they finally meet, she has no recollection of the night their paths first crossed. As his professional judgement battles with his desire for intimacy and love, the mystery deep within Anna's mind unravels, revealing a truth too painful to bear.

The film is based on Psychoanalyst Elsa Lewin's debut novel of the same name but moves the action from 1950's New York to present day London. It also turns your typical film-noir upside down by telling the story from the femme fatale's perspective. Shooting began in February 2011 with shooting locations in London's Pimlico and Southbank, Southend and Hamburg.

My spies tell me that this film is looking great, with superb acting all round but from what I hear particular credit goes to some of the supporting cast, including Hayley Atwell (Captain America), Ralph Brown (Withnail & I, Alien 3, Nighty Night) and Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes, Dissapearance of Alice Creed).

I, Anna is currently in post production with no trailer available as yet but TheProductionDiaries will bring you it as soon as it's available.

I am looking forward to all of the projects Embargo are working on. I think they could be a very strong force in the British movie industry. For more information visit their site http://www.embargofilms.com/

Hobbit Production Diary No.3 Plus New Images

Peter Jackson's video diaries are a bit like buses - you wait for ages and two come along at the same time. No sooner had we been treated to his second video a couple of weeks ago, along comes a third....and what a cracker it is too. So what does the video feature....

For reasons that aren't explained Peter is at Pinewood studios filming what appears to be internal Bag End scenes whilst looking for Andy Serkis (who I assume is probably asleep somewhere due to him appearing so knackered in video number 2)

The diary then shows us some fascinating footage of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Andy Serkis in full gimp suit and head cam as Gollum filming some cave scenes. Lord of the Rings set designer Dan Hennah makes an appearance and you can see from his face that he is glad to be back in Tolkien's world and clearly in his element - after all he is an Oscar winning Art Director and Set Decorator responsible for making the best movie trilogy ever look so great !

It's great to see Ian McKellen struggling with all the Dwarf names. It can't be easy as there are 13 of them. I often struggle with Snow White's gang but I am sure they will be household names just like Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in a couple of years.

"Lots of rubber, lots of hair"

Again for reasons that are not explained, but maybe that is a good thing, Mark Hadlow (Dori) is wearing a Sailor's outfit and according to some of the other dwarves he does favour other odd military regalia from time to time????

Some great footage appears in shoot day 38 of 'Trollshaw' - an epic battle scene featuring the Dwarves directed by second unit director and Gollum actor Andy Serkis.

Shoot day 38 brings back memories as we see Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett looking beautiful reprising their roles from Lord of the Rings.

The hightlight of the whole video for me is seeing John Ryhs Davies on set with the whole Dwarf gang in Wellington at Bag End showing some empathy 'of sorts' for the heavy costumes and prosthetics the actors have to wear. John of course played Gimli in Lord of the Rings so it must of been strange for him to see his dad Gloin, played by Peter Hambleton.

Last but not least there is a treat right at the end but I don't want to spoil it too much so you will just have to take a look at the video yourself

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in late 2012

As a bonus here is another James Fisher photo of Richard Armitage as Thorin exclusively for theonering.net

John Carter Of Mars - First Trailer

Walt Disney Studios have just released the first teaser trailer for "John Carter of Mars", due for release 2012. 

John Carter of Mars is inexplicably transported to the mysterious and exotic planet Mars, and becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions and discovers that the survival of the planet and its people rests in his hands.


Visit the official website at http://www.disney.co.uk/john-carter


John Carter is a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). John Carter is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

I featured the teaser poster and concept art images a short while back but it's great to actually see what the film is going to look like although I am a little worried....

This is Pixar director Andrew Stanton's first foray into live action film making and although both Wall-E and Finding Nemo were brilliant films they were both Stanton stories but John Carter isn't. It's an Edgar Rice Burroughs story and one I never thought could be brought to the big screen.

Andrew Stanton in John Carter Production Meeting 

copyright Disney

Andrew Stanton is a very strong story man having been involved in story for all 3 Toy Story films along with A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Wall-E but I am not sure from this trailer if it will match up to his animated work.

To me it looks like a cross between Prince of Persia and Conan The Barbarian and seems to offer nothing new, which is something Andrew Stanton normally delivers in spades. Lets hope I am wrong and to be fair this is just the teaser trailer and there is still a lot of post production to be done before it's release this time next year.

Eamon Butler, former Disney Animator, now Head of Animation 

@ Double Negative discussing some of the props from the film

New Hobbit Images - "Fili" and "Kili"

To the left are Dean O'Gorman as "Fili" and Aiden Turner as "Kili" in a brand new promotional picture from The Hobbit.

Two of the youngest Dwarves, Fili and Kili have been born into the royal line of Durin and raised under the stern guardianship of their uncle, Thorin Oakensheild. Neither has ever travelled far, nor ever seen the fabled Dwarf City of Erebor. For both, the journey to the Lonely Mountain represents adventure and excitement. Skilled fighters, both brothers set off on their adventure armed with the invincible courage of youth, neither being able to imagine the fate which lies before them.

This brand new picture follows hot on the heels from my previous post of the second Hobbit production diary.

The picture was taken by renowned Australian photographer James Fisher who has taken photographs of some of Australia finest including Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Hugh Jackman. To see more of his amazing work visit http://www.jamesfisher.com.au/

Arnie Will Be Back.......in a Western?

Lionsgate Studios have announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger will make his leading man movie return in an upcoming western titled The Last Man. The 63 year old action star's last major role was in 2003's Terminator 3 but was last seen in a small cameo role in good friend Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables.

Lionsgate said Arnie "will bring incredible magnetism" to the role of a border town sheriff who takes on a drugs lord.

The movie will be directed by Korean director Kim Jee-woon but there is no release date as yet.

Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows - First Trailer in HD

I teased you yesterday with two posters for Guy Ritchie's follow up to 2009's Sherlock Holmes and a promise of the first trailer. Well here is that trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in HD which features Robert Downey in drag, Jude Law on honeymoon and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo's Noomi Rapace as a fortune telling gypsy. Who could ask for anything more ?

Pooh, Potter, Muppets, Sherlock and Batman !

There seems to be so many new trailers and posters being released this week that I have decided to post them all together today.

First up, a couple of short trailers for Winnie The Pooh that spoof (or should that be take advantage of) the final instalment of Harry Potter.

The Winnie The Pooh movie had its UK release in April but US audiences have to wait until July 15. It's a very sweet little movie that harks back to the early days of Disney but I'm guessing ticket sales won't be huge for this given its clash with the Boy Wizard.

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Next up is the latest post for 'The Muppets' due for US release November 23 and UK release Feb 17th 2012. The movie stars Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper and is Directed by James Bobin.

The story sees Adams and Segel's characters raising money via a Muppet Telethon to prevent greedy oil magnate Tex Richman who discovers oil underneath the Muppet Theatre. It's then up to Kermit the Frog to reunite the Muppets who have all gone their seperate ways.

Segel pitched an idea to Disney in 2008 who then offered him to develop a script with Nicholas Stoller. 

The movie promises lots of cameos, some cracking musical numbers and quite a few laughs. I look forward to this.

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Here is the teaser poster for The Dark Knight Rises, due for release 20 July 2012. Once again directed by Christopher Nolan and Starring Christian Bale as 'Bruce Wayne'/'Batman', Anne Hathaway as 'Catwoman', Tom Hardy as 'Bane', Gary Oldman as 'Jim Gordon' and Marion Cottilard as 'Miranda Tate'.

With a budget of $250 million this will be the final part of Nolan's DC Comics character trilogy and rumours suggest it may be filmed entirely in IMAX format film but not in 3D

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Lastly, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the follow up to the hugely successful 2009 movie. This film reunites original stars Robert Downey Jnr. as 'Holmes', Jude Law as 'Watson' and Rachel McAdams as 'Irene Adler' and this time the team join forces to try and bring down their biggest enemy.....Professor Moriarty. Two new additions to the cast are ProductionDiaries favourite Stephen Fry as Sherlock's brother 'Mycroft Holmes' and Jared Harris as 'Moriarty'. The film is due for release for release December 16 and I think these 2 teaser posters look great. TheProductionDiaries.com will feature the first trailer in the next few weeks so keep checking back.

TinTin Full Length Trailer

What do you get if you take the directing skills of 'Jaws', 'Jurassic Park', and 'Saving Private Ryan', mix it with the producers of 'Lord of the Rings' and 'King Kong' and then combine it with the writers behind 'Sherlock', 'Attack the Block' and 'Hot Fuzz' and 'Shaun of the Dead' ?????

Well the answer is The Adventures of "TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn", a new performance capture film from Director Steven Spielberg and Producer Peter Jackson. The film stars Jamie Bell as Herge's famous explorer with Andy Serkis as 'Captain Haddock' and Simon Pegg & Nick Frost as 'Thomson & Thompson'.

The movie combines the three stories 'The Crab With The Golden Claws', 'The Secret Of The Unicorn' and 'Red Rackham's Treasure' and will focus on TinTin's first encounter with Captain Haddock and the discovery of instructions as to the whereabouts of a sunken ship and, of course, lots of treasure.

Filming took place in just over 30 days, starting at the end of January 2009 which sounds quick but that is the beauty of performance capture, its nice and speedy due to not having to set up lights etc. Its only afterwards the hard work really starts in post production. Weta Digital (Avatar) will be providing the mammoth amount of CGI required whilst king of the movie themes, John Williams will be providing the score. 

The film will be the first in a trilogy of films with the second being directed by Peter Jackson and the third being co-directed by both Steven and Peter. It's scheduled for release in Decmber 2011 and I think this will be the start of a great trilogy !

We featured the teaser trailer a few weeks ago but here now for your pleasure is the full length international trailer.

New Hobbit Production Diary Number 2 and Dwarf Pics

Peter Jackson has recently uploaded a brand new production diary from the set of The Hobbit and also released some great new pictures of John Callen as 'Oin' and Peter Hambleton as 'Gloin' and another of Jed Brophy as 'Nori', Adam Brown as 'Ori' and Mark Hadlow as 'Dori'

Distant cousins of Thorin Oakenshield, these two doughty Northern Dwarves join the Company out of a sense of loyalty to their kin, and also because they have a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. Along with Bombur, Gloin is the only other married Dwarf in the Company (there being a shortage of female dwarves in general). His wife is an acclaimed beauty with a particularly fine beard. Gloin is the proud father of a young son, Gimli, who will go on to become part of the famous Fellowship of the Ring.

'Oin' and 'Gloin'

These three brothers, all sons of the same mother, could not be more different from each other. Dori, the oldest, spends much of his time watching out for Ori, the youngest; making sure hes not caught a chill or got himself killed by Wargs or Goblins. Nobody quite knows what Nori gets up to most of the time, except that its guaranteed to be dodgy and quite probably, illegal. Dori, Nori and Ori are intensely loyal to each other and whilst they are perfectly happy fighting amongst themselves, woe-betide anyone who means harm to one of these brothers.

'Nori', 'Ori' and 'Dori'

And lastly, here is the second on set production diary from Peter Jackson and its really interesting to see Andy Serkis in the 2nd unit Director's Chair. Peter, as with all of his 'large scale' films prefers to shoot in blocks and then edits along the way which also gives Weta ample opportunity to start work on the mammoth amount of visual effects shots.

Stephen Fry is GOD !!

Last week I reported on the upcoming BBC drama detailing the furore surrounding the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian. 

Well I have just found out in the past hour that Stephen Fry is to play God in the one off film and will be recording his voice parts today so I am assuming that his role will be animated.

It will be great to see Stephen in this adaptation and I can't think of a better 'character' for him to portray, seeing as most of the UK think he is a god anyway.....................and he is !!

UPDATE: As you can clearly see from the picture below, Stephen won't be animated in the Python drama as his 'God' like dress shows.

I got hold of this picture from Stephen's Twitter account earlier today and he really looks the part. I'm guessing green screen will be used quite heavily for this production as I read the other day it will feature quite a lot of animation, which I hope will be in the same style as the fantastic Terry Gilliam vignettes from the Python series years ago

Deathly Hallows London Premiere to stream on YouTube

Warner Bros. have announced that the Worldwide Premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" will be streamed on the Harry Potter YouTube channel on July 7 live from London's Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint as well as many other stars of all the HP films will be there alongside the film makers themselves for the exclusive event.

Click HERE for the Harry Potter YouTube channel and don't forget to mark the date in your diary.

The film opens worldwide on July 15.

Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" - First Look

"War Horse" tells the story of a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.

Filmed entirely in England the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Eddie Marsan (Dissapearance of Alice Creed, Little Dorrit) and David Thewlis (Black Beauty, Dragonheart) and is based on the children's book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo and the stage adaptation by Nick Stafford.

The screen adaptation is written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Blackadder, Nottinghill) and Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and is produced by Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, directed by Steven Spielberg with music by John Williams.

The trailer looks beautiful and from what I have heard about the book and stage show, you may need to bring some tissues to the theatre for this one !

Brad Lewis leaves Pixar.......Joins Digital Domain

In June I reported that Digital Domain were building a huge studio complex in Florida and branching out into film production. They were putting most of their money by employing two ex-Disney staff to make them stand out in the feature animation world and now they have taken that one step further by employing Brad Lewis from Pixar for their new 'Tradition Studios' company in Florida

Brad joined in Pixar in 2001 and became the Producer of "Ratatouille" and also wrote and Co-Directed "Cars 2". He had previously been at PDI Dreamworks for 11 years where he was producer for "Antz"

So why leave Pixar just as your Directorial debut hits theatres ? Well it's no secret that "Cars 2" has not been as well received as previous Pixar outings. For a start it was meant to be solely directed by Lewis but John Lasseter was brought on to help with 'developmental problems'. Although "Cars 2" is performing well at the box office and merchandise sales alone will be excellent it has at the time of writing a 34% rate @ Rotten Tomatoes which is the lowest score any Pixar film has ever had. I am guessing that it was an amicable decision for all parties given that Brad's relationship with John Lasseter was reported to be very strong.

I wish Brad all the best at 'Tradition' and I look forward to seeing what he can produce.

Disney Revives Philip K Dick's "King of the Elves"

Disney have announced plans to revive a Philip K Dick short story titled "King of the Elves". They had previously shelved the animated feature way back in late 2009 but have today announced  "Horrible Bosses" writer Michael Markowitz will now be penning the script.

The story tells of a band of elves and one dwarf that live in the Mississippi Delta who name a human as their king after saving them from a troll.

"Bolt" Director Chris Williams will act as Producer for the project which has been revived, after many changes to both writers and directors over the past 2 years, thanks to John Lasseter. Disney have also confirmed that "King of the Elves" will be a computer animated feature and not hand drawn and is slated for release at the end of 2013. 

I look forward to Disney's take on a Dick short story. I am a huge fan of his work and I applaud Disney for taking what some may view as a bit of a gamble.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - Teaser Trailer

This is the first trailer for the fourth instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise titled "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol".

Once again Tom Cruise reprises his role as special agent Ethan Hunt and takes on writing and producing duties with long time friend J.J.Abrams. This is the first live action film from Director Brad Bird, best known for his work in animation with classics such as "The Iron Giant", "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille"

The film is due for release on Dec 26th in the UK but US audiences will get it 2 weeks earlier from Dec 16th.

I have to admit to being quite excited after seeing this trailer !

Check out the official site HERE

A 'Brave' Move for Pixar - Brand New Teaser Trailer Released

The trailer above is for Pixar's next animated feature, "Brave" which tells the story of 'Merida', a young Scottish Princess who defies her parents by defying an old age custom sacred to the lords of the land.

This film will be Pixar's first fairytale and its first film to feature a female lead. It was originally titled "The Bear and the Bow" and was also originally going to be directed by Brenda Chapman (Little Mermaid, Road to Eldorado) but has now been replaced by Mark Andrews (One Man Band, Jack Jack Attack) and although Brenda Chapman is no longer working on the movie she will be credited as co-director.

It's good to see Pixar giving the lead to a female character. Kelly McDonald is supplying the voice of Merida. She has replaced Reese Witherspoon. The official line from Disney/Pixar with regard to the replacing of Reece was due to scheduling conflicts but I am not so sure. Recording voice characters is not quite the same as filming is it ? I think it was more of a case of Reese not being able to portray a believable Scottish accent. Regardless of that the cast list looks strong featuring the acting talents of Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly.

Brave is released in June 2011. Keep an eye out here at 'The Production Diaries' for more information and art as we receive it. So far though it looks pretty good to me.

Holy Flying Circus

Ask most Monty Python fans what is their favourite film from the anarchic team and most will probably say The Holy Grail but there is no doubting which of Monty Python's films casued the most controversy, and that was The Life Of Brian.

The film tells the story of Brian Cohen who is born the same day as Jesus and spends his life being mistaken for him. It's brilliant, hilarious and worthy of repeat viewings but at the time of it's release many were not so keen.

Shortly after it's release in 1979, Michael Palin and John Cleese engaged in a very well known debate programme called Friday Night, Saturday Morning with Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood.

The BBC have now commissioned a drama that examines the events surrounding the controversy this film caused and I have to say what an excellent choice the casting directors have made with this film.

Michael Palin is being played by Charles Edwards

John Cleese is being played by Darren Boyd

Eric Idle is being played by Steve Punt

Terry Jones is being played by Rufus Jones

Terry Gilliam is being played by Phil Nichol

and the late Graham Chapman is being played by Tom Fisher

The one-off drama is being written by Tony Roche whose credits include "In The Loop", "The Thick Of It" and "Miranda" and will be shown on BBC4 in the autumn so this is one to very much look forward to.

As a little bonus, take a look at the spoof sketch "Not The Nine O'Clock News" made of the debate.

John Carter Of Mars - First Images

Andrew Stanton is a two time Oscar winning Director from Pixar. Both Wall-E and Finding Nemo won Oscars for best animated feature and he was also co-wrote Toy Story 1, 2 & 3, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Wall-E and Finding Nemo. He was the second animator to be hired at Pixar (after John Lasseter) and is part of Pixar's Brain Trust, which often review and participate in the film making process of non-Pixar films made by Walt Disney Pictures. To say the man is a talented film maker would be an understatement, but Disney are taking somewhat of a gamble with Andrew's next project.

Mr Stanton is currently on loan to Disney and is in the director's chair for his first live action film, "John Carter of Mars", based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs serialisation from 1912. This film is based on the first story to feature the character John Carter from the novel "The Princess of Mars". This is one story that film makers have wanted to bring to the big screen for decades and has its roots as far back as 1931 when MGM tried to turn it into animated rotoscoped cartoons but they failed to impress test audiences.

The rights to the story have been banded about since the 1980's between Disney, Paramount and back to Disney in 2007 again. As recently as 2005 Robert Rodriguez was lined up to direct the story using digital sets from his Sin City movie.

With Disney back in the frame in 2007 they 'loaned' both Andrew Stanton as director and Mark Andrews as writer from Pixar. Principal photography started in January 2010 at Shepperton Studios and finished in Utah in July the same year. The film stars Taylor Kitsch as 'John Carter', Lynn Collins as 'Dejah Thoris' and a strong supporting cast including James Purefoy, Willem Dafoe, Dominic West and Samantha Morton. Michael Giacchino will be composing the score.

This will be a heavy effects laden movie, as you can see from the concept art below but even I was surprised at how long this one is taking to make. The official release date is March 9th 2012 in the US so that gives Disney plenty of time to get it right.....and they will need to as this story is one that Burroughs fan-boys will be keen to see and, if not done right, will certainly make their opinions known !

Here is the official press release from Disney:

From Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes “John Carter”—a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). “John Carter” is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

Click on the Book Cover to read an excellent interview with Andrew Stanton in the LA Times. 

Evangeline Lilly & Barry Humphries Join Cast of The Hobbit

Peter Jackson yesterday revealed some new cast members for "The Hobbit". Former 'Lost' star Evangeline Lilly has been cast in his two part epic as the woodland elf, Tauriel which means Daughter of Mirkwood. Peter stated that he is thrilled that Evangeline will be bringing the first Sylvan Elf to life. You may of course remember that Evangeline's former partner, Dominic Monaghan starred as 'Merry' in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Another inspired choice of casting comes in the form of Barry Humphries. Best known for his other personas as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, Barry has been cast as 'The Goblin King' in much the same way as Andy Serkis played Gollum, which can only mean one thing......it's motion capture and a gimp suit for Mr Humphries all the way.

Great casting and it looks as though The Hobbit is coming along nicely. I have had a few emails with a few people saying it looks as though Peter Jackson is 'winging' it with casting still taking place whilst shooting has already begun. This is actually quite normal for most films, especially large scale epics such as this. Sometimes cast members can come and go and you have to remember that not many films' scenes are shot in order of how they appear on screen.

The Hobbit is going to be an amazing spectacle, perhaps even better than Lord of the Rings. Peter is location scouting as I type this in beautiful New Zealand, and with the frame rate he has chosen to shoot in (48fps) and the 3D technology, it will seem like you are really there in middle earth.

Sherlock to become a Dragon !

It was revealed yesterday that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch will be joining the cast of "The Hobbit" to play Smaug the Dragon via motion capture and also to voice the Necromancer.

Benedict's "Sherlock" co-star Martin Freeman, who himself is playing Bilbo Baggins, revealed that Benedict was joining the cast at the Bafta's last month so it's good to confirm the roles he is playing.

This is of course not the first time an actor has played two roles in a Middle Earth film. John Rhys Davies played both Gimli and voiced Treebeard in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Strangely enough, in a rather odd coincidence John recently voiced the role of Dr Watson in "Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes" ????

It's no surprise really that Benedict has been cast in Peter Jackson's two part epic tale. In the incestuous world of film making its always been a case of six degrees of separation...........or more a case of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.......

Basically.....Peter Jackson is producing and directing the two Hobbit films. He is also producing the Tin Tin films which star Andy Serkis (Gollum) as Captain Haddock. They are being co-written by Steven Moffat and he writes Sherlock, which stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Its a case of scratch my back and I will scratch yours I guess. In fact , don't be surprised if you see some Hobbit cameos in the second series of Sherlock.

Digital Domain.......the new Pixar ???

Digital Domain, co founded in 1993 by creatures effects god Stan Winston and academy award winning director James Cameron are probably one of the biggest effects houses in the world today. Along with the other big two effects companies ILM and Weta Digital, they are responsible for stunning imagery in films such as "Titanic", "Speed Racer", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Not content with that they are now branching out into film making in their own right with plans to build a $40 million dollar studio in Florida with the aim of following in Sony Imageworks and ILM's recent foray into the world of animation. 

ILM had some recent success with "Rango", which marked their very first attempt at an animated movie. Sony Imageworks on the other hand have more than proved they can compete with the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks with successful films such as "Open Season" and "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs." 

Can Digital Domain capture what these other studios have done.....to be honest the jury is still out with me. Whilst I have admired Digital Domain's work for many years, for me they have always just lagged behind ILM and Weta when it comes to innovation. Also their recent attempt to create a realistic 'young' looking Jeff Bridges in "Tron Legacy" just didn't pay off and left me feeling a bit creeped out with it all, despite all the other effects blowing me away. 

Creepy Jeff

Creepy 'Dead Eyed' Jeff

As you can see from these two pictures there is something a little "Uncanny Valley" about them.

Ok, so a creepy looking Jeff Bridges isn't enough evidence to suggest Digital Domain are not up to the job of creating some stunning looking CGI animated films I will admit but there is more to making an animated film than just making it look good.

Take London based effects house Framestore for example. Aside from supplying some awesome effects work for films such as Avatar, they have also gone down the complete film production route with films including "Harry Brown", "Triangle" and "Me and Orson Welles". However their attempt at animation was the incredibly dire "Tale of Despereaux". A film that starred a very cute big eared mouse but lacked story, script, heart and characterisation. It was one of the worst films of 2008 despite having big names attached to it. It was no Pixar, that's for sure.

Digital Domain are laying all their hopes on their employment of two ex-Disney employees. Animator Aaron Blaise, whose credits include animating "Pocahontas", "The Lion King", "Beauty and the Beast" and directing "Brother Bear" has been hired along with "Brother Bear's" executive producer Chuck Williams. Chuck has been quoted as saying.

  “As Pixar is struggling with sequels and Disney’s struggling to find itself, I think it’s a good time for us to come in with a different point of view with great family films.” 
I reckon most companies wished they were 'struggling' as much as Pixar. Toy Story 3 grossed over $1 billion in 2010 which is no mean feat for any film, let alone an animated sequel. Pixar have not had a failure yet. Despite "Cars" being their least popular film to date, they are gambling on its sequel "Cars 2" and I think it will be a huge success worldwide, plus the marketing side including the toys alone will probably rake in ten times more that what the film will make, so I'm guessing Pixar are a long way from 'struggling' just yet !

Time will tell I suppose and I really do wish them well but please don't try and knock really, really successful companies when you haven't even dipped your toe in the water first.