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.

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. 

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.

From Priesthood to Hollywood

In early May Ubisoft games announced they were creating their own film studio: Ubisoft Motion Pictures. To be totally correct it won't be a fully fledged movie studio but more of a production company but there will be an awful lot of potential in this new kid on the block.

Ubisoft are responsible for games such as Assasins Creed, Prince of Persia (already a motion picture released by Disney), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and those wonderful but annoying Raving Rabbids. Although the movie version of Prince of Persia was classed as a flop, it did bring in over £350 million for Disney but that wasn't enough profit for them from a £200 million budget, and to date they have no plans for a sequel, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the film and thought it was a great Arabian romp in the same vein as the Pirates trilogy. So will Ubisoft release a sequel through another studio? Who knows, but I hope so. There is a lot of life in the characters and a lot more story to tell.

More importantly though is whether Ubisoft will be able to make any successful films based on video games at all. In the last decade there have some reasonable adaptations such as Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, but along the way there have been some stinkers such as Hitman, Tekken and Dead or Alive (DOA), so Ubisoft have their work cut out if they want to be taken seriously.

So what should they attempt first? Well, the most obvious title in my view would be a movie adaptation of one of the stand out PS3 release titles, Assassins Creed.  The series spawned multiple sequels for various consoles and has sold millions worldwide. There was also a mini movie/series that only had an official release in France and Canada. Called Assassins Creed: Lineage the film is a prequel to the second game and can be viewed on YouTube.

The film actually has a very polished and professional look as you will see from the video so if Ubisoft can create this from a very modest budget I look forward to seeing what they can do with a few dollars more !

Pixar Gets Motoring Again

When it comes to Pixar releases most people agree they are head and shoulders above the rest. Not one of their films has ever bombed but it would be fair to say that the weakest film from them was Cars...and even that was better than most of Dreamworks efforts.

Despite this Pixar have decided to visit the motoring world again with Cars 2. This time the action takes place away from Radiator Springs and heads overseas where Lightning McQueen and Mater compete in the first World Grand Prix. Add in some spying and espionage and I think this could be a lot better and funnier than the original.

With a cast that includes Owen Wilson, Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer and a release date of 24th June for the US and 22nd July for the UK, get a taste of what's in store with these two trailers. The first is the second trailer released by Pixar and the second is the same trailer, scene by scene...but animated in Lego......and why not ?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - First Full Trailer

I am very excited by this trailer. The first glimpse of 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' from 20th Century Fox. This is a prequel to the original 1968 film starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall.

The prequel stars James Franco (127 Hours), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Tom Felton (Harry Potter) and Andy Serkis playing Ceasar in a motion capture role. Directed by Rupert Wyatt who previously directed the very underrated 'The Escapist' starring Brian Cox and Damian Lewis and special effects from Weta Digital (Lord of the Rings, King Kong and Avatar) this promises to be something special. It will also be the first Apes film to feature completely CGI apes and if Weta's King Kong is anything to go by, and with all the advances in CGI in recent years, then we should be in for a real treat.

Also involved in the production are Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Lovely Bones, The Hobbit), Composer Patrick Doyle (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Eragon) and Editor Conrad Buff (Titanic, Tears of the Sun, and Training Day) so some veteran professionals have been employed by the look of it.

Well done for 20th Century Fox for re-booting the Apes franchise. Most people though Tim Burton's "re-imagining" in 2001 put the nail in the coffin once and for all but I'm guessing enough time has passed now for Fox to try again. The biggest surprise for me is this is the first trailer for this film with an August release date. This could mean either there have been a lot of production problems and re-writes so there hasn't been much to show yet or the simple fact that Weta have only just completed some of the effects on the apes (which is probably more likely as is common for CGI heavy films.)

Role on August !