Probably the only movie I’m anticipating even more than James Cameron’s Avatar is Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic Where The Wild Things Are. Apple has posted a short piece in which Maurice Sendak talks about his great work, and his collaboration with Jonze. It’s a sweet, interesting little look at the dynamic between the two and there’s a few new shots tucked away in the short “interview.” With Avatar, Tron: Legacy, District 9, Alice In Wonderland, and Iron Man 2 taking up much of the post-Con conversation one film this film got a bit lost in the shuffle. However, reviews for the ten minutes of footage shown at Comic-Con have been extremely positive.
I didn’t actually read the book until last year, so I’m still a little fuzzy on why it was so popular and why it was so praised. I get it, but I don’t understand it? Anyway, whatever. What’s hard to love about a story where a little boy runs away to an island made of monsters where he is king? That story in Spike Jonze’s hands (who is probably closer to Peter Pan in spirit than Michael Jackson was ever able to force) is exactly why I’m excited. Working from a script by Jonze and novelist Dave Eggers, the story of young Max and his adventure in the land of the Wild Things is fleshed out into one of extraordinary wonder.
USA Today has debuted some gorgeous shots of concept art from Tim Burton’s upcoming take on Alice In Wonderland, while, the character banner for Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum comes from Movies.ie. The film is not an adaptation of the novel, but rather follows a 17-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) attending a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. She runs off, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited a decade before yet doesn’t remember. The sequel was penned by Linda Woolverton.
Here’s a few behind the scenes pics from a movie I’m highly anticipating, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I love these pics, and not just because Edgar Wright seems to have amassed the most amazing young cast ever, but because these are gorgeous shots, however unintentional. So enjoy the pics below which include a first look at Alison Pill in character as Kim Pine, and the first actual shot of Jasosn Schwartzman on set.
If you don’t already know, Scott Pilgrim tells the story of the 23-year-old bassist/slacker (Michael Cera) who falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an Amazon.ca delivery girl, but to win her over he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. It is being directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) and based on the graphic novel series by Brian Lee O’Malley.
Michael Bay has posted some interesting facts from ILM about the effects in the upcoming Transformers sequel. Pretty cool stuff.
Robots
14 robots last time, 46 robots this time (ILM only)
If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
Devastator’s hand is traveling 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid.
The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.
All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles
Devastator’s parts stacked tip to tip would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.
If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.
Disk space
TF1 took 20 Terabytes of disk space. Trans2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!
145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.
Rendering times
If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year’s premiere!
A single imax shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.
IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!
Imax
Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
Imax frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic to render.
IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!
ILM screen time
ILM Screen Time is about 51 minutes.
Devastator
Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.
Devastator has more than 10 times the number of individual parts found in an average car.
Laid out end to end, Devastator’s parts would be almost 14 miles long.
Devastator totals
Number of geom pieces: 52632
The total number of polygons: 11,716,127
The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet
The total length of all pieces: 13.84 miles
Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen opens one week from today.
Here’s a set pic of actress Dakota Fanning in costume for her role as Jane, a vampire in the Volturi coven. I’m really more interested a full of shot of the Volturi coven, but whatever. This isn’t much, but I’m sure all the fans of the first film are already freaking out over this movie.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon is directed by Chris Weitz, from a script by Melissa Rosenberg. It comes to theaters this November.
Collider posted some absolutely gorgeous shots of Avatar‘s Heavy Loader in full. The suit, which had been seen in concept art and game stills, was revealed at E3 and functions as tool, weapon, and breathing apparatus.
I’m getting pretty giddy that we’re gonna start seeing some actual pictures of the Na’vi and the actual environments soon. We’re still a full six months out from release, but with Comic Con coming up soon I gather that marketing for the film will notice a significant push soon.
Here’s a first look of Josh Brolin in character as scarred freelance bounty hunter, Jonah Hex. I’ve read recent comic stories which were amazing, but not the original run of Jonah Hex from way back. I have no idea what they’re pulling from on this, but he looks awesome.
Former Pixar animator Jimmy Hayward directs from a script by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank 2: High Voltage). The film also stars John Malkovich, and Megan Fox.
Alright. So this guy Damien Walters is a stuntman in Hollywood, but he’s really more of an acrobat. Apparently he was doing stunts for Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick Ass, but I wanted to put up his showreel because it’s absolutely amazing stuff. I really hope this is what we’ll see in Kick Ass when it hits theaters.
Kick Ass stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong, and McLovin. It is directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) and written by Jane Goldman (Stardust).
Source: Apple
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Cinemafique 