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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Wednesday
- August 22, 2001
- A.D. Flowers Passes Away
- Star Trek Coming
to DVD
- Spy Kids Marketing Disaster
- News Link of the Day
- Is the Force Still With George Lucas?
AD Flowers
Passes Away
(by digitalmediafx.com) Visual Effects guru, AD Flowers, passed
away last month at the age of 84. According to the Los Angeles
Times, "He won Oscars for the effects he achieved in Tora!
Tora! Tora! (1970) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).
He was nominated in 1979 for his work in Steven Spielberg's 1941.
A master of disaster, Flowers specialized in mechanical effects
and explosions. He made a Ferris wheel appear to roll into the
Pacific Ocean--using a scaled-down model of a Ferris wheel and
an indoor tank that Esther Williams once used for her famous aquatic
routines. He rigged a two-story house to fall over a cliff. He
used so many flashbulbs to simulate flak bursts in war movies
that he wished he owned stock in Sylvania."
Here is a
list of some other movies that Flowers did visual effects for:
The Godfather
Pt. 2 (1974)
Dillinger (1973)
The Godfather (1972)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
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Star Trek
Coming to DVD
(by digitalmediafx.com) The Star Trek movie franchise is finally
making a voyage to where it has never gone before... Special Edition
DVD. On November 6, a special edition Star Trek Movie DVD will
be released titled "Star Trek: the Motion Picture -- the
Director's Edition.". Digital audio and visual effects enhancements
added enough additional tension to the movie to cause the MPAA
to change the film's rating, for the DVD, from a "G"
to a "PG". It will contain 2 discs and feature over
two hours of special bonus material like commentaries. To preorder
the DVD, click
here.
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Spy Kids
Marketing Disaster
(by digitalmediafx.com) Spy Kids was an astronomical
success at the box office when it hit theaters earlier this year,
easily bringing in more than $100 million. The success drove the
distributor, Dimension Films, and the director to create a "special
edition" by finishing some visual effects shots that didn't
make it into the original release so that it could fulfill the
director's original vision. The special edition, with a heavy
TV marketing campaign, was rereleased into theaters on August
8, but died a quick death as audiences showed no interest in seeing
the film again, even with the new footage. The move cost Dimension
Films several million dollars.
Now Variety
reports that only the original version of the movie will appear
on VHS and DVD
when it is released to home audiences on September 18, 2001. There
are no plans for the special edition, which "fulfilled"
the director's vision, to appear on the DVD. In addition there
are no plans for a special edition DVD to show the fully revisioned
deleted scenes.
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News Link
of the Day - Is the Force Still With George Lucas?
According
to Fox News:
"When
Lucasfilm announced the title of the next Star Wars film, the
outcry from fans was louder than Chewbacca's roar.
'Lame,' 'cheesy'
and 'the worst title I could possibly imagine' were just a few
critiques offered on the Theforce.net in response to the title,
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, announced last week..."
Click
here for the full story.
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