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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Saturday
- July 14, 2001
- New Animated Feature Scheduled
for 2003
- Final Fantasy
Nose Dives at Box Office in Opening Weekend!
- Shrek Nears Toy Story 2 Mark
- News Link of the Day
- FX Guru Says Actors Need Not Fear "Fantasy"
New Animated
Feature Scheduled for 2003
(by digitalmediafx.com) For years designer and conceptual
artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud has dreamed of turning
his movie vision into a full CGI animated feature. Now that dream
is about to become a reality as a team of 3D artists work to bring
"Thru the Moebius Strip" to the big screen in the summer
of 2003. The movie is about a physicist whose experiments with
transportal transportation send him to an alien civilization.
The doctor's family is his only hope of being returned to the
Earth he knows and the loved ones that he has been separated from
via light-years.
Giraud, a
French illustrator, has plenty of experience with U.S. films including
being a designer for The Fifth Element and Tron,
as well as a conceptual artist for Willow, Alien, and The
Abyss. For nearly two decades he has dreamed of creating his
own animated film, realizing that dream when American Frank Foster
and a digital film producer in Hong Kong, Raymond Noeh. The majority
of animators working on the movie are from China. The decision
to use Chinese artists was purely a financial decision and the
filmmakers are pleased with the quality of the work coming from
the artists.
Columbia Pictures
will examine the film when it is closer to completion with the
option for first distribution rights in the U.S.
(special
thanks to "imrip" for news tip)
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If you're
looking for the second set of stills from Osmosis Jones,
click
here.
Final Fantasy
Nose Dives at Box Office in Opening Weekend!
(by digitalmediafx.com) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
nose dived at the box office, placing third on Friday with only
$3.9 million. Easily coming in first was Legally Blonde followed
by The Score. To add insult to injury, both Legally
Blonde and The Score opened in fewer theaters than
Final Fantasy while nearly doubling the box office take
of Final Fantasy.
An average
marketing campaign, lack of a good story, and failure to capture
the magic of the video game series appears to be the downfall
of the movie, which cost well over $100 million to make. Of the
top 10 film critics, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was
the only one to give Final Fantasy a positive review.
Some fans
of the video game series have expressed disappointment that the
first Final Fantasy movie tackled a futuristic storyline
versus a fantasy/medieval storyline that could have included recognizable
Final Fantasy creatures like Chocobos.
Square Pictures
has been working on a top secret project since completing Final
Fantasy. It is unknown if the disastrous performance at the
box office will effect the progress of that project. Another animation
company, Aardman Animations, recently laid off 90 animators and
put its Tortoise vs. Hare project on hold due to script
problems and in order to develop a stronger story.
Final Fantasy
tried to elevate itself to "event" status by opening
on a Wednesday instead of a Friday. The result was a mediocre
$5 million opening on Wednesday followed by a disappointing $2.6
million on Thursday and a $3.9 million third place finish yesterday.
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Shrek Nears
Toy Story 2 Mark
(by digitalmediafx.com) Shrek is about to overtake
Toy Story 2's total gross at the box office to move into
second place in the Top
Animated Films of All Time, based on total domestic
box office receipts. Toy Story 2 made a total of $245.8
million at the box office and Shrek, still playing strong,
currently stands at $243.7 million. By the end of this weekend
Shrek will likely dethrone Toy Story 2 for the #2
spot. It is rumored that Shrek will soon be pulled from
theaters and held until later this year when it will be rereleased
(with a whole new marketing campaign). DreamWorks has declined
to confirm nor deny this rumor.
The number
one grossing animated movie of all time is The Lion King
with $312.8 million.
DreamWorks
was originally going to release the video and DVD for Shrek
in November to coincide with the release of the Shrek X-box
game. The strategy could drastically change, however, if DreamWorks
goes with a rerelease plan instead.
Shrek
is currently regarded as a favorite to win next years new Best
Animated Feature category.
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News Link
of the Day - FX Guru Says Actors Need Not Fear "Fantasy"
According
to The Kansas City Star:
"Special
effects master Stan Winston, who created some of the dinosaurs
in the upcoming Jurassic Park 3 movie, says the fear of
computer-generated actors expressed by two-time Oscar winner Tom
Hanks is 'foolish' and 'ridiculous.'
'That's a
foolish remark from Tom Hanks, he will always have an audience,'
says Winston..."
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here for the full story.
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