How does one of the top selling video game series of all time make more money? It has been talked about for years now. Turn it into a movie. It all started in 2005 when Microsoft paid Alex Garland (28 Days Later) to write a movie script based off of the Halo video game series. From there on out it was a rough road. During 2006 the script was rewritten by several people and slated for a 2008 release by a 20th Century Fox and Universalpartnership. Peter Jackson quickly signed on board as a producer while Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) and Neill Blomkamp, a newer documentary style director, were in talks for the director position. Neill won out over Guillermo and pre-production began. Months went on before the movie production was brought to a stop, started up again and stopped once more. By the end of 2007 Blomkamp and the studios insisted that the film was dead and would not come to life. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson, Microsoft and the video game creator Bungie insisted it was still alive. No more information came out other than the fact that Microsoft took back all rights to the film. Interestingly enough, Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp took up the same positions they had on Halo for the creation of the soon to be released film District 9.
MarketSaw brings us a ton of new info from James Cameron 3-D epic, Avatar featured in Empire Magazine. Below are some of the images and quotes from the article.
Above is a picture of Cameron adjusting some controls on “The Volume” – he can see the actor in the green screen environment (with dozens of cameras surrounding him) and he can see what that very same actor looks like in a rough rendering of the CG environment in real time.
Here is the fifth episode of The Film Stage Podcast in which we review Burr Steer’s 17 Again. Recorded by Jordan Raup, Dan Mecca you can stream it below or download the mp3:
Empire has posted the first look at The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. The behind-the-scenes photo features Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis in their motion capture outfits with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson right by them. Check it out the full photo after the jump.
Today Michael Bay held a private Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen screening for Steven Spielberg on the Sony lot. Here is what Bay had to say about the 147 minute final cut:
“Steven Spielberg sat next to me in a big 100 person theater at Sony today,” wrote Bay on his online forum. “There were 98 empty seats. The lights came up after we just watched my cut of Revenge of the Fallen. He turned to me and said ‘It’s awesome’ He felt this movie was better then the first – and probably my best, who knows – at this point in a movie you start to lose your objectivity. I just hope the fans like it.”
What a surprise coming from executive producer of the film. There will also be a new trailer before X-Men Origins: Wolverine on May 1st. I’m looking forward to Revenge of the Fallen in a popcorn sense. I figure it’s not too hard to improve from the first film. I found out there is a screening in Philly at the end of April. Worth a 6 hour drive to see it a month early? Maybe.
Are you looking forward toTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
Woah, Time Magazine reports James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi action epic, Avatar is costing quite the bank. It is reported that “more than a thousand people have worked on it, at a cost in excess of $300 million, and it represents digital filmmaking’s bleeding edge.” Interviewer Josh Quittner saw some footage saying; “I couldn’t tell what was real and what was animated-even knowing that the 9-ft.-tall blue, dappled dude couldn’t possibly be real. The scenes were so startling and absorbing that the following morning, I had the peculiar sensation of wanting to return there, as if Pandora [the world in which the film takes place] were real.” He goes on to say; “Spielberg predicts it will be the biggest 3-D live-action film ever.”
Firstshowing explains that according to IMDb, the most expensive film ever made was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End with a reported $300 million budget. Although, we’ve heard that Spider-Man 3 pushed well beyond its reported $258 million budget upwards of $350 million. Of course, budgets like this are never officially reported, but if the first number we’re hearing related to Avatar is already $300 million, we could even hear higher amounts later on in the year. I’m not surprised that Avatar is already up that high, as Cameron has invested so much in both the technology and production and has been working on this for years.
Avatar is set for a December 18th, 2009 release.
Do you think Avatar deliver? Especially with this massive budget?
UPDATE: Time made a correction. The correct budget is $200 million.
The latest sci-fi flick by director Alex Proyas is an impressive and surprisingly ambitious film. Proyas is the genius behind Dark City and The Crow, and yes he also did I, Robot,but it is easy to give him a pass for that mindless action spectacle since he didn’t have creative control. Where does Knowing stand compared to those movies? Its by no means on level of with Dark City andThe Crow, but it does manage to excel beyond I, Robot.
Hello everyone, while we were gone on spring break the film industry somehow kept going with quite a bit of news. Here is a round-up of what we missed (brought to you by /Film):
I’m willing to bet money you can’t find a person that agrees with all the Best Picture wins in the last 10 years, even 5 years. Everyone has favorite films each year that don’t win, let alone get recognized (see Children of Men, The Third Man, Vertigo). Then there are films fortunate enough to get nominated but couldn’t secure a win. These are not snubs in all cases, sometimes the winners are well deserved (see The Godfather Part II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and No Country For Old Men). Here are the Top 25 Best Picture Nominees That Didn’t Win:
25. There Will Be Blood (2007) (nominated) - No Country For Old Men (winner)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of an Upton Sinclair novel about a greedy oil prospector does more than just retell the story. It paints a sprawling, vivid image with much credit going to Daniel Day-Lewis and his flawless performance.
