20th Century Fox has chosen Academy Award-winning visual effects house Weta Digital to oversee the upcoming film “The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” The studio tapped Weta to create a state-of-the-art version of the Marvel Comics character Silver Surfer. Noted character actor Doug Jones will provide performance and movement references for Weta, in a process similar to the way Andy Serkis portrayed Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The voice casting of Silver Surfer has yet to be determined. Weta has developed an advanced computer-generated animation process that employs motion-capture techniques updated to add further dimensionality to the liquid-metal hero.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
posted on 11:41 pm 09/24/2006Movies, News | Comments (0) | Permalink |
Wrestler/Actor turned actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is coming out of the closet, the video game closet. He’s finally decided to open up about his addiction in a Q&A only the sleezy people over at Reuters could host. Read as he talks everything from Atari to Madden ‘07.
Q: WHEN DID YOU START GAMING?
A: “I was eight-years-old when I first got my Atari and from there it branched off into the television, then into Coleco Vision from there, to Nintendo and to Sega.
“Atari was the coolest thing but before that I used to live in arcades. Every kid would hang out in arcades. There was this game called Dragon’s Lair which was just amazing and I remember being 11 or 12 and being obsessed with that game. It just opened you up especially if you were a kid like me with this vivid imagination. I got reality and fantasy blurred often when I was a kid.”
Q: DO YOU STILL PLAY MUCH?
A: “Hmmm. If I could buy something that I just can’t buy it would be time. There is so much to do and so many responsibilities. I always makes sure that I have my Xbox set up wherever I go. I have one in my living room, in my office, one in my trailer. So whenever it hits me, I can play the game Madden ‘06 or ‘07. If I could play every day I would but I just don’t have the time. I know it is a little excessive to have one in every room just in case it hits me.
Q: WHAT IS YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE GAME?
A: “The top game I have ever played would have to be Madden ‘93. I mastered that game. We used to have tournaments all night long back at college at the University of Miami, when we should have been studying. I just remember us all being so involved in that game. All the Madden series, I am a big fan of them.”
Q: DOES THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IN GAMES WORRY YOU?
A: “I think some games become violent just for the sake of being violent. Of course in Spyhunter you shoot guys and they die. You break their necks and they die. But (there are) some games when you just have heads blowing off (which) can be fun at times when you see it but it can be too much.”
Q: DO YOU LET YOUR FIVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER ON VIDEO GAMES?
A: “She’s already on the computer at home, She’s gaming Dora, the Dora Explorer games. It’s amazing. She can’t read but she can turn the computer on and play. You have to see what she is playing. That is the responsibility for parents. She gets 30 minutes a day but it is all education games that she does.”
Q: YOU NO LONGER WRESTLE BUT YOU STILL STAY FIT?
A: “I train every day. For me it becomes my sanctuary. I am able to get away from all the craziness, all the activity and all the people that surround me every day. I get away by myself, with my Ipod, headphones, for an hour to an hour-and-a-half. That is when you do most of your thinking too.”
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I was busy studying the percentages over at Rotten Tomatoes when I came across a startling stat. The Covenant, the lowest #1 weekend opener since Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star three years ago, is rated a whopping 2%. What does that number mean? It translates to only ONE critic, Victoria Alexander at FilmsInReview.com, out of 43 liked the attempt at teen horror stating “[The Covenant] cleverly takes the lure of illegal drugs and links it to super powers.” In no way does that line make me want to see this movie. It seems Vic was trying to be cool by siding with the teen flick flop only to discover after she hit the submit button; everyone else had panned it. Here’s what a real critic said about the movie:
“Movies like this are why we have eyelids”
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Unsurprisingly, Miss Alexander has a history bad opinions. Vicky’s given a thumbs up to several bombs including Wicker Man (14%), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (36%), The Omen (27%), and Basic Instinct 2 (6%). And, yet, she has the audacity to lambaste V for Vendetta, calling it “a gay Shakespeare-soliloquy.” Victoria Alexander, please remove your incorrect opinions from Rotten Tomatoes. You’re ruining the near perfect, atomic clock-esque measurement of the renowned TomatoMeter (see Crossover).
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Today Apple announced another feather in their media mogul cap, movies will now be sold through the iTunes Store (previously named iTunes Music Store). Currently, the collection is comprised of flicks from Disney owned movie studios including Pixar (Cars, Finding Nemo), Touchstone (Sixth Sense w/ Haley “Druggie” Osment, and Miramax). Other studios are bound to follow (e.g. ABC was the first and only TV network on iTunes, now there’s 40). The price for movie downloads? New releases are $12.99 if pre-ordered, $14.99 thereafter, and previous flicks (think movies located in the middle of Blockbuster) are $9.99. The downloads won’t be postage stamp size quality either. According to AppleInsider, they’ll be “near DVD-quality” at about 89% their circular plastic counterpart (Nerds: 640 pixels width versus 720 pixels).
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The newest teen thriller to add to a repertoire of already lackluster movies, The Covenant, earned the lowest box office sum for a weekend number one in three years. According to SONY and Reuters, the film about undead teens with superpowers took home a paltry $9 million dollars while Hollywoodland opened to another dismal sum, $6.7 million. The Boston Curse (Ben Affleck) is alive and well. The only movie to open with less than $10 million AND be at the top of the weekend box office totem pole was none other than David Spade’s waste of celluloid, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star exactly three years ago. Is this yet another sign that people are foregoing the theatre experience? Not at all. It’s the horrible movies that are released. So when and what’s going to save dwindling ticket sales? None other than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning opening October 4th. C&V suggestion: Wait for the NetFlix.
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