Briefly: One of the biggest news stories Wednesday was that short film director Dan Trachtenberg was hired to direct the long-gestating film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man. Many fans were immediately worried about such a beloved property being in the hands of a filmmaker without a feature film under his belt and, frankly, that makes sense.
But Trachtenberg is not only a talented filmmaker, he’s a fan with a true understanding of the book. Want some proof? Seven years ago, he spoke about having just finished the comic on his then-weekly podcast Geekdrome. Listen to the clip below. Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
Former Totally Rad Show host and director of the popular short film Portal: No Escape, Dan Trachtenberg, has been hired by New Line to direct Y: The Last Man, based on a series of comics by Brian K. Vaughan.
Last Fall, news broke that the studio was making a priority of the project – about an apocalyptic timeline in which every male on the planet dies, save for one. The studio was meeting with directors at the time. It would be Trachtenberg’s feature debut, though he’d previously been hired by Universal to develop Crime of the Century. Read more below and watch the short film that got Trachtenberg the job. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 by Angie Han
Last year saw the debut of The Viewfinder List, which aims to do for aspiring filmmakers what The Black List does for screenwriters. Compiled from a poll of “studio executives, producers, and creatives,” The Viewfinder List reflects the most-liked shorts, commercials, and/or music videos of the year. The inaugural list in 2010 included such up-and-comers as Patrick Jean, whose Pixels is due out in 2013, 47 Ronin director Carl Erik Rinsch, and, um, Alejandro González Iñárritu.
This year’s list has Dan Trachtenberg‘s Portal: No Escape on top, along with a few other videos you may recognize if you’ve been paying attention to /Film for the past year. Or even if you haven’t — that adorable Super Bowl Volkswagen ad with the little Darth Vader kid also made the cut, as did Chris Marrs Piliero‘s video for The Black Keys. Check out the full 2011 Viewfinder List — with video! — after the jump.
Read More »
Universal Pictures and screenwriter-turned-producer Chris Morgan (Wanted, Fast Five, 47 Ronin) has signed Dan Trachtenberg to direct a sci-fi action heist film titled Crime of the Century. Not much is known about the project. Deadline reports that the story “revolves around a high-octane heist with a science fiction twist.” I’m very excited to hear more about the project.
Read More »
Dan Trachtenberg‘s short film Portal: No Escape made quite a splash when it hit the internet a couple weeks back. The short is set in the world of Valve’s Portal video games — a world noted for not quite ethical corporate experimentation on human subjects and advanced technology such as the ‘gun’ that can open two physically disconnected portals in space.
Today Trachtenberg released a ‘making-0f’ short, which essentially speed-runs through the entirety of No Escape, revealing many of the CGI tricks that went into making the short work. It’s a bit too much of a speed run at times, but in three minutes you’ll see most of the tricks of the short film exposed. Read More »
You might know Dan Trachtenberg from his appearances on the /Filmcast, or more likely you’ve seen him on his highly successful internet television show the Totally Rad Show, but you might not know that he is a filmmaker. While he’s doing mostly commercial work over the last few years, he just finished a narrative short film for Black Box TV, a weekly Twilight Zone-like series on YouTube. And honestly, I’d be posting this short even if it wasn’t direct by Dan (although I’m using Dan as a lead-in because it might be enough to get a few more people to watch it who might otherwise would have skipped over it).
The short is titled “More Than You Can Chew” which was co-written with Mark Walker. The story follows two paramedics who get “more than they can chew” when responding to a 911 house call. I want to see a sequel showing the further adventures in this world. Watch the short embedded after the jump.
Read More »
You may remember a competition that commenced a few months back, pitting /Film against The Totally Rad Show in their annual Summer Movie Game. The purpose of the game was to predict the top ten highest grossing domestic films of the summer—and in order, no less.
The teams?
/Film’s Peter Sciretta, David Chen and Russ Fischer vs. TRS’s Dan Trachtenberg, Alex Albrecht, and Jeff Cannata.
Well gentlemen, the summer is over. The bets were placed—some wise, some considerably less wise—and now, I’ve taken on the mantle of judge, jury and executioner.
Find out who won after the break. Read More »
Our friends at the Totally Rad Show have thrown down the gauntlet, and challenged /Film to compete against them in their annual Summer Movie Game. David Chen, Russ Fischer and I (Peter Sciretta) will compete against TRS’s Dan Trachtenberg, Alex Albrecht, and Jeff Cannata.
The game is to decide what will be the highest grossing films of the Summer. But it isn’t just that easy — not only do the participants need to predict what 10 films will be the highest grossing films domestically, but we need to place them in order. I actually appeared on this week’s TRS to announce my choices along with the TRS gang (embedded after the jump).
You can WIN too! We thought it would be a fun idea to invite you guys to play along with us. After the jump you can find a full listing of the Summer movies, a complete set of rules, and all of the predictions made my TRS and /Film. Leave your top ten list and three dark horses with your explanations of why and how in the comments below, and I will send the U.S.-based /Film reader with the highest score a $100 Amazon Gift Card.
If there is a tie, we will choose one of winning entries based on their reasonings for the film placings and award that person with the prize. Each person is allowed one (and only one entry). You can enter by leaving your entry in the comments below along with your full name and city/town, state of residence. Entries will only be accepted until Friday, May 14th 2010 at midnight. The full rules must be followed in order to win.
Read More »
