Posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
Very unexpected news from the Disney camp today: the studio has just issued a press release saying that, after production finishes on Mars Needs Moms, the Robert Zemeckis studio ImageMovers Digital will be closed in 2011. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
The 3D and motion capture work in Avatar may be the biggest cinematic talking points going right now but don’t forget about Robert Zemeckis. He’s been in the mocap and 3D trenches, and is moving forward with a remake of the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine. The film will use mocap and CGI to recreate the hand-drawn animation of the original film, while a small collection of voices will stand in as the new Beatles. Meet the quartet after the break. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 by Brendon Connelly
Break out the champers because the short answer appears to be yes. But why the confusion?
The story starts on December 28th, when Spanish home video site Zona DVD ran an Iberian equivalent of an April Fools joke and unveiled a spoof trade ad for Blu-ray releases of the Back to the Future trilogy. “5 Discs in High Definition” it declared, “Totally remastered and restored, supervised by director Robert Zemeckis”. There’s also a box-out which promises “New exclusive short film Jaws 19 in 3D”. Looks immediately to me to be a fake, if a wonderfully well produced one, and you can see it in full below the break.
Posted on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
After the initial call for actors to play The Beatles another Yellow Submarine casting notice has now been issued. This one details some of the major supporting roles that Robert Zemeckis is looking to fill, and in between the character information there’s the odd bit of plot info as well as some telling details of design. So far, it all seems fully contingent with the original movie.
The notice opens with the following statement of premise:
The Yellow Submarine follows a singing group of four British young men that are asked to help a land that has been overtaken by mean spirited creatures. They are recruited by an escapee to come and bring joy and music back to the land.
Posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Should a performance capture computer animated film production be considered for Best Animated Picture? Best Picture? Or should the Academy create a new category for this new emerging hybrid? Robert Zemeckis thinks the Academy should do just that, of course! The director of performance capture films such as Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol told latercera that “the appropriate thing would be to create a new category, like when Walt Disney made the first animated movie. He got a special award since no one had ever done that.”
Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
This weekend, the 28th and 29th of November, there’s a huge Beatles convention taking place in Stamford, Connecticut. Amongst all of the merchandise sales and other such typical expo shenanigans, there’s also set to be an open audition for Beatlemaniacs wanting to try out for casting in what they’re calling “The Fab Four.” Of course, that the film “will be shot as a motion-capture feature like the current Disney release of A Christmas Carol” tells us everything we need to know - this is Robert Zemeckis‘ remake of Yellow Submarine.
There’s already some suspicion, though, that this casting call is nothing more than a publicity stunt. Zemeckis has already talked about the possibility of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr playing themselves in the film, there’s been a number of previous auditions, and even stories of name actors being up for the roles, perhaps even cast in them already.
Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Despite a number one position at the box office this weekend (in the US as well as here, in my motherland), we can’t exactly call Robert Zemeckis‘ film of A Christmas Carol a smash hit. There’s definitely a little way to go until it turns a profit on it’s supposed $200 million budget. Off timing, then, to hear of his plans for another motion-captured Christmas story, The Nutcracker.
In selecting his source material, the rumour goes that Zemeckis will apparently be bypassing the Tchaikvosky ballet version in favour of adapting ETA Hoffman’s original story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It’s a fantasy yarn which I read as a combination of moral fable and political satire and which drips with threat and dark malice. Already we’ve had at least three versions brought to the cinema - once in stop-motion, once in cel-animation, and just this year in live action, and I’m surprised to realise I haven’t had a full viewing of any of them. Must sort that out.
Having just this week seen Zemeckis’ rather encouraging take on Dickens, and bearing in mind that many of the characters this time out won’t even need human eyes being rats and wooden figures, I’m fully enthused to see him step up for some Nutcracker mo-cap action.
Posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
With the original writers of Who Framed Roger Rabbit now at work on a potential sequel, Robert Zemeckis is starting to talk, in very guarded terms, about ideas for the film. Given that he’s become a massive proponent of performance capture technology, there have been questions (such as those raised by Brendon) about whether the original film’s blend of drawn animation and live action actors would be augmented by new tech. That seems likely to be the case, as evidenced by current statements from Zemeckis. Read More »
Posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Robert Zemeckis has been loosening us up for a Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel for some months now, letting slip the odd reference here and there that he’s been keen to give the follow on a good crack. In April he said that he had a good idea for the second installment; on July 22nd he said he’d been discussing the film with Bob Hoskins; on July 23rd he told the Comic-Con audience that he could neither deny nor confirm any plans for a sequel.
Now he’s just come out and revealed that not only is he gunning for another run at the funny Bunny, but also that writing on the new screenplay already currently underway. Purist fans of the original will probably jump for joy at his revelation on who is wielding the pen, because it’s none other than the scribes of part one, Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price.
I think that Zemeckis has now been sufficiently loose lipped that we can start to read between the lines a little. Let’s rake over some of his quotes after this break.
Posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
ImageMovers, the Robert Zemeckis motion-capture animation studio behind Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, has a new project. Ann Peacock, who wrote the adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is penning an adaptation of the Eoin Colfer novel Airman, which sounds a bit like a combination of The Rocketeer and the mid-period movies by Miyazaki. Could this be the mo-cap project to convince non-believers like myself? Read More »
