What is coming in 2008 – we have roughed out a schedule of effects films for 2008., From Indy to Maxwell Smart, from Lions to Penguins and on to Robotic heroes. What we can expect and from whom.
It may not be the same in 2009 if the writers strike continues, but for now there are a lot of great effects films coming this year. We’ve compiled a list of films and noted effects companies where known.
Did we miss a film you’re working on? If you have corrections or additions, please email us your information.
In rough release order:
Cloverfield
(Release: January 18th, 2008)
Double Negative and Tippet Studios
Coproduced by J.J. Abrams – this film seems set to be the visual effects version of Blair Witch Project – but done with a vast budget. Of course once again it is NY that gets a beating… what is it about that city – it’s a disaster magnet for film makers.
Be Kind Rewind
(Release: January 25th, 2008)
Already sold out at Sundance, where it will premier next week. This Michel Gondry film features Jack Black as a man whose brain becomes magnetized and unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend’s video store. So, to satisy their best customer (who happens to have a spot of dementia), the two friends remake the destroyed movies. Any Gondry film is worth seeing.
Jumper(Release: February 14th, 2008)
Digital Domain, Hydraulx and Riot
Directed by Doug Liman who directed The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Judging from the trailer this is a fast paced effects film very much in the spirit of his other works. The blue/green screen work in the trailer looks exceptionally good.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
(Release: Feb 15 )
ILM, Tippett Studios and Halo
Mallory and her brothers Jared and Simon move into their great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick’s secluded old house in “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” Children’s films – especially fantasy films – are increasingly popular with the studios, all thanks no doubt to the Narina series success. The trailer looks like it could scare little kids, but the VFX and character animation looks interesting.
10,000 BC
(Release Date March 7th)
Double Negative, MPC, Tatopoulos studios
From director Roland Emmerich comes a sweeping odyssey into a mythical age of prophesies and gods, when spirits rule the land and mighty mammoths shake the earth. In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter, D’Leh has found his heart’s passion – the beautiful Evolet. When a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D’Leh is forced to lead a small group of hunters to pursue the warlords to the end of the world to save her. The unlikely band of warriors battle saber-tooth tigers and prehistoric Mammoths and at their journey’s end, they uncover a Lost Civilization.
After ID4, Godzilla and Day after Tomorrow it is nice Emmerich isn’t once again trashing NY. With effects from DNeg and MPC this is bound to be a spectacular film – there was some 18 months of character and environment R&D done before principle filming in spring 2006 in South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand and Thailand.
Iron Man
(Release: May 2nd, 2008)
ILM and Stan Winston
Another Stan Lee character comes to the big screen. Robert Downey, Jr. stars as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark aka Iron Man. If you like the comic book (“graphical novels”), you’ll no doubt like the film, but this is starting to be a long line of films : Batman, Superman , Daredevil, Hulk, F.Four, Spiderman, Xmen – with Wolverine in production along with Justice League… in short have audiences tired of masked heros ?
(The trailer does make the film look like Ned Kelly meets the Hulk, but with ILM involved with the effects it should be entertaining.)
Speed Racer
(Release: May 9th, 2008)
Digital Domain
Directors: Larry and Andy Wachowski
Born to race cars, Speed Racer is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized—the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), the designer of Speed’s thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company’s maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret—some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits.
If Speed won’t drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line. The only way for Speed to save his family’s business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rival—the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)—to win the race that had taken his brother’s life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible.
The filmmakers have decided to take a very stylized approach to the film making. The images could define a new era of non-photo real/stylish effects or it could turn away audiences who see the film as cartoonish. But from the Wachowski Brothers and VFX sup. John Gaeta – one would hardly expect the predictable !
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
(Release: May 16th, 2008)
MPC, Framestore and Weta Digital
The next in the Narnia series and what should prove to be a big winner at the box office. It will be interesting to watch for advances in animal and fur realism since the first film, – The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). The trailer certainly indicates that Aslan’s fur and shading technology may have evolved. The trailer also shows another vast army battle sequence, – but not done with Massive software – but with MPC’s Alice inhouse crowd sim software.
Prince Caspian site and trailer
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(Release: May 22nd, 2008)
ILM
Harrison Ford with Shia Lebeouf (“Transformers”) as his sidekick, returns in what will no doubt be one of the biggest films of the year: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Cate Blanchett (with a short, sharp hairdo, sleek military suit and a glint of hatred in her eyes) also stars as Agent Spalko a cold-blooded Russian dominatrix in this the fourth installment of the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg billion-dollar franchise.
The Incredible Hulk
(Release: June 13th, 2008)
Rhythm and Hues, Soho VFX, Imagine Engine, Pixel Liberation Front
This time directed by Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) and starring Edward Norton and Liv Tyler.
Get Smart
(Release: June 20th, 2008)
Digital Dimension (163 shots)
Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway).
Given little field experience and even less time, Smart—armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm—must thwart the doomsday plans of KAOS head Siegfried played by Terence Stamp. This could be 2008’s Bewitched – – except Carell is just so watchable, no word on the scope or nature of the visual effects yet.
The Happening
(Release: June 13th, 2008)
Director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”.) directs this thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.
WALL*E
(Release: June 27th, 2008)
Pixar
What can we say, this appears like perfect material for Pixar’s 9th film. The trailer alone makes most other animated films look like cheap Saturday morning cartoons. The trailer for Wall*E shows again the subtly and warmth of character animation coupled with technical excellence that has made Pixar the industry leader in animated features it is today. Andrew Stanton directs. A bankable winner.
The Dark Knight
(Release: July 18th, 2008)
Double Negative and Framestore CFC
Christian Bale once again embodies the man behind the mask in “The Dark Knight.” The film reunites Bale with director Christopher Nolan and takes Batman across the world in his quest to fight a growing criminal threat. With the help of local law enforcement, Batman has been making headway against local crime…until a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes a fresh reign of chaos across Gotham City. To stop this devious new menace-Batman’s most personal and vicious enemy yet-he will have to use every high-tech weapon in his arsenal provided by the effects team at Double Negative. DNeg did such a great job on the last Batman film, this should be a great ride once again.
The X-Files 2
(Release Date: July 25th, 2008)
Duchovny and Anderson are back. Do we care? Has it been long enough for the X files to be a classic or is will this film follow the first one in dissappointing many fans? The truth is out… ok.. you get the idea.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
(Release: August 1st, 2008)
The Mummy returns.. again. Given the previous films this will be an effects rush, but can it find an audience – the issue will be finding an original way to top the previous films without becoming completely silly and cartoonish ( See Batman and Robin : Batman 3)
Where the Wild Things Are
(Release: October 3rd, 2008)
Illoura, Animal Logic and Rising Sun.
Spike Jonze directs this adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic children’s story. Jonze like Gondry produces amazing films and it will be interesting to see this film based on the popular book.
Body of Lies (Untitled) RIDLEY SCOTT FILM
(Release: October 10)
A modern day dramatic thriller, based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’ 2007 novel Body of Lies about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Also starring Russell Crowe. The film began production in September 2007.
Madagascar: The Crate Escape
(Release Nov 7th)
Dreamworks Animation
Melman the giraffe, Marty the zebra, Alex the lion, Gloria the hippo and their voice stars all return along with those , ever-resourceful penguins and Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien.
James Bond
(Release: November 7th, 2008)
Daniel Craig returns, the last Bond film fought had to regain its edge and hence the visual effects – while brilliant were hardly spoken of and certainly not publicized that much. We can assume once again this film will push the appearance of “in camera” effects.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
(Release: November 2008)
UK: MPC and others
In this, the second to last of the Harry Potter fantasy adventures, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. In terms of visual effects, these films have just been getting better and better, but there is no doubt the film makers must already have their eye on the final mega installment that will follow this film. It will be interesting to see how this actual book translates to a screenplay as the story itself is darker than most of the other books in the series.
Star Trek XI
(Release: December 25th, 2008) unknown
J.J. Abrams is in charge of this version. Not much is known yet other than it features the original characters younger than before and not the original actors. As this is an odd number release (Trek 11) can it break the pattern and revive the franchise ? We certainly hope so.
Ghost Town
(Release: Fall)
rhinofx
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) dies for seven minutes and when he wakes up, has the ability to see ghosts in “Ghost Town.” Starring Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni and Greg Kinnear.
Dam Busters
(Release: unknown)
Weta Digital
Remake of the 1954 Associated British Picture about Operation Chastise, a 1943 RAF mission using Lancaster bombers to drop bouncing bombs in a daring low-level attack to puncture a network of dams in Germany. Cinefex lists the direct as Christian Rivers, who was the creative director on the Water Horse and animation director on King Kong.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(Release: sometime in 2008)
Digital Domain
Brad Pitt stars as a man who starts aging backwards. The director David Fincher, (Zodiac) this is the third Pitt and Fincher collabration “Se7en” and “Fight Club”. It is unknown if the film has been shot digitally as with Zodiac.
According to a NYtime story from around Siggraph 2006 , David Fincher was planning on using a new facial capture system called Contour on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” to help Brad Pitt ages in reverse. “Instead of grabbing points on a face, you will be able to capture the entire skin,” Mr. Fincher said. “You’re going to get all of the enormous detail and the quirks of human expression that you can’t plan for.” (NYTimes 2006/07/31 )
Lets hope the writers strike is resolved and we have some film to discuss for 2009!
