Posts tagged director
‘Hop’ director Tim Hill: Our movie almost didn’t make it
Apr 1st
Unlike most of their peers, directors of animated-live action hybrids live largely in the Hollywood shadows. Their names are rarely front and center, even though they have among the the trickier jobs in the movie business, balancing studio demands, creative needs and effects logistics.
Tim Hill learned of these issues firsthand when he got behind the camera for this weekend’s “Hop.” The buddy (bunny?) comedy tells of a slacker twentysomething (James Marsden) and the Easter Bunny’s reluctant heir apparent (an animated rabbit voiced by Russell Brand). The Universal movie is the second offering from Illumination entertainment, the “Despicable Me” production company headed by Chris Meledandri.
Even by hybrid standards, the challenges didn’t let up on “Hop” — to the point that the movie almost didn’t make its Easter-themed release date. On a recent afternoon in the production offices of the movie, Hill, who previously directed “Alvin & the Chipmunks,” opened up on those challenges.
24 Frames: Part of what’s tricky with a hybrid movie is that you’re essentially directing two films for the price of one. Does that make for a difficult experience for a filmmaker?
Tim Hill: It does. You shoot half your movie, and then when you stop it’s kind of a false summit. You think, “Whew, that’s over.” And then the mountain’s so much higher. There are 10 or 15 minutes of full CG in this movie that hadn’t even been conceived until after we stopped shooting. And we only had 10 or 11 months to make the movie and, once we stopped shooting, six months.
And you had the added issue of the Easter tie-in — it wasn’t like the film could get pushed to Christmas.
TH: The way you calculate this kind of movie [coming in] is you say, “What’s the most time-consuming, what am I going to get screwed on” and you start to identify the hotspots that are really going to kill you. And in this case there were a lot of them. Animation you can change as you go — it’s not like live-action. You’re spitballing way after you should be, and that’s when we got into the “Oh [crap], are we going to make it?” And they [animation and effects studio Rhythm & Hues] finally said, “We’re not going to be able to deliver your movie.”
Yikes, did it actually get to that point?
TH: It was a crisis, basically. I think what they were doing is drawing a line in the sand. So we got it to them and then we said, “Where are we?” And they said, “This we can do and this we can’t do.” So there were a lot of things we still wanted to do and they would say, “We can’t do that.” They had hundreds of people working, but there wasn’t enough time. They have to animate and go through so many processes. That’s why it takes animated films two or three years to make instead of less than a year. They said, “You can throw all the money you want at us. We can’t do it.”
So it wasn’t about them hiring more people?
TH: No, they had people in India, they had a worldwide effort to bring out this movie. It was crazy. It really felt for a while like something was going to suffer. I got really worried. Either the acting would suffer or the characters would suffer, or everything would come out of the oven too soon. It would need a couple more passes that would make it better. Because I am pretty picky. So I’d say that there are a few shots in there where, I don’t necessarily cringe, but I’m like “Oh, I remember we had to final that one because of the time.”
When did you first get the sense this would be such a crunch?
From latimesblogs.latimes.com
Director: ‘Transformers 2′ was ‘crap’
Mar 7th
Moviegoers weren’t the only ones disappointed with the 2009 “Transformers” sequel. Even the director admits the movie was a dud.
“We made some mistakes,” Michael Bay tells Empire magazine of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” “The real fault with ['Transformers 2'] is that it ran into a mystical world. When I look back at it, that was crap.”
Bay adds that the robot plot may have been a bit rusty because it was a rush job.
“The writers’ strike was coming hard and fast,” he says. “It was just terrible to do a movie where you’ve got to have a story in three weeks.”
Bay has higher hopes for the third film in the series, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” The sci-fi flick, which stars Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson, was shot in 3-D, and Bay expects it to be a blockbuster.
“I think our 3-D works really well with the robots, the size, the girth, the weight of it,” he tells Empire of the movie, which arrives in theaters July 1. “It’s spectacular.”
From marquee.blogs.cnn.com
Gary Winick, movie producer, director, dies at 49
Mar 1st
Gary Winick, who produced or directed more than two dozen movies including “Bride Wars” and “13 Going on 30,” has died. He was 49.
Winick died Sunday of cancer in New York, Missy Davy, spokeswoman for Creative Artists Agency, which represented Winick, said Monday.
Rosalie Swedlin, Winick’s longtime manager, said in a statement he would be remembered for his “extraordinary talents as a mentor, a director, a producer, and a pioneer in the independent cinema world, but perhaps his greatest talents of all was his genius for friendship. He turned professional relationships into lifelong friendships and he gave endless support and enthusiasm to lifelong friends.”
Winick also directed the 2006 live-action version of “Charlotte’s Web” with Dakota Fanning and last year’s “Letters to Juliet,” a romance starring Amanda Seyfried.
Winick both produced and directed “Tadpole,” which won the 2002 director’s award at the Sundance Festival. It starred Aaron Stafford and Sigourney Weaver in a comedy about a teenager who is in love with his stepmother.
Winick also produced episodes of TV’s “Ugly Betty” and “Lipstick Jungle.”
From www.sify.com
‘The King’s Speech’ Director Turned Down ‘Iron Man 3′?
Feb 24th
This weekend’s Academy Awards might be low on comic book movie fare, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some interesting, comics-friendly subplots to be found in the Oscar madness. For example, a new report suggests that “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper was offered the director’s chair for “Iron Man 3″ after Jon Favreau bowed out of the franchise late last year.
According to a Los Angeles Times blog, “a person who has worked closely with Hooper” indicated that the Oscar-nominated director was one of the filmmakers approached by Marvel after Favreau’s departure. The report indicates that Hooper declined the gig, which eventually went to “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” director Shane Black.
While the pairing of Hooper with Tony Stark’s armored alter ego might seem to come out of left field, it’s not entirely unprecedented.
Way back in March 2010, “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow revealed that she was offered the director’s chair for Sony’s upcoming reboot of the Spider-Man movie franchise, “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Like Hooper, she ultimately turned the offer down, and the Spidey’s big reboot eventually went to “500 Days Of Summer” director Marc Webb.
Of course, that’s not to say that Oscar-nominated filmmakers have avoided big-budget comic book movies altogether. “Thor” director Kenneth Branagh was nominated for “Henry V” as both the director and star in 1990, and was nominated as a writer for his 1997 take on “Hamlet.”
In fact, this year’s crop of Oscar nominees is chock full of comics-friendly filmmakers, with “Inception” director Christopher Nolan receiving his second nomination for writing (after 2002′s “Memento”) right before he kicks off production on “The Dark Knight Rises.”
“Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky also factors prominently into the Oscar nominations this year, but it won’t be long before he begins work on “The Wolverine” with star Hugh Jackman.
Finally, this year’s show isn’t entirely devoid of comic book movies, either. As we reported earlier, “Iron Man 2″ is nominated in the “Visual Effects” category — so you can tune in Sunday to see how all the award shenanigans play out.
And make sure not to miss MTV News’ “2011 Oscars Live” at 6 PM Eastern this Sunday, February 27, when we’ll be chatting up your favorite Hollywood stars live from the red carpet. Keep it locked to MTV Splash Page, MTV Movies Blog, Hollywood Crush, MTV Newsroom, and the rest of the MTV News blogosphere all Oscar night for winners, interviews, photos and more!
Would Hooper have made a good “Iron Man 3″ director? Let us know what you think of the news – and this year’s Oscar nominees – in the comment section or on Twitter! You can also follow me, Splash Page editor Rick Marshall, on Twitter!
Tags iron man 3, oscars 2011, tom hooper
From splashpage.mtv.com
Director Kenneth Branagh on Thor Movie (2011) Villains and new Trailer
Feb 20th
In the new trailer (below) that was released a few days ago for Thor, we see all kinds of kick-arse action from Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Odin himself – Anthony Hopkins!
Right after the trailer debuted, Director Kenneth Branagh, clued us in on some of the brutes and beasts that the Asgardian Warriors are going to have to face.
Of course, we get a look at the trickster Loki, played by Hiddleston, with Branagh saying, “A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have.”
From there, fans of the comics will recognize where this is going, (but I won’t spoil) with, “The story involves a clash with an ice planet,” says Branagh, “and the frost giants who live therein. They — as might be suggested by the name — are enormous creatures of incredible power who have been robbed of their power and glory by Odin, Thor’s father. What fuels a lot of this intense battle is revenge. This is an angry race, trying to get back at Thor and the Asgardians, the self-proclaimed guardians of the universe.”
Finally, as introduced at last years San Diego Comic Con, Branagh mentions ‘an incredible war machine known as “The Destroyer.”‘
“This series of metal bands form a giant, walking beast and open to reveal terrifying firepower,” that the ruler of Asgard controls (note: he didn’t specifically state Odin! Spoilers!).
“In the right hands, this incredibly powerful device — awesome in its killing quality — is potentially a creature of extraordinary protective powers,” says the director. “In the wrong hands, it is a nightmare.”
In addition to all the all out action, the recent Thor trailer also includes a bit of humor – to offset all the “godliness.”
Branagh says in order to get Thor to connect with audiences they had to bring him down from his high pedestal in Asgard, “It’s important for Thor to be able to laugh at Thor.”
“With the fantastical element we’re asking people to go along with, one way to help that happen, and allow it to be dramatic and serious when it needs to be, is to have a sense of humor about it,” says Branagh.
While this won’t be Thor goofing at himself, Branagh notes on the “prince of the cosmos,” “When you reduce a man who is arrogant by temperament, extremely oppressive and used to having his own way, dressed, um … unusually, you are immediately in a position where you have comic friction.”
“The way into making a god attractive is to find out where his experience connects to a human one,” the Director tells us.
When asked about Thor being a “coming an age story,” in that it’s a god who falls only to be brought back up through a connection to humanity, Branagh states, “It’s true that it’s an identity tale. These films can allow more space for the kind of character element that you accurately described, to allow more space for, as you say, a coming-of-age-story, a prodigal son story, an identity story … Hopefully you can layer into the larger entertaining experience and make it resonate with the audience.”
Besides Loki and the comical aspects to Thor, the trailer saw more of the ever lovely Natalie Portman. Branagh tells us that she won’t just play the typical human love interest to the Gods and Goddesses, “When you cast someone like Natalie Portman, the character can’t just be the love interest. She is already an interesting dynamic character in her own right. It helps to have that conflict and interplay.”
Sources: EW.com.
Thor hammers into theaters May 6th 201, directed by Kenneth Branagh starring Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster.
If you can’t wait for the movie, script spoilers have been leaked!
For even more, head on over to the Cosmic Book News Thor movie hub where you can find additional news, images and trailers.
From movies.cosmicbooknews.com
‘Twilight: Eclipse’ Director David Slade Making Another Vampire Movie
Feb 14th
Hey look — another vampire movie!
We’ll save you from the obvious joke here — you know, something like, “OH MY GOD THERE’S ANOTHER VAMPIRE MOVIE, I WANT BELLA TO DIE,” that type of thing — and just get to the news. According to The Hollywood Reporter, David Slade, director of other vampire flicks like 30 Days of Night and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, plans to helm another movie about bloodsuckers: Phoenix Pictures’ The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
The script, written a decade ago by Bragi Schut, is set on the Demeter, the ship that transported Dracula from Transylvania to London in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In that story, the ship washes up on the shore of England with just one survivor. The movie will chronicle the voyage as the crew is slowly slaughtered by a mysterious passenger who we assume is a vampire. Currently, no one is cast for the lead role, but Ben Kingsley and Noomi Rapace are attached to co-star.
Jokes aside, The Last Voyage of the Demeter sounds pretty awesome if you’re a horror fan. If Slade stays away from the whole over-the-top, I’m-going-to-make-this-scary-for-you-but-really-it-comes-off-as-comical vibe of 30 Days of Night and lets the atmosphere work for itself, it could be pretty terrifying (terrifying in a good way, not in a “omg-I’m scared for Edward and Bella’s future” way).
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
From www.hollywood.com
Twilight director kept out of The Fighter
Feb 9th
One for the boys … The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.
Catherine Hardwicke, director of the popular Twilight movie and the critically acclaimed Thirteen, revealed she was kept out of the running to direct The Fighter because of her gender.
The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, follows upcoming boxer Micky Ward and his crack-addicted brother, former boxing champ Dicky Eklund. It might be set in the world of boxing but the film is primarily about Ward’s struggle with his overbearing mother and desperate brother – a struggle he can only face with the support of his spitfire girlfriend.
The movie has since been critically acclaimed and is racking up the award nominations. The movie’s stars, Wahlberg, Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, have all been nominated for acting Oscars, as has the director David O. Russell. The film has also been nominated for Best Picture.
Speaking to The Wrap last week Hardwicke said she was told the film had to be directed by a man. “I couldn’t get an interview even though my last movie made $US400 million,” she said. “I was told it had to be directed by a man.
“It’s about action, it’s about boxing, so a man has to direct it … But they’ll let a man direct Sex and the City or any girly movie you’ve ever heard of.”
Hardwicke’s Twilight movie was both a critical and financial success, despite being shot on a small budget. The four subsequent films in the vampire romance franchise have been directed by men.
The lack of opportunities has long been a bug bear for female directors in Hollywood but last year, when Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for her Iraq war film The Hurt Locker, it looked like times were finally changing.
With the historic win Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Academy Award and seemingly smashed through the celluloid ceiling. The movie also took the gong for Best Picture.
“‘There is no other way to describe it – it’s the moment of a lifetime,” said Bigelow.
Female directors must have been hoping there would be many more moments like this but the 2011 awards season has been a disappointment. No female directors have been nominated for an Oscar and out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture only two were made by women, The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone.
This year the stars of the acclaimed film The Kids Are All Right have been vocal in their support of the movie’s female director Lisa Cholodenko. While Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo have been cleaning up the award nominations, Cholodenko’s name has been conspicuously absent.
Backstage at the Golden Globes Ruffalo said: “I would just like to say to academy members, why don’t you grow a pair and vote for Lisa Cholodenko as well?”
“I thought she deserved all those nominations as well,” said Bening.
“Very often good directors aren’t calling attention to themselves in their filmmaking. Oftentimes they’re less recognised because of that.”
with Reuters
From www.smh.com.au
Justin Bieber Movie Director Gets A Lot Of ‘Flak’: The MTV News Quote Of The Day
Feb 2nd
“There’s always people [giving me flak], whether it’s the ‘Step Up’ movies, dance movies or the Justin Bieber movie. People will make fun of you, but now they truly have the fever, for sure.”
-Film director Jon Chu, the man behind the camera on the soon-to-be-released movie “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.” In a conversation with MTV News’ Kara Warner, Chu talked about the structure and the messages of the film. “Especially for this generation of kids, [it's important to show] that they could make it on their own without a big corporation,” Chu explained of the underlying inspirational idea that runs throughout the movie. “I thought it was an exciting way to tell it: through his music.”
Chu, who also directed the hit dance flick “Step Up: 3D,” talked about how long it took his peers to come around to the idea that working on a movie about Justin Bieber was a good idea. Though he caught a lot of flak in the beginning, he says it’s impossible to deny the numbers and the success. “Since [I signed on], he’s won four American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year, he’s nominated for two Grammys he’s on the cover of Vanity Fair, and I think they’ve fallen for him as well,” Chu explained.
The film, which follows the story of Bieber from his humble beginnings to his struggle upward on YouTube to his massive international success, opens everywhere on Friday, February 11. You can order your tickets — and your 3D glasses — online now.
Tags Jon Chu, Justin Bieber, Never Say Never, video
From newsroom.mtv.com
Director Morgan Spurlock on ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’
Jan 26th
Six years after Morgan Spurlock entertained and educational educated Sundance audiences with “Super Size Me,” the filmmaker returns to the festival with “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” a thought-provoking documentary that examines the prevalence of product placement in entertainment.
Spurlock sat down with TheWrap at the Bing Bar on Main St. to discuss the reception of the film and its acquisition by Sony Pictures Classics, which will release “The Greatest Movie” in April.
How did the sponsors react after seeing the film? Were any of them upset? Were you asked to cut anything?
No. Surprisingly enough, they were amazing. 11 of them were at the premiere. Mini Cooper wasn’t, but everybody else was, and they loved it. They were all really excited and they loved how they came off.
There were some tense moments in the film, like when Ban [deodorant] couldn’t describe their brand, or when the “Made In China” bit with Merrell [shoes] comes onscreen. But at the same time, I said to all of these brands at the beginning that we’re going to be very transparent. What happens, happens. What we see, we see. The conversations we have in terms of how we integrate products into the movie, the stuff we talk about — we want this to feel really natural and organic. We want the audience to see that, and they were all on board. The fact that they were, post-screening, still incredibly excited [says a lot].
After the screening, they started talking about how they could do more promotion for the movie. Based on the positive response of the audience, I think what the brands saw was that this was an incredible opportunity for them to be in on the joke. What it really does for these brands is it makes them look really smart.
The thing that I found most fascinating was the neuromarketing stuff.
Amazing, right?
Yes, it was very interesting. Do you feel like that’s the future of marketing, and if so, does that worry you?
You have to think that if you can get to the point where you know that a mass of people, if you do X, Y and Z in a trailer, will want to go see that movie, or in a commercial, will make them want to go buy that thing or make them crave it in some way … it’s a crazy thing to think about. It’s a pretty insane, “Brave New World”-ish, futuristic way to look [at things]. I’m basically going to be able to know what you want. It’s like pre-cog advertising.
What do you think will be the next evolution in product placement? Where is it going?
I think the evolution is going to be a de-evolution. I think what will happen is, you’ll see things get flipped back to almost how it was in the glory days, the early days of radio and TV.
Related Wrap Stories
From www.thewrap.com
X-Men Director Hates “Leaked” Movie Photo
Jan 21st
If you hated the leaked cast photo for X-Men: First Class, you’re not alone. The movie’s director didn’t like it, either.
Earlier this week, a few cast photos from X-Men: First Class were leaked onto the Web. While there was a lot of initial excitement at this news, the actual images were pretty underwhelming, featuring some pretty unattractive costumes/makeup/Photoshop work. It turns out that the movie’s director, Matthew Vaughn, was equally unimpressed with the photos.
Speaking to /Film, Vaughn explained what happened when the image wound up on the internet:
“I freaked out on them yesterday. I don’t know where the hell that came from. I don’t think it’s a Fox image. It’s not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, what the fuck is this shit, and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It’s like a bad photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn’t reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like ‘Jesus Christ’…
“I’m a fan of X-Men. We’re not bastardizing X-Men, I’m trying to get them back to being whole again. The costumes are blue and yellow as well, because fuck it, lets take it back it the original. Also, by the way, those costumes are hardly in the movie.”
Vaughn released some new, better, photos of X-Men: First Class -showing Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Professor X – which you can see below. I’m a huge fan of Vaughn’s films. I loved the hell out of Layer Cake, Stardust, and Kick-Ass, and I’ve got some high hopes for this new movie. Based on the photos Vaughn’s put out this week, it certainly looks like the film has the potential to be a lot better than Brett Ratner’s X-Men film.
Source: /FILM via io9
From www.escapistmagazine.com
