November 2, 2012
21 animated features vying for Oscar nominations
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Brave,” ”Wreck-It Ralph” and “Rise of the Guardians” are among the animated features angling for an Oscar nomination.
The motion picture academy said Friday that 21 films have been submitted for consideration in the Academy Awards’ animated feature category.
“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” ”Frankenweenie,” ”Ice Age Continental Drift” and “ParaNorman” are among the high-profile movies vying for one of five nominations. Other contenders include France’s “The Rabbi’s Cat” and Japan’s “From Up on Poppy Hill.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says several of the films listed have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying runs.
“Rango” won the prize earlier this year after 18 films were in nomination contention.
The 85th annual Academy Awards are set for Feb. 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Air New Zealand finds magic in hobbit safety video
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – Perhaps hairy-footed hobbits can teach us all something about safety.
Most regular travelers pay little attention to those snooze-inducing inflight safety videos. But Air New Zealand has found some magic by celebrating the upcoming premiere of the first in the “Hobbit” movie trilogy.
The airline’s four-minute safety video featuring the character Gollum and film director Peter Jackson got more than 2 million hits on YouTube within a day of being posted Thursday. The carrier calls itself “the airline of Middle-earth” and cabin staff appear in the clip as film characters.
The hobbits themselves would be proud. After all, author J.R.R. Tolkien created the mythical creatures as risk-averse.
Two of the author’s great-grandsons even make cameos. Royd Tolkien appears wearing prosthetic feet.
Big and hairy, of course.
Foster earns lifetime-achievement honor at Globes
Derrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Jodie Foster is adding a new trophy to her collection – a lifetime-achievement honor at the Golden Globes.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Thursday that Foster will receive the group’s Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 70th annual Globes ceremony on Jan. 13.
Foster, 49, is a two-time Globes and Academy Award winner. She was honored with leading actress trophies at both ceremonies for 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” and 1988’s “The Accused,” which she won in a three-way tie at the Globes with Sigourney Weaver for “Gorillas in the Mist” and Shirley MacLaine for “Madame Sousatzka.”
DeMille Award winners are chosen by the board of directors for the foreign press group. It includes about 90 reporters who cover Hollywood for overseas outlets.
“Jodie is a multifaceted woman that has achieved immeasurable amounts of success and will continue to do so in her career,” said HFPA president Aida Takla-O’Reilly. “Her ambition, exuberance and grace have helped pave the way for budding artists in this business. She’s truly one of a kind.”
Foster has appeared in more than 40 films. She began her career at 3 years old, starring in a Coppertone commercial, and went on to act in such movies as “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” ”Taxi Driver,” ”Nell,” ”The Brave One” and “Carnage.” She also directed the films “Little Man Tate,” ”Home for the Holidays” and “The Beaver.” Her next role is as a government official in director Neil Blomkamp’s sci-fi saga “Elysium” with Matt Damon.
The DeMille Award went to Morgan Freeman earlier this year. Past winners include Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood.
The Globes, Hollywood’s second-biggest movie awards after the Oscars, will air live on NBC next year.
Francis Lawrence to direct ‘Hunger Games’ sequels
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The odds are ever in Francis Lawrence’s favor.
Lionsgate announced Thursday that “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” filmmaker will also direct “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part One” and “Part Two.” Lawrence previously directed the Will Smith post-apocalyptic thriller “I Am Legend” and stepped in to direct “The Hunger Games” sequel “Catching Fire” after director Gary Ross departed the franchise.
“The Hunger Games” films star Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson as child tributes that battle to the death in a dystopian future. The movies are based on the novels by Suzanne Collins.
The original “Hunger Games” film was released earlier this year. “Catching Fire” is scheduled to debut Nov. 22, 2013, followed by “Mockingjay — Part 1” on Nov. 21, 2014, and “Mockingjay — Part 2” on Nov. 20, 2015.
Air New Zealand finds magic in hobbit safety video
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Perhaps hairy-footed hobbits can teach us all something about safety.
Most regular travelers pay little attention to those snooze-inducing inflight safety videos. But Air New Zealand has found some magic by celebrating the upcoming premiere of the first in the “Hobbit” movie trilogy.
The airline’s four-minute safety video featuring the character Gollum and film director Peter Jackson got more than 2 million hits on YouTube within a day of being posted Thursday. The carrier calls itself “the airline of Middle-earth” and cabin staff appear in the clip as film characters.
The hobbits themselves would be proud. After all, author J.R.R. Tolkien created the mythical creatures as risk-averse.
Two of the author’s great-grandsons even make cameos. Royd Tolkien appears wearing prosthetic feet.
Big and hairy, of course.
Foster to receive lifetime-achievement honor at GlobesDerrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jodie Foster is adding a new trophy to her collection — a lifetime-achievement honor at the Golden Globes.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Thursday that Foster will receive the group’s Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 70th annual Globes ceremony on Jan. 13.
Foster, 49, is a two-time Globes and Academy Award winner. She was honored with leading actress trophies at both ceremonies for 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” and 1988’s “The Accused,” which she won in a three-way tie at the Globes with Sigourney Weaver for “Gorillas in the Mist” and Shirley MacLaine for “Madame Sousatzka.”
DeMille Award winners are chosen by the board of directors for the foreign press group. It includes about 90 reporters who cover Hollywood for overseas outlets.
“Jodie is a multifaceted woman that has achieved immeasurable amounts of success and will continue to do so in her career,” said HFPA president Aida Takla-O’Reilly. “Her ambition, exuberance and grace have helped pave the way for budding artists in this business. She’s truly one of a kind.”
Foster has appeared in more than 40 films. She began her career at 3 years old, starring in a Coppertone commercial, and went on to act in such movies as “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” ”Taxi Driver,” ”Nell,” ”The Brave One” and “Carnage.” She also directed the films “Little Man Tate,” ”Home for the Holidays” and “The Beaver.” Her next role is as a government official in director Neil Blomkamp’s sci-fi saga “Elysium” with Matt Damon.
The announcement was made Thursday by Takla-O’Reilly, “The Mentalist” star Simon Baker and Kristen Stewart, who appeared with Foster in 2002’s “The Panic Room.”
The DeMille Award went to Morgan Freeman earlier this year. Past winners include Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood.
The Globes, Hollywood’s second-biggest movie awards after the Oscars, will air live on NBC next year.
Spider-Man co-creator talks to Ga. arts schoolBy Russ Bynum
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Before he scripted the first adventures of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, a young Stan Lee launched his career in comic books as a lowly sidekick. To hear Lee tell it, the artists he worked for as a teenage assistant in 1940 might as well have dubbed him the Anonymous Eraser-Boy.
“They gave me a big eraser and I had to go over the pages to make sure the pencil marks didn’t show,” after artists finished their drawings in black ink, Lee said Wednesday as he revealed this to an awe-struck classroom of art students on the Georgia coast. “You guys are actually drawing. I never got past erasing.”
It doesn’t take a comics geek to know Lee leaped beyond erasing to became the head writer and editor of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, when his collaborations with artists unleashed the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and Iron Man among a seemingly endless parade of superheroes. Half a century later, at age 89, Lee is arguably comics’ biggest superstar. He also remains a font of inspiration to Hollywood — which finally has the technology to recreate Lee’s wildest ideas — and to a new generation of comic book artists.
It was the movies that brought Lee to Georgia, where Tuesday night he received an award at the Savannah Film Festival. But as “The Amazing Spider-Man” was screened Wednesday, Lee slipped away to hobnob with students at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
“It’s not a throne?” Lee quipped as he sat in a plastic chair at the head of a table surrounded by 11 students, each one with broadsheets pages of their works-in-progress, bottles of ink and an iPad.
If Lee himself possessed a superpower, it would be his ability to conquer the generation gap. The young artists he met seem as familiar with Lee as they are with his costumed heroes.
“You see Stan Lee and everyone knows who he is,” said art student Dan Glasl. “Every kid has this part of their life where they’re this awkward, geeky sort of kid. And Spider-Man is the character every kid can put themselves into.”
Quizzed about the early days at Marvel and the source of his ideas, Lee’s answers were rarely glamorous. At parties, Lee said, he would often tell people he was a writer — or a magazine writer if they pushed for details. And like Spider-Man, who after battling Doctor Octopus would resume worrying about how to pay Aunt May’s bills, Lee said making a living was always a chief concern.
“We just hoped that a book we were drawing would sell so we could keep our jobs and pay the rent,” he said. “We never for one minute thought there would be schools where they teach this.”
Lee kept things light and lively, generously pouring over pages of students’ art and heaping praise on them. “Oh, man, that’s all we need is a lot more competition.” When the talk turned to digital comics created for tablets and smartphones he groaned, “Boy, do I feel like a caveman.”
Lee caught 25-year-old student Jen Hickman off guard when he appeared in the door of a room where she was drawing in her Halloween costume. She came to school dressed as a certain bat-eared, caped crusader who belongs to Marvel’s biggest competitor, DC Comics.
“You’re a Batman fan, obviously,” Lee told Hickman. “I’m not talking to you.”
Lee and his handlers left just before classes ended.
Students clutching backpacks rushed to the door. “Is Stan outside? Is he standing outside?” Then they ran outside to wave at the tinted windows of the shuttle bus taking Lee to his next stop.
Anthony Fisher, who heads the Savannah art college’s sequential art department, said he suspects his students relate both to the timelessness of Lee’s comic book characters and to the creator’s bottomless enthusiasm. Though Lee turns 90 this December, he still heads up POW! Entertainment — a company that creates characters ready to spin off into movies, TV shows and comics.
“Stan’s passionate really about story and character and that never dies over time,” Fisher said. “I think when he meets the younger generation, he sees their passion and their drive and he just feeds off of it.”
While Hollywood can now realistically render the most eye-popping superpowers and epic battles, Lee said he doesn’t see comic books fading into obscurity.
“Whether it’ll be on the printed page or on an iPhone screen or an iPad — there are so many places they can go,” Lee said. “But I think with comics there’s something about drawings mixed with dialogue that people enjoy. The comic book format, people enjoy that. And I think it’ll be around a long time.”
Report: Apple exec refused to apologize for MapsNEW YORK (AP) — The head of Apple’s iPhone software development was asked to resign after he refused to sign a letter apologizing for the flaws of Apple’s mapping application, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal says Scott Forstall’s refusal was the latest clash between him and other executives, and led to the company’s announcement Monday that he is stepping down and leaving the company next year.
Forstall’s unit was responsible for the Maps application, which was unfavorably compared to the Google Maps app it replaced.
Apple also announced the immediate departure of John Browett, a British retail executive who took over Apple’s stores in April.
Justin Bieber, Nick Cannon honor teen volunteers
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Justin Bieber, Emma Stone, Tyra Banks and Josh Duhamel are honoring teens who give back to their communities.
Nickelodeon announced Tuesday that each star will pay tribute to a teenage volunteer at the fourth annual TeenNick HALO Awards. The awards are presented to young people who are “helping and leading others.”
Nick Cannon, who created the awards show, will serve as host and executive producer. The awards are set to tape Nov. 17 at the Hollywood Palladium and will air as a 90-minute special on Nov. 19.
The four honorees come from across the country and range in age from 16 to 19. One started an organization to help outfit low-income teenage girls. Another makes and distributes gift bags for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Comic-Con to stay in San Diego through 2016
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Storm Troopers, cyborgs, superheroes and other comic-book fans can count on their annual pilgrimage to San Diego for another four years.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Monday that Comic-Con has extended its contract with the city through 2016. It had been set to expire in 2015.
The pop-culture convention draws 130,000 visitors from around the world and contributes more than $180 million to the city’s economy, Sanders said.
Comic-Con began in San Diego in 1970 but has become so popular over the past four decades that it has outgrown the San Diego Convention Center.
Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said city officials and local businesses have helped the event remain in San Diego by allowing organizers to expand beyond the convention center to create a “Comic-Con campus” using meeting space in nearby hotels.
“We were born in San Diego, so our hope is to stay here,” Glanzer said. “But first and foremost, we have to look at the ability to put on a successful show and meet the needs of the people who attend the show.”
A spokesman for the mayor’s office said plans are moving forward to expand the San Diego Convention Center, and city officials hope to break ground on the project next year.
Cinesite appoints Eamonn Butler as Animation Director
LONDON–Digital visual effects facility Cinesite has appointed Eamonn Butler as animation director to head up its expanding animation division. Butler joins from Double Negative where he was head of animation and supervised a catalog of high-profile films, including Ironman 2, John Carter, Hellboy 2, Paul and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Butler will be based at Cinesite’s head office in Soho, London, and responsible for leading its high-end character animation team. He also joins the company’s board.
Prior to joining Double Negative, Butler spent 10 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, Calif., where he worked on numerous features including Chicken Little, Dinosaur and Fantasia 2000. He trained under veteran Disney animator David Brain at Dublin’s Dun Laoire College of Art and Design and spent four years working as a traditional animator, storyboard artist and animation director, before switching to CG.
World’s oldest photography museum plans touring exhibitsROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The new director of the George Eastman House museum in Rochester has plans for major touring exhibits, collaboration with other museums and an expanded pool of online images.
Bruce Barnes tells the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (http://on.rocne.ws/S5qZnC ) he’s particularly interested in organizing a show on African-American photographers. He said he also wants to speed up the effort to put online digital images from Eastman House’s unique photo collections.
Eastman House can exhibit only a small portion of its 500,000 photos and negatives at any given time.
The George Eastman House is the world’s oldest museum dedicated to photography. It’s renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives and is a leader in film preservation and photograph conservation.
Vitamin hires Sam Gierasimczuk as associate creative director
CHICAGO–Design-driven production studio Vitamin expands its roster with the addition of associate creative director Sam Gierasimczuk. With a background that includes work as a designer, animator and technical director, Gierasimczuk will work with vitamin creative director Danny DelPurgatorio in overseeing the studios array of projects. Gierasimczuk will assume a hands-on role in design and production as well as supervising the work of other members of the creative team.
Gierasimczuk formerly served as creative director at design boutique Leviathan. His work there included a number of innovative projects involving projection mapping, among them an acclaimed installation for the band Amon Tobin and its Isam Tour. He also completed design and animation projects for Scion, Intel, Callaway Golf and Kelly Blue Book.
Previously, he served three years as associate creative director with Lift Motion Design.
