Digital Domain is expanding its business with plans to open a new visual effects outpost in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company also has named veteran production executive Gloria Borders to the position of president, feature film operations, overseeing visual effects production across its Venice, California, and Vancouver studios.
Digital Domain’s expansion is funded by a new infusion of capital from its parent company, Wyndcrest Holdings.
Cliff Plumer, CEO of Digital Domain, said, “The current economic climate has created a new set of challenges for all companies in the entertainment industry. By expanding our talent and resources across multiple locations we are able to offer solutions to production challenges–whether they’re economic, creative, or technical.”
Digital Domain’s main studio in Venice will continue to be the base of the company’s feature film visual effects and advertising production operations. Meanwhile the 20,000 square-foot visual effects studio in Vancouver is being built out with the company in the process of recruiting and hiring 50 to 60 digital artists, primarily from Canada, for an opening in early 2010, The intent is to expand the Vancouver shop’s employee base to 100-plus by the end of that year. The new Vancouver studio will mirror technology and processes at Digital Domain’s Venice headquarters, enabling the company to seamlessly extend feature film visual effects work across identical production pipelines.
By basing its visual effects outpost in Vancouver, Digital Domain is able to take advantage of local production and R&D incentives, and also benefit from the region’s artist talent pool, educational programs, and well-established production industry. The first project Digital Domain will bring to its new studio will be to take on additional visual effects work for Disney’s Tron: Legacy, which is already in production at Digital Domain’s California studio.
As for Borders, she has been working with Digital Domain in a consulting capacity architecting and planning the studio’s global expansion since early ’09. She joined the company from DreamWorks Animation, where she was head of studio, overseeing the productions of Shrek The Third, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and other productions. Prior to DreamWorks she was head of postproduction at Revolution Studios, where she managed all post and visual effects work. Previously, she was VP of Lucas Digital and general manager of Skywalker Sound, where she oversaw soundtracks for Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Fight Club, A Bug’s Life, and others. She received an Academy Award for sound effects editing for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and was nominated for her work on Forrest Gump.
With the expansion, Digital Domain executive Mark Miller will now focus more of his time on development of original content as executive producer. Commercials division president/executive producer Ed Ulbrich continues to oversee the company’s advertising and marketing operations and develop new cross-media projects with filmmakers.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More