CG supervisor Michael Shelton and Flame artist Max Harris have come aboard the roster of Venice-based boutique public VFX. Both Shelton and Harris previously had tenures at the since shuttered Asylum Visual Effects. Shelton served as a CG and animation supervisor at Asylum. Prior to that, he worked at such shops as Digital Domain, Captive Audience, and Method.
Citing John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing as his holy grail of inspiration, Shelton shared, “To this day I’m still being influenced by ideas born in that movie. When I’m coming up with creature design, their approach always factors into my thinking.”
Shelton’s recent feature work includes Terminator Salvation through Asylum, and director Tony Scott’s Unstoppable.
Among other film endeavors over the years for Shelton were Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Species: Awakening and The Passion of the Christ.
Shelton’s notable commercial work includes the launch of Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, directed by Rupert Sanders of MJZ, the launch of Verizon “Droid,” also directed by Sanders, and GMC’s “Build,” an entirely digital spot showcasing the construction of the new GMC Sierra pickup truck.
Meanwhile Flame artist Harris had a four-year stretch at Asylum. His other career stops include Animal Logic, Sony ImageWorks, Blackbox Digital and Editel.
Harris got his start as a graphics technical assistant and motion control stand operator. He quickly transitioned to running Henry and Flame for features, commercials, episodic, and music videos, before entering the freelance market running both platforms in 1999.
His first major project as a freelance flame artist was director Tarsem’s The Cell. Since then Harris has gone on to work on many studio features including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Terminator: Salvation, Unstoppable, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Transformers, Mr & Mrs. Smith, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and The Incredible Hulk.
Television work includes Boardwalk Empire, Glee, Nip/ Tuck, The United States of Tara and The Good Wife.
Harris’ ad credits include spots for Nike, AT&T, T-Mobile, Corona, Kia and Ford.
“Mickey 17” Tops Weekend Box Office, But Profitability Is A Long Way Off
"Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's original science fiction film "Mickey 17" opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone "Captain America: Brave New World" after a three-week reign.
Overseas, "Mickey 17" has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where "Anora" filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – "Mickey 17" is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It's an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Parasite" faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven... Read More