Stuff We Like
Universal Studios Hollywood’s Transformers: The Ride 3D Teaser
by Angie Han on Feb.06, 2012, under Stuff We Like
I can’t say I have much love for Michael Bay’s Transformers as a movie franchise, but even I have to admit that their huge, splashy, more-is-more approach is perfect inspiration for a theme park ride. With the spring opening of Transformers: The Ride 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood just months away, the company has revealed an exciting new teaser that hints at some of the spectacle that’s in store. Watch it after the jump.
Like the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Transformers: The Ride 3D will combine high definition 3D projections, practical special effects, and cutting-edge robotics to throw guests into the midst of a war between the Autobots and Decepticons. As with any highly anticipated new ride, there’s bound to be a long line to get on the ride. Happily, the queue itself will have plenty of features to keep visitors entertained.
Transformers: The Ride 3D has been open at Universal Studios Singapore since December, but won’t debut on our shores until Friday, May 25. Click here for our previously posted details from the ride’s Singapore opening, or check out some of the queue concept art here.
‘Rango’ Leads 2012 Annie Awards; ‘Hugo, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Dragon Tattoo’ Take 2012 Art Directors Guild Awards
by Angie Han on Feb.06, 2012, under Stuff We Like
With awards season in full force, it seems like each week brings a fresh set of winners from the various guilds, societies, associations, and what have you. This past weekend saw both the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood’s Annie Awards and the Art Directors Guild Awards, with Rango, Hugo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo emerging as the big winners. Check out the list of winners after the jump.
The 2012 Annies saw Disney returning to the fold after last year’s controversy, in which Disney withdrew over unfair judging procedures that seemed to favor DreamWorks. However, it was neither DreamWorks nor Disney that dominated the night, but Paramount’s Rango. The Gore Verbinski-directed adventure picked up five awards, for best animated feature, character design, writing, and editing, plus the new Members’ Favorite Award.
Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Adventures of Tintin earned two awards each. Neither DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots nor Pixar’s Cars 2 won any. Here’s the full list (via AnnieAwards.org).
- Best Animated Feature – Rango – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
- Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production – Kung Fu Panda – Secrets of the Masters – DreamWorks Animation
- Best Animated Short Subject – Adam and Dog – Minkyu Lee
- Best Animated Television Commercial – Twinings “Sea” – Psyop
- Best General Audience Animated TV Production – The Simpsons – Gracie Films
- Best Animated Television Production – Preschool – Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates – Disney Television Animation
- Best Animated Television Production – Children – The Amazing World of Gumball – Cartoon Network in Association with Dandelion Studios, Boulder Media & Studio Soi
- Best Animated Video Game – Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet – Shadow Planet Productions, Gagne/Fuelcell
- Animated Effects in an Animated Production – Kevin Romond “Tintin” – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
- Animated Effects in a Live Action Production – Florent Andorra “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” – Industrial Light & Magic
- Character Animation in a Television Production – Tony Smeed “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Character Animation in a Feature Production – Jeff Gabor “Rio” – Blue Sky Studios
- Character Animation in a Live Action Production – Eric Reynolds “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” – 20th Century Fox
- Character Design in a Television Production – Bill Schwab “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Character Design in a Feature Production – Mark “Crash” McCreery “Rango” – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
- Directing in a Television Production – Matthew Nastuk “The Simpsons” – Gracie Films
- Directing in a Feature Production – Jennifer Yuh Nelson “Kung Fu Panda 2” – DreamWorks Animation
- Music in a Television Production – Grace Potter, Michael Giacchino “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Music in a Feature Production – John Williams “Tintin” – Amblin Entertainment, Wingnut Films and Kennedy/Marshall
- Production Design in a Television Production – Mark Bodnar, Chris Tsirgiotis, Sue Mondt and Daniel Elson “Secret Mountain Fort Awesome” – Cartoon Network Studios
- Production Design in a Feature Production – Raymond Zibach “Kung Fu Panda 2” – DreamWorks Animation
- Storyboarding in a Television Production – Brian Kesinger “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Storyboarding in a Feature Production – Jeremy Spears “Winnie The Pooh” – Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Voice Acting in a Television Production – Jeff Bennett as Kowalski “Penguins of Madagascar” – Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation
- Voice Acting in a Feature Production – Bill Nighy as Grandsanta “Arthur Christmas” – Sony Pictures Animation, Aardman Animations
- Writing in a Television Production – Carolyn Omine “The Simpsons -Treehouse of Horror XXII” – Gracie Films
- Writing in a Feature Production – John Logan, Gore Verbinski and James Byrkit “Rango” – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present A Blind Wink/GK Films Productions
- Editing in Television Production – Ted Machold, Jeff Adams, Doug Tiano, Bob Tomlin “Penguins of Madagascar” – Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation
- Editing in a Feature Production – Craig Wood, A.C.E. “Rango” – Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies present
- A Blind Wink/GK Films Production
- Winsor McCay Award – Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring, Ronald Searle
- June Foray – Art Leonardi
- Special Achievement – Depth Analysis
The much shorter list of winners for the Art Directors Guild Awards featured Hugo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in the top slots, while Boardwalk Empire and Mildred Pierce were among those singled out on the television side. Full list (via Deadline) below.
- Period Feature Film – Hugo – Dante Ferretti
- Fantasy Feature Film – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Stuart Craig
- Contemporary Feature Film – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Donald Graham Burt
- One-Hour Single Camera Television Series – Boardwalk Empire
- Television Movie or Mini-Series – Mildred Pierce – Mark Friedberg
- Episode of a Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series – Modern Family Episode “Express Christmas” – Richard Berg
- Episode of a Multi-Camera, Variety, or Unscripted Series – Saturday Night Live Episode “Host Justin Timberlake and Musical Guest Lady Gaga” – Keith Ian Raywood, Eugene Lee, Leo Yoshimura, N. Joseph De Tullio
- Awards, Music, or Game Shows – 83rd Annual Academy Awards – Steve Bass
- Commercials and Music Videos – Activision: Call of Duty Episode “Modern Warfare 3″ – Neil Spisak
[Additional source: Reuters]
Redbox Teams With Verizon For Subscription Streaming and DVD Rental Service
by Russ Fischer on Feb.06, 2012, under Stuff We Like
Redbox, the DVD rental kiosk company owned by Coinstar, has been steadily encroaching on the market share of Netflix and storefront DVD rental shops for the past few years. The company’s biggest promise, the details of which have so far remained a mystery, is the eventual launch of a streaming service that will compete directly with similar offerings from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and other companies.
Today Rebox announced that it has partnered with Verizon to make this streaming service a reality. The venture, which is currently unnamed, will charge customers a monthly subscription fee for which they’ll be able to take DVDs from Redbox kiosks, and access streaming catalogue film titles, with that aspect of the business powered by Verizon’s existing digital infrastructure.
Back in December, TechCrunch reported the likely collaboration between Verizon and Redbox, which was going by the internal name Project Zoetrope. Reported details at the time were that the service might use a credit system, similar to the internal currencies used on Xbox Live; you’d buy a certain number of credits per month, which could then be applied to DVD kiosk rentals or streaming video. Those details are unconfirmed at this time.
Today’s press release suggests that this is more Verizon’s venture than Redbox’s, with the latter owning only 35% of the project, and Verizon 65%. Indeed, the streaming aspect will entirely be handled by Verizon, with the company working to secure digital content rights from studios. Given the often-contentious relationship Redbox has had with studios — going to far as to sidestep limitations on DVD rentals by purchasing discs without going throuh studios — one has to wonder how easy this will be to implement. Studios like revenue streams, but will they be quick to license content to a venture in which Redbox is participating?
The small details of this service — including pricing — are yet to be revealed, but the companies are calling this an “over the top” digital service, which suggests they have plans to eventually compete with pay cable and satellite services. There might also be live broadcast content eventually included in the subscription. That all seems pretty grandiose at the moment, but we know almost nothing of what this service will eventually offer.
Deadline theorizes that this announcement, which seems very incomplete, was pushed by the meeting that Coinstar CEO Paul Davis will have later today to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter earnings with analysts, and that details aren’t anywhere close to being ready for release.
‘Battleship’ Super Bowl Ad Unveils Humanoid Aliens
by Terri Schwartz on Feb.06, 2012, under Stuff We Like
The team behind "Battleship" certainly saved the best for the Super Bowl.
The upcoming alien invasion flick's Super Bowl TV spot unveiled one of the components of the movie that has me most intrigued: the aliens. While they have been teased in previous trailers, this spot really put the extraterrestrials in the forefront, and I was a bit surprised by how they ended up looking.
The aliens themselves look like something out of "Halo" with their armored suits and advanced weaponry. Though that form of the "Battleship" baddies was teased in the last trailer for the film, this time around we also get to see them without their armor. It looks like these extraterrestrials are humanoid in form, albeit with larger-than-average, three-fingered hands and cat-like eyes. Still, they don't seem to be as alien as we could have imagined.
I must admit, I was a bit surprised the aliens ended up being put at the forefront. The first trailer for the project made them seem like they would be kept a mystery, but there is nothing mysterious about this new TV spot. It could be that we're supposed to be curious about why the aliens have invaded Earth, but based on their offensive behavior I'd just assumed it's because they could.
Either way, it seems safe to assume that no one quite dreamed up this outcome when they were playing "Battleship" as a kid. Except for those spinning, animal-like spiked aliens with the tails. Those are freaking awesome.
What do you think of the "Battleship" aliens? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!
McG Considered Releasing ‘This Means War’ With Alternate Endings
by Russ Fischer on Feb.06, 2012, under Stuff We Like
It takes a gutsy filmmaker — and, perhaps more to the point, a gutsy studio — to emulate the strange release of the 1985 film Clue. When originally released, Clue went out with three different endings, and audiences didn’t know which one they were going to see. (There’s also a reported fourth ending, but that’s a topic for another post.) The endings were collected for the home video release, and most people have seen the edit of Clue where each possible ending is played in succession.
McG has just finished This Means War, the film in which Tom Hardy and Chris Pine play best friends and fellow CIA operatives who discover they’re both dating the same woman, played by Reese Witherspoon. It’s a big, weird romcom, essentially, and as such might not be the most serious movie around. And so at one stage of development, the idea of doing Clue-style multiple endings was thrown around. No real spoilers follow, but if you don’t want to know anything at all about how this movie might end, beware what lies below the jump.
Movieline reports that at a press day for This Means War, McG said,
We wanted to have flexibility and even talked about two endings and releasing it on 3,000 screens — 1,500 have this [ending] and 1,500 have that one, and just not saying anything… But it felt a little gimmicky in the end.
One ending would have had Witherspoon’s character choosing Hardy, the other Pine. McG also joked about a third ending, “where the two boys end up in each other’s arms.” But the concept behind this movie was evidently too important to be trifled with by releasing multiple endings. Too bad. (Personally, I’m hoping that Reese also turns out to be some sort of intelligence agent who is playing the guys against one another, and ends up killing them both in the end.)
Perhaps the best quote of the day references McG’s last big film, however, rather than This Means War, when Tom Hardy insisted that he should have shot the man on man ending:
I know, I know…I pussed out on the ending of Terminator 4… so I should’ve gone for the dark ending of this one.
This Means War opens next Tuesday, February 14.
