ROTTEN TOMATOES: Sony Planning Three More Motion Capture Flicks

Sony Planning Three More Motion Capture Flicks

Imageworks Moving Forward with Neanderthals and Flying Kids

by Scott Weinberg | July 31, 2007

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You know that fancy "motion capture animation" technique that's been employed in The Polar Express, Monster House, and the upcoming Beowulf? Looks like Sony Imageworks is planning no less than three more projects using the technology. Some of 'em without Robert Zemeckis!

The first one out of the gate will probably be an adaptation of James Patterson's Maximum Ride series. It runs about a dozen books long and it's about a bunch of kids who can fly. Former Marvel man Avi Arad wants to turn the books into a big pricey series: "We want to bring this world to life in a way you've never seen before ... With performance capture you are absolutely free to watch the heroes go anywhere and everywhere and manifest their powers onscreen." And yes, that's the same James Patterson whose books became movies called Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider.

According to Variety, Imageworks also has another pair of projects brewing: A Jon Favreau-directed comedy called Neanderthals and FX genius James Chen is planning a 300-like historical action epic that's inspired by Japanese mythology. Sounds nifty.

The pretty darn slick-looking Beowulf opens on November 16th.

Source: Variety

Related Items

Movie:	The Polar Express
	Beowulf
Celeb:	Avi Arad
	James Patterson
	Jon Favreau

(1-10 of 10 posts) | Reply

moviemonkey2 writes:
on Jul 31 2007 12:37 PM

Motion capture looks weird and creepy. It's too life-like, and not animated enough. Rotoscoping never looked as good as real animation. This is no different. If Sony is going hardcore Mo-Cap, you can expect something better... from anyone else.

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Bob* writes:
on Jul 31 2007 12:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#995271)
I agree. I guess that there's still a long run to follow for MoCap movies. I think that is an interesting medium that combines the best of the 2 mediums:animation and live-action.

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Crenshaw writes:
on Jul 31 2007 01:28 PM

Every time I've watched Polar Express I can't help think how much better the movie would look/feel/be if it was actually a live action movie. Instead, it's this funky "almost real" CGI that is more distracting than not. I can't ever get into the movie and enjoy it because I'm too busy noticing the still-wooden movement and weird facial expressions. With what they can do with CGI now (and heck even which this movie came out) it looks dated and old - which is too bad. If it was actually a live action movie with CGI used for the effects, man, it would be great! Kids appreciate real kids in amazing situations - it extends the cool factor and helps them imagine that the same can happen to them - and for this movie how cool would that have been? Instead it's CGI for the sake of CGI and just another cartoon.

I actually didn't realize that Beowolf was using the same technology. How very, very disappointing.

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unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Jul 31 2007 01:45 PM

I'm not sure what to think of this technology yet. But I'm looking forward to Beowolf and anything with Japanese mythology intrests me.

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Crenshaw writes:
on Jul 31 2007 01:57 PM

OK I realized I had not really looked into this film that much and just watched the trailer. And wow were my above comments confirmed. Why have these weird CGI puppets that look like the actors when you can just have the actors? It makes no sense. I mean, c'mon Jolie is person is way better than a Jolie motion-captured and then mapped to look kinda-sorta like the actress. I mean even the quote above is off-base: "With performance capture you are absolutely free to watch the heroes go anywhere and everywhere and manifest their powers onscreen." Have these people not seen Sin City or 300? A bit of green screen acting would have gone a lot farther. I admittedly was not intrigued enough by Beowulf to have learned all this earlier, but now that I know what this thing will be, the interest that I did have is really going away. It looks like it will be 2 hours of trailer for an XBox360 game or a long World of Warcraft cutscene. Yawn.

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TheIceGhost writes:
on Jul 31 2007 03:11 PM

"When The Wind Blows" and "The Lake House" (both by James Patterson) were great books. Never read the spin-off series but it's a pretty neat story. I wish they'd make a movie out of JP's, "The Jester". THAT would be a classic.

And if I were making big Hollywood movies I'd refuse to use CGI until the technology has leveled out.

Spawn is my argument.

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bat-fink writes:
on Jul 31 2007 03:52 PM

Why do they waste this technology on films that dont need it? I enjoyed Monster House, but in general, if they are gonna use this Motion Capture then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, Choose better subject matter!

Use the technology to create worlds/characters that cant be filmed in real life.

Its like, the new Scrooge film with Jim Carrey, awsome casting, great idea, WASTED by making it all cgi.

They should be making movies of JUDGE DREDD, and SLAINE, and JLA with this technology. Maybe even a new type of STAR WARS kind of film.

Use the technology on a film that deserves it.

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twinsfan2715 writes:
on Jul 31 2007 05:55 PM

the only thing it was good for on beowulf was to make ray winstone not fat, no offense ray

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Brad 3000 writes:
on Aug 01 2007 09:22 AM

Screw this motion capture crap. Beowulf looks AWFUL. It has been said before, but I will say it again - Why spend all that time and money to make a poor simulation of a real actor? I understand why Hollywood uses CGI for Dinosaurs, Ogres, Aliens and the like - none of those things exist - but actors do and the look and move better than these CG puppets Zemekis and sony are trying to force down our throats. I know actors can be a pain in the @$$, but they still look better up on screen.

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Vitamin M writes:
on Aug 01 2007 09:35 AM

The Maximum ride books are very entertaining even if they are aimed more at the teenage set...while reading them I immediately thought how visceral they were and how great it would be to see it on film...not sure about the whole motion capture thing though. Never saw Polar express but Monster house was amazing although it seemed to be more animanted then strict mo-cap.

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