Oscar-Winning Visual Effects Artists Launch Kickstarter Campaign

Image copyright © 20013 Studio ADI

Academy Award-Winning Team Attempts to Resurrect Lost Art of Classic Horror Film Through Launching Kickstarter Campaign

In the spirit of classic films such as Alien and The Thing, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. aspire to bring “Harbinger Down” to the silver screen with the help of fan support for their independent project

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Academy Award-winning Visual Effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., co-founders of Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.) have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their science fiction/horror film celebrating animatronics and makeup FX, “Harbinger Down,” to the silver screen. Gillis and Woodruff hope fans are excited to help not only make a new horror classic, but also to uplift an art form. The filmmakers’ goal is to raise $350,000 from fan support via the Kickstarter campaign by June 7, 2013 to get the project off the ground.

Harbinger Down, set to star notable sci-fi and horror film actor Lance Henriksen, depicts a group of grad students who have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things quickly become deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. After being locked in ice for three decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship.

“Animatronics and Makeup FX have been utilized less frequently in recent films, but this is not because of audience disinterest,” announced Gillis, who will write and direct the film. “In the spirit of sci-fi/horror classics, Alien and The Thing, Harbinger Down is a tense, claustrophobic full-length creature film that will feature only practical Animatronics and Makeup Effects. Fans of the art of Animatronics and Makeup FX know this technique is currently overlooked by the big studios; I'm hoping the fans will help us remedy that by supporting this labor of love.”

“Our company, Amalgamated Dynamics, will create the kind of Oscar caliber Creature Effects for which we are known,” commented Woodruff, who will produce, along with Studio ADI’s Jennifer Tung. “Traditional techniques still have a place in modern genre films. We didn’t give up painting, when cameras were invented.”

Gillis and Woodruff have over 60 years of experience between them and have worked with many top filmmakers, including James Cameron, David Fincher, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Neill Blomkamp, Robert Zemeckis, Joe Johnston, Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols just to name a few. The filmmakers are utilizing Kickstarter to ask supporters of “old-school” visual effects to give them the opportunity to show it.

Contributors to the Harbinger Down Kickstarter Campaign will receive unique, amazing, thrilling, one-of-a-kind incentives for supporting the project. More details about the project can be found on the Harbinger Down Kickstarter website: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1117671683/harbinger-down-a-practical-creature-fx-film


About Studio ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc.)
Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. was founded by Academy Award winning creators of special characters and character effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. Calling upon a diverse range of talents and techniques, Studio ADI creates prosthetic make-ups, animatronic puppets, actor duplicates and replica animals. With over twenty years of professional experience, we bring “real” character effects to the set to interact with the actors, lighting and practical atmosphere. We pride ourselves on working with the industry’s leading Computer-generated imagery (CGI) companies to find the right balance of digital and practical effects. For more information and a resume of work on past productions, visit the Studio ADI website: http://www.studioadi.com/ or, the Studio ADI YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/studioADI

Review: "The Italian Job" Remake is Quite Slick

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 174 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Italian Job (2003)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence and some language
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITERS: Donna Powers and Wayne Powers (based on the 1969 screenplay by Troy Kennedy-Martin)
PRODUCER: Donald De Line
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Wally Pfister (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Richard Francis-Bruce and Christopher Rouse
COMPOSER: John Powell
Black Reel Award winner

ACTION/CRIME with elements of a thriller

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def, Franky G, Gawtti, and Shawn Fanning

The subject of this movie review is The Italian Job, a 2003 heist film from director F. Gary Gray. It is a remake of the 1969 film, The Italian Job, which starred Michael Caine and was directed by Peter Collinson.

The current version is quite entertaining, but a bit on the sedate side. Perhaps, the filmmakers mistook a low-key approach and a low wattage use of pyrotechnics as being cerebral. It’s not necessarily slow, but TIJ is an action movie meant for the kind of people who prefer action crime thrillers like Out of Sight and Ronin. Because I really liked those two films, I heartily recommend this one.

Career thief John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) and his protégé Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) plan a successful heist of $35 million in gold in Venice, Italy. One of their crew, the slick and violent Steve (Edward Norton), however betrays them, kills Bridger, and steals the gold. Croker tracks Steve to Los Angeles where he’s living it up. Seeking revenge and the return of the gold, he convinces Bridger’s daughter Stella (Charlize Theron), a legitimate, professional safe cracker, to join him and his crew on a mission against Steve. The team plans to pull of the heist of their lives by creating L.A. largest traffic jam ever.

Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Set it Off) might not stand head and shoulders above the current large group of technically talented film helmsman, but he has found his niche by producing entertaining and occasionally masterful crime thrillers. As laid back as The Italian Job seems, Gray gives each scene some special twist or essence that kept me watching. I was never bored, and I really enjoyed the film. Maybe Gray playing down loud explosions and kinetic editing is a good thing. He can certainly direct excellent helicopter/car chases, and he makes good use of a diverse cast of character actors, a pretty lead actress, and a solid leading man in Mark Wahlberg.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Film: Best Director” (F. Gary Gray); 2 nominations: “Best Film” (Donald De Line) and “Film: Best Supporting Actor” (Mos Def)

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Review: Michael Caine is Still Cool in "The Italian Job"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 190 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Italian Job (1969)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK; Languages: English and Italian
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Peter Collinson
WRITER: Troy Kennedy Martin
PRODUCERS: Stanley Baker and Michael Deeley
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Douglas Slocombe
EDITOR: John Trumper
COMPOSER: Quincy Jones
Golden Globe nominee

CRIME with elements of action and comedy

Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, John Le Mesurier, Fred Emney, Rossano Brazzi, Maggie Blye, George Innes, Irene Handl and Harry Baird

The subject of this movie review is The Italian Job, a 1969 British caper and crime film directed by Peter Collinson. Starring Michael Caine and featuring a soundtrack composed by Quincy Jones, it is a beloved film in Great Britain.

Before it was the remade into a 2003 summer hit, The Italian Job was a cult favorite caper film starring Michael Caine as Charlie Croker, a clever criminal who adopts a complicated heist plan formulated by a recently murdered colleague. The film is a nice crime film with an air of subdued comedy and some short, but exciting action sequences. In fact, the film has aged quite well and, except for the ending, stands with today’s crime thrillers.

Croker, just out of prison, hatches a plan to steal a huge cache of Chinese gold ($4 million) en route to Turin, Italy to be used as collateral for a Fiat automobile plant. The necessary diversion for the snatch and grab comes courtesy of huge traffic jam that Charlie and his gang plan to cause during an all-important Italy-Great Britain soccer match. Croker eventually convinces Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward), an incarcerated criminal genius, to fiancé and equip the criminal enterprise, all from his jail cell. In spite of all their planning, the hitch is that the Mafia doesn’t want the Englishmen to steal the gold, and are willing to commit murder to stop them.

The film is pleasant, but it’s a bit more than just a diversion. Michael Caine is charming, and while he is ostensibly the lead and his character directs the heist, neither the script nor the director gives the audience much time to really get to know Charlie Croker outside of some witty lines. Actually, the film’s focus is almost totally on the criminal enterprise, and the characters are just checker pieces in the story. Other than Caine and Coward’s characters, no other players really stand out except for a few seconds here or there.

The ending is very problematic, and the 2003 remake (in a sense) picks up where the original left off, although in a more spiritual than literal sense. The remake also vastly improves on the original in giving the characters more room to breath. Still, there is nothing like this film, and fans of caper and heist films should like this, especially as it features the golden age of the young Michael Caine.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
1970 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best English-Language Foreign Film”

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Negromancer Juneteenth 2013

It's June 2013.  Are we all anticipating Man of Steel?

Welcome to Negromancer, a ComicBookBin blog (www.comicbookbin.com). This is rebirth of the former movie review website as a movie review and movie news website and blog.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

And we could use some funding to help make the site better with even more articles and posts - pre-Thank You:

Will Smith Wags "Shark Tale" to Success

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 203 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Shark Tale (2004)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some mild language and crude humor
DIRECTORS: Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, and Rob Letterman
WRITERS: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Michael J. Wilson, and Rob Letterman
PRODUCERS: Bill Damaschke, Janet Healy, and Allison Lyon Segan
EDITORS: Nick Fletcher with Peter Lonsdale and John Venzon
COMPOSER: Hans Zimmer
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, Ziggy Marley, Doug E. Doug, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, Peter Falk, Katie Couric, and Phil LaMarr

The subject of this movie review is Shark Tale, a 2004 computer-animated comedy film from DreamWorks Animation. Shark Tale stars Will Smith as a worker fish and Jack Black as a vegetarian shark who take advantage of a gangster shark’s death.

Oscar (voice of Will Smith) the fish lives in the low end of the reef. He works at a whale (think car) wash, but he’d like to be a rich, famous somebody. Lenny (Jack Black) is a vegetarian shark, but his father, Don Lino (Robert De Niro), a shark mob boss, wants him to be tough so that he can run the family business with his brother, Frankie (Michael Imperioli). Oscar and Lenny & Frankie have an accidental encounter that leaves Frankie dead. Through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, Oscar gets credit for killing Frankie and becomes known as “the shark slayer.” Oscar befriends Lenny and the two help each other; Oscar gives Lenny a place to hide, and the shark helps the fish perpetuate the myth of Oscar being a shark slayer. However, all that wealth and fame make Oscar forget his roots, and he fails to see that his friend Angie (Renée Zellweger), has been there for him all along. And his troubles only get worse when Don Lino comes looking for the shark slayer, and Don Lino isn’t awed like everyone else at the reputation of the shark slayer.

I could never imagine Disney using African-American or Black subcultures as a stylistic basis for one of their animated films, but DreamWorks does just that with Shark Tale. The computer-animated tale uses lots of hip hop attitude and music and a little of its slang, mostly through the performance of actor Will Smith. The film isn’t hip hop heavy, but Shark Tale has enough hip hop-ness to be noticeable.

Hip hop aside, Shark Tale is a very entertaining film, mostly on the strength of Will Smith’s performance, and Smith seems to chose material that he has to save on the strength of his personality. Is that some kind of martyr complex? Shark Tale isn’t all that well directed or written. The film is well cast; even famed movie director Martin Scorsese surprises with a small but wiry voice over performance. However, Scorsese, like everyone except Will Smith, has little with which to work. The film, especially on the writing end, treats the cast like window dressing, but still, the supporting cast gives inspired performances as window dressing.

Shark Tale’s premise, both Oscar’s plot and Lenny’s subplot, are actually effective and intriguing; both however are glossed over. Oscar has some serious self-confidence issues, and Lenny is certainly…a fish out of water with his family. The script focuses on jokes over the substance of overcoming obstacles. Still, Shark Tale is very entertaining, and visually, it’s a vast improvement in the quality of the computer animation over other DreamWorks computer animated films.

So how does Shark Tale compare to the Oscar®-winning, Finding Nemo, which is also an undersea tale? Finding Nemo has more heart, and the screenwriters took time to delve into the character issues and the humanity of the players. Shark Tale creates obstacles for the characters and then sweeps everything under the rug, whereas Nemo saw the characters through heartaches all the way to victory. While it may come up short on that end, Shark Tale still deserves credit for what it does right. It lets a charming film personality and movie star do his thing, and boy, does Will Smith do his thang.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Bill Damaschke)

2005 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “BAFTA Children's Award-Best Feature Film” (production team)

Shinsuke Sato at 2013 Japan Film Festival of San Francisco

The 2013 JAPAN FILM FESTIVAL OF SAN FRANCISCO WELCOMES DIRECTOR SHINSUKE SATO AS A SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOR FOR THE EXCLUSIVE U.S. PREMIERE OF HIS LATEST FILM LIBRARY WARS

Award Winning Director Of GANTZ, GANTZ II And SAND CHRONICLES Makes A Rare U.S. Personal Appearance For S.F. Bay Area’s First Dedicated Japanese Film Festival Taking Place At NEW PEOPLE Cinema

San Francisco, CA, May 29, 2013 – The 2013 J-POP Summit Festival, the popular yearly San Francisco summertime Japanese Pop Culture celebration, has announced director Shinsuke Sato as the first Guest of Honor for its inaugural Japan Film Festival of San Francisco (JFFSF), the first fully-dedicated annual Japanese film event for the S.F. Bay Area, taking place at the NEW PEOPLE Cinema beginning Saturday, July 27th through Sunday August 4th.

Director Shinsuke Sato will appear for the very special U.S. premiere of his latest film, Library Wars, on Friday, August 2nd at 7:00pm, and Saturday, August 3rd at 1:10pm. The film is a new live-action sci-fi adventure adapted from the bestselling novel and anime series originally written by Hiro Arikawa. In addition to introducing his new film, Sato will engage in an insightful Q&A session with audiences immediately following each theatrical screening.

The Japan Film Festival of San Francisco invites attendees to catch more than 15 films, representing a vivid cross-section of recent Japanese live-action as well as anime cinema, that will have their exclusive U.S. and/or San Francisco premiere at NEW PEOPLE Cinema. The Festival will also be a prominent feature of the 2013 J-POP Summit Festival, taking place across Japantown on Saturday and Sunday, July 27th and 28th. A complete schedule of films and advance ticket information is available on www.jffsf.org.

Library Wars is set in the year 2019 in Japan, a new law is passed to crack down on free expression, which allows for the government to create an armed force to find and destroy objectionable printed material. Meanwhile, to oppose this oppressive crackdown, the Library Force is created. The Library Force includes instructor Atsushi Dojo (Junichi Okada) and Iku Kasahara (Nana Eikura), who work to protect the libraries. A fierce battle soon ensues between these two groups.

“It’s a tremendous honor to welcome director Shinsuke Sato as a very special Guest of Honor for our first annual Japan Film Festival of San Francisco,” says Manami Iiboshi, the Executive Director of Japan Film Festival of San Francisco. “His newest film, Library Wars, takes the battle for free speech in an action-packed new direction that shows his creativity and prowess as a filmmaker. We look forward to audiences having this rare opportunity to meet and interact with one of Japan’s most visionary directors at the kick-off of a unique new annual film festival celebrating the best of new Japanese cinema!”

Director Shinsuke Sato was born in 1970 in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1993, while attending Musashino Art University, he wrote the screenplay and directed the 16mm short film, Ryonai Genshuku, which won the 1994 Pia Film Festival Grand Prize. This success launched his career as a film and television drama screenwriter. In 2001, he made his major debut as a director with LOVE SONG. Sato followed this project with The Princess Blade, which was screened at numerous film festivals around the world and distributed in over 20 countries including the United States and United Kingdom. In 2003, the feature film was released in North America and received tremendous critical acclaim.

In the fall of 2007, Sato directed the film, Sand Chronicles, which was also based on a popular manga comic series and became a major Japanese office hit. In 2009, he collaborated with Production I.G. and Fuji Television on the full-length animated film, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, as a screenwriter and director. Oblivion Island was nominated for Best Animated Film at the 33rd Japan Academy Awards. At Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival 2010, the film was also awarded the Jury Prize – Special Mention for the Best Animated Feature Film, and at the 14th Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival, it won the Special Jury Prize in the feature films category. In 2010, Sato directed GANTZ and the sequel, GANTZ II: Perfect Answer, which were also based on hugely popular Japanese anime and manga series. Both films became box office hits. The films are distributed in the U.S. by NEW PEOPLE Entertainment.

NEW PEOPLE Cinema is a 143-seat cinema located in the underground floor of NEW PEOPLE in San Francisco. Equipped with a cutting-edge HD digital projection and THX®-certified sound system, NEW PEOPLE Cinema is home for local film festivals and entertaining events. www.newpeoplecinema.com


About J-POP SUMMIT FESTIVAL
The J-POP SUMMIT FESTIVAL is an annual Japanese Pop Culture celebration that features live bands and artists from Japan, pop culture panel discussions, film premieres, fashion and DJ dance events, and celebrity appearances. The Festival is hosted by NEW PEOPLE in cooperation with the Japantown Merchants Association. In 2012, the two-day event attracted 65,000 attendees.

Additional information about the J-POP Summit Festival is available at J-POP.com.

Animated Short Review: "Baby Buggy Bunny" is One of the Great Bugs Bunny Shorts (Happy B'day, Mel Blanc)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 163 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Baby Buggy Bunny (1954)
Running time: 7 minutes
DIRECTOR: Charles M. Jones
WRITER: Michael Maltese
PRODUCER: Edward Selzer
ANIMATORS: Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Lloyd Vaughan, and Ben Washam
LAYOUT ARTIST: Ernest Nordli
BACKGROUND ARTIST: Philip DeGuard
COMPOSER: Milt Franklyn

SHORT/ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: (voice) Mel Blanc

The subject of this review is Baby Buggy Bunny, a 1954 animated short film directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. This animated film is part of the “Merrie Melodies” series of cartoon shorts from Warner Bros. Pictures. The film stars Bugs Bunny, as he takes on an orphaned baby who is definitely more than he seems.

In Baby Buggy Bunny, Baby-Faced Finster (aka Ant Hill Harry) (Mel Blanc) robs a bank, but his loot ends up in Bugs Bunny’s (Mel Blanc) home (the hole in the ground, rabbit hutch). Finster disguises himself as an orphaned baby, and perches himself on Bugs’ doorstep as an orphaned infant, left with a note by the missing mother in which she ask Bugs to care for Baby Finster. Bugs takes Finster in, but finds the baby quite ornery. Soon, Bugs figures out that Baby Finster is really Baby-Faced Finster, hot off a bank robbery, and Bugs is determined to see justice done.

Although there are so many Looney Tunes animated shorts that I could call a favorite, Baby Buggy Bunny stands out because the entire cartoon is top-notch – from the stylish character designs and quicksilver animation to the superb sketch comedy and gag writing. This is one of the Looney Tunes that is as much for adults (if not more so) as it is for children.

Classic Bugs Bunny cartoons usually set the rabbit up against worthy adversaries; in the case of Baby-Faced Finster, the short film has a nasty and sneaky creep who is as malevolent as he can be in Looney Tune cartoon. A good villain really kicks Bugs Bunny’s smarts and luck into high gear, and Finster certainly does that. Outside of cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny vs. Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam, Baby Buggy Bunny is one of the better fight Tunes.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, October 25, 2005