Thompson on Hollywood

Live from Wellywood: WETA Digital Hosts Rise of the Planet of the Apes Livestream

Peter Jackson has long been ahead of the curve where doling out info directly to fans is concerned. Thus, live from Wellywood, New Zealand, Jackson's VFX house WETA Digital (The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, District 9, Tintin) will reveal cool stuff from Rise of the Planet of the Apes via Fox's Facebook fan page for James Cameron's Avatar, which has 14.2 million followers. This is basically a maneuver to grab those fans and lure them to also follow this movie via a five-second preview of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (August 5, 2011) on its official Facebook page. What will they see on April 13 at 2:30 PM Pacific time (player is below)? WETA's VFX masters Joe Letteri and Dan Lemmon will give a behind-the-scenes look at how they created photo-real intelligently emotive CG ape Caesar (although their last ape, Jackson's King Kong, also acted by Gollum's Andy Serkis, will be hard to top). Jackson's King Kong earned WETA the coveted Avatar gig, which won them the VFX Oscar.

By Anne Thompson
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April 11, 2011 6:44 AM
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CinemaCon Update: James Cameron, George Lucas, Jeff Katzenberg Talk Cinema's Digital Future

Stunts, legendary studio executives and name auteurs with an eye on the digital future were de rigueur during Wednesday’s CinemaCon. Anthony D'Alessandro digests the latest news from Las Vegas. In a CinemaCon 3-D powwow with directors George Lucas, James Cameron and DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, the trio continued to tub-thump the visual format, while warning attendees that 3-D shouldn’t be used frivolously by the studios to pad grosses. Cameron soapboxed the same philosophy about wasteful 3-D pics that he has been vocalizing since last summer, when he attacked Weinstein Co.’s Piranha 3D. The Wrap reported Cameron's lament: “I’m concerned about things that erode the market. Bad 3-D is one of them.” Haste leads to waste, Katzenberg further pointed out, using Warner Bros.' last-minute transformation of Clash of the Titans as an example. Good 3-D transformations take from six to eight months, not weeks.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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March 31, 2011 5:31 AM
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Japan Aftershocks May Stall Cameron's Avatar Deep-Sea Dive

In the wake of Japan's 9.0 earthquake, underwater maven James Cameron may have to wait a while before he executes his planned 6.5 mile submersible dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench off the coast of Japan for the Avatar sequel, reports Slate (via Coming Attractions). Aftershocks are the issue.

By Anne Thompson
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March 22, 2011 11:36 AM
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James Cameron and Vince Pace to Deliver NAB Keynote

James Cameron and his Titanic and Avatar camera inventor Vince Pace will deliver the 2011 NAB shows keynote address on April 11. The NAB show is the biggest media show for filmed entertainment and its development across various platforms. Approximately 90,000 people come to Las Vegas for the event each year. In their address, current King of the 3-D world Cameron, and visual effects and 3-D innovator Pace will cover new developments in 3-D technology and their affect in the industry and storytelling. The full release in below:

By Anne Thompson
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March 21, 2011 7:38 AM
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Weekend Box Office: The Roommate Decks Cameron's 3-D Sanctum; Oscar Hits Hold

Super Bowl weekend is not primetime for moviegoing, thus low-ball thriller The Roommate topped the box office frame, followed by Sanctum, James Cameron's bid to support quality 3-D (and keep courting deep sea danger). Anthony D'Alessandro does the numbers: Gossip Girl vamp Leighton Meester lured audiences with stalker thriller The Roommate, stealing $15.6 million at 2,534 venues in what was a sleepy Super Bowl weekend. The frame’s second wide release, Universal/Relativity Media’s deep-sea actioner Sanctum was B.O. plankton, excavating $9.2 million from 2,787.

By Anthony D'Alessandro
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February 6, 2011 5:16 AM
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Sanctum: "Visually Arresting," "Paper-Thin Personalities"; Cameron Promos on Twitter

Sanctum opens February 4. James Cameron produced (along with a handful of others), and Aussie director Alistair Grierson helmed the 3-D project. Cameron joined Twitter on January 28 per Ryan Seacrest's suggestion. The filmmaker has already amassed 48,200 followers (he's following 38, mostly scientific orgs). Since joining, Cameron's focus has been mostly #Sanctum promos (see tweets below), for which he calls himself "such a ho":

By Sophia Savage
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February 2, 2011 7:50 AM
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Director Watch: Woo's Killer Remake, Cameron's Battle Angel, Gatsby's Green Light, Hooper's Secrets

- John Woo (Red Cliff) and long-time producing partner Terence Chang's Lion Rock Productions is ramping up a remake of The Killer, which Woo directed in 1989. This remake will be directed for English-language audiences by South Korean director John H. Lee and stars Jung Woo-Sung in the role originally played by Chow Yun-Fat. This will be a modern take on the story about an assassin who devotes everything to protecting a singer whom he accidentally blinded.

By Sophia Savage
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February 1, 2011 9:15 AM
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Development Watch: Arterton for Gretel, Jolie's Cleopatra Director, Clooney's Monster of Florence

- Jeremy Renner's Hansel has found his Gretel. Gemma Arterton will star alongside the rising Hurt Locker and Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol star in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which sets the fairy tale duo fifteen years later, chasing witches. Despite having suffered three less-than-stellar films in 2010 (Tamara Drewe, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Clash of the Titans), Brit Gemma Arterton beat out Diane Kruger, Eva Green and Noomi Rapace to fill these fairy tale shoes. Director Tommy Wirkola wants to shoot in Berlin starting March 7. Let's hope this fairy tale update rises above the pack.

By Sophia Savage
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January 5, 2011 6:29 AM
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Forbes Top Entertainment Earners: Women vs. Men

- Check out Forbes' annual list of Hollywood's highest-grossing women in entertainment. For one thing, points out THR, there aren't any female directors among the top ten women. James Cameron dominates the men's list, along with George Lucas and Michael Bay, but Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow isn't on the list at all.