G Fighters

Korean animation production house Electric Circus has signed a co production deal with Singapore studio Tiny Island Productions to produce the CGI action-adventure series G-Fighters. The 26 x 22 series is supported by SBA, KOCCA, EBS, SK Broadband and CJ E&M.Tiny Island’s CEO David Kwok said, “We have always admired Electric Circus’s design works. We are confident that the unique design of the show will make it standout in the market.”“Tiny Island Productions is one of the best 3D Animation Studios in Singapore,” says Wooki Kim, CEO of Electric Circus. “The synergy between the two companies will definitely make this co-production relationship a great success.”The deal is one of the first international co-production between Korea and Singapore animation companies. The studios are expected to have the show ready for delivery by the end of 2014.

47 Ronin Trailers

47 Ronin is an upcoming 2013 American fantasy action film depicting a fictional account of the forty-seven Ronin, a real-life group of samurai in 18th-century Japan who avenge the murder of their master (known as a "chūshingura" in Japan). The American studio Universal Pictures is producing the adaptation. The film is directed by Carl Erik Rinsch and stars Keanu Reeves, Rinko Kikuchi, Tadanobu Asano, Hiroyuki Sanada and an ensemble of other Japanese actors. Filming started in Budapest in March 2011; it moved to Shepperton Studios in London and will conclude in Japan. The release date was initially moved from November 21, 2012 to February 8, 2013, then again to Christmas Day 2013.

Synopsis

The outcast Kai (Reeves) joins a group of Ronin, led by Kuranosuke Oishi (Sanada), who seeks vengeance on Lord Kira (Asano) for killing their master and banishing the group. The Ronin embark on a journey whose challenges would defeat most warriors.

Cast

Keanu Reeves as Kai, an outcast who joins the group of Ronin. Reeves's character is half-Japanese  and half-British; the character was created for the film.

Tadanobu Asano as Lord Kira, the Shogun's master of ceremonies and the one responsible for killing the Ronins' master.

 Rinko Kikuchi as Mizuki, a lady who serves Lord Kira.

 Hiroyuki Sanada as Kuranosuke Oishi, the leader of the Ronin.

 Kou Shibasaki as Mika, the slain master's daughter and Kai's love interest.

 Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the Shogun

 Jin Akanishi as Chikara Oishi, Kuranosuke's son.

 Rick Genest as Savage

Production

47 Ronin is directed by Carl Erik Rinsch based on a screenplay by Chris Morgan and Hossein Amini. While the film is based on the true story of the forty-seven Ronin, it is a fantastical take, being set "in a world of witches and giants". The studio Universal Pictures first announced the project in December 2008 with actor Keanu Reeves attached to star. Variety reported, "The film will tell a stylized version of the story, mixing fantasy elements of the sort seen in The Lord of the Rings pics, with gritty battle scenes akin to those in films such as Gladiator." Universal planned to produce the film in 2009 after finding a director.In November 2009, Universal entered talks with Rinsch to direct the film. For Rinsch, who has filmed "visual and stylish" blurbs for brands, the film is his feature film debut.

In December 2010, the studio announced that the film would be produced and released in 3D. Between March and April 2011, five Japanese actors were cast alongside Reeves: Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, Kou Shibasaki, and Jin Akanishi. According to Variety, Universal chose them to make the story more authentic instead of picking actors that would be recognizable in the United States. Universal is providing Rinsch with a production budget of $170 million despite his lack of feature film experience, which The Hollywood Reporter considered to be a "large-scale, downright risky" move. Filming began on March 14, 2011 in Budapest.Production moved to Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom; additional filming in Japan is also planned.Reeves said that scenes are filmed first in the Japanese language to familiarize the cast, and the scenes are filmed again in the English language.The actors' costumes were designed by Penny Rose, who said, "We decided to base it on the culture and what the shapes should be., everyone's in a kimono—but we've thrown a kind of fashion twist at it. And we've made it full of color, which is quite unusual for me."

Poster X-Men : Days of Future Past

Prof, Charles Francis Xavier aka Prof. X

Erik Lensherr aka Magneto

Warner Bros. Confirms Batman/Superman Movie for 2015

DC fans rejoiced this weekend when Man of Steel director came out on stage at Comic-Con and announced

“It’s official that we are going to make another Superman movie. I’ve poured through the DC universe for a way to tell this thing.”

Set for release in 2015, this sequel is to be directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S. Goyer featuring two of WB/DC’s most popular superheroes, which are in direct competition with Disney/Marvel’s Avengers characters.

Snyder added, “I’m so excited to begin working again with Henry Cavill in the world we created, and I can’t wait to expand the DC Universe in this next chapter. Let’s face it, it’s beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest superheroes in the world.”

Man Of Steel which is currently still playing in theaters worldwide has made over $625 million while Christopher Nolan’s rebooted Batman trilogy has surpassed $4 billion globally. Christian Bale has already told the press that he won’t reprise his role as the Gotham Knight, so the search will begin for a new actor to play Batman in the hear future.Warner Bros. is also planning a Flash feature in 2016 and a big Justice League movie in 2017. Watch out, Marvel. The race is on

X Men : Day of Future Past Character

The Amazing Spiderman 2 Teaser

Electro cast by Jamie Foxx

Rhino cast by Paul Giamatti

Rio 2 teaser 2

Frozen Character

How to Train Your Dragon 2 fans got an extra treat on Friday as the trailer for the much-anticipated sequel from DreamWorks Animation became available online. The 3-D pic, which is written and directed by Dean DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Chris Sanders will arrive in theaters on June 20, 2014.Based on the original series by Cressida Cowell, this second chapter of the trilogy features the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who also participated in the first movie. The original 2010 pic was a huge critical and box office hit and made $494.9 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Academy Awards.The sequel will take place five years after the first feature and will center on Hiccup and his friends in their late teens.

“At the end of last film, all these Vikings who were previously somewhat landlocked are now on the backs of dragons so the entire Northern Hemisphere opens up to them,” says DeBlois. “And with that Hiccup’s curiosity increases, the map expands and inevitably they are going to come across new dragons, new cultures.”

Hiccup then discovers a larger conflict brewing between humans and dragons and he finds himself at the center of it.

Book of This Month

The new book this month is 3D Artist : 25 Page Special Blender issues 55. Publish by Imagine Publishing Ltd. Can obtain in the market price of RM 39.90 per copy. CD also comes with free content.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 trailer 2

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation. The film is the sequel to the 2009 film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was loosely based on Judi and Ron Barrett's book of the same name. It is being directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, produced by Kirk Bodyfelt, and executive produced by the directors of the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller.Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film is scheduled to be released on September 27, 2013.The screenplay was written by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Erica Rivinoja,and it is based on an original idea, and not on Pickles to Pittsburgh, Barrett's follow-up book.Cloudy 2 will continue right after the first film, where a food making satellite gets out of control, but its creator, young inventor Flint, and his friends, eventually manage to stop it. In the sequel, Flint and his friends are forced to leave their home town, but when the food machine awakens, this time producing living food beasts, they must return to save the world.Most of the main cast will reprise their roles: Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, Anna Faris as Sam Sparks, James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Andy Samberg as Brent McHale, Neil Patrick Harris as Steve, and Benjamin Bratt as Manny. New cast includes Terry Crews, who replaced Mr. T as Officer Earl; Will Forte, who voiced Joseph Towne in the first film, is set to voice Chester V; and Kristen Schaal as orangutan Barb.

Plot

After the disastrous food storm in the first film caused by his machine, Flint Lockwood and his friends are forced to leave the town of Swallow Falls. Flint accepts the invitation from his idol Chester V to join The Live Corp Company, which has been tasked to clean the island, and where the best inventors in the world create technologies for the betterment of mankind and planet Earth. Upon arriving back at Swallow Falls, Flint discovers that his machine still operates and now creates mutant food beasts like living pickles, hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, and apple pie-thons. It is up to Flint and his friends to put a stop to the machine once and for all before this new form of foody life breaks from the island and invades the planet.The film will feature 39 food-animal hybrids known as "foodimals."Some of them will be voiced by artists working on the film, including the directors of the film, who will lend their voices to Barry the Strawberry (Cody Cameron), shrimpanzees (Kris Pearn), and pickles (Cameron).Other foodimals include cheespiders, tacodiles, mosquitoasts, flamangos, hippotatomuses, leeks, watermelophants, fruit cockatiels, meatbalruses,bananostriches, buffaloaves, eggplanatees, PB & jellyfish, sasquach, and wildebeets.

Production

The first news of the sequel came out in April 2010, when website io9 reported that the original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, won't return for the sequel.In December 2011, it was reported that Cody Cameron, the story artist on the first film, and Kris Pearn, the head of story on the first, are set to direct the sequel, with Lord and Miller serving as exec-producers. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Erica Rivinojawrote the screenplay, which is based on an original idea, and not on Pickles to Pittsburgh, Barrett's follow-up book.In February 2012, it was announced that the sequel would be titled Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers, but has since been retitled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. The film was originally scheduled for release on December 20, 2013, then pushed to February 7, 2014,before moving up to September 27, 2013.The music will again be composed by Mark Mothersbaugh.Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris and Benjamin Bratt are set to reprise their roles.The role of Earl, the town cop, will be taken over by Terry Crews, as Mr. T declined to return.Kristen Schaal is joining the cast to voice Barb, a talking and lipstick wearing orangutan with a human brain.Will Forte, who voiced Joseph Towne in the first film, is set to voice Chester V, a world-famous super-inventor, who commands Barb, and is the head of the Live Corp Company.On January 17, 2013, concept art from the film was released

The Boxtrolls

 

The Boxtrolls is an upcoming 2014 stop motion adventure film based on the novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow. Produced by Laika, it is being directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi. The film stars Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Elle Fanning, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Toni Collette and Jared Harris.The film is currently scheduled to be released on September 26, 2014.

Plot

The film tells the story of an orphaned boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) who was raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors called the Boxtrolls. The Boxtrolls are targeted by an evil exterminator named Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), and Eggs has to save his friends from that evil exterminator.

Production

In June 2008, Laika unveiled a slate of projects in development, among which was also an animated feature film adaptation of the Alan Snow's novel Here Be Monsters!. Animation technique not yet decided, Anthony Stacchi was set to direct the film.Laika announced on February 7, 2013, that the adaptation will be their next 3D stop motion/CGI feature under the title The Boxtrolls. Directed by Stacchi and Graham Annable, it was scheduled to be released on October 17, 2014,before it moved up in May 2013 to September 26, 2014.Focus Features will hold worldwide distribution rights to The Boxtrolls, and Universal Pictures International will release the movie overseas (with eOne Distribution handling Canada).

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug // Production Diary