Movie Mole

WELCOME BACK MOLE!

2005-02-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks Me!

I've been away for quite some time now. I was awarded the position of assistant to the producer of digital effects at a firm that's relocated to Iceland for the creation of the animatics for the second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia. It's been SUPER busy and all I could do is watch the tips and scoops pile up and collect dust.

I'm back in the States for about 45 days helping to set up the system we're using for some of the anamatic shots. The program that has been written is a lot like Massive. I'm very excited to start using it.

On to some of the (still relevant) tips:

I am an ap on the second crew on set of The Island (we're reshooting a scene in the subway). I walked onto set this morning and saw my producer chatting with Sir. Ian McKellen. He is not slated to appear in the film (as far as i can remember), but he was in wardrobe. I don't know what part he's playing, but evidentially he's shooting a cameo.

Mackenzie Crook held up 2 days of shooting on The Brothers Grimm because his dog ran away and he refused to work until he found it. ... He wasn't being an asshole about it, though, he was actually very concerned....3 pa's and myself ended up finding him in a field about a mile west of the trailers.

You probably already know that The Rock has been cast as Johnny Bravo in the film based on the Cartoon Network show. ....I am a secretary at Cartoon Network in Burbank and was stuffing envelopes to send out to the production staff for the movie and I read the letter....
....It congratulated the staff on the acquisition of Johnny Depp. My assumption is that he's playing the villain character.... (pre-production...not a lot of info is being circulated other than conversations among the producers)

Hulk Hogan. Macho Man. JYD!

2004-11-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

from Judy in South Dakota:
"...while i was in California teaching an editing class at a film workshop i stumbled across some intersting information...
...i met a student who has been in meeting all week with paramount...
...he's in the process of selling his idea. He's scripted a fictional biographical account of the early to mid '80's pro wrestling scene. It will involve real life characters such as Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Junk Yard Dog in fictional a life like scenario...
...his agent told me that paramount loves the idea and that they believe they'll have no problem working with WWE and the retired wrestlers because they have such a great working relationship..."

I am a huge wrestling fan and I cannot wait to see if this project pans out. If there is anyone who has any additional info on this please feel free to contact me!

Michael Bay Secret Project Revealed

2004-11-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

I talked to a friend of mine in Georgia who works for a digital effects firm who has worked, on several occasions, with Michael Bay. Michael Bay is executive producing a super top secret ultra-huge budgeted film.

I haven't been able to come across an exact dollar amount but rumors are that it dwarfs previous budget records.

Anyway, with a budget that huge, it's impossible to keep it low profile for very long...And the lower profile you try to make it, the more people like me try to learn about it. I've been snooping for quite some time now to no end and with zero results. However, I recently made contact with a friend of mine who, by coincidence, happened to be connected to Bay.

He told me that Bay's production team has contacted him and asked if they were capable of the following:

"...Create an extremely realistic design concept for what would be the tallest building in existence...
...innovate software that is capable of rendering what, to this point, will be the largest gathering of computer animated people in one screen shot and for multiple screen shots...
...to use those computer animated people in closeups and to work on the building and on several other types of terrain...
...recreate a computer animated atmosphere that scientifically replicates conditions from before 605b.c...
...graphically recreate mesopotamian people based on known human fossils..."

Could this be for the Tower of Babel script that was purchased not too long ago? I think it may be!

I promise to keep you updated on this, the more I find things out.

Random Scoops!

2004-10-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

From Nan in CA
"...my capture team has been designing frames to motion capture basketball players for a new basketball themed computer animated film. The basketball player image models we got looked an aweful lot like Bill Murray, Will Farrell, Luke Wilson and Will Arnett..."

From Lyle in NYC
"...atom egoyan's production team called our office and asked if we'd be interested in working with him on an adaptation of Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus. The producer here said that we'd love to be put on the list..."

From Gary in CA
"...James and the Giant Peach 2 has just been Green-lit and pre production is to start early next year...
...no word on whether it'll be a claymation format..."

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Update!

2004-10-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

I've recently gotten a lot of new information from the set of the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe from my contact in New Zealand

From ______ In New Zealand
"...we've had several days off because of bad weather. There was even talk of shutting down production until first snowfall...

...Peter Jackson visited the set yesterday...
...he is in no way involved with the production...
...i understand he was giving some suggestions as to how to secure certain rights with the government...
...but he stayed for a whole day and was very helpful and funny...

...TIlda Swinton hasn't showed up for one of her scheduled shoots...
...She was scheduled 4 days in a row. There are several stories about why she's not there...
...They range from Her travel arrangements falling apart to Her contract still not being fully negotiated...
...rumor has it that she'll be back this week and the production will work for 2 days to make up for her scenes..."

I can't wait for this film.

Tiny Tim! Finally Told!

2004-10-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Recently there was a Comment posted about the New Tiny Tim Biopic...that immediately prompted several Emails from some of my contacts with info on this project...

From Glenda In CA
"...the news has just been passed to my supervisor (the costume designer) to start sizing the outfits for Alfred Molina. He's been cast as Tiny Tim in 'Tiny Tim: Finally Told' which is a dramatic biography. In case you don't know who Tiny Tim is, he's an eccentric singer and songwriter who played some small guitar...
...This movie is in preproduction right now and my supervisor has given me tasks to complete before the week of February 12th...
...which usually means that's the week they start shooting..."

From Rich in CA
"...A friend of mine works for a company that passed on the Tiny Tim script...
...but he read it and said that it's a mix between 'Man on the Moon' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'...
...he also said the copy he read, mysteriously, didn't have an author's name on it..."

I wasn't a big fan of Tiny Tim when he was living...but I will say that Alfred Molina is perfect for the role and that Rich's description sounds interesting...we'll see!

24: The Movie???

I still don't have any hard evidence about this...but I do have a contact at FOX who's told me that FOX has contacted several screenwriters and commissioned a script for the big screen. I love this show and I'd love to see how they'd turn the Real-time thing into a 2 hour movie.

This is a really exciting rumor for me. I promise to keep you updated as I find things out.

Scripts Purchased

2004-10-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get some info out of a friend of a friend of a friend who is a secretary for a suit at Paramount. She claimed to have access to a list that's made every month of scripts purchased by Paramount and/or their affiliates...i've been asking her for months if she could shoot me a list of the most interesting ones. She finally sent me something:

"....Here's the list you've been driving me crazy for. These are just the most interesting ones...

Walker Texas Ranger
Untitled P.T. Anderson
Life of Pi
Curse of the Bambino
Into the Woods
Masque of the Red Death
Legionnaires
Untitled Superhero Film
Colombo

....and the rest are either untitled with no further info or are nothing i'm familiar with. Exciting huh?"

She was kind of snotty. But I appreciate her info! Thank you!

Oddities

2004-10-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry for no post yesterday! I was super busy all day!

Shauna in MA wrote and asked:

"...do you know anyone who's involved in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith? I hear the special fx department is enormous on that project. If so are you going to be posting at all about it?..."

Its impossible to say. I know one person who is not yet physically involved but will be headed over to lucas arts (where he's set up his mobile fx wing for this fim...he flies in his team from the companies he hires) and, of course, i'll hound him for any info he might have. On projects like that, though, it's nearly impossible to even overhear anything. It's an extremely secure set. But i'll keep you posted.

My Work Update:

My work is done on Neverending Story. It looks great so far. I saw some of the storyboards for the live action shots and I think this might be as good as the original, which is hard to beat.

I've got some independent features that i'm working on now. But on different aspects...i'm an editor on one and a DP on another. It's for friends, though, so you wouldn't be interested.

They usually keep me very busy here though so there's no doubt i'll have something else to report first hand soon!

HILARIOUS SCREAM UPDATE

S.S. in California wrote:

"...Charlotte Church has been eliminated as a possibility for the female lead because her agent showed up to her call back drunk. he threatened me and everyone in the office that he'd end our show biz careers if we didn't hire him...or something. Anyway, by what i understand Christy Carlson Romano is the front runner..."

I was gonna save this for later:

From_____in NY

"...i wasn't sure if this is something you'd be interested in but i'll let you know anyway. I'm a Sound FX engineer for BOYA Gerardo, Recording Engineers in Bueno Aires. There are dozens of us around the world who get assignments to do foley work for different animation projects. I got sent the footage to record lazer effects for the new Digimon movie. I got a director's script that had some specific calls for effects that i needed to follow, so I was flipping through it and I saw that one of the voiceover artists was Julianne Moore. I don't if that shocks you, but it shocks me. I don't even think this going to be a theatrical release, probably just video. What's she doing on a project like that?..."

You're guess is as good as mine!

Update On Jonathan Brandis Post and More

2004-10-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

I recently posted about a minor scandal at my company about Replicating Jonathan Brandis, digitally, for a new Neverending story movie. I received another memo stating that his family and our lawyer agreed to terms of an agreement to allow us to replicate the late Brandis for the upcoming sequel...

All of my sources are running dry on certain projects...If you have the inside scoop on anything you'd like to scoop...Email me At MovieMole @ Gmail.com...as you know...I'm mostly interested only in stuff i'm not supposed to know!

I've received several Emails asking me about the rumors that pre production for the new Scream movie has halted. As far as my contacts are concerned (i have 2 involved in pre pro on that film) they're still hard at work and everything seems to be going as scheduled...They promised they'd keep their ears open for you guys though...

I did not initially post this...but now it seems relevant:

From S.S. in California
...I'm an assistant to the producer of the new Scream Film. Here's some tidbits that I've overheard:
- Prequel about similar murder spree 20 years before original film...
- Charlotte Church, Raven Symoné, Christy Carlson Romano and Amy Smart have all read for the female lead...
- Michael Cera, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Davis and Michael Fishman have all read for various male roles...

Finally, it seems as though my King Kong special effects source has been silenced...I can no longer contact him/her. So, it seems as though we will no longer be receiving updates about that films progress.

Random Scoops!

2004-10-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

From G. R. in Florida...
...we're sequencing the closing credits for what i'm assuming is a new Star Trek Movie...It's actually just a bid for the credits to see if they want our company to do them...The credits include Scott Bakula AND Patrick Stewart as well as several cast members from 'the next generation' and 'Enterprise'....this may also just be misleading...we often get cast listing during the very preliminary stages...

From ______ In New Zealand
...i'm working as a PA on "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" in the makeup department. Today, yesterday and the day before I saw some very curious folks appear on the set. Sean Astin, Sean Bean and Bernard Hill all made visits to the LWW set. (you remember them from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy) The rumor around the set is that they will each play a small cameo roll written in for them..nobody is saying much about it though...

From Ron in California
...i'm an assistant to the set designer in charge of the studio work on Batman Begins. She and our team painted several versions of the Batmobile over the past 9 months...but the last one was the most interesting...and i'm not sure how they used it because that was my last day on set... It's a burned up batmobile with huge wings...like it was a plane that crashed...

From Sarah in MA
...I'm doing textures on a new dreamworks animated feature called "The Lockhorns". It's supposedly based on a sunday morning cartoon. It's Shrek Style animation...I haven't been able to find any info on the internet about it, although The rumors around the office is that both Jack Black and Thora Birch are lined up to play the voices of the Lockhorns...

From Glenda in CA
...a Tower of Bable script was recently sold to Universal and the company I work for is one of 3 being considered for Digital FX... From what I understand this is a high priority project and they are starting the casting process this winter...

Hitchhiker's Guide: Questionable Material

2004-10-15T05:22:00.000-07:00

From J W. In England concerning "Hitchhiker's Guide" footage he and his team are responsible for repairing...

"...just thought you'd like to pass this along. Even though we can't hear it, what i've seen of this film looks hilarious....Our team is repairing jump frames in the video portions of the film...while there are several parts of what i've seen that I don't recognize from the books...it all looks really great and i can't wait to see the finished version."

He went on to talk about what exactly his team is doing...and then he got to the beef:

"...there is a piece of footage that I thought might have been questionable...and with which I'm sure the author would not have allowed...

...keep in mind that at this stage nothing is for sure and that things like this often get cut...there is a sex scene between Zooey Deschanel's and Sam Rockwell's characters... it's not that graphic...but there is nudity. I just couldn't see how it fit in...and here's hoping the editors and director also decides it's not appropriate and nix it."

I'm not sure if it's on accident or on purpose, but the Hitchhiker's crew have been very tightlipped about this project. For proof...head over to their not-very-informative production site.

Neverending Sequels Neverendingly Tasteless

2004-10-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

I work for the bone-structure and facial expression arm of a medium market special effects firm in Holland, Ohio. We recently were tendered a contract to work under a larger firm as kind of a satillite base for a big movie project they are working on. Some of the principal photograpy is being shot here. I was studying the specs for some of the skeletal designs we were supposed to design. Much to my amazement...My team was put in charge of constructing the digital skeletal structure of the Late Jonathan Brandis. Apparantly the movie is the newest installment of the Neverending story...but all of the "inside the book" scenes take place with digital animation...the thing is...Jonathan Brandis' character from the original story is ONLY in the animated sequences...he now lives there.

Where this gets super weird is when we received a memo from the operations manager at our company letting us know not to make any comments if the family of Jonathan Brandis contacts us. We are also not allowed to say anything publicly about it.

There's evidently a dispute over whether the fimmakers aqcuired permission to create this nearly flawless (hopefully) version of Brandis for this movie role...and whether it's legal if they didn't acquire permission.

I'll let you know more if I learn more.