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In lists of best recent books Joan London’s The Golden Age (Vintage/Random House Australia) has featured as stand-out Australian fiction, alongside Ceridwen Dovey’s  (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin) Only the Animals. I had already read Only the Animals and just had to read The Golden Age to see what the fuss is about. http://blog.boomerangbooks.com.au/holidays-the-chance-to-read-short-fiction-poetry-ya/2014/12 Joan London has written […]

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Animation studio Rhythm & Hues began informing its employees tonight that they will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday morning. According to a report on Deadline, the studio can no longer pay its employees and they are being asked not to come into work on Monday at the studio’s West LA headquarters.

The legendary CG animation studio has been in business since 1987. They have been responsible for such projects as Babe, Stuart Little, The Golden Compass, the Coca-Cola “Polar Bear” commercials, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom attraction “It’s Tough to be a Bug.” The studio won a BAFTA yesterday for its visual effects work on Life of Pi.

The company had been struggling financially in recent months, and had expected to be acquired by Indian company Prime Focus. Variety notes that while the Prime Focus deal has fallen through, “several buyers reported interested in acquiring the company out of bankruptcy.”

If your job has been affected and you would like to submit news confidentially, please contact me HERE.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented their awards today in London. Pixar’s Brave took home the BAFTA award for Best Animated Film; it was up against ParaNorman and Frankenweenie.

Interesting note: Brenda Chapman, the original director of Brave, accepted the award with the film’s second director, Mark Andrews:

Life of Pi was the winner in the category of Special Visual Effects.

The award for Best Animated Short went to The Making Of Longbird, a mockumentary by Will Anderson, 23, produced at the Edinburgh College of Art. Ainslie Henderson (I Am Tom Moody), who co-wrote the film, shared the award with Anderson. This is the trailer for the short:

The winners of the 11th Annual VES Awards were announced yesterday in Los Angeles. The two most honored films were Brave and Life of Pi, each with four awards, while Game of Thrones was the most-honored TV project, also with four awards.

Presented by the Visual Effects Society, the award recognizes outstanding visual effects work across a broad spectrum of the entertainment industry including film, animation, television, commercials and video games. In addition to the awards below, director Ang Lee was honored with the VES Visionary Award (presented by Dennis Muren) and ILM veteran Richard Edlund with the Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by Harrison Ford).

The following is the complete list of winners of The 11th Annual VES Awards:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture
Life of Pi
Donald R. Elliott, Susan Macleod, Guillaume Rocheron, Bill Westenhofer

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
The Impossible
Felix Bergés,Sandra Hermida,Pau Costa Moeller

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Brave
Mark Andrews, Steve May, Katherine Sarafian, Bill Wise

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones: Volar Morghulis
Rainer Gombos, Steve Kullback, Sven Martin, Juri Stanossek

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
Boardwalk Empire: Episode 308
John Bair, Parker Chehak, Paul Graff, Lesley Robson-Foster

Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Jason Blundell, Barry Whitney, Colin Whitney

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
Nike: Biomorph
Rafael Colon, Aladino Debert, David Liu, Nicola Wiseman

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
Heather Drummons, Joel Friesch, Brooke Breton, Chris Bailey

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Life of Pi: Richard Parker
Erik De Boer, Sean Comer, Betsy Asher Hall, Kai-Hua Lan

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Brave: Merida
Travis Hathaway, Olivier Soares, Peter Sumanaseni, Brian Tindall

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones: Training the Dragons
Irfan Celik, Florian Friedmann, Ingo Schachner, Chris Stenner

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
The Avengers: Midtown Manhattan
Richard Bluff, Barry Williams, David Meny, Andy Proctor

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Brave: The Forest
Tim Best, Steve Pilcher, Inigo Quilez, Andrew Whittock

Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones: Pyke
Rene Borst, Thilo Ewers, Adam Figielski, Jonas Stuckenbrock

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Matt Aitken, Victor Huang, Christian Rivers, R. Christopher White

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
ZombiU
Dominique Boidin, Léon Bérelle, Rémi Kozyra, Maxime Luère

Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture
The Avengers: Helicarrier
Rene Garcia, Bruce Holcomb, Polly Ing, Aaron Wilson

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
Life of Pi: Storm of God
Harry Mukhopadhyay, David Stopford, Mark Williams, Derek Wolfe

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
Brave
Chris Chapman, Dave Hale, Michael K. O’Brien, Bill Watral

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
Guinness: Cloud
Tom Bussell, Neil Davies

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
Life of Pi: Storm of God
Ryan Clarke, Jose Fernandez, Sean Oharas, Hamish Schumacher

Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program
Game of Thrones, Episode 210: White Walker Army
Falk Boje, Esther Engel, Alexey Kuchinsky, Klaus Wuchta

Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial
Chevy 2012 Silverado
Dominik Bauch, Nicholas Kim, Benjamin Walsh

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
Natalis
Daniel Brkovic, David Kirchner, Jan-Marcel Kuehn, Tom Ferstl

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Life of Pi author Yann Martel gave his stamp of approval for Ang Lee‘s 3D film adaptation. He said that Lee’s film is “incredibly faithful to the book” not only in plot, but also in “the idea, the intent.”

Prior to shooting, Martel met with the director to give feedback on the screenplay. After that, the author took a very hands-off approach with film production.

He explained in the interview: “Early on, I made very clear that I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to do and that I was stepping back because I know my limits. I’m a novelist; it’s my business to write words and construct novels, not to make movies — as much as I love movies. I grew up watching movies.”

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The first official trailer has been released for the film adaptation of Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi. We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee cast newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi Patel. Other cast members include Tobey Maguire as Yann Martel, Irrfan Khan as Older Pi and Ayush Tandon as Younger Pi. The movie will hit theaters on November 21st.

Here’s more from CLICK: “Life of Pi has been in some stage of production since 2003, with several names attached including M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jenuet. Lee was the one who finally managed to get it to principal photography, based on a script by Magee who also wrote the rather nice Finding Neverland. As you can probably tell from the presentation above, The Life of Pi was also shot in 3D and the colourful visuals might actually make for a decent extra dimensional experience for a change.” (via Publishers Weekly)

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Release dates have been announced for the Peter Jackson‘s two Hobbit movies.

According to Variety, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will come out on December 14, 2012 and The Hobbit: There and Back Again will hit theaters on December 13, 2013. The video embedded above features a tour of The Hobbit‘s set.

Here’s more from the article: “Jackson began shooting the two films in New Zealand in 3D in mid-March with a cast including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bloom joined the cast Friday to portray the elf Legolas.”

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Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire (pictured, via) has joined the cast in Ang Lee‘s adaptation of Life of Pi. According to Deadline, “Maguire will play a writer who interviews the boy as an adult.”

We reported earlier that 17-year-old Suraj Sharma will debut in the lead role of Pi Patel. Other cast members include Irrfan Khan and Adil Hussain.

MovieLoverNews.com reports that shooting for Life of Pi will take place in Taiwan and India. Tentative release is set for December 2012.

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Author Yann Martel has a straightforward method for choosing selections for public readings: “it has to work orally.” In an interview with the National Post, the novelist shared author reading advice.

Martel explained: “In other words, people have to be able to get it hearing it and hearing it only once. Description isn’t usually a good choice. Dialogue or a scene with action works best.”

In 2002, Martel won the Man Booker Prize for Life of Pi. The novel will be adapted into a 3-D film by Oscar-winning director, Ang Lee. Lee has cast 17-year-old Suraj Sharma as lead protagonist, Pi Patel.

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A newcomer has landed the coveted lead role in Ang Lee‘s forthcoming  adaptation of Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi. Lee also confirmed speculation that the filmwill be shot in 3-D, exceeding the original $50 million budget.

USA Today has the scoop: “Lee cast Suraj Sharma, 17, a Delhi high school student who acted once in a school play, to play Pi Patel, the young man stranded after a shipwreck on a 26-foot lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, zebra, hyena and orangutan. Sharma was one of 3,000 teenage boys who auditioned.’”

Martel published Life of Pi in 2001 with Knopf Canada after being rejected by five London publishers. At the time, he wrote the book to add purpose and direction in his life. Life of Pi went on to win the Man Booker Prize in 2002. (Via National Post)

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