Off The Wire: i, Robot Goes 3D On Blu-Ray
Posted on Monday October 22, 2012, 18:48 by James White in Off The Wire
 3D as a whole is still a controversial topic, and is rarely more divisive when considering older films converted to 3D. But with its new, 3D Blu-ray release of 2004 Will Smith sci-fi thriller i, Robot, 20th Century Fox seems committed to winning over naysayers and giving 3D TV owners the best experience possible from a film that, while it wasn’t shot in the format, definitely appears to benefit from it.
Empire was invited to the Fox lot to meet some of the tech team involved in the new conversion and to hear how the process works. We’ll spare you the talk of different layers and avoiding “cardboard issues”, but suffice to say a lot of care and attention has been lavished on this, utilising some hardware that promises to make future releases much more impressive.
And while the intent is naturally to boost the number of 3D Blu-Ray discs on the market to encourage us consumers to buy them, that wasn’t the main focus on this job. “It's no... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopOff The Wire: DreamWorks Touts New 'Toon Footage
Posted on Thursday March 15, 2012, 03:53 by James White in Off The Wire
 It’s become an annual tradition for DreamWorks animation to put on a little show at LA’s Directors Guild Theatre to show off some scenes from their new films. This year was no exception, with directors, producers and even the odd actor (Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Pine, at least) thrust on stage to talk up Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and the intriguing Rise Of The Guardians.
The latest Madagascar outing was first, with co-directors Tom McGrath, Conrad Vernon and Eric Darnell bringing 12 years of friendship to bear as they each claimed to have invented the best elements of the franchise and running us through the previous adventures of New York Zoo escapees Alex (Ben Stiller), Gloria (Pinkett Smith), Marty, (Chris Rock) and Melman (David Schwimmer).
After showing some scenes and introducing the new characters incl... Continue reading... Comment Now
Back To TopOff The Wire: Golden Globes 2012
Posted on Monday January 16, 2012, 04:32 by James White in Off The Wire
 So that was the Golden Globes 2012, then. Frankly, the experience of watching this year’s event was less one of blogging, more one of slogging.
Though everyone was wondering what wacky, insulting antics Ricky Gervais would get up to as host this year, it would appear that the Hollywood Foreign Press had actually found a way to insert a tiny poison bomb into Gervais’ leg, which they’d threatened to detonate if he strayed too far from the bounds of his cheeky chirpy, smug-for-pay persona. So we were treated to far fewer cracks at the expense of celebrities, and seemingly more at his bosses and NBC, the American network the show was on: "Tonight you get Britain's biggest comedian hosting the world's second biggest awards show on America's third biggest network. Sorry, it's fourth. For any of you don't know, the Golden Globes are just like the Oscars, but without all that esteem." And comparing the ceremonies again: "The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardash... Continue reading... Comment Now (7 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: James Cameron Talks Titanic 3D
Posted on Thursday November 10, 2011, 03:12 by James White in Off The Wire
 Titanic is coming back to our screens this April in a shiny, new 3D conversion. And like an approaching iceberg, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. But James Cameron, the man who wrangled the giant ship on to screens to huge success back in 1998, wants you to be happy with the idea of revisiting Rose, Jack and the rest. So he showed 18 minutes of 3D-retooled footage, and then took the stage at 20th Century Fox’s Zanuck screening room. for a round of his usual candid showmanship to explain why.
“We get to bring Titanic back to the big screen after having been gone for 15 years. There's a whole generation of people who have never seen the film in a movie theatre. I'm a strong believer in the theatrical experience in general, but specifically for this film. When people commit three hours plus a little bit of their lives to sit in a dark room and share this journey with these characters, they find that it's a very powerful, emotional experience a... Continue reading... Comment Now (16 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Rango: A Walk-Through With Gore Verbinski
Posted on Monday July 5, 2010, 07:50 by Sam Toy in Off The Wire
 This time last month, Rango was a project we, like most almost everyone else, had only the most rudimentary knowledge of: an animated film being directed by Gore Verbinski, with Johnny Depp providing key vocal talent. Then, a few weeks back, the teaser trailer landed. Which was, to be honest, unhelpful. You know the one: that shot of a desert road, with a wind up fish (out of water, and in mid-air) slowly making its way from one side of frame to the other, which didn’t really elicit much more of a response from anyone, beyond “Okaaaaaay.”
Thank your chosen deity then that Paramount chose last week to launch the far more exciting first proper trailer. Now we talkin’. Why? Because just twenty four hours earlier, we’d been at the film’s production offices, ... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopOff The Wire: The 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony: What Can We Expect?
Posted on Thursday June 17, 2010, 16:45 by Helen O'Hara in Off The Wire
 It was announced today that Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliott, The Reader) and Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) will be in charge of the Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics in 2012. Obviously it's nice to hear that two of Blighty's finest will be overseeing the shindig, and will be in charge of making it both spectacular in execution and awesome in conception. But what can we expect to see from their Olympics adventure? We input all the data into Empire's steam-powered computing machine and odds extractor, and here's what came up as possible inclusions:
1. We open with two security guards chasing Paula Radcliffe, dressed as Virginia Woolf, around the stadium.
2. Then ... Continue reading... Comment Now (2 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Edit Bay Visit
Posted on Thursday April 1, 2010, 17:00 by James White in Off The Wire
 A couple of days ago, Empire was invited into a magical realm where dreams become reality, charismatic pirates cross the ocean and Nic Cage can be a shaggy-haired sorcerer. Not a fictional world of powerful wizards – just one powerful producer. Yes, we stopped by Jerry Bruckheimer’s office.
We were there to see some footage from one of Bruckheimer’s big summer blockbusters, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which sees Cage’s plasma ball-conjuring mystic Balthazar Blake finally tracking down the person he thinks can become as powerful as Merlin himself. That person happens to be Dave Stutler, played by Judd Apatow protégé and rising comedy star Jay Baruchel, who between work on She’s Out Of My League and How To Train Your Dragon, is all over films released this year.
But Blake’s quest will not be an easy one. His arch nemesis, Maxim Horvath (portrayed with suitable snark and snarl by Alfred Molina), has es... Continue reading... Comment Now (3 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Shutter Island: A Thriller Out Of Time?
Posted on Saturday February 13, 2010, 20:55 by Damon Wise in Off The Wire
 It's been interesting watching the reactions to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, from the trailer alone. People seem to forget that artists have a fractious relationship with their times, that sometimes their work arrives out of synch with public taste, and that sometimes their art takes chances that even their most loyal followers won't accept. The irony, of course, is that nobody knows this better than Scorsese, who has conducted a personal journey through the film cultures of three very cine-literate countries (Italy and the US, with Britain on its way) and directed a milestone documentary (No Direction Home) about the musician, poet and electric folklorist Bob Dylan, himself no stranger to controversy and public questioning. Along the way, the song remains the same; sometimes a contemporary audience isn't always sitting in the right seats to judge.
So what has Scorsese done to blot his copybook, in the wake of his most successful commercial run since the 70s and early 80s? Well... Continue reading... Comment Now (2 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: What Chris Nolan Could Bring To Superman
Posted on Tuesday February 9, 2010, 17:22 by James White in Off The Wire
 It’s been a tough few years for Clark Kent and his superhero alter ego (or is it the other way round, as Quentin Tarantino had David Carradine argue?) but with the recent speculation that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan will be helping to oversee Superman’s return to the screen, things might finally be looking up.
Like any decision regarding the Man of Steel, it’s bound to be a controversial one: the character has been around for so long and so many people (including Richard Donner and, more recently, Bryan Singer) have tried their hand at making a movie based on him, to varying levels of success, that no one can seemingly please everyone.
But Nolan has a solid, proven track record with DC/Warners’ other heavy hitter, Batman and while he has no plans to ditch Gotham City for Metropolis (he has his brother and David Goyer are currently working on the scr... Continue reading... Comment Now (21 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: David Brown 1916-2010: A Tribute
Posted on Thursday February 4, 2010, 10:41 by Ian Freer in Off The Wire
 As a huge Spielberg-phile in general and Jaws-freak in particular, I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of producer David Brown aged 93 this week. It seems to me that Brown was a dying breed of gentleman producer. As Ron Howard, who worked with Brown on Cocoon, put it Brown was "less the wheeler-dealer than the great judge of content. He knows that story drives everything. He loves writing, and he know what ideas will translate and what won't." Which didn’t mean that Brown wasn’t above the odd gimmick or two. Spielberg had made up some Jaws T-shirts at the start of production. When the director turned up for a meeting with Brown and producing partner Richard Zanuck with every intention to quit, the pair were sporting the Spielberg-sponsored Jaws T-shirts, guilt-tripping the director into returning to work. Having the nous and foresight to give Spielberg his feature film directing break The Sugarland Express, Brown supported Spielberg... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
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