Neil Gaiman And Michael Reeves' Interworld Coming To Dreamworks

In between 1996 and 98, Michael Reeves and Neil Gaiman pitched a film around the studios called Interworld. According to Gaiman, their first port of call was Dreamworks. Nobody took the chance, however, so as 98 became 99, Gaiman and Reeves turned their treatment into a novel.

The full story of what happened next is up at Gaiman's blog - but the punchline, I'll tell you now.

Dreamworks have just optioned the novel with an eye to turn it into a feature film - an animated feature film so, according to Dreamworks policy, it will be in 3D. Hurrah.

Well, they took their time but they got there eventually. Why anything and everything with Gaiman involved wasn't being snapped up as late as 1999 I'll never guess.

A Little Brazil In The Bee Movie Trailer

The trailer for Bee Movie uses Michael Kamen's score from Brazil. That's probably the most interesting thing about it though I understand this film is a cut above the usual Dreamworks dreck in a number of ways. Strictly speaking, so was Over the Hedge and that was still underwhelming.

Download the trailer in 1080p, 720p or 480p now, and while it's coming down, wonder why Dreamworks haven't done a literal fish out of water story yet, starring a little CG minnow or something, strolling round New York with little special devices on his gills so he doesn't die. I feel like it's only a matter of time...

Three Little Shreks

People scored the first look at the triplets from Shrek. They're not very good looking, are they? And I mean that in a design and rendering sense. They have a total of 5 images of the tots.

Under Shrek's Hood

The CG Society have a 'fairly detailed for a short piece' piece on the technical and artistic challenges encountered in the making of Shrek 3. On the other hand, Aint it Cool have a 'fairly damning for a short piece' piece that slates the film pretty much outright. I don't buy the 'stunning visuals' hoo-hah - we've all seen the trailer and none of us were stunned, I'm sure, but I'm happy to go accept the rest of it.

Dreamworks To Cough Up 65 Million Dollars For Jackson's Lovely Bones?

It certainly looks like it.

Four Jolly, Green Giant Banners

Four new Shrek 3 banners, each one as ugly as the last. Click them - but beware! Full sized, they're huge.

Small Soldiers The Second

Joe Dante's Small Soldiers is a bit wonky but I do love it dearly. Indeed, once the awkward exposition is dealt with, and we're stripped down to the set-pieces and satire, everything does kick up a gear or two and really gets moving. So very underappreciated - just like most other Joe Dante movies.

Now, it looks like a sequel is on the cards. Sadly, like the potential third Gremlins film, Dante hasn't been signed up, and it seems unlikely that he will be. The core concept is the selling point of what will likely go straight to DVD.

The new Small Soldiers script is being written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. They're also developing Master Mind, the first film Ben Stiller is producing at Dreamworks Animation. That one is a kind of post-Incredibles superhero gimmick film in which the supervillain Master Mind kills his goodly nemesis Uberman in the first set-piece and then suffers from depression and a crippling lack of direction.

It could work. It will need a clever script that sidesteps cliche. This revisionist superhero stuff is getting to be a rather crowded subgenre.

Master Mind's directors are to be Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, animators climbing up the Dreamworks ranks. It will, like all other Dreamworks animations from 2009 onwards, be released in 3D.

Aardman Off To Sony

Variety say "Sony Pictures Entertainment has agreed a three-year, first-look deal with Aardman Features"

Apparently, Aardman have four fature scripts in advanced stages of development, one of which is the next Wallace and Gromit film that I'm sure Sony will be keen to net. I understand that BBC Films had been circling that one, and maybe a co-production deal will still come through.

Aardman's COO, Stephen Moore, has commented on how Sony have less of a desire to control than Dreamworks. Here's hoping it's much less, because a little less would still be much too much.

The plan is now for Aardman to produce a film every 18 months, both in stop-motion and CG. The Sony deal is only for three years, and is simply on a first look basis, so it is still possible - if unlikely - that Aardman could produce films elsewhere, even in that timeframe.

I'm hoping Richard Goleszowski now gets another crack at a feature.

Robinsons Behind Blades But Here To Stay

Meet the Robinsons was easily the most interesting new release of the weekend - not least in it's 3D incarnation - but America's public plumped for Blades of Glory instead. Can you hear me sigh? Will Ferrell and Jon Heder each need a new routine, badly.

Some naysayers are already pointing the finger at Robinsons and saying that this weekend's box office proves that the new '3D fad' is dying out already. Hardly. It's just getting started. Indeed, these figures may well suggest that the appeal of 3D is burgeoning.

Less than a tenth of all theatres screening Meet the Robinsons in the US could so in 3D - and it's less than 4 percent of screens here in the UK, where Mr. Bean's Holiday was the weekend number one. There's every chance that people have been avoiding the 2D incarnation of the Robinsons, perhaps feeling that it's not 'complete'. Imagine if your cinema offered you Grind House this weekend but without the fake trailers - you'd feel rather shortchanged, right? Well, this is more like offering Grind House but only in black and white.

I asked Phil McNally, the 3D supervisor on Meet the Robinsons, as well as Dreamworks' upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens, if he thought 3D cinema was here to stay this time. Unsurprisingly, he agreed with me:

3D has always been killed by the technology problems of the past. The two projectors being out of alignment or the two films running out of sync etc. With digital production and projection all of these problems and therefore headaches can go away for ever leaving it up to the artists to develop the cinematography of stereoscopic films.

I think the Real-D projection system has got us all across that line that has held stereo back for 100 years. The time is now and there is no reason to ever go back. I expect to see the balance slowly shift from mono to stereo as is did from black and white to color. What an exciting time for us to see this transition.

I know I'm excited. Aren't you?

Indiana Jones 4 To Be In 3D? And The Lovely Bones Too?

Michael Campbell, the CEO of Regal cinemas in the US, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks' head conveyor belt oiler, yesterday spoke to analysts at a Bank of America convention. The basic thrust of their argument was that punters are really going for 3D, so let's do more of it - and then charge them a premium.

That argument is ridiculous. We're already paying too much - the extra dimension just made the ticket prices seem more reasonable. Push the toll up and we're back to square one, and before we know it, cinemas will be getting smashed down and Blu Ray will rule the world 'forever'.

Katzenberg commented that a lot of cinema chains had proven 'slow' in adopting the digital technology requisite to screening 3D films, but suggested the slate of upcoming titles would hurry things along. Without naming any, he revealed that these upcoming films were to come from directors James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

Which is to say, I believe, Indiana Jones and the Something Probably a Bit Like a City of Gods and The Lovely Bones are to be shot and presented in 3D.

Is this right? Announcements can't be far off now.

Dreamworks Gets Talent

Variety have announced that Chris Sanders, director of Lilo and Stitch and originator of American Dog, has signed to Dreamworks. His first project is to be Crood Awakening, previously in development with Aardman and co-scripted by John Cleese.

Add to this the fact that Disney 3D's Phil McNally is headed to Dreamworks too and it seems like the Dreamworks Animations' batting average might be about to increase drastically.

Of course, it looked that way when Aardman signed, and while I suppose it was true - no other animation from the studio even comes close to Curse of the Wererabbit - the sad fact is, both Chicken Run and Flushed Away were, frankly, sub-par for Aardman efforts. Dreamworks also dumped Richard Goleszowski's Tortoise and the Hare, one of Aardman's most interesting and ambitious concepts.

If Aardman did good for Dreamworks, yippee for Dreamworks - but they did bad for Aardman, so I was glad to see the partnership fold. I don't want the same to be true of Sanders and McNally. I want to see them do even better work than they have at Disney.

3D Wars

The Real D process works, and works well.

In just a couple of weeks, Meet the Robinsons will bow in both flat ol' 2D and, at upwards of 600 locations, gorgeous new 3D; Beowulf is to come in both 2 and 3 dimensions this Autumn; next year, Brendan Fraser will go on Journey 3D; James Cameron's Avatar is to be released only in 3D, using the Real D process for every screening outside of Imax; Dreamworks animation have now announced that they will be entirely Real D compliant from 2009 onwards.

The first Dreamworks film to launch exclusively in this format will be Monsters vs Aliens - pre-production art from which you can see up top. The Dreamworks trumping geniuses at Pixar are bound to begin releasing in Real D sooner rather than later, I feel - though they've expressed some doubt about how suitable the format is for the films they already have in development.

If you ask me, it's looking pretty rosy for Real D - which makes Dolby's new system announcement seem perhaps too much like too little, too late.

Dolby 3D Digital Cinema has one asset over Real D, which is that it should be a touch cheaper to install. For the Dolby process a simple white screen will suffice, whereas Real D requires a very shiny, silvered surface. Of course, without looking at the new system in action, I won't know myself for sure, but this does also indicate a likelihood of lower picture quality for the Dolby set-up.

If it comes to a fight, I'm pretty sure Real D will come out on top. They have a very long lead, and commitments stretching some years into the future.

Aardman Liberated

Moriarty at Aint it Cool considers this to be bad news. I simply can't agree.

As film ick celebrated as far back as November 12th last year, Aardman and Dreamworks have parted ways. This can only be good news - certainly if you know anything about the ludicrous notes, budget cuts and restrictions placed on Were Rabbit, Flushed Away and the cruelly exterminated Tortoise and the Hare.

Congratulations to all at Aardman and best luck for your hopefully unhassled future filmmaking adventures.