The first of five great little mini-games we're producing to promote WANTED, a new movie by Timur Bekmambetov starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman and loosely based on the excellent graphic novel by Mark Millar:
Much to report on the Indiana Jones film-maker interviews we posted to Seesmic from Cannes on Saturday, and not much time to do it.
Want to post some of my favourite bits of video from the event, at the very least:
Steven Spielberg rules out ever making an Indiana Jones movie without Harrison Ford:
George Lucas talks about the breadth of the franchise's appeal:
Harrison Ford talks about his favourite stunts:
Karen Allen talks about her favourite movie soundtracks:
Shia LaBoeuf talks about his favourite Indiana Jones movie:
Cate Blanchett talks about being a baddie:
Everyone involved seems to agree that this last question represents the real high-point of the event, insofar as we succeeded in taking a question from a Seesmic user via Twitter during the course of the event and putting it to a film-maker - much harder than you'd think when you consider that we only had ten minutes with each of them.
This has already been picked up by a number of pretty high profile blogs, the pick of which I'll post here (if you find anything that I've missed pls post it in a comment):
I'll post more fully on this at some point, and hopefully address some of the considerable amount of misinformation kicking around about this event (not least the suggestion that it was initiated by Seesmic themselves, or that money changed hands between Seesmic and Paramount), and why it played out the way it did.
In the mean time I have to thank Dom, Gia, Saf and Mike for each having crucial input into the planning and execution of this; Vinvin at Seesmic for fighting our corner at his end on this and other projects; and Heath at Paramount Pictures International for giving it the green light in the first place.
(updated 19/06/08 - I realise this isn't the bloody Oscars, but it would be remiss of me not to add in a little big up to John, who met us at the eleventh hour in the foyer of the Carleton, and was bloody marvellous, and found us a great little bar, and fed us beer, and told us exactly how we should do things, and was completely right.)
Finally, a little excerpt from the preparations on the morning of the event, courtesy of Mike:
We've been preparing for the arrival of WALL:E for a while, and I know Pixar are second to none in terms of bringing non-human characters to life, but I still wasn't ready for this:
If seen a little bit of WALL:E so far and he looks like a lot of fun - I can't wait to see the little guy working the red carpet.
For anybody wondering what to expect from WATCHMEN (recently wrapped by Zack Snyder and co. and due out on March 6 2009) here's a glimpse of where it begins; with the unfathomable mind of writer Alan Moore; with the classic style of illustrator Dave Gibbons; and with the initial unravelling of a mystery pursued to it's epochal conclusion by the disturbed and poetic vigilante Rorschach:
I'm about a week late with these, but hell, I can't be everywhere at once.
I love the way the fire brings a warmth to this piece of artwork, writing destruction upon Gotham in Batman's own motif, supplemented by a pleasingly unostentatious copy line. There's a real ambiguity here - the bat-sign feels like an open wound in a city where true heroism sometimes requires you to amputate a limb in order to preserve the body. ___
Batman almost looks as though he is on horseback here, reminiscent of the original American vigilantes, bringing rough justice to a wild, lawless and amoral west. This one-sheet is also scarred with a little heat and warmth, emphasising it's otherwise gothic feel. ___
Here they are - the triumvirate of moral misdirection. I love the way we're seeing them like this, shoulder to shoulder, each with something to hide. Each character has been so strongly developed through the campaign, I'm already seeing past the players who portray them, and into the world they inhabit. ___
This echoes one of the earlier teasers in terms of how it situates Batman. It's a strange, bold piece of artwork, seeming to capture a moment in isolation, putting Batman at odds with Gotham itself. _ _ _
Disclosure: there are a lot of big movies coming out this summer, and I'm lucky enough to be working on most of them, including this one. However, as I've said before, if anybody thinks I'm blogging this for any other reason than because I'm childishly excited about The Dark Knight, they should come say it to my face. Between The Dark Knight and Watchmen, now is the time for the genre of comics in film to mature in the same way the printed equivalents did back in the early eighties. That's what I'm gunning for. And it has fuck all to do with marketing.
I first heard that Lego were creating a virtual world of their own - Lego Universe - about six months ago, and I knew then that it had MASSIVE potential.
Now I see this concept art on the blog of friend and collaborator Annie Ok, originating from an article on Reuters announcing that Lego Universe will be launching next year, letting players 'create online versions of themselves and interact with each other'.
I often cite Lego as the point of origin for my career as a web develop and interactive marketer. Even as a child I had an innate appreciation of its integral fusion of aesthetics and narrative, and the freedom this gave me to unleash my imagination in colourful and compelling ways. Truth be told, my inner child is pretty damn excited about Lego Universe, and can't wait to introduce my actual kids to what I hope will be a world of consumate creativity and user-generated story-telling.
In spite of a contentious choice of soundtrack (Apply Some Pressure from Mark Ronson's excellent VERSION) and some less than crisp slow-mo (paying homage to one of my favourite directors, Wes Anderson) this is definitely one of my favourite adventures with the DV Cam. It was seriously fun to make, I learnt a few new tricks in the process, and it sent Lola to bed tonight with a big smile on her face. Enjoy!
