A killer spider terrorises a New York apartment building in a tonally messy horror with some great creature effects. Our review of Sting:
Odd name for a killer spider movie, Sting. For that we can thank Tolkien-loving 12 year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) who chooses it as the nickname for the arachnid she finds scuttling around her dimly-lit New York apartment building. Sweeping the critter into a jar and intent on keeping it as a pet, Charlotte is blissfully unaware that Sting is capable of escaping from its glass prison and, as it dines on other living things roaming around the building, will soon grow to a frightening size.
Written and directed by Australian filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, Sting is an eclectic mash-up of styles and influences. Its snowbound apartment setting, every floor filled with eccentrics, immediately recalls Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s Delicatessen. Roache-Turner seems to relish in the little...
Odd name for a killer spider movie, Sting. For that we can thank Tolkien-loving 12 year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) who chooses it as the nickname for the arachnid she finds scuttling around her dimly-lit New York apartment building. Sweeping the critter into a jar and intent on keeping it as a pet, Charlotte is blissfully unaware that Sting is capable of escaping from its glass prison and, as it dines on other living things roaming around the building, will soon grow to a frightening size.
Written and directed by Australian filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, Sting is an eclectic mash-up of styles and influences. Its snowbound apartment setting, every floor filled with eccentrics, immediately recalls Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s Delicatessen. Roache-Turner seems to relish in the little...
- 5/30/2024
- by Ryan Lambie
- Film Stories
When James Cameron set out to adapt Yukito Kishiro's acclaimed cyberpunk manga "Gunnm," also known as "Battle Angel Alita," he made the decision to shelve the project for 20-something years until technology caught up to his requirements for the film's world-building. This is a quintessentially James Cameron thing to do, given that he is the kind of director who knows how to be patient enough until he has the best tools to translate his ambitious artistic visions into reality. By the time Cameron had access to the right kind of technology for the long-gestating "Alita: Battle Angel," he found himself preoccupied with "Avatar," a project that demanded meticulous dedication (and ended up altering the trajectory of performance capture technology in filmmaking forever). As a result, Cameron handed over the reins to long-time friend Robert Rodriguez, while still being involved with the adaptation as a producer and supervising its creative direction.
- 2/26/2023
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
“Avatar: The Way of Water” is a sequel, but the VFX team had a mandate far beyond supplying “more of the same.” The follow-up to the 2009 original “Avatar” had many new demands — and these jaw-dropping innovations have helped make the film one of the top box-office films of all time.
Joe Letteri, heading up his team at Weta FX, tells Variety, “We were working on this film since the last one finished, identifying what we could do better. Then there was a big burst of research-and-development” about six years ago, when writer-director James Cameron delivered the scripts for this and three more sequels; that’s when they realized the full scope of the film, which takes place in water about 60% of the time.
For the first “Avatar,” they had developed a tool kit to simulate water.
“But we knew it wasn’t going to be good enough,” says Letteri. “In facial closeups,...
Joe Letteri, heading up his team at Weta FX, tells Variety, “We were working on this film since the last one finished, identifying what we could do better. Then there was a big burst of research-and-development” about six years ago, when writer-director James Cameron delivered the scripts for this and three more sequels; that’s when they realized the full scope of the film, which takes place in water about 60% of the time.
For the first “Avatar,” they had developed a tool kit to simulate water.
“But we knew it wasn’t going to be good enough,” says Letteri. “In facial closeups,...
- 2/26/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
"Alita: Battle Angel" may not be everyone's preferred cup of tea, but there is a reason why the hashtag #AlitaArmy exists and is still thriving on Twitter long after the film's release in 2019. Based on the manga "Battle Angel Alita," the film follows Alita (Rosa Salazar), a reborn cyborg with a mysterious origin who has to adapt to an unfamiliar and exceedingly cruel world. The critical consensus on the film was not overwhelmingly positive, but everyone can pretty much agree on one thing — the visual effects in "Battle Angel" were fantastic, if not revolutionary. And the best part? It was not all digital, either.
Not unlike what the modern "Plant of the Apes" trilogy pulled off, "Alita: Battle Angel" combined practical effects with motion-captured, digital characters. Although Alita herself was completely CGI, many of the surrounding characters were not. In fact, several key sequences in the film took place in real-life sets,...
Not unlike what the modern "Plant of the Apes" trilogy pulled off, "Alita: Battle Angel" combined practical effects with motion-captured, digital characters. Although Alita herself was completely CGI, many of the surrounding characters were not. In fact, several key sequences in the film took place in real-life sets,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Marcos Melendez
- Slash Film
It's that time of year again for Fangoria's anticipated Chainsaw Award nominations for horror movies and terrifying television, and we have a look at the full list of nominations, including Ti West's Pearl, Jordan Peele's Nope (leading with 10 nominations), and the second season of Don Mancini's Chucky TV series:
Press Release: Fangoria and Fangoria Studios have released their 2023 Chainsaw Award nominations, which recognizes outstanding achievements in horror film and television. Since 1992, the Chainsaw Awards have honored top achievements in the horror genre, with past recipients including Wes Craven, George A. Romero, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Hopkins, and Elisabeth Moss.
“Nope,” written and directed by Jordan Peele, leads the pack with ten nominations including Best Wide Release Movie and Best Director. Other nominees include “Barbarian,” “Pearl,” “Hellraiser,” “Chucky” and “Yellowjackets.” Fangoria has also introduced two new categories this year: Best Short and Best Cinematography.
Editor-in-chief of Fangoria Phil Nobile Jr. states,...
Press Release: Fangoria and Fangoria Studios have released their 2023 Chainsaw Award nominations, which recognizes outstanding achievements in horror film and television. Since 1992, the Chainsaw Awards have honored top achievements in the horror genre, with past recipients including Wes Craven, George A. Romero, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Hopkins, and Elisabeth Moss.
“Nope,” written and directed by Jordan Peele, leads the pack with ten nominations including Best Wide Release Movie and Best Director. Other nominees include “Barbarian,” “Pearl,” “Hellraiser,” “Chucky” and “Yellowjackets.” Fangoria has also introduced two new categories this year: Best Short and Best Cinematography.
Editor-in-chief of Fangoria Phil Nobile Jr. states,...
- 1/27/2023
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
On Friday, Fangoria and Fangoria Studios released their 2023 Chainsaw Award nominations, which recognize outstanding achievements in horror film and television. First established in 1992, the Chainsaw Awards honor works and artists in a genre frequently overlooked by traditional organizations and critics groups. Past recipients include Wes Craven, George A. Romero, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Hopkins and Elisabeth Moss.
“Nope,” Jordan Peele’s follow-up to “Us,” received the most nominations of any film in Chainsaw Award contention, with 10 nominations including best wide release movie and best director. Other nominees include “Barbarian,” “Pearl,” “Hellraiser,” “Chucky” and “Yellowjackets.” Fangoria also introduced two new categories this year: Best Short and Best Cinematography.
Founded in 1979, Fangoria has become one of the most influential horror brands in the genre, living up to its moniker as “First in Fright.” At one time the only place on newsstands where fans could read about the world of contemporary horror, Fangoria...
“Nope,” Jordan Peele’s follow-up to “Us,” received the most nominations of any film in Chainsaw Award contention, with 10 nominations including best wide release movie and best director. Other nominees include “Barbarian,” “Pearl,” “Hellraiser,” “Chucky” and “Yellowjackets.” Fangoria also introduced two new categories this year: Best Short and Best Cinematography.
Founded in 1979, Fangoria has become one of the most influential horror brands in the genre, living up to its moniker as “First in Fright.” At one time the only place on newsstands where fans could read about the world of contemporary horror, Fangoria...
- 1/27/2023
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
After changing the visual effects and performance capture game with “Avatar” (2009), James Cameron held a summit with his team 13 years ago to discuss how they could make the sequels even better.
“The biggest part of it was since we didn’t really know was the story was, was more about the process,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” senior visual effects supervisor and Weta director Joe Letteri tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Visual Effects panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). “So the early discussion was highly technical. It was about building out that pipeline. Later on, once we knew what the story was, the discussions became more about, are we gonna achieve the specific effects that we need — water obviously being a big one — but characters? A lot more characters with speaking parts in this film, a lot more varieties of characters — old, new, young, different species.
“The biggest part of it was since we didn’t really know was the story was, was more about the process,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” senior visual effects supervisor and Weta director Joe Letteri tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Visual Effects panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). “So the early discussion was highly technical. It was about building out that pipeline. Later on, once we knew what the story was, the discussions became more about, are we gonna achieve the specific effects that we need — water obviously being a big one — but characters? A lot more characters with speaking parts in this film, a lot more varieties of characters — old, new, young, different species.
- 1/11/2023
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture: Mashup of the Day: Mission: Impossible's Ethan Hunt finds another enemy in the U.S. government when he's interrogated by 24's Jack Bauer: Poster Parody of the Day: This mashup of The Nun and the Sister Act movies is so perfect that it could easily fool movie theater patrons: pic.twitter.com/raoM65f7bs — Joseph Carnegie (@JoeCarnegie) August 27, 2018 VFX Breakdown of the Day: Here's another look at the visual effects work done for Avengers: Infinity War by Ilm, Weta and other studios: Cosplay of the Day: This isn't exactly a pic of cosplay so much as a Thor cosplay prop, but it's also a good excuse to remind everyone...
- 8/29/2018
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
"I've been looking for you for a long time." Universal has debuted the full-length official trailer for the sci-fi adaptation Mortal Engines, based on a popular book series. This adaptation has been in the works for years, in development by Peter Jackson and the Lotr/Hobbit team. Jackson is not directing, instead he's letting a VFX supervisor from Weta make his directorial debut. The fantastically eccentric ensemble cast includes Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang. While they're still not done yet, this does have some amazing VFX from Weta. The plot in this, which reminds me a bit of Dune at first glance, is about huge cities that move around and battle against each other. I have to say - I'm very impressed, this looks awesome, with a huge scope and scale that seems like it might be exciting to get into this world.
- 6/5/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Now that the, ahem, dust is beginning to settle from Avengers: Infinity War, it’s fair to say that Marvel’s historic crossover ended on a rather glum note.
Having successfully obtained all six Infinity Stones, Thanos was able to carry out the universal genocide he had been blabbering on about the entire movie. And so, with one snap of his giant, purple fingers, the Mad Titan eviscerated half of all life in the cosmos, leaving only a skeleton crew of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes left for Avengers 4.
Among those to fall at the hands of Thanos was Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, paving the way for one of Infinity War‘s most gut-wrenching scenes. But it seems the Web-Head was able to resist that snap of doom for a little bit longer than his superpowered allies, as Matt Aitken, VFX supervisor at Weta Digital, tells Screen Rant.
“Spidey’s really fighting it.
Having successfully obtained all six Infinity Stones, Thanos was able to carry out the universal genocide he had been blabbering on about the entire movie. And so, with one snap of his giant, purple fingers, the Mad Titan eviscerated half of all life in the cosmos, leaving only a skeleton crew of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes left for Avengers 4.
Among those to fall at the hands of Thanos was Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, paving the way for one of Infinity War‘s most gut-wrenching scenes. But it seems the Web-Head was able to resist that snap of doom for a little bit longer than his superpowered allies, as Matt Aitken, VFX supervisor at Weta Digital, tells Screen Rant.
“Spidey’s really fighting it.
- 5/8/2018
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Marvel has never seen a VFX game-changer like Thanos. The star of “Infinity War” and the center of its record-breaking, $1 billion success, he’s performed with great intensity and inner turmoil by Josh Brolin — and brilliantly animated by Digital Domain and Weta Digital. Thanks to Thanos, “Infinity War” now becomes a serious VFX Oscar contender.
“I think Thanos is a marvel,” said Joe Russo, who co-directed with brother Anthony. “It really reflects every level of nuance in Josh Brolin’s performance. You’re watching Josh as a giant, purple alien, and you’re seeing all of his movement, all of his facial expressions, on the most subtle level. I don’t know that we’ve seen that level of photo-real performance capture before. Maybe in the ‘Apes’ films, but this is really groundbreaking.”
It was critical for Thanos to be completely human and relatable as a CG humanoid to carry the movie.
“I think Thanos is a marvel,” said Joe Russo, who co-directed with brother Anthony. “It really reflects every level of nuance in Josh Brolin’s performance. You’re watching Josh as a giant, purple alien, and you’re seeing all of his movement, all of his facial expressions, on the most subtle level. I don’t know that we’ve seen that level of photo-real performance capture before. Maybe in the ‘Apes’ films, but this is really groundbreaking.”
It was critical for Thanos to be completely human and relatable as a CG humanoid to carry the movie.
- 5/7/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
The biggest craft stories of the 90th Academy Awards: Cinematographer Roger Deakins finally winning the Oscar (after 14 nominations) for “Blade Runner 2049,” and the Denis Villeneuve-directed “Blade Runner” sequel upsetting “War for the Planet of the Apes” for VFX.
Deakins, the greatest cinematographer of his generation, was honored at long last for his naturalistic brilliance, making the “Blade Runner” universe adapt to his aesthetic, and putting his unmistakable imprint on every visual aspect, including VFX. And “Blade Runner 2049” honored the legacy of Ridley Scott’s iconic original by limiting green screen, keeping sets close to camera, and making it look photographic. Yet the sequel also offered a major step in digital human animation with the recreation of Sean Young’s Rachael replicant.
However, with a third consecutive VFX loss for “Apes,” the Academy once again denied Weta Digital the Oscar for its remarkable Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Bad...
Deakins, the greatest cinematographer of his generation, was honored at long last for his naturalistic brilliance, making the “Blade Runner” universe adapt to his aesthetic, and putting his unmistakable imprint on every visual aspect, including VFX. And “Blade Runner 2049” honored the legacy of Ridley Scott’s iconic original by limiting green screen, keeping sets close to camera, and making it look photographic. Yet the sequel also offered a major step in digital human animation with the recreation of Sean Young’s Rachael replicant.
However, with a third consecutive VFX loss for “Apes,” the Academy once again denied Weta Digital the Oscar for its remarkable Caesar (Andy Serkis) and Bad...
- 3/5/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
The time has come for the Academy to finally give the VFX Oscar to “War for the Planet of the Apes.” Twice denied for “Rise” and “Dawn,” Weta Digital’s remarkable work on Caesar (Andy Serkis) culminated with a Shakespearean finale. It’s undeniably the best of the field. And coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the original “Planet of the Apes” would make it even sweeter. The Visual Effects Society obviously got the importance of the work, honoring the entire Caesar trilogy, now we’ll see if the Academy makes amends with “War.”
However, “Apes” has been denied before (with the acting branch, in particular, having a bias against Serkis and performance capture) and there is other noteworthy character animation to choose from, including the stunning CG Rachael from “Blade Runner 2049,” the creepy Snoke (Serkis) from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ego and the de-aged Kurt Russell from...
However, “Apes” has been denied before (with the acting branch, in particular, having a bias against Serkis and performance capture) and there is other noteworthy character animation to choose from, including the stunning CG Rachael from “Blade Runner 2049,” the creepy Snoke (Serkis) from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ego and the de-aged Kurt Russell from...
- 2/15/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
“War for the Planet of the Apes” from Weta Digital could well be on its way to the elusive VFX Oscar after winning four Ves trophies Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton (including the top feature prize). Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” won for supporting VFX, Pixar’s “Coco” earned four awards (including VFX for animation), and “Game of Thrones” took home five awards (including VFX for TV).
The “Apes” finale, directed by Matt Reeves, benefited from a Shakespearean performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar, with Weta working its wizardry in much harsher conditions for the performance-captured animation. Not surprisingly, “Apes” additionally won for Caesar, the effects simulations for the thrilling avalanche, and compositing. However, although both “Rise” and “Dawn” captured Ves prizes, neither won the Oscar, so “War” is not a certainty in its race with “Blade Runner 2049.”
Speaking of which, Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner” sequel won two...
The “Apes” finale, directed by Matt Reeves, benefited from a Shakespearean performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar, with Weta working its wizardry in much harsher conditions for the performance-captured animation. Not surprisingly, “Apes” additionally won for Caesar, the effects simulations for the thrilling avalanche, and compositing. However, although both “Rise” and “Dawn” captured Ves prizes, neither won the Oscar, so “War” is not a certainty in its race with “Blade Runner 2049.”
Speaking of which, Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner” sequel won two...
- 2/14/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
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