What exactly is going on with the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit? The world seems to be holding its breath in anticipation, including us, but as the calendar turned to November, we turned to a trusted rock-solid inside source and found a dragon’s treasure of updates. Read the rest of this entry »

Message board member Elven was lucky enough to attend the KEA dinner in Sydney this week and sends in this great report:

“If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, unless its an Oscar, it would be a much merrier world.”
-Prof Tolkien.

I have just returned home from a wonderful night at the Danks Street Depot Cafe in Sydney after listening to KEA’s special guest speaker ‘Richard Taylor’ talk and inspire an audience. People hung onto to his every word and laughed heartily at his stories – we enjoyed it so much we almost forgot about dessert. The food was glorious – the menu designed by NZ chef Jared Ingersol, and there was plenty of wonderful NZ wines available for the tasting.

Richard spoke for a good hour on his career and the movies WETA had been involved with much passion, and gave reference and credit to those people who had helped him along the way. His presentation was punctuated with some very funny anecdotes about Oscar Couture, Meet The Feebles and Taxi Drivers – but his story held a special message regarding success and talent and doing what you do, no matter what that might be, to the best of your ability – turning your life into an art.
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Wellington’s Weta Digital computer graphics workshop is launching a working group aimed at bringing advanced research together with movie production. The new group, Transfx, is headed by Sebastian Sylwan, who has joined Weta as head of research and development, Variety Magazine reported today.

Sylwan was most recently senior industry manager for film and television at United States software developer Autodesk, where he led work on stereoscopic 3-D. Weta is already working on an innovative 3-D movie, James Cameron’s Avatar, as well as Steven Spielberg’s Tintin. Transfx will be partly funded by the Government but mostly by Weta, Sylwan said. More..

Say whatever you wish about James Cameron or his movies (”Terminator 2,” “Aliens,” “Titanic” “The Abyss”) but he doesn’t play things safe. He showcased some 3-D footage of the upcoming “Avatar” (December 18) at this summer’s Comic-Con and then in one of the convention’s all-time highlights, took the stage with Peter Jackson to talk about technology, film and the future. Our friends at Weta have been heavily involved and will share some credit or blame for the success or failure of his latest, risky $230 million film. Dana Goodyear at The New Yorker has an excellent profile of the film director with a dose of Weta thrown in. Read it here

Ataahua sends along this article from a New Zealand paper: Oscar-winning director James Cameron is so taken with Wellington’s film industry that “it is the one place in the world” where he wanted to make his next movie. More..

The much hyped and highly anticipated reveal of James Cameron’s AVATAR trailer has just hit the web. Spielberg predicts it will be the biggest 3-D live-action film ever. The cost for this single film is said to overshoot the entire budget for the LOTR Trilogy. Check it out, and tell us what you think about it in our forum! BTW – you may be wondering…how is this fodder for TORn? Well, WETA was involved with the production! [AVATAR Trailer] [React]

The folks from WETA write: District 9 lead Designer Greg Broadmore talks about the phenomenally successful movie. Tim Launder re-caps about Comic Con and Weta’s new product ranges. And Daniel and Magnus geek out over a variety of things. As usual!
Listen to Episode XII here!

As you probably know, there is a lot of buzz about the upcoming release of ‘District 9,’ a film produced by Peter Jackson with effects from the good folks at WETA Digital. Reviews are hitting the web, and from the looks of things, they are relatively positive. See you in line! [Yahoo!] [GFP] [AICN]

Special effects wizards Weta Digital have scored $5.8 million in Government funding for a research partnership. Science and Technology Minister Wayne Mapp said Weta’s investment would be on a basis of at least two-for-one. “It’s about growing new products and processes for export.” The joint partnership with TechNZ – the business investment programme of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology – is intended to accelerate the growth of New Zealand’s strong creative digital industry. More..

Slave Boy Films was at Comic-Con last week and crept into TheOneRing.net’s presentation on an unofficial look at the pair of Hobbit movies. The TORn presentation was Thursday, only hours before Peter Jackson arrived at city of geeks (120,000 strong) who had assembled at San Diego to drink deeply of all the flavors of popular culture. TheOneRing filled every one of the 400 seats in its assigned room with plenty left standing outside in a line but thanks to Slave Boy, the presentation is now available for anybody and everybody. (Click inside to see the videos!) Read the rest of this entry »