Film no.2 - The Unnamed Moon Project may not have a name yet but, thanks to Doug Liman frequently confiding in the Ninjas, we're in the privileged position of watching a movie take shape. In order to get funding, Doug has to give the studios a realistic estimate of its budget, not least because he has been known to go over. Doug admits this with disarming honesty and it's clearly something he wants to avoid with Moon even though, to be fair, the films Doug mentions have all been big successes. The difficulty with Moon is, appropriately, the Moon.
A film like this would fall at the first hurdle if the moon looked like a lump of gouda. Much as I cherish the Clangers, I don't want to see Spandexed Spaceman Jake having a heated argument with an Iron Chicken or taking some time out from colonisation to make soup with a dragon or constructing dens out of saucepan lids. For the benefit of those outside the UK who did not grow up with the Clangers, I've done some research:
Therefore, Doug Liman has been pricing each special effect and it's very exciting to be privy to the process. 'We’re actively doing what’s called the “Effects Breakdown” for my untitled Moon film in order to budget the movie, given how effects-intensive it is. Kevin Elam and I go through the script and come up with every single effects shot we anticipate might be in the film. Obviously, it’s a guess right now because we’re so far out from shooting the film, but you read a line in the script and you think: How many shots am I going to need to make that idea work onscreen? Then you come up with this list of probably 1,200 shots. That list then goes to someplace like ILM (the mother of effects houses) and they bid, and that probably takes a couple of weeks. This is one page of the list that we put together. We’ve blacked out the numbers, but it’ll give you an idea of what we’re working on: Visual Effects Breakdown.'
'As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, I don’t think anyone’s ever done the Moon to the level of realism that I’m going for, so all of this bidding is really so that the studio and I can agree on a budget number for the movie. We almost certainly will not spend the money in precisely the way we’re currently talking about it, since we need a certain amount of creative exploration to figure out how we’re going to get what we want. But to even have a conversation as to how much this movie might cost, we need a starting place.' You can read more with the Ninjas.
And finally, film no. 3 - Prince of Persia the movie is being accompanied by a bonanza of goodies, including a new graphic novel based on the film. One of the artists, Cameron Stewart, has today released a snippet. Again, as with Love and Other Drugs and Moon, we are being allowed to see the process. It's a good feeling.
Pictures, with thanks, from links.
