LucasFilm Animation launched

Thanks to mixnmojo.com for the heads-up.

On today's IMDB dews, this appeared at the end of a Finding Nemo / Pixar article;

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[i] Meanwhile, George Lucas, who sold Pixar to Jobs in 1986 for $10 million, has launched Lucasfilm Animation to develop and create its own films. Spokeswoman Lynn Hale told today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times: "It's extremely exciting to have the opportunity to start the search for directors to build projects around." [/i][hr][/blockquote]

Interesting...

LucasFilm registered the domain name "lucasanimation.com" on March 3, 2003. No website though as yet. Not even a redirect to lucasfilm.com

 

It's official! Very

Here's the link:

Lucas starts Animation Division

This is great because the unit will have production autonomy from ILM so they will have thier own schedule, yet ILMers will be able to move from ILM to Lucas Anima and vice-versa.

Great news. Nice catch jp-30.

 

This can only be good news. I'm excited to see what they can come up with.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Reuters has divulged more info (cut-and-paste);

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=599&ncid=802&e=1&u=/nm/20030512/media_nm/leisure_lucas_dc

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[i][b]Director Lucas Forms Digital Animation Unit[/b]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following the path of Pixar Animation Studios, Dreamworks and other filmmakers, "Stars Wars" creator George Lucas (news) is forming a new group to make computer-animated films, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

The unit, called Lucasfilm Animation, is an offshoot of his special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, that has been a pioneer in the field of digital effects and works on Lucas' own "Star Wars" films.

Lynn Hale, spokeswoman for his San Rafael, California-based Lucasfilm Ltd., said the new unit was "still in its beginning stages" and did not even have a project to talk about.

As a result, details were limited. Hale confirmed that Lucasfilm Animation will be formed from a nine-person team housed with Industrial Light & Magic. The new division will be headed by senior vice president Patty Blau.

Lucas is a vocal proponent of using digitally produced and computerized special effects in the movies. His companies have been active in designing new cameras for shooting digital films, and his most recent "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" was shot in the digital format.
[/i][hr][/blockquote]

Hit the link above for the rest of the info.

And the LA Times linkk [b]ShaneP[/b] provided above gives a little more info, including;

[blockquote][hr][i]After years of fits and starts, George Lucas has quietly launched a new unit ? Lucasfilm Animation ? to help crack the lucrative digital animation business.

The "Star Wars" visionary has been frustrated by the collapse of studio-controlled animated projects that were to be produced by his organization. The new operation gives him the freedom to generate his own full-length computer-generated cartoons.

It also provides a separate identity and more autonomy to a digital animation group that had been part of Lucas' special effects powerhouse, Industrial Light & Magic.

"Lucasfilm Animation will now have the flexibility to develop and create its own films," said Lucas' longtime spokeswoman Lynn Hale, who confirmed the company's formation. "It's extremely exciting to have the opportunity to start the search for directors to build projects around."

Hale cautioned that the animation unit is still in its infancy and doesn't yet have its first project lined up. Currently, the staff includes what was ILM's nine-person animation development team, headed by Senior Vice President Patty Blau. But the creative ranks will grow, drawing talent from ILM's pool of 1,200 effects wizards and from the animation community at large, Hale said.

The unit will no longer be constrained by scheduling demands at ILM, which creates digital effects for many of Hollywood's biggest productions, including the upcoming releases "The Hulk," "Peter Pan" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."[/i][hr][/blockquote]

 

I can't wait to see what they come up with.

 

I'd love to see some quality movies set in the Star Wars universe.

I think they'd perform well and expand the universe.

Any thoughts on what they could do? Here's some of the obvious ones I could think of:

-Jedis
-Bounty Hunters
-Droids

 

I know I'm just stealing netpadawan's suggestion but...

The Monkey Island Animated Series would make my day.

 

I wonder if any of this new animation will make its way to the new GBA-TV system that Nintendo revealed today at e3.

 

I'm surprised StarWars.com hasn't said anything about this. Maybe they're saving it for a slow news day. It ain't exactly SW-related, but still...


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Well as for myself, I don't want to see Star Wars animated movies. I want them to explore new posibilties, tackle different stories like Pixar, PDI/Dreamworks and others are doing.

As for what is possible, ILM has produced many short animated films, many were just personal employee projects, but others became shorts where lots of people worked on them, kinda like the early Pixar shorts. There was the ILMajan Project sketch at SIGGRAPH 96, Synchronicity by Hans Uhig at SIGGRAPH 2000, and Work in Progress, by Tom Bertino, and The Moving Pyramid, by Wolf-Rudiger Bloss at SIGGRAPH 2001 (yramid actually premiered a few months before. Here is a taste of some:

Work in Progress (Tom Bertino)
How to Make Hollywood Cheese (Jenn Emberly)
Work in Progress (at the Internet Archive)
The Moving Pyramid (Wolf-Rudiger Bloss)


Plus of course the ill fated Frankenstein (you can see a clip at AICN).

 

(Ooops, duplicate, the script was timing out, move along!!!)

 

I seriously doubt he'd produce any STAR WARS feature films in animation. I think he'd want to do fresh stuff.

Animation is a completely different animal than normal feature making...Jeffrey Katzenberg says production can often last 4 to 5 years. That's PRODUCTION, not development and so forth. So you really have to plan long range. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

I think animation appeals to Lucas's sense of control. He's always enjoyed special effects and editing, the parts of film where you don't have to deal as much with performers, and animation is kinda like that.
(Mind you, I think he's grown to enjoy working with actors much more than he used to, and I think he's done some great work with actors from time to time.)

 

Well I don't follow. Lucas would have barely if any involvement in the animated projects unless he specifically writes/produces one. Much like he doesn't have direct control over what VFX projects ILM tackles or how are they handled, except his own films.

Katzenberg might approve projects and give a general direction, (Jobs even less) but they are not involved in the nitty gritty of the animation of story details. This studios hire writers and directors just like regular features.

 

Malducin,

We're actually in agreement...
That's EXACTLY what I was referring to, projects where Lucas produces and in some way generates/writes the basic idea for the project. Lucas isn't gonna create an animation division and not be a major (excuse the expression) force behind it. Lucas has been interested in animation since film school. I think he'll run it the way Lucasfilm has been run most of it's history,
which is that he'll do stuff from his own ideas in the way he's done American Graffiti, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow.

Heck, the direction he gives in a STAR WARS film to Rob Bowman for characters like Jar Jar and Yoda are similar to being a producer or director on an animated feature.

I think you're underestimating Katzenberg's involvement. He's passionately involved, even though not as an artist per se. I've known Katzenberg briefly and interviewed him several times, and he LOVES getting as involved in animation as possible. You're right though about Steve Jobs...he's mainly a money man.

Anyway, what direction and how much Lucas will be involved in the projects is something we'll know as time goes by.

By the way, props for your website! It is awesome!!!

 

The thing is that most projects on't be produced or direceted by Lucas, so no involvement there. Sure if he makes something he will be very hands on, though.

 

Thanks to the tipoff by wstraka5 in this Clone Wars Cartoon thread in the Small Screen Star Wars forum!

Taken from the front page at animationblast.com

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[b]ANIMATION BLAST REALLY HUGE RUMOR OF THE DAY! --- Genndy Leaves Cartoon Network For Lucasfilm?[/b]

This could be big news. I've yet to confirm this story, and there is a chance it could be completely UNTRUE, but a reliable source informs me that SAMURAI JACK and DEXTER'S LAB creator Genndy Tartakovsky is leaving (has left?) Cartoon Network and is joining the new division of Lucasfilm specializing in animated features called Lucasfilm Animation. Genndy, of course, is also the director/producer of Cartoon Network's highly touted forthcoming STAR WARS: CLONE WARS mini-series (produced at Cartoon Network Studios and not Lucasfilm). Once again, I must stress that this is UNconfirmed and only hearsay at this moment, but if anybody can validate or refute this claim, drop me a line at amid&animationblast.com (replace & with @).
[hr][/blockquote]

Interesting!

 

If true this would suggest that Lucas is interested in doing hand drawn animation as well as computer animation.

 

Not necessarily. Great 2D artists might be able to go to 3D easily and ceratinly in his position he would more supervise the 3D as someone with a unique vision.

Some others are doing the jump like Glenn Keane of Disney (now doing the Rapunzel movie in 3D, but he is probably the top 2D artists there), and of course Brad Bird, who did the incredible Iron Giant, is now directing The Incredibles at Pixar.