Will George do an all CG film?

If you've read or seen any or all of George's bios, then you understand that he definitely enjoyed the benefits of animation over live action.

The freedom it gives the artist is what he typically cited as the greatest advantage. With George's use of CG, it seems to me that he definitely prefers working in the digital arena.

Does this indicate that some of George's projects following SW and Indy 4 will be CG movies (like Shrek and Toy Story 2)?

What kind of CG film do you think George would do? Would he resurrect ILM's Frankenstein project? Or would he try his hand at fantasy or detective story?

I personally think George would try a CG detective story. It would be cool.

 

First of all from the GL bios and interviews I get a different perspective. He is only interested in using FX to do things that cannot be done in live action or not very well, or correct things in live action. Lucas has no interest in making animated films. He is one of the persons that says that computers won't replace actors, he prefers live actors and action. He likes the digital arena because of the flexibility and power it gives him.

Dont confuse a CG animated film with CG FX. The people from Pixar consider their films not to be 70 min FX extravaganzas. Two separrate if very related specialties.

On the other hand people inside ILM would love to do an animated film (look at some of their short films) and it seems that they will get theor chance real soon.

 

Wasn't there news that ILM created an animation division (like Pixar)? Maybe Lucas won't personally direct their films but it'll be under his purview.

 

Well it's sort of old news. ILM was set to do a CG Frankenstein movie for Universal that at the last moment got cancelled. The division is called Digital Productions and has done shorts, one of them called Work in Progress which you can see at the official ILM website. ILM has done or sponsored other shorts like Synchronicity and The Moving Pyramid. But since they weren't able to get a project the division was almost gone. A few weeks ago ILM went to LA to recruit for these division, and now the news is that they will finally be able to do an animated film. It won't be under Lucas' purview any more as the many other FX films ILM handles being under Lucas' power. He is the owner but he will probably have little direct influence or power over any animated film done at ILM.

 

Vonn...do you mean personal involvement by GL. Would an ILM project produced by GL count?

 

Well the only way would be for Lucas to make an animated movie. But ILM's Digital Productions is set to do animated movies for clients. Conceivably ILM could be one of the producin companies. Jim Morris could be a producer, though the director, probably Tom Bertino, would need a producer at ILM. Then of course there is the producer for the studio or client,say someone like Brian Grazer.

Anyway we'll see soon enough.

 

He already did: TPM.




You mean those were live actors?!

 

In case you guys didn't know, Pixar was a Lucas company back in the day. Then he got divorced and his ex wanted a lot of money, so he sold it...

 

Actuaklly that's not tru even though the divorce took place more or less when Pixar was spun off. Ed Catmull, who was in charge of the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group, was always interested in making an animated film. Lucas was more interested in using computer for regular live action filmaking, mainly VFX but also other efforts, which had already come to fruition on things like the EditDroid and AudioDroid.

As a side note, also around that time they wanted to get out of the hardware business. Lucasfilm spun off EditDroid and made a litle business out of it. They were also building computers for CG work, the Pixar Image Computer. But as companies started to provide (commodity) products that could be used instead of custom built systems, he divested of all those businesses. In the end the EditDroid technology was sold to Avid, and graphic workstations (SGI) became useful enough so the Pixar became redundant.

He agreed in the end to let Catmull look for a buyer, which he found in Steve Jobs. The sale was finalized in 1986 and most of the CG Division left for Pixar. As far as I understand part of the deal compromised that ILM would get first access to any technology developed by Pixar. Mainly what became RenderMan. Catmull in the end also helped hire new people to the CG group, which got transferred to ILM, so that they could rebuild it into one fiocused on VFX. George Joblove was one of them. And the rest as they say is history.

The sale was 5 million if I remember right, while his divorce cost something like 100 million. Hardly anything to offset it. Intyerestingly enough in the end there might be something similar going on now. From what I heard Marcia Lucas owns quite a bit of land in San Rafael, where ILM is, and seems the prioce is a bit high. One of the rumors is that the Presidio plans are partly because of the money it would be saved in rent, though even if that wasn't the case they still need to move out. They have basicly outgrown their current place.

 

If he does, I imagine it will be similar to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

 

an all CG film? what, did you not get enough in AOTC?