For those out there who are still mystified as to how Santa manages that seemingly superhuman feat of single-handedly delivering presents to every child on earth the night before Christmas, this new Aardman/Sony Pictures co-production offers a feasible explanation.

In a position passed down through generations of Clauses, the close-to-retirement Santa (Jim Broadbent, in a role he was born to voice) has relinquished almost full control to eldest son Steve (Hugh Laurie), a Patton-like figure who runs proceedings like a tight military operation He oversees the hundreds of elves manning control desks and providing support to a huge sledge-shaped aircraft which is filled with their co-workers, who perform incredibly orchestrated present drops to homes all around the world.

In the middle of all this, Santa’s other son Arthur, a caring and well-meaning chap (if a little ineffectual), sits in the shadow of his older brother. He loves Christmastime so much he has a 365-day advent calendar in the study where he spends hour upon hour personally replying to children from around the globe who have written in with present requests and other general festive queries.

An opportunity for Arthur to break away from the frustrating role of Christmas Eve bit player presents itself when an undelivered toy is found after the last successful mission has been completed and the elf crew have returned back to the North Pole. Steve is willing to let this mistake slide (he argues that only one child in the entire world will face disappointment that morning) but Arthur has other plans, and enlists the help of his 137 year-old Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) and a cluster of clapped-out reindeer to ensure the present reaches its destination, no matter what.

After a painfully prolonged and sometimes problematic collaboration with DreamWorks (the forgettable Flushed Away was one of the fruits of their labour), there’s a great deal riding on this co-production with Sony Pictures for Aardman. Fortunately, its good news as Arthur Christmas more than succeeds in marrying the vision of both studios together. It’s a winning combination of that Aardman charm and inventiveness, coupled with a Hollywood awe and spectacle sensibility.

This symbiosis is particularly apparent towards the beginning of the film during the aforementioned action set-piece, which see’s the elves resorting to increasingly ingenious ways to create the illusion of a rustic, traditional Santa home visit. It’s a film which bristles with creativity, and framing the narrative within a real-time setting (the on-screen digital countdown is a fun nod to 24) the pace never wavers. Director Sarah Smith (formerly a collaborator with he likes of Armando Iannucci and The League of Gentlemen crew) brings the skills she’s honed in live-action comedy to her first feature-length film, and character interaction and the staging of many scenes often feel pretty life-like, drawing you further into the action and completely engaging you in the world of these characters.

A handsomely-animated tale, the attention to detail here (from Steve’s Christmas tree-shaped goatee to the hundreds of uniquely-styled elves in mission control) is truly stunning. The cast give it their all too and Nighy, in particular, as the wonderfully salty Santa Sr. (who visually, is reminiscent of a thin, slightly deranged Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses) is fantastic fun, providing much of the film’s adult-tinged humour.

It may hit many of the same emotional beats associated with films from this season (what it means to celebrate that time of year, family togetherness, etc) but the joy of storytelling and dazzling  momentum found in Arthur Christmas  more than eradicates any feelings of the familiar. This is a rousing, cynicism-free festive treat for all ages.

****½ (4.5/5)

Although it represents another seemingly unnecessary spin off, Puss in Boots may yet surprise us by being, well, good. For every Elektra or Catwoman, there’s a Borat out there and let’s hope we’re not being foolishly optimistic in wishing for less of the former and more of the latter.

The material that has been put out there so far gives reasonable cause for hope and now we have a lovely gallery of images and a brief clip that shows us Puss being cat-like and hooking up with Salma Hayek’s slinky Kitty Softpaws.

It will hopefully be to Puss’s eventual advantage that he was always a reasonably strong character within the Shrek franchise and if nothing else, a decent sprinkling of good script-writing should be able to raise this out of mediocrity.

Enjoy the clip and stills below and then let us know in the comments section whether you have high or low hopes for this latest spin-off project.

Source: Collider and ComingSoon.

Roald Dahl has long been a rich vein of source material for cinema. The live-action adaptations of The Witches and Matilda are rightly well-regarded, as are the less conventional stop-motion versions of Fantastic Mr Fox and James and the Giant Peach.

There has already been a cartoon version of the BFG, Dahl’s tale of a Big Friendly Giant who captures and then delivers dreams to people all over the world. His talk of human beans, snoz-cumbers and the like is highly endearing, but the cartoon has aged badly, despite excellent voice work from David Jason.

It is therefore with guarded optimism that the news of a planned live-action adap is welcomed. DreamWorks are to produce the new film, working from a script on which Melissa Mathison is said to be hard at work. Mathison wrote ET and The Indian in the Cupboard, so is far from green and should be able to bring an assured touch to the script.

Needless to say, with the state of the art being what it is in the realm of CGI, a wholly believable BFG (along with the assortment of delightfully named giants he lives amongst – Bloodbottler, Bonecrusher, Maidmasher, Meatdripper) should not cause anyone at ILM, Weta or Digital Domain to break a sweat and if the right director can be found we might just wind up with a version of the film worthy of the impressive source material.

Source: Collider.

Animation, Art, and Technology.

Vancouver, BC – Hey U Guys had a chance to attend SIGGRAPH 2011 (Aug 7 – 11), a computer graphics conference that encompassed a wide array of topics relating to the entertainment, and graphic design industry. A celebration of technology and the digital art community, everything from advances in software, to videogames development, animated film screenings, and more.

Having been previously held in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, and Boston, this is the first time the conference has been hosted north of the border in Vancouver,Canada.

Divided into workshops, production sessions, an exhibition hall and the world renowned Computer Animation Festival, the five-day conference is one of the biggest in the world. One part educational, another part entertaining. Representatives from major studios Disney, Dreamworks, ILM, Digital Domain, Weta, gave panels, and talks to discuss their technology.

 Vancouver Convention Centre

Siggraph networking reception

Cory Doctorow co-editor of Boing Boing, and author, kicked off the conference with a fitting keynote about copyright in the digital age, Digital Rights Management (DRM), and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The entire keynote is available online below.

Pixar’s ‘La Luna’ directed by Enrico Casarosa, was one of the highly anticipated short films screened at Siggraph. The story of a boy on a boating trip with his father, and grandfather unfolds into something humorous and inspiring, with childlike wonder akin to a Miyazaki film. This was also accompanied by a production session in which Casarosa discussed in detail the long production,  which took place over the course of two years.

‘Skinny Steve’ the underfed version of the brawny Steve Rogers, in Captain America: The First Avenger, required special attention, and a variety of effects in post-production to achieve the skinny look in the film. One such method of transformation included filming a skinny actor to match the motions of Chris Evans which would be combined, to achieve a seamless look. Chris Evans’ face would then be manipulated and sculpted into something that would match the Skinny Steve body.

One of the the last panels at Siggraph was a panel on Killzone 3, from the folks at Amsterdam based Guerrilla Games. The art director, and crew talked about the evolution of the game franchise over the past ten years, on the Sony console platform. One of the impressive aspects of the talk, involved the use of Autodesk Maya working directly in the software, and in the game engine at the same time. For artists working in the game industry, this is a big deal offering a streamlined approach to development.

The computer animation festival in its 38^th year, highlights the best in student, indie and industry animation. From music videos, commercials, shorts and feature films, the festival took place daily with a large turnout of viewers in the theater.

Notable films include: Paths of Hate, Le Royaume, Mr. Choco in Love The Experience of Fliehkraft, Flamingo Pride, Sweater Dog.

Tele-present wind by artist David Bowen, University of Minnesota

The Garden of Error and Decay by Michael Bielicky, HFG/ZKM Karlsruhe and Kamila B. Richter, HFG/ZKM Karlsruhe

Recompose: Direct and Gestural Interaction With an Actuated Surface

Overall, Siggraph was a pretty busy and informative conference, with lots of technical learning opportunities and films to see.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2011/
http://www.dneg.com/
http://www.d2.com/
http://www.wetafx.co.nz/
http://www.whiskytree.com/
http://www.ilm.com/
http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/
http://www.guerrilla-games.com/

If anyone can sell us on a big screen version of Robot Wars then it’s Dreamworks and Hugh Jackman.

This new Japanese trailer for Real Steel unleashes a load of plot along with the obligatory CG robot fighting. What this trailer does better than the previous theatrical trailer is lay out the emotional centre of the film, something which is essential if the film is to be seen as anything more than Rocky VII: Heavy Metal.

Shawn Levy is directing this one with Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand standing up alongside Mr Jackman and while it seems like a difficult film to sell this trailer is a good way to start.

Here’s the trailer. Face the screen and click below,

The bleeding cool Bleeding Cool boys get the thank yous for this.

Kung Fu Panda 2 comes out at the end of this week and yesterday HeyUGuys trecked down to Westfield for the UK premiere of the film.

During the course of the afternoon we were treated to a display of Kung Fu, two men dressed up as a dragon, and Jack Black being paraded around on a rickshaw. To say it was all a little bit odd would be something of an understatement.

Fortunately we managed to keep our composure (and mask our confusion) long enough to speak to the film’s producer, Melissa Cobb, the director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and of course Mr Jack Black.

Check out our video from the event below.

Dreamworks have just sent over the first new international UK poster for their new movie, Reel Steel. If you missed the trailer for it a month or so ago, you can check it out here. This new poster follows the US version which was released a couple of weeks ago and although I like it a lot, I like this one more!

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and stars Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand. It’ll be with us in the UK 7th October.

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Click it to make it go BIG!

Kung Fu Panda 2 hits UK cinemas 10th June and to celebrate, Dreamworks have given us this featurette for the movie which announces to the world: Po is Back! In the featurette we get to see Jack Black at work with all his co-stars talking about him and how he becomes Po while conducting his voice dialogue.

Kung Fu Panda 2 sees Jack Black back to kick some more badie butt alongside a support cast which includes James Hong, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Gary Oldman and is directed by Jennifer Yuh.

Synopsis: In “Kung Fu Panda 2”, Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five.  But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu.  Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.

This new trailer gives us a much better look at what Po must do…. save Kung Fu! Check out the rather comical new trailer using the link below.

Please note there are also paid previews commending Wednesday, June 1st 2011 through Sunday, June 5th before nationwide release on June 10th.

Kung Fu Panda 2 begins with a flashback introduction to the movie’s bad guy, the preening peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), explaining that a terrifying prophecy foretold that a black and white warrior would be his downfall and how this resulted in his killing of all of the pandas in China. From there we find the panda of the title, Po (Jack Black), involved in some food-related japery with the Furious Five showing that they’re all friends together and that all seems well in the land of honest kung-fu.

Almost immediately this band of kung-fu warriors is called into battle to protect some innocent villagers from Lord Shen’s rampaging hordes who are searching for metal to enable them make their ultimate weapon, leading to the first of the film’s many action sequences.

Lord Shen, no slouch in the kung-fu stakes himself, has come up with the ultimate weapon that will enable him to take over the whole of China, which he considers to be the rightful position denied to him when his parents sent him away in disgrace after he annihilated the pandas all those years previously. He has spent that time plotting and building up his armoury safe in the knowledge that by killing the pandas he has already defeated his doom predicted in the words of the prophecy only for a lone survivor of his men’s attack on the village to return to him with news that there is a panda alive.

From there Po and the Furious Five look to rid the land of Lord Shen and his menace but all seems bleak when one of the great masters of kung-fu is defeated and his allies imprisoned raising the prospect that China will fall to Lord Shen and that he will also bring an end to the power of kung-fu itself with the unstoppable might of his ultimate weapon.

All of the main characters who survived the previous movie are there with the Furious Five of Tigress (Angeline Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan) Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Viper (Lucy Liu) with Po’s old master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) making some brief appearances throughout the film.

Added to those are the new, and in one case terminally brief, characters of Master Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Master Oxen (Dennis Haysbert) and Master Thundering Rhino (Victor Garber) as fellow allies of “good” kung-fu with the Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) providing constant reminders to Lord Shen of his ultimate demise.

All of those performances are perfectly good but what everybody really goes to a Kung Fu Panda movie to see is Jack Black’s Po and he doesn’t disappoint with well-delivered one-liners, assorted food gags, witty ripostes and awesome kung-fu moves throughout the film. Of all the film’s characters his somehow seems to be the closest to the actor and his exuberance is perfectly suited to the overweight and out-of-breath ball of black and white awesomeness that he gives voice to.

Shifu’s brief appearances are to point Po in the direction of “inner peace” and he’s additionally pushed down that road by the unsurprising admission by his father (James Hong) that Po is adopted. Additionally he has flashbacks when fighting Lord Shen which  help him reach into the deep recesses of his memory and recall the actions of Lord Shen on the day the pandas were exterminated, the day he last saw his parents. It is finding this inner peace that eventually enables Po to stand up to Lord Shen and his fleet in the final magnificent battle that cements Po’s legendary reputation in the annals of kung-fu.

One reason I think that Shifu’s appearances are brief is that the sometimes ponderous introspection and soul-searching of the first film has been replaced with an abundance of fight sequences and chases. To my mind these make it a more enjoyable film as they really don’t feel repetitive or clichéd and the plot throws up a fair few twists along the way and does not pander to the audience or seem overly-predictable. If I had to reference to another film there’s a touch of Harry Potter versus Voldemort in the antagonism between the orphaned Po and tortured megalomania of Lord Shen but really it’s Po himself and the abundance of superb action scenes that make the film so enjoyable.

****~ (4/5)

Love this new poster for Real Steel. We got to the see the theatrical trailer for the new Hugh Jackman movie a few weeks ago and the more I see from it, the more I can’t wait to see it! If you know nothing about it, you should most definitely check out the trailer.

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and stars Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand. It’ll be with us in the UK 7th October.

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championshipcontender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Click it to make it go BIG!

Source: ComingSoon

To coincide with the release of the full theatrical trailer for Real Steel, Dreamworks have sent over five new images from the movie which stars Hugh Jackman.

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and also stars Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand. It’ll be with us in the UK 7th October.

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Click the images below to enlarge.

Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom, the nigh-on inevitable sequel to the successful and impressive original Dreamworks film will be upon us soon.

While it is tempting to assume that we will get more of the same this time around, there is no reason to think that Dreamworks are incapable of fleshing out the characters and bringing some of the depth and mythology building that characterise the very best animation sequels.

As we await the finished article, we are presented now, via the magic of Yahoo Movies’ summer preview, with a new clip in which Dustin Hoffman’s Shifu expresses in awkward detail the full extent of his crushing sense of disappointment at Jack Black’s rotund Po.

Check out the clip below and then let us know whether you’re looking forward to this sequel, or whether you fear it will become a casualty of another big-hitting and crowded summer blockbuster season.

Yesterday before the Pirates of the Caribbean screening, Disney chose to show us the full theatrical version of the trailer for Real Steel which they are distributing for Dreamworks. Bottom line, it looks absolutely awesome!!

Real Steel is directed by Shawn Levy and stars Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Anthony Mackie and Kevin Durand. It’ll be with us in the UK 7th October.

A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future where the sport of boxing has gone high-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championshipcontender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.

Now, in all it’s glory, here is the new theatrical full length trailer!

The prospect of a movie based on the extremely successful video game series Halo has been dangled in front of the army of besotted gamers for a while now, with names such as Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, Alex Garland and even Steven Spielberg being run through the rumour mill over the course of the last few years.

Nothing has been announced and there are a number of very dedicated fan films already out there, with more in production, and so when a few hours ago Machinima tweeted a link to their Facebook page with the gallery title ‘Halo Movie’ and these four pictures below there’s no telling if this is a new and original production or a fan film – it certainly doesn’t look like the long awaited feature film production.

We’ve also been told that there’s more coming on Monday so I guess we’ll find out – commenters on the Facebook page have claimed the pics are from a couple of fan films already in production, but Machinima aren’t giving us any more details yet.

Remember it was Machinima who hosted the new Mortal Kombat web series that has generated so much buzz so perhaps this is another example of a new distribution model for game related film content. Seems a little odd they’d make such a fuss about a fan film, right?

Here are the stills, judge for yourselves.

Dreamworks Pictures have released three official Fright Night stills.

A remake of the 1985 Tom Holland film of the same title, Fright Night is directed by Craig Gillespie and stars Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Sandra Vergara.

Senior Charlie Brewster (Yelchin) finally has it all going on: he’s running with the popular crowd and dating the most coveted girl in his high school. In fact, he’s so cool he’s even dissing his best friend. But trouble arrives when Jerry (Farrell) moves in next door. He seems like a great guy at first, but there’s something not quite right—but everyone, including Charlie’s mom (Collette), doesn’t notice. After observing some very strange activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on the neighborhood. Unable to convince anyone, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself.

Fright Night will be released in the UK on September 2.

Check out the stills – featuring Charlie (Yelchin), Amy (Poots), Jerry (Farrell) and Ed (Mintz-Plasse) – below:

DreamWorks Animation have announced a very exciting total of nine films to be released in the coming five years.

Three of the nine will be sequels to previous successes (Kung Fu Panda 2, Madagascar 3, and How To Train Your Dragon 2), and the rest will be originals – albeit, with Puss In Boots being a spin-off from the Shrek franchise.

The release schedule looks as follows:

– Kung Fu Panda 2, 26th May, 2011
– Puss In Boots, 4th November, 2011
– Madagascar 3, 8th June, 2012
– Rise Of The Guardians, 21st November, 2012
– The Croods, 1st March, 2013
– Turbo, 7th June, 2013
– My And My Shadow, 8th November, 2013
– Mr. Peabody & Sherman, 21st March, 2014
– How To Train Your Dragon 2, 20th June, 2014

Looking down the list, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched a prediction to expect the studio to have nine very successful films on their hands. The three sequels will naturally attract and build on the original audience, and Puss In Boots will undoubtedly bring in the Shrek fans amongst us.

I personally was a really big fan of the original Kung Fu Panda film, and am very much looking forward to seeing Po and the Furious Five back in action in two and a half months. The original cast will be reprising their roles, now fighting against the evil Lord Shen, peacock emperor, voiced by Gary Oldman, who of course has much experience playing darker, more sinister characters.

The third in the Madagascar series definitely looks promising at the moment. The second in the series, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, didn’t bring in as much as the first did at the box office in the States, but made up for it by bringing in more than the first worldwide, and personally I think both are excellent films. Interestingly, DreamWorks’ statement does not mention director Eric Darnell as being one of the scriptwriters this time around. Instead, that duty has been given to Noah Baumbach, who has proven his dexterity in writing with past films like The Squid And The Whale and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Of all of the nine films, though, the one I am most looking forward to – and sadly, one I will have to wait another two and a half years to see – is Me And My Shadow, which DreamWorks has previously announced as being a combination of CG and traditional animation. Though the cast’s voices are yet to be announced, Mark Dindal is signed on to direct, whose previous experience in both fields with Chicken Little and The Emperor’s New Groove would certainly suggest this is going to be a film worth waiting for. It tells the story of:

“Shadow Stan, an extremely frustrated shadow who yearns for a dynamic life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, the world’s most boring human.  Finally pushed to the brink, Shadow Stan breaks the singular rule of the Shadow World — “They lead, we follow” — and takes control of Stanley!”

Something about that one rule of the Shadow World, “They lead, we follow,” just makes me really want to see this film.

So it looks to be an incredibly successful few years ahead for DreamWorks Animation. They will be releasing at least two films a year until 2014, with everything kicking off for them in a couple of months’ time with Kung Fu Panda 2. I must confess, I’m a little bit sad that the sequel no longer has the subtitle “The Kaboom Of Doom” but I am nonetheless very much looking forward to its release in May. The first full trailer was released a few days ago, coupled with the few teaser posters that have surfaced in recent months, suggest that the team will be returning with another great movie that almost everyone will enjoy.

For a full run-down of the rest of the films, you can read the descriptions in the following press release:

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) today announced its feature film release slate through 2014.  The Company’s current plan features six original films and is anchored by three sequels based on its hit Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon franchises.

DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical release schedule is currently planned as follows: Kung Fu Panda 2 for May 26, 2011 and Puss In Boots for November 4, 2011; Madagascar 3 for June 8, 2012 and Rise of the Guardians for November 21, 2012; The Croods for March 1, 2013, Turbo for June 7, 2013 and Me and My Shadow for November 8, 2013; Mr. Peabody & Sherman for March 21, 2014 and How to Train Your Dragon 2 for June 20, 2014.

At DreamWorks Animation, our creative ambition has never been greater and the release schedule we’re unveiling today is designed to give our movies the time and resources they need to realize their full potential so each one can become a true event for our audiences,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation.

“Thanks to the extraordinary talent base at DreamWorks Animation today, our feature film slate is full of both original story ideas and exciting new franchise chapters that will form a solid foundation for the studio’s creative output through 2014,” added Bill Damaschke, the Company’s Chief Creative Officer.

Below is additional detail on the feature films that comprise DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical release schedule:

Kung Fu Panda 2 will be released on May 26, 2011.  It is being directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda), produced by Melissa Cobb (Kung Fu Panda) and written by Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger (Kung Fu Panda). It stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong and Michelle Yeoh. In the sequel, Po is living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five.  But Po’s life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu.  Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins… only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.

Puss In Boots will be released on November 4, 2011. It is directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third) and produced by Joe Aguilar (Merry Madagascar) and Latifa Ouaou (Monsters vs. Aliens).  It is being written by Tom Wheeler (The Cape). Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) are serving as executive producers on the film, which stars Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.  Way before he ever met Shrek, the legendary Puss In Boots goes on a heroic journey, teaming up with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty Softpaws to steal the famed Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.  It’s the adventure of nine lifetimes!

Madagascar 3 will be released on June 8, 2012. It is directed by Eric Darnell (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and produced by Mireille Soria (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and Mark Swift (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa).  It is being written by Noah Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox) and once again stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric The Entertainer and Andy Richter. Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple and of course, King Julien, Maurice and the Penguins are all along for the comedic adventure.  Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent — Madagascar style.

Rise of the Guardians, based on the forthcoming books by William Joyce, will be released on November 21, 2012. It is directed by Peter Ramsey (Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space) and co-directed by Joyce.  The film is being produced by Christina Steinberg (Bee Movie, National Treasure) and Nancy Bernstein, long-time head of Production at DreamWorks Animation. Rise of the Guardians is being written by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole) and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro and Michael Siegel.  It stars Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Jude Law. More than a collection of the well-known childhood legends, Rise of the Guardians is an epic adventure that tells the story of a group of heroes — each with extraordinary abilities.  When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.

The Croods will be released on March 1, 2013. It is being written and directed by two-time Academy Award® nominee Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch) and Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) and produced by Kristine Belson (How to Train Your Dragon) and Jane Hartwell (Shrek). It stars Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman.  The Croods is a comedy adventure that takes us back to a previously undiscovered era in the history of our planet known as the Croodaceous, when nature was still a work-in-progress… full of never-before- seen creatures and landscapes.  Audiences will relate to the hilarious family antics as an imaginative and resourceful newcomer helps the Croods navigate their way through the fantastic world beyond their cave.

Turbo will be released on June 7, 2013. It is being directed by David Soren (Merry Madagascar), who first brought the project to the studio, and produced by Lisa Stewart (Monsters vs. Aliens).  It is being written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After) together with Soren.  Turbo tells the story of an ordinary garden snail with an impossible dream: to become the fastest snail in the world.  When a freak accident gives him extraordinary speed, Turbo sets out to try to make this dream come true.

In Me and My Shadow, which will be released on November 8, 2013, the studio will pioneer a groundbreaking combination of both CG and traditional animation techniques seamlessly together throughout the film.  The film is directed by Mark Dindal (Chicken Little, The Emperor’s New Groove) and produced by Melissa Cobb (Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 2) and Teresa Cheng (Shr ek Forever After, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron). It is being written by Tom Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart).  Me and My Shadow tells the story of Shadow Stan, an extremely frustrated shadow who yearns for a dynamic life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, the world’s most boring human.  Finally pushed to the brink, Shadow Stan breaks the singular rule of the Shadow World — “They lead, we follow” — and takes control of Stanley!

Mr. Peabody & Sherman will be released on March 21, 2014. It is directed by Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little, The Lion King) and produced by Jason Clark (Monster House, Stuart Little) and Denise Nolan Cascino (Megamind).  It is being written by Craig Wright (United States of Tara, Six Feet Under).  Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, Bullwinkle Studio’s Tiffany Ward and Classic Media’s Eric Ellenbogen are serving as executive producers on the film, which stars two-time Academy Award® nominee Robert Downey Jr.  Based on Jay Ward’s classic cartoon, Mr. Peabody is the world’s smartest person who happens to be a dog.  He and his “pet” boy Sherman discover that someone has stolen their time traveling WABAC machine and is changing moments in history to disastrous and comical results.  It’s up to this most unexpected of father-son teams to somehow put a stop to this villain before his actions destroy the space-time continuum in Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

How to Train Your Dragon 2, the sequel to the Academy Award®-nominated original film from 2010, will be released on June 20, 2014. It is being directed and written by Dean DeBlois (How to Train Your Dragon) and produced by Bonnie Arnold (How to Train Your Dragon). Also based on the book series by Cressida Cowell, the sequel is being executive produced by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) together with DeBlois. How to Train Your Dragon 2 again stars Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller and Kristen Wiig.

While we already knew that DreamWorks’ magisterial How to Train Your Dragon was to receive a sequel, and that the budding franchise was set to make its small screen début in the interim, we had little information regarding how forlorn Viking Hiccup’s story might continue.

Speaking to Italian site BadTaste, executive producer Tim Johnson spoke of DreamWorks‘ current plans for the highly anticipated sequel and spin-off series. Asked what he could reveal about the next instalment, tentatively titled for a 2013 release, Johnson replied:

“It ‘s a bit early in fact. I can tell you that Dean DeBlois, one of two directors of the first film, has agreed to direct the sequel. I can tell you that a movie will be much, much bigger than this. They are all already very scared about [the sequel], he presented the draft a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re trying to figure out how are we going to realize that history. It is good to analyze the history, locations, new characters in the movie he wants, and understand how we can achieve.”

It’s nice to see that those involved are feeling the pressure; critically lauded, How to Train Your Dragon proved somewhat of a game-changer for studio DreamWorks – who have since released the similarly impressive Megamind. With a substantial amount of work already done courtesy of the original movie, the production time looks considerably shorter as the studio look to further explore the world of Berk – on screens both big and small.

“We have a partnership with Nickelodeon for the television series Kung Fu Panda, is a show owned by Nickelodeon, with a target child, it’s fun and adventurous. How To Train Your Dragon will not be achieved with Nickelodeon, will be darker, more dramatic, like the film. The goal is to try not to change the original to turn it into a television series. However, we are truly at the beginning, we have a plan but we just started writing the script.”

It is a promising proposition, with the series set to occur in a different time-frame with little overlap of either movie. The original’s movie’s mature, irreverent tone seemingly intact, it appears DreamWorks is truly in touch with what made the first such a success. Obviously eager to do it right, the producer described the similar worries experienced first time around – particularly in terms of the creative decision to scar their child hero.

“We thought that what he had done was so powerful Hiccup, changing its culture, it was right that it should carry a scar by making it a true sacrifice. Someone suggested that hiccup was injured so badly to lose a leg, and this made us think that now would be a further link with Toothless, who had lost part of its tail.”

I can count myself relieved, safe in the knowledge that How To Train Your Dragon 2 is in good hands. With Cressida Cowell’s source material positively brimming with possibilities (the next book in the series is intriguingly titled How To Be A Pirate), 2013 really can not come quickly enough.

Steven Spielberg clearly has a big affinity towards those unidentifiable flying objects of folklore.

As a director, he’s covered the lovable and lethal side to alien life in both ET and War of the Worlds, and the subject has cropped up time and time again in many of the features he’s produced through Amblin and DreamWorks.

His second TV series to explore the subject (the first was 2002’s mini-series Taken) will be broadcast in the US this June, and you can see the preview below (via the TNT website).

Entitled Falling Skies, the series stars ER’s longest-serving practitioner Noah Wyle in an human vs. aliens survivalist tale which has more in common with the director’s 2005 feature than the story of that lovable BMX-straddling, large-collared extraterrestrial.

The show’s website page also includes a nifty tie-in web comic (a popular form of TV and film marketing synergy these days, it seems) which gives a taster of what’s to come.

Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy) has been cast in Dreamworks’ forthcoming drama Welcome to People.

Welcome to People centers on a businessman (Pine) who returns home after his estranged father’s death and discovers that he has an alcoholic sister (Banks) with a 12-year-old son.

Wilde joins Chris Pine (Unstoppable) and Elizabeth Banks (The Next Three Days), and will play Pine’s on-screen girlfriend, Hannah.

Welcome to People will be directed by Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek), who co-wrote the script with Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert.

THR reported this one.

Eminem showed great acting ability and screen presence with his debut, “8 Mile”, which told the story of a rapper trying to compete in rap battles and get his foot in the door for some studio time.

Although the role was not much of a stretch for Eminem, he essayed it superbly and so it is good news indeed to hear that Marshall Mathers is due to return once again to our screens.

Dreamworks has picked up “Southpaw”, currently just a pitch written by Kurt Sutter (creator of TV’s Sons of Anarchy), intended to be a star vehicle for Eminem. The plot itself is hardly earth-shatteringly original, with Eminem set to play a fast-rising boxer who gains the title, only to lose it amid tragedy before seeking to rise once again. Dreamworks CEO Stacey Snider snapped the pitch up, having had first refusal due to her championing of 8 Mile while at Universal.

Sutter sees the story and genre as apt for Eminem, who has been through his own rise, fall and rise again struggles over the past few years. Sutter believes that the film works as a metaphor for this phase of Eminem’s life and even as a continuation of many of the themes of 8 Mile. He said to Deadline:-

“At its core, this is a retelling of his struggles over the last five years of his life, using the boxing analogy. I love that the title refers to Marshall being a lefty, which is to boxing what a white rapper is to hip hop; dangerous, unwanted and completely unorthodox. It’s a much harder road for a southpaw than a right handed boxer.”

Sutter will crack on now with the script, aiming to submit the first draft of his script by February next year.

So what do you think? Are you a big fan of Eminem? Did you like 8 Mile and are keen to see whether he can carry a film further outside his comfort zone?