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Post by Leanne on May 26, 2010 1:18:24 GMT -5
Superman lawyer now targeting Fox's 'Percy Jackson' Mon May 24, 2010 @ 04:02PM PST By Matthew Belloni Percyjackson EXCLUSIVE: Controversial copyright attorney Marc Toberoff has found his next iconic target: Percy Jackson. Toberoff, currently involved in the smackdown of all smackdowns with Warner Bros. over the Superman franchise, has filed suit in New York on behalf of the authors of young-adult novels about a descendant of Greek gods. They claim in a copyright infringement lawsuit against author Rick Riordan, Fox and Disney that the "Percy Jackson" series of novels and the Fox film "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" steal extensively from two of their books. Robyn and Tony DiTocco wrote "The Hero Perseus: A Mad Myth Mystery" (2002) and "Atlas' Revenge: Another Mad Myth Mystery" (2004), YA fantasies centered on "PJ," a descendant of Greek gods who becomes a hero. They claim Riordan lifted several key characters and scenes for his five books, the first of which was published in 2005 by Hyperion (a Disney subsidiary). Fox's "Percy Jackson" film was released in January and has grossed $220 million worldwide. "The substantial similarities between the PJ books and the Percy Jackson books, and consequently between the PJ books and the Percy Jackson film, cannot be explained away by their common reference to Greek mythology because most such similarities do not appear in Greek mythology, but originate instead in plaintiffs' PJ books," the lawsuit states. The complaint cites at least 100 similarities. A couple examples: PJ Books: The main character is Percy John Allen, 17 years old, nicknamed "P.J." The Lightning Thief: The main character is Percy Jackson, 12 years old. PJ Books: Percy is informed that the world is being threatened by horrific weather arising from the theft of Zeus' thunderbolt, and there will be catastrophic events if it is not returned, as Zeus will be unable to control the weather. The Lightning Thief: Percy is informed that the world is being threatened by horrific weather arising from the theft of Zeus' thunderbolt, and there will be catastrophic events if it is not returned, as the gods war among themselves. PJ Books: Percy embarks on a quest to save humanity by solving the mysterious theft and returning Zeus' lightning bolt to him. The Lightning Thief: Percy embarks on a quest to save humanity by solving the mysterious theft and returning Zeus' lightning bolt to him. The new lawsuit is for garden-variety copyright infringement, different from the complex copyright termination issues involved in the Superman litigation. Still, Toberoff is cementing his status as the go-to lawyer for suing studios on copyright claims. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against further distribution of the infringing works. We've reached out to Fox and Hyperion for comment.UPDATE: A studio spokesperson says no comment. thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/superman-lawyer-now-targeting-foxs-percy-jackson.html
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Post by Leanne on Jun 11, 2010 13:14:53 GMT -5
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ruralstar
Kevin McKidd Online staff
website McFic
Life is a Journey of the Mind. Anything can happen....Just wait
Posts: 2,233
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Post by ruralstar on Jun 18, 2010 12:11:01 GMT -5
Lawsuits like this could definitely delay, or permanently derail, a Percy Jackson franchise. I feel bad for Kevin's prospects of getting involved with a successful series but maybe it's for the best. The movie was such a pale copy of the book and the idea that the book does more than just borrow archetype characters from myth and literature is very distressing.
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Post by Leanne on Jun 25, 2010 6:07:43 GMT -5
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Post by Leanne on Jul 2, 2010 12:48:21 GMT -5
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: A Look Inside the Lightning Thief June 3 – September 4, 2010 National Hellenic Museum tucked away on the fourth floor of 801 W. Adams This summer, Percy Jackson fans will get the chance to step inside the world of ancient Greek mythology in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: A Look Inside the Lightning Thief. In this world-premiere exhibition, visitors will get an up- close and personal look at some of their favorite props from the Twentieth Century Fox film, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Guests can test their knowledge of the gods and goddesses at the “Lotus Casino,” and experience authentic artifacts from the film displayed in settings inspired by the timeless mythology of ancient Greece. This exhibition has been made possible through the assistance of Twentieth Century Fox. ‘Percy Jackson’ exhibit fun and enlightening A first-time collaboration between Twentieth Century Fox and NHM, “Percy Jackson” runs through Sept. 4. In the first room of the exhibit visitors encounter several props from the movie, including Percy’s winged gym shoes (minus the wings), the powerful pen given to him by a teacher, Percy’s sword and shield, a Minotaur horn, an Uma Thurman-like bust of Medusa complete with snakes, Poseidon’s trident, and the treasure map Percy and his friends use to find the magic pearls and ultimately the lightning bolt. A wall chart details the gods of Olympus to help visitors keep it all straight. “We did this exhibit and tied it into mythology to have the educational component,” said Antonia Callas, NHM marketing and public relations manager. The second room of the exhibit tests visitors’ knowledge of the gods with the interactive Lotus Casino wheel. Spin the wheel to pick a quiz category and then pick a corresponding card for a question about the gods. Symbols on the wheel and cards represent Greek gods and goddesses; if the wheel stops at the trident symbol, for example, expect a question about Poseidon. A chart of the Greek alphabet is posted next to a magnetic board loaded with magnetic letters so that visitors can write their names in Greek on the board. Bean bags and book caddies in one corner invite visitors to sit and read tales from Greek mythology. “It’s a small exhibit, but this is the first time that Fox has done anything like this,” Callas said. “These stories [about Greek gods] are still exciting to people, they still care about them, they’re still intriguing and fun and dynamic. The movie is about Greek mythology and [the museum] is about Greek history; it’s a great fit for us because it’s so contemporary.” “Percy Jackson” breathes life into the Greek mythology of history textbooks. If your kids are fans of the books, the movie or mythology, a trip to visit NHM is in order this summer. Two free weekly programs target families as well, Callas said. “Mythical Mornings” runs 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Fridays through Aug. 27. Each week kids 3 to 7 years old learn about a different Greek myth and then get to walk through the “Percy Jackson” exhibit. “Mosaic Making,” 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 25, targets kids 6 to 13 years old. Participants learn the basics of this ancient art form and make a take-home mosaic based on Greek designs. Ive trimmed that articles but here are the links www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/exhibitions/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians/and www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/2455178,070210-Kid.article
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Post by Leanne on Jul 16, 2010 3:18:51 GMT -5
I was looking for screencaps of Poseidon for a member on FB and came across this Come on, Sneak. A. Peak. And see how Luma Pictures brought Medusa and Poseidon to life on the big screen "Medusa and Poseidon are absolutely stunning and represent some of the hardest work on the project. Luma's passionate artistry and technological brilliance combined with the easy manner and can-do attitude you maintained throughout the project have impressed me beyond words." ~Kevin Mack, Visual Effects Supervisor, Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is the latest in a long list of imaginative films by director Chris Columbus. Well known for his recent work on Harry Potter's Chamber of Secrets and Sorcerer's Stone, it is clear that Chris Columbus is a master at creating a unique alchemy of child like wonder and fantasy. Luma Pictures is truly thrilled to have contributed to the visual effects of the film. The Lightning Thief is the screen debut of the award winning series of novels written by Rick Riordan. At "Camp Half Blood," Percy discovers that his real father is the powerful Poseidon, god of the sea and he himself is an unwitting demigod. Percy unites with his childhood friend Grover, a Saytr in training, and Annabeth, the warrior child of Athena and the trio find themselves entangled in a war between the Gods, with the fate of Percy's mother and the entire world resting in their hands. In order to create the fantastic menagerie of gods, demigods and monsters, Columbus turned to acclaimed Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Mack, who is well versed at bringing this kind of tale to life for big screen audiences. The project was quite an undertaking and when it came time to parcel out the huge number of CG creatures and effects needed to make this film a reality, Columbus and Mack partnered up with Luma Pictures to tackle two of the most challenging characters in the Film, Medusa (played by Uma Thurman) and Poseidon, a.k.a. "One of the Big Three," (played by Kevin McKidd). In bringing Medusa to life, the seasoned crew at Luma, helmed by Executive Visual Effect Supervisor Payam Shohadai and navigated by Visual Effects Supervisor, Vincent Cirelli set about to conquer the daunting task of turning the lovely Uma Thurman into the beguiling monster that turns flesh to stone with a mere glance. "Turning Uma's hair into a roiling mass of over 70 snakes is no job for the squeamish," recounts Vince Cirelli. " In one major shot, we are close up for over 700 frames of individually animated CG snakes." To make Uma's character really slither on screen, the team started off by creating a dynamics layer over top of the animation rig in order to ensure that whatever the performance called for, the snakes could move freely without running into each other. "The challenge was to not only seamlessly integrate these snakes into Uma Thurman's hair line, but also to give them each a personality," comments Animation Supervisor Raphael Pimentel. "It was like directing 70 + extras on set, each snake reacted to the environment, the actors in the shot and with each other." Luma designed the effect so that the snakes were Medusa's all seeing eyes, reacting to events before she knew about them. The result is a seamless performance of actor and digital prosthetic that really sells the story of the Gorgon priestess. "One of the great things about working with really well trained actors is that even if they are acting against a green screen or simply imagining their CG add ons, they can still bring the feeling home to the audience," notes VFX Producer Steve Griffith. There were several shots in which the actress is in a battle with the heroes of the story and her performance is so dynamic that the team at Luma had to create equally dynamic animation to match. "Uma Thurman provided us with a lot of material to work with; she really visualized the motion of her CG character and added the perfect amount of weight to her performance to bring it to life," adds Griffith. In order to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality, they had to make snakes look like, well... snakes and Luma is no stranger to coming up with creative solutions in this department. Each of the 70 + snakes on Medusa's head has a unique patterning and scale design and the larger snakes have an elaborate system of 3D scales that really sell the reptile look. "We devised a rig that allowed us to add 3D scales that could be matched to the performance by the animators," remarks CG Supervisor Richard Sutherland. "The result is not just a bunch of bending tubes, but a scaly outer shell that fans out naturally with each wriggle". What would an on screen incarnation of Medusa would be without the classic "flesh to stone" effect that she is so (in)famous for. "To create this signature effect Medusa has on her victims, we wanted to stay away from the standard animated texture reveal of stone underneath the skin and come up with something unique for the audience," Vince Cirelli explains. "What Chris and Kevin wanted was something more like a lakebed drying out in a time-lapse sequence, taking place in real time". The result is a perfectly matched digital double whose surface is composed of tiny textured geometry flakes. "The skin transformation is driven by hundreds of thousands of particles, created in Houdini and animated over the surface of the woman's body. As the particles pour out from the emitters, instanced geometry flakes turn outwards to create a unified surface," adds Sutherland. The end result is a dynamically evolving effect where the actors' life force seems to dry out right before our eyes. For the main character of Poseidon, Luma brought out its superstar fluid dynamics team to handle the task of transforming the God of the Sea to and from human form. Using Real-Flow and customized dynamics rigs, Luma was able to dissolve the actors' body into and out of a rushing torrent of water. To make it even more challenging Poseidon enters our world as a giant of mythical proportions and has to shave off some water weight to come down to human size. Justin Johnson, Luma's Digital Effects Supervisor on the project, states "We had to really pay attention to the volume of water contained in his different sizes so that the proportion of water leaving his body made sense when bringing him down to human scale." The team also had to create the effect of Poseidon emerging from his underwater kingdom. For this shot, the actor was shot dry moving against a green screen and the artists at Luma had to come up with a creative solution to achieve that "wet look". "We created really precise match move geometry to track to the actors face, then we used this to run Real flow simulations to create water sheeting off his skin," Cirelli explains. Poseidon also emerges from the sea, god-sized, so they had to create surrounding fluid simulations in order to sell the effect of such a large scale object emerging from the sea. "The effect is more like a submarine emerging from a dive rather than a swimmer in a pool," adds Johnson. No tale of heroes and heroines would be complete without a story of teamwork and that was the spirit of the show throughout the whole process. "Chris and Kevin really knew what direction they wanted to take the audience and kept the communication going with almost daily feedback," comments Griffith. "They really made us feel like we were all part of a team working towards the same goals." The feeling was mutual, as Visual Effects Producer Denise Davis points out, "We had a truly great experience with the Luma team. The work was extremely difficult, yet your team made it seem so easy and rolled with the punches (with enthusiasm) every step of the way" Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a Fox 2000 Picture in association with 1492 pictures and Imprint Entertainment. Directed by Chris Columbus and staring Logan Lerman as Percy and includes a stellar cast including Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Mckidd, Uma Thurman and Catherine Keener. Release date February 12th 2010. Luma Pictures is a leading provider of visual effects services to Hollywood with a reputation for artistic integrity, technical innovation and efficient production. The company served as lead visual effects provider on multiple Academy Award winner No Country for Old Men (Miramax/Paramount Vantage) and recently contributed to the final battle in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Twentieth Century Fox). Some of the studio's other credits include Book of Eli (Alcon Entertainment), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.), City of Ember (Walden Media), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Walt Disney Pictures), Hancock (Columbia Pictures), Burn After Reading (Focus Features), and Apocalypto (Buena Vista/Icon). www.luma-pictures.com/buzz/2010-f2/Percy+Jackson+and+the+Olympians+The+Lightning+Thiefsome great images on offer to DL as well Ill do so and upload to the site or Rural will to the Gallery
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Post by Leanne on Jul 16, 2010 3:21:20 GMT -5
Luma Pictures Percy Jackson Round-Table Friday, February 26, 2010 By: Mercedes Milligan Vincent Cirelli (vfx supervisor), John Cassella (senior fx TD), Richard Sutherland (CG supervisor), Raphael Pimentel (animation supervisor) and Steve Griffith (vfx producer) give us their insights on Venice, Calif.-based Luma's mythical effects work on Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The team contributed nearly 90 shots for the film and tackled insane challenges like Medusa's writhing head of snakes and Poseidon's watery transformation. Snakes on the Brain Under the guidance of the production's vfx supervisor Kevin Mack and their own exec visual effects supervisor Payam Shohadal and vfx supervisor Vincent Cirelli, the crew at Luma turned the lovely Uma Thurman into a gorgon with a mane of over 70 snakes, each with unique looks and personalities, not to mention rigged 3D scales that flare and flatten to compliment the snake's body movements. Animag: How long was dev process for Medusa’s snake effects? Did you go through many iterations before reaching a solution? Cirelli: We received fantastic concept art from production, but needed to conceive our own once we started blocking out the model. Our in-house concept artist, Loic Zimmerman, worked through many different iterations of medusa. This helped us define what kind of snakes we would ultimately use, their sizes and length, where and how they lay on Uma [Thurman]. This was beneficial, in that we had a design that could work within a 3D space, and within the boundaries of Uma's actual head dimensions, before we even got into serious modeling/rigging. Animag: Which programs were used to achieve the snake body dynamics and 3D scale effects? Cassella: Medusa's snakes were rigged for traditional animation, and then a custom dynamics simulation system was built on top of that. Leveraging Maya’s nParticle system and its ability to calculate particle collisions, a rig was built that turned every snake into a particle chain. This allowed us to implement artist friendly controls for such things as wandering, target seeking, goals and stiffness to achieve and find defined hero poses during initial dynamic simulation to give the snakes weight and inertial motion. The animation rig was driven directly from the particle simulation through a custom plug-in, which moved the snakes and set keys on the same controls the animators would later work with. This initial simulation was baked as a base layer, and then character animators took over to give the snakes their personality. Familiar Waters Luma's superstar fluid dynamics team was responsible for creating a watery transformation worthy of a Greek god when Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) emerges in all his glory from the sea and then morphs to a normal human size, stripping away his volume in torrents of water. With Real Flow and a custom dynamics rig they achieved this look, not to mention plenty of surrounding fluid simulations to sell the shot. Animag: How much experimentation was required to get the Poseidon transformation down? Sutherland: Unlike an explosion or a helicopter, the Poseidon transformation effect was not something that we could find definitive reference for, so there was quite a bit of experimentation. We knew the basic idea behind the transformation, Poseidon in god form is over 60 feet tall and by shedding water he ends up as a normal size human. Since it was the first introduction to Poseidon's and, by extension, Percy's, main power, it was important to show both power and control. To sell this transformation we needed to make sure it was clear where this huge volume of water went. Some of our initial designs had the water dropping onto the pier and flowing back to sea, but the director felt it did not demonstrate the complete control over water that Poseidon has. Once we got the idea that Poseidon's control of water was a sort of control over gravity our R&D became more focused and we honed in on the idea of sections of his form peeling off and levitating back to the ocean. This made the loss of volume obvious, while demonstrating the total control over water that Poseidon has. Animag: What inspired the breakthrough to create the end result? Sutherland: After we had decided on the basic idea behind the transform, the major breakthrough was involving one of our animators in the blocking process. I set up a rig that the animator could use to time out which areas would peel off and how long the negative space stayed before the form flowed back together. His understanding of timing, action and composition provided a solid foundation for the transformation sequence. Using spheres allowed us to test out different timing and spacing patterns much more quickly than full simulations. Once we found something that read well and was dynamic enough we could do low-res simulations overnight to see how it all played out. This methodology allowed us to get to the end result with a minimum of time-consuming full resolution simulations. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief The VFX 411: Animag: Of all the shots, which scene or effect proved the most challenging to crack? Which did the crew have the most fun with? Pimentel: Undoubtedly our biggest, but most enjoyable challenge was animating Medusa. Playing off of Uma's performance was a task in itself, many snakes needed to be hand animated. We knew that the animation workload would be immense but felt it would need an artist's touch and that a procedural method would only get us so far. We developed powerful animation tools to help us work through the fact that in many shots, we needed to animate up to seventy snakes at a time to create little stories within the sequence. Using Maya's animation layers, we combined multiple passes to create the final animation you see on screen. Animag: Are there examples from Luma’s past work that helped the team solve this film’s puzzles? Griffith: We have built an elaborate pipeline for creating natural fx like water over the years. Many of the tools that we have created deal with the large data sets and ways in which we can trim the fat, ultimately allowing us to render with more detail, faster. In addition to the barrage of custom tools, we have also developed techniques for creating realistic white water, for large-scale simulations. The end result is a system of tools that layer nicely together and allow us to partition out various aspects of the simulation for isolated refinement, and then bring it all back together for final render, without losing interaction between elements. Animag: How do the complexities of the Percy Jackson shots compare to other work Luma has tackled? Cirelli: Percy was a challenging show, just like any other large blockbusters that we work on, where the effects and character work is extensive. But over the years we've defined a very organized, and artist friendly pipeline that allows us to turn around iterations very quickly. Ultimately, like most things, the more iterations you have, the better the end result. Are there any funny studio anecdotes from this production? Did everyone make it through unscathed? Cirelli: We received the props from production, and I think a couple of our guys were walking around as Poseidon during delivery! Sutherland: We have a great team, and I hope nobody was scarred permanently. I know that just about everyone had dreams about snakes at one point or another in the process. It's pretty certain that none of us will ever look at a snake the same way again! Animag: Which is your personal favorite moment from Luma’s work in the film? Cirelli: My favorite moment is a shot during the Medusa sequence where the snakes are interacting with her, fighting amongst themselves, and caressing Percy all at the same time. Throughout the Medusa sequence, you'll find lots of little stories happening in the animation that you might miss the first time through... Some of them are comical, if you look closely enough. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Learn more about Luma Pictures at: www.luma-pictures.com. www.animationmagazine.net/article/11208
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shylin
Roman Collegiate
Posts: 69
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Post by shylin on Aug 8, 2010 11:04:44 GMT -5
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Post by Leanne on Aug 8, 2010 14:29:49 GMT -5
ooh nice one Shylin I haven't see that one before thanks for sharing
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Geniusmentis
KMKonliner
McVid
I only have 2 neurons and one of them is usually sleeping.
Posts: 4,067
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Post by Geniusmentis on Aug 8, 2010 17:39:06 GMT -5
Wonderful pic!!!
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ruralstar
Kevin McKidd Online staff
website McFic
Life is a Journey of the Mind. Anything can happen....Just wait
Posts: 2,233
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Post by ruralstar on Aug 10, 2010 8:07:43 GMT -5
Cool picture Shylin. thanks for sharing.
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Post by Leanne on Dec 11, 2010 12:14:30 GMT -5
OscarWatch: Visual effects semifinalists announced by Dave Karger The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semifinalists for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. They are: Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Clash of the Titans, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter, Inception, Iron Man 2, The Last Airbender, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shutter Island, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Tron: Legacy, and Unstoppable. Next month the visual-effects branch will narrow this list down to seven finalists. I’d call Inception, Tron: Legacy, and Alice in Wonderland the best bets to continue to the next round. insidemovies.ew.com/2010/12/10/oscarwatch-visual-effects-semifinalists-announced/
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Post by Leanne on Feb 24, 2011 9:55:46 GMT -5
Logan is nominated for a Saturn antcomic.com/blog/?p=19889Best Performance by a Younger Actor Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) (20th Century Fox) Frankie/George McLaren (Hereafter) (Warner Bros.) Kodi Smit McPhee (Let Me In) (Overture/Relativity Media) Chloe Grace Moretz (Let Me In) (Overture/Relativity Media) Will Poulter (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) (20th Century Fox) Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) (Paramount) Charlie Tahan (Charlie St. Cloud) (Universal
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