Douglas Trumbull's sci-fi project

[Boom]

Effects whiz Douglas Trumbull in a new frame

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Douglas Trumbull is nearly 70, but the special effects whiz behind space classics like "2001: A Space Odyssey" says he's launching a new phase in his filmmaking career.

Trumbull is being honored with a special achievement Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Awards dinner on Saturday, and he was given another lifetime honor by the Visual Effects Society earlier this week.

But he says that despite winning Oscars for his work on films like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," ''Blade Runner" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," he hasn't been able to accomplish everything that he wanted to in Hollywood.

He's now planning to direct his own film at 120 frames-per-second to fulfill what he says was the goal for himself and director Stanley Kubrick on "2001" of creating an "immersive experience that took you into space, and made you a participant in the movie."

Trumbull says he turned down a request from George Lucas to supervise special effects on "Star Wars" because he was focused on his own career as a director ("Silent Running," ''Brainstorm"). But when "Brainstorm" fell apart after the death of star Natalie Wood, Trumbull ran into problems with his other projects, and eventually decided to move to Massachusetts and work outside the mainstream film industry.

Now, he's advocating for a blend of new digital technologies — higher frame-rates, brighter projection, bigger screens — to improve the movie-going experience.

Film — whether photographic or digital — is traditionally shot and played at 24 frames-per-second, but several elite filmmakers are starting to embrace higher frame rates in an effort to reduce on-screen blur and create richer images in 2D and 3D. Peter Jackson is filming his two "Hobbit" films at 48 frames-per-second and James Cameron is considering shooting his two "Avatar" sequels at 60 frames-per-second.

Trumbull wants to go beyond that by using his small Massachusetts studio to create a space adventure set more than a century in the future.

"Just in the same way that Jim Cameron used 'Avatar' to show that 3D was really a whole new palette of filmmaking, I think I can demonstrate (120 frames per second)," he said. "I know it's feasible. I'm doing it every day. I have it in my studio. ... It's mind-boggling. So I have to make a movie and say, 'OK here it is. Here's what this looks like, folks. Decide if you like it or not.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/effects-whiz-d...223805459.html

THR: What details can you reveal about the story you’re developing for the project?

Trumbull: I can only say that it’s a 200-years-in-the-future science fiction space epic that’s going to address very big, lofty issues, like man’s place in the universe, and how our contact with an extraterrestrial civilizations that are so mind-bogglingly in advance of our own that it will go into some of the same territory that 2001 went into, and it’s going to do it in a very plausibly scientific way, not a fanciful way. There are no alien monsters, and the earth is not being attacked by anybody. It’s going to be a much more intelligent, what we call hard-science fiction, and I think there’s absolutely nothing out there like this. I think the studios believe that they have to dumb everything down and the audience is not scientific, not up for anything truly intelligent, but I think just the opposite. I think we’re in the most technologically advanced society of all time, and people can go with that immediately. Most people you poll would believe that there’s life in the universe, for sure, and the Kepler project and another project are showing that the likelihood of inhabitable planets in our galaxy alone is going to be in the billions, and so the whole plausibility of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations is becoming very real scientifically, very plausible. Talk to any scientist and they’ll say, absolutely, yes. But Hollywood is still in the monster phase, it’s in the b-movie monster phase. And I’m not saying how it should be, I’m just saying what I would like to do, and I’d like to make something more intelligent that I can really be proud of.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ris...kubrick-288290

I need this movie in my life.

[darkseid26]

Sounds very interesting. Can't wrong with Trumbull.

[Boom]

From the THR article above:

THR: In an industry that often values youth over experience – one that focuses on the status quo, as you said - how tough is it to mobilize a film that demands the resources to create the kind of spectacle that you want to bring back to movie screens?

Trumbull: Well, my experience is that I’m an outsider in this town. I left LA in 1987 because of the Natalie Wood disaster; I was frightened for my own life, I was standing between MGM management and a $50 million fraudulent insurance claim. It was a very, very messy situation, and it was the worst personal, professional experience anybody should ever have to go through to get that movie done. And when I got it done, I said, if this is what making movies in Hollywood is like, I’m going to go do something else. I had to consciously decide to put my directing career on hold and go do something else. I did things like the Back to the Future ride and theme parks and expos and took IMAX public and things like that, which I think have been a big boon to the movie business. But I haven’t been on the playing field as a film director, and so nobody from Hollywood calls me to direct their movies. I’m not on anybody’s A-list to do that. I’m not on anybody’s list to want to see the future of cinema, because I feel I have to do it myself. I can talk until I’m blue in the face, but I have to show them what it is. And so I’m developing my own film, well, several films, but one of these films is going to go into this new territory I’m talking about – which is first person cinema reality which is indistinguishable from reality. The screen is going to be so big it’s like a window into another world. I’m going way beyond anything that Peter Jackson and Jim Cameron have been doing or are thinking of, and I don’t expect to get traction from investors until I can show what it is. Because no one’s ever seen it before, and no one can imagine what it would be like. But I can, and I know, and so I’m comfortable with personally making the investment. I have my own studio, I work in the Berkshires, I have my own stage, my own cameras, my own lights, my own editing, my own workshop, my machine shop, and I’m trying to reinvent the movies – with no help whatsoever from Hollywood. But very good, supportive help from projector manufacturers and camera manufacturers, who are completely open to anything that’s going to invigorate their business. So I am getting support on the technical side, but I’m not getting any support on the production side – and I hope that will come.

[Boom]

Visual Effects Mastermind Douglas Trumbull Aims to Reinvent Cinema With Next Sci-Fi Picture

Nobody’s going to argue that Douglas Trumbull, the visual effects mastermind behind The Tree of Life, Blade Runner, (some) Star Trek, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, isn’t a genius in his field. He’d have to be to get away with the insanely boastful things he’s been saying about his two upcoming “120fps 3D” sic-fi epics, which would be “a big space adventure” with “a survival bent” pertaining to “reaching for the stars and why we would have to go to the stars.”

Here are a few choice quotes from his recent THR interview:

“I’m developing my own film, well, several films, but one of these films is going to go into this new territory I’m talking about – which is first person cinema reality which is*indistinguishable from reality. The screen is going to be so big it’s like a*window*into another world. I’m going way beyond anything that Peter Jackson and Jim Cameron have been doing or are thinking of, and I don’t expect to get traction from investors until I can show what it is. Because no one’s ever seen it before, and*no one can imagine*what it would be like.”

First-person cinema indistinguishable from reality? Film quality so high, no one can imagine it?

“I have my own studio, I work in the Berkshires, I have my own stage, my own cameras, my own lights, my own editing, my own workshop, my machine shop, and*I’m trying to reinvent the movies*– with no help whatsoever from*Hollywood. But very good, supportive help from projector manufacturers and camera manufacturers, who are completely open to anything that’s going to invigorate their business.”

A lone tinkerer, reinventing moviemaking by himself, without any help from Hollywood.

“There’s a*whole new era of laser projectors*that’s entering the marketplace now that very few people have seen. I witnessed it about a month ago and it’s*mind-boggling. The quality of image that we can project on screens with laser projectors is*incredible color gamut, absolutely even field of light, very bright, very big, and when I increase the frame rate, it’s going to be like a window. So it’s a movie that’s more like a live show, and I want to see what that’s going to be like. I think it’s going to be really fun.”

Alright, that sounds cool. But what about the plot?

“I can only say that it’s a*200-years-in-the-future science fiction space epic*that’s going to address very big, lofty issues, like man’s place in the universe, and how our contact with an*extraterrestrial civilizations*that are so mind-bogglingly in advance of our own that it will go into some of the same territory that*2001*went into, and it’s going to do it in a*very plausibly scientific way, not a fanciful way. There are no alien monsters, and the earth is not being attacked by anybody. It’s going to be a much more intelligent, what we call*hard-science fiction, and I think there’s absolutely nothing out there like this. I think the studios believe that they have to dumb everything down and the audience is not scientific, not up for anything truly intelligent, but I think just the opposite. I think we’re in the most technologically advanced society of all time, and people can go with that immediately.”

The most unbelievable thing about the braggadocio on display above is that, not only is all of what he’s saying plausible by virtue of who is saying it, it also sounds, for lack of a better term, awesome; I’d love to see more hard science fiction in film. I’d also love to see laser-projected first-person movies that look so real I can’t tell they aren’t.

We don’t have any more details for now — this project has to be far from off the ground — but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more. I know I’ll be seeing whatever this movie is called the day it comes out. Until then, I guess I’ll have to settle for real life.

http://thefilmstage.com/news/visual-...ci-fi-picture/