As the trailer for director Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf makes the rounds on the Internet, digital production studio Sony Pictures Imageworks announced today that it is in development on three new projects that will employ its patented, proprietary Imagemotion performance capture technologies. These include two projects from Sony Pictures Animation, Neanderthals and an untitled feature from Jerome Chen, the Academy Award-nominated visual effects supervisor on The Polar Express and Beowulf.
Imageworks is also in discussion with Avi Arad, Ari Arad and Steven Paul’s Seaside Prods. to participate in the production of a performance-capture movie based on bestselling author James Patterson’s science-fiction thriller Maximum Ride. The series of books revolves around six winged children who have traces of bird DNA. The property was optioned by Avi Arad, who served as a producer on the Spider-Man movies, which Imageworks provided visual effect for.
Imageworks’ performance-capture pipeline was first put to full-scale use on the Warner Bros. holiday movie The Polar Express, and has since been employed on Monster House and the upcoming Beowulf, as well as animated sequences in Spider-Man 3.
The previously announced Neanderthals is being directed by Jon Favreau (Zathura, Elf), who is now in production on the superhero pic Ironman. He is developing Neanderthals with Jay Redd, the visual effects supervisor on Monster House. Redd came to Imageworks to be a sequence supervisor on Contact, and since has worked on Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2 and The Haunted Mansion.
Jerome Chen, one of Imageworks’ original employees, is currently the senior visual effects supervisor on Beowulf. He is now developing an untitled thriller to mark his feature directorial debut. Chen’s credits include effects and animation for Contact, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2 and The Polar Express. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Stuart Little.
