Spielberg to Direct Wallace and Gromit? 54
ost writes "There was a recent article in an Austrian newsapaper saying that Wallace and Gromit Creator, Nick Park, signed a deal for four movies with Steven Spielberg's Company DreamWorks.
But the main thing i want to point out is that if Wallace and Gromit are to go to Hollywood, that poor penguin that was the villian in "The Wrong Trousers" has to be re-sozialized!" The article is in German - head over to the Tower of babel fish to get the skinny. I do enjoy Spielberg equaling Play mountain in the Fish - makes the translation all worth it!
Re:Spielberg (Score:1)
Oh yea. He portrayed the American soldier as upstanding champions of human morality. "Look! I washed my hands for dinner!"
Bah.
He's NOT EVIL! (Score:2)
Will it really have W & G ?? (Score:2)
Well, except for Hemos's slashdot post.
Does anyone know if Chicken Run will feature Wallace and Gromit?? Please Please Please post a link if you've seen something that indicates that W&G will appear in the film.
No reason to hit babblefish (Score:3)
Note that this is more of a Katzenberg (booo) deal than a Spielberg project.
That ought to screw things up, all right (Score:3)
Gah. Bosh. FUI.
Wallace and Gromit animation (Score:3)
[cornell.edu]
http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Visualization/contrib
Hemos...Pay more attention! (Score:3)
One: Spielberg is to direct these? What a ridiculous conclusion, contrary to anything the article says.
Two: It's five movies, not four.
Three: They aren't even Wallace & Gromit movies. The first is Chicken Run, and the second is probably something to do with Tortise and the Hare. I guess it's possible that a W&G movie might be made, but you can't draw that conclusion from the article.
Four: Bablefish mistranslation humor is so passe.
Yeah, right. (Score:4)
SS: Here you have Wallace saying the moon is made of cheese.
NP: Right, cheese.
SS: Could you be a little more vague? How about "ripe curdled stuff". There's no zip to that line.
NP: Well, what did you have in mind?
SS: (slowly, sounding out each syllable) Vel-VEE-ta!
NP: What?
SS: Velveeta.
NP: Wallace wouldn't say that. He doesn't know much about brand names, and he forgets the ones he knows after a little while.
SS: Dammit, Nick - Kraft'll give us a million six if Wallace says the moon's made of Velveeta. It'd be a wonderful ad campaign - the moon, and Velveeta. Who'd forget that?
NP: Wallace would.
SS: The old fart says Velveeta, Park. Next we have a stove on the moon. That ought to be a Kenmore....
Re:technology (Score:1)
on foolish comments (Score:5)
Re:Spielberg (Score:2)
It's a great movie, and proof that Spielberg can put out a decent picture. I really hope he doesn't destroy W&G.
Tux's Evil Brother (Score:5)
Maybe we could brand Feathers as the unofficial mascot of any future releases of a "MS Linux"-type product -- that'd be so perfect. Like Tux, just that somehow you just know he's evil...
----
What penguin? (Score:5)
Re:Spielberg (Score:1)
it's too cheezy, where's the real cheese grommit? (Score:1)
but mainstream hollywood will never understand or capture 'wallace & grommit'
dont be fooled. Any work done by Mr S. is for money only. I'll be waiting for reviews and shorts.
Re:Northern English? (Score:1)
nice to see they use python to script the site (even of they do use flash)... http://www.aardman.com/wallaceandgromit/workshop/
Northern English? (Score:1)
Re:Spielberg (Score:3)
Spielberg is a masterful craftsman, and an exemplary marketer, but that doesn't make him an artist.
Spielberg (Score:5)
As far as commercialism, well, he is bad, but I think you are letting your disappointment with Lucas's destruction of Star Wars get to you. Spielberg is very capable of making non-commercial movies- Schindler's List? Surely, you didn't see any T-shirts for that. Amistad? Saving Private Ryan? These are not commercially oriented movies.
Yes, they have their sappy edges- but they are also deadly serious movies about serious topics. Even his more commercial movies are still damn good- Jurassic Park and Hook, while both completely changing the original stories around to be more commercially presentable, are each works of art in their own ways- unlike 99% of modern movies, Lucas understands that special effects and big stars have to be subordinate to the story. Plot- plot! Yes, we'll see Wallace and Gromit dolls. But I think Spielberg is also the kind of guy who intuitively understands what is important, and will know that you can't tinker much with the W&G formula without destroying it. Give the man a chance.
~luge
P.S. How can you not like a guy who accepted cash from the Blues Brothers to pay off the taxes for the orphanage?
spielberg=play mountain . . .? (Score:2)
spielberg=play mountain . . . hhhmmmm
this must fall under the realm of "I'll drink to that"
:P
Re:Spielberg (Score:2)
Spielberg makes feelgood films. He's good at it, but would never have made Dead Man Walking (great film, BTW, and I don't even like Susan Sarandon or Sean Penn). Notice how the USA was the only country fighting the Germans in SPR? It would have been a bitter pill for the American film-going audience to be told that actually, it was Stalin that crushed Germany and the rest of the world just happened to get lucky...
Spielberg is also commercially minded - not quite to the ridiculous extremes of the Disney films - but he's not daft.
Wallace & Gromit are two of the most merchandised characters ever. Here in the UK you can get W&G *everything*.
I don't think Spielberg is an artist. He's good at what he does, but what he does is Product.
Park and Spielberg are a natural mix - and Park could do with some of the money that DreamWorks have.
--
Babelfish: german to yoda? (Score:2)
Confused am I, hmmmmmm?
Found info on his own site... (Score:1)
-Michael
Re:Tux's Evil Brother (Score:1)
/. Insta-translation Service (Score:5)
---begin translation---
Nick Park, the British creator of the cartoon figures Wallace and Gromit is to make four films with Steven Spielberg
London - the British creator of the cartoon figures Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park, is to make a series of four films with the US director Steven Spielberg. According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-founder of Spielberg's production company Dreamworks, the two film-geeks signed a contract valued at over 250 million dollars (approx. 239 million Euro or 3.29 billion Austrian Schillings).
In Park's films, the claymation figures Wallace and his dog Gromit, among other things, flew to the moon to find cheese, and battled the jewel thief Feathers McGraw, a fiendish penguin. Spielberg has filmed blockbusters like "E.T." and the film "Schindlers List" which was distinguished with seven Oscars. The threetime OSCAR winner Park created his company "Aardman Animation" in 1985.
---end translation---
*disclaimer: "film-geeks" may not be the 100% kosher translation of the term "Film-Schaffenden"!
FYI... (Score:1)
American Beauty was a Dreamworks production, and while Spielberg was the one who decided to do the movie, he didn't actually direct or produce anything himself.
LL
Preview of "Chicken Run" on "Prince Of Egypt"... (Score:2)
A story in english (Score:1)
Pseudo-mirror article (Score:2)
http
Enjoy!
My
Quux26
DIRECT?!??? (Score:5)
Mmmmmm. .. .. (Score:1)
MMmmmmmmmmm, cracking cheese, Steven.
Penguins (Score:2)
If so, then maybe Tux can join "Feathers" McGraw for it's resocializing-program
More info (Score:5)
http://news
Re:technology (Score:1)
Re:Tux's Evil Brother (Score:2)
Penguins, small children, eye size, anime (Score:1)
Probably ties into that odd belief that children are innocent, (yeah, right! They're just smaller, and less dangerous) and the weird mental association between big eyes and kids. I mean, when was the last time YOU saw a 'Bambi-eyed' villain?
Info on "Chicken Run" (Score:4)
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films /details/chickenrun.html [corona.bc.ca]
Looks hilarious.
Re:technology (Score:1)
Sorta like, it'll "look" like claymation but would they use computers to fill in some "spots"?
Anyways, I have faith it'll look great. Claymations rocks. Heck I even like Gumby.
technology (Score:4)
Having said that, I remember watching a quasi-documentry on how Nick Park creates his movies. And it was a PAINSTAKING process if I remember correctly, which basically involved making every single adjustments and snapping a pic of it. It must've take lots and lots of time to create one of these claymations. So I'm wondering if they are going to continue that tradition of claymation or maybe they'll switch to computers all together? (hey they did something like that with TPM). It'd be interesting to see exactly how they'll go about doing it technology wise. Anyway, this is one movie that I'm looking forward to.
Re:The article Translated more LOL (Score:1)
Re:That ought to screw things up, all right (Score:3)
Hyerk. The trouble is that, although they started out with good intentions, it all rather develops into a death by a thousand cuts. Nobody (or at least not so many people) buys something with the express intention of screwing it up. But the trouble is that you're dealing with a lot of people here who are almost by definition control freaks. Ever seen a really creative type like Spielberg trying their darndest not to add "helpful hints"? It's pitiful; they start turning puce. In the end, they crack and offer advice. Which gets taken, because it usually sounds sensible, and after all, he's the boss.
Then the floodgates open. Once the iron rule of "no interference" has been broken, it's off to the races for the media-Borg of corporate suits who make their living by producing toxic horrible crap. And each one of them is an expert in appearing to have the authority to speak for Spielberg Himself. And so the project gets buried under a landslide of crap, and it all gets Disneyfied with a tie-in here, a cute stuffed toy there and everywhere an uplifting moral message.
If you ever wondered why a favourite band began to suck after a while, nine times out of ten this sort of thing is the reason why.
jsm
Re:No reason to hit babblefish (Score:1)
And a BBC [bbc.co.uk] link too...
SW
right from the horse's mouth (Score:1)
Re:Tux's Evil Brother (Score:2)
I have nothing against the penguin, btw...
Re:DIRECT?!??? (Score:2)
The article Translated more (Score:5)
I creator British of the figures comic Wallace and Gromit, park of signal of the head, with steven a mountain of the game of four films will turn London - the British creator of the figures comic Wallace and Gromit, park of signal of the head, is with the director of the United States steven the mountain of the game one series of four films in order to turn. A contract rolling-mill 239 adapted beyond 250 million dollars (. Euro/3,29 billion S) has signed the two film-creatives second the specific one of the mountain of the cat of Jeffrey, a united founder of the DreamWorks company of the mountain of the game. The figures Wallace and the relative Gromit dog of figurefigure have piloted to teuflischen the penguin to the films of the parks between the other to the moon, in order to observe the cheese in on and have fought piume the McGraw of the ladro here d
Re:That ought to screw things up, all right (Score:4)
The deal is: they give Park the money, he makes them the films. It's the neat bits -- the lighting, the details, the characterisation -- that have made the films so loved, and the merchandise so successful. Blandness and Disneyfication is not what Spielberg & Co are paying $250m for.
Re:God, don't scare me like that. (Score:3)
I am afraid that much of the appeal of the series would be lost in the translation to "Hollywood" commercialism.
Spielberg has always had a great business sense. I am not sure that I want see any such business appeal attached to some of my favourite characters.
Just my 0.02