June 03, 2003

HULK SMASH.

If they can do this:

...then we’re getting very close to movies featuring full-on synthespians – that is, computer-animated actors that look 100% human. Not just long shots, a la THE MATRIX RELOADED, but close-ups.

The first film to try to do it may be THE POLAR EXPRESS.

According to The Los Angeles Times, it’s going to be a live-action movie with no live action being filmed. Instead, actors “will be covered in motion-capture sensors so that each move of an arm, each flicker of an eyelid and each wrinkle of a lip will be stored on a computer and used as guide for the digital animators who will create the actual movie footage.”

Computer wizards also are using Tom Hanks’ current facial structure to create a completely virtual character of him as a young boy. All this technology will likely push the project’s price tag well past its current estimate of $150 million.

“This is an ambitious, exciting project for us,” Martin Shafer, chairman and chief executive of Castle Rock Entertainment, the studio behind the movie, told the Times . “We’ve seen the early test [footage], and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY says the close-ups of the Hulk cost $20m:

It would also require more dough – an estimated $20 million more. “It wasn’t like we had to spend more money to fix or improve,” says Parent, dismissing rumors that the money was needed to do just that. “It was, ‘Wow, now we can have close-ups – let’s do it.’”

Kinda pricey. But the cost will come down.

By the way, I’ve seen some concerns expressed about how THE HULK is going to do. I have no doubt it’s going to be a huge hit.