A New Moon(fall)
Over the holidays, we got a couple of presents, including a new trailer for sci-fi thriller Moonfall, featuring some of the out of this world work from VFX Supe Bob Winter and the MTL team. The release date has been confirmed as 4th February – not long to go!
We’re All Spider-Fans
Spider-Man: No Way Home smashed it at the box office, being hailed as Sony’s most successful film ever, with some saying ‘It became the pandemic’s most successful film in just three days.’ According to Forbes, the film has the highest audience score in MCU history. A truly amazing success for our brilliant MTL team, headed by VFX Supes Adrien Saint Girons and Christian Kaestner.
Literally Everyone Looked Up
Don’t Look Up broke Netflix’s Record with Most Viewing Hours in Single Week. Director Adam McKay was surprised, to say the least. It’s now in Netflix’s top 3 most successful films of all time (in a film’s first 28 days) with 2018’s Bird Box and fellow Framestore feature, Red Notice.
Method News
Variety’s Ones to Watch
Variety eyeballs a whole pile of Framestore and Method titles for its most anticipated films of 2022, including – deep breath – Moonfall, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis, Thor: Love and Thunder, White Noise and George Miller’sThree Thousand Years of Longing. Framestore and Method episodic projects were also well represented in the mag’s round-up of most anticipated new TV shows of 2022, with Moon Knight, Lord Of The Rings, Ms. Marvel and The Sandman all featuring.
Elvis has The Guardian All Shook Up
Two Method titles feature in The Guardian‘s ’25 films to look out for in 2022’ list: the hugely-anticipated Top Gun: Maverick and Baz Luhrmann’s ode to the king of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis.
Awards
Academy Awards Shortlist
Framestore features scooped an amazing three spots on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best VFX – The Matrix Resurrections, No Time To Die, and Spider-Man: No Way Home are all up for consideration. Our friends at Method also got a nod for their brilliant work on Shang-Chi and the Lengend of the Ten Rings. An outstanding achievement! Keep your fingers crossed for the Oscar nominations announcement on 8th Feb.
Annie Awards
If that weren’t enough, we’ve also bagged two Annie nominations for Best Animated Character – Live Action for Ulysses the super-squirrel from Flora and Ulysses and King Shark from The Suicide Squad.
Press
The Magic of VFX
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of The Philosopher’s Stone and its impact on the UK VFX industry, 3D World explored the journey of visual effects in the Wizarding World, from Harry Potter through to Fantastic Beasts. Journalist James Clarke interviewed Creative Director, Film, Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor Andy Kind and Global Animation Director Michael Eames (LDN) for the piece, which is featured in print and digital copies of Issue 282 of 3D World Magazine.
Shoot to the Top
‘Don’t Choose Extinction’ made Shoot’s Top 10 VFX and Animation chart, featuring alongside Lidl’s Christmas time-warp ad, and John Lewis’s seasonal ad, with an out of this world visitor.
1899
Taking a rare break from his role as overall VFX Supervisor on 1899, Christian Kaestner (MTL) took the time to answer some Qs on virtual production for the latest edition of Definition magazine. The article is on page 30 of the digital edition, which you can see here.
Creature (FX) Comforts
Framethrower sat down with Animation Lead (MTL) Shuchi Singhal to talk about their journey in VFX, from Life of Pi to Fantastic Beasts. Watch here.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Update your email footers, folks! It’s quick, it’s easy, and you won’t feel foolish for using a signature that’s so last year. Everybody’s got to do it, so make sure you’re signed into the VPN and use this handy generator.
[ FRAMED ]
Meet Max Solomon (Animation Supervisor, LDN). Max recently leant his talents to The Matrix Resurrections, and his current project has him developing a huge man crush on Alex Garland. He enjoys tending to his allotment or keeping fit by playing football (but really he’s training for that third consecutive Dad’s race win). Read the full piece here.
In other news
No Way We’re Missing This
The MTL team celebrated the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home with a special staff screening. What a fun way to kick off the holiday season, and a great way to see the film!
Bakers Gonna Bake
Speaking of all things festive, the annual Christmas Bake Off was held virtually this year. Once again, you all stunned with your culinary creations. Congratulations to Jayshri Dudhyal (Roto Artist – MUM) who took first place with her festive Barbie cake! Jessica Kersey-Preston’s (Junior Animator – LDN) fantastic gingerbread dragon took second, and Ruth Deane (Compositor – LDN) snowballed into third with her adorable arctic fox biscuits.
That’s it for this week – catch you on the flip side!