Those who didn't dig the Motion Capture look of the recent Beowulf film might wanna take a powder from this post. Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers, who spearheaded that action epic last year and is behind the upcoming Jim Carrey MoCap film, A Christmas Carol have found the writer for their next project. Ann Peacock, who is best known for scripting the The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe a couple of years ago, has signed on to adapt Eoin Colfer book, Airman, for the big screen. Gil Kenan, who most recently directed the rather unimpressive City of Ember, is slated to helm the project which is budgeted at somewhere around $150M.
That is a huge budget but roughly the equivalent of the previous ImageMovers films. The first film I recall using the technology was The Polar Express, which Zemeckis also produced/directed. That went on to make north of $300M worldwide, which is phenomenal. The next movie, Beowulf, was #1 here for a week before ending up making roughly $80M here and another $110M worldwide. It remains to be seen if the upcoming A Christmas Carol will have the same global resonance.
Airman is the story of an Irish boy named Conor, who's father is the lead bodyguard for the King. When the King is murdered, Conor is suspected as the culprit and thrown into prison. There he spends his time fashioning a flying machine that will rescue himself and his family.
Sounds a little bit like the story of Icarus and Daedalus, who built their flying apparatus while locked away in prison. I was not a fan of City of Ember, in case you hadn't noticed, but I love the MoCap technology they have been using. It's come a long way since the dead eyes of the characters in The Polar Express. This could be one to keep an eye on.
