Hey folks, Harry here... Here's a report on the full 17 minutes that was recently shown to Junket reporters that went out to Hawaii, but are bound to not talk about it till some point next year... BUT luckily for us, Sony is continuing to show the footage around to possible promotional partners, and at Comdex this week in VEGAS... they showed the footage to a bunch of tech-heads.... and... wallah... we got a report in. I'm dying to see FINAL FANTASY, but I'm holding back my enthusiasm until I see a scene that is more that people staring ponderously or people in masks firing guns... I'm just a tad concerned about the dramatics of the film... range of emotion coming from the characters. Because... you see.... If they are attempting photoreal humans... then the script and the acting needs to be up to the challenge as well.... at least in my book... Although all of this sounds quite exciting and looks gorgeous.... I just wonder if it has the whole package and isn't just pretty wrapping paper... ya know?
Harry, I attended Comdex this week in Vegas and got to go to a preview and pitch on Final Fantasy put on by Columbia. They were trying to sell high tech companies on doing tie ins when the movie comes out. They only had about 30 or 40 people come. It was sponsored by One Voice, a company that makes some neat voice naviagtion software for the web (check out Ivan at OneVoiceTech.Com, it's free).
They had a making of video (really lousy looking when projected on the theater screen, but neat info) as well as a PowerPoint presentation showing the timeline for already existing promotions and tie ins, such as release of FF9 on PlayStation and FF10 on PlayStation 2. And then they showed us 17 minutes of "80% finished" footage. The sound was all there and they said it was already "sweetened" and finished, though I think the music might have been temped (didn't distract, but I think I recognized some previously used music). Bottom line, the film is awesome. Any given still image of the characters is perfect. They still have some work to do on the mouth and jaw when they talk (they all speak a little like Bogey, with a paralyzed upper lip), but the movement and things like hair and clothing seem perfect. It's pretty dark and intense, but my kids (13 and 14) both absolutely lapped it up. The look is very Aliens/Terminator future, with wasp shaped fliers that could have been manufactured by Cyberdyne moving through a ruined landscape reminiscent of Damnation Alley (fanboy test, what ruined city was it they came into in that movie that was infested with giant carniverous cockroaches?)
Here's the basic info from the presentation (I've been promised a copy of the PowerPoint file, and I'll forward it if it comes in):
- Action Adventure - PG-13
- Voices by - Alec Baldwin, Ming Wa, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin and Ving Rhames
- Director - Hiroshi Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy interactive game series)
- Written by - Al Reinert (Apollo 13), Jeff Vintar and Jack Fletcher
- Produced by - Jun Aida and Chris Lee
- Description - The first CGI motion picture with PhotoReal human characters, this thrilling, futuristic action-adventure pits the earth and its people against the ultimate enemy - mysterious alien predators that steal the energy from all living things on the planet.
- Release date: July 2001
Woods and Sutherland play the secret police and leader types respectively (fairly typical from both in what little I saw). Ming Wa as the heroine and Baldwin as the soldier/love interest seem well done. Rhames is convincing and it's a real hoot to see an attractive looking Steve Buscemi. I wonder who he had to pay to get his character to look that good? They emphasize that the characters are NOT meant to look like anyone real (living or dead). The alien predators are ghost like, in fact they remind me of some of the ghosts from Ghostbusters, particularly the giant one that comes through the arch in Greenwich Village. There are also ghosts that look like huge chinese dragons or hulking human sized creatures. Interesting images also crop up in the Ming Wa character's dreams where the creatures are kind of like the good aliens from 5th element, though on a diet. These dreams even implie that the aliens might not be bad guys.
I asked a question about the reactions reported from some actors about this being "too real" and a possible threat to their profession. The Columbia rep (Lee Dollar) told a story about a major actor "who will remain nameless" that dropped out of the production for this reason. He said all of that has been worked out and he also said that he hoped all of the current rumors of labor unrest will be resolved so that we can all enjoy our movies, though none of that should affect this movie.
some of the theme items they're trying to build tie ins around, "things you can own":
- FF trip to Hawaii (where the movie was made, implied meeting the artists)
- "Save the world"
- "Protect the Earth."
- "Keep Hope Alive."
- FF IX and X game tie in
- Opportunities to have Square (game maker/producer) create a dedicated spot
- Become a digital star in an upcoming Square film (does this require an internet telethon to raise money to buy this for you? - they also suggested this character might go into a video game)
All in all I think this is going to be huge. I don't know what this will be up against, but if I were one of those others I'd look for another time to launch.
Call me the Comdex Dweeb (or is that redundant?)
P.S. since this was Columbia/Sony they also had the guys from Sony come with the new Aibo 2 robot and let us play for awhile. It looks like a cat and is now only $1500. Really cool.
