Well now, here's an intriguing fusion of the old and new. Executive producer Sergio Donati (Once Upon A Time In The West) is backing Andrew McKenzie's Hired Guns, a spaghetti western due to start shooting in July with an in-talks cast of Will Patton, Jeff Fahey, Karl Urban, Keith David, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini and Zoe Bell and the score provided by Andrea Morricone who, yes, is the son of Ennio. This alone would be enough to catch the attention. The cast fits, Donati obviously knows the score and speaking of the score ... well, it's hard to argue with the Morricone heritage, now isn't it? But here's where things get interesting: The film is going to be shot digitally on the Red camera and then put through the same rotoscope animation technique pioneered on Waking Life and subsequently employed for A Scanner Darkly and others. A rotoscoped western? If they push this right out to the extremes it could be pretty spectacular.
For a taste of what's coming, McKenzie has released a pre-viz teaser to show what he's got in mind. You'll find it below the break.
Better idea: make the exact same movie, only don't freaking rotoscope it.
Yeah I can't really see the point of that and the pre viz looked like it was done in five minutes in After Effects with a preset filter.
I was wondering why rotoscope it, too, and then I remembered this short film I saw a while back ... Cowboys Versus Astronauts, or something like that, that had cowboys battling space shuttle astronauts. It was all rotoscoped and it was AWESOME. If they're going to play things straight, there's no point. I totally agree. But if they push it right out to the extremes and really use the technique for all it's worth, they could do something really cool with it.
This isn't really rotoscoped. It's just some after effects filters and a little compositing, like the stuff you see from Geoff Marslett.
The difference? Waking Life and Scanner... had teams of actual artists who had to do character design and hand animation, using the footage as a guide. This is some green screen, some crappy xerox filters to get some hard edges, and then posterized color.
IMHO, it looks like ass.
Yup...
Just make another Western movie...because they seem to do so well at the box office.
Oh wait...
hmm...i admire their attempt to forge a new subgenre, but western is all about man vs. nature vs. civilization, among other things. it'd be like roboscoping porn or a mountain-climbing that ends in disaster. if they give it surreal aspects (like miike's django? kim's Good/Bad/Weird?) the technique may be justified. if it's just ordinary sets & shootout, it'd just be "masking" the production design and become a different packaging of those cheapie TV westerns in the genre's waning days.
oh well, so much for armchair movie producing :D
I'd watch an animated western. It's bold, plus animation is at most times a write-off for violence. And I agree that that's not really rotoscoping. It's like a solarising filter or something.
Does anybody remember "Detective Story" from the Animatrix?
I'd like to see that style of animation under something like For A Few Dollars More. It's either cool in a fucked up way,or fucked up in a cool way, I'm not sure...
I agree with pochiW that if they´d really try to give it some surreal aspects, they might be able to justify the decision to go with rotoscoping but no matter what, it can´t beat the real thing! Have there ever been more magnificently composed sequences than those in Leone´s westerns? Hey, come to think of it, didn´t he use rotoscoping for the opening credits of "A Fistful of Dollars"? The red background with the black riders?
No matter what, I have to watch it. I mean, there´s not that many westerns being made today so you have to cling on to every last straw.
Sergio's a popular name among spaghetti western filmmakers.
I'd dig a cool animated (rotoscoped or whatever) western to tide me over until somebody, somewhere, someHOW gets around to adapting Stephen King's Dark Tower seies.
Already happening Greg
http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=16526
and
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/16074
This is a total waste of time. Particularly if Mr. Faheyis in it. We adults don't go to the movies to watch cartoons. Bag it and make a real movie, please.
Put my vote in for: NO ROTOSCOPING!
Also: Rotoscoping was pioneered on WAKING LIFE? No. Maybe this particular digital variant was, but rotoscoping's been around almost as long as animation itself.
I think it seems like such a waste that if you have a cast that consists of people like Will Patton, Jeff Fahey, Karl Urban, Keith David, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini and Zoe Bell, you would want to watch THEM and not their animated counterparts, right? I mean, these are people with interesting faces that I bet would look great in those Leone-style close-ups. But I have to admit that at the same time I´m beginning to warm up to the concept of an animated western. Let´s just hope that it´s an ADULT animated western so we don´t get stuck with watching another episode of Lucky Luke.
Mr. Rhythm X:
Blow it out your ear.
Love,
Donna