jon favreau
Latest
The Mandalorian (and Grogu) are coming to theaters, with series creator Jon Favreau directing
There’s another Star Wars movie coming to theaters. The Mandalorian & Grogu will follow the adventures of, well, the Mandalorian and Grogu, and it’s to be directed by series creator Jon Favreau.
Tribeca Film Festival will expand its games program next year
Hideo Kojima and Geoff Keighley have joined Tribeca Games' new advisory board.
Disney+ is preparing a 'The Mandalorian' behind-the-scenes series
If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the second season of The Mandalorian, which arrives this fall, you may be happy to learn that Disney+ is working on a new behind-the-scenes docuseries about the show. The eight-episode series, Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, will include interviews with cast and crew, never-before-seen footage and roundtable conversations hosted by The Mandalorian’s executive producer Jon Favreau. The series premieres on May 4th, Star Wars Day, and new episodes will be available every Friday -- Disney+ will also drop the last chapter in The Clone Wars series on May 4th.
See how 'The Mandalorian' used Unreal Engine for its real-time digital sets
It's not surprising that a VFX-heavy show like The Mandalorian uses digital sets, even though it also relies heavily on practical, in-camera effects. What's more unexpected, however, is that the actors were able to see and perform within those sets rather than against a sterile green screen environment. To do all that, Jon Favreau and his team work with Epic Games to develop a new, innovative technique using digital sets projected on LED displays, using the Fortnite creator's Unreal game engine.
'The Mandalorian' returns with season two in fall 2020
It's no secret that a second season of The Mandalorian is in the works, but when does it show up? Roughly a year from now, apparently. Series overseer Jon Favreau has confirmed that the follow-up will premiere on Disney+ in fall 2020, or roughly a year after the Star Wars live action series began. He's still not saying what it'll entail (the Gamorrean isn't necessarily a clue), but this will be reassuring to anyone panicking at having to go without a fix of their favorite bounty hunter.
Watch the first trailer for Disney's 'The Mandalorian'
Disney has revealed the first trailer for its long-awaited Star Wars original series, The Mandalorian. At the D23 Expo, creator Jon Favreau took the stage to reveal footage of the upcoming show, which will debut exclusively on Disney+ November 12th, the day the streaming service is set to launch. In the trailer you can see The Mandalorian himself, a lone gunfighter, wandering around the outer reaches of the galaxy. Favreau says there's absolutely no authority from the New Republic wherever The Mandalorian goes, and this trailer makes it clear just how far he'll go to handle anyone who does him wrong. Heck, you can see him cutting someone in half with blast doors.
Jon Favreau is already working on season two of 'The Mandalorian'
Disney's The Mandalorian is still months away from its premiere, but that isn't stopping plans for round two. Jon Favreau told Collider that he's already in pre-production for a second season of the live action Star Wars show, including writing and preparation for special effects shots. While this is as much about saving time as anything (it's tricky to produce quality effects on a TV schedule, Favreau said), it does show that Disney has confidence in the series.
In movies, CGI is best when you don't even notice it
Cinema screens are huge, which is odd, because the eye can only focus on a small portion of what's in front of it at any one time. That's what prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to team up with neuroscientists from Birkbeck, University of London, who in turn recruited eye-tracking firm Tobii. The trio embarked upon a project to determine where people concentrated their gaze. Then, by using Tobii's hardware, were able to create a heat map that was overlaid on the frame, much in the same way that SMI analyzes sports matche. The conclusions from the research found that the best use of CGI isn't to make big robots at the front of the frame, but to fill in all of the spare detail that you're not looking at.
Iron Man 2 Blu-ray goes on sale September 28 with plenty of extras
After breaking $300 million in the domestic box office and a record breaking (though initially flawed) predecessor, you'd figure Iron Man 2 would be in for an incredibly well-spec'd Blu-ray release... and you would be right. The three disc Blu-ray/DVD with Digital Copy set has plenty of extras including a 5.1 DTS-HD MA English soundtrack, commentary from director Jon Favreau and Previsualization and Animatics special features -- and that's just Disc 1. Disc 2 brings even more HD features including an extensive making of, more featurettes and a shout out to the late DJ AM. Check after the break for box art and all the other details in the press release (except for the MSRP) we'll be waiting to find out if this is a proper addition to the collection of reference quality discs this fall.
Iron Man 2: the gadgets (video)
When done right, a science fiction or fantasy film will leave audiences with a prescient glimpse into our actual gadget future. Remember the heady pre-iPhone, pre-Pureness days of 2002 when you first saw Minority Report? Staring silently, mouth agape, jonesing for a chance to partake in a multi-touch, transparent display future using nothing but gestures? Well now that Iron Man 2 has been released, we've got another chance to look into the high-tech crystal ball, this time envisioned by a team of artists at Perception who did the design, animation, and visual effects work that turned Tony Stark's transparent LG smartphone (pictured above), touch-screen coffee table, and holographic lab environment into an on-screen reality. The group was compelled by director Jon Favreau and the team at Marvel Studios to keep the UI elements "legible and logical, while still appearing to be several generations beyond the typical user experience." Perception tells us that some of its inspiration was directly attributed to Engadget as it researched near-term technologies for the film's future reality. No doubt, we do see influence from Emblaze's First Else navigation elements and limited color palette as well as Microsoft's InkSeine research at the heart of the doomed Courier UI. And if we're not mistaken, Stark's big ass computing table is almost certainly inspired by Microsoft Surface. Now get past the break and check out Perception's contribution to Iron Man 2, the future of Google search alone is not to be missed.%Gallery-92501%
Activision couldn't help but sign on to help market 'Couples Retreat'
If you're anything like us, you went running out to see the latest Vince Vaughn / Jon Favreau vehicle Couples Retreat the second you heard about the exciting partnership between Activision's Guitar Hero franchise and Universal contained within. You see, Vaughn's character works as a Guitar Hero salesperson (does that exist?) -- a point that comes into play when the film features a plastic peripheral-powered GH duel between Vaughn's character and a resort staffer. According to Variety, Vaughn and Favreau wrote the music rhythm game into the film because they are fans of the series, leading Activision to sign on as one of the film's many marketing partners."When we heard that Vince's character is a salesperson of the video game we laughed hysterically," Will Kassoy, senior VP of publishing at Activision, told Variety. With the film opening to a $35.3 million weekend, it appears everyone involved was laughing all the way to the bank, proving that hackneyed premises can still sneak their way into just about any kind of mainstream media and work. With Favreau prepping the return of Iron Man, Kassoy said Activision "wouldn't mind" if the superhero decided to pick up a Guitar Hero controller. Now that's synergy!
