ILM President Teases The Evolution Of 'The Hulk' In AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
With Disney and many other studios bringing their productions to the UK, ILM have officially set up shop in London. Here, President Lynwen Brennan talks in details about the technology they're using to continue The Hulk's evolution and J.J. Abrams' practical approach to Star Wars Episode VII...
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and ILM President Lynwen Brennan were at a press event last night to promote the launch of the opening of Industrial Light & Magic's new London studio in Soho. IGN managed to catch up with the latter to talk about two of their most highly anticipated projects, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars Episode VII. When asked about how they're developing the Hulk in the sequel after their incredible work in The Avengers, Brennan described the CGI character as a, "really big creative challenge for us," before adding: "Getting that personality is very important to Joss [Whedon], and it’s very important that it’s driven by Mark [Ruffalo]’s performance. We’ve developed a new capture system, which we call Muse, which really captures the actor’s performance - it allows us to combine different takes as well. We’re using it on Warcraft, and we furthered the development on Avengers."
Talk then turned to Star Wars Episode VII, and while she wouldn't give anything away about the type of work ILM are doing on the highly anticipated follow-up to Return of the Jedi, Brennan did have this to say. "It’s very much JJ [Abrams]’s style, we’ve worked with JJ quite a few times now. One of the things that makes his films have so much heart is they are grounded in reality. There’s something the actors can touch and feel. He’s so passionate about that, and it comes through in his films. And what it does for us in visual effects is it also gives us something to build upon. It gives us something to ground our visual effects with. Not only in the shots that have practical sets that we’re expanding on, or putting a creature into, it also gives us a really strong aesthetic that we know to follow in shots that are all-CG. Some of this movie takes place in space, that won’t be a shock to anybody, I don’t think I’m giving anything away there (laughs) and that’s hard to shoot without it being CG. But [the practical effects] gives us that sense of reality that we aim for." Avengers: Age of Ultron is set to be released on May 1st, 2015, and Star Wars Episode VII will follow a little later than year on December 18th. What do you guys think of these comments?