Visual development

2010

Activision Readies Blitz for 'Call of Duty: Black Ops'

Last commercial I worked on was for Call of Duty, Black Ops. Here’s a link to an article on AdAge.com

Dubbed "There Is a Soldier in All of Us," the new 60-second TV spot from Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, doesn't use any footage of actual game-play. Instead, it stars people representing different walks of life -- a businesswoman, a hotel concierge, a Best Buy worker, a fast-food employee and two celebrities, NBA star Kobe Bryant and talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel -- all shooting real guns to music of the Rolling Stones [...]

Gulliver's travels

Doing some work on Gulliver’s Travel, the Jonathan Swift novel, which is both a satire and parody of travel writing of his time period. The film follows the general outline but it’s more a contemporary re–imagining (and dumbing down) of the classic tale where Jack Black stars as Gulliver, a big–talking mailroom clerk who, after he’s mistakenly assigned a travel piece on the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Lilliput. At first enslaved by the diminutive and industrious Liliputians, and later declared their hero, Gulliver comes to learn that it’s how big you are on the inside that counts. The cast includes Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet and T.J. Miller. It’s written by Nicholas Stoller and Joe Stillman and directed by Rob Letterman.

Incendies

The City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian Feature went to Denis Villeneuve for Incendies, a  wrenching drama about immigration and war. Distribution rights were acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Incendies just hit theaters in Quebec. It was a great opportunity to work with Rodeo FX and Denis Villeneuve. We created matte paintings of destroyed cities. There are some examples on the matte painting page.

The film stars Maxim Gaudette and Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin as Montreal twins who, following the death of their mother, go to their notary (Rémy Girard), and are shocked to learn that their mother's last wishes is that they hand-deliver a letter to their father, whom they were sure was dead, and to a brother they didn't know existed. Belgian actress Lubna Azabal plays the mother. This leads the twins in a harrowing trip back to their homeland in the Middle East where they discover family secrets - and are thrust back into the horrors of the country's recent history. The film is produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw from micro_scope, one of Montreal's cooler production outfits. Incendies was set to have its Canadian premiere Monday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

2010 Reel

The new 2010 Concept/matte painting reel is up!

More movies

Just finished concept work for PRIEST, a Korean comic book film adaptation. PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece's boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Scott Charles Stewart directs. Starring Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q. Set to debut May 13, 2011. More info on the official movie site.

New art

New matte paintings from Percy Jackson in the gallery.