Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: Ghostboy on December 17, 2003, 02:28:24 AM

Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Ghostboy on December 17, 2003, 02:28:24 AM
www.skycaptain.com

Holy shit, this movie looks amazing. I know I say that about every fourth trailer I say, but seriously...this is way too cool for school. It looks like a massive sci fi film as directed by Guy Maddin after he watched The Iron Giant a dozen times. This is now my most anticipated summer movie, no question.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Pwaybloe on December 17, 2003, 11:27:45 AM
Yeah, I know.  What I found to be fascinating is that this movie is the director's first feature.  

Here's some info I found on how he got the job and his technique:

Director Notes: (2/13/03) Very little is known about Kerry Cornan, except that he (or she?) is 29 years old, and wrote some sort of "incredible software" to go along with the script that impressed producer Aurelio De Laurentiis (Leviathan) enough that he got the wheels rolling to get this project a $60 million dollar budget. What sort of software could it have been... and who exactly is Kerry Conran?

(4/17/03) A few different people have written in to answer at least one of those questions, but I forgot to post it here. Kerry is definitely a "he". The bigger questions remain unanswered.

(5/17/03) Not anymore, they don't. The Los Angeles Times has revealed that Kerry Cornan is a CalArts graduate, and his software is a CGI program that allows him to shoot his entire movie against blue screens, and fill in the backgrounds later with images he's been working on for years, which are mostly already done. What this allows Conran to do, which is what is so revolutionary, is to have an already existing 3-D storyboard of every scene, with stick figures in place where the actors are supposed to be. Now, all he has to do is stick in his cast, and he's basically done, it sounds like.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: russiasusha on December 17, 2003, 11:31:37 AM
Where's the trailor


I feel like i'm in hell
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: russiasusha on December 19, 2003, 06:30:44 PM
The trailer is cool everybody, don't worry...........
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Sleuth on December 19, 2003, 06:44:34 PM
I still want to see it for free
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on December 19, 2003, 07:04:23 PM
Quote from: SlogI still want to see it for free

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/skycaptainandtheworldoftomorrow/


Poster:

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aint-it-cool-news.com%2Fimages%2Fskatwot-poster.jpg&hash=948e1a2b12aedd0e8e726d98cb432c713d6b2ea1)
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Sleuth on December 19, 2003, 07:17:11 PM
Ahhh, that was neat but this could easily be very bad.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: The Perineum Falcon on December 19, 2003, 07:22:17 PM
It's different enough to garauntee my sev' fi'ty.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Pubrick on December 19, 2003, 09:16:46 PM
without watching the spoilerful trailer/tool-of-the-devil, i just know this will be FRAMETASTIC.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: godardian on December 19, 2003, 09:22:54 PM
I love the poster.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: picolas on December 19, 2003, 09:52:21 PM
i'm very excited.

name one bad movie so far that featured both the words "Sky" and "Captain" in its title.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Raikus on December 19, 2003, 11:37:36 PM
Very cool. I'm looking forward to this one. I'm also really interested in how it was made (blue screens and 3D CGI).
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: SHAFTR on December 20, 2003, 03:13:21 AM
It didn't do it for me.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Gamblour. on December 20, 2003, 09:46:55 PM
Quote from: RaikusVery cool. I'm looking forward to this one. I'm also really interested in how it was made (blue screens and 3D CGI).

IMDb says he wrote a program that allows him to shoot all his actors in front of a blue screen (reportedly they filmed it in seven days) and then fill in the background with what he needs. The info was pretty vague.

I'm sorry, but I hate blue screen and the blue screen in this trailer was really awful. Might be too early to judge, but it looked a LOT like this Star Wars movie my friends tried to do, as far as blue screen quality goes. It seemed to have the dv 'look' and I really hate how dv looks, though it's good at getting small things done. This movie looks pretty bad to me.
Title: Re: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on December 20, 2003, 10:47:34 PM
Quote from: Ghostboywww.skycaptain.com

Holy shit, this movie looks amazing. I know I say that about every fourth trailer I say, but seriously...this is way too cool for school. It looks like a massive sci fi film as directed by Guy Maddin after he watched The Iron Giant a dozen times. This is now my most anticipated summer movie, no question.

HOLY SHIT, you're right!  i'd skipped this topic the past few days because i didnt know what the hell it was cause when i first saw ROTK the trailer didnt play.  but today it did  and HOLY SHIT!  this just jumped WAY WAY up on my to do list for next year.  i was blown away by the fucking trailer.  like, i didnt know something this cool existed.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: The Perineum Falcon on December 20, 2003, 11:16:14 PM
Quote from: Gamblor du JourI'm sorry, but I hate blue screen and the blue screen in this trailer was really awful. Might be too early to judge, but it looked a LOT like this Star Wars movie my friends tried to do, as far as blue screen quality goes. It seemed to have the dv 'look' and I really hate how dv looks, though it's good at getting small things done. This movie looks pretty bad to me.
I thought the "style" makes it look more like those old sci-fi movies. It especially reminds me of those old Superman shorts that CN used to play. Anyone else remember these? The flying robots look like they're taken right out of the cartoons.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on December 20, 2003, 11:24:00 PM
yup, max fleischer superman. those cartoons are great.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F1572523034.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg&hash=90600a0c32b98a4178ce702fec889f1df5fd10e9)
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Stefen on February 12, 2004, 07:47:28 PM
Has anyone read this script? The trailer is fucking amazing. I can't wait for this.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: lamas on February 12, 2004, 10:38:14 PM
I saw this trailer at the theatre and thought it looked corny as hell.  Reminded me of The Rocketeer which sucked.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: pete on February 12, 2004, 10:44:43 PM
yeah but rocketeer never had giant robots.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Henry Hill on February 25, 2004, 09:07:13 AM
:yabbse-thumbup:  :yabbse-thumbup:
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on March 01, 2004, 12:25:40 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thezreview.co.uk%2Fposters%2Fposterimages%2Fskycaptainandtheworldoftomorrow02.jpg&hash=69b7df856ad17e6dbb46a643f74d5e5fedfb8569)
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: xerxes on March 01, 2004, 03:37:11 PM
very nice
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on March 15, 2004, 05:02:13 PM
Mr. Invisible and the Secret Mission to Hollywood
Source: NY Times

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fgraphics7.nytimes.com%2Fimages%2F2004%2F03%2F12%2Fmagazine%2F14conran.1.184.jpg&hash=eeda38a5111d51e2807b23b7c318b2cb1cabae37)

Kerry Conran is not what you would call descript. He has very short, tan-colored hair, usually covered with a clean, logoless baseball cap. He is 37, somewhat baby-faced and often quiet, with a smile in the corner of his pale blue eyes that suggests he is observing you from a far-off world of his own. And while he can be genial and funny, his default setting seems to be self-deprecation to the point of self-erasure. The second thing of any note he ever said to me was ''I am basically an amorphous blob of nothing.'' The first thing was ''I'm shy.''

This was on the set of his movie ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.'' You might expect a little more brio from a writer-director who is making a summer blockbuster with almost unlimited creative control. Set in 1939, the movie stars Jude Law as the daring flying ace Sky Captain, who teams up with his former flame, the intrepid reporter Polly Perkins, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, as they track down a mysterious mad scientist named Totenkopf. It is in part a nostalgic homage to the movies of the 30's and 40's: the hammy fisticuffs and golly-inspiring proto-technology of sci-fi cliffhangers like ''Flash Gordon'' alongside the snappy patter (and even snappier clothes) of the era's noir thrillers.

But like the old serials it emulates, ''Sky Captain'' is mainly preoccupied with the strange promises of the future. The astonishing things you will see in the world of tomorrow include: an immense, silvery zeppelin docking at the Empire State Building; an elephant that fits in the palm of your hand; a troop of giant robots marching down Sixth Avenue and the carpet at Radio City Music Hall. None of these things actually exist, though. Conran has not constructed a single set or miniature. Rather, they are computer images, built and animated in a virtual 3-D environment, or stitched together from photographs, which are then draped around the flesh-and-blood actors, who have been shot separately on an empty set in front of a blank ''blue-screen'' background, along with those few minimal props with which they actually interact (a ray gun, a robot blueprint, a bottle of milk of magnesia). The film, in other words, is one long special effect with Jude-Law-size holes in it.

''The goal was to make a live-action film, but to use conventions of traditional animation,'' Conran said. The reason? ''First and foremost, to do it cheaper.'' It's a model that would appeal to anyone who, like Conran, does not seem entirely comfortable spending other people's money; to anyone who might dream of shooting in Nepal or Paris (or in the 1930's) but doesn't have the means to get there; to anyone who is shy.

For Conran, the question, as he put it, was ''Could you be ambitious and make a film of some scope without ever leaving your room?'' And so 10 years ago, Kerry Conran went into a room in his apartment to make a movie. In some ways, he is just now beginning to come out of it.

At first, he was a mystery. Word of ''Sky Captain'' began to spread around the Internet only after Conran finished primary shooting in London last spring -- extraordinarily late for the Internet, which often seems invented specifically to track movies with giant robots in them. Even then, no one knew who Kerry Conran was. Google couldn't touch him. He was so undocumented in the world of Hollywood that I briefly wondered, when I began pursuing him, if perhaps he was just a front for his producer and partner and mentor Jon Avnet, who is well known for producing ''Risky Business'' and directing ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' but who is not so well known for retro-science-fiction summertime blockbusters, and who unlike Conran seems to have been photographed at least once in his life. I don't think Conran would mind that I doubted his existence. In fact, for a long time, that was the plan.

Conran grew up in Flint, Mich., in a pre-cable, pre-VCR period when the Sunday afternoon television crackled with old movies. Kerry and his older brother, Kevin, made capes out of towels and pretended to be superheroes. They steeped themselves in science fiction serials and film noir and the Universal monster movies. After high school, Conran moved to Los Angeles to attend the CalArts live-action filmmaking program, but he mainly hung around with the animators, because they were doing what he wanted to do: they were building worlds. Even as students, they could create anything, go anywhere. ''If you wanted something gigantic,'' he said, ''they could do it. Just draw it.''

He didn't want to be an animator, but he wanted their freedom from earthly concerns like budgets and reality. His student film tried to fuse traditional animation and live action in an interactive way he hadn't seen before. He does not like to discuss the film, called ''That Darn Bear,'' except to say that it involved a bear and that it remains, for him, a ''deep gaping wound.''

''I was, like, a year into it, if not a year and a half, and this film called 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' was announced,'' Conran recalled. ''And it was exactly what I was trying to do, but on a scale that, for me, was unimaginable. I filmed it for three years, and never ultimately finished it. It was just, at that point, demoralizing.''

After this, Kerry Conran went into his apartment in Sherman Oaks and pretty much stayed there. A self-trained computer ''nerd hobbyist,'' he supported himself with various custom-software and tech-support jobs. Then in 1993, ''Jurassic Park'' took photo-real computer-generated effects into the cinematic mainstream. At the same time, the first home computers powerful enough to emulate those effects were becoming available. Conran immediately began to experiment with ways to bring film into his Macintosh. He drove around with a camera, filming the sky with a purposefully shaky, home-movie hand, and then he went home and dropped a computer-animated U.F.O. into it -- a hoax.

As the digital-effects industry grew more sophisticated, so did he. He realized he could build whatever he wanted, and what's more, it could be gigantic. Rockets that dwarfed skyscrapers. Airplane hangars so large that you could not see someone on the other side. Because, he explained, ''what does it cost to hit the scale button and make something enormous? Nothing.''

And it didn't matter whether the actors were on a big expensive sound stage or in Conran's tiny apartment. By 1994, he had struck upon the idea of filming an entire movie by himself, at home, with a blue screen set up right in his apartment. He began to create what he was calling ''the World of Tomorrow.''

The title was borrowed from the 1939 World's Fair, along with that period's sleek aesthetic and brash optimism. Conran recalls how moved he was when he saw, in the 1933 ''King Kong,'' that the Empire State Building had at its top an actual zeppelin mooring mast. ''This is why you have to like these people in the 30's and 40's -- because they actually thought they could dock a zeppelin atop the Empire State Building,'' he said. ''And when the math wasn't quite up to snuff, they still said, 'Let's give it a whirl!' They just had these lunatic ideas and acted on them.''

From one of his jobs he had scored a Macintosh IIci, and its hard drive became his sound stage. By today's standards, it was mind-numbingly slow. Every limb of every giant robot had to be rendered separately in advance and reassembled later. Each leg took 12 hours. Each robot had two legs. There were 20 robots.

''I would wake up, and I wouldn't even go to the bathroom,'' he said. ''Frequently I'd sit there and suddenly say: 'Oh! I'm really thirsty!' It would be 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and I hadn't moved. I was a slave to this thing.''

He briefly played with the idea of another hoax: to present the film as the remnants of a never-completed adventure movie by a fictional protege of Frank Capra. ''But I was going to do it in such a way that a few of the shots would have been impossible to achieve,'' Conran explained. After people saw it, he said, ''they would be staggering. They wouldn't know how he did it.'' He decided he would be satisfied if he could create between 20 and 30 minutes of footage this way. After four years of working on it every day, he had six minutes.

But then, as typically occurs when things look darkest in the kind of movies Conran loves, a hero came along to save the day. A friend of his brother's wife came to dinner, a woman named Marsha Oglesby, who happened to be a movie producer. She had been hearing about the short for some time and was eager to see it. Conran protested: he wasn't ready. But she insisted. Six minutes later, she didn't know what to say. ''Can I see that again?'' she asked.

The next day she showed it to her boss, Jon Avnet, who was so impressed that he agreed to finance the movie himself until they could find a studio or investor. Avnet showed it to Jude Law, who then read the whole script and quickly agreed to star and be a co-producer. Avnet and Law then turned to Gwyneth Paltrow, and once she was on board, they decided why not get Angelina Jolie as well, to play the eye-patched rogue known as Frankie? And so they did. Now the film is a major summer release for Paramount, opening June 25.

Like most overnight success stories, this one took about a decade. But now Conran is here, directing movie stars, responsible for a staff of nearly 100, the scale button pushed to enormous. He is visibly amazed and happy to be here. And by all accounts (except his), he has handled the transition from recluse to Hollywood director gracefully. ''He was thrilled and touched that people were willing to realize his vision,'' Jude Law told me by phone. ''He's really a sweet-hearted man. But he's certainly no pushover. He knew exactly what he wanted.''

Still, it's hard not to sense a certain wistfulness, too, as Conran speaks about the old scheme: a phantom man directing a film that wasn't there. ''It would have been cool,'' he said.

In 1939, RKO gave a young radio writer from New York named Orson Welles a contract to write and direct anything he wanted. Jon Avnet wanted that kind of latitude for Conran, but he couldn't find a studio that would offer it. So Avnet built one. He spent nearly a quarter-million dollars to turn a former printing press in industrial Van Nuys into Sky Captain's headquarters, lining nearly every inch with computers and constructing a complete digital-effects house from scratch, with a small blue-screen stage in the back. ''At one point,'' Avnet told me, ''I spent way too much money.'' He estimates he spent about $1 million to develop the film, through his company, Brooklyn Films. Eventually, the Italian producer Aurelio De Laurentiis came in to complete financing, and then last June, Avnet sold the domestic rights to Paramount, for a reported $40 million.

He walked me through a series of three large, dim rooms full of terminals manned by computer modelers, animators, lighters, compositors. Some were touching up artificial clouds and fake skylines. Some were working on snowflakes. Another stared into the watery light of the monitor and slowly ate a leaf of lettuce.

They can do anything here. When one of Paltrow's arms was cut out from a shot, they copied the other one, flipped it and pasted it back in. Since all the lighting was being done on the computer, they could paint the frame with light and noirish shadows, erase it all and then start again.

Stephen Lawes is the compositing supervisor, in charge of combining the real photography, which is all shot on high-definition digital videotape, with the computer world. He showed me how they build a scene, first in black and white, dropping Paltrow into a photograph of an actual deco-period elevator in a municipal building across town. He demonstrated how he tweaked the color until it took on the lush, antique look of the period, and then married it to a virtual film stock to give the movie some of that classic graininess Conran was looking for. The final product was painterly, stately and somewhat uncanny. Avnet said that the approach has allowed the filmmakers to make digital video truly look like physical film, and it does -- but it's a curious kind of verisimilitude, one that imitates the technical limitations of the past, the artful phoniness of the old films it emulates, while adding massive underwater battles. ''We have the ultimate latitude to reframe, play and change,'' Lawes told me. ''It's pretty much like playing God.''

It is the flexibility of the setless, all-digital, centralized production process that, according to Avnet, has allowed them to make the movie for about half what it would have cost to make it traditionally. Still, at a reported budget of $70 million, it's not cheap. And despite Conran's emphasis on the economy of the technique, it is also clear that it affords him other rewards too.

Among Conran's first official hires was his brother, Kevin, his longtime collaborator since the days they shared a bedroom and wore capes. He is a professional illustrator and was the film's production designer. Together, Kerry and Kevin filigreed the film with cathedral-like touches that only they and the angels will see: the ship that carried King Kong in the 1933 movie, lying on the ocean floor; a line of deactivated robots, leaning against a wall in the exact same positions the Fleischer brothers had them in their moody 1941 Superman cartoon, ''The Mechanical Monsters.'' You will not know unless I tell you that the smudges in the zeppelin cockpit are real actors, because even though you can barely see them, Kerry decided that he would not computer-generate a human being. But he was determined to computer-generate everything else. Even in the briefest close-ups, say, of Polly reaching to retrieve a blueprint from the floor, the carpet at Radio City is an effect, a computerized image based on a photograph of the actual carpet, which Kerry has never seen in person. (As much money as they have supposedly saved, I still wonder if perhaps it wouldn't have been cheaper, at least for this scene, to just buy a rug sample.)

These are the types of details, superfluities and in-jokes that make up the secret language that the Conrans have been speaking since Flint, and it is, in large part, Jon Avnet's to decode. ''I am a non-nerd channeler of Kerry's vision,'' Avnet said.

His pride and affection for Conran are apparent, and he expresses them restlessly, constantly -- though he also reminded me, and himself, that the movie must be more than what he calls ''boys with toys.'' ''After all this incredible technological breakthrough is said and done, how's the story?'' he asked. ''People may be impressed that it was made, but they're not going to substitute being impressed for being entertained.''

In some ways (especially with a deadline looming), the technique offers the director too much flexibility, too much opportunity to haggle over every anxious shadow. As Avnet put it, it is the ''world of pure choice.'' Conran admitted that he might have been working on the movie for 20 years had Avnet not pulled it out of him. ''We joked,'' Avnet said, ''that after the film goes in the theaters, he'll finish it again for DVD, and then five or six years later, he'll have one-quarter of the film finished the way he really likes.''

Conran walked into Avnet's office in a plain black T-shirt, looking a little apprehensive. He had agreed to watch the original six-minute short with me and Avnet, and it was clear he wasn't looking forward to it.

It opens with a black-and-white version of the film's signature shot, a zeppelin docking at the Empire State. I had seen this sequence in one form or another perhaps a dozen times in the last three days. I can't begin to guess how many times Conran has seen it: airship and skyscraper, two antique promises of progress meeting to announce our final liberation from earthly concerns. The short was rudimentary compared with what I'd seen, to be sure. And Conran grimaced throughout. But I was stunned when I considered the painstaking labor with no promise of reward, or even end, in sight. And I thought of all the computers in just this building, each one thousands of times as powerful as a Mac IIci, in the hands of eager, young, lettuce-munching dreamers, and I wondered what worlds they were constructing in their spare time between snowflakes. On the screen, Sky Captain flies to the rescue. I happen to know from Kevin that it's Kerry himself behind the goggles. Naturally, he's masked.

The short ended. Conran blinked a little and smiled. ''Wow,'' he said. ''That was embarrassing.''

Both Avnet and Conran are convinced that ''Sky Captain'' will usher in a new kind of filmmaking. And perhaps this will indeed change the economics of the summer blockbuster. In effect, it's an indie giant-robot movie, taking the digital-video revolution to people who, like Conran, like to push the scale button up to enormous. And you get the feeling that this is what Conran wants the movie to be judged on first -- even more than how much money it makes at the box office, or how real the robots look.

It may be a newfangled movie technique, but it is a very old-fashioned movie story: a fiercely protective producer offering an unheard-of chance to a kid out of nowhere. In the end, it seems to me that this movie is not so much about ushering in the world of tomorrow as it is about realizing ''the World of Tomorrow,'' the vision that has haunted Conran, and now Avnet, for so long.

When it is done, Kerry Conran may make a sequel or go on to other projects, or, as Avnet suggested, he may just want to keep working on this one. When I asked Conran what he would do on opening day, he shook his head. ''Almost my entire adult life has been leading up to this,'' he said. ''I just don't know. I only knew I wanted to do this for a long time.''
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on March 18, 2004, 11:46:58 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fffmedia.ign.com%2Ffilmforce%2Fimage%2FJUDE_72DPI_600w_1079647975.jpeg&hash=800bebf17c6e89cb57a1fcefd36ac7885a8e510d)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fffmedia.ign.com%2Ffilmforce%2Fimage%2FGWYNETH_72DPI_600w_1079647867.jpeg&hash=638aabeae1c6b55093f9db535d7af30413380404)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fffmedia.ign.com%2Ffilmforce%2Fimage%2FANGELINA_72DPI_600w_1079648045.jpeg&hash=ae6d9099fb64e7e40bbe4d680aec4e9d229a9147)
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: mogwai on March 19, 2004, 07:54:44 AM
hah, i just kissed angelina jolie!
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: cine on March 19, 2004, 07:59:09 AM
Quote from: mogwaihah, i just kissed angelina jolie!
And *I* just gave Jude Law a peck on the cheek!



shit shit shit why did i say that why did i say that
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: mogwai on March 19, 2004, 08:25:37 AM
dude, you do NOT want to know what i did to jude law.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: cine on March 19, 2004, 08:27:37 AM
Quote from: mogwaidude, you do NOT want to know what i did to jude law.
Aw no, and Paltrow photographed the whole thing. . .
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Ghostboy on April 22, 2004, 02:00:06 AM
Bumped to September 17th.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Stefen on April 22, 2004, 02:01:57 AM
Quote from: GhostboyBumped to September 17th.

Doesn't another Jude Law movie open that same day? I can't remember which one.

EDIT: The alfie remake, thats it.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on April 24, 2004, 11:23:08 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.themoviebox.net%2Fphp%2Fnews%2Fdata%2Fupimages%2Fskycaptainad.jpg&hash=f58e3360ed2183e020427574421798f8d3b956c7)
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on April 25, 2004, 10:45:56 AM
wow, thats cool.  too bad they just released it and its already not accurate.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: picolas on June 26, 2004, 04:30:51 PM
new

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/skycaptainandtheworldoftomorrowqt.html
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on July 14, 2004, 09:44:18 PM
NEW TRAILER AND CLIP
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/skycaptainandtheworldoftomorrow/
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: picolas on July 14, 2004, 10:14:13 PM
now i don't know if it's serious.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Sal on July 26, 2004, 07:29:07 PM
shit...

In yet another technological miracle, Laurence Olivier, who died 15 years ago, will be resurrected to play a role in the forthcoming sci-fi film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, according to Jude Law, who stars in the title role of the film. Appearing at the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego, Law disclosed that the filmmakers plan to use old footage of the actor in his prime and show him "in hologram form." As reported by the Associated Press, Law remarked: "It was important we find someone with incredible power. And a lot of the great classical actors of today have already done those roles. ... We suddenly thought, 'Hang on a minute ... It might actually work with someone who is deceased.'" Olivier's voice will be dubbed by another actor, he said. The movie is due to be released on Sept. 17.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on August 02, 2004, 12:01:44 PM
Conran tapped for 'Princess'

Alphaville's sci-fi adventure-action picture "A Princess of Mars" is closing in on a new captain: director Kerry Conran. Conran, whose "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," is set for release Sept. 17, is in negotiations to direct "Princess," a Paramount-based production, as his next project. Conran entered the picture after former "Princess" director Robert Rodriguez resigned from the DGA earlier this year, making him ineligible to direct the Paramount tentpole. Based on the first book in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-volume "John Carter of Mars" series, the property is being developed as a major franchise. Alphaville's previous forays into the fantasy and f/x arena include "The Mummy" franchise and its spinoff "The Scorpion King."
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Ghostboy on September 12, 2004, 02:51:39 AM
I just returned from Harry Knowles's big Sky Captain shindig. It was pretty swell -- none of the cast was there, predictably, but the director and his art director/brother were there (along with all the Austin celebrities, or some of them anyway). Anyway, onto the movie -- actually, I'm too tired to write about it in detail, but it's pretty much everything I hoped it would be, totally awesome in a wonderfully antiquated way. Basically, if you love old serials and sci fi films from the days of yore, and also King Kong, you'll love this. It's the kind of movie that's cooler because it's rated PG. The looks of it is amazing...the trailers really don't do it much justice (they also really don't reveal much of anything about the plot of the film or where it goes). The first twenty minutes are especially jaw dropping...they really pack a punch. It's well written, too -- the only problem is the lack of a really hissable villain. If there were an equivalent to, say, Belloq in this, it would have been perfect.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on September 12, 2004, 12:15:16 PM
*whew, wipes sweat off forehead.  good, then i'm still really excited.  i cant take another disappointment this year.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: MacGuffin on September 12, 2004, 12:59:35 PM
It's a digital generation
The young CGI wizards behind "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" have raised the bar for their art into the stratosphere. Source: Los Angeles Times

To create a reality that's out of this world, sometimes you have to think inside the box. At least that's how first-time writer-director Kerry Conran approached his concept for "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," a retro-futuristic story set in the 1930s that includes pulp fiction, old movie serials and German expressionist filmmakers among its influences. The singular-looking film evokes styles as diverse as "King Kong," "The Wizard of Oz," "Citizen Kane," "Lost Horizon" and even "Star Wars," which was also influenced by those old serials. It features locations from New York to Nepal and volcanic islands in between, not to mention miniature elephants and a midair landing base, and yet none of it is really there. Everything on screen — except the actors and a few props — exists only on computers.

The movie, which opens Friday, started as a gleam in its creator's Mac. After graduating from film school at Cal Arts, Kerry Conran worked at his idea on a computer in his garage, enlisting his brother Kevin, a freelance illustrator, for occasional background paintings and titles. The indelible images included a zeppelin docking at the Empire State Building and giant robots marching through New York City.

After four years of painstaking work, he had completed six minutes of film. Kevin Conran invited producer Marsha Oglesby, a college friend of his wife's, to take a look. Oglesby had heard about it for years, and she secretly expected it to be lousy. But after Kerry showed it, she just stared at him, then asked, "Can I see that again?" After a second viewing, she wasted no time in getting Kerry and Kevin to meet with her partner, producer Jon Avnet. He experienced pretty much the same reaction. The film was like nothing they'd ever seen. Avnet agreed to develop the project as an independent film. Kerry enlisted Kevin as his production designer while still writing the script, since the film's design was integral to the story. The brothers had a shared love of old sci-fi movies and comic books from their childhood in Flint, Mich., which resulted in a shorthand in figuring out the visuals.

Kevin became a one-man art department. After production began in April 2002 in a warehouse full of computers (Macs and PCs) in Van Nuys, he generated most of the images that would form the basis of nearly 2,100 computer-generated shots in the movie. (By way of comparison, the last "Lord of the Rings" epic had about 1,500 CG shots.) Kevin readily admits the job was overwhelming, especially for a guy with no background in computers. "I knew it really was too much for one guy. But naivete will get you a long way — and stupidity got me the rest of the way."

That and pride. After working on Kerry's dream project for so long, he wanted to see it through. He had no idea what he was in for. Before Kerry shot the actors, Kevin had to create backgrounds for almost every scene, from panoramas to an office lobby. (For the most part, that meant drawing with a pencil and paper, but photographs, paintings and 3-D models were also used.) The scenes were then transformed into animatics — animated storyboards on computers. Darin Hollings, visual effects supervisor, then put grids on the animatics, sort of like a Thomas Bros. Guide. Little stand-in figures were placed on the grids to show actors where they began and ended up in each scene. Every scene had to be fully worked out before filming with the actors began, and with a six-week shooting schedule, that meant 40 shots a day, or one every 12 minutes.

The live-action sequences for "Sky Captain" were shot entirely on a stage in London against a blue-screen set, a filmmaking first. The blue screen allows for images and backgrounds to be filled in later. (The film was also shot using high-definition digital tape rather than film, using a Sony 24P camera.)

Before each scene, the actors would gather around a monitor and watch the animatics, so they would know what they were supposed to be surrounded by and where on the grid they needed to be at every moment. One misstep on the empty stage and they were on the wrong side of a landing strip or a robot's foot. Fortunately the actors assembled — Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, to name a few — jumped at the challenge.

The actors had come on board on the strength of Kerry's short film, Law even signing on as a producer. (When asked what he thought when he found out all that star power was going to be in his first film, Kerry said he thought it was a cruel hoax.) The actors had nothing real to work with but one another and a handful of props. In London, Kevin was still working away at his drawings. He also came up with most of the costumes (Stella McCartney designed two of Paltrow's outfits), his obsession with detail extending to uniform patches and gun holsters. The Conrans' sister, Kirsten, served as art director, overseeing props and the blue-screen sets. She also designed the film's posters. Then it was back to Van Nuys, where all the preliminary design work had to be rendered for the final film.

The crew formed an assembly line. After Kerry approved a drawing, Kevin handed it off to lead modeler Zack Petroc and his crew, to create the image on computers using Maya 3D software. That image would then go to animators, who brought it to life. Next came the texture department, giving the object or background the detailed look of, for example, iron, burlap or glass. Then lighting. Eric Adkins had been the director of photography for the live-action shoot. Lighting supervisor Michael Sean Foley had to match the light on the actors to the rest of the setting.

Then the effects team came in, and all the necessary special effects were added, from explosions and ray-gun blasts to fabric whipping in the wind. The compositing team would be responsible for pulling all the disparate elements together and marrying them in one cohesive, seamless whole on the screen. Color was added to the previously monochromatic palette. And voilà! A background shot in only eight arduous steps, including anywhere from 10 to 500 layers in each frame. Repeat 2,000-plus times.

By late 2003, not long after Paramount bought rights for the film in English-speaking markets, the team realized they weren't going to meet the studio's summer 2004 deadline on their own. Senior visual-effects supervisor Scott Anderson was brought in to oversee the work that was sent out to a dozen outside effects companies for completion. "The whole crew was great, there's a lot of love and affection for those people," Kevin said. "Kerry and I feel like we owe them a debt we can't possibly repay."

Clearly a lot of love and affection went into the film. Everything in it looks oddly familiar, yet larger than life. One could imagine stopping the film at any moment and finding a beautifully framed picture. The movie was completed in late July and shown at Comic-Con, the big comics convention in San Diego, on July 25.

Darin Hollings was there. "I've watched this movie 2,400 times. It got to the point where I physically couldn't even look at it anymore — it literally turned my stomach." But watching the film with the score and final audio mix for the first time, "I was blown away….Even after watching it 2,400 times I got lost in the movie. [It] takes me to a place I've never been before."

Now that it's finished, Kerry is set to work on Paramount's "A Princess to Mars," based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Kevin will once again be his production designer. "I wouldn't dream of working with anyone else but Kevin," Kerry said. Though both brothers acknowledge that working together was sometimes stressful because they're each other's harshest critics, "we're also each other's biggest supporters," Kerry said.

To that end, Kevin's thrilled that Kerry has fulfilled his dream to become a filmmaker. As for his own career, Kevin remembers telling Kerry years ago that "it would be cool to design stuff for movies, like robots and vehicles and guns, but what kind of job is that?" He smiles. "That's exactly what I end up doing all these years later."
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: grand theft sparrow on September 17, 2004, 12:52:39 PM
Saw this last night.  Fun movie.  Kind of a slow start and something of a rushed ending (I felt anyway) but good.  Not great, storytelling-wise, but good.  The visual design of the film is incredible and the director's decision to desaturate the color until it's almost black and white really worked; all the TV spots are much more colorful than the movie really is.

I had the misfortune, though, of seeing it projected on an IMAX screen... problem was that it was a 35mm print projected on an IMAX screen.  So outside of an interesting lesson on the size difference, it was a big letdown to walk into an IMAX theatre and be faked out like that.

And, as people have talked about before, I met a few members of the sneak preview cult.  There was some guy behind me on line who was talking about going to see Star Wars opening week in 1977 and he remembered what theatres were showing it in NYC (all of which I believe are closed).  Fascinating stuff.

Once again, I find myself in agreement with Ghostboy:

Quote from: Ghostboythe only problem is the lack of a really hissable villain.

I missed that as well but it's still a good flick and one worth seeing more than once.  Most geeks will be able to tick off what movie each scene was borrowed from, a la 28 Days Later (there are Lucas and Spielberg references galore) but it still feels like an original thing unto itself.

It's like a Zeppelin tribute band that does really great covers of classic songs.  They can rock out on Kashmir but it doesn't beat the original.
Title: disagree about the villain thing
Post by: adolfwolfli on September 18, 2004, 09:54:27 AM
I saw "Sky Captain" last night, and I have to say, on of the things that I thought it really had going for it was the lack of a "hissable" villain.

[SPOILER ALERT...SPOILER ALERT]















There was something quite creepy about the fact that Totemkaupf (or however you spelled it) had died years ago, but all of his expertly programmed robots and machines were carrying out his oders long after his death.  It kind of gave me the chills.  I think it was a really good twist that saved what is a heavily, albeit intentionally, formulaic film.  There was also this subtle "Wizard of Oz" element to the final scenes in the film, which was foreshadowed earlier on at Radio City.

Not a great picture, but loads of fun, and actually somewhat thought-provoking here and there...
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on September 18, 2004, 08:26:54 PM
Quote from: picolispnow i don't know if it's serious.
I hope it's not.

The images were great, especially in the beginning, but the plot... the plot, my God, the plot... especially the second half... Please, somebody tell me it's some kind of parody or farce, or that it's trying to say with all its Indiana Jones / Star Wars / James Bond anachronism that this is a silly world that never existed, and that Sky Captain resembles George W. Bush in his ridiculous flight suit.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Ghostboy on September 18, 2004, 10:04:38 PM
Quote from: Jeremy Blackman
Quote from: picolispnow i don't know if it's serious.
I hope it's not.

The images were great, especially in the beginning, but the plot... the plot, my God, the plot... especially the second half... Please, somebody tell me it's some kind of parody or farce, or that it's trying to say with all its Indiana Jones / Star Wars / James Bond anachronism that this is a silly world that never existed, and that Sky Captain resembles George W. Bush in his ridiculous flight suit.

It's supposed to be completely serious, but in a completely naive, innocent way...that's what's so wonderful about it. It obviously takes place in a world that never existed...a 1939 that people in 1920 might have anticipated, perhaps.

And the flying suit was standard issue uniform for WWII fighter pilots.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on September 18, 2004, 10:33:55 PM
Quote from: GhostboyIt's supposed to be completely serious, but in a completely naive, innocent way...that's what's so wonderful about it.
That's kind of disappointing, unless there's something satirical in that. I guess I'm wondering if the self-awareness really has a point.

Quote from: GhostboyAnd the flying suit was standard issue uniform for WWII fighter pilots.
I meant that Bush's flight suit was ridiculous, mostly because of the person wearing it.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Pubrick on September 19, 2004, 12:07:43 AM
jesus, sumone has bush on the brain..
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on September 19, 2004, 12:14:57 AM
It was my desperate attempt to make the movie interesting.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Finn on September 19, 2004, 06:42:51 PM
I thought it was terrific! I kinda had to go into the mindset of my younger days when I watched the Indiana Jones movies. The formula is very simple - a hero, a girl and something diabolical threatening man kind. It's very old fashioned but I loved what they did with it. Best adventure you'll see all year.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: El Duderino on September 19, 2004, 06:44:19 PM
i liked it
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: modage on September 19, 2004, 11:03:38 PM
well, i saw this today after an out-of-the-blue Shaun of the Dead screening and Thrills concert kept me from it the past two nights.  i liked it, it was AMAZING to look at.  but it just wasnt great.  not that i can really name anything i thought was BAD about the movie.  like, none of the acting/dialogue, etc. stood out as being just plain bad like a lot of summer movies.  

but, i think was was lacking for me is something Spielberg said on the Duel dvd about making Raiders.  he didnt make it to be a total popcorn movie.  he really took the characters seriously and thats what so many directors today dont get.  he believed in them and that made them real.  the problem with this movie if there was a problem is that it was SO STYLIZED it could never feel real even in its own universe, i never quite believed in these characters. or felt peril or excitement.  i couldnt ever fully engage in the film.  other films that make nods of the hat to films of this era, whether its Star Wars, Raiders, The Rocketeer, whatever feel like they're set in a place you can believe in whether its your universe or not.  i never got that from sky captain.  

it was breathlessly paced, leaving little downtime for more character building scenes.  but i guess if you're making the WHOLE thing on your computer you might as well throw in some cool action right?  and thats what they did.  probably to the films disadvantage.  they took a real 'kitchen sink' approach throwing in EVERYTHING they thought seemed like a cool idea, and why not?  

the movies saving grace for me was the law/paltrow banter.  had it not been for their witty reparte, i dont think i would've been able to connect to the film at all.  also the law/paltrow/jolie stuff was really funny.  the ending was also great.

it wasnt Raiders of the Lost Ark.  or Star Wars. or any of the movies that took a pulpy B movie premise and elevated it to something better.  i think this wanted so much to be like those films/serials etc. it didnt want to do an 'update' or ground it in anything you could believe in.  it just wanted to do them the way they were, sort of B grade material done as a comic book movie.  it could've been A stuff, but it was some sort of B.  oh well, still pretty cool.  i'll guess i'll have to see how repeat viewings treat it.
Title: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: Sal on September 20, 2004, 03:17:47 AM
i agree with your sentiment, mac.  The difficulty for me was connecting to these characters, believing in them and being taken along for the emotional ride.  This was largely aesthetics.  A good film, but not a great one, as I was hoping it to be, which was a real dissapointment in my own head.
Title: Re: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow
Post by: wilder on December 05, 2015, 04:44:19 AM
How Kerry Conran saw Hollywood's future - then got left behind
July 16, 2015
via The Telegraph

Shortly after completing their first movie, in 2004, Kerry and Kevin Conran received an invitation from George Lucas. The Star Wars mastermind would be hosting a summit at Skywalker Ranch, his production facility-cum-small town in San Francisco, gathering some of the most forward-thinking people in the movie business to discuss the future of film.

James Cameron was there, as were Robert Zemeckis and Brad Bird. The brothers were newcomers, but that day they were treated as peers; each of their fellow directors told the Conrans how impressed they were with what they'd accomplished. Their work, they were told, was way ahead of its time.

Then why don't you know their names? The fact is, every effects-driven movie you watch this summer - ie, all of them - will owe them some kind of debt. It could even be argued that the Conrans laid the groundwork for pretty much all the big event unveiled at this year's Comic-Con. But time and Hollywood have forgotten the Conrans. Their part in the creation of the modern blockbuster has been all but forgotten.

In the late Nineties even fewer people knew those names. Kerry Conran was working on a magazine doing design work, and his brother, Kevin, was employed as a freelance illustrator in the advertising industry. Keenly interested in the adventure serials of the Forties, Kerry came to his brother with the idea of making a film called Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the story of a pilot who, along with a plucky reporter named Polly Perkins, pursues a mysterious man who is terrorising a retro-futuristic world with giant robots. And they were going to do it in a way nobody had ever tried before.

"Kerry had been immersed in computers since the onset of Apple," says Kevin, who would become the film's production and costume designer. "There was an established way to make visual effects films and it was very expensive, and Kerry saw another way."

His brother's idea was cheap. He wanted to direct an entire film on blue screen and add all the scenery and effects elements afterwards, eliminating the need for costly sets or locations. Any scene he could imagine could be built inside the computer and the actors dropped in. Commonplace now, revolutionary then.

"We had no money so we were going to basically handcraft it," says Kevin. "We worked for six or seven years making this little six-minute short... We then spent a lot of money making 25 of these elaborate wooden boxes that were riveted together and contained [the short on tape]. We thought if we sent out 25 we might get interest from one person, but we only ever wound up needing to use one box."

The first recipient of a box was producer Jon Avnet, whose work included Risky Business, Fried Green Tomatoes and The Mighty Ducks. Avnet jumped at it, and in 2002 they began pre-production on their first feature film.

Avnet's connections helped gather a stellar cast, led by Jude Law as Sky Captain, Gwyneth Paltrow as Polly and Angelina Jolie as a one-eyed air commander, signed up mostly on the basis of the teaser and the promise of working on something completely new. "We honestly couldn't believe that we'd assembled all these people," says Conran. "Jon did a great job selling it... Almost everyone was onboard immediately. Everyone was on our side and it was great."

All was going excellently. Despite using an entirely new way of filmmaking, the shoot passed smoothly. "We were basically left alone as an independent movie for 18 months," says Conran. "And even when Paramount came on as distributor they rarely bothered us, except for moving up our release date." The film's premiere was brought forward by six months to September 17, 2004, which caused "absolute panic". But the crisis was averted by farming the effects work out to 13 digital effects houses around the world - another commonplace strategy unheard of at the time. The film was set to debut at the end of the summer season, instead of in the quieter, less confident post-Awards season. Sky Captain was now a big deal, a harbinger of a new digital age.

"Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is unique," says Ian Freer, Assistant Editor of Empire Magazine and a fan of the film. "While it's a film steeped in the past — it references everything from The Wizard Of Oz to German Expressionism — its production predicted the very future of moviemaking.  If films like the Star Wars prequels had previously built sets in a computer, no one had built entire movies in a digital environment. It basically birthed the idea of a digital backlot that could blend actors within a computer generated environment."

In a year that would see the release of mega-budget movies Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, The Day After Tomorrow and Harry Potter 3, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was one of the most anticipated. It looked unlike anything else coming out in 2004, indeed unlike anything else that had come out ever before. Huge things were expected. "It was exciting," says Kevin. Tomorrow would be a very different world.

Talking about what happened after the movie's release, Kevin begins to sound weary, and wary. He rarely speaks about his experiences making the film, and his brother, still stung, no longer discusses it at all. Despite several requests, made via Kevin, including an offer to conduct the interview by email, Kerry declined to participate in this feature.

"I never put any expectation on [opening weekend]," says Kevin. "It's funny, a friend of mine was a publisher at Daily Variety and they track all those numbers. They know what they'll be before the weekend's over, which is some sort of weird voodoo. He told me what numbers we were looking at and he seemed disappointed. I didn't really care.

"Mine and Kerry's motivation for this was to make the movie. We weren't thinking about getting rich or any of that stuff... The thing is, I realise now that people were looking at us like some kind of giant summer movie tentpole, like Spider-Man. We were never making Spider-Man. We weren't trying to compete with those movies. We were quirky and little."

While Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is far from perfect, with some stiff line readings and uneven plotting, there's much in it that is wonderful. Visually, it's never dull, throwing up military bases in the sky, elephants that fit in the palm of your hand, dog fights through the streets of New York. Any faults are a result of too many ideas, not too few. It received mixed reviews, but some raves, notably from the late critic Roger Ebert, who said the film, "reminded me of how I felt the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's like a film that escaped from the imagination directly onto the screen".

But a few great reviews don't make a difference if your numbers are bad, and Sky Captain's were very bad. Cinemagoers, perhaps put off by its black and white visuals or comic-strip tone, stayed away: the film made just $15.5 million on its opening weekend. This would have been fantastic if the film had used the tiny budget for which the brothers had originally asked, but the reported cost of $70 million made its eventual worldwide takings of $58 million a catastrophe.

"I take great issue with that [budget figure] personally and I'd like someone to show me where all that money went," says Kevin. "I don't support those numbers and I never have. We walked into Jon Avnet's office that first day and he said, 'What do you want for the production?' and we said $3 million. We could have done a version of this film for $3 million. It would have been black-and-white and sans name actors...

"But even still, this whole thing was going to be under $20 million. How it went from 20 to 70, you tell me."

Hollywood accounting being the mystical, deliberately obtuse art that it is, it's impossible to pinpoint just what Sky Captain's actual cost was, but a different budget figure might have changed the Conrans' careers. On a budget of around $20-30 million, a $57 million box office total would have been seen as, if not stellar, at least reasonable.

As a comparison, Hellboy, released the same year, had a reported budget of $66 million and grossed $99 million worldwide. It got a sequel. The Chronicles of Riddick, again released the same year, cost a reported $105 million and grossed $115 million. It got a sequel, albeit nine years later, and is considered a cult hit. Yet the stain of a flop stuck to the Conrans and wouldn't rub off.

Their careers after that were blighted by what appears to be poor luck more than anything. The brothers were given a second chance, put to work on a version of John Carter of Mars by Paramount head Sherry Lansing. They worked on it for over a year – you can see a test reel on Kevin Conran's website - but when Lansing left the studio it was canned by the incoming studio head Brad Grey.  A Japanese animation company showed interest in producing a 20-episode animated series based on Sky Captain, but after an apparently promising meeting the project stalled.

"There were huge disappointments," says Kevin. "If Sherry, who was always a champion of ours, had stayed at Paramount I feel like we might have made two or three John Carter films, but things change." (John Carter was eventually produced by Disney, directed by Andrew Stanton and considered a financial disaster, even by Disney, who publically blamed it for significant losses in the financial quarter ending March 2012).

"I remember Kerry with nothing but fondness. He was always a lovely man and extremely talented and I'd take the chance on him again," says Sherry Lansing, who now heads The Sherry Lansing Foundation, which raises funds for cancer research. "Kerry was [untested] when he came to us but we saw what they were doing with Sky Captain and it was groundbreaking. It was astonishing...and I remember they did some wonderful work on John Carter".

Asked why she thinks the industry forgot the Conrans, Lansing is stumped. "I don't know how to answer that," she says. "But sometimes it happens that when you're the one breaking new ground you're the Vincent Van Gogh. You're not appreciated in your own lifetime."

Kevin Conran, and by his inference his brother, seem unusual in the realm of Hollywood's sad stories in that they don't really blame other people for their misfortune. Every explanation given by Conran points to something he and his brother got wrong, or failed to understand about the Hollywood game. Conran never once suggests anyone else is culpable. Trying to get him to talk about his and his brother's achievements is like trying to get a straight answer out of a politician. He just can't blow his own trumpet. When the subject of the greatest endorsement of his career comes up, that call from George Lucas and the subsequent summit, he evades the question and paints himself as the loser.

"It was entirely surreal and continues to be so," says Conran. "It feels like something that didn't really happen... George Lucas personally invited us, flew us up there, put us in his place for a long weekend, with all these amazing luminaries, who were genuinely interested in hearing what we had to say. It was unbelievable. I remember the first morning we went down to breakfast. We walked into the dining room and there's this big table in the middle and it's George and James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis and Brad Bird, Caleb Deschanel, Robert Rodriguez to name some.

"Kerry and I were so intimidated we went and sat at a separate table. We didn't know what to do! They all turned around, almost en masse, and were like, 'What are you idiots doing over there? Get over here!' Then I'm sitting next to Robert Zemeckis."

Conran laughs, but then goes quiet for a few seconds and sighs. "Much to my eternal embarrassment we never stayed in touch with any of those guys."

This may be part of what kept the Conrans out of the Hollywood playground, their inability and discomfort with hustling or acting as if they belong. The brothers have never been good at self-promotion. In a New York Times interview from the set of Sky Captain, the reporter noted that the first two things Kerry said to him were, "I'm shy" and "I am basically an amorphous blob of nothing". 

Kevin is no more self-aggrandising. "We're a couple of weird guys," he says. "I wish we'd been smarter, better guys about staying in touch. I can't believe we haven't kept some kind of connection to George Lucas. What a couple of dummies. And he was so gracious...

"I remember – and I don't tell you these stories from any place of pride, because they're kind of embarrassing – I won an award for costume design and afterward they give you your trophy and whisk you to a back room for pictures. I remember standing there and this excited, energetic guy comes running up to me and says, 'Hey! I love what you do! What are you doing next? We should talk about what you're doing next?' And I said, 'Oh maybe we're working on John Carter, I think'. He says, 'OK, let's talk some time!' and he leaves. Then the representative from Paramount comes over and laughs at me and says, 'You don't know who that was, do you?' It was JJ Abrams. That's embarrassing.

"I don't read the trades," he continues. "I don't know who anybody is. I don't keep in touch with anyone. I just stay in my studio, working on projects and Kerry does the same. That's pretty dumb. We were in this rarified air for a moment and we never really took advantage in the way maybe smarter people would."

Kerry Conran has not directed a feature film since Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. He made a short film, Gumdrop, in 2012 and told the website Reel Film News that, "I've probably been working over the past six years on two particular projects that are just now about ready to go...I can't say much more about it than that, but I believe very soon I'll have much more to show". There have been no further announcements and Kevin declines to expand on his brother's behalf.

Kevin Conran has worked in the art department on films including Bee Movie and Monsters Vs. Aliens, and as a production designer on Dreamworks' Dragons, a TV spin-off of the hit movie How To Train Your Dragon. As he muses on where the Sky Captain experience has led him, he says. "I think sometimes that there's a world where we might have made this thing for $3-4 million and there would be a whole different story to tell."

Kevin would never say this himself, but the Conrans's contribution to cinema is huge. "You can absolutely draw a line from Sky Captain to the look and feel of many of the big blockbusters we see today," says Ian Freer. "Its use of a digital backlot is now the dominant M.O. for production design. Films like 300, Sin City, Avatar and Alice In Wonderland have all created worlds built on the ideas put down by Conran."

As much as the big budget movies have taken the techniques the Conrans developed, still very few people have really done what they set out to do: eradicate the need for giant budgets on fantasy films. Their plan was not to make things better for James Cameron or George Lucas, it was to give opportunity to the guys nobody had heard of – guys like them – and to have moviemaking be restricted only by your imagination not your bank balance.

"Conran crystallised the idea of the one man film studio, taken up by the likes of Robert Rodriguez and Gareth Edwards (director of Monsters and later Godzilla)," continues Freer. "But there are other ways in which Conran was ahead of his time. Sky Captain is a film built entirely on nerd love by a nerd director. With its in-jokes, old school visuals and pastiche of old genres, Sky Captain is the ultimate 'geekgasm' years before the word was invented."

Though still reluctant to take much in the way of credit, Kevin Conran wishes there were more who'd take the chance he and his brother did. "I think there's a real opportunity and it's still there...to do it the way we planned, but with today's computers and software. If you commit to the path that we were on, you can really do some amazing things with smaller budgets."

So does he regret what happened and the path they took? "I refuse to look at our film as a failure. I can't. There's no way. I still get emails every month from people thanking me for making the movie and saying they love the work. It's a decade later. It worked for the people it worked for... Guys like Lucas and Cameron and Brad Bird and Zemeckis, all these people liked the movie and that has to count for something." He waits a few seconds. "Making this was a magical experience and I hope to replicate it some day".

Kevin pauses again and then his voice is softer, a little squeak of the boy who watched amazing adventures with his brother and dreamed of a world where they might make their own. "You hope that tomorrow is going to be the day the phone rings."