Scorsese/DeNiro in DreamWork's Shark Tale

[©brad]

This looks kind of cool-

Great news. De Niro and Scorsese will provide voices for DreamWorks' Sharkslayer, a computer-animated film. Here's the article from USAToday.com:
::
Meet the deep-sea cast of Sharkslayer, the computer-animated DreamWorks comedy that promises to make satirical sushi out of Mob movies — just as the studio's Oscar-winning 2001 smash Shrek shredded fairy-tale cliché.
Right now, the animation industry is looking for any kind of fresh bait to grab audiences after Disney's traditionally drawn Treasure Planet shipwrecked at the box office, grossing less than $40 million. Like Shrek, which grossed $267.6 million, Sharkslayer has the distinct digital look that moviegoers favor.
"Imagine an underwater cityscape that is Chicago meets Las Vegas meets Miami," says animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg of the November 2004 release. Classic references include "everything from The Untouchables to Some Like It Hot to all three Godfather films."
Just added: Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a kingpin shark looking to expand his turf, after The Sopranos' James Gandolfini had to drop out.
De Niro joins Will Smith, who plays Oscar, a hustler who dreams of moving up on the food chain from his lowly job at a whale wash. When one of the don's sons (Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos) is accidentally rubbed out by a dropped anchor, Oscar takes credit for the hit and becomes an unlikely hero.
Like tuna (or, rather, 'toon-a) on rye, Oscar is caught between two female fish, Angelina Jolie's fin fatale Lola and Renee Zellweger's heavenly angelfish Angie. Director Martin Scorsese also takes the vocal plunge as a territorial Moe Greene-type puffer fish that sports his trademark bushy brows and rapid-fire delivery. Says Katzenberg: "He talks so fast. For animation, that is just gold. He's a total ham."
DreamWorks' next blend of hand-drawn and digital techniques, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (July 2), may feel uncomfortably similar to the pirate-populated Planet, though Katzenberg says, "Our film is galaxies away from Treasure Planet."
Katzenberg isn't throwing in the pencil on traditional animation yet, even if his next five animated films after Sinbad are either computerized (including Shrek 2 in June 2004) or stop-motion (Aardman's much-awaited Wallace & Gromit feature).
"It's disingenuous to blame the technique for any failure. It's bad stories not told well. It's like saying a novelist had a bad book because it was typed on a laptop instead of written longhand."
As for Sharkslayer following Disney and partner Pixar's own 3-D fish tale, Finding Nemo (May 30), Katzenberg says any similarities are mere coincidence, much like his Antz and Disney-Pixar's A Bug's Life in 1998. "We've been open with the Pixar people so we don't step on each other's toes."

[Duck Sauce]

De Niro must make another movie with Pacino

It must be directed by PTA or Scorsese

I say this because I care

[Gold Trumpet]

De Niro must make another movie with Pacino

I'm still waiting for that first movie. Heat could've been played by any large name actor.

~rougerum

[MacGuffin]

The title is now "Shark Tale."





Trailer

[modage]

i dont get it, why are they not underwater?  were the animators just too lazy to figure out how to make it look that way?  and why is dreamworks trying to crowd the plate here with shrek 2 in may and 4 1/2 months later this!  its really getting annoying how the only way they can figure out to sell their animated movies is by 'selling the stars'.  when did this become cool?  since shrek made a billion dollars?  it wasnt cool then, and it isnt cool now.  when are they not going to be 2nd rate pixar?  (the scorsese/deniro stuff looked okay).

[ono]

All I can think about when I see this poster is, "Please think this is Finding Nemo 2."

[Just Withnail]

All I can think about when I see this poster is, "Please think this is Finding Nemo 2."

Heh, that's even funnier when you combine it with the look on Smith-fish's face.

[RegularKarate]

This looks terrible... I'm with ModAge completely on this one... What is Dreamworks doing with this shit?

[El Duderino]

you're right, that really does look like Will Smith

[MacGuffin]

"Shark Tale" Bada-Banged

What's in a fish name? A lot, according to ethnic groups who have been circling DreamWorks' upcoming Shark Tale, accusing the upcoming CGI toon of baiting Italian-Americans.

Don Lino, Luca and Giuseppe are three of the film's Italian-skewing monikers that, coupled with the animated comedy's mobster-skewing story, have irked the likes of the Columbus Citizens Foundation.

"Every little boy who's named Giuseppe, their friends are going to see the movie...and they're going to be, 'Ew, Giuseppe the Hammerhead," says Andrew Decker, spokesman for the New York-based cultural group.

The organization this week stepped up criticism of DreamWorks mogul Steven Spielberg, calling on his studio to strip the film, opening Oct. 1, of its Italian names, phrases and slang, and asking for a recall of the movie's tie-in books for children.

What names would be more fitting for the underwater characters voiced in the film by Robert De Niro (Don Lino) and ex-Sopranos star Vincent Pastore (Luca)?

"I don't know--[the filmmakers] are the ones who are supposed to be creative and inventive," Decker says. "I don't know--Thomas, Andrew, I don't care--things that are not associated with specific ethnic stereotypes."

Will Smith, or rather his voice, stars in the finned film as a creature named Oscar.

(DreamWorks, by the way, doesn't have a "Giuseppe" listed in its current production notes. But the studio says that doesn't mean the name isn't in the movie, as the group asserts.)

Living up to its own name, the National Coalition Against Racial, Religious and Ethnic Stereotyping, an umbrella group to which the Columbus Citizens Foundation belongs, has been on DreamWorks' tail about Shark Tale since January.

The movie netted attention for the promise of its GoodFellas-esque cast (De Niro, Martin Scorsese), its Godfather-esque touches (cheek kisses, et. al), and, arguably more than anything, its kid-friendly cartoon characters.

"There are any number of Mafia movies out there. If adults want to see them, that's okay...They can distinguish between gangsters...and the broader population," says Decker, whose group sued two years ago to keep two Sopranos stars from marching in its annual Columbus Day Parade. "Children don't make that distinction too easily."

Despite the letter-writing campaigns, the proposed sponsor boycotts, and the flurry of press releases, DreamWorks isn't backing down.

"The complaints that are being levied today are the same complaints [that were levied] six months ago--sight unseen," says DreamWorks spokesman Andy Spahn.

The film played last week, in Italy, no less, "to a tremendous response," Spahn says.

To the studio, Shark Tale is a comedy with "diverse characters," a diverse cast (featuring vocals by everyone from Ziggy Marley to Katie Couric) and "absolutely nothing that presents negative stereotypes."

The Columbus foundation, whose president, Lawrence Auriana, caught a screening last weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival, begs to differ--especially on the subject of aquatic diversity.

"There are two Rasta jellyfish," says Decker, "but they convert rather quickly to being good guys."

Italian-American groups claimed a victory earlier this year when a Shark Tale character voiced by Peter Falk, last name of Brizzi, was awarded the new surname of Feinberg.

But Spahn says it's "completely untrue" that outside pressure inspired filmmakers to make the conversion. He says the change was part of the "creative work in progress." (And, for the record, the studio hasn't heard from any groups crying foul over the Feinberg fish, he says.)

Decker says any further changes would be welcome; Spahn says none are in the offing.

The fish are staying out of it.

[Kal]

So... nobody really saw this... or cares to comment about it... right?

I thought it wasnt so bad... although they kinda used all the same jokes of Shrek 2... and many of them were lame...


'Shark' attacks boxoffice with $49 mil

Audiences across North America took the bait this weekend in a big way, giving DreamWorks' CG-animated Shark Tale the all-time largest October opening with an estimated $49.1 million from 4,016 theaters. The latest animated tale from the studio, which features the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Renee Zellweger, was the fifth-biggest opening ever for an animated film and was the distributor's second best after Shrek 2. Warming up the second spot was Buena Vista's Ladder 49, a drama about firefighters starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta. Ladder 49, helmed by Jay Russell, opened solidly with an estimated $22.8 million. It was the all-time biggest October opening for Buena Vista and was a career second best for Travolta after Paramount's Face Off, which grossed $23.4 million. The strong debuts of both Shark Tale and Ladder 49 were in the areas anticipated by prerelease tracking and were a welcome respite for the industry -- especially after the previous three weekends, which were the three lowest-grossing sessions of the year, and a dismal September. In fact, the combined grosses of Shark Tale and Ladder 49 were greater than the sum total of all films last weekend.

[Pas]

It's just disgusting...

[Ravi]

The trailers and ads looked horrible.  Is Scorsese hard up for cash?

[Kal]

Is Scorsese hard up for cash?

I think because of Scorsese, Jack Black, some De Niro, and some funny-well-done jokes its worthy to see this...

[SiliasRuby]

I saw this the other night and I came out of it thinking how could any child get most of the jokes presented, because most of jokes could be hard to get unless you've seen alot of mob movies but overall it was pretty funny flick.