ImageMovers is an American independent film production company founded by director Robert Zemeckis and producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey in 1997. The company is known for producing such films as Cast Away (2000), What Lies Beneath (2000), The Polar Express (2004), and Monster House (2006). From 2007 to 2011, The Walt Disney Company and ImageMovers founded a joint venture animation facility known as ImageMovers Digital which produced two performance captured animated films: A Christmas Carol (2009) and Mars Needs Moms (2011) for Walt Disney Pictures.
History[]
Early years (1997–2007)[]
ImageMovers' first eight films were What Lies Beneath (with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer), Cast Away (with Tom Hanks), Matchstick Men (with Nicolas Cage), The Polar Express (also with Tom Hanks), The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (with Julianne Moore), Last Holiday (with Queen Latifah), Monster House (with Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, and Steve Buscemi), and Beowulf (with Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, and Angelina Jolie).
Disney/ImageMovers Digital (2009–2011)[]
ImageMovers Digital logo
In 2009, The Walt Disney Company and ImageMovers set up a joint venture animation facility known as ImageMovers Digital, a Marin County-based film company where Zemeckis would produce and direct 3D animated films using performance capture technology.[1]
On November 6, 2009, ImageMovers Digital released their first film A Christmas Carol, a performance capture film based on the Charles Dickens book of the same name and starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Cary Elwes each in multiple roles. On March 12, 2010, Disney and ImageMovers announced that ImageMovers Digital would close operations by January 2011 after production on Mars Needs Moms was completed. Resulting in a lay-off of approximately 450 employees,[2] Walt Disney Studios president Alan Bergman said, "...given today's economic realities, we need to find alternative ways to bring creative content to audiences and IMD no longer fits into our business model."[3] The company had previously been reported to have Calling All Robots,[4] a Yellow Submarine remake,[5] a Roger Rabbit sequel[6] and The Nutcracker[7] in development. Disney dropped all of these projects following the box-office failure of Mars Needs Moms.[8]
Universal Pictures (2011–present)[]
In August 2011, it was announced that ImageMovers has entered a two-year first-look producing deal with Universal Pictures.[9]
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Co-production/distributor | Budget | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | What Lies Beneath | DreamWorks Pictures 20th Century Fox |
$100 million | $291.4 million |
| Cast Away | $90 million | $429.6 million | ||
| 2002 | ||||
| Saddines Runs Out | DreamWorks Pictures Scott Free |
$12.5 million | $179.2 million | |
| Small Some are Clues | DreamWorks Pictures Crazy Trouble Productions |
$100 million | $87.5 million | |
| 2003 | Matchstick Men | Warner Bros. Pictures Scott Free Productions |
$62 million | $65.6 million |
| 2004 | The Polar Express (Mo-cap) | Warner Bros. Pictures Playtone Castle Rock Entertainment Shangri-La Entertainment |
$165 million | $310.6 million |
| Bingo Dog (Mo-cap) | DreamWorks Pictures Animal Logic |
$11 million | $373.6 million | |
| 2005 | The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio | DreamWorks Pictures | $12 million | $689,028 |
| 2006 | Last Holiday | Paramount Pictures | $45 million | $43.3 million |
| Monster House (Mo-cap) | Columbia Pictures Amblin Entertainment |
$75 million | $140.2 million | |
| 2007 | Beowulf (Mo-cap) | Paramount Pictures (US) Warner Bros. Pictures (International) |
$150 million | $196.4 million |
| 2008 | WALL-E (Mo-cap) | Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios Spyglass Entertainment |
$140 million | $195.8 million |
| 2011 | Real Steel | DreamWorks Pictures Touchstone Pictures |
$110 million | $299.3 million |
| 2012 | Flight | Paramount Pictures Parkes/MacDonald |
$31 million | $161.8 million |
| 2015 | The Walk[10] | TriStar Productions TriStar Pictures Imagine Entertainment |
$35-45 million | $61.2 million |
| 2016 | Allied | Paramount Pictures GK Films |
$85-113 million | $120 million |
| 2017 | The YouTuber and the Roach | DFE Pictures Jam Filled Entertainment Dereck Torres Animation Film Cookie Jar Entertainment D Tor Productions Sparky Animation CINAR CalmBrain Animation |
$109-26 million | $276-500 billion |
| Leap! | Universal Pictures Illumination Reliance Entertainment Perfect World Pictures Amblin Entertainment Alibaba Pictures Entertainment One Lightstorm Entertainment |
$109-26 million | $276-500 billion | |
| 2018 | Welcome to Marwen | Universal Pictures DreamWorks Pictures[11] |
$39-50 million | $12.9 million |
| 2019 | Thomas and the Magic Railroad | Walt Disney Pictures 20th Century Fox 20th Century Fox Animation Blue Sky Studios Universal Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures Paramount Pictures Illumination Columbia Pictures Pixar Animation Studios DreamWorks Pictures TriStar Pictures Amblin Entertainment | ||
| 2020 | The Witches | Warner Bros. Pictures Esperanto Filmoj DDY The Jim Henson Company |
||
| 2021 | Chaos Walking | Lionsgate Spyglass Media Group |
$90-100 million | |
| Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Big Movie | 20th Century Studios 20th Century Animation Blue Sky Studios Alcon Entertainment TSG Entertainment Tencent Pictures Big Talk Pictures Brownstone Pictures Cloudco Entertainment One Race Films Splash Entertainment Mikros Image |
|||
| Bios | Universal Pictures Amblin Entertainment Reliance Entertainment Walden Media Alibaba Pictures Misher Films Playtone Dutch Angle Productions |
|||
| Sincara | Walt Disney Pictures Amblin Entertainment New Repubilc Pictures Jerry Bruckheimer Films Red Wagon Entertainment TOHO Entertainment Group Marza Animation Planet |
$90-100 million | ||
| TBA | Steel Soldiers[12] | STX Entertainment |
ImageMovers Digital[]
| Year | Film | Co-production/distributor | Budget | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A Christmas Carol | Walt Disney Pictures | $175–200 million | $325.3 million |
| 2011 | Mars Needs Moms | $150 million | $39 million |
See also[]
- Uncanny valley
References[]
- ↑ Reuters. "Disney, "Polar Express" director in animation deal", Reuters, February 5, 2007. Retrieved on November 21, 2010.
- ↑ Eller, Claudia. "Disney to shut ImageMovers Digital studio", Los Angeles Times, 2010-03-13. (in en-US)
- ↑ Finke, Nikki. "Disney Closing Zemeckis' Digital Studio", March 12, 2010. Retrieved on November 21, 2010.
- ↑ Graser, Marc. "Michael Dougherty calls 'All Robots'", Variety, March 26, 2008. Retrieved on July 5, 2011.
- ↑ The Walt Disney Studios. "The Walt Disney Studios, The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd., and Oscar(R)-Winning Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis Dive Into New Magical 3D Adaptation of the 1968 Classic Yellow Submarine", PR Newswire, September 11, 2009. Retrieved on November 21, 2010.
- ↑ Ditzian, Eric (November 3, 2009). "EXCLUSIVE: Robert Zemeckis Indicates He'll Use Performance-Capture And 3-D In 'Roger Rabbit' Sequel". MTV. Archived from the original on November 3, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101103072903/http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/11/03/exclusive-robert-zemeckis-indicates-hell-use-performance-capture-and-3-d-in-roger-rabbit-sequel/. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
- ↑ Rowles, Dustin. "Robert Zemeckis to Uglimate The Nutcracker", Pajiba.com, November 11, 2009. Retrieved on November 21, 2010.
- ↑ Kit, Borys. "Disney torpedoes Zemeckis' "Yellow Submarine"", March 14, 2011. Retrieved on December 12, 2011.
- ↑ Fleming, Mike. "Universal Makes Two-Year Deal With Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers", August 2, 2011. Retrieved on December 12, 2011.
- ↑ "Tom Rothman’s High-Wire Act at Sony Pictures", The New York Times, May 17, 2015. Retrieved on September 17, 2015.
- ↑ "Film releases". Variety Insight. https://www.varietyinsight.com/print_featurefilm_releases.php. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
- ↑ "Robert Zemeckis, STX, Alibaba Partner on Sci-Fi Film ‘Steel Soldiers’", Variety, February 6, 2018. Retrieved on April 2, 2018.