Seems we have gotten the first confirmation on the opening date of Star Wars Episode 2. Both the previous Variety report on the trailer controversy and the Boston Globe state that the second prequel film will open wide May 17, 2002, a Friday.

Seems a controversy is brewing over the first Episode 2 trailer. Apparently the deal was struck between Lucas and Pixar, bypassing much of the studio meddling, and using also an obscure MPAA rule. Also a short promotion of THX featuring the characters from Shrek has been pulled off, not surprising since the trailer will show in front of Pixar's movie.

The official Star Wars site finally confirms that the first ever trailer for Star Wars Episode 2 will premiere with Pixar's Monsters Inc.

During SIGGRAPH 2001, ILM presented several cdlips, both at the Electronic Theatre and at the Animation Theatres. But there was one short film that wasn't mentioned much, because the main credit was not ILM. It was a short film titled "The Moving Pyramid", created by Wolf-Rudiger Bloss with help from ILM. It's the story showing that the ancient Egyptian pyramids moved, and how they finally stopped.

The release of The Time Machine has been postponed until February and the ending will be redone and re-edited. In the meantime Variety has officially confirmed that ILM will work on Ang Lee's Hulk.

The latest issue (#56, December 2001) of the official Star Wars fan club, The Star Wars Insider, has just come out and it contains a wealth of ILM coverage. The main article is coverage of the upcoming Episode 1 DVD with tons of small photos of the extra scenes being added, and interviews with key people, including ILM's FX Supervisor Pablo Helman (currently supervising Episode 2) and Compositing Supervisor Jon Alexander.

Entertainment Weekly has just confirmed that ILM will work on one of this year's most anticipated movies, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The official Star Wars site reports that the next issue of The Insider (the official Star Wars fan club magazine) will contain an article on the Episode 1 DVD release. As many fans now know, the DVD will contain tons of extras, which include footage of several scenes that were cut from the film. The scenes had their FX finished by ILM veterans Pablo Helman (currently FX unit supervisor for Episode 2) and Jon Alexander (compositing supervisor, last seen in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead).

As the release date approaches, the media outlets have started reporting on the production of the dino sequel including some behind the scenes looks.

Following in the footsteps of the recently announced Episode 1 DVD, Lucasfilm and Fox have announced the release of the Willow Special Edition DVD.

The official Star Wars site has announced that the DVD of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is finally on its way. Not only is the film in anamorphic widescreen included, but also tons of extras, including behind the scenes look at ILM's work. The release date is set for October 16, 2001.

The second teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg's AI has hit the Net and we get our first glimpse of the FX work from ILM.

AI, The upcoming (and very secretive) Steven Spielberg film, has begun to leak information. A trailer for the film (Real Video) has supposedly begun showing along with the film "Proof of Life", and earlier this week Entertainment Tonight showed a teaser of the film as well. I've updated the AI page here to include the new AI poster.

I'm really excited to see this film. The official website has yet to open, but can be found here.

The folks at ILM responsible for the Synchronicity short animated film have created a website for the the film and the company responsible for it.

There has been some rumors of an untitled ILM animated feature film in the works, to be directed by Stefen Fangmeier. I'm posting this message as a call for more rumors/info about this top secret film.

Here is what we've heard so far.

I asked ILM for permission to host several Quicktime files showing some of the excellent CGI we could have expected from the Universal Film "Frankenstein vs. The Wolfman"

In case you are not aware, "Frankenstein" was canceled, and is now in limbo. Likely to stay there for the forseeable future.

This footage had already been posted on the Internet over at AICN (thanks to an unnamed source). I simply wanted to share it with you, the ILM fans out there that visit ilmfan.com, and I wanted to do it legally.

Here was ILM's response.