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More Final Fantasy movie details released
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Honolulu Star Bulletin reports in a feature story some new information for the new Final Fantasy movie, to be released theatrically by Sony.
The project, which is taking place in the Square USA headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, is currently occupying four floors of office space, and plans to rent two more. 150 of the 250 staffers at the development centerare working on the project, which is being completed on Silicon Graphics Octane workstations, which is mostly what the $10 million equipment budget was spent on.
When asked about published rumors that the main character is said to resemble Brad Pitt, producer Jun Aida declined to comment, but did say that the characters are meant to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. The voice actors for the Japanese or English versions have not been selected, but will be by spring, when recording is scheduled to begin.
"We have been developing proprietary equipment as well as our own software," Director Hironobu Sakaguchi told the Star-Bulletin. "We also have a contract with Alias Wavefront." (Alias Wavefront is one of the premiere CG packages for Silicon Graphics workstations.) Aida added that one 3-5 minute scene takes roughly a month of production time.
According to Square, the film is to take place in the same "universe" as the Final Fantasy games... Specifically, on Earth in the year 2065. Heavily reliant on the concepts of life and death, the film will be 90 to 100 minutes, and it is not known whether characters from previous Final Fantasy games will make appearances. All main characters are said to be American born, but with varying ethnic backgrounds.
"What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to die? In life, all things and all people die so we must all live with the knowledge that we will one day be separated from our loved ones," Sakaguchi said.
Among the talented staff working on the project is Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Al Reinert and animation director Andy Jones, who supervised the CG work on Titanic and Godzilla.
