Characters come to life on screen

By PETER GRIFFIN

There's a point in Hollywood producer Don Hahn's ghost flick Haunted Mansion where it becomes impossible to tell the living from the dead, actor from digital creation.

It's all down to the increasingly powerful animation and computer graphics technology coming out of studios such as Sony Imageworks, Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic and, of course, Wellington-based Weta Digital.

Hahn called in on the Weta crew responsible for the stunning effects of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on his promotional tour here for Haunted Mansion, which he describes as: "A little comedy, a little love story, a little scary, a little bit of a murder mystery, all hung on a very strong fairy tale spine. With zombies."

For the producer of such blockbusters as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Weta is at the forefront of making movies he spends up to two years at a time working on himself - big-budget epics that seamlessly combine animation with live action.

In Haunted Mansion, the zombies and ghosts are the creation of Oscar-winning make-up artist Rick Baker and his Cinovation crew. But the trails of ectoplasm, the gothic graveyard and ghostly characters are computer-generated imagery (CGI), the work of Sony Imageworks.

The film shoot involved a cast headed by Eddie Murphy performing in front of blue screens and in the creepy mansion built in Los Angeles but set in New Orleans in the movie.

Mansion really came together during seven months of post-production when the computers took over. The result was a smooth mix of graphics and live acting that wouldn't have been possible without recent advances in CGI.

"It's just the onset of computer graphics. I say that like it's a disease. We started using it in the ballroom scene of Beauty and the Beast and people loved it. We used it again with the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King," says Hahn, who is so interested in the animation process he wrote a behind-the-scenes book in 1996.

"[CGI] began to take over the movies more and more until now virtually all we're doing is computer graphics films."

Hahn pays as much tribute to story and script as he does graphics, but he sees the latter adding a surreal element to his movies.

"It's where Eddie [Murphy] can walk into a cemetery and come across a barbershop quartet of singing busts. I love that because it messes with your brain," says Hahn, who was turned on to movies that mix animation and live action by the 1964 classic Mary Poppins.

As with last year's CGI-heavy Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion is also based on a Disney theme park ride.

The movie itself, according to Box Office Prophets, took US$75 million ($114 million) at the US box office but it disappointed critics.

Which shows that even the best graphics can't make an average movie a masterpiece.

Although animated characters have played convincing leads in dozens of animated movies, Hahn says the days when fully animated, real-life characters slot convincingly into movies are upon us.

"It's very natural for us as entertainers to create personalities and market them. It's a small step from that to creating a personality from scratch."

Which is exactly the premise of s1m0ne, the 2002 movie written and directed by New Zealander Andrew Niccol of Truman Show and Gattaca fame.

In s1m0ne, director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) loses his star actress but is able to generate a replacement using some powerful animation software that falls into his hands. The Hollywood paparazzi are soon hunting an actress who exists only on a computer hard drive.

Hahn says advanced video games have generated strong and convincing characters based entirely on animation. He points to Lara Croft, the heroine of the Tomb Raider franchise.

In Haunted Mansion there are scenes entirely made up of computer graphics. In the movie's climax, full body scans of actors Terence Stamp and Eddie Murphy were taken while the impressive "skeleton horse" scene is completely computer generated.

"The lines are blurring between what's animated and what's live," says Hahn.

The producer is sceptical of the debate raging in Hollywood over the "off-shoring" of production work to studios like Weta that would normally be done in Hollywood studios.

He argues that movie-making has always been a global business. He spent two years living in London for the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and co-ordinated a trans-Atlantic team for the making of The Lion King.

"The money does come back to LA. It's not like it's being shipped wholesale over here," he reasons.

With the stratospheric success of the Rings, Weta had the full confidence of Hollywood producers, which explained the green-lighting of Jackson's next big-budget project, King Kong, and of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which will be directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson of Shrek fame.

As far as animation is concerned, New Zealand is riding high.

"The reason to bring a movie here is the people. Anyone can go out and buy a big computer. Those people are at the top of their game right now plus they're great animators," says Hahn, who would like to one day work with Jackson.

As Hahn ages, he finds he's becoming more interested in smaller movies such as Lost in Translation, which garnered a best screenplay Oscar for writer-director Sofia Coppola last month.

"It was shot in 30 days for no money yet the character portrayals are excellent," he says.

But it's the animated greats aimed mainly at children that bring in the money.

"I certainly don't make movies to have toys in McDonald's happy meals but I do and I put them on my desk afterwards because I think they're cool," says Hahn, who helps oversee the creation of movie-related merchandise.

"But certainly, working for Disney the tail doesn't wag the dog, the story has to come first," says Hahn, who picked up an Oscar nomination in 1991 for best picture for Beauty and the Beast.

Right now he is in reading mode, looking for the next story he can use to gather together a team of actors, animators and financiers to translate to the silver screen.

"I go home every night with a stack of children's books, novels and scripts," he says.