INCREDIBLE VISUAL EFFECTS CAPTURE A GRIPPING TALE OF SURVIVAL BASED ON THE POPULAR 1903 NOVEL BY JACK LONDON
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 2020 – American adventure movie “The Call of the Wild” employs visual effects and technology to bring the animals in the film to life, providing a hybrid of live action and animated filmmaking.
Harrison Ford, one of the screen’s all-time most popular and acclaimed leading men, heads a cast that includes Omar Sy (“The Intouchables”), Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Karen Gillan (“Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Jumanji: The Next Level”), Bradley Whitford (“Get Out”) among many others. Chris Sanders (“How to Train Your Dragon”) directs from a screenplay by Michael Green (“Murder on the Orient Express”).
Prior to its publication as a short novel in 1903, Jack London’s adventure- saga about a dog named Buck was serialized in “The Saturday Evening Post” magazine. Translated into 47 languages, it has never been out of print since, an enduring example of classic American literature. The movie follows the adventures of Buck, a big-hearted St. Bernard/Scotch Collie dog who’s stolen from his cushy home in California and, eventually, finds his way to the Alaskan Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s.
Says Chris Sanders, who makes his live-action directorial debut; “THE CALL OF THE WILD is all about a character that has unexpected things thrown at him, things that you and I would probably recognize as just the sort of stuff life does. Unexpected challenges can either defeat you, or make you stronger, and that’s what happens to Buck. Rather than being defeated at these different turns, Buck keeps going and eventually finds a place where he belongs.
“We wanted to make a cinematic journey and we wanted to base that around Buck,” says Production Designer Dechant. “The combination of Janusz and a director who comes from animation meant that we had a completely woven tapestry telling Buck’s story. Having Janusz brought everything up to a new level – to his level.”
For the scenes involving Buck, instead of just using a marker–usually a tennis ball–they put a real person there who they would film and later replace with animation. Terry Notary, who began as a Cirque de Soleil performer and has become one of the premiere motion specialists and movement choreographers in the movie industry, spent hours and hours studying dogs and learning their mannerisms, practicing their mannerism and movement.
The Call of the Wild releases throughout the UAE the 20th February, the official trailer can be viewed here
Leave a Reply