ImageMovers Digital
Encyclopedia
ImageMovers Digital is a digital film studio run by director Robert Zemeckis
and originally owned by The Walt Disney Company
, later Universal Studios
. Founded in 1997 as ImageMovers, the studio released such films as Cast Away
, What Lies Beneath
, The Polar Express
, and Monster House
, the latter two films using a motion capture animation technique known as performance capture. Disney acquired the studio in 2007, when the name was changed to ImageMovers Digital.
On March 12, 2010, Robert Zemeckis announced that he was closing ImageMovers Digital. Disney officially closed the studio in May of that year. On August 3, 2011, it was announced that ImageMovers will re-open under ownership of Universal Studios
.
, along with partners Jack Rapke
and Steve Starkey
formed the production company ImageMovers. Among ImageMovers' productions were What Lies Beneath
(with Harrison Ford
and Michelle Pfeiffer
), Cast Away
(with Tom Hanks
), The Polar Express
(also with Tom Hanks
), and its last film, Beowulf
(with Ray Winstone
, Anthony Hopkins
, John Malkovich
, Robin Wright Penn and Angelina Jolie
).
.
On November 6, 2009, ImageMovers Digital released A Christmas Carol
, a performance capture film starring Jim Carrey
, Gary Oldman
, Colin Firth
, and Cary Elwes
, each in multiple roles. On March 12, 2010, Walt Disney Studios and ImageMovers Digital announced that they would close operations by January 2011, after the production was completed on Mars Needs Moms. 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."
The company had previously been reported to have a Calling All Robots, Yellow Submarine remake, a Roger Rabbit sequel and The Nutcracker
in development. Disney dropped Yellow Submarine following the box-office failure of Mars Needs Moms.
, as the ImageMovers label will be for live-action films.
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
and originally owned by The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, later Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. Founded in 1997 as ImageMovers, the studio released such films as Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
, What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars veteran actors Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well-to-do couple who experience a strange haunting that uncovers secrets about their past....
, The Polar Express
The Polar Express (film)
The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were animated using live action performance capture technique, with the...
, and Monster House
Monster House (film)
Monster House is a 2006 computer animated motion capture horror/comedy film produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this is the first time since Back to the Future Part III that they have...
, the latter two films using a motion capture animation technique known as performance capture. Disney acquired the studio in 2007, when the name was changed to ImageMovers Digital.
On March 12, 2010, Robert Zemeckis announced that he was closing ImageMovers Digital. Disney officially closed the studio in May of that year. On August 3, 2011, it was announced that ImageMovers will re-open under ownership of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
.
Beginnings
In 1997, by producer-writer-director Robert ZemeckisRobert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
, along with partners Jack Rapke
Jack Rapke
Jack Rapke is an American film producer who has produced such films as the 2000 Robert Zemeckis film Cast Away.- Filmography :* What Lies Beneath * Cast Away * Matchstick Men * The Polar Express...
and Steve Starkey
Steve Starkey
Steve Starkey is an American film producer and second unit director who is widely associated with Robert Zemeckis. He served as an assistant film editor for both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi .-Filmography:*Star Wars Episode V: The Empire...
formed the production company ImageMovers. Among ImageMovers' productions were What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath
What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars veteran actors Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well-to-do couple who experience a strange haunting that uncovers secrets about their past....
(with Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
and Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
), Cast Away
Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
(with Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
), The Polar Express
The Polar Express (film)
The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were animated using live action performance capture technique, with the...
(also with Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
), and its last film, Beowulf
Beowulf (2007 film)
Beowulf is a 2007 American animated fantasy film written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary inspired by the Old English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique he used in The Polar Express...
(with Ray Winstone
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew "Ray" Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his "tough guy" roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series Robin of Sherwood. He has also become well known as a voice over...
, Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, Robin Wright Penn and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
).
Disney era
In 2007, ImageMovers was renamed ImageMovers Digital after the company was bought by The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
.
On November 6, 2009, ImageMovers Digital released A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (2009 film)
A Christmas Carol is a 2009 film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis...
, a performance capture film starring Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
, Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, and Cary Elwes
Cary Elwes
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes , known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor. The son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy, Elwes acted in off-Broadway plays during college and moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He is known for his role as Westley in the cult classic The...
, each in multiple roles. On March 12, 2010, Walt Disney Studios and ImageMovers Digital announced that they would close operations by January 2011, after the production was completed on Mars Needs Moms. 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."
The company had previously been reported to have a Calling All Robots, Yellow Submarine remake, a Roger Rabbit sequel and The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls...
in development. Disney dropped Yellow Submarine following the box-office failure of Mars Needs Moms.
Universal era
On August 3, 2011, it was announced that ImageMovers Digital will re-open under ownership of Universal StudiosUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, as the ImageMovers label will be for live-action films.
ImageMovers
| Year | Film | Co-Production/Distributor |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | What Lies Beneath What Lies Beneath What Lies Beneath is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis. It stars veteran actors Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a well-to-do couple who experience a strange haunting that uncovers secrets about their past.... |
DreamWorks DreamWorks DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming... 20th Century Fox 20th Century Fox Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios... |
| Cast Away Cast Away Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his... |
||
| 2003 | Matchstick Men Matchstick Men Matchstick Men is a 2003 American drama film directed by Ridley Scott. Based on Eric Garcia's novel Matchstick Men: A Novel about Grifters with Issues , the motion picture stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman.-Plot:... |
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,... |
| 2004 | The Polar Express The Polar Express (film) The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were animated using live action performance capture technique, with the... |
|
| 2005 | The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a 2005 film written and directed by Jane Anderson, based on the book by Terry "Tuff" Ryan. The DVD was released on March 14, 2006.-Plot:... |
DreamWorks |
| 2006 | Last Holiday | Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still... |
| Monster House Monster House (film) Monster House is a 2006 computer animated motion capture horror/comedy film produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this is the first time since Back to the Future Part III that they have... |
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies... Amblin Entertainment Amblin Entertainment Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its... |
|
| 2007 | Beowulf Beowulf (2007 film) Beowulf is a 2007 American animated fantasy film written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary inspired by the Old English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique he used in The Polar Express... |
Paramount Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 2011 | Real Steel Real Steel Real Steel is a 2011 American science fiction film starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy. The film is based in part on the 1956 short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson, though Levy placed the film in U.S. state fairs and other "old-fashioned" Americana settings. Real Steel was in... |
Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone... DreamWorks |
| TBA | How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack | Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Animation is an American computer-animated film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, founded in May 2002. It is working closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which takes care of the digital production... |
ImageMovers Digital
| Year | Film | Co-Production/Distributor |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol (2009 film) A Christmas Carol is a 2009 film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis... |
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney... |
| 2011 | Mars Needs Moms |