The Prophet (2014)

[Sotiris]

The Lion King director Roger Allers has signed on to adapt and direct The Prophet, an animated film Salma Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions will produce with Clark Peterson and Ron Senkowski. Pepe Tamez and Steve Hanson are executive producing.

The feature is based on the classic book by Khalil Gibran, which has sold over 100 million copies. In addition to overseeing the the film creatively with other filmmakers who will direct individual chapters of the film, Allers will direct the opening, closing and framing story parts of the omnibus feature.

Other filmmakers who are signed or in discussions on the project include Tomm Moore (The Secret Of Kells), Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville), John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Chris Landreth (Oscar-winning short Ryan), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Bill Plympton (Guard Dog and Your Face) and Kunio Kato (Oscar-winning short Tsumiki No Ie). The Prophet will begin pre-production later this month.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/the-lio ... e-prophet/

[Sotiris]

Participant Media and Doha Film Institute have signed on along with MyGroup Lebanon, FFA Private Bank, JRW Entertainment and Code Red Productions for animated project The Prophet, which Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions will produce. The Prophet is based on the best-selling book by Kahlil Gibran of the same name. Since its 1923 publication, the book has sold over 100 million copies.

Roger Allers (The Lion King) is adapting the screenplay and will direct two chapters of the storyline in addition to framing the narrative which will be directed by a number of other filmmakers. To date, directors who have signed onto the project include: Marjane Satrapi (Oscar nominated for Persepolis), Chris Landreth (Oscar-winner for short Ryan), Tomm Moore (Oscar nominated for The Secret of Kells), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Mohammed Saeed Harib (Freej), Michal Socha, Francesco Testa, Joan Gratz (Oscar winner for Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase) and Bill Plympton (Oscar-nominated for Guard Dog and Your Face).

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/financi ... e-prophet/

[NeverLand]

Salma Hayek Turning Philosophy Into Animation for 'The Prophet'

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/v ... her-705229

2D Animation style & Roger Allers... This is a must see!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX1sFmReNtc

0:24, 1:11 and 1:37

[ce1ticmoon]

Wow, I don't think I knew about this. Though it doesn't seem that all of the directors from the initial reports actually ended up working on the movie, the roster is impressive to say the least. Definitely on my watch list.

[Jules]

I hope Nina Paley is still working on a sequence for this film!

[Sotiris]

The first stills are out.

[ce1ticmoon]

WOW. Those stills are absolutely STUNNING!

I can easily tell which stills come from segments directed by Paley, Moore, and Plympton. (Or, at least, I think I can based on their previous work. lol) And are those last two by Joann Sfar? They remind me a bit of The Rabbi's Cat. Not too familiar with the other names. It's unfortunate that Chomet didn't end up on the project, as the earlier articles indicated that he was in talks for it.

The only thing that has me a little iffy is the CGI employed in the main segment. You can't really tell from the stills, but in the video posted by Neverland a few posts above, the CGI... well, definitely looks CGI. It's not completely jarring, but I always find it a little unsettling when the CGI components stick out in a mostly 2D aesthetic.

This thing better get a US distributor...

[Sotiris]

It's unfortunate that Chomet didn't end up on the project, as the earlier articles indicated that he was in talks for it.

Yes, that's a shame. I would gladly exchange Bill Plympton, whose style I'm not very fond of, for Sylvain Chomet.

The only thing that has me a little iffy is the CGI employed in the main segment. You can't really tell from the stills, but in the video posted by Neverland a few posts above, the CGI... well, definitely looks CGI. It's not completely jarring, but I always find it a little unsettling when the CGI components stick out in a mostly 2D aesthetic.

My feelings exactly. Because of the limited budget the CG looks crude and stiff and no amount of cel-shading can mask that.

[Sotiris]

The U.S. trailer looks stunning! Its only blemish is that crude cel-shaded CG of the main story.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Yeah, that was a pretty cool trailer. I'm not sure how this flew under my radar, as I'm just now hearing about it, but this project looks pretty awesome. Yes, the CGI is rudimentary, but I think the highly stylized segments will outweigh the bland CGI.

[ce1ticmoon]

The U.S. trailer looks stunning! Its only blemish is that crude cel-shaded CG of the main story.

Reading some impressions of people who have already seen the film, it seems that the main story segment is the weakest part of the film in general, and not just in terms of visuals. Considering it is the thread that ties everything together, that seems like it could be detrimental to the film as a whole.

Still, this is worth a look just for the other animated segments alone, so I definitely don't want to miss it.

[ce1ticmoon]

It's playing near me. I hadn't been really paying attention to the showtimes until now, so I don't know for how much longer... I might have to try and catch it before the weekend.

The reviews aren't glowing, unfortunately (many reviewers note the weakness of the wrap-around segment), but I'd still really love to see this on the big screen, just for the various "poem" segments.

Hopefully this will get a BD release. GKIDS have been slipping here and there, with some of their films getting only DVD releases... Though this is probably high-profile enough to get a BD release.

[MeerkatKombat]

Ugh, I hate that animation style. My opinion but yeah, doesn't appeal to me.
I quite like cell shading for video games like Borderlands but not traditional animation. I like animation to look cleaner.
I also really dislike that poster Sotiris posted. The girl looks like something straight out of a Dingo cartoon.
The whole thing definitely looked better in motion so I'll give it that. I am really really pleased to see someone giving 2D animation a chance even if the art style really puts me off.

[ce1ticmoon]

So I ended up seeing this tonight, since it was the last night it was playing at the theater near me.

I can definitely see why the reviews are mixed. After seeing it, I'm not sure if this film even should have had a narrative as a framing device for the various poems (though my understanding is that the book does? I'll admit that I've never read it before). While some are given fairly natural and smooth transitions, others just seem awkwardly wedged into the story. The main story itself is serviceable--not bad, per se, but far from great. Honestly, though, it seemed Allers tried to make it appeal to both children and adults, but somehow failed at both. For example, much of the writing comes off as overly simplistic and infantile, yet the whole political climate in the setting of the film is not given enough contextualization that would allow the average child to understand what's really going on. I mean, I think the overarching story that they have could have worked, but it just wasn't executed all too well. Perhaps it would have worked better had the poet been the viewpoint character instead of the little girl.

As for the animation of the main story segment, I must say that it bothered me almost the entire time. It really was quite clunkly and an eyesore against the nicely illustrated backgrounds. Honestly, if they didn't have enough of a budget, I would have rather seen anime-like animation with low frame-rates, with just the key sequences getting money thrown at it. There are plenty of ways to make limited animation look great and even dynamic. (Just look no further than any of Masaaki Yuasa's TV projects.)

As for the nine poem segments by the various animators, I was very impressed with them for the most part. They were all beautiful in their own way, and while they mostly seemed like very literal manifestations of the poems, I think they worked quite well. Some definitely worked better than others, but all of them are worth seeing just for their sheer beauty. Most of them consist of Liam Neeson reciting the poems, with some nice music to go along with them. A couple of the poems, however, were adapted into songs (basically, the poems became the lyrics to the songs), and I honestly think I would have preferred it if most of them were adapted into songs, with just a couple of them being recited. The highlight for me was definitely Tomm Moore's segment, "On Love," which featured music by Lisa Hannigan and Glen Hansard. Simply mesmerising. Honestly, I'd buy the Blu-ray just for that segment alone.

Overall, I think it is worth seeing if you get the chance, just to see the poem segments by the various artists. I'll definitely get the BD when it comes out, though it's likely I'll skip the story segment most of the time.