Aldeus is a live action film in development, produced by Mireille Frenette and directed by Benoit Guerville. This epic fable set in a medieval world of legends is being independently produced in France by Wide.

ALDEUS NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2001

New collaborators, new partnerships, new images… Aldeus thrives in this new millennium!

Aldeus in Hollywood?
Open minds and much interest for Aldeus greeted the film's producers in Hollywood, where they had gone last fall to meet face-to-face with members of the American film industry. They met with agents (including from the huge William Morris Agency), producers, actors, set decorators. They also had the opportunity to discuss Aldeus' digital special effects with computer graphics experts from Digital Domain, Rhythm&Hues, and The Secret Lab (Disney).

Aldeus website now in English
The official website for Aldeus is now located at www.aldeus.net . At long last, an English version of site is now available, while many of the French website texts have also been updated.

Call for talent
Wide is looking for talented computer graphic artists to work on Aldeus, particularly in the field of textures, lighting, and animation. Check it out here.

New designers
Two new designers have joined the Aldeus team:
· Bordeaux artist Gérard Trignac has built an impressive reputation as a deserving heir to Piranesi, the XVth century copperplate engraver. His lithographs are sold worldwide (and on Aldeus website in the very near future). His preferred subject is architecture, which he studied in depth for almost a decade. In the early 80s, already holder of the prestigious Velasquez award, he was contacted by Umberto Eco to work on the sets for "The Name of the Rose". The work he has produced so far on Aldeus is breathtaking. Working from the director's precise guidelines, he has designed two key sets for the film, a fortress and a cathedral of epic proportions, as well as large-scale accessories such as siege towers. Much of his work has already been translated in 3D for the film by the digital special effects team.
· British artist Paul Staples-Jeacock is known for his work on the popular SLAINE series. A regular contributor to Games Workshop, he has created illustrations for Warhammer (rule book) as well as several comic strips. For Aldeus, the artist has been working on production paintings and developing designs for the Nightmares. His work to date has already yielded several astonishing and exciting characters.

Digital special effects
· Baptiste Firroloni has been promoted supervisor of the special effects team. Among many other responsibilities, he is currently overseeing recruitment for the CGI team.
· Romain Buignet has concluded his tests on dynamics simulation and pyrotechnics and has chosen the solutions that will be used in the integration of these elements to the film's battle scenes.
· Programmer Tom Berg from Los Angeles has taken the challenging task of developing a custom computer program to manage Aldeus' battle scenes. To put this work in perspective, it should be mentioned that several of the upcoming "Lord of the Rings" movie battle scenes have been made using a similar custom-designed computer program.
· Finally, we are pleased to announce a new partnership with Modern Uprising Studios from New York, who will provide the motion capture data needed to provide life-like animation of the thousands of digital characters battling on-screen.

Body by Kameleon
A tip of the hat to Studio Kaméléon, the special effects house responsible for Aldeus' new armours' prototypes and swords, for their work on Christophe Gans's "Le Pacte des Loups". Gérald Mignotte and Morgan Hildebrand assisted by Julie Lepère and Amélie Heroux produced the lifelike (!) corpses of the beast's victims, as well as the unusual sword-whip used in the final confrontation of the film.

Shootings
No shootings are scheduled to take place before key digital special effects tests are completed. However, thanks to Sony's collaboration, upcoming shoots will be made with the new 24p HD camera, the same one used by George Lucas for several scenes of "Star Wars Episode 1".

Music
Opera performers and classical musicians (strings, wind, and brass instruments) have started to record for Aldeus with composer Sylvain Ballée. Work is proceedings with Michel Deneuve, an artist who performs on a crystal organ. This unusual instrument was invented in 1952 by Bernard and François Baschet. The sound is created when the fingers of the artist stroke the glass rods of the instrument and generate the vibration of tuned metal bars amplified by large metal resonators. These strange eerie sounds are becoming part of the Aldeus soundtrack.

Aldeus in the news
Although Aldeus has not yet been officially introduced to the press, several journalists have already heard about the film. Last fall, French magazine "Repérages" devoted a double page to Aldeus and in January, French magazine "Starfix" featured Aldeus as part of a subject on the renewal of genre cinema in France. Excerpts from these articles will soon be available on the Aldeus website.

In conclusion
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