'THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR' STARS LIGHT UP THE BLACK CARPET AT THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth & Emily Blunt who stars as 'Freya' at the Los Angeles premiere of
'Winter's War.' - (Zimbio)

Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain and Nick Frost walked the black carpet Monday evening at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles for the premiere of The Huntsman: Winter's War.  

Fans were treated to a remarkable display of costumes from the film created by Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood.

More after the break

FIRST 'THE HUNTSMAN WINTER'S WAR TRAILER RELEASED

Universal

Universal Pictures released the first trailer for The Huntsman Winter's War today. 

Winter's War takes place before Snow White and the Huntsman but returns Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen Ravenna.

The trailer features new characters played by Jessica Chastain as Sarah The Warrior and Emily Blunt as the Ice Queen. 

Winter's War is directed by Cedric Nicholas-Troyan former Visual Effects Supervisor for SWATH. Fans of SWATH will notice the similar tenor of the effects being used. 

The trailer is a basic introduction of the characters. Check out the trailer below. 

The Huntsman Winter's War opens April 22, 2016. 











Source: Universal

NICK FROST RETURNS AS 'NION' AS JESSICA CHASTAIN AND EMILY BLUNT JOIN SWATH PREQUEL

Deadline reports Nick Frost will be the only dwarf to reprise his role in Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman prequel, 'The Huntsman'. Frost will return as Nion.

Frost rejoins Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman and Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna with SWATH's Visual Effects guru Cedric Nicolas-Troyan who will direct after the controversial departure of Frank Darabont. The first-time director received an Oscar nomination for his work on SWATH's VFX. This will most likely guarantee continuity between the two films. 

Also returning will be Joe Roth as producer and Palak Patel who will executive produce, according to Deadline.

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Emily Blunt (Into the Woods) joined the cast. Blunt is reported to play a villain. No word on Chastain's role. 

'The Huntsman' is set to be released April 22, 2016.

SERENADED BY WOLVERINE AND NOW AN OSCAR NOM,  SWATH EFX EXPERT TALKS ABOUT HIS DWARF WORK AS HE READIES FOR THE OSCARS

Source

One would think receiving an Oscar nomination would be the highlight of an outstanding special effects career, however in an interview with the Edinburgh Evening News, Philip Brennan tells how he was serenaded by...well....Hugh Jackman. Jealous ladies?  Later for that story.

Brennan who is nominated for an Academy Award as a member of the Visual Effects team for SWATH, told the EEN that being nominated felt "quite surreal."  

A native of Barnton UK, Brennan has been residing in Los Angeles for the past 20 years working on special effects in films such as Les Miserables, the Pirates of the Carribean trilogy, Moulin Rouge, Minority Report and the just wrapped Wolverine II.  Brennan was also honored at the Visual Effect Awards in 2004, according to EEN.

More after the jump

OSCAR RACE: SEE SWATH'S 

VISUAL EFX VIDEO BREAKDOWN 

Although previously posted on this site, The Mill and Blue Bolt released these videos to show their visual effects work in order to prop up support for their Academy Award Best Visual Effects nomination for SWATH, according to ComicBookMovie.com.

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson make up the nominated visual effects team.

The 85th Academy Awards will air on February 24th.

Source/Source

SWATH GETS OSCAR NOMS:
 ATWOOD (COSTUMES) 
VISUAL FX (DWARFS & MORE)

Although there was a hope for Original Song and even Hair and Makeup, however the pride is still there for the nominations received for Snow White and the Huntsman for the 85th Academy Awards.  

As expected previous Academy Award winner Colleen Atwood was nominated for Costume Design.  Her work immediately in the opening scene.  A well deserved nomination.

Next was for the Visual Effects team (Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson) which is another well deserved nomination for their work particularly with the dwarfs and troll.  

Read more about their work on SWATH here and here. 

Universal Pictures received even bigger nominations with their film Les Miserables which received nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and more. 

Their successful R-rated comedy Ted also received a nomination for Original Song for "Everybody Needs a Friend."

Read the rest of the Oscar nominations here.

Costume Design

"Anna Karenina" Jacqueline Durran 

"Les Misérables" Paco Delgado 

"Lincoln" Joanna Johnston 

"Mirror Mirror" Eiko Ishioka 

"Snow White and the Huntsman" Colleen Atwood

Visual Effects 

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White

"Life of Pi" Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott 

"Marvel's The Avengers" Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick 

"Prometheus" Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill 

"Snow White and the Huntsman" Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR NICOLAS-TROYAN TALKS DWARF, TROLL & OTHER SPECIAL EFFECTS

Universal

"[Dwarf effect] was mainly achieved with good old school tricks, of raising the other actors in the shot or having the 'dwarf' actors lower than anybody else," says Cedric Nicolas-Troyan director of Visual Effects on SWATH.

Coinciding with the release of the SWATH Blu-ray DVD this week, Moviemaker.com gives insight into some of the visual effects secrets of the film. 

One effect secret was how the actors who portrayed the dwarves were made into little people on screen.  A trick Nicolas-Troyan talks about was digging trenches allowing the actors to stand in them making them shorter as well as using body doubles with CGI.

Nicolas-Troyan states, "...we created a dwarf double of the principal actor with matching wardrobe and extremely precise matching make-up, exceptionally crafted by David White and his team. On some of those shots we did some digital face replacements. We also digitally dwarfed the principal actors, shortening their limbs to make them look smaller. A lot of it was simple 2D compositing. We peppered those shots at key moments to always remind the audience who those dwarves were."

Nicolas-Troyan says there were a lot of challenges on set and with the effects.  However, the "troll sequence" was challenging but went smoothly.

"...very challenging sequence on paper and almost the easiest to shoot. The reason: We prepared it, rehearsed it and shot it without changing anything. The result: One of the most memorable sequence in the film. We got lucky." 

Read more of his interview here and order your copy of the DVD from Amazon from the link on our site.