Encore will put the spotlight -- not to mention a few light sabers -- on Industrial Light & Magic with a documentary about the ground-breaking visual effects company in November.
Celebrating the company's 35 years of visual stimulation and innovation, the film, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, is slated to bow on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. Directed by Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated director Leslie Iwerks, the film is narrated by Tom Cruise. Encore has also scheduled five ILM-effects films starting at 2 p.m. -- Jumanji, Hook, Jurassic Park III, Twister and Starship Troopers -- that will bookend the documentary's premiere.
Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., was founded by George Lucas in 1975 to create the visual effects for Star Wars. The studio originated in Van Nuys, Calif. but moved to San Rafael to work on The Empire Strikes Back and is now headquartered at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco with a sister studio in Singapore. ILM has worked on nearly 300 films over the course, garnering 15 best visual effects Oscars and 25 additional nominations. It has also received 23 Scientific and Technical Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of the critical role the company's advances in technology have played in the filmmaking process.
The hour-long documentary includes interviews with Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Williams, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.
Film and TV series showcased include The Abyss, Avatar, Forrest Gump, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean,Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robot Chicken, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Transformers, Twister, Young Sherlock Holmes and The War of the Worlds (2005), which starred Cruise.
The following is Encore ILM schedule on Nov. 14:
Jumanji 2 p.m. - (Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt)
Hook 3:50 p.m. - (Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts)
Jurassic Park III 6:20 p.m. - (Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni)
Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible 8 p.m.
Twister 9 p.m. - (Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes)
Starship Troopers 11 p.m. - (Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer)
Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible 1:15 a.m. (replay)
