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Tag: Genndy Tartakovsky

  • Genndy Tartakovsky Won’t Give Up on Getting ‘Black Knight’ Made

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    Last weekend, Genndy Tartakovsky released test footage for Black Knight, his latest project that he’s trying to get made. Now, he’s pledged to continue what he can to get eyes on it until Sony greenlights full production.

    In a recent Polygon interview, the longtime animator said he’ll reveal new material for the film “every week until it gets made.” The test reel’s had a “great” reception, especially over in Latin America, further spurring his efforts to get Black Knight on the big screen. Also fueling him is the success of Sony’s own KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse movies, which have gained acclaim and attention for sporting bolder animation styles than the general norm found in Disney and Illumination movies, in addition to Demon Slayer.

    Recalling Sony’s worries about Knight finding an audience, Tartakovsky called the film “part of Spider-Verse [and] part of anime. [Sony] asked where or who the audience is, and it’s like…what do you mean? […] How long am I just going to sit there and have all these projects come out? Because mine is original, it’s not getting made. So I thought I would just put it out there.”

    More than anything, Tartakovsky thinks Black Knight could help show animation can be for more audiences than just kids. After years of working with Sony on the Hotel Transylvania films, he was set up to direct two original films for the studio, and this is one he wants to see through to the end.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • Genndy Tartakovsky Releases Test Footage for ‘Black Knight’ Film

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    Longtime animator Genndy Tartakovsky has a new film he’s working on called Black Knight, and to get it made, he’s calling on his longtime audience for assistance.

    On Friday, the Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and Star Wars: The Clone Wars alum released test footage for the film, which he’s been working on with his team for nearly a decade. Tartakovsky said on Instagram that Sony Animation “liked what we were doing, but they were unsure if there is an audience that would go see it theatrically. So to try something different, I thought I would share the test to see if it can get a ground swell of excitement that would change the studio’s mind.”

    Black Knight is an original film centered on a 14th century knight operating a 20-foot tall suit of armor “using ropes, pulleys, and levers,” said Tartakovsky. While short, the footage shows our unnamed hero using a massive sword to fight a human-sized ninja armed with a kusarigama. The knight’s got the size advantage, but the ninja has speed on her side, though we don’t get much of an idea of what that would look like.

    Still, the concept here is promising: the armor carries a lot of weight and the forest they’re fighting in looks gorgeous. Tartakovsky’s got plenty of CG experience thanks to his Hotel Transylvania movies, and you can bet it’d look good from start to finish.

    Why wouldn’t Sony Pictures Animation want to make Black Knight for theaters? Because, as discussed during KPop Demon Hunters‘ rise, original animated movies finding an audience are a crapshoot, and there’s no telling what hits in the moment or takes off after the fact. (Nobody cared about Elemental until Disney changed its marketing strategy and it took off big in South Korea, for example.)

    If Sony did put it in theaters, promoting it as “from the studio behind KPop” might also have general audiences thinking it’s only coming to theaters for a week or two before jumping over to Netflix. Whatever deal the two companies struck in 2021 that’s resulted in KPop and Tartakovsky’s recent raunchy 2D comedy Fixed hitting the streamer first doesn’t apply here, and Sony would probably like to not give every animated movie it owns over to Netflix right away.

    None of this should take away from the fact that Black Knight should get made, given Tartakovsky’s pedigree and relationship with Sony. That’s what matters first and foremost, and with luck, enough interest will be drummed up that we can see it in some format in the years to come. Until then, there’s always Fixed, Primal, and everything else he’s made.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • Tales of the Empire’s First Clip Gives General Grievous a Bit of Menace Back

    Tales of the Empire’s First Clip Gives General Grievous a Bit of Menace Back

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    When we first met General Grievous 20 years ago this month in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars microseries, it gave him an immediate, chilling presence. But then Revenge of the Sith, and with it the Clone Wars 3DCG series, constrained what could be done with the character. Grievous took on the air of a Saturday morning cartoon villain—twirling lightsabers rather than mustaches. Tales of the Empire is keeping the twirling lightsabers, but it might just bring back a little of that original menace, too.

    Why is the Dancing Baby an NFT?

    Today Lucasfilm released the first clip from the upcoming anthology series Tales of the Empire—its spiritual successor to Tales of the Jedi, this time focusing on stories of the Dark Side, including the life of Morgan Elsbeth before she joined Thrawn’s service, and whatever happened to Barriss Offee after her radicalization against the Jedi’s role in the Clone War. Leaning on the Morgan side of things, the clip sees Tales’ own riff on a particular moment from the 3D Clone Wars series—the season four episode, “Massacre,” when as part of an act of vengeance by Count Dooku, Grievous and an army of Battle Droids launch a devastating assault on Dathomir to try and wipe out Asajj Ventress and her Nightsister comrades.

    Tales of the Empire | ‘Stay Back’ Official Clip

    The clip is brief, but very fun—if Star Wars is to insist on returning to stories of Clone Wars as it so often is these days, at the very least being able to do so in animation, with the lessons and experiences learned since it came to an end in place, is nice. Getting to see this moment first glimpsed 12 years ago with modern visuals and style is great! But it’s also because, given free reign to act here as the catalyst for Morgan’s traumatic past, Grievous just gets to be unleashed as pure, sinister id.

    Going up against Obi-Wan or other Jedi in Clone Wars—never Anakin, of course, because the two were not allowed to actually meet until Revenge of the Sith—Grievous was most often doomed to be a bit of a jobber. He had his moments here and there, sure (the early season one episode “Lair of Grievous” is always worth shouting out), but in Clone Wars Grievous was usually far from the charismatically petrifying agent of death he was when he first stomped into animated canon in the 2D series. It might only be for a brief while, but at least Tales of the Empire looks like it’s bringing at least a little bit of that edge back.

    Tales of the Empire begins streaming on Disney+ May 4.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    James Whitbrook

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