The Annecy Festival work-in-progress (WIP) sessions continue to show off a wealth of projects in early or mid-production. Tucked away in the cozier and more intimate space of the Salle Pierre Lamy, these events have been fascinating for their granular, procedural detail as well as the variety of personalities driving the work. Read on for a selection of the sessions that interested me this year:
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix
The project: A cyberpunk action series that “remixes” the ’80s action pastiche video game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Captain Laserhawk is instead an animated homage to video games and genre pieces of the ’90s, reimagining characters from Ubisoft titles in new and strange roles at the periphery of this original story.
The people: The series is created and executive produced by Adi Shankar (Castlevania) and directed by Mehdi Laffad with animation production by the studio Bobbypills, known for their stable of anarchic adult animated series like Peedoopo, Vermin and DC’s upcoming Creature Commandos.
The presentation: Those familiar with Adi Shankar’s game — like his Bootleg Universe of unauthorized fan films that captured the attention of enraptured viewers online as well as a number of cease and desist letters — will recognize that spirit in Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. Captain Laserhawk channels that indie spirit in a more official capacity, the studio Bobbypills offered the chance to “open up the toy box” at Ubisoft and reinterpret the characters as they pleased — and there are some memorable reinventions on display, such as Rainbow Six imagined as a Super Sentai-style team, or characters from Assassin’s Creed appearing as incredibly French killer frogs. It’s all hooked to an original story about Dolph Laserhawk, a mercenary dealing with heartbreak after his former partner and lover, the ’80s action hero-styled Alex Taylor, betrays him.
The presentation itself was similarly off-kilter and jovial, with plenty of banter between director Mehdi Leffad, Jérémie Bonnouvrier and Yves “Balak” Bigerel, who reminisce on the beginning of the seven-year-long production, “back when Mehdi still had hair.” Bobbypills had inherited the project from Rieuneau’s prior development work with Angry Metal Studios, and decided to focus that wealth of ideas through the lens of the ’90s instead of the ’80s, as in the original Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon video game. There’s visible influence from the OVAs and features of Yoshiyuki Kawajiri, among other reference points of Ghost in the Shell and Macross. But rather than simply evoke nostalgia the team highlighted “honesty”: “We grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s”, said Balak, “It wasn’t a great period.” The era’s aggressive capitalism is reflected in its storyline of heartbreak, set in an America ruled by corporate dystopia, as is cyberpunk tradition.
But that doesn’t mean an exclusively dour tone, as the team’s commitment to going “beyond Easter eggs” is evident in its joyful craft: a giddy mixture of video game stylings intrude upon animated set-pieces. An early animation test shows a car chase turn into something resembling the F-Zero series of racing games. Later clips show one of Dolph’s agents attempting to seduce a guard during a heist, the scene turning into one from a Japanese dating video game.
Captain Laserhawk is expected to release on Netflix in Fall 2023.
Slocum
The project: A small-scale drama set in the 1950s, following a man dedicated to building a replica of the sailing boat “Spray,” the vessel of Joshua Slocum on the journey that made him the first man to solo sail around the world.
The people: The film is directed by the veteran animator Jean-François Laguionie (Louise by the Shore, The Painting). Stéphan Roelants (The Summit of the Gods) and Camille Raulo (Heart of Gold) are producing. Melusine Productions / Studio 352 (Wolfwalkers) will handle animation production.
The presentation: Beginning with some effusive praise for director Jean-François Laguionie, the Slocum WIP panel was rather straightforward as it rolled through the conception of the project and the hybrid methodology at play. A mixture of 2D and 3D computer animation, the goal was to get “as close to pencil and paper as possible” while using the budgetary and creative advantages of 3D. Much was made of how the process was structured to adhere to Laguionie’s signature style, amidst a number of presentations highlighting varieties of inputs and influences, this one was surprisingly and compellingly auteurist.
First assistant director Denis Lambert spoke of how his layouts were drawn in the same penciling style as Laguionie, while the coloring process was pointed to emulate his use of gouache. Another way in which hybridization played into the filmmaking process was through the composition of the soundtrack — which was being written at the same time as the scenario, experimenting with how the two processes might affect each other in tandem.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
The project: A vaguely surreal adaptation of Belgian author Amélie Nothomb’s (apparently) semi-autobiographical The Character of Rain, the film is from the perspective of the three-year-old Amelié as she becomes more self-aware.
The people: Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade of Maybe Movies / Ikki Films follow up their work together on the feature Calamity as co-directors on Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.
The presentation: “I was more into video games and manga… I mostly read this book to attract a girl,” Liane-Cho Han admits when asked about how he first came across Amélie Nothomb’s novella The Character of Rain. The presentation for the animated film adaptation, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, continues on a winsomely self-deprecating tone even while showing off some gorgeous and thoughtful imagery.
The perspective of the story is that of a three-year old, at the point that Han describes as when “all children think they’re god,” that the world moves at their command. The film itself is about Amélie learning that she’s simply one part of it, and the film embodies that subjectivity through refining and adapting techniques that the directors used while working on Calamity, adding more texture and more pastel colors. “I don’t really like lines, I like sculpture,” says Han of the film’s drawing style, which defines its characters’ shapes through color rather than linework. A gorgeous pilot film developed in 2021 full of magical realist touches was shown for emphasis, its sequences then broken down into storyboard, layout, color script and compositing as they described searching for a hazier, dreamlike atmosphere for a very sensory film.
Set in 1960s Japan, the story centers on a mixed-language household, though the filmmakers had to simplify it to mostly French. But there was a noted dedication to thorough research and avoidance of stereotype in their depiction of the household, as they explored a mixture of traditional Japanese architecture with imported western furniture. There was earnestness too, like in Han’s delightful narration of an animatic, complete with his own sound effects. The film looks to be equally charming.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain aims to complete production in summer of 2024.
Heart of Darkness
The project: An adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this action drama relocates the story to a near future Rio de Janeiro, with Marlow placed in the police force and sent on a mission to the city’s slums.
The people: Rogerio Nunes directs, while Vini Wolf (Jorel’s Brother) acts as director of animation. Karmatique Imagens and Special Touch Studios will co-produce.
The presentation: Perhaps the most politically-charged WIP session that I’ve seen this week, Vini Wolf, the animation director of Heart of Darkness, might have had the most potent and interesting comments about the ideas driving the new adaptation of Conrad’s frequently adapted opus. The film uses the long-lasting effects of slavery as a starting point, tracking it through to contemporary divisions between black Brazilians and white Brazilians. Wolf spoke passionately throughout the presentation, not just noting the importance of making thoughtful political work in Brazil’s animation space but also about the weaponization of the police in Rio de Janeiro.
Wolf cites the “senseless war on drugs” as an inspiration, something he posits “has no winners, only victims, primarily the poor people of Rio di Janeiro” — and, he pointedly adds, “It’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on people in poverty” that the police used to keep Afro Brazilians away from wealthy white Brazilians. The film itself has had its own challenges from the Brazilian government, the presentation also highlighting Bolsonaro’s aggression towards Brazil’s cultural sector and closing down all financing as a major factor in the film’s protracted production journey.
Such militant aggressiveness is a key visual element of this take of Heart of Darkness. One of the clips shown is a rather alarming cacophony of violence committed by police forces against the populace of the slums, the cops drawn in an animalistic style. The jagged lines of the film’s character designs echo that of Taiyou Matsumoto film adaptation Tekkonkinkreet, though the movements aim toward naturalism. The exaggerated art style around the characters is matched in expressive background art, with angular 3D environments finished with 2D textures. The team explained how labor on the film was divided, such as with the Brazilian cohort sending boards to the French team to animate, with Wolf filming over his own reference footage as direction. The film is still in very early stages, but hopefully the final result can match the passion of the ideas behind it.
Production is due to finish next year.
