It caught my attention immediately, although I didn't know
exactly what it was. Doug Chiang, whose designs I knew and
worshipped from Star Wars Episode I, had a personal project
featuring a dizzying array of robots and techno-doodads.
The initial trailer left me wondering what exactly Doug
was up to: a book? A movie? A game?
I didn't care. Whatever it was, I wanted to see more of
it.
Soon after the book ROBOTA was released (and in my hot little
hands), I realized that it wasn't one thing or the other
that Doug had in mind... he was attempting to do all three
-- book, movie, and game. He has copped to the game
publicly on his website, while IGN reports
that Doug has signed a deal to bring ROBOTA to the big screen.
As I write this, a third ROBOTA trailer is due to hit the
web any moment, and Sparx Animation in France is working
on a fourth one. The trailers
are gorgeous, and do a great job of translating Doug's remarkable
illustrations into moving pictures. I'm excited to see what
Sparx can do with a feature-length version of this story.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ROBOTA WEBSITE
"The
origins for ROBOTA lie in a sketch of UFOs and tall ships
I absentmindedly doodled one day in my youth. That sketch,
really just a scribble, remained stuck in my head for years...
and exactly why, I wouldn't understand til much later.
Later, in 1996, I had signed on to head up the art and design
team for the new trilogy of Star Wars films. Inundated with
more work than I could handle, I found the image of that unfinished
drawing coming back to me. It began to haunt me, and I knew
that a compelling story hid inside that drawing... but I was
already overcome with work and couldn't possibly take on the
commitment to find it.
Or could I? Perhaps at night after the kids are in bed, or
on weekends?
I decided to keep it secret, and gave myself an initial goal
of a three month commitment to the project. I figured I could
put up with anything for three months. I didn't realize then
that the three months would grow to be three years, and that
it was much harder doing something than thinking about doing
it.
And now, after almost 30 years, and a collaboration with writer
Orson Scott Card, what started in that childhood sketch has
finally been realized: the ROBOTA book is out. It's doing
very well and getting a very good response from reviewers
and readers alike.
And as the future of ROBOTA continues to unfold, I’m very
pleased to announce that the third Robota CG animated teaser
is almost finished. I recently visited ILM and Pixar and showed
them a sneak peek of the work and thankfully they didn’t tear
it apart.
The finished teaser will be about two and a half minutes long
with 70 plus shots. A fourth teaser is also in production
overseas and with luck both of these teasers will be finished
early this year. I promise they’ll both be worth the wait."
