X0DUS
Epic Megagrant Application
X0dus is a live action, virtual production feature film, for fans of all the science-fiction movies we loved in the 80s; Star Wars, Dune, Mad Max and Flash Gordon. It’s a visually spectacular, non-stop action packed genre movie, utilizing revolutionary real-time technology created by Unreal Engine.
X0dus tells the story of Caleb, a young Duke, who’s idyllic life aboard an orbiting space colony is shattered when his father is murdered by its warped cybernetic Queen and Caleb is thrown into the Earth’s apocalyptic deserts, left for dead. There he’s found by Red, a warrior maiden of the slave underclass who despises everything he represents. But Red and Caleb must unite forces if they are to stop the Queen from vaporizing the Earth.
Work in progress animatic - first 3 minutes - temporary metahumans will be replaced with live action - temporary grey boxing will be replaced with high quality assets. Using Murf.ai for temporary dialogue.
The entire movie is being built in Unreal Engine, including environments, vehicles and non-human characters. Our live action cast will be filmed within a virtual production setting using a combination of bluescreen and LED volume techniques. All shots are currently being created as a master animatic to block staging and lighting before production begins. But unlike traditional pre-vis, these animatics form the backbone of the finished movie. First we block the action and environments in unreal, render out the previz then import into Davinci Resolve to edit. There we add music, sound effects, synthetic dialog and simple VFX to really start building the story in a visual way. With the animatic, we can also audition simple storyboards to inform us of what to previsualize next back in Unreal, trying ideas quickly, back and forth, effectively writing in real-time, until we’re confident we’re creating the most dynamic and efficient story possible. Once we’re happy with a sequence, we can go back into unreal and level up the environment and animation bringing them up to final, knowing that we’re only working on what will actually be seen in the final movie.
The majority of the shoot will be bluescreen to keep filming as fast as possible with reliance on technology to a minimum. A fast shoot is not only less expensive, but it also keeps the actors and crew's energy higher leading to a more creative and exciting performance. A unique approach of our production is that we're compositing the bluescreen elements live within the real-time environment. First we track the bluescreen in nuke, create a high fidelity extraction and then send both the camera and alpha embedded EXRs back into unreal as a media texture. This allows the live-action plate to exist within the 3D scene where it casts shadows, is occluded by the characters and embedded within atmospherics all in real time. The real-time artist can then move props, lights and anything in the environment to best fit the plate. Something impossible in the traditional pipeline.
For over 25 years I’ve been at ILM, working as an animator, compositor and more recently, environment artist, on some of the biggest franchises of all time, including STAR WARS, TRANSFORMERS, HARRY POTTER, THE MCU and THE MANDALORIAN. Besides visual effects, I’m also a filmmaker, and my debut feature film Stay Out Stay Alive, won over 10 best picture, best director awards on the genre festival circuit, resulting in world-wide distribution through Gravitas Ventures.
I wrote X0dus twenty years ago, and it was a quarter finalist in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholls Fellowship screenwriting competition, but at that time, because of the high cost of visual effects in the traditional pipeline, it was simply not feasible as an independent production, so alas sat in the draw of unrequited dreams… until now.
When the average studio budget for a science fiction film is over 200 million dollars, I can completely understand why studios can’t risk investing in original stories, but the true cost for audiences is that we’re limited to only reboots and sequels of existing tentpole franchises.
With Unreal and real-time filmmaking it’s now possible to make new, original, visually spectacular science fiction and fantasy stories at a fraction of that cost. And I’m beyond thrilled to finally be able to tell those stories in a new revolution of disruptive digital filmmaking.
Welcome to X0dus!
