Studio:
Columbia Pictures (North America); Gaga-Humax (Japan).
Production Company:
Square Pictures.
Project Phase: Greenlighted.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Hinrobu Sakaguchi (Director); Al Reinert, Hinrobu Sakaguchi (Screenwriters); Michael Gibson, Takahiko
Akiyama (Assistant Directors); Hiroyuki Seshita (Art Director); Andy Jones (Animation Director);
Takashi Kubota (Layout Supervisor); Neville Spiteri (VFX Supervisor); Peter Baustaedter (Matte Painting
Supervisor); based on the Final Fantasy series of video games created by SquareSoft.
Premise: Still pretty sketchy so far, but we know that it is set in the year 2065 on Earth.
Release Date: Summer 2001.
Comments: Unknown.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Special thanks to our good friend for all the info on this project.]
November 8, 1998... After months of net rumors making the rounds that a Final Fantasy movie was in development, we finally received a scoop that authenticated the project's existence. On Tuesday November 3nd we were contacted by a scooper who's been working for quite sometime on the project. The way our scooper proved themselves to CA was by giving us the media's official announcement date of the project -- which indeed happened on the day the scooper selected.
Deadpool's Column With No Name was first to break the exclusive news to the Web. Here's the email that our scooper sent to us last Tuesday:
"The offical announcement is tomorrow 11/5. Since most of the rumors I have seen on the web about this project have been false, and since I trust this websites 'BS detector' better than AICN, I wouldnt mind giving you some official stats on the film. The script has been a work in progress and is still undergoing touchups here and there. The story is based on an orignal story from Hinrobu Sakaguchi. The current script was written by he and Al Reinert(Apollo13). The story is set in the year 2065. (i've got to be careful about what details I give on the script right now, but more to come). There never has been nor at present is there ANY characters, storyline, magic, or any other references from other Final Fantasy games - past, present, or future. The story is COMPLETELY original. The story is not set in an alternative universe and it is set on Earth. We've mostly been in R&D for the last year or so. Pre-vis is just about complete." [Submitted by our anonymous scooper.]
Columbia Pictures did indeed confirm the project on Thursday the 5th. In the press release it mentions that the film intends to show the most realistic CGI yet based on human kinetics. There has been some stills released to the public of three scenes that may or may not be used in the film that were released at the annual SIGGRAPH convention this year. The images themselves gave some weight to Square's claims that the CGI of the film will be like nothing seen before.
Our scooper has promised to return back and provide us with information on the movie throught its development, so stay tuned for updates to this page.
November 22, 1998... A rewrite of the Final Fantasy script is currently being written by Jeff Vintar (Iron Man, Man Plus). [Anonymous.]
January 4, 1999... We've been told the rewrite on the script is in, and, in the words of da scooper, "kicks ass! Production continues onward... [Scooped by da 'Final Scooper'.]