Attached Link: http://msnbc.com/news/560239.asp

The initial concept of doing a Final Fantasy movie came from Hironobu Sakaguchi, executive vice president of the Square Co. and CEO of Square USA. As the creator of the Final Fantasy games, Sakaguchi ranks alongside Nintendos Shigeru Miyamoto and Segas Yu Suzuki as one of the truly elite video game designers. Having just completed Final Fantasy VII, the first of the series to appear on PlayStation, he had also demonstrated a unique flair for cinematic expression. To create these tools, Square hired top software engineers and programmers from around the world and brought them to its Hawaii offices. We basically have a conglomerate of talents from all over the world, the rough breakdown between the mainland U.S., European and Japanese staff is about fifty-fifty (fifty percent from Japan, fifty percent from the U.S. and Europe). We have Japanese speakers and English speakers. That is one of the reasons why we set up the studio in Honolulu, to be sort of a central focal point. "Final Fantasy", due out this summer, promises to be the greatest advancement in cinematic 3D realism ever seen, and it was made in the land of Hula Girls and palm trees- the best place to do 3D because the real paradise is just outside the studio door...

Attached Link: http://www.worley.com/media/examples/sas/Gallery/insideLW.jpg

Imagine a 3D human being like this, but approximately twice as realistic and in full cinematic motion...

I have seen the trailers for it, looks incredible to say the least! I am waiting eagerly for it to be shown here in Oz. I definately NOT missing this one at the box office. I will take my son if I have to.

I saw the trailer a while back. I forgot when it was supposed to be released here in the states. Any Idea? Dragontales

I could care less if its photorealistic (they do photorealism in movies all the time...it's called live-action). I just hope it has a desent story.

I had to laugh when I read ...it's called live-action. Sometimes we get so wrapped up with the technology we forget that simple solutions exist already.

Check out www.darkhorizons.com. It's a great site for info on all sorts of movies coming out. I saw the trailer for Final Fantasy recently and was simply stunned. The animation looks incredible.

Attached Link: http://starbulletin.com/1999/01/15/features/story1x.html

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has an interesting local feature story on the movie...

Attached Link: http://www.finalfantasy.com/

Production Info and Movie Clips can be seen here...

Check out Matt Karnes, movie engineer in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin article- NOW WE KNOW who the Zygote-Daz "Michael" character was based upon. Photo is in the article linked above...

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/pages/dp/aboutus/eb.html

erm...we already knew. Michael was based on Dan Farr, Co-Founder and President of DAZ Productions.

Yes, but Dan Farr doesn't have the wedgecut hair, and Matt Karnes does. But of course, Matt Karnes and Darr Farr could actually BOTH be 3D computer simulations... (Shrieking violin sounds from the Bates Motel shower murder scene- and intro music to "X-Files"...)

Release date is July13 in the US. GrayMare

Actually, I met Dan at the Game Developer's Conference... and knew that I'd seen him before. BTW, he seemed like an awfully nice guy. Carolly

Ahah! You were fooled by his Alien-Government Conspiracy double, manufactered by DAZ under a top-secret contract from the Inner Circle...

The Inner Circle? Why would the PropsGuild be contracting DAZ?