Well, here we go. Someone with a lot of pride, coming to bat for their company. Good. Wait till you read what scene they did in TITANIC... that should get saliva flowing for Trek... well, I guess the concept has to be in the script though. I hope it is, I'd love to check that one out. Anyway, I'll call this fella Roper... after... hmmm... I'll leave that to you.
I just read your Star Trek 9 news man am I disappointed with Dr. Soran's presentation. I understand that a lot of geeks out there think ILM is the greatest, and yes, they have done a lot of great work, and they have done a lot to advance the visual effects industry, but that does not mean that they are the best candidate for the job.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Soran feels that Blue Sky|VIFX (not VIFX/Blue Sky Studios doc!) is not up to doing excellent work on a project like Star Trek 9. I know my opinion is a bit biased because I work at Blue Sky|VIFX, but did the good Doctor see the engine room sequence in Titanic? The entire engine was done as a minuature with people on catwalks composited in (sorry for ruining anyones illusions about that) at our L.A. office, and I think it was an excellent piece of visual effects work. The Harrison, NY office is also one of the top character animation facilities in the world. Just look at Joe's Apartment (you can't tell me those roaches don't look fantastic) and Alien Ressurection where the viewer finally gets to see the legs of the alien as it walks. There is a great history within Blue Sky|VIFX, where the founders of Blue Sky go back to Tron (you remember that movie with the first CG in it don't you?) and the founders of VIFX go back to work with what eventually became the Wavefront Advanced Visualization system (and that just got an Acadamy Certificate in the Technical Achiecement catagory [see http://www.ampas.org/awards70th/70st.html]).
Sorry to have ranted but I just think that people need to realize that while ILM is good and has done good work in the past and will most likely continue to do good work in the future, that does not mean they the best house for every project (no I don't want a flame war here, I am just putting my 2 cents in).
