Mouse Guard : Les concept Arts du film annulé de la Fox

Date : 30 / 06 / 2019 à 10h00

Par : Dominique T

Sources :

Darek Zabrocki via Instagram via CBR via Collider et Wes Ball via Twitter via Collider

Darek Zabrocki, artiste concepteur et illustrateur indépendant qui a travaillé sur l’adaptation cinématographique de la bande-dessinée Mouse Guard (écrite et illustrée par David Petersen) pour la Fox, partage aujourd’hui le résultat de son travail qu’il avait réalisé avant que le film ne soit (une des) victime(s) du rachat de la Fox par Disney et annulé en avril dernier. Les images sont tout simplement magnifiques !

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Weekly Tip #7 : OWN IP VS COMMERCIAL WORK Hey guys ! Are you ready for loads of brand new work I did in last +12 months ? I got a lot stuff from sadly cancelled Mouse Guard, Love Death and Robots and many more ! I also expand my personal IP lately and I started to value personal stuff much more since you can spend more time on them, research more and basically let your imagination go crazy ! What's your thought on it ? Let's talk on importance of developing own IP vs Commercial work. Here is a snippet of one of (hundreds) concepts I did for Mouse Guard directed by amazing dude Wes Ball. Thank you for all the constant support and good words it means a lot ! #art #artoftheday #artistoninstagram #2d #conceptart #conceptartist #cathedral #design #digitalart #artist #darekzabrocki #illustration #fantasyart #focalpointschool #painting #photoshop #scifiart #scifi #sciencefictionart #starwars #scifimovie #fox #mouseguard #wacom

Une publication partagée par Darek Zabrocki (@darekzabrocki) le 16 Juin 2019 à 7 :29 PDT

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Mouse witcher 🐭⚔ One of the very first concepts I did for MOUSE GUARD film. This project took us in total +12 months of constant concept phase overlapping with already in-progress world building. Around half of the time we spent on just pre-production and brainstorming with different concept ideas. At the beginning there was just me, @kenbarthelmey and Wes Ball the director of the movie. We had so much fun since the project was so free to interpreting that let us go crazy with world and look of it. Later the team grew tremendously and the whole production took a route that brought in a new level of animation, cgi and interaction between concept team and actual animators from Weta. Which was quite new to me since intensity and live interaction was obviously visible day by day. Honestly being on this project from the very beginning made me aware and pumped onto how important and inspiring is to create a new Vast world. For me it was the biggest, most elaborate and in depth full of freedom project I ever took part in. Sadly cancelled but hey whatever was done was golden and its gonna resonate through my works in upcoming weeks, months or even years ? 💥😎🤩🤩🤩 in total I was responsible for the world building, props and a lot of action scenes. Cant wait to just spit it all out here ! Stay tuned for more 😍 #art #artist #conceptartist #conceptart #design #mouseguard #art #artoftheday #artistoninstagram #2d #conceptart #conceptartist #cathedral #design #digitalart #artist #darekzabrocki #illustration #fantasyart #focalpointschool #painting #photoshop #scifiart #scifi #sciencefictionart #starwars #scifimovie #fox #movie #wacom

Une publication partagée par Darek Zabrocki (@darekzabrocki) le 17 Juin 2019 à 10 :52 PDT

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River rafting concept for Mouse Guard. #art #artoftheday #artistoninstagram #2d #conceptart #conceptartist #cathedral #design #digitalart #artist #darekzabrocki #illustration #fantasyart #focalpointschool #painting #photoshop #scifiart #scifi #sciencefictionart #starwars #scifimovie #fox #mouseguard #wacom

Une publication partagée par Darek Zabrocki (@darekzabrocki) le 20 Juin 2019 à 12 :40 PDT

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2 mice and a cave Another quick Concept selling the look of the cave inhabited by the evil snake for Mouse Guard cancelled movie. #art #artoftheday #artistoninstagram #2d #conceptart #conceptartist #cathedral #design #digitalart #artist #darekzabrocki #illustration #fantasyart #focalpointschool #painting #photoshop #scifiart #scifi #sciencefictionart #starwars #scifimovie #fox #mouseguard #wacom

Une publication partagée par Darek Zabrocki (@darekzabrocki) le 23 Juin 2019 à 12 :18 PDT

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Weekly Tip #8 : FUNCTIONALITY AND BELIEVABILITY I went through a lot of important factors you have to take into consideration while creating successful concept artworks. Now it's time to take a look a little bit deeper, into something that elevates your concept to the next level and makes your artwork something more than just art. In the production pipeline, while working on new environment designs and new worlds it's not only about artistic brush strokes or beautiful colors/light. People tend to rely on it way too much (I used to do the same hehe) While I worked on the piece similar to the attached one I always plan ahead all the elements the location possibly could consist of. It was actually set extension to real life place so how do I make it fitting and functional to this specific project was all the design work behind that. What sort of props, functional elements(peer, lifting machines, bay for the boats, tree houses, watch towers, ladders etc) I could place and how to logically put them for the best believably depicted location. To support artistic and beautiful execution with something that actually matters to make the world iconic ? What helps me the most is usually closing my eyes and imagining that place. If I were there. I immerse myself by doing that and it immediately brings more and more ideas to.make the design more interesting. The more I think, the more research I do, the more I am able to create a fully functional and believable environment design. I made loads (hundreds) of concepts for Mouse Guard film (sadly cancelled) directed by amazing dude Wes Ball. Based on epic comic book (@mouseguard) and it's one of the examples showing what I'm talking about here. Also that in depth and more knowledge I will share during my online course later this year (more info soon). This I also teach at our @focalpointschool Find these tips helpful ? Please share it with your art friends ! #art #artoftheday #artistoninstagram #2d #conceptart #conceptartist #cathedral #design #tutorial #artist #darekzabrocki #illustration #fantasyart #focalpointschool #painting #photoshop #scifiart #scifi #sciencefictionart #starwars #scifimovie #fox #mouseguard #wacom

Une publication partagée par Darek Zabrocki (@darekzabrocki) le 24 Juin 2019 à 6 :40 PDT

Le film en capture de mouvement Mouse Guard devait être réalisé et produit par Wes Ball (la saga Le Labyrinthe) et son associé Joe Hartwick (via OddBall Entertainment) en collaboration avec Matt Reeves (via 6th&Idaho Productions) et Ross Richie & Stephen Christy (via Boom ! Studios). Il aurait alors réunit Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster et Sonoya Mizuno pour une histoire centrée sur une fraternité de souris chargée de protéger leurs compagnons rongeurs, à une époque médiévale.

Mais, malheureusement pour le film (et pour nous dans ce cas précis), le rachat de la Fox par Disney a eu lieu en Mars dernier et des responsables de la firme aux grandes oreilles auraient décrété, 15 jours avant le début du tournage, que ce n’était pas un bon choix de lancer la production. Alors que ces mêmes responsables comptent dédier les productions de la Fox à un public plus âgé (PG-13 - accord parental recommandé, déconseillé aux moins de 13 ans - et R-rated - interdits aux mineurs de 17 ans non-accompagnés d’un adulte), le film Mouse Guard était une production à gros budget visant un public familial.

Au moment de son annulation, les producteurs n’excluaient pas de chercher un nouveau foyer pour leur film, les plate-formes de streaming (telles Netflix ou autres) étaient une de leurs cibles. Aucune information n’a été apportée dans ce sens depuis l’annulation, en avril dernier.

Et quelques heures seulement après ce partage, c’est au tour de Wes Ball de partager une vidéo des coulisses via son compte Twitter : il nous fait visiter les locaux de ce qui semble être sa société de production. On peut y voir le travail titanesque qui avait été fait par ses équipes avant l’annulation. Il n’a plus d’espoir : "Oui, malheureusement, c’est vrai, notre film Mouse Guard est mort."

Yes sadly, its true. Our #mouseguard movie is dead.

Seems it's too big a risk. It’s a damn shame really. We had something special. To my hella talented cast/crew : I’m sorry I couldn’t push this one through. The past year with you all has been a blast. May the Guard prevail ! pic.twitter.com/MGRq54uI6O

— Wes Ball (@wesball) June 26, 2019

Il partage également une démo de plus de 9 minutes et nous donne un meilleur aperçu de ce qu’aurait pu être le film... Certes, le travail est minimal, sans doute inachevé, mais c’est vraiment dommage que le film ait été annulé.