Hurricane Ent. has announced that four-time Academy Award-winning sound designer/editor Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T: The Extraterrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) has been hired to direct a live-action feature film adaptation of Chassis, the company’s flagship comic book property.
Set in the world of rocket-car racing in a retro/futuristic 1949, Chassis is the story of a young woman who longs to be a rocket racer but faces opposition from her father, who knows the dangers involved and the nefarious men who run the sport. The property was created by Hurricane president William O’Neill, who founded the company with wife Jan Utstein-O’Neill in 1996.
Hurricane and Burtt will be at Comic-Con in San Diego (July 14-18) to show off a four-minute, live-action short designed to introduce the public to the world of Chassis.
“We have some fantastic CGI shots of the rocket cars that just blew me away,” boasts Utstein-O’Neill. “They were created by the very talented folks at Third Floor Studios, a start-up company consisting of the team that did the pre-visualization on Star Wars: Episode III–Revenge Of The Sith.”
"I see a hint of the same magic I felt when working on the first Star Wars and Indy films," adds Burtt. "I think today’s audiences will be surprised and receptive to Chassis. It’s going to be something they haven’t seen before.”
Burtt’s previous directing credits include the feature-length pilot for the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Attack of the Hawkmen and the IMAX films Blue Planet and Special Effects. Most recently, he edited the Star Wars prequels and created a new sound division for Pixar Animation.
In addition to putting out the original properties Chassis and Violent Messiahs, Hurricane recently published the comic mini-series John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles with Kurt Russell, John Carpenter and the late Debra Hill.
The Chassis film is being produced by Hurricane Ent., along with Josh Morris and Kevin Cleary of Content House. Comic-Con will host the world premiere of the promotional short on Saturday, July 16, at 1 p.m. in room 5-AB. Hurricane will also be premiering a special convention-exclusive Chassis comic book at booth #2205. Included is a short story written and drawn by William O’Neill, an exclusive interview with Ben Burtt, and a cover by Star Wars: Episode III artist Ryan Church. There will be a limited print run of 1500.
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