This weekends Cannes Film Festival isn’t simply a screening of films, there’s plenty more going on than that. While his friend and former boss George Lucas received the Palme D’or earlier this evening, Phil Tippett pitched his latest project ‘Sentinel’ in the Frontières section of Cannes’ Marché du Film. After the thirty year route to the screen Mad God had, Sentinel will have a very different journey.
“Mad God” was a project that Tippett worked on off and on for thirty years. A similar timetable isn’t realistic for “Sentinel,” as the director would be over 100 at the film’s premiere. So, Tippett and producer Colin Geddes (Ultra 8 Pictures) say they’re pursuing a more conventional development and production plan with their new project, including a clearer narrative focus. Tippett has already begun filming bits of the film, and his team will be sharing a concept video with potential partners in Cannes.
Where “Mad God” started as a way for Tippett to ruminate on dreams and the roots of storytelling, “Sentinel” is being developed to “make something that has the whole history of VFX in it, from stop-motion to digital and now AI,” Tippett explained. “There is some AI stuff we’ve done in a little piece during development, which is great because that’s just a bigger palette for me. I can mix and match all these techniques.”
