Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, often shortened to Sky Captain, is a 2004 science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut, and produced by Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law and Marsha Oglesby. It stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. It is an example of "Ottensian" (pre-WWII) dieselpunk. Conran spent four years making a black and white teaser using a bluescreen set up in his living room and a Macintosh IIci. He was able to show it to Avnet, who was so impressed that Avnet spent two years working with him on his screenplay. No major studio was interested, but Avnet convinced Aurelio De Laurentiis to finance Sky Captain without a distribution deal (a worldwide distribution deal would later happen with Paramount Pictures). Almost 100 digital artists, modelers, animators, and compositors created the multi-layered 2D and 3D backgrounds for the live-action footage, while the entire film was sketched out via hand-drawn storyboards and then recreated as CGI animatics. Ten months prior to shooting the live-action scenes, Conran first shot them with stand-ins in Los Angeles, then converted that footage to animatics so the actors could accurately envision the film. Sky Captain received positive reviews, particularly for the style of filming that was used; some criticism was directed at the plot and characterization. Despite being a box office flop, generating only $58 million on a $70 million budget, the film has since gained a following and is regarded as a cult classic. It was one of the first major films, along with Casshern, Immortal (both 2004) and Sin City (2005), to be shot entirely on a "digital backlot", blending actors with CG surroundings.