Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey
(originally titled as
2004: A Light Knight's Odyssey) is a
2010 animated
educational sci-fi
adventure film, written by
Harry 'Doc' Kloor and directed by Kloor and
Dan St. Pierre. The voice cast
originally included
Christian
Slater,
John Travolta,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Sarah Michelle Gellar,
Michael York, and
James Earl Jones.
Quantum Quest is a
science
fiction film that takes the viewer on an
atom adventure in
space.
This film, featuring a cast of major actors providing their voices to the characters, was initiated by
JPL
/NASA
through a
grant from Jet Propulsion
Lab
via the international Cassini Huygens mission to Saturn.Though other missions have been seen in
film projects, this is the first where NASA initiated the project
with an independent filmmaker in order to create an animated
fiction film to be based upon on-going missions, science, and
discovery. The
3D,
large format CGI-
animated educational
film interweaves actual space imagery captured from ongoing NASA
missions with an adventure, set in an imaginary universe and
intended to create a family-friendly film experience that
entertains while educating viewers about our
solar system.The film was tied into 7 on-going
space missions and includes footage
from the
Cassini-Huygens,
SOHO,
Mars Odyssey,
Mars Express,
Venus Express, and
Mercury Messenger space
missions.
Quantum Quest will be released in both
IMAX format and regular theaters worldwide. The film is
45 minutes long and will integrate pre and post theater educational
program for K – 12 students that exceed Federal and State
educational guidelines.
Setting yet another precedent, Quantum Quest is the first film
featuring
Neil Armstrong, the first
man to walk on the moon, who lends his voice to a character and
serves as one of four distinguished education ambassadors.
Other
educational ambassadors are NASA’s liaison on
the film, Charles Kohlhase, who has
led the design of deep-space robotic missions to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and has received NASA’s highest award, the
Distinguished
Service Medal; Anousheh Ansari,
the world’s first female private space explorer and serial
entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, and
Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and
CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation
(which awarded the $10M Ansari X PRIZE), CEO
of Zero Gravity
Corporation, Chairman & Co-Founder of the Rocket Racing League and co-Founder of
the International Space University
.
Production
Background
Dr. Kloor started development of the Quantum Quest film project in
1996, a year before the launch of the
Cassini-Huygens mission. In 2007, Digimax,
Inc., one of the
Asia’s leading
3D animation studios, committed to financing
the film and providing animation. Actual production on the film
could not begin until the Cassini/Huygens (a $3.5 billion dollar)
reached its target and sent back its discoveries.
Final images and radar
data, providing a partial radar map, were released by NASA in 2008,
enabling the film to proceed. Quantum Quest is a
precedent-setting film, combining state-of-the-art CGI with real
images and radar data from the ongoing Cassini-Huygen, SOHO, Stereo
mission to the Sun, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Venus Express, and
Mercury Messenger space missions, representing billions of dollars
of NASA investment.
Working on
two continents, Taiwan
based
Digimax undertook the entire animation pre-production and production task in Taiwan with a team
of international artists, while Dr. Kloor and his Jupiter 9
Productions assembled a stellar voice cast, produced all talent recordings and,
in concert with the film’s composer Shawn Clement, put together the
post sound and music package. The film will be distributed
and marketed in Asia by Digimax, and by Jupiter 9 Productions in
all other territories.
Staff
Harry 'Doc' Kloor has
15 years experience writing/developing films and TV series.
In 1994,
he earned the unique status of being the first and, to date, the
only person in the world to simultaneously earn two doctorates, one
in Physics and the other in Chemistry, both earned at Purdue
University
. His
writing credits include
Star
Trek: Voyager and the animated series
Godzilla, and
Earth: Final Conflict. He also
played a key role in developing the hit TV series
Earth: Final
Conflict. Dr. Kloor founded a National Science Outreach
Program at Purdue University in 1991, forming partnerships with
Marvel Entertainment and
Paramount Pictures to use their
iconic properties such as
Spider Man and
Star Trek to advance science. Dr. Kloor
has produced and directed a variety of commercials and industrial
documentaries and has published stories in various newspapers and
scientific publications. He has served as Science Advisor to the
famed
X Prize organization, and has worked
in advancing science literacy to the public for over 20
years.
Daniel St.
Pierre, director, has a varied history in the motion
picture industry. He began as an Assistant Layout Artist at
Filmation Studios and worked as a
storyboard artist,
layout artist,
background painter, and
animator on many hit television series including,
Fat Albert and the
Cosby Kids,
He-Man and the Masters of
the Universe, and
The
Real Ghostbusters. St. Pierre made the switch to Feature
Animation when hired by
The Walt
Disney Company as a layout artist on
The Little Mermaid. St. Pierre
supervised design for many of Disney's blockbuster films and
ultimately was art director for
Tarzan, which garnered the
Academy Award in Science and Technology for
the acclaimed Deep Canvas process, and earned him an
Annie Award nomination for Art Direction.
Following Disney, St. Pierre supervised motion picture development
at
Dreamworks Animation and
handled Production Design on the hit film
Shark Tale. His directing debut came when
IDT Entertainment called him to
assist with the completion of
Christopher Reeve’s animated film
Everyone's Hero.
Teddy Zee, producer, is a producer, executive and
former studio executive whose films he acquired, developed,
produced and/or managed have grossed over $2.6 billion at the box
office. He produced
Hitch,
Saving Face, and
West 32nd; executive produced
Pursuit of Happyness and
Life or Something Like
It; and was the executive in charge of films such as
Charlie’s Angels,
Anaconda,
Star Trek VI,
Indecent Proposal,
The Cable Guy,
First Knight,
Stephen King’s
Sleepwalkers,
Fools Rush In,
My Girl,
Mo'
Money and
The
Replacement Killers. Zee also executive produced the
Asian Excellence
Awards.
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, producer, is
CEO and founder of
The Gotham Group, recognized as
one of the leading creator-driven management and production firms
in the entertainment industry. Goldsmth-Vein and The Gotham Group
currently have a diverse slate of over 30 feature films set up at
various studios. Goldsmith-Vein was a producer on the worldwide
smash hit
The Spiderwick
Chronicles.
Production companies
Lions Gate Family
Entertainment
Jupiter 9 Productions, Inc: Quantum Quest was
initiated by Kloor through Jupiter 9 Productions at JPL in 1996.
Jupiter 9 Productions has been involved in production and
consulting services to leading Science and Technology firms, and
provided these same services to a host of television and film
companies. The company has a substantial development slate of live
action and animated feature projects, several of which are based on
award-winning novels from
Kevin J.
Anderson,
Mike Resnick, and
Robert A. Heinlein.
Digimax, Inc: Founded in 1990, Digimax, Inc. is an
international award-winning digital content company. As a leading
company in Asia, and Taiwan government designated flagship company
for the digital content industry, Digimax engages in the
investment, development, production and distribution of computer
animated films and related products. Also, Digimax is aiming to
develop original characters and contents for worldwide audiences of
all ages. The company has partnered with The Gotham Group to
co-produce CG movies since 2003. This year, the company received
“Grand Prize” from 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair, the world
largest anime fair, for its CG film Adventures in the NPM,
co-produced by Digimax and National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The
company’s CG short Heavy Duty has been accepted by ACM SIGGRAPH
2008 Computer Animation Festival and ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008
Computer Animation Festival - Electronic Theater.
Release dates
Originally intended for a 2004
television
release as
2004: A Light Knight's Odyssey, the film has
had proposed release dates for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009,
and is now expected to be released in 2010.
Excerpts were shown at
the 2008 ComicCon in San Diego
which featured voice cameos from actors William Shatner, Chris
Pine, Brent Spiner, Doug Jones and Jason Alexander.
Synopsis
The story begins with the
Cassini Saturn space craft releasing
the
Huygens Titan probe. We then
transition to
earth, where a 12-year-old girl,
Jeana, places a
sun filter over a
telescope to view
sun
spots. She asks her mentor, an
African American Professor "Why is the
Sun so
bright?" This leads the professor to launch into a
scientific explanation about
fusion. The little girl laughs, having played
this trick on her mentor many times, she says "No I meant bright,
bright like happy. In most drawings the sun has a big smile. Is he
good, like the man in the moon." Knowing this means she wants a
story, the
mentor begins to
spin a tale, but as a mentor, this one, while
entertaining, is also
educational.
As he speaks, we
transition to
the Sun, and watching a Sun Spot spin into view, we dive into and
pass through the
chromosphere, and head
toward the
center. The mentor lays down
the basis of our story as we travel through the sun. He explains
that the "man in the sun is called the Core" and spins a story how
he is good and that his children "
photons"
are sent out to chase away the darkness, and bring life, warmth,
and knowledge to Earth. He adds that the only being who does not
like the Core is a creature called the "Void" who is an ancient,
malevolent, being who existed before the
Big
Bang, and who sits at the edge of the
solar system, scheming to stop the Core.
We transition through a
plasma
wall, into "The Hall of Destiny" where we are introduced to the
main character in our story - David, a young Photon who should have
begun his travel to the surface a million years ago. The Core,
tries to get him moving on his journey, but David is fearful.
We cut to the
Kuiper Belt where a large
space battle rages between two fleets - one composed of
protons, and the opposing fleet of
anti-protons. A character we call "The Ranger,
who is a
neutrino scout, makes it through the battle lines and
heads to the sun.
Back in the Sun, David is kicking
Solid
Light sculptures into a
plasma fountain. The Ranger crashes through
the wall into David, followed by some imaginary creatures called
Gell-Mann
ghosts. The Ranger is trying to get
to
Saturn (other side of the Sun), to
deliverer a message to the Cassini Space Core Commander. The
Gell-Mann ghosts (nasty creatures) surround them. The only way to
escape is to give the message scroll to David, and ask him to
deliver it while the Ranger holds the ghosts at bay. David sails
through the sun and encounters a "surfer dude" Solar Proton,
Jammer, who surfs the solar winds.
David's journey takes him through the solar system, to an
exploration of the
moons of Saturn.
Eventually he finds Milton, an older photon character who is mining
for
free quarks. Milton teaches David
introductory material about
electrons,
protons,
quarks, etc. The two evade the
evil/comical forces of the Void, until they get captured by the
"Dark Side of the Moon".
In the process of escaping we learn about the
fundamental modes of motion and introduce
basic quantum concepts. The
message scroll is partially damaged, so David does not know who the
space commander is, but he knows that he needs to get to the
Cassini Space craft, because something bad will happen.
He gets inside the Cassini craft and encounters the ship's
computer, GAL 2000, who, in the course of
determining the danger, teaches David about
spectra, the mission of the space craft, different
radiation bands used for
remote sensing, etc. In the end, they
save the antenna of the ship from a beam of
anti-matter sent by the Void. They do this with
the help of Jammer. David discovers that he is the Space Core
Commander (all this time, searching for himself). He leads the
transmission back to Earth, and through
a system of
antennas, is processed, and as
Jeana accesses the Web page of JPL, he flies through the screen and
enters Jeana's eye.
Cast (voices)
The film's cast and crew had gone through few changes during the
first 7 years of production.
- Cast, inception through 2007
In 2007, director Adrian Carr and actor David Warner left the
project.
At the July 2008 ComicCon in San Diego, a modified cast was revealed who are expected to
see the film through to completion and release.
- Cast as of 2008
Music
The score to
Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey was
composed by Shawn K.
Clement, who recorded his score with an
80-piece ensemble of the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra at the
Skywalker Scoring Stage north of San Francisco
. Clement integrated sounds and space noise
provided by NASA into the
music, and served as Post Audio Producer on the film.
Quotes
Robert Picardo: "I had not yet seen
the full animation...", "...It'll teach kids something about
quantum physics while they're watching a really cool
IMAX animated film". "This is the kind of project I am
really proud to be a part of because it really encourages people to
become passionate about space and space science."
Chris Pine: (stated) that making the film "was a
blast" and that he has always wanted to do voice work. He also
noted how in making the film he has learned a lot about science,
and photons and neutrinos, something that the film tries to impart
to the audience.
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search