QUANTUM QUEST, 3-D, CGI-ANIMATED LARGE FORMAT FILM

Two Captain Kirks And Two Darth Vaders Among Voice Cast For Precedent-Setting Project:  First Film Ever Initiated By NASA and First Film Project For Famed
 Astronaut Neil Armstrong

(July 24, 2008; Los Angeles, Califormia) – Quantum Quest, a 3D CGI-animated Large Format film that will captivate audiences of all ages as it transports them to fantastic atomic realms and amazing but real space locations, has assembled a stellar voice cast.  The film, an action adventure thrill ride through our solar system which combines beautiful animated sequences with photorealistic footage recreated from the last seven NASA missions, will premiere on Large Format and conventional theaters in late 2010.

The film boasts many “firsts.”  It’s the first film ever initiated by NASA; the first time famed astronaut Neil Armstrong has participated in a feature film project, and the first time that actors who have portrayed iconic cinematic characters, Captain James. T. Kirk (William Shatner and Chris Pine) and Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones) will star in a movie together.   Combining state-of-the-art CGI animation with real images and radar data from the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission as well as six other NASA space missions, Quantum Quest will take viewers on a mind-blowing solar safari.

The film is produced by Digimax and Jupiter 9 Productions, and presented by Digimax, the premier digital content provider in Taiwan, and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).  The full voice cast includes (in alphabetical order):  Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Kit Kittredge:  An American Girl), Spencer Breslin (The Happening), Hayden Christensen (Jumper, Star Wars), Gary Graham  (Alien Nation, Enterprise), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Samuel L. Jackson (The Spirit, Pulp Fiction, Star Wars), James Earl Jones (Star Wars), Tom Kenny (voice of Sponge Bob Squarepants, Transformers), Sandra Oh (Sideways, Grey’s Anatomy), Robert Picardo (Stargate Atlantis), Chris Pine (Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek feature film),  William Shatner (Boston Legal, Star Trek), and Brent Spiner (Independence Day, Star Trek:  Next Generation).

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 $10,000,000 Ansari X PRIZE, CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation, Chairman & Co-Founder of the Rocket Racing League and co-Founder of the International Space University.
 


The directors are Daniel St. Pierre (also the Art Director) and Dr. Harry Kloor (also the screen writer of the script). Quantum Quest is produced by Digimax, Inc. and Kloor’s Jupiter 9 Productions.  Producers are Helen Pao-Yun Huang, Chairperson of Digimax, Jeff Tzong-Jer Yang, Vice President of Digimax, and Kloor.  Tom Teng from Digimax, Teddy Zee, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Jon Vein are executive producers. The film is presented by Digimax, Inc. and JPL, and is scheduled for worldwide release in late 2010 in large format and later in conventional 3D and 2D theaters (www.qqthemovie.com).

Preliminary development on the Quantum Quest film project was started by Dr. Harry Kloor at JPL in 1996, one year before the Cassini Huygens mission was launched.  Years later, the project was brought to Digimax, one of the Asia’s leading 3D animation studios, by Gotham for full financing and production, and got committed.  Actual production on the film could not begin until the Cassini/Huygens (a 3.5 billion dollar mission) reached its target and sent back its discoveries. The final images and radar data, providing a partial radar map, were released by NASA this year, enabling the film to proceed. Quantum Quest is a precedent-setting film, combining state-of-the-art CGI with real 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.  To bring the images, characters, and story to live, Digimax undertook the entire pre-production and production task in Taiwan with a team of international artists.

About Quantum Quest:
DAVE  (Chris Pine) is a photon, a being of light, who lives in Sun City, located at the core of the Sun.  Sun City is populated by Photons, Neutrinos, and Proton citizens, all living in harmony. Dave is forced from the Sun and drawn into an epic battle between THE CORE (William Shatner, the embodiment of the Sun) and THE VOID (Mark Hamill, the embodiment of nothingness, he is that which existed before the universe was born).  Dave’s quest is to save his people, the Cassini Space craft, and ultimately humanity from annihilation.  FEAR (Samuel L. Jackson), IGNORANCE (Tom Kenny), MORONIC  (Jason Alexander), and ZERO (Doug Jones) seek to stop Dave from fulfilling his destiny.  Diving into imaginary atomic worlds that are visual symphonies for the eye and the soul, the film ultimately takes us on a real (using radar data and images) 3-D Grand Canyon-like exploration of Titan, a moon of Saturn which has rainfall, rivers, and giant lakes of natural gas.  
The film and its free post and pre theater educational program materials will impact millions of students worldwide, and a percentage of profits from the film will provide science scholarships.  Extensive educational materials will be disseminated to classrooms worldwide as part of the film’s enormous educational tie-in.  The materials will meet National Science Content Standards and are intended to motivate and excite students around the globe about science.  

About 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.  For more information, visit  www.digimax.com.tw.


About Dr. Harry Kloor:
Dr. Harry Kloor, Ph.D Physics, Ph.D. Chemistry, is a writer, director, producer, scientist, inventor, and national technology policy advisor. Dr. 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.  This achievement was so singular that it gained national recognition in such publications as The New York Times and People.   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 is a recognized leader in bringing science to the public.  He 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.  Dr. Kloor sits on a range of advisory boards including Rocket Racing League (for which he was the Founding Advisor) and Signacert.  Dr. Kloor served as Science Advisor to the famed X Prize organization, and has worked in advancing science literacy to the public for over 20 years.

About Jupiter 9 Productions Inc:
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 Anderson, Mike Resnick, and Robert Heinlein. For more information, visit www.jupiter9productions.com.
     
About Daniel St. Pierre:
Daniel St. Pierre has a varied history in the motion picture industry. He began as an Assistant Layout Artist at Filmation Studios and, during a period between 1981 and 1989, worked as a storyboard artist, layout artist, background painter, and animator on many hit television series including, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Heman and The Masters of the Universe, and The Real Ghostbusters. Mr. St. Pierre made the switch to Feature Animation when hired by The Walt Disney Company as a layout artist on The Little Mermaid. Over the next 15 years St. Pierre supervised design for many of Disney's blockbuster films and ultimately Art Directed Tarzan, which garnered the Academy Award® in Science and Technology for the acclaimed Deep Canvas process, and earned him an Annie nomination for Art Direction.
Following his Disney years, St. Pierre supervised motion picture development at Dreamworks Animation and handled Production Design on the hit film A Shark’s Tale.   His directing debut came when IDT Entertainment called him to assist with the completion of Christopher Reeve’s animated film Everyone's Hero.

About Teddy Zee:  
Teddy Zee 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.



About Ellen Goldsmith-Vein:
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein is CEO and founder of The Gotham Group, recognized as one of the leading creator-driven management and production firms in the entertainment industry.  The Gotham Group currently has a diverse slate of over 30 feature films set up at various studios including:  Spanking Shakespeare, which reunites Goldsmith-Vein with her Spiderwick Chronicles  producing partner Mark Canton for Paramount; The Devil You Know to be directed by Shawn Levy for 20th Century Fox; Big Brave Brian being written by clients, Chris Viscardi and Will McRobb (Alvin & the Chipmunks) and will star Duane “The Rock” Johnson for CBS Films; The Untitled Keith Haring Biopic with David LaChapelle attached to direct and Lance Black (Milk) attached to write; The Overachievers, with Levy’s 21 Laps banner for Universal; Mercy Road with Forrest Whitaker attached to star and written by Gotham client Roy Freirich (Winged Creatures); Stargirl with The Montecito Picture Company for DreamWorks; Creature Tech, based on client Doug TenNapel’s graphic novel with Jon Heder to star for New Regency; Monster Zoo with Sam Raimi’s Star Road Entertainment for Paramount; The Hunter written and to be directed by Stanley Tucci with Steve Buscemi’s Olive Productions which will star Peirce Brosnan, Julianne Moore and Patricia Clarkson; Bobby Blue Sky written by Emmy-nominated Gotham client, Emily Kapnek, with Topher Grace and Paul Rudd attached to star; and Simon Bloom: The Gravity Keeper, to be directed by Gary Ross for Universal.

Media Contact:  Maggie Begley Communications
310.301.1785; maggie@mbcprinc.com