Ben Stassen
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Ben Stassen is a Belgian film producer and director. He founded nWave Pictures in 1994, producing highly successful CGI ride films including the groundbreaking Devils Mine. Starting in 1997, Ben Stassen began focusing on large format films usually screened at Imax theaters, and made some of the most successful large format films to date, including Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun and Alien Adventure. Contrary to most large format films, which mix education with spectacular visuals, most of Stassen's films are aimed exclusively at the entertainment market. As Imax theaters around the world increasingly became capable of screening stereoscopic (3-D) films in the late nineties, Stassen quickly embraced this new technology, and directed a succession of popular 3-D large format films, such as Encounter in the Third Dimension and Haunted Castle.
Ben Stassen's first feature length animated film, Fly Me to the Moon, is scheduled to be released in North America on August 22, 2008 on both regular size and Imax screens, exlusively in 3-D. According to nWave, Fly Me to the Moon is the first animated film to be designed, created, and released solely in 3-D. The film was originally announced for the spring or summer of 2007. The delay is believed to be the result of the slow roll-out of 3-D projection technology.
On May 7, 2008, nWave announced that its next feature length animated film will be titled Around the World in 50 Years. It too will be directed by Ben Stassen and is scheduled to be released in 2009.
[edit] Filmography
- Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun (1997)
- Alien Adventure (1999)
- Encounter in the Third Dimension (1999)
- Haunted Castle (2001)
- SOS Planet (2002)
- Misadventures in 3D (2003)
- Wild Safari 3D (2005)
- African Adventure: Safari in the Okavango (2007)
- Fly Me to the Moon (2008)
- Around the World in 50 Years (2009)
