The Beatles: Rock Band Cinematic Trailer

Passion Pictures, the animation production company that has contributed to many of the visual elements of Gorillaz, has created a cinematic trailer for the upcoming game The Beatles: Rock Band.

The trailer is absolutely gorgeous. Kudos to Passion Pictures, especially director Pete Candeland and animation director Robert Valley.

As for the game itself, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Is John Lennon rolling over in his grave? I can't afford to be too hypocritical here...I will inevitably end up playing this game at some point (and I will probably enjoy it). However you feel about it, the game will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii on September 9th of this year.

People have been attributing this trailer to the work of Jamie Hewlett, the head honcho of Gorillaz animation. That's what drew my attention to this piece, although after some research, it appears that Hewlett did not contribute to the E3 spot. Hewlett has rubbed elbows with the Passion Pictures crew in the past through his Gorillaz ventures, but not this time.

According to the Reel Newsletter, these are the culprits:

'Production Company: Passion Pictures
Director: Pete Candeland
Producer: Debbie Crosscup
Executive Producer: Hugo Sands
Animation Director: Robert Valley
Character Design: Robert Valley, Ree Treweek (from Shy the Sun)
Backgrounds: Alberto Mielgo, Daniel Cacouault, Lukasz Pazera, Jim Bowers, Alan Aldridge'

If you want to see a Jamie Hewlett + Pete Candeland collaboration, check out this BBC Olympics promo from last summer. The promo was stylistically modeled after Monkey: Journey to the West, the stage opera for which Hewlett was head of design and visual concepts. The soundtrack is from our buddy Damon Albarn (again, from 'Monkey').

Hewlett and Candeland also worked together on these Gorillaz music videos:

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