Calibre Digital Pictures has an ‘Evel’ production in its midst, as in Evil Knievel, a Turner Network Television MOW about the 1970s car-jumping daredevil extraordinaire. The Toronto animation and FX shop is in production on the movie based on the life of Knievel, who launched his motorcycle stunt career in 1965, drawing ever-bigger crowds for his (barely) death-defying feats.

The MOW, produced by Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions and Jaffe/Braunstein Films in association with ApolloProScreen, shot in Toronto for six weeks in the spring. TNT will give it a premiere July 30, in a bid to predate as much as possible a Knievel biopic reportedly in the works at Universal. George Eads (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) stars as the fearless Knievel. The project was shot in 24p HD, as the net is all over high-definition, having launched its TNT-HD service on May 17.

Some of the Knievel stunts Calibre had to help recreate include his jump over the 151-foot fountains at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas (which put him in a coma) and Idaho’s quarter-mile-wide Snake River. Calibre put these scenes together with digital and live-action elements.

Calibre provided all on-set FX supervision for the production, much of which shot at Toronto Film Studios in April. The shop also provided visual FX art direction, compositing and matte paintings, for which it is particularly renowned. As there are few humans insane enough to mimic Knievel’s bold jumps, Calibre had to build a 3D-animated Evel and motorbike for several sequences.

Also in the shop at Calibre is Mystery of the Ancient Seafarers, a doc for National Geographic Film & Television that had the studio create a historically accurate Phoenician seaport, including 3D warships and trading vessels.

Calibre also reports that its animation division is finishing the first season of a kids series launching worldwide in the fall. Says Calibre, ‘It looks like feature film animation, but it’s television.’

-www.calibredigital.com