• Ollie Johnston (1912-2008) - Animator who was the last surviving member of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men", who worked on classic features from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to 1981's The Fox and the Hound. After retiring from animating at Disney, he was a story consultant on 1989's Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and voiced characters in Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. He was co-subject of the documentary Frank and Ollie and appears in The Pixar Story. He died of natural causes April 14, in Sequim, Washington. (Variety)

• Bebe Barron (1926-2008) - Composer who, with husband Louis Barron, scored Forbidden Planet, which was the first commercial feature film to include only electronic music. She also recorded music for Maya Deren's The Very Eye of Night and scored other experimental shorts, including Bells of Atlantis, which featured Anaïs Nin. She died April 20 in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Hazel Court (1926-2008) - Actress who starred in '50s and '60s horror films, including Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven and Premature Burial and Sidney J. Furie's Doctor Blood's Coffin, Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein and David MacDonald's Devil Girl from Mars. She died of a heart attack April 15, in Lake Tahoe, California. (Variety)

But will it be animated? That is what I'm wondering regarding the possibility of a feature film based on the virtual band The Gorillaz. Created by Blur front man Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, The Gorillaz is made up of cartoon characters, which will appear in their own movie according to something Albarn hinted at in Uncut magazine. And not only did he mention the movie, he claimed that Terry Gilliam was involved. Whether this means that Gilliam will be directing is unclear, but considering the Tideland director's origins in animation, he might be perfectly suited for the task.

Or will it be live-action? Though a live-action film could be more costly and more time-consuming (in which case it wouldn't be what Film Ick thinks is Gilliam's "I can do it in six weeks, just knock it out," project he's been talking about), it wouldn't be the first of Hewlett's cartoons to be fleshed out. The 1995 film Tank Girl was based on his and Alan Martin's comics. Still, I'm not sure many investors would be interested in gambling with this production -- though I would love to see Del tha Funkee Homosapien follow in Ice-T's footsteps and appear in some ridiculous makeup.

Considering Albarn also stated that the "band" is no longer making pop music, there's another question as to what direction the film will go in, if not musical. Hopefully somebody will come forward with some answers to all these questions of mine very soon. I can't wait to hear about more specific details.

More on Gilliam's future projects:

Terry Gilliam is Hoping for Good Omens

Terry Gilliam to Direct Potter?

Gilliam Does Dick

Is Terry Gilliam Going Back to His Don Quixote Movie?

[via JoBlo.com]