Ghost House Pictures announced that Kristen Stewart (PANIC ROOM), Dylan McDermott (TV’s THE PRACTICE), Penelope Ann Miller (THE RELIC, CARLITO'S WAY) and John Corbett (MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, TV’s SEX AND THE CITY) have joined the Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project, which started shooting recently in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Twentieth Century Fox has bought the rights to the character "Emily the Strange" with the intention to the turn the property into a live-action/animation feature, reports VARIETY. Twentieth Century Fox Animation president, Chris Meledandri, struck the agreement with creator Rob Reger and his Cosmic Debris Etc. Meledandri along with vp John Cohen will shepherd the project.

yU + co charted the incredible story of the lovable VW Bug’s life in the main title sequence for the new Disney film, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED. In an execution brimming with style and wit, the studio’s design and production team used fanciful newspaper clippings, scenes from previous Herbie films and other cleverly concocted media to retrace the anthropomorphic VW’s storied rise and fall.

Friedman 3D, will be starting a new semester on July 5th, 2005. Instruction will be provided in award-winning Alias Maya from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday through Friday. There will be an additional class offered in Adobe After Effects that runs from 3:00-6:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The cost for classes is $75 and $25 respectively, plus a $25 registration fee. Those collecting unemployment benefits from EDD may qualify for collecting those benefits while a full-time student at Friedman 3D.

Disney Digital 3D, a brand new three-dimensional digital experience in movie theaters, will be launched with the release of the studio’s first 3D-animated feature, CHICKEN LITTLE, on Nov. 4.

In collaboration with Disney, Dolby Laboratories plans to install its Dolby Digital Cinema systems in approximately 100 high-profile theaters in 25 top markets that will present the 3D film with special glasses. Industrial Light & Magic, meanwhile, will render the movie in 3D with new proprietary software so it can be played on Dolby Digital Cinema servers in theaters.

Collision Ent. and Firm Films have teamed up to turn videogame MAX PAYNE into a feature film for 20th Century Fox, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Collision Scott Faye and Firm Films’ topper Julie Yorn are producing with Abandon Ent.’s Karen Lauder serving as exec produce. Fox exec Robbie Brenner will shepherd the film for the studio.

Warner Bros.’ BATMAN BEGINS (with vfx from Double Negative, MPC, Rising Sun Pictures and BUF) continued its box office reign for the weekend ended June 26, 2005, grabbing $27.5M and a two-week cume of $122.5M. Sony’s BEWITCHED (with vfx from Sony Pictures Imageworks) bowed in second place with $20.1M. However, it wasn’t enough to prevent the overall domestic box office from slumping for the 18th consecutive week.

Disney has secured domestic distribution rights to BLADE TRINITY director David Goyer’s next project, THE INVISIBLE, reports VARIETY. Goyer will helm the picture for Spyglass Ent., who picked up the project from DreamWorks, where Goyer became attached. Production is set to start in September in Vancouver.

Spyglass will finance the entire film and retain all the international rights. Any rights that Spyglass cannot sell will go to Disney. Spyglass bought the remake rights in 2002.

Twentieth Century Fox and Canal Plus will co-finance BABYLON A.D., a big-budget futuristic thriller to be directed and written by GOTHIKA helmer Mathieu Kassovitz, reports VARIETY.

Inspired by Maurice Dantec novel BABYLON BABIES, tale is set in the near future where genetic manipulation occurs. In the book, a mercenary charged with bringing a young woman from Russia to Canada learns that she has been infected with a synthetic virus, which could wipe out all humans on Earth.

MTV Films has acquired the film rights to VALIANT, a teen novel about fairies by THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES author Holly Black, according to the trades. Chuck Roven and Alex Gartner will produce through their Mosaic Media Group in conjunction with MTV Films. Paramount Pictures will distribute.

Published by Simon and Schuster on June 1, the book follows on a 17-year-old runaway who joins a group of squatters living in the New York subways. She soon discovers that her new friends hold the dark secret that many New Yorkers are actually a species of fairy.