Canadian independent digital animation service studio Mercury Filmworks has been selected by Warner Bros. Feature Animation to provide digital paint services for its live-action/animation feature film, LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION. Directed by Joe Dante, the production, starring Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny with a co-staring the cast of whimsical Looney Tunes characters, is scheduled for release in November 2003.

New Marvel Comics-derived project THE HANDS OF SHANG CHI has been set at DreamWorks according to VARIETY. DreamWorks' spokesperson confirms that BAND OF BROTHERS writer Bruce McKenna is doing the script to be directed by Woo-ping Yuen, renowned for his choreography on THE MATRIX and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON films. Set in China, the movie is about a young kung fu mast master who learns his father is the worst criminal in the world and does not want to follow in his footsteps, which makers are calling THE GODFATHER in reverse.

Sony/Revolutions Anger Management hit moviegoers' funnybones just right, delivering an April record $42.2M opening in first place. Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Orphanage did VFX for ANGER. Twentieth Century Fox's PHONE BOOTH, with VFX by Asylum, connected again for with second place with $7.6M and a $26.7M cume. Warner Bros.' WHAT A GIRL WANTS, VFX work done by Cinesite, slipped a little to third place at $6.3M and a $20M take so far. BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE moved up again to fourth, earning $4.5M for a $117.6M cume.

Twentieth Century Fox's thriller PHONE BOOTH, with VFX by Asylum, connected with U.S. moviegoers over the weekend to debut in first place with $15M. PHONE BOOTH had been pulled from its Nov. 15 slot during the Washington D.C. sniper crisis because of the scene in the film in which Colin Farrell's character is pinned down in a Manhattan phone booty by a sniper. Audiences needed WHAT A GIRL WANTS from Warner Bros., VFX work done by Cinesite, enough to give the newcomer second place at $12M.

Seth Green will join the original SCOOBY-DOO cast of Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini, for a live-action/CGI feature sequel to last summer’s live-action blockbuster comedy hit in a new mystery adventure set for release on March 26, 2004, according to Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. Production begins April 14 with director Raja Gosnell, screenwriter James Gunn and producers Charles Roven and Richard Suckle of Mosaic Media Group.

Bolstered by the success of it's first Oscar-winning CGI short, THE CHUBBCHUBBS!, Sony Pictures Imageworks is releasing another computer animated short, EARLY BLOOMER, on May 9, 2003. Kevin Johnson created and directed the coming-of-age tale about a tadpole as he tries to fit in with his mischievous pond pals. The short began as an in-house training exercise at SPI under the guidance of exec director of training and artist development, Sande Scoredos, for its animators and effects artists to work on the latest methods and new tools to explore visual storytelling.