Three months after stepping down as head of Cinar, Peter Moss as been appointed to the newly created position of vice president of programming for Corus Television. Beginning May 1, 2002, Moss will be responsible for enhancing programming across all Corus services by developing strategic approaches to program development, acquisition and partnerships. "Peter has an outstanding track record in both public and private television broadcasting as well as production," said Paul Robertson, president of Corus Television.

Film Roman, Inc. continues to expand, this time into the visual effects arena. The company best known for THE SIMPSONS has announced plans to acquire visual effects house VanHook Studios and to form a new visual effects division called Forum Visual Effects, to be based out of Film Roman's North Hollywood studios.

Founders Appoint Trustee. Cinar Corporation has reached an agreement in principle to settle the claims against it and certain other defendants in class actions brought in Canada and the United States. The plaintiffs have agreed to receive an aggregate US$25 million in full settlement of the claims against Cinar and such other defendants. The allocation of the settlement amount among the parties was not disclosed and the settlement is subject to approval by the courts in the United States and Quebec. In other Cinar news, company founders Micheline Charest and Ronald A.

Design studio B1 Media has moved its headquarters to a new facility in Studio City, California, more than doubling the size of its previous space, and has added several new staffers to its growing talent base. Previously partnered in multimedia company Barbed Wire, Joshua Hatton has moved to B1 as an animator involved in 2D and 3D animation and motion graphics working on DVD, broadcast design and games. Game producer Jason Friedlander joins B1 from MTV's ROAD RULES where he was responsible for developing and writing game competitions.

Global entertainment company peppermint has signed a deal with DIC Entertainment to distribute their eclectic catalogue throughout Asia. Peppermint will have exclusive distribution rights for 59 different titles, representing 1174 episodes, in Asian territories, including Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea. DIC's catalog of animation and children's entertainment includes the animated series THE HURRICANES, which follows a soccer team as they tour the world, as well as the popular series' INSPECTOR GADGET and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.

Now under Disney ownership, Fox Kids Europe (FKE) has announced that Buena Vista International Television (BVI-TV), a division of The Walt Disney Company, will service distribution for FKE's Saban library beginning May 1, 2002. The Saban library contains more than 6,300 episodes of children's programming including major franchises such as SPIDER-MAN, POWER RANGERS, X-MEN, DIGIMON, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and INSPECTOR GADGET. FKE owns the television rights in Europe and the Middle East to all children's programming in the Saban library.

Canadian-based media and entertainment company Corus Entertainment Inc. announced that it has successfully completed the sale of Klutz to Scholastic Inc. Klutz was sold for approximately US$43 million in cash plus a three-year earn-out based on revenue. The proceeds of the sale will be used to repay debt. Corus acquired Klutz, a publisher of children's books and related products based in Palo Alto, California, through its acquisition of Nelvana Limited in November 2000. ›

3D animator and visual effects artist Mark Glaser has launched Sway, a 3D animation and digital effects studio serving the commercial and film industries. A two-time Clio Award winner, Glaser was a former CG supervisor at Digital Domain and was co-founder and visual effects supervisor for Station X Studios. Glaser's specialties include photo-real rendering and 3D animation. His credits include spots for Dodge, Nike, Chevy, Sony and Duracell.

French animation studio Xilam has taken over the film and video game rights for the original property KAENA, following the liquidation of Chaman Production by a French court. For nearly 4 years, Chaman Production has been working on the feature-length film and the accompanying video game, but the company was not able to secure a publishing partner and was forced into liquidation. Xilam will take over the CGI production on the film, which is scheduled for release at the end of 2002.

Mike and Liz Young of Mike Young Productions (MYP) and Bill Schultz, former nine-year veteran executive vice president of Film Roman, have formalized their current working relationship by announcing the formation of a new partnership. "Although the name on the door says ‘Mike Young Productions’ at the moment, the studio has for the past four years been the mind-meld of three experienced producers -- all of whom are passionate about the business and the art of animated programming," said Mike Young.