Sony Pictues has bought Daniel Kunka's sci-fi spec AGENT OX, reports Variety.

How to Prosper in Toon Town: An excerpt from Jeffrey Scott’s acclaimed book, How to Write for Animation

Neil Gaiman (CORALINE) will write English scripts for a Chinese-produced 3-D trilogy based on the legend of the Monkey King, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

MGM has tapped Josh Zetumer to write its reboot of ROBOCOP, reports Deadline.com.

20th Century Fox has bought Chris Baldi's script SCAVENGERS and attached DIARY OF A WIMPY KID director Thor Freudenthal to helm, reports Deadline.com.

Walt Disney Pictures has picked up the rights to Dave Andron’s sci-fi pitch THE RUNNER, reports Deadline.com.

Learn the skills and secrets to writing great animation.  Inspire the rest of the creative team to be brilliant – and grateful to see your name on script after script!

Animation is collaboration by conveyor belt, and it starts with your script. 

Award-winning writer/executive producer DAVID STEVEN COHEN (Courage the Cowardly Dog, Arthur, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Steven Spielberg’s Balto) will show you techniques for crafting indelible characters, solid stories and great scripts that are more than blueprints – scripts that inspire the director, storyboard artist, editor and musical director. Cohen will demonstrate how you can maximize a show's basic concept (while avoiding common mistakes) and create a script that moves visually, rhythmically, emotionally, and comedically - one that communicates vividly without collapsing under the weight of words. Underscoring it all is flexible thinking and the collaborative process: the agony and ecstasy of sharing creative vision. Focus will be on writing character-driven animated comedy for television, with some forays into features.

DAVID STEVEN COHEN was the head writer on all four seasons of Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog and has written for many other series, including Arthur, Viva Piñata and ALF Tales, of which he was co-creator and executive producer. As executive producer of Nickelodeon's The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, David was nominated for two Emmys and won a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Children's Script. He co-wrote the animated feature Balto and has also written many songs for animation, collaborating recently with Jody Gray on the song-score for Clifford's Really Big Movie. David's live-action work includes Phil of the Future, Living Single, Strangers with Candy, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, ALF and Pee-wee's Playhouse. First introduced to opera by a certain Oscar-winning rabbit, David wrote the libretto for the opera Lilith, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 2001.

Emmy-winning writer Jeffrey Scott reveals how K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid) can be the key to writing better screenplays

Jonah Hill is in negotiations to direct THE KITCHEN SINK, reports Deadline.com.

Josh Brolin is developing a new take of HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME for Warner Bros., reports Variety.

Emmy-winning writer Jeffrey Scott explains how to get the most out of today’s best-selling screenwriting books and become a better writer

“Digital Storytelling: World Building in a Digital Universe” is the sixth annual seminar on the creative use of technology in film, television and games, focusing on how visual effects and digital set design are used to advance storytelling and world building in feature film, television and games. Speakers from the Norwegian, Nordic and International film and games community gather in Oslo to present their work.

The keynote presentation will be on photoreal digital actors, presented by Associate Director of Graphics Research Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies. His pioneer work in image-based lighting, and later development of a series of Light Stage devices for digitizing the shape and appearance of human faces, has been instrumental for the VFX of films such as "The Matrx", "Spider Man 2", "King Kong", "Superman Returns", "Spiderman 3", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Avatar" to name a few. In 2010 he received a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award with Tim Hawkins, John Monos, and Mark Sagar.

New of this year are presentations from European game industry professionals, from motion capture actor Pascal Langlois (Ethan Mars in “Heavy Rain”), to film director working with motion capture John Dower (Xbox 360 “Milo & Kate”),  Matt Woodward from CCP Games (Eve Online) and Owen O’Brien from DICE (Mirror’s Edge). Norwegian character animator Arne Kaupang will present work on the sci-fi movie “Paul” on behalf of Double Negative, and the usual suspects from the top Norwegian and Swedish VFX studios are making a big VFX Omelette: Camera Magica, Gimpville, Storm Studios, Storyline Studios, Hocus Focus, Fido (Sweden), Qvisten Animation and Rune Spaans.

Digital Storytelling is arranged in cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute and will take place in the Tancred Cinema at Filmens Hus, Oslo Norway on April 13th. The seminar is followed by the opening of “Visions for a Story World 2011″ an exhibition of concept art and design in film and games in collaboration with Grafill Animasjon. On April 14 and 15 two VFX workshops on NukeX for Norwegian visual effects and film professionals will be led by Matt Leonard of Sphere VFX. At the close of the seminar the Norwegian Society of Visual Effects (NFX) will present the 2011 Best Visual Effects Awards.

The Animation Picture Company has bought the script ZOMBIE PET SHOP from writer E.L. Katz, reports Variety.

Wolfgang Petersen has been tapped for Paramount Pictures' adaptation of John Scalzi's sci-fi novel OLD MAN'S WAR, reports Deadline.com.

Dwayne McDuffie, who wrote for comics and animated superhero series such as JUSTICE LEAGUE, has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Skydance Productions' head David Ellison is in talks to buy the rights to anime series STAR BLAZERS, reports Deadline.com.

Michael Bay is set to produce a film inspired by IDW comic ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS, reports Deadline.com.

Jeffrey Scott explains how to use Microsoft Excel to help screenwriters develop their story structure

Warner Bros. has hired HARRY POTTER scribe Steve Kloves to rewrite its live-action adaptation of AKIRA, reports Variety.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has been hired to rewrite the book for SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, reported Deadline.com.