Stargate Digital, which recently opened a new facility in London, is currently revamping of all the visual effects for Highlander 2, to be released on DVD this spring through Artisan Home Ent.

Bill Plympton's new independent feature HAIR HIGH will have its West Coast premiere at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival on Feb. 14, 2004.

Cannes Film Festival has selected SHREK 2 for the main competition in the 2004 event, which runs from May 12-23. The premiere will be on May 15, at 7:30 pm and voice cast – including Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, Antonio Banderas and Rupert Everett – are scheduled to be attending.

Movie and race car legend Paul Newman will lend his voice to a car character in Pixar Animation Studio’s seventh animated feature, CARS, written and directed by John Lasseter, set for a holiday release in 2005 through Walt Disney Pictures.

Les Armateurs has announced that it will go into production on a prequel to its Annecy grand prize-winning feature KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS, titled THE CHILD KIRIKOU, reported VARIETY. Michel Ocelot, director and writer of the original, will write the new tale and direct it along with Benedicte Galup. Ocelot will split the directing duties because he is working on another project. The film has a budget set at $6 million and should reach theaters by the end of 2005.

Walt Disney's ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1951) may not be to everyone's liking, but it at least deserves careful consideration, since it really shines on the new two-disc Masterpiece Edition (Buena Vista Home Ent., $29.99) that hits stores Jan. 27, 2004. The feature has been cleaned up and remastered and shows off more vividly the work of the many talented animators (including Mary Blair, Bob Carlson, Marc Davis, John Hench, Ub Iwerks, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Fred Moore and Frank Thomas).

DILBERT - THE COMPLETE SERIES from '99 comes to DVD (Columbia TriStar, $49.95) Jan. 27, 2004. Check out all 30 episodes on this four-disc set from the first and second seasons and discover why the most popular comic strip of the decade made a smooth transition to animated series, thanks to irreverent writer/producer Larry Charles (SEINFELD and MAD ABOUT YOU).

Southpaw Entertainment has announced that it has hired SHREK 2 and SPIRIT director Kelly Asbury to write and direct a live-action/CGI fantasy adventure, titled IMAGINARY CHILDREN, reported VARIETY. Southpaw's Richard Lewis and Scott Peters came up with the concept, which follows a cartoonist whose characters consume his life's so much that he is estranged from his real child. Lewis will finance the project on his own with investments from his Southpaw partner eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll.

The CRITIC - THE COMPLETE SERIES comes to DVD Jan. 27, 2004 (Columbia TriStar, $49.95) in a three-disc set featuring all 23 episodes with its dry wit intact. Created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss of THE SIMPSONS, the ill-fated CRITIC bounced around from ABC to Fox to Comedy Central to the Internet, attracting a small but devoted following that adored the movie parodies. Jon Lovitz voices the animated Jay Sherman, the sad sack of TV film critic who gives thumbs down to every pathetic movie he's forced to review.

Extras include:
* Commentary on eight episodes

Producers have revealed that STUART LITTLE 3 will be an all-CG direct-to-video feature, reports Zap2it.com.

"There's a gigantic audience out there for this, but it would not pay to make it a full-out feature," said Douglas Wick, producer of the first two movies and co-writer of STUART LITTLE 2. "We just got the script and we like it, but this time there will be no live characters, it will all be CGI."

New Line’s sci-fi thriller, THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (with vfx by Schminken Studio and Toybox), overtook Universal’s ALONG CAME POLLY at the box office with $17M for the weekend ended Jan. 25, 2004. POLLY came in second in its second outing with $16.3M and $53.2M to date. DreamWorks’ WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!

DreamWorks has ordered scripts for SHREK 3 and SHARK TALE 2, reported VARIETY; however, the studio would not comment when AWN followed up. The third adventure for the giant green orge will have him wrapped up in the King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table legend. SHREK 2, with a budget northwards of $80 million, arrives in theaters May 21, 2004, hoping to ride the huge success of the first film, which grossed $267 million in the U.S. on its way to becoming the surprise box office champ of 2001.

Universal’s Ben Stiller/Jennifer Aniston comedy, ALONG CAME POLLY, blew away the competition, including THE RETURN OF THE KING, in its box office debut over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, ended Jan. 19, 2004, collecting $32.4M. After four weeks atop the chart, New Line’s RETURN OF THE KING (with vfx overwhelmingly by Weta Digital) finally fell to second place with $12.4M and a grand $329M to date.

SPIDER-MAN – THE ANIMATED SERIES may have been dropped by MTV last year, but the good news is that all 13 episodes of season one have arrived in a terrific DVD set with plenty of extras (Columbia TriStar Home Ent., $29.95). Mainframe Ent.’s computer-animated series (written and exec produced by Michael Bendis, who was responsible for the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic) puts a new spin on Peter Parker’s plight, putting him in college opposite Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson. Voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, the animated SPIDER-MAN had its fans and foes.

Brazilian magazine, SET, has posted an interview with THE LORD OF RINGS actor Sean Astin, where he mentions being in the running to direct the FANTASTIC FOUR feature. Upon the success of his short film, THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT, which he filmed while making LORD OF THE RINGS, he has had interviews to direct 20th Century Fox's feature adaptation of the Marvel comic classic. The article quotes the budget between $100 to $130 million.

TeamWorks Digital recently completed work on Warner Bros.' TORQUE, the hyper-real motorcycle racing film that opens Jan. 16. "TORQUE is a project that enabled us to provide constant input to the visual effects of the show," says TeamWorks Digital owner David Allen. "We contributed in such a way that translated the director's unique style and vision to the screen." TORQUE is directed by music video honcho Joseph Kahn, making his first feature film debut.

Following its very successful BIONICLE: MASK OF LIGHT release ($25M), Miramax Home Ent. has acquired the North American distribution rights to IN SEARCH OF SANTA, a new 3D-animated feature co-produced by Tundra Prods. and Colorland Animation Prods.

THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, the last of the Wachowski brothers' groundbreaking trilogy and vfx feast (supplied by ESC Entertainment a host of other houses) debuts on DVD April 6, 2004 (Warner Home Video, $29.95). The two-disc set will include the following bonus features in an attempt to top its predecessors:

Paramount Pictures confirmed that it is developing a live action version of THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN, based on E.B. White's final children's book, which would include some CGI animation. Katie Ford (co-writer of MISS CONGENIALITY) will script. This marks the second film adaptation of THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN. Back in 2001, Rich-Crest Animation produced an animated feature directed by Terry Noss and Richard Rich.

LOST IN SPACE - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Fox Home Entertainment, $79.98) lands on DVD Jan. 13, 2004 in an eight-disc set containing all 29 black and white episodes of the Space Family Robinson from '65. Cheesy effects, but producer Irwin Allen offered a fun sci-fi romp that took place in '97. The first season was definitely the best. Includes the unaired pilot, "No Place to Hide" with no Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and no robot.

Disc 1
The Reluctant Stowaway
The Derelict
Island In The Sky
There Were Giants In The Earth

Disc 2