Fast on the heels of the recent deal with producer Chris Wedge, Twentieth Century Fox Features has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with ICE AGE producer Lori Forte. Forte is developing several animated features for Fox and will serve as producer on a potential ICE AGE sequel. "Lori is a spectacular producer and a critical part of the future that we are building with Blue Sky," said Chris Meledandri, president of 20th Century Fox Animation, who announced Forte's deal. ICE Age is nominated for the Best Animated Feature film Academy Award.

Warner Bros.' hip hop King Fu actioner CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE (Bryan Hirota was vfx supervisor) debuted at the top of the weekend box office in North America, taking in $17.1M, followed by OLD SCHOOL, vfx by Gray Matter FX, holding at second place at $13.8M and a cume of $37.2M. DAREDEVIL, with primary vfx by Rhythm & Hues, Pixel Magic and Digital Domain, dropped to third pulling in an estimated gross of $11M, and a total of $84.1M. HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, with visual effects by Pixel Magic, dropped to fourth place taking in $10.1M and a $77.5M total.

Scooby-Doo and his famous gang of mystery-solving sleuths are on the trail of a Australian vampire in SCOOBY-DOO AND THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE released on DVD and home video on Tuesday, March 4, 2003 by Warner Home Video. The direct-to-video 80-minute feature was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. On vacation in Australia, Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang attend a music festival held at Vampire Rock. But the music goes flat when the gang learns that a legendary Australian creature called the Yowie Yahoo is kidnapping the musical acts and turning them into vampires.

Director Chris Wedge is on fire, signing a five-year, multipicture exclusive deal with 20th Century Fox that includes a potential ICE AGE sequel and a new film ROBOTS, it was announced Thursday by Chris Meledandri, president of Twentieth Century Fox Animation. Wedge is also receiving the first ever Animation Director of the Year Award at ShoWest during a gala Tuesday, March 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada and is nominated for an Oscar.

Constantin Film in Germany is driving the latest game-to-screen crossover, optioning the film and television rights to Infogrames' DRIVER video game franchise. Impact Pictures, a subsidiary of Constantin, is slated to start shooting the motion picture later this year. "This is a great opportunity to develop the extremely cool game character of Tanner into a very believable and iconic action movie hero," said Jeremy Bolt, the movie's producer. Tanner is an undercover policeman hired by the mob as a getaway driver. Bolt set up Impact Pictures with writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson.

SHREK producer John Williams and his company Vanguard Films will produce a live-action theatrical adaptation of children's book TED for Nickelodeon Movies, starring a CG-animated version of the lead character. Ted is the mischievous imaginary friend of a young boy in the book of the same name by best-selling author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi. Rob Moreland (HAPPILY EVER AFTER) is adapting TED for Vanguard and Greenlight Media. TED will be rendered entirely in CG amongst a live-action cast and environment.

Veteran animation director Ralph Bakshi (LORD OF THE RINGS, HEAVY METAL, COOL WORLD) is joining forces with REN & STIMPY creator John Kricfalusi to produce a slate of low-budget animated features aimed at adults, according to VARIETY. Both animators are known for locking horns with studio and network execs while creating some of the most influential animation productions. Bakshi and Kricfalusi plan to make animated features, costing under $10M, that are an alternative to the family slates at the majors.

DAREDEVIL managed to cling onto its top box office position at theaters in North America for a second weekend (primary vfx by Rhythm & Hues, Pixel Magic and Digital Domain), holding off a challenge from DreamWork's school party film OLD SCHOOL. The Marvel Comics blind superhero flick pulled in an estimated gross of $18.9M, and moved its estimated 10-day cume to a healthy $70.3M.

Popular comic book cat and animated TV star GARIFELD will display his CGI stripes in a new live-action motion picture Twentieth Century Fox plans to release in U.S. theaters December 19, 2003. Peter Hewitt directs the picture, which is adapted from the syndicated cartoon strip created by Jim Davis and read in 2,600 newspapers by 260 million readers around the globe. The story starts as Garfield’s owner, Jon, takes in sweet but dimwitted pooch Odie, turning Garfield’s perfect world upside down.

Toy giant Mattel, Inc. has commissioned Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment to produce a series of animated videos based on Hot Wheels storylines and characters created by Starlight Runner Entertainment to promote the 35th anniversary of the toy car products. The CGI toons, HOT WHEELS HIGHWAY 35, will follow five Hot Wheels race teams as they compete across the challenging terrains of parallel universes thwarted by a cadre of villains.

The action/gadget packed SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF THE LOST DREAMS is now available on a collector's series DVD and VHS from Dimension Home Video. The action follows Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) after they saved their parents and have become full-fledged SPYkid operatives within the secret OSS. They embark on a mission to a mysterious island that has the effect of disabling their precious gadgets. Houses that contributed visual effects to the family movie include Cinesite, Digiscope, Hybride Technologies, Janimation, K.N.B.

Moviegoers lifted DAREDEVIL out of relative comic book hero obscurity as the Twentieth Century Fox theatrical release starring Ben Affleck took in $43.5M, the biggest haul ever for a movie opening over Presidents Day weekend. Based on the Marvel Comics blind superhero, the film easily surpassed the previous best of $20.3M for last year's JOHN Q and was the second-best February debut ever behind HANNIBAL two years ago at $58M. Rich Thorne supervised visual effects for Fox with work done primarily by Rhythm & Hues, Pixel Magic and Digital Domain.

JM Entertainment, based in Seoul, Korea and Glendale, California, has started production on its first 2D/3D animated feature film THE TOY WARRIOR. Hollywood TV animation writer Brian Swenlin wrote the script about the Land of Toys, an imaginative world ruled by the popular doll, Princess Sherbert. When a dark force threatens her toy kingdom, Jinoo, a trouble-making boy from the real world, must save the day. JM Entertainment president Ji-Moon (Jeff) Lim and Seoul Movie president Chang-Rok Jun are executive producers.

Banking on the success and visibility of THE JUNGLE BOOK and its many reissues over the past 35 years, Walt Disney tests the market for a new storyline and new songs featuring many of the same characters from the classic. THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 debuts Friday, February 14 in the U.S. Directed by Steve Trenbirth, produced by Christopher Chase and Mary Thorne, the original screenplay by Karl Geurs, picks up where man-cub Mowgli is torn between two words.

Canada's first full-length 3D animated feature film P3K, PINOCCHIO 3000, is currently in production in Montréal, and has recently added Malcolm McDowell, Howie Mandel and Whoopi Goldberg to its cast of voices. McDowell plays Mayor Scamboli, a technocratic megalomaniac who rules the megapolis of Scamboville with an iron fist. Mandel plays Spencer, Gepetto’s trusted cyborg-penguin assistant who helps him create Pinocchio, a very special robot equipped with a one-of-a-kind P3K processor that endows him with the lively imagination of a youngster.

Daredevil will battle it out with Spider-Man in the new Buena Vista Home Entertainment release, DAREDEVIL VS. SPIDER-MAN. Discover the origins of Daredevil plus catch the animated action as "The Man Without Fear" teams up with the webslinger to take down their supreme nemesis, the powerful Kingpin. DVD bonus features include "Stan Lee's Soapbox" with legendary comics creator Stan Lee, the 1966 episode "King Pinned," and a FANTASTIC FOUR bonus episode featuring Daredevil. Available now for $19.99 (DVD) and $14.99 (VHS), it runs approximately 80 minutes.

Moviegoers opted for comedy at this weekend's U.S. box office, with HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, visual effects by Pixel Magic, debuting at number one with $23.7M. Cinesite and Effects Assoc. in the U.K. did visual effects for SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, which debuted at No. 2 with $19.6M. CHICAGO, with visual effects from Toybox and Film Effects Inc., moved up to third place, taking in $10.7 to bring its total to $63.8M, while THE RECRUIT, featuring effects by Pacific Title, dropped to fourth place with $9.2M and a cume of $29.8.

Richard Bazley, a lead animator on the animated features HERCULES, POCOHONTAS, OSMOSIS JONES and IRON GIANT, among others, has come on board as director of BA20's 78 x 7-minute Flash animation series RIP, THE ANGRIEST PIG IN THE WORLD. Created by cyberpunk author Steve Aylett, and produced by BA20 Entertainment, the series is described as "Tex Avery doing Beavis & Butthead." Bazley's company Bazley Films will produce the show in the U.K.

French animation studio Action Synthèse is currently in production on the upcoming CG feature THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT, using SOFTIMAGE|XSI to animate this remake of the '60s children's cult television series. THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT will star Australian pop star Kylie Minogue as Florence and fellow singer Robbie Williams as the world-weary dog Dougal, along with ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS star Joanna Lumley as Ermintrude the cow.

Warner Bros. Pictures has subcontracted Cinesite Europe with all the model unit construction and miniature photography for the third HARRY POTTER film: HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. Construction work will begin immediately on the models of Hogwarts, Privet Drive, a huge marble staircase and other significant structures within the film. The model building will continue until May 2003 at the Shepperton Studios workshops, with photography scheduled to begin in early June.