Sony has purchased Trevor Sands’ sci-fi script RESURRECTION, reports VARIETY. Mosaic Media's Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing. Shannon Gaulding will shepherd the project for Columbia, with Gloria Fan watching over for Mosaic. The studios are quiet about the flick, which is described as “an imaginative sci-fi action-adventure set in the distant future.”

Sands wrote the adaptation of Martin Caidin’s novel, THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN, for Dimension. He will also write and direct THE FOUR JACKS for producer Holly Wiersma (WONDERLAND).

Eyetronics, an international provider of high resolution scanning services and animation-ready 3D models, is coming off its most successful year yet and looks to 2005 with a prestigious slate of projects, including RACING STRIPES, ELEKTRA, the much anticipated CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, BATMAN BEGINS, THE BROTHERS GRIMM, LEGEND OF ZORRO, THE ICE PRINCESS and TRANSPORTER II. Among the recent feature films employing Eyetronics scanning services are ALEXANDER, BLADE: TRINITY, MASTER AND COMMANDER, KING ARTHUR, THE LAST SAMURAI and XXX.

Emmy Award-winning Zoic Studios provided vfx to Sci Fi Channel’s new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which debuts Jan. 14 at 9:00 pm/8:00 pm Central.

Disney has hired scribes Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to draft a remake screenplay for the 1982 cult classic, TRON, reports VARIETY. Brigham Taylor will supervise the new film.

For the remake the computer world will be expanded with the computer programmer will get trapped in the cyberworld of the Internet. Steven Lisberger wrote and directed to original film, which utilized cutting-edge graphics.

Splinex Technology Inc., a provider of visual communication software and technology, has named Michael Stojda as president/ceo. Stojda has also been appointed to the board of directors.

The car commercial opens on a deserted car park roof, and takes us on a journey through a district of a modern day city.

The :60 spot shows the Audi A6 deconstructing into thousands of abstract component parts, which then travel from one end of the city to the other. These elements become recognizable as letters that go on to spell out the famous Audi strapline: “Vorsprung, Durch, Technik.”

Seth Rosenthal has joined Tweak as a partner and director of business development. Rosenthal wrapped up six years at Industrial Light & Magic in order to make the jump. He will contribute to Tweak's efforts to expand its visual effects business for feature films and commercials and will help launch a new division to distribute Tweak's proprietary software applications for visual effects and media production.

Talk about good timing. Just as British Telecom’s NETWORKING spot gets nominated by the VES for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial, VFXWORLD just happens to have an informative previs piece by Karen Raugust, including a QuickTime plug-in so you can view the completed spot as well as earlier versions. There’s dazzling vfx work by The Syndicate, too.

Sweden’s Traktor has optioned Paul Sloan’s sci-fi thriller screenplay, SIPHON, reports VARIETY. Traktor will produced the flick with Bryan Brucks. Set in a futuristic world, a female detective tracks a serial killer that may not be human with a most advanced technology available.

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, THE VILLAGE, about a 19th community and its uneasy truce with scary creatures that live in the nearby forbidden forest, comes to DVD Jan. 11, 2005 in the deluxe Vista Series (Buena Vista Home Ent., $29.99). Digital vfx are kept to a minimum and are obviously transparent, but credit goes to Industrial Light & Magic, Illusion Arts Inc. and Steve Johnson’s Edge FX Inc.

Bonus features include:
* Deleted Scenes with director's introduction
* "Deconstructing THE VILLAGE" -- a look at the making of the film

The Visual Effects Society (VES) announced its nominees for the 3rd Annual VES Awards recognizing outstanding visual effects in 19 categories of film, television, commercials, music videos and games. Nominees were chosen by a panel of more than 60 visual effects professionals (all VES members) that viewed hundreds of entry submissions during an all-day event at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center over the weekend.

McG's production firm Wonderland Sound & Vision and James Stern's Endgame Ent. are set to co-produce horror flick, STAY ALIVE, reports VARIETY. First time director/writer Brent Bell will helm the picture, which follows a group of New Orleans teens as they play a videogame that spurs the loser’s own death in real life. Endgame will finance the film, which will start shooting in March. Matthew Peterman. McG, Peter Schlessel and Stern will produce, with Wonderland's David Manpearl as co-producer.

Jim Henson Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures have teamed to turn the 2001 children's book THE WITCH'S CHILDREN, written by Ursula Jones and illustrated by Russell Ayto, into a feature film, reports VARIETY. The picture book tells the tale of several witches-in-training whose magic goes awry. Scribe Aline Brosh McKenna (LAWS OF ATTRACTION) will weave the simple story into a tale of a single-mother witch who leaves her magical, but morally questionable, world to raise her kids in the suburbs.

The creators of two camera crane systems have been voted Oscars by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will be handed out along with special Academy commendations among the 15 achievements to be honored at the Academy's annual Scientific and Technical Awards dinner on Feb. 12, 2005, at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

Horst Burbulla will receive an Oscar for the creation and development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane, which has redefined camera crane technology.

For Bryan Singer’s SUPERMAN, Warner Bros. has cast BEYOND THE SEA co-stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth as villain Lex Luthor and plucky reporter Lois Lane, respectively. Spacey’s deal is locked and Bosworth is in negotiations. The summer tentpole with begin filming in Sydney on March 3, 2005. In October, newcomer Brandon Routh was cast to play the Man of Steel.

Northern Lights Post has added noted comedy/lifestyle editor John Laskas to its roster of talented editors and named Rich Schafler of Schafler Artist Management, New York, as its east coast commercial sales rep.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a special Award of Commendation to Arthur Widmer at the Scientific and Technical Awards dinner on Feb. 12, 2005, at its new location, the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

The AMPAS moved the event from the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel – one of nine hotels targeted for a hotel workers union boycott – because many of the people attending would not want to cross a picket line.

Well, we kick off a new year at VFXWORLD with the topic of previsualization. The first in the series this month is Alain Bielik’s look at the previz work that went into brining Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s WWI set romance epic, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, to the screen.

Walt Disney's Touchstone Pictures has hired director Gregor Jordan (BUFFALO SOLDIERS) to rewrite and direct the adaptation of John Christopher's THE TRIPODS TRILOGY, reports VARIETY. Disney has had the properties rights since 1997 and both Darren Lemke and Terry Hayes have written scripts based on the series.

THX Ltd. announced that it will be demonstrating a new visual equalization (EQ) technology for videogame consoles at CES. The technology was created to enhance how gamers experience the visual quality of games content played on their favorite console. Demonstrations will be available to the public at booth # 20533 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during regular exhibit hours.