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.

The summer blockbusters continue to roll out on DVD with Warner Home Video’s release of TROY ($29.95) on Jan. 4, 2005.

Intergraph Corp. has shipped SmartPlant 3D 5.0. The new version delivers many enhancements for structural modeling and design, 3D model exportation, global worksharing and system support. Intergraph's current customers, including some of the world's largest owner/operators and engineering companies, drove the development of SmartPlant 3D 5.0. The software provides the capabilities needed to design and maintain process, power and marine facilities and keep them "as-built" throughout the life cycle.

Curious Pictures announced that it has joined forces with Grand Large, the Paris-based commercial production company, and will be working with Grand Large’s new award-winning French director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director and writer of AMELIE and A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT.

“Grand Large has a compelling group of feature directors, and I am really excited about them and their work,” said David Starr, exec producer/marketing director for Curious Pictures. “If there is one director that I have always wanted to work with, it is Jean-Pierre Jeunet.”

Perforce Software now allows integrations between Perforce SCM, its software configuration management system, and three popular graphics applications: Discreet’s 3ds max, Adobe’s Photoshop and Alias’ Maya. The new integrations encourage collaboration during the creative process and enable artists and developers to version, store and manage their code and digital assets more efficiently.

THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION (Warner Home Video), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING – SPECIAL EXTENDED EDITION (NEW LINE HOME ENT.), THE STAR WARS TRILOGY (Fox Home Ent.) and MARY POPPINS 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Buena Vista Home Ent.) have scored major nominations for the Fourth Annual DVD Exclusive Awards.

The 2004 DVD Exclusive Awards, sponsored by DVD EXCLUSIVE magazine, a sister publication to VARIETY, will be presented on Feb. 8, 2005, at the Annenberg Building at the California Science Center near the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

CaféFX used its CG skills to recreate the 1935 world speed record-setting flight for THE AVIATOR, as well as additional shots of Howard Hughes’ reviewing a fleet of Lockheed Constellation aircraft.

CaféFX artists additionally used NewTek’s LightWave 3D in the production of content and shots for FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX and BLADE: TRINITY.

The Original STAR TREK series continues to live long and prosper on DVD in newly remastered and complete series box sets. Paramount Home Ent. recently released the second and third season collections in time for the Holidays ($129.99 each).

Now that I, ROBOT is in the running in the vfx bakeoff, it’s a good opportunity to check out this underrated action film with Will Smith on DVD (Fox Home Ent., $29.98), particularly Digital Domains’ first foray into 3D characters.

SCI FI celebrates 2004, with the channel’s highest-rated and most-watched year yet. This is the third consecutive year SCI FI has garnered recor- breaking primetime ratings. The channel also delivered its best-ever primetime rating, with 1.0 HH rating/1.2 million P2+ average for the year. Now fully-distributed to 84 million homes, SCI FI scored with viewers in nearly every key demographic, ranking within the Top 10 of all basic cable nets for ratings among P25-54, M25-54, P18-49, M18-49 and F25-54.

We close 2004 at VFXWORLD with a wide array of informative coverage: Mary Ann Skweres speaks with a number of prominent insiders about the very hot topic, “Getting Respect for Invisible VFX;” Andy Stout reports back with highlights from the inaugural UK CGI Festival in London; and The Digital Eye discusses “The Promise & Peril of VFX Jobs” b

The SIGGRAPH 2004 Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Presentations DVD-ROM set is now shipping. This highly anticipated six-disc box set features more than 400 presentations totaling more than 250 hours of content. Recorded sessions include: Papers, Sketches, Courses, Special Sessions, Web Graphics, Panels and Keynote and Awards. New features include: a custom search engine, links to additional online research and all live demos. For more information, visit www.siggraph.org/soma/s2004dvd/.