Digital-Tutors announced the availability of the much anticipated INTRODUCTION TO 3D: MEL BASICS training kit – the newest release in a library of helpful and award-winning training resources for Maya users. In more than two and a half hours of interactive training methods, INTRODUCTION TO 3D: MEL BASICS offers users the foundation to rapidly develop and enhance workflow with unsurpassed levels of productivity.

HIGHLANDER rights holder Davis Panzer Prods. has signed a deal to turn the immortal franchise into a videogame, reports VARIETY. In a multiple title agreement, British publisher Sci Games will begin work on the first game set for mid-2006 release. The videogame will have a different storyline than the forthcoming live-action film and the anime feature slated for 2006. Producers Peter Davis and Bill Panzer plan to get top talent from the five films and TV series to help develop the game. Stars Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul will provide their voices and likeness.

It’s official: The four-disc THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING – SPECIAL EXTENDED DVD EDITION (New Line Home Ent., $39.99) will hit stores on Dec. 14. As expected, it will contain more than 50 minutes of new footage, including a cameo by director Peter Jackson being quelled by an arrant arrow, and 300 new vfx shots (for a 250-minute running time). A five-disc collector’s gift set, featuring a 52-minute film composing doc, will sell for $79.99.

Framestore CFC provided a total of 20 vfx shots along with digital mastergrade for the new British thriller, LAYER CAKE, which opens Oct. 1 in the U.K. It stars Daniel Craig, Kenneth Cranham, Michael Gambon, Nathalie Lunghi and Sienna Miller. Based on JJ Connelly's London crime novel, LAYER CAKE marks the directorial debut of producer Matthew Vaughn (LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING GUNS).

Platinum Studios is teaming with producer Gale Anne Hurd to bring the graphic novel ATLANTIS RISING to the big screen. Platinum will also develop a massively multiplayer online game about on the property with Icarus Studios. Comic creator Scott Mitchell Rosenberg will be producing along with Hurd. Stephen Tao is the exec for Valhalla with the company's Stephen Emery serving as a co-producer. Aaron Severson and Jay Burns are co-producing for Platinum. The story chronicles the ramifications of a land bound civil war on the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.

In creating the main title sequence for the new Buena Vista Pictures release THE LAST SHOT, yU + co found inspiration in an unlikely place: amid the clutter of a movie theater floor. The design studio designed and produced a magical opener for the film that takes the audience on a looping journey along theater aisles and over seats to discover the names of the film’s cast and crew written on candy wrappers, woven into upholstery and tattooed to the legs of a patron. The result is a visual tour de force and the perfect set up for the offbeat crime caper that follows.

Alias today announced the completion of the acquisition of Kaydara, a leading developer of realtime 3D character animation and motion editing solutions for the entertainment industry.

According to Avid, five leading Softimage customers – Hybride Technologies, Pixel Liberation Front, R!OT, Rising Sun Pictures and Stan Winston

ResPower Inc. now supports rendering for e-on Software’s Vue 4 Professional scenery on the ResPower render farm.

TERMINATOR 4 is set to begin production in 2005, reports VARIETY. However, it is unknown whether California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will return as his most famous characters. In addition, it is unknown whether T3 stars Nick Stahl and Claire Danes would be asked to return. A script for the fourth installment has been written by RISE OF THE MACHINES scribes John Brancato and Michael Ferris. T3 director Jonathan Mostow helped develop the new idea and is top choice to direct T4.

Paramount Pictures has reached an agreement to acquire the worldwide film rights to Midway Games' FEAR & RESPECT, a videogame based in the urban environment of South Central Los Angeles. Currently being developed in collaboration with writer/director John Singleton (BOYZ N THE HOOD), the urban/action adventure game is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 2005 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Christine Peters (HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS) will be collaborating with the game developer to produce the film.

While promoting the 10th anniversary of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, director/writer Frank Darabont has said that he will direct screen adaptations of Stephen King’s MIST and Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451, reports SCI FI WIRE.

European visual effects society eDIT | VES, whose upcoming festival runs in Frankfurt, Germany from Sept. 26 – 28, 2004, will award the legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick the Festival Honors. Kubrick pushed the boundaries of special effects with his masterpiece 2001: A SPACE ODDESSY. The award will be handed out on Sept. 26 at the opening gala of eDIT | VES 2004. The posthumous award will be accepted by Kubrick’s wife Christiane. More information can be found at www.edit-ves.com.

BOXX Technologies has entered an agreement with Avid to offer Softimage|XSI Foundation and Essentials software as an optional upgrade for it series of award-winning workstations.

On their initial release date Sept. 21, the STAR WARS Trilogy DVD set and LucasArts’ STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT videogame netted $115 million worldwide, reports VARIETY. 20th Century Fox Home Ent. did not break out the two releases, but said that 90% of the revenues came from the DVDs and a good percentage of that came from the U.S. alone. Fox and LucasFilms split home entertainment money on the original STAR WARS, but the studio only gets a distribution fee for EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Venice, California-based Exodus Film Group has tapped three-time Oscar-winning visual effects wizard Jim Rygiel to direct the feature film, BUNYAN AND BABE, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Based on the Paul Bunyan legend, the family film follows Paul Bunyan and a group of kids as they attempt to save Bunyan’s pet ox Babe from an evil circus owner. Eddie Griffin will provide the voice of Babe the Blue Ox. The script was written by Michael A. Nickles (THIS IS NOT A FILM) and Julia A. Wall. Exodus' animation team, ElectroAge, will be handling the CG work.

Luxology Llc. announced the immediate availability of modo, its powerful new subdivision surface and polygonal modeling platform. Combining a realtime subdivision surface modeling engine with a user-centric, highly customizable interface that includes hundreds of production-oriented tools, modo is one of the fastest and most advanced 3D modeling systems currently available. To purchase modo and obtain immediate access via download visit Luxology's online store at www.luxology.com/store/.

While Kerry Conran tells VFXWORLD about the challenges and pleasures of pulling off his immensely ambitious debut, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, visual effects supervisor Gianluca Dentici takes us on a journey to Italy to discover some of the challenges and pleasures of working in his burgeoning vfx industry.

A group of Korean researchers from a local university have developed a new kind of high-quality MoCap technology that is so simple to use that they believe this will allow Koreans to compete internationally in vfx, reported THE CHOSUN ILBO.

NVIDIA Corp. unveiled the GoForce 3D 4500, the world's first 3D wireless media processor. The NVIDIA GoForce 3D 4500 WMP enables a whole new level of interactive content not previously possible on cell phones, PDAs or other handheld devices. For the first time, mobile content developers can harness a powerful 3D medium to create rich, dynamic, lifelike worlds and characters.