SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW director Kerry Conran confirmed to VFXWORLD yesterday that A PRINCESS OF MARS will be his second feature, which you can read all about in today's news. You'll be happy to know that next month VFXWORLD will publish an in-depth interview with Kerry to coincide with Paramount's Sept. 16 release of SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.

The CGI Festival Leeds
Leeds, U.K.
November 9 – 10, 2004

The CGI Festival London
London, U.K.
December 7 - 8, 2004

The new CGI Festival will cover both the North and the South, taking place in London and Leeds. The London festival will be at the Business Design Centre from Dec. 7 - 8 and in Leeds at the Royal Armouries Museum from Nov. 9 -10, 2004. The events will feature a major conference and screenings of the best 3D content from around the world and will be developed in close co-operation with the 3D community.

As previously reported, Warner Home Video has announced that it will release a 10-disk MATRIX collection. The studio has now confirmed that the set will hit stores Dec. 7, 2004 and will be priced at $79.92. THE ULTIMATE MATRIX COLLECTION will include the trilogy, THE ANIMATRIX and 35 hours of bonus material as well as a Neo bust and 80-page book.

The disks include:

Paramount and Marvel Studios have hired David Self (ROAD TO PERDITION) to rewrite the screen adaptation of Marvel Comics’ DEATHLOK, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner (ELEKTRA) wrote the first draft. The story follows everyman who becomes a test subject for a technology research lab that transforms him into a living computer. Marvel Studios' Avi Arad and Crystal Sky Prods.’ Steven Paul are producing. No director has been seen. DIE ANOTHER DAY helmer Lee Tamahori had long been attached to direct, but has since stepped down.

NVIDIA Corp. and the USC School of Cinema-Television have formed a partnership that will provide students training on cutting-edge 3D graphics technology and the ability to graduate with the necessary skills to compete for highly sought-after positions in filmmaking, vfx and animation production, realtime content creation and other interactive industries.

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE director Sam Weisman has been tapped to direct WIDOW'S BROOM for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The film is based on a book by JUMANJI and POLAR EXPRESS scribe Chris Van Allsburg, who will be adapting his book for the screen. Van Allsburg's production firm Golden Mean will produce the film along with Radar Pictures. Golden Mean partner Bill Teitler will serve as producer. Karen Rosenfelt and Julia Pistor will shepard the project for Paramount and Nickelodeon respectively. The film will go into production early 2005.

Nevercenter Ltd. Co. announced the immediate availability of its highly-acclaimed 3D modeling program, Silo for Mac OS X Panther (10.3). A single Silo license can be purchased online at www.nevercenter.com or through a reseller for $109, and allows an individual user to use Silo on up to three computers, in any combination of Macs and PCs.

Paramount Pictures has announced details for the “SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW Air Combat Challenge" tournament, a three-week contest that began on Aug. 23, 2004. Playing the free downloadable game FLYING LEGION AIR COMBAT CHALLENGE, contestants will vie against one another for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to the London premiere of SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, opening in theaters nationwide Sept. 17, 2004.

Eidos, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, has secured the distribution rights to LEGO Star Wars with Giant Interactive Entertainment Ltd. for all countries except Japan. The game will be released in April 2005 for the PlayStation2, Xbox, PC and Game Boy Advance. LEGO STAR WARS combines two childhood favorites, LEGO and STAR WARS, to create an innovative, action/adventure title designed for young gamers.

Brickyard VFX has created a series of commercials for Volkswagen that are airing during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The spots, completed via agency client Arnold Worldwide, production company Anonymous Content and director Malcolm Venville, promote VW's Touareg and Phaeton automobiles, respectively, with ads titled PICTURE and WARP SPEED.

Odd Lot Ent. and Batfilm have acquired the feature film rights to comic legend Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT. Odd Lot's Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete (THE WEDDING PLANNER) and Batfilm's Michael Uslan (BATMAN BEGINS, CATWOMAN, CONSTANTINE) will produce the film. Benjamin Melniker and Steve Maier are attached as exec producer with F.J. DeSanto and Linda McDonough as co-producers.

MGM Consumer Products and Interactive, has launch the STARGATE SG-1 "Get In The Game" sweepstakes. This contest offers STARGATE SG-1 fans the chance to have his or her likenesses scanned and used as one of the characters in the first STARGATE SG-1 videogame.

To participate in the sweepstakes, participants need to register at www.mgm.com/contest.do between Aug. 24 and Sept. 24, 2004, 12:00 am PDT. A random drawing will take place on Sept. 27, and the winner will be announced by e-mail.

Curious Labs announced an end of August release for Shade 7. This is an all-in-one 3D graphic suite for designers, illustrators and architects, offering a rich tool set at an affordable price. The intuitive Bezier modeling tool features quick results in visual design. Global illumination rendering that includes Radiosity with physics, accomplishes beautifully radiant imagery. And, the deep tool set is integrated to cover details and complete any project

PhaseSpace unveiled their latest optical motion capture system in the Guerilla Studio and AMD booth 1334 at SIGGRAPH 2004, August 8-12 at the Los Angles Convention Center.

Major features of the new optical motion capture system, include:

Valhalla Motion Pictures and MTV Films have announced the supporting cast for their live-action adaptation of Peter Chung’s animated cult TV series, AEON FLUX. Joining Oscar-winning actresses Charlize Theron (MONSTER) and Frances McDormand (FARGO) will be Marton Csokas (XXX), Jonny Lee Miller (HACKERS), Sophie Okonedo (DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), Amelia Warner (QUILLS) and Caroline Chikezie (U.K. TV’s THE FOOTBALLERS’ WIVES. The flick is scheduled for theatrical release in 2005. Paramount Pictures and Lakeshore Ent. will distribute.

Charlex, the New York-based 3D, animation and effects studio for film and television, has named Adam Isidore as vp/exec producer. He moves from BBDO New York where he held the same title. At BBDO, Isidore recently served as exec producer in charge of production for the Cingular Wireless account. In addition to producing several dozen Cingular spots, he also wrote a spot for the New York launch called SUBWAY, which won an Addy Award.

Six new Maya Masters have been selected by Alias for 2004: Andrew Daffy, CGI supervisor formerly with Framestore CFC; Jeremy Gordon, president/ceo of San Francisco-based game development company Secret Level; Lee Griggs, product specialist at ART VPS; Derald Hunt, digital effects artist; Tom Kluyskens, CG supervisor; and Rene Morel, character modeler and texturer.

Noted animation industry veteran Troy Brooks has joined Pipelinefx as its cto. Brooks, formerly CG supervisor for the basketball franchises at Electronic Arts Canada, production systems supervisor at SquareUSA and lead programmer at Mainframe Ent., is a computer graphics animation pioneer with more than 13 years experience. "Troy is one of the most experienced animation experts in the industry. He knows the mechanics of both film and game production workflow inside and out," said Bill Spencer, Pipelinefx ceo.

There is currently a paradigm shift in the world of vfx with the ascendance of the visual effects producer, according to supervisor Jeff Okun (THE LAST SAMURAI), who participated Thursday night in a panel discussion on "Producing Magic on Time and on Budget" at Sony Pictures Imageworks, sponsored by the Producers Guild of America's New Media Council and the Visual Effects Society.

Discreet 3ds max 7 will utilize ATI shader technology to provide impressive realtime hardware accelerated rendering in the 3ds max viewport. Created for game developers, 3D visual effects artists and artists creating 3D cinematics, the co-developed technology by Discreet and ATI will make a realtime 3D image rendered in the 3ds max viewport appear close in appearance to the final offline rendered 3D image or animation.