DIC Ent. has been appointed the global entertainment licensing agent for Zizzle Toys new, innovative musical icon iZ. As part of the licensing initiative, DIC will translate the toy into animated direct-to-DVD movies.
The winner of Miss Digital World 2005 is the Asian model Mi, designed by Shinichi Yoshimoto. Miss Digital World is a virtual beauty competition, open to only exceptionally beautiful models designed in 3D graphic.
VFXWorld presents a new excerpt from Building Interactive Worlds in 3D by Jean-Marc Gauthier. This month's excerpt is a tutorial on creating an interactive path.
Animation master Hayao Miyazakis son Goro Miyazaki will make his feature directing debut with an animated version of Ursula K. Le Guin's EARTHSEA fantasy novel series, reports various online outlets. The Studio Ghibli production will be titled GEDO SENKI (TALES FROM EARTHSEA) and is set to hit theaters in Japan July 2006. The film will be based on the third and fourth books in Le Guin's six-volume series, which was first published in 1968. Le Guin's series was previously adapted as LEGEND OF EARTHSEA, a live-action miniseries that aired in 2004 on the SCI FI Channel.
Bill Desowitz explores Wetas innovative work in building a CG Kong along with the dinos and other scary creatures on Skull Island. Includes QuickTime clips!
Continuing its strategic business focus on leveraging its famous brand and legendary reservoir of comedy material, National Lampoon Inc. announced a partnership with the newly-formed Half Shell Ent. Films to develop all-new feature films based on material from the classic NATIONAL LAMPOON magazine and NationalLampoon.com.
Karen Raugust looks at how animators are distributing their properties through a growing menu of alternative venues.
NVIDIA Corp. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc. (ULi), one of the PC industry's most highly-regarded core logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California.
Midway Games Inc. announced that it has shipped the latest installment in the legendary franchise, GAUNTLET: SEVEN SORROWS for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Alan Bergman has been promoted to president, The Walt Disney Studios (TWDS). In his new role, Bergman will continue to report directly to Dick Cook, chairman, TWDS and oversee strategy and operations for all business units, including Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Buena Vista Pictures Marketing, Buena Vista International, Miramax, Buena Vista Home Entertainment worldwide, Disney Theatrical Productions, The Buena Vista Music Group, Buena Vista Television and Buena Vista Television International.
Majesco Ent. Co. announced that it has sold all of its rights and obligations related to game titles, THE DARKNESS and GHOSTRIDER, to a videogame publisher for $8 million. The assignment included all of Majesco's agreements with the licensors and developers for these titles.
The sale will help financially troubled Majesco reduces its financial obligations, improve its capital structure and added flexibility to pursue additional opportunities and execute initiatives related to its core business.
Post Logic Studios has hired well-respected colorist Frank Roman for its Hollywood-based DI team and vastly expanded motion picture services pipeline and infrastruture. Romans career includes a stint at pioneering DI facility Cinesite; he joins Post Logic from Laser Pacific Media Corp.
Roman recently collaborated with legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, on the 4K digital intermediate for the upcoming feature, THE BLACK DAHLIA. Roman also worked with cinematographer Shane Hurlbut on the digital intermediates for SOMETHING NEW and INTO THE BLUE.
Color grading for Universal Pictures' KING KONG was realized using media and entertainment technology from Autodesk Inc. Visual effects facility Weta Digital relied upon Autodesk's Discreet Lustre system to digitally color grade the entire film.
Respected industry vet Joni Jacobson has been hired to head the new Los Angeles offices of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Jacobson steps into the newly created role of exec in charge of Production Marketing, and will lead marketing efforts going forward.
Jacobson will also develop the L.A. marketing beachhead for Skywalker Sound. The new Los Angeles offices will be opened in January and are located at The Lot in West Hollywood.
M.J. Lallo is hosting a three-hour seminar on how to break into the voice-over business. The workshop gives attendees a chance to record various types of voice-over copy on mic, in a professional recording studio. Topics include: how the VO business works, how to get started, what it takes to succeed in both commercial and animation VO, how to make a professional demo and breathing and voice stretching techniques. The workshop will take place from 7:00
Impact! Mobile addresses the issues of the growing field of mobile marketing and advertising. This sector is the newest method of one on one marketing and advertising for one-on-one entertainment companies and brands. The event gather leading experts to show attendees how to deliver their message to consumers using mobile marketing with a focus on Hollywood and home entertainment industry. Learn how to develop and implement marketing campaigns using mobile applications such as SMS messages, graphics, games, contests, chat rooms, screen savers and more.
Writer Jared Stern has signed a two-year overall deal with Walt Disney Feature Animation, VARIETY reports. Under the exclusive contract, Stern will write original projects for the division as well as existing projects. Sterns made his name by selling his idea for a third installment of TOY STORY to the studio when he was participant in the Feature Animation Development Program. No word has been given which project he has been assigned to first.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc. announced the nominees for the 2005 Golden Globe awards. To interest for the visual effects community, Peter Jackson earned himself a Best Director nomination for KING KONG, which also received a Best Score nod for James Newton Howard.
Skillset and the South West Regional Development Agency are supporting an exclusive professional masterclass offering unique insight from stop frame to CGI, designed and taught by animators for animators. Participants will have an opportunity to discover how Aardman Animations and DreamWorks are translating the skills of highly experienced stop-frame character animators into CGI.
Sony Pictures Consumer Products (SPCP) announces a sea of licensing opportunities for SURFS UP, the second animated feature film from Sony Pictures Animation, scheduled for release in summer 2007.
The third PETTSONS PROMISE (THE TOMTE MACHINE), featuring internationally popular TV-Loonland heroes Pettson and Findus (the grouchy old man Pettson and his curious little tomcat Findus), got off to a successful start in Scandinavian cinemas. In Sweden, the homeland of the popular cartoon characters, some 61,080 viewers have seen the new TV-Loonland feature film since its Nov.
Walt Disney TV, EMEA and Asia Pacific are reorganising in an expansion drive, both into new technology and into new business areas, which take effect on Jan. 1, 2006. Leading off the new structure is Robert Gilby who joins Disney Channel UK and Disney Channel Scandinavia and the Middle East as vp/md.
Gilby most recently was vp, network development and strategic marketing for Turner Ent. Networks Asia in Hong Kong.
Kuma Reality Games, the company that utilizes revolutionary videogame technology to re-create military events, launched a compelling online documentary gaming series on Saddam Hussein. The latest installment takes gamers through the frenzied search through the town of Adwar, and the capture of Hussein by U.S. troops in the infamous "spider hole."
Kuma's previous episode was a recreation of the events that led to Saddam's war crimes trial, now in progress in Iraq. Both episodes are available for free download at KumaWar (www.kumawar.com).
Peter Jacksons popular online production diaries chronicling his eight-month KING KONG shoot, which first appeared on the official website (kongisking.net), have been assembled as a limited edition DVD set (Universal Studios Home Ent., $39.98) for release Dec. 13, 2005 one day before the highly anticipated remake hits the big screen.
Taking inspiration from ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE, KRONKS NEW GROOVE is a DVD premiere from DisneyToon Studios (Walt Disney Home Ent., $29.99) that hits stores Dec. 13, 2005.
The sequel to the underrated EMPERORS NEW GROOVE stars the endearingly dim Kronk (voiced again by Patrick Warburton), who hatches a get-rich-quick scheme to impress his dad (John Mahoney), only to discover the importance of friendship.
