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Prime Headline News

Nintendo's Epic Trilogy Concludes With Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Nintendo has launched METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION for Wii, marking the end of a trilogy. With the motion-sensitive Wii Remote, you become one with heroine Samus Aran's powerful arm cannon, while the Nunchuk can literally yank armor off enemies.

"METROID PRIME 3 has a revolutionary control style that makes it easy for anyone to immediately jump into the action," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's SVP of marketing and corporate communications. "Now, an entirely new audience can experience this amazing first-person adventure."

iTunes Headline News

MTVN Shows Coming to iTunes in the U.K.

MTV Networks Int'l (MTVNI), owned by Viacom Inc., and Apple announced an agreement to distribute full-length TV shows from MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy channels for purchase and download from the iTunes Store in the U.K. The agreement is the first between the two companies outside the U.S.

Headline News

John Goodman to Voice Paul Bunyan

Exodus Film Group announced today that it has cast Golden Globe winner John Goodman in the role of Paul Bunyan for their upcoming CG-animated family adventure film BUNYAN & BABE, based on the famous legend. Goodman joins comedian Eddie Griffin (UNDERCOVER BROTHER, NORBIT), who will provide the voice of Bunyan's sidekick Babe, a blue ox.

"John is dream casting for us," said Max Howard, Exodus president and executive producer. "He epitomizes the true American spirit of Paul Bunyan."

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

We finish August with more new technology advancements, including the impact of the hybrid workflow and 3-D on production pipelines. J. Paul Peszko looks at how the hybrid workflow is expanding creative control for moviemakers, and Tom McLean reports on such issues as organizing and tracking extra data, setting up an accurate review and approval procedure, developing new software tools, how the extra work affects staffing levels and schedules and preparing a film for exhibition in different formats.

Bill DesowitzEditor

Headline News

Xilam Cements Distribution Deal with Cake

French animation company Xilam has allied with the U.K.'s Cake Distribution to handle English-speaking territories, reports C21 MEDIA. The alliance with Cake, which is headed by Xilam's former exec VP of business development, Ed Galton, will have the London-based distributor handling sales to all English-speaking markets, including the U.K., Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Future Headline News

The Future is Wild in Discovery Kids' New Evolutionary Series

Discovery Kids has announced the upcoming launch of THE FUTURE IS WILD, a new animated series inspired by Animal Planet's CGI documentary specials of the same name. The cutting-edge show turns natural history on its head with scientifically valid predictions for new life forms that seem out of this world, but could really exist millions of years from now.

Entertainment Headline News

Universal and Studio Canal in Joint Distribution Deal

Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE) and Studio Canal have announced the creation of a joint venture to market and distribute home entertainment titles in France.

Effective from January 2008, the joint venture will combine the sales, marketing and distribution skills of the two entertainment entities in France, providing synergies for Studio Canal and Universal Pictures France to build a greater share in a 1.5-billion-euro home entertainment market, and allow further opportunity for significant growth.

Effects Headline News

rhinofx Helps Scarlett Johansson Fly In Nanny Diaries

New York's rhinofx recently completed all the vfx for MGM/Weinstein Co.'s NANNY DIARIES (including the opening diorama sequence), starring Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti.

Arman Matin and Harry Dorrington shared the visual effects supervision for the movie. The rhinofx team was constantly on set and helped directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini pull off some intricate motion control sequences, CG freeze effects, photogrammetry and image based modeling.

Blogs

BLITHE SPIRIT (1945) (***1/2)

Noel Coward adapts his own stageplay into a screenplay, which was brought to the screen by director David Lean before the famed helmer went on to make classic Dickens adaptations and widescreen epics such as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. However, Lean started his career with this great light entertainment. With witty dialogue and that effortless British suave demeanor, BLITHE SPIRIT floats across the screen like a smooth waltz.

In researching his next book that features a homicidal medium, Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS), along with his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) and their friends Dr. George and Violet Bradman (Hugh Wakefield, 1934's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH & Joyce Carey, IN WHICH WE SERVE), hold a séance with the genuinely loony Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford, MURDER AHOY). After some seemingly sketchy hocus-pocus, everyone believes Arcati to be a charlatan except for Charles, who begins hearing and seeing the ghost of his dead wife Elvira (Kay Hammond). At first Ruth believes Charles is playing with her then she believes he has gone cuckoo, but a floating vase of flowers convinces her that there is now one too many wives in the Condomine household. And so does the wisecracking Elvira. In trying to solve the situation, the help of Madame Arcati and the Condomine's shy maid Edith (Jacqueline Clarke) will be needed.

Games Headline News

EA Ships Four Games For The Mac

Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that BATTLEFIELD 2142, NEED FOR SPEED CARBON, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and COMMAND & CONQUER 3 TIBERIUM WARS are now available to order for Mac users. These are the first games ever published by EA for Mac OS X. Users can go to the Apple Store (www.apple.com) to purchase the games.

Animation Headline News

National Institute of Design Starts Chitrakatha Student Animation Fest

Chitrakatha '07Paldi, IndiaOct. 25-27, 2007Deadline: Sept. 15, 2007

Chitrakatha '07 is an international animation film festival that celebrates and encourages original content from India. It invites entries in any format from students around the world who practice animation cinema. The length of the entries can be from ten seconds to ten minutes.

Game Headline News

GDC Calls for Lecture, Poster Submissions

2008 Game Developers ConferenceSan Francisco, California, USAFebruary 18-22, 2008Deadline: Oct. 1, 2007

Game Developers Conference provides educational, networking, and business opportunities for game development professionals driving the $11 billion videogame industry. It is the main global forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas, network and shape the future of the industry.

Headline News

Stone To Revisit Vietnam in Pinkville

United Artists is wrapping up talks with Oliver Stone to helm PINKVILLE, a Vietnam War drama chronicling the events of the 1968 My Lai Massacre, according to the trades. Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum have already signed on to star, with Michael Pena in negotiations to join the cast as well.

Lucas Headline News

Ridley To Pen Lucas' Red Tails

George Lucas has tapped John Ridley (THREE KINGS, UNDERCOVER BROTHER) to write his pet project RED TAILS, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, reports VARIETY. The script will be based on a story by Lucas, who is funding development via Lucasfilm and exec producing. Industrial Light & Magic will handle the aerial battles.

The story chronicles the young African-American pilots who broke the color barrier to become the first black U.S. fighter pilots. The title of the project refers to the Tuskegee Airmen's planes' tails, which were painted red.

Police Headline News

Animated Cops to Patrol Web in China

The Chinese government announced today that it would use animated beat cops to patrol 13 of China's top Web portals in an effort to steer users away from illegal content, reports THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Starting Sept. 1, 2007, the cartoon cops will walk, bike and drive across Web surfers' screens every half hour, warning them to stay clear of material "the Communist Party finds politically or morally threatening." By the end of the year, the animated warning will appear on all websites registered with Beijing servers.

Headline News

Pop6 Experimenting on Animated Gene-Fusion Feature

Montreal-based Pop6 is producing an animated feature version of Jeff Amano's comic book series GENE-FUSION, reports ICv2.com. The comic was the first title published by Amano's Beckett Ent. The initial issue was launched at MIPCOM 2002. Later, Ivan Brandon penned and Neil Vokes drew a four-issue run. Pop6 hopes to have the film ready for 2008.

GENE-FUSION: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS follows a group of highly trained athletes called Fusers, who compete with genetically altered animals that were created by fusing the DNA of three separate creatures together.

Media Headline News

Ascent Media and HP Join to Deliver Digital Media Services

Ascent Media Group (AMG) and HP have announced a strategic alliance to co-develop, market and deliver enterprise-level services and technologies that enable studios, content providers and aggregators to archive, repurpose and distribute media digitally for the multi-channel market.

Headline News

Donna Andrews Assumes Exec Producer Post at Sticky Pictures

Sydney-based animation production company Sticky Pictures has announced that Donna Andrews -- a founding partner and producer with the company -- will take over the role of exec producer, effective immediately. Andrews replaces Tim Brooke-Hunt, who is leaving Sticky Pictures to join the Australian Broadcasting Corp. as Executive Head of Children's.

"On behalf of Sticky, I'd like to thank Tim for all his fantastic work and wonderful guidance over the last five years. We will miss him greatly and wish him every success in his new role at the ABC," Andrews said.

Animation Headline News

Frank Gladstone to Teach Animation for Imagi

Imagi International Holdings Limited has announced the appointment of veteran animator and teacher Frank Gladstone to provide advanced training for Imagi's 400+ artists and animators. Gladstone will teach university-level courses, to be offered on a quarterly basis, in film history, cinematography, storytelling and visual language.

Animation Headline News

AWN Discussion Forums - What's New? for Aug. 27, 2007

This week in AWN's Forums, members have entered the Bu-ray versus HDDVD debate. A junior member is looking for good script writing resources. There's a hot thread on making Flash look like cel animation. Lots of people are posting the places they go for inspiration. Others are debating the school rankings in 3D WORLD. Others need help with Maya modeling and Cintiq. As well as, tools for teaching animation, the business of animation and, as always, brand new stuff to check out in show and tell!

Headline News

WHV Offers Treasure Trove in Looney Tunes 5

Warner Home Video's LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOLUME FIVE, scheduled to street on Oct. 30, 2007 for $64.92, will feature a treasury of 60 re-mastered, unedited classic cartoons -- including some rarely-seen shorts, plus more than five hours of incredible special features, including CHUCK JONES: EXTREMES AND IN-BETWEENS, A LIFE IN ANIMATION, a documentary focusing on the legendary animator. Bonus features will also include commentaries by filmmakers, writers, animators, historians, alternate audio programs and much more.

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