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Series Headline News

Samurai Girl Slices onto ABC Family

The YA book series, SAMURAI GIRL, is being transformed into a TV series at ABC Family, reports the trades. Luke McMullen (ALIAS) is adapting the first novel, SAMURAI GIRL: THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, into a one-hour pilot for the potential series.

The story follows Heaven, the teenage adoptive daughter of a rich family, who must balance between the modern world and her blood ancestors' samurai legacy.

ABC Studios is co-producing the pilot with Alloy Ent., the creator of the book series. Bob Levy is the executive producer for Alloy.

Live-action Headline News

Grave of the Fireflies Getting Live-Action Remake

Tokyo-based Pal Ent. has announced it will produce a live-action version of Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novella GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, which was previously adapted by Studio Ghibli and director Isao Takahata into the classic anime feature, reports SCREEN DAILY. Taro Hyugaji (PORTRAIT OF THE WIND) will direct.

Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister, who try to survive in the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.

Animation Headline News

Aniboom Taking Pitches for Online Series

Aniboom (www.aniboom.com) has inked an agreement with YouTube to distribute animated videos via the Aniboom branded animation channel (www.youtube.com/aniboom).

Aniboom offers animators to submit their shorts for distribution over their network, where filmmakers can set up personal home pages called Boomzones. Using "Animachines," Aniboom's unique online animation tools, visitors can create their own content as a hobby or professional endeavor. Additionally, Aniboom engages its community with a variety of creative contests with prizes valued up to $50,000.

Cartoon Headline News

Juried Emmy Awards Announced for Individual Achievement in Animation

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced the Emmy Award winners in Individual Achievement in Animation for the 59th Emmy Awards. These are juried award categories, which have no nominations and will be presented at the 2007 Creative Arts Awards on Sept. 8 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. This year there were no Emmys awarded in the Outstanding Voice-Over Performance juried area.

The winners are:

* Sang-Jin Kim, Animator for AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, episode: Lake Logai -- Nickelodeon / Nickelodeon Animation Studios

Spot Headline News

EyeballNYC Offers Glimpse of BioShock in New Spot

To help promote the Aug. 21 street date of the highly anticipated BIOSHOCK videogame, EyeballNYC crafted a :60 spot in collaboration with ad agency RDA International on behalf of their client 2K Games. Challenged to distill Bioshock's visual and graphic complexity, Eyeball set out to create a commercial that would entertain general viewers, tantalize fans and do justice to "the ground-breaking nature of the game."

Headline News

Caligari Offers trueSpace Ambassador Program

Caligari Corp. has launched a new Ambassador program for all users of Caligari trueSpace. The trueSpace Ambassador program is designed to reward trueSpace users that enthusiastically help other users, willingly share their creative work and positively promote Caligari within the broader 3D community.

Blu-ray Headline News

Fox and MGM Tout Blu-ray

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) unveiled an aggressive global Blu-ray Disc release strategy, including 29 new release and catalog titles that runs through the end of the year. Among the many highlights are six day & date BD/DVD new theatrical releases from Fox such as FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD and Fox's first-ever TV release on BD: PRISON BREAK.

Spot Headline News

Framestore CFC Goes Out to Sea for Smirnoff Spot

A Russian fishing trawler trudges through a foggy, mill-pond flat sea. A work-stained fisherman on a break takes a last swig of his drink and reflexively crushes the can and hurls it into the sea. He turns and starts to walk away when the can flies back out of the water, hitting him. He peers into a now roiling ocean, and sees mysterious objects glittering and moving beneath the surface.

Blu-ray Headline News

Ratatouille Added to Disney's Blu-ray Slate

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. fired back with the additional announcement that Disney/Pixar's RATATOUILLE would join CARS as a Blu-ray release on Nov. 6 (in conjunction with the DVD release of the Brad Bird movie), reports VIDEO BUSINESS.

Last week WDSHE announced that SLEEPING BEAUTY would mark the first Platinum Blu-ray release in the fall of 2008.

Imax Headline News

Transformers to Get IMAX Turbo Charge

The battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons will get even larger, as TRANSFORMERS gets the IMAX Experience on Sept. 21 - showing off ILM's innovative hard body surface modeling with additional vfx work from Digital Domain.

"IMAX's all-encompassing format takes TRANSFORMERS to a whole new level of detail and intensity," said director Michael Bay. "I am very excited to work with the team at IMAX to create this turbo-charged version."

Blogs

INTOLERANCE (1916) (***)

The epic apology for his racist BIRTH OF A NATION, INTOLERANCE is often used as an apology for film critics who want to recognize D.W. Griffith's accomplishments without embracing the hard to recommend NATION. In retrospect, Griffith's follow-up to his most notorious film is an overlong experiment that saves itself by coming together so well in the end. At its time of release, audiences were turned off by the four interwoven stories from four unconnected ages as well as the three plus hour running time. Modern audiences will have the same issues. Much like a crumbling ancient ruin, there is much to admire about INTOLERANCE as a historical document, but as a modern piece of art it has not held up over the test of time.

Short Events

12th Annual Slamdance Screenplay Competition

By Guest (not verified) | Monday, August 20, 2007 at 11:00am
Begins: August 20, 2007

The Slamdance Screenplay Competition accept screenplays in every genre, both feature and short length, on any topic from every country around the world. The grand prize is $7,000 and best short prize is $500. The Duke City Shootout Special Prize gives the winner a production package worth $50,000 for a short screenplay under 15 pages.

Film Headline News

Sydney Pirate Arrested for Plundering Simpsons Movie

Within 72 hours of its Australian release, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE ended up online. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER reports the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft arrested the 21-year-old pirate in Sydney on Aug. 17, 2007. If he is convicted of copyright theft, he could spend up to five years in jail.

Headline News

Veronica Mars Now A Hero

VERONICA MARS lead Kristen Bell is joining the cast of NBC's HEROES, report the trades. Bell will play a mysterious young woman who is linked to the possible death of Peter. Her multiple-episode arc will begin in October. The casting is a major coup for the network, with the hot actress up for several roles, including a spot on LOST.

Headline News

Horror Master Miike Ready for Sci-Fi RomCom

Japanese horror master Takashi Miike (AUDITION) is set to adapt Shinji Kimoto's bestselling novel KAMISAMA NO PUZZLE (GOD'S PUZZLE) into a live-action sci-fi romantic comedy, reports VARIETY. Haruki Kadokawa will produce.

Hayato Ichihara (JU-ON 2) will play a pair of twins. One twin is a brilliant student and the other is a slacker. The duo team with a smart and sexy dropout (Mitsuki Tanimura) to uncover the secrets of the universe and create one of their own.

Police Headline News

Animator Shot By Police in Vancouver

A man shot by police in Vancouver was identified by friends as animator Paul Boyd, according to the CBC. On Monday, Aug. 13, 2007, Vancouver police responded to a 911 call at Granville and 16th Ave., where Boyd was shot after allegedly threatening officers with a potentially lethal weapon.

Headline News

Aardman Animates Jamie Oliver for New Kids' Series

Jamie Oliver, aka the Naked Chef, has been turned into a toon by Aardman Animations, who are launching a new series in partnership with Oliver's Fresh One Prods. Aimed at seven- to 11-year olds, LITTLE J will follow the 10-year-old Oliver as he tries to discover the secret to becoming a great chef. No broadcaster has signed on yet to the 52x11 series.

Headline News

Cookie Jar and CinemaNow Sign Download Deal

Cookie Jar Ent. announced a licensing agreement with CinemaNow Inc. to make Cookie Jar television shows available for download online. Starting this fall, more than 400 individual episodes of Cookie Jar's series, including JOHNNY TEST and THE ADVENTURES OF PADDINGTON BEAR, will be available for purchase at www.cinemanow.com. This marks the first time that Cookie Jar shows will be available for download in the United States.

Headline News

Counterfeit Nintendo Products Seized in Mexican Raids

Mexican authorities conducted raids against 12 alleged distributors of counterfeit Nintendo products in a major "fayuca" (contraband) market in Guadalajara, confiscating 15,000 imitation products, including 4,500 counterfeit Wii game discs.

Headline News

Superbad Beats the Box Office Rush

Sony's SUPERBAD pulled in a nifty $33M in its box office debut for the weekend period ended Aug. 19, 2007. New Line's RUSH HOUR 3 (with vfx from ILM, Halon Ent. and Element FX, among others) was bumped to second place with $21.3M for a two-week cume of $87.6M. Universal's THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (with vfx from The Senate, Lip Sync Post and Snow Business) followed in the third spot with $19.8M for a three-week tally of $164.6 M. Fox's THE SIMPSONS MOVIE came in fourth with $6.8M, good enough for a total of $165.2M. Warner Bros.' THE INVASION (with vfx from Scanline) debuted in fifth with $5.9M.

Universal Headline News

Johnson Moves Up to EVP at Universal

Bret Johnson has been promoted to EVP, physical production at Universal Pictures, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Johnson, who has held various posts at Universal since joining the studio in 1988, will continue to work with filmmakers on all aspects of physical production, including scheduling, budgeting, hiring crews and managing day-to-day production.

Dreamworks Headline News

Paramount, DreamWorks Animation Exclusively Embrace HD DVD

The format war has heated up with Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation each announcing exclusive support for the next-gen HD DVD format over Blu-ray Disc on a worldwide basis.

Kids Headline News

Cake Clinches Sweet Deal for Skunk Fu! on Kids' WB!

In the most recent deal secured by London-based boutique distributor Cake Distribution, SKUNK FU! is now heading to North America, where it will join a star-studded lineup on Kids' WB! on The CW. The latest continental conquest follows successful launches on CBBC in the UK and ABC Australia.

"SKUNK FU! seamlessly blends martial arts action and broad humour with a mesmerizing Flash-anime artistic style that fits perfectly into the Kids' WB! lineup," Kids' WB! Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen said.

Drawn Headline News

South Park, Drawn Together Coming Back for More

Comedy Central announced today that its two popular animated shows, SOUTH PARK and DRAWN TOGETHER, will return with all-new episodes this fall. Cartman and friends will begin their 11th season on Wednesday, October 3 At 10:00 p.m. Season 3B of DRAWN TOGETHER premieres Thursday, October 4 At 10:30 p.m.

Anime Headline News

Japanese Animation Organization Names New CEO

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) announced the appointment of current CFO Ms. Trulee Karahashi to the position of CEO for the nonprofit organization dedicated to popularizing and educating the American public about anime and manga. A University of California Berkeley graduate, Karahashi has extensive experience in working with American and Japanese anime and manga industries, as well as long-time experience with Anime Expo, the largest anime/manga convention held in the U.S. As CEO, Ms.

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