Sony Pictures Ent. has relaunched Grouper as Crackle, a streaming entertainment network. Crackle's comprehensive approach includes a unique programming and editorial strategy, wide-reaching global distribution platforms and collaboration with Sony Pictures Ent., the IMPROV Comedy franchise and other leading media companies.
Voice casting specialists Total Casting (www.totalcasting.ca) and its sister company, recording studio Agile Sound (www.agilesound.com), have completed the voice production on the feature Christmas special STARDUST for PVP Animation (www.pvpanimation.ca). This is the first collaboration between PVP Animation and Total Casting/Agile Sound and they will work together again next month to start the casting for the French language version.
Cuppa Coffee Studios has started production on the new comedy series LIFE'S A ZOO. The stop-motion package aimed at the 18+ crowd, includes its own Web channel.
Cartoon Forum is celebrating coming of age from Sept. 19-22, 2007, in the Catalonian city of Girona, presenting the latest generation of European animation series, with the participation of 750 sector professionals. The business forum will host 60 projects from 12 different countries, summing up about 400 hours of content and a budget of 216 million euros.
As autumn approaches, new original cartoons from Rai Fiction hit Rai's national networks, as well as those of the two satellite kids channels Rai Sat Yoyo and Smash (with around 20% of these channels' offer consisting of cartoons produced by Rai Fiction). In addition, Rai Cartoon, a daily half-hour slot devoted to cartoons produced or co-produced by Rai Fiction, takes to the air on Rai Gulp, the new public service channel for youngsters that began experimental broadcasts on June 1, 2007, using terrestrial digital technology.
Aubagne International Film Festival 2007Aubagne, FranceMarch 10-15, 2008Deadline: Oct. 15, 2007
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz.
This week in AWN's Forums, a member wants to know who else has visited one of the 7-11 turned Kwik-E Marts in the U.S.
This month, Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman looks at the caveat that stuck out in Christopher P. Lehman's American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era about the intent of artists to bring social issues to their cartoons.
SCIFI.COM announced July 15, 2007, a slate of online programming exclusive to SCI FI Pulse, the channel's popular broadband channel, including a FARSCAPE webisode series.
SCIFI.COM has ordered a 10-part webisode series based on the award-winning FARSCAPE. Exec produced by Brian Henson and Robert Halmi Jr., and produced by The Jim Henson Co., in association with RHI Ent., the series will revive and expand the beloved FARSCAPE universe.
MySpace and TOKYOPOP have partnered up to premiere four exclusive new shows based on TOKYOPOP's hit manga series I LUV HALLOWEEN, A MIDNIGHT OPERA, BIZENGHAST and RIDING SHOTGUN. Featuring music from the latest underground acts and cutting edge digital animation from Menfond Electronic Art, pilot episodes will air the week of July 16, 2007, with subsequent episodes running weekly thereafter. MySpace and TOKYOPOP are strategically launching a TOKYOPOP-branded profile (www.myspace.com/tokyopoptv) to host and deliver the shows to create a unique one-on-one relationship with MySpace users.
Nick Jr.'s groundbreaking new animated series, NI HAO, KAI-LAN, will offer lessons in Chinese culture and language in an original half-hour show premiering Oct. 22, 2007. Millions of preschoolers will learn that "Ni Hao" means "hello" as Nickelodeon Preschool introduces them to Mandarin words and phrases -- a first for preschool television. Nick has introduced kids to Spanish phrases and culture in its DORA THE EXPLORER and GO, DIEGO GO!
SWAY studio used NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics boards to create hundreds of CG cereal flakes for a recent General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch television commercial.
Making CG cereal appetizing, however, is no small feat. Once the creative team at SWAY convinced client General Mills that photorealistic CG would be the best way to depict the cereal, the project was underway. But making the commercial proved to be far more challenging than simply developing a tasty product shot.
BORG WAR, new Star Trek-themed animated feature-length film, will make its theatrical debut at the Official STAR TREK Convention 2007, at the Las Vegas Hilton on Aug. 10, 2007, at 6:20 pm.
Filmmaker Geoffrey James reprogrammed computer games to generate raw footage (utilizing machinima), which he then edited to create BORG WAR. Online clips from BORG WAR have received more than a million Internet downloads and were nominated for two awards by the Academy for Machinima Arts and Sciences (AMAS).
Animated father and donut lover Homer Simpson is scheduled to make his exclusive publicity appearance to promote the highly anticipated film, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, next Tuesday, July 24, 2007, on NBC's THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO.
When asked about what he would be doing during his TONIGHT SHOW debut Simpson said, "I understand I'm doing a monologue, I hope it doesn't involve talking."
The film, opening everywhere July 27, has Homer trying to save the world from a catastrophe he himself created.
In FIGHT FOR LIFE, the new six-part series for BBC1, the dramatic story of how the human body triumphs in crisis needed to be told from the inside as well as the outside. Real life stories from patients in A&E and operating theaters will be fused with cutting edge CGI revealing -- for very the first time -- the fight from the inside.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX shattered virtually every opening box office record at IMAX theaters during its debut, contributing $7.3 million of the $140 million that the film grossed at the domestic box office, from July 11 through July 15.
Framestore CFC is -- as always - along for the broomstick ride of a HARRY POTTER movie. This time around, for THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, the company's CG contributions included a herd of centaurs, a sinister house-elf named Kreacher and, for the first time, the title sequence.
Warner Bros.' HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX continued its fast start, conjuring $77.1M in its opening weekend to take first place for the period ended July 15, 2007. With vfx from Double Negative, Framestore CFC, ILM, Cinesite, MPC, Rising Sun and others, the PHOENIX has now run its domestic cume to $149.7M, its foreign to $193M and its total tally to $332.7M.
SCI FI will partner with Lionsgate and AfterDark Films to broadcast, co-brand and promote HORRORFEST -- 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR, a spine-tingling collection of theatrical horror flicks AfterDark released last year over one weekend.
HORRORFEST will broadcast in October 2007 during SCI FI's annual 13 Days of Halloween programming block, leading up to the channel's second annual, six-hour, GHOST HUNTERS LIVE special on Halloween night.
Serge Bromberg, artistic director of the Annecy Animation Festival, will host a screening at The Castro Theater at 12:45 pm. Bromberg, who is known in some circles for his work locating and restoring rare silent films, will show his 100-minute program, Retour de Flamme. It includes lots of rare delights, including a lost Charles Bower stop-motion film premiered at Annecy few years ago. This 35mm show will be full of surprises.
The Glammies is a screening featuring the finest student work from this year's Animation and Computer Animation graduates at Glamorgan Centre for Art & Design Technology. The event will take place at the Cineworld Cinema, Mary Anne Street, Cardiff. The show is open to representatives from the animation, post-production, computer games and other related media industries. For more information, visit www.glamfest.net.
Starting at 8:00 pm at Stephen Parr's Oddball Films, ASIFA-San Francisco is holding its open screening. Films will include David Chai's new award winning COLE NEEDS WOMEN (prize winner at this year's ASIFA-East Annual Competition), Signe Baumane's highly acclaimed TEAT BEAT OF SEX (direct from Annecy Plus) and something totally outrageous from J.J. Sedelmajer.
Hollywood Roadshow, a partnership between Premiere Props and Super Auctions, will be auctioning off more than 750 one-of-a-kind movie props, rare animation cels from Disney, hand painted canvas artwork from STAR WARS, animation cels from THE SIMPSONS, vintage arcade games and new movie themed pinball machines. The live auction will take place at Premiere Props' warehouse, 128 Sierra Street, El Segundo, California 90245. There will be a preview from 8:00 - 11:00 am, and the auction will begin at 11:00 am.
Gary Baseman is hosting a new exhibit of his paintings titled, "Hide and Seek in the Forest of ChouChou." The opening reception will take place on Saturday, July 14, from 7:00-10:00 pm. The exhibit will be located at Billy Shire Fine Arts, 5790 Washington Blvd, Culver City, California 90232. For more information, call the gallery at (323) 297-0600 or visit www.garybaseman.com.
