Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE), the global branding and merchandising arm of Cartoon Network, is previewing games based upon Cartoon Network and Adult Swim programming at the E3 Media & Business Summit, now underway in the Barker Hanger, in Santa Monica, California. Key titles include BEN 10: PROTECTOR OF EARTH, published by D3Publisher of America Inc. (D3PA) and AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE: ZOMBIE NINJA PRO-AM, published by Midway.
SIGGRAPH officials, along with AMD, DreamWorks Animation and HP, offered details for the world's first international FJORG! competition: an "iron animator" event in which 15 competing teams from around the world will have 32 hours to create the world's best character-driven animation in front of a live, "Gladiator-style" audience and judging panel at the San Diego Convention Center.
HarperCollins Publishers announced that Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired the feature film rights to the seven-book fantasy series, SEPTIMUS HEAP. This bestselling series marks U.K. author Angie Sage's first foray into middle-grade fantasy.
SEPTIMUS HEAP: MAGYK, the first book in the series will be produced by Karen Rosenfelt (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) with Sage as exec producer.
I love lists. So, best of film lists are like an addiction to crack for me. I can't get enough. THE GUARDIAN has put together its list of the 1,000 films to see before you die. Not as complete as Steven Jay Schneider's book, 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE — it's missing THE GODFATHER: PART II and Cocteau’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST — the Guardian list skews toward more modern films, shies away from sequels and certainly has eclectic taste. So I decided to highlight some of its more wacky choices that I think deserve your attention.
I commend choices like ONE FALSE MOVE, THREE KINGS, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, GHOST WORLD, GHOST DOG and GRIZZLY MAN, but question picks like DODGEBALL, NEAR DARK, ZOOLANDER, ACE VENTURA and THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE. (Yes, THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE). Maybe not cinematic perfection, but it does pick modern successes that have influenced the business like AMERICAN PIE, BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, CROCODILE DUNDEE, X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, TERMINATOR, T2 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL. There are a lot of good films that I don't really think of landmarks like BAD SANTA, 8 MILE, ROMEO + JULIET and HOT FUZZ. Kevin Smith's CLERKS was a landmark film of the '90s, but MALLRATS instead of CHASING AMY? Lots of fun cult films like BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, ROBOCOP, STRICTLY BALLROOM, TWO LANE BLACKTOP, OFFICE SPACE, TOUCHING THE VOID and TIMECODE. It doesn't miss great animated films like SPIRITED AWAY, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT, THE IRON GIANT, CHICKEN RUN and Starewicz's THE TALE OF THE FOX. It also doesn't miss some the "baser" genres like horror, picking such films as RE-ANIMATOR and SCREAM. But are films like DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID, OUT OF SIGHT or PARENTS, really that good?
The American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre presents Disney Live-Action Classics. The first of Walt Disney's live-action films came in 1950 with the fabulous restored 35mm print of TREASURE ISLAND starring Robert Newton as Long John Silver, a picture that producer Disney made in Britain to take advantage of his U.K. earnings that could not leave the country.
In promotion of the upcoming WOODY WOODPECKER AND FRIENDS DVD box set release on July 24, 2007, Universal Pictures is hosting a premiere event at the Chinese Theatre. Admission is free. The event will feature a screening of 12 cartoons from the upcoming DVD, as well as a panel of guests talking about the life and career of Walter Lantz. Panelists will include Leonard Maltin, June Foray and Billy West. For more information, visit www.storymakersstudio.com/woodywoodpecker%5Funiversal/.
At 7:00 pm, the Slamdance Film Festival and the Hammer Museum present an evening of short films directed by Los Angeles-based directors. The program features nine short films, ranging from animation to comedy, culled from the 2007 and 2006 Slamdance Film Festivals. The content is for mature audiences.
Hammer Museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90024. 310.443.7000
Animated films screening will include:
DRAGON (8 min) Directed by Troy Morgan
The Game Audio Network Guild (GANG), a non-profit organization established to promote excellence in interactive audio, in conjunction with Ex'pression College for Digital Arts, is hosting an uber power GANG: Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers (IESD) roundtable on Wednesday, July 11, 2007, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm Meyer Hall at Ex'pression College's expanded facility.
The Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics is hosting Animatronix, a seminar on 3D animation and visual effects. Speakers will include Mr. Indranil from Pixion, Anand Gurnani from AnimationXpress and Jasmeet Bhasin from MEL. The event will take place at MAAC Center, 3rd Floor, Noble Building, Mavoor Road, Calicut. For more information, e-mail arujak@maacindia.com.
As most of you know Nik and I lost our beloved 15 year old Dalmatian Kirby earlier this year and he was soon followed to dog heaven by our equally beloved 15 year old Molly. It was very painful for us to lose both of them so close together but we are dog people and we knew that somewhere down the road there would be another dog that needed a good home and a lot of love. We had planned not to even think about a dog until after we returned from KROK in the Ukraine in early October but low but as we all know life does not always go the way we plan.
Last Sunday Nik and I saw a sign on a tree in a little park near our house for a homeless 4 year old West Highland Terrier that was free but must be taken before the next day or it would be go to the pound. It turned out that his mistress is dead, the master is in jail and their two sons put the dog out on the street. The family that took him in after a week on the streets already have 2 Skiperkeys and couldn't keep a third dog but they did take him to a vet to be checked out and an implanted chip was found. The vet tracked down the children who said that they didn't want anything to do with their father, the dog, or anything that the father had ever touched! Please do not write for more details -- we don't have any and don't really want to know what happened.
More than any of the other HARRY POTTER films, this one got the emotional core of the story perfect. This edition in the series is less spectacle and more dramatic. It puts Harry's emotional struggle — fighting his inner anger with the world — front and center. The characterization of the new characters is perfect. Director David Yates (THE GIRL IN THE CAFE) and writer Michael Goldenberg (2003's PETER PAN), who are both new to the series, take the biggest of the novels and pare it down to its essence. Remarkably, the HARRY POTTER films just keep getting better.
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) feels isolated back home with his non-magical Muggle family. After he is forced to use magic outside of school to save himself and his cousin Dudley (Harry Melling), he is expelled from Hogwarts, but then is taken from his aunt and uncle's home to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, which includes his godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, THE PROFESSIONAL), former teachers Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody (Brendan Gleeson, GANGS OF NEW YORK) and werewolf Remus Lupin (David Thewlis, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN), veteran wizards Kingsley Shacklebolt (George Harris, LAYER CAKE) and Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena, ABOUT A BOY) and Ron's parents Mr. and Mrs. Weasley (Mark Williams, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE & Julie Walters, BILLY ELLIOT). The minister of magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy, AN IDEAL HUSBAND) is denying the return of the dark lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, THE ENGLISH PATIENT), putting sugary sweet dictator Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton, VERA DRAKE) in the role of Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, where she refuses to teach real magic that could save the teens and rules over the student body with decrees controlling all forms of behavior and thought.
British novelist Sebastian Faulks has been commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write DEVIL MAY CARE, a James Bond book, which will mark the centenary of Flemingâs birth next year, reports VARIETY.
After a sneak peek, the new book has the blessing of 007 pic producer Barbara Broccoli. A rep for Eon Prods. told VARIETY that Broccoli believes the book, which is set in 1968, might well pass for a Fleming manuscript discovered in the attic by a relative.
In a closely fought contest, Springfield, Vermont, has emerged as the winner of THE SIMPSONS MOVIE Hometown Movie Challenge. Twentieth Century Fox will roll out the âyellow carpetâ at Springfield, Vermontâs Springfield Theaters on July 21, 2007, for the premiere screening event of THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, where attendees will get the V.I.P. treatment and be among the first in the world to see the long-anticipated movie before it hits theaters.
Joe Strike speaks with Jack Zander, is one of the few surviving members of Hollywood's "golden age" of theatrical animation, on the eve of the animator's 99th birthday. Zander opens up his treasure chest of animated memories and anecdotes stored since the 1930s.
TRANSFORMERS from DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount Pictures has set an industry record for a non-sequel of $155.4 million in its opening week, surpassing the previous record held by the original SPIDER-MAN in 2002. In addition, during its first full day of release on July 3, TRANSFORMERS grossed $27.8 million, the biggest Tuesday in industry history, surpassing PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANâS CHEST. The following day, July 4, the Michael Bay-directed action-adventure posted another industry best for the holiday of $29 million, outstripping SPIDER-MAN 2 in 2004.
AnimationMentor.com, the online animation school, is holding its second graduation concurrent with SIGGRAPH 2007. Sony Pictures Imageworksâ David Schaub (SURFâS UP, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE) will present the inspirational address at the San Diego ceremony. Students from 17 countries will graduate from the online school, which propelled more than 60% of its first class into coveted studio animator positions.
In this month's "Digital Eye" column, we have an interview with acclaimed CG researcher Paul Debevec, who, for the first time, chairs SIGGRAPH's Computer Animation Festival. Debevec not only discusses a return to technological innovation with fluid simulation and digital humans, but also his latest research at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies in the areas of face relighting and 3-D display.
Bill DesowitzEditor
Former Warner Bros. Animation president Sander Schwartz returns to familiar territory, but in a bigger capacity as president, international production of Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), and becomes head of SPTI�s global production group. Before WBA, Schwartz was Sony Pictures Ent�s family entertainment group first president from 1999 to 2001. Schwartz will relocate from Los Angeles to SPTI�s European headquarters in London, England, and will report to SPTI�s president, Michael Grindon.
The software division of award-winning visual effects studio Frantic Films will be demonstrating an array of new software products at SIGGRAPH 2007. Along with a new version of Deadline, the company's popular render farm solution, Frantic Films will unveil several new developments at Booth #1720 throughout the conference, Aug. 7-9, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.
These new solutions designed for visual effects and animationProfessionals include:
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX will cast its spell in a record 126 IMAX theaters worldwide today (July 11, 2007) and throughout the weekend.
In addition to the usual DMR live-action conversion, there is a 2-D to 3-D conversion for the final 20 minutes, marking the most elaborate live-action stereoscopic presentation thus far.
NaturalMotion announced the immediate release of morpheme 1.1, the latest version of its powerful animation engine and tool chain. Featuring new network management and navigation tools, source control support and frame buffering capabilities, morpheme 1.1 is robust middleware designed to give developers and animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game animation by allowing them to author and preview blends, blend trees and transition graphs in realtime. morpheme 1.1 is available on PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Alex Proyas (I, ROBOT), who was reportedly on the short list to direct BOND 22, will helm Universalâs DRACULA YEAR ZERO, reports VARIETY.
An origin tale of Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian that inspired Bram Stoker, the movie will be produced by Michael De Luca and is scripted by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The fresh take will show Vlad in his prime, fending off the Turks before desperately selling his soul to save his kingdom.
Kevin Spacey will reprise his role as Lex Luthor in SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL, VARIETY reports. After meeting with director Bryan Singer in New York, Spacey agreed to play Luthor again if it can be done in the same six-week block that was scheduled for SUPERMAN RETURNS.
Singer plans to pitch MAN OF STEEL (which is being scripted by SUPERMAN RETURNâs Michael Doughery) to Warner Bros. for a 2009 release.
Director John Moore (THE OMEN) optioned feature rights to THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS, a dark fantasy by bestselling Irish author John Connolly, reports VARIETY.
Published in 2006, book centers on a 12-year-old English boy whose mother died and his father remarried. The boy encounters a portal to another world and enters a land of beasts and monsters. He then undertakes a quest to earn his way back out.
Central Saint Martins Innovation is hosting a one-day intensive course focusing on a better understanding of the mechanics of the human body through the study of the anatomy of movement. The one-day workshop will take place on July 10 or Sept. 14. Long and short poses will be combined with lectures and individual tutoring in the analysis of carriage, posture, body type, gesture and character, and convincing weight distribution of temporal movement and locomotion, understood from the inside out and without being static. The fee includes lunch.
