S4 Studios has designed and produced a :45 fully-animated 3D promo for NBC Universal HD's 22-hour broadcast of Al Gore's LIVE EARTH, dubbed "the concert for a climate in crisis."
Created by the S4 team of director Geoffrey Kater, producer Larry Le Francis and creative director Thomas Helmintoller, the promo, titled 7.7.07, takes viewers on a grand tour through seven venues of the worldwide concert event on July 7, 2007.
Television sales veteran Patricia Ryan has been upped to evp of sales for Foothill Ent. Well known in the global television sales community, Ryan has brought tremendous experience and knowledge to Foothill over the past year as a consultant.
"We are thrilled to have Pat in this new role," said Foothill president Jo Kavanagh-Payne. "Pat is very well liked and respected throughout the world so having her in this new management role is a huge plus for us, especially with our increasing catalogue."
In the latest excerpt of Poser 7 Revealed, Kelly L. Murdock explains how to work with default lights and how to add new light sources to a scene.
LAIKA/house director and premiere animation blogger Ward Jenkins checks out his new hometown's first animation festival to discover a new U.S. animation tradition unfolding before his eyes.
Keith David (THE THING, PLATOON) will bring villainy to Walt Disney's THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG in the form of bad guy Dr. Facilier, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Set in New Orleans, the jazz-filled animated feature follows a young girl living in the French quarter. Originally, the first African-American princess was named Maddy, but it has since been changed to Tiana.
LITTLE MERMAID directing duo John Musker and Ron Clements are writing the script. Clements will direct the film, which is set to hit theaters for the 2009 holidays.
Robert Zemeckis is developing a performance capture feature based on Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL, starring Jim Carrey and Bob Hoskins, reports EMPIRE. In a recent interview with the British pub, the WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT star said that Carrey would play Ebenezer Scrooge while Zemeckis wants him to play Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge's first employer. No other details are out on the project, but this may be one of Zemeckis' first projects under his new performance capture pact with Walt Disney.
With it being the 4th of July, I thought a great theme for this week's This Weekend's Film Festival would be America — the good, the bad and the ugly. Once I had my theme lots of ideas and sub-themes came to mind. It's a ripe area to explore and I will definitely be visiting it again sometime. However, the lineup I have come up with captures the American spirit though politics and sports. I truly feel that American holidays celebrating America should be a time for us to not only wave flags and remember that we are lucky to be Americans, but also to reflect on the bad and the ugly parts of what being an American means to us as well as the rest of the world. This week's five films address some of our shortcomings as well as our triumphs.
Central Saint Martins Innovation is hosting a two-week workshop titled "Videogame Design with OGRE 3D." This course will explore the open source realtime rendering tool OGRE 3D (Object Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine) and the game engine Sauerbraten. At the end of the seven-day course students will have created a working demo which could function as a template to develop your architectural walkthroughs, videogames or an unspecified virtual environment.
Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) is Europe's leading festival of fantastic films. The event is comprising more than 70 film previews in Switzerland, three official competitions that cover the whole range of genre films, the award ceremony for the Best European Fantastic Film of the year and the presence of renowned guests.
The 7th edition of NIFFF will inaugurate an open air cinema on the banks of the lake of Neuchatel. The program includes around 70 fantastic films premiering in Switzerland. For more information, visit www.nifff.ch.
The aniMOTION European Animation Festival brings to Sibiu the most recent European animations, shorts and feature lengths, music videos, games and interactive narratives. The event focuses on storytelling, as well as the creative use of new technologies and young creators. During the five days of the festival the event will have projections, showcases, discussions and a series of workshops in which young people can experience firsthand the creation of animations. For more information, visit www.animotionfest.ro.
A few days ago I received an email regarding this event in Los Angeles on July 11th
Here is the link to a site for FREE tickets and more information....just click here
The text of the email follows....wish I was in L.A. on the 11th....
Headline: An Animator’s Grand Salute to Woody Woodpecker! Guess Who!
On July 11, StoryMakers Studio brings several of the biggest names in the cartoon world to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatres Complex in Hollywood:
Outside of an earnest performance from Mark Wahlberg and a half decent role for Michael Pena, this stupid film has very little else to offer. This film falls into the category of films that I like to call 15-minute Google movies — they're films that pretend to know what they are talking about by using what seems like about 15 minutes of Googling the given topic. Reportedly this film is based off a novel by Stephen Hunter, who is either a hack writer or very mad at the film studio. Jonathan Lemkin's screenplay actually feels like it was based on a million other films just like it. Additionally, director Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) seems to know this and just goes through the motions on this one.
Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz, the exec producers of AMERICAN DAD, have signed a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV Studio, reports the trades.
As part of the seven-figure deal that contains an option for a third year, the duo will continue as DAD exec producers with Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker, Matt Weitzman and David Zuckerman. Additionally, they will develop new live-action projects for the studio.
Minnie Driver will provide the voice for Lara Croft in GameTap's REVISIONED, the online animated series that will ask various artists to give their take on TOMB RAIDER for the first season. The 10-episode animated webseries debuts July 10, 2007.
"Minnie Driver really does have a fabulous voice," Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's vp of content, said. "She's had experience doing animation as well, which was good. She was perfect."
Karen Rupert Toliver is the new vp production at 20th Century Fox Animation, replacing John Cohen. Her duties will include the development and production of animated projects. She reports to recently appointed TCF Fox Animation president Vanessa Morrison.
"Karen has the expertise and sensibility with the development and production of big, all-audience, animated movies, and her taste and talents fall perfectly in line with the films that we make here at Fox Animation," Morrison commented.
J.J. Abrams is in works on a very secret monster movie project, hiring Matt Reeves to direct, reports AIN'T IT COOL NEWS. Reeves is the creator of the Abrams-produced TV series, FELICITY. CLOVERFIELD is a working title for the film, which was written by LOST producer/scribe Drew Godard. The plot is being kept very hush-hush, but the film will be shot with handheld cameras as if it were being filmed live. A teaser trailer is set to run before prints of THE TRANSFORMERS.
Calon has sold BIG TATTIE, its first animated series for mobile media, to leading mobile distributor, Player X. Additionally, S4C has commissioned Calon to make 20 shorts of a BIG TATTIE for its Rugby World Cup coverage.
A DOGâS BREAKFAST, a dark comedy shot by the cast and crew of the hit STARGATE television series, makes its digital debut today (July 3, 2007) on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) and Amazon Unbox (www.unbox.amazon.com). The film, which has developed a cult following online and features STARGATE ATLANTIS star David Hewlettâs theatrical directorial debut, is available for download now on both services.
Fans of the LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD film from Twentieth Century Fox Films should check out the new LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD BARE-KNUCKLE BRAWL GAME at www.livefreeordiehard.com/index_site.html?section=brawlgame.
This game can be played using a browser or a Nintendo Wiimote. (This game is not associated with nor endorsed by Nintendo.)
LucasArts announced that THRILLVILLE, the videogame where players create and experience the theme park of their dreams, will expand with a whole new season in THRILLVILLE: OFF THE RAILS. It features some of the most outlandish roller-coaster concepts ever imagined, as well as new ways to talk to park guests and a wider array of carnival games. In October 2007, the release amps up the family-friendly mix of gameplay that made the original THRILLVILLE such a hit.
Intel Corp. joined forces with Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios on the animated RATATOUILLE. And for the first time, Intel is working hand-in-hand with Disney/Pixar as a major promotional sponsor.
TWEETY'S HIGH-FLYING ADVENTURE, which lands on DVD Sept. 18, (Warner Home Video, $14.98) features everyoneâs favorite yellow canary, Tweety, headlining his own full-length animated adventure. Joining Tweety on his travels are some of his best Looney Tunes pals, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Pepe Le Pew and several others.
UNIT, one of the U.K.âs leading post-production and creative services companies, has launched UNIT Effects, a new in-house visual effects division, which provides a full range of 2D and 3D effects across all genres from commercials and HD TV productions to 2K or 4K resolution films.
The division will be overseen by UNIT co-founder Roland Woolner, formerly joint-md of vfx company Split Image, who becomes head of UNIT Effects. Split Image was recently acquired by UNIT, making it the U.K.âs leading Final Cut finishing house.
Russell Bekins caught up with Alexandre Petrov and talked with the filmmaker about his new film, My Love, as well as his career and his love of animation.
Prince Caspian Fan Art ContestWorld Wide WebJuly 6, 2007Deadline: July 6, 2007
