Sony Pictures Home Ent. will be taking over control of Sony Wonder from its sister company, Sony BMG Music Ent., reports VARIETY. Sony Wonder vp of development Steve Okin will have the title of vp of family entertainment. His duties will be to develop and acquire non-feature family programming.
Moving from SONY BMG, Olga Economou will become exec director of Sony Wonder sales.
Russell Bekins searches for the diamonds in the ruff at the 2007 Annecy Animated Film Festival while answering 20 irritating questions.
DreamWorks and Universal Pictures are teaming to make a live-action adaptation of the graphic novel COWBOYS & ALIENS.
Imagine partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and Platinum Studios chairman/ceo Scott Mitchell Rosenberg with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are set to produce. Ervin Rustemagic and Rich Marincic will be co-producers. IRON MAN writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are penning the screenplay.
DreamWorks has hired former vfx artist Thor Freudenthal to helm HOTEL FOR DOGS, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Freudenthal previously worked as a CG artist on the live-action STUART LITTLE films.
The film will be based on Lois Duncan's novel, which follows two orphaned teenagers who harbor dozens of stray dogs in a rundown hotel. Jeff Lowell adapted the script.
Lauren Shuler Donner and Jack Leslie are set to produce. Marc Haimes and Chloe Dan are overseeing the project for DreamWorks.
Aardman Animations has found an American home for its internationally successful children's property SHAUN THE SHEEP. The animated series, which just last week won the Cristal Award as Best TV Production at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, will premiere on Disney Channel on Sunday, July 8, 2007, in primetime. Since its successful launch as the most viewed show at Mipcom 2006, the property has sold to primary broadcasters in 145 territories including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, India, France, Benelux, Japan and Latin America.
The American Film Institute has released the 10th anniversary edition of its 100 Years...100 Movies list of the greatest American movies determined by AFI's jury of experts. FANTASIA, which ranked 58th on the list in 1998, fell off the list, while SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS moved up to #34 from #49. Pixar's groundbreaking CG feature, TOY STORY, made the cut this time around coming in at #99.
Starz Home Ent. has released the latest HELLBOY animated feature, HELLBOY ANIMATED: BLOOD & IRON. This DVD sells for $19.98.
In this new adventure, Hellboy must choose between the destiny he accepted - the protection of mankind - and the destiny for which he was created - the destruction of mankind. In 1939, the young Professor Broom destroyed the vampire Erzsebet Ondrusko. Now, decades later, it seems that someone is trying to bring her back and Professor Broom (Hurt) wants to investigate this worrisome development himself.
Disney/Pixar CARS took top honors as the 2006 Overall Best License of the Year at the Annual LIMA Gala and Awards Ceremony for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA). The presentation, which recognizes the best and brightest programs and products in the worldwide licensing industry, was held at the Marriott Marquis, Times Square in New York.
The Gnomon Workshop announced Meats Meier's highly anticipated follow-up to his ZBrush series, INTRODUCTION TO ZBRUSH 3. This DVD, with six full hours of instruction, brings both advanced and new users through the latest Z3 experience.
Sharon Morrill, president of DisneyToon Studios, has stepped down from her post, where she had been responsible for producing direct-to-video sequels of the Disney Co.'s animated features. She will do special projects for Disney.
ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE reported on March 28, 2007, that it was the end of the line for Disney direct-to-video sequels and how the studio was moving forward under the new corporate climate with Ed Catmull and John Lasseter at the helm.
Nuke, the Oscar-winning compositor, is now available to download in 4.7 v1, the first release developed by The Foundry in London since it was acquired from D2 Software.
This latest release includes full OFX plug-in support, Framecycler Professional 2007, an improved curve editor, an upgraded version of Primatte, a brand new optical flow engine and many bug fixes. Customers on maintenance will not need a new license key to run Nuke 4.7.
For more info, visit www.thefoundry.co.uk.
Weta Digital creates a unique, liquid shine for Silver Surfer in the Fantastic 4 sequel, and Thomas J. McLean goes behind-the-scenes to find out how.
FOX has elected to pick up AMERICAN DAD for a 4th season. The show (Sundays, 9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) ranks #1 in its time period among adults 18-34, teens and all male demos.
With BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA hitting DVD this week, it felt like a perfect time to look at some of the best live-action family films of the past five years. Adults without kids tend to avoid family films, but they're often missing out on some great movies. I kind of cheated though I left out the two HARRY POTTER films and CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, because they were monster hits and kind of transcend the "family" label anyways. Plus, they'd take up more than half the list and overshadow some other lower key films that deserve some praise and extra attention. And I'm sure there are some good family films that I missed such as HOLES. I encourage readers to post their picks for the best live-action family films in the comments.
Very rarely do I see a film more than one time in the theaters. It takes a lot to spur me to give my hard earned money to a film more than once. GHOST WORLD so blew me away when I first discovered it that I didn't want it to end and I went back (while laid off from my job) to take two separate groups of friends to see it. It was the best film released in 2001 and remains one of the best films ever made about self-discovery following high school graduation.
Enid (Thora Birch, AMERICAN BEAUTY) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson, MATCH POINT) have just graduated from high school, where they were the resident eccentrics. Rebecca is excited about getting a job and moving out on her own. Enid, on the other hand, seems unwilling to accept her need to become a cog in the "real world." Via a pretty cruel prank, Enid meets Seymour (Steve Buscemi, FARGO), a forty-something manager at the corporate office of a fast food chicken chain, who can't relate to 99% of humanity so he consumes his life with collecting old jazz records and memorabilia. Enid finds a kindred spirit in the cranky old "nerd," who exists outside of the norms of society.
Kecskemet Animation Film Festival (KAFF) is a competition of European features and TV specials, as well as Hungarian short animated films. This year's festival will be dedicated to young talent. KAFF is a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals. For more information, visit www.kaff.hu or www.kecskemetfilm.hu/kaff or e-mail kfilm@kecskemetfilm.hu.
The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is now accepting applications for Young Chicago Critics, the premiere film criticism and production summer camp for Chicago kids 7-14. Due to overwhelming response from previous summers, it has now expanded its acclaimed program to two sessions to accommodate a full 150 children. This year's camp takes place at Facets Multi-Media (1517 W. Fullerton) June 20 - 29 and July 9 - 18.
On Wednesday, June 20, 2007, at 7:00 pm, Michael Sporn will present his two newly released DVDs to ASIFA-East members. The programs on the discs include four of Sporn's adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen tales. THE RED SHOES, THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, NIGHTINGALE and THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES are the films included in the DVDs as well as lots of extras, including documentaries on the making of the films.
The Walt Disney Co. announced today it has formed an integrated Global Television Distribution unit, following the announcement that Laurie Younger, president, Disney-ABC Worldwide Television, will retire at the end of her contract in January 2008.
GenArts Inc. announced the immediate availability of Sapphire Plug-ins version 4 for Autodesk compositing and editing systems.
Version 4 contains all of the visual effects and features that have established Sapphire Plug-ins as an indispensable part of the digital artist's toolkit, and introduces more than 45 innovative new effects, including: FilmDamage, FilmEffect, DeinterlaceAuto, ZDefocus, Cartoon, Light3D and TextureFlux. Many of the new plug-ins were designed to enhance the user's workflow.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) announced that it has named Mattel Inc. as the global master toy licensee for both SPEED RACER and THE DARK KNIGHT, two of the biggest summer films coming out in 2008. Mattel will apply its expertise across virtually all product lines including vehicles, action figures, action play, remote control vehicles, handheld electronics as well as games and puzzles.
THE WRONG TRAINERS took home the animation prize at the Banff World Television Awards, presented by CanWest MediaWorks. The evening awards represent one of the television world's most prestigious international program competitions, in partnership with Alberta Film.
The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is heading for New York's Licensing International on the back of a storming year for its licensing division. With sales up by 64% in 2006, the company is now on the lookout for top class partners who can break its hit properties into the U.S. market. BBC Worldwide can be found at the event at booth #3441.
National Lampoon has obtained worldwide rights to Adam Rifkin's caveman laffer HOMO ERECTUS, VARIETY reports. National Lampoon plans to release the film in September.
Rifkin, who also wrote UNDERDOG and directed DETROIT ROCK CITY, penned, helmed and stars in HOMO ERECTUS, which follows a caveman, who despite inventing the toilet, the spoon and pants, can't gain the attention of his love. The pic also stars Ali Larter, Hayes MacArthur, David Carradine, Gary Busey and Talia Shire.
Joel Silver's Dark Castle Ent. has inked a deal with Warner Premiere to produce two to three direct-to-DVD films per year, reports VARIETY. The horror film, RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, will be the first project under the new pact.
Additionally, Dark Castle plans to create original digital content to be distributed on the Internet and mobile devices. The shorts will support the direct-to-DVD releases or otherwise work to expand the Dark Castle label.
Dark Castle's DTD titles will not only be horror films, but also action flicks and thrillers.
