Sander Schwartz is stepping down as the president of Warner Bros. Animation. He plans to move into a production deal with the studio working on broadband and new media animation. Warner is looking for his replacement.
The new anime network, GONG, dedicated to teens and adults, has launched as the first international on-demand, online Japanese animation channel in Europe and North America.
GONG is the only on-demand Anime channel, available anywhere, anytime, on any screen (TV, mobile, Internet, VOD), in 36 countries across Europe and North America, offering manga and anime fans top-rated and popular anime series and movies.
Roberta Greutert Marshall, Hanna-Barbera's first ink-and-paint supervisor, passed away on April 26, 2007, in Woodland Hills, California, reports the BIG CARTOON DATABASE. She was 93 years old.
Born in Tennessee in 1914, she began her career in animation as a painter at MGM in 1938. While at MGM, she worked as a background artist in the CineScope Tom and Jerry shorts, TIMID TABBY (1957) and HAPPY GO DUCKY (1958).
In 1957, when the studio closed, she went to Hanna-Barbera, working as the ink-and-paint supervisor until she retired in the 1970s.
Roadside Attractions has picked up the distribution rights to the documentary CHICAGO 10, which features animated courtroom reenactments, reports VARIETY. Directed by Brett Morgen (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE), the film opened the Sundance Film Festival this year.
A Munich regional court has rejected Pumuckl creator Ellis Kaut's request for a temporary injunction, stopping Pumuckl's original illustrator Barbara von Johnson from giving the character a girlfriend, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The goblin Pumuckl is a kids' icon in Germany on the level of Big Bird. The row between Kaut and Johnson started when Johnson okayed a TV broadcaster to sponsor a contest to pick the look of Pumuckl's girlfriend. Kaut claims that the character is asexual, despite various occasions over the years being referred to as a boy.
Originally optioned as a potential live-action series, GAY ROBOT is now being built as an animated project on Comedy Central, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Based on a character from Adam Sandler's comedy album SHHH... DON'T TELL, the TV project is from Sony Pictures Television and Sandler and Jack Giarraputo's Happy Madison.
A live-action pilot was made in 2005, but not picked up for series. Subsequently, SPT posted the pilot on MySpace, BitTorrent and Grouper, where it began to develop a deal of buzz.
Former THE SIMPSONS writer/co-exec producer Dana Gould is set to write and star in the zombie comedy, THE LAST LARRY, for Comedy Central, VARIETY reports. Brining the SHAUN OF THE DEAD vibe to TV, the series will follows a group of survivors in post-apocalyptic world as they try continue to deal with the day-to-day problems in life despite the catastrophe around them. 3 Arts Ent.'s Tom Lassally and Dave Becky are set to exec produce as well.
As part of the fourth annual Spring Storyteller Series of its acclaimed Writers on Writing seminar series, Writers Guild Foundation will host writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. With credits including the smash hit SHREK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchises, ALADDIN, THE MASK OF ZORRO and many others, these masters of the
Dear Animators:
This year Bill Plympton will be attending THE PLATFORM FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION in Portland, Oregon instead of The Annecy Festival of Animation. Bill has asked Nik, Jonas Raeber and myself to carry on the ANNECY PLUS tradition that he started two years ago. If you had a piece of work rejected by Annecy please send it to us so that we can consider screening it at the ANNECY PLUS show.
We are now into day 15 of a postal strike in Gent and no one is sure how long the strike will last so it is best to send DVD's via UPS or Fed Ex to:
Nancy Denney-Phelps
Donkersteeg 31
B-9000 Gent Belgium
We will be leaving for Annecy on 8 June so please send your work right away!!!
This week the fledgling Blu-ray Disc high-def format got a tremendous boost with the release of the first two PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN blockbusters: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL and DEAD MAN'S CHEST (Buena Vista Home Ent., $34.99).
Each two-disc set contains a total of 75GB in Blu-ray. The HD (1080p resolution) picture offers a cleaner, sharper, more colorful and more dynamic experience (better showcasing ILM's Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning vfx).
New Delhi-based Compact Disc India (CDIL), an entertainment animation company, has signed a $17.85 million contract with Los Angeles-based Motion Pixel Corp. to develop a 3D feature film, GOAAAAAL!, to be released during the FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Assoc.) World Cup soccer finals in 2009, reports the TIMES NEWS NETWORK.
Budgeted at roughly $20.15 million, the 90-minute film will feature the voices of Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo, along with Hollywood stars Ben Kingsley and Catherine Zeta Jones in the world's first animated film on soccer.
Jean Detheux chronicles Visual Music Marathon, the festival that came out of nowhere and set a benchmark, instantly!
Warner Home Video (WHV) has released of A PUP NAMED SCOOBY-DOO VOLUME 6 on DVD. The one-disc DVD contains five adventures and sells for $14.97.
Geared toward preschoolers, A PUP NAMED SCOOBY-DOO follows the young adventures of Scooby-Doo, along with pint-sized versions of Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred, as they solve mysteries.
Thomas J. McLean asks several VFX insiders about the potential creative influence of 300.
4Kids Ent. Home Video, in association with FUNimation Ent., released TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SEASON 1 PART 1 on DVD. Renowned illustrator Khary Randolph was chosen to create the comicbook style cover art for the DVD release, which features the first 12 episodes of the classic television series that first aired on 4Kids TV on FOX in fall 2003.
Tara DiLullo Bennett gets the scoop on Sanctuary, which marks a new media experiment for sci-fi shot in HD and made with XSI and ZBrush.
A new version of Autodesk.Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE) software is now available for download in English and Japanese at www.autodesk.com/maya-trial. Based on Maya Complete 8.5 software, this Maya PLE provides free access to Maya 3D animation, modeling and rendering software for non-commercial use by students, industry professionals and others interested in learning the application.
REALVIZ announced the immediate availability of version 5.6 of its award-winning software, Stitcher Unlimited. Now firmly established as one of the most powerful and widely recognized image stitching applications on the market, Stitcher enables the creation of high-quality panoramas and 360° virtual tours. Version 5.6 introduces Mac Universal compatibility, as well as HDR capabilities. A Japanese-language version is also scheduled for release later this spring, in addition to the existing English and French versions of the software.
Rushes, one of London's leading post-production facilities, has recently purchased five Fusion licenses to bolster its compositing capability within the Rushes Film & TV and Rushes 3D departments.
POCOYO has been ranked Spain's top-selling DVD, across all genres, since its Spanish home video debut on April 24, 2007.
According to GFK data, more than 25,000 units have been sold during the initial three-week period, from April 24 to May 15. POCOYO is also attracting strong ratings on Spain's TVE La 2, where it has aired since October 2006.
POCOYO'S additional DVD releases are scheduled for late August (volumes 3 and 4) and mid November 2007 (volumes 5 and 6).
SIGGRAPH 2007 announced record submissions for this year's Computer Animation Festival taking place at the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Aug. 5-9, 2007 in San Diego, California.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Silver Pictures are in talks with Mattel to bring HE-MAN to the big screen, reports the trades. Justin Marks (VOLTRON, SUPER MAX) is adapting the Filmation animated series into the live-action feature.
The cartoon, based on the Mattel toy line, followed Prince Adam as he commanded the powers of Castle Grayskull, which transformed him into the mighty He-Man, who battled Skeletor, who was bent on conquering the planet of Eternia.
Japan's Madhouse Ent. and France's Denis Friedman Prods. are set to produce the CG-animated feature, YONA YONA PENGUIN, reports VARIETY. Rintaro (METROPOLIS) will direct. The story will follow a trio of children that travel to a fantasy world.
Shochiku will handle distribution in Japan while Hong Kong's Golden Network will tackle other parts of Asia and France's Wild Bunch will rep all other international territories. Madhouse's U.S. division and Shochiku hold the North American rights.
Japanese, French and English soundtracks will be recorded.
In further celebration of the 30th anniversary of STAR WARS, Lucasfilm will launch a revamped StarWars.com, which will allow fans to use footage from the films to make mash-up films, and announced the upcoming videogame, LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA.
Among the new features of the newly redesigned StarWars.com is the incorporation of an online video-editing tool provided by Eyespot. It allows users to add their own video shots to more than 250 scenes and music taken from all six STAR WARS films and create their own STAR WARS movies to share with others.
Ubisoft announced that it will develop and publish the videogame based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Ent.'s BEOWULF, the upcoming performance capture feature from Robert Zemeckis. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary adapted the legend for the screen. The film is produced by Steve Starkey, Zemeckis and Jack Rapke. The exec producers are Martin Shafer, Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman.
