Animation World News:People
Zoa Martinez.
Hollywood Shuffle.
Maureen Donley, Executive Producer of Fox's upcoming animated feature,
Anastasia, has signed a two-year, exclusive deal with FOX Family
Films to produce both animation and live-action films. Donley joined
Fox in 1995, after eight years at Walt Disney Feature Animation. . . .Lauren
Kamin, formerly of Ballyhoo, Inc and Creative Artist's Agency, will
also join FOX Family Films in the development department. . . .Curious
Pictures has named Rachel Klein exclusive East Coast Sales Representative.
Klein, who has a production background, will be based in Curious' Manhattan
office. . . .Designer/director Zoa Martinez has joined the roster
of directors at Atlantic Motion Pictures, a New York-based commercial
visual effects/animation studio. . . .Howard Green, a publicist
at Disney for more than 20 years, has been internally promoted to Vice
President, Studio Communications for Buena Vista Pictures Marketing.
. . . Rhythm & Hues Studios has brought on Theresa Ellis
as a visual effects supervisor, and Billy Koch and Randy Star
to its visual effects marketing team. . . . Disney Regional Entertainment
has named Mel Bilbo Vice President and General Manager of its new
gaming center venture, Disneyquest. Bilbo was formerly an executive
with Busch Entertainment Corporation, owners of Busch Gardens theme parks
. . . Digital Domain, the Venice, California-based visual effects
studio, laid off about 50 employees last week, after the completion of
effects work for the feature film, Titanic. The studio's work force,
cut by 30 people in July, is now down to about 200 people. . . . Sony
Pictures Imageworks has cut 20 people from its' staff of more than
300 employees, following the completion of effects work on the Columbia
TriStar feature film, Starship Troopers.. . . . . Paris-based Pixibox
Studios has named Anne Aghion to the post of Director, International
Production Development. In this new position, she will be based in Los
Angeles, looking for co-production opportunities. . . . Pixibox's sister
company, animation software developer, Mediapegs, has named Philippe
Lasry Vice President, International. . . . . Frankie Kowalski
has joined multimedia/web design firm Ad Dimension 2 (AD2) as traffic
production manager. Kowalski was formerly director of marketing at Animation
Magazine. . . . Peter Chung, Bill Kroyer, Mark Osborne, Mike Johnson
And Leslie Cabarga have signed to Hollywood-based Acme Filmworks
for representation. See the Commercials News section this issue for details.
. . . Artist/writer Jim Benton has signed an agreement with Dreamworks
Television Animation, optioning the rights to develop his property,
Clementine. . . . New Jersey-based animator John Schnall
has announced the formation of an independent production studio called
Quality Schnallity, Inc. Already in production is a project for
Nickelodeon titled A Short Film For Short People, which will air
in January 1998. . . . Dominique Bourse has been promoted to Vice
President, International for Disney Interactive. Bourse was previously
Vice President, Disney Interactive Europe, Middle East and Africa. . .
. Fox Television has named Mary Ann Halford senior vice president
and general manager of Canal Fox and Fox Kids Latin America.
In this role, Halford will oversee all aspects of operations for both of
the Latin American broadcast services, Canal Fox and Fox Kids, which are
telecast in Spanish and Portugese, as well as English. Halford was previously
employed at Inter./comm Management, and prior to that, at Solomon International
Enterprises. . . . Dean Valentine has been named president and CEO
of UPN, replacing Lucie Salhany, who will remain on UPN's operating
committee. Dean Valentine was formerly president of Walt Disney Television
and its' Animation division. While at Disney, Valentine oversaw a large
amount of animated programming, and the acquisition of New York animation
studio, Jumbo Pictures. UPN, on the other hand, programs only a small amount
of animation, including Jumanji and The Incredible Hulk.
. . . John Andrews has left his post as vice president of MTV Animation
in New York to take on independent producing projects. . . . Simon Amselem
has been named managing director for the soon-to-be-launched Disney
Channel Spain. . . . Allan Neuwirth and Gary Cooper,
under the banner of their production writing company, Two Idioms,
recently completed writing for the second season of Big Bag, the
Children's Television Workshop series for Cartoon Network. Slated to air
in spring 1998, the new episodes will feature 39 cartoon shorts, including
Neuwirth and Cooper's clay-animated Koki, produced by Cine Nic in
Spain, and the 2-D animated Ace and Avery by New York-based John
R. Dilworth's Stretch Films
Jerry Beck.
Jerry Beck Moves To Disney. Animation historian Jerry Beck has taken on a position with Walt Disney Television Animation to identify and develop new projects based on existing Disney properties. Beck, a well-known animation historian and author of several books on animation, recently left his post as Vice President, Animation, at Nickelodeon Movies. He had been for three years, working out of New York until January 1997, when he relocated to Los Angeles, where he will remain for the Disney job. In this role, Beck will "assist in making proper use of Disney's most valuable assets--the characters and properties created during the company's 74-year history," said Walt Disney Television Animation senior vice president Barry Blumberg. He added, "We believe Jerry's fresh perspective and insight will help enrich our creative process as we further explore and develop projects for our classic Disney characters to appeal to today's audience." Enthused about the opportunity to play a role in the development of classic Disney properties, Beck said, "We're living in another world than when many of these characters were created. Particularly for Disney's original five characters--Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto--there has been a tendency to focus on what the characters wouldn't do instead of what they would. . . I'd like to help us step to the next level." He added: "I'm a purist, and I realize that Disney has a legacy that its fans take quite seriously. Still, there's a wealth of outstanding creativity hidden in the nooks and crannies of Disney's features and shorts that have not been exploited, or possibly not even seen by most people. These are good ideas, and they shouldn't be in a dead letter office. They should be out there to enjoy."
Animation World News is compiled daily for publication
in the AWN Daily Flash, the weekly Animation
Flash email newsletter, and monthly issues of
Animation World Magazine.
Send your newsworthy items, press releases, and reels to:
Email: wendyj@awn.com
Fax: (213) 464-5914
Mail: Animation World Magazine
6525 Sunset Blvd. Garden Suite 10, Hollywood, CA 90028 USA
Back to News
Table of Contents
Feedback?
Past Issues
[about | help
| home | info@awn.com
| mail | register]
© 1997 Animation World Network