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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000
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Films
Saban, SAG Struggle Over Digimon Dub Dispute. The Screen Actors Guild and Saban have been struggling over the issue of dubbing rules for Digimon:The Movie. Under SAG’s dubbing agreement, Saban’s Bugboy Productions hired Guild actors to dub the Japanese animated film into English. The dubbing agreement does not require American actors to be paid residuals for just dubbing foreign language films. However in a letter from SAG attorney Vicki Shapiro to Bugboy Prods., SAG feels that the film was more than just dubbed. " The dialogue that the performers are recording for the film does not merely substitute for the original Japanese dialogue; rather, the original dialogue is significantly altered by revisions, reformatting, additions, deletions and modifications such that the employment no longer constitutes ‘dubbing’ as defined by the dubbing agreement." SAG believes that due to the extent of the changes, the actors’ work no longer falls under the dubbing agreement and requires that the performers be paid residuals when the film is broadcast on free TV, pay TV, cable or home video. Conversely, Saban officials said to the Hollywood Reporter, "What we’re doing under the dubbing agreement is perfectly appropriate. We’re in discussions with SAG and hope to reach an amicable resolution shortly."
Cinema Clips: The executive producer of Stuart Little, Stephen Waterman, has signed on to exec produce the new animated feature StarCars, a co-production between Korean-based entertainment conglomerate Ameko Entertainment Company Ltd. and Hyper Image LLC, an American animation studio specializing in sci-fi CGI. Dong Chung, COO of Ameko will co-executive produce the project. "I am genuinely excited about taking animation beyond the next level and into a new universe," Waterman said. "There is an untapped market of kids who've been raised on computer games and this is a new breed of feature film we feel they'll really embrace." StarCars is an apocalyptic tale about a deadly race set in the distant future. Kevin O'Donnell, creator of the upcoming PBS animated series Poor Richard's Almanac; Rob Smiley, Emmy-nominated director of Fox Kids' Our Friend, Martin and president of Hyper Image LLC; and Robby Scharf are producing, with Smiley set to direct. The film is scheduled for release the first quarter of 2001. . . .Todd McFarlane Entertainment (TME) has agreed to work with Jodie Foster's production company, Egg Pictures, on a new film, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys. Altar Boys, directed by Peter Care and featuring Foster in a supporting role, tells the tale of a group of Catholic school friends who are caught drawing an obscene comic book. TME will produce the animation segments for the film, which is set to begin shooting in May. . . . |
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