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Max Howard will help bring spirit to new productions like were present in The Iron Giant. © Warner Bros. No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.

DreamWorks Rides With Max Howard. Veteran animation producer and executive Max Howard has finalized a first-look production deal with DreamWorks. Launching his new production company, Melwood Pictures, Howard will be developing both live-action and animated features. Therefore, he will be stepping down as producer on DreamWorks Pictures' upcoming animated release Spirit, Stallion Of The Cimarron. Howard came to DreamWorks from Warner Bros. where he served as president of feature animation. During his tenure, the studio produced the award-winning animated feature The Iron Giant, as well as Quest For Camelot and Space Jam. Beginning in 1986, Howard worked with Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Walt Disney Company, when he became the head of the London Animation Studio for the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He relocated to the U.S. in 1988 and was named director of feature animation at the new studio at Walt Disney World in Florida. Later moving up to senior VP, Howard was responsible for the strategic planning and operations for Walt Disney feature animation's three facilities in Los Angeles, Orlando and Paris. "Max is a very talented individual, and I expect great things from his new venture." Katzenberg said. "I am looking forward to collaborating with him on future film projects he will be bringing to DreamWorks." Howard said, "Through this move, Jeffrey has helped me to fulfill a long held dream to run my own production company. To do so while staying within the DreamWorks family is truly the best of both worlds. With Spirit well into production -- and looking amazing, I must say -- the timing could not be better, and I am excited to start exploring new pathways in my career."

Entertaindom Top Trio Exit. Entertaindom.com president and CEO Jim Moloshok, executive VP Jim Banister and third-in-command Jeff Weiner will be exiting their Time Warner posts in the upcoming weeks. The dot-com trio has already moved out of their offices and has stopped participating in the day-to-day operations of the company. The walk was spurred by Time Warner’s increasing lack of interest in the entertainment site they launched in November of 1999 as their impending merger with America On-line plows ahead. The future of Entertaindom seemed more bleak on Tuesday, April 4, 2000, when AOL launched AOL Plus, which has multimedia content and feature deals with the House of Blues, Launch.com, CNN, CNET Networks and CBSMarketWatch.com. In addition, the execs were disgruntled over the lack of stock options the parent Warner was offering them. Initial plans had Entertaindom launching its own IPO, which would have made the now ex-execs some of the richest big wigs in all of Time Warner. As reported [AF 3/28/00], Kevin Tsujihara was promoted to lead Warner Bros. New Media, which oversees Warner Bros. On-line and Entertaindom. He also serves as the key cog in the melding of Time Warner and AOL strategies. With Tsujihara’s appointment, Moloshok had to go through one more person to reach upper level Time Warner management; prior Moloshok reported directly to Time Warner Digital Media president Richard Bressler.

COO & Level 13 Creator Leaves Film Roman. William Shpall, chief operating officer of Film Roman, has left the company. John Hyde, president and CEO of Film Roman, has told AWN that Shpall has worked out a deal to leave his post to pursue other Internet deals and projects that have presented themselves to him. Shpall was the father of Film Roman’s Web entertainment destination, Level 13, which launched on November 27, 1999. According to Hyde, Shpall with continue on as a consultant to Level 13 and Film Roman’s overall Internet strategy until at least the fall of 2000. Currently, Hyde and company’s number three man, John Vain, have assumed Shpall’s duties at the company.