* Thursday, July 20 – Sunday, July 23, 2000. Dervio, Italy.

Deadline: June 30, 2000

The opening week failure of TITAN A.E. may have been the final straw that has pushed Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman and CEO, Bill Mechanic, to resign. Mechanic has decided to leave Fox and form his own production company much like former Disney chairman Joe Roth’s Revolution Studios. However, insiders say the abrupt exit was a result of pressure from parent News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch over financial losses and questionable movie greenlights.

Palo Alto, California's Pacific Data Images (PDI) is looking for

EFFECTS ANIMATORS AND DEVELOPERS and CG LIGHTERS. . .Lombard,

Illinois-based Big Idea Productions, Inc. is looking for a 3D

MODELING SUPERVISOR. . .South River, New Jersey-based Big Brad's South

River Tattoo Studio is looking for an ARTIST/TATTOOIST to draw Flash

and tattoo pictures for customers. . .WPRI/WNAC TV of East Providence,

Rhode Island wants to find an AVID EDITOR to edit commercials,

On Wednesday, June 21, 2000, Italian animation studio Mondo TV, owner of the country's largest library of domestic and imported TV cartoons, will go public on the Milan stock exchange. Currently, the Rome-based company is owned by Orlando and Matteo Corradi. For the first-quarter, the TV toon maker saw revenue of 6.5 billion Italian lira (US$3.25 million) and net earnings of 1.3 billion ($650,000).

Spain's Terra Networks have announced that their shareholders have approved the company's US$12.5 billion purchase of U.S. Internet portal Lycos. The shareholders also okayed $17.7 billion in capital increases to pump up liquidity in the new arm. "The acquisition of Lycos is the big leap that will allow us to position ourselves as a truly global company," Terra president Juan Villalonga said at the company's shareholders meeting. The Spanish-language Internet server and provider announced last month its intention to purchase Lycos as an inroad to the U.S. market.

DreamWorks' GLADIATOR continues to plunder the pockets of moviegoers around the globe. Complete box numbers from Germany, France, Australia and a number of other countries were not available due to local holidays, however GLADIATOR looks like it is still slaying the competition. The bloody blockbuster is still topping the charts after five weeks in release in both the U.K. and Australia, regaining the top spot from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 in the later. In its four weeks in release, the Roman revenge tale took the #1 spot in both Italy and Spain.

With the new actioner from Nicolas Cage racing in to the #1 spot at the U.S. box office, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 fell to #2 in its third weekend in theatres. Disney’s GONE IN 60 SECONDS grossed US$25.33 million on its way to receiving the checkered flag. MISSION, with primary visual effects by Pacific Data Images, Double Negative Ltd. and CFC, grossed another $17.23 million, raising its exploding cume to $158.1 million and is on a pace to beat the finishing cume of the original MISSION installment. Disney’s DINOSAUR has slipped to fourth grossing another $8.82 million.

The Oscar winner for best short animated film, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, has won the coveted grand prize at the International Festival of Animated Film at Annecy. In a lively ceremony held on Saturday, June 10, 2000, the awards were handed out by the festival’s artistic director, Serge Bromberg. The short and feature film jury, comprised of Meral Erez (Turkey), Aida Ndiaye (Senegal), Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland), John Lasseter (U.S.A.) and Jimmy T. Murakami (Ireland), bestowed the top honor to the adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway’s novella.

Former Disney chairman Joe Roth’s Revolution Studios, a film and television production company, has released the details regarding the roles that its investors will serve. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Starz! Encore Group and Fox Entertainment Groups were among the investors that have sunk US$3 billion into the five-month old production house. Additionally, Revolution has gained a controlling stake in the on-line entertainment channel MediaTrip.com.

BKN International, a children’s animated series production, distribution and marketing company, announced their acquisition of France-based Arles Animation. Arles has worked on series such as WACKY WORLD OF TEX AVERY, SABRINA and SONIC UNDERGROUND. Arles credits itself as being the only studio in France with experience in managing and executing a two-episode per week schedule. The French firm has created work for DIC, TF1, Canal +, RTL and La Cinquieme.

* Tuesday, July 4 – Sunday, July 9, 2000. Vila do Conte, Portugal.

Opening this past weekend in Australia, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 uncovered US$3.7 million in 3 days on 366 screens. The total is the highest weekend take of all time for foreign distributor UIP, which also released GLADIATOR and PHANTOM MENACE Down Under. The spy sensation also racked up $893,000 on 39 screens in Singapore and $488,000 on 38 screens in Malaysia. GLADIATOR still scored big receipts raising its international cume to $97 million. The period-piece pit-fight landed atop the German, British and Italian box office.

France-based Alphanim Digital Corp. and Magelis - Pôle Image Angoulême have partnered to create verysmallcity.com. Magelis is an organization set up in Angoulême to help support and develop animation and technology in the city. The image center (Pôle Image) will hold shares in the new Net firm and help provide human and technical resources when Alphanim opens this new production division in Angoulême in July 2000. The new site will be targeted toward the 18 to 25 age group. Verysmallcity will feature short animation series and interactive fiction and games.

With GLADIATOR opening wider in Europe, the DreamWorks darling finished atop six box office charts. Still reigning in Australia and the U.K., the Roman rampage made another US$2.42 million and $2.95 million respectively. The Australian total for hometown boy Russell Crowe’s action debut is $10.19 million, while the flick has grossed $16.81 million in Britain. The worldwide wonder had successful premieres in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Hong Kong making over $10 million in the four countries combined.

This week's updates to the Calendar

of Events is massive! AWN is now

listing over 70 international events, from major festivals to lesser

known events such as the 10th Annual Sensual & Erotic Art Exhibition

(USA), The 7th Annual Chicago Underground Film Festival (USA) and the

10th International Symposium on Electronic Art (France). With

multiple search capabilities, AWN's new calendar of events gives you

Millimages, a France-based animation production house, has opened a new Internet production division. The Flash produced products will be targeting a teen and adult audience. The company will create a minimum of fifty 20 second to 2 minute episodes per season. The animation firm with locations in London and Paris hopes to create content that converges television and the Web. Millimages is currently working on the development of 12 original Net series, some of which are co-productions with companies such as Magma Films (Ireland) and Happylife (Sweden).

Four of the U.K.'s leading CGI artists, Richard Scott, Graham McKenna, Stuart Aitken and Dana Dorian, together with Scottish new media group VIS Interactive PLC, have launched Axis Animation, a high-end 3D and digital post-production facility based in Glasgow, Scotland. Axis' focus will target the advertising, broadcast, film and computer game markets for animation and visual effects. The four founders were the core team at award-winning digital content creators Digimania.

* Thursday, June 22 - Saturday, June 24, 2000. Arles, Provence, France.

For the week ending May 21, GLADIATOR still reigned in the U.K. and Australia and conquered new territory in Italy. By more than doubling the debut of FINAL DESTINATION, the DreamWorks’ colossal hit grossed another US$5.11 million in the U.K. The world champ has garnered $13.96 million on the British Isle. More than tripling the second placed newcomer ROMEO MUST DIE, the Roman ruler grossed $3.32 million in Australia, raising its cume in that country to $7.79 million. In its Italian premiere, the maker of Maximus coin landed $1.89 million.

Pokemon has caught new deals with several eastern European countries and renewals from around the rest of the continent. New locations of Pokemon infestation include Polsat in Poland, RTL-Klub in Hungary, Nova in Czech Republic, ETV in South Africa and Fox Kids’ Scandinavia Satelite service. The countries that renewed the second season’s 52-episodes were TV2 in Denmark, TV2 in Norway, TV4 in Sweden, Star Channel in Greece and RTL in Belgium.