endorphin 2.5 Used on Possession Videogame
Volatile Games, a division of Blitz Games and one of the U.Ks leading independent game developers, announced the use of endorphin 2.5 in its next-gen zombie action-thriller POSSESSION.
Volatile Games, a division of Blitz Games and one of the U.Ks leading independent game developers, announced the use of endorphin 2.5 in its next-gen zombie action-thriller POSSESSION.
For the second consecutive week, Buena Vistas FLIGHTPLAN (with vfx Lola Visual Effects and Peerless Camera Co.) led the box office for the weekend ended Oct. 2, 2005, bringing in $14.8M for a total of $45.9M. Debuting in second place was Universals SERENITY (with vfx from Zoic and Rhythm + Hues, among others), with a less than stellar $10.086M. TIM BURTONS CORPSE BRIDE, the stop motion feature with vfx from MPC, fell to third place with $10.033M. The Warner Bros. release now totals $33.1M.
If Nick Park seems slightly dazed, its understandable almost three weeks of non-stop promotion has taken him to Australia, Toronto and recently New York City on behalf of his new movie, WALLACE AND GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, which opens in the U.S. Oct. 7, 2005.
USA has greenlit a third season of its hit series, THE 4400, reports the trades. With a premiere set for summer 2006, the 13 new episodes will go into production the beginning of the new year.
The sci-fiers second season with the #1 summer cable series with adults 18-49, beating out THE CLOSER and THE SHIELD. The five-episode first season received an Emmy nomination for miniseries.
STAR WARS illustrator Matt Busch has signed a deal with Razor Digital Ent. to release his first independent movie, CONJURE, on home video and DVD. In addition to writing, producing and directing the feature, Busch also plays himself along with fellow artist/model Sarah Wilkinson in this supernatural thriller.
Renee Zellweger returns to the horror genre in the English remake of the Hong Kong horror flick, THE EYE, reports the trades. One of Zellwegers early feature film roles was as the female lead in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION, alongside Matthew McConaughey. Paramount is producing the redux via C/W Prods. heads Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.
The film follows the eerie visions a woman (Zellweger) begins seeing after she regains her sight after a cornea transplant.
A new wrinkle in the hi-def DVD format war has occurred. Paramount Home Ent. has announced that it will support Sonys Blu-ray format as well as its previously announced support for Toshibas HD-DVD.
Rumors are afloat that Warner Bros. with be announcing dual support later this week as well. Previously, Universal was the first studio originally backing HD-DVD to announce that it was going to support both formats. Some say its a move to save face for backing the potential loser in the format wars.
Comicbook hero Lucky Luke will ride onto the bigscreen in TOUS A L'OUEST, which will be produced by Xilam, Dargaud-Marina and Lucky Comics, reports VARIETY. Fall 2007 is set for the films release. With a budget of e12 million ($14.4 million), the flick will be directed by Olivier Jean-Marie from a script by him and Jean-Francois Henry.
Loosely based on the comic THE CARAVAN, the feature will follow cowboy Luke and his talking horse Jolly Jumper as they pit themselves against their long-time enemies the hapless Dalton brothers in 19th century America.
Fox Animation has hired Matthew Weiss to pen an feature script based on the Emily the Strange character created by Rob Reger, reports VARIETY. The live-action feature will contain some animation.
Trivandrum-based Toonz Animation India and California-based First Serve Ent. have announced the formation of a joint venture First Serve Toonz (FST), which will produce and distribute animation programming for the international marketplace as well as operate a consumer products licensing business, reports the trades. FST will announce its first major project in the next few weeks.
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) Europe has shuffled about its organization to support emerging areas in its business mix and grow its entertainment brands starting with naming Dee Forbes vp/gm of TBS UK and Ireland, responsible for all commercial and channel activities plus its operating units: distribution sales, ad sales and S&P, programming and acquisitions, marketing, PR, creative services, presentation, research, strategy and consumer products.
Blue Planet Studio, Inc., a 3D animation and graphic design firm, and Cynosure New Media Inc., a leading training development and multimedia production company, tamed up to produce 3D animation for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Special Projects Office (DARPA SPO). Converting futuristic concepts into high-tech visualization, these animations were used to support SPO and VSO exhibits on display at the 24th DARPA Systems and Technology Symposium (DARPATech 2005) held at the Anaheim Marriott, Anaheim, CA, Aug. 9-11, 2005.
Live from New York City its J. J. Sedelmaier doing more TV FUNHOUSE segments for Saturday Night Live, with a new one scheduled to run on the season premiere this weekend, Oct. 1, 2005, on NBC during the late night show that starts at 11:30 pm. Sedelmaiers White Plains animation house JJSP introduced SNL audiences to such animated FUNHOUSE favorites as Fun with Real Audio, The X-Presidents and The Ambiguously Gay Duo.
Howard Stringer, chairman/ceo of Sony Corp. will deliver a keynote address at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, in Las Vegas, which runs Jan. 5-8.
Stringer is slated to deliver the opening keynote address on Jan. 5, at 9:00 am. Immediately prior to his speech, Gary Shapiro, president/ceo of CEA, will present a State of the Industry Address at 8:30 am. Both events will take place in the Hilton Theater of the Las Vegas Hilton.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Muppets creator Jim Henson at a wall sculpture dedication ceremony at the Television Academy's Hall of Fame Plaza in North Hollywood, California on Sept. 28, 2005.
The Animation Guild is spreading the word that the third Hanna-Barbera studio reunion dinner is set for Nov. 4, 2005, at the Sportsman's Lodge, 12833 Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. No-host cocktails will at 6:00 pm, dinner is at 7:30 pm.
Cost is $30 per person with an entrée choice of prime rib, chicken, salmon or vegetarian.
Bill Damaschke has been promoted to head of creative production and development at DreamWorks Animation while Kristine Belson comes on board as the head of development.
John D. Maatta, has been named coo of The WB Television Network. In addition to being the network's general counsel, the network's business and operations departments will report to him, including Business Affairs, Finance, Network Distribution, The WB 100+ Station Group, Technology, Legal, Research, Network Operations, Broadcast Standards and Human Resources.
Maatta previously was evp and general counsel of the Network with Legal and Human Resources reporting to him.
Avid Technology Inc. announced a series of worldwide launch events for SOFTIMAGE|XSI version 5.0, the latest edition of the companys flagship 3D animation software, will take place across North America, Europe and Asia. The events will showcase the powerful new features of XSI v.5.0, including the film-quality map generation capabilities in Ultimapper, the unique property transfer tools in GATOR and the latest migration tools for Maya users.
Alias announced that its FBXsoftware development kit (SDK), the most widely used and supported file interchange platform in the digital entertainment content development community, will soon incorporate support for third party file formats, including COLLADA. As an XML based, multi-vendor exchange format launched by Sony Computer Ent. Inc., COLLADA was recently adopted as an open-standard initiative by the Khronos Group and is used by game content developers, particularly those developing art assets for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and wireless handheld devices.
SIGGRAPH 2006, the 33rd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, will be held July 30-Aug. 3 at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, announced sponsor ACM SIGGRAPH.
Iridas announced the release of SpeedGrade DI. The new application offers an industry-leading feature set for digital color grading and film finishing. In addition, SpeedGrade DI anchors the industry's first complete color pipeline with SpeedGrade OnSet (look management) and FrameCycler (calibrated review with grading applied). The result is complete mobility of color data up, down, and across production pipeline, opening the door to new, collaborative color workflow models.
KING KONG: PETER JACKSONS PRODUCTION DIARIES, which have been posted on the KONG website (www.kongisking.net), will be released Dec. 13 as a special two-disc pre-release (Universal Home Ent., $39.98), reports THE DIGITAL BITS.
The set will include 54 production diaries (in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio), an 80-page scrapbook, four exclusive art prints, "collectible packaging" and more. Jacksons highly anticipated remake opens Dec. 14.
Marking a major step forward in the companys international expansion of the award-winning VEGGIETALES property, Classic Media announced that the all-new TV format featuring the popular VEGGIETALES characters has achieved critical and commercial success in Brazil for leading Brazilian distributor Top Tape. The announcement was made by
Gokaza, a content provider specialized in J-pop culture, has announced the release of the two-DVD documentary HELLO ANIME! The DVD delivers a firsthand look at the dawn of anime in America, the rise of the otakus, the anime Internet community, anime in Hollywood films like KILL BILL and THE MATRIX and the Japanization of America. In 19 exclusive interviews, the pioneers who defined the movement talk about their personal success stories and reveal the inside scoop on anime.