Moondance 2005 came to a close on May 15 and handed out its awards. Pjotr Sapegin's acclaimed THROUGH MY THICK GLASSES was awarded the Moondance Columbine Award, which promotes and reflect non-violent conflict resolution, alternatives to violence, or shows why a violent resolution to conflict is counter-productive and inhumane. Being recognized alongside Sapegin for their work on the project were Marcel Jean and David Reiss-Anderson.
SCI FI Channel will start production on the six-hour miniseries THE TRIANGLE this week, in Cape Town, South Africa. Starring Eric Stoltz (PULP FICTION, MASK), Catherine Bell (JAG, BRUCE ALMIGHTY), Michael Rodgers (AUTO FOCUS), Bruce Davison (X-MEN) and Sam Neill (JURASSIC PARK), THE TRIANGLE is helmed by Craig Baxley (KINGDOM HOSPITAL). Hollywood's sci-fi standouts Dean Devlin (INDEPENDENCE DAY) and Bryan Singer (X-MEN) will exec produce with Devlin's Electric Ent. producing.
With principal photography set to begin Aug. 2, X-MEN 3 has now lost its director for the second time, reports the trades. Replacing Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-MEN films who left to helm SUPERMAN RETURNS, LAYER CAKE director Matthew Vaughn is now stepping down, citing personal reasons. The director had hoped to commute from his home in London to the shoot in Vancouver, but when that seemed impossible he decided that leaving the film was a better choice than uprooting his family.
Ben Burtt, sound designer for all the STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES films, is headed to Pixar Animation Studios, reports THE POST-STANDARD. Burtt said that he worked at Lucasfilm on a project-to-project basis and no new projects were in the works. Pixar gave him "the most attractive" of his offers, so he took it. One of the perks he cited was Pixar's Bay Area location, which has been his home for years.
Managing editor Rick DeMott reports back from E3 this week with a look at some of the hottest upcoming games, industry buzz (including how movie tie-ins are rapidly changing) and what we can expect from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the coming year.
Amberwood Ent. has entered into a master merchandising and licensing arrangement with RTI, a subsidiary of Gruppo Mediaset, for the animated series, THE SECRET WORLD OF BENJAMIN BEAR. RTI will undertake comprehensive merchandising of product based upon the series throughout Italy.
This series, commissioned by Canada's Family Channel, was co-produced with Scotland's Red Kite Productions and has been licensed in numerous territories worldwide.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences mailed entry forms on June 1, 2005 for the 2004 Scientific and Technical Awards to more than 850 companies and individuals, including past winners, within the sci-tech community both in the United States and abroad. All entry applications must be submitted to the Academy no later than Aug. 1, 2005.
In response to the changing commercial environment, Rhythm& Hues Studios is evolving its commercial group in the attempt of creating a new production model.
With the hiring of Paul Babb as its new live action exec producer, the studio has refocused its energies to create what it calls The Complete Digital Studio a full service shop for both advertising agencies and production companies.
The result: Rhythm & Hues Commercial Studios.
Expression College for Digital Arts has appointed Kirk Engel as ceo, replacing Peter Laanen. Engel comes to Expression with nearly 10 years of dedicated education management experience, and will execute and implement a clear set strategic direction, market position and education vision for Expression.
Massive Software is now offering a key advancement of the companys Academy Award-winning 3D animation system for AI-driven characters and digital stunts with Massive 2.0. The 2.0 release adds such features as Smart Stunts?, fully anti-aliased viewing of agents and scenes, facial blend shape support, new motion tree workflow and a host of updates that streamline and speed the softwares overall operation and UI.
Exodus Film Group announced the addition of two CG-animated features to their film slate THE HERO OF COLOR CITY and AMARILLO ARMADILLO. These two films are a direct response to overwhelming industry and investor interest in Exodus CG-Animated film IGOR, which is currently in production.
Entertainment Rights Plc announced that it has secured a commission from the BBC for a further 28 episodes of POSTMAN PAT. This agreement takes the total number of episodes and specials licensed to the BBC to 114 and adds to the long-term visibility of POSTMAN PAT on the children's broadcast platforms, BBC and CBeebies.
ADV Films announced two new hot new anime titles streeting May 31 the hit action comedy CYBERTEAM IN AKIHABARA 5 and the fantasy adventure SAINT SEIYA 12.
The WB Television Network will replace the Kids WB!, 3-5:00 pm timeslot with a branded general entertainment programming block Monday through Friday for its affiliate group of over 200 television stations beginning January 2006, it was announced today (may 31, 2005) by Garth Ancier, chairman of The WB. At the same time, the Kids WB! Saturday morning lineup, considered primetime for kids programming, will expand from four to five hours, running from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm, noon.
Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) had plenty to crow about and celebrate at its recent Fifth Annual International Upfronts event to launch to the international TV market 21 new and returning network series for the 05-06 season, the highest-ever number in the companys history. This count includes 11 returning series plus eight new scripted series and two fresh reality series.
DIC Ent. has promoted company veteran Shannon Nettleton to vp of production. She will oversee the production and post-production departments and will manage the efforts of DICs in-house production teams, as well as outside vendors and freelancers. She will supervise the companys slate of film, television and home entertainment productions and develop systems to maximize the efficiency of these projects.
Perhaps the just released ER: THE VIDEO GAME (May 31, 2005) is the prescription for TV vieiwers of the medical drama going through summer re-run withdrawal.
The ER game for PC combines the best of the popular strategy/role-playing genre with the top-rated television franchise, ER. Players of the game will get to interact with their favorite stars in dramatic and engaging storylines reminiscent of the TV show. The ER videogame features voices and likenesses of trademark cast members, including Noah Wyle, Mekhi Phifer and Sherry Stringfield.
Nominations for the VSDA's annual Home Entertainment Awards were announced by the Video Software Dealers Assn., with Disney/Pixars THE INCREDIBLES (Buena Vista Home Ent.) and DreamWorks SHREK 2 (DreamWorks Home Ent.) leading the pack with four nominations each. SHREK 2 earned an additional nomination for its GameCube videogame.
STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH continued its box office dominance for the second consecutive week, grabbing $70M for the four-day Memorial Day weekend ended May 30, 2005. That means that the final STAR WARS saga has earned $270.4M for Fox domestically, continuing to set records for nine-day to 12-day grosses. SITH has also earned $248.9M overseas.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the team that co-wrote THE ISLAND for Michael Bay, are tinkering on a script to put the Transformer toys on the big screen for what might be Bay's next project, according to SCI FI Wire.
"We're calling it CAMPBELL SOUP: THE MOVIE, because it's the ultimate product placement," Kurtzman told SCI FI Wire. "The big challenge is how do you do it without making it look like it's just about product placement."
BOXX Technologies introduces the GoBOXX 2300 mobile workstation, which offers creative pros a new 17 WUXGA widescreen panel at 1920x1200 resolutions. Supporting true HD resolution and driven by industry-leading NVIDIA the Quadro FX Go 1400 PCI-Express Open GL graphics or NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra graphics, the new 17 1920x1200 WUXGA GlassView Active Matrix display takes creative applications to new levels of visual quality and performance.
Rights management company Target Entertainment, acting as agent for Chapman Entertainment, has signed new TV deals for FIFI AND THE FLOWERTOTS in Asia and the Middle East. Target reps the stop-motion series from Chapman Ent., which continues to impress buyers across the globe, taking root in 42 territories that have picked up the rights to the TV series since its launch at MIPCOM 2004.
Alias will host the second annual Maya API Developers Conference in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6 8, 2005. Sponsored by HP, the three days of in-depth seminars and hands-on classes provide a rare chance to hear from Alias software developers and customers working in film and games industries, to network with industry peers and gain insight into the Maya API (Application Programming Interface).
The producing duo of Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are developing a third, scaled-down RING movie, according to SCI FI Wire. The husband-and-wife producing team is planning a different approach and may not need the same mother and son cast of Naomi Watts and David Dorfman, who were in the first two horror movies.
Parkes added, "It's easy to scale down RING 3 as a small picture that's not incredibly expensive. By its very nature it can be a small movie and doesn't need the same cast."
When Nike needed innovative animations to showcase its new Air Jordan XX (AJXX), the new, advanced basketball shoe, it turned to New York City-based creative collective Tronic Studio, continuing a two-year collaboration.
Tronic previously worked with Nike on the products featured on Nikelab, and as part of the Nike Speed campaign they directed and animated the fully-CG short film, A LONG TIME AGO, TOMORROW, which documents one man's attempt to travel at the speed of light.
