The Gnomon Workshop, in conjunction with Design Studio Press, introduced two new DVDs from returning artist Harald Belker, whose titles cover car and prop design for films and games. In addition, Nick Pugh joins the library this month, offering three noteworthy DVDs on design originality, creature design and environment rendering.
Avid Technology Inc. announced the 25,000th download of the trial version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI Foundation, the $495 version of the companys high-end XSI modeling and animation package. At SIGGRAPH 2004, XSI Foundation was a key element of the company's 3-Democracy strategy, making the industrys advanced 3D content creation software accessible to all levels of CG professionals.
Justin Lin, director of the Sundance hit BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, has been signed to direct THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS 3. The Universal Pictures release will be produced by Neal H. Moritz, who served in the same capacity on the other films in the series. The third film was written by Chris Morgan (CELLULAR), who places the third entry in Tokyo: in the underground world of Japanese drift racing. Plans call for the film to begin production in the fall 2005.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3, starring Tom Cruise, will commence principal photography on July 18 in Italy. The film, to be directed by J. J. Abrams and filmed on locations across Europe, the U.S. and Asia, is scheduled to be released May 5, 2006. Cruise and his partner, Paula Wagner, will produce for Cruise/Wagner Prods.
IDT Ent. announced it has signed a two-year, multi-picture distribution deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Under terms of the agreement, Twentieth Century Fox will distribute CG animated theatrical releases produced by IDT Ent.
Walt Disney Co. ceo-elect Bob Iger on Tuesday (June 7, 2005) said he had "really good" talks with Pixar Animation Studios Inc., reports RUETERS. He told investors at a Deutsche Bank conference that it was too early to tell if a new agreement would be reached.
"I'm not sure I really want to give you odds. We've had really good discussions," Iger said.
Sesame Workshop has promoted Carol-Lynn Parente from senior producer to exec producer, SESAME STREET. Parente will be responsible for the overall production process of the domestic program, reporting to Liz Nealon, evp/creative director.
Joe Dante's PIRANHA will get an update care of new production firm Chiller Films, reports VARIETY. Chuck Russell (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3) is set to rewrite the script, using elements from spec script KILLER FISH by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger plus the original's script by John Sayles, which was based on a story by Richard Robertson. Chiller will co-produce the film with Intellectual Properties Worldwide.
Sony Pictures Releasing has pushed the release of THE PINK PANTHER from Aug. 5 to Feb. 10, 2006, according to trades. Sony acquired the Shawn Levy-directed/ Steve Martin-starrer through its purchase on MGM.
"With the recent acquisition of MGM, we wanted to give our marketing department the time and opportunity to launch this very important franchise," said Sony Pictures Releasing president Rory Bruer. "We've seen the movie, and we really love this film. It's a franchise we believe in and are really excited about, and Steve Martin is great as Clouseau."
FUNimation Prods. has acquired North American rights for the 24-episode BASILISK anime series produced by Gonzo Digimation, reports ICv2.com. Based on the manga by Futaro Yamada and Masaki Segawa published by Kodansha, the show mixes aspects of the ninja and horror genre with a ROMEO & JULIET romance between the leaders of two mutant ninja clans. Set in the early 17th Century, BASILISK can also be seen as a new take on the martial arts "tournament" genre since ten representatives from two ninja clans fight to the death.
MORE SENSITIVE, an animated film about a musician playing before a drunken, oblivious audience in a piano bar, was awarded Best Animation at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto this past weekend.
This is the second award for MORE SENSITIVE, which also won the Government of Canada Best Short Animation Award at the Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival in February 2004. Since then it has screened at 20 festivals across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia.
1st Goyang International Childrens Film Festival (GICFF)Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South KoreaAugust 18 25, 2005Deadline: June 10, 2005
Slamdance Film Festival 2006Park City, Utah, USAJanuary 19-27, 2006Deadline: October 11, 2005
The 12th annual Slamdance Film Festival is a leading independent film festival taking shorts and features. Slamdance is currently accepting submissions. The early deadline is Aug. 29 for all films. The final shorts deadline is Oct. 11. The final features deadline is Oct. 17. Go to www.slamdance.com for more information or to download an application.
The Delaware Chancery Court has ruled that the lawsuit brought by Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold against the Walt Disney Co. and eight directors can go forward with an expedited trial date of August 2005.
The lawsuit, which was filed on May 9, 2005, alleges that the Walt Disney Co. board made false statements to the company's shareholders about its ceo search in order to induce shareholders to vote for the incumbent board at the 2005 annual meeting and to induce Disney and Gold not to run an alternate slate of directors at the meeting.
Luxology, the creators of modo, a leading subdivision surface and polygonal 3D modeling platform, announced the availability of an enhanced version of modos end-user license agreement, which gives users the right to both Mac and Windows versions when they purchase modo. Luxologys licensing strategy is a natural extension of the companys trusting relationship with customers and commitment to delivering solutions that enable designers to work with greater freedom and speed.
3Dlabs announced that the Wildcat Realizm 800 professional graphics accelerator has been selected for the HP Tested & Certified graphics program. With the Wildcat Realizm 800 utilizing the PCI Express professional graphics solution, the HP xw4200 and xw8200 workstations can provide considerable power and system throughput that design professionals require.
BOXX Technologies is now shipping its 7400 Series of high-performance workstations featuring Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors. Dual-Core AMD64 technology is a natural extension of AMDs Direct Connect Architecture, directly connecting CPU, memory and I/O resources as opposed to having these resources accessed via a front-side bus.
House of Moves, a division of Vicon Motion Systems, has debuted a new motion capture service that records facial and full-body data. With more directable, holistic and complete performance, it replaces the long-standing process of motion-capturing faces, hands and bodies of performers in separate sessions with a creative and cost-effective workflow that is destined to become the new norm.
Leading post-production boutique Post Logic Studios has added three new members to its management team as the company prepares to roll out a multimillion-dollar capital expansion under the leadership of president Steve Hendricks.
Starlight Home Ent. has released the childrens classic DAVEY AND GOLIATH VOLUME 1 on DVD. The nostalgic stop-motion animated series will be released in a special edition collectors set loaded with tons of extras. DAVEY AND GOLIATH originally aired on network TV from 1960-1975, with special seasonal TV airings seen throughout the years. VOLUME 1 will hit shelves on June 7, 2005, and sell for $19.99.
Effective July 18, 2005, the entire Manga Ent. Inc. catalogue will be distributed by Anchor Bay Ent. Canada. Manga was previously distributed in Canada by Sony Music Video.
Messengers dressed as the lead space marine in Microsoft videogame HALO descended on the studios June 6 with the screenplay based on the bestselling franchise, reports VARIETY. Microsoft and Bungie Studios paid 28 DAYS LATER writer Alex Garland $1 million to pen the script. Microsoft has also tapped former Columbia Pictures president Peter Schlessel to shepherd the project as well as serve as a producer.
Paramount has stopped development on the highly-anticipated film adaptation of the classic comicbook series, THE WATCHMEN, according to VARIETY. The studio has now put the project into turnaround, allowing producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin to shop the Paul Greengrass (THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) directed project to other studios.
Warner Bros. Animation and the Kids WB! announced the all-star voice cast for the Looney Tunes-inspired series, LOONATICS UNLEASHED, set to debut on Kids WB! in fall 2005. Headlining the ensemble cast for the series are Emmy Award-winning Rob Paulsen (PINKY & THE BRAIN, ANIMANIACS), Emmy Award-nominated Kevin Michael Richardson (THE BATMAN, THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS), Charlie Schlatter (DIAGNOSIS MURDER, FERRIS BUELLER), Jason Marsden (SPIRITED AWAY, STATIC SHOCK), Candi Milo (¡MUCHA LUCHA!, DEXTERS LABORATORY) and newcomer Jessica DiCicco (THE BUZZ ON MAGGIE).
With vfx and animation flicks KILL BILL VOL. 2, SPIDER-MAN 2 and THE INCREDIBLES being beat out my indie nerd fest NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, the big vfx winner of the night was THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW for its destruction of Los Angeles sequence as the Best Action Sequence. Other animation related news includes CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY from Vivendi Universal Games winning the award for Best Videogame Based on a Movie.
