Paramount Home Ent. has greenlit the first feature length production of QUEER DUCK THE MOVIE from four-time Emmy award-winning creator and writer Mike Reiss (THE SIMPSONS, THE CRITIC). The original shorts were broadcast on the Net on Icebox.com and later aired on Showtime.
The pro-Israeli Middle East Media Research Institute is reporting that Iranian state-sponsored IRIB TV has aired two childrens cartoons promoting anti-Israeli propaganda, including suicide bombing.
Though its not new for politicians to us animation in their campaigns, more and more politicians are turning to Web animation to get their message out, according to an AP report.
The often-satirical ads are cheap to produce and have the potential to be spread to many voters quickly over the Net.
With lucrative state tax incentives in play, Digital Domains long-in-the-works project INSTANT KARMA is aptly named. The Louisiana Capital Area Economic Development Allies (LaCAEDA) announced that Emerald Bayou Studios has played a critical role in obtaining state certification for the feature film. This partnership was announced during a press conference at AFM.
YTV has announces its November 2005 lineup, which features the debut of an all-new episode of SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, Have You Seen This Snail?
Leading up to the premiere, YTV celebrates with two SPONGEBOB programming events, starting on Sunday, Nov. 13 from 8:00 am to 11:00 am, with back-to-back non-stop episodes of viewer favorites. Followed by The Zone on Monday, Nov. 14 where co-hosts Sugar and Carlos introduce back-to-back episodes dedicated to SpongeBobs special pet, Gary the Snail, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.
The third Hanna-Barbera studio reunion dinner has been postponed until Feb. 3, 2006, 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. The dinner was originally scheduled for Nov. 4.
Cost is $30 per person with an entrée choice of prime rib, chicken, salmon or vegetarian. Checks, payable to The Animation Guild, may be sent to the Guild office, 4729 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood, California, 91602-1864 and mark the envelope, Hanna-Barbera Reunion.
IGPX, a co-production between Cartoon Network, Japanese animation studio Production I.G and Bandai Entertainment, debuts on Nov. 5, 2005, at 10:00 pm. IGPX is the first original series produced for Toonami, Cartoon Networks action programming block that first brought anime to wide television audiences in the U.S.
Following the success of the Cartoon Network block on kabel eins, which launched in September 2005, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) is now creating Boomerang for Germany. It will launch on Kabel Deutschland in the second quarter of 2006 and will be broadcast on Kabel Digital HOME. Further platforms are planned.
Sony Pictures Ent. (SPE) has created a new department, Corporate Alliances, to maximize collaboration with other Sony groups.
Toshino Yuhaku has been named vp, Corporate Alliances. Yuhaku is an 11-year Sony vet with experience in Sony offices in Japan and America. Yuhaku will report to Beth Berke, evp/cao for SPE, who announced the departments creation.
The move reflects SPEs support of the initiative recently presented by Sir Howard Stringer, Sony Corp. chairman/ceo, called Sony United.
THQ Inc. has shipped globally THE INCREDIBLES: RISE OF THE UNDERMINER videogame for play on PlayStation2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS and Windows PC/Mac. This is the followup to the hit videogame, THE INCREDIBLES, inspired by a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animations Studios film, THE INCREDIBLES.
Graham King's Initial Ent. Group has obtained international distribution rights for Revolution Studios' Philip K. Dick adaptation, NEXT, according to VARIETY. As part of the deal, King will gain a producer credit on the film along with star Nicolas Cage, Norm Golightly, Todd Garner and Arne Schmidt.
IDT Ent. today (Nov. 3, 2005) agreed to acquire a major Australian-based independent distributor of theatrical, video and DVD product, Imagine Ent. This increases Imagines offerings with the assets of IDT Ent.s home entertainment subsidiary, Anchor Bay, an established leader in the field that boasts an expansive selection of theatrical films, television series and childrens and fitness titles.
Producer/director/animator Don Bluth and his artistic partner, Gary Goldman, signed a major gift agreement to give Savannah College of Art and Design a collection of more than one million pieces of art including animation cels, drawings and by these animation legends.
SCAD will honor Bluth and Goldman at the Savannah Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Animation on Nov. 5 at 7:00 pm.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Science and Technology Council will hold a screening and panel discussion about the duality of animation and live action on Dec. 6, 2005, at 7:30 pm in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre.
There has always been a unique fascination with combining animation and live performances. Now, due to advances in digital imaging technology, animation is being used by filmmakers to complement or even replace live action, which is completely changing the dynamic of blended cinema.
POSEIDON and SUPERMAN RETURNS are the latest Warner Bros. tentpole pictures to get the large format IMAX treatment. Wolfgang Petersens remake of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (with vfx from ILM and MPC) will be released May 12, 2006, on both conventional and IMAX screens. Bryan Singers SUPERMAN RETURNS (with vfx from Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rhythm + Hues, The Orphanage and Rising Sun Pictures, among others) follows the same release pattern on June 30, 2006.
Paul W.S. Anderson, who developed a name for turning videogames into feature films such as RESIDENT EVIL and MORTAL COMBAT, has been hired by Steven Paul's Crystal Sky Pictures to turn Konami videogame franchise CASTLEVANIA into a feature, reports VARIETY. Anderson will write and direct the film. Paul and Crystal Sky president Benedict Carver will produce alongside Impact Pictures Anderson and Jeremy Bolt. The story will chronicle the origins of Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont Clan. Mid-2006 is set for production to start and no cast has yet been set.
Due to New Lines stalled development of an IRON MAN feature, Marvel has regained the film rights to the comicbook franchise, reports VARIETY. After the project was in development hell for more than two years, the franchises option expired this summer and Marvel opted not to renew with New Line. Now the feature will start from scratch at Marvel with a new script, which will either be produced in-house or licensed to another studio.
Rogue Films, the genre arm of Focus Features, has tapped the domestic distribution rights to HIGH TENSION director Alexandre Ajas forthcoming supernatural horror flick, THE WAITING, VARIETY reports. Rogue purchased the film from Gold Circle Films and Craven/Maddalena Films. Mandate holds the international rights.
Juried prizewinners were announced for the 2005 Bethel Film Festival. Taking the Best Animation award was FLYAWAY from director Danny Oakley. The short film was produced by Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Out Of Our Minds Animation Studio, which landed nearly $2 million in funding from private investors for the production of its first feature-length animated film, MAGISTICAL, earlier this summer.
Michael Helfant joins Marvel Ent. Inc. as president/coo of the company's Marvel Studios division based in Beverly Hills.
GenArts Inc., a leading provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industry, announced a special price promotion on their Sapphire Plug-ins for Avid AVX products.
Throughout the month of November, the price tag for the full package of Sapphire Plug-ins for Avid is being reduced by 15%. Savings range from $270 on Avid Xpress Pro HD to $720 on Avid DS Nitris. Contact an authorized Avid reseller or visit www.genarts.com for more specific pricing information. To benefit from the promotion, orders must be received by Nov. 30.
Rushes Postproduction Ltd. has signed visual effects artist Dave Kiddie.
He has built up an impressive list of credits over the last seven years, gaining extensive experience on high-end commercials for the likes of Coca-Cola and Barclays, as well as working on music videos for some of the worlds biggest artists, including Kylies Cant Get You Out Of My Head and The Streets Blinded by the Lights. He has also worked on slick and stylized feature films such as MEAN MACHINE and broadcast work for the BBC.
Faced with a revenue slowdown and budget tightening, Warner Bros. Ent. plans to layoff 400 employees companywide in Burbank, 250 of which were notified on Wednesday, VARIETY reports. There are currently 4,550 employed at the Burbank studio.
Each of the studios four divisions is affected: Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Home Ent. Group, Warner Bros. Television Group and Warner Bros. Consumer Products in addition to the studios new specialty division, Warner Independent Pictures, which was slashed by 10%, including production head Michael Andreen.
This week Alain Bielik reports on a new, high-profile French feature, LES CHEVALIERS DU CIEL (loosely translated as KNIGHTS OF THE SKY), which is based on a cult TV series from the 60s and a series of graphic novels before that. The action-adventure contains around 700 aerial vfx shots from La Maison, Paris, marking the largest photoreal vfx movie ever made in France.
Activision Inc. has shipped CALL OF DUTY 2: BIG RED ONE to stores nationwide. Developed by Treyarch, the game allows players to put on the boots of the highly decorated WWII heroes of the U.S. Army's famed Fighting 1st Infantry Division, known as The Big Red One. In a departure for the CALL OF DUTY franchise, players will get to know their squadmates more than ever before as they fight alongside a single squad to accomplish a variety of missions spanning from Northern Africa to Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
