Five films have made the cut for the 8th Annual HBO Short Film Award, with the filmmakers attending Film Life's 9th Annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) in South Beach, Miami, July 13-17, for the final round of competition. Film Life Inc. and Time Warner, with HBO as founding sponsor, will present the festival.
From co-publishers Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Ent., the BATMAN BEGINS videogame has hit retail shelves nationwide for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance. The game, based on the Warner Bros. Pictures film BATMAN BEGINS and DC Comics' legendary character, is rated "T for Teen."
Disney has hired Jonathan Mostow to direct its remake of SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, according to VARIETY. Mostow will also rewrite Greg Poirier first draft with Sam Montgomery, Mostow's writing partner on his directorial efforts, BREAKDOWN and U-571. Mandeville's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce the flick.
The remake will take the tale of the shipwrecked family back to the book's 19th-century period.
The film is set to go before cameras in Australia next year. Disney svp Karen Glass is overseeing.
Columbia Pictures is hammering out deals with Ray Winstone (KING ARTHUR), Anthony Hopkins (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), Brendan Gleeson (TROY) and Robin Wright Penn (FORREST GUMP) to star in director Robert Zemeckis' BEOWULF, reports VARIETY. Steve Bing's Shangri-La Ent. is producing the performance capture feature.
Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman have adapted the Old English epic poem about a knight who slays the monster Grendel and becomes king. Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke are producing. Martin Shafer will exec produce with the trio writers.
Genre experts Ghost House Pictures will finance and develop the frightening family spec MONKEY'S PAW, from scribes Dave Kajganich and Tom McAlister, according to VARIETY. Ghost House toppers Sam Raimi and Rob Taper will produce along with Kustom Ent. head Tom Lassally and Kustom's Robyn Meisinger.
The story follows a father and his family after a wish-granting artifact begins to wreck havoc on their lives.
Vfx studio Digital Dimension recently contributed a series of high-powered visual effects for MR. & MRS. SMITH, creating 26 explosive shots for the smash movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as assassins.
BATMAN BEGINS all right! Comic maven Danny Fingeroth gets to the bottom of Chris Nolans reinvented Dark Knight, which opened Wednesday at midnight. He not only discovers how Double Negative, Moving Picture Co.
The Tampa-based animation studio Tri-Dimensional Animation Studio has completed production on THE STORY TELLER CAFÉ Episode 5 for the Christian Broadcast Network. THE STORY TELLER CAFÉ is the first of 10 episodes the network hired Tri-Dimensional Studios to continue production on, in its successful and award-winning childrens animated series.
3Dlabs Inc. announced that the Wildcat Realizm 800 professional graphics accelerator has been selected by Fujitsu Siemens Computers for its Celsius R630 high-end workstations. Harnessing the power of two onboard Visual Processing Units (VPUs), the Wildcat Realizm 800 is a performance leader.
ART VPS has released a new 64-bit version of its RenderDrive network system that can accommodate up to 48 of the company's AR350 dedicated raytracing processors. This comes on the heels of last weeks release of the new Pure PCI-X raytracing card, offering twice the processing power of its predecessor.
Rendercore Inc., a leader in remote rendering solutions, has appointed production expert Marty Shindler to its advisory board. Shindler is the ceo of The Shindler Perspective Inc., a management-consulting firm for award-winning entertainment and technology companies.
McDonalds Corp. has named DIC Ent. (DIC) as its worldwide licensing agent for active play toys, entertainment and apparel as well as other concepts to come. DIC will develop comprehensive new programs and products for McDonalds McKids brand slated to rollout in 2005 and 2006.
Nicktoons has announced that Digital-Tutors has joined the lineup of sponsors for the 2005 NEXTOONS: THE NICKTOONS FILM FESTIVAL. Digital-Tutors, a creative training development company based in Oklahoma City, is providing several prizes to 2005 film festival winners and entries placing in the top 10.
With a December production start for James Cameron's BATTLE ANGEL, the Oscar-winning director is already readying another feature tentatively titled PROJECT 880, his Lightstorm Ent. told the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Cameron plans to shot the film in 3D with custom-designed high-definition cameras as well as a photo-real performance capture technology.
Lightstorm did not give details about PROJECT 880, but did say that Cameron may choose to film that project before BATTLE ANGEL, which has become a difficult film to adapt from Yukito Kishiro's 12 popular Japanese graphic novels.
Germany's Constantin Film and Impact Pictures have already begun pre-production on RESIDENT EVIL 4 before even filming the third film in the series, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The fourth film will take place in Tokyo.
The third film, RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, will begins shooting in Australia in either Nov. or Dec. AFTERLIFE will be set in the Nevada desert and then shift to Japan in the third act, setting up the fourth installment.
After putting the pieces in place, Sumner M. Redstone, chairman/ceo of Viacom Inc. announced today (June 14, 2005) that the companys board of directors has unanimously approved the creation of two separate publicly traded companies from the companys leading entertainment brands through a spin-off to Viacom stockholders.
The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films & Film Market Palm Springs, California, USASeptember 20 - 26, 2005Deadline: June 24, 2005
FirstGlance Hollywood Film Fest 2005Hollywood, California, USADecember 2005Deadline: July 1, 2005
2005 Austin Film FestivalAustin, Texas, USAOctober 20-27, 2005Deadline: July 15, 2005
Lions Gate Entertainment Toronto has restructured its international operations to reflect continued growth of its feature film and television businesses with Nicolas Meyer, president of Lions Gate International, solely overseeing the international division of Lions Gate Ent. with two newly created executive positions that will report directly to him.
Luxology announced that modo, a leading subdivision surface and polygonal 3D modeling platform, is compatible with Apples new Intel Processor-based Macs. modos highly adaptable architecture will enable Luxologys customers to access this advanced technology as soon as its released.
Disneys latest DVD prequel, TARZAN II (Walt Disney Home Ent., $29.99), comes off the vine June 14, 2005. Directed and co-written by Brian Smith (POCAHONTAS II), the Disney Toon Studios release focuses on young Tarzans realization that he is not an ape and his quest to discover his true identity. Voice cast includes Harrison Chad, Brenda Grate, George Carlin, Brad Garrett, Estelle Harris, Lance Henriksen, Harrison Fahn and Glenn Close. Contains a trio of new songs by Phil Collins.
Bonus features include:
Continuing our special event specific Flash Newsletters, AWN will continue with its coverage of SIGGRAPH and has added an additional newsletter for Comic-Con. These two important events are fast approaching and our editorial and advertising staff is gearing up for the Flash Newsletter series.
