AWN Headline News

Corner Stone Animation announced that PBS KIDS has committed to airing 26 half-hour episodes of BETSYS KINDERGARTEN ADVENTURES, the animated educational preschool television series. The series features a dream team of voice-over talent, composed of Daveigh Chase (LILO & STITCH), Nancy Cartwright (THE SIMPSONS), Fred Willard (CHICKEN LITTLE), Vicki Lewis (FINDING NEMO), Bess Armstrong (MY SO-CALLED LIFE), Sally Struthers (ALL IN THE FAMILY), Cree Summer (X-MEN LEGENDS), Richard Horvitz (POWER RANGER) and Tom Bosley (HAPPY DAYS).

Universal Studios Consumer Products Group and Playmates Toys announced a domestic licensing agreement, whereby Playmates will serve as the master toy licensee for the upcoming animated television series, THE LAND BEFORE TIME. The 22-minute animated series will air on Cartoon Network beginning spring 2007. The toy line will launch in fall 2007 with the introduction of a full line of figures, vehicles, playsets and plush.

Steven Billing, writer and co-creator of the Broadway-bound musical TUSK, says the production is headed for animation. TUSK is the award-winning musical, which was part of the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival in Manhattan. Billing is in negotiations with a Florida-based animation company that is interested in developing it into a feature film. TUSK premiered on stage in Albany, New York at The EGG Theater and on Broadway the following year in New York City. Billing is in negotiations with three theaters to have TUSK on stage again in the early part of 2007.

Sydney, Australia writer/director Anny Slater's comedy animation BARNEY THE WHITE HOUSE TERRIER has been selected to screen at the Oscars qualifying Chicago International Children's Film Festival. Films that win at the festival are automatically short listed for nomination at the 2008 Oscars. The same film is one of only nine short films screened at the Boston Comedy Festival, where comedians Denis Leary and Lewis Black will be performing.

The film is an imagined conversation between President Bush's dog Barney and his secret service agent.

InfoSpace Inc. has signed deals with Classic Media and Bagdasarian Prods. to bring some of the worlds most famous classic movie and TV stars to mobile, including Alvin & the Chipmunks, Rocky & Bullwinkle and a host of others.

Jonathan Mostow (TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES) has boarded Universal Pictures long-in-development comicbook adaptation of Marvels SUB-MARINER, reports VARIETY. Mostow will rewrite the script and direct.

Created by Bill Everett in April 1939, the comic told the tale of a young man who learns that he's a descendant of Atlantis, eventually becoming a key player in a war between the underwater world and the land dwelling world, which is all he has known.