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AWN Headline News

Headline News

CG Pioneer Bill Kovacs Passes Away

Bill Kovacs, who co-founded Wavefront Technologies, earned a 1997 Academy Award for science and engineering innovations and who worked as a programmer on TRON, passed away last Tuesday at his home in Camarillo, California. Kovacs, who was 56, died of a stroke in his sleep brought on by a cerebral hemorrhage.

Effects Headline News

Bluescreen Developer Arthur Widmer Dies at 92

Arthur Widmer, who developed some of the most widely used visual effects technology in films, including the bluescreen, and earned an Academy Award last year for lifetime achievement, died of cancer on May 28. He was 92.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Widmer the award for his work in developing Ultra Violet and bluescreen effects processes.

Animation Headline News

AWN Discussion Forums - What's New? for June 5, 2006

This week in AWN's Forums, more members chime in on what an aspiring animator can expect. Another thread discusses character design copyright buyout rates. Others are discussing the animation program at Full Sail. Fans of Disney and Miyazaki square off in a battle over what animation innovator is better. A senior member is looking for other AWNers attending Annecy. In the Animators Desktop forums, members are discussing Cintiq and Tablet Based Animation.

Spot Headline News

Break-Up Tops X-Men

Universals romantic comedy, THE BREAK-UP, debuted at $39.1M, good enough to upend Foxs X-MEN: THE LAST STAND from the top spot at the box office for the weekend ended June 4, 2006. After its record Memorial opening, THE LAST STAND (with vfx from Cinesite, Framestore CFC, MPC and Weta Digital, among others) dropped to second place with $34M and a cume of $175.3M. DreamWorks animated comedy, OVER THE HEDGE, held the third spot with $20.6M and a cume of $112.3M.

Nick Headline News

Nick Jr. To Debut New Original Mini Pilots

Nick Jr. has announced that it will debut new, original mini pilots across multiple platforms with the first window kicking off on wireless carriers beginning Tuesday, June 6. The three mini pilots, originated from Nick Jr.s Institute of Applied Play, will premiere on wireless carriers marking the networks first-ever launch of original short-form content on a wireless platform. Nick Jr. will continue the multi-platform roll-out of the mini pilots PASS THE PINHA, JINNY STARFLY and ALL ABOARD on Nick Jr.

Headline News

Pee-wee’s Playhouse Makes TV Return on Adult Swim

PEE-WEES PLAYHOUSE, the winner of 22 Emmy Awards, returns to TV, joining the Adult Swim lineup beginning Monday, July 10. The acclaimed series, which has been largely absent from the airwaves for nearly 15 years, stars Paul Reubens as his alter-ego Pee-wee Herman, and features a rich cast of characters who drop by the place where anything can happen.

Films Headline News

Rob Zombie to Helm Halloween Re-imagining

Dimension Films has announced that they will make a new HALLOWEEN movie with Rob Zombie (THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES) writing, directing and serving as a producer. Malek Akkad of Trancas Intl Films (HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER) will produce along with Andy Gould of Vision Ent. Group (THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES). Zombie will also serve as music supervisor. Miramax Films will co-finance the development with Dimension Films.

Headline News

WB Builds Casey Affleck’s Ark

Warner Bros. has acquired the animated family script, AARDVARK ART'S ARK, from Casey Affleck, who is set will exec produce, reports VARIETY. The story centers on the adventures of an animal family aboard Noah's Ark. Afflecks previous screenwriting credit was with Matt Damon on Gus Van Sants GERRY.

Show Headline News

American Dad Gets 22 More Episodes

Fox has greenlit 22 additional episodes of AMERICAN DAD, extending the shows run through the 2007-08 TV season, reports the trades. In the fall, the series will move to the coveted timeslot following THE SIMPSONS.

"It's definitely a good show of faith," said exec producer Mike Barker. "From a writing standpoint, we feel there's certainly a lot of things left to explore in our characters. We never realized there'd be so many layers to a right-wing, conservative father.

Animation Headline News

Toon Boom Animation Acquires Pegs

Emmy award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Pegsn Co, a privately held developer of 2D bitmap animation technology.

"Toon Booms software solutions are recognized as the market leading technology in the animation industry and the integration of Pegs technology in Toon Booms portfolio will enable the company to continue delivering quality, efficiency and reliability to the animation community - for all animation styles, formats and users," said Joan Vogelesang, president/ceo at Toon Boom.

Marvel Headline News

Avi Arad Leaves Marvel Stewardship to Produce Independently

Marvel Ent. Inc. has entered into a new arrangement with Avi Arad to independently produce films for Marvel under his own production company banner, Avi Arad Prods. Arad will remain actively involved in Marvel's upcoming film slate, including IRON MAN and HULK, the first two films anticipated to be financed and produced by Marvel under its new film financing slate.

Effects Headline News

RE:Vision Effects Adds Mac Updates to After Effects Plug-Ins

RE:Vision Effects has upgrades for its Macintosh After Effects-compatible plug-ins. Notably, all of their plug-ins that work within Final Cut Pro (that is, all of their products except RE:Flex) now run in FCP 5.1 on Intel Macs. The latest updates also run significantly faster within Adobe After Effects 7.0 on G5 CPU Macintoshes running Tiger (OS 10.4).

Upgrades are free if the main version number of a product is the same as the main version number of the license purchased.

RE:Vision Effects updated plug-ins consist of:

Headline News

Thursdays Are !mpossible on Discovery Channel

Thursday nights will never be the same after watching an imaginative Discovery Channel promo campaign created by !mpossible Pictures. Charged with "branding the night," the award-winning creative digital studio has designed and produced a series of 12 high-concept animated promos and banners, including the recent Discovery Channel "Atmosfearic Thursdays" and "Conspiracy Thursdays."

Animation Headline News

Crest Animation Studios Moves to Bigger Facility & Lands $18 Million Contract

Mumbai-based Crest Animation Studios Ltd., one of Indias leading animation studios has moved to a new state-of-the-art digital studio in Ghatkopar and has landed a big series deal with French producer Marathon.

The shift to this spacious 45,000-square-foot studio will accommodate the companys expansion plans to moves up from work for hire into production of its own full-length 3D animation feature films for a global audience.

Animation Headline News

Crest Animation Studios Moves to Bigger Facility & Lands $18 Million Contract

Mumbai-based Crest Animation Studios Ltd., one of Indias leading animation studios has moved to a new state-of-the-art digital studio in Ghatkopar and has landed a big series deal with French producer Marathon.

The shift to this spacious 45,000-square-foot studio will accommodate the companys expansion plans to moves up from work for hire into production of its own full-length 3D animation feature films for a global audience.

Motion Headline News

Vicon, House of Moves Open New L.A. MoCap Studio

Vicon and House of Moves, the company's motion capture service division, announced the opening of a new 25,000-square foot facility in Los Angeles. The studio brings together House of Moves' motion capture production services with Vicons world-leading hardware and software development, product support and consulting to uniquely provide film, games and television customers end-to-end motion capture resources and services under one roof.

Animation Headline News

Tokyo Banks Help Animation Biz

Banks in Japan are underwriting a new scheme for animation content development, backed by the Tokyo city government, reports VARIETY. Development Bank of Japan will kick in $460,000 and New Bank Tokyo is giving $640,000 for the initiative.

Last year, the Tokyo city government announced an official policy of supporting the local animation industry through financial and other measures.

Star Headline News

Laura’s Star Rises on DVD

LAURA'S STAR, the acclaimed German animated feature, directed by Thilo Gruf Rothkirch and Piet de Rycker (THE LITTLE POLAR BEAR), makes its way to DVD Sept. 26 (Warner Home Video, $14.98).

LAURA'S STAR was released theatrically in Europe and won numerous awards, including the Adults Jury Price, Animation, at the 2005 Chicago International Children's Film Festival, a Lola for Outstanding Children or Youth Film Award at the 2005 German Film Awards, and was nominated for Best Film at the 2005 Carrousel International du Film.

Home Headline News

MGM Reorganizes Distribution for DVD and TV

After reinventing itself and launching a New Media division, MGM will now reestablish its worldwide TV distribution in-house and consolidate its DVD business with Twentieth Century Fox rather than splitting home entertainment releases between Sony Pictures Ent. and Fox. It should be noted that both Sony and Fox are aligned with the Blu-ray format for high-def DVD. Additionally, MGM and Fox will continue their successful international theatrical distribution relationship.

Series Headline News

Marty Krofft’s NYC SuperShow

By Guest (not verified) | Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 12:00am

On May 22, 2006, half of the sibling duo that created some of the 1970s most fondly remembered childrens TV shows spoke at NYCs Makor Center. On tour to promote the ongoing Rhino Video release of his and brother Sids classic series, Marty Krofft looked back at their creation and shared some surprising news about their return.

Headline News

CinemaNow to Offer Download-To-Own Disney Movies

CinemaNow Inc. has struck a non-exclusive agreement with Buena Vista Home Ent. (BVHE) to offer Disney movies on a download-to-own basis through its website. BVHE will additionally offer select new movies beginning with GLORY ROAD on June 6, which will coincide with the timing of its DVD release. This agreement will also allow on demand viewers to move their content onto approved portable devices.

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