Search form

AWN Headline News

Headline News

Alliance Gaming Plans Name Change to Bally Technologies

Alliance Gaming Corp. plans to officially change the name of the Company to Bally Technologies Inc. to more appropriately reflect the company's focus on technology and innovation and to further build on the powerful Bally brand.

Upon approval of shareholders, the name change would be officially announced at the annual meeting of shareholders on March 6, 2006. Bally Technologies, Inc. is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BYI as early as March 7, 2006.

Television Headline News

HIT Ups Marie Chappelow to VP, TV Distribution — EMEA

Continuing HIT Ent.s (HIT) internal restructure of its London office, Marie Chappelow has been promoted from head of International TV & Video to vp, Television Distribution EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Chappelow, who has been with the HIT for five years, will focus in her new role exclusively on managing the television side of the business in the crucial EMEA region, including sales to all broadcast and new media platforms.

Autodesk Headline News

Autodesk Technology Highlight Super Bowl XL Ads

Many of the commercials airing during last night's Super Bowl XL were shaped with Autodesk's products, including software gained from its recent acquisition of Alias. Post-production facilities used Autodesk technology to realize ideas for Aleve, Bud Light, Gillette, Honda and many other Super Bowl commercials.

Headline News

Rendercore Supports Maxon Cinema 4D HAIR Module

Rendercore Inc., a worldwide leader in remote rendering solutions, announced the complete integration and support for the recently introduced HAIR module from Maxon.

This new module lets users quickly and easily add astonishingly realistic hair to objects. The hair can be styled using HAIR's extensive tool palette, and a custom 3D shader gives artists complete control over the appearance of the hair. HAIR is not only easy to use, it's very fast, offers excellent rendering quality and requires very little memory. An average configuration can easily render millions of hairs.

Headline News

Stranger Dials Super Bowl Record

For the third consecutive year, Screen Gems has offered up record Super Bowl openings, and this year the remake of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS scared up $21.6M against the Big Game for the weekend ended Feb. 5, 2006. Fox's BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2 slipped to second with $13.6M and a two-week cume of $45.6M. Following in third was Universal's NANNY MCPHEE (with vfx from Framestore CFC), bringing home $9.7M and $26.5M. Focus Features' Oscar favorite, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, climbed to the fourth spot with $6M, as it expanded to 2,089 screens.

Headline News

Digital-Tutors Releases ZBrush and Maya Training

Digital-Tutors announced the availability of the ZBRUSH AND MAYA INTEGRATION training kit, the newest release in an expanding library of interactive video-based training. Ideal for students, professionals and companies using ZBrush as part of their creative workflow, ZBRUSH AND MAYA INTEGRATION provides a unique approach to learning breakthrough concepts with more than five hours of comprehensive training.

Visual Headline News

Ocean Visual FX Launches Studio

Visual effects and 3D animation studio Ocean Visual FX has been formed in Huntington Beach, California, to design and produce effects and animation for feature films, broadcast and corporate marketing, according to Robbie Robfogel, ceo/visual effects supervisor. LuzMary Robfogel is coo.

The studio has brought aboard 3D modeler and animator Brandon MacDougall and character animator Jeff Clifton.

Animated Headline News

Bristol Animators Invade Annie Awards

DreamWorks/Aardman Animations swept the Annie Awards, taking the Best Animated Feature, as well as the nine other categories it was nominated in, at the 33rd annual Annie Awards, held Feb. 4, 2006, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. The Cartoon Network series, STAR WARS: CLONE WARS II CHAPTERS 21-25, won the top TV category, Best Animated Television Production at ASIFA-Hollywoods formal fete.

Cartoon Headline News

Wulin Warriors: Legend of the Seven Stars Debuts on Cartoon Network

Epic puppet saga WULIN WARRIORS: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN STARS debuts on Cartoon Network during Toonami on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006, at 8:00 pm. In this new action series produced by Animation Collective and distributed by Broadway Video, hand puppets meet kung-fu movies in an original, humorous and bizarre take on the traditional action series, inspired by anime and martial arts classics.

Dreamworks Headline News

Terry Press to Market DreamWorks Animation

Terry Press moves from head of marketing for DreamWorks SKG for the past 10 years to DreamWorks Animation as worldwide head of marketing.

Press joins the animation company now that DreamWorks SKG has been acquired by Paramount Pictures. Paramount is responsible for the distribution of DreamWorks Animation films. Press will be the DreamWorks Animation senior liaison with the marketing team at Paramount.

Million Headline News

Japanese Publisher Sells DreamWorks Shares to Paramount

Japanese publisher Kadokawa Holdings Inc. announced it will sell its 2.91% stake in DreamWorks SKG to Paramount Pictures for about $21 million by the end of February, according to VARIETY.

This week, Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc., finalized its purchased of the previously privately held DreamWorks in a $1.6 billion cash-and-debt deal.

Creature Headline News

CBS Comforted by Aardman’s Creatures

CBS has ordered from Aardman Animations Ltd. an American version of the hit British television series CREATURE COMFORTS.

Based on the original Academy Award-winning short film created by Nick Park and Aardman, Aardman Animations will produce the half hour stop-motion animated series in Los Angeles and at its Bristol, England studios.

Home Headline News

Lilo 2, Tarzan II Lead DVD Exclusive Nods

Animated movies lead the nominees for the 2006 DVD Exclusive Awards, with Lilo & STITCH 2: STITCH HAS A GLITCH and TARZAN II receiving the most nods, at 12 and 11, respectively.

Including its nominees for Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES, Buena Vista scored 44 nods, far from the runner-up, Warner Home Video with 23, including 12 for sister company New Line Home Ent.

20th Century Fox Home Ent. garnered 16 nominees, Universal Studios Home Ent. nine and Paramount Home Ent. eight.

Disney Headline News

Lady and the Tramp: The Last of a Breed

At last nights 50th anniversary tribute to LADY AND THE TRAMP at Hollywoods El Capitan Theatre, long-time Disney animator Andreas Deja explained that it was the last of the Walt Disney features to have round, sculpted animation. The studio launched a whole different aesthetic style with SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Headline News

BFG GeForce 7800 GS AGP Graphics Cards Now Available

BFG Technologies Inc., a leading U.S.-based NVIDIA supplier of advanced 3D graphics cards and other PC enthusiast products, announced that their new BFG GeForce 7800 GS OC 256MB AGP graphics cards are immediately available through leading retailers and retailers.

Animation Headline News

Cosgrove Hall Films Restructures

On the eve of Cosgrove Hall Films 30 years in the industry new md, Anthony Utley, has announced a major management restructure. Utley recently disbanded the management team of senior producers, which had been set up temporarily as owners ITV Granada, searched for a new md.

Two senior producer posts have been eliminated while two new roles of exec producer and creative director have been created.

World Headline News

Bardel Crafting Anton’s World to Life for TV Ontario

Bardel Ent. heads to the upcoming Kidscreen Summit (Feb. 8-10, 2006, in New York City) with an animation series in development with TV Ontario featuring the colorful characters of ANTONS WORLD; a new sitcom for kids based on Bardels award-winning Christmas special, THE CHRISTMAS ORANGE.

Headline News

Weinstein Co. To Distribute Exodus’ CG Feature Igor

The Weinstein Co. has acquired the North American distribution rights to Exodus Film Groups CG-animated feature comedy IGOR. Chris McKenna (TVs AMERICAN DAD) wrote the screenplay and John D. Eraklis is set to produce. Seasoned animation exec Max Howard, who has collaborated on such animated blockbusters as THE LION KING, ALADDIN, SPACE JAM and THE IRON GIANT, will exec produce.

Headline News

Harry Potter 5 Commences Production

Principal photography will commence Feb. 6, 2006, at Leavesden Studios on HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, the fifth film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's beloved HARRY POTTER novel series.

Directed by award winning British filmmaker David Yates (THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ, SEX TRAFFIC, STATE OF PLAY), THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX is produced by series producer David Heyman and David Barron, from a screenplay by Michael Goldenberg (WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, PETER PAN, CONTACT).

Headline News

Walt Disney & Walden Media Begin Pre-Production on Prince Caspian

Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, in collaboration with Academy Award-nominated director Andrew Adamson, have begun pre-production on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, the follow-up to the international blockbuster, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE.

World Headline News

New Tron Comicbook Returns Users to the Digital World

SLG Publishing and Disney are teaming on TRON: THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE, a comic book written by Landry Walker and Eric Jones (LITTLE GLOOMY, X-RAY COMICS) and drawn by Louie De Martinis. The comic picks up where the critically-acclaimed videogame TRON 2.0 leaves off.

Pages