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AWN Headline News

Headline News

EA Announces Lord Of The Rings, Battle For Middle-Earth II Collector’s Edit

Electronic Arts announced THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE BATTLE FOR MIDDLE-EARTH II COLLECTORS EDITION the first ever Collectors Edition DVD release from the highly successful THE LORD OF THE RINGS franchise. The sequel to last holidays critically acclaimed PC game is filled with exclusive THE LORD OF THE RINGS game content.

Scheduled to ship simultaneously with THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE BATTLE FOR MIDDLE-EARTH II in February 2006, the collectors edition will be available at select retailers for $59.99 and is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

Animated Headline News

Toonz to Produce Mahabharat Animated Musical Series

Toonz has signed a deal with Mumbai-based production house Impact Vision to produce the great Indian epic, MAHABHARAT, as an animated musical, reports ChennaiOnline.com.

"The song sequences will be suitably strung together to create standard half-hour episodes for television," Toonz ceo P Jayakumar said.

Satish Mutatkar, Impact Vision ceo, who wrote lyrics for the animated feature film HANUMAN, will be the creative director of the project, which is going by the title Titled GEET MAHABHARAT.

Comics Headline News

Virgin Forms Virgin Comics & Virgin Animation

Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Books Ltd. announced a new entertainment partnership with world-renowned author Deepak Chopra, acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and South Asia's leading publisher of comic magazines, Gotham Ent. Group Llc. The partnership will launch two new Virgin branded companies, Virgin Comics Llc., based in New York City and Virgin Animation Private Ltd., based in Bangalore, India, focused on creating original comic books and character properties for a global audience.

Television Headline News

LA ACM SIGGRAPH, Autodesk & nVidia Give a Taste of TV

A Taste of TV A Smorgasbord of Effects for the Small ScreenNorth Hollywood, California, USAJanuary 10, 2006

The Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH along with Autodesk and nVidia presents "A Taste of TV A Smorgasbord of Effects for the Small Screen. The event will present the latest in the world of computer graphics on television. This soup to nuts presentation will cover visual effects and animation in episodic television, commercials, music video, 2D animation and broadcast packages.

Headline News

Rendercore Extends Virtual Renderrack Promotion

Rendercore Inc. has extended its promotional offer of unlimited use pricing model. Though Virtual Renderrack was only launched in December 2005, it was highly successful and generated a lot of requests from clients for the promotional offer to be extended. This promotion is available to those who purchase unlimited solution from Jan. 4-6, 2006.

Producers Headline News

PGA Announces First Producer of the Year for Animation Noms

For the first time, the Producers Guild of America has issued nominations for Producer of the Year Award Animated Film. The list of five is a list of the top performing animated features of 2005. Box office champ MADAGASCAR from DreamWorks earned Mireille Soira a nod. For Disneys CHICKEN LITTLE the nominee was Randy Fullmer. Foxs ROBOTS Jerry Davis, John C. Donkin and William Joyce were all nominated. For Warner Bros. CORPSE BRIDE, the nominees are Tim Burton and Allison Abbate.

Animation Headline News

AWN Discussion Forums - What's New? for January 3, 2006

This week in AWN's Forums, members share some Flash tutorials. Theres a thread about drawing the body. A post looks a whats ahead in the next year for members. Others are still debating the importance of animation history knowledge. A junior members asks how critical is it to pick the right school? Members are chiming in on what they think is some really bad animation. Another member asks what is the correct method to render animation. Others continue to post their work for members to check out.

Headline News

12 Scholarships in International Art Program

Transart Institute announced that 12 scholarships, amounting to $40,000, have become available to students of its low-residency Master of Fine Arts program for the academic year 2006/7. Eight scholarships of $2,500 each will go to students of merit and four scholarships of $5,000 are available to candidates from East Europe and new EU-member countries.

Application deadline for the academic year 2006/7 is April 1, 2006.

Headline News

News Corp. Ups Jeremy Philips to EVP/Office of the Chairman

News Corp. has promoted Jeremy Philips to EVP/office of the chairman and will focus on acquisitions and strategy across the company and will oversee Internet investments. He will continue to report to News Corp. chairman/ceo Rupert Murdoch.

Philips, 33, will also join the company's executive management committee.

Prior to joining News Corp., Philips was vice-chairman of ecorp Ltd., and worked at Citigroup and McKinsey & Co.

Games Headline News

Vivendi Universal Games Acquires High Moon Studios

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) has acquired leading independent developer, High Moon Studios. Under terms of the agreement, VU Games will retain High Moons team of more than 100 development professionals, as well as rights to the studios intellectual properties. John Rowe, president/ceo of High Moon, will continue to manage the studio from its state-of-the-art facility located in Carlsbad, California.

Digital Headline News

Sony Focuses on Future of Entertainment at CES 2006

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES Booth # 14200), Sony will be focusing on four "pillars" or categories of entertainment to highlight its moves into the future of entertainment. The company will announce new products and strategies as it pertains to high definition, digital cinema, videogaming and e-entertainment, during the conference in Las Vegas, running Jan. 4-7, 2006.

Mobile Headline News

MFORMA Releases Call of Duty 2 Mobile Game

MFORMA announced that it has released Activision Inc's. CALL OF DUTY 2 to mobile users everywhere. A sequel to MFORMA's CALL OF DUTY mobile game of 2004, one of the most successful mobile games of all time, CALL OF DUTY 2 is the mobile version of Activision's critically-acclaimed CALL OF DUTY 2 game.

Animation Headline News

Indian Studio Boasts 12 Seconds of Animation Per Day

Bangalore, India-based Ittina Studios boasts that its employees are producing 12 seconds of animation a day, reports THE BUSINESS STANDARD. U.S.-based studios like Pixar and DreamWorks expect their animation artists to produce no more than 3-5 seconds per day.

Film Headline News

TCM Offers Chance to Win Ultimate Hayao Miyazaki DVD & Book Sweepstakes

In January 2006, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will honor one of Japan's most celebrated filmmakers, Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki. For this celebration, which coincides with the director's 65th birthday, TCM has created The Ultimate Hayao Miyazaki DVD & Book sweepstakes with partners Buena Vista Home Ent. and VIZ Media to provide anime fans with the chance to win the definitive collection of Miyazaki's work, including a variety of books, graphic novels and collection of DVDs, featuring Hayao Miyazaki's latest theatrical release, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE.

Effects Headline News

VES Adopts New Logo

The Visual Effects Society (VES), which has grown to nearly 1,350 members in 16 countries, has adopted a new logo to update its look. "The goal was to create a dynamic and classic logo that shows the Visual Effects Society as continuously projecting new ideas out into the world, said exec director Eric Roth.

Music Headline News

Board 2046 on DVD

2046, Wong Kar Wais wistful sci-fi love story about trying to recapture lost memories (with stunning vfx from French-based Buf) has arrived on DVD (Sony Pictures Home Ent., $29.95). A fitting follow-up to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, theres more than meets the eye (neon lights, swirling smoke, CGI trains and dreamy close-ups) in this erotic, improvisational journey. Extras include breakdowns of vfx, music and numerology.

Bonus features also include:* Alternate ending* Deleted scenes: Black Spider and the Android visit Chow

Imax Headline News

Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet Dive Into Deep Sea 3-D

DEEP SEA 3-D, the new documentary from IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures, will be co-narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winselt and will feature an original score from Danny Elfman (CORPSE BRIDE and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). This marks the first doc to boast the actors voices and the first original IMAX production to be scored by the award-winning composer.

Headline News

Ted Rae Hired as VFX Supervisor for Apocalypto

Ted Rae will serve as visual effects supervisor on Mel Gibsons APOCALYPTO, the mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilization, now shooting in Mexico and slated for a summer release by Disneys Touchstone Pictures.

Nickelodeon Headline News

Scannell Ankles MTV & Nick; Zarghami to Lead New MTVN Kids & Family Group

Herb Scannell has stepped down as vice chairman, MTV Networks, and president, Nickelodeon Networks to pursue other business opportunities, triggering a restructuring of the Nickelodeon Networks management structure.

Licensing Headline News

HIT Ent. Expands Global Licensing Crew

HIT Ent. Ltd. (HIT) London announced a raft of new agent appointments to represent its properties across the world. "This marks a major shift in gear for HIT as we reinvigorate our licensing business in all key markets," said Peter Byrne evp of International at HIT. "It's all part of a major refocus of the company and our aggressive expansion drive into international territories."

Headline News

Urbaniacs Blasts Off with Kickin’ New Games

Urbaniacs.com has launched two new Flash games ROOF RUCKUS and BALLIN.

In ROOF RUCKAS, players must control Blast-off Rocket Captain as he leaps from building to rooftop collecting special treasures, which aid him along his journey. Making things more difficult for the super duper hero is henchmen lurking on various rooftops just waiting to send him crashing to the ground below.

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