Cartoon Network has commissioned a brand new original series, SQUIRREL BOY. The 13 half-hour animated series, from creator/exec producer Everett Peck, has started production at its Burbank-based Cartoon Network Studios and is slated to premiere in summer 2006.
Fuji Television Network and Production IG have partnered on a jointly owned digital post-production studio, reports VARIETY. Opening its doors in January, Fuji IG Laboratory for Movies, aka FILM, will work on animation, live-action and, in conjunction with Skywalker Sound, sound design.
"This is our second endeavor in feature animation following the production of BRAVE STORY, Fuji TV's first animated feature," said Chihiro Kameyama, head of Fuji TV's motion picture department.
With the Thanksgiving holiday taking up most of last week in the U.S., we had only three new articles good live since the last edition of the Newswire, but what articles they were. Tara DiLullo looks at the photoreal effects work done by ILM on JARHEAD. In addition, Alain Bielik has a two-part series on the plethora of VFX that work their magic in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.
New holiday and Christmas themed episodes of Disney Channel's hit series for pre-schoolers, kids and tweens, are unwrapped throughout December while Toon Disney features a special Christmas movie every Friday and Saturday evening as part of its "Month of Merriment."
New Year's Eve is celebrated with Disney Channel's 8th annual viewer's choice programming event where viewers' votes determine the programming lineup for the last day of the year and the first day of 2006.
Alfred Molina will lead a contingent of actors including Chris Coppola, Jonathan Lipnicki and Bruno Kirby as they join a panel of animators, directors and visual effects experts in an informative dialogue on the evolution of animation, "The Animated Performance: Animation Invades Live Action," on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 pm at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
In response to its growing international production business, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has appointed Rob Feldman as exec director, production. In his new position, Feldman will initiate production of SPTI's local language versions of scripted formats in countries across Central and Eastern Europe as well as Russia and the C.I.S. Additionally, he will be responsible for establishing local production relationships with producers and broadcasters and overseeing SPTI's local language productions from pre-production through post-production.
Students who are interested in pursuing a career within the video game industry may now apply for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2006 Student Scholarships.
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will present recipients with full access to all sessions, roundtables and keynotes at GDC, which takes place March 20-24, 2006, in San Jose, California.
Students will be given an opportunity to take part in discussions, network with professionals, and witness the future course of the industry firsthand.
eyeon Software Inc. is now shipping version 5 of its digital video compositor, DFX+, a prominent compositing tool for effects, motion graphics and animation pipelines.
DFX+ is based on the image engine and award-winning architecture of eyeons lead film compositing solution, Fusion. Principal features of DFX+ 5 include 3D compositions with lights, cameras and primitives, OpenGL acceleration with display views and an essential change to ASCII files. Compositions created in DFX+ 5 can easily be opened in Fusion, to help move any project forward.
Animation production is one the rise in Mindanao, Philippines with a recent increase in outsourcing to the country and the growing pool of highly-skilled information and communication technology (ICT) workers, an animation advocacy group told the SUNSTAR.
In her presentation at the 4th Mindanao ICT Congress, Ma. Lourdes Gopalan, board member and education committee head of the Animation Council of the Philippines Inc. (ACPI), said that based on current trends, demand for animation services from the Philippines would grow further.
Former Marvel Ent. brand manager John Taddeos animated short film ZOOM SUIT has been awarded Best Animation at the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival and Best Animated Film at the Santa Clarita Independent Film Festival.
The Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival was held Sept. 16-18, 2005, in Nassau Bay, Texas. The Santa Clarita Independent Film Festival was held Nov. 11-13, 2005, in Santa Clarita, California. Both festivals aim to encourage the work of the independent filmmaker and expand the awareness of independent films.
Originally released in the arcades in 1984, THAYERS QUEST is about to be released on DVD and CD-ROM by Digital Leisure. Designed for the arcade scene by Rick Dyer, the creator of DRAGONS LAIR, THAYERS QUEST was a game that gave players more choice and allowed each player to have a unique gaming experience.
March Ent., the company behind the animated series CHILLY BEACH, announced it will hire 50 more people in the immediate future, reports NorthernLife.com.
Dan Hawes, president of March Ent., says the offices in downtown Sudbury, Canada will house more than 100 employees in the new year to tackle new animation projects that have attracted international attention.
GEICO, the nation's fourth largest private passenger auto insurer, has unveiled the winners of its Golden Gecko Competition. The competition opened in September as a national contest for budding filmmakers to create 15-second movie trailers starring the GEICO Gecko, recently voted America's Favorite Icon.
OLD BOY director Park Chan-wook has lined up his next two flicks a love story set in a mental asylum and a modern-day vampire movie, reports VARIETY.
The South Korean helmer said he'll start shooting his next movie, described as an "offbeat romantic comedy," in March, for fall 2006 release. The film is part of an eight picture funding deal with CJ Ent., where all the films will be shot on HD-24p by name helmers, including Hur Jin-ho and Ryu Seung-wan.
Gold Circle Films have snatched up Tim Metcalfe and Adam Simons A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Gold Circle head Paul Brooks and Integrated Films & Managements Andrew Trapani are set to produce with Wendy Rhoads under her first-look deal with Gold Circle.
Based on a true story, the tale follows a family forced to move near a clinic where their teenage son was being treated for cancer. After the family begins experiencing violent, supernatural events, they discover that their house was once a mortuary with a dark past.
On the promotional trail in Europe for the LAND OF THE DEAD DVD, George A. Romero has been talking up the possibility for a sequel to his 2005 zombie epic. After a lackluster performance in the U.S. this summer, the prospects for a follow-up looked dim. However, U.S. DVD sales as well as big theatrical receipts in Europe and Japan have spurred Universal Pictures to start talks with Romero on a follow-up. The father of the modern zombie picture will pick up the story where the original left off with the survivors heading to Canada.
Digital-Tutors announced the availability of INTERMEDIATE: REALFLOW AND MAYA INTEGRATION training kit, a comprehensive video-based training guide for RealFlow and its integration with Maya. INTERMEDIATE: REALFLOW AND MAYA INTEGRATION marks the second RealFlow training title and the latest release in a growing library of popular training resources for emerging digital artists. INTERMEDIATE: REALFLOW AND MAYA INTEGRATION provides four hours of project-driven training for creating photorealistic liquid and dynamic simulations using a variety of timesaving techniques.
ABC has pulled sci-fi/drama THRESHOLD from its sweeps lineup, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The freshman series began its run on Fridays at 9:00 pm and was later moved to the 10:00 pm slot with mild improvements. The Paramount Network TV show, which stars Carla Gugino, will be replaced by a repeat of CBS' promising new crime drama CRIMINAL MINDS for the November sweeps week.
IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures announced that HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE and THE POLAR EXPRESS: AN IMAX 3-D EXPERIENCE registered the highest grossing weekend ever at IMAX theaters, with combined grosses of $3.1 million, each on 66 screens over the three-day period from Nov. 25-27.
Stan Berenstain, who along with his wife created the popular BERENSTAIN BEARS children's books, died on Nov. 26, 2005, reports CNN. He was 82 and lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
THE INCREDIBLES meets X-MEN and more in SKY HIGH (Buena Vista Home Ent., $29.99), which debuts on DVD Nov. 29, 2005. Kurt Russell stars in a cute throwback to his old Disney movies in this superhero riff (look out for Lynda Carter as the principal). Contains lots of vfx from Asylum VFX, Furious FX, Lola Visual Effects and Realscan 3D.
Bonus features include:* Alternate opening that many will find too over-the-top* Welcome to Sky High featurette
Monster Distributes has been busy closing sales following a successful MIPCOM, including two sales to Animania HD, a high-definition channel solely dedicated to animation, which has taken both PICME (104x5), from Irish production company Jammedia, and JUNGLE BEAT (13x5), from Zimbabwean production company Sunrise Media for U.S. high-definition broadcast.
A group of seasoned gaming veterans have formed Hyboreal Games as a new development studio on Nov. 28, 2005. Hyboreal Games was founded by Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura and Steven Woo, all industry veterans and former developers for Blizzard North, where their contributions were essential to the success of the highly acclaimed DIABLO franchise, which has sold well over 13 million copies worldwide. The Hyboreal Games mission is to make best-selling game franchises by applying the proven formula of mass accessibility, addictive game play and longevity through re-playability.
In anticipation of next weeks release of the live-action AEON FLUX movie with Charlize Theron, AEON FLUX: THE COMPLETE ANIMATED COLLECTION (Paramount Home Ent., $38.99) recently made its DVD debut. The futuristic cult series from creator Peter Chung, which began on MTVs LIQUID TELEVISION, was a very sophisticated and adult series that didnt shy away from sex and violence. The provocative DVD cover image alone, revealing Aeons eye with a fly caught between the lashes, is enticing enough. One wonders how the live-action version will achieve a comparable impact.
RE:Vision Effects Inc. announced 64-bit support of its Irix Discreet systems (Sparks) versions of Twixtor, its popular retiming solution, and ReelSmart Motion Blur, which adds and removes motion blur based on per-pixel calculated motion. The new releases also work within the Linux versions of Smoke and Flint and are available for Burn render farms.
