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AWN Headline News

Digital Headline News

Star Wars Illustrator Matt Busch Conjures Indie Flick

STAR WARS illustrator Matt Busch has signed a deal with Razor Digital Ent. to release his first independent movie, CONJURE, on home video and DVD. In addition to writing, producing and directing the feature, Busch also plays himself along with fellow artist/model Sarah Wilkinson in this supernatural thriller.

Film Headline News

Horror Remake Has An Eye for Zellweger

Renee Zellweger returns to the horror genre in the English remake of the Hong Kong horror flick, THE EYE, reports the trades. One of Zellwegers early feature film roles was as the female lead in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION, alongside Matthew McConaughey. Paramount is producing the redux via C/W Prods. heads Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner.

The film follows the eerie visions a woman (Zellweger) begins seeing after she regains her sight after a cornea transplant.

Blu-ray Headline News

Paramount To Support Blu-ray & HD-DVD

A new wrinkle in the hi-def DVD format war has occurred. Paramount Home Ent. has announced that it will support Sonys Blu-ray format as well as its previously announced support for Toshibas HD-DVD.

Rumors are afloat that Warner Bros. with be announcing dual support later this week as well. Previously, Universal was the first studio originally backing HD-DVD to announce that it was going to support both formats. Some say its a move to save face for backing the potential loser in the format wars.

Lucky Headline News

Xilam Rides Into Theaters with Lucky Luke

Comicbook hero Lucky Luke will ride onto the bigscreen in TOUS A L'OUEST, which will be produced by Xilam, Dargaud-Marina and Lucky Comics, reports VARIETY. Fall 2007 is set for the films release. With a budget of e12 million ($14.4 million), the flick will be directed by Olivier Jean-Marie from a script by him and Jean-Francois Henry.

Loosely based on the comic THE CARAVAN, the feature will follow cowboy Luke and his talking horse Jolly Jumper as they pit themselves against their long-time enemies the hapless Dalton brothers in 19th century America.

Animation Headline News

Toonz & First Serve Form Animation Joint Venture

Trivandrum-based Toonz Animation India and California-based First Serve Ent. have announced the formation of a joint venture First Serve Toonz (FST), which will produce and distribute animation programming for the international marketplace as well as operate a consumer products licensing business, reports the trades. FST will announce its first major project in the next few weeks.

Headline News

Turner European Ent. Undergoes Reorganization

Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) Europe has shuffled about its organization to support emerging areas in its business mix and grow its entertainment brands starting with naming Dee Forbes vp/gm of TBS UK and Ireland, responsible for all commercial and channel activities plus its operating units: distribution sales, ad sales and S&P, programming and acquisitions, marketing, PR, creative services, presentation, research, strategy and consumer products.

Animation Headline News

Blue Planet Studio & Cynosure New Media Team on Military 3D Animation

Blue Planet Studio, Inc., a 3D animation and graphic design firm, and Cynosure New Media Inc., a leading training development and multimedia production company, tamed up to produce 3D animation for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Special Projects Office (DARPA SPO). Converting futuristic concepts into high-tech visualization, these animations were used to support SPO and VSO exhibits on display at the 24th DARPA Systems and Technology Symposium (DARPATech 2005) held at the Anaheim Marriott, Anaheim, CA, Aug. 9-11, 2005.

Headline News

Sedelmaier Returns to SNL’s TV Funhouse

Live from New York City its J. J. Sedelmaier doing more TV FUNHOUSE segments for Saturday Night Live, with a new one scheduled to run on the season premiere this weekend, Oct. 1, 2005, on NBC during the late night show that starts at 11:30 pm. Sedelmaiers White Plains animation house JJSP introduced SNL audiences to such animated FUNHOUSE favorites as Fun with Real Audio, The X-Presidents and The Ambiguously Gay Duo.

Headline News

Howard Stringer Slated 2006 CES Keynote Speaker

Howard Stringer, chairman/ceo of Sony Corp. will deliver a keynote address at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, in Las Vegas, which runs Jan. 5-8.

Stringer is slated to deliver the opening keynote address on Jan. 5, at 9:00 am. Immediately prior to his speech, Gary Shapiro, president/ceo of CEA, will present a State of the Industry Address at 8:30 am. Both events will take place in the Hilton Theater of the Las Vegas Hilton.

Studio Headline News

Hanna-Barbera Reunion Dinner Set Nov. 4

The Animation Guild is spreading the word that the third Hanna-Barbera studio reunion dinner is set for Nov. 4, 2005, at the Sportsman's Lodge, 12833 Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. No-host cocktails will at 6:00 pm, dinner is at 7:30 pm.

Cost is $30 per person with an entrée choice of prime rib, chicken, salmon or vegetarian.

Business Headline News

The WB Names John D. Maatta COO

John D. Maatta, has been named coo of The WB Television Network. In addition to being the network's general counsel, the network's business and operations departments will report to him, including Business Affairs, Finance, Network Distribution, The WB 100+ Station Group, Technology, Legal, Research, Network Operations, Broadcast Standards and Human Resources.

Maatta previously was evp and general counsel of the Network with Legal and Human Resources reporting to him.

Technology Headline News

Softimage Launches ‘3D Love’ Tour

Avid Technology Inc. announced a series of worldwide launch events for SOFTIMAGE|XSI version 5.0, the latest edition of the companys flagship 3D animation software, will take place across North America, Europe and Asia. The events will showcase the powerful new features of XSI v.5.0, including the film-quality map generation capabilities in Ultimapper, the unique property transfer tools in GATOR and the latest migration tools for Maya users.

Headline News

Alias FBX SDK to Support COLLADA

Alias announced that its FBXsoftware development kit (SDK), the most widely used and supported file interchange platform in the digital entertainment content development community, will soon incorporate support for third party file formats, including COLLADA. As an XML based, multi-vendor exchange format launched by Sony Computer Ent. Inc., COLLADA was recently adopted as an open-standard initiative by the Khronos Group and is used by game content developers, particularly those developing art assets for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and wireless handheld devices.

Color Headline News

Iridas Releases SpeedGrade DI

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:00am

Iridas announced the release of SpeedGrade DI. The new application offers an industry-leading feature set for digital color grading and film finishing. In addition, SpeedGrade DI anchors the industry's first complete color pipeline with SpeedGrade OnSet (look management) and FrameCycler (calibrated review with grading applied). The result is complete mobility of color data up, down, and across production pipeline, opening the door to new, collaborative color workflow models.

Headline News

Kong Diaries Headed for DVD on Dec. 13

KING KONG: PETER JACKSONS PRODUCTION DIARIES, which have been posted on the KONG website (www.kongisking.net), will be released Dec. 13 as a special two-disc pre-release (Universal Home Ent., $39.98), reports THE DIGITAL BITS.

The set will include 54 production diaries (in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio), an 80-page scrapbook, four exclusive art prints, "collectible packaging" and more. Jacksons highly anticipated remake opens Dec. 14.

Brazil Headline News

VeggieTales Growing In Brazil

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:00am

Marking a major step forward in the companys international expansion of the award-winning VEGGIETALES property, Classic Media announced that the all-new TV format featuring the popular VEGGIETALES characters has achieved critical and commercial success in Brazil for leading Brazilian distributor Top Tape. The announcement was made by

Anime Headline News

Gokaza Says Hello to Anime Doc

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:00am

Gokaza, a content provider specialized in J-pop culture, has announced the release of the two-DVD documentary HELLO ANIME! The DVD delivers a firsthand look at the dawn of anime in America, the rise of the otakus, the anime Internet community, anime in Hollywood films like KILL BILL and THE MATRIX and the Japanization of America. In 19 exclusive interviews, the pioneers who defined the movement talk about their personal success stories and reveal the inside scoop on anime.

Series Headline News

Turner Brings Back The Kellys On NASCAR.com

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:00am

SportsBlast, a producer of animated content for the Internet and traditional media, in partnership with Turner Broadcasting, announced the upcoming release of its animated series THE KELLYS. This special series of extended episodes was launched on NASCAR.com in conjunction with the MBNA NASCAR Race Points 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 25.

Channel Headline News

New FUNimation Channel Offers 24-hour Digital Anime Network

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:00am

FUNimation Ent. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corp., launched the FUNimation Channel today (Sept. 29, 2005), a 24-hour, digital network that will feature distinguished anime programming from FUNimation's anime brands. Working with OlympuSAT, one of the leading distributors for independent programming in the U.S., the channel will be available to video service providers throughout the nation. The plan is for the FUNimation Channel to be part of the basic and extended digital packages, so it will be a regular channel in the lineup.

Headline News

Artbeats Debuts Northeast City Aerials Collections

Take a trip high above the skyscrapers and cities of the northeast United States with Northeast City Aerials, Artbeats newest installment of royalty-free aerial footage. Featuring spectacular footage of Baltimore; Boston; Concord, New Hampshire; Dover, Delaware; Hartford, Connecticut; New York City; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Providence, Rhode Island; and Trenton, New Jersey. This new title is sourced from HD video and was captured using the highly accurate Gyron Eagle Camera system.

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