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AWN Headline News

Short Headline News

Prey Alone Takes Digital Excellence in Action/Cut Short Competition

The Irish live-action short, PREY ALONE, comprised almost entirely of virtual environments (co-directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger), won the Jury Added Award for Excellence in Digital Filmmaking at The Action/Cut 2005 Short Film Competition earlier this month in Los Angeles.

Film Headline News

Double Negative Does VFX for Pride & Prejudice

Jane Austens classic novel PRIDE & PREJUDICE, one of the greatest and most memorable battles of the sexes ever portrayed in literature, has been enhanced for its latest cinematic release by leading London visual effects house Double Negative.

Post Headline News

Colorist Sheri Eisenberg Joins Post Logic

Leading post-production boutique Post Logic Studios has hired noted feature film colorist Sheri Eisenberg for its Hollywood-based Digital Intermediate team. Eisenberg, who is proficient on Post Logics Grass Valley Spirit 4K, da Vinci 2K and Pogle, previously worked at Laser Pacific Media Corp.

Software Headline News

Pipelinefx’s Qube! Remote Control Bound for India

Pipelinefx has signed a reseller agreement with Rahul Commerce to market its enterprise-class render farm management software Qube! Remote Control throughout the Indian animation industry.

Rahul is the leading system integrator in entertainment software technologies in India. Under this agreement, Rahul will market and provide training on Qube! software through its offices in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Film Headline News

Schumacher Has Carrey’s Number

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 12:00am

Jim Carrey is in talks to star in the thriller THE NUMBER 23, directed by Joel Schumacher for New Line, reports VARIETY. Contrafilms Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce. Fernley Phillips penned the script for the film, which is set to start filming in November.

The story follows a man who becomes enraptured by a book that chronicles his life. However, he is plagued with fear when the story ends with a murder.

Headline News

Writer Seitzman Flies with Sparrow

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 12:00am

Writer Michael Seitzman is set to adapt Mary Doria Russell's debut sci-fi/religious novel THE SPARROW for Warner Bros. and Brad Pitt, according to SCI FI WIRE.

"THE SPARROW asks a big question, and it asks a very relevant question," Seitzman said in an interview while promoting his latest film, NORTH COUNTRY. "Can one culture ever reach its hand out to another culture without a built-in arrogance and dynamic that is sure to doom that relationship, regardless of how benign their intentions? And that's what THE SPARROW is about."

Business Headline News

Sony Slashes 10,000 Jobs

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 12:00am

On Sept. 20, 2005, Sony Corp. announced it would cut about 7% of its global work force, sell more than $1 billion in assets and post a loss this year, reports REUTERS. The company hopes to gain 210 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in restructuring charges in next the two business years through March 2007 as it closes plants and slashes 10,000 jobs. With the move, Sony hopes to catch up with Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sharp Corp. in the flat TV market as well as Apple Computer in the portable music industry.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Kicks With Kung Fu Panda & Others

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

Hot off the announcement that MADAGASCAR 2 will hit theaters in 2008, DreamWorks Animation has announced that KUNG FU PANDA will also be released that year, reports VARIETY. The studios still hopes to release two animated films per year at least until 2009. PANDA will star Jack Black as the voice of a lazy panda prophesied to save the Valley of Peace. John Stevenson and Mark Osborne are set to direct with Melissa Cobb producing from a script by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab.

Series Headline News

Ju-On Director Catches Manga Parasyte

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

JU-ON director Takashi Shimizu has been attached to direct a screen adaptation of Hitosi Iwaaki's manga PARASYTE, according to ICv2.com. New Line Cinema and the Jim Henson Co. will co-produce the live-action film, which will go into production after Shimizu wrapped on THE GRUDGE 2 for Columbia.

The science fiction thriller chronicles the effects of alien spores that land on Earth and take over human bodies. The 12-volume manga series was one of the first series published by Tokyopop (then known as Mixx Ent.) in the U.S. between 1998 and 2002.

Headline News

WGA Elects Toon Writer as President

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

Taking 69% of the ballots cast, animation writer Patric Verrone was elected president of the Writers Guild of America West, reports VARIETY. Verrone, a co-producer of THE SIMPSONS and a screenwriter for several other animated series, ran on the platform of following through on the efforts by the guild to organize animation, cable and the reality TV arena. Previously, he served two terms as the WGA West's secretary-treasurer.

Game Headline News

EA Ships Marvel Nemesis, Sims 2 Nightlife & Madden 06

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

Electronic Arts has shipped the MARVEL NEMESIS: RISE OF THE IMPERFECTS console game, THE SIMS 2 NIGHTLIFE expansion pack and MADDEN NFL 06 for PSP.

In MARVEL NEMESIS: RISE OF THE IMPERFECTS, gamers can take control of more than 17 fighters including popular superheroes from the Marvel Universe as well as a new set of characters called, The Imperfects, as they battle in highly destructible environments to determine who among them is the most powerful.

Game Headline News

Urbaniacs Game For Wedgie Toss

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

Urbaniacs the online community where you create your own superhero has launched its latest game, WEDGIE TOSS. Players snap hold of a henchlings undies and send him flying. The further the fling the more Urbos one earns. The Flash animated game follows the launch of the rock, paper, scissors type game ROSHAMBO.

Universal Headline News

Beth Minehart New SVP, International On-Demand Licensing For NBC Universal TV

Beth Minehart has been upped from svp, international integration and planning, to svp, international on-demand licensing for NBC Universal Television Distribution. Minehart will oversee on-demand licensing for NBC Universal's product outside of the U.S. and Canada. She will focus on driving significant revenue growth in the burgeoning on-demand arena, including pay-per-view, video-on-demand and subscription-on-demand through traditional and new platforms including cable, satellite, digital terrestrial television, Internet and mobile.

Disney Headline News

Disneyland Cast Members Dominate 2005 Disney Legends Awards

In celebration of 50 years of Disneyland magic, The Walt Disney Co. inducted the 2005 "class" of Disney Legends for their roles in creating the company's treasure trove of entertainment, particularly their part in creating "The Happiest Place on Earth." Tuesdays 10:00 am ceremony was presented in the Main Street Opera House at Disneyland. Following the awards presentation, the honorees participated in a hand-print ceremony.

Series Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

VFXWORLD continues its TV coverage with how 3ds Max was used creatively on IFCs new animated series, HOPELESS PICTURES. Barbara Robertsons informative Q&A with Kim Lee of World Away Prods. reveals how and why the animation team incorporated the popular Autodesk software. Meanwhile, Sharon Adcock just returned from IBC 2005 in Amsterdam and reports on how DI is exploding throughout Europe and how data-centric workflow has become the new mantra.

Animation Headline News

Innamation Films Gets 3D Animated on Family-Friendly Projects

Innamation Films revealed the new companys development slate of animated content for television and direct-to-video distribution, leading off with a full length, original animated property, THE CHRISTMAS RESCUE, about a trio of woodland friends that band together to save Christmas by finding Santa when he is swept off course during a storm. Other properties in development include a re-telling of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD and GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS.

Headline News

Wallace & Gromit Return to DVD

In anticipation of the first WALLACE & GROMIT theatrical feature, WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, a collection of Aardmans three acclaimed shorts has been reissued on DVD Sept. 20, 2005, along with some new goodies.

WALLACE & GROMIT IN THREE AMAZING ADVENTURES (DreamWorks Home Ent., $19.99) contains:

Headline News

MPC Wins Emmy for ‘Virtual History’

Moving Picture Co. (MPC) was victorious at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards Monday night for its work on VIRTUAL HISTORY: THE SECRET PLOT TO KILL HITLER in the category for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic and Artistic Design.

Jim Radford, MPC's creative head of 3D, Commercials and TV, picked up the award in New York.

The acclaimed Tiger Aspect doc for the Discovery Channel transformed the faces of actors into exact replicas of Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin.

Animation Headline News

Four INTERspectacular Shorts Showcased At Ottawa

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 12:00am

Four of INTERspectacular's animated pieces for Comedy Central (ROBOGIRL, ALPHONSE AND ORVILLE, MONSTER MUNCHIES and STUMPY) have been accepted into the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The shorts will screen this week as part of the festival's Short Competition One. Screenings will take place at the Bytowne Cinema on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005, at 9:00 pm and Sunday, Sept. 25, at 3:00 pm.

Series Headline News

Eden FX to Produce VFX for Surface and Invasion

Eden FX has been signed to produce original CG vfx for two major new fall 2005 TV series, NBCs SURFACE (which debuted Sept. 19, 2005) and ABCs INVASION (which debuts Sept. 21). The two new series join Edens contributions to COMMANDER IN CHIEF, and its on-going contributions to the hit TV series LOST, ALIAS and NAVY: NCIS.

Effects Headline News

Michael Fink to Present ‘Visual Effects Paradiso’ at Gnomon School

Renowned vfx supervisor Michael Fink (CONSTANTINE, the X-MEN movies), who recently joined the advisory board of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, will present his Visual Effects Paradiso program at Gnomon on Sept. 29, 2005, at 7:00 pm. A meet and greet starts at 6:00 pm.

Cartoon Headline News

Cartoon Forum Kolding Attracts Record Attendees

The 16th Cartoon Forum, which takes place Sept. 21-25, 2005, in Kolding, Denmark, has a record number of broadcasters and investors expected to attend 101 television buyers and co-producers and 147 investors, video distributors and financiers. This co-production forum, which is dedicated to the financing of European animation programs for television, was first held in 1990 in Lanzarote, Spain.

Production Headline News

Bridgepoint to Merge with Marathon

European private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital has signed a merger deal with Marathon, which will create a major new production and distribution group in France, reports C21 and was confirmed by Bridgepoint Capital (which also owns production giant All3Media).

Bridgepoint's French division, Financière Héra (Finhera), has been pursuing Marathon. Finhera is lead by Eric Licoy, previously a top executive at Vivendi Universal when Jean-Marie Messier was ceo.

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