AWN Headline News

Fox and Universal have finalized their deal with Microsoft to turn hit videogame HALO into a feature film for release summer 2007, according to VARIETY. As part of the deal, the studios will dole out $5 million against 10% of the gross to the house that Bill Gates built.

Universal will handle production and domestic distribution with Fox covering foreign distribution and will split revenues 50/50.

Alliance Atlantis has secured a broadcast deal with Jetix in Latin America for its childrens CGI animated property, DRAGON BOOSTER. The series will launch throughout Latin America in fall 2005. This deal is in addition to agreements already in place with broadcasters in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.

A researcher in Kyoto has discover a lost Japanese animated film made around 1900, making it the oldest of its kind in the country, reports MAINICHI INTERACTIVE.

Iconography expert Natsuki Matsumoto and animation historian Nobuyuki Tsugata at the Osaka University of Arts believe that the film was made roughly 10 years prior to an animation produced in 1917, which was previously deemed Japan's oldest.

MoMA Tribute To CalArtsNew York, New York, USAMay 2006Deadline: May 2006

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, will pay tribute to CalArts with a film and video exhibition taking place in May 2006. Celebrating 35 years of remarkably inventive and sophisticated student work, this historical survey will feature films and videos produced by the following departments: Film and Video, Experimental Animation, Character Animation, and Film Directing. Also included are films and videos produced in the MFA program.

The Visual Effects Society has issued a last call for entries for the eDward, the 6th eDIT Film Award. The event is an international newcomer competition, intended to give young filmmakers a stage for their talent and to open up career opportunities. The competition is worldwide and is open to young creatives under 30. The theme for eDward VI is Artificial Humans. Entries should be not longer than 30 seconds and must be submitted by Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005.

Groove Games announced it has inked an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group to publish an interactive game based on Universal Pictures and Atmosphere Entertainment MM's' GEORGE A. ROMERO'S LAND OF THE DEAD, which hit theatres on June 24, 2005.