New Line Cinema has tapped Josh Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) to adapt Naoki Urasawas best-selling manga series, MONSTER, into a live-action feature, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. In addition, Olson will write a treatment for a sequel, which he would also write.
Dark Horse Comics will be riding into Comic-Con July 14-17, 2005, with a host of signings and panels. The main Dark Horse Booth is #2715 with Dark Horse Retail at #2615 and WETA Collectibles/Dark Horse at #2621.
Signings include:Wednesday, July 13 (Preview Night):6:30 - 8:00 pm: John Landis: TEENAGE VAMPIRE
Thursday, July 14:10:00 - 11:00 pm: Stan Sakai: USAGI YOJIMBO11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Greg Ruth: FREAKS OF THE HEARTLAND12:00 - 1:00 pm: Steve Rude: NEXUS12:00 - 1:00 pm: Peter Gross: THE CHOSEN
Both Paramount and Columbia are readying their own 9/11 films.
Paramount Pictures will finance and distribute an untitled feature about the rescue of two Port Authority police officers from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Oliver Stone will direct with Nicolas Cage starring. Double Features partners Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher will produce alongside Moritz Borman, the former Intermedia ceo who produced Stone's ALEXANDER. Andrea Berloff has penned the script.
Viewers may want to camp out in from of their TV sets this summer with Cartoon Networks new offering, CAMP LAZLO, a 30-minute animated comedy from creator Joe Murray, which premiered July 8, 2005 at 8:00 pm. The series chronicles the odd and happy camping life of colorfully crazy critters, featuring a Bean Scout named Lazlo and his bunkmates at Camp Kidney.
The Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold announced today (July 8, 2005) that they have agreed to put aside the differences of late and has brought Roy Disney back to the company board as a diorector emeritus. Disney and Gold will not to run a rival slate of directors, submit shareholder resolutions for the next five years and have also agreed to dismiss all their pending lawsuits against the Disney Co.
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN writer Carlos Cuaron has formed an animation production company, reports VARIETY. His partner in the firm will be Mexican animator Rene Castillo. Cuaron will continue to write live-action scripts.
Castillo is bets known for his award-winning clay-animation shorts, NO SUPPORT (SIN SOSTEN) and DOWN TO THE BONE (HASTA LOS HUESOS).
The unnamed companys first project could be an adaptation of a childrens play, which Cuaron wrote several years ago.
Beverly Hills auctioneer Profiles in History will auction treasures from the archive of filmmaker Gary Kurtz on July 29, 2005, at 11:00 am PDT. Kurtz was the producer of STAR WARS and STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, as well as AMERICAN GRAFFITI, RETURN TO OZ and DARK CRYSTAL. He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture (STAR WARS & AMERICAN GRAFFITI). Working closely with George Lucas from 1973-1981 as vp of Lucasfilm, Kurtz was instrumental in developing the STAR WARS trilogy and bringing the first two blockbuster films to the silver screen.
To kick off the opening of the SIGGRAPH Exhibition, Women In Animation will host its 3rd annual Birds of a Feather Meet-n-Greet in the Convention Center, Room 506, starting at 9:30 am - 11:00 am on Aug. 2, 2005. The event is an opportunity to meet people from all over the U.S. and the world and learn more about WIA. For more information, contact info@womeninanimation.org.
Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company is set to develop and produce a feature adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's CAT'S CRADLE, reports VARIETY. Appian Way will partner with manager-producer Hillard Elkins' Elkins Ent. on the project.
James V. Hart (SAHARA) and his son Jake Hart (GLENGARRY, BOB ROSS) have adapted the novel, which is an apocalyptic tale following humans race to recover the world's most dangerous substance, Ice-Nine, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.
Lisa Kirby, the daughter of the late Jack Kirby, artist and co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America and many other comicbook characters and stories, announced the creation of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center (JKMRC).
The Shout! Factory signed an exclusive licensing agreement with DIC Entertainment to release a slate of hit animated television series from DICs catalog as collector DVD sets. The first title under the new agreement is a four-disc collection, HEATHCLIFF & THE CATILLAC CATS, which will to be released on Sept. 20, 2005. Other titles will include THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW, INSPECTOR GADGET and SABRINA THE ANIMATED SERIES.
Norman Prescott, chairman, co-founder and exec producer at Filmation Studios, died July 2, 2005, of natural causes in Los Angeles, according to VARIETY. He was 78.
Switch VFX, a Toronto-based visual effects studio, recently completed work on LAND OF THE DEAD, the latest installment in legendary filmmaker George A. Romeros DEAD horror franchise.
Animation World Network and VFXWorld will have a booth this year at Comic-Con.
This week in the Theatrical Release Database, we have a handful of updates, including a gigantic trailer and some new pages. The trailer for Peter Jacksons KING KONG was hit the Net. As for new pages, we have videogame turned feature MAX PAYNE, BATMAN BEGINS writers THE INVISIBLE, GOTHIKA directors BABYLON A.D. and a live-action/animated EMILY THE STRANGE.
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz.
This week in AWN's Forums, a member asks is collecting sericels a waste of money?
J.Walt Adamczyk will perform his new graphic performance piece AUTOCOSM: GARDENS OF THUBAN at the annual ACM SIGGRAPH convention in Los Angeles on Aug.1-3. J.Walt's graphic performances are a new performing art form, which utilizes high-tech interactive 3D animation techniques developed for videogames, simulation and VR. These performances, which Adamczyk calls "Spontaneous Fantasia," are a kind of "live animation" in which Adamczyk draws fantastic, ethereal imagery with musical accompaniment live before an audience.
As a result of the dollars unfavorable exchange rate and a lack of concrete tax incentives in the U.K. production market, The Jim Henson Co. will no longer have a full time staff at its London location of Jim Hensons Creature Shop, the companys visual effects and animatronics division. However, the companys own television and film projects are not affected and the Creature Shop will continue to service third party clients out of its Los Angeles and New York locations, as well as hiring freelance crews in London on a project-by-project basis.
The Council on Competitiveness, a national organization of business, academic and labor executives, announced that the popular Penguin characters from MADAGASCAR will be appearing in a video at the Second Annual High Performance Computing (HPC) Users Conference. The video by DreamWorks Animation depicts how HPC impacts the daily life of the average consumer and will be shown for the first time at the conference on July 13, 2005 in Washington, D.C.
The 12th Midsummer Awards were recently handed out, celebrating London's advertising industry. Founded in 1992 by Paul Cover and Terry Howard with the aim of promoting excellence in creative work in the specific area of film and television, and judged solely by working creatives, the Midsummer Awards are an opportunity for the top creative names in the industry to gather and celebrate the joys of the English summer.
NewTek Inc. and e-on software are teaming for a special offer providing Vue 5 Infinite, e-on's flagship solution for the creation of natural 3D environments, and LightWave 3D, NewTek's Emmy-award winning 3D content creation and rendering package, to purchasers at the special price of $995. The special offer represents a savings of $1,199 off the combined regular prices of $599 for Vue and $1,595 for LightWave. Vue 5 Infinite will also be available with LightWave upgrades at $495, a $599 savings. This limited-time special offer is available for Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP platforms.
Animation World Network and VFXWorld would like to remind young filmmakers that we are a special media sponsor for the Visual Effects Societys eDIT 8. Filmmakers Festival in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 9-11, 2005. We will be sponsoring eDward VI, a young filmmakers contest and awards which celebrates the work of talented artists under the age of 30.
Animation advertising veteran Lou Hertz died at his home in Atlanta on July 4, 2005, after a brief battle with cancer; he was 73.
Hertz was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and studied at the University Of Miami, where he claimed to have majored in suntanning, according to a family bio. He served two years as a lieutenant in the Air Force where he began his career as an animator by making training films for bomber crews. Hertz was an animator for United Artists in Hollywood before he settled in Atlanta in 1957.
Nickelodeon will offer full length series via the Internet for the first time as it launches TurboNick, a broadband video platform available on Nick.com. TurboNick will feature up to 20 hours of new programming every week and includes advertising. In its soft launch phase that commenced July 1, 2005, TurboNick has garnering more than 1.25 million streams and will officially launch with a full advertising and promotional campaign on July 17.
