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Film Headline News

Agent Smith Replaces Vendetta Star

On a film already in production, Hugo Weaving, who has been immortalized as Agent Smith in THE MATRIX films and his elfin role in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, will replace James Purefoy (RESIDENT EVIL) as the star of V FOR VENDETTA, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The reason for the move was not announced, but the film is still set to hit theaters Nov. 4, 2005. The cast also includes Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Rupert Graves and Stephen Fry.

Film Headline News

Sprockets Closes Record Breaking Festival With Awards

Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children announced 11 awards in three categories on May 8, 2005, at the Isabel Bader Theatre. Five awards were decided upon by childrens juries, two audience-choice awards were determined by festival-goers of all ages, and four awards for the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase were decided by a jury of film-industry professionals. The curtain fell on the 8th-annual event with more than 20,000 children and family members, an increase of 20% from last year, seeing 87 films from 26 countries.

Disney Headline News

Pioneering Disney Artist/Storyman Joe Grant Passes Away

Joe Grant, one of Walt Disneys most creative and trusted artists and storymen, who designed the Queen/Witch character in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, and co-wrote DUMBO, passed away May 6 at his home in Glendale, California. He was 96, just nine days short of his 97th birthday. Grant suffered a heart attack while working at his drawing board at his home studio. Still very active, Grant continued to work at Walt Disney Feature Animation four days a week, including the day before he died.

Headline News

Pocahontas Arrives With New Song for 10th Anniversary DVD

For its 10th anniversary collectors edition DVD, POCAHONTAS (Walt Disney Home Ent., $29.99, released May 3, 2005) offers a new version with the deleted song If I Never Knew You, performed by Mel Gibson, which reinforces the bond between John Smith and Pocahontas. The song (written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) is seamlessly integrated into the movie with never-before-seen animation. Also included is the original theatrical version.

Star Headline News

First Enterprise Season Goes into Warp Drive on DVD

After recently completing its fourth and final season on UPN, the maiden voyage of STAR TREK ENTERPRISE (2001) was released on DVD (Paramount Home Ent., $129.99) on May 3, 2005. ENTERPRISE represents the franchises first prequel, set 100 years before the original series. Capt.

Headline News

Kingdom of Heaven Leads Anemic Box Office

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN opened lukewarmly for Fox yet still managed to lead a weak box office for the weekend ended May 8, 2005. Ridley Scotts epic about the Crusades took home $19.6M (with vfx from The Moving Picture Co., Double Negative, Framestore CFC and Clear), ahead of Warner Bros. HOUSE OF WAX (with vfx by Photon VFX), which bowed with $12M.

Disney Headline News

Roy Disney & Stanley Gold Sue Walt Disney Co. Over CEO Search

Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold today (May 9, 2005) filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court against The Walt Disney Co. and certain members of the board of directors alleging that they made false statements to the company's shareholders about its ceo search in order to get the shareholders to re-elect incumbent board members and block Disney and Gold from running an alternate slate of directors.

Festival Headline News

Orinda Film Festival Calls for Entries

Orinda Film Festival 2005Orinda, California, USASeptember 22-25, 2005Deadline: May 31, 2005

The Orinda Film Festival supports films from around the world that inspire, educate, challenge and provoke audiences to explore other viewpoints and forms of expression. It offers a wide range of categories, including narrative features and shorts, documentaries, animation, experimental films and music videos. For more information, visit www.orindafilmfestival.org.

Film Headline News

Got Scary Flicks? Enter Them in NYCHFF!

New York City Horror Film Festival (NYCHFF) 2005New York, New York, USAOctober 18 - 23, 2005Deadline: September 1, 2005

Once again, the U.S.'s premiere horror film festival will be held at the prestigious Tribeca Film Center in lower Manhattan. With special screenings, parties, celebrity guests and each year's prestigious lifetime achievement award, this is the genre festival not to be missed. For more information, visit www.nychorrorfest.com.

Digital Headline News

Ridley Scott Claims Too Much CGI is ‘Very Dangerous’

Director Ridley Scott, whose epic about the Crusades with Orlando Bloom, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, opens today (May 6, 2005 through Twentieth Century Fox), told VFXWORLD that the hybrid of live action and CGI that predominates the industry today is very dangerous.

He recounted how Doug Trumbull advised him 25 years ago on BLADE RUNNER to shoot live whenever possible, and he only selectively goes digital to enhance reality out of necessity. It isnt easy getting 70,000 troops out there in one shot, Scott admits.

Story Headline News

Pixar Poised for Future

Regardless of whether or not Pixar renegotiates a distribution deal with Disney, the northern California-based animation powerhouse is poised for the future. Thanks to the stellar performance turned in by THE INCREDIBLES DVD, Pixar reported first quarter revenues this week of $161.2 million and earnings of $81.9 million, up from $53 million and $26.7 million last year.

Headline News

Lions Gate Ent. Drops Out of HIT Bid Race

Lions Gate Entertainment has decided not to make an offer for HIT Entertainment Plc., the producer of children's shows BOB THE BUILDER and BARNEY leaving just HIT's original suitor, equity firm Apax Partners, on behalf of the Sunshine Acquisition Ltd.

The independent directors of HIT announced they are not in discussions with any other potential suitors and it is therefore expected that the scheme will become effective on May 24, 2005, following the court hearing to sanction the scheme on May 23.

Kids Headline News

Discovery Kids & WGBH Presenting Time Warp Animated Series This July

Discovery Kids and WGBH are currently in production on an original new animated series, TIME WARP TRIO, that will debut on Discovery Kids on NBC this July. Kids television producer WGBH created the series, based on a popular book series, in association with Soup2Nuts.

Imax Headline News

Polar Express Chugs Onto IMAX Again

IMAX Corp. and Warner Bros. Pictures announced that THE POLAR EXPRESS: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE, the highest grossing and most successful IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) release to date, will return to IMAX theatres in November 2005. First released on Nov. 10, 2004, and co-financed by Shangri-La Ent., the film broke virtually every box-office record for a digitally re-mastered Hollywood film in IMAX's format, and set the record for the highest grossing week in IMAX's 35-year history.

Headline News

Heavy Metal Live on DTV

L.A.-based Cinema Libre Studio has teamed with HEAVY METAL magazine to bring live-action features direct-to-video, reports VARIETY. The budgets on the horror, sci-fi, action and urban genre films will be between $500,000-$1 million. Filming on the first should begin this summer in the U.S. and Canada.

Cinema Libre founder Philippe Diaz, exec producer of the animated sequel HEAVY METAL 2000, has four scripts developed and the first is set to be released in October or November. Cinema Libre hopes to build up to the point when it will be able to release a title per month.

Brand Headline News

Jay Jay Goes to MAX in Asia

PorchLight Ent. announced the appointment of MAX Ent. (MAX) as its new representative in Middle and South East Asia. Under the agreement, MAX will exclusively handle licensing and merchandising rights for PorchLights flagship preschool brand JAY JAY THE JET PLANE throughout Malaysia, Singapore, the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.

Team Headline News

Activision Acquires Game Developer Toys For Bob

Further enhancing its internal development capabilities, Activision Inc. announced that it has acquired game developer Toys For Bob. As a result of the acquisition, Activision now has approximately 1,000 employees in its studio operations.

Headline News

IDT Brings Hair High & Other Features to Cannes

IDT Ent. Sales (IDTeS) will attend Marché du Film in Cannes with a slate of new animated and live-action theatrical features. Among the new properties to be offered are the highly anticipated horror anthology MASTERS OF HORROR, featuring the most prominent horror directors, the thriller ROOM SI starring Jerry OConnell and Christine Taylor, and two-time Oscar-nominee Bill Plymptons animated HAIR HIGH, which was just selected to screen at the prestigious Melbourne International Film Festival for 2005.

Animation Headline News

Graphic Novel MasterMinds An Animated Feature

Korean animation house DG Spot and its production division Morph have bought the rights to graphic novel MASTERMINDS and plans to turn it into an animated feature. The property is the lead franchise of Los Angeles-based animation house MasterMinds Unlimited. Production on the film, which will include a role voiced by Stan Lee, is set to begin this summer.

Animation Headline News

fmx/05 Breaks Records & Doles Out Awards

fmx/05, the 10th International Conference On Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content, saw a record breaking attendance of 3,500 people as it handed its top award to Blur Studios Oscar nominated short film GOPHER BROKE. Compared to 2004, this makes for a plus of about 50% or 1,200 visitors an increase that is mainly due to the excellent response of the industry. The event ran from April 27 to April 30 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Animation Headline News

Acme Filmworks Takes Home 8 Awards at ASIFA-East Fest

The 36th ASIFA-East Animation Festival handed out its awards on May 1, 2005, with Acme Filmworks taking home eight awards. This years event was dedicated to the memory of ASIFA-East friend, animator Paul E. Beard.

Student Awards1st Honorable Mention: STARS Maya Weksler of Bezalel Acad.3rd Place: THE WEIGHT OF WILLIAM TULLY Jim Downer of RIT2nd Place: TRICKS FOR A TREAT Jeff Mednikow of RIT1st Place: FROG Christopher Conforti of RIT

Commericals/Promos Under 2 minutes:

Festival Headline News

San Francisco Int’l Festival Announces Golden Gate Award Nominees

The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21May 5, 2005) unveiled its official selection for the Golden Gate Awards (GGA) competition, which honors innovation in documentary, animation, shorts, experimental, television and works by youth. Winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony on May 4, at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Official selections will be screened in a variety of curated programs throughout the festival to give audiences the opportunity to savor the talents of diverse filmmakers from around the globe.

Television Headline News

Spike TV Orders Blade TV Pilot from New Line Television

Spike TV will adapt the successful theatrical franchise, BLADE, based on the cult favorite Marvel superhero, as a two-hour, action/adventure television movie in early 2006.

"The action-adventure genre is largely ignored in today's television landscape, and we know it is something that our male viewers really want," said Spike TV president Doug Herzog. "BLADE is a great movie franchise with an established brand that men already recognize and identify with."

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