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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Magma - International Short Films Festival 05Acireale, ItalySeptember 15-17, 2005Deadline: June 10, 2005
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.
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.
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:
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.
Criterion Ltd. & Rick Ungars Brentwood Television Funnies Inc. are producing a brand new animated series of the 1990s hit series, BIKER MICE FROM MARS.
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."
Nickelodeon, the top entertainment brand for kids, and Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless service provider in the U.S., jointly announced the launch of Nick Mobile today, (May 5, 2005) to bring Nickelodeon video content to Verizon Wireless' V CAST wireless phones. Music videos from DORA THE EXPLORER, BLUE'S CLUES, THE BACKYARDIGANS and LAZYTOWN will be the first available content on Nick Mobile, with Nickelodeon TV programming scheduled to roll out this summer.
Mega Bloks Inc. is partnering with Bardel Entertainment Inc. to make a sequel to last year's DRAGONS FIRE & ICE epic movie adventure. YTV will broadcast the new DRAGONS METAL AGES in fall 2005 while the previous distribution partners Lions Gate, Paramount, and Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution LP are onboard again for the global home entertainment distribution of the second Dragons movie.
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS returns for a fourth season premiering with a new half-hour episode, Fear of a Krabby Patty/Shell of a Man, on May 6, 2005, at 8:30 pm on Nickelodeon (ET/PT). This episode about working stress is the first of 20 all-new adventures to premiere on Nick in 2005/2006.
A favorite of viewers of all ages, the series launched in July 1999 and has held rank as the number-one kids show on broadcast and cable television for three years. New SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS episodes will continue to air on Fridays at 8:30 p.m.
Today (May 5, 2005) launched the 18-month celebration of Disneylands 50th anniversary, dubbed The Happiest Celebration on Earth. At a ceremony beside the newly redecorated and resplendent Sleeping Beautys Castle at the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, California, honorary ambassador Julie Andrews and Art Linkletter, the original Disneyland host, reminisced about visiting the park for the first time with Walt Disney, who first opened the groundbreaking park on July 17, 1955.
MTV announced the nominees for the "2005 MTV Movie Awards." Vfx and animated films make up the host of Best Movie nominees, which includes KILL BILL VOL. 2, SPIDER-MAN 2 and THE INCREDIBLES. It was also announced that FEVER PITCH star Jimmy Fallon is set to host the star-studded awards show. The 14th annual awards ceremony will air on June 9, 2005, at 8:30 pm (ET/PT). The winners will be revealed at the "2005 MTV Movie Awards," which will be taped on June 4 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
This year's nominees for the 18th Annual Harvey Awards, chosen solely by industry professionals, have been announced, with DC and Fantagraphics leading the way with the most nominations.
The new Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, in New York City, will host the awards ceremony at the historic Puck Building on June 11, 2005, as part of the Fourth Annual MoCCA Art Festival Weekend. Jeff (Bone) Smith will be the keynote speaker.
The nominees for the 18th Annual Harvey Awards are:
Best New Talent
