Peru's Alpamayo Ent. has launched the countrys first 3D feature titled PIRATAS EN EL CALLAO (PIRATES IN CALLAO), reports VARIETY. The film will be adapted from Hernan Garrido Leccas book of the same name, which chronicles the adventures of a young boy who time-travels to the 17th century to fight pirates off the coast of Peru. Eduardo Schuldt directed the film.
The Honig Co. Inc., a leading boutique public relations agency, announced it is representing USA Index Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Index Corp., a $20 billion diversified technology and media company based in Japan.
The Honig Co. will initially be undertaking a campaign aimed at raising awareness of Sega Animanium, a software product for the animation industry, and working to increase sales within North America.
THE AVIATOR and THE INCREDIBLES took the top feature and animated film sound editing award categories at the 52nd Annual Golden Reel Awards, doled out by the Motion Picture Sound Editors on Feb. 26, 2005, at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The Golden Reel Awards acknowledge the year's best work in the various areas of sound editing.
Pixar earned its second animated feature Oscar for THE INCREDIBLES at the 77th Annual Academy Awards, Feb. 27, 2005, while Skywalker Sound won the Best Sound Editing Award. Animated feature was the award up for the night, collected by a jubilant Brad Bird. He thanked the holy trinity at Pixar referring to Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter for creating the greatest studio on the face of the Earth, Bird said.
Jessica Samet has been promoted from vp to the newly-created position of svp of original programming and series development for MTV in Los Angeles, responsible for developing and overseeing original long-form original programming, working closely with scheduling, marketing, communications, and advertising teams at the network.
Barbie returns to the small screen in her new original princess fairytale and 3D enhanced animation film, BARBIE AND THE MAGIC OF PEGASUS. This fall, Barbie stars as Princess Annika, and brings to life a never-before-seen fairytale set amidst the fluffy clouds of the Magical Cloud Kingdom. In addition to the animated movie, Mattel will introduce a line of branded princess dolls, winged horses and playsets.
DreamWorks has tapped AMERICAN PIE 2 writer David H. Steinberg to pen the animated feature, PUSS IN BOOTS, based on the character voiced by Antonio Banderas in SHREK 2, reports VARIETY. Steinberg will get a six-figure salary for the script. DreamWorks hopes to release the film in 2008 and Banderas has agreed to return as the voice of the swashbuckling feline. No official word has been announced whether the film will be a direct-to-video project or a theatrical release.
20th Century Fox has announced multiple promotional partnerships for its upcoming animated feature ROBOTS, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Licensing deals include ones with Burger King, which will have ROBOTS-themed kids meal; Kelloggs-Keebler, with ROBOTS-themed packaging for several of its breakfast and snack products; and Verizon, with ROBOTS content on its video-on-demand service.
THE INCREDIBLES director/writer Brad Bird has gain new representation at the William Morris Agency, reports VARIETY. This year, Bird garnered two Oscar nominations for original screenplay and animated feature. Previously, Bird directed the animated classic IRON GIANT and served as a writer on THE SIMPSONS, KING OF THE HILL and the Steven Spielberg-produced AMAZING STORIES. Bird was previously repped at CAA.
As part of the 9th Marc Davis Lecture on Animation, the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host a retrospective on the work of Frédéric Back on March 23, 2005, at 7:30 pm in the Academys Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
JAKKS Pacific Inc. announced an expanded licensing agreement with Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
Fort Myers Beach Film Festival Fort Myers Beach, Florida, USAApril 21 - 24, 2005Deadline: March 15, 2005
Jackson Hole Film Festival Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USAJune 8 - 12, 2005Deadline: April 15, 2005
LUNAFEST Film Festival Various Cities, USAOctober 2005 - March 2006Deadline: April 30, 2005
CARTOON MOVIE, the only event dedicated to promoting European animated feature films, has announced the nominated companies for the Cartoon Movie Tributes 2005. These tributes highlight the initiatives that contribute to the recognition and the success of the European animation cinema. Three of them will be chosen by the professionals attending the event, taking place March 10-12 in Potsdam, Germany.
The nominated companies are:
NVIDIA Corp. introduced the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra mobile GPU. Available immediately, the Dell Inspiron XPS Gen2 is the first notebook with the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra mobile GPU and features unprecedented notebook gaming performance achieving more than two times the performance of the previous Inspiron XPS, based on industry-standard benchmarks.
Sheer Force of Will Pictures Llc, a new feature film production company, has opened in Glendale, California. The new company is owned by co-founders Kevin Kutchaver, a visual effects veteran who concurrently remains head of visual effects design and production company HimAnI Prods. and feature film producer Linda Drake. Sheer Force of Will Pictures plans to produce two-three original feature films a year. The duo also announced the start of production on the companys first feature film, RESCUE ROCKET X-5, which begins in late February 2005 in Los Angeles.
The Gnomon Workshop adds to its digital and analog collections this month with eight new titles covering visual storytelling, character design, environment creation and industrial design. Joining the Digital library, the Gnomon Workshop welcomes art director Aaron Sims with his new two-DVD collection on Creature Design. These titles reveal the artist's use of Adobe Photoshop, XSI, DeepPaint3D and ZBrush. Sims, an art director at Stan Winston studios, worked for years designing creature effects make-up with Rick Baker before perfecting his digital skills.
New York City-based Noodlesoup Productions, Inc. is expanding to form a new original content creation division - Noodlesoup Entertainment that will solely focus on the development and production of high quality original animated feature films and television programming.
Noodlesoup Prods. is best known for its breakout Cartoon Network hit series, THE VENTURE BROTHERS, as well as for the work of its commercial divisions campaigns for MSN and Earthlink. Noodlesoup Ent. is already beginning development on several new programs with major U.S. distributors.
Gamers will get to play Dirty Harry, literally, in a new series of videogames Warner Bros. Interactive Ent. and Clint Eastwood's Malpaso and The Tehama Companies are producing based on the DIRTY HARRY film franchise, introducing the legendary detective "Dirty Harry" Callahan to the interactive world for the first time on next generation consoles.
Academy Award-winning director, producer and actor Eastwood is consulting on key creative aspects of the game design and will lend his voice and likeness to his renowned role of police detective Harry Callahan.
On Feb. 23, 2005, negotiations broke down in the ongoing dispute between the Spanish-language voices of THE SIMPSONS union and a Mexico City-based dubbing studio, spurring the cast to go on an official strike, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The cast alleges that its employer, formerly known as Grabaciones y Doblajes, breached its contract with their union, the National Actors' Assn. Union, by hiring union-member actors. The company claims that the contract was made void when its administration and company name changed to Grabaciones y Doblajes Internacionales (GDI).
Focus Press has released the new book, ANIMATION WRITING AND DEVELOPMENT: FROM SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT TO PITCH, written by former Hanna-Barbera animator Jean Ann Wright.
The book takes students and animation professionals alike through the process of creating original characters, developing a television series, feature, or multimedia project, and writing professional premises, outlines and scripts. It covers the process of developing presentation bibles and pitching original projects as well as ideas for episodes of shows already on the air.
Burbank-based Furious FX enters its sophomore year with a wide assortment of their first years work erupting into theaters and onto DVD shelves. Currently in production are MR. AND MRS. SMITH and FEVER PITCH.
The newly ignited facility has completed nearly 500 shots in the last 12 months. Their work is featured in more than 15 high profile films, including THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, SPIDER-MAN 2, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, the upcoming UNDERCLASSMAN, as well as Sundance indie CHRYSTAL starring Billy Bob Thornton.
Eovia, developer and publisher of leading 3D animation, modeling and rendering software, introduces the Eovia TransPoser 2 plug-in. TransPoser 2 allows users to import Poser v5 and v4 characters and animations into Eovia Carrara 4 software, where they can be integrated in more complex scenes and brought to life. In addition to improved workflow, this new version includes Poser files into the Carrara 4 network rendering. Through special arrangement with DAZ Prods., TransPoser 2 comes with the Victoria 3.0 and Michael 3.0 models.
Butch Hartman, the award-winning creator and exec producer of THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and DANNY PHANTOM, has signed a multi-year deal with Nickelodeon Networks to create original animated and live-action programming for Nickelodeon and Noggin.
