AWN Headline News

Universal has obtained the film rights to Darren Shan bestselling childrens book series, CIRQUE DU FREAK, reports VARIETY. Brian Helgeland is attached to write/ exec produce with Lauren Shuler Donner producing. Helgeland plans to base the first film on the first three books in the dozen-book series. Universal hopes this will be a new trilogy for them. The storys main character is named Darren Shan and follows him to an illegal freak show where he is lured into becoming a vampire's assistant in order to save his best friend's life.

Mandate Pictures (formerly known as Senator Intl) has announced that Takashi Shimizu will return to helm THE GRUDGE 2, reports VARIETY. Ghost House Pictures, Mandate's joint genre production label with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, will produce the film. The original American remake of the Japanese cult sensation JU-ON THE GRUDGE grossed out audiences to the tune of $110 million in the States and a global box office take of $143 million.

Gnomon School of Visual Effects has been approved by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) to enroll non-immigrant M-1 students and to issue I-20s. Eligible foreign students may now receive visas to attend Gnomons High-End Computer Graphics Certificate Program or Maya Fast Track Program.

This is such an important step for us, said Kristin Bierschbach, Gnomons director of administration. Because of the quality of our programs and instructors, students from all over the world want to come to Gnomon. Now they can.

The Telly Awards 2005World Wide WebApril 30, 2005Deadline: March 4, 2005

Disney has hired scribes Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to draft a remake screenplay for the 1982 cult classic, TRON, reports VARIETY. Brigham Taylor will supervise the new film.

For the remake the computer world will be expanded with the computer programmer will get trapped in the cyberworld of the Internet. Steven Lisberger wrote and directed to original film, which utilized cutting-edge graphics.

THE THREE AMIGOS, a series of 20 animated Public Service Announcements (PSAs) designed to entrench the use of condoms to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the world, have been awarded a CINE Golden Eagle. THE THREE AMIGOS, along with 800 other PSA, are part of the worlds largest integrated behavior modification program that launched at the United Nations on Jan. 11, 2005. This public awareness program has a potential reach of approximately 80% of the worlds population.

The Spanish-language cast of THE SIMPSONS have been on strike since October and are threatening protest marches over a contract between their union and privately-owned dubbing studio, Grabaciones y Doblajes Internacionales, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Represented by Mexico's National Actors Assn., the voice actors claim that their former employer broke an exclusivity agreement when it hired non-members of the association. Grabaciones does not deny using nonunion actors, but argues that it never signed an exclusivity contract.