Paramounts LEMONY SNICKETS A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATELY EVENTS, with Oscar-contending vfx by ILM, finished first in its opening weekend with $30M for the period ended Dec. 19, 2004. Warner Bros. OCEANS TWELVE dropped to second with $18.1M for a two-weeks bounty worth $68.5M. Sonys SPANGLISH debuted in third with $8.8M.
What do a disfigured musical genius, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes and a resurrected vampire have in common? This holiday season, their stories are being told using digital content creation tools from Discreet.
Rupert Gavin has been appointed non-executive chairman of the Contender Entertainment Group (CEG), one of the U.K.s fastest growing entertainment companies. Gavin will be assisting CEG to double its market share of the U.K. DVD market and expand its wholly owned IP base.
Gnomon School of Visual Effects has revamped its lineup of teachers for the Maya Fast Track Program. Eric Hanson (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW), award-winning digital artist Meats Meier, Sean Mills (SMALLVILLE) and Joshua Reiss (HOLLOW MAN) have joined long-time instructors Alex Alvarez (Gnomon founder) and Darrin Krumweide on the Fast Track roster. The Maya Fast Track Program is a nine-week immersion in Alias Maya and how it is used in a 3D production pipeline. The winter term program runs from Jan. 17 through March 18, 2005.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected March 5, as the date for the 78th Academy Awards in 2006, Academy president Frank Pierson announced. The show will fall a week later in the calendar than in 2004 and 2005.
Friedman 3D starts its new semester of high-end, low-cost CG training on Jan. 10, 2005. The semester runs until June 24, 2005. The Maya CG course runs from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Monday through Friday for 20 weeks. The course is taught by David Gottlieb, a Maya animator formerly with Walt Disney Co. Subjects covered will be: modeling, texturing, rigging, character animation, lighting and effects. Morning lectures will cover intro to basic subjects and occur daily from 9:00 to 11:00 am and labs from 12:00 to 2:40 pm.
The Knoxville Museum of Art will present Design Lab: Tronic Studio, featuring the New York City multimedia design firm Tronic Studio whose clients have included MTV, Nike, Wired, Fuse Network, Fine Living and Diesel Denim to name a few. Tronic Studio blends architecture with art, video production and interface design. The exhibition, on display at the Knoxville Museum of Art Jan. 14 to March 27, 2005, is the firm's first solo museum exhibition.
Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., has announced that GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS is making its way to the Xbox and PC. Developed by designers Rockstar North, GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS for the Xbox and PC will be in stores in North America on June 7, 2005 and in Europe on June 10, 2005.
John Canemaker and Peggy Stern have complete production on THE MOON AND THE SON, an HBO-Cinemax animated documentary, featuring the voices of actors Eli Wallach and John Turturro, with an original score by Ron Sadoff, and editing and sound design by David Mehlman. The film explores the difficult emotional terrain of father/son relationships as seen through Canemakers own turbulent relationship with his father.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the seven films being considered for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 77th Academy Awards.
The films in consideration are listed below in alphabetical order:
* THE AVIATOR* THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW* HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
BLADE: TRINITY director David Goyer has signed on to write, produce and direct a film adaptation of DC Comics Flash for Warner Bros. Pictures, reports VARIETY. His wont be the first time that Goyer has entered the DC superhero universe he wrote the script for BATMAN BEGINS.
Acclaimed animator Joanna Priestley celebrates 20 years as filmmaker with a two-DVD collection of her work. The self-released two discs, entitled FIGHTING GRAVITY and RELATIVE ORBITS, cull 16 of her animated short films with many bonus features, including four documentaries providing behind-the-scenes glimpses into the animation process.
Red Star Studio has opened its doors in Sheffield. The new company will produce high-end digital effects and animation aimed at independent film and television. Situated in the burgeoning film community of Sheffield in the north of England and with a base in London, Red Star has been founded by the award-winning duo Benjamin Smith and Jan Rogowski. Their previous credits include Chris Morris' BAFTA award-winning 35mm short film MY WRONGS 8245-8249 AND 117, for which they created all the visual effects.
American Film Institute's annual AFI Awards has named THE INCREDIBLES and SPIDER-MAN 2 amongst its top 10 films of the year and SOUTH PARK one of its top 10 TV shows. Other films in the top 10 included: THE AVIATOR, COLLATERAL, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, KINSEY, MARIA FULL OF GRACE, MILLION DOLLAR BABY and SIDEWAYS, which will be honored during a ceremony in Beverly Hills on Jan. 14, 2005.
The Gnomon Workshop released three DVD titles on Dec. 15, 2004, dedicated to understanding the complexity and power of Pixologic's ZBrush. Accomplished artists Meats Meier and Zack Petroc take the artist through the basics and intricacies of this remarkable digital sculpting tool.
Hot on the heels of the record-setting THE POLAR EXPRESS: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE, IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures will next bring Tim Burtons CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY to IMAX theaters, day-and-date with conventional theaters on July 15, 2005. The event marks the seventh IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) collaboration between IMAX and Warner Bros.
Sony Pictures Imageworks used Maxons BodyPaint 3D and Cinema 4D software in the development of Warner Bros.' THE POLAR EXPRESS. The grand landscapes, the beautiful digital environments and scenery were created utilizing Maxon's award-winning 3D programs.
Chris Landreths RYAN was the only animated film named in Canada's Top Ten 2004 and will receive this honor at The Toronto International Film Festival Group to be held Jan. 28 Feb. 5, 2005 at the Cinematheque Ontario.
Established in 2001, Canada's Top Ten celebrates the finest in Canadian cinema and is selected by an independent panel of filmmakers, programmers, academics, journalists and industry professionals from across the country.
The Pixel Farm released PFHoe, an extremely cost effective DV tracking application, for the Mac and Windows platform, aimed at DV hobbyists and budding CG artists. For the first time it is possible for those wanting to learn about match moving or experiment with matching computer graphics to video footage, to use cutting edge tools without the price tag to match.
The premiere of Sci Fi Channel's original miniseries LEGEND OF EARTHSEA averaged a 3.2 HH rating/3.677,000 P2+ over two consecutive nights. Sci Fi was the top network in cable prime (Monday-Tuesday 8:00-11:00 pm average) for HH ratings, P2+, P18-49s and P25-54s for entire run of the miniseries.
CROUCHING TIGERs Chow Yun-Fat is in negotiations to play the villain in the upcoming PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN sequels, reports APPLE DAILY. The actors wife, Jasmin Chan Wui-nin, said the actor will play the famous 19th century Chinese pirate Cheung Po Tsai for the second and third installments of the franchise. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley are expected to return in their roles.
Harrison Ford is set to star in the feature film version of the forthcoming Iraq War book, NO TRUE GLORY: THE BATTLE FOR FALLUJAH, reports VARIETY. Universal-based Double Feature partners Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher have optioned the book, which will be published by Bantam in May. Carla Santos Shamberg will produce with Shamberg and Sher.
Clive Barkers horror series, HELLRAISER, has pinned a hour-long TV deal, reports VARIETY. Panacea Ent., Park Avenue Ent. and Blueprint Ent. will produce the project. New Worlds Larry Kuppin will exec produce with Eric Gardner. Dimension films still holds the feature rights, but Kuppin has repped the series since 1991.
The plot will follow a tabloid journalist who stumbles onto a diabolical plot between Pinhead and a zillionaire software exec.
Platinum Studios and Relativity Management have signed a deal with Vancouver-based the Shop Animation Studios to develop and co-produce a CG feature based the Italian comicbook series DYLAN DOG: THE FOURTH KINGDOM. Production will begin in March and Relativity will handle all foreign sales. The Shop co-founder Ian Pearson will direct, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gavin Blair. Producers include Aaron L. Gilbert, president/co-founder of the Shop, and Platinum Studios chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Relativity ceo Ryan Kavanaugh will exec produce with Ervin Rustemagic.
The Writers Guild of America, East and West announced the nominations for outstanding achievement in television and radio writing during the 2004 season.
In the Animation category, THE SIMPSONS garnered four of the five nominations. The nods went to:
* Today I Am A Clown (THE SIMPSONS), Written by Joel H. Cohen; Fox * Fraudcast News (THE SIMPSONS), Written by Don Payne; Fox* Starcrossed (JUSTICE LEAGUE), Written by Rich Fogel, John Ridley, Dwayne McDuffie, Story by Rich Fogel; Cartoon Network
