Disney has hired Grant Calof and Greg Lee to adapt David Wiesner's award-winning illustrated children's book THE THREE PIGS into an animated feature combining CG and traditional techniques, VARIETY reports. Like SHREK, PIGS is a postmodern take on classic fairy tales (this one was made famous by Disney, of course, in a 1933 Silly Symphony short).
Veteran animator Becky Bristow has been named chair of the Digital Arts and Design program in the Software School of Beijing University, China. Bristow reports she is busy creating the curriculum and building the new graduate digital arts program
Welsh broadcaster S4C has commission two short films from Blunt Pictures, the teen and adult animation division of Siriol Prods. CANNED HEAT and THE THWEE LANCERS will be produced at the companys Cardiff-based stop motion animation studio.
The DIC Kid's Network has been surpassing major kids commercial broadcast networks since launching Sept. 1, 2003, according to David Ozer, svp, domestic television, DIC Ent.
International Film Festival of Fine ArtsSzolnok, HungarySeptember 21 - 27, 2004Deadline: March 31, 2004
Peabody Awards New York, New York, USAMay 17, 2004Deadline: January 15, 2004
Metro Art Poster ContestLos Angeles, California, USAFebruary 13, 2004Deadline: February 13, 2004
MTA Metro Art is holding the 2004 Neighborhood Poster Series. The selected artworks will be reproduced in a range of poster formats and displayed throughout the Metro system including stations, trains, buses and various other locations. Please note that this is a qualification based call so no proposals are requested. Eligibility is limited to Los Angeles County-based professional artists and illustrators.
Described as a combination of Joan Miró, Buster Keaton, Chuck Jones, Gene Kelly and Felix the Cat, the iconoclastic animator, actor, dancer, cinematographer and editor Grant Munro is paid tribute on the new DVD CUT-UP: THE FILMS OF GRANT MUNRO (Image, $29.99). Presented by The National Film Board of Canada (where Monroe worked) and Milestone Films, the disc features 109 minutes of significant hand-drawn and pixilated animation, live action and documentary shorts covering 1945-1983.
Softimage launched its Student Animation Contest 2004, which seeks to recognize the leading talent from up-and-coming animators worldwide. "Be The Hero" invites both full and part-time students to submit a piece of animation, which could win them one of three two-part prizes. Top prizes include a production license of the SOFTIMAGE|XSI software, with one year's maintenance for the winner, plus Academic versions of the industry's leading nonlinear software system for the winner's home institution.
Cartoon Network is having a four-day Christmas party beginning at 9:00 am, Dec. 22, 2003 featuring cartoon characters like Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, Space Ghost and Yogi Bear for CNs longest holiday blast. Viewers can enjoy Christmas cartoon classics, new and old, for four days straight to carry them into the holiday. Following is the lineup for Cartoon Networks Christmas Party Marathon.
Dec. 22:9:00 am, OLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER 10:00 am, THE POWERPUFF GIRLS: TWAS THE FIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
11:30 am, SMURFS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
This week in the Forums...
3D Festival 2004, Europe's largest convention and exhibition for the creative 3D industry (May 3-6 at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark), has announced its executive committee and preliminary speakers. Synergy, meanwhile, will be the theme, encompassing storytelling, modeling, animating, rendering, programming and business strategies.
Turbo Squid, the world's largest collection of royalty-free 3D assets for sale, has formed a custom 3D modeling service, allowing clients to draw from a global pool of more than 6,300 digital artists when a job is needed. The service is designed to give Turbo Squid clients another avenue for content if they cannot fulfill their needs through the Turbo Squid library of more than 80,000 3D models, meshes, textures, audio files and mo-cap data available for download.
Artwork to be considered for EXPOSÉ 2 needs to be submitted before Jan. 29, 2004, four weeks prior to the previous deadline, in order for the book to be shipped in time for SIGGRAPH 2004. EXPOSÉ 2 will go into full production in March 2004, with a release date of July 2004. EXPOSÉ 2 Pre-orders for EXPOSÉ 2 will start in June 2004.
After successfully IMAXing THE MATRIX trilogy, IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures will release the third installment of the HARRY POTTER film series, THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, in IMAX theaters in June 2004. The highly anticipated Alfonso Cuaron-directed feature is scheduled to open June 4 in conventional theaters. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN will be digitally re-mastered through proprietary IMAX DMR technology.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING came out swinging like Gollum for that box office brass ring on Wednesday, Dec. 17, taking in a glorious $57.6M in theaters around the globe, according to New Line, including a record-breaking domestic gross of $34.1M and $23.5M in 19 territories overseas.
Nickelodeon has ordered 90+ new episodes of its series, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS, ALL GROWN UP, MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT, CHALKZONE and THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS, totaling more than 50 hours, according to Cyma Zarghami, evp/gm of Nickelodeon.
The order breaks down to 30 episodes of THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS and 20 episodes of THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS.
Running With Scissors has released its new game, POSTAL 2: SHARE THE PAIN, featuring the likeness of actor and former California gubernatorial candidate Gary Coleman. In SNATCH" one of the many multi-player options available in the new release, players control Coleman as he grabs scantily clad Postal Babes, toss them over his shoulder and run around with them like a version of capture the flag. Coleman also appears as a special player-character in the "Deathmatch" option of P2: STP.
Marvel Enterprises Inc. has acquired the business and certain assets of New York City-based Cover Concepts, a small company specializing in the distribution of free, sponsored materials to public schools across the U.S. Cover Concepts sells advertising space on those materials, which include book covers, bookmarks, locker posters, teaching guides, health & beauty samples, calendars, stickers, notepads, folders, coloring sheets, incentive programs and growth charts. Major advertising customers have included Gatorade, McDonalds and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Toon Radio LLC has acquired the broadcast rights to the syndicated anime radio program ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT for its Internet broadcast. Produced by Limelight Media, ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT is a 30- to 60-minute show that features uncut anime music tracks by the original artists in Japanese language, with English introductions, background histories, news and Japanese pop culture information. The show launched on the Internet in 1997 and airs on KUMU AM 1500 (AniMe 1500) and Fresno California Webcaster Japan-a-Radio (www.japanaradio.com).
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, based on the popular book of the same name by C.S. Lewis, will begin production in New Zealand in early 2004, industry development minister Jim Anderton said in a statement. New Zealand-native Andrew Adamson, co-director of the Oscar-winning SHREK, will be directing the live-action film. The production will use stage space and personnel in Auckland.
The 61st annual Golden Globe nominations were announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press on December 18, 2003. Leading the pack in film nods was COLD MOUNTAIN with eight. For TV, HBO received 20 nods, riding the success of ANGELS IN AMERICA and SEX AND THE CITY.
