AWN Headline News

Iain Pelling, Cosgrove Hall Films md said he has decided to move on from the Manchester, U.K.-based animation company. Under his direction, the studio has become one of the leading animation companies in Europe. He spearheaded adding capabilities to the studio, including a CGI unit, Cosgrove Hall Digital, as well as new talent and better production management for its award-winning 2D and stop-frame production crews. Since he joined CHF in 1996, the studio has won three international and six national programming awards, plus one Childrens BAFTA and five BAFTA nominations.

David F. Zucker (40) has been named ceo/president of Midway Games Inc., replacing Neil D. Nicastro (46), Midway's chairman who has also stepped down as coo. Nicastro will continue as chairman of Midway's board of directors. The gaming company has not named a new coo.

Nearly a year in the making, CHARLIE'S ANGELS ANIMATED ADVENTURES debuts May 13, 2003 as an animated series of six, two-minute adventures on the Internet (www.AnimatedAngels.com) to entice moviegoers for the upcoming film CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE. Join the ink-and-paint Angels as they follow the trail of a missing U.S. Marshall, which takes them from Vegas to Mongolia and then to parts unknown. The Webisodes feature the voice of John Forsythe as Charlie, who provided the voice of the Angel's mentor in the original TV series and the feature.

Leading videogame publisher Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) has changed its corporate name to Atari. Infogrames (New York City and Lyon, France) acquired the Atari brand when it bought the interactive assets of toymaker Hasbro in January 2001 and has periodically used the name, one of the oldest (30 years) and most legendary in videogame history, for titles such as DRAGON BALL Z, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, SUPERMAN, TERMINATOR 3 and ENTER THE MATRIX, which debuts on May 15, 2003, day and date with the film, THE MATRIX RELOADED.

ETERNAL GAZE by Sam Chen was chosen Best Animated Short by the Computer Animation Festival amongst 76 pieces selected for presentation at SIGGRAPH 2003, the 30th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, being held July 27-31, 2003 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Twenty-five of the selected entries will be shown in the Electronic Theater and 52 in the Animation Theaters. The Electronic Theater lineup includes 13 studio/production pieces, 13 non-U.S. entries and five student submissions from a total of 635 entries.

Twentieth Century Fox's X2: X-MEN UNITED ruled the box office for a second consecutive week, coming in first place at $41.4M for a take of $149M in the U.S. alone. Contributing VFX to the blockbuster were Cinesite, EYETECH Optics, Frantic Films, Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co. and Rhythm & Hues. Sony/Revolution's DADDY DAY CARE debuted in second place with a respectable $27.6M. As a further treat for families, it is accompanied in many theaters by Sony Pictures Imageworks' new CG short EARLY BLOOMER. Disney's THE LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE dropped slightly to third place in its second week at $7.8M and a $27.2M cume. Rainmaker Digital Pictures did VFX for the film based on the hit TV series about the teen with an animated alter ego. Sony's IDENTITY slipped to fourth place, taking in $6.3M for a $39.2M take. K.N.B. EFX Group Inc. did VFX work for the suspense flick. Sony/Revolutions' ANGER MANAGEMENT was fifth, taking in another $5.5M to rack up a total of $122.9M. Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Orphanage did VFX for ANGER. Buena Vista's comedy family/adventure HOLES dipped to sixth place with $4.6M and a $51.4M cume. Digital FilmWorks and Avtoma of L.A. contributed visual effects for VFX supervisor William Mesa, founder of Flash Film Works, whose studio did the majority of the work for the film from Walt Disney Pictures. Warner Bros./Castle Rocks' hilarious A MIGHTY WIND expanded to more theaters and climbed up to seventh place to take in $2.9M and a total of $9.4M. MALIBU'S MOST WANTED slipped to eighth place with $2.1M and a $31.7M cume. C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures did some of the VFX work for the Warner Bros. release. Fox Searchlight's BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM held in ninth place with $1.6M and a total take of $13M. CONFIDENCE from Lions Gate dropped to tenth place with $1.5M and a take of $11M in its third week of release. Pixel Magic and Pacific Title contributed VFX to the con-men drama. X2 will likely get shot down as well as the rest of the contenders when the highly anticipated sequel THE MATRIX RELOADED goes up May 15, 2003. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.

Winners for the 1st Annual International 3D Awards were announced at the evening ceremony May 9, 2003 at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, running in conjunction with the 3D Festival 2003. The winners each picked up a Digital Hero trophy, hand sculpted by Dan Platt, at the ceremony The winners are:

Feature Film VFX

Minnetonka-Minnesota based TV and film production/distributor/acquisition company Tremendous! Entertainment, Inc. will attend the Los Angeles Screenings for the first time this year, offering international buyers a peek at the newest Garfield 25th anniversary special. GARFIELD'S WORLD EGO TOUR celebrates the fat cat's 25th birthday in a live-action prime-time special. It chronicles the lasagna-loving feline as he visits his millions of fans around the globe.

Director Michele Band has joined Vee Pee Films, the live-action production division of Virtual Persuasion. Band was a director and producer at MTV Networks and Nickelodeon Studios where she did live-show production, new show launch campaigns, on-air promotions and high-profile celebrity interviews.

Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, has started a third party developer program the Conductors Program - offering three levels of participation, to help what the company sees is a strong surge in developers seeking to create plug-ins and other complementary add-ons for Maya and StudioTools software.

Artisan Home Entertainment Inc. will issue TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (EXTREME EDITION), that will feature both high-definition and standard resolutions versions of the film for the first time on the same DVD. The two-disc set offers a digitally remastered theatrical version of the film in high-definition video and full surround sound on a single DVD-ROM in Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series. It offers an image nearly 3.5 times shaper than a standard DVD video and will require more horsepower to view it.