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Geographical Region: Europe

Game Headline News

Getaway Game Garners Sundance Spotlight

With the success of Sony Computer Entertainment Europes virtual acting work on the upcoming interactive THE GETAWAY: BLACK MONDAY, Sony Computer Entertainment America will present it at Sundance, reports HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The goal is to highlight the game's cinematic aspects and Hollywood ties.

The sequel game, which ships Jan. 25, 2005, recreates 25 square miles of London's "Congestion Zone" and uses live actors for the game's central characters, utilizing them throughout the $20 million project's 18-month development schedule, which is rare for games.

Online Headline News

Global Gaming League & ClanBase Form Strategic Partnership

The Global Gaming League (GGL), the leader in competitive videogaming entertainment, announced a strategic partnership with ClanBase.com, Europe's leading competition organizer for online gamers. The partnership will see the two companies working together to take competitive online videogaming to the next level by combining their respective communities and talents. Together, they form the world's largest online gaming community with more than a million players from 190 countries around the world.

Square Headline News

Square Enix Ships Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel

Square Enix Inc., the publisher of Square Enix interactive entertainment products in North America, will ship FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST AND THE BROKEN ANGEL to retailers in the U.S. on Jan. 18, 2005 for PlayStation2.

Based on the wildly popular anime and manga series in Japan, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST has made its way to America, beginning with a TV series on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and a DVD release is set for 2005.

Film Headline News

Popeye, Bowers & Bert the Turtle Enter National Film Registry

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced his annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry. This group of titles brings the total number of films placed on the registry to 400.

Headline News

ADV Films Announces December 28 Releases

ADV Films has announced the release of its titles for Dec. 28, 2004. Titles include: NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PLATINUM: 04, ROBOTECH REMASTERED: NEW GENERATION COLLECTION 2 VOLUME 7, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS TOKYO 2040: ESSENTIAL ANIME COLLECTION, VOLUME 2 and WEDDING PEACH: BLACK HEART.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PLATINUM: 04 is the popular series -- directed by Hideaki Anno (NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER, HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES); produced by GAINAX (FLCL), NAS (YU-GI-OH!) and TV Tokyo (SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN); and animated by Production I.G. (GHOST IN THE SHELL) and GAINAX.

Films Headline News

Shorts International to Distribute American Short Film Catalog

U.K.-based Shorts International, the short film distribution arm of Britshorts Ltd., has become the exclusive distributor for the entire short film library of American Vantage/Hypnotic. American Vantage/Hypnotic, a subsidiary of American Vantage Media Corp., has one of the largest high-quality short film and animation libraries in the world. The combined entity gives Shorts Intl the largest short film distribution capability across the globe.

Headline News

Bert Smets’ Hopla Finds Commercial Home At Telescreen

Bert Smets has chosen Telescreen to handle all commercial rights to his animated HOPLA series (104x5) so he can focus on the creative process.

Smets commends Telescreen for its, all round knowledge with regard to animation productions and licensing forms, making it the perfect combination with my own creative perspective. I am sure that we can mean a lot for each other.

Digital Headline News

DAZ Prods. Announces Call for 'Virtual Beauty Queens'

Move over Naomi Campbell, digital beauty divas are here to stay. DAZ Prods., a technology leader in high-quality digital 3D models, is teaming up with the Miss Digital World Contest to invite 3D artists from around the world -- professional and amateur alike -- to create and submit their perfect digital woman to the second annual Miss Digital World Contest. Entries and information about the contest can be found at www.missdigitalworld.com.

Headline News

Da Vinci Call for Entries for Second Annual Master Colorist Awards

da Vinci Systems is now accepting entries for the second annual Master Colorist Awards competition. The contest will judge work in four distinct categories: TV and long-form, theatrical release, commercials and music videos. All entries must be received by Feb. 28. The 2005 Master Colorist Award winners will be announced at NAB2005 in Las Vegas on April 19 at 5:00 pm at da Vinci's booth (C6207).

Total Headline News

Plenty of Silver Bells for The Fockers

Universals MEET THE FOCKERS was a no brainer in its box office debut for the yuletide period ended Dec. 26, 2005. It took in a hefty $46.1M for the weekend and $70.5M for the five days, including a record-breaking $19.1M for Christmas Day.

However, the rest of the field was less impressive and overall box office for 2004 was barely ahead of last year, with attendance down for the comparable period.

International Headline News

Emmerich To Head Berlin Fest Jury

German director Roland Emmerich will be president of the international jury for the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. Emmerich is best known for his blockbusters INDEPENDENCE DAY, GODZILLA and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

In other vfx and animation news from the festival, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU will compete in the official competition. The 55th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 10-20.

Series Headline News

Nick Orders Two New Series and Renews Two

Nickelodeon has ordered two new animated series, THE XS, a stylish series about a crime-fighting family who must thwart the forces of evil while still functioning as an average suburban family, and CATSCRATCH, featuring three fumbling felines who carry on in a world of humans. In addition, hit Nicktoon DANNY PHANTOM has been picked up for a second season of 20 episodes, bringing the total episode order to 40 and tween favorite MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT has been picked up for an additional 14 episodes, bringing its total number of episodes picked up to 40.

Headline News

Extended, Unrated King Arthur on DVD

KING ARTHUR: THE EXTENDED UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT bowed on DVD (Buena Vista Home Ent., $24.99) Dec. 21, 2005. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Antoine Fuqua, KING ARTHUR has been called BRAVEHEART light, with reluctant Roman leader (Clive Owen) having to go against the invading Saxons in England before he can peacefully return to Rome. A red-hot Guinevere (Keira Knightley), stripped down to S&M leather garb, adds to the revisionist fun. VFX were done by Cinesite (Europe).

Special Headline News

MTV Int’l & MTV 2 Airs Happy Tree Friends Holiday Special

MTV International and is making the holidays merrier by airing a HAPPY TREE FRIENDS half-hour holiday special produced by Mondo Media Productions. HAPPY TREE FRIENDS WINTER BREAK is running exclusively on 15 participating MTV Intl channels from Dec. 10-30, 2004. MTV 2 (U.S.) just came on board to air the holiday special six times, commencing Dec. 24.

Color Headline News

Discreet Technology Embraced by Holiday Films

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.

Film Headline News

Red Star Studio Raises Banner for Film Revolution

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.

Games Headline News

Rockstar Games Announces Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas For Xbox & PC

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.

Animation Headline News

Canemaker Wraps on Personal New Film

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.

Film Headline News

Animator Joanna Priestley Celebrates 20 Years on DVD Set

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.

Headline News

Maxon Helps Keep Polar Express on Schedule

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.

Imax Headline News

Polar Express Has Global 3D Legs for Imax

Warner Bros. THE POLAR EXPRESS continues to break box office records for IMAX this holiday season. In just five weeks, Robert Zemeckis all-CGI Christmas tale with Tom Hanks has become the highest grossing DMR (Digital Re-mastering) release ever for the large format giant.

Services Headline News

Thomson Acquires MPC in Major VFX Expansion

Thomson has acquired The Moving Picture Co. (MPC) from British broadcaster, ITV, for £52.7 million (76 million). MPC, which is located in the Soho district of London and employs around 400 people, is an industry-leading provider of vfx and post-production services to both the feature film and commercial advertising industries.

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