Tagged With: Media

Rhinofx recently signed Flame Artist/VFX Supervisor Kevin Quinlan to add depth and expertise to the company's expanding pool of talent. With nearly 15 years experience across media platforms and production avenues, as well as an impressive education in all facets of visual media, Quinlan is a significant asset to the Rhino creative team.

Street-smart feline Heathcliff is about to make a comeback as media property development company Fitzroy Media (FRM) has tapped Renegade Animation to produce a series of new projects featuring the mischievous cat.

This month, Renegade will begin production of 50 two-minute animated interstitials. Animation director Darrell Van Citters, who leads Renegade's creative team, will develop an updated look for the new animation. Targeting an adult and tween audience, the new Heathcliff will focus on comedy set against a hip, club-music sound.

VIZ Media and Warner Home Video have reached agreement for the home entertainment distribution in the United States and Mexico of new and catalog DVD releases from VIZ Media.

Effective April 1, 2009, WHV will be the exclusive home entertainment distributor for new and catalog DVD content based on well-known franchises such as NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE and INUYASHA as well as the POKEMON animated television series and catalog features.

All movies -- whether they be low-budget movies, animated films or high-budget live-action blockbusters -- will be made in 3-D within the next five to seven years, predicts Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO, DreamWorks Animation.

Speaking during his keynote address on the first day of the inaugural 3DX: 3-D Film & Entertainment Technology Festival held in Singapore, he also said that 3-D represented the next major development in the history of filmmaking.

Family entertainment producer and distributor Chorion and Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the largest media group in China, have struck a landmark accord to jointly develop new animation programs for children.

Veteran research strategist Lanie Richberger has been named VP of research for Turner Broadcasting System's Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media (AYAKM) group, it was announced Monday by Jon Marks, SVP of Turner Research. In this capacity, Richberger will be responsible for managing all aspects of research, including organizing, analyzing and reporting on audience ratings, delivery, and user information supporting the cable television networks Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang, along with their online businesses and digital enterprises.

Relativity Media and Universal Pictures recently extended and expanded their co-finance partnership through 2015, which will cover the majority of Universal's slate up until that time. Building on their already-established equity partnership, which has funded recent films such as MAMMA MIA!, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, the expanded partnership is expected to fund 10-15 films per year and will provide billions of dollars of financing during the term.

KIT digital custom-built Web environment created for TV innovator Seth MacFarlane and his new collection of Web shorts titled SETH MACFARLANE'S CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY (http://www.sethcomedy.com/). KIT digital was hired by Media Rights Capital (MRC), an independent film, television and digital studio.

Electronic Arts, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Department of Economic Development have formed a partnership that will lead to the creation of a new global quality assurance (QA) center in Baton Rouge. The facility will be the first of its kind in the United States and will serve primarily as a test center for EA Sports' software titles.

The sale of the entertainment unit of EM.Sport Media AG to Studio 100, a Belgian media company, was completed today.

The sale was approved by the antitrust authorities in charge, as well as the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting and the Commission on Concentration in the Media.