Bill Desowitz's Recent Posts

The wait is over: Warner Home Video is finally releasing the first of its LOONEY TUNES DVD box sets on Oct. 28, 2003. The digitally remastered, four-disc set, titled THE LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION ($64.92) contains 56 classic toons devoted to BUGS BUNNY (disc one), PORKY PIG and DAFFY DUCK (disc two), plus two survey discs that are billed as PREMIERE COLLECTION VOL. ONE and TWO.

Humunculus, launched only nine months ago in Venice, California, has already expanded into a new, 2,000-square-foot facility. The new studio, located at 529 Victoria Avenue, was designed by Predock Frane architects of Santa Monica, and modified by studio founder Saam Gabbay for Humunculus. "Using the architects' original materials of Lexan, MDF and sanded homosote, we created four subdivisions in the space to fulfill our distinct needs," Gabbay explained.

Now that director Kevin Lima (TARZAN and 102 DALMATIANS) has been signed to helm Fox's live-action/animated CAT AND MOUSE next year, the search is on to see who will perform the 2D animation for the opening 10 minutes of the comedy. According to a spokesman, the production team is meeting with animators and studios in L.A., New York and Canada. But it has not been determined whether an animation director and crew or a one-stop shop will be hired.

Alan Brady, the caustic TV host portrayed by Carl Reiner on THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW back in the '60s, returns in a new computer-animated special on TV Land, airing Aug. 17 (10:00-10:30 pm). THE ALAN BRADY SHOW marks TV Land's first original animated special in the network's seven-year history. Reiner, who reprises his character in voice over, also wrote the special and serves as exec producer along with George Shapiro and Howard West of Shapiro/West Prods. The special was developed internally for TV Land by Sal Maniaci, vp of development and production for TV Land and Nick at Nite.

Kaydara Inc. and Wings 3D have announced support for the FBX file interchange format in Wings 3D, an open-source sub-division modeler. The Kaydara FBX file format provides a seamless pathway for the acquisition and exchange of 3D data between the industry's leading 3D content creation packages. This free FBX-Wings 3D plug-in will enable modelers and visual effects artists to access a wealth of content through Kaydara's extensive network of FBX partners.

Maybe a little "Yo ho, yo ho" is just what the summer needs to get out of its current box office doldrums. Not that Disney is complaining, what with Pixar's FINDING NEMO breaking all kinds of records.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES may have won the Independence holiday box office race for Warner Bros., taking in $44M for the weekend and $72.3M for the five-day period (bolstered by the combined VFX of Industrial Light + Magic, Anatomorphex, Pacific Data Images, Pacific Titles & Optical and Stan Winston Studio), but the big story was FINDING NEMO.

KING OF THE HILL SEASON ONE, the start of the Texas-sized redneck comedy by Mike Judge (BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD) and Greg Daniels (THE SIMPSONS), bursts onto DVD (Fox Home Entertainment, $39.98), July 1, 2003. The collectible three-disc set follows the daily lives of "propane and propane accessories" salesman Hank Hill and his wild family and friends. More than seven million fans tune in each week to enter this ruckus world of BBQ and power tools animated by Film Roman.

Veteran feature animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (THE SECRET OF NIMH, TITAN, A.E.) have teamed up to create and direct the in-game cinematics for Namco's upcoming videogame, I-NINJA, a comic adventure starring a hero fully loaded with the most up to date weaponry. The game will be released by the end of 2003 on Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube consoles.