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Million Headline News

PHANTOM MENACE overseas boxoffice surpasses domestic boxoffice

Lucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE took in $16.5 millionlast weekend (October 15 - 17), bringing its overseas gross to US$428million, surpassing its domestic gross of US$426.8 million. The film openedin France with US$11.02 million, the best ever opening in France for a USfilm.

Effects Headline News

Don't miss this program of animated short films from Germany

The Goethe-Institut is presenting a program featuring nine new animatedshort films from Germany. In conjunction with this screening AcademyAward-winning visual effects specialist, Volker Engel, will be speaking.The German-born animator will comment on the film selections and discussanimation and special effects in general. Engel's credits include visualeffects work on GODZILLA and INDEPENDENCE DAY, for which he won the Oscar.Films from Thomas Meyer-Hermann, Heinrich Sabl, Thomas Stellmach, Tyron

Animation Headline News

"A Week with the Masters" set to begin

Toonz Animation India, a new animation production studio and full-servicefacility, will host "A Week with the Masters," which will bring the topnames in international animation pre-production together to discuss theimportance of story boarding, character design, and story development.Among the guests will be keynote speaker Rob Coleman, Industrial Light &Magic's Animation Supervisor on STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE;producer-director-writer Derek Lamb; Ian Diamond of Cartoon Network;

Film Headline News

Disney debuts FANTASIA/2000 Web site

A Web site for FANTASIA/2000 launched on Friday, October 22. The siteexplores various aspects of the creation of the film -- the art, musicand technology -- through virtual visits to Roy Disney's office, ananimator's work station and a scoring stage. The site will feature sneakpreview clips from the film, interviews with the artistic and musicaltalents as well as games and activities. The site will also provide acomplete listing of IMAX theatres around the world that will be debuting

Animation Headline News

Women In Animation sponsors the Third Annual Career Day Event

Women In Animation sponsors the Third Annual Career Day Event. Paneldiscussions include "Animation: The Reality of the Business" and "YourMarketing Tools: Resumes, Portfolios and Demo Reels." There will also be aportfolio/demo reel review, and small group workshops for both computer andtraditional animation. The events takes place Saturday, November 6, 9 am -3 pm in Burbank, California, USA. Space is limited, so RSVP is required.Fees are $15 for WIA members, and $20 for non-members. Checks must be

Cartoons Headline News

Harvey hires Spumco

The Harvey Entertainment Company, which owns the rights to such charactersas Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich, has announced an agreementwith Spumco Inc. (the company founded in 1989 by John Kricfalusi to makeTHE REN & STIMPY SHOW for Nickelodeon) to produce cartoons createdspecifically for the Internet based upon classic Harvey characters. Thecartoons will run from two to seven minutes in length utilizing newstorylines written for Harvey characters such as Spooky, Little Audrey,

Disney Headline News

Disney plans to finish Salvador Dali film

Work, in the form of original concept drawings, as well as 18 seconds of animation, done by Salvador Daliin 1946 at the Disney studio for a never-completed film called DESTINO, isbeing dusted off by Disney vice chairman Roy Disney (Junior) and will becompleted as an art house cartoon by the Disney studio, according to theLondon SUNDAY TIMES. "I am going to finish the work of Salvador Dali,"Disney told the newspaper. "At Disney, we need to recover our history." Theproduction will be supervised by Disney, who is a son of Roy Disney (Walt

Headline News

OXYGEN names cable programming production team

Several weeks ago (Animation Flash 9/28/99) Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne's company founded toprovide content for women, announced its online production team. Now OxygenMedia has named seven executive producers for its original cable televisionline-up. CARSEY WERNER MANDABACH will oversee seven hours of originalprogramming each day on the 24-hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week cable network. Thenew appointments are: LINDA CORRADINA (former Senior Vice President,Programming and Production, VH1) will join Giselle Benetar as Executive

Million Headline News

BATS finishes seventh at US boxoffice

Destination Films' newly released horror film, BATS, with visual effects byNorth Hollywood, California-based Netter Digital Entertainment, Inc.,finished seventh at the US weekend boxoffice, grossing an estimated $4.7million. Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visualeffects by DreamQuest, finished ninth, grossing $4.3 million for a total of$255.7 million.

Disney Headline News

DISNEY PUBLISHING announces appointments

DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE has made several appointments. GUIDOMASTROPAOLO has been named Director of Global Planning and BusinessDevelopment for Disney Publishing Worldwide. Located in Paris,Mastropaolo's duties will include leading international initiatives to growrevenue by negotiating acquisitions, new business ventures and majorlicensing deals in order to ensure meeting overall publishing financialgoals. In addition, he will co-manage the strategic planning process and

October Headline News

Television Tidbits

The WB has already removed its new primetime animatedseries MISSION HILL from its Friday night line-up due to poor ratings. (Itspremiere episode finished 115th in the ratings for the week of October 4 -10.) It's expected to return as a midseason replacement. New episodes of SOUTHPARK return beginning next Wednesday, October 27 at 10 pm on COMEDYCENTRAL, with an all-new Halloween special, KORN'S GROOVY PIRATE GHOSTMYSTERY, guest starring the band, KORN. . . MTV is developing an animated

Animation Headline News

WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION promotes BOB BACON

WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION has promoted BOB BACON to the position ofvice president of finance. Bacon will oversee production finance for all ofFeature Animation, including both traditional and CGI-based projects atDisney's Burbank, Orlando and Paris animation studios. Most recently, Baconserved as Feature Animation's director of production finance.

Show Headline News

Fox removes FAMILY GUY from its Thursday night line-up

Fox has removed FAMILY GUY from its Thursday night line-up due to poorratings. (Apparently UPN's new WWF SMACKDOWN! is creating stiffcompetition.) According to a Fox spokesperson, the network remainscommitted to the show, and its return date will be known in about twoweeks. The show did well last spring when it launched in a Sunday nighttimeslot and Fox committed to another season. Therefore, it seems likelythe show will return as part of the Sunday night lineup when one of the

Entertainment Headline News

FOX INTERACTIVE names president

FOX FILMED ENTERTAINMENT has named STEVEN BERSCH President of FOXINTERACTIVE, the studio's entertainment and sports computer and video gamesoftware unit. Bersch succeeds Fox Interactive's current President, JonRichmond, who was recently named President of New Digital Media at Fox. Inhis new position, Bersch will be directly responsible for driving allaspects of the business including the development and production of thedivision's interactive entertainment and sports games, as well as

Headline News

ACME FILMWORKS completes two spots

Hollywood, California-based ACME FILMWORKS has completed two :30 spots. In"The Challenge," a live-action commercial for commemorative Pepsi cans thatpromote the return of the Cleveland Browns to competition, images offootball plays appear in the stormy sky above Cleveland Browns player ChrisSpielman who asks the viewer, "So are you ready to be a Browns fan?" Thevisual effects were composed, layered and rendered using Adobe Photoshopand After Effects. Scott Ingalls directed the spot for Dallas, Texas-based

Shorts Headline News

Don't miss the BIG SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL!

MORE, the stop-motion animated short film in IMAX format that is nominatedfor an ANNIE, is being shown for free as part of the BIG SHORTS FILMFESTIVAL Tuesday night, October 26, at 8 pm. The event is presented by TheSplinter Group, and highlights include: MORE (Mark Osborne's AcademyAward-nominated stop-motion short, CASTRATE BOAR PIGS FOR BETTER SALES,PRIMITI TOO TAA (an animated sound poem), FIRE, and more. Admission isfree, and the program will last about one hour. The event takes place at

Spot Headline News

A.FILM completes spot for Daloon Spring Rolls

Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.FILM has finished a :40 spot for Daloon SpringRolls, Denmark's largest Chinese frozen food manufacturer. In the spot,which unveils a new product called Funsters, a dragon, called "daloon" inDanish, presents the product like a wise and distinguished old man, but thechildren's crazy antics off-screen cause him to lose his cool. The CGI spotwas animated using 3D Studio Max with a few live-action props. Craig Frankdirected. The word from Denmark is that after the spot aired for threeweeks, the product sold out.

Headline News

WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION promotes JEFFREY FARNATH

WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION has named JEFFREY FARNATH to the post ofsenior vice president of business development and finance for Walt DisneyFeature Animation and Walt Disney Theatrical Productions. In addition tosupervising all areas of business development and finance, Farnath willnegotiate and manage international licenses for Disney's stage-showbusiness, oversee long-term strategic planning for Disney's animationproduction units and develop growth strategies for theatrical productions

Headline News

Don't miss the NFB 60th Anniversary retrospective

Thursday, October 28 - Sunday, October 31. New York, New York, USA.

The Museum of Modern Art presents The National Film Board of Canada: 60thAnniversary Program, a Retrospective. The Museum is located at 11 West 53Street. For further information Tel. (212) 708-9500.

Animation Headline News

Women In Animation sponsors the Third Annual Career Day

Saturday, November 6, 9 am - 3 pm. Burbank, California, USA.

Women In Animation sponsors the Third Annual Career Day Event. Paneldiscussions include "Animation: The Reality of the Business" and "YourMarketing Tools: Resumes, Portfolios and Demo Reels." There will also be aportfolio/demo reel review, and small group workshops for both computer andtraditional animation. Space is limited, so RSVP is required. Fees are $15for WIA members, and $20 for non-members. Checks must be received no later

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