Category: Visual Effects

Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film version of Suzanne Collins' best selling futuristic young adult novel THE HUNGER GAMES. Collins will adapt the screenplay from her novel, the first in a trilogy.

Nina Jacobson is producing through her Color Force shingle.

THE HUNGER GAMES was published by Scholastic last year. The trilogy's second installment, CATCHING FIRE, is due out September 1, 2009.

Fox Atomic, indie videogame developer Zombie Studios and production house Union Ent. will develop a film based on Zombie's BLACKLIGHT, according to multiple news outlets.

VARIETY reports that the film and videogame will be written by Jason Dean Hall and is about a covert military action set 25 years in the future. The property will also be worked as a comicbook series.

Disney has attached Andy Fickman (RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) to another family adventure film, MONSTER ATTACK NETWORK, per VARIETY.

Scott Elder and Josh Harmon will write the film, an adaptation of a graphic novel from AIT/Planet Lar that the studio bought last year. The story is about a team of first-responders who guard the citizens of Lapuatu, a Pacific island whose idyllic conditions are marred by frequent sea monster attacks.

Marc Bernadin and Adam Freeman wrote the graphic novel with illustrations by Nima Sorat.

Paramount and Marvel have moved THOR again, this time from June 16, 2011 to May 20, 2011, according to multiple news sources.

ROPEOFSILICON.com reports that the date is now two weeks after SPIDER-MAN 4's release from Columbia.

Casting rumors include Josh Hartnett as either the winged-helmeted hero or his nemesis Loki, as well as Charlie Hunnam, Tom Hiddleston, Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Hemsworth and Joel Kinnaman, according to DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY. Nikki Finke also reports that she's told Natalie Portman is top choice to play the female lead.

Square Enix and Emergent Game Technologies have reached an agreement to license Emergent's Gamebryo game engine for a yet-to-be-announced project. This project is part of Square Enix's efforts to grow its business further in all major global markets.

Sci Fi Channel is evolving into Syfy on air and on-line beginning July 7.

A new ad campaign from Team One imagines how the innovative engineering of the new 2010 Lexus RX has reinvented the driving experience. Carl Erik Rinsch directed the :30 spots CITY, ASSEMBLED and INTERSECTION, which feature fantastical visual metaphors brought to life by digital production studio Digital Domain.

Esurance, the online auto insurance company, has recently launched a new STAR TREK movie-themed Flash game featuring the company's special agent brand icon, Erin Esurance. The free online game includes animated versions of alien life-forms from J.J. Abrams' upcoming STAR TREK film produced by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Ent. and due in theaters May 8, 2009. Esurance's STAR TREK movie-themed online game is the latest addition of fresh content to the company's STAR TREK micro-site: http://www.esurance.com/StarTrek.

SHREK, SHREK 2 and the upcoming AREA 51 writer Joe Stillman has been hired by Warner Bros. to script ALIEN ZOO, a live action-CGI hybrid, according to VARIETY.

WB and Unique Features partners Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne are producing with Dylan Sellers. The family comedy concept, from Sellers, is said to be JURASSIC PARK with aliens.

AREA 51, with Dwayne Johnson as a lead voice, will be released by Sony this fall. Stillman also wrote GULLIVER'S TRAVELS with Jack Black and PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF to be directed by Chris Columbus.

Walden Media, New Line and ContraFilm have signed on for a sequel to last year's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, reports VARIETY.

The sequel to last year's summer hit will be based on Richard Outten's script MYSTERIOUS TRAVELS: THE LOST MAP OF TREASURE ISLAND in which Professor Trevor Anderson and his nephew travel on a journey to a mysterious island that was the subject of three classic novels: MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (Jules Verne), TREASURE ISLAND (Robert Louis Stevenson) and GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (Jonathan Swift).

Bob Rafei and Dan Arey, founders of Big Red Button Entertainment (BRB), have entered into a strategic partnership with Emergent Game Technologies. The partnership will position Emergent as BRB's central technology resource and enhance BRB's creative vision, exceptional team and game design prowess. Marc Jackson, founder of Seahorn Capital, orchestrated the partnership and his team will continue to play a key role in building a strong foundation for this ground-breaking collaboration.

The first feature-length film from 3D Entertainment's filmmakers Jean-Jacques and Francois Mantello (the Mantello Brothers), OCEANS 3D - INTO THE DEEP (working title), has been acquired by Wild Bunch, a Paris-and London-based sales, distribution and production outfit.

The film is set to become the first ever documentary to be both filmed and released in Digital 3D. The deal marks the first collaboration between the two companies. Under the terms of the agreement, 3D Entertainment retains the rights (all-media) for the U.S. and Canada.