Category: Visual Effects

Universal Studio has named Marc Shmuger chairman, and David Linde co-chairman, Universal Pictures, effective immediately.

Cinesite (Europe), which recently completed work on Warner Bros. V FOR VENDETTA (opening March 17), has hired Quentin Miles as animation director. Ben Shepherd recently joined the team as visual effects supervisor and is currently working on X-MEN 3 for Twentieth Century Fox.

Universal Pictures has tapped Benicio Del Toro to headline its remake of the horror classic, THE WOLF MAN, reports VARIETY. SEVEN writer Andrew Kevin Walker will pen script from which Scott Stuber, Rick Yorn, Mary Parent and Del Toro will produce.

Like the original 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. film, the redo will be set in Victorian England where a man who returns from America to his ancestral homeland and is transformed into werewolf after being bitten.

Eyetronics has successfully completed the scanning of over 1,200 Major League baseball players and coaches for the Major League Baseball Players Assn. (MLBPA). The announcement was made by Nick Tesi, vp of operations for Eyetronics in the U.S., who helped supervise the scanning operation that rolled out in spring training camps in Florida and Arizona.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein are developing a stage version of martial arts Oscar winner CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON as well as the five books into a TIGER film franchise of three prequels and a sequel, reports VARIETY.

The Weinstein Co. have gained the worldwide rights to develop and produce a stage adaptation of Chinese author Wang Du Lu's CRANE IRON PENTALOGY, a series of books the fourth installment being CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

Leading longform post-production company Post Logic Studios has hired digital intermediate colorist Doug Delaney, who is best known for his work on the digital intermediate for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING. As one of three colorists supervised by Peter Doyle and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, ASC, Delaney spent more than five months in New Zealand on the meticulous color grading of the effects-laden epic.

Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four, and John Dykstra, Academy Award winner for visual effects on STAR WARS and SPIDER-MAN 2 are auctioning off their shoes to raise money for mentoring throughout the world. The Get in Their Shoes Campaign is a call to action by successful business leaders, athletes, entertainers and politicians to rally youth and aspiring leaders to lift themselves out of their limiting circumstances by proactively interviewing successful professionals within their own communities.

Comic Book Movies, an entertainment company established by veteran film producer and comicbook authority Michael Uslan and visionary financier M. Jonathan Roberts, has announced a strategic partnership with Skywalker Sound for all post-production and sound services for their upcoming slate of features films, television and animation productions.

11th Milano Film FestivalMilan, ItalySeptember 2006 Deadline: May 31, 2006

The 11th edition of Milano Film Festival will be held next September in Milan, at the Piccolo Teatro and Castello Sforzesco. The event features two International Competitions open to feature and short films of any genre, language, running time and format, provided that they have been produced after Jan. 1, 2005.