Category: Films

Isla Fisher is now set to play the female voice lead in Paramount's animated RANGO, per VARIETY. Johnny Depp, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty are also voicing characters.

The story follows a household pet (Depp) who goes on an adventure to discover himself.

Shorts International will bring the Oscar-nominated short films in the live-action and animated categories to U.S. theatres on February 6 2009, giving audiences around the country an opportunity to see the nominated films prior to the 81st Academy Awards ceremony on February 22.

This year's nominees, LAVATORY LOVESTORY, LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES, OKTAPODI, PRESTO and THIS WAY UP, can be previewed at AWN's Oscar Showcase.

Winning the weekend box office for the second week running, PAUL BLART: MALL COP earned $21.6M for Sony with a total cume of $64.9M.

Opener UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS (ScreenGems, vfx by Duran-Duboi, Luma Pictures, Intelligent Creaturs, Celluloid, Furious FX, Element, Foret Blue, Ntropic, Proof and Sub/Par) did $20.8M for second place.

Third went to Clint Eastwood's durable GRAN TORINO (vfx by Pacific Title and Art Studio, which made $16.2M for Warner Bros. in its seventh week out, for a total gross of $97.8M.

U.K. theater chain Cineworld has closed a deal with NEC to add 74 digital projectors and the most 3-D screens in the country, according to VARIETY.

The cost of the upgrade will be $5.57 million (GBP 4 million) but will ready the U.K. for the expected 13 releases in 3-D coming in 2009, including Disney's BOLT, DreamWorks Animation's MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, Fox's ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS and James Cameron's AVATAR.

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu, who has been nominated for the Sundance Film Festival's prestigious Grand Jury Prize three times (for her feature documentaries PROTAGONIST, IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL and LIVING MUSEUM) returned to Park City for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival with a humorous documentary short entitled THE KINDA SUTRA.

Lowry Digital collaborated with award-winning director David Fincher on Paramount Pictures' epic feature film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Lowry's proprietary image processing techniques were utilized to fine tune the movie's images; balance the look of film, digital capture and visual effects work; reduce noise; and bring out subtle details in the visuals.

Online protests hoping to protest the casting of M. Night Shyamalan's live-action take on AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER are continuing.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY reported in December that Shyamalan offered the roles of Aang to karate-trained Texan Noah Ringer; Sokka to Jackson Rathbone (TWILIGHT); Katara to Nicola Peltz (DECK THE HALLS); and Zuko to Jesse McCartney, all Caucasian actors to portray Asian characters.

Prime Focus, India's integrated post production and visual effects services company has delivered an array of post services and more than 1,000 visual effects shots for Bollywood film CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA (CC2C). Co-produced by Warner Bros, CC2C is the biggest internationally exposed film in the history of Indian cinema, the first Bollywood film to be distributed by Warner Bros and the first Indian production to be shot in China.

Sony is pushing 2012 back from July 10 to November 13, per VARIETY, the same weekend the studio used to launch the last two James Bond films.

Sony's president of worldwide distribution Rory Bruer said the studio has a good summer slate and it makes sense to move 2012, from director Roland Emmerich, to the eve of the crowded Thanksgiving holiday.

Summer tentpoles for Sony include ANGELS AND DEMONS (May 15) and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (June 12) with Denzel Washington and John Travolta.