The Walt Disney Studios unveiled an ambitious four-year slate of 10 new animated features from both Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Tuesday at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts at New York University. The press conference was hosted by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.
Among the new projects revealed for the first time:
Blackjack movie 21 won the weekend box office (ending April 6) for the second straight week, pulling in $15.1 million for Sony (vfx by Proof, SWAY Studios).
New release LEATHERHEADS (Universal, vfx by CIS Hollywood and Reel FX Creative) had to settle for a field goal in its opening weekend, coming in a close second with $13.485M.
Davis Ent. acquired the rights to NORTH WIND, a sci-fi comic series from Boom Studios, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Writer David DiGilio will adapt the five comics for a live-action feature and will also executive produce.
John Davis will produce with Boom co-founders Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie. In the story, a cruel dictator reigns over the survivors in a futuristic Los Angeles, years after global warming has created a new ice age. Some of the citizens exiled by the dictator start a revolution.
SUPERNATURAL actor Jensen Ackles is in final negotiations to star in MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D for Lionsgate, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.Patrick Lussier will direct the remake of the 1981 slasher flick about a murderer who kills people for celebrating Valentine's Day.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Relativity Media have secured the rights to acclaimed author Robert Ludlum's suspense thriller, THE MATARESE CIRCLE.
The studios have also closed a deal with two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington to star in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel with the same title.
The announcement was made today by Mary Parent, Chair, Worldwide Motion Picture Group, MGM and Relativity's Ryan Kavanaugh.
CIS Hollywood, the sole visual effects vendor on Universal Pictures' romantic comedy, LEATHERHEADS, completed 237 effects shots on the period film.
Directed by and starring George Clooney, LEATHERHEADS is set against the backdrop of America's pro-football league origins in the 1920's. Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski also starred.
Tom Smith, visual effects supervisor, CIS Hollywood, was on set during most of the North and South Carolina shoots.
Dimension Films is bringing Number 5 back to life with a remake of the 1986 film SHORT CIRCUIT, according to VARIETY.
The robot with a mind of its own was the subject of two popular films in the 80's from creators S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock.
Number 5 was a military-built robot designed to be a sophisticated weapon system. After being hit by lightning, it developed a personality and a conscience, so the government set out to destroy it.
Entertainment and design studio Imaginary Forces (IF) recently completed the animated end titles for the Fox Walden fantasy adventure, NIM'S ISLAND. The film stars Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin and Gerard Butler and premieres in theaters nationwide today.
Renowned for its groundbreaking photo-realism and lighting techniques in commercial visual effects, SWAY Studio is currently showcasing its creative versatility with a spectacular 3D opening sequence for Robert Luketic's feature film 21, now the #1 movie in America.
Utilizing expert techniques with macro photography, specialty lighting and animation, SWAY's talented team of artists created a stunning photo-realistic environment mirroring an iconic Las Vegas casino.
Lionsgate announced it will launch its multi-picture partnership with Crest Animation Productions with the CG animated theatrical family film ALPHA AND OMEGA.
Lionsgate and Crest are co-financing and co-producing ALPHA AND OMEGA, which is scheduled for theatrical release in 2010.
The story of two very different young wolves thrown together by circumstance, ALPHA AND OMEGA features rising young stars Justin Long (the upcoming HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD,) and Hayden Panettiere (TV's HEROES) in the primary roles.
The Wachowski's SPEED RACER will close out the Tribeca Film Festival on May 3, according to VARIETY.
Comedy BABY MAMA (with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler) will open the fest on April 23.
"The Tribeca Film Festival is a defining event in New York’s entertainment culture, so it is an honor to have SPEED RACER chosen as the festival's closing night screening," producer Joel Silver told VARIETY.
Comics legend Stan Lee and Walt Disney Pictures will partner on three projects executive produced by Lee and Gill Champion through POW! Entertainment, per VARIETY.
All three films are based upon Lee's stories. Director Richard LaGravenese will write and helm NICK RATCHET, with Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso in talks to produce.
Comedian Ben Stiller and DreamWorks will adapt the graphic novel THE RETURN OF KING DOUG, with Stiller to potentially star, according to VARIETY.
The novel, written by Greg Orb and Jason Oremland, will be published next year by Oni Press. KING DOUG's screen play will also be written by Orb and Oremland.
Still will produce via his DreamWorks-based Red Hour Films with Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer.
Eric Gitter (Closed on Mondays) will also produce and Joe Nozemack and Peter Schwerin will executive produce.
Bobby Crosby's LAST BLOOD, about a group of vampires who protect Earth's last human survivors of a zombie apocalypse, is headed to the big screen via Benderspink, according to VARIETY.
LAST BLOOD was co-created with Crosby's brother Chris Crosby, but Bobby wrote the comic by himself.
The brothers formed Blatant Comics in 1997 and serialized LAST BLOOD online starting in 2006. The deal with Benderspink is the first feature deal for the brothers, who published the comic in four issues last year.
Entity FX, an award-winning visual effects company in Santa Monica, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, has completed visual effects for SUPERHERO MOVIE.
Leveraging its experience creating visual effects for comic book and graphic novel-based properties including the hit television series SMALLVILLE, Entity FX turned around more than 126 visual effects shots for the motion picture comedy in about three weeks.
New release 21 beat the Vegas odds for a first place win at the box office (ending March 30), earning $23.7 million for Sony (vfx by Proof).
After two weeks at the top, DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO! (Fox) dropped to number two, earning $17.4M for a gross of more than $117M.
Spoof flick SUPERHERO MOVIE came in third with $9.5M, giving MGM/Weinstein probably enough to keep the franchise going for years to come. Animal Makers and Patrick Tatopoulos Design did vfx for the film.
Henry Lee Hopper (Dennis Hopper's son), Denzel Whitaker, Shareeka Epps and Emily Meade have been cast in Wes Craven's horror thriller 25/8 for Rogue Pictures, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The relatively-unknown actors will be teens haunted by a serial killer who was supposed to have died 15 years earlier. The film's story takes place over the course of 24 hours as the small-town high school students try to uncover whom or what is stalking them.
Writer Michael Brandt will write COUNTDOWN for Summit Entertainment, based on a classic episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER reports.
Brandt will also make his directorial debut on the film, which is about a group of astronauts who land on a planet, find a crashed spaceship and corpses that resemblethemselves. They must try to figure out if they're really dead and where they might be.
Erik Feig, Summit's production head told the REPORTER they chose Brandt because he fits into their goal of supporting new talent.
VIZ Media has secured the license from TV Tokyo Corporation, Shueisha and Dentsu for BLEACH THE MOVIE: MEMORIES OF NOBODY in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.
The feature film, which will be aimed primarily at teens and older teens, will have a limited theatrical release in major cities throughout North America this summer with the DVD release to follow winter 2008. Subsequent details will be released in coming weeks.
Julie Benz has been added to the cast of SAW V from Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Screenplay is by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and David Hackl will direct. Hackl was the production designer on the second through fourth SAW films.Tobin Bell will reprise his role as the manipulative Jigsaw for a fifth time. Benz will be a prim and proper Brit who is the latest pawn in Jigsaw's games.
Producers are Mark Burg and Oren Koules. The Toronto-based production started March 17 for an October 24 release date.
The fantasy adventure script IMAGINARY FRIENDS has been purchased by DreamWorks, according to VARIETY.
Newcomers Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz, who met at the Brooks Institute of Photography, were paid in the six-figure range for their work.
The studio is keeping the logline under wraps.
The feature film rights for Robosapien robot have been sold to producing team Avi Arad of Arad Productions and Steven Paul of Crystal Sky Pictures. WowWee Group, an Optimal Group company, owns the rights.
In collaboration with WowWee, Arad has developed the lead character for the film from graphic designs created by WowWee and Arad.
Author Tom Wheeler has sold his upcoming novel CUTLASS ISLAND to Regency, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
The book by the same name deals with two shipwrecked brothers who discover a world of mythological and mysterious creatures.
Producers are Shawn Levy and Tom McNulty for 21 Laps Entertainment and Alex Gartner for Mosaic.
In what might be the longest movie title of the year, the book I AM A GENIUS OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL AND I WANT TO BE YOUR CLASS PRESIDENT will be adapted by Warner Bros., according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Writer Josh Lieb (THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART) is writing the book and film script, McG via his Wonderland Sound and Vision will produce.
Penguin Books is publishing the book, whose story centers around an unpopular, chubby 13-year-old boy. Everyone assumes he's the dumbest kid in school, but he's really an evil genius.
Jaime King (SIN CITY) will star in Lionsgate's MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Patrick Lussier will direct the remake of the 1981 slasher flick about a murderer who kills people for celebrating Valentine's Day.
Zane Smith wrote the screenplay, in which King will be Sarah Palmer, who marries her childhood sweetheart's nemesis, only to fall back in love with her original man.
Executive producers are Jack Murray, John Dunning and Andre Link, as well as Mike Paseornek and John Sacchi for Lionsgate.
