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Production Headline News

Production To Begin On Lady Death

ADV Films is bringing Chaos! Comics' LADY DEATH to life. Artists at SunMin Image Pictures in Asia under the supervision of director Young H. Sang will be animating the digital feature, based on Brian Pulido's original story. Set in 15th century Sweden, a wrongly accused young woman named Hope is sent to Hell where she is transformed into Lady Death and forced to battle Lucifer in his own domain. Executive producer and ADV co-founder John Ledford hopes to create a new production model with LADY DEATH that redefines the relationship between Asian animation studios and Western creators.

Entertainment Headline News

Disney Interactive Picks Plaid Banana

Disney Interactive has launched a new publishing label called Plaid Banana Entertainment to create a complete line of software in the kid's adventure genre. Disney is teaming with Hulabee Entertainment, a digital media company established by Humongous Entertainment co-founders Shelley Day and Ron Gilbert. Under the agreement, Disney Interactive will handle all marketing and distribution for Plaid Banana Entertainment titles.

Universal Headline News

Butt-Ugly’s Got Game

Under the terms of a recently announced worldwide licensing, Vivendi Universal Publishing's Knowledge Adventure studio will develop and publish BUTT-UGLY MARTIANS interactive entertainment products for the PC/Mac, console, handheld, PDA, wireless and Internet platforms beginning in fall 2002. The products will be distributed worldwide by Vivendi Universal Games.

Visual Headline News

Discreet Upgrades Visual Effects Systems

Discreet is now shipping inferno 4.6, flame 7.6 and flint 7.6, the latest version upgrades to its visual effects system software. The new releases of Discreets inferno, flame and flint software comprise more than 100 new features and enhancements, focusing on product design, workflow, performance and extending the range and depth of their toolsets. inferno and flame now have new modes for color correction and other options in the Color Warper tool. The Modular Keyer rendering performance has also been optimized along with other key feature improvements.

Disney Headline News

Disney’s Animated Classics On The Big Screen At LACMA

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) kicks off its celebration of 100 years of Disney on Friday, February 1, 2002 with a screening of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, the one that started it all. On Saturday, February 3, 2002 at 5 pm, noted animation historian John Canemaker will be at LACMA presenting "The Nine Old Men," highlights of the work created by the now-legendary group of artists that joined the Disney studio in the 1930s and remained there over many decades. Mr. Canemaker will also be available to sign copies of his new book WALT DISNEY'S NINE OLD MEN.

Animation Headline News

Tiger Aspect Creates Animation Division

U.K. independent Tiger Aspect Productions (TAP) has created a new animation division and upped Claudia Lloyd, former creative director of comedy and entertainment at Tiger Aspect, to head of animation. With the creation of an animation division, TAP is pursuing an active animation development slate. Currently, producer Chris Skala is developing EARTH KID, a series to be co-produced with Cartoon Pizza for the 6-12 year old age group. Lloyd would like TAP to produce only two or three mainstream or childrens and family specials or series per year.

Headline News

Oscar-Winning Animator Ernie Pintoff Passes

Oscar-winning animator Ernest Pintoff died Saturday, January 12, 2002 from complications related to a stroke. He was 70. Pintoff helped to define a new look for animation in the 1950's through his work at UPA and Terrytoons. While at UPA he worked on THE GERALD MCBOING BOING SHOW, the first animated program made especially for network television. Gene Deitch brought him to Terrytoons in 1957, where Pintoff created FLEBUS.

Series Events

The Knitting Independent Film Series

By Guest (not verified) | Tuesday, January 29, 2002 at 11:00am
Begins: January 29, 2002

The Knitting Factory in Hollywood presents The Knitting Independent Film Series.

The Knitting Factory -- home of great jazz, alternative and world music -- presents a bi-weekly film series to showcase independent filmmakers from around the world.

Located on Hollywood Blvd., the Knitting Factory is one block from the red carpet of the Kodak Theater and the Academy Awards ceremony.

Local filmmakers now have a state of the art facility to showcase and maintain a visible consortium of artists in the heart of the motion picture world.

Headline News

Simpsons Go Heavy Metal

Toy producer Rocket USA has teamed with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising and Matt Groening to make a line of tin toys, games and collectibles based on THE SIMPSONS. The toy producer will introduce the line with an 8-1/2" tin walking wind-up version of Homer Simpson. The figure comes in collectible packaging and will carry a suggested retail price of $24.95.

Software Headline News

Side Effects Software Announces Houdini Support On New HP Systems

Houdini artists will soon have the option of working with Hewlett Packard's 64-bit Itanium-based systems on both the Linux and Windows platforms. Side Effects Software has announced their intention to make Houdini 5 and Houdini Select available for Itanium-based systems in the first half of 2002. "We made a name for ourselves as an early adopter of emerging technologies as the first professional 3D software developer to support Linux," said Paul Salvini, chief technology officer of Side Effects Software.

Film ANIMATIONWorld

Beyond The Majors: Independent Animation Feature Production

As technologies improve and the market for animated features becomes more broad and active, animated feature production outside of the major U.S. studios is on the rise. Here we discuss funding, distribution and more with four studios currently taking the plunge.

Film Headline News

Wallace & Gromit Return!

Twelve new Wallace and Gromit short films will soon be available on the Internet. Aardmans Nick Park is in production on the 1-minute films, each featuring a unique Wallace-created invention, demonstrated as usual by the ever-patient Gromit. The film series, entitled WALLACES WORKSHOP, was inspired by a similar series of photographic vignettes Park was commissioned to create for the U.S. magazine EXPLORE. The films will be available online beginning Fall 2002.

Nominations Headline News

BAFTA Nominations Announced

Both THE LORD OF THE RINGS and SHREK scored a number of nominations at the British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA), which were announced on Monday, January 28, 2002. With twelve nominations, THE LORD OF THE RINGS tied with MOULIN ROUGE for the highest honors, while SHREK was no slouch with six noms. Both LORD and SHREK were honored with best film and best visual effects nominations. Eddie Murphy received a supporting actor nod for his work as Donkey, and SHREK also picked up nominations in the Sound, Music and Adapted Screenplay categories.

Lucas Headline News

Lucasfilm Ltd. Reorganizes

In a move to promote long-term growth of his businesses, George Lucas announced that he is bringing Lucas Digital, LucasArts Entertainment, Lucas Licensing and Lucasfilm Ltd. into one organization, as Lucasfilm president Gordon Radley leaves the company. Lucasfilm CFO Micheline Chau has been promoted to the position of chief operating officer to oversee the new unified company and to guide all of the business units.

Headline News

Salsa Promotes New VP

Distribution company Salsa Entertainment, a division of TV-Loonland, has moved the headquarters of its distribution operation to its Miami location and made several key promotions including Jerry Diaz to the position of evp. In his new capacity, Diaz becomes the overall manager of Salsa Entertainment, while maintaining his previous responsibilities as head of sales and overseeing all sales, merchandising and distribution of the Salsa catalogue throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Diaz continues to report to president Lisa Hryniewicz. Diaz joined Salsa Entertainment in October 1999.

Game Headline News

Return To Castle Wolfenstein Comes To Playstation 2 And Xbox

Video game publisher Activision will be adapting its successful property RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN for the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox video game systems. The PC version of the game has shipped more than one million units and topped sales charts worldwide since its release in December 2001. Activision promises that the next generation version of the game will feature unique design and technical modifications that take full advantage of each platform's advanced technology.

Headline News

Macromedia Releases Updates For Director 8.5, Shockwave Player

Macromedia has announced the availability of a free update to Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio that adds Windows XP compatibility and anti-aliasing support to improve the quality of 3D imaging. The updates can be downloaded immediately from www.macromedia.com/go/dir851/. Macromedia will also make a native Mac OSX version of the Macromedia Shockwave Player available at the end of January 2002.

Awards Headline News

The 2002 Pixie Awards

The 3rd Annual Directors Board Awards (The Pixie Awards), World Wide Web.

Entry Deadline: Sunday, September 1, 2002.

The Pixie Awards are given for excellence in online/broadband films, animation and Websites that incorporate motion. The 3rd Annual Pixie Awards are now requesting submissions. All nominated films will be invited to the annual black tie gala that honors filmmakers, animators and Web designers who work in the online/broadband medium. Submission information can be found at www.pixieawards.org.

Headline News

Nelvana Scores With International Sales At NATPE 2002

Corus Entertainments Nelvana scored a slew of sales at this years NATPE show, including an output deal with Venezuelas Venevision for four shows per year plus first look options. Other programming deals saw ABC-TV Australia license seven shows including FRANKLIN THE TURTLE, LITTLE BEAR and BLAZING DRAGONS and Panamanian broadcaster FETV has agreed to a package deal of over 100 half-hours of animation.

Visual Headline News

Black Hawk Down Stays On Top

War drama BLACK HAWK DOWN, with visual effects by The Mill and Asylum, stayed on top of a crowded box office this weekend, earning $17M for a cume of $58.9M. Holding in second place were the talking dogs of SNOW DOGS, with $13.1M for a two-week total of $38.8M. Two new releases filled the fifth and sixth spots: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO in fifth place with $11.4M and supernatural thriller THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, with visual effects by Cinesite, landed in sixth, earning $11.2M in its debut weekend.

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