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Headline News

HP Unveils Halo Collaboration Studios

HP introduced a first-of-its-kind collaboration studio for simulating face-to-face business meetings across long distances, brought to life in partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG.

The HP Halo Collaboration Studio enables people in different locations to communicate in a face-to-face environment in realtime. Whether across a country or across the world, users are able to see and hear one another's physical and emotional reactions to conversation and information as it is being shared.

Headline News

Female Cartoonist Flies Shirtless Over Fox

In a stunt to bring attention to her legal battles with the studio, publicist/cartoonist/fashion designer Ivy Supersonic chartered a plane to fly a 100-foot banner emblazed with her topless image over the 20th Century Fox headquarters in Los Angeles for eight hours on Dec. 19, 2005.

Supersonic commented, "Fox wants the shirt off my back so badly I've decided to give it to them. This woman warrior doesn't scare so easily."

Animation Headline News

Five Top SVC Animation Graduates Exhibition Opens in NYC

By Guest (not verified) | Monday, December 19, 2005 at 12:00am

On Dec. 16, 2005, five of the School of Visual Arts most successful animation graduates recounted their route from mere studenthood to living legend. John R. Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Alex Kuperschmidt, Chris Prynoski and Tom Sito gathered behind a conference table in the schools auditorium in New York City to compare notes and reassure their audience of current SVA students that yes, it is possible to make a living drawing cartoons. Their panel was held to celebrate a retrospective of their work that will run in the schools gallery through Jan. 21.

Nick Headline News

Maniaci Upped to SVP, Development & Original Production, TV Land & Nick at Nite

Sal Maniaci has been promoted to the newly-created position of svp of development and original production for TV Land and Nick at Nite. He will continue to be based in New York City and will oversee the creation, development and execution of original programming and production for TV Land and Nick at Nite.

Maniaci has been instrumental in launching the originals agenda on both networks. TV Land and Nick at Nite have substantially increased original content since Maniaci joined the networks two years ago.

Films Headline News

New Survey Finds Positive Signs for 3-D Future

More than 39 million American adults would go to the movies more often if Hollywood offered more feature-length films in 3-D, according to a new survey by Opinion Dynamics Corp. (ODC).

Results from a nationwide survey of 900 adults show that 12% of Americans roughly 26 million adults would go to the movies more often to see 3-D movies. Another 6% 13 million adults would go more often depending on the types of films offered in 3-D.

Autodesk Headline News

Autodesk Ships Cleaner 6.5 Software for Apple Macintosh

Autodesk Inc. announced the availability of Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 for Macintosh, the newest update to its professional desktop media mastering and encoding software. Autodesk Cleaner is an industry standard application for encoding and optimizing video content for delivery formats ranging from the Internet and DVD to handheld mobile devices. On the heels of the release of Cleaner XL1.5 for Windows, Cleaner 6.5 for Mac brings extended format support and increased workflow flexibility to the Mac-based digital video encoding community.

Headline News

Kong Not So Powerful Box Office King

Peter Jacksons KING KONG performed well below industry expectations with $50.1M in its initial bow for the weekend ended Dec. 18, 2005. However, with a five-day tally of $66.1M, Universal has high hopes that momentum will build for the $207M epic (with impressive vfx from Weta Digital).

Meanwhile, in its second weekend, Disneys THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (with impressive vfx of its own from Rhythm & Hues, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM) finished second with $31.8M and a cume of $113.1M.

Headline News

Edinburgh College of Art Sweeps Student Awards

The Edinburgh College of Art has swept the RTS Scotland Student Awards, reports Scotsman.com. Hosted by the Royal Television Society Scotland, the event awarded the animation prize to Asaf Agranat for the film A BUS RIDE AND FLOWERS IN HER HAIR. Gunhild Enger won both the factual and non-factual categories with the films BARGAIN and WAITING FOR HAPPINESS, respectively.

Short ANIMATIONWorld

Fresh from the Festivals: December 2005’s Reviews

Taylor Jessen reviews five short films Workin Progress by Gabriel Garcia, Benjamin Fligans, Geordie Vandendaele and Benjamin Flinois, The Mantis Parable by Josh Staub, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Michael Sporn, Juan el Tintero (John the Inkerman) by Edwing Solzano and Ichthys by Marek Skrobecki. Includes QuickTime movie clips!

International Headline News

Mantis Parable Bites At ION Fest

The ION Festival is now over. The winners of the second ION International Animation, Games & Short Film Festival include:

ION International Animation Of The Year AwardTHE MANTIS PARABLE, Josh Staub (USA)

ION International Short Film Of The Year Award ANTEBODY, James P. Gleason (USA)

ION International Music Video Of The Year Award CON TODA PALABRA, Brigitte Henry, Ralph Dfouni (Canada)

ION International Game Of The Year Award CALL OF DUTY 2, Activision (USA)

Channel Headline News

Convicted Sex Offender Arrested for Molestation on Nick Campus

On Dec. 16, 2005, Ezell Elester Channel, a convicted sex offender, was arrested on the suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old boy at Nickelodeon Animation Studios while he served as a production assistant on the film, ADAM SANDLER'S EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS, reports the BURBANK LEADER.

Award Headline News

Winston Wins Tesla Award

Special-effects veteran Stan Winston was awarded the Tesla Award for visionary achievement in filmmaking technology from the International Press Academy on Dec. 17, 2005, reports SCI FI WIRE.

Winston responded by saying, "This award is for technical innovation, and it's interesting that I'm getting this award, because I really don't know much about technology, and, in fact, I'm techno-ignorant. I am an artist... Any technology I created for special effects I was forced to develop in order to do the things I love... I created it for the characters in the movies."

Blogs

THE NAKED SPUR (1953) (****)

By Rick DeMott | Saturday, December 17, 2005 at 10:35pm

Director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart teamed on five Westerns, including the wonderful THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. This earlier film, which had its screenplay nominated for an Oscar (a rare feat for a Western), is actually a grittier and more emotionally complex film. It came out the same year as the sappy and overrated SHANE, but holds up a lot better than that dated “classic.”

Stewart plays Howard Kemp, a Civil War veteran who is forced to become a bounty hunter out of necessity. In his effort to capture killer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan, THE WILD BUNCH), he receives help from old miner Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell, WINCHESTER ‘73) and dishonorably discharged soldier Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker, THE DIRTY DOZEN). Traveling with Ben is Lina Patch (Janet Leigh, PSYCHO), the daughter of a dead bank robber.

Blogs

BALL OF FIRE (1941) (****)

Coming out in the same year as Barbara Stanwyck’s wonderful turn in THE LADY EVE, this film is just as hilarious and just as fun.

Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett and directed by Howard Hawks, the film has eight stodgy professors living in one big house working for years on an epic encyclopedia. Leading the group of scholars is the youngest of them — linguist Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper, MEET JOHN DOE). One day the garbageman (Allen Jenkins, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN) comes in to ask them to answer some questions on a quiz he’s trying to win and they are fascinated with his use of new slang. Potts realizes that his chapter on slang is woefully out of date and has to venture out into the world to discover the current data on the ever-changing topic.

Blogs

MR. & MRS. SMITH (2005) (***)

The beginning of the film has John (Brad Pitt, FIGHT CLUB) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie, GIRL, INTERUPTED) in couple’s therapy. They seem to be resigned to the fact that their marriage is boring. John wants Jane to be more spontaneous while Jane wants John to take more than a nonchalant attitude toward their home life. What they don’t know is that both are leading secret lives as top-notched assassins working for opposite agencies.

But it all comes to a head when they are assigned the same target and they discover their secrets. This sets up an all-out, cat-and-mouse war. John’s associate Eddie (Vince Vaughn WEDDING CRASHERS) is the paranoid type who thinks that Jane has been setting him up for six years. Jane’s right-hand woman Jasmine (Kerry Washington, RAY) doesn’t have a much better opinion of John.

Blogs

NOBODY KNOWS (2005) (***1/2)

Haunting is the only way to explain this methodically paced picture. This film from Japan looks into the lives of four abandoned children. The film begins with their mother (You) moving them into a new apartment by smuggling three of the children in under the noses of the landlord.

Akira (Yuya Yagira) is eldest and the designated caretaker of the children when their mother disappears. Next in line is the sad Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), who dreams of one day buying a real piano. Following them is silly and mischievous Shigeru (Hiei Kimura) and the adorable 5-year-old Yuki (Momoko Shimizu).

The best part about the film is that the mother isn’t painted out like an arch-villain like a character Shelley Winters would have played in the 1960s. She’s not evil; she’s just very, very selfish. She keeps the kids from attending school and then leaves them for long stretches of time to fend for themselves. One time she leaves for over a month and then comes back with presents like it was no big deal.

Blogs

MADAGASCAR (2005) (***)

The 2005 animated box office champ has arrived on DVD and it provides enough laughs to be well worth a viewing. Marty (Chris Rock, NURSE BETTY) is a zebra in the Central Park Zoo in New York City. He has never been to the wild and dreams of what it would be like to go. When he shares his desires with his friends Alex the lion (Ben Stiller, DODGEBALL), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer, TV’s FRIENDS) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith, THE MATRIX RELOADED) they think he’s nuts for wanting to leave the pampered life of the zoo. Especially for Alex, who is the superstar attraction of the zoo, leaving is not an option.

With the help of some spy-like penguins (director Tom McGrath), Marty gets out into the city, which leads to him and his friends being shipped off to a wildlife reserve in Africa. However, along the way, they become shipwrecked on the tropical island of Madagascar where they run into a tribe of lemurs, ruled by King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen, TV’s DA ALI G SHOW) and his right-hand-man Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer, ORIGINAL KINGS OF COMEDY). The lemurs want to enlist Alex to scare away jackals that have been preying on their people. Tension builds between the zoo friends and when the call of the wild takes over, Alex begins to look upon his friends as food.

Blogs

MURDERBALL (2005) (****)

You will never look at a person in a wheelchair the same after seeing this documentary. It’s fun, exciting, humorous, moving and badass.

The central story of the film deals with quadriplegics who play full-contact wheelchair rugby, leading up to the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. The central characters are Mark Zupan, the grumpy goatee sporting tough guy from Team USA, and Joe Soares, the bitter, arrogant coach of Team Canada, who use to play for Team USA before he got too old and was cut. Both of these men have dynamic testosterone-fueled personalities and can be total jerks. This is the most joyous thing about the film, which shows quadriplegics as human beings that have varying emotions and personalities.

Blogs

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005) (***1/2)

This sequel to Rob Zombie’s HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES was something that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing before it came out. However, the positive reviews for the film made me want to give it a chance. Zombie, the frontman for the band White Zombie, has made a huge leap forward in his filmmaking career with this twisted horror film that harkens back to 1970s classics like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

One doesn’t need to see the nearly unwatchable first film to see this one. The film is bloody and gory and also morbidly funny. Zombie seems to be playing with the conventions of the slasher film, making you drawn to and repulsed by the killers at the same time. The film begins with a police raid on a farmhouse where a family of savage killers and rapists are keeping young women prisoner. The standoff ends with the matriarch Mother Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook, POLICE ACADEMY) arrested and her children Otis (Bill Moseley, ARMY OF DARKNESS) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie, 2004’s TOOLBOX MURDERS) on the run.

Blogs

DOMINION: PREQUEL TO THE EXORCIST (2005) (***)

The history of this film will become legend. Director Paul Schrader (AUTO FOCUS) was asked to do a prequel to THE EXORCIST. When he turned in his moody dramatic piece the studio decided they wanted something more commercial and hired a new director to virtually redo the entire film with more conventional scares. That movie was EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING and it stank. After it bombed in the theaters, the studio decided to release Schrader’s version to help recoup the costs of making two films.

The core idea of the films is relatively the same, but they couldn’t be anymore different. Schrader’s film is more of a dramatic ode to spiritual doubt and the presence of evil in the world than a scare-fest. Father Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard, GOOD WILL HUNTING) goes on sabbatical from the Catholic Church after an incident during World War II emotionally scars him. He is involved in an archeological dig in Africa where they find a church buried in the sand.

Blogs

PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005) (***1/2)

Like 2002’s overlooked NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, which successfully pared down an epic novel into a two-hour film, PRIDE & PREJUDICE does a stellar job of doing the same. Star Keira Knightley (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) proves that she is not just another pretty face, but a real actress. She brings wit and humor to the central role of Elizabeth Bennet, the second eldest daughter of the moderately poor Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (Donald Sutherland, KLUTE, & Brenda Blethyn, SECRETS & LIES).

She has a bit of snobbery for rich people, but this doesn’t stop her from encouraging her shy older sister Jane (Rosamund Pike, DIE ANOTHER DAY) in her courtship of Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods, TV’s CHARLES II: THE POWER AND THE PASSION). However, she cannot stand Mr. Bingley’s seemingly arrogant and snobbish Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen, THE RECKONING). Other key characters include Elizabeth’s flirtatious sister Lydia (Jena Malone, SAVED!), stuffy preacher Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander, THE LAWLESS HEART), Mr. Darcy’s rich aunt Lady Catherine de Bourg (Judi Dench, MRS. BROWN), dashing soldier Mr. Wickham (Rupert Friend, forthcoming THE LIBERTINE) and Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte (Claudie Blakley, GOSFORD PARK).

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