All AWN Content

* Maximum Pictures: The Visionary Cinema of Ridley Scott: Friday, September 14 - Sunday, September 23, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA.

All films will be showing at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles. Tickets are: $8 General; $7 Student/Senior; and $6 Members.

- Friday, September 14 at 7:30 pm: ALIEN, 1979. Discussion following with director Ridley Scott. Special ticket price: $10 General; $9 Student/Senior; and $8 Members.

- Saturday, September 15 at 7:30 pm: GLADIATOR, 2000.

* Daniel Langlois Foundation's Grants for Researchers in Residence: Thursday, January 31 - Tuesday, December 31, 2002, Montreal, Quebec Canada.

Entry Deadline: Friday, August 31, 2001

With OSMOSIS JONES slipping out of the top ten, the U.S. box office remained mostly live-action. With AMERICAN PIE 2 claiming the top spot for a second straight week, RUSH HOUR 2 held tight to the #2 slot, grossing US$19.2 million. The kung-fu caper, with primary visual effects by Cinesite, has racked up $164.8 million. RAT RACE, with animated opening titles by Wild Brain, debuted at #3 with a gross of $11.8 million. At #6, CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, with primary visual effects by Double Negative, sung home $7.1 million in its premiere.

Oakland, California-based technology company Digital Element, with the help of NewTek and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the auspices of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Cities Initiative, has been working to open up "Closed Cities" in Russia. These cities do not appear on maps and up to now have been strictly military R&D and production sites. Digital Element trainers and engineers have helped form new Russian software development teams in Snezhinsk and other closed cities to help the towns integrate into the Western market.

Neptuno Films is launching a new animated show, 2020. Aimed at 8 to 12 year olds, the show is centered on a middle-class family, The Campbells, who live in a futuristic city where synthetic food and clones are in fashion. Josep Viciana will direct with a team of comic book designers. Production will start in 2002. Viciana said, "We are very excited with the challenge ahead. We have been able to set up for this project one of the most talented teams in Spain ever.

São Paulo, Brazil-based AD Studio has created the visual effects for latest music video from Brazilian band AD, entitled "Get Down." The video features an animated alien playing the role of lead singer, three robots hammering away on their musical instruments and over 13,200 dancing aliens. All the modeling, animation and rendering were done with Electric Image's Universe 3D animation system, utilizing some 3D party shaders and plug-ins and compositing separate rendering passes with Adobe After Effects.

U.K.-based kids animation producer Telemagination has cast the British comedy duo French and Saunders for the voices of the two main characters in their newest in-house animation series PONGWIFFY. The series was commissioned by U.K. broadcaster CITV. Targeted at 6 to 9 year olds, the series follows a group of dysfunctional witches. Dawn French (FRENCH AND SAUNDERS, THE VICAR OF DIBLEY) will voice Pongwiffy, a witch of dirty habits, while Jennifer Saunders (FRENCH AND SAUNDERS, ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS) will voice Sharkadder, Pongwiffy's obsessively vain best friend.

THQ Inc. released its next generation game line-up for the 2001 holiday season. The titles include DARK SUMMIT, NEW LEGENDS and MX 2002 FEATURING RICKY CARMICHAEL for Xbox, RED FACTION for PC, and in conjunction with JAKKS Pacific Inc., WWF SMACKDOWN! JUST BRING IT for the PlayStation 2 and WWF RAW IS WAR for Xbox. In addition, THQ is also releasing numerous Game Boy Advance titles. DARK SUMMIT combines snowboarding action with an in-depth story line and mission-based objectives. NEW LEGENDS is a new fighting game set in a futuristic China where players can use two weapons at the same time.

Scandinavian computer game developer UDS has signed a deal with German publisher CDV to develop CORE, a new game for Microsoft's Xbox. The order is the largest in the company's history. CORE is a zany action adventure game where players control a team of four characters, all inside a giant robot suit, on a strange journey to save New York. The game is expected to be released worldwide during 2003. The title will be developed by UDS' studio in Gothenburg, western Sweden.

REALVIZ has announced upgrades to ImageModeler and MatchMover. The new ImageModeler will be the first to be Mac compatible. ImageModeler 3.0 feature highlights include a newly designed user interface and contextual menus allowing for improved calibration workflow and easier camera navigation. ImageModeler is compatible with all major 3D animation packages, including Maya, Lightwave 3D, Softimage, 3D Studio Max, and Cinema 4D.

Curious Labs, Inc. has announced that their Poser and Poser Pro Pack will be supported within the Cinema 4D and PiXELS 3D applications. The Cinema 4D plug-in will be available for download at no charge to Pro Pack customers from the Curious Labs Website and will enable Pro Pack users to integrate and render their animated Poser scenes directly in Cinema 4D. The PiXELS 3D plug-in will offer similar functionality. Distribution details will be announced once they have been formalized.