Search form

All AWN Content

Dark Headline News

Dark Horse & SAF Team Up For Toon Film Venture

Dark Horse Entertainment and Slovenia-based Strip Art Features (SAF) have teamed up to create a new company, Venture, which will publish graphic novels and comic books with the intent to launch them onto film and television. The first graphic novel to be produced by the firm will be BLOOD TIES by Belgian artist Hermann and writer Yves H. The story is described as a Faustian tale that journeys into a rotten big city with a junior detective from the suburbs named Sam Leighton.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Backs Out Of GameWorks

DreamWorks is backing out of GameWorks, a string of location-based entertainment centers, which it helped found five years ago. DreamWorks' spokeswoman Vivian Mayer said, "Our commitment was a creative input. We fulfilled our commitment." Steven Spielberg was one of the original initiators of the company and oversaw the design of many of the coin-operated arcade versions of his films, like JURASSIC PARK. GameWorks has reported that same store sales are up an average of 10% in the past six months and overall revenue is up US$10 million from last year.

Million Headline News

Sega Ends Dreamcast

Sega Corp. has announced that it will cease production of its next-generation gaming console Dreamcast and will focus on game creation for Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and GameCube. "It's becoming harder and harder to be profitable with a hardware platform. It's the games that matter," said Peter Moore, president of Sega's U.S. operations. Very low holiday sales are attributed to this decision. As a result, the company will cut prices on the remaining consoles from US$149 to $99.95 beginning Sunday, February 4, 2001.

Events

Little Prince And The 8 Headed Dragon Screening

By Guest (not verified) | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 11:00am
Begins: January 31, 2001

Jerry Beck presents a lost Japanese animated feature from the 1960s. LITTLE PRINCE AND THE8 HEADED DRAGON. Based on Japanese mythology, a spoiled to his brother at the ocean floor, his sister in the sun and ultimately he rescues a princess from an eight-headed dragon. The film's design, by Yasuji Mori, is unique and angular with full animation. The film was originally released theatrically in Japan in 1963 (under the title WANPAKUOOJI NO OROCHITAIJI) and in the U.S. in 1964. The picture was directed by Yugo Serikawa (CYBORG 009). The screening will be an English dubbed 16mm print.

Festival Headline News

Ottawa Animation Festival Goes Hollywood

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 12:00am

* Thursday, March 1, 2001. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

ASIFA-Hollywood is presenting a "Best of Ottawa Festival" screening. Ottawa Festival director Chris Robinson will present some of the highlights of the festival. For more information contact ASIFA-Hollywood at: 725 South Victory Blvd., Burbank, California 91502, U.S.A.; Tel.: (818) 842-8330; Fax: (818) 842-5645; E-mail: info@asifa-hollywood.org; or Web: www.asifa-hollywood.org.

Headline News

R!OT Pulls Off Great Escape For Ford

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 12:00am

R!OT has provided visual effects for a new 30-second spot introducing the Escape, Ford's sporty, new SUV. The commercial opens with a simple black on white graphic reading "consumer affairs director." Several letters pull out of the graphic and reform as part of a logo on the back of a surfboard hitched to the top of an Escape driving along an animated beach.

Headline News

Quiet Man Livens Up Regional Sport Spots For Fox

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 12:00am

Quiet Man has created the visual effects for the spots "Turkey" and "China," from the new four spot Fox Sports campaign via agency Cliff Freeman & Partners (NYC). "To convincingly create the effect of diving off a 50-meter cliff onto dry ground, I needed footage of a stuntman diving into an airbag, and a shot of a dummy falling onto the ground from an elevation of about 12 feet," said Johnnie Semerad, Quiet Man founder and lead visual effects artist. "With that we could then create a composite effect, using Discreet Logic Inferno, of the free-fall.

Headline News

eReview Producer Premieres At NAPTE

Web4's new Internet production and post-production tool for animation and digital video and film premiered at NAPTE. eReview Producer provides real-time streaming, keyframe and office document view, markup, collaboration and archiving, audio and music support, integrated real-time video conferencing and chat features all accessible from multiple global locations. "eReview is the only production/post-production software tool of its kind for use with digital based film, video and animation," said Charles Sleichter, vice president of marketing for Web4.

Headline News

DigiCel Releases FlipBook PT

DigiCel, Inc. recently released FlipBook PT, their new pencil test software for Windows. The new software follows the classical approach to cel animation letting animators scan and shoot or draw their artwork directly into a traditional exposure sheet and play it back instantly. The user can then adjust the playback rate, synchronize the soundtrack and even edit the exposure sheet while the scene is playing, then see and hear those changes immediately. This is also useful for storyboarding, animatics and track reading to improve lip synch.

Film Headline News

BAFTA Nominates Chicken Run As Best British Film

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 12:00am

The British Academy of Film & Television Artists have announced the nominations for the 2001 Orange British Academy Film Awards. Visual spectacle ruled the list with GLADIATOR and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON receiving 14 nominations each. Both films garnered nominations in the outstanding film, screenplay, music and visual effects categories. Joining the Roman romp and romantic fantasy for best special effects are THE PERFECT STORM, VERTICAL LIMIT and CHICKEN RUN.

Headline News

Pierre Lambert's New Book Looks At The Art Of Snow White

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 12:00am

Pierre Lambert's new book BLANCHE NEIGE (SNOW WHITE) delves into the art behind Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. It serves as a showcase for story sketches, inspirational paintings, rough and finished animation drawings, cels and background paintings drawn from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and private collections around the world, including many never-before-published images.

Headline News

U.S. Primetime TV Ratings For The Week Of January 22-28, 2001

Audience numbers for top toon THE SIMPSONS were hurt this past week due to the Super Bowl, NFL football's championship game, airing in the same time slot. Bart and the family scored a 4.1 rating/6 share in 81st place. At #91, FUTURAMA and KING OF THE HILL scrapped up a meager 2.5 rating/4 share. UPN's animation Friday block of CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH and GARY & MIKE drummed up a 1.6 rating/3 share tied in 106th place. In a three-way tie for #118, WB's THE PJS scored the lowest numbers of the week for the network a 1.1 rating/2 share.

Headline News

Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, January 30, 2001

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.

Million Headline News

Cast Away Sails Atop The Int. Box Office Once Again

CAST AWAY continues to sail atop the international box office, with VERTICAL LIMIT making a climb upward. In Germany, CAST AWAY maintained its #1 finish with a gross of US$5.74 million, escalating its cume to $12.74 million. In second, BEDAZZLED bounced in $1.2 million in its German debut. UNBREAKABLE crash-landed in third with a gross of $954,843, pushing its German cume to $11.95 million. In seventh, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON collected $561,558, raising its German cume to $1.25 million. POKEMON 2000 grabbed another $420,338, lifting its German cume to $6.65 million.

Pages