AWN Headline News

Some people will go to any lengths to avoid sharing Emerald Nuts. In EXAGGERATING DAD (:30), which aired during Super Bowl XXXIX, a father finds himself confronting a unicorn, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny compliments of visual effects from The Syndicate when he makes excuses why his young daughter shouldn't sample his Emerald Nuts.

Discreet announced combustion 4 software, the highly anticipated upgrade to its visual effects desktop software solution. combustion software for Windows and Macintosh will feature a complete set of sophisticated tools for visual effects creation, including vector paint, particles, effects, animation and 3D compositing tools.

Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi (the ED TV series) have been brought on board to pen the feature adaptation of THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX for Universal Pictures, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Sylvain Chomet (THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE) is directing, while Gary Ross is producing through his Larger Than Life Prods. with partner Allison Thomas.

The project is based on the book, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX: BEING THE STORY OF A MOUSE, A PRINCESS, SOME SOUP, AND A SPOOL OF THREAD, by Kate DiCamillo (BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE). It won the 2004 Newbery Medal for children's literature.

Former Lucas Digital president Jim Morris wont be moving to Southern California after all to pursue a producing career in computer-animated features. After an 11-year stint as the Lucas Digital head and another 13 years as gm of Industrial Light & Magic, Morris will be producing at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. According to a Pixar spokesperson, Morris begins at Pixar on Feb. 14, 2005, to work on an upcoming feature film project. We think Jim will be a very good fit, considering his visual effects background at ILM.

BOXX Technologies Inc. has launched the Get a Bundle, Save a Bundle program to offer significant savings to customers purchasing BOXX workstations bundled with industry leading software for graphics, animation and post-production software.

BOOGEYMAN is the latest scary movie to take the box office derby, this time for the weekend of Super Bowl XXXIX ended Feb. 6, 2005. The ScreenGems thriller slashed its way to $19M, killing Universals second place finisher, THE WEDDING DATE, which bowed with $11.1M. Sonys ARE WE THERE YET? followed in third place with $10.6M and $51.2M. Foxs HIDE AND SEEK, last weeks winner, dropped to the fourth spot in its second week with $8.9M and $35.7M.