BIRTHDAY BOY won for Best Short Animation in the Animex Student Animation Awards announced Feb. 4, 2005, at Animex Talk! during the Animex International Festival of Animation, located in Middlesex, England. The festival, in its sixth year, is organized by the University of Teesside, attracting animators and experts from some of the biggest houses in the industry.
Nicktoons will feature 24 episodes, back-to-back, of YAKKITY YAK on Feb. 5 & 6, 2005, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm during Super Bowl Weekend in the U.S. Viewers will see Yakkity, the class clown of Onion Falls High School, on his rocky road to stardom as he strives to become a standup comic.
The 13th season of the incredible Power Rangers franchise gets underway n a special two-part one-hour premiere, POWER RANGERS: SPACE PATROL DELTA on Feb. 5 at 8:30 a.m. ET/PT as part of the Jetix programming block. It also will air on Toon Disney February 7 at 7:30 pm.
Commercial film and design company Hornet Inc. welcomed Peter Sluszka for exclusive representation, the renowned stop-motion artist that recently collaborated with director Michel Gondry on a music video for Steriograms single Walkie Talkie Man (from the debut album SCHMACK!). The music video is nominated for Best Short Form Music Video of the year by the 47th Grammy Awards (taking place Feb.13).
Creative director Paul Song, exec director Casey Gelvin and exec producer Valerie Schadt have launched Liquid Images, a new visual effects company in Santa Monica that will be located within the offices of Cut + Run/Los Angeles. Liquid Images provides effects and motion graphic design for commercials, main titles and broadcast design. The company is independent of Cut + Run, but will serve as the companys visual effects and finishing arm on a project-by-project basis.
ADV Films will release six new titles on Feb. 8, 2005, including NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PLATINUM: 05, GETBACKERS: BATTLES WITH THE PAST, MEZZO: SHELL 3, WEDDING PEACH: WEDDING DAY, SISTER PRINCESS: SISTERS AND SUNSHINE and SAINT SEIYA: FALLEN FRIENDS.
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PLATINUM: 05 is directed by Hideaki Anno (NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER, HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES); produced by GAINAX (FLCL), NAS (YU-GI-OH!) and TV Tokyo (SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN); and animated by Production I.G. (GHOST IN THE SHELL) and GAINAX.
Actor John Vernon passed away in his sleep on Feb. 1, 2005, at his Los Angeles home. He was 72 years old. The death is attributed to complications from heart surgery he had on Jan. 16. His animation work included Rupert Thorne on BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, and Major Glenn Talbot, Sub-Mariner and Iron Man on THE MARVEL SUPERHEROES SHOW as well as WILDFIRE (1986), THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1996-97), PINKY AND THE BRAIN (1995-98) and HEAVY METAL (1981). Vernon is best known for his role as Dean Wormer in 1978's ANIMAL HOUSE.
Walt Disney Pictures has plans to turn the Japanese book series, KIKIS DELIVERY SERVICE, into a live-action feature film, reports VARIETY. Oscar-winning animation director Hayao Miyazaki previously turned the series into an acclaimed anime film. Screenwriter Jeff Stockwell (THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS) will pen the script based on Eiko Kadano's books.
The story follows 13-year-old burgeoning witch Kiki who moves to the city with her talking cat Jiji where she becomes delivery person for a local bakery.
Action/Cut Short Film Competition 2005Los Angeles, California, USAAugust 15-31, 2005Deadline: May 15, 2005
Action/Cut Short Film Competition is unique industry-driven shorts competition. The event showcases indie filmmakers and their work from across the world, discover the next generation of great filmmakers, recognize the most talented with cash, multiple sponsor awards, and career services and open access doors to the Hollywood film industry. The early deadline is March 15, 2005. For more information, visit www.actioncut.com.
Tahoe/Reno International Film Festival (T-Riff) Lake Tahoe/Reno, Nevada, USAAugust 24-28, 2005Deadline: May 30, 2005
Tahoe/Reno International Film Festival is a five-day exploration of discovery thru socially relevant and spirited film contributions. The festival brings independent films, workshops and discussions to the Lake Tahoe/Reno area. For additional info, visit www.t-riff.org/home.html.
10th Milano Film FestivalMilano, ItalySeptember 2005Deadline: May 31, 2005
Eureka! International Film FestivalNew York, New York, USAOctober 2005Deadline: June 17, 2005
4th International Short Film Festival Almería en cortoAlmeria, Spain May 24 - June 4, 2005Deadline: March 4, 2005
The Provincial Council of Almeria (Spain) has decided to extend the length and to increase awards of its fourth Internacional Short Film Festival Almería en corto. The festival will distribute 51,000 euros in awards, 3,000 euros more than last year edition.
ANIMA MUNDI 2005Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo, Brazil July 18-24, 2005Deadline: March 28, 2005
ANIMA MUNDI is the only event dedicated entirely to the art of animation in South America and attracts an audience of more than 65,000 people. The festival runs in Rio de Janeiro from July 8-17, then moves to São Paulo from July 20-24. It is free to enter.
THQ Inc. will do a follow-up to the hit videogame based on THE INCREDIBLES, scheduled to release this fall on the PlayStation2, PSP, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PC/Mac.
THQ enjoyed enormous success with THE INCREDIBLES game launched in conjunction with the theatrical release this past November. Domestic shipments of the game have exceeded 2.5 million units, finishing 2004 as the overall best-selling new property of the year in the U.S., according to The NPD Group.
9th MadCat Women's International Film FestivalSan Francisco, California, USASeptember 13-30, 2005Deadline: May 13, 2005
2005 marks the 40th anniversary the animated hero Roger Ramjet, and to celebrate, Classic Media is releasing ROGER RAMJET: HERO OF OUR NATION DELUXE COLLECTORS EDITION DVD box set. For the first time ever, 120 of the greatest ROGER RAMJET cartoons are available in one DVD set. Each episode has been digitally re-mastered and stars the legendary voice talent of Gary Owens (the voice of SPACE GHOST and LAUGH-IN) as Roger Ramjet. The set is available on Feb. 8 for $39.98 and includes a limited edition ROGER RAMJET model airplane.
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of the James Bond films, and MGM announced that Martin Campbell will direct CASINO ROYALE, the 21st film in the 007 franchise. This is Campbell's second time as helmer of a James Bond film. In 1995 he directed the hit GOLDENEYE, which introduced Pierce Brosnan to the role of 007.
Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising announced the expansion of the thriving FAMILY GUY licensing and merchandising program through two new agreements with videogame industry giant Take-Two Interactive Software and wireless content leader Airborne Ent. Take-Two has the rights to produce all-new videogames for multiple platforms under the 2K Games label, while Airborne Ent. will introduce new mobile phone content.
UPN and Paramount Network Television have jointly announced that this will be the final season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE on UPN. Production will continue until the end of this season, which will finish shooting in March. The series finale will air on May 13, 2005.
Rotten Tomatoes (RottenTomatoes.com), the online source for gauging the critical reaction for movies, has given THE INCREDIBLES its Golden Tomato Award for 2004 in the Wide Release category. SIDEWAYS was awarded a Golden Tomato for a Limited Release.
The Golden Tomato Award is handed out annually by Rotten Tomatoes in recognition of the year's best-reviewed films; this year the film site split the award to recognize films in the Wide Release and Limited Release categories.
Gang of Seven (G7) Animation recently completed work on a number of animated sequences for the upcoming New Line feature film, SON OF THE MASK, the sequel to the hit film, THE MASK and stars Jamie Kennedy as animator Tim Avery. The feature is set for release Feb. 18, 2005.
The Gnomon Workshop has released seven new leading edge DVDs covering photogrammetry, digital set design and ZBrush techniques.
Alias announced the launch of its Alias MotionBuilder and Maya software Rated P for PLAY tour. Starting in Seattle, Washington, on Feb. 16 and ending in San Francisco on March 10 at GDC (Games Developers Conference), the 3D community will experience Alias MotionBuilder 6 and Maya 6.5 software up close, network with their peers and hear from industry guest speakers. To register for the Rated P for PLAY tour, visit www.alias.com/p4play.
We concluded last months previs focus with Christopher Harzs overview, It Cant Be Done? Let Previs Do It, which provides a fascinating look at the strengths and limitations of this crucial craft. Meanwhile, later this week, Tulay Tetiker provides an instructive glimpse into how Germanys slumping vfx industry may be on the rebound, thanks to some high-tech successes despite a weak economy.
Bill DesowitzEditor
