AWN's Theatrical Database Has Been Updated
AWN's Upcoming Theatrical Releases database has been updated with links to trailers for BLADE 2, THE SCORPION KING and SIGNS as well as release dates for...
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AWN Headline News
New Additions To AWN's Calendar Of Events
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include:* Vampire Hunter D Screening: Friday, December 21 - Thursday, December 27, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA.* McKenzie College Open House: Thursday, January 17, 2002, Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada.* WinFemme Film, Video & Screenplay Festival: Monday, January 01, 2001 - Wednesday, January 01, 2003, Los Angeles, California USA.* DirecTV - Level13.Net Animated Film Festival: Wednesday, December 26 - Thursday, December 27, 2001, DIRECTV Channel 104.
This Week's Animation Trivia Quiz
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation TriviaQuiz. This week, we're asking more questions about...
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Rings Lords Over Box Office
As everyone predicted LORD OF THE RINGS, with primary digital effects by WETA in New Zealand, was easily number one at the U.S. box office this long, holiday weekend. Opening on Wednesday, December 19, the film pulled in over $18 million in the first 24 hours alone. As of Sunday, December 23, the film has a cume of $73.1 million and shows no sign of slowing down as other newcomers had weak openings. Ultra-slick OCEANS ELEVEN, with visual effects by E=mc2 and Cinesite, is holding strong with a second place finish of $14.6M and a cume of $95.2M.
Submit Your Animated Television/Web Program For The 2002 Pulcinella Awards!
The 6th edition of Cartoons On The Bay, International Festival of Television Animation, will be held in Positano, Italy on April 18-22, 2002. Cartoons on the Bay is the only festival in the world solely dedicated to television animation. The festival is an international event with awards, workshops, lectures and events centering on the ever-changing world of television animation. The festival includes the Pulcinella Awards, the showcase, the three intense days of the international conference on television animation, various special events and many movie and television premieres.
Toon Disney Makes The Grade With Disney's Teacher's Pet
Toon Disney, ABC Cable Network Group's 24-hour all-animation network, will add DISNEY'S TEACHER'S PET to the channel's schedule. Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the series, including 18 previously unaired episodes, will air on Toon Disney Monday - Friday at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT beginning January 7, 2002. New episodes will premiere on Fridays. DISNEY'S TEACHER'S PET will continue to air as part of "Disney's One Saturday Morning" at 8:30 a.m. ET/7:30 a.m. PT on the ABC Television Network.
Pitch Catches Four Spots For New York Metro
NY-based design studio Pitch has created four :30 animated spots for the New York Metro. The spots use a 50s retro art direction with minimalist animation to illustrate the whimsical situations devised by agency DeVito/Verdi. For example, in one spot two men walk into a bar and marvel at all the women - then realize the nightspot caters to lesbians. The spots all have a comedic element and wind up with the same message: Use New York Metro to guide you to the best bets in entertainment, shopping, food and recreation.
Framestore And CFC Unite
FrameStore, specialists in visual effects and computer animation for commercials, film and broadcast television, and Computer Film Company (CFC), renowned for its award-winning digital film effects, as well as pioneering development in digital film, have merged. The newly rebranded company is named Framestore CFC and will be led by a single management team, headed by joint chief executives Sharon Reed and William Sargent. The 240 staff positions and the senior management team remain unchanged.
Gullane To Co-Produce Fireman Sam Series
Gullane Entertainment has acquired a 50% interest in the popular S4C International property FIREMAN SAM. The joint venture between S4C International and Gullane Entertainment will see a new 26-part TV series co-produced, followed by a worldwide distribution, marketing and licensing program. Over the past decade, FIREMAN SAM has appeared in four animated television series as part of the BBC children's schedule and has sold one million videos and five million storybooks in the UK. The series is broadcast in Welsh on S4C and has been translated into forty other languages.
Brian Moreno Named VP, Strategic Marketing For WB Online
Brian Moreno has been named vice president, strategic marketing, Warner Bros. Online. In his new position, Moreno will head the marketing efforts for the division's entertainment Website, as well as oversee Warner Bros. Online's overall strategic partnerships, branding, advertising, promotions and public relations. Moreno joins Warner Bros. Online from Style365.com, an affluent lifestyle Internet portal, where he served as chief marketing officer. Before joining Style365.com, he was executive vice president, worldwide video, Playboy Entertainment Group.
Captain Sabretooth Gets Animated
Scandinavian animation production company Happy Life and sister company ColorPop are producing an animated feature film based on the popular Norwegian character Captain Sabretooth. THE WORLD'S MOST CRUEL PIRATE is scheduled to premiere in Norway in December 2003. Happy Life will be responsible for animating Captain Sabretooth and his fellow pirates, and Stig Bergqvist of FilmTecknarna F. Animation, who recently directed the feature RUGRATS IN PARIS: THE MOVIE, has signed on to direct. The total budget of the feature is US$5.2 million.
Discreet gmax Mod Tools Included In Command & Conquer: Renegade
Westwood Studios, a wholly-owned subsidiary of game publisher Electronic Arts, has licensed Discreet's gmax software and will be distributing it on COMMAND & CONQUER: RENEGADE, a 3D action game for the PC. In addition, Westwood will release a RENEGADE game pack that will allow content created in gmax to be exported into the game. The game pack will also be available as a free download on the RENEGADE Website.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Goes To Mattel
Mattel Inc. and 4Kids Entertainment Inc. have signed a multi-year, worldwide licensing agreement, with the exception of Asia, naming Mattel the master toy licensee for 4Kids' YU-GI-OH! Mattel will be manufacturing and marketing, among other items, action figures, games, puzzles, role-playing products and youth electronics based on the animated property. The first YU-GI-OH! product line will be available in 2002.
Vampire Hunter D Now Showing in Los Angeles
Vampire Hunter D Now Showing in Los Angeles: Friday, December 21 - Thursday, December 27, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA, 5:30 pm; 7:30 pm; 9:30 pm, Set in a supernatural world that's equal parts Sergio Leone and BLADE, this astonishing, adrenaline-stoked animated film follows the enigmatic "D" as he slices and dices his way through snake-headed bloodsuckers, shadow creatures, bigoted humans and more, while attempting to stop the Romeo and Juliet romance of a beautiful young woman and a dashing vampire count. English language. (Spielberg Theatre inside the Egyptian Theatre).
Charlex Launches 3D Division
Design and production studio Charlex has formed a 3D department, adding new equipment and creative talent to the companys existing setup. Bryan Godwin, formerly of Blue Sky Studios, heads the new team of 3D artists -- who bring extensive experience in the worlds of feature film and videogame production. The new group has recently completed a holiday spot for AT&T, and two spots for Sunny Delight.
Showtime Revives Queer Duck
Mike Reiss' Web series QUEER DUCK is returning to the Web and debuting on television thanks to the Showtime network. The series, which debuted in October 2000 on Icebox.com, will return to the Web beginning in January 2002, when 15 new episodes premiere exclusively online at Sho.com. The new episodes are produced by Reiss' company Queer Duck Productions, Inc. in association with Xeth Feinberg's Mishmash Media, Inc.
Disney Channel Picks Up Two
The Disney Channel has ordered additional episodes of two of its newest animated shows -- preschooler-oriented series Stanley and the NAACP Image Award-nominated series THE PROUD FAMILY. Both shows premiered in September 2001. Stanley, developed by Jim Jinkins and David Campbell (DISNEY'S DOUG, DISNEY'S PB&J OTTER) and based on characters from the popular book series of the same name, is currently Disney Channel's highest rated series with two to five year olds.
Mac OS X v10.1.1 Users Welcome Maya Complete
Alias|Wavefront's Maya Complete software version 3.5.1 for Mac OS X v10.1.1 is now available. With the first release of Maya for Mac OS X, Maya Complete was made native to the Macintosh. The core features of the Mac OS X version of Maya are the same as those in Maya for other platforms. Features unique to the Mac version include support for QuickTime and AppleScript, tear off menus in the hot box, and a fully Aqua interface. New graphics cards supported under Maya 3.5.1 include ATI Mobility Radeon, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX and NVIDIA GeForce3.
Psyop Brings Life To Stats For My VH1 Music Awards
With award categories like "Your Song Kicked Ass But Was Played Too Damn Much" and "Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just My Video?" the 2001 My VH1 Music Awards is clearly not your average music awards ceremony. For one thing, it is the fans that call the shots: the category names, nominees and winners are all determined through an online vote. That distinctly democratic impression was enhanced by a graphics and animation package created for the December 2 broadcast by visual effects/creative design house, PSYOP, NYC. This is the second year that PSYOP had been responsible for the package.
Wild Brain UK Creates Body Fantasies
The first commercial project from the newly-opened London branch of Wild Brain, Inc. has been completed. Created for Parfum du Coeur's Body Fantasies fragrance line, the "Just For Me" :15 and :30 ads began airing on November 30 in major markets across the United States. Produced out of Wild Brain UK, LLC conceptualized by WSAA, Inc. and directed by Mike Smith, the "Just For Me" campaign is animated using traditional 2D animation techniques, painted and rendered by hand. The images were then re-worked with digital effects and composited in AfterEffects, Flame and Edit Box.
Critics' Nods Predict The Noms
Now that the animated feature category is a lock, the Oscar race is on, and critics groups from around the country are starting to weigh in with their picks. Although the New York Film Critics Circle chose WAKING LIFE as best animated film of the year, SHREK is pulling ahead in the accolades department. The DreamWorks blockbuster picked up the award for best animated film from the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, as well as making a list of ten nominees for best film of the year from both the AFI and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
TV-Loonland Enters Production Partnership With AMG
TV-Loonland has formed an alliance with Artists Management Groups Animation & Family Entertainment Department to produce a minimum of four animated television series over the next three years. Artists Management Group (AMG), co-founded by Michael Ovitz, Rick Yorn and Julie Silverman-Yorn, represents many well-known talents in the animation arena including RUGRATS creators Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere, director Henry Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) and animation studio Film Roman.
Bill Plympton's 12 Tiny Christmas Tales On Cartoon Network
There is still time to catch Bill Plymptons original holiday special 12 TINY CHRISTMAS TALES. Cartoon Network is airing the special, which features stories based on Bill Plympton's hand-drawn Christmas cards, on December 21, 2001 at 9:30 pm and again on December 24th at 7:00 pm as part of Cartoon Networks 24-Hour Christmas Party.
Softimage|XSI v2.0 Ships
Softimage|XSI v2.0 software, the latest version of Softimages nonlinear animation system, has been released. New features of Softimage|XSI v2.0 include a fully scriptable integrated compositor featuring more than 100 film quality effects (8, 16 and 32 bits per channel), updated rendering technology, an integrated dynamics simulator for creating short and long hair and fur for humans, animals or other characters, with advanced capabilities for grooming, photo-realistic rendering and interaction between hair and its environment.
X-Men And Hulk Are Unleashed
Release dates for two potential blockbuster summer features were announced this week, but youll have to wait until 2003 to see them. 20th Century Fox will unveil X2, the sequel to their $300 million hit X-MEN, on May 2, 2003. X2 will reunite the original cast of mutants and involve the same key creative team, including director Bryan Singer; producers Ralph Winter, Lauren Shuler Donner and Avi Arad; and screenwriter David Hayter.
