Television executive John Bullivant has launched Kickback Media, a new executive production and development outfit. According to Bullivant, the aim of Kickback is to create, develop and finance character and design-based intellectual properties. The television activities will focus predominantly on the children's market and will include both animation and live-action content.
POOCHINI, the 26-episode series produced by San Francisco-based animation house Wild Brain, Inc. and Germany's EM.TV debuted in the U.S. on September 7, 2002. Wild Brain has partnered with The Television Syndication Company, Inc. (TVS) to distribute POOCHINI in the U.S. market. Stations are currently being cleared in each of the 210 U.S. markets, with over 50% of the country already on board including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia among the top 30 stations.
The latest network series refugee to join cable's Cartoon Network is Matt Groening's FUTURAMA. Twentieth Television and Cartoon Network have entered into an agreement for the exclusive cable rights of all 72 episodes of FUTURAMA to begin airing January 2003, during Cartoon Networks late night adult animation block Adult Swim. FUTURAMA chronicles the adventures of Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy who was accidentally frozen on New Years Eve in 1999 while on the job.
In a lackluster box office weekend, teen thriller SWIMFAN took the top spot with a mere $11.3M, while last week's number one, SIGNS, fell to fourth. Overall, the top 12 films grossed $59.1 million, making it the worst weekend take of the year, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. In second was indie sensation MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, with $10.4M and $95.8M total, and in third was the crime drama CITY BY THE SEA, debuting with $8.9M. SIGNS, with visual effects by ILM, grossed just $7.9M this weekend but that was enough to help M.
OIAF has announced its line-up of workshops and panels for the 2002 edition and the full list is online at their Website. In addition to all the great workshops and panels, the OIAF will give attendees a chance to...
2002 marks the 15th anniversary of the Society for Animation Studies (SAS). Drawing historians, scholars and filmmakers from around the globe, the Society will celebrate this achievement with its 14th annual conference in Glendale, California, September 26-29, 2002. This year's conference will focus on a wide range of topics, including anime, technology, culture, gender and identity, childhood, theory and criticism, feature film production and Disney (in honor of Walt Disney's 100th birthday).
Visit all of AWN's Discussion Forums to stay in touch with the animation community! This week, hot forum discussions include the best stop-motion capture devices and all-time favorite animators. In The Animator's Desktop, Tony White has posted lessons #12 and #13 of his "Making Things Move Well" series, both focusing on Eye Movement (no pun intended). Over in Show and Tell, check out the kids of "Xero High" and animated and experimental shorts at yourshortz.com. Don't miss The Animation Flea Market, where users can post items wanted or for sale.
This week the Animation Alphabet Quiz continues with the letter G...
OLLIVERS ADVENTURES, a new 13 x 30-minute animated series from Collideascope Digital Productions will have its Canadian premiere starting Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 8:00 am ET/PT on Canadian broadcaster TELETOON. The series is a spin-off of Collideascopes Gemini Award-winning animated shorts, OLLIES UNDER THE BED ADVENTURES.
Atomic Cartoons will be in attendance at this year's Mipcom, showcasing a bevy of shows including DENNIS THE DRAGON, CONEY ISLAND CARNEYS, GOAL!, and DIRTY LIL BASTER. And in other Atomic news, ATOMIC BETTY, the studio's co-production with Film Roman, has picked up a distributor. Toronto-based independent production company Breakthrough Films will act as the series' international distributors with Breakthrough's Ira Levy and Nghia Nguyen on board as executive producers and Kevin Gillis as producer.
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: LucasArts -- Developing The Game Star Wars Bounty Hunter: Wednesday, September 18, 2002, Los Angeles, California USA . . . International Forum for Animation Technologies - Cartoon Master: Thursday, November 14 - Saturday, November 16, 2002, Angoulême, France . . . The Big 3D Contest: Sunday, December 01, 2002, World Wide Web, . . The 3rd Sundance Online Film Festival: Sunday, December 01, 2002 - Sunday, January 26, 2003 . . .
New York-based 3D design and animation company Phactory Productions, Inc., has merged with broadcast design studio Ultraviolet to create UV Phactory. The newly formed creative solutions studio offers 2D and 3D design and animation, live-action production and strategic design solutions for advertising agencies and the broadcast and cable communities. The company has already begun work on a host of jobs including projects for Miramax, HBO, TBS and The Sci-Fi Channel. UV Phactory will operate under the management team of Scott Sindorf, Damijan Saccio and Jeff Linnell.
Goodspot Design and Goodspot Editorial has appointed Lisa Cleff to the position of vice president of sales and marketing for both divisions. Cleff joins newly appointed executive producer Mandy Martin, with whom she enjoyed a successful working relationship during their time together at design studio Attik/San Francisco. Prior to joining Goodspot, Cleff served as director of sales and marketing for R!OT Design in Manhattan. Her entree into the world of broadcast design came during her three years as U.S. director of business development at Attik.
Alias|Wavefront continues its drive to make its Maya software more accessible to non-professional users by providing a copy of its Maya Personal Learning edition with the upcoming PC game release Unreal Tournament 2003 (UT2003). UT2003, which was developed by Digital Extremes in collaboration with Epic Games, Inc. and is distributed by Infogrames, Inc., will come bundled with a copy of Maya Personal Learning Edition and a special plug-in, jointly developed by Epic and San Francisco-based Secret Level, Inc.
THE BIG 3D CONTEST
World Wide Web
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Entry Deadline: Sunday, November 10, 2002
New this week: Pat Raine Webb reviews the films at Annecy 2002, Heather Kenyon sat down with Damir to talk about the future of Zagreb Film and more...
Toronto, Ontario's 10plus1 Communications is looking for a STORYBOARD ASSISTANT . . . New York, New York's Bunko Studios, Inc. is looking for a GRAPHIC DESIGNER . . . Santa Ana, California's Cartoons & Entertainment International, Inc. is looking for a 2D ANIMATOR . . . MiltonKeynes, UK's EurotimeSolutions is looking for a 3D ANIMATOR . . . FXJobs is looking for a COMPOSITOR . . . Moorpark, California's High Street Studios is looking for a BACKGROUND PAINTER . . . London, UK's Icecandy Entertainment is looking for a CHARACTER DESIGNER/MODELLER 2D/3D . . .
Women In Animation (WIA) is pleased to announce the official launch of its first Canadian chapter. Based in Vancouver, WIA Canada will hold its official launch party and membership drive on September 18, 2002 at HONEY, 455 Abbott Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. Beginning at 6:00 pm, WIA members will host this special event featuring guest speakers Marv Newland, Marlene Robinson-May and others, plus free appetizers, door prizes and a raffle. Both guys and girls are welcome, and wear your favorite goofy hat for a chance to win a prize!
Bill Plympton's Website has been updated with brand new images and information about his upcoming feature HAIR HIGH...
Award-winning Los Angeles based writer and producer, Atul Rao, will be joining Toonz Animation India as the story editor and co-art director for its upcoming 3D series ADVENTURES OF HANUMAN. Rao and his family will join Toonz in India in November 2002. Starting as a staff writer at Nelvana Entertainment, Rao wrote for animated hits such as BABAR, CAREBEARS, BEETLEJUICE and TINTIN and then spent four years as producer, head writer and performer for Canadian cable network YTV.
Interactive entertainment producer NewKidCo International Inc., which develops games based on popular licensed characters such as WINNIE THE POOH and THE MUPPETS, announced its 2nd quarter 2002 results. The company had a net loss of $1.8 million for the quarter versus a net loss of $8.5 million for the same period last year. Income for the six months was a loss of $3.6 million versus a loss of $8.2 million last year, with revenue for the three and six months at $1.2 million and $3.1 million respectively versus $1.7 million and $5.3 million for the same period one year ago.
Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. will offer a variety of computer animated fare for preschoolers, kids, tweens and primetime audiences at MIPCOM 2002. Among the projects Mainframe will promote include TONY HAWK'S FEASTERS, with pro skateboard champion Tony Hawk acting as a mentor to a group of local kids; an all-new BETTY BOOP series featuring Betty on the road as the lead singer of a rock band; and the collage animation series FAMILY VALUES.
SHREK producer John Williams and his company Vanguard Films have partnered with Walt Disney in a deal to provide multiple CG animated projects for the studio. Vanguard will fill the void left by Pixar Animation, which has made no plans to renew its agreement with Disney once the existing production deal is fulfilled with the delivery of Pixar's next three films -- summer 2003's FINDING NEMO, holiday 2004's THE INCREDIBLES and 2005's CARS.
3D software solutions provider SplutterFish has released its Brazil Rendering System v1.0 (Brazil r/s), a fully-integrated rendering suite for Discreet's 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ.
Warner Bros.' Lorenzo di Boneventura has stepped down from his position as executive VP of motion pictures to take a role at the studio producing independent films. As reported in VARIETY, di Boneventura, who was promoted to the position of exec VP less than two months ago, said he wanted to move to indie producing to "stretch his creative muscles," which were apparently atrophying under the strains of heading a major motion picture studio.
