AWN Headline News

VIZ Llc. and ShoPro Ent. Inc., two prominent North American based companies specializing in Japanese content, announced the completion of their merger to form VIZ Media Llc. (VIZ Media), a new entertainment company specializing in the production and licensing of animated content for TV and theatrical distribution, publishing, home video distribution and consumer products.

2005 GSA Awards World Wide WebAugust 7, 2005Deadline: June 1, 2005

Fox 2000 Pictures is in final discussions with the Warner Bros.-based director Alfonso Cuaron (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) to replace M. Night Night Shyamalan as the director of LIFE OF PI, reports VARIETY.

Fox is moving to Cuaron to handle the adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning bestseller by Yann Martel, because it is unwilling to wait a year and a half for Shyamalan to finish his next film LADY IN THE WATER at Warner Bros. Because Cuaron has a contract with Warner, Fox 2000 will have to hammer out a split rights deal with WB.

THE X-FILES star David Duchovny is set to star in the upcoming sci-fi feature PARALLEL, reports SCI FI WIRE. The film was written and will be directed by first-timer Josh Boone.

"It's a very, very interesting, very well-written sci-fi thriller, to throw a couple of genres at you," Duchovny said in an interview. "That's getting closer to becoming a reality to shoot."

CHARMED producer Brad Kern has written and will oversee an untitled pilot for The WB! centering around a mermaid, according to SCI FI WIRE.

"The mermaid is being played by a fresh new face that we've plucked out of Sydney, Australia," Kern said in an interview. "We were casting literally around the world looking for our mermaid. We looked in London and New York and New Zealand, Hollywood, Florida, Melbourne and Sydney."

Mondo Media has finalized a series of wireless licensing deals that will blanket Europe with its internationally popular HAPPY TREE FRIENDS animated characters. Via its new wireless licensing agreements brokered by its western European agent Celebrities Ent., the HAPPY TREE FRIENDS characters are now available in five basic configurations Java games, episode download, spot download, image based content and true tones/sound tones.

In 2004 students in the Media Arts & Animation program at The Art Institute of Washington, a branch of The Art Institute of Atlanta, participated in an eight month production to create a series of 3D animations for the Chemical Educational Foundation (CEF). The "You Be the Chemist" (YBTC) series included six 5-minute modules on a variety of chemistry topics aimed at students in both elementary and middle schools.