DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions, Ltd. have announced that SHREK THE MUSICAL will play an exclusive world premiere engagement at The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, August 14th to September 21st, prior to opening on Broadway in the Fall of 2008. Preview performances will begin in early November at a theater to be announced.
DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. today announced that senior team members Bill Damaschke and John Batter have been promoted to Co-Presidents of Production for Feature Animation, with Damaschke also being appointed to the newly created position of President of Live Theatrical.
IMAX Corp. and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. announced a deal to release the studio's first three 3-D motion pictures worldwide in IMAX 3-D. The IMAX 3-D releases will include MONSTERS VS. ALIENS in March 2009, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON in November 2009 and SHREK GOES FOURTH in May 2010. A fourth DreamWorks Animation title, KUNG FU PANDA, will be released in IMAX's 2-D format in June 2008. The IMAX 3-D titles are expected to be among the first presented with IMAX's digital 3-D projection system, which is scheduled to be launched beginning June 2008.
There's no script, Michael Bay has not signed on to direct, nor has Shia LaBeouf inked a deal to star, but Paramount and DreamWorks have a release date for TRANSFORMERS 2. Hoping to sign the director and star, as well as lock down a script, soon, the studios is eying June 26, 2009 as the release date for the sequel to this summer's blockbuster.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. announced the election of Tom Freston to its Board of Directors.
Freston most recently served as President/CEO of Viacom, from January to September 2006. Prior to assuming this position, Freston was Co-President/Co-COO of Viacom and, previously, Chairman/CEO of MTV Networks. Under his leadership, MTV Networks grew to reach more 400 million households in 164 countries.
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, DreamWorks Animation's first-ever film produced in stereoscopic 3-D technology, has been pushed up to a March 27, 2009 release. The Paramount Pictures release had been previously slated for May 15 and now avoids splitting the market with James Cameron's 3-D/CG fantasy, AVATAR, which opens May 22. However, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, the next 3D-animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation, is currently scheduled for March 27 as well.
DreamWorks Animation SKG has announced that Philip Cross, who has been serving as a consultant to the company, has been named Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Cross will be responsible for managing the company's accounting functions and will report to Lew Coleman, DreamWorks Animation's President and Chief Financial Officer.
The format war has heated up with Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation each announcing exclusive support for the next-gen HD DVD format over Blu-ray Disc on a worldwide basis.
Team MoCap from Bowling Green State University (Tomas Jech, W. Jacob Gardner and Jim Levasseur) took first place in the 32-hour FJORG! ''Viking Animator'' Competition for their animation SWITCH at SIGGRAPH 2007 in San Diego. Sixteen teams of three people each competed to create the most impressive character-driven animation of at least 15 seconds in length adhering to a strict set of rules and using only the resources provided at the conference.
DreamWorks Animation announced today (Aug. 6, 2007) that DW Investment II Inc. ("DWI II"), an entity controlled by Paul Allen, will sell approximately 10 million shares of the company's Class A common stock in a registered public offering underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Allen is also resigning from the animation company's board of directors.
DreamWorks Animation will assert a major presence at SIGGRAPH 2007, Aug. 5-9 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego.
DreamWorks Animation has brought on board theme park operation and marketing exec Joel Ward to fill the start-up position newly created to helm theme park and location-based entertainment for DreamWorks Animation Consumer Products.
DreamWorks has obtained the film rights to the Oni Press comicbook series THE DAMNED and COURTNEY CRUMRIN, to be produced by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, reports VARIETY. Both projects will be touted at Comic-Con, which gets under way today in San Diego.
DreamWorks Animation's MONSTERS VS. ALIENS has been slated for domestic release on May 15, 2009, one week earlier than the previously announced date. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, which reinvents the classic '50s monster movie as an irreverent modern-day action comedy, will be the first DreamWorks Animation film produced in stereoscopic 3-D technology. The film is being directed by Conrad Vernon (SHREK 2) and Rob Letterman (SHARK TALE), and produced by Lisa Stewart (I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE).
DreamWorks has put its wishes behind P.B. Kerr's children book series CHILDREN OF THE LAMP, obtaining the film rights to the fantasy series, reports VARIETY. Nina Jacobson will produce and Lee Hall (BILLY ELLIOT) will adapt.
The British series chronicles the adventures of a djinn, or genie, family as they try to live in human society while possessing the talent to grant wishes.
More than one million copies of the first three books have sold worldwide and the fourth book, THE DAY OF THE DJINN WARRIOR, is set to hit stores in September.
Dream Works Animation has hired former Nickelodeon Movies development vp Damon Ross as a senior development exec. Ross's main duty will be acquiring and developing literary properties as well as original projects. He will work on the day-to-day development of features at the studio with Chris Kuser.
The new DreamWorks exec will report to the studio's head of creative development and production Bill Damaschke and head of development Kristine Belson.
Neil Gaiman has revealed on his website (www.neilgaiman.com) that DreamWorks Animation has optioned the author and Michael Reaves' INTERWORLD, which has been confirmed by a DreamWorks spokesperson.
In this month's edition of "The Digital Eye," Darren Podrabsky describes the collaborative role that HP Halo played in facilitating the making of Shrek the Third.
The VES hosted its 9th annual visual effects festival last week and VFXWORLD has a report on some of the highlights, including the VES 50 panel, which included Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, John Dykstra and Doug Trumbull.
Meanwhile, Mark Gorzynski, HP Halo Collaboration Studios' chief scientist, contributes to the Digital Eye this month to discuss their collaboration with DreamWorks Animation on SHREK THE THIRD.
And in the latest POSER 7 REVEALED excerpt, you will learn all about available preset cameras.
Bill DesowitzEditor
HP and AMD's technology helped power DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third, opening today [May 18, 2007].
HP ProLiant servers, workstations and notebooks, powered by AMD64 processors, enabled the creation of technically challenging, detail-rich images and effects in the latest film in the successful SHREK series. Additionally, producers benefited by using HP Halo Collaboration Studios to connect DreamWorks teams from across the globe in a live virtual environment.
DreamWorks Studios, in association with Film 4, has acquired THE LOVELY BONES, Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Alice Sebold bestselling novel.
Jackson will direct the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. Carolynne Cunningham, Jackson, Walsh and Aimee Peyronnet will serve as producers. Exec producing will be Film 4's Tessa Ross, Ken Kamins and Jim Wilson.
DreamWorks Animation reported an unexpectedly higher first-quarter profit due to higher-than-expected DVD sales for OVER THE HEDGE and other library titles. The company reported total revenue of $93.7 million and net income of $15.4 million, or 15 cents per share on May 1, 2007, compared to revenue of $60.1 million and net income of $12.3 million or 12 cents per share, for the same period in 2006, which is an increase of nearly 55%.
DreamWorks Animation announced the acquisition of writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons' superhero send-up MASTER MIND, which was brought to the company by Lara Breay at Red Hour Films, the production entity of producing partners Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld. Red Hour will collaborate with DreamWorks Animation in developing and producing the project.
Having left AMERICAN DOG at Disney, Chris Sanders has found a new directing job on DreamWorks Animation's CROOD AWAKENING, which was written by British comedy icon John Cleese and Kirk De Micco (RACING STRIPES). The project was originally set up at Aardman when DreamWorks had a production deal with the U.K. studio.
The plot of the comedy set in the Stone Age is being kept under wraps. A release date for film has not yet been set.
Here's what's happening at AnimWatch this week:
