9 Story Ent. to Produce Multiplatform Animated Series
9 Story Ent. is starting up production on its new action/comedy, FUTZ!, for TELETOON, in December 2006. The series will be produced for television, web and mobile.
9 Story Ent. is starting up production on its new action/comedy, FUTZ!, for TELETOON, in December 2006. The series will be produced for television, web and mobile.
Joe Strike takes the pitch, looking at the production of IDT Ent.s first theatrical animated feature, Everyones Hero.
Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini will provide voices for the independent animated feature, MY DOG TULIP, based on J.R. Ackerleys 1956 British novel, reports VARIETY.
Brian Murray, Paul Hecht, Peter Gerety and Euan Morton fill out the rest of the voice cast. The story follows a 14-year friendship between Ackerley and his German Shepherd, Tulip, after the scribe rescued the dog.
Tom Schlesinger conducts a workshop for film and television writers, directors, producers, actors and novelists. Attendees will learn how the synergy between your creative experience while writing, the essential biology of story structure, and the commercial necessities of today's marketplace will empower you to write great screenplays.
Taylor Jessen reviews five short films One Rat Short by Alex Weil, Smile by Chris Mais, Memorial by Matt Clausen and Jon Gutman, Coffee by Rohitash Rao and Abraham Spear, and Dog Worries by Chris Armstrong. Includes QuickTime movie clips!
Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley have given AWN an excerpt from their latest book, How to Create Comics from Script to Print.
Warner Bros. has snatched up the German rights to anime feature BRAVE STORY, helmed by Koichi Chigira, VARIETY reports. Fuji TV and Gonzo Digimation produced the film, which is being representing internationally by Pony Canyon. Warner Bros. is already the films distributor in Japan and has the first option in various other regions. Budgeted at 1 billion yen ($9 million), the film is based on a manga by Miyuki Miyabe about a boy who lives in a world called Vision.
Chris Robinson excavates Jonas Odells Never Like the First Time! and discovers the first sexual experiences of four people in this months Animators Unearthed.
Robert McKee is the most widely known and respected screenwriting teacher in the world. Portrayed in the Oscar-nominated hit ADAPTATION, named Hollywood's Most Wanted Screenwriting Teacher by MOVIELINE magazine, and interviewed by 60 MINUTES correspondent Bob Simon for CBS News' Sunday Morning 2005 Academy Awards Special, McKee's sold-out Story Seminars teach the essential principles of screenwriting and story design that studios, production companies and publishers demand from their writers.
Los Angeles
BioWare is holding a contest to find talented writers to help develop its award-winning roleplaying games. BioWare's director of design James Ohlen and assistant director of design Kevin Barrett have agreed to make the process of submitting work as easy as possible for writers looking to work for BioWare.
BioWare asks for writers to create a Neverwinter Nights module to tell their story using the Aurora Toolset. There are a lot of options to consider when creating a module in the Toolset, but it is important to remember that BioWare will only be interested in the writing.
9 Story Ent. announced that all three of its recently produced television programs have been selected as finalists for the Prix Jeunesse.
9 Storys Emmy- and Gemini-winning animated show PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD, as well as SKYLAND and IF THE WORLD WERE A VILLAGE were all named as Prix Jeunesse finalists. Held every two years, the international competition is considered the highest honor in childrens television.
SHREK 2 co-director Kelly Asbury has written and will direct the live-action screenplay adaptation of Clive Barker's THE THIEF OF ALWAYS for 20th Century Fox and Seraphim Films, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Asbury and Barker met at an authors festival where Asbury was invited to discuss his nonfiction book DUMMY DAYS. Asbury and Barker struck up a conversation, which lead to Barker asking Asbury to write and direct the screen adaptation of his 1992 juvenile dark fantasy novel.
One of the first signs that things will change at Disney under Pixars Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, Lasseter informed Walt Disney Feature Animation employees that TOY STORY 3 would cease production immediately, reports the ASSOCIATED PRESS.
It's fitting that on the same day that TOY STORY 2 returns to DVD in a special edition collection (Dec. 27, 2005), TOY STORY is earmarked for preservation on the Library of Congress' National Film Registry 2005.
The Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan will debut three new short features from Hayao Miyazaki. Starting Jan. 3, 2006 and running until March 13, the three films will screen in the museums Saturn Theatre.
OLD BOY director Park Chan-wook has lined up his next two flicks a love story set in a mental asylum and a modern-day vampire movie, reports VARIETY.
The South Korean helmer said he'll start shooting his next movie, described as an "offbeat romantic comedy," in March, for fall 2006 release. The film is part of an eight picture funding deal with CJ Ent., where all the films will be shot on HD-24p by name helmers, including Hur Jin-ho and Ryu Seung-wan.
Dimension has tapped director Mikael Hafstrom (upcoming Weinstein Co. release DERAILED) and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to tackle the adaptation of the Stephen King short story 1408, which has rewrittem by ED WOOD screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, reports VARIETY. The original script was penned by Matt Greenberg.
Pixars landmark TOY STORY, the one that started it all, as they say, returns in a new and improved two-disc set in honor of its 10th anniversary (Buena Vista Home Ent. $29.99), Sept. 6, 2005.
For those who already own THE ULTIMATE TOY BOX, rest assured: theres still plenty of new material available, in addition to improved picture (increased bitrate of 7.5mbps) and audio (including the first DTS track for a Pixar DVD along with Dolby Digital 5.1 EX) both remixed by master sound designer Gary Rydstrom, now a Pixar staffer.
A memorial service has been set for Joe Ranft, one of the animation industrys most respected and talented story specialists, who died in a car accident near Mendocino, California, on Aug. 16, 2005 (see AWN report). The Pixar fixture had just completed story work on the studios latest feature, CARS.
The Friends and Colleagues Memorial Service will be held Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005. Details regarding the time and location are available by calling (510) 752-4455.
Pixar story man extraordinaire and voice actor Joe Ranft was killed in an automobile accident Aug. 16, 2005, near Mendocino, California, at the age of 45.
Ranft was head of story on the original story teams for Pixars first two films, TOY STORY and A BUGS LIFE, and was a story artist on MONSTERS, INC. He was most recently working as head of story on John Lasseters next film, CARS.
20th Century Fox has bought the rights to Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon's TOKYO GHOST STORY script for Davis Ent. to produce, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The supernatural thriller is based on the Japanese Yurei myth, where the ghost of a jilted lover who commits suicide returns to torment and ruin their former lover.
Peter Kang will oversee the film for the studio. Davis Ent.'s evp production Brian Manis brought the script to Davis president Wyck Godfrey, who took it to Kang.
Disney Consumer Products chair Andy Mooney announced that the Pixar-less TOY STORY 3 will open in the summer of 2008 at the International Licensing Show in New York City.
This comes on the heels of Disney Feature Animation announcing at Los Angeles ACM SIGGRAPH earlier in the week that it will be heavily recruiting CG talent for TOY STORY 3 at SIGGRAPH 2005.
Inspired Corp. announced the release of STORY STORE, a new 13-episode children's animation series. There are five DVDs, each containing three episodes and a free children's book. There is also a holiday special that includes one bonus episode. The release is under Inspired Corp.'s Peter Pan label.
Schools get ready for lift off... Mission to Titan starts in September
You are challenged to dream up and develop a story about your own mission to Titan. You can design your own spacecraft, build characters and crew members, create alien worlds and creatures, and tell the story of your mission in a short animation.
The animation you create must not be longer than five minutes, so you have to think about how to tell your story in a comprehensive but concise way. You don't have to cover the whole journey in your animation, and can concentrate on an interesting episode if you prefer.