WireBreak Entertainment has restructured its business model to fight going under. As a result, the company has laid off most of its staff except for a few key executives. Started in October 1988, the company quickly moved from being a Web destination site to an online producer and syndicator. Now the firm is moving away from Web content and focusing on interactive television, television and film. Current projects will be outsourced to other production houses.
* Thursday, September 13 Friday, September 14, 2001. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Entry Deadline: May 15, 2001.
Categories for this competition are: Editorial, Books, Advertising; Posters; Graphics; Illustrated Maps and Charts; Computer Media, Unpublished Illustrations; Television & Film; and Student Illustrators. Entry fee: $25-75.
Sesame Workshop (the Workshop), one of the world's leading producers of children's television programming, announced the appointment of Jennifer Chrein as the company's new vice president of global media. In the newly created position, Chrein will oversee international television sales for the company. Prior to the Workshop, Chrein served as senior vice president of New York-based Telescene Film Group, where she was responsible for negotiating distribution and sales with sub distributors and bringing co-producers, partners and projects from the worldwide marketplace to Telescene.
Victory Entertainment, an Orlando, Florida-based multimedia production house, has named Michael Jay Solomon to its board of directors. Currently, Solomon is chairman and CEO of MAXX International, a broad-based rights management company. The television veteran has held executive positions at Warner Bros., Telepictures and has launched the television companies Solomon International Enterprises and Solomon Broadcasting International. Michael H.
Anteye.com has signed an agreement with HBO, giving the pay cable channel exclusive rights to taking Anteye content to television. "Linking with Anteye helps us to stay in the forefront of talent discovery," said Chris Albrecht, HBOs president of original programming. "HBO will now get the first look at some of the Webs hottest filmmakers." Anteye CEO Matti Leshem said, "Theres no network I would want to be in the business with more.
Peter J. Schankowitz has been appointed Film Romans new president of television programming and development. Schankowitz will oversee all aspects of the companys TV development and sales, including developing live-action and animated series and specials. For the past two years, he has been senior development executive for Jonathan Goodson Productions where he headed the creation and executive producing of the companys reality and game projects.
AtomFilms has appointed veteran TV executive Mikael Shields senior VP entertainment Europe. At the Netcaster, Shields will shepherd acquisitions and development of entertainment properties, negotiating and managing co-productions and content partnerships in Europe. He will work out of the year-old London office of the Seattle-based company. Previously, Shields served as CEO of U.K. television production company EVA Entertainment. He was a founding shareholder of EVA and helped negotiate the firms sale to Pearson Television in February 1999.
Honkworm International has named veteran producer Rhonda Moore as creative director. Moore will head the development and production of new Honkworm series and reviewing properties for potential acquisition. In 1994, Moore was part of the team that designed and implemented the multimedia site "Megadeath, Arizona" for the band Megadeath and Capital Records, as well as Web sites for the L.A. Dodgers, L.A. Kings and the House of Blues. In 1994, she also served as associate producer for the House of Blues Foundation's landmark Webcast of the star-studded "I Have A Dream Day" tribute to Dr.
Following up on the hugely successful television show "Walking With Dinosaurs," BBC British Television and The Discovery Channel have set into production on "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts." The 3-hour miniseries will start where "Dinosaurs" left off. The budget is set at US$10 million, which was the price tag for the original miniseries. In addition, the two channels will create a "science behind the series" special to air after "Beasts" sometime in 2001.
In the television competition at Cartoons on the Bay, Warner Bros.'
beleaguered series "Mission Hill" took home the prize for best
over-all animation series. The 4th Cartoons On The Bay International
Festival of Television Animation was held in Positano (Amalfi Coast),
Italy from April 14 - 18. Cartoons on the Bay is the only festival in
the world dedicated to television animation. The festival is an
international event with awards, workshops, lectures and events
Walt Disney has announced that the new animated series TEACHER'S PET will join ABC's "Disney's One Saturday Morning" line-up this fall. Tony award-winner Nathan Lane will voice the knowledge-fiend dog, Spot, who disguises himself as a boy to go to school. TEACHER'S PET is being produced at Walt Disney Television Animation by the team of cartoonist Gary Baseman and Emmy Award-winning primetime sitcom writers Bill & Cheri Steinkellner (CHEERS, THE JEFFERSONS).
The 4th edition of Cartoons On The Bay, the International Festival of
Television Animation, will be held in Positano (Amalfi Coast), Italy,
April 14-18, 2000. Cartoons on the Bay is the only festival in the
world solely dedicated to television animation. Promoted by Rai
Radiotelevisione Italiana and conceived and organized by Rai Trade,
the festival is an international event with awards, workshops,
lectures and events centering on the ever-changing world of
* Friday, April 14 - Tuesday, April 18, 2000. Positano (Amalfi Coast), Italy.
ARNOLD RIFKIN, whose Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, is currently partnered with
such talent as Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, has joined
the Board of Directors of on-line entertainment company MediaTrip.com.
Rifkin was a founding partner in the talent agency, Triad Artists before it
was acquired by the William Morris Agency in 1992. Soon after Rifkin went
on head the Motion Picture Department at William Morris before being named
* Sunday, February 20 - Wednesday, February 23, 2000. Monte-Carlo, Monaco.
Created in 1979, the Monte-Carlo Television Market was established as a
companion to the world renowned Monte-Carlo International Television
Festival. Today, the Television Market ranks as one of the top program
markets in the world. In 1999, the Market had 487 registered buyers and
1,920 participants on hand. For 2000, two new events have been added to the
FILM ROMAN INC. has announced that veteran entertainment industry executive
LEONARD J. GROSSI has joined their board of directors and SIDNEY CLIFTON
has been promoted to director of television development. Currently, Grossi
is a partner in LSLG Associates, which owns a 49% interest in WHPN-TV, a
Madison, WS-based UPN affiliate. Grossi has recently formed and serves as
chairman and CEO of both Baseline Media and Entertainment Inc., a media,
communications and entertainment consulting firm, and Mile Square
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes Awards shocked the
world by naming TOY STORY 2 the best comedy or musical picture of 1999. The Woody and Buzz Lightyear feature beat out heavy-weight live-action films like: favored best flick, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH; Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal's ANALYZE THIS; the Andy Kaufman bio-pic, MAN ON THE MOON; and mega-hit Julia Roberts-vehicle, NOTTING HILL. However, even though TOY
STORY 2 took home the honors, the television broadcast producers didn't
NATPE is one of the leading television markets and conferences in the
world. The event in New Orleans offers animation and special effects
companies a rare opportunity to showcase their work to a global audience.
NATPE 2000 will offer a vast array of exhibitors gathered in pavilions such
as Animation/Licensing sponsored by KidScreen; Cable sponsored by ATVC
(Asociacion Argentia de Television por Cable); HDTV/Visual Effects
sponsored by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers);
Imagine Television, the makers of THE PJS, is leaving Disney for its new
home at Fox. The three-year collaboration between the small screen arm of
production house Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television will
take effect at the end of April 2000. Worth up to $30 million, the deal
also includes a two-year option extension. Imagine TV had been based at
Walt Disney Television since it was formed in 1997 by Imagine Entertainment
The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has announced the members of theirinternational jury for the 2nd European Television Producer Award. GuyFournier, the Canadian writer/producer, will preside over the seven memberjury. Guy Fournier has written some 2000 hours of television drama forFrench and Canadian productions, over 150 hours of films and series fortelevision, plays for the theater, feature length films (FANTASTICA, UNEAMIE D'ENFANCE) and has also published a number of books. Other jury
IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe 2007 will consider the current Pay TV markets in the region and the strategies of major players in terms of digital migration, the introduction of two-way interactive services and triple-play or quad-play offers. It will investigate the benchmark services required for IPTV market entry including broadcast TV, VOD and PVR functionality.
North Hollywood, California-based Film Roman has begun production on THE OBLONGS, a television series that will be distributed by Warner Bros. Television on The WB Network for the 2000 season. THE OBLONGS is the second animated prime-time series, after Howard Stern's DOOMSDAY for UPN, that Film Roman has added for the 2000 television season.
Paris, France-based Salsa Distribution has acquired the Latin Americantelevision distribution rights to the half-hour television special GOGWANA.Produced by London-based AARGH! Animation Ltd. for S4C, and directed byDeiniol Morris, GOGWANA is based on THE GOGS, the Stone Age family depictedin the claymation television series. In the special, after an earthquakedestroys the Gogs' cave, the family goes in search of a new home, and,along the way, encounters pygmies, dinosaur air-balloons, and pygmy-piloted
Montreal, Canada-based Motion International has started production onMARSUPILAMI, a 26 episode, half-hour animated television series based on acomic strip by Belgium artist Andrè Franquin. French producer Marathon isco-producing, and the series will be aired by Tele-Quebec, as well asother, as yet undetermined, international broadcasters. Marsupilami is afunny animal-type character with yellow fur, black spots and many talents.He first appeared in 1952 in SPIROU MAGAZINE, a Belgian comic book. A
