AWN Headline News

KING OF THE HILL creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge have teamed to develop a live-action series based off of the series' TV preacher Monsignor Martinez. Jim Dauterive, a supervising producer on KING, is set to produce the new show. Martinez is a recurring character on a TV soap that Peggy Hill and the rest of her family watch religiously. The spinoff would chronicle the vigilante adventures of the rough and tough priest. Insiders say that Fox TV is close to placing a script order for the series.

In a report commissioned by Nickelodeon U.K., BBC's plan to form two new children's networks could cause commercially funded networks up to £400 million (US$580 million) in funding over a five-year period by undermining the economics of the commercially funded stations. Therefore the other 14 children's networks in the U.K. would have to rely more on cheap imports and repeat programming to stay viable against the publicly funded BBC networks. The report was conducted by independent analysts at Arthur Andersen. Nick U.K.

BOXX Technologies, a leading provider of digital content creation tools for the entertainment and digital film industries, announced that James H. Moore has joined the company as chairman. Moore recently served as president and COO at Crossroads Systems, a high-technology manufacturer of fibre channel storage routers for the computer networking industry. Prior to joining Crossroads Systems, Moore was vice president and general manager of Crystal Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic.

FilmCore's editor Michael Bartoli and ILM director Bill Werts have teamed on the new spot for Toyota's new Corolla S Model. The 30-second spot opens on a newspaper floating in the air above a suburban street. On the center of the front page is a large picture of a man who comes to life and tries to hail a ride from a passing car. Werts and the team at ILM shot a real newspaper against blue-screen, with the paper attached to monofilament to make it dance. The actor was shot separately then composited with the newspaper. Initial compositing was performed by Bartoli on Avid.

At this weekend's box office, Universal's HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS thieved the U.S. crown with a multi-record breaking premiere. The GRINCH grossed US$55.08 million, making it the biggest debut for star Jim Carrey and director Ron Howard, best non-holiday debut in November, biggest opening for a non-sequel and the eighth biggest weekend gross of all time. Therefore, Paramount and Nickelodeon's THE RUGRATS IN PARIS had to settle for a second place premiere. The second feature based on the wildly popular RUGRATS TV series, with animation by Klasky Csupo, grossed $22.72 million.

Electronic Arts and its Austin, Texas subsidiary, ORIGIN Systems have announced they will release ULTIMA ONLINE: THIRD DAWN early next year. THIRD DAWN is the third upgrade to the popular game that currently boosts more than 200,000 active subscribers. The new version will have enhanced gesturing and motion-captured 3D animations. In addition, THIRD DAWN will include an enhanced lighting and shading system, one new environment, over a dozen new monsters and improved music and sound effects.

On November 14, 2000, Image Entertainment released the anthology film THE PUPPETOON MOVIE on DVD. The compellation of Pal's best Puppetoons was put together by Arnold Leibovit in 1987. The DVD features trailers, bonus Puppetoons and a new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. In September, Image released the documentary THE FANTASY FILM WORLDS OF GEORGE PAL. The doc includes interviews with Pal and many of the filmmakers he influenced, behind-the-scenes footage from DESTINATION MOON, trailers, production stills, art and rare promotional excerpts from DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE.

* Friday, November 17, 2000. Friday, February 23, 2001. Tuesday, May 22, 2001. Rochester, New York, U.S.A.

The Rochester Institute of Technology will be screening its film and video MFA theses. The November screening will be held on campus at the newly revamped Webb Auditorium at 7 pm. The other two dates' times and locations are yet to be announced. For more information e-mail Marla Schweppe at [email protected].