AWN Headline News

With new live-action flicks ANY GIVEN SUNDAY and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY taking the top two spots in the U.S. box office Sony's STUART LITTLE had to settle with third place grossing US$11.82 million bringing its grand total to $39.5 million. TOY STORY 2 finished fourth by flying in with another $10.38 million making its cume $177.5 million. THE GREEN MILE fell to fifth with a weekend pull of $9.26 million and a cume of $53.1 million. New comer GALAXY QUEST, backed by some surprisingly good reviews from the likes of Mr. Ebert, debuted at #7 with a first weekend take of $7.01 million.

PBS' NATURE recently received a new animated logo for its opening from digital animation and effects house, SimEx Digital Studios. The opening is a montage of snippets from nature. SimEx helped bring together the show's theme in the opening by illustrating how humans relate to nature everyday. Read more about SimEx Digital Studios and their work from Creative Director Allen Yamashita in Heather Kenyon's Animation World Magazine interview.

As was reported [AF 12/21/99], a federal

court jury convicted former Walt Disney Internet executive, 34-year-old

Patrick Naughton, of possessing child pornography, but deadlocked on

charges that he crossed state lines seeking sex with a "13-year-old girl"

which he arranged via the Internet. On Wednesday, December 22, 1999, U.S.

District Judge Edward Rafeedie reversed his own ruling and released

Naughton from jail, saying it was likely that he would win a new trial. On

As we reported in the past [AF 7/1/97], the

world-renowned Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki had decided to

hang up his white film gloves and never make a feature film again. Well

cheer up anime fans! The master is back to work on a new feature film. This

announcement ends a 2 1/2 year hiatus after PRINCESS MONONOKE broke box

office records all over Japan. What's the follow-up to the US$150 million

hit at the Japanese B.O.? The project is titled SEN TO CHIHIRO NO

DARIA fans can start gearing up for a telefilm full of fun-filled teenaged

angst. IS IT FALL YET? will be based off the DARIA series and is slated to

hit MTV in the fall. Karen Disher and Guy Moore will direct, and Glenn

Eichler and Peggy Nicoll will script.

As of December 21, 1999, both young and old fans of the lovable elephant

Babar can take home his new direct-to-video feature BABAR: KING OF THE

ELEPHANTS. The new film follows the adventures of Babar's life from birth

to his kingship. The video was co-produced by Nelvana Limited and HBO Home

Video and features computer replications of original Babar illustrations.

BABAR: KING OF THE ELEPHANTS bounces into stores at a suggested retail

price of US$19.96.

* Wednesday, January 26 - Sunday, February 6, 2000. Rotterdam, The

Netherlands.

The Rotterdam International Film Festival includes a short film section

with categories in animation that include Fiction, Documentary, and

Experimental. To highlight the fest's Japanese program, an exhibition

entitled "Manga Manga!" will showcase selections from manga productions

from 1945 to the present. The festival will again present its "Exploding

* Thursday, January 13, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.

The Women In Animation Writers' Group begins a new series of seminars at

Saban Entertainment at 7:30 pm. Have you always wanted to write for

animation, but you don't where to start? What's the difference between

writing for animation and live-action? What are some of the techniques for

writing gags? Join us and find out! For more information please contact

Jean Ann Wright at (818) 360-8321. RSVP required.

STUART LITTLE had big shoes to fill to make it to the top of the U.S. box

office this past weekend. The Sony flick, with primary f-ex by Sony

Pictures Imageworks, additional animation done by CFX and Rhythm & Hues,

and miniatures done by Thunderstone, knocked off TOY STORY to finish atop

the bo with a gross totaling US$15.02 million. THE GREEN MILE kept pace and

walked in second place with a gross of $12.68 million and a cume of $36.7

million. TOY STORY 2 slipped to third with a gross of $12.13 million making

Brazil's Justice Ministry has banned six video games it considers too

violent for the public. This ruling comes on the heals of last month's

deadly shooting rampage in a movie theater by a medical student. "The games

are considered violent and [are] affecting people who play them,

particularly children," a ministry spokeswoman said. "As for DUKE NUKEM,

the ministry regulation says its virtual world may have motivated Mateus da

Costa Meira to stage the cinema shooting on November 3 in Sao Paulo." All

MetaCreations, a renowned provider of graphics software, recently announced

that the Board of Directors has made the baffling decision of effectively

dropping their range of graphics products to concentrate purely on their

MetaStream technology. This decision comes shortly before the release of

Carrara, MC's "next-generation 3D software for print, video and the Web."

On the third line of their Carrara announcement, MetaCreations stated that

it would continue to support their existing graphics products. However,

Discreet recently released a maintenance update to 3D Studio MAX 3 which,

in the coming weeks, will be distributed free of charge to all registered

users of the software. The announcement comes shortly after the company

declared success at clearing well over 100,000 copies, and are reinforcing

their commitment to users by bringing them new features so soon after the

initial release of the software. The update includes data containers for