AWN Headline News

RING OF FIRE expands its flames with six new artists. Joining the

Hollywood, California-based visual effects and design studio are Infero

artists ALI LAVENTHOL and ALAN LATTERI, visual effects/digital composite

artist JEREMY ALCOCK, CGI artist JOHN JENKINS and producers JILL HEINRICH

and KIMBERLY EVANS. Before Ring of Fire, Laventhol was a freelance Flame

artist working at Rhythm & Hues. Latteri comes to Ring of Fire with credits

on X-FILES: THE MOVIE, STAR TREK IX: INSURRECTION and GODZILLA. Coming from

On Sunday, February 20, 2000, everyone's favorite alien villain from Space

Ghost's CARTOON PLANET, Brak, will present his own half-hour musical

variety show on Cartoon Network entitled BRAK PRESENTS THE BRAK SHOW

STARRING BRAK. Starting at 7 pm, the special will feature 10 original songs

and many comedy sketches. The dimwitted host gets the chance to sing a

heart-warming duet with R&B singer Monica, ride down a country road in an

ol' pick-up truck singing the tune "Highway 40" with teen film star Freddie

To celebrate the American holiday, President's Day, Fox Family will be

hosting a seven hour marathon of ANGELA ANACONDA on Monday, February 21,

2000. Fourteen episodes of the hit animated series will air back-to-back

starting at 7:30 am. Catch all of Angela's misadventures with her friends

and chief rival Nanette Manoir, her stuck-up blonde classmate.

On Tuesday, February 15, 2000, AtomFilms, a leader in next-generation

entertainment, announced that it has locked the first-ever, exclusive,

on-line distribution deal with the USC School of Cinema-Television to

broadcast student films from the illustrious film school's catalog. As part

of the deal, for the next 18 months, USC will provide AtomFilms with

exclusive on-line distribution rights to 100 student titles which includes

shorts from famed alumnus George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis. On February 15,

ATOMFILMS, a leader in next-generation entertainment, announced that JOHN

MARCOM, former President of Time Inc. International, will join as the new

senior VP of worldwide revenue and media strategies. In his new role,

Marcom will coordinate worldwide on-line and off-line sales of AtomFilms'

growing library of short-form entertainment. During his stint at Time Inc.,

Marcom oversaw a catalog of more than a dozen national and international

news, business and lifestyle publications. Joining Time Inc. in 1993,

Opening the weekend of February 11, 2000 in the U.K., TOY STORY 2 has

already broken box office records. Playing on 495 screens, the sequel

grossed US$12.8 million in its first three days. The feat even beat out

bohemeth-grossing STAR WARS EPISODE 1, which made only $12.5 million in its

first U.K. weekend. So far Buena Vista International, which is distributing

the film outside the U.S., said the movie has already grossed $332 million

worldwide. Playing on 3,334 screens outside the U.S. this past weekend, TOY

STEPHEN L. BRAIN, former senior VP and general manager at Fox Animation

Studios has joined STAN LEE MEDIA, INC. as their new executive VP of

Production. In his new post, Brain will create Stan Lee Media's new digital

animation studio dedicated to developing Internet entertainment. Brain will

supervise the production team of storyboard artists, digital artists and

Flash animators as well as increasing Stan Lee's roster of 50 artists to

100 artists within the next 90 days. Beginning his career in 1977, Brain

LYLLE BREIER was promoted to the newly created position of senior vice

president, special events, for THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS. Breier will be

responsible for developing and overseeing a vast array of worldwide special

events relating to the domestic and international releases of the studio's

motion-picture and video product. Over her ten year career at Disney,

Breier has helped to stage some of Disney's major events, including the

1995 premiere of POCAHONTAS in Central Park, the 1997 "HERCULES Premiere