AWN Headline News

Santa Maria, California-based Computer Café has created photo-realistic 3D animation simulating a NASCAR race for an Electronic Arts product demonstration. Produced by Western Images the video showcases a new game

Disney's in-development animated feature SWEATING BULLETS has gained a voice cast. Oscar winners Cuba Gooding Jr. and Judi Dench will join Sarah Jessica Parker and Ja'Net DuBois on the cast of the Western-themed musical. Randy Quaid is also in talks to voice a character. The story chronicles a group of cows who team together to save their farm. No production date has been announced, but the film has been in development for about three years.

Turkey's health minister, Osman Durmus, has urged TV stations to remove POKEMON from their line-up in light of two children suffering injuries copying the actions of the cartoon's characters. On Friday, November 24, 7-year-old Seda Aykanat suffered a broken leg when she leapt off the fifth-floor balcony of her apartment. Previously this year, a 4-year-old boy in Turkey also sustained injuries copying the super-powered stunts of POKEMON characters.

* Wednesday, January 24 Thursday, January 25, 2001. London, U.K.

* Friday, January 26 Saturday, February 3, 2001. Clermont-Ferrand, France.

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With international numbers trickling in due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it looks like CHARLIE'S ANGELS is charming audiences around the world. In its U.K. debut, ANGELS raked in a whopping US$4.52 million. After five-weeks in U.K. theatres, WHAT LIES BENEATH sunk to second, with a gross of $768,052, elevating its cume to $16.39 million. In fourth, BEDAZZLED danced in with $505,329, raising its U.K. cume to $3.92 million. LITTLE NICKY possessed 5th place, grossing $385,214, thereby growing its U.K. cume to $1.46 million.

Santa Monica Internet entertainment site TheThreshold.com has acquired the online game rights to the HELLRAISER franchise originally created by Clive Barker. HELLRAISER: HELL ONLINE will be the first game produced from the deal and will be available at www.thethreshold.com or directly through www.hellraiseronline.com. The game challenges players to solve the Lament Configuration, the puzzle box that opens a gateway to Hell. The game starts as a simple puzzle that gamers must solve each time they visit the Website. Solving the puzzle is the first step in the complex game.

Cartoon Network and Oscar winning TOM & JERRY creator Joe Barbera are finishing up the production of a new episode of the classic cartoon series. Barbera worked with SYLVESTER AND TWEETY veteran Karl Toerge to create the new adventure "Mansion Cat," which has the dueling duo wrecking havoc in an old mansion. Barbera even provided the voice of the mansion owner. The short will air as part of Cartoon Network U.K.'s New Year's Day 2001 24-hour TOM & JERRY marathon, which includes 161 MGM TOM & JERRY shorts. Fans of the series outside the U.K.

On November 27, 2000, Microsoft filed legal papers with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to prevent the company's break up. In its first filing, the company attacked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who originally ordered the split, as being biased.