AWN Headline News

Cult comic and TV franchise THE TICK is getting a new lease on life.Producers Barry Sonnenfeld and Barry Josephson (FANTASY ISLAND, MAXIMUMBOB), via their deal at Columbia TriStar Television, will bring alive-action, primetime half-hour version of the clueless hero's show to FoxBroadcasting. The series is scheduled for fall 2000.

Read more about THE TICK from creator Ben Edlund in the Animation WorldMagazine article "Tick Fever Endures" by Deborah Reber.

Vivid Animation, a new high-end CGI animation studio specializing insophisticated digital characters and animated effects for commercials andinteractive media, has been formed by Jeff Lotman, CEO. "Vivid Animationopens its doors with a trio of world-class digital animators as itscreative nucleus," said Lotman, CEO. This nucleus, all of whom come fromsenior positions at Digital Domain, includes Animation Supervisor, StephaneCouture, Digital Effects Supervisor, Gonzalo Garramuno and Vivid

Shockwave.com has announced that they have signed Trey Parker and MattStone, the creators of SOUTH PARK, to concoct 39 new works. The new showswill first air on shockwave.com beginning in March. Stone and Parker's newdisfunctional toons will range from 2 to 5 minutes and could be one-offshorts or pieces of an on-going series. In the L.A. Times on December 8,1999, Stone was quoted as saying that "the real allure of [the deal] isthat we get to create another TV series but on a much smaller scale. We

* Saturday, December 11, 1999 - Sunday, April 2, 2000. Valence, France.

Folimage, the creators of the 1995 Cartoon D'Or winner LE MOINE ET LEPOISSON (THE MONK AND THE FISH), will feature an exhibition of theirworld-famous work. The event will take place from 2 pm - 6 pm every Monday,Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. An additional screening at 9 am - 12 pm willbe held on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. For more information contact4, Place des Ormeaux, 26000 Valence, France; or Tel.: ++ 33 4 75 79 20 80.

* Sunday, December 19 - Monday, December 20, 1999. Turin, Italy.

ASIFA Italia, with the help of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, theRegione Piemonte and the Comune di Torino, together with the support ofYoung Artists Circle and the British Council and Pro-Helvetia, isorganizing a meeting with a series of films on the subject of "Art &Animation". The meeting aims to heighten awareness of animation as an artform with a particular stress on independent short films of research,

As we reported previously [AF 11/16], U.S. District Court Judge Terry J.Hatter Jr. had ordered Disney to stop using its Go Network logo until aftera trial on the matter next year, agreeing with the plaintiff GoTo.com thatDisney's logo was confusingly similar to its own. Now however, it looks asif the green and yellow traffic light logo of Disney's Go.com has gotten astay of sentence at least until December 19, 1999. Soon after the initialruling, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the

The Harvey Entertainment Company has announced an agreement with Canada'sMainframe Entertainment, Inc. to produce the first all-CGI direct-to-videofilm based on Harvey's Casper, the Friendly Ghost franchise. Production,which has already started, will be funded by Harvey Entertainment, with arelease to the home video market scheduled for Christmas 2000. A previouslive-action/CGI Casper direct-to-video feature, CASPER, A SPIRITEDBEGINNING, sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Alisha Serold, Executive

In continued coverage of the war to empty the pockets of the POKEMONpeople, Bandai America Incorporated, the company responsible for the PowerRangers and Tamogotchi virtual pets, unveiled a new line of toys based onthe POKEMON-like DIGIMON: DIGITAL MONSTERS, at an event held at FAO Schwarzin New York. Since the debut of the TV series in August on Fox Kids,DIGIMON has become the #1 ranked show in its time period among allcompetition with Boys 6-11. Kids can also visit the DIGIMON Web site which

To introduce KELLOGG's new Cereal & Milk Bars for Leo BurnettInternational-London, England, TOPIX/MAD DOG completed the 3D animatedproduct demo and box sequences, and integrated them within 2D animation fora vibrant :30 spot. The commercial began its global run in the UK, France,and Ireland in October. The spot will make its debut in Germany, Mexico,Iceland, Belgium, and possibly Canada in the new year.

The Reed Midem Organization, organizers of Milia 2000, have entered into afar-reaching agreement with the Interactive Software Federation of Europe(ISFE)-- who include members from interactive industry organizations like AISI inItaly, ELSPA in the UK, NVPI in the Netherlands, SELL in France and VUD inGermany -- to co-produce the Interactive Entertainment and Online Gamesconference for the THINK.TANK Summit. THINK.TANK will be a new two-dayconference and networking event for the interactive content industry held in

BARRY SCHULER, President of America Online, Inc.'s Interactive Services Group,has joined the Board of Directors of OXYGEN MEDIA. At AOL, Schuler oversees thecompany's online services unit that includes the flagship AOL service,CompuServe, Netscape and AOL Devices. Schuler joins Oxygen's CEO GeraldineLaybourne, Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, and others on the board of theprivately-held company.