AWN Headline News

A May start date has been set for the production of MONSTERS, INC.(tentative title), a new computer-animated feature to be produced by PixarAnimation Studios under their arrangement with Walt Disney Studios. Thefilm is targeted for release in 2001. MONSTERS, INC. is a comedy set in aparallel world of monsters who live on the screams and fear of children.But because end-of-the-millenium kids are jaded and not easily scared, themonsters' world is in danger of becoming extinct. When one of the monsters,

Spice up your resume with recruiter and career coach Pamela Thompson atthe Women in Animation Dinner Meeting on Tuesday, May 4 at 7 pm. The eventtakes place at Acapulco Restaurant, 3113 W. Olive, Burbank, California. $25member, $35 non-members. RSVP by May 1 at (310) 535-3838. Please bring aresume and pen.

Will Vinton Studios has produced two 3 Musketeers candy bar spots forM&M/Mars Inc. The spots, "Trailer" and "Corruption," each with :15 and:30 versions, feature 3D stop-motion animation of the Three Musketeercharacters scaling castle walls and fighting off evil guards. The spotswere directed by Matthew Brunner, produced by Sara Mullock, and animatedby Mike Johnson, Tony Merrithew, and Jean Poulot for agency UniworldGroup Inc.

Cartoon Network has greenlit Gavrilo Gnatovoch's LONGHAIR AND DOUBLEDOMEfor production as a seven minute series pilot. The short featuresLonghair, a fastidiously sophisticated and self-serving Cro-Magnon, andhis charmingly earnest yet irksome friend, Doubledome, as they endeavorto evolve alongside their oafish neighbors, the Neanderthals. An airdate has not been announced. Gavrilo Gnatovich runs his own studio KNOCKKNOCK CARTOONS in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a commercial animation house

Siren Entertainment, an Australian company, has released eight volumesof THE MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW, available in both VHS PAL and NTSCformats. In the fall of 1964, THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY,sitcoms about families of monsters, appeared on US TV. Attempting tocash in on their subsequent success, Hal Seeger Productions produced THEMILTON THE MONSTER SHOW for ABC's 1965-1966 season. Milton is a giantFrankenstein monster-type created by Professor Weirdo and Count Kook.His creators meant Milton to be scary, but he turns out to be a

In its fifth week of release, THE MATRIX, the special effects heavy action film starring Keanu Reeves, finished second in the USA weekend box office race and grossed $8.7 to bring its total gross to $129.7.

Michel Ocelot's new feature film, KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS, will bescreened as part of the DGA (Directors Guild of America) film festival,City of Lights: A Week of French Films. The screening will take placeSaturday, May 1 at 1 pm in Los Angeles, California. For ticket information,call (310) 289 2000. There are currently no plans to release the film inthe USA, so this may be your only chance to see what appears to be, basedon the pressbook images, a very beautiful film. The story is based on

ImagineAsia Studios, the Manila, Philippines-based 3D animation studio, announced the hiring of two U.S.-based executives in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Chairman Jeffrey Harrison appointed JAMES MYHRE to the post of Director of Development & Marketing, and IVAN ROTH as the studio's new Creative Director. Myhre will oversee operations in ImagineAsia's corporate headquarters in San Francisco. Roth will divide his time between Los Angeles and the studio's main facility in Metro Manila.

Released last week in the USA, Pixar's A BUG'S LIFE was the week's bestselling video and DVD title, selling enough copies to already put it at No.4 on the list of the year's best selling videos, and No. 10 on the list ofthe year's best selling DVD's. (There are no plans to release the Pixarfilm on laser disc.) It is already ahead of ANTZ and just behind THERUGRATS MOVIE, but farther behind MULAN. Other best selling VHS titles forthe week include THE RUGRATS MOVIE, which finished third; SCOOBY-DOO'S

Walt Disney Co.'s earnings plunged almost 41% in its second quarter. Although Disney said it expects improvement in the second half of the year, it still plans to review its operations in a bid to make them more efficient and increase cash flow. The Burbank, California-based media and entertainment giant turned in net income of $226 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, for the quarter ending March 31, compared with $384 million, or 18 cents a diluted share, in the same period a year ago.