AWN Headline News

DreamWorks has obtained the screen rights to Nathan Never, a comic published in Italy by Bonelli Editore and imported by Platinum Studios. The story focuses around Nathan Never, a 21st Century Dirty Harry, who, in the wake of a terrible crime, is charged to protect the lone witness. The comic was acquired by DW's Walter Parkes and Glenn Williamson. The pic will be produced by Platinum chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, co-produced by Platinum pres Ervin Rustemagic and senior VP Gregory Noveck. Parkes and Rosenberg teamed up together on MEN IN BLACK.

On Monday, December 20, 1999, MTV Networks,

the music/entertainment cable television and Internet business, announced

it would split its Net company into two separate groups. MTV Networks

On-line will be divvied up into the MTVi Group, which includes VH1.com,

MTV.com and SonicNet.com, and Nickelodeon On-line, which includes nick.com,

nickjr.com, tvland.com, nick-at-night.com, gas.nick.com, teachers.nic.com

and redrocket.com. "Executives in the past have stated that both companies

The advanced ticket sales for

Disney's IMAX release of FANTASIA/2000 have already seen strong numbers. In

Reuters Magazine, Brian Weisfeld, senior vice president of operations for

Toronto-based IMAX Corp., said advanced ticket sales were as high as

$80,000 in some IMAX-operated theaters versus a more normal $4,000. IMAX,

the owner and franchiser of more than 180 IMAX theaters worldwide, hopes

that FANTASIA/2000 will attract other major films to their eight story

London-based Passion Pictures has recently finished stings, bumpers, and

indents to promote PBS KIDS. The interstitials were directed by Alyson

Hamilton, who received an Emmy nomination for her work on the title

sequence for U.S.-based TV channel CBS' THE PROMISED LAND.

Boston-based animation house Fablevision is slated to create two new shows

for Noggin, the new 24-hour educational network for kids from Nickelodeon

and the Children's Television Workshop. Fablevision will produce CECIL AND

HER VERY OWN UNIVERSE and SWAMP DOG. CECIL will feature a 12-year-old girl

and her robot dog who live in a underground society in the future. Cecil

dreams of leaving her mole-like life to see what above ground has in store.

If you're planning to kick back with the Rockettes this holiday season at

New York City's Radio City Music Hall look forward to a more interactive

show. To be featured in the Christmas Spectacular, Black Logic, a visual

effects, 2D/3D animation and live-action production house, has created a 3D

animated sequence to interact with the Rockettes. A happy "Man in the Moon"

character, based on Georges Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON, smiles, winks and

The Dark Knight descends into video stores December 21, 1999 with three new

BATMAN BEYOND videos and two new DVDs -- BATMAN BEYOND: THE MOVIE and

BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM. Each of the three BATMAN BEYOND VHS tapes

(DISAPPEARING INQUE, SCHOOL DAYZ, TECH WARS) all feature three episodes of

the Warner Bros. cartoon series. The BATMAN BEYOND DVD features the movie

and four bonus episodes of the series. BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is the

first feature animated movie and has sold millions of copies on VHS

On Thursday, December 16, 1999, 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.

Naughton's lawyers asked that he remain free on bail awaiting an appeal,

however the request was denied due to the fact that federal law requires

persons convicted of crimes of violence to be jailed upon waiting for an

Recently, Europe has gotten a good old dose of American capitalism,

Japanese style. POKEMON has infested the European television market. The

children's mega-hit first debuted in the UK on Sky 1 in April and quickly

became the channel's #1 kids show. In October, the ITV Network and GMTV

secured UK terrestrial broadcast rights to the show. A month prior to the

ITV and GMTV deal, POKEMON started airing on Germany's RTL2, The

Netherlands' Fox Kids, Belgium's VT4 and RTL, Portugal's SIC and France's

A strike by union employees at Disneyland Paris may stop the park's rocking

New Year's Eve celebration. Disney played down the chance of a strike,

however local union leader Elena Stanciu warned, "The party'll be ruined,"

citing staff frustration over slow-moving pay talks and dissatisfaction

with a $115 New Year's Eve bonus as the main reasons for the latest threat

of a walk out. Stanciu said seasonal staff were being offered almost four

Template Graphics Software (TGS) recently announced that its modeling and

animation software Amapi, was receiving an upgrade. The new release will be

'officially' announced at the Mac World Expo in January, however, the new

version is available now. It features Dynamic Geometry, which allows users

to edit an object dynamically by changing its outline, profile or basic

structure, through the software's ability to remember the construction

history of the object. The upgrade also has a new Decimation tool, which

Twenty 2D/3D animation and special effects companies from Quebec, Canada

have formed a union in order to better promote the award winning work done

in the region. Called Quebec Animation, the association is supported by the

Quebec Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Quebec Minister of

Communications and Culture, the Quebec Minister of International Relations,

the Montreal Bureau of Cinema, and the Canadian Service Center in

Multimedia Applications (CESAM). The association sets up a focal point for