AWN Headline News

A release date for Aardman Animations/DreamWorks' eagerly awaitedstop-motion feature, CHICKEN RUN, has been announced for June 23, 2000 inthe US. Fifteen minutes of completed footage were recently shown toenthusiastic Aardman employees in England. The film is being directed byAardman co-founder Peter Lord and Nick Park (The Wrong Trousers, CreatureComforts), and is described as The Great Escape with chickens. DreamWorksSKG will distribute the film in the U.S. and most international territories

In its second week of release, THE MUMMY, Universal Studios' CGI-laced revival of its mummy series remained on top in the weekend US box-office charts, grossing $25.1 million to bring its total to $80.8 million. The primary digital effects for THE MUMMY were created by Industrial Light & Magic. THE MATRIX, another effects driven action film, continues to do well, finishing third and taking in $4.5 million to bring its total gross to $145.1 million.

Arts Unlimited, a 5-week summer program for children in grades 4-8, has added three animation classes to its arts curriculum. The classes will be taught by Wendy Jackson and will introduce animation techniques such as zoetropes, flipbooks, clay, cut-outs, drawing on film, and pixilation. Jackson will also teach a classin giant puppetry. Additional program offerings include ceramics,calligraphy, computer art, dance, mixed media, music, publishing, and

Iwerks Entertainment Inc. continued its improved operating performance infiscal 1999 by reporting revenues of $10,423,000 for the third quarterended March 31, 1999, representing a 133 percent improvement over the sameperiod last year when it reported revenues of $4,483,000. The third-quarternet loss of $389,000, or 3 cents per share, compared favorably with theprior year's net loss of $5,077,000, or 42 cents per share. EBITDA[earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion, amortization and

Fox Family Channel has named ROB SORCHER head of the newly created positionof Executive Vice President, Programming and Development. Sorcher willoversee all original programming, both current, and in development, forprime time scripted and reality series, specials, and movies, as well asall daytime children's prgramming for the Channel. Sorcher joins Fox Familyfrom Cartoon Network, where he served as Executive Vice President of thenetwork's US division since October 1997. At Cartoon Network Sorcher was a

On May 8th in San Antonio the National Cartoonists Society held its 51stAnnual Reuben Awards dinner, and two of their awards went to animationcartoonists. This year Chen Yi Chiang, the character designer for Disney'sMULAN, won the Best Feature Animation award, and Danny Antonucci, ofCartoon Network's ED, EDD N EDDY, won for Best Television Animation artist.The NCS was formed by newspaper cartoonists in1946 and over the years havebranched out to encompass other forms of cartooning like editorial

The E3 '99 Exposition takes place Wednesday, May 12 - Saturday, May 15 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, USA. This year's Exposition will feature over 400 exhibitors displaying new software titles and the latest hardware. Don Tapscott will deliver the keynote address on Thursday, May 13 at 8:45 am about the area of digital economy and the net generation.

Newly released THE MUMMY, Universal Studios' CGI-laced revival of its mummyseries, which began with Boris Karloff's 1932 THE MUMMY, and continued inthe 1940s with Lon Chaney, Jr. in such films as THE MUMMY'S HAND, finishedon top in the weekend US box-office charts, grossing $43,369,635--the bestopening this year, the ninth-biggest of all time, and the highestnon-holiday debut in May. The digital effects for THE MUMMY were created byIndustrial Light and Magic.THE MATRIX remained in the top five, finishing

Shui-Bo Wang's Oscar nominated SUNRISE OVER TIANANMEN SQUARE makes its US TV debut Sunday, May 16 at 8 pm on HBO's Signature Channel.

SUNRISE OVER TIANANMEN also debuts in Canada on Thursday, May 27 at 9 pm and 2 am ET/PT on Vision TV. It repeats on Friday, May 28 at noon, 8 pm, and 1 am; and on Monday, May 31 at 11 am. It also airs on SCN on Friday, June 4 at 8 pm; and on TVO on Monday, June 7 at 10 pm.