AWN Headline News

* Wednesday, March 1, 2000. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of J. Stuart Blackton, The Silent

Society of Hollywood Heritage, Inc. and the International Animated Film

Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, are presenting a program highlighting this motion

picture and animation pioneer. A diverse sampling of works by the medium's

first director-producer-animator and actor will be featured, all drawn from

* Thursday, March 9, 2000 - Saturday, March 11, 2000. Madrid, Spain.

Cartoon, the European producers organization, will present a seminar on

"how to negotiate with the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Japan."

Discussions will focus on the structures, customs and constraints of the

fore mentioned markets. After an introduction on each country, the various

policies on international co-productions will be discussed. A question and

* Saturday, February 26, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Women In Animation, Inc. will be holding their annual meeting with guest

speaker Lynda Weinman of lynda.com. The meeting introduces members and

anyone interested in WIA with what has happened in the past year and what

exciting events and activities are on the way for 2000. Weinman, a pioneer

of graphics and animation on the MAC, will bring to the event her knowledge

Burger King, a leading hamburger chain, has decided to back RUGRATS IN

PARIS with a licensing campaign to coincide with the film's Thanksgiving

release. Burger joint cross promotion of films released in the holiday

season means big money for both parties. Burger King opted to work out a

deal with the Nickelodeon/Paramount sequel to RUGRATS: THE MOVIE, which it

backed in 1998, instead of DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS,

starring Jim Carrey. Insiders say Burger King may drop US$20 million into

RADIUM has expanded its Santa Monica office roster with a new head of

production JONATHAN WHITEHEAD and visual effects artists MARK HOLMES and

CHRISTINE RIVARD. Whitehead will oversee the daily operation of the Santa

Monica branch including client relations, bidding, marketing, personnel and

line producing. For the last six years, Whitehead was an executive producer

at Saatchi & Saatchi, primarily working on ads for Toyota. Whitehead's

feature film producing credits include GHOSTBUSTERS II, THE ABYSS, STEEL

After UPN put DILBERT on an indefinite hiatus which starts March 14, the

producers of the cartoon series announced it would broadcast an episode of

the show along with rare outtakes on the Net. The 22-minute previously

aired episode entitled "The Merger" will air commercial-free on the Web

from February 17 - 29, 2000. Columbia/TriStar, who produces the show, will

become only the second major studio to enter into the Netcasting arena. In

November of 1999, Warner Bros. simulcast parts of an episode of "The Drew

The kid flick SNOW DAY, with special effects by Curious Pictures, settled

at third place for a second straight week at the U.S. box office. The

Paramount-produced flick grossed US$14.8 million over the President's Day

holiday weekend, bringing its cume to $31.5 million. USA Films release

PITCH BLACK finished at #4. Yet another ALIENS-esque sci-fi flick, PITCH

BLACK grossed $14 million. THE TIGGER MOVIE finished the weekend in fifth

place, making $10.5 million, bringing its cume to $22.3 million. Even

Patrick Warburton, best known for playing Elaine's mechanic boyfriend,

Putty, on SEINFELD, will don the blue superhero suit in the new live-action

TV series THE TICK. Barry Sonnenfeld will direct the half-hour pilot, and

share executive producing credits with partner Barry Josephson and TICK

creator Ben Edlund. Shooting is scheduled for the first two weeks in April.

DIGIMON: DIGITAL MONSTERS will take over the airwaves for a seven hour

marathon on Sunday, February 27, 2000. The "Digithon" will feature 11 new

episodes to Fox Family starting at 7 am. Follow the mysterious adventures

of the series' seven young heroes as they discover the secrets of the

"black gear" which threatens the existence of Digiworld.

On February 29, 2000, Disney will debut its new direct-to-video feature

entitled AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE. The new Goofy flick follows Goofy and

his son Max as they both go off to college. Goofy brings some old-fashioned

ideas along that embarrass young Max. But all bets are off as both father

and son compete in the "College X Games," an extreme sports competition.

The VHS tape will be priced at US$24.99 and the DVD will be $29.99. An

added bonus is the short entitled KIDS' GOOFIEST JOKES, a collection of

Sega of America announced that LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC has

become a new third party publisher for the Sega Dreamcast. Scheduled to

ship Spring 2000, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will be the first LucasArts

title to hit Dreamcast. LucasArts is committed to providing additional

titles in the future, adding to Sega's long list of third party publishers

and developers for Sega Dreamcast. Taking advantage of Dreamcast's Internet

capabilities, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will allow gamers to post high

Hamberg, Germany-based IGEL MEDIA AG, an independent distributor of family

programming, has announced ED GALTON as their new head of distribution.

Galton will head worldwide distribution for the company focusing on

strengthening its operations outside of Germany. Previously at Gaumont as

VP/Head of Television and Video Sales, Galton organized the pre-sales and

distribution for such titles as OGGY AND THE COCKROACHES, SPACE GOOFS and

HIGHLANDER, THE RAVEN.