AWN Headline News

Web toon house Honkworm International will open a new studio in Vancouver. Video and gaming designer Ian Verchere has been named president of Honkworm Canada and digital production veteran David Weir has been named president of digital production. The Seattle-based company has also assigned Verchere to the post of senior executive producer and Weir to creative director. As president of Honkworm (Canada), Verchere will oversee the physical development and production of new series by the Canadian company.

Creative Planet, Inc., the parent company of Animation World Network, has secured an additional US$38 million in new equity financing. The new funding will help drive its strategy to deliver technology solutions and resources for increased cost-efficiencies in the moving image production process.

* Wednesday, September 13 Thursday, September 14, 2000. New York City, New York, U.S.A.

shockwave.com has rolled out the new version of their Shockmachine entertainment player. Shockmachine 2.0 lets users save shockwave.com titles and replay them full-screen offline. The new version also comes with a desktop compact mode that allows consumers access to hundreds of titles with the click of one button, and a new notification feature to keep Netizens in touch with shockwave.coms new releases. Shockmachine 2.0 is available as a free download at www.shockwave.com.

SGI and Intergraph Corporation, two of the leaders in high-performance graphics workstations and software, have announced an alliance that allows both companies to share each other's products and expertise. Under the partnership, Intergraph will purchase US$100 million in SGI products and services over three years. In turn, SGI will obtain assets from Intergraph, including Intergraph Computer Systems' Zx10 family of ViZual Workstations and Servers.

With three major releases this past weekend, Sony Pictures HOLLOW MAN was far from invisible at the U.S. box office, finishing in first place. The INVISIBLE MAN redux, with primary visual effects by The Ranch Entertainment, Tippett Studios and Sony Imageworks, grossed US$26.41 million, giving it the second largest August opening in history. Falling to second, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS dropped 58% from its debut weekend, with a gross of $18.17 million. The phat festival, with primary visual effects by Double Negative Ltd., has rounded up $76.7 million thus far.

Sources say that Vancouver-based film producer Lions Gate Entertainment is on the verge of purchasing Harvey Entertainment. As reported in VARIETY, Harvey chairman/CEO Roger Burlage has been shopping the home of Casper around to many companies. Last spring Burlage saved Harvey from acquisition by Artisans by securing US$17 million in funding from entertainment company Kushner-Locke and then-investment banker and current Lions Gate vice-chairman, Michael Burns. The funds came in the form of $11.5 million in cash and $5.5 million in Kushner-Locke stock.