AWN Headline News

New York-based MTV Networks Online, a unit of ViacomInc., has formed MTV Interactive (MTVi), a new Internet-only music company,which will include music super-brands vh1.com, mtv.com and sonicnet.com.Nicholas Butterworth, former president of SonicNet, was named president andCEO of MTVi, and will report directly to Fred Seibert, president of MTVNetworks Online and Chairman of MTVi. "We think there is great value informing a company that includes three of the Internet's best music sites,"

NPAR 2000 is the first internationalsymposium dedicated to non-photorealistic animation and rendering,including cartoon animation systems and techniques. It takes place at theInternational Animated Film Festival of Annecy, France, July 5-9, 2000 inconjunction with ACM/SIGGRAPH and Eurographics. The symposium will bringtogether researchers and practitioners from academia and industry, showcasecutting-edge research in non-photorealistic animation and rendering systemsand techniques, and present examples of these techniques in original

Sony Pictures Entertainmenthas formalized the name of its newest business unit, Sony Pictures FamilyEntertainment Group (SPFE), and appointed Gary Hirsch as senior vicepresident and general manager of the division. Reporting to SanderSchwartz, president of the relatively new division, Hirsch will oversee newbusiness development opportunities for the division and its day-to-dayoperations, including business affairs, human resources, studio operations,production and marketing. Hirsch comes to Sony's SPFE from Columbia

Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects byDreamQuest, finished first at the US weekend boxoffice for the fourthconsecutive week, grossing an estimated $20.1 million, for a total of$138.9 million. No other animation related film finished in the top ten.Newly released Universal's DUDLEY DO-RIGHT, a live-action film which starsBrendan Fraser, and is based on the series about a Canadian Mountie fromJay Ward and Bill Scott's early 1960s THE ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE SHOW,finished eleventh, grossing $3 million.

New York City-based QUIET MAN has completed "Giant Boy," a :30 spot forFritos Racerz, a race-car shaped snack food. In the spot, a NASCAR race cardriver wakens from a dream just before he and his car are eaten by a boy.Johnnie Semerad directed the visual effects, and Philana Dias was theFlame/Effects artist. Richard Sears directed the spot for New York andHollywood-based production company HKM Productions for New York-basedagency BBDO.

San Francisco, California-based Macromedia, Inc. has announced that itsFlash Player, which enables internet browsers to play web animations, willbe available free on September 1, 1999 for Linux, Sun Microsystems, Inc.'sSolaris, and Silicon Graphics Inc.'s Irix platforms. Flash is the standardfor creating high-impact, vector-based Web sites that deliver motion,sound, interactivity, and graphics. Flash Player versions for UNIX will beavailable for download at no charge from the Macromedia Web site.

On Friday, September 3 a cartoon by Adam Sandler will premiere onwww.adamsandler.com, the official Adam Sandler website. Little is knownabout the film, and Sandler's website refers to it only as a "surprise,"but the title is said to be THE PEEPER. Adam Sandler was a cast member ofSATURDAY NIGHT LIVE from 1991-1995, and star of recent hits such as BIGDADDY and THE WATERBOY. He has also had several hit comedy albums such as"They're All Gonna Laugh at You." His best known song is "The HanukkahSong."

MARCI SELSBERG has returned to WILL VINTON STUDIOS, a Portland,Oregon-based production company, as their east coast producer. Selsberg wasmost recently the president and executive producer of her own smallbusiness, Peek-A-Boo Productions which represented animation productioncompanies such as Curious Pictures.