GLENDALE, Calif., May 19 -- DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (NASDAQ:DWA) today announced that it was collaborating with theatrical show production entity run by Franco Dragone to create a live arena show based on its worldwide hit, "Kung Fu Panda."
Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot from DreamWorks Animation based on MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced the news at the 37th Annual J. P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston.
DreamWorks and Nickelodeon announced last week their collaboration on KUNG FU PANDA: THE SERIES and Nick is currently airing THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR, another collaboration.
GLENDALE, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) today announced that it is in the early development stages on a live arena show based on its upcoming March 26, 2010 release, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. DreamWorks Animation is collaborating with the Australia-based Global Creatures, the international entertainment group specializing in live theatrical productions employing the latest in state-of-the-art animatronic technology, to conceive and execute the arena show.
Via THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, DreamWorks is working on a remake of FRIGHT NIGHT. The original 1985 horror/comedy followed a teenager who discovers that his neighbor is a bloodsucker. Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig will produce the film with Michael De Luca. Mark Sourian will shepherd for DreamWorks. Gaeta/Rosenzweig Prods. is looking for a writer.
Cable network TBS has ordered 10 episodes of NEIGHBORS FROM HELL, a half-hour animated sitcom from 20th Century Fox TV and DreamWorks Animation, per VARIETY.
This is Fox TV's first attempt at producing an animated show for cable, and continues DreamWorks efforts to get into primetime animation. The studio last had the short-lived FATHER OF THE PRIDE on NBC in 2004.
TBS will pair the new show, about an clean-cut American suburban family that just happens to be from Hell, with reruns of FAMILY GUY.
DreamWorks Animation has hired SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE writer Simon Beaufoy (who won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his trouble) to pen TRUCKERS, a feature in the early development stages, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Beaufoy had been rumored to be working on a second WOLVERINE project, but nothing has come of it yet. He is following in the animation footsteps of Michael Artndt, who won an Oscar in 2006 for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and headed for Pixar to work on TOY STORY 3.
Today the power of HP technology and the creative strength of DreamWorks Animation fuse to explode in 3-D action as the studio's anticipated film, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, hits theaters worldwide.
Audiences will experience monsters that move like liquid, whose arms and mouths disappear, and whose bodies are transparent -- characters that exist in part because of the unprecedented power of HP workstations, HP ProLiant blade servers and other HP technology that enabled the increased demands of a new generation of 3-D filmmaking.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER has confirmed that DreamWorks is moving full steam ahead on the sci-fi thriller NONSTOP penned by Michael Gilvary. UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS director Patrick Tatopoulos will helm with Len Wiseman producing.
The story follows a commuter plane abducted by aliens.
ICM, who reps Gilvary, Tatopoulos and Wiseman, shopped the threesome attached to the project last week.
Alison Rosenzweig will exec produce. DreamWorks execs Mark Sourian, Chloe Dan and Jonathan Eirich are shepherding.
The Oscar Showcase tour came to an end on Friday with a visit to DreamWorks. The filmmakers were clearly tired from their long week and a half, but their excitement hasn’t wavered. Ron invited Academy board member Rick Farmiloe to join us for the day to experience the tour with the filmmakers. The day was a bit of a homecoming for Farmiloe, who served as a story artist on the original SHREK. At Disney, he animated classic characters like Lefou in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Abu in ALADDIN.
Cerelink DMG, a New Mexico company, has entered into an agreement with DreamWorks Animation to explore the development of technology and infrastructure that would enable CG film rendering as a cloud computing service.
Richard Draper, Managing Partner of Cerelink DMG said, "With the technical innovation and real world computing demands of DreamWorks Animation, we're bringing the future of cloud computing to New Mexico. This effort is expected to create new opportunities and demand for New Mexico-based talent and services within the digital media sector."
DreamWorks Animation will voluntarily transfer its stock exchange listing from The New York Stock Exchange to The NASDAQ Global Select Market, an exchange of The NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. The company currently expects that its Class A common stock will commence trading on the NASDAQ on February 26, 2009 and will continue to be listed under the ticker symbol "DWA."
The Walt Disney Studios has agreed to enter into an exclusive long-term distribution arrangement with filmmaker and DreamWorks Studios co-founder Steven Spielberg, and partner Stacey Snider, chief executive officer of DreamWorks, to distribute all upcoming live-action motion pictures produced by DreamWorks under their partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment, part of The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, it was announced today by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.
Multiple outlets are reporting that DreamWorks and Disney are in the final stages of a deal for Disney to distribute DreamWorks' films, and that Universal is out of the picture.
DreamWorks Animation is set for three big 3-D releases in 2010, and in the meantime is working on TV series with Nickelodeon and expanding their SHREK, MADAGASCAR and KUNG FU PANDA franchises well into the future.
The studio's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, made the announcements at an investor's conference on Thursday.
Writer-director Joby Harold is in negotiations to pen the adaptation of comicbook ATLANTIS RISING for DreamWorks and director Len Wiseman, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing the apocalyptic sci-fi project with Platinum Studios chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who created the ATLANTIS RISING series at Platinum. Randy Greenberg is exec producing.
Sci-fi comicbook ATLANTIS RISING will be turned into a feature film from DreamWorks, with Len Wiseman onboard to direct, per VARIETY. Wiseman, director of the UNDERWORLD series and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD also recently signed on to direct DreamWorks' upcoming thriller MOTORCADE.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will produce for DreamWorks. The duo brought the project to the studio back when it was under Paramount.
DreamWorks Animation announced the election of Richard Sherman to its Board of Directors.
Sherman has served as CEO of The David Geffen Company, an investment management company, since 1992. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Sherman was a partner with Breslauer, Jacobson, Rutman and Sherman, a leading business management firm serving the entertainment industry. He previously served as a staff accountant with Peat, Marwick and Mitchell.
I AM LEGEND co-writer Mark Protosevich is in early talks with DreamWorks on the Korean remake of OLD BOY that would star Will Smith, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Smith, who starred in I AM LEGEND, is developing the film with Steven Spielberg. DreamWorks is purchasing the rights to OLD BOY from Mandate Pictures, who are staying involved. The studio is meeting with several other high-profile writers, but Smith invited Protosevich to meet with Spielberg.
Clint Eastwood is in talks to direct supernatural thriller HEREAFTER at DreamWorks, per VARIETY.
The film will be in the same vein as THE SIXTH SENSE, and is produced by Kathleen Kennedy from a script by FROST/NIXON writer Peter Morgan.
DreamWorks, led by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, picked up the script in March when the company was still under Paramount. DreamWorks kept the project in the divorce, and has been courting Eastwood for months.
Spielberg produced Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA.
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA, which opened number one at the domestic box office this weekend, was achieved through the combination of HP technology and DreamWorks Animation's creativity.
Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg today announced a seven-year worldwide distribution deal between their new motion picture company and Universal Studios, which is expected to begin in 2009 and include approximately six films per year. (via COMINGSOON.net)
Snider and Spielberg recently departed Paramount Pictures to partner with Reliance Big Entertainment on a new motion picture company. Reliance Big will distribute the new company's projects in India.
Over the weekend, the divorce proceedings between DreamWorks and Paramount were worked out, with a settlement reached for about 40 projects in development, per VARIETY.
DreamWorks will take the lead on 15 to 20 films, and Paramount will retain the option of co-finance and co-distribute. Paramount will lead on another 15-20 films with DreamWorks retaining its option to co-finance.
DreamWorks Animation will create a sequel to hit KUNG FU PANDA, due in theaters on June 3, 2011. DreamWorks also anticipates releasing the film into IMAX theatres worldwide. The sequel to KUNG FU PANDA, like all DreamWorks Animation feature films starting in 2009, will be produced in stereoscopic 3-D technology.
DreamWorks has extended its option for the rights to sci-fi novel CHOCKY, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, but it is unclear who will actually produce the project: Paramount or the newly-independent DreamWorks.
CHOCKY, written in 1968 by John Wyndham, is about a boy who argues with a mysterious imaginary friend, until it becomes clear that the boy's consciousness has been taken over by an alien. Wyndham also wrote THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.
DreamWorks and Indian media company Reliance have completed their deal to create a $1.2 billion stand-alone studio, reports the WALL STREET JOURNAL.
According to insiders, DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider can now leave Paramount Pictures to start their own film company. In the signed agreement, Reliance ADA Group, based in Mumbai, will invest $500 million equity and another $700 million in debt through J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. The venture is expected to produce a slate of around six films per year.
