Phil Roman hires Rick Ramirez
Rick Ramirez, an executive with broad legal, financial and programdevelopment experience, has been named to the new position of vicepresident of the three-month-old Phil Roman Entertainment Company in StudioCity. As previously reported, Phil Roman recently departed the animationcompany he founded in 1984, Film Roman, to create his own animation firm.Ramirez' responsibilities will include all areas of business affairs,financing, and development both in the English and Spanish language markets
Gottlieb joins Harvey Board
The Harvey Entertainment Company has named MEYER GOTTLIEB to its Board ofDirectors. Gottlieb co-founded Samuel Goldwyn Films in 1998 and remains itsPresident and Chief Operating Officer. Gottlieb became the Chief OperatingOfficer of The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1979 and its President in 1987,having assisted Mr. Goldwyn in the founding of the company. Prior to 1976,Gottlieb was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP with extensiveexperience in the entertainment industry.
Jamie Hewlett creates spot for Passion Pictures
London-based Passion Pictures has created a :60 spot for Virgin Cola,"Roller Girl," which features a roller-blading 2D animated heroine designedand conceived by Jamie Hewlett, creator of TANK GIRL. The spot was directedby Robert Valley and Chris Hauge for agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe.The spot was first pencil drawn and hand painted before being computerpainted in Toonz, with traditionally painted and airbrushed backgroundsadded.
Loop Filmworks has created a spot for HBO
Loop Filmworks has completed "The Honeymoon Suite," a stop-motion animatedspot for HBO. Directed by David Chartier, the spot features aBrooklyn-accented bellhop who guides a newlywed couple through theirhoneymoon suite. The couple are uninterested in what the bellhop says untilhe mentions that the room comes with HBO.
Nickelodeon launches storyboard competition
Nickelodeon's Worldwide Development Group, an international team ofNickelodeon creative and development executives, is launching Nickelodeon'sfirst global animation storyboard competition. The competition is open toanimators around the world. Six winners will be given the opportunity toproduce a one to three minute animated short based on their winningstoryboard and have it air on Nickelodeon channels around the world.Nickelodeon is looking for innovative animators with fresh,
DUMBO author dies
Helen Aberson Mayer, co-author with Harold Perl of "Dumbo, the FlyingElephant," the children's book that inspired the 1941 Walt Disney animatedfeature, DUMBO, died April 3, 1999 in her Manhattan home. She was 92. Bornin Syracuse, New York in 1907, Mayer, who was known as Helen Aberson whenshe wrote "Dumbo," moved from Syracuse, to Los Angeles, California in 1939at the request of the Walt Disney Company.
In her story, Dumbo the baby elephant is teased for his oversized ears, but
Star Wars gets even more digital
Two films are about to make history as the first widely released featurefilms available to moviegoers via digital projection. One is STAR WARSEPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE; the other is the English romantic comedy, ANIDEAL HUSBAND. Beginning June 18, and continuing for four weeks, a digitalversion of Oliver Parker's AN IDEAL HUSBAND will play in New York City andLos Angeles. Check your papers for locations and times. For STAR WARSEPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, CineComm Digital Cinema and Texas
VES '99: A Festival of Visual Effects set to begin
* Friday, June 4 - Sunday, June 6. Los Angeles, California, USA.
VES '99: A Festival of Visual Effects will include seminars by Robert Abel,Dennis Muren, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, ILM's Rob Coleman, NASA's JetPropulsion Laboratory, John Knoll, Ray Harryhausen, and Scott Squires, andSETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute). For moreinformation contact the Visual Effects Society at tel. (818) 789-7083; fax(818) 789-7085; e-mail: visual.effects.society@worldnet.att.net; or visitwww.visual-effects-society.org.
UNICEF films premiere at the Annecy Film Festival
Thirty-seven never-before-seen CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS PSA's will be shown at the Annecy Film Festival in Annecy, France on Tuesday, June 1 at 6 pm. A global broadcast initiative organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS informs people about children's rights, as set forth by the 1989 United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Rights of the Child. To help raise awareness of these rights, UNICEF has collected 66 CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS spots produced by animators from 32 countries.
STAR WARS coasts on top
Four effects driven action films finished in the top ten this week, led byLucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE which grossed $32.2million to bring its total to $255 million. Universal's THE MUMMY, withdigital effects by ILM, finished fourth, grossing $7.5 million for a totalof $127.6 million; THE MATRIX, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski,finished sixth, grossing $2.4 million for a total of $158.2 million; THETHIRTEENTH FLOOR, with digital effects by Centropolis Effects, finished
New studio opens in India
Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd., a new animation production studio inIndia, will have a limited opening in August, with an official openingfollowing November 1-5, 1999. Toonz will offer a full-range of productionservices for episodic television series and commercials. Toonz will also bededicated to developing original pilot shows based on Indian folklore andmythology. "India has a rich treasury of folklore which will form the basisfor many of our pilot shows," states Bill Dennis, President and CEO. In its
Wendy Tilby wins at Annecy!
Two weeks after winning for best short film at the Cannes Film Festival,Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' short film, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS (TheNational Film Board of Canada), has won the Grand Prix for best animatedshort film at Annecy '99, which concluded on Saturday, June 5. The film isabout a pig whose world shifts after a car accident kills a stranger (achicken) on her block. The complete list of award winners is as follows:The special Jury Prize went to AU BOUT DU MONDE/AT THE END OF THE EARTH by
Alex Ross art auction will benefit UNICEF
Comic book artist Alex Ross will debut a limited edition lithograph fromthe DC Comics graphic novel SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH at the Warner Bros.Studio Store Gallery at the corner of Fifth Ave. and 57th St. in New YorkCity on June 10, 1999 at 7 pm. The book tells the story of Superman'sefforts to alleviate world hunger. Sixteen pieces of the artwork to beauctioned at Sotheby's later in June will be on display at the same WarnerBros. Studio Store from Sunday, June 6-Saturday, June 12. Ross will donate
Nick offers a new BLUE'S CLUES CD-ROM for preschoolers
Nickelodeon and Humongous Entertainment have released BLUE'S 123 TIMEACTIVITIES, a new CD-ROM game based on Nickelodeon's popular preschooltelevision show, BLUE'S CLUES. BLUE'S 123 TIME ACTIVITIES allowspreschoolers to practice pre-math and problem-solving skills with Blue andher friends. Individually paced, multi-level learning activities help kidsdevelop logical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, practice simplemath, and explore numerical estimation and prediction. In the game,
Make way for more H.R. PUFNSTUF, SIGMUND, and LAND OF THE LOST videos
As we reported, on June 1 Rhino Home Video released THE WORLD OF SID &MARTY KROFFT, a three-volume set that included one episode from everyKrofft Saturday morning show. Now on July 20 the kooky shows of Sid & MartyKrofft will once again find their way into American living rooms with thehome video release of individual episodes of H.R. PUFNSTUF, SIGMUND & THESEA MONSTERS, LAND OF THE LOST, BUGALOOS, LIDSVILLE, and FAR OUT SPACENUTS. While these shows are mostly live-action (the primary exception is
RISD seniors show work
The Rhode Island School of Design senior show includes films, videos, andanimation. Shows take place Wednesday, May 19 - Saturday, May 22, 7 pm, andFriday, June 4, 1 pm and 7 pm in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. For moreinformation call 401-454-5233. Wednesday, May 19 - Saturday, May 22, 7 pm,and Friday, June 4, 1 pm and 7 pm. Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Spike and Mike returns to L.A., Montreal, and San Francisco!
The Nuart in Los Angeles will be showing the 1999 Spike and Mike's ClassicFestival of Animation Friday, May 28-Thursday, June 3. The program includesBlue Sky Studios' Oscar-nominated BUNNY, Aardman's HUM DRUM, DigitalDomain's TIGHTROPE, Pierre Coffin's PINGS, Peter Reynolds' THE BLUE SHOE,Annecy-winner SIENTJE, Don Hertzfeldt's BILLY'S BALLOON, Laurent Gorgiard'sMAN WITH THE PENDULOUS ARMS, Behaviour Productions' THE ART OF SURVIVAL,Chris Landreth's BINGO, Folimage's THE ROMANCE OF MY HEART, Eric Fernandes'
Activision releases A BUG'S LIFE game
Activision, Inc., in collaboration with Disney Interactive, Inc., has released a game based on Walt Disney Pictures' and Pixar Animation Studio's computer-generated animated film, A BUG'S LIFE, for the Nintendo 64 game console. A BUG'S LIFE lets players run, fly and slide through an interactive journey. In the game players take on the role of the film's hero, Flik, an inventive but occasionally over-enthusiastic ant, who enlists a group of flea circus bugs to help him in his quest to save his colony from the hands of the villainous Hopper and his legion of grasshoppers.
Disneyland news from around the world
In March, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd said it was interested in participating in a proposed project to build a Disney theme park in Hong Kong, but it depended on the outcome of talks between the government and Walt Disney Co. . . In Orlando, Florida, Walt Disney World officials said they expected more people than ever to flock to its sprawling Orlando theme park complex, after a 1998 performance that many industry analysts described as mixed. Year in and year out, Disney World proves to be the most popular tourist attraction on the planet.
Nickelodeon looking for Director of Digital Technology
Nickelodeon's Digital Animation Studio is looking for an experienced Director of Digital Technology...
Samurai, Cyborgs & Outrageous Babes at UCLA
The second part of UCLA's tribute to Japanese anime takes place May 8 -June 1, 1999. (The first part of the series, titled MAGICAL BOYS & GIRLS,took place in January 1999 and was devoted to children's animation.) Thetribute includes the following programs:
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1999 - 7:30 PMPRAISE BE TO SMALL ILLS (NAMU ICHIBYO SOKUSAI) (1973, 35mm, 18 min.)Directed by Tadanari Okamoto. In Japanese with English subtitles.THE DEMON (ONI)(1972, 35 mm, 8 min.) Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto. In
Warner greenlights OSMOSIS JONES
Warner Bros. has greenlit OSMOSIS JONES for a Thanksgiving 2000 release.The film is a comedy/adventure about a street smart white blood-cell calledOsmosis Jones who teams up with a rookie cold tablet to fight a virus thatis attacking their host body, a construction worker named Frank Detomello.The film is written by Marc Hyman, with Tom Sito and Piet Kroon directing.The film will be Warner Bros. Feature Animation's third completely animatedrelease after QUEST FOR CAMELOT, and the upcoming THE IRON GIANT. In
Nick sets SPONGEBOB premiere
SP0NGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, a new animated series which is being produced at theBurbank Nicktoons Studio, will premiere on Nickelodeon on July 17 at 10:00am ET/PT in the USA, becoming Nickelodeon's first original Saturday morningcartoon. A preview of the cartoon appeared on Nickelodeon on May 1, andreceived a 6.3 rating and a 25 share when it was watched by 6.9 millionviewers. The cartoon features the adventures of SpongeBob, a hopelesslyoptimistic and earnest sea sponge whose good intentions often lead to bad
Willy Wonka is animated with Passion
Passion Pictures has created a new fully computer generated spot starringWilly Wonka (WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). Launching Rowntree'snew Wonka Xploder chocolate bar, the :20 spot shows Wonka and his chocolatefactory where teams of robots stir vats of bubbling chocolate, and brightlycolored machines create delicious chocolates. Willy tests his newinvention, the Wonka Xploder, on two boys who are inside a sealed testingroom. The boys are startled when the chocolates explode and the secret
New Manga video is based on Osamu Tezuka manga
Manga Video will release BLACK JACK in the US on June 29, 1999. Directed byOsamu Dezaki, this 1993 direct to video release from Japan is based on amanga by Osamu Tezuka that was first serialized in Japan from 1973-78.Tezuka is known as the father of animation and comic books in Japan, andspecifically as the creator of such TV series as ASTRO BOY and MARINE BOY,as well as award-winning shorts such as JUMPING. In BLACK JACK, Dr. BlackJack, an unlicensed but extremely successful surgeon, is a lone wolf who
