AWN Headline News

With international numbers trickling in due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it looks like CHARLIE'S ANGELS is charming audiences around the world. In its U.K. debut, ANGELS raked in a whopping US$4.52 million. After five-weeks in U.K. theatres, WHAT LIES BENEATH sunk to second, with a gross of $768,052, elevating its cume to $16.39 million. In fourth, BEDAZZLED danced in with $505,329, raising its U.K. cume to $3.92 million. LITTLE NICKY possessed 5th place, grossing $385,214, thereby growing its U.K. cume to $1.46 million.

Santa Monica Internet entertainment site TheThreshold.com has acquired the online game rights to the HELLRAISER franchise originally created by Clive Barker. HELLRAISER: HELL ONLINE will be the first game produced from the deal and will be available at www.thethreshold.com or directly through www.hellraiseronline.com. The game challenges players to solve the Lament Configuration, the puzzle box that opens a gateway to Hell. The game starts as a simple puzzle that gamers must solve each time they visit the Website. Solving the puzzle is the first step in the complex game.

Cartoon Network and Oscar winning TOM & JERRY creator Joe Barbera are finishing up the production of a new episode of the classic cartoon series. Barbera worked with SYLVESTER AND TWEETY veteran Karl Toerge to create the new adventure "Mansion Cat," which has the dueling duo wrecking havoc in an old mansion. Barbera even provided the voice of the mansion owner. The short will air as part of Cartoon Network U.K.'s New Year's Day 2001 24-hour TOM & JERRY marathon, which includes 161 MGM TOM & JERRY shorts. Fans of the series outside the U.K.

On November 27, 2000, Microsoft filed legal papers with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to prevent the company's break up. In its first filing, the company attacked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who originally ordered the split, as being biased.

Saban International, the distribution division of Fox Family Worldwide, has promoted Julie Wineberg to senior VP of international sales and management, Tony Howe to VP of international business and legal affairs and Maria Torregrosa to VP of sales. Wineberg will increase her work with international Fox Kids channels while continuing to oversee all aspects of the division's day-to-day television sales administration. Previously, she served as VP of international sales management. Howe will continue negotiating and spearheading co-productions and distribution deals across all media worldwide.

* Thursday, January 18 Friday, January 19, 2001. New York, New York, U.S.A.

Film Roman has promoted Uriel Sigala to the position of chief technology officer. In his new post, he will be responsible for modernizing the company's technology so that it can be more efficient and cost-effective. Sigala is a five-year veteran of Film Roman as the head of the technology division, in which he helped establish Film Roman's entertainment Website Level13.net. Currently, he is spearheading the design and implementation of the forthcoming www.filmroman.com Website.

For the second straight weekend, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS has captured the top spot at the U.S. box office. With the second highest all time five-day Thanksgiving holiday cume of US$73.8 million, THE GRINCH, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, has nabbed an amazing $137.1 million in just ten days. Therefore, director M. Night Shyamalan's follow-up to last year's sleeper hit, THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE had to settle for a second place debut.

AWN's Web Animation Guide is the place for what's new on the Net. This week's edition collects what is new in Internet animation starting over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday!

Get your Web Animation Guide here!

Also every week AWN's associate editor Rick DeMott highlights what he thinks is the top new toon in cyberspace in "Rick's Picks!"

Read Rick's Pick For Monday, November 27, 2000!

Toronto-based TOPIX/Mad Dog (T/MD) created the visual effects for the relaunch of T. Eaton Company Ltd., the Canadian department store chain now owned by Sears Canada, Inc. The new campaign was developed by Ammirati Puris of Toronto, and directed by Floria Sigismondi. The campaign contains one 1:55 spot, one 2:35 spot, one 90-, 60- and 30-second spot and three 5-second Billboard spots. The spots recreate the feel of a 1950s Hollywood musical. The spots feature three principal characters: Gracie, the heroine; Harry Carmichael, Gracie's boss; and Arch, Gracie's right-hand man.

On September 4, the new afternoon Monday-Thursday line-up will be unveiled with a "POKEMON Top 15 Countdown," highlighting the most popular characters selected by viewers. The three series set for the Monday-Thursday schedule are POKEMON, HISTERIA! and THE SYLVESTER & TWEETY MYSTERIES. The fourth spot will rotate throughout the fall, with series such as THE ZETA PROJECT and X-MEN: EVOLUTION.