AWN Headline News

mental images recently announced that its high-end Mental Ray renderingsoftware was the first workstation application to run on Intel's firstengineering samples of the IA-64 Itanium-based platform. mental images andIntel have been working hand-in-hand to create a version of Mental Ray thatwas ported and optimized for the Itanium processor. The new platform wasdemonstrated to attendees of the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs byIntel CEO Craig Barrett on an early version of Microsoft's 64-bit version

Previously, we reported that Warner Bros. Home Video had announced that THEIRON GIANT DVD would be letterboxed at 1.85:1, which would have beenunfortunate because the film has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and Brad Birddesigned THE IRON GIANT partly in homage to the very wide CinemaScope filmsof the 1950s. But Warners has changed their mind and the DVD will beletterboxed at 2.35:1. THE IRON GIANT DVD will include letterboxed (2.35:1)and pan & scan versions of the movie, be 16X9, have AC3 and 5.1 surround

Image Entertainment is releasing Art Clokey's DAVEY AND GOLIATH on DVD andVHS. DAVEY AND GOLIATH was a stop-motion television series that was made byGUMBY creator Art Clokey for the Lutheran Church in America from 1962 to1977. It was usually shown on Sunday morning. In the series, Davey, a boy,and his dog, Goliath, would usually get into some sort of trouble, butlearn a moral lesson by the end of the story. The DAVEY AND GOLIATH DVDwill include eight 14 minute episodes. It is not region coded. Image is

Burbank, California-based The Walt Disney Co. has reported a drop infourth-quarter profits. The entertainment company, which owns a filmstudio, a TV network (ABC) and runs theme parks around the world, said netincome fell to $85 million, or 4 cents a share, from $296 million, or 14cents a share, in 1998. Disney's earnings for its fourth quarter whichended September 30 included charges for acquiring Internet search serviceInfoseek Corp. Excluding the charges, profits fell 37 percent to $212

Charles Schulz, the 77-year-old creator of the PEANUTS comic strip, hassecured final go-ahead to build a museum as a permanent home for CharlieBrown, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the gang. Plans for the17,000-square-foot Peanuts museum in Santa Rosa, California, a town 50miles north of San Francisco, where Schulz continues to work in a studio hebuilt twenty-five years ago, were unanimously approved at a city councilmeeting October 26, 1999. Schulz and his wife first suggested the idea of a

DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS has named ROBYN MILLER senior vice president ofGlobal Marketing and Studio Development. In her new role, Miller will beresponsible for developing and implementing worldwide marketing andbranding strategies for all of Disney Consumer Products' businesses:Licensing, The Disney Store, Disney Publishing Worldwide, Walt Disney ArtClassics and Disney Interactive. She will also oversee the development ofconsumer products strategies for Disney entertainment properties. At Buena

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY has completed the next stage in the development ofits international organization for Europe by naming six Disney veterans tocountry management roles. The six executives will all become managingdirector of six country groupings. CLAUS GYDESEN, 39, has been appointedmanaging director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland and will continue tobe based in Munich. As head of Disney's video operations in these markets,Gydesen established a direct-to-retailer operation that helped make Buena