AWN Headline News

Disney has ordered 21 episodes of a new toon series entitled, LLOYD IN SPACE, to air as part of the "Disney's One Saturday Morning" line-up on ABC. From the creators of DISNEY'S RECESS and RUGRATS, the series is the coming of age tale of Lloyd, a space station-bound alien teenager. Set to debut in 2001, the show features the voices of Courtland Mead (NYPD BLUE), Diedrich Bader (THE DREW CAREY SHOW), Ben Stein (WIN BEN STEIN'S MONEY) and John O'Hurley (Mr. Peterman on SEINFELD).

On Tuesday, November 1, 2000, The Harvey Entertainment Company announced that the proposed preferred stock investment by Classic Media LLC has been terminated due to the companies' inability to reach a definitive agreement. On August 24, 2000, Harvey announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent with Classic Media for an investment of roughly US$30 million in exchange for a new issue of Harvey Preferred Stock.

* Thursday, November 23 Saturday, November 25, 2000. Perugia, Italy.

* Monday, November 27 Friday, December 15, 2000. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

West Virginia 3D animation house Destiny Images has wrapped on two 3D animated educational series entitled LETTER TV and MATH MONSTERS. Twenty-six 5-minute episodes of LETTER TV were produced for The Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT). Destiny wrote, directed and produced each episode, which is based on a separate letter in the English alphabet. The second season of LETTER TV is in production and will include letter combinations like "sh" and "th." For Math Monsters Inc., Destiny animated and designed 13 episodes of MATH MONSTERS.

Denmark's A. Film has a hit animated feature on their hands. HELP! I'M A FISH opened in its home country at the end of September and held the top spot for two weeks. In addition to its success in theaters, a song from the film has topped the Danish pop charts. A. Film partner Stefan Fjeldmark wrote and co-directed the film with Michael Hegner. Fjeldmark was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the short WHEN LIFE DEPARTS and served as an animator on such feature films as FERNGULLY, A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK and THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN.

* Thursday, February 15 Saturday, February 17, 2001. Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. Entry Deadline: January 1, 2001

The RAYEARTH series comes to a stunning conclusion on video October 31, 2000. In the third volume, with Princess Emeraude's brother, Eagle, launching a massive assault against the Magic Knights, the final battle for the survival of Earth has begun. Toshihiro Hirano, creator of ZEORAIMA and VAMPIRE PRINCESS MIYU, directed the RAYEARTH series. An English dubbed version will retail for US$19.95 and an English subtitled version for $29.95.

Cartoon Network Online has named Pola Changnon as its new vice president and executive producer. Based in Atlanta, she will oversee the producers and writers for CartoonNetwork.com. Previously, Changnon directed the redesign of the Cartoon Network Online Website.

R!OT has created the CGI tornado for a new spot for Chevrolet's Monte Carlo. The spot starts out with a realistic tornado traveling down an urban street. The twister final stops backs up and parks in a parking spot. After the storm cloud settles and reveals the Monte Carlo SS, Warner Bros.' animated character the Tasmanian Devil hops out of the car and drops change into the meter. "The idea was to create a realistic tornado in order to take the audience by surprise at the end," said ad agency Campbell-Ewald's executive producer Craig Mungons.

Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez is closing down his animation production-distribution house PPM Multimedia to head up the animation arm of Madrid's burgeoning content creator Filmax. He will oversee the development of animated projects, international sales, coordinating co-productions and directing services at Filmax's animation studio Bren Entertainment. Rodriguez formed PPM Multimedia in 1990 and quickly transformed the small company into a major force in the Spanish market.

This past week, the international box office got a bit frightful with SCARY MOVIE, WHAT LIES BENEATH and HOLLOW MAN taking top spots around the globe. In Mexico, SCARY MOVIE debuted in first place with a gross of $2.33 million. In second, WHAT LIES scared audiences to the tune of $917,416, lifting its Mexican cume to $6.23 million. U-571 thrilled audiences in third, with a gross of $648,055, raising its Mexican cume to $1.6 million. In sixth, HOLLOW MAN made $406,055 disappear from Mexican moviegoers' pockets, advancing its cume to $5.14 million.