Barry Diller has resigned as co-chairman/CEO of Vivendi Universal Entertainment to end investors' concerns about him also being head of USA Interactive. USA Interactive just unveiled plans to buy control of online service Expedia.com in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. Most of Diller's investments rest with USA Interactive where he is CEO/chairman. "My executive role was never intended to be permanent," Diller said in a statement.
Jerry Offsay will step down as president of programming for Showtime Networks at the end of the year. The search has begun for his successor at the cable net owned by Viacom. Offsay commented in a statement, "Last summer I announced to Matt [Matthew Bank, chairman/CEO of Showtime] that after my 50th birthday I intended to leave Showtime." He said they decided to make the announcement now, although his birthday is in December, to facilitate naming a successor and to make an orderly transition.
Students from New York University and Pasadena's Art Center School of Design took first place for animation in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's 24th Annual College Television Awards Competition. The winners, along with students in live-action categories, were flown in from all across the country to be honored at a special awards gala on March 16, 2003 at the St. Regis Hotel in Los Angeles, during which they had the opportunity to meet with industry leaders at the invitation-only ceremony.
Billionaire entrepreneur, Haim Saban, who built a massive entertainment empire on the backs of the MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, became the first non-German to take over a major commercial TV broadcaster in Germany in two deals valued at about $2 billion. The agreement, spearheaded by his COO Adam Chesnoff, gives him a 36% stake in ProSiebenSat.1 and 72% of its voting shares in Germany's biggest broadcasting group. Recent reports had Saban bidding with French channel TF1 for the assets of bankrupt KirchMedia. While TF1 was not part of this deal it may acquire more of KirchMedia at a later date. Saban is also in the final stages to take over Kirch's licensing business, including its vast programming library in a separate $1.4 billion deal. KirchMedia will retain a 16.5% share of ProSiebenSat.1 voting rights via its joint venture with German publisher Axel Springer Verlag. Saban said in a statement, "I am confident that with our extensive experience and contacts in the global media industry combined with the continued hard work and commitment of the talented management team and employees of KirchMedia and ProSiebenSat.1, we will be well positioned for significant long-term growth as advertising levels recover and the overall economy improves in the world's second largest media market." Based in Munich, ProSiebenSat.1 runs four commercial channels: ProSieben, Sat. 1, Kabel 1 and N24, representing more than 25% of the German TV audience and about 40% of the territory's TV advertising revenue. The Egyptian-born Israeli-American Saban will control half of Germany's commercial TV market alongside Bertelsmann's RTL Group. The takeover deal has to be approved by Kirch's creditors as well as the Federal Cartel Office and Germany's media oversight commission. A Saban spokesman said the deal is expected to close in about two months.
Independent animation studio Mike Young Productions (MYP) is expanding with key hires in areas of development and distribution. Regis Brown joins as VP of international sales, responsible for launching a new distribution arm for the company. His sales slate includes HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE in key international territories, JAKERS! THE ADVENTURES OF PIGGLEY WINKS, a co-production with PBS WLIW and Entara Ltd., and PET ALIEN, a co-production with Antefilms Production, for TF1.
BBCi enlisted the help of animation experts at Cosgrove Hall Films alongside two key figures from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to ensure its latest serial for the Web, GHOSTS OF ALBION, has plenty of bite. Amber Benson (Tara on BUFFY) and TV writer Christopher Golden (BUFFY and ANGEL) worked with BBCi and Cosgrove Hall to produce a tale of demons, vampires and ghosts. The first episode of the Internet drama will launch March 27, 2003 on www.bbc.co.uk/cult with a new Webisodes available for five consecutive weeks.
Toronto-based Cambium Catalyst International Entertainment (CCI) has partnered with U.K. animation studio, Collingwood OHare Entertainment (COE), to co-produce the animated series HARRY AND HIS BUCKETFUL OF DINOSAURS. Based on the successful book of the same name, the animated pre-school series explores the vivid imagination of a child and his dinosaur companions. Production is set for fall 2003 in the U.K. and Canada. CCI Releasing will hold worldwide distribution rights.
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS is making a splash at Burger King restaurants in a nationwide kids meal promotion. The Bikini Bottom Bunch characters are available as eight toys plus Burger King's Chicken Tenders will come in fun star and lightning bolt shapes. The promotion runs in conjunction with Nickelodeon's SpongeBob's Lost Episode event that culminates Friday, March 21, 2003 at 8:00 pm when Nick airs "The Sponge Who Could Fly" episode. The toys feature popular SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS characters based on the television cartoon, including SpongeBob Silly Squirter, Swing Time Patrick, Jellyfish Fields, Plankton Bubble Up, Squirt N' Whistle Squidward, Plush Shakin' SpongeBob, Karate Chop Sandy and Gravity Defying Gary. Each toy comes with a clue card containing a SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS character riddle. Kids can wade through the riddle, figure it out then log onto www.Nick.com to answer the riddle to get digital SPONGEBOB trading cards. They can also enter a sweepstakes to win an exclusive, at-home SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS party for 25 people! Partygoers will view the SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS "Lost Episode" on the winner's new large-screen television. This promotion will be featured in kid-directed advertising, in-restaurant communication, a birthday mailer to Big Kids Club members and a micro site at www.burgerking.com. Big Kids can go to the micro site for interactive activities, downloadable screensavers and information about the eight fun SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS character toys. Nickelodeon, now in its 23rd year, has built a diverse, global business that includes television programming and production in the U.S. and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 86 million households. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. For more check out www.nick.com. Burger King Corp. and its franchisees operate more than 11,400 restaurants in all 50 states of the U.S. and 57 countries and territories around the world, with 91% of BURGER KING(R) restaurants owned and operated by independent franchisees. Burger King, founded in 1954, is owned by the equity sponsor group comprised of Texas Pacific Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bain Capital.
Maxon has released Cinema 4D R8.1, an update of its modeling, rendering and animation software, which is free to download for all owners of Cinema 4D R8. New features include HDRI and new particle effects. Full support for HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imagery) is an eagerly awaited improvement to the Advanced Render module, according to Paul Babb, Maxon CEO. This new feature enables users to take full advantage of special 96-bit HDRI photographs, which represent the complete brightness range of the environment they were taken in.
4Kids Entertainment Home Video, Inc., the newly-established home video unit of 4Kids Entertainment, Inc., in association with FUNimation, will release Volumes 7 and 8 of the YU-GI-OH! home videos of the anime sensation on March 18, 2003. DOUBLE TROUBLE DUEL and FACEOFF: YUGI VS. KAIBA, each with three episodes from the hit television series, will be available at retail and at the www.4KidsHomeVideo.com Website in both DVD and VHS formats. Based on a popular Japanese comic book series, YU-GI-OH!
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE from Buena Vista stayed in top place for a second straight weekend taking in roughly $22.4M for $61.6M in just 10 days. The Frankie Muniz teen-spy flick AGENT CODY BANKS, with vfx by Pixel Magic and Eyetronics, debuted in second place with $15M. THE HUNTED (vfx supervisor was Eric Brevig, ILM did primary effects), bagged third place with $13.5M. TEARS OF THE SUN, with visual effects by ILM, dropped to fourth place with $8.8M and a $30.8M cume.
CARTOON MOVIE, the only event dedicated to promoting European animated feature films, has nearly doubled in size in its five-year history. CARTOON MOVIE started on a positive note when organisers revealed that 1/3 of the projects presented last year are now in production with the required participants and funding. Started in 1998 with 255 professionals, the fifth edition of CARTOON MOVIE closed March 15, 2003 at Babelsberg Studios, in Potsdam, Germany with 461 attending, amongst them were 51 distributors and 61 investors.
In one of its few buys of an American animation series, 4Kids Entertainment's FOX BOX has added BACK TO THE FUTURE from Universal Cartoon Studios to its Saturday morning lineup, starting March 22, 2003 at 8:30 am. Based on the popular feature film trilogy, BACK TO THE FUTURE series debuted on 1991 on CBS, starring Christopher Lloyd in live-action wrap-arounds featuring scientific demonstrations by Bill Nye, the host of BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY. In the animated segments, Doc Brown was voiced by Dan Castellaneta, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson.
Visual effects artist Steve Meyer joins Zoic studios in Culver City, California to work on the television series BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and TWILIGHT ZONE as well as commercial and broadcast projects. Meyer joins Zoic from Radium, where he collaborated with Andrew Orloff, Loni Peristere, Steve Schofield and Chris Jones who launched Zoic in the fall of 2002. At Radium, Meyer did visual effects for Re/Max, McDonalds, Best Western, Chevy and Budweiser, as well as music videos for Sheryl Crow and Linkin Park. Meyer also worked on SMALLVILLE, BUFFY and HBO Films LIVE FROM BAGHDAD.
Firestone Communications will launch the first digital 24-hour Hispanic kids service in the U.S., ¡Sopresa,! on March 15, 2003 to be carried on three cable platforms on 350 systems reaching approximately 400,000 subscribers. Spanish-language programming acquired from Spain, Latin American and the U.S. aims to reach a broad kids audience. Mornings and afternoons are targeted at pre-school and younger children with animation, pre-school series, variety, documentaries and special events.
Lucia Annunziata, a former RAI political programming host and news editor, has been appointed president of RAI, its second president in less than two weeks, it was reported by the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Italy's two parliamentary chambers named her the chief executive a day after Paolo Mieli stepped down as RAI president only five days after he was appointed. Mieli claimed political and the technical difficulties spurred his resignation.
Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Enterprises have resolved their differences concerning the syndicated television series MUTANT X. Terms of the settlement were not released but have been amicably resolved according to a Fox statement and both sides are looking forward to expanding the relationship. Fox produced the X-MEN film in 2000, based upon the original comic book characters. A sequel is scheduled for release this year.
Uli Meyer Studios has completed BANKING, an animated spot featuring CGI characters Lil Red and an animated piggy bank called Floyd that promotes the interactive features of BSkyB's Digital Broadcasting, such as the ability to check your bank balance.
Romanian animator Giuliano Draguleanu has launched a Website for his 3D animated short film A HARD LIFE, www.ahardlife.com. Independent Draguleanu, based in Bucharest, said the site serves to " to document the production of the movie and to give reference to anyone who wants to produce a similar project." He hopes this site promotion will net him additional financing. The story is set in New York City in the '30s, where a certain bug is having the adventure of its life, struggling to cross a street. "The idea of the whole movie is actually a very simple one," according to Draguleanu.
Independent film producers Jeffrey Sneller (The Adventures of Pinocchio) and Charles Fries have recently formed Santa Barbara Home Video to market and distribute indie films on home video. The independent distribution company is a subsidiary of Santa Barbara Filmed-Entertainment, which is co-producing the feature film Doctor Lopez in the fourth quarter of 2003 in association with Andrew Steven's Powerhouse Entertainment. The first SBHV release is the Sneller/Raju Patel produced The New Adventures of Pinocchio.
