Disney Animation vets Aaron Blaise (Brother Bear) and Chuck Williams are using Kickstarter to raise funds for Art Story, an animated picture a boy and his grandfather people jump into famous works of art by the likes of Van Gogh, Degas, Picasso, Lichtenstein and Rousseau. The duo hopes to raise $350,000 in the next month.
Blaise and Williams, who worked on Disney features such as The Lion King, Pocahontas and Mulan, are hoping that their imaginative art-influenced movie will introduce young audiences to the exciting world of art.
“Through a combination of hand-drawn, CG animation, and different rendering techniques, you can make stuff look like a Van Gogh or a Lichtenstein,” the directors told The Wrap. “You can really make those worlds come alive. The technology’s there.”
Judging from the concept artwork available thus far, the simulated artworks really do capture the essence of the originals. You can help jumpstart Art Story here:
On the heels of Corus Entertainment announcing changes to its management team that aligned leadership around the company’s business units and saw Doug Murphy appointed exec VP and COO, Corus Kids has also announced that Colin Bohm, its VP of TV, and head of Corus Kids, is now responsible for overseeing the company’s kids-targeted specialty TV services as well as Nelvana Studio and Nelvana Enterprises.
As part of the redesign, Nelvana Enterprises has created co-heads for distribution and licensing, who will jointly manage the global portfolio and will report to Colin: Antoine Erligmann has been appointed co-Head, Nelvana Enterprises – Antoine will manage the global distribution and licensing of the Nelvana portfolio of brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Andrew Kerr is appointed co-head, Nelvana Enterprises – Andrew will manage the global distribution and licensing of the Nelvana portfolio of brands in the Americas and Australasia.
Jerry Diaz will continue in his role as VP of, worldwide sales & distribution, responsible for placing Nelvana’s new and library brands with global broadcasters and digital partners. Jerry will report to Antoine and Andrew.
On the production side, working with the Nelvana Enterprises team, Irene Weibel will continue in her role as VP, head of Nelvana Studio, with ongoing responsibility for developing and producing new content for Corus’ Kids television assets, global licensing and broadcast partners.
Nicholas Hoult, Gemma Arterton and Stephen Fry will provide the voices for three of the main characters in the upcoming British animated feature Once Upon a Time in the Kitchen. The pic will be directed by Alexander Williams, a U.K. animator who has worked on features such as The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Iron Giant and Open Season, with a script by Chris Brown, one of the original writers of the NBC sitcom Friends.
Williams described Once Upon a Time in the Kitchen to The Hollywood Reporter as “a fantasy adventure aimed squarely at a family audience, but with enough sophisticated wit to keep the grown-ups happy.”
The film will begin production in September and will have a presence at the Toronto International market and the American Film Market in November. The story centers on a feud between everyday utensils and the best silver and cutlery from opposite sides of the table, which takes place when the humans leave the room.
International sales will be handled by U.K. independent sales and distribution banner Kaleidoscope (KFD).
CEO Spencer Pollard noted… “We expect a lot of interest from the market and it should be a busy time in Toronto and the upcoming AFM. The film has all the right ingredients to be a potential global theatrical family smash with excellent animation, a very fun script and A-List voice talent both for the UK and international market.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the gift of the Abe and Charlotte Levitow Collection featuring animation art and related production materials documenting the career of animator Abe Levitow. Donated in their parents’ honor by the Levitows’ three children, Roberta, Judy and Jon, the collection features animation cels, backgrounds, storyboards, graphic art materials and related film prints – hundreds of items that represent Levitow’s accomplishments as an artist, animator and director for Warner Bros., UPA and MGM, and include his work on features such as Gay Purr-ee (1962) and The Phantom Tollbooth (1970).
The collection will be housed in both the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive.
“We are honored that the Levitow family has entrusted the preservation of their father’s legacy to the Academy’s archivists,” said Margaret Herrick Library Director Linda Mehr, “and you really can’t go wrong when Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are in the mix, can you?”
Levitow began his career at Leon Schlesinger Productions, where he served as a publicity artist and animator on cartoons released through Warner Bros. He worked primarily as a member of the Chuck Jones unit, contributing to many of Jones’s films in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including the Oscar-winning animated short For Scent-imental Reasons (1949). He was elevated to director on several Warner Bros. cartoons before moving on to UPA in the late 1950s, where he served as animation director on the studio’s first feature, 1001 Arabian Nights.
At UPA, Levitow helmed the animated feature Gay Purr-ee, featuring the voices of Judy Garland and Robert Goulet, and Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” the animated musical version of the Charles Dickens tale. Levitow then joined the animation unit at MGM, where he directed a number of the later Tom and Jerry cartoons, including The A-Tom-inable Snowman (1966), Guided Mouse-ille (1967) and Rock ‘n’ Rodent (1967).
In addition to the more than 500 pieces of original production art, which will join more than 15,000 such items already held by the Margaret Herrick Library, the Levitow Collection includes scripts, sound recordings and other documentation related to Levitow’s work in film, television and commercials. All of the production materials may be accessed by filmmakers, historians, journalists, students and the public at the library, located in the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills. Many of the pieces in the Levitow Collection are available for viewing online through the Library’s Production Art Database at www.collections.oscars.org/prodart. Additional information about Abe Levitow is also available at: www.abelevitow.com.
For more information about Academy’s holdings, visit www.oscars.org.
This week’s buzz-worthy CG animation Confab SIGGRAPH has released the video of its opening day keynote, which was presented in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was a part of the Marc Davis Lecture series.
The keynote featured top animation figures Pixar’s Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.,Up), Henry Selick (Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas), Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch, The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon), David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie, The Longest Daycare, Monsters, Inc.), Ron Clements (Aladdin, The Little Mermaid); veteran animator Eric Goldberg (Aladdin, Princess and the Frog), Kevin Lima, (Enchanted,Monkeys of Mumbai), Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After, Trolls) and Kirk Wise (Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The panel was moderated by AMPAS managing director of programming, education and preservation Randy Haberkamp.
It’s really must-see viewing for animation fans and professionals alike:
Cartoon Network’s mobile app is now available to download for free from the NOOK Store and the Amazon Appstore for the NOOKHD Tablet and the Kindle Fire. The app offers full episodes, video clips, games and live streaming to its audience.
The app is the first kids’ network app available on Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets. Kindle Fire customers have already been enjoying Cartoon Network shows on Kindle Fire though Amazon Instant Video, and the announcement of the Cartoon Network app for Kindle Fire further extends the availability of Cartoon Network’s fantastic kids content to Amazon customers. Customers can simply download from the NOOK Store or Amazon Appstore, and following authentication with their cable providers, owners of Kindle Fire and Nook devices will now be able to watch full episodes or enjoy live television with the streaming feature. The app is also currently available on iTunes, Google Play and the nabi tablet.
“In homes across the country, tablets are fast becoming the top choice for kids’ mobile entertainment,” said Chris Waldron, vice president, Cartoon Network Digital. “Having our content now available on these devices and across multiple platforms is the best way to expand and engage our audience.”
Nickelodeon and Activision Publishing (a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard) have announced a new global, multi-year agreement to develop and publish video games featuring SpongeBob SquarePants. The first game to be published in the new partnership will be SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge, an all-new action-adventure video game set to be released on Oct. 22 for the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Nintendo Wii and Wii U systems, and the Nintendo DS and 3DS handheld systems. Here is the trailer for the new game:
“We are excited to expand our relationship with Activision for brand new SpongeBob video games,” said Sherice Torres, Senior Vice President of Entertainment Products, Nickelodeon Consumer Products. “Plankton’s Robotic Revenge captures the fun and excitement of SpongeBob and his pals, and gives fans a new way to experience the under the sea adventures of Bikini Bottom and its citizens.”
SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge is a third-person, co-op gaming adventure, developed by Behaviour Interactive, which combines exploration, adventure and puzzle-solving. In this original story, Sheldon J. Plankton – known for his obsession with stealing the Krusty Krab’s secret formula – and his new legion of evil robots have destroyed the Krusty Krab and stolen the safe that houses the famous Krabby Patty formula. Fans can choose to play as SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy or Mr. Krabs as they try to locate the hidden keys to the safe before the Krabby Patty formula is lost forever.
Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has become one of the most beloved animated characters in TV history, and a global pop culture phenomenon. In its 14th year, the series continues to rank as the number-one animated series with kids 2-11 on all of television, as well as one of the most ‘liked’ animated series on Facebook, with more than 81 million fans. Over the past several years, SpongeBob has averaged more than 100 million total viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks. SpongeBob SquarePants is executive produced by creator Stephen Hillenburg, who previously worked as a writer, director and creative director on Nickelodeon’s animated series Rocko’s Modern Life. Paul Tibbitt served as a director and writer on SpongeBob SquarePants for its first three seasons and is currently executive producer.
International children’s content market MIPJunior has lined up three top keynote speakers for the 2013 edition, which takes place on October 5 and 6, prior to the bigger MIPCOM market in Cannes (Oct. 7-10). Scheduled to deliver the keynotes this year are Sandy Wax, President and General Manager of Sprout, Brian Robbins, Founder and CEO of multichannel network AwesomenessTV, and Michael Acton Smith, CEO and Founder of Mind Candy, the company behind the global phenom Moshi Monsters.
Hosted at the Carlton Hotel, MIPJunior will welcome some 1,200 participants representing 700 companies, including more than 500 buyers. For more info, visit www.mipcom.com/mipjunior.
French producer and distributor Cyber Group Studios has inked a new deal for its preschool hit Zou with PBS Kids Sprout in the U.S. The 104 x 11″ series will premiere on Sprout during The Sunny Side Up Show on September 2, 2013.
Zou premiered on Disney Junior UK in May 2012. In one year the series became a worldwide success, which led to the production of the second season of the series. Zou has been sold in more than 140 territories and broadcasted in 24 different languages throughout the world.
The series, produced by Cyber Group Studios and Scrawl Studios for Disney EMEA, is based on a book by Michel Gay. The show centers on the adventures of a lovable 5-year old zebra Zou, together with his family and friend Elzee living in a Zebra town. It was awarded the first prize in Television Animation at the 29th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF) in 2012.
“We are delighted to commence Zou‘s path in the U.S. together with Sprout as we are certain that a new partnership will establish a strong presence of the show in Ameirca,” stated Pierre Sissmann, chairman and CEO of Cyber Group Studios.
Vfx house Method Studios and pre-vis house Halon Ent. have made a strategic alliance pact. Method will collaborate with Halon to jointly provide previs and vfx services to customers, allowing the two companies to share talent, technique and locations. The services will be available out of any of Method’s key locations, including London and Vancouver.
Founded in 2003 by CEO and previs director Daniel Gregoire, Halon Ent. is a full-service pitchvis, previs, and postvis studio committed to enabling filmmakers to visually explore their creative ideas throughout the production process. Having a matching client base, Method Studios continues to create award-winning visual effects for projects such as DirecTV’s Troll‘ the recent feature releases Iron Man 3 and White House Down.
“Nearly all VFX projects coming in the door at Method require some form of previs in their early stages and we have successfully collaborated with HALON many times over the past few years,” comments Gabby Gourrier, SVP of Global Productions for Method Studios. “This new arrangement solidifies our working relationship and offers our clients direct access to HALON’s team of previs experts, who are well respected leaders in their field.”
“It’s always a pleasure to work alongside the artists and production team at Method,” says Gregoire. “Together, with Method, we are excited to offer global services for streamlining creative projects that require integrated services. It’s great to have a long time client like Method as an ally to this end.”
Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) have released their jointly developed, open sourse project Alembic 1.5. The new tool facilitates the sharing of animation and visual effects scenes across multiple software applications and includes new support for multi-threading, which, along with other new features, results in significant performance and efficiency improvements for all users.
“In furthering the development of Alembic, our efforts this past year have focused on improving performance,” says Rob Bredow, Chief Technology Officer, Sony Pictures Imageworks. “With this new release, data sets are smaller; they are faster to read and write. The architectural changes we have made to support multi-threading are especially significant. Users can ask more questions and get answers faster.”
“Alembic was put through its paces in production at Industrial Light & Magic this year, used extensively on every show we worked on from Avengers to Pacific Rim,” says Paul Ryan, ILM’s Head of Technology. “The ability to move our large scene data between multiple packages has become an indispensible part of our pipeline. New features, such as the faster back end and instancing are already proving their worth.”
The new release’s key improvements include:
Greatly improved read performance. Single-thread reads happen, on average, four times faster. Read times while multi-threading can happen up to 25 times faster.
Smaller file sizes. Files are, on average, five to 15 percent smaller. Greater reductions are possible for scenes involving many small objects.
Support for explicit hierarchical deduplication. (instancing) within a file.
Alembic was first announced at SIGGRAPH 2010 and its first release was made public at the 2011 SIGGRAPH Conference in Vancouver. The software provides efficient means for storing and sharing data across multiple software platforms, greatly reducing what had been a source of bottlenecks in the production of animation and visual effects. It has resulted in improved file exchange both between and within production facilities. Alembic has been widely adopted by leading software developers, including Autodesk, Side Effects and The Foundry, and is employed by visual effects and animation producers worldwide. Tools with native support for Alembic include Maya, Katana, Houdini, Arnold, modo, Cinema 4D, V-Ray, Nuke, Guerilla Render, RealFlow and Clarisse iFX.
More information about Alembic can be found online at: www.alembic.io.
9 Story Entertainment announced today the closing of its agreement with CCI Kids, the family content division of CCI Entertainment, under which 9 Story has acquired the underlying rights to CCI Kids’ owned children’s and family library. Under the terms of the agreement, 9 Story has also gained distribution rights for CCI Releasing’s other titles in the kids and family genre, totaling over 1,000 half hours of content.
In addition, Natalie Osborne has been promoted to managing director of the company’s distribution division, 9 Story Enterprises, and will continue to report to Vince Commisso, President and CEO, 9 Story Entertainment. An experienced industry executive in content distribution and brand development, Natalie joined the company in 2006 to launch 9 Story Enterprises and now oversees all worldwide sales, consumer products and strategic partnerships.
“This acquisition has more than doubled our portfolio, strengthened our sales capabilities and enhanced our overall position for digital platforms,” said Vince Commisso, 9 Story Entertainment’s president and CEO. “As part of this expansion, we are thrilled to promote Natalie to the newly created position of Managing Director. Natalie has been instrumental in 9 Story’s growth and we are confident she will continue to build on this success and take the company to even greater heights.”
Reporting to Osborne are new hires Jill Keenleyside as Vice President Distribution, Federico Vargas as Director, Sales and Kristin Lecour as Director, Consumer Products.
CCI’s extensive children’s and family library includes such titles such as as Artzooka, Harry and His Bucketful of Dinosaurs, Turbo Dogs, Extreme Babysitting, Erky Perky, GeoFreakZ, and classics such as Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Elephant Show and Shining Time Station.
Amberwood Entertainment and Big Jump Productions’ preschool show Shutterbugs has entered in to a development agreement with TVOKids.
“We are delighted to continue working with TVOKids”, stated Jonathan Wiseman, Senior Vice President at Amberwood. “They’re a strong broadcast partner and we are excited for Shutterbugs to join their lineup.”
Shutterbugs follows Flick the Firefly, an investigative reporter for the Murky Muse newspaper. With his pals Horace the horsefly and Opal the orb webbed spider, they help shed light on first time experiences. Using careful calculation, their five senses, and a wide angle lens, Flick and his friends get to the bottom of everything from those little bumps in the night, to why the moon changes color.
“Shutterbugs is designed to help equip kids for the 21st century learning environment while being wrapped in an entertaining and engaging story,” says Pat Ellingson, TVO Creative Head, Children’s and Parents’ Media. “It weaves digital literacy, science and technology, and at the same time models coping skills. And like all TVOKids content, Shutterbugs is based on the Ontario curriculum.”
Created by Big Jump’s Cory Morrison and Amberwood’s Craig Young and Michael Milligan, Shutterbugs is a fun-filled series that offers young viewers an opportunity to understand their world through science, comedy, discovery, exploration and reasoning skills.
LightWave has announced the arrival of NevronMotion, its new motion capture retargeting software for LightWave 11.6 that supports the popular Microsoft Kinect camera. With NevronMotion, artists and animators can quickly and easily capture, adjust and retarget motion data to 3D models inside LightWave.
NevronMotion extends the Virtual Studio Tools in LightWave 11.6 3D software to let artists:
Capture live rig motion with the Microsoft Kinect camera
Retarget motion capture directly in LightWave Layout
Save and adjust captured motion data from the Kinect camera
Easily adjust arm and leg mocap positions and layer hand-keyed animation on top of motion capture files
Save and load retargeting presets for FBX, BVH, or custom set ups
Preset rigs for Kinect and motion capture formats
Quickly bake out motion to character rigs
“Working with motion capture files in LightWave is now extremely easy with the new tools in NevronMotion,” says Rob Powers, president of LightWave 3D Group. “Not only can artists quickly retarget a motion capture skeleton on LightWave characters, but they can create presets for retargeting to speed up working with custom motion capture libraries. When paired with the Kinect Camera, the real-time performance and motion capture capabilities of NevronMotion make it a real game changer.”
NevronMotion is priced at $299 and is expected to ship Q4 2013. For more info visit www.lightwave3d.com/buy.
Cartoon Network and The LEGO Group announced today that they will jointly produce a new global entertainment franchise called Mixels. Launching in 2014, Mixels will feature animated shorts, a rich digital gaming experience, a collectible building toy concept and more.
Animated content will air on Cartoon Network and on www.cartoonnetwork.com, featuring the colorful Mixels creatures that can mix and combine with one another in creative and unpredictable storylines. A collectible portfolio of low-priced mini building sets will launch in three waves in 2014 and an app-powered gaming experience will engage fans in a deep mobile game that will cover the sprawling world of Mixels.
The two companies joined forces when Cartoon Network Studios had an interest in creating original content based on the inherent open-ended values of LEGO play, at the same time that The LEGO Group was exploring a new concept involving small creatures. The property was developed by a multinational team of content innovators, designers and animators – from Los Angeles to Atlanta to San Diego to Connecticut to Denmark.
“This is the next step in the evolution of Cartoon Network Studios and the way we develop original IP,” said Rob Sorcher, chief content officer, Cartoon Network. “Bringing together world-class animators and game developers with LEGO content and product design teams at the earliest stages of creation proved to be an energizing collaboration, showcasing the creative strengths of both brands.”
“Our relationship with Cartoon Network has really evolved and they have been really great, supportive partners who share our passion for children,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president licensing and entertainment for The LEGO Group. “After working closely with them for the last few years, it is obvious that they truly understand and fully embrace our brand and our core values, so we are thrilled to embark on this new journey to develop and deliver a highly creative and fully integrated new experience with them.”
Cartoon Network Studios will drive all narrative, animation and digital content and Cartoon Network Enterprises will handle Mixels non-toy licensed merchandise. The LEGO Group will focus on Mixels toy design, manufacture and distribution as well as licensed LEGO Mixels publishing to support the property.
On the heels of announcing a Family Guy/The Simpsons crossover at Comic-Con this past weekend, Matt Groening and Al Jean also revealed that the cast of Futurama will be paying a visit to the dysfunctional Springfield family in 2014.
The jazzed Comic-con audience was thrilled to find out that this crossover episode of The Simpsons will record next month and either air as the Season 25 finale next May or the Season 26 premiere in the fall 2014. Also on tap for the fall season are guest voice performances by the likes of Kristen Wiig, Zach Galifianakis, Elisabeth Moss, Stan Lee and Harlan Ellison. The Simpsons panel also screened never-before-seen footage from an episode directed by the one and only Guillermo del Toro. The sequence is packed with numerous monster movie references as well as the Mexican helmer’s own body of work, including pics such as Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy.
Thinkbox Software has announced the latest version of its cross-platform render farm management solution, Deadline 6.1, along with VMX for Deadline, an extension of its flexible toolkit that enhances rendering in the cloud. Deadline 6.1 and VMX will be featured at the SIGGRAPH Conference in Anaheim, Calif. in the Thinkbox Software booth #601 from July 23-25, 2013.
“Deadline provides a rendering backbone to studios of all sizes, and we’re excited to offer new virtual machine and cloud-based rendering options with the VMX extension. By incorporating local, remote, public and private clouds into one seamless renderfarm, we are pushing the boundaries of traditional render-farming, while giving users maximum flexibility,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Our latest Deadline technology developments continue to allow studios to boost their rendering productivity and output without making significant new hardware investments.”
Key features of Deadline 6.1 include:
Job Dependency View. View and modify a job’s dependencies (including asset and script dependencies) using the new node-based display in the Deadline Monitor.
Asset and Script Dependencies. Set up dependencies on assets (textures, cache files, etc.) or Python scripts so that a job only starts when all assets are available and the Python script/s return success.
Native Python API. Communicate with Deadline from external Python scripts without having to explicitly call the Deadline command application and parse its output.
New Maintenance Job Mode. Once a slave completes a task for a maintenance job, it will no longer pick up any additional tasks for that job.
Popup Message Notification System. Akin to NetSend Notification in Deadline 5, the system sends popup messages to workstations indicating if a job has completed or failed.
A new extension for Deadline 6.1, VMX takes the power and flexibility of Deadline into both public and private clouds. With functionality across Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX-based render farms, features of VMX for Deadline include:
Comprehensive Compatibility. Pluggable cloud support ensures interaction with nearly any cloud solution, allowing users to leverage their preferred private and/or public clouds.
Additive Cloud Support. Cloud support can be seamlessly mixed into existing render farm. Add public and private cloud rendering to an existing farm and/or migrate existing render nodes over to private cloud compute nodes as needed.
Balance and Auto-scale. Balance virtual machine instances when resources are fixed and auto-scale instances when demand spikes. Prevent over-utilization of compute nodes on private clouds and excessive costs on public clouds using budget controls.
Granular Control. Assign which groups can render on each cloud region and set the preferred order of region usage such as directing private cloud spill over into public cloud/s during demand peaks.
Maximize Resources. Tune the virtual hardware settings (VCPUs, VRAM, etc.) for each group to maximize the utilization of compute nodes on private clouds and minimize costs on public clouds.
Flexible Balancing Algorithm. A pluggable balancing algorithm enables customization beyond the default if additional functionality is needed.
Asset Verification. Avoid wasted cycles on the cloud by ensuring that the needed assets are present before rendering a job.
During SIGGRAPH, Thinkbox Software will host training sessions and demos on the show floor in booth #601. For more info, visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales.
It looks like Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter ego are continuing their animated lives on Disney XD. The Mouse’s boys action cabler announced that it has ordered a third season of its top-rated animated series Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man. The announcement was made over the weekend at Comic-Con.
The series follows the further adventures of Spider-Man and four other teen heroes who join S.H.I.E.L.D.’s exclusive training program to become the ultimate super heroes. In season three of the toon, Spidey joins Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk when he answers the call to become an Avenger, taking him one step closer to achieving his goal of becoming the Ultimate Spider-Man. As our hero encounters threats of new lethal villains, he enlists S.H.I.E.L.D.’s help and fights alongside additional young heroes in the Marvel Universe to face off against evil.
David Levine, VP and general manager of Disney XD worldwide said, “Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man has struck a chord with our audience, boys and girls alike, who are transported weekly to another world where they dare to be heroes. We are excited to deliver another season of Spidey’s thrilling feats and more of Marvel Universe to fans everywhere.”
“This season kicks off with our biggest adventure yet as Ultimate Spider-Man joins Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk from Marvel’s Avengers Assemble,” said Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television. “We’re making the Marvel Universe even more awesome with the introductions of Cloak & Dagger, Amadeus Cho, Ka-Zar and the animated debut of Agent Venom!”
Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man is exec produced by Alan Fine, Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb; co-executive producers are Stan Lee, Eric Radomski and Cort Lane; creative consultant is Paul Dini; consulting producer is Brian Michael Bendis; story editor: Eugene Son; supervising director: Alex Soto; and supervising producers are Cort Lane, Henry Gilroy and Dana Booton.
The voice cast includes Drake Bell as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Chi McBride as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Steven Weber as Norman Osborn, Tom Kenny as Doctor Octopus, Tara Strong as Mary-Jane Watson, and Stan Lee as Stan the Janitor.
New episodes of Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man air Sunday mornings on Marvel Universe on Disney XD.
DC fans rejoiced this weekend when Man of Steel director came out on stage at Comic-Con and announced…
“It’s official that we are going to make another Superman movie. I’ve poured through the DC universe for a way to tell this thing.”
Set for release in 2015, this sequel is to be directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S. Goyer featuring two of WB/DC’s most popular superheroes, which are in direct competition with Disney/Marvel’s Avengers characters.
Snyder added, “I’m so excited to begin working again with Henry Cavill in the world we created, and I can’t wait to expand the DC Universe in this next chapter. Let’s face it, it’s beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest superheroes in the world.”
Man Of Steel which is currently still playing in theaters worldwide has made over $625 million while Christopher Nolan’s rebooted Batman trilogy has surpassed $4 billion globally. Christian Bale has already told the press that he won’t reprise his role as the Gotham Knight, so the search will begin for a new actor to play Batman in the hear future.
Warner Bros. is also planning a Flash feature in 2016 and a big Justice League movie in 2017. Watch out, Marvel. The race is on!
Warner Bros. Confirms Batman/Superman Movie for 2015
Turbo, DreamWorks Animation’s tale of a speedy snail with the dream of winning the Indy 500, had a difficult time drawing large numbers to theaters. The pic, which brought in an estimated $21.4 million over the weekend (with a total cume of $31.1 since it opened on Wednesday) from 3,806 theaters, is already written up as having one of the studio’s worst openings in its 19-year history. However, it should be noted that the movie will certainly make up its cost in international sales and home-entertainment profits.
The other two animated titles in the Top 10 continue to amass big money both Stateside and globally. Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 was again the No.2 movie with a $24.3 million weekend, bringing its U.S. cume to $275.3 million in three weeks. Meanwhile Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University continues to attract family audiences. The pic landed on the No. 10 spot, with a $4.7 million weekend and an impressive $248.6 million cume after five weeks in theaters.
Next weekend, it’s time for Fox’s The Wolverine to bare its teeth at the box office. Directed by James Mangold and showcasing the impressive talents of Hugh Jackman, the movie received a lot of support from Comic-Con fans over the weekend. Then, on August 2nd, it’s up to Sony’s The Smurfs 2 to dazzle the tough family audiences, and on August 9, it is time for Disney’s Planes to take off. If there’s such a thing as CG-animated movie overload, this is definitely the season for it.
