Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • JAKKS to Play Along with Domo

    Play Along, a division of JAKKS Pacific Inc., has been named the master toy partner for Big Tent Ent.’s Japanese animated character and viral sensation Domo. The long-term agreement gives Play Along the North American licensing rights to develop a wide range of toy products including plush dolls and molded plastic figures aimed ant tween and teen consumers. The merchandise will initially roll out to specialty retailers this fall in conjunction with Domo’s U.S. television debut on Nickelodeon’s Nicktoons network and its worldwide bow on Nickelodeon International.

    The stop-motion-animated Domo character became a cultural icon following his first appearance in 1998 as the mascot for Japanese public broadcaster NHK. He has since showed up more than 100 promotional spots, 600 products and a licensing campaign with merchandise generating tens of millions of dollars in Japan. The character’s appeal has spread around the globe via the Internet, where he has become a poster child of sorts for user-generated content.

    Play Along is known for creating toy lines for such popular properties as Cabbage Patch Kids and Care Bears, Doodle Bear, Snugglers and the classic good luck Trolls. The company also manufactures and markets Speed Stacks, the official equipment of the World Sport Stacking Association.

  • Postman Pat Adds Qubo to Route

    U.K.-based independent media group Entertainment Rights has inked a deal with U.S. children’s programming network Qubo to begin airing episodes of the popular animated series Postman Pat. Having entertained kids in Blighty for more than two decades, the show made its U.S. debut on HBO Family in the fall of 2005.

    Postman Pat and his faithful companion, Jess the Cat, have been favorites among the preschool set since the property first appeared on BBC TV in 1981. The original series has been exported to more than 65 countries and more than 15 million books have been sold to-date worldwide. The latest incarnation of the series, animated by acclaimed toon studio Cosgrove Hall, launched in September of 2004.

    NBC Universal, Scholastic, Corus Ent. and Classic Media/Big Idea joined forces last year to launch Qubo, a multi-platform kids’ television network that champions literacy and positive values. The Qubo programming block is carried on in both English and Spanish on NBC and Telemundo, as well as ION Media Network’s i network. Entertainment Rights has since acquired Classic Media for $210 million.

  • Point.36 Acquires Eden FX

    Hollywood-based visual effects studio Eden FX has been bought by Point.360, a provider of integrated media management services. Eden has contributed to such feature films as Superman Returns, Hellboy, and the recent release The Last Mimzy, but has done the bulk of its work on TV. In addition to handling the entire run of UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise, the company has racked up credits on CBS’ Ghost Whisperer, Fox’s 24, HBO’s Six Feet Under, NBC’s The Office and Surface, and ABC’s Lost and Invasion, as well as numerous commercials.

    Point.360 provides high-definition and standard-definition digital mastering, data conversion, video and film asset management and computer graphics services to owners, producers and distributors of entertainment and advertising content. The company’s interconnected facilities in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco deliver commercials, movie trailers, electronic press kits, infomercials and syndicated programming via both physical and electronic means to broadcast outlets worldwide.

    ‘Eden will give Point.360 another means by which to cement relations with our existing customers by significantly increasing our ‘from camera to customer’ service offering, and adds Eden customers to our post production client portfolio,’ says Point.360 president and CEO Haig S. Bagerdjian.

    Formed in 2000 by visual effects and post-production experts John Gross and Mark Miller, Eden FX specializes in 3D animation, compositing, 3D matte painting, character animation and on-set supervision. More infmation on the company and its services can be found at www.edenfx.com.

  • EA Clings to Rings

    Electronic Arts (EA) will continue to make video games based on New Line Cinema’s blockbuster Lord of the Rings films for at least another year. The company has been producing interactive titles around the filmed adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary works since 2001 and has renewed the license through 2008.

    EA acquired the game rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise in an agreement with the Saul Zaentz Co. and Tolkien Enterprises, in addition to a separate agreement allowing for games based on the New Line films. The next game set in Middle-earth is scheduled to ship in 2008.

    Combined, New Line’s three CG-heavy Rings films have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, making the game license one of the most desirable film-based properties. Director Peter Jackson was in talks to make a fourth film, based on Tolkien’s The Hobbit, before he brought a law suit against New Line claiming the studio owed him money. New Line plans to move forward with the movie sans Jackson, though rights holder Zaentz has publically stated that he wants the Kiwi auteur at the helm.

  • South Park 10 Phones it In

    Casual game developer and publisher RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom’s Comedy Central Mobile today announced the impending U.S. and European launch of South Park 10: The Game for cell phones and other mobile devices. Developed in close collaboration with South Park Studios and published under the RealArcade brand, the game will go live on most major carriers in the U.S. and European markets during the first week of April.

    Featuring series characters including Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Butters, Lemmiwinks, Scuzzlebutt and the cows, the game will involve both platform action and puzzle elements as gamers undertake more than 30 missions in the South Park world. All of game’s 40 levels are based on storylines from some of the most popular episodes of the satirical animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

    “We anticipate South Park 10: The Game to be one of our biggest hits yet,’ says Julie Pitt, RealNetwork’s general manager of worldwide games marketing. ‘Working directly with Comedy Central throughout the development process further strengthens our ability to maintain South Park‘s brand integrity, ensuring that the final product will resonate with South Park fans.”

  • Lennard Named VP of Cartoon Network Europe Development

    Turner Broadcasting Systems U.K. has promoted director of original animation Daniel Lennard to VP of original series and development for Cartoon Network Europe. In the newly created position, Lennard will oversee the day-to-day operation of the recently launched Cartoon Network Development Studio’Europe, which was established in Soho London to both find and create content for kids.

    Reporting to Finn Arnesen, senior VP of original series and International Development, Lennard’s directive will tie in with Cartoon Network’s international programming and production strategy, led by Arnesen. Lennard will also continue to fulfill his responsibilities for Cartoon Network co-productions including the Aardman/Decode CG comedy-action series Chop Socky Chooks, which will air on Cartoon Network.

    ‘Daniel has been instrumental in growing and developing Cartoon Network’s new European content over the past seven years, nurturing talent and industry relationships, and leading successful co-productions with third parties,’ says Arnesen. ‘Daniel’s achievements to date have greatly contributed to the formation of the Development Studio, with its aim of making successful wholly owned original series out of Europe.’

    Lennard joined Cartoon Network in 2000 as a development executive and, as director of original animation, exec produced such hit Cartoon Network co-productions as The Cramp Twins with TV Loonland and Robotboy with Alphanim. He previously worked at Nickelodeon as a writer, producer and director, and at London Weekend Television as well as a freelance documentary researcher for a number of independent production companies.

  • Star Wars Gets Stamped

    There’s good news for the Star Wars enthusiast who’s also a stamp collector. A set of 15 new 41-cent postage stamps featuring such characters as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Yoda, Darth Vader and R2-D2 were unveiled Wednesday at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, where the first Star Wars movie opened nearly 30 years ago. The ceremony was presided over by David Failor, exec director of stamp services for the U.S. Postal Service, along with R2-D2, Darth Vader and Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing.

    The commemorative stamps feature images from all six movies in George Lucas’ fantasy saga. Other characters set to travel around the world on envelopes include Queen Padme Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul, Imperial Stormtroopers and Boba Fett.

    The stamps will be released at a first-day-of-issue ceremony on Friday, May 25, at Star Wars Celebration IV, a massive fan gathering taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. First, however, Americas will have a chance to vote for their favorite stamp, which will be a special issue to be available for sale this summer. Voting is taking place online now through May 23 at http://www.uspsjedimaster.com.

    The U.S. Postal Service kicked off its partnership with Lucas Licensing earlier this month when it introduced mailboxes designed to look like R2-D2. A sweepstakes attached to the promotion asks postal patrons to solve six different challenges about Postal Service products and services for the chance to win a trip to Los Angeles for Star Wars Celebration IV. To learn more about The Jedi Shipping and Mailing Master sweepstakes, go to http://www.uspsjedimaster.com.

  • Jetix U.K. Sick for Grossology

    Jetix U.K. has acquired Nelvana’s quirky animated series, Grossology, and will be airing episodes in July. The show about young special agents who use fascinating and icky scientific facts to battle villains debuted in the U.S. in January on Discovery Kids.

    Grossology revolves around siblings Ty and Abby Archer, the world’s foremost experts in all things gross. Assisted by the infamous “Lab Rat” and watched carefully by a mysterious “Director” the crime-fighting duo gets called in when the case becomes too disgusting for the adult agents to handle. The show is based on the books by Sylvia Branzei and is grounded in real science, lending educational value in addition to comic appeal.

    In advance of next month’s MIPTV in Cannes, Jetix U.K. also announced that it has appointed four new team members to support programming director Dominic Gardiner. Emma Clark, a former program planner at Discovery and senior scheduler at Nickelodeon, has been named U.K. program manager and will be responsible for all program planning and scheduling. Assisting Clark will be Gullu Durak, who joins from Sit-Up TV as U.K. channel scheduler. Former Cartoon Network creative Jonny Potter has signed on as U.K. creative manager, responsible for the production and direction of on-air promotions, and former Cartoon Network producer Phil Knock has joined the team as U.K. producer.

  • Zoic FX Drive Fox Show

    Zoic Studios is providing extensive visual effects work for the new Fox action series, Drive, which kicks off with a two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 15. Having lent its talents to such shows as Firefly, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and 24, the award-winning company says its work on Drive involved creating images the likes of which have never been seen in a television production.

    ‘Drive is a unique experience,” says Zoic creative director/vfx supervisor Loni Peristere. “It is a rare challenge where the creators and studio allowed an experiment to run in production. As a result, Zoic was able to innovate a new method of photography and photorealistic CG to bring an omniscient camera to the car chase. It is a wandering eye without restrictions, able to find characters within moving vehicles and out in the world immersed in performance driving.”

    Starring Nathan Fillion (Slither, Serenity), Drive, a diverse group of Americans travel across the country in a high-stakes, underground road race. While some of the participants signed on willingly in hopes of winning a $32 million prize, others were coerced into joining “The Race”in order to save their lives or the lives of people they love.

    The pilot features racing scenes in which the camera moves seamlessly from the open highway into, around and through moving vehicles. The sequences combine live-action stunt photography, a 220-degree matching highway psyclorama, green screen stage work and CG cars, reflections and characters. Led by Peristere, the extensive pre-visualization and planning phase gave the production and effects crews a meticulous road map to follow through the lengthy and complex process which incorporated several thousand layers.

    While production is grounded in Los Angeles, Drive takes its characters to locations all over the country. This is achieved with green screen photography combined in post with location exteriors shot by a second unit. Each episode will involve more than 120 such composites.

    Bringing big-screen production values to television is no big stretch for Zoic. The studio’ film credits include Joss Whedon’s Serenity, Judd Apatow’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Marcus Nispel’s upcoming Viking epic, Pathfinder.

  • Sanders Gets Crood at DreamWorks

    After being pushed off of American Dog at Disney, Lilo & Stitch director Chris Sanders has moved to DreamWorks Animation to helm the cavemen comedy Crood Awakening. DreamWorks was initially developing Crood with Aardman Animations before the two parted ways this year in the wake of poor box office for Flushed Away, their third feature collaboration.

    Crood Awakening revolves around a culture clash between enlightened cavemen and their less evolved counterparts. DreamWorks Animation execs were apparently so enamored with the premise that they decided to move forward with the pic without Aardman’s involvement. The first script was written by comedy legend John Cleese of Monty Python fame, along with Kirk De Micco (Racing Stripes), but Sanders may end up doing re-writes.

    ‘I look forward to working with Jeffrey [Katzenberg] and the other filmmakers at DreamWorks Animation,’ Sanders comments. ‘They have dedicated themselves to a complex and classic craft, but have also proven that they are driven to take it to new places. It is their willingness to break boundaries that makes them unique. I’ve seen firsthand where they are headed, and I’m excited to be part of it.”

    A 20-year Disney veteran, Sanders will join fellow Mouse House expatriate Rob Minkoff at DreamWorks. Minkoff recently signed on to direct the studio’s animated feature based on the ’60s cartoon series Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Since DreamWorks’ toon dancecard is filled for the next few years, Crood Awakening isn’t likely to hit theaters until late 2010 or 2011.

  • Nick Toons Get Amp’d

    MTV Networks Kids and Family Group has teamed with Amp’d Mobile to offer programming from cable outlets Nickelodeon and The N on new Amp’d TV channels beginning this week. Offerings will include a SpongeBob SquarePants channel, which is set to debut in second quarter of this year and is aimed at the 18-25 crowd

    The SpongeBob channel will feature full-length episodes from the top-rated cable show for kids. In addition, Nickelodeon Mobile on Amp’d Live will provide short form clips, ranging from 30 seconds to two minutes in length, from such hit animated shows as Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Fairly OddParents, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Catscratch, as well as the live-action tween hits Just Jordan and Drake and Josh. The N Mobile content will feature clips, behind-the-scenes content, sneak peaks and webisodes from Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, South of Nowhere and Beyond the Break.

    MTV Networks and Amp’d Mobile recently announced a development deal that will have the companies will create and distribute programming made specifically for the handset. Original content from such MTV Networks channels as MTV, mtvU, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike TV and Logo will be featured on Amp’d TV, Amp’d Mobile’s 24/7 TV service.

  • Mario, Sonic Join Forces

    Two video game icons will get to together for the very first time when SEGA Corp. and Nintendo Co. unleash Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for Nintendo’s Wii and DS systems. Fans of both enduring franchises who have long dreamed of such a pairing will have to wait until the 2007 holiday season to see how it unfolds. The title will be published by SEGA across Europe and North America, and by Nintendo in the Japanese market.

    “Mario and Sonic have been respectful rivals since the early days of video games,” says Shigeru Miyamoto, senior managing director and general manager of Nintendo’s entertainment analysis and development division. “In fact, for a long time they have been discussing the possibility of one day competing against each other. Now that they have been given the perfect opportunity to meet at the Olympic Games, we may finally learn who is actually faster, Mario or Sonic?”

    Licensed through a worldwide partnership with International Sports Multimedia, the exclusive interactive entertainment software licensee of the International Olympic Committee, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games will have players compete in events set in environments based on the official venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The game will give fans the option to go for the gold as or against a host of popular characters including Mario, Sonic, Luigi, Knuckles, Yoshi and Tails.

  • Studio B Taps New Directors

    Kirsten Newlands has been promoted to the newly created position of head of production and Anthony Jiwa has been hired as director of marketing for Vancouver-based animation house Studio B Prods. Inc. Newlands previously served as a producer on the first season of the animated series Pucca, and Jiwa joins the company from VIZ Media where he led publishing and home entertainment marketing efforts for such properties as Pok’mon, Naruto and Inuyasha.

    Before moving into production, Newlands worked in feature film foreign sales and served as associate producer on a number of feature films, most notably Garav Seth’s Pink Ludoos and Carl Bessai’s Severed. At Studio B, she will be tasked with running an ambitious slate of productions. The studio is currently in production on George of the Jungle for Cartoon Network and Ricky Sprocket ‘ Showbiz Boy for Nickelodeon. Both new series are set to launch this year.

    Other shows produced by Studio B include Being Ian, Class of the Titans, Yvon of the Yukon and Pesky Animation’s award-winning The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers! For more information, go to www.studiobproductions.com.

  • Happy Feet Taps to DVD

    If you’ve ever wanted to take home an Oscar winner, now’s your chance as the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow animated blockbuster Happy Feet dances it way to home video today after capping off a successful awards season with the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The disc offers several extras, including previously unreleased sequences and a classic Tex Avery toon.

    Happy Feet features Elijah Wood from the Lord of the Rings trilogy as the voice of Mumble, a young penguin born into a nation of singing Emperor penguins where each needs a heart song to attract a soul mate. Since Mumble is cursed with being the worst singer in the world, he learns to rely on his tap dancing skills to catch the eye of a special young lady. Directed by George Miller (Babe: Pig in the City, the Mad Max saga), Happy Feet is an animated musical comedy that also stars the voices of Brittany Murphy (King of the Hill) Hugh Jackman (Flushed Away), Nicole Kidman (His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass), Robin Williams (Robots) and Hugo Weaving (The Matrix trilogy).

    DVD bonus features include two new fully animated sequences titled ‘Mumble Meets a Blue Whale’ and ‘A Happy Feet Moment,’ a private dance lesson with Savion Glover, and music videos for Gia’s ‘Hit Me Up’ and Prince’s Golden Globe-winning tune ‘The Song of the Heart.’ Also included is the classic 1936 cartoon I Love to Singa, a Merrie Melodies short directed by the great Tex Avery. The DVD carries a suggested retail price of $28.99. The HD DVD Combo lists for $39.99 and the Blue-ray Disc for $34.99.

  • Fantastic Four, Sonic, He-Man on Disc

    Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and Thing are back in action in a new animated series and the first volume of episodes is now available on DVD. This initial release from Fox Home Entertainment appropriately offers four episodes of Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, which is based on the long-running Marvel comic-book series and airs on Cartoon Network in the U.S. during the Saturday night Toonami block. Also hitting at retail today are the complete Sonic the Hedgehog series from 1993 and a second volume of installments of The New Adventures of He-Man.

    Produced by Marvel Studios and France’s Moonscoop Prods., Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes chronicles the exploits of a team of astronauts who are exposed to cosmic rays and develop super powers. Together, they become the Fantastic Four and use their abilities to help the world battle multiple threats, and to foil the evil plans of their equally powerful enemy, Doctor Doom.

    Episodes included on this disc have the team aided by fellow Marvel heroes The Incredible Hulk and the Astonishing Ant-Man as they face the evil of Doctor Doom and the Mole Man. The suggested retail price for the DVD is $14.98

    Sonic the Hedgehog’The Complete Series is a four-disc set with all 26 episodes from the Saturday Morning cartoon show’s two seasons. This DIC series is not to be confused with The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which also debuted in 1993, though Jaleel White (Urkel from Family Matters) provided the voice of Sonic for both shows. Distributor Shout Factory fills up the discs with a generous helping of bonus features, including conversations with writer Ben Hurst and voice star Jaleel White, a storyboard-to-screen comparison, a printable script of the pilot episode, storyboards for a unproduced opening title sequence, original DIC concept art and deleted and extended sequences. Fans can pick it up for $29.98 or less.

    The New Adventures of He-Man, Vol. 2 offers the final 32 episodes of the 1990 Filmation series that continues the adventures of Prince Adam and his muscle-bound alter-ego, He-Man. In cluded on the six-disc set are the featurettes The Fans of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and The Power of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Also included are detailed character profiles, trivia/fun facts, an episode guide booklet, two art cards and hidden Easter Eggs. The Brentwood Home Entertainment release lists for $49.98.

  • Universal in Business with Bernard

    Universal Pictures International Ent. has snatched up international DVD rights to the all 52 episodes comprising the first season of Bernard, a CG-animated children’s series from BRB Internacional. The show has been sold in 50 countries to date, but this latest deal marks the first time the Spanish company has entered into such a wide-ranging alliance covering so many countries. Universal has also acquired U.K. mobile rights to the series.

    Bernard is an unusually clumsy polar bear who gets into one misadventure after another on his anarchic journey around the world. Joining him on his journey are penguins Lloyd and Eva, a lizard named Zack and a bad-tempered little dog named Goliath. Universals two-disc DVD release will include such extras as storyboards, artists’ sketches, animatics and a karaoke activity.

    The series airs on Cartoon Network in the U.S. and can be seen around the world on such broadcasters as M6 and Teletoon in France, KIK in Germany, BBC in the U.K., Mediaset and Nickelodeon in Italy, TVE and Jetix in Spain, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark, MUZ in Russia, TV Samanyolu in Turkey, Disney in Latin America, ABC in Australia, Radio Canada in Canada, Victory IP in the Middle East, EBS in South Korea and M-Net in Africa.

    In addition to being distributed to mobile phones in the U.K. by Universal, Bernard will be available to mobile subscribers in Austria through carrier OHM, while Materna handles the property’s mobile presence in Germany and Switzerland, and Kitio Mobile in Croatia and Slovenia. BRB is now at work on 52 new episodes for a second season.

  • JibJab Goes to Washington

    JibJab Media co-founder Evan Spiridellis tells us he and his brother, Gregg, were invited to create a new two-minute animated short for Wednesday night’s TV and Radio Correspondence dinner in Washington DC. The siblings will be VIP guests at the dinner and will have a chance to entertain President Bush in person after poking fun at him on many occasions in their very popular animated web toons.

    ‘Rather than lambasting the politicians again we thought it would be much more fun to poke at the news media itself!,’ says Spiridellis. ‘Our new short, What We Call the News, shines a light on some of the absurdities of modern day television journalism.’

    The short will play to an audience of 2,400 people, including nearly every major cable and network news personality mixed in with senators and other politicians. The dinner will be broadcast live Wednesday night on CSPAN and the short will also air on The Tonight Show immediately after Jay Leno’s monologue. After that, it will go live on JibJab.com.

    The Spiridellis brothers have been keeping a behind-the-scenes production blog that will be made available to registered JibJab members (free registration). ‘People always ask us how we make a JibJab so we thought it would be cool to detail the journey step by step,’ notes Evan Spiridellis.

  • Meet the Robinsons’ Adam West

    Iconic actor Adam West, who made a name for himself playing Batman on TV in the ’60s and now voices the role of Mayor Adam West on Fox’s Family Guy, will be on hand to help Disney kick off its latest animated feature in Hollywood. The the voice of Uncle Art in Meet the Robinsons will make a live appearance at the El Capitan Theatre for the Thursday, March 29 midnight showing in Disney Digital 3-D.

    Directed by Stephen Anderson, Meet the Robinsons follows the adventures of Lewis, a boy-genius with a love of gizmos and gadgets, and an undying hope of finding the family he never knew. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he encounters a mysterious stranger named Wilbur Robinson and takes a trip into the future, discovering a series of secrets about his own limitless potential along the way. In addition to West, the voice cast includes Angela Bassett, Tom Selleck, Harland Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Ethan Sandler and Tom Kenny, among others. The film was produced by Dorothy McKim.

    Meet the Robinsons is scheduled to run at the El Capitan Theatre from March 30 through May 19, with an exclusive animation exhibit providing unique insights into the making of the comedy-adventure. The program will also include, in its first big-screen appearance in 54 years, the classic 1953 Disney 3-D short Working for Peanuts, starring Donald Duck and Chip and Dale. Guests who make a reservation in time will have a chance to have breakfast with Chip and Dale at a special character breakfast at Disney’s Soda Fountain and Studio Store proceeding the 10 a.m. showing. Tickets for all performances can be purchased at the El Capitan Theatre box office or online at www.elcapitantickets.com.

    Read all about the making of the movie in next month’s issue of Animation Magazine, available at a Barnes and Noble strore near you.

  • Pifer Heads Production at Entity FX

    Visual effects company Entity FX has named Tricia Pifer to the newly formed position of head of production. The industry veteran joined Entity FX in 2004 after working with such leading outfits as Jim Henson Prods and ABC. She will work across the board with Entity’s supervisors, producers, artists and executives to help bring projects to completion.

    “Tricia plays an important role day to day at Entity FX,” comments Entity FX exec producer Kymber Lim. “Her detailed knowledge of scheduling, staffing and coordination ensures that our projects deliver smoothly, efficiently and on time. She is in tune with the artists, and she keeps things fun.”

    Pifer has shepherded production for a number of current and upcoming Entity projects, including the feature films Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn, West 32nd from director Michael Kang, and The Air I Breathe, directed by Jieho Lee and starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker. Other notable credits with Entity include Scary Movie 4 and the television shows Smallville, Supernatural and Nightstalker.

    With offices in Santa Monica, Calif. and Vancouver, B.C., Entity FX is an award-winning company specializing in feature film, television and commercials. The company’s range of services include pre-visualization, on-set supervision, virtual backgrounds, matte painting, environmental effects, compositing, CG animation and specialty photography.

  • ’86 Transformers Revisited in London

    As the world waits to see what Michael Bay does with his live-action/CG adaptation of the Transformers franchise, Londoners will get a chance to see the 1986 animated feature film Transformers: The Movie on the big screen again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, independent distributor Metrodome Distribution will give the pic a two-week theatrical re-release in one theater in London’s West End beginning May 4.

    While capitalizing on the media hype DreamWorks and Paramount are creating for the July 4 release of Bay’s Transformers, Metrodome is also using the theatrical engagement to promote its June 4 release of Transformers: The Movie’Ultimate Edition, a two-disc DVD featuring a re-mastered widescreen edition of the film.

    A feature-length extension of the wildly popular animated TV series, Transformers: The Movie continues the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons, two different sects of robots that transform into vehicles. The film features the voice of Orson Welles in his final role, as well as Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack, John Moschitta, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. The home entertainment group of Sony BMG Music Ent. put out a 20th anniversary DVD edition of the movie in the U.S. last November.