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Digital Media FX News Archives

Wednesday - August 1, 2001
- Activision Nails Minority Report
- Samurai Jack Premieres in August on Cartoon Network
- Virtual UK Who Wants to be a Millionaire Host
- News Link of the Day - Nascar Internet Cartoon Coming

Activision Nails Minority Report
(by digitalmediafx.com) Activision has successfully negotiated a licensing deal to distribute titles based on Steven Spielberg's 2002 Minority Report movie. Through an agreement with Fox Interactive and DreamWorks, Activision has signed a five year deal for the worldwide rights to develop games based on Minority Report for all current and next generation consoles, the PC and handheld platforms.

Slated for release in summer 2002 Minority Report stars Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton and Kathryn Morris. Minority Report is set in the future when crimes can be detected before they happen leaving some yet-to-be murderers to become the hunted.

"Minority Report lends itself well to a wide variety of gameplay elements with intense futuristic storylines and gripping action-packed sequences," states Ron Doornink, President and COO, Activision, Inc. "As a multi-platform publisher, we intend to leverage this property across all of the major gaming systems including the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, Xbox video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and the PC. We are very excited to work with Steven Spielberg, Fox Interactive and DreamWorks Pictures on what is expected to be one of the most anticipated films of 2002."

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Samurai Jack Premieres this Month on Cartoon Network
(by digitalmediafx.com) The Cartoon Network is set to premiere a new animated action series, called Samurai Jack, on August 10. The series was created by Genndy Tartakovsky. The first episode will be 90 minutes long. The Cartoon Network has ordered an additional 26 half hour shows.

Samurai Jack is the story of a "great warrior" displaced to the distant future by an evil wizard named Aku. Samurai Jack must then find a time portal to return to the past and vanquish the evil wizard.

The Cartoon Network is marketing the series through AOL, which has created a special advance look at the production (including behind-the scenes character model sheets) via the AOL Keyword Samurai Jack.

Click here to see an animation test from Samurai Jack.

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Virtual UK Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Host
(edited press release) Eidos Interactive is using Eyetronics' ShapeSnatcher Suite to create a virtual version of British TV host Chris Tarrant for the video game Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 2nd Edition.

ShapeSnatcher Suite is an integrated software package that transforms an average slide projector and digital camera into a sophisticated 3D scanning and modeling system.

Eidos Interactive used the software to create a realistic 3D model of Tarrant's face that could be animated. The lip-synched virtual host will be made up of more than 20,000 polygons, enabling him to ask questions, give answers and utter the now-famous phrase, "Is that your final answer?"

The game also includes a 3D audience and more than 1,000 new questions.

The first version of the game, which is the UK's biggest selling game of all time, did not include a graphical representation of Tarrant. ShapeSnatcher made it possible for the upcoming PlayStation 2 version to include the virtual host. "ShapeSnatcher allowed us to transform the original PlayStation title into a showcase next-generation console game," Alltimes says.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 2nd Edition will be available in the U.K. this November. ShapeSnatcher is also being used to scan Jean-Pierre Foucault, the host of the French version of the game.

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News Link of the Day - Nascar Internet Cartoon Coming

According to USA Today:

"In September, nascar.com will premiere the first NASCAR cartoon show created for the Internet. The Kellys will revolve around an (obviously fictional) fun-loving family roaming the NASCAR circuit..."

Click here for the full story.

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These news articles and all digitalmediafx.com content are ©copyright 2001 by Joe Tracy and may not be reused for any purpose without expressed written consent of the author and Digital Media FX. All rights reserved.