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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Note:
Digital Media FX content is legally ©copyright 2001 and may
not be republished or rewritten without the expressed written
consent of Digital Media FX and/or proper crediting and linking.
Saturday
- December 1, 2001
- Harry Potter Passes $200
Million - Monsters, Inc. Next
- PBS Launches CYBERCHASE
on January 21, 2002
- ABC / Disney Nabs Harry Potter
Movie
- News Link of the Day
- Beauty and the Beast is Back
Harry Potter
Passes $200 Million - Monsters, Inc. Next
(by digitalmediafx.com) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone passed the $200 million mark on Friday and Monsters,
Inc. will do the same today. Monsters, Inc. saw a huge
drop off from last Friday, making only $2.26 million. Last Friday
- the day after Thanksgiving - Monsters, Inc. made $10
million. In its first month of release, Monsters, Inc.
has made an amazing $197 million domestically.
Meanwhile
Harry Potter continues to tear up the box office and is
expected to pass Shrek by mid-December as the highest grossing
film of the year. Harry Potter did fail to capture the
#1 spot on Friday, which went to the new movie Behind Enemy
Lines.
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PBS Launches
CYBERCHASE on January 21, 2002
(by digitalmediafx.com) PBS will launch a new animated series
called CYBERCHASE (unrelated to Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase)
on January 21, 2002. The new series was created by Thirteen/WNET
and Nelvana.
According
to PBS, "CYBERCHASE energizes kids (ages 8-11) with math
power. Full of cyber-mysteries with eye-popping animation and
a sly comic flair, the daily series features the voices of Christopher
Lloyd and Gilbert Gottfried. CYBERCHASE sends the message that
math is fun — is about problem solving and, boy, does it
come in handy."
The new series
is unrelated to the Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase video that
recently came out. However, the name similarity has resulted in
a legal tussle between Warner Bros. and PBS. Both initially announced
their projects last February, within days of each other.
For the PBS
CYBERCHASE series, each episode will take kids on an adventure
driven by a different math concept — from tackling time in
ancient Egyptian tombs, to cracking codes in creepy caves, or
making sense of numbers in a fractured fairy-tale world. In their
quest, the heroes use minds, not muscles, to overcome obstacles
and danger everywhere. Guest voices include Bebe Neuwirth, Jasmine
Guy, Geoffrey Holder, Phil Bosco and others.
"CYBERCHASE
fills a critical void in children's television programming in
mathematics," says Hyman Field, Ph.D., senior advisor for
public understanding of research at the National Science Foundation.
"It is an exciting and fun way for kids to participate in
a subject that is so important in today's technological world."
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ABC /
Disney Nabs Harry Potter Movie
(by digitalmediafx.com) In a record setting agreement, ABC
has secured, from Warner Bros, all non-pay television rights to
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, while simultaneously
acquiring the advance rights to the upcoming November 2002 sequel,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The deal was worth
a reported $140 million.
The agreement
gives ABC the opportunity to provide several of its family business
programming platforms with the FX-filled franchise movie, including
the ABC Television Network, ABC Family and Disney Channel. The
terms of the agreement include a ten-year license for each film.
The broadcast network will take the first run, with subsequent
runs then shared between ABC Family and Disney Channel.
"Harry
Potter is already considered a timeless family classic that
audiences all over the world have embraced in record numbers,"
says Eric Frankel, president, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution.
"We think that ABC, with its multi-family platforms, is a
terrific vehicle to showcase this film, which is a phenomena like
very few others in the history of our business."
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News Link
of the Day - Beauty and the Beast is Back
According to USA Today:
"...The
tale as old as time is newer — and bigger — than ever.
For its 10th anniversary, Disney's animated musical Beauty and
the Beast will dance onto IMAX and other large-format screens
in 48 cities, starting Jan. 1.
And there's
a bonus: An added six-minute sequence with those magical household
furnishings, Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury), Cogsworth (David Ogden
Stiers) and Lumiere (Jerry Orbach), harmonizing on Human Again,
a tune by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman that was cut
from the original..."
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here for the full story.
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