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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Friday
- July 6, 2001
- Aardman Abruptly Halts Animated
Feature!
- Cats & Dogs
Tops Scary Movie 2
- Soundtrack Update
- News Link of the Day
- Cats, Dogs, and Balance
Aardman
Abruptly Halts Animated Feature!
(by digitalmediafx.com) Aardman Animations abruptly halted
production on its Tortoise vs. Hare film, laying off 90
people in the process. Most of those laid off were stop motion
animators, artists, and camera workers. The move came only days
after Prince Charles visited Aardman (as written about in the
July 1 edition of the dFX
Animation and FX Newsletter) and praised the work of
all the staff.
Aardman claims
that there are major script problems with the movie and it will
have to undergo a complete overhaul before production can continue.
It is estimated that production will be stopped for approximately
six months.
Arthur Sheriff,
spokesperson for Aardman claims that the layoffs are temporary
and that the company is devastated for having to do the layoffs.
Sheriff also said that halting the production to fix problems
is more important than putting out an average film. Aardman received
high praise for last year's Chicken Run movie, which walked
off with several high-profile awards, including an Animatasia
Award for Best Animated Feature.
172 people
were working on Tortoise vs. Hare at the time of the layoffs
on Wednesday. Those left have been assigned to other projects.
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Cats &
Dogs Tops Scary Movie 2
(by digitalmediafx.com) Both Cats & Dogs and Scary
Movie 2 opened in theaters on Wednesday with Cats &
Dogs coming out slightly ahead. For Wednesday, July 4, Cats
& Dogs brought in $9.0 million while Scary Movie 2
brought in $8.7 million. A.I. quickly sunk to third
place where it brought in $4.4 million.
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 Soundtrack
Update
(by digitalmediafx.com) Here is an update of recent and future
FX movie and animated movie soundtracks:
A.I.
(by John Williams - now available)
Final
Fantasy: The Spirits Within (by Elliot Goldenthal -
now available)
Atlantis:
The Lost Empire (by James Newton Howard - now available)
The
Best of Star Trek (various - now available)
Jurassic
Park 3 (by "John Williams" - available July
10)
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News Link
of the Day - Cats, Dogs, and Balance
According
to The New York Times:
"...Though
the summer movie season is best exemplified by the parade of special-effects
popcorn adventures pitched at the insanely lucrative young-male
audience, this is also the hot season for family films. In fact,
DreamWorks' animated Shrek became the first $200 million
hit of the summer and looks as if it might end up as the season's
top box-office draw. And Disney followed with its latest animated
feature, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, though that one has
not yet drawn audiences at the level of previous Disney animated
films…"
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