Digital Media FX News Archives

Thursday - July 12, 2001
- Wolfmill Tackles Astounding Space Thrills
- Shrek Voice Stars Want $5 Million Each for Sequel
- Jurassic Park 3 to Air Digitally in 10 Theaters
- News Link of the Day - Hollywood's Untouchables Escape Too Easy

Wolfmill Tackles Astounding Space Thrills
(by digitalmediafx.com) Wolfmill, known for the animated TV series Pocket Dragon Adventures and the upcoming Elfquest feature film, has announced that the acquisition of rights to Astounding Space Thrills, an Internet-based adventure comic strip. Wolfmill plans to turn the strip into a TV series.

"Astounding Space Thrills is the kind of lighthearted adventure that every generation has grown up with since people started telling stories around a fire," says Craig Miller, a partner at Wolfmill. "And with Argosy, Theremin, and Petra and their wry humor, Steve Conley has come up with twist to the stories and characters we think will be the hallmark of the 21st century."

Conley is the creator of Astounding Space Thrills, which is distributed to thousands of Websites every day. According to Wolfmill, Astounding Space Thrills "is about the story of Argosy Smith, an upbeat, energetic, action-oriented cross between Dr. Who and Indiana Jones who's also a bit scatterbrained. An inventor and explorer, he's usually a page ahead of everyone else. For Argosy and his friends Theremin, who lost his body in the Shift and is now a humanoid bunch of globules - a living lava lamp in appearance - but who still likes the finer things in life, and Petra, a young female mercenary with a Han Solo edge, no problem is too great, no adventure too dangerous, no mystery too unsolvable... if only Argosy can remember where he put his keys…"

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Shrek Voice Stars Want $5 Million Each for Sequel
(by digitalmediafx.com) Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and Mike Myers - three of the voice stars of PDI/DreamWorks animated hit movie Shrek - are hoping for $5 million each to simply revoice their roles in the sequel to the movie. DreamWorks may consider this amount chicken feed based on the hundreds of millions of dollars that Shrek is making worldwide, but it also would be amongst the most ever that any voice artist has been given to star in a movie.

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Jurassic Park 3 to Air Digitally in 10 Theaters
(by digitalmediafx.com) Jurassic Park 3, which opens nationally on July 18, will mark the first time that Universal has released a film in the digital format. Among the theaters participating in this first field trial for Universal in assessing the new technology will be the Loews Universal Studios Cinemas, which has never before presented a film in the digital cinema format and will show the film digitally on two screens. A special "digital premiere screening" of Jurassic Park III will be held at the Universal City Cinemas on Tuesday, July 17 at 6:30PM.

"With the first Jurassic Park, Universal introduced to theater owners and moviegoers the groundbreaking Digital Theater Sound (DTS) format, which has gone on to become one of the most widely used sound formats, so it seems particularly fitting that we are making our first foray into digital cinema presentation with Jurassic Park III," said Nikki Rocco, President of Universal Pictures Distribution.

Here is a list of other theaters that will be showing Jurassic Park 3 digitally:

AMC Empire in New York City
GCC Framingham in Boston
Cinemark Valley View in Cleveland
Cinemark Legacy in Dallas
AMC Pleasure Island in Orlando
AMC Studio Olathe in Kansas City
Harkins Arrowhead Fountains in Phoenix
AMC Mission Valley in San Diego
Famous Players Silver City Riverport in Vancouver.

Be sure to request the digital screening of the film when ordering tickets as it may also be playing on other screens at the theater in the 35mm format.

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News Link of the Day - Hollywood's Untouchables Escape Too Easy

According to USA Today:

"A.I. was a horrible movie. There, I said it. After so much positive press, I figured someone should come forward with the truth.

I entered the theater with high expectations, but I left feeling lobotomized. A disjointed plot, robotic dialogue and moralistic slaps in the face tortured me for more than two hours…"

Click here for the full story.

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