'Up' wins best feature at Annie Awards
Jeffrey Katzenberg honored at ceremony
Nominated for five Academy Awards, "Up" is the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar for animated feature, and is only the second animated film to earn a nomination in the best picture category. It is also nominated for best screenplay, music and sound editing Oscars.
Other big Annie winners were "Coraline" and "The Princess and the Frog," with three awards each.
Disney/Pixar's "Up" earned a total of two Annie trophies -- best animated feature and Pete Docter for direction -- extending its string of prior awards including last month's Golden Globe. In all, awards were presented in 23 Annie categories in features, TV and commercials.
The Annie for best animated feature has matched the eventual Oscar winner each year since the Academy Awards first awarded the category in 2002, except for twice. A year ago, the Annie Awards came under some scrutiny after DreamWorks' "Kung Fu Panda" dominated the Annies and won the top prize, shutting out eventual Oscar winner "Wall-E" from Pixar.
William Shatner hosted this year's Annie ceremony, which is presented annually by ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles chapter of the International Animated Film Society.
During the ceremony, Winsor McCay Awards went to Tim Burton, Bruce Timm and Jeffrey Katzenberg, but only Katzenberg was in attendance. Tom Sito earned the June Foray honor. The Ub Iwerks Award went to William T. Reeves. Special Achievement Awards were presented to Martin Meunier and Brian McLean. Myles Mikulic, Danny Young and Michael Woodside received certificates of merit.
"Dear John"'Dear John' tops 'Avatar' at Friday b.o.
Romance breaks 'Avatar's' seven-week streak
Tatum Channing and Amanda Seyfried, who play the young lovers of Lasse Hallstrom's PG-13-rated "Dear John,"based on a novel by Nicholas ("The Notebook") Sparks, proved to be more popular than expected. Sony/Screen Gems' release of the Relativity production took in an estimated $13.8 million on Friday in 2,969 theaters.
That puts it on track to take in more than $30 million over the weekend, although it will still have to contend with East Coast snowstorms and Super Bowl Sunday.
Meanwhile, the ever-reliable "Avatar," the beneficiary of nine Oscar nominations on Tuesday, shifted into second place for the day as it picked up an additional $6.2 million.
"From Paris with Love," the weekend's other new wide release, checked in in third place. The R-rated action pic, directed by "Taken's" Pierre Morel, and starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, pulled in nearly $3 million in 2,722 locales for distributor Lionsgate.
Rounding out the top five, the second weekend of the Mel Gibson starrer "Edge of Darkness" ranked fourth. The Warners release brought in $2.3 million.
Close behind in fifth was the second weekend of Fox's family film, "The Tooth Fairy," which attracted $1.6 million.
While Warner's "Sherlock Holmes" was hanging on in tenth place with almost $800,000 for the day, that holiday release is positioned to hit the $200 million mark today.
Cartoon Net has 'Hero: 108' franchise plans
52 episodes kick off next month; game, toys in the works
Cartoon partnered with Moonscoop Entertainment to co-produce the animated show that targets young teens, and Gamania Digital Entertainment, which will launch a massively multiplayer online game in the summer. The fourth partner is Playmates Toys.
Gamania, which handles Asian rights to such popular games as "Lineage" and "MapleStory," makes its first foray into the U.S. with "Hero: 108," loosely inspired by a 14th century Chinese novel called "The Water Margin Stories."
That novel has a small band of ordinary citizens, eventually growing to 108 of them, rising against a corrupt government. The TV show and online game has stripped the politics from the story.
"We figured fighting against the government wouldn't resonate with kids," Gamania product director Kevin Crawford said.
In the updated take, a bad guy named High Roller -- bestowed with the power to speak to animals -- convinces his furry friends that humans are an evil menace.
"Hero: 108" is an original property from Gamania, which employs 1,300 people mostly at its Taiwan headquarters. It recently opened a 10-person U.S. office in Irvine, Calif.
"FlashForward"David Goyer out as 'FlashForward' showrunner
Will still be 'involved' with show, but in a reduced capacity
Co-creator David Goyer is stepping down from his role running the series, sources confirmed.
The "Dark Knight" scribe will still be "involved" with the show, but will focus on feature films and directing.
"As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions," said Goyer in a statement. "I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."
Goyer had limited hands-on TV series experience, so "Eli Stone" co-creator Mark Guggenheim was brought as showrunner in after his "FlashForward" pilot received a pickup to help with the launch of the mystery drama based on Robert Sawyer's novel.
After the show creative struggled out of the gate, Guggenheim stepped down as showrunner in October and was replaced by Goyer.
Who will serve as the new showrunner for "FlashForward" is not yet clear. The production is currently shooting episodes 17 and 18 of a 23-hour order.
"FlashForward" is set to return March 18.
'Spider-Man 4' release date squeezed
'Thor' slips into May 6, 2011, slot; 'Pirates 4' also gets date
-- Sony's "Spider-Man 4" effectively was effectively bounced from its May 6, 2011, slot because of a production delay.
-- Paramount's Marvel comics actioner "Thor" leaped into that slot.
-- Disney finally slotted its "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" for May 20, 2011.
The next question for the 2011 summer slate: Where will "Spidey 4" land once its script woes are sorted out?
AAMIR-MANSOOR TO PAIR UP AGAIN?
Finally a film which managed to snag the Mama-Bhattija jodi of Aamir Khan and Imran Khan. They will be seen together in Aamir's home production directed by Mansoor Khan.
The buzz is that it is a remake of the hit Yaadon ki Baraat.
Mansoor and Aamir go a long way with Mansoor directing Aamir's first movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Mansoor's last film was Shah Rukh- Aishwarya starrer Josh set in Goa. Since then he hasn't returned in filmmaking living in the hill-station, Coonoor. However, Aamir persuaded the reclusive filmmaker to return to directing for this project.
Aamir recently spoke about taking a full break from acting and concentrating on his producer role. Neither Aamir nor Mansoor have commented on the story but one hopes that the Qayamat magic is repeated with Imran as an added bonus.
'3 IDIOTS' HYSTERIA STRIKES GLOBE AS IT RE-WRITES HISTORY!
On par with Avatar's success in worldwide Box Office records, 3 Idiots retains Top 10 position at UK Box Office in Week 2!
2009 went out with celluloid bang as the much-anticipated film, 3 Idiots, has gone on to set a whole new precedent for Bollywood cinema internationally and broken all previous records following its continued, staggering Box Office response from audiences globally.
Presented and released by Reliance BIG Pictures, the total overseas Box Office gross for 3 Idiots outside of India is a record-breaking 10 million $US plus, beating records set by any Bollywood release to date.
3 Idiots has grossed more than £1,115m ($1.8m) at the UK Box Office and was the number one film on Christmas Day out grossing Avatar. In territories such as Australia, screenings of Avatar have even been reduced, in order to accommodate additional screenings of 3 Idiots.
The film is UK’s highest grossing Bollywood film of 2009 and now the highest grossing Indian film ever to release in the US, beating the takings of Om Shanti Om which released in 2007. Other territories such as India, Middle East and Australia are also close to this landmark.
From East to West, 3 Idiots takes the audience through an extraordinary experience of self-actualisation, as it chronicles the tale of three friends together in an engineering college. What seems to have touched the right chord in people's hearts is the witty writing, terrific acting and the film’s incisive look into the education system in India.
3 Idiots continues to draw record crowds, including repeat audiences, as it sets a whole new benchmark for Bollywood.