Ani-Jobs.com is proud to announce a NEW section of our site: The Artist Spotlight!

The Artist Spotlight, located in our Resume Cafe, is a great place to learn about professional artists working in our industry and the techniques they use on a daily basis. It includes a bio, examples of their artwork (personal or professional) and a discussion of their process, as well as an in-depth interview.

Our first spotlight is on an extremely talented art director, Darren Carney. See how he takes a project from conception to completion in our first spotlight. It’s a must read!

AWN is reporting that Cannes audiences will be very lucky to see snippets from Pathe and Sylvain Chomet’s upcoming film “The Illusionist” at the Marche du Film.

Chomet began working on the film in June 2006. He is writing and directing the adaptation of the original and previously unproduced material by Jacques Tati. Pathe said it plans to release the $22 million film in France and the U.K. in 2009. Pathe International will handle worldwide sales.

The film combines traditional 2-D character techniques and CG.

Chomet is well known for his character animation and story sensibilities in his outstanding previous film, “The Triplettes of Belleville.”

(L.A. Times)

AWN is reporting that

DreamWorks Animation kicked off the 61st annual Cannes Film Festival today, as Jack Black, star of the company’s June 6 release, KUNG FU PANDA, spread “Panda-monium” as he emerged from a water taxi to be greeted on the Carlton Hotel pier by nearly 40 life-sized Po, the Panda’s — his on-screen persona and the hero of the film.

The worldwide premiere is today at 7:30pm at Cannes and the ongoing spectacle of pandamoniumness is expected to continue on the red carpet. The film opens nationwide on June 6th.

Variety reports that the studio that made the 3-D animated film “Fly Me to the Moon” (to be released August 8th by Summit) is beginning production on their next feature “Around the World in 50 Years — 3D”. nWave Pictures, a Belgian animation studio, will be self-financing the picture, and they expect to have it complete in 2009.

Story follows the adventures of a sea turtle hatched in 1959 as he travels the world while it is being changed by global warming.

Voice cast includes Anthony Anderson, Ed Begley Jr., Pat Carroll, Tim Curry, Kathy Griffin, Melanie Griffith, Stacy Keach and Jenny McCarthy.

Animation Magazine reports that the Weinstein Company has signed on to distribute a feature length live action film all about “Fraggle Rock”, currently in development at the Jim Henson Company.

Cory Edwards, who previously directed the independent animated comedy Hoodwinked!, has been tapped to script and helm the musical project, which will feature a mix of live-action and puppetry or CG animation.

Even though felt puppets were used during the TV series of “Fraggle Rock” to interact with human characters, Jim Henson Co. is considering using more animation for the feature film, utilizing their proprietary system that allows puppeteers to manipulate CG characters in real time.

Reuters is reporting that 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Broadcasting Co. are banding together to develop a new venture, called Fox Inkubation. The idea behind Inkubation is to discover and develop new animated talent outside of the normal production track.

20th Century Fox TV is also planning to continue their normal production pipeline for animation development, but with a new leader, Jennifer Howell at the helm. Howell previously acted as executive VP of “South Park” Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Important Films. Fox Inkubation will also be overseen by Howell.

The initiative will give aspiring writer/animators funding to make two-minute shorts in lieu of penning a script.

If the shorts are successful, Fox and 20th TV may order additional shorts or take the concepts to pilot, possibly pairing the newcomers with experienced producers.

Inkubation already has a slate of projects being developed, with the plan to be about 20 to 25 in various stages of the pipeline at any given time. There is also a possibility that they will be distributed online as viral marketing.

On Friday, Lucas Film released the first Theatrical trailer for their upcoming film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is their new 3D animated film being released August 15th.

Reelz Channel reports that

Little of the plot is revealed in the two-minute clip, save for a few tidbits about a kidnapping plot involving Jabba the Hutt’s son. Which means, of course, that Jabba found a way to procreate — an unsettling fact that leaves all of us to wonder just how something like that could possibly have occurred. Let’s hope that Clone Wars’ story, which bridges the gap between episodes II and III of the Star Wars saga, leaves out that unpleasant detail.

The new clip showcases Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ interesting animation style and abundance of new characters — both of which are likely to spur furious speculation in the fanboy community. Are the characters too “video game” in appearance? And just who exactly are all of those folks wielding red lightsabres? New Sith recruits?

An interesting note on the look of the characters. On Friday, I was over at one of the companies that are editing trailers for the video game version of Clone Wars. The video they had recieved from Lucas was intentionally degraded for their offline cutting (to prevent piracy and leaks) but even with that, you could clearly tell what the final images where going to look like. And, to me, the characters and environments looked to be exactly the same as they are in the theatrical trailer. So on one hand while the movie will be more stylized and not up to the photorealism that we’ve become accustom to from ILM. If and when you do play the video game you will be immersed in the same world that you where in when you watched the movie.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Lionsgate now has the right to make the comic book “Deal with the Devil” into a film with screenwriter Kyle Ward helming the adaptation.

Published by Alias, the story centers on a Chicago detective who is forced to take on an unlikely new partner: the original serial killer.

Senior vp production John Sacchi will oversee the project for Lionsgate.

Variety reports that Gore Verbinski is now set to direct Universal’s “Bioshock”, turning the bestselling videogame into a film. Universal signed on to produce Bioshock last year, and word in the industry is that this is the biggest game-to-film deal since 2005 when Universal and Fox signed on to make “Halo”. the makers of the game “Bioshock”, Take-Two Interactive

has been approached by a number of producers and studios since the game came out in August but waited until it had swept most of the end-of-year industry awards and racked up impressive holiday sales before working with CAA to package the project. Universal got a first look and made a preemptive bid.

Variety is reporting that THQ secured rights to Marvel’s new “Super Hero Squad” animated series for gaming purposes.

Though it doesn’t yet have a network home for the series, which will launch in 2009, Marvel is already busy turning “Super Hero Squad” into a multiplatform property. Along with the skein and vidgame, Hasbro has a related toy line and Marvel is working on a comicbook and a direct-to-DVD film.

Both companies hope the deal could lead to a lasting partnership. Marvel still doesn’t have a videogame company to partner with for its upcoming releases “Thor”, “Captain America” or “Avengers.”