Reuters is reporting that Fox has announced some new shows in their spring lineup. Of note to the animation world is the news that Fox is launching a brand new animated comedy (something it hasn’t done in three years).

“Cleveland,” a spinoff of “Family Guy,” is expected to get on the air with a 13-episode order. Staffers are being hired for the show, which focuses on the Griffins’ henpecked neighbor. Coincidentally, the last two animated series entries on Fox were “American Dad” and the resurrected “Family Guy,” both from “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane.

Two other cartoons, “The Pitts” and “Sit Down, Shut Up”, may also join the lineup with “Cleveland” at Fox.

Animation Insider reported on the LEGO franchise of Indiana Jones. Indy will be making his way back in brick-form to Cartoon Network for a mini-movie titled, “LEGO Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Brick.”

Produced by M2 Films, Raiders of the Lost Brick will air on the network’s long-standing Toonami programming block, which occupies much of Primetime Saturdays. The “mini-movie” will, before airtime, find its way to Cartoon Network’s website, where visitors will be able to check out clips of the show with more content becoming available week by week until it’s on-air premiere. CartoonNetwork.com will additionally feature an online gaming event that features three levels of a LEGO Indiana Jones game building in difficulty, one level per week, starting April 28th, 2008.

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!

Reuters reports that Digital Domain’s announcement of going public last week didn’t amount to much on Wall Street. The effects house, tied up with investors like Michael Bay and films including “Speed Racer”, were offering 6 million shares at $13 a piece. Unfortunately, the stocks are a tough sell considering the company lost $19.9 million in 2007.

But Digital Domain acknowledges that making money in these endeavors is no easy task. In its prospectus, it calls the visual effects and animation industry “very competitive,” while the video game industry is “intensely competitive.”

So far, it seems that the company, which is seeking to raise $68 million in its IPO, has set too lofty a goal at a time when Wall Street prefers profits to potential.

There is no word yet on Digital Domain’s IPO being pulled or repriced.

Although the news has been rumored for weeks, Variety reports that Guillermo del Toro was officially announced Thursday to direct both films of “The Hobbit”. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will act as executive producers for the New Line-MGM films.

Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and Weta production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel dealing with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Jackson’s WETA stages, post-production and visual effects facilities — built for “The Lord of the Rings” — will be used for both films. And New Zealand will again be the site of Middle-earth, with the story centering on Bilbo Baggins taking the Ring of Power from Gollum.

Variety reports that the May ‘08 box office may meet or exceed last year’s box office even without the franchises of “Spiderman”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and “Shrek”.

Last year, no studio wanted to be in the path of the three heavyweights — which each grossed north of $300 million domestically — so they saved their summer fare for June and beyond.

Next month, the big player films include: Paramount’s “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, Warner Bros. “Speed Racer”, Disney’s “Prince Caspian”, and Sony’s “Sex and the City”. Although most of these are new and untested properties, there are a few franchises like the Chronicles of Narnia and Indiana Jones that could prove to have large box office takes. According to one distributor, May is a big month for studios because it’s the beginning of summer.

“Without great openings in May, the rest of the summer is typically softer. The more people who see trailers in May for movies that open in June, July and August, the better off the summer is.”

None of these will most likely have the intake that last year’s blockbuster franchises did, however, studios are betting that they’re solid enough that combined they will perform solidly.

According to AWN, Porchlight Home Entertainment recently announced that they have a new label in their company, Porchlight Inspire.

The first title to be released under this label is “Adventures from the Book of Virtues: Adventures in Faith” which was previously aired on PBS, but never available for purchase on DVD. There is also plans to release a Christian version of “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” on DVD in 2009. Gary Jones, President of PHE, said,

“Since our launch last summer, PorchLight Home Entertainment has already established a reputation for releasing the best in children’s and family programming on DVD. The PorchLight Inspire label will highlight programming that is inspirational, faith based and family friendly, with a prominent spiritual message.”

According to PRnewswire, creator of ‘Earthworm Jim’ Doug TenNapel has sign a deal with Interplay to establish a partnership and relaunch the ‘Earthworm’ franchise.

TenNapel will serve as a creative consultant on Earthworm Jim 4, and
will simultaneously develop an animated series and feature film to expand
the well known brand.

TenNapel created the original Earthworm Jim character, which Interplay
developed into a video game with Shiny Studios for the Sega Genesis console
in 1994. The game became an immediate hit, and later spawned sequels on
various computer and video game platforms, including Earthworm Jim 2,
Earthworm Jim 3D, and Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy.

PRNewswire reports Walt Disney Studios has created a new label in their film division, Disneynature. To celebrate Earth Day in 2009, they will release their first film under this banner, a feature-length documentary titled “Earth”, which is produced/directed by Alastair Fothergill.

“Earth,” which is produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media (a Berlin Atlantic Company) and co-directed by Mark Linfield, takes moviegoers on an extraordinary tour of our home planet as it’s never been seen before. The film will be narrated by renowned actor James Earl Jones. Disney will offer company-wide support for this and every Disneynature release.

Variety reports that videogames jumped 57 percent in U.S. sales in the month of March, mainly due to the stellar sales of Nintendo games and systems.

Video game software sales jumped 63 percent from March 2007 to $945.6 million, blowing past analysts’ expectations. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter, for one, had expected game software sales to grow 47 percent over last year.

Top sales in games were the March releases of Nintendo Wii’s “Super Smash Bros.” with 2.7 million copies sold. In 2nd place was “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2″ with 752,300 units. “Army of Two” by EA was right behind with 606,100 units sold.

Americans bought 721,000 Wiis during the month, 67 percent more than in February. The DS was the second best-selling system with 698,000 units, and Sony Corp.’s handheld PSP came in a distant third with 297,000.