According to The Hollywood Reporter Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, the co-creators of “American Dad”, have just inked a new 2 year with 20th Century Fox.  After four years producing the popular cartoon, both of the co-creators are still eager to continue the show.

“The world is screwed up, so we think we still have some semi-poignant things to say about it through the show,” Weitzman said.

Having two showrunners on “Dad” has made a world of difference, 20th TV chairman Dana Walden said.

“Matt and Mike are covering far more territory in the executive producer slot than one person can ever cover,” she said. “That enables Seth to focus on his other projects.”

The crew of “American Dad” are writing the fifth season while keeping a close eye on the political race.

“If (Barack) Obama wins, that would provide an interesting wrinkle to the show as Stan is such a die-hard Republican,” Weitzman said. Added Barker, “If (John) McCain wins, it would be great for the show and horrible for our grandchildren.”

Either way, I’m sure the crew at “American Dad” will have plenty of political fodder.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, King of the Hill is finally reaching the end of its run.  King’s had previous brushes with cancellation, but has alwasy managed to fight for another season.

In April, Fox picked up 13 more episodes from the 20th Century Fox TV-produced show, which are wrapping production.

A lot has changed since “King of the Hill” premiered in 1997. Its creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge have moved on to other projects — Daniels developed and is running NBC’s “The Office,” and Judge has a new animated series, “The Goode Family,” launching on ABC in midseason.

Fox will be introducing two new animated series into the fold soon, The Cleveland Show (a spinoff of Family Guy) and Sit Down, Shut Up by Mitch Hurwitz.

“Cars Toon”, a series of shorts by Disney•Pixar,  premiers this week on Toon Disney.  The first three short of the series stars Mater in “Rescue Squad Mater” ,”Mater the Greater” and “El Materdor.”  Recently Bill Desowitz of AWN interviewed co-directors Rob Gibbs and Victor Navone about the inspiration and making of “Cars Toons”.

Bill Desowitz: So how did Cars Toons come about?

Rob Gibbs: I started on it last summer with a small group of story guys and basically the marching orders from John Lasseter were to come up with some ideas for Cars characters. And out of that one of our animators, Bobby Podesta, pitched the idea of “Mater’s Tall Tales,” where Mater tells a story of his past. And from the ideas that we had, we incorporated some of those, like the Rescue Squad one — we had the idea to change Mater to the rescue truck instead of Red. And it grew from there. We had six months for development and we narrowed it down to the three that we produced.

Victor Navone: And we have another dozen or so other ideas. But we thought these were the strongest.

Check out the rest of the interview at the AWN website.  ”Cars Toons” will continue to air on Toon Disney and The Disney Channel through November and December.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, MTV Games and Harmonix are collaborating on a video game with Beatles music at its core.  Harmonix is the developer behind the popular “Rock Band” series, but Beatles music will not be included in the game library.  Instead, these two companies are developing a similar type of game,  where gamers will follow the careers of the Beatles.  Details are sketchy, but here’s what THR has gleaned so far:

The game is designed to take users on an “experiential journey” through the Beatles’ career, music and vision. It will also include new types of interactive gameplay associated with the Beatles’ imagery in addition to its music. Surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, are involved in the vision and creative direction.

– The music will come from master recordings of the Beatles’ U.K. releases, but will not be remixed or remastered. Giles Martin, the son of original Beatles producer George Martin and co-producer of the Beatles’ “Love” project, will serve as music producer.

It is unclear whether the instruments for Rock Band will be able to be used for this game.  The Beatles game is looking at a holiday/4th quarter release in 2009.

Recently Focus Features previewed 30 minutes of “Coraline”, a creepy, stop-motion animation feature based off of the book by Neil Gaiman.  Produced by Laika Ent. and directed by Henry Selick of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” fame, “Coraline” tells the story of a young girl who finds a passage way to a twisted, and surreal version of her life.  AWN reports:

“It’s very true to the book — very dark darks and beauty and light,” Selick added. “It’s an old-fashioned fairy tale [told] in a modern way. It’s for very brave children of all ages… but mostly from eight to 82.” 

Dispite all of the technological advances used on “Coraline”, Selick was very keen on keeping the tactile, moment-to-moment feel of traditional stop-motion animation.

Selick said he is appreciative of advanced technology in puppetry (the head replacements and hair, among other things) and digital moviemaking (shooting in 4K resolution). However, he acknowledged that the craft of stop motion is “not smooth like CG,” so he emphasized the importance of embracing imperfection to his animators. That included shooting on 2s, according to Knight, and not fretting about every little head replacement, according to Selick.

“Coraline” opens in theaters Feb. 6, 2009.

Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. have both agreed to join “The Avengers” according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Don Cheadle is set to replace Terrence Howard as “War Machine” in Iron Man’s sequel, and has also finalized a deal to act in “The Avengers”.

Downey has signed a four-picture deal with Marvel Studios, which will see him reprise the character of Tony Stark not only for “Iron Man 2″ and “Iron Man 3,” but also for the “Avengers” movie. (The deal retroactively includes the first “Iron Man.”)

Favreau, who is directing “Iron Man 2,” will exec produce “Avengers.” Cheadle will play Jim Rhodes, Stark’s best friend, who becomes the suit-wearing hero “War Machine.”

Robert Downey Jr. and Done Cheadle are the first stars to officially finalize their deal to act in the film.  Edward Norton returning to play The Hulk is still unclear due to the turmoil surrounding the filming of “The Incredible Hulk”.  Norton clashed publicly with Marvel over the final cut of the film.

The Anime cult-classic feature “Ninja Scroll” has been picked by Warner to be adapted for the mainstream American audience.  Alex Tse is to rewrite the 1993 R-rated classic.  The Hollywood Reporter says,

Tse is no stranger to adult fantasy; he’s the co-writer of Warners’ “Watchmen,” Zach Snyder’s upcoming R-rated take on the dark, mature-themed Alan Moore comic miniseries with its serious treatment of superheroes.

This new “Ninja Scroll” will be produced by Appian Way, Madhouse Pictures, and Jungo Maruta.

Boston.com reports that Avid Technology Inc. has decided to layoff 15% of its workforce, and sell off Softimage, its 3D animation software, in what executives are calling, “a major restructuring.”

The number of jobs cut will amount to 410 full-time employee positions, and about 90 contractors.  Avid’s chief executive Gary Greenfield was brought in back in December to head this company overhaul.

Avid also said yesterday that third-quarter revenue fell 4 percent to $217.1 million, while the net loss ballooned to $66.4 million, or $1.80 per share, compared to a loss of $5.9 million or 14 cents per share in the same period in 2007. Most of the increase was due to a $51 million write-down of the value of Pinnacle Systems, a maker of home video editing software that Avid acquired for $462 million in 2005.

Avid has agreed to sell Softimage to the leader in 3D software, Autodesk Inc., for $35 million.  This selloff will cut Avid’s jobs further, removing 90 workers from their payroll.

Aardman Animation Studios, home of the famous Wallace and Gromit, has chosen Escape Studios as their Maya training partner.  Escapes’ online Maya training course has be gaining a following and has been chosen by several studios as a secondary training resource.  Escape says:

An exciting addition to Escape Studios’ growing portfolio of prominent industry adopters, Aardman’s announcement comes only three weeks after game developer Rare announced its decision to implement Escape Studios’ online learning system. The online Maya program developed by Escape’s world-class tutors and features extremely dynamic HD content and an unprecedented learning experience.

The Hollywood Reporter has written an article about John Lasseter citing him as the “Innovator of the Year”.

Over the past two decades, Lasseter has become not only the most prominent successor to the Nine Old Men, but arguably the most important figure in animation since Disney himself.

This year, he’s a key player behind two animated films: “WALL-E,” already hailed by many critics as a masterpiece, and “Bolt,” debuting Nov. 21.

One comes from the ever-inventive Pixar, the other from Disney’s decades-old animation unit. If Lasseter is now pivotal to both, that is no coincidence: His groundbreaking work has never ignored its debt to the past.

There are few men as inventive as Lasseter and even fewer whose creativity pays such respect to tradition. It is for this reason that The Hollywood Reporter has named him Innovator of the Year.

Lasseter cites the animation director Hayao Miyazaki as a huge inspiration.  “His films are so specific,” he says. “They have such heart. They’re so inventive. They’re always inspirational.”

To read more of the article as well as info about Pixar’s future slate of films, click here.