According to The Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks Animation is slated to release eight films in the next four years. That ups the ante from two films per year to three films per year, and three of the five films are going to be continuations of DreamWork franchises. So far the release slate is as follows:

– “How to Train Your Dragon” on March 26, 2010
– “Shrek Forever After” on May 21, 2010
– “Oobermind” (formerly titled “Master Mind”) on November 5, 2010
– “Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom” on June 3, 2011
– “The Guardians” (working title), on November 4, 2011
– “Puss In Boots” (working title) on March 30, 2012
– a “Madagascar” sequel on May 25, 2012
– and a November 2, 2012 release of one of three original projects currently in preproduction.

The down side to this is that DreamWorks plans to outsource work on the films to India, thereby cutting cost by roughly 10%.  That’s good news for DreamWorks stockholders and Indian animation companies, but not for animators stateside.  It will be interesting to see how long the studio and the creatives can keep up with Katzenburg’s fast-track animation plan.

According to AWN, the people at Rockstar Games will release two new playable episodes of the GRAND THEFT AUTO Series.  The new episodes will be for Xbox 360, and continues the rough, gritty, and sordid stories of the mean streets. 

“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in THE LOST AND DAMNED, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.”

For you Xbox LIVE members, keep your eyes open this fall for the download of THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY and make sure you have your copy of GRAND THEFT AUTO IV handy.  For everyone else, EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY will be on one, all inclusive disc and contain both THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY, and THE LOST AND DAMNED.

Chris Landreth, the mastermind behind the tragic and beautiful RYAN, is debuting his new short film THE SPINE.  AWN reports that, like RYAN, THE SPINE pushes the boundaries of computer animation into new and strange avenues.  THE SPINE brought together the same team that make RYAN including producers Marcy Page, Steve Hoban, and Mark Smith.  

THE SPINE is a poignant story of redemption that takes us into the relationship between a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction. Dan and Mary Rutherford, married 26 years, sit unhappily in a couples’ group counselling session. Angela, another troubled participant in this group, wonders why their marriage has become so lopsided, so twisted. But when Mary leaves Dan, he undergoes a beautiful transformation. What will happen when she returns?

THE SPINE premieres at Annecy France, June 8th-13th and then jump the pond to play the World Wide Short Film Festival June 16th-21st in Toronto.  For more info on Landreth and his work-in-progress, visit his blog at www.NFB.ca/thespine.  Aside from the premeire, Landreth will be participating in the World Wide Short Film Festival’s “Inside a Composer’s Mind” on June 17th, and he is also working with Steve Hoban on a animated feature called LOVECRAFT.

Wonders never cease.  Despite Miyazaki’s dislike of video-game culture, Studio Ghibli is working with Level-5 to create NINOKUNI, the new Japanese RGB for Nintendo DS.  Gamer website 1UP.com reports that Studio Ghibli has been working on NINOKUNI for about 10 months even though the initial schedule was three months, as Ghibli ups the level of quality.  For many years Studio Ghibli wouldn’t come within a mile of the video game industry, after the ill-fated launch of several games based off NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND.  Up till now, Ghibli has turned down many game-related work.

“Normally we wouldn’t have done it, but Ponyo was just about to debut in theaters, and our heads were still running full tilt. He caught us right when we were at our weakest!”, he said with a laugh.

 

“I think [Level-5 head Akihiro] Hino really has luck on his side,” added Fujimaki. “The entirety of Ghibli was free of work at just that moment. Miyazaki may say that he hates games, but being a businessman, Suzuki isn’t going to just let his staff play around all day.”

NINOKUNI is slated to hit Japanese stores later this year, and there is no date for a US release.

ABC’s new Animated series,”The Goode Family” from creator Mike Judge will finally be airing this Wednesday night on ABC at 9pm. The SFGate poses the question of:

Why did ABC pick up “The Goode Family” and then hold it until the season ended? It’s not like any other ABC comedies did very well. Why didn’t ABC mention any kind of future for “The Goode Family” last week in New York when it presented its fall schedule (including midseason shows)? If you’re looking for signs, that one would be called “not good.”

The question truly is why did Judge make the “The Goode Family” in the first place and why is FOX so in bed with McFarlane that thy are spinning off “The Family Guy” with “The Cleveland Show”?

Last weekend into last week you may have had some trouble accessing Ani-jobs.com. So I just wanted to give an update as to our current situation. We have migrated the site over to our new servers hosted by our friends at Farpointmedia.net . The Migration is complete, last week however, I was upgrading the jobs forum and chaos ensued. It ended up not only bringing down Ani-jobs.com but also Farpointmedia.net , Sliceofscifi.com, and carology.tv… Yikes!! So after a tumultuous few days we finally figured out the problem and everything is up and running again. Woo hoo!! So that’s the story, my bad, If anyone has any problems accessing the board you can contact us at Support@ani-jobs.com.

Otherwise Good job hunting!!

The fact that Midway Games has been rough waters this year is old news.  However, AWN reports that Warner Bros. has just put in a bid for the game company.  Both companies have entered a “stalking horse” agreement to buy Midway assets and allow third-party companies to make bids through the bankruptcy court as well.

Under the agreement, Warner Bros. Ent. would acquire substantially all of the company’s U.S. assets including its MORTAL KOMBAT franchise and its development studios in Chicago and Seattle for a purchase price of $33 million, subject to adjustment as of the closing for changes in inventory, plus the agreed value of the company’s U.S. account receivables.

All of this is not final, but the possibilities of a new wave of MORTAL KOMBAT movies by WB look pretty high.

Variety sadly reports that Wayne Allwine, the official voice for Mickey Mouse since 1977, died May 18 due to complications from diabetes.  A local boy from Glendale, Allwine  got his start in Disney in the mail room.  He quickly moved up to audio-post where he was found to be the voice of the world’s most beloved mouse.

“Wayne not only gave voice to the character of Mickey but gave him a heart and soul as well,” said Roy E. Disney, director emeritus and consultant for Disney. “He did an incredible job bringing emotion, humor and appeal to the character, and superbly carried on the tradition originated by my Uncle Walt …”

Donations in Wayne Allwine’s memory can be made to the Mattel Children’s Hospital.  To the Allwine family we send our deepest sympathy.

It seems like Nickelodeon can’t get enough of DreamWorks these days.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nick has ordered a series pilot from DreamWorks based on their newest movie, MOSTERS VS. ALIENS.  This is right on the heels of Nick picking up KUNG FU PANDA: THE SERIES, and the success of THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR.  

DreamWorks is also unwrapping two holiday specials for TV, SCARED SHREKLESS for Halloween and a yet unnamed KUNG FU PANDA holiday special.  All of these will be followed by a massive licensing and marketing campain, so if you thought the toy store shelves were full of Insectosaurus’ and the Furious Five action figures, think again.

The buzz on AWN is that D3Publisher is to bring the Cartoon Network show THE SECRET SATURDAYS to video game consoles.  In THE SECRET SATURDAYS: BEASTS OF THE 5TH SUN, the player will play as members of the Saturday family to collect Cryptids and battle villains from the show.  

“THE SECRET SATURDAYS: BEASTS OF THE 5TH SUN offers a new and original storyline based on the THE SECRET SATURDAYS television series that will have gamers traveling to very unique locations around the globe to discover and protect lost Cryptids,” said Alison Quirion, vice president of marketing, D3Publisher. “A perfect mix of combat, puzzles and platforming mechanics, THE SECRET SATURDAYS: BEASTS OF THE 5TH SUN adds up to a truly fun and authentic gameplay experience.”

According to  www.TheSecretSaturdaysVideogame.com, the game will be showing up on shelves for the Wii, PS2, PSP, and Nintendo DS in the fall of this year.