Takahata Retrospective, Cyber ​​Group's Patti with A Prod., DNEG Goes Public, Dinklage Vs. Disney, and More

Takahata Retrospective, Cyber ​​Group's Patti with A Prod., DNEG Goes Public, Dinklage Vs. Disney, and More

Il Cinema Academy Museum will continue its eclectic calendar of film screenings and public programs this winter with a series of retrospectives, including a spotlight on the co-founder of Studio Ghibli I, presented in conjunction with the exhibition by Hayao Miyazaki al Academy Museum. Daily life: Isao Takahata's films (February 3-16) includes all of Takahata's Studio Ghibli feature films and a selection of the films he made early in his career. Many of these early works also include the collaboration of a young Miyazaki, whom Takahata met when they both worked at the famed Toei animation studio. Comprehensive training includes:

  • A tomb for the fireflies - Thursday 3 February at 19 pm
  • The great adventures of Horus, the prince of the sun with Who is the brat - Fri 4th February at 19pm
  • Just yesterday - Saturday 5th February at 19pm
  • Panda! Go Panda! with Panda! Go Panda! The circus of rainy days e Gauche the cellist - Sunday 6 February at 14 pm
  • Pom Poko - Thursday 10 February at 19 pm
  • The history of the Yanagawa waterways - Saturday 12th February at 14pm
  • My neighbors the Yamada - Saturday 12th February at 19pm
  • The tale of Princess Kaguya - Wednesday 16 February at 19 pm

Award winning producer / distributor of French animated series Cyber ​​Group Studios (Gigantosaurus) announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in the British prodco At Productions. Bristol Outfits is a creatively-led multidisciplinary studio with a reputation for award-winning animated children's content distributed by major UK and US outlets - notable projects include JoJo and Gran Gran and Love Monster (JoJo and the grandmother e Monster of love) for CBeebies, Elmo Gets a Puppy (Elmo gets a puppy) e The Monster at the End of This Story (The monster at the end of this story) for Sesame Street Laboratory. Founded in 1985, A Productions is led by joint CEOs Katherine McQueen e Mark Taylor, founder.

Cyber ​​Group Studios has partnered with A Productions as part of a broader corporate strategy to expand into new global markets. The studios will collaborate on the development of groundbreaking new content for audiences across Europe and the world, starting this year with the joint production of Digital Girl, a new animated series for kids that will join CGS's solid list of 10 in production and 10 in development. By joining forces with Cyber ​​Group Studios, A Productions will invest in the development of its original IP, along with its growing creativity-driven service work. The studio will also invest in and benefit from CGS's latest technological innovations, such as its real-time animation tube, to create groundbreaking new content.

DNEG provided Academy Award-winning VFX work for Tenet (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2020)

The best technology and award-winning visual effects and animation company DNEG and publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp. have entered into a definitive business combination agreement that will lead DNEG to become a joint stock company. Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company, led by DNEG President and CEO Namit Malhotra, will retain the DNEG name; its common stock is expected to be listed on Nasdaq.

The transaction implies a combined enterprise value of approximately $ 1,7 billion, DNEG expects to receive approximately $ 400 million in gross proceeds from the transaction, including a fully committed $ 168 million PIPE of common stock at a purchase price of $ 10 for share from leading investors, including affiliates of Sports Ventures, Novator Capital Limited, affiliates of Fairfax Financial and Arbor Financial. A Sports Ventures affiliate has agreed to support a portion of the $ 350 million minimum cash condition, subject to limitations.

“As we take the next logical step in our evolution, partnering with Sports Ventures on the road to becoming a publicly traded company, I would like to thank and celebrate our talented teams around the world. Every day, they come together to create incredible new worlds for our storytelling partners, raising the bar for every project we deliver, ”said Malhotra. “This transaction creates long-term stability for our teams, while also allowing us to take advantage of the favorable winds in the media and entertainment industries and the explosion in demand for content, which are huge growth drivers for our company. I am thrilled to take the best of everything that makes our company so successful and to use it as a platform on which to build and innovate further. Leveraging our leading technology stack, DNEG is already making great strides in new growth areas such as gaming and content creation partnerships, and we are perfectly positioned to exploit huge new opportunities in the metaverse and the convergence of all forms of content creation ".

Born from the 2014 merger of Prime Focus and Double Negative, DNEG boasts operations in Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai and Mumbai, and has earned six of the last 10 VFX Oscars for its work on TenetFirst Man, Blade Runner 2049, Ex Machina, InterstellarInception. Between recent and current productions Dune, Ghostbusters afterlife, by Roland Emmerich moonfall and video game adaptations The Last of Us, UnchartedBorderlands and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.. DNEG entered the feature animation with Ron - An Unscheduled Friend (Ron's Gone Wrong) and was chosen for the new Garfield movie. By going public, the company hopes to accelerate growth and expand into new business territories such as games and content creation.

Top left to right: Randie Swanberg, Mario Caserta, Todd Peleg, Graham Dunglinson. Bottom: Alex Tracy.

Fancy FX, a new visual effects studio targeting television, film and advertising projects, was launched as a sister company to Goldcrest Post. Led by a veteran Executive Creative Director / Visual Effects Supervisor Randie Swanberg and Senior Flame Artist / Visual Effects Supervisor Mario Caserta, the studio offers complete solutions for the design, execution and delivery of high-end visual effects. Along with a physical base within Goldcrest Post's Manhattan facility, Fancy VFX supports a secure virtual pipeline, allowing it to quickly add talent and resources to meet specific project requirements.

The main staff of Fancy VFX also includes CG Supervisor Todd Peleg, Head of Production Alex Tracy and executive producer / sales director Graham Dunglinson. The studio occupies an entire floor of the Goldcrest facility, which is equipped with VFX and CG workstations, storage systems and other devices installed in separate pipelines for advertising and entertainment projects. The studio is also leveraging the latest cloud and virtual machine technology to support remote manufacturing. His first project is to provide design services to immersive entertainment co. Illuminarium for an experience focused on Georgia O'Keefe's art (February 2022).

The proud family: stronger and more proud

Disney + has unveiled a new clip for its long-awaited reboot of the animated series The Proud family: stronger and prouder, in which an elderly Penny Proud (Kyla Pratt) and her mother Trudy (Paula Jai ​​Parker) clash with dad Oscar (Tommy Davidson) for bigger shoes. The show's official key visuals were also dropped as fans prepared for the February 23 premiere.

From the Disney television animation, The Proud family: stronger and prouder is the executive producer of the original series stars Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar. Calvin Brown, Jr. is the co-executive producer, Jan Hirota is the producer, and Eastwood Wong is the art director. The stellar cast also includes JoMarie Payton, Cedric the Entertainer, Karen Malina White, Soleil Moon Frye, Alisa Reyes, Carlos Mencia, Maria Canals-Barrera and Alvaro Gutierrez.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); Peter Dinklage [photo: Vicki Couchman for The Sunday Times]

Speaking Disney, while both longtime studio fans and modern audiences have generally received the studio's live-action reinterpretations of its Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award-winning animated classics Game of Thrones e Cyrano star Peter Dinklage put the upcoming snow-white update (2023) on the Marc Maron podcast explosion WTFIt's Monday's episode, saying:

“Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little surprised when they were very proud to choose a Latin actress for the role of Snow White, but you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and see what you are doing there. It doesn't make sense to me. You're progressive in a way, but then you're still making that backward fucking story about seven dwarves living together in a cave? What are you doing, man? Didn't I do anything to bring the case forward from my soapbox? I guess I'm not strong enough ”.

Dinklage, who has achondroplasia, was referring to the casting of West Side Story star Rachel Zegler in the project, which will also see Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and is directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of SummerThe Amazing Spider-Man). Disney responded to the comments with a statement a The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday:

“To avoid reinforcing the stereotypes of the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have consulted with members of the dwarf community. We can't wait to share more as the film goes into production after a long development period. ”

Go to the source of the article on www.animationmagazine.net