End of Week Linkage

Still more links to Toon News ... only of the highest quality, naturally.

Usually it's been animation directors moving into live action -- Frank Tashlin being an early example. But now we see a little reverse migration:

"Pirates of the Caribbean" helmer Gore Verbinski will direct his first animated feature and team with filmmaker Graham King to produce the project.

The action-adventure film, based on an undisclosed idea developed by Verbinski's Blind Wink Prods. and producer John B. Carls, has a projected budget in the $100 million range and a targeted 2010 release ....

And while we're on the subject of traffic between animation and live-action, there is also this:

Anime classic "Akira" is getting the live-action big screen treatment courtesy of Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros.

Ruairi Robinson has been hired to direct what would ideally be a two-part epic. Gary Whitta is writing the adaptation, which DiCaprio will produce via his Appian Way shingle ...

"Akira" originated in 1988 as a manga and then as an animated film co-written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story was set in a neon-lit futuristic post-nuclear war "New Tokyo" in 2019 where a teen biker gang member is subjected to a government experiment which unleashes his latent powers ...

Arggh. Some snark from Time Out Chicago over the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature:

[Best Animate Feature is] a category that can’t seem to muster five contenders, which is the traditional number of nominees in most categories (the magic number five for most categories stabilized as early as the 1928-1929 season). Those short lists in Animated Feature have led some to suggest that the Animated Feature is basically a vanity prize, thrown out there to keep Pixar and Disney happy ...

So it's a sop?! A vanity prize!? The Daily Trojan thinks not:

...the Academy created the Best Animated Feature award in 2001, with "Shrek" taking the prize by beating out Pixar's "Monsters, Inc."

While this act is mildly commendable, doing so practically prevents any animated film from garnering an actual nomination for Best Picture, no matter how well-deserved it is.

It's about time the Academy and the rest of the United States takes a lesson from the rest of the world: Animation can be a force to be reckoned with ...

With which we agree whole heartedly.

There there is this item from Animation Magazine, the news that America has been waiting for: Images and details about the new Smurf Movie!

The toon’s producer Jordan Kerner (The Mighty Ducks, George of the Jungle, Charlotte’s Web) was quoted extensively, saying that he saw the feature as an “animated Lord of the Rings—through the world of these idiots. Because they’re sweet characters but they’re goofs. It’s a comic version, but still very heartfelt, version of Lord of the Rings—though not literally Lord of the Rings, but an epic story like that.” ...

(And firstshowing.net has more images here.)

The James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and John Ford of anime will each be releasing new features:

In coming months, anime's three most prominent directors will release major films in the US. Oshii's Innocence will hit theaters in September. Soon afterward, Katsuhiro Otomo will debut Steamboy, an Indiana Jones-style adventure that takes place in an alternative Victorian age where turbo unicycles and pressure-powered jetpacks battle for supremacy. Then Hayao Miyazaki will deliver Howl's Moving Castle, about a teenage girl who flees a curse by hiding in a gigantic mechanical castle that prowls about on insectlike legs. In addition, Disney will issue three older Miyazaki films on DVD early next year ... (Note: This is an old article that got past filters and my dim eyes. See comments.)

Finally, Andy Klein reviews a new 3-DVD release from WB on Oscar-nominated-winning shorts from Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer and others across the years:

The main attraction among the extras ... is a new hour-long documentary called Drawn for Glory: Animation’s Triumph at the Oscars ... [that] explains how the animation category was invented in the early ’30s essentially as a way to honor industry powerhouse Walt Disney, whose influential output didn’t otherwise fit in. We also learn how much of Hollywood animation was driven by the frustrations of artists working under Disney, who bolted to form their own units elsewhere ...

Addendum: Since one story above is ancient, we'll add another. Yesterday's Hollywood Reporter noted that Paramount/DreamWorks Animation have climbed back aboard Blu-ray after disembarking for Toshiba's HD-DVD last August. So why did they abandon Blu-ray six months ago?

... Paramount and DreamWorks switched to HD DVD-only in August, reportedly after receiving a $150 million payment from the format's supporters for "promotional consideration." ...

President Koch pointed this wrinkle out a couple of weeks ago; now HR gives us a figure. As always in the Town of Tinsel, it's about the long green ...

Addendum Deux: Variety (also Animation Magazine) reports that Sponge Bob Square Pants and friends won't be as readily available to eager young eyes in the Middle Kingdom:

... [China's] State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) is cracking down harder on imported toons, extending its prime-time ban on foreign shows by an hour: The block is now extended from 5 to 9 p.m. The officials are also demanding that local TV stations obtain the censor's approval before airing hugely popular toon such as SpongeBob SquarePants and favorite manga imports from Japan ...

Have a most spiffy weekend.