End-of-Week Linkage

I'm so old I remember when Tron was considered a misfire.

A TV series of groundbreaking 1982 sci-fi film Tron is being made by the Disney Channel, according to reports. The new show will be aimed at children aged between six and 14, according to trade magazine Mediaweek. It is not clear when it will air.

There are reportedly also plans for a separate 10-part micro-series to be shown in autumn 2011 on Disney XD, the cable channel aimed at young boys.

Big screen 3D re-imagining Tron Legacy, meanwhile, is due out in December ....

Who says hand-drawn features are done?

T-Pain's animated 'Freaknik': 'Strippers start coming and flying out the air'

On Sunday, the Cartoon Network will premiere “Freaknik: The Musical,” a 60-minute animated feature produced by, and starring, the rapper -- and yes, there will be use of Auto-Tune.

T-Pain said making the move to animation was easy because he had already been collaborating with the network, including appearing in a live-action version of the hit show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” Using Freaknik as the backdrop for the special was one of the ideas brought to him by producers, and it happened to be the most risqué. ...

Comic The Goon is apparently coming along nicely on the road to animated featurehood.

We had to adapt [the comic book version] for the film, but I wrote the script — so The Goon doesn't fall from the sky in a meteor or have superpowers or anything like that. It is The Goon and it has the feel of the The Goon. The story had to change a little to get it to work in a film format, but the characters, the world, and the interaction between the characters are all the same.

Hot diggity. Diz Co. is getting a thumbs up from Wall Street ...

Bank of America Merrill Lynch ... said the stock is one of the most compelling equities in the media and entertainment sector heading into fiscal 2011. The broker sees the firm helped by a broad economic recovery that helps ad-driven networks, a falling unemployment rate that helps parks and consumer products,

It would be nice to believe Merril Lynch is right on. Because the stock price hasn't moved much in some years.

So who takes the fall for this?

A Los Angeles businessman who was arrested for investigation of draping a building with a massive movie billboard near the site of the upcoming Oscars agreed to remove the sign Monday in exchange for a drastic reduction of his bail. ...

Authorities said Setareh arranged for the ad for DreamWorks Animation LLC's upcoming movie "How to Train Your Dragon" to be hung on a Hollywood Boulevard building he owns near the Kodak Theatre, the site of Sunday's Academy Awards ...

DreamWorks Animation referred questions to Paramount Pictures, which was handling marketing for "How to Train Your Dragon." Paramount said in a statement that it had been assured that the site had all appropriate permits. ...

"Not my fault." ... Not MY fault!" ...

And then there's a newer Toy Story 3 poster.

Meanwhile, there's more mining of the Mouse's film vaults:

Disney Theatrical Productions and Stephen Daldry, the Tony Award-wining director of “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” are developing an adaptation for the stage of the 1941 classic animated movie “Dumbo,” a Disney executive said on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Daldry approached Disney Theatrical several months ago with a concept for a “Dumbo” musical, and they are now in “the very initial stages” of shaping those ideas ...

Lastly. The New York Times analyzes the shrinking fees of film actors:

For Movie Stars, the Big Money Is Now Deferred

Movie stars, who not so long ago vied to make $20 million or even $25 million a picture, have seen their upfront salaries shrink in the last several years as DVD sales fell, star-driven vehicles stumbled at the box office and studios grew increasingly tightfisted ....

... [F]or the ultrahigh-budget “Avatar,” the highest paid appears to have been Sigourney Weaver, though she almost certainly worked for a small fraction of the $11 million she was reported to have been paid for “Alien: Resurrection” in 1997.

Zoë Saldana and Sam Worthington, meanwhile, got fees that were more than guild minimums but less than enough to make them feel financially secure ...

At least Mr. Worthington wasn’t scratching for fees in the animation world.

“I was paid for sessions,” said Ed Asner, a veteran actor who provided the voice for Carl Fredricksen, an aging adventurer in “Up,” a best-picture nominees. Typically, the eight or 10 sessions required of a voice actor might pay $50,000 ... Mr. Asner, who spoke by phone last week, said he ultimately received much more because the Walt Disney Company’s Pixar unit, which produced “Up,” augmented his small front-end fee with bonuses that came with the film’s success ...

(Ed's session rates seem about what Vincent Price pulled down twenty-seven years ago for The Great Mouse Detective. My, but how things have stayed similar.)

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Have a wondrous Friday work experience.