News

London-based visual effects company to open animation unit in Montreal and begin production on 3D feature Charming.

UK digital visual effects company Cinesite is to create a slate of family animation features with 3Qu Media, the new CG-animation production company headed by Shrek producer John Williams and Henry Skelsy, managing partner of Fulton Capital Management.

The first project will be Charming, an irreverent animated comedy that re-imagines the tales of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty who discover they are all engaged to the same prince.

The film will be produced by Williams and directed by Ross Vemokur (Animal Crackerz).

Williams said: “We believe Charming can be a big commercial success and we hope this will be the beginning of a long time feature animation association between 3Qu and Cinesite’s super talented artists, technicians, and production team.”

Cinesite MD Antony Hunt said: “Feature animation is a natural extension of our talent and infrastructure.

“This deal is...

Exclusive: Universal 1440 Entertainment, the production arm of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, has signed a first-look deal with Threshold Animation Studios for CG-animated family features adapted from recognizable family-oriented brands. Universal will distribute films spawned from the deal. The companies first teamed on straight-to-dvd titles Lego: The Adventures Of Clutch Powers and Bionicle: The Legend Reborn. The pact gives Universal 1440 a stream of potential CG fare for its library of home video releases geared toward family audiences including the feature-length The Little Engine That Could film, the Emmy-winning PBS series Curious George, and the Barbie DVD film franchise.

In addition to the children’s titles, Universal 1440 has bolstered its home video offerings with non-theatrical franchise spinoffs including Death Race 3: Inferno, Curse Of Chucky, and the upcoming Scorpion King 4: Quest For Power. These VOD, DVD, and Blu-ray releases have built a burgeoning business for Universal’s home video development and production banner.

This week sees more new film and TV releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Among the ones we’re more interested in this week are Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Dead Snow, The Box, Season One of Nurse Jackie and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (pictured above with John C. Reilly and Chris Massoglia).

Check out all the new releases below.

Movies

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant ~ John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dead Snow ~ Vegar Hoel (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dirty Harry/Magnum Force ~ Clint Eastwood (Blu-ray)

Everybody’s Fine ~ Robert De Niro, Drew Darrymore (Blu-ray and DVD)

Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men ~ Walter Matthau, Jack Lemon (Blu-ray)

Howards End (Criterion Collection) ~ Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter (Blu-ray and DVD)

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths ~ Mark Harmon, Alyssa Milano, William Baldwin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 ~ Sandra Bullock (Blu-ray)

The Informant!