(latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Sony Pictures Imageworks, one of Hollywood's leading visual effects companies, will close a satellite office in New Mexico this summer.
About 30 employees -- who worked on such big-budget films as "I Am Legend," "Green Lantern" and "Men in Black 3" -- were told this week that Sony would not renew the lease on its Albuquerque facility after it expires in July.
A spokesman for Sony Pictures Imageworks declined to elaborate on the reasons for the closure. The workers will be offered jobs at other Sony facilities, including those in Vancouver, Canada, and in Culver City, where the Sony Pictures Entertainment movie and television studio is based.
Sony opened the New Mexico effects office in 2007, moving more than 100 jobs from Culver City to a new studio in Albuquerque to take advantage of the state's generous film tax rebate, which at the time made New Mexico a major hub for production and arch rival to California.
But the facility suffered from a falloff in film activity in recent years, triggered in part by uncertainty over the future of New Mexico's film tax credit. Sony also had difficulty recruiting artists willing to move to Albuquerque, people familiar with the matter said.
Video - Employees Talk SPI Albuquerque : http://www.abqfilm.com/2010/sony-imageworks-employees- speak-about-albuquerque/
Sci-fi Plant Monster "The Day of the Triffids" To Be RePotted
(comingsoon.net) Neil Cross, the creator behind the acclaimed Idris Elba-led BBC series "Luther", has been hired to pen a new adaptation of the sci-fi classic "The Day of the Triffids" for Ghost House Pictures reports Heat Vision.
John Wyndam penned the 1951 post-apocalyptic classic which has since became a landmark of science-fiction literature.
Set in the near future, the story has a meteorite shower hitting the Earth which renders those who looked at it (almost the entire population) blind.
With civilisation having collapsed, triffids - tall, ambulatory, seemingly sentient genetically engineered plants with poisonous whip stingers - start to become the dominant life form on the planet.
The property was previously adapted to the screen three times - once into a British film in 1962, and twice for television. The first small screen attempt, a 1981 BBC mini-series, remains the most acclaimed translation of the work thus far with scenes from it inspiring moments in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" and Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds".
More recently came the second adaptation in late 2010, a critically slammed BBC1 mini-series starring Dougray Scott, Eddie Izzard, Brian Cox and Joely Richardson which pulled in 6.1 million viewers.
Cross also scripted two upcoming Guillermo Del Toro-produced genre films - "Mama" and "Midnight Delivery" - as well as for a polish of Del Toro's own 2013 monster mashup feature "Pacific Rim".
Mark Gordon, Michael Preger, Don Murphy, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce.
'Puss in Boots' Takes Over Top Spot From 'Breaking Dawn'
(hollywoodreporter.com)New releases once again dominated the national home video sales charts the week ending Feb. 26, with retail deep-discounting on a temporary hiatus and Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 slowing down after nearly three weeks in stores.
DreamWorks/Paramount’s Puss in Boots debuted at No. 1 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert overall sales chart its first week in stores, with Universal Studios’ Tower Heist a distant No. 2. Breaking Dawn slipped to No. 3, although Nielsen data shows its week three sales count was just slightly less than first-week sales for Tower Heist, a $78 million-grossing comedy actioner with an all-star cast headed by Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.
Puss in Boots, a Shrek prequel that generated $149.3 million in U.S. theaters, sold more than twice as many units as either title, according to Nielsen.
Digital Domain Speeds Up 'The Cloud'
(storagereview.com)Avere Systems has announced that Digital Domain Productions, a digital production company founded by James Cameron, has implemented Avere FXT Series NAS appliances at a Las Vegas co-location data center to maximize IOPS and minimize latency of its cloud-based infrastructure, ensuring quick access to their computer-generated imagery data.
Digital Domain uses render nodes co-located in Las Vegas, which access data centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. It then turns the data into media frames. However, without the ability to minimize the latency introduced by geography, it would derail Digital Domain’s efforts to leverage the co-location’s footprint in cities with much lower costs for space and power.
This is why they decided deploy Avere FXT at their Las Vegas location. With it, Digital Domain was able to reduce its latency to 0.1 milliseconds, translating into 250x faster performance. Additionally, Digital Domain also has Avere FXT appliances installed at its regional locations in order to provide improved local application performance with fast access to non-local storage.
Avere’s FXT Series of appliances provide a 5:1 reduction in disks, power, and rack space with its tiered file system that organizes data across RAM, Flash, SAS and SATA tiers. The new FXT 3000 and FXT 4000 series models are designed for even greater scalability and efficiency by doubling the amount of appliances that can be clustered to 50 . They also provide as much as 7 TB of RAM and hundreds of terabytes of SAS or SSD capacity on a single cluster.
Animator Praises Unsung Artists at Heart of Genre
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - When animator Fraser MacLean thinks about his work on movies such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Space Jam," and "Tarzan," he's reminded of the Chartres cathedral, southwest of Paris.
The 13th century Gothic church was idealized in "F for Fake," the 1973 Orson Welles film, during a monologue by the director.
"The premier work of man perhaps in the whole western world and it's without a signature: Chartres," Welles said. "A celebration to God's glory and to the dignity of man."
The anonymous artists of Chartres represent the idea, as MacLean put it: Art isn't about signing your name in the corner of the canvas.
MacLean began his career as an unknown artist, doing shading on the animated characters in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which combined live action and animation.
"That idea that you would surrender your own creative abilities and your own technical mastery to something that would just be a delight to the people that saw it ... in some ways is actually liberating," he said.
MacLean, who grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, returned a decade ago and was surprised during his guest lectures at art colleges.
Students at some schools weren't required to do observational drawing. Having a background in fine art drawing landed MacLean his first job with Disney UK.
At the same time, MacLean was hearing about animation companies looking for students with drawing skills and being unable to find them.
He decided to write "Setting the Scene: The Art and Evolution of Animation Layout" about the importance of the layout department in animated feature films.
"The entire structure and choreography of all the action in the movie stems from the way that the layout artists develop what they find in the original story sketches," MacLean said.
He presented the book alongside layout artist Roy Naisbitt at the 31st Anima film festival in Brussels last week.
First recognized as a separate department by Disney with "Cinderella" in 1950, MacLean hit on a subject that made directors such as Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Ratatouille") and Pete Docter ("Up") unable to hang up the phone.
"A filmmaker often tries to convey a feeling, and attempts to do so in a sneaky way of which the audience isn't even conscious," Docter wrote in the foreword of MacLean's book. "The way a subject is presented can be the difference between making a connection with the audience and having them fall asleep."
MacLean also had access to Disney's Animation Research Library for the book, which was published in September.
One day, the Disney librarian opened a drawer and took out an original watercolor painting of Geppetto's workshop from "Pinocchio," Disney's second feature-length film from 1940.
MacLean said those early Disney films, including "Snow White" in 1937, left an enormous impression on his mother, who died in 2008 soon after he proposed the book.
"My mother and father and their parents, they all stood in line to go to see Snow White when it came out," he said. "My mother, even though she had dementia, she could tell me what seat she was sitting in at (the) cinema in Aberdeen."
Holding the painting in his hands, MacLean started crying.
The librarian assured him: That happens to a lot of people.
Seeing the artwork that was photographed in a movie with so much meaning to his parents was overwhelming.
"I still cannot tell you who painted that bit of artwork and I don't care."
Top Gun Sequel Stays Afloat
(The Hollywood Reporter) Paramount Pictures has brought aboard The Town screenwriter Peter Craig to draft a sequel to their 1986 hit Top Gun, says a story at The Hollywood Reporter.
The original film was directed by Tony Scott and starred Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Navy pilot. Late last year Cruise confirmed that he's been in talks with Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer about reprising the role of Maverick.
It was also confirmed last year that the original film is undergoing a 3D conversion and will be re-released theatrically sometime this year.
Weta Digital Renders New Universal Studio Logo
To mark the studio's 100th anniversary, visual effects artists from Weta Digital have animated a new version of the company's signature globe.
As part of its yearlong centennial celebration, Universal Pictures is unveiling a new on-screen logo that will be seen for the first time in theaters in front of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, the new animated movie from Universal and Illumination Entertainment, which opens March 2. The new logo will then appear on all Universal’s movies going forward.
The new animated logo, an updated variation of the studio’s signature globe, is the seventh version of the Universal logo in the studio’s 100-year history.
It was created by the visual effects artists at New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which also created the effects for The Lord of the Rings franchise. Playing off of the theme of “global vision,” the logo is inspired by satellite imagery of the earth as seen from a clear night in space, but instead of focusing on the continents and what the studio describes as the “physical boundaries that separate people,” the new view is highlighted with tiny points of bright lights that pop across the globe — “symbolizing the thousands of communities brought together by their shared love of film," the studio explained.
“Our Centennial year is the perfect opportunity to create a new logo that reflects our future while honoring our past,” Ron Meyer, Universal Studios president and COO, said. “Universal’s new logo celebrates the studio’s extraordinary legacy in creating lasting movie memories and connecting viewers across the globe.”
New Logo - Take a look: http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/universal- pictures-100th-anniversary- logo.jpg
New Visual Effects Studio Will Create 75 Jobs
(ebrsouth.wafb.com)Governor Bobby Jindal and Pixomondo CEO Thilo Kuther announced the creation of a new Pixomondo visual effects studio in Baton Rouge that will create 75 new direct jobs in film, TV, and commercial production work. The company’s work won an Oscar at the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26 for its visual effects work on Hugo. Pixomondo will occupy more than 6,000 square feet at Celtic Media Centre and will make an initial capital investment of $1.2 million.
Opening in May, the Pixomondo Baton Rouge studio will be the German company’s 12th international location. Annual salaries will average more than $65,000, plus benefits, and Pixomondo will hire 50 people in its first year, expanding to 75 by the end of its second year. The project will result in the creation of 49 indirect jobs, Louisiana Economic Development estimates, for a total of more than 120 jobs.
“When I took office, we had laws on the books that called for scaling back motion picture tax credits," Jindal said. "At the same time, other states were becoming more competitive and trying to attract the film industry to their states. Instead of just letting other states beat us and take our jobs, we made a commitment to strengthen our entertainment industry and make it bigger and better. That’s why it’s no accident that the film, TV and entertainment industries in Louisiana have more than tripled in size since we took office.
“Pixomondo already operates a dozen VFX studios worldwide and they could have chosen anywhere to create a new studio. Pixomondo’s decision speaks volumes about how far Louisiana has come in improving our business climate, in providing competitive incentives, in developing the 21st century workforce that companies demand, and in attracting a highly successful film industry. The bottom line is that Louisiana’s film industry and the Baton Rouge market have arrived in the big leagues of the entertainment world, and we’re here to stay.”
“Opening an office in Baton Rouge fits perfectly with our overall company vision,” said Kuther, the Pixomondo founder and CEO. “Louisiana offers a very generous production tax credit that we can pass on to our clients to bolster our project load as well as our growing teams in Los Angeles, London and Germany — not to mention China and Canada. Baton Rouge is a beautiful city with a wealth of resources. We’ve already connected with the Louisiana State University computer science department to help set up remote render farms and virtualization with our other studios.”
The state began working with Pixomondo six months ago to gauge the company’s interest in establishing a visual effects studio that could partner with major movie and TV productions in Baton Rouge and Louisiana, where annual film production now exceeds one billion dollars and ranks third behind the California and New York markets. The rapid growth of the Louisiana film industry attracted the company, as did Louisiana’s permanent tax credits of up to 35 percent for Louisiana-based payroll expenditures on digital media and film projects.
In 2009, Governor Jindal signed a law to strengthen the Louisiana Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, increasing the 25 percent tax credit to 30 percent — and, adding another 5 percent on Louisiana-based payroll for a total credit of up to 35 percent. For every dollar of tax credits spent on film production, Louisiana gains more than five dollars of economic activity.
The year before Governor Jindal took office, Louisiana saw 79 productions file for tax credits that planned to spend $408 million in Louisiana. In 2011, there were 151 applications for film projects in the state, and their planned expenditures in Louisiana amounted to $1.4 billion. That means over the past four years, Louisiana’s film and TV industry has grown by nearly 250 percent, more than tripling in size. Louisiana’s film industry is supporting more than 8,000 jobs now that were not around a decade ago.
The Baton Rouge studio will work with Pixomondo’s international locations on major projects that require around-the-clock production across different time zones. Project work will include visual effects for corporate campaigns as well as film and TV productions.
To secure the Pixomondo project, the state offered customized solutions from LED FastStart, ranked the No. 1 workforce development program in the nation. Pixomondo also is expected to utilize Louisiana’s digital media and film production tax credits and the Quality Jobs Program. In addition to LED, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, the Baton Rouge Film Commission, LSU and Celtic Media Centre all played key roles in attracting the project to Baton Rouge.
Effects Artist Aaron Sims To Direct Sci-fi "Archetype" Feature
(Heat Vision) Chronicle and I, Robot producer John Davis has picked up the film rights to Archetype, a sci-fi short directed by Aaron Sims. Davis has a first-look deal with Twentieth Century Fox.
In the short, starring Robert Joy and David Anders, "RL7 is an eight-foot tall combat robot that goes on the run after malfunctioning with vivid memories of once being human. As its creators and the military close in, RL7 battles its way to uncovering the shocking truth behind its mysterious visions and past."
Heat Vision says that Sims runs the Aaron Sims Co., a previs and visual effects company with credits including War Horse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Thing. Sims would direct the feature from a script by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy. John Norris will produce with Davis.
Luxology Delivers Significant Updates To modo 601
(graphics.com)The latest version of Luxology's 3D modeling, animation and rendering software notably adds character animation and built-in dynamics.
Luxology claims modo provides one of the fastest paths to creating high-quality 3D content for game development, design visualization, film visual effects, video production and the graphic arts, with the end result being 3D models, associated color and normal maps, and ultra high-quality renderings. One of the attractions of modo is the degree to which it can be configured to meet the needs of users. For example, the interface can easily be changed to provide navigation and hotkeys similar to leading 3D packages such as Autodesk 3ds Max or Maya. Or if you're using it primarily as a 3D paint system, a preset layout is available for related tasks. You can also make modo act like a modeler, a UV editor or a renderer. The applications ships with over 1,500 pre-built assets including profile curves, realistic surface finishes, fur presets, 3D props, vegetation, animated rigs and professionally designed lighting environments that light a scene in two mouse clicks.
According to Brad Peebler, president and co-founder of Luxology, "modo 601 is our most significant release ever.” The new character animation functionality ranges from easy-to-use posing tools to the creation of fully articulated character rigs, which can be manipulated through a full-body inverse kinematics solver and a general purpose system of layered deformers. Rigid and soft body dynamics are now a standard part of modo and provide realistic simulations of mechanical and organic motion. New photorealistic rendering capabilities include volumetric rendering, render booleans, hair and skin shaders, and rounded edge control for hard surface models. Cel, contour and halftone shaders offer enhanced non-photorealistic rendering opportunities. Also worthy of note is the simplification of the rapid creation of clean models on top of imported geometry; the extension of the multi-purpose paint system to paint, scale, erase and smooth vertex (weight) maps on meshes; the ability to use the Preview Renderer for final image production, since it will progressively render an image to the desired resolution at full quality; and the ability to crease individual vertices and control display resolution while rendering at full quality.
modo 601 for Mac and Windows can be purchased on the Luxology site for $1,195. Users of Maya, 3ds Max, SoftImage, Houdini, CINEMA 4D and LightWave 3D are offered a crossgrade to modo for $795. A trial version is also available for download.
Live Action "Cinderella" Heads Into Development
(darkhorizons.com)Chris Weitz ("The Golden Compass," "About a Boy") is in negotiations to rewrite a live-action take on "Cinderella" for Walt Disney Pictures says Heat Vision.
"The Devil Wears Prada" scribe Aline Brosh McKenna sold the pitch to Disney in 2010 which re-imagines the tale and sets up the new context of a "prince set for a politically arranged marriage, until the evil plan is threatened when the prince meets Cinderella."
Mark Romanek ("Never Let Me Go") is attached to direct while Simon Kinberg is producing.
Aggressive Animation Policy For India
(deccanherald.com)Karnataka on Wednesday became the first State in the country to have a dedicated policy to provide impetus to sectors like digital arts.
The Karnataka Animation, Visual effects, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC) Policy, which was cleared by the Cabinet in January, was officially launched with the objective of making the State a favoured investment destination in the sector.
Speaking to reporters after the launch, Labour Minister B N Bachegowda said the policy was aimed at enhancing the investments and growth in the sector, besides helping aspirants from both the urban and rural areas of the State get jobs.
M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary for IT/BT, Science and Technology, pointed out that the industry had a business potential of Rs 10,000 crore by the end of 2012. He said the policy would help the industry gain enough momentum so as to grow at over 40 per cent in the next three years.
He claimed the policy would lead to economic upliftment of the economically-weaker sections of society, especially in rural areas.
“We want to set up a Centre for Excellence here (Bangalore) with state-of-the-art facilities. This will act as a catalyst for the industry,” Vidyashankar said.
The Centre, he said, would be set up on a PPP model with both the Centre and State contributing financially.
While the Centre would contribute 30 per cent of the cost, the industry is expected to contribute 50 per cent. The remaining will be the State government’s share.
He said a venture capital fund with an initial investment of Rs 50 crore –– funded jointly by government and private venture capitalists –– will be set up to meet the needs of entrepreneurs.
Biren Ghose, President of the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI), pointing out that the sector had a business potential of reaching $2 billion in the coming years, said the policy would make the city the largest contributor to the sector.
He said that in line with the policy’s objective –– of reaching out to rural talent –– ABAI will set up digital art centres in 10 Government arts colleges in rural areas as a pilot project, at a cost of Rs 10 lakh each.
Disney's Sci-Fi Comedy 'The Pet' Gets Dynamite Director
(Variety) Walt Disney Pictures and producer Scott Rudin have brought back to life the sci-fi family comedy The Pet and set Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) to direct, reports Variety. Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor will produce with Rudin.
The project, originally written by Matt Lieberman, centers on an everyday guy who becomes the pet of a group of aliens.
Rudin has been attached for years and David Silverman was previously going to direct, but Ress is now taking over the project, which was recently rewritten by Tim Dowling (This Means War).
Hess's other credits include Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncos, as well as the new "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series.
Could Pixar's 'Secret Story Guidelines' Work for Your Team?
(blogs.hbr.org) Believe it or not, Pixar was once a scrappy startup. The multi-billion dollar juggernaut with a near-perfect record of churning out hit after hit today was once "a bunch of guys going on their gut" according to Andrew Stanton, a co-founding filmmaker with the company whose credits include writing and directing Wall E and Finding Nemo.
Stanton explained at the TED Conference on Tuesday that back in these scrappy days of 1993, as this group was putting together its ideas for its first movies, it saw itself swimming upstream against the dominant forces — and mindsets — of animated films. Remember — at this time popular animated movies included song-and-dance hits like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King and Aladdin. Successful fare to be sure, but Pixar looked at the competition and saw an opportunity to make animated movies that were different. They didn't have to follow the mores the others felt. They could tell different kinds of stories in different way.
So this "group of guys" drafted a set of "secret story guidelines," as Stanton describes them, to help guide them internally against the prevailing winds in the animation world at the time.
Their secret guidelines:
* No songs
* No "I want" moments
* No happy village
* No love story
* No villain
Against the context of what worked at the time for animated movies, these were pretty subversive. Even in today's Pixar-dominated landscape, they're pretty stark and some may have bent over time. But still, these rules established a clear set of parameters for the company. With them, they plotted a countervailing course, one that led the company to its unparalleled run of success today.
But Pixar's approach almost didn't come to pass. Disney, a key early investor in the company, grew worried that Pixar wasn't heading in the right direction after early setbacks in the making of Toy Story. So Disney hired a leading animation producer to help lend a hand to the scrappy bunch. This producer faxed Disney a set of rules (remember faxes?) that Pixar's team somehow got ahold of. The rules they needed to follow to make its story work, according to him?
* You need songs
* You need an "I want" moment
* You have to have a happy village
* You gotta have a love story
* You need a villain
Pixar held its ground — "We were young enough not to care," said Stanton, and the rest, as they say in the movies, is history.
Now clearly, Pixar operates in a specific industry and these guidelines are very specific to that industry and their craft, so they probably aren't relevant outside of that realm. But the idea of taking the time to look around your industry, identify your opportunity, and list off a set of defiant (and slightly cheeky) guidelines that everyone on the team can hold onto proved incredibly powerful for Pixar. It's a pretty classic strategic trick for sure, but one that too few companies or teams likely employ. Given the impact and the success Pixar saw in part as a result of this device, establishing a set of "story guidelines" that work for your team — or your company — may be a tactic you want to consider.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Adds Three Fates
(The Hollywood Reporter) Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, the sequel to the 2010 book series adaptation Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, has added three to its cast. The Hollywood Reporter has word that Mary Birdsong, Yvette Nicole Brown and Missi Pyle have all signed on to play the Three Fates.
The sequel finds Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), the son of Poseidon, continuing his epic journey to fulfill his destiny, as he teams with his demigod friends (played by Alexandra Daddario and Douglas Smith) to retrieve the Golden Fleece, which has the power to save their home and training ground, Camp Half-Blood.
Both Birdsong and Pyle recently appeared in films nominated for Best Picture at last weekend's Academy Awards celebration. Birdsong had a role in The Descendants while Pyle appeared in the night's big winner, The Artist. Brown, meanwhile, is best known for her role as Shirley on NBC's "Community."
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters will be directed by Thor Freudenthal and is set for release on March 27, 2013.
Animation UK Steps Up Fight for Tax Credits
(broadcastnow.co.uk)Animation UK has been keeping up the momentum of its tax credits campaign with an eleventh-hour meeting with the Treasury.
The lobby group met with chancellor George Osborne and Exchequer secretary David Gauke, who is responsible for shaping tax policy, last week. Culture minister Ed Vaizey was also present.
Led by chairman Oli Hyatt, the animators put forward the various economic and cultural arguments, highlighting the economic growth, inward investment, IP and jobs that could be created if the “distorted” tax regime were changed.
It was the “culmination of two years’ work”, said Hyatt. “We have given ourselves the best possible chance and we are firmly on the agenda. The Treasury is going to give our industry very careful consideration. We came away feeling hugely positive about the whole thing – we are certain we are past the stage of them just paying us lip service.”
Animation UK is now planning approaches to backbench MPs, whom it is hoped can keep the issue high on the government’s list of priorities. The group has already received assurances from several politicians that they will boost the issue’s profile ahead of the Budget on 21 March.
Cities of London and Westminster MP Mark Field, who has been supporting the campaign since it started, told Broadcast: “We have done our bit and are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be good news. The tax credit has support across the parties, so if it is proposed by the government, there is no question it would go through.
All that remains is to see whether the Treasury can be convinced.” The All Party Group for Children, Media and the Arts, chaired by Floella Benjamin, is hosting a reception at Westminster this month to highlight the problems facing the animation sector.
Sony Animation Moves Forward With The "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Sequel
(ComingSoon.net)A Sony Pictures Animation print ad has revealed what appears to be the new title for the sequel to 2009's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. According to the below image, the new film will be released as Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers. The same ad also offers a new look at the monstrous animated characters that will be featured in the studio's Hotel Transylvania.
The Cloudy sequel is still without a release date, but is being directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. The original film featured the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg and Mr. T. and most are expected to return.
Transylvania, meanwhile, hits theaters on September 28th and stars the voice talents of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Cee-Lo Green, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and David Koechner.
Smurfs 2 is also featured in the ad, but with what is very likely a tentative logo.
Blizzard, Maker of World of Warcraft, Slashes 600 Jobs
(latimesblogs.latimes.com)Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard Inc., is eliminating 600 jobs, the Irvine game studio disclosed Wednesday.
The jobs represent 8.2% of the total workforce at Santa Monica-based Activision, which reported having 7,300 workers at the end of 2011.
Blizzard, which publishes the popular World of Warcraft title, said in a brief statement that 90% of the jobs being affected are not related to game development. As a result, the company said its game release schedule for upcoming titles Diablo III, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm remain intact.
"I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today's announcement," Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's chief executive, wrote in a blog post.
The company did not say what types of jobs were affected nor where the cuts were occurring. Calls to Blizzard spokeswoman Lisa Jensen were not returned.
Once regarded as an unstoppable growth and profit engine, Blizzard's key title in World of Warcraft has flagged in the last year. The number of subscribers who pay around $15 a month to play the online game peaked at 12 million in October 2010. That number fell to 10.2 million as of Dec. 31, the company reported three weeks ago along with its quarterly earnings.
Released seven years ago, World of Warcraft has had a remarkable run and a staggering profit margin that frequently exceeded 40%. But even hard-core fans have grown tired of the game. And many have migrated to other titles, including Star Wars: The Old Republic, an online game that has garnered 1.7 million subscribers since its December launch.
Blizzard is also duking it out with rival social games such as Kingdoms of Camelot that are increasingly targetting hard-core gamers. It's also seeing more competition from online games that are initially free to play but sell virtual items. Riot Games' League of Legends title, for example, has captured millions of players since being released in 2009.
Founded in 1991 by three UCLA graduates, Blizzard has a record of releasing a small number of high-quality titles that has earned it the loyalty of many fans. The company has said it is working on a new online game, but has declined to disclose any details.
Shares of its parent company, Activision, slipped 11 cents, or less than 1%, to $11.95 on Wednesday.
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