People
 |
| Roland Poindexter. Photo courtesy of Fox. |
Musical Chairs. Rich Cronin has finally settled in to his position as president and CEO of Fox Kids Network and Fox Family Channel. He was president of Nick at Nite's TV Land until October 1997, when he signed the new contract with Fox while still under contract with Nick. Nickelodeon took legal action to prevent Cronin from starting with Fox until his original Nick contract expired on June 30. Fox Family Channel will re-launch on August 15 . . . . Roland Poindexter has been promoted from director to vice president of development at Fox Kids Network. His previous positions include development roles at Nelvana and ABC. . . . At Fox Broadcasting Co., Leslie Kolins-Small has been promoted to vice president of alternative programming. She will continue to supervise development of alternative programming such as Family Guy, Futurama, The PJs and MAD TV. Before joining Fox as director of alternative and late night programming in 1995, Kolins-Small was a senior producer at MTV Networks. . . . Will Vinton Studios has named Richard Durkin vice president and executive producer in charge of the Portland, Oregon-based company's New York office. Durkin has been the studio's East coast independent sales representative for seven years, and is also president and owner of Ice Tea Productions, a talent management and recruitment agency for animation and live-action commercial directors. . . .
 |
| Richard Durkin. Photo courtesy of Will Vinton Studios. |
Animation director Bill Kroyer has joined Rhythm
& Hues, with whom he has been working on a freelance basis since January
of this year directing spots for Kern's, Intel, Nicor and Coca-Cola. Now on
staff at the studio, Kroyer will be involved in both the commercial and feature
film areas, with his next projects being spots for Huggies and Disney Cruise
Lines. Until recently, he was under contract with Warner Bros. Feature Animation.
He is currently in development on a live action/computer animation feature
for Warner Bros. Studios. . . . Sony Signatures, the consumer products
division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, has hired Grace Ressler as
senior manager of publishing. She was previously manager of film and television
publishing at Warner Bros. Worldwide Publishing. . . .Husband-and-wife writing
team Jon Cooksey and Ali Marie Matheson have signed a one-year television
development deal with The Disney Channel. Their writing credits include
Rugrats, as well as live-action shows Moonlighting and Outer
Limits. . . . Debra Streiker-Fine has been named president of the
Interactive Media division of Venice, California-based visual effects company
Digital Domain. She was previously president and CEO of Cloud 9 Media,
a company she founded in 1994 that is in the process of being sold. Previously,
Streiker-Fine was head of marketing at Disney Interactive. . . . Visual effects
supervisor Jon Dykstra has signed on with Sony Pictures Imageworks
to work on effects for Columbia Pictures' live-action/animation feature, Stuart
Little. He will work with director Rob Minkoff (co-director of The
Lion King). Dykstra's previous credits include Star Wars, Batman Forever,
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Batman and Robin. . . . Pocahontas
producer James Pentecost has extended his contract with Walt Disney
Feature Animation for another three years. He is currently working with
Disney on a prequel to the 1988 animation/live-action feature, Who Framed
Roger Rabbit with producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. The exclusive
deal also gives Disney a first-look at Pentecost's live-action, TV, book and
stage projects. . . . Joan Vogelesang has been named chief operating
officer at Montreal-based animation software company, Toon Boom Technologies.
She was previously at Qsound Labs. . . .
 |
| Actors Mel Gibson and Julia Sawahla with the puppets of Rocky and Ginger the characters they will voice in Aardman Animations' first full-length animated feature, Chicken Run. Photo by Rob McEwan. © DreamWorks LLC. |
Actors Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Julia
Sawahla (Absolutely Fabulous) and Miranda Richardson (Damage)
are heading the voice cast of Aardman Animations' first full-length animated
feature, Chicken Run. Gibson will play the part of an all-American
rooster named Rocky and Sawahla will play his British chicken mate, Ginger.
Richardson is Mrs. Tweedy, the sinister proprietor of the chicken farm from
which Ginger and Rocky are trying to escape. Chicken Run will be released
by DreamWorks and Pathe in 1999 or 2000. . . . Alias/Wavefront has
named Warren Pratt, Ph.D., president of the company. An executive of
parent company Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) for the past seven years, Pratt
replaces Penny Wilson who is leaving Alias/Wavefront to pursue other interests.
. . . Tom Ruzicka, senior vice president of domestic production at
Walt Disney Television Animation, resigned at the end of July. He began
working at Disney 14 years ago as a production supervisor and was one of the
staff members involved in the formation of the TV Animation division. Ruzicka
hasn't announced his next move, but he plans to explore either new technologies,
"as they relate to new distribution methods like the Internet,"
or to "leave the executive ranks and get back into producing," he
said. . . . Gustavo Basalo has been promoted to managing director of
International Network Development for Hearst Entertainment and Syndication
Group. For the past 15 months, he has been general manager of the Spanish
all-animation network, The Locomotion Channel, a partnership with Hearst and
Cisneros Group. Locomotion employees are currently reporting to Carlos Cisneros
while an executive search is conducted to fill Basalo's position. . . . David
Zuckerman has been hired as an executive producer for the new Fox series,
Family Guy. He was previously an executive producer on Fox's King
of the Hill.. . .Suzanne French has been named vice president of
Toronto, Canada-based Alliance Animation. She was previously in charge
of creative development and business management for YTV and Treehouse TV co-productions.
. . . Los Angeles area effects house Dream Quest Images has hired Dean
Wright as director of production. He has been a staff visual effects producer
at Digital Domain for the past two years. . . .
 |
| Commercial director Mike Bade. Photo courtesy of Curious Pictures. |
Curious Pictures in New York has signed designer/director Mike Bade to its roster. He is a co-founder of Amster Yard, and was previously an art director with Margeotes, Fertitta and Weiss, where he worked with Curious on the memorable retro-animated ad campaign for Cappio beverages. . . . Brad Larson has joined Boston-based Fablevision Animation Studios to work on interactive media for children. He was previously an educational programmer and interactive exhibit designer at the Boston Children's Museum. . . . Jean Ann Wright has been hired as event coordinator at ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles chapter of the international animated film society, ASIFA. She was previously employed at CBS, and is also co-chair of the Women In Animation Writer's Group. . . . Jan Nagel has joined North Hollywood, California-based ink, paint and compositing service Virtual Magic Animation as director of business development and marketing. For the past six years she has been director of marketing and communications at Calico Entertainment, and was previously director of public relations and advertising for Dream Quest Images. . . . Laura Harkcom has exited her post as director of creative affairs at Warner Bros. Feature Animation. She was the remaining half of the development division after Doug Wood left for Universal in November. . . .Los Angeles-based The Story Companies have signed Kathy Aronstam for representation in Chicago and the Midwest, and added live-action/animation director Trip Gruver (previously with Cognito Films) to its roster. . . . Santa Maria, California-based Computer Café hired computer graphics artist Brett Paton. He was previously at Dynamic Animation Systems, a studio servicing military contractors, in Burke, Virginia. . . . New York City-based Tape House Digital hired graphic designer and Flame artist Sophia Pavlatos. She previously held the same position at Click 3X. . . . A group of Canadians have joined forces to form a new animation/effects/paint studio called Mercury Filmworks, based in Vancouver. The founding partners are Blair Peters and Chris Bartleman from Studio B Productions, and Clint Eland and Reg Eland of Eland Effects Group.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
Table of Contents
Feedback?
Past Issues
About | Help | Home | info@awn.com | Mail | Register
| Animation
World Magazine | Animation World Store | The
AWN Vault The AWN Gallery | Animation Village | Calendar of Events | Career Connections | Forums & Chats | Home |