AWN Headline News

Fall is upon us, and so is the season of many video releases. Following is a list of upcoming U.S. video releases of Japanese anime films. A.D.V. Films and their label Urban Vision will release "Tekkamen Blade II - Stage 3: Final Encounter" (9/22/98), "Dark Warrior" (10/06/98), "MAPS 1 & 2" (10/06/98), "Dark Warrior - First Strike" (10/06/98), "Cutey Honey Volume 2" (10/13/98), "Delinquent in Drag" (10/20/98), "Ruin Explorers 2" (10/27/98) and "Slayers: Dragon Slave!" (11/10/98).

Coinciding with the U.S. tour of The Spice Girls, Psygnosis has released "Spice World," a PlayStation console video game. The game, aimed at pre-teen girls, gives users a chance to choreograph dance routines starring animated versions of Ginger, Scary, Baby, Posh and Sporty Spice. While it may not be rocket science, the Spice Girls game does address a need for games designed for girls. "Spice World" for PlayStation is $35.95.

UCLAs School of Theater, Film and Television has appointed ROBERT ROSEN dean, replacing Gil Cates, who stepped down from the post last year but remains a member of the faculty. Rosen was promoted internally from the position of dean of the Film and Television School, a division of the Theater, Film and Television School (including the Animation Workshop). He has worked at UCLA since 1975. . . . Filmmaker JAMES CAMERON and effects master STAN WINSTON have resigned from the board of directors of the Venice, California-based effects studio they co-founded five years ago, DIGITAL DOMAIN.

The Vital! International Animation Festival (formerly known as Cardiff) is closing its doors due to financial losses incurred at its latest edition in June 1998. This years festival director Jane Williams has left the organization, and the board of directors is now responsible for managing a debt which sources said amounts to approximately (U.K.) £25,000.

Nickelodeon Movies has acquired the feature film rights to Jeff Smiths comic book, Bone for an unspecified amount of money in the high six-figure range. The property is being developed as an animated feature film to be directed by Smith.

* Wednesday, August 26. Burbank, California, U.S.A.

In last weeks Animation Flash, London-based Passion Pictures was mistakenly credited for three 30-second animated spots for travel agency Lunn Poly/Thomson, animated by Mic Graves, Robin Shaw and Joris van Hulzen. The spots were, in fact, produced by aka Pizazz, a different animation studio in London.

The Writers Guild of America has forged an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox to cover writers working on prime-time animated shows The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama and Family Guy. This is of great significance for animation writers and WGAs Animation Writers Caucus, because it gives animation writers on these shows the same benefits as their live-action counterparts, such as mandatory payment for re-writes and access to the WGA health insurance plan.

Geraldine Laybourne, often described as one of the most powerful women inthe entertainment industry, has left her post as president of Disney/ABC Cable Networks to form her own diversified media company. With ABC asits first investor and client, the still unnamed company will focus oncreating branded content for the Internet and television, targeted mainlyat women and children. Prior to joining Disney/ABC in 1996, Laybourne waspresident of Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, a company she joined in 1980 at its