Category: People

New York-based CURIOUS PICTURES has added Michael Bennion to its directorial roster for representation in the United States. Bennion, collaborating with Curious director David Kelley, recently completed his first job under the Curious Pictures banner, a pool of spots for CDnow. For the last year, Bennion has been associated with The End (London, England), which will continue to rep him outside of the US. While there, he created ads for MTV and LUCKY, a live-action short film.

Hollywood-based RUGRATS producer Klasky Csupo has promoted Hal Waite to senior vice president of Feature Animation, which now plans to produce one feature film per year, and Cella Duffy to senior vice president of Television Animation. Waite, who has been with the company since '96 and was a co-producer on THE RUGRATS MOVIE, is currently working on the RUGRATS sequel, scheduled for Christmas 2000.

PDI has hired Arnauld Lamorlette, 34, formerly vice president and director of R&D at the Paris-based studio Buf Compagnie, to join PDI's visual effects team. Lamorlette has been named a Senior Visual Effects Developer on SHREK. Aron Warner, SHREK producer, said, "He has been brought on to PDI's team to oversee the creation of computer-generated human characters and the rich organic world they will inhabit in SHREK.

ELIZA MCLATCHY has been named associate producer at Boston-based LOCONTE GOLDMAN DESIGN. In this post, McLatchy will work with senior producers and operations to develop and maintain the structure of projects. She will also serve as the liaison between creative personnel and the operations department. Prior to joining LoConte Goldman, McLatchy, 24, freelanced for the company on a variety of projects including "ESPN Speedworld," Romance Classics Network "Fire & Ice Valentine's Special," and a corporate image video for Lotus Development Corporation.

PIXAR has announced that its Chief Financial Officer and executive vice president, Lawrence Levy, will leave his post at the end March to take personal time off. No replacement has been announced yet. Levy will continue to be involved with Pixar as a member of the company's Board of Directors. Pixar also announced that it has appointed Chief Technical Officer Ed Catmull to its Board.

Digital ink, paint and compositing house VIRTUALMAGIC ANIMATION has hired CHRISIE RUSSELL as Production Manager and promoted Ryan Robertson to the same position. Russell joins VirtualMagic from Warner Bros. Feature Animation where she was Assistant Production Manager on their last three features, THE IRON GIANT, SPACE JAM and THE QUEST FOR CAMELOT. Ryan Roberston, previously the production manager and art editor of the bi-monthly magazine HOT LAVA, joined VirtualMagic in 1997 as an Administrative Assistant.

Disney Interactive has appointed Frank Evers to vice president of product development andproduction. Evers assumes overall responsibilities for the development ofall Disney Interactive products. In this role, he will oversee staffing,long range product planning and the development of policies, processes andquality assurance procedures for product content. He will report to JanSmith, Senior VP and general manager of Disney Interactive worldwide. Priorto joining Disney, Evers was VP of production at Activision, spearheading

Boston-based LOCONTE GOLDMAN DESIGN hasnamed five-time Emmy Award-winner Scott Pressler to Senior Design Director.Pressler has worked as an independent designer for the last 10 years with anumber of high-profile clients. Pressler was a broadcast designer for NBCSports from 1989-1996. While at NBC, he was the creative director andsenior designer of the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, and designer andcreative director for the 1992 summer Olympic games, Wimbledon '92-'94, NFL

New York-based LoConte Goldman Design has promoted four-time Emmy winner Arne Jensen to Senior Designer. Jensen has worked on numerous projects since joining the company in '96, including the ABC News NIGHTLINE redesign and ESPN SPEEDWORLD and NFL DRAFT graphics packages. In addition, Kenneth Shaw has joined LoConte's team of designers. Shaw had most recently been working for Olive Jar as a composite artist. "Ken impressed us with his natural ability to bridge the creative with the technical.

Former CAA agent and MGM president and CEO Mike Marcus has joined Will Vinton Studios (WVS) board of directors. According to Marcus, "Will Vinton Studios has the potential of becoming the next Pixar. It is an exciting opportunity to get involved on the ground stages of a potentially enormous company." WVS CEO and president Tom Turpin added, "Mike brings with him a wealth of knowledge of the film business, talent packaging and film industry production management."

New York-based Spontaneous Combustion has hired 3D modeler/animator Brian Austin in a further expansion of the company's CGI capabilities. Austin, who had been freelancing in the New York City area for the past couple years, is an accomplished fine artist as well as a digital artist and has works in the permanent collection of New York's The Museum of Modern Art.