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"The Adventures of Panda Warrior" is actually a 2012 Chinese animated feature called "The Adventures of Jinbao."

The post Lionsgate’s ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Knockoff Looks Even Worse Than It Sounds appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Last year, Lionsgate and the San Diego Comic-Con announced a joint venture to launch a SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) channel themed to all things nerd and con. Now they've just announced that a free beta of the service, named Comic-Con HQ, will roll out on May 7th (Free Comic Book Day). Plans for programing include including original scripted and unscripted programming, such as Kings of Con, a show based on the Her Universe fashion line, and an interview series with Adam Sessler, The ad-free service will also offer programming from Comic-Con's archives, and that should be an eye opener for comics historians.

"Norm of the North" is the first of at least nine animated features in 2016 that will feature animal leads. It's going to be a long year.

The post Every Single Movie Critic In North America Hated ‘Norm of the North’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Aardman's low-budget, big-picture animation continues to compete in our blockbuster marketplace, with stop-motion animation more real than hyperreal CGI.

A lot of newish comics companies have launched of late—Double Take, Aftershock, Z2—and I’m guessing they would all like to have films made from their comics. Well, Double Take, the branch of gaming company Take Two that is run by former Marvel to exec Bill James, has hit that brass ring. Lions gate has signed […]

Another videogame is heading to the screen–this time, Borderlands, a FPS game is set in a comics-inspired SF universe. Avi Arad and Ari Arad, who certainly have a lot os experience with comics-inspired films, are making it with Lionsgate. The game was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K, a division of Take-Two Interactive […]

The Aardman theatrical animation brand has become all but obsolete in the United States.

The film will enter the list of top ten anime releases of all-time in the United States.

The Rob Schneider-vehicle from Lionsgate features a polar bear who goes to New York City.

WonderCon isn’t the only part of the CCI empire that’s going “Hollywood.” CCI has just signed a deal with Lionsgate for a new subscription video-on-demand service that will launch later this year.

Lionsgate—the studio known for The Hunger Games and the Divergent series among many others—and CCI—that’s Comic-Con International) the non-profit organization that runs the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon—will team to present material deemed to be of interest to the Comic-Con fanbase. And yes, the channel will have original content, as well as studio fare from Lionsgate and other studios—and historical footage from past Comic-Cons.

While a VOD service may seem a little out of character for CCI, it’s not really for those who’ve been watching closely. The new service will serve as an outgrowth of SDCC’s
Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI-IFF), which is held at Comic-Con every year with various films of fan related-interest. The new VOD service will make this a “365-day-a-year online event.”

As a studio, Lionsgate was an early adapter, exhibiting at Comic-Con to promote the low budget films that made its name long before every studio in town decided SDCC was the biggest marketing event of the year. This new CCI VOD will be the third streaming service they’ve announced: Lionsgate Entertainment World, a joint venture with the Chinese company Alibaba, recently launched; and this summer will see the debut of Tribeca Shortlist, a partnership with Tribeca Enterprises that presents firms for discerning film fans. In addition to blockbusters like The Hunger Games movies, Lionsgate has also beome a player in TV, producing and distributing shows like Mad Men and Orange is the New Black.

VOD has become the hot place to cater to niche audiences and experiment with content; exploiting the “nerdcore” audience has been on a lot of radars. “The fan base for the kind of films and television series showcased at Comic-Con has grown exponentially, and a subscription video-on-demand service is the ideal platform to capture the magic and excitement of the Comic-Con experience year-round as well as the perfect vehicle for Comic-Con fans to discover new content,” said Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution Jim Packer.

It’s also a way for CCI to branch out. The Comic-Con brand is now somewhere between the Super Bowl and the Puppy Bowl in terms of mega-awareness, and launching new ventures like this seem like a smart channel to expand it even further. According to CCI’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations David Glanzer, CCI and Lionsgate have been working on the deal for two years; it was Lionsgate’s knowledge of fan culture that sealed the deal to “deliver the unique magic of Comic-Con and the celebration of comics and popular art to our fans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and around the world.”

Frequent dealmaker Peter Levin (Nerdist, Deadline) was also involved. He’s now President of Interactive Ventures & Games at Lionsgate and expects to “expand and enrich the world of Comic-Con for existing fans and extend it to a whole new global audience with a channel distinguished by its imaginative curation, depth and diversity of content and fierce loyalty to the Comic-Con brand.”

Sign up at the above link to find out more about the launch of this new service. Maybe it will show those two dueling nerdlebrity convention shows we told you about the other week.WonderCon isn’t the only part of the CCI empire that’s going “Hollywood.” CCI has just signed a deal with Lionsgate for a new subscription video-on-demand service that will launch later this year.

Lionsgate—the studio known for The Hunger Games and the Divergent series among many others—and CCI—that’s Comic-Con International) the non-profit organization that runs the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon—will team to present material deemed to be of interest to the Comic-Con fanbase. And yes, the channel will have original content, as well as studio fare from Lionsgate and other studios—and historical footage from past Comic-Cons.

In the wake of Hunger Games success, Lionsgate Entertainment acquired the film rights to the young-adult fantasy series, Patrick Ness‘ Chaos Walking trilogy. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will adapt the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Here’s more from Deadline: ”The Carnegie Medal winning book is set in a dystopian future with humans colonizing a distant earth-like planet. When an infection called the Noise suddenly makes all thought audible, privacy vanishes, chaos ensues, and a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race.”

Kaufman won the 2004 Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He also wrote the scripts for the adaptation of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Adaptation (based The Orchid Thief).

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the wake of Hunger Games success, Lionsgate Entertainment acquired the film rights to the young-adult fantasy series, Patrick Ness‘ Chaos Walking trilogy. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will adapt the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Here’s more from Deadline: ”The Carnegie Medal winning book is set in a dystopian future with humans colonizing a distant earth-like planet. When an infection called the Noise suddenly makes all thought audible, privacy vanishes, chaos ensues, and a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race.”

Kaufman won the 2004 Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He also wrote the scripts for the adaptation of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Adaptation (based The Orchid Thief).

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Gary Ross, whose adaptation of "The Hunger Games" is the year's highest-grossing movie, said: "As a writer and a director, I simply don't have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make."

Following in the footsteps of ABC Family and MTV (The CW just launched a free mobile app that lets fans stream full episodes of its current programming the next day. Given Millennials’ busy lives, we bet they’ll soon expect to access all their... Read the rest of this post

We can hardly wait for ‘The Hunger Games’ movie, which hits theaters in less than 100 days (and to celebrate this momentous occasion, Lionsgate launched an online scavenger hunt to release the film’s newest poster. 100 puzzle pieces were... Read the rest of this post

As fangirls prepare to dress up in their Katniss Everdeen costumes for Halloween, a Hunger Games spoof will be published on November 15th.  The video embedded above features the book trailer for The Hunger But Mainly Death Games–what do you think?

Curious readers can access the first chapter on Scribd. Here’s more about the book: “[This is] the only book brave enough to suggest that The Hunger Games was way more about death than food. Or at least this is what Bratniss Everclean discovers, when she shortsightedly volunteers for a teenage death tournament. But she soon realizes there are fates worse than death…like having to kiss her fellow competitor and lifelong stalker, Pita Malarkey.”

On Amazon, “Bratniss Everclean” is listed as the author, but the cover image lists Aaron Geary and John Bailey Owen as the authors.  According to Amazon, Harvard Lampoon will publish another spoof  in 2012, The Hunger Pains.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ever since DC Comics launched the ‘New 52′ — a renumbering of its first issues along with same day digital downloads (its sales have transformed! “Justice League” has already sold 200,000 copies compared to 46,000 in the old... Read the rest of this post

Lionsgate has released photos from the set of The Hunger Games adaptation. The photo embedded above shows actors Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth playing Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mallark.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Hutcherson gained fifteen pounds of muscle in three weeks in order to better embody his character’s physique.

Director Gary Ross complimented Hutcherson’s commitment to the role: “On first glance he’s such a hunk that it’s easy to ascribe a hunklike simplicity to him. But this is a phenomenally subtle actor, totally in control of what he was doing.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Oscar-winner T Bone Burnett and Grammy-winner Danny Elfman will create the music for The Hunger Games film adaptation. According to the release, this project is “an unprecedented film music collaboration.”

The two composers will work together on the film score. Additionally, Burnett will serve as the executive music producer for both the score and the soundtrack. Many Hunger Games fans have reacted happily to the announcement on Facebook.

Lionsgate’s head of film music Tracy McKnight explained: “The Hunger Games is such a special property – it has worldwide mass appeal, but it’s also sophisticated, cerebral, soulful, and rebellious. We needed a composer who can translate these qualities musically, and we have not one but two incredible artists in an absolutely thrilling first time ever collaboration.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When Suzanne Collins wrote the initial adaptation of The Hunger Games, screenwriter Billy Ray took over for revisions. Entertainment Weekly obtained an early copy of his now-completed script, comparing the script to the original.

Spoiler: It’s shaping up to be a PG-13 experience. The story features a battle royale between teenage players and the idea of minors acting out such violence is a concern. In fact, when you order the pictured box set the product description does say “Ages 12+.”

“‘It’s always going to be an intense subject matter, but you can tell the story with some restraint,’ said producer Nina Jacobson in the Entertainment Weekly article. ‘The only people these books are not for are those under 12. The movie will be the same.’”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Did Summit botch Bandslam's marketing (according to this memo, audiences thought it was more "High School Musical" than "School of Rock." Plus Lionsgate buys ComicCon film fave "Kick-Ass" about "a high school dweeb who attempts to reinvent himself... Read the rest of this post