Digital
Media FX News Archives
Thursday
- June 21, 2001
- Disney Studio Chief Resigns!
- Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles to Become CGI Animated Movie
- A.I. Spawns Interest in Real
Artificial Intelligence
- News Link of the Day
- Pearl Harbor Doesn't Make the Grade
Disney
Studio Chief Resigns!
(by digitalmediafx.com) In a
surprise announcement, Disney Studio Chief Peter Schneider has
resigned after poorer than expected showings of Disney's two big
summer films, Pearl Harbor and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Schneider plans to start an independent Broadway theater production
and investment company partially funded by The Walt Disney Company.
Before being
promoted to Disney Studio Chief in early 2000, Schneider had served
as the president of Walt Disney Studios and head Disney Feature
Animation.
"I wish
Peter all the success and happiness as he goes forward,'' says
Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "For the last 16 years, he has
been a wonderful colleague and friend who has been at the center
of our incredible creative successes in animation and the legitimate
theater. He has chosen to go back to his roots in live theater.
Whether Peter is producing a play on Broadway or wherever his
plans take him, I will be with him in spirit. Peter's passion
and purpose, however, will be missed in Burbank.''
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Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles to Become CGI Animated Movie
(by digitalmediafx.com) The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will
hit the big screen again, this time as a fully animated CGI feature,
courtesy of John Woo. Action director Woo (Mission Impossible
2, Face Off) will be the creator of the CGI film and plans
to take the movie back to its darker comic book beginnings. Plans
are for the movie to be released fourth quarter 2002. More details
will be released as the project progresses.
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A.I. Spawns
Interest in Real Artifical Intelligence
(press release) With the release of the new Steven Spielberg
movie, A.I., the American Association for Artificial Intelligence
(AAAI) is ready to address the interest in artificial intelligence
that the movie is expected to generate among the movie-going public.
Realizing the need to help the public understand the technological
and philosophical issues associated with AI, the AAAI has made
available its staff and experts to explain the technology and
its possibilities.
"Real
artificial intelligence applications rarely resemble what you
see in the movies," said outgoing AAAI president Bruce Buchanan.
"But there are many practical uses of AI, and many more that
will emerge in the next few years. And AI can enhance what human
beings can accomplish through their own senses and brain power."
Tom Mitchell,
who will become the President of the AAAI in August 2001, continues
with this theme and notes that, "The goal of AI is not to
build computers that replace people except, of course, for those
chores that people don't want to do because they are dangerous,
mundane, or otherwise unappealing. The goal," Mitchell says,
"is to build machines that enhance what people can do."
Mitchell said
it won't be long before robots will be involved in search &
rescue operations, elderly care, highway driving, or finding lost
items. He added that AI research has the potential to result in
"a lot of long-term payoffs that are good for the country,
including many social benefits and possible cures for disease."
On August
4, just a month after the movie opens, the AAAI will be co-sponsoring
the International Joint Conference on AI (IJCAI-01) in Seattle.
Featuring Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as the keynote speaker,
the one-week conference will serve as a forum for the best minds
in AI to present the latest research, demonstrate technology that
is currently available, and to discuss what's just over the horizon.
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News Link
of the Day - Pearl Harbor Doesn't Make the Grade
According
to the Washington Post (AP):
"The
stars weren't famous enough. The running time was too long. The
hype too great. The reviews devastating.
There are
many explanations offered for why Disney's Pearl Harbor
has fallen short of expectations since its star-spangled premiere
on the deck of a Navy aircraft carrier a month ago
"
Click
here for the full story.
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