Weekend Newsreel: February 10, 2006

     Writers Guild Honor Crash, Brokeback Mountain: Crash and Brokeback Mountain were the big winners at this year’s Writers Guild Awards. You can read the complete FilmBuffOnLine Coverage here.

     Disney Trades Sportscaster For Cartoon Character: In what may be the oddest trade in sports history, Disney television subsidiaries ABC and ESPN have released sportcaster Al Michaels from his contract to go work for rival network NBC, in exchange for, among other things, the rights to the classic silent cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Originally created by Walt Disney and animator Ub Iwerks in 1927 as part of a cartoon production deal with Universal, the studio took over the series after Disney had completed the first few shorts. The rights to the character stayed with Universal, even though they did not produce any more cartoons in the series after 1929. Stung by his treatment at the hands of Universal, Disney created Mickey Mouse.

In Remembrance

Myron Waldman- The animator who worked on several classic Fleischer Studios cartoon series has passed away at age 97.

Otto Lang- The skiing instructor who became an Academy Award nominated film producer has passed away at age 98.

Opening This Week

February 10

·         Cowboy Del Amor (NY, LA)

·         Curious George- website

·         Film Geek (NY)- website

·         Final Destination 3- website

·         Firewall- website

·         The Ister (One week NY run)- website

·         London (limited)

·         National Lampoon's Pucked (limited)

·         Neil Young: Heart Of Gold (limited)

·         The Pink Panther- website

·         Through The Fire (NY, LA, Boston, Portland)- website

February 15

·         CSA: The Confederate States Of America (NY)- website

·         Desert Wind (NY)