English Entertainment
Fox to celebrate Popeye’s 75th anniversary 3D style
NEW YORK: Production for a Popeye 3-D computer-animated TV and home video special has commenced, to celebrate the cartoon character’s 75th anniversary next year, King Features Syndicate announced recently.
The first television airing of the 3-D special will take place next year on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.
To be precise, Fox will air the special between 24 November and 21 December 2004. An official release informs that King Features has assembled a group of partners to produce, broadcast and distribute this special.
This will form part of the multifaceted anniversary celebration for the sailor next year. The company is looking to further solidify Popeye’s worldwide popularity well into the 21st century.
The release adds that King Features hired 3-D computer animation producer Mainframe Entertainment to give Popeye a whole new dimensional look. Mainframe uses state-of- the-art 3-D computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation.
Mainframe created the logo, branding and original animation segments for this year’s MTV Movie Awards,. It is currently producing 13 episodes of Spider-Man for Sony Pictures Television.
The Popeye 3-D CGI animated special was co-written by actor/comedian Paul Reiser who can be seen in India on Zee English and Hallmark in Mad About You and Jim Hardison.
Popeye made his first public appearance on 17 January 1929 in a comic strip. He jumped to the silver screen in Popeye the Sailor, a 1933 cartoon.
In 1993, Cartoon Network celebrated the 60th anniversary of the muscled mariner’s film debut with Popumentary, a series of six prime-time specials. Popeye was one of the world’s first characters licensing sensations. Today it boasts of 500 licensees in 50 countries.
Meanwhile, Artisan Home Entertainment, through its Family Home Entertainment label, will be releasing an hour-long version of the Popeye special featuring never- before-seen footage as well as classic material on DVD and VHS next year.
Artisan’s Family Home Entertainment president Glenn Ross says, “Popeye continues to represent one of the most likable animated characters of all time. The character’s popularity, combined with the highly-sophisticated animation that will bring him to life in this programme, will help the special have widespread appeal to both classic and new Popeye fans.”
King Features claims to be the world’s premier distributor of comics, columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games. It distributes some 150 features to nearly 5,000 newspapers around the globe. It is one of the largest and most experienced organisations in merchandising licensing.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
