Cartoon Network’s late-night animation block, Adult Swim, and Sony are kicking off a co-branded promotion that will hype the hit animated series Robot Chicken along with the highly anticipated Nov. 17 release of the PlayStation 3 net-generation video-game console. In addition to spots on the network, the initiative will extend to the Adult Swim Fix broadband channel, Adult Swim Video-on-Demand, adultswim.com. A national consumer contest will even have one lucky winner make an animated cameo in a third-season episode of Robot Chicken.

‘This custom PlayStation promotion was designed to reach consumers on every level of interaction with Adult Swim’s brand,’ comments Phyllis Ehrlich, senior VP of Adult Swim and Cartoon Network Promotions Marketing. ‘We are also encouraging interaction between the brands by driving viewers to the ‘What Would You Do to be on Robot Chicken and Win a PlayStation3? Contest,’ the ultimate viewer opportunity.’

‘One of the biggest assets of our show is the guest appearances,’ adds Robot Chicken co-creator, writer, director and co-exec producer Seth Green. ‘It’s great that we are going to be able to give a fan the complete Robot Chicken treatment.’

Today, Oct. 23, saw the launch of adultswim.com’s PlayStation 3 micro site, which features streaming video, PlayStation 3 product information, branded links and a place to enter the What Would You Do to be on Robot Chicken and Win a PlayStation3? Contest. Fans are asked to submit a comedic home video of what they would do to win a role on Robot Chicken and a PlayStation 3 system. Secondary prize winners will each receive one of the new gaming consoles.

Contest submissions will be received until Dec. 31, at which time adultswim.com will update the micro site to feature the winning entries and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the winner’s action-figure and Robot Chicken sketches.

Since February of 2005, Robot Chicken has been using stop-motion animation and action figures to parody, films, television, celebrities and all things associated with pop-culture. The 15-minute series is currently in its second season and all 20 episodes of the first season are available DVD.

Thirteen years after it first debuted in theaters Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is back with a vengeance. And by vengeance we mean a stereoscopic 3D version crafted by those trickers and treaters at Industrial Light & Magic and produced by Disney veterran Don Hahn (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast). The perennial stop-motion holiday favorite leaps off of 168 screens across North America today.

Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone), The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the tale of Jack Skellington, a hero in Halloween Town who decides one year that he would like to play Santa Claus for a change. When the plan goes horribly wrong, Jack and love interest Sally must save Christmas by rescuing the real Santa from the clutches of the evil Oogie Boogie.

Both Burton and Selick were peripherally involved with the process of re-mastering the film in 3D. With computer-generated features such as Diney’s Chicken Little, what they do is move the virtual camera over about an inch to provide the right-eye perspective and give the film depth of field. And while Nightmare employed 3D animation models, it was shot on standard 35mm film. To create the 3D effect, ILM had to build blank CG models of every character in the film. When the original film was projected onto those models, it wrapped around them like a texture map and allowed to artists to do a virtual camera shift.

Selick tells us he has always wished they had shot Nightmare in 3D in the first place because 2D never quite captured the feeling of being on those magnificent sets with those beautiful puppets. He’s currently in pre-production on his next feature, LAIKA’s stop-motion adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book Coraline. Selick plans to shoot it in 3D and is experimenting with a motion-control rig that automatically shifts the camera slightly to the right every other frame to capture the right-eye perspective.

Nightmare earned around $50 million domestically with its initial release but has grown in popularity over the years. Disney would not comment on how expensive the 3D conversion process was, but it was certainly not cheap. The fact that the studio invested so much into the revival suggests that it’s hoping the film will be something it can bring out every year like Warner Bros.’ IMAX 3-D version of The Polar Express, which has grossed more than $60 million at IMAX venues alone and will return to screens again this holiday season.

The Jim Henson Co. has confirmed that it is in development on a feature-length movie featuring the Fraggles from the 1980s children’s puppet series Fraggle Rock. The treatment for the as yet untitled pic is being written by Ahmet Zappa, author of The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless and son of late alternative rock icon Frank Zappa. The junior Zappa will also exec produce the film with Brian Henson and Jason Lust while Lisa Henson handles producer duties.

Like Henson’s upcoming Dark Crystal sequel, the movie will likely be made with a mx of puppetry and CG animation. The storyline takes Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red on their first adventure outside of Fraggle Rock, where they interact with the strange alien beings known as humans.

‘Fraggle Rock has remained a favorite project at our company and has certainly continued to be loved by its many devoted fans, so we are thrilled to begin work on this project,’ comments Lisa Henson, who serves as co-CEO of The Jim Henson Co. with brother Brian. ‘With its message of celebrating diversity and its ambitious goal of promoting world peace, now is the perfect time to embark on a new Fraggle adventure.”

Created by the late Jim Henson, Fraggle Rock debuted on HBO in 1983 and lasted five seasons, garnering multiple awards and a global following. The show reinforced the concepts of mutual respect and peace by showing cooperation and conflict resolution among the different inhabitants of the Rock’the Fraggles, the Doozers and the Gorgs. The first two seasons of the show has been selling well on DVD, proving that there is still a strong fan base for the franchise.

Directed by Samurai Jackcreator Genndy Tartakovsly, Power of the Dark Crystal is currently being produced by Lisa Henson and Orphanage Animation Studios Chairman Scott Stewart. Brian Henson will serve as exec producer, along with Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill of Odyssey Ent., which is representing worldwide sales and distribution of the sequel to the 1982 cult favoirte.

The Jim Henson Co. has confirmed that it is in development on a feature-length movie featuring the Fraggles from the 1980s children’s puppet series Fraggle Rock. The treatment for the as yet untitled pic is being written by Ahmet Zappa, author of The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless and son of late alternative rock icon Frank Zappa. The junior Zappa will also exec produce the film with Brian Henson and Jason Lust while Lisa Henson handles producer duties.

Like Henson’s upcoming Dark Crystal sequel, the Fraggle movie will likely be made with a mx of puppetry and CG animation. The storyline takes Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red on their first adventure outside of Fraggle Rock, where they interact with the strange alien beings known as humans.

‘Fraggle Rock has remained a favorite project at our company and has certainly continued to be loved by its many devoted fans, so we are thrilled to begin work on this project,’ comments Lisa Henson, who serves as co-CEO of The Jim Henson Co. with brother Brian. ‘With its message of celebrating diversity and its ambitious goal of promoting world peace, now is the perfect time to embark on a new Fraggle adventure.”

Created by the late Jim Henson, Fraggle Rock debuted on HBO in 1983 and lasted five seasons, garnering multiple awards and a global following. The show reinforced the concepts of mutual respect and peace by showing cooperation and conflict resolution among the different inhabitants of the Rock’the Fraggles, the Doozers and the Gorgs. The first two seasons of the show has been selling well on DVD, proving that there is still a strong fan base for the franchise.

Directed by Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky, Power of the Dark Crystal is currently being produced by Lisa Henson and Orphanage Animation Studios Chairman Scott Stewart. Brian Henson will serve as exec producer, along with Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill of Odyssey Ent., which is representing worldwide sales and distribution of the sequel to the 1982 cult favorite.

Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox have backed out of their deals to co-finance Microsoft’s big-screen adaptation of the Halo video-game franchise, according to Daily Variety. The film’s producer, Lord of the Rings helmer Peter Jackson, recently hired South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to direct the pic, which is now an uncertain project.

The trade reports that Universal and Fox both petitioned for a reduction in the amount of profits earmarked for the filmmakers and Microsoft. When the request was denied by Jackson and producing partner Fran Walsh, the studios apparently refused to pay Microsoft the $5 million upfront fee that was supposed to have been paid on Oct. 15.

Further complicating the matter are reports of a budget that is swelling well beyond the initial $135 million estimate. Rumors have the film costing nearly $200 million, though the filmmakers are insisting the budget stands at $128 million with the 12.5% rebate that comes with shooting in New Zealand.

A spokesperson for Jackson and Walsh says Microsoft plans to move forward with the film and is in talks with other distribution partners. Pre-production is well underway in New Zealand at Jackson’s Oscar-winning vfx studios, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop.

Developed by Bungie Studios, The first Halo video game was released in 2001 and spawned a hugely successful sequel, Halo 2, in 2004. Together, the titles have sold more than 13.8 million copies worldwide and grossed more than $600 million. Halo 2 alone earned $125 million in first-day sales. The movie was supposed to be released by 20th Century Fox sometime in 2008.

Emmy-winning Entourage star Jeremy Piven and Saturday Night Live alum Molly Shannon have signed on to lend their voices to Exodus Film Group’s CG-animated feature Igor. The comic thespians will join Steve Buscemi, John Cleese and Christian Slater in the independent production, which the Weinstein Co. will distribute theatrically.

Directed by Tony Leondis (Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch) Igor is described as a playfully irreverent comedy about a mad scientist’s hunchbacked lab assistant who has big dreams of becoming a scientist in his own right and winning first place at the annual Evil Science Fair. Slater will voice the title role while Buscemi plays Scamper, a super-intelligent and ill-tempered lab rabbit, and Cleese voices the character of Dr. Glickenstein, Igor’s evil master. Piven joins the mix as Igor’s nemesis, Dr. Schadenfreude, and Shannon takes on the role of Eva, a giant, indestructible monster that Igor creates.

The feature will be an extension of the short Igor: Holy Frijoles, which is currently in production at Exodus. Producing the pic are Exodus president John D. Eraklis and veteran animation exec Max Howard, who has collaborated on such animated blockbusters such as Disney’s The Lion King and Aladdin, and Warner Bros.’ Space Jam and The Iron Giant. The screenplay was written by Chris McKenna, who is currently writing for his third season on the Fox animated TV show American Dad. Eric Robinson, VP of production and development, is overseeing Igor on behalf of The Weinstein Co.

No stranger to animation, Piven recently lent his voice to the Harv character in Disney/Pixar’s Cars and can be heard as Rock Rivers in last year’s home video feature Scooby-Doo in Where’s My Mummy? On TV, he has voiced Elongated Man on Justice League and worked on episodes of Rugrats and Duckman. Shannon has done a couple episodes of FOX’s American Dad and voiced the part of Jackie Frost in the 2005 home video feature Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie. Most recently, she was Patience the Vampire in Sci Fi Channel’s animated adaptation of Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic The Amazing Screw-On Head. She can next be seen in the period piece Marie Antoinette, which opens on Friday.

The Weinstein Co. will showcase Igor at next month’s American Film Market. Exodus Film Group’s CG-animation slate also includes The Hero of Color City, which will be distributed by Magnolia Pictures, and Amarillo Armadillo. The studio is also in pre-production on the live-action film Bunyan & Babe, which features comedic actor Eddie Griffin as the voice of the CG-animated Babe the Blue Ox.

Phil Nibbelink’s independently produced 2D-animated feature, Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss, will begin a limited theatrical run on Friday, Oct. 27. Nibbelink, a former Disney Animator, spent five years taking on the Herculean task of animating the film by himself using Flash to keep the hand-drawn look alive and well in the age of CG.

Set in the aquatic world of seals, Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss is a retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale about two star-crossed lovers from warring families. When Juliet’s father gives her hand in marriage to the monstrous elephant seal Prince, Juliet must fake her death in order to be reunited with Romeo. The plan, however, goes afoul and our heroes embark on a desperate race against time with some help from friends Friar Lawrence and a kissing fish named Kissy.

While at Disney, Nibbelink animated on The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, Basil the Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company, and was a directing animator in London on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He later teamed with Steven Spielberg to form Amblimation in London, where he directed An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and We’re Back. In 1998, he started Phil Nibbelink Prods. with his wife, Margit Friesacher, as producer. After making direct to video films such as Puss in Boots and Leif Ericson: The Boy Who Discovered America, the duo dove into making a 77-minute 35mm animated family film with Nibbelink handling all the animation and lending his voice to the production.

Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss is set to debut on Oct. 27 in a handful of theaters in Los Angeles and Northern California. To see a list of theaters, view the trailer and learn more about the movie, go to www.romeoandjulietfilm.com.