First Clip For Dreamworks Animated "Penguins of Madagascar"

Penguins of Madagascar is the new Dreamworks animated feature and they've released fro the Comic Con both a new poster and the first clip below "North Wind Headquarters". Looks no bad at all to me...




Picture and video: copyright Dreamworks

DreamWorks Jeffrey Katzenberg Unveil Plan for Shanghai Dream Center !

Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation and Chinese partner Li Ruigang, Chairman & CEO of China Media Capital, together with representatives from the Shanghai government unveiled today designs for the 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) and 463000 square meters entertainment complex in Shanghai, expanding Hollywood's growing ties with China.

From Associated Press: The "DreamCenter," will open in 2017 and will have a 500-seat IMAX cinema with international film festivals and red carpet events in mind, bars, restaurants and performance venues, the companies said. It will also showcase a "Dream Avenue" theater district modeled on London's West End and New York City's Broadway.

The project is led by "Kung Fu Panda" and "Shrek" maker DreamWorks Animation, Chinese investment fund CMC Capital Partners, whose owners include state-owned companies, and Hong Kong developer Lan Kwai Fong.

"This will become the world's third great urban center of entertainment and arts alongside New York's Broadway and London's West End," said DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg at a news conference in a former cement factory, which will become one of the performance venues.

The area near the 2010 Shanghai Expo site in the city's west will also include the headquarters of animation production company Oriental DreamWorks, a joint venture between DreamWorks and Chinese partners which will produce "Kung Fu Panda 3."
Below, a digital rendering of the 500-seat IMAX cinema.

The 15-hectare (40-acre) site includes eight outdoor events plazas. The project gives Shanghai an opportunity to diversify beyond its status as a financial and manufacturing center by adding media and cultural industries.

Another project highlighting Hollywood's influence in China is Shanghai Disneyland, the first Disney park on the Chinese mainland. It is scheduled to open in the city's Pudong district at the end of next year. Below, a rendering of the future Dream Center office buildings in Shanghaî.

Here is another short video of the announcement ceremony.




Pictures: copyright Dreamworks Animation

Dreamworks Sci-Fi Animated Film Preview "Almost Home"

Dreamworks upcoming new animated movie "Home" will be released in theaters November 26 and they've released a 4 minutes excerpt video. It's a fun animated and an adaptation of the children's book by Adam Rex. The story is about an alien race on a search for a planet to hide from a mortal enemy, the leader of the alien race being voiced by Steve Martin.  

Here is the synopsis: "An overly optimistic, yet inept, alien race named Boov, led by Captain Smek (Martin), invades Earth to hide from their mortal enemy and make it a new home. Convinced they are doing a favor, they begin to relocate the human race. But one resourceful girl named Tip (Rihanna), manages to avoid capture, accompanied by a banished Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons), who has accidentally notified the enemies of his whereabouts." 




Picture and video: copyright Dreamworks

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg Announces the Opening of THREE Theme Parks in Russia !

When Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg decides to announce a new theme park he don't do it half way! Yesterday he announced that Dreamworks will open in 2015 THREE indoor theme parks in Russia, one near Moscow, one near St Petersburg and one near Yekaterinburg! And not only that, Dreamworks is also challenging Universal Studiso for the title of first major theme park operator in Russia - as Universal plans to open their park near Moscow in 2018, and this is just saying how theme-park market is heating up in Russia!

More from The Moscow Times: 

"DreamWorks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg announced at a Moscow press conference that his company will open parks near Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in 2015, or more than three years ahead of NBCUniversal's Galactica Park in Moscow.

With the designs for the parks done and two of the sites acquired, "we're ready to go," Katzenberg said in an interview with The Moscow Times. Each site is expected to consist of a year-round theme park, 400-room hotel, concert hall, 4-D movie theater and a mall, and those components will be launched simultaneously at each site.
"They're not being built in stages or in phases," he said of the parks.
Katzenberg, a heavyweight among U.S. studio chiefs, said he has met with city officials, such as representatives from Moscow Mayor's office and with federal officials to promote the DreamWorks plan.

The cost of building all three DreamWorks parks will be roughly $1.5 billion, said Amiran Mutsoyev, a board member of Regions Group, which is DreamWorks' development partner for the ambitious project. The price tag for each park will be about $500 million and will depend on the specifics of the site, he said.
Regions has already acquired the land for the St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg projects, but it hasn't yet bought up the needed parcel for the Moscow region site, Mutsoyev said.

Both Mutsoyev and Katzenberg acknowledge that they are competing with NBCUniversal and the Universal Studios complex that it is planning to open in southern Moscow in 2018.


NBCUniversal announced its plans for Galactica Park in April, saying it was joining hands with U.S. promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group and Russian conglomerate Bin Group to build a 22-hectare complex. It is supposed to include a 150,000-square-meter Universal Studios theme park, which is likely to have rides and adventure zones. There also will be two hotels with a total of 1,100 rooms, two office towers, a sprawling shopping complex, a convention center and an indoor water park.
Like the DreamWorks proposal, Galactica Park is supposed to be an enclosed space that can be used year-round, even during Russian winters.

Mutsoyev said the DreamWorks sites will have a competitive edge over Galactica Park because they are targeted to children and teenagers, segments more profitable than the adult one, according to Regions' own research.

Regions signed a licensing agreement with DreamWorks to build and manage the sites in all three cities, the companies said. On Friday, Katzenberg said both Regions and DreamWorks staffers "have spent countless hours together in Moscow and Los Angeles, side by side," to design the sites. 

Within each theme park section, there will be five to six different zones based on the most popular film franchises at DreamWorks, such as Shrek, the good-hearted green giant with bugle ears, and Kung-Fu Panda, Katzenberg said in the interview.The character zone will have rides, shows and lots of interactions with costumed versions of the characters, he said."

Well, it seems that everybody is rushing to Russia while Disney have no plans to open a park there and that our russian friends will discover soon american themed theme parks! Let's hope that either Dreamworks or Universal will do a good job and that the three Dreamworks parks won't be too similar!

You can read the full article on The Moscow Times web site HERE.