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After spending eight years at 20th Century Fox, Jonathan Helfgot has been signed by Walden Media to become their new executive vice president of worldwide marketing.

He will oversee marketing of all Walden films and manage Walden’s branding strategies across publishing, licensing, promotions, outreach and new media along with broadening cross-promotional strategies with other divisions of Walden’s parent, the Anschutz Co.

As senior VP of marketing and research at Fox, Helfgot worked on “Avatar,” “X-Men First Class,” the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” franchise, “Taken” and “Rio.”

Fox presidents of domestic marketing Tony Sella and Oren Aviv said in a statement: “Jonathan’s insights across a variety of marketing disciplines have been invaluable. While we will miss his daily contributions, we look forward to joining forces with him and his team at Walden.”

Walden’s upcoming films include “Won’t Back Down,” “Of Men and Mavericks” and the family comedy “Parental Guidance.” Its most recent co-production “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” grossed more than $300 million worldwide.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media have managed to obtain the elusive rights to the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world: The Family Circus, and have plans to bring it to the big screen in live action!

Here’s the story about how it happened, from Deadline Hollywood:

20th Century Fox has teamed with Walden Media to buy rights to Bil Keane’s venerable syndicated comic strip The Family Circus, and they’ve hired Bob Hilgenberg & Rob Muir to script a live action feature. John Baldecchi and Stacy Maes are producing. Bil Keane started the strip in 1960 and continues to generate the single-panel script with his son Jeff. It is the most widely syndicated strip in the world, according to King Features.

A number of studios competed for the rights for what is envisioned as a multiple quadrant family franchise. Though several members of the Keane clan have become film animators, Bil Keane resisted making a film deal all these years. Producer Baldecchi spent two years trying to track them down. He got Keane’s number, but never had his messages returned. One day, Baldecchi called and Keane picked up the phone. He made enough of an impression that Keane introduced the producer to his son Jeff. Soon they had an agreement to move forward and then studios got involved.

I’m told the deal was six figures against seven-figures and went to Fox and Walden, which are partnered in the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

A team of two Asbury University professors and an Asbury University student produced a video interview of Micheal Flaherty, president of Walden Media. The C.S. Lewis Estate has entrusted Walden Media with bringing to life the film adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. The video will be premiered preceding the release of the third film in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The two previous films produced by Walden Media, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Price Caspian, were highly popular earning $745 million and $419 million respectively worldwide. In the video Flaherty says, he was very proud of the work that has been done so far on the film and is confident that it will recapture the magic that was so much a part of the first film.

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Gavin Hood is in negotiations to direct an untitled Alaskan adventure project for Walden Media. Mark Johnson is producing.

Based on Gay and Laney Salisbury’s book “The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic,” the true story centers on a 674-mile journey undertaken by 20 men and 200 dogs who rushed a diphtheria antidote to Nome, Alaska, in 1952. The group braved temperatures of minus-60 degrees, a phenomenon known as ice fog and other dangers, capturing the attention of the lower 48 states. One lead dog even got a statue in New York’s Central Park.

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It’s a bear market for one group of moviemakers.  Shawn Levy, director of the Night at the Museum movies, has signed on to produce a feature film based on The Berenstain Bears books, a comedy he says will be a mix of live-action and computer animation.

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Last spring Micheal Flaherty, President of Walden Media, visited Asbury College as part of its Engaging Culture weekend. As those who have met him know, he is a truly great man–full of wisdom, enthusiasm, real joy, and deep compassion.

While he was on campus, Devin Brown had the opportunity to ask him about Walden’s mission, where its name came from, and even what his favorite scene is. His response to these and other questions can be viewed in “An Interview with Micheal Flaherty” which has been posted at: Asbury.edu

There’s also a question and answer session about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Walden Media has picked up Randi Mayem Singer’s script for Gene.

The Hollywood Reporter describes Gene as a modern-day take on the genie story. According to Walden CEO Michael Bostick, it’s a family comedy combining “originality, humor, heart and broad appeal that all ages can enjoy.”
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Digital Vision, manufacturers of image enhancement and mastering systems for film and television post-production, has announced that Hollywood mini-studio Anschutz Film Group/Walden Media has taken delivery of Digital Vision’s Nucoda HD system. Digital Vision has worked closely with Walden to create a streamlined color pipeline from dailies to final delivery for their international productions. The two grading and one conform systems for Walden form the cornerstone of a complete production and post production workflow on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” one of the industry’s first 100% digitally acquired, file-based feature projects. The Nucoda HD systems capture and utilize the American Society of Cinematographer’s CDL (color decision list) metadata, and maintain it as a basis for grading throughout the project with Digital Vision’s comprehensive toolset.

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MENC, the National Music Education Association, has been a vocal advocate for the new film BANDSLAM.

In its own words, MENC “believes that music allows us to celebrate and preserve our cultural heritages and also to explore the realms of expression, imagination, and creation resulting in new knowledge.” In BANDSLAM, the young characters express themselves through music: the music of their idols like David Bowie, and the music they create themselves. It plays a central role in their high school experience and the way they perceive the world around them. Main character Will played by Gaelan Connell says in the film “I tend to make snap decisions about people based upon what type of music they like.”

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Superstar Ellen DeGeneres, Emmy award winning talk show host and comedienne, has signed on to play MOTHER NATURE in an upcoming comedy produced by Walden Media and based on an internally generated original concept.

Ellen DeGeneres stars as MOTHER NATURE, who makes her grand return to earth for the first time since the planet’s creation. Project is being written by Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner Jenny Bicks.

Says DeGeneres: “I’m so excited to be playing Mother Nature. I’ve always wanted to control the weather. Nothing will stop me from doing this.