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Tag: AFM

  • Studio 100 Film brings The Last Dodo to life at AFM 2025 premiere

    Studio 100 Film brings The Last Dodo to life at AFM 2025 premiere

    MUMBAI: It’s extinction no more, the dodo’s back and ready to soar. The Studio 100 Film is giving the world’s most famous flightless bird a new pair of wings with The Last Dodo, which makes its grand debut at the American Film Market (AFM) 2025 in Santa Monica.

    The vibrant CGI-animated family feature follows Dave the last surviving dodo,  who finds himself navigating the perilous streets of 17th-century London. With help from his street-smart sidekick, Eggy the rat, Dave must overcome his fear of flying, proving that courage sometimes comes with feathers.

    Produced by Australia’s Cheeky Little Media (Kangaroo Beach, Vegesaurs) and the UK’s Cantilever Media (The Amazing Maurice), the film is co-directed by Jun Falkenstein (The Tigger Movie) and written by Simon and Tristan Dodd. The international collaboration brings together creative forces from Australia, the UK, and India, a global flock united by humour and heart.

    “This film reimagines the dodo not as a relic, but as the beating heart of a hilarious buddy story,” said Studio 100 Film senior manager sales and acquisition Lorena Booth. “It’s full of laughs, surprises and a message that really takes off.”

    Cheeky Little Media chief content officer Patrick Egerton added, “The dodo has always captured our imagination: tragic, funny, or both. Dave is all that and more, a character you’ll root for in a wildly funny and heartfelt adventure.”

    Currently in development and slated for release in 2027, The Last Dodo promises a feather-ruffling mix of comedy, courage, and charm, a film that proves even the extinct can make a spectacular comeback.

     

  • AFM sues six Hollywood studios for reusing soundtracks in movies

    AFM sues six Hollywood studios for reusing soundtracks in movies

    MUMBAI: The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) is suing six major studios for reusing film soundtrack clips in other films and television programs without appropriately compensating musicians.

     

    The studios named in the lawsuit are: Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and Warner Brothers Entertainment.

     

    “Our agreements obligate the studios to make additional payments to musicians when soundtracks are reused and AFM members are entitled to receive the benefit of that bargain. Our efforts to resolve these contract violations and missing payments have been unproductive, so we are looking to the courts for relief,” said AFM International president Ray Hair.

     

    The studios have been pulled up for reusing previously recorded film soundtracks in violation of AFM’s collective bargaining agreement with the studios.

     

    The lawsuit cites numerous examples of the studios reusing film scores without paying musicians including:

    • Columbia using music from Karate Kid in an episode of the television series Happy Endings;

    • Disney using music from Beauty and the Beast and The Muppet Movie in the television series The Neighbors;

    • Fox using music from Titanic in the film This Means War;

    • Paramount using music from Up in the Air in the film Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story;

    • Universal using music from Bourne Identity in the television series The Office; and

    • Warner Brothers using music from Battle for the Planet of the Apes in the film Argo.

     

    The AFM is seeking award damages for all losses, including prejudgment interest.

     

    In April this year, the AFM had also sued the studios for allegedly breaching the guild agreement by recording film scores outside the US and Canada.

     

    Click here to read the complaint: