Nick solicits animated ideas

Nickelodeon is starting an animated shorts program made to attract new talent because of its development slate. The aim of this program would be to produce 10 minute-lengthy shorts which will spark potential animated comedy series for Nick or Nick.com. Nickelodeon Animation Galleries will make the projects. "The brand new shorts program provides for us an chance to make use of comedy talent from a variety of sources," stated Brown Manley, animation prexy for Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family. "We are excited to provide this excellent chance to artists and comics with all of amounts of experience, where their creative voices and perspective is a potential pipeline for brand new animated series." Support is going to be deliver to artists, designers, authors and company directors, based on their degree of experience, and selected comics may also be joined with designers in some cases. Nick stated it's seeking shorts which are original, funny and character-driven, featuring a couple of comedy figures, which all animation styles and methods are welcome. Full recommendations cam be located at world wide web.nickshortspitches.com. The submission deadline is March 30. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

New Ice Age 4 Trailer Debuts

The world is falling apartBy now, you can pretty much predict what we'll be getting from new instalments of the incredibly profitable Ice Age franchise. Kiddie pleasing laughs from the likes of John Leguizamo's Sid, Denis Leary's Diego and Ray Romano's Manny, a variety of other guest voices and some, new Earth-shattering environmental aspect. All are present and correct in the latest trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift, which you can glimpse over at Apple.In fact, they're taking the Earth-shattering bit literally this time, with the continents starting to form, stranding our heroes on a floating ice chunk and sending them off for adventures with some odd pirates (including Peter Dinklage's Captain Gutt). We'll also get to enjoy voice work from Nick Frost and Wanda Sykes, who play's Sid's Granny. There's also some potential romance for Diego, in the shape of slinky female feline Shira (Jennifer Lopez).So, yeah, not much looks truly different here, but then, given the previous successes, would you mess with the formula? Thought not. And yes, Scrat is of course on his usual acorn-hunting frenzy.Ice Age: Continental Drift will crash into cinemas on July 6.