Gower power.

The 20th Century Fox feature film "Alvin and The Chipmunks," a combination of live-action, animation and CGI effects, is in production on several of the Sunset Gower Studios sound stages.

It's the first animated film to be shot on the lot in its 86-year fabled history and is also the centerpiece of a planned Alvin and the Chipmunks comeback, engineered over the past five years by Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife, Janice Karman. The Chipmunks movie is slated for release in 2008, the Chipmunks' 50th anniversary. The film stars actor Jason Lee ("My Name Is Earl") with the voices of "Alvin" and "Simon" supplied by Ross Bagdasarian Jr. Janice Karman is the voice of the third chipmunk, "Theodore."

Sunset Gower Studios is currently undergoing an extensive multi-million dollar refurbishing and updating of its 12 sound stages, adjacent support rooms and 300,000 square feet of office suites. Construction is also under way on a 96,000-square-foot, six-floor building to house Technicolor post-production facilities, being readied for occupancy in December.

The independent Hollywood studio is a busy place of late. Among the TV shows shooting at Sunset Gower are NBC's "Heroes," Showtime's "Dexter," HBO's "Rome" and "Comics Unleashed."

Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at [e-mail] or at [phone], ext. 225.