The Spy Hunter movie based on the Midway arcade hit that we talked about more than a year ago is hitting the skids, crashing through the guardrail, and plummeting off the cliff that is called "development hell" in Hollywood. Looks like director Paul Anderson (W.S., not Thomas) is being taken off the project, which will spin it out into limbo.
You can also read Latino Review's review of the script right here. They seemed to like it, saying it was better than The Fast and the Furious 3 ... which ain't saying much. In fact, the best thing Spy Hunter has spawned as far as filmed entertainment goes is the Pontiac commercial above. If any of the game sequels had looked like that, we might still be playing them.
Now, we ask you... is this such a bad thing? Sure it had Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson attached to it, and John Woo was supposed to direct it at one point. However, it's had a slew of different writers and now with two director replacements, do we really need a Spy Hunter movie? We hope no one hits "Continue" on the Spy Hunter movie, and that it just dies a merciful death. What say you?
Variety reports that Legendary Films has ponied up an undisclosed chunk of change to help New Line with the continued development of its Gears of War film adaptation. As the story points out, Legendary – which also helped finance The Dark Knight – isn't known for getting involved with flicks that are in development hell.
As we've previously reported, the Gears movie is being helmed by Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman and has the game's designer, Cliff Bleszinski, serving as an executive producer. The film had originally been slated for release in 2009 by New Line before the studio became a part of Warner Bros. Its parent company hasn't offered an updated release timeframe since, but the partnership with Legendary suggests that it remains serious about getting Microsoft's second best selling franchise onto the silver screen.
The latest episode of Glitch in the System makes it horribly obvious that the "celebrities" attending Gamespot's E3 bash had no idea who was hosting the party. That street probably goes both ways because, straight up, we had to Google almost every single one of the "celebrities" that we saw in the video. Check out the cringe-inducing footage o the red carpet interviews after the break.
PS: Thanks again to the 300+ people who attended -- or used astral projection to attend in spirit -- our Joystiq E3 meet-up. Watching something like this makes us appreciate you all even more.
In a season of Hollywood blockbusters, it's no wonder why Electronic Arts would want to sink its teeth into the movie industry's delicious celluloid pie. This morning the company announced that it signed with talent and literary agency, UTA, to help catapult its properties onto the silver screen.
EA currently has a movie deal in the works for The Sims, as well as plans to bring an animated version of MySims to TV. In addition, earlier this year EA signed a deal with Starz Media to develop an animated prequel to Dead Space, as well as other unspecified franchises. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as EA notes that this new deal will "significantly ramp up" efforts to bring its IP to other forms of entertainment, such as movies and television, as well as online, print, and social networks. With some of these projects likely to surface this week in San Diego during Comic-Con, are there any EA properties you could see yourself sitting through with a bucket of popcorn in your lap?
Last time we talked about the now-officially-officialMetal Gear Solid movie, we were a little concerned about producer Joe De Luca's interest in somewhat unproven writer/director Kurt Wimmer. Well, now that we've read an extremely long and somewhat rambling interview with De Luca over at Collider, we're a little less worried about the movie's prospects.
In the interview, De Luca assures us that he knows the difference between what makes a good video game and a good movie. "You're immediately disadvantaged in the theatre because you're not feeling anything," he said, "you're not going to get the excitement or the adrenalin rush of doing it yourself, so we have to do it for you in a way that makes up for that."
That said, De Luca thinks the deep Metal Gear Solid universe has silver screen potential that a game-movie like Mortal Kombat just doesn't. "I think we have a leg up already in that it's such a rich universe... what it says about war by proxy in this kind of future where war has been outsourced to private companies I think can be almost very topical and also kind of satirical in like a Robocop kind of way." As far as we're concerned, you can be as topical and satirical as you want as long as the movie is also entertaining in a Robocop kind of way.
New details have emerged surrounding Prototype, Radical Entertainment's sandbox-style successor to Hulk:Ultimate Destruction, specifically concerning whose voice we'll be hearing when the shape shifting protagonist Alex Mercer flaps 'genetically mutated' lips. Mercer will be voiced by Barry Pepper, who some may recognize for his role as Officer Dean Stanton in The Green Mile, or for his arguably most memorable work as Jake in one episode of Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years.
Other voices confirmed for Prototype include NYPD Blue's Gordon Clap and CSI's Paul Guilfoyle, both of which publisher Sierra note as being appropriate additions to the cast given the game's "uniquely mysterious and conspiracy-filled plot." Prototype is expected to change shape and smash New York City later this year for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
Los Angeles Times Magazine spent some time breaking down the rules of Hollywood, schooling would-be fortune-seekers and laying down some hard truth: "Hollywood can't win at video games." Filmmakers are advised to avoid video games as source material because games' "weak narratives" haven't transitioned to the big screen as well as comics – a sentiment echoed by Uwe Boll during a recent Fox News interview; the infamous director declares, "A lot of video games have no story." (Yeah, especially light gun games.) But even something as intricately devised as the Halo universe doesn't seem to hold much promise in the eyes of Hollywood. Halo script re-writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence) complains that video games "have aimless cycles. You go to A, shoot some monsters, then go to B, then start over and do it again." Why argue?
Historically, Hollywood has done a miserable job selecting games for film adaptation, while we've enjoyed plenty of strong narratives developed for and executed in games. We say: Why give Hollywood a chance to muck up the true gems? The game industry has nothing to prove to American cinema.
Read - LA Times (subscription required; try: bugmenot) Watch - Uwe Boll on Fox News (warning: obnoxious)
2007 was not exactly a banner year for Midway, with the company still doing its best Atari impression with its pocketbook alongside lowered financial forecasts, f*cked up development, and a string of delays. Like a good little soldier, however, the publisher has kept its eyes on the horizon, though we're inclined to chalk up its newly revealed plans to achieve financial security by investing in Hollywood tie-ins to too much holiday eggnog. Something tells us this was not what Pachter had in mind when he said Midway could be just one franchise away from financial freedom.
The company has already announced new NBA Ballers and Blitzgames for the new year, and also plans to helm the video game prequel to the Vin Diesel flick Wheelman, though Midway CEO David Zucker describes the firm's 2008 strategy as one of "fewer, bigger, better" releases. Honestly, if we were Midway we'd take just one of those three and count ourselves lucky.
Have you heard this one before: Guy Walks Into a Bar acquires Painkiller...? No, it's not a joke. Well, sorta ... it's Hollywood.
Production company Guy Walks Into a Bar has purchased the feature film rights to DreamCatcher Interactive's 2004 throwback FPS Painkiller. Most celebrated for its multiplayer (becoming an official CPL tour game in 2005), Painkiller pairs well with Hollwood's penchant for whimsical adaptation -- the game is lite on plot. Guy Walks head Jon Berg was actually inspired to pursue the franchise after catching a 60 Minutes segment about competitive gaming. Does Berg envision a flick based on frag matches?
How the film will ultimately manage Painkiller's disparate environments and thin storyline is up to Ben McCaw, who has been hired by Guy Walks to script the adaptation. McCaw's credits include "Gideon's Vault," a finalist in the Austin Film Festival screenwriting competition, and "Class of the Living Dead." While early news has the film looking like a DOOM'd project, perhaps the forthcoming game sequel Painkiller: Overdose will stir interest.
The Master Chief is a busy cyborg. Between saving humanity from The Flood, fighting Brutes, blowing up Halos, being pampered by Microsoft, penning his memoirs and having coffee with Cortana, he just didn't have time to learn the names of the celebrities who attended his Hollywood party last night. Can you help him?
Below is a gallery of all the folks that showed up to get down with the Master Chief. Keep a count of the people you can name from this list and help the Master Chief. Require some assistance? We're not much help. Aisha Tyler (former TalkSoup hostess, lover of our "friend" Ross, deceased friend of Ghost Whisperer) is the goddess in the white dress, but you'll have to figure out the rest on your own. Napoleon Dynamite is in there along with The Human Torch. Some of these people should really have name tags.
It used to be that a producer couldn't sit down at a hip Hollywood bistro without some aspiring waiter thrusting a screenplay in his hands. Nowadays, the unsolicited pitches may be coming through an Xbox Live headset instead.
Variety has an interesting piece on the rise of Xbox Live matches as networking opportunities for the young Hollywood elite. The author is part of a regular group of Hollywood insiders that gathers every Thursday night for Gears of War and Fight Night matches. The players say that Xbox Live provide a casual, fun way to make a lasting connection with a colleague. "I can't tell you how many times I have come out of a meeting, and while we're validating parking, we swap gamertags" said studio executive Jeff Katz. "But only if it was a good meeting and I want to talk to the person again."
Not only that, but the untamed wilds of Xbox Live can provide some good cultural research for screenwriters. Troy writer David Benioff says the profanity-filled chat channels during his online matches provide "an easy way to research the slang that today's 14-year-olds use when they curse." Thus proving that even the chocolate milk kid can serve an important social purpose.
Director Michael Bay is preparing to transform Digital Domain, his Hollywood special-effects house, into a full-scale, game-churning production studio, reports Los Angeles Times. Bay (Bad Boys, Armageddon) will channel the convergence between film and games through his very own first-person shooter, perhaps taking a cue from fellow cross-over director Steven Spielberg. Bay's project will be followed by as many as four additional games over the next two years, as Digital Domain's new owner, Florida investment group Wyndcrest Holdings, begins to pump nearly $100 million into the studio; in part, to purchase the equipment and bring on the talent necessary to compete in the games industry -- including chairs, hundreds of ergonomic chairs. Look for Digital Domain to also acquire several game firms later this year.
As foreshadowed by the studio's "Mad World" Gears of WarTV spot, Digital Domain won't be using game engines for just games. Also on the agenda will be a series of teen-targeted animated features, which will utilize machinimaer, a "new" cost-effective animation method. Does Hollywood actually have anything to offer the games industry? Or are Bay & co. just hopping over the fence 'cause the grass smells greener? "I make world-class images," says Bay. "Why not put those images into a game?"
Remember when film critics said that the blockbuster spears-and-Spartans flick, 300, was "like a video game"? Though they didn't mean it as a compliment, that hasn't stopped investors from contributing "significantly more" than $150 million into a new video game startup being, uh, started up in part by Thomas Tull, the executive producer of 300! The company, called Brash Entertainment, isn't really interested in doing anything brash. Nope, they figure some licensed games is just what the market needs right now and where better to start than ... 300?
Sprinkled in with dreams of being one of the "biggest game studios in the country" are sage words of advice like, "The safest, most lucrative way to sell a video game is in tandem with some kind of movie that is already heavily marketed." Brash plans on creating 60 to 100 games in the next five years, including another game to capitalize on the box-office success 300 has enjoyed (the PSP game ain't cutting it, we guess). We certainly hope they don't show up in our industry with wide-eyed dreams of telling new and unique stories! Co-starter-upper Bert Ellis calms us, cooing, "They'll all be brands you'll know." Phew!
Newly anointed Halo director, Neill Blomkamp, has indicated that the iconic armor housing Master Chief will be slightly altered for its appearance in the 2008 film adaptation. Speaking to Ain't It Cool News, a confident Mr. Blomkamp successfully justifies a decision which, in the hands of a typical Hollywood hotshot, could quickly become a nightmarish reimagining of a beloved character into something supposedly more enticing to mainstream sensibilities.
"Master Chief is certainly something that I do not want to change too much at all, there are certain things inside the Halo universe that are sacred and he's the main one. Having said that, there is a need to revise certain parts of him, just from a purely technical standpoint, he has to actually be able to move, like a human, and the game design right now does not allow for full motion freedom, which we will have to achieve."
The interview sees the director affirming his love for the games, for the universe they depict and for "infected humans and covenant." He fails to provide definitive answers regarding the removal of Master Chief's helmet or the use of Bungie's original soundtracks in the film, but the inclusion or exclusion of either one is likely to fuel fan debate until well after the movie has come and gone.
Rejected (and generally horrid) titles for this post:
Master stroke: Master Chief armor changing
Master Chief suit changing: oh no they didn't
Master Chief: borg to be wild
Master Chief armor change: Massive damage
Master-ious costume change for Chief
Master Chief says Halo to new armor
Halo movie chief masters armor change
Halo armor to be remastered
[Thanks for the image, Ross. You'll go to hell for this one.]
70,000 people are in town for the conference, but only 2,000 people were allowed to be at the party -- Nintendo's E3 Party at the Highlands was the hot ticket in town last night. (Rumour has it that there were actually 2,400 people crammed inside and that the Fire Marshall warned them about "overbooking."
