Here's the 'Red Dead Redemption' short "film" that John Hillcoat directed...

...for your viewing pleasure:

-Thoughts?

Prepare for 'Mass Effect' to take the leap from video game to big screen feature!

Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Legendary Pictures has picked up rights to “Mass Effect,” the Electronic Arts-BioWare video game. Mark Protosevich, the scribe who wrote “I Am Legend” and worked on “Thor,” is in negotiations to pen the movie, which will be produced by Avi and Ari Arad as well as Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni.

“Mass,” which debuted in 2008, is an epic sci-fi action game set in the year 2183, focusing on a human soldier and his starship, the SSV Normandy. The galaxy-spanning story involves a long-extinct race of aliens, dormant beacons and more alien species than you can shake a lightsaber at.

A sequel to the game was released in January.

The project is still in the early stages of development, though any game-to-screen undertaking would require a massive commitment. So far, humans vs. aliens movies have tended to be set on Earth, which makes those films easier to shoot while making them relatable for mass audiences.

One of the by-products of the success of “Avatar” has been showing that moviegoers will follow and invest themselves in non-human characters if given a reason to, which opens the door for more alien movies.

The players involved all have experience in undertaking giant-sized production. Legendary’s credits include co-producing such tentpoles as “The Dark Knight,” “300” and the recent “Clash of the Titans” remake. Avi Arad is the former chairman of Marvel Studios, whose Arad Prods. is developing a feature film version of video game “Drake’s Fortune.”

CAA-repped Protosevich is known for his large-scope sci-fi work. In addition to “Legend” and “Thor,” the scribe worked on remakes of “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “The Bride of Frankenstein,” both still in development at their respective studios, and is writing the English-language translation of “Old Boy” for Mandate.

Tull called “Effect” “ripe for translation,” saying it had “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad described the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasizes the need for all cultures to learn to work together.”

“Effect” will fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing agreement with Warner Bros., who will distribute the film worldwide.

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will serve as executive producers, as will “Effect” executive producer Casey Hudson.

-This continues the trend of cinematic games becoming legitimate cinema, and I'm all for it...thoughts?

'Heavy Rain' could be the next big Video Game adaptation coming to theaters...

...according to this in Deadline, at least:

An auction of screen rights for the PlayStation3 game Heavy Rain is coming to a close. I'm told a deal is near with Unique Features, the film shingle started by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne after they exited New Line.
Using their own money, Shaye and Lynne posted top bid in an auction held by CAA on behalf of game developers Quantic Dream.
Heavy Rain has sold 1 million units since its release in February. The game's combination of murder, rain and an inherent atmospheric gloom evokes memories of the David Fincher-directed Seven, one of the formative blockbusters at New Line when Shaye and Lynne grew that company into a rival to the majors.
Players hunt the “Origami Killer,” a serial murderer who drowns his victims four days after they are abducted, leaving only a small origami figure and an orchid on the corpse. The game becomes a procedural in which four characters try to solve the crime after another potential victim is kidnapped.
Unique has a first look deal with Warner Bros, but Shaye liked it enough to use his own money and not wait for approval to buy it. A deal should be sealed shortly.

-I enjoyed the game a lot and can see a decently good movie coming out of it, if they handle some of the plot holes...thoughts?

Today's News: The remake of Let the Right One In gets a promising cast, Transformers 3 coming in 2011, and more...

In the news:

'Let Me In', the American remake of 'Let the Right One In' gets some cast members, including Richard Jenkins, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Chloe Moretz.

Take cover, because Michael Bay has a third Transformers film coming in 2011, further murdering intelligent thought in film.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the buzzed about flick 'The Last Station' for release, potentially this year for awards consideration.

Fans of the video game 'Spore' can now look forward to it becoming a movie, one that will be directed by the guy behind 'Ice Age'.

-Thoughts?

Today's News: Stallone preps another Rambo, Bad Boys 3 might be in the works, and more...

In the news:

Sylvester Stallone will be bringing back John Rambo with a 5th movie in the franchise that began with First Blood.

The writer of the upcoming Ben Affleck directed film 'The Town' has been hired to write 'Bad Boys 3' with the hopes of reuniting the original cast and crew.

It seems that there will be a third Halloween film coming out (this one not directed by Rob Zombie, for better or worse), this one called 'Halloween 3D'.

Speaking of 3D, the writer and director of 'My Bloody Valentine 3D' will be making another film in the format, this one a revenge film starring Nicolas Cage called 'Drive Angry'.

The Norwegian Film Festival crowned the British film 'Fish Tank' with its top prize at the close of the fest.

Finally, noted composer Hans Zimmer will be making a foray into the world of video games by writing the music for the next 'Call of Duty' game.

-Thoughts?

Today's News: Eli Roth tackles 'Nation's Pride' for Tarantino's Basterds, screenwriters writing video games instead of movies, and more...

In the news:

Variety takes a look at the propaganda short that Eli Roth directed for Inglourious Basterds, sure to be one of the more interesting parts of the movie.

The writer of Wanted will now be writing video games instead of movies for a while.

A former Oscar nominee will be in one of the next Twilight movies, Eclipse to be precise.

A Chinese film about the Nanjing Massacre has picked up some distribution in America.

-Thoughts?

Today's News: A wrap-up for Comic-Con, Robert Downey Jr. joins Todd Phillips' follow-up to 'The Hangover', and more...

In the news:

It seems that Iron Man 2 was the big panel hit at Comic-Con, though Avatar and (sigh) New Moon were no slouches either.

The next film by Todd Phillips will star Robert Downey Jr. (in addition to another member of The Hangover).

Mila Kunis has been cast as Natalie Portman's nemesis in Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan'.

The video game Dead Space might be the next project for D.J. Caruso.

A King Kong Prequel? It might happen, if you can believe it.

The indie flick 'Flying Lessons' adds some cast members to its slate.

The long in development adaptation of the game Castlevania might finally be coming to pass, with the director of the original SAW on board to helm.

-Thoughts?

Is Ghostbusters 3 more likely now that the videogame is a hit?

Variety seems to think it might:
When "Ghostbusters II" reached the bigscreen 20 years ago, the expectation was that it surely would be followed by another edition of the comedy franchise.
That never happened, as principals never could quite come to terms on a deal.
But they did reunite recently for a videogame --and while videogames are usually an ancillary afterthought as studios reboot franchises, in the case of "Ghostbusters," the vidgame is resuscitating the idea of a film sequel.
Sony officially says the game and film are independent projects. But they're encouraged that the game, through its development process and release, has helped reinvigorate the franchise.
A June 16 launch of the "Ghostbusters" game in Dallas saw hundreds of fans crowding a GameStop store -- and Amazon.com currently ranks it as the top-selling title for the Xbox 360 and the second best-selling title for the PlayStation 3.
While Sony won't go so far as to say the success or failure of the game will determine whether "Ghostbusters 3" moves forward, it will at least be a factor in the decision. Work is underway on the script for a third film.
"For now, we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of the franchise," says Mark Caplan, VP of licensing at Sony Pictures. "The game and the Blu-ray (release) will have a big impact on all of us. And we'll decide what to do from there."
Given the number of years since the last movie, Harold Ramis, one of the stars and writers of the original, was a bit circumspect. He recently told AMCTV.com, "I won't say I'm skeptical, I'm just not counting on anything. For me, I've loved the 'Ghostbusters' -- the whole concept of it has been great in my life. I'm happy to do another movie if the script was worthy. If it never happened I'd be fine."
Work on the game began three years ago, after Sony combed its library for game-friendly titles. "We looked at the library of properties that we have at Sony Pictures, and we felt 'Ghostbusters' had all the properties inherent in a film that would translate to a videogame. It had built-in recognition and had suitable content for a wide audience," Caplan says.
The effort marks the first major videogame deal on behalf of one of Sony's library titles, with advances for longterm deals of this caliber typically reaching into the tens of millions of dollars.
The studio also has a freshly minted Blu-ray DVD release of the original, and a promotion running that includes a chance to win a trip to Comic-Con.
For the game, the studio enlisted Terminal Reality, a Dallas-based game development studio. A lingering question was whether the audience would still be there.
They got their answer, ironically, when another developer, unaware that Terminal Reality had secured the license, leaked footage of its take on a "Ghostbusters" game online, and it generated a huge response.
When legitimate licensed footage was released, the excitement didn't wane.
"There's no question that the game being announced and coming out has really brought Ghostbusters back into the spotlight," says Brendan Goss, the game's executive producer.
The path to retail shelves was rocky, though. Sony turned down proposals from three other developers before deciding to move forward with Terminal Reality. And despite bouncing from publishers Sierra to Activision-Blizzard to Atari, reviews have been generally favorable. Critics say the game effectively captures the camaraderie and humor of the films.
"When we started this project, we said, 'We have to create a high-quality authentic experience for Ghostbusters,' " says Drew Haworth, creative director of the game. "We do not want this to come across as another license-exploiting, crap movie-videogame."
The "Ghostbusters" game features most of the talent from the film (with only Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis declining to lend their voices) and uses a new graphics engine developed by Terminal Reality to recreate the film's distinctive visual effects. The script -- with more than 10,000 lines of dialogue, much longer than a film screenplay -- was co-written by Dan Aykroyd and Ramis. Ramis, Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson all put in two or three days of work on dialogue.
"We wouldn't have done this game six years ago," Sony's Caplan says. "I just don't think the technology was there."
-Very interesting...I'm about to get the game, so hopefully it's good...anyone have the game yet?

And now for something completely different...an Antichrist videogame?

Slashfilm seems to think so, according to this, at least:
Antichrist, the new movie from Lars Von Trier, was perhaps the most talked-about movie at Cannes this year. It continues to make headlines as it slowly winds towards theatres outside the Croisette and Scandanavian countries. And now, evidently, it is going to spawn a video game. A post on the video game message board NeoGAF led to some wild Googling, which turns up a Politiken.dk article (Google translation, which may contain movie spoilers) announcing the game’s development. What’s the deal? It’s after the jump.
According to the article, development on the game is being led by Morten Iversen, who wrote the Hitman games, and subsequently formed his own company, Zeitguyz, which created a game called Recoil: Retrograde. The article mentions Zentropa Eden Games as the developer of the title. Indeed, Iversen is listed as ‘game developer’ on the main Zentropa website. Lars Von Trier will approve (or not, one supposes, as it may happen) the final design.
Eden, as the game will be called, will be a first-person thriller/adventure game that invites players to confront their fears. Willem Dafoe will reportedly reprise his role in voice-over, though the game will not replicate the film, picking up afterward instead. (Not having seen Antichrist, I can’t surmise what that means for Dafoe’s performance.) Iversen says the experience will be “strong and very personal,” “controversial” and that it “…must be your own personal hell - a bit like a nightmare version of ‘Mystere’.” First one to help I.D. exactly what ‘Mystere’ he means there (the Cirque de Soleil show? seems weird) gets a no-prize. Iversen evidently was interviewed on Danish radio this week; if you heard that broadcast and have more details, let us know.
-On the count of three everybody...one, two, three...WTF?

Avatar to be revolutionary as a video game too?

Variety has the interesting story:
The track record of film-based videogames has been spotty. While there have been a handful of critical and commercial successes, the majority have been average at best -- and, frequently, embarrassing.
James Cameron plans to change that. Fox has scheduled a December release of his 3-D film "Avatar" and the filmmaker has pushed game publisher Ubisoft to create the vidgame industry's first stereoscopic title.
What's more, Cameron was so impressed by some of the shots developed by Ubisoft Digital Arts, a computer animation studio owned by the game publisher, that he will use some of them in the film.
Admittedly, these are small steps, but they signify a game-changing alliance with a multibillion-dollar industry, as Hollywood and gamemakers begin to work more closely.
And while few gamers -- or anyone else for that matter -- have a TV that will support the spectroscopic feature, a non-3-D version of the "Avatar" game also will be sold, and will bear Cameron's mark of approval. What's more, the 3-D game plants the seed for the Holy Grail of creating stereo 3-D at home in much the same way Cameron's commitment-obsession to 3-D film is being eyed as a significant step in even wider use of the format.
Ubisoft doesn't plan to end its association with high-powered directors after "Avatar" ships. The company announced at tech confab E3 in Los Angeles this month that it would work with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy on a gaming adaptation of the upcoming "Tintin." The film marks a reteaming for the company with Peter Jackson, with whom Ubisoft worked on 2005's "King Kong," a launch title for the Xbox 360.
"We can create good games, but we are still very junior at creating movies, so why not join forces with the best of the best to make our visions come to life?" says Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft chairman-CEO, who co-founded the company in 1986.
Cameron and the company began work on the game version of "Avatar" 2½ years ago, an incredibly long gestation period for a film-based game. The long development window was deliberate to ensure the game would match the quality of the film, Cameron said during a surprise appearance at the E3 press conference for Ubisoft.
"Movies are on a one-year track," he said. "One year after someone pushes the button, it's in theaters. Good games can't be made that fast."
While affairs between studios and game publishers aren't always smooth, both sides say the "Avatar" relationship quickly became collaborative. As both sides contributed to each other's work, Cameron's passion for the project pushed Ubisoft to experiment with technologies that have never before been tried in the videogame space.
The partnership is part of Ubisoft's strategy to blend its game studios with filmmaking. Last July, the company bought Hybride Technologies, the visual effects house behind films such as "300" and "Sin City." Today, it uses Hybride to create new technologies for both films and games.
The plan behind the strategy, Guillemot says, is to lower expenses as it pushes new boundaries: "We need to make sure we can reuse our animations and graphics with other mediums, so we can reduce the cost of making games."
Both the film and game versions of "Avatar" are set in the 22nd century on Pandora, a large moon of a gas planet teeming with exotic new forms of life. Among the creatures who live there are the Na'vi, a humanoid race with blue skin, tiger stripes and heights of up to 10 feet. Humans cannot breathe the air on Pandora, but have created a living, genetic hybrid (known as an Avatar) into which they can insert their consciousness and explore the world.
Ubisoft was given full access to the film's CG shots to re-create the world. With Cameron's blessing, though, the game will tell a different story than the film, allowing it to be released at an earlier date.
"They brought the same passion to 'Avatar,' which is a licensed game, (that they bring to) their own games," Cameron said. "The world of the Avatar game is, in some ways, richer than what you'll see in the film. At the same time, it doesn't have any spoilers in it that will ruin the film for you."
The developers also had a few improvements they wanted to make to Pandora. Ubisoft came up with the idea of adding bioluminescence to the plant life. When he saw it, Cameron was so impressed, he added it to the film.
"Let's face it, some games based on movies have sucked," Cameron said at E3. "We had very ambitious goals for this film and we knew we wanted to choose our videogame partner very carefully."
-Almost all movie based games suck (Batman Begins had an ok one, the Spidey games had some interesting parts, but what else?), so this could be good news for gamers...

Vin Diesel to star in the adaptation of the videogame "Wheelman", which he, ironically, was the protagonist in...

...are you keeping track? Variety breaks it down:
Paramount Pictures is accelerating its efforts to put "Fast and Furious" star Vin Diesel back behind the wheel of a fast car.
Studio has set John Singleton to direct and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to produce "The Wheelman," a live-action adaptation of the Ubisoft vidgame "Wheelman." The videogame launched last month, with Diesel as its main character and the game's producer.
Diesel will play an expert driver who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past.
Rich Wilkes wrote the script; the writing team of Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell did a rewrite.
Di Bonaventura will produce with Diesel and his One Race Films partner Samantha Vincent.
Paramount first got involved in the project in 2006; at the time, the partnership was hailed as one of the biggest between a vidgame publisher and a studio. Sumner Redstone owned both Midway Games and Paramount, and the plan was to launch the "Wheelman" game and movie in close proximity. Redstone unloaded his 87% stake in Midway late last year in a debt restructuring move, and the vidgame moved to Ubisoft.
Singleton knows his way around a car chase, having directed "2 Fast 2 Furious," the sequel that Diesel skipped.
Di Bonaventura produced Paramount's summer pics "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," set for June 24 release, and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," opening Aug. 7. Di Bonaventura is currently shooting the Angelina Jolie starrer "Salt" for Columbia Pictures.
-Diesel behind the wheel of a car seems to make money, but quality...not so much...thoughts?