LucasArts has just confirmed to Kotaku that Jim Ward, longtime Lucas worker bee and current president of LucasArts, has resigned from the company "for personal reasons" and will be leaving LucasArts in a couple of weeks.

Ward, who began his career in advertising, started work at LucasFilm in 1997 as the head of their marketing division. In 2004 Ward was named president of LucasArts.

No word yet on the reasoning behind his seemingly sudden departure or where he will land, but we'll keep you up to date here.

Update: We've spoken with LucasArts about Ward's notice and gotten a comment from Ward.

The shorts of the Sundance Film Festival will be going on sale on the Xbox 360, iTunes and Netflix starting Friday, the festival announced today.

All said 45 short films from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival will begin hitting the three platforms starting on Jan. 18 and running through 2011. The films will sell for about $2 a pop on all of the services. Hit the jump for the full list of films and descriptions coming.

FILMS AVAILABLE:
THE APOLOGY LINE/ United Kingdom (Director: James Lees)- Based on the creation of a real-life 'apology line' where members of the public anonymously confess to absolutely anything over the telephone.

AUGUST 15/ China (Director: Xuan Jiang)- Based on a real life event, a young Chinese woman boards a bus with her boyfriend to head home to meet his parents. What was supposed to be a joyful holiday turns unpredictable when a pair of countryside crooks hijack their bus. Traveling through China's dangerous mountain passes, the Zassengers must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for their own safety.

BECAUSE WASHINGTON IS HOLLYWOOD FOR UGLY PEOPLE (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung)- Employing images from popular culture, political figures and Internet imagery, this piece adopts viral advertising in a reduction of contemporary events to a cartoon-like mythology while touching on issues such as identity politics, US Foreign policy, sexuality and power.

BUYO/ Italy (Director: Andrea Fasciani)- In this post-modern tale, Ralph is a guy whose voice only generates weird sounds, and Anna is deaf. One day they meet in the elevator. Ralph's unusual voice makes Anna's body vibrate, prompting Anna's affections and her desire to follow him everywhere.

BY MODERN MEASURE (Director: Matthew Lessner)- As part of an ongoing, unaired TV series, an amateur French sociologist presents his observations on a day in the life of two young Americans who meet by chance outside a Taco Bell on October 8, 2006.

CHERRIES/ United Kingdom (Director: Tom Harper; Screenwriter: Fiona Kissane)- A class of teenage schoolboys are oblivious to their teacher's attempts to question them about the wider world. They are about to get a lesson they will never forget...one that will change their lives forever.

CHONTO (Director: Carson Mell)-Wilted rock idol Bobby Bird literally tries to buy a friend when he
adopts a monkey from a zoo in South America.

CROSSBOW/ Australia (Director: David Michôd)- A kid. His Mum and Dad. The sex and drugs. And the boy next door who watched the whole thing unravel.

THE DEEP (Director: Alex Haworth)- A journey unravels through the thoughts of a solitary character in the heart of a future dystopia. As he journeys deep underground, he tends to the machines that fuel the surface city. His jobs are precise, almost compulsive, and he is unable to stop.

DOG LOVERS (Director: Danny Roew, Screenwriters: Tonya Cornelisse, Graham Sibley)- Two potential lovers meet to talk about their affection for dogs.

DUGONG/ Australia (Director: Erin White)- In an effort to repair the past, a loner returns home with his dog on the day of his brother's wedding, but learns that in order to make amends he must leave a piece of himself behind.

THE EXECUTION OF SOLOMON HARRIS (Directors: Wyatt Garfield, Ed Yonaitis; Screenwriter: Ed Yonaitis)- An electric chair execution fails, delivering a non-lethal jolt of electricity that leaves the prisoner screaming in pain. Protocol and routine fail to provide a resolution, and the warden has to cope with the human dilemma that falls into his hands.

FAREWELL PACKETS OF TEN/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop)- Two ladies discuss the pros and cons of their mutual addiction to cigarettes.

FCU: FACT CHECKERS UNIT (Director: Dan Beers; Screenwriters: Dan Beers, Peter Karinen, Brian Sacca)- After being assigned to check a bizarre fact about Bill Murray's love for drinking milk, two magazine fact checkers break into Bill's house to spy on him. Cast: Bill Murray

THE FUNERAL/ Canada (Director: Sara St. Onge)- A dark comedy about a young woman in her early thirties becomes aware of her own mortality and reacts by meticulously planning her own funeral. Possibly due to a lack of other big days in her life so far, such as a wedding, this becomes her moment to shine.

GAS ZAPPERS (Director: Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung) - A short animation about climate change, where an ironically over-appropriated and fuzzy polar bear, abruptly finds itself in a position to save its home.

THE HISTORY OF AMERICA (Director: MK12)-A psychedelic western space opera.

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE/ Canada (Director: Cam Christiansen; Screenwriter: Kris Demeanor)- A suburban boy competes in a tennis match with his father in the suburbs of Calgary when three young men approach and start to rudely accost them.

I LOVE SARAH JANE/ Australia (Director: Spencer Susser)- Jimbo is 13 and can think of only one girl-Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way-bullies, violence, chaos, or zombies-nothing will stop him from finding a way into her world.

IGNITE (Director: Shawn Bannon)-The 2007 fires of Griffith Park. Shot with seven time-lapse cameras. An Zxperimental perspective that is beautiful, eerie, and captivating.

LLOYD NECK (Director: Benedict Campbell)-Alex has a crush on her brother's friend, Jesse. But Jesse likes Alex's brother, Taylor. Alex knows something is up with her brother. Caught in an awkward position, Taylor takes Alex and Jesse to his favorite spot.

THE LOSS OF A WRESTLING MATCH (Director: Jed Cowley)- So far in the season, Don has a 9-0 record. He is perfect, but in the upcoming duel he has to wrestle a higher-ranked opponent.

MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI/ Canada (Directors: Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski)- Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure adrift between
real and imagined worlds.

MAN (Director: Myna Joseph)- Maggie and her sister form an unusual bond during an encounter with a young man.

THE MARK (Director: Thomas Barndt)- A lawyer rents a room to a human lightning bolt.

MOTION STUDIES: INERTIA (Director: Jake Mahaffy)- This film documents a motion study of a man running as hard and as long as he can in a full suit of smithied High Middle Age armor.

NIKAMOWIN (SONG)/ Canada (Director: Kevin Lee Burton)-Deconstructing and reconstructing Cree narrative, this film experiments with language to create a linguistic soundscape.

NUMBER ONE (Director: Leighton Pierce)- Water imagery engages the experience of elasticity between varying states of mind.

OIRAN LYRICS/ Japan (Director: Ryosuke Ogawa)- A historical musical about the glamorous yet plaintive life of Kiyomi, a beautiful oiran or high-class Japanese courtesan.

ON THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT (Director: Adam Keker)-A top-secret government file, only to be viewed in the event of the President's death by assassination, gives specific instructions on what should be done, and presents dossiers on the three most likely suspects.

PARADISE/ France (Director: Yi Zhou)- A lyrical look at an imaginary paradise based on black and white nature and insects — with no humans, no souls in the landscape. Based on "The Divine Comedy " by Dante.

PARIAH (Director: Dee Rees)- A Bronx lesbian teenager juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from friends and family, but pressures from home, school, and within corrode the line between her dual personas with an explosive consequence.

please stand back! (zurrueckbleiben bitte)/ Austria (Directors: stadtmusik) -The directorial collective, stadtmusik, deals with sounds in cities by analyzing sound structures that are triggered by urban buildings and facilities. They focus on the aspect of movement in the city, reinforcing a dynamic experience of the urban soundscape.

THE RAMBLER (Director: Calvin Reeder)- A stranger takes to the lonely highway with his guitar and traveling sack.

A RELATIONSHIP IN FOUR DAYS (Director: Peter Glanz)- Coming from a wealthy family, Paul recently turned 30 and has never had, or needed a real job. Lost in his own imagination, he often preaches his grand ideas, but in reality never does much... until he meets Sabine.

SCORING/ Ireland (Director: Ken Wardrop)- A young man explains the true power of a kiss.

THE SECOND LINE (Director: John Magary)-After MacArthur's savings are stolen from his FEMA trailer, he and his cousin Natt take work gutting a house.

SICK SEX (Director: Justin Nowell)- Amanda has a fever. Ken is horny.

SMILE/ Canada (Director: Julia Kwan)- A subtle look at the fractures that bond a Chinese immigrant family on the day they use their cut-out Sears coupon for a free family portrait.

SOFT/ United Kingdom (Director: Simon Ellis)- A father rediscovers his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.

THE SOUND OF PEOPLE/ Ireland (Director: Simon Fitzmaurice)- An 18- year-old boy stands in a moment on the brink of death.

SPIDER/ Australia (Director: Nash Edgerton)- It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

TEAT BEAT OF SEX (Director: Signe Baumane)- A take on sex exclusively from a woman's point of view.

UNTITLED #1 (from the series EARTH PEOPLE 2507) (Director: Nao Bustamante)- An enchanting meditation on an ancient species from the future using found footage, cell phone video, and crude chroma key effects to create a coherent and petite spell. The rendition of buffalos made from a "herd" of toy poodles tweaks at our understanding of the symbolic world.

WIND, TEN YEARS OLD (BAAD, DAH SALEH)/ Iran (Director: M. Mehr)- A day in the life of a 10-year-old Iranian girl highlights the Iran-Iraq war and the national/educational propaganda that informs the tumult, fear, infatuation, and mindset of a generation.

By John Gaudiosi

The year 2008 is going to be a very busy year for controversial film director Uwe Boll, who has a legion of detractors in the gaming community after films like Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne and House of the Dead. The prolific filmmaker, who independently finances every one of his movies, has a slate of movies in the can. He talks about what the coming year brings in this exclusive interview.

First up for Boll is his $60 million fantasy epic, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. The movie, which stars Ray Liotta, Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, Ron Perlman, Kristanna Loken, Matthew Lillard and Burt Reynolds, will open on 2,500 screens across North America on January 11—making it Boll's biggest film release yet.

"In the Name of the King is tracking well," said Boll. "Eighty percent of the TV spots for the film will begin January 1. The film opened in Germany and other foreign territories already and remained in the Top 10 for the first three weeks in every territory.

Boll concedes that In the Name of the King is by far the best movie he's ever made with the best cast and the best script he's ever worked with.

"I already have the director's cut DVD version in my head, which will be much longer and have more character development," said Boll. "The theatrical release is really action-driven, which works for the big screen. It's already 2 hours and 10 minutes long. The director's cut will be a much better movie."

Other than the character of Farmer and the krugs, Boll admits that he took almost nothing from the Dungeon Siege videogame, although he worked closely with the game's developer, Gas Powered Games, which had a representative on set while filming in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"The very beginning of the film has Farmer tending to his crops, but that's about it from the game," said Boll. "The Dungeon Siege game didn't have a real story. Chris Taylor at Gas Powered Games likes the movie and they're really behind the film. I think gamers will be happy with this film even if it's not really based on the game's story at all. It's a good fantasy film. I'm just happy to get it out on 2,500 screens. I don't think it will be a disaster like BloodRayne was."

Boll has partnered with FreeStyle Releasing for this film, the same distribution company that released Captivity and The Illusionist. For BloodRayne, Boll partnered with a start-up called Romar, which he later sued. The company failed to book the movie on the appropriate number of screens and film prints were mailed to theaters that never showed the movie. BloodRayne, which was a hit on DVD and spawned a straight-to-DVD sequel, which has also sold well, was a complete box office bomb.

Next up for Boll is Postal, his political comedy very loosely based on Running with Scissors' controversial first-person shooter. Boll said Postal will hit theaters in May or June 2008.

"We're going to go up against one big event movie like an Indiana Jones 4 or a Prince Caspian," said Boll. "I think we'll get more press and have a better chance against one big movie than six smaller movies the same weekend. It will be like David versus Goliath."

The $15 million film will open on 1,500 to 2,000 screens and unlike In the Name of the King, which will not be screened for press, Boll will be showing Postal to everyone in the media beginning in February. Boll wrote, directed, produced and actually stars as himself in this movie. Zack Ward stars in the film.

"My new PR agency, 42nd Street Public Relations, is working on getting me on talk shows and mainstream media and political shows," said Boll, who will be featured in the February issue of GQ Magazine. "They're going to try to get me on 'Larry King Live.'"

Also hitting theaters in 2008 from Boll are a pair of original, non-gaming movies. 1968: Tunnel Rats will open in late summer/early fall, but will be shown in film festivals like Tribeca and Berlin earlier. Boll said Universal Music has given him a complete soundtrack of hit songs from 1968 for his Vietnam war movie, which will be released as an art house film. A videogame based on the film will ship in tandem for Xbox 360 and PC.

Horror fans will be able to see the NC-17 rated Seed at the Fangoria Convention January 18. The 1970s movie, which stars Michael Pare as a man hunting down a released serial killer, will be rolled out in a limited release.

"We're doing 100 prints of the film and will move those from territory to territory across the country," said Boll. "The film's rated NC-17 and it's too hard for normal film audiences. There's a four-minute-long scene where a woman is killed with a hammer and it's one of the most gruesome scenes ever filmed."

Those who couldn't get enough of Alone in the Dark will be able to check out the straight-to-DVD sequel, which doesn't feature anyone from the original or tie into the original in any way. The DVD will be released in March or April of 2008.

As for Far Cry, which is being finished up now, Boll said because 2008 is so crowded with movies, he may hold that theatrical release until 2009, which should have more openings with the Hollywood writers' strike. Boll said he will likely film only one movie in 2008, but hopes to film at least two in 2009. The tentative plan is to film videogame adaptations of Sabotage and BloodRayne 3 (which will follow the World War II Nazi premise of the first game) in Croatia back-to-back.

Gamers will have plenty of new Boll films to talk about for the coming years.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues to eke its way toward a very unhappy holidays, Variety has put together a little list of things striking writers can do in their spare time.... no they didn't include playing through BioShock. They did include writing video games though.

While the WGA has made no secret that it would like to eventually cover vidgame writing, it hasn't pushed the issue yet and is allowing members to work on games during the strike.

"It has been an interesting shift," says one tenpercenter who focuses on vidgames. "The literary agents are now saying, 'Why don't we get our clients over there during the strike?' even though in the past they thought the money wasn't good enough or the work is too demanding."

While the article says that the pay isn't that good comparatively, they list the typical fee as $50,000. Man, maybe I should change jobs. The article has a lot of other interesting insights into the process of writing the story for a video game, like how long it takes and how disjointed it can be.

This pen's for hire [Variety]

Long before Hollywood screenwriter (Pulp Fiction, Silent Hill) and director (Rules of Attraction) Roger Avary was writing movies, he was writing code. Avary, who co-wrote Robert Zemeckis' 3D computer-generated Beowulf with Neil Gaiman, never published a game, but he shared many with his friends.

"When I was a kid, Star Raiders on the Atari 800 was the be-all, end-all game," said Avary. "It was Star Trek and Star Wars rolled into one. You had a map and you could refuel at star bases and defend them. I'll never forget what it was like to warp from one location to another and try to keep centered or else I'd fall off course. I bought an Atari 800 computer because of that game and learned how to program on that computer using 6502 Assembly.

Avary regrets never submitting his biggest game, Shuttle Crash, to the Atari Program Exchange, which published games created by users. The game was an interpretation of Lunar Lander, but gamers had to perform a forced landing while doing as little damage as possible to the ship and keeping the crew alive.

"I was big into Dungeons & Dragons and my friends and I did all sorts of character-generation programs on the 800 that would do dice rolling for us," said Avary. "We also had dungeon creators that would generate halls and traps for us so that we could play without a Dungeon Master."

Avary never lost his love of gaming. In fact, he now collects and restores Atari vector machines like Tempest (for sheer balls-out adrenaline this was one of my favorites") and Battlezone ("this game is as fresh and playable today as when it was released").

Although he considers himself a "Wii guy" and has been an ardent Nintendo fan for years ("Nintendo 64 is the best game console ever made"), Ubisoft sent Avary an Xbox 360 and a copy of the Beowulf game for him to test drive.

"Beowulf, like a number of recent film-to-game projects, is interesting because we were able to share a number of assets with Ubisoft right up front, allowing the game and film to release simultaneously," said Avary. "I spent a good part of last night battling sea monsters and learning the control schema."

Avary loves the fact that the development studio explored 30 years of action not covered in the film. As he progresses through the game inspired by the movie he co-wrote, he'll be able to fight new monsters and go on new adventures that weren't in the original poem or 3D film adaptation.

"I'm totally going to take my 9 year-old son to see this movie at IMAX in 3D," said Avary. "He's a big gamer like me. I've been trying to explain the movie to him and I said it's like being inside the biggest and best videogame you've ever seen. I don't see that as a negative. I see that as a natural evolution to the form. What we're seeing is gaming consoles that are vastly becoming the predominant art form on the planet, is merging with cinema. Everybody should be happy about that because it flows in both directions. Games will get more cinematic and movies will get more limitless in what you're able to do. This movie is a beautiful hybrid of all of these disciplines I love."

Avary finds it weird that so many people who have only seen the Quicktime trailer of Beowulf say the movie looks like a videogame cut scene.

"I don't know of any game that looks like this movie," said Avary. "And if Robert Zemeckis was directing cut scenes in games, then maybe that would mean something.

There are plenty of haters out there who love to criticize something. That's like saying this movie is too much like a book or this book is too much like a movie. I see graphic entertainment as graphic entertainment. When you're given sensorial entertainment you just give yourself to it. Everything has its influence. Early movies look like theater with a singlewide shot without sound. The invention of the cut and the close-up was revolutionary. Television has had its impact on cinema, and I don't think it's necessarily been bad. And obviously, videogames are having a massive impact on cinema and vice versa. When I play the game, one of the things I can't help but wonder is how long is it going to be before games look like Beowulf. How long is it before we'll be able to share all of our assets seamlessly."

Avary believes what Zemeckis has done with his performance capture technology, which has been used in The Polar Express, Monster House and now Beowulf, is a magnificent task.

"Robert Zemeckis has collected a number of tools both hardware and software to create a work flow that allows for a film-like production that renders in this format and allows for performance and for story," said Avary. "It's literally like creating a production process. There will come a time where the development of the game will be able to use all of the elements. We were sharing a lot of the film elements with Ubisoft for this game and they ended up creating a lot on their own because they were far-reaching with what they wanted to do with the story. There will come a time where the exact elements and backgrounds that you render for a movie will seamless be able to travel into someone's home on their gaming system and you'll be able to have a nearly identical interactive experience to the passive experience you get in the theater."

While movies will continue to evolve—Beowulf is the largest 3D opening in Hollywood history—they won't go away, according to Avary.

"Sometimes you don't want to be an active participant in a game," said Avary. "Sometimes you just want the story to be told to you and it's a different discipline that people love. It's what works best in a big room and it's why we love to get together around a movie screen and watch a story. Other times you want to become an active participant in the story. It's no better or no worse than being a passive participant. What will be really interesting in the future will be sharing in a much bigger way."

When it comes to performance capture, Avary believes the future of convergence between Hollywood and game creation lies in Zemeckis' pioneering technology.

"I think the next step in Zemeckis' process should be to further strengthen the ties between the developers you're working with and the actual film production," said Avary. "By inviting the developers into the production, they will bring a lot of skills that are out there in the game development community that could really apply themselves to Zemeckis' particular production process. They call it performance capture but I prefer to call it digitally enhanced live action. I think it will benefit us in the future in a great way. We're on the cusp of change and I think it's going to be really good. It's going to deliver a much more cinematic gaming experience and a much more limitless cinema experience."

Avary, who wrote Silent Hill and was once attached to direct the Driver film, will write and direct the big screen version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein for his next project.

Studio sources tell me that yesterday's rumor that Hitman was getting de-gored so it could catch a PG-13 rating were just that: Rumors.

The sources tell me that director Xavier Gens is still working on the film and that Nicholas De Toth has just been brought in as a consultant not as THE editor.

In fact there will likely be a team of editors involved in working with the film. More importantly I'm told that the studio realizes that to capture the essence of Agent 47 they have to make an R-rated film and that's definitely what the studio expects the film to get when it hits the MPAA "soon." In fact they are "embracing" the R.

While I take this latest revelation with a healthy dose of anti-spin skepticism I am, once more, giddy with anticipation.

Movie site Twitch reports that Fox has stepped into what was shaping up to be perhaps the best video game movie ever made, and "improved" it. And by improved I mean screwed it all up.

Apparently the studio has yanked director Xavier Gens from the film and put Nicolas De Toth in the saddle. De Toth, apparently, is the guy who watered down Live Free or Die Hard.

Fox made this move, Twitch reports, because they wanted to avoid the hard R rating the movie was headed for, what with all of its gore, headshots and inspiration drawn from action films like The Killer and A Bittersweet Life.

That's right, they don't want Hitman to be too gory. Next!

Fox Yanks HIT MAN From Director Xavier Gens [Twitch, via First Showing]

By: Bob Denerstein

Back in the '80s, when such favorites as Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Q-bert were being played in bars, I was busy with what I regarded as more appropriate saloon activity: knocking back enough cold ones to make a mockery of eye-hand coordination.

Despite my lack of personal knowledge, I decided to check out director Seth Gordon's "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," a documentary about men who play competitive Donkey Kong. You gamers already know most of the details: An outfit called Twin Galaxies establishes the standards, and various folks vie to break records on what the movie regards as one of the most difficult machines ever, requiring amounts of concentration that would challenge an eastern yogi.

But forget all the game stuff. It's not the game that makes "King of Kong" so entertaining; it's characters in conflict. Sure there's a cast of supporting dweebs, but the movie boils down to a mano-a-mano Kong-off between Billy Mitchell, an arrogant champion, and Steve Wiebe, his humble challenger.

To borrow a phrase from the lawyers: Here are some things we can stipulate: To immerse in the world of Donkey Kong, one must be obsessive by nature. Competition has at least two possible effects: It either sharpens people's skills or makes them crazy — maybe a bit of both. Finally, the folks who play competitive Kong seem to lack the kind of perspective that would tell them that they are not competing in events on a par with The U.S. Open or The Masters - never mind The World Series or Super Bowl.

So what? So what if the fate of empires doesn't rest on the movie's outcome? Who cares if no lives are at stake? Why fret over the fact that there's no love to be won or lost? Even without epic grandeur and the drone of ESPN coverage, the Donkey Kong wars brim with competitive zeal, slowly exposing a bold clash of wills and skills.

Wiebe functions as the movie's hero. You root for him the way you root for Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars." The Florida-based Mitchell, who sells hot sauce for a living, becomes the Darth Vader of the piece. He won't play Mitchell face-to-face, but will play all manner of head games to give himself an edge.

On top of that, Wiebe does what many characters have done in many good movies: He seeks redemption. His layoff from his Boeing job seems to be one more brick in a wall of failures. Smart, talented and athletic, Wiebe nonetheless has trouble finishing. He's a nice guy, but maybe not a closer. It's this inner struggle that gives the movie a tantalizing double edge. Can Wiebe beat the Evil Empire? Will he choke? Will his opponent beat him or will he beat himself?

Those questions are as genuine and compelling as any you'll find in a fiction film, and Gordon makes the most of them. Sure he explains how Donkey Kong works, and shows us how the masters try to outwit the game's seemingly random quality. But it's not the games that matter in "King of Kong;" it's the people who play them.

I've read some reviews that suggest that Wiebe might be wasting his time playing Donkey Kong, that he probably could find more meaningful things to do with his life. Maybe it's just my inner nerd peeking through, but I tend to admire people who are willing to obsess and push limits. And isn't it true that if a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing?

"Donkey Kong'' battles aren't likely to inspire the kind of noble sentiments that Shakespeare drew from the Battle of Agincourt, but with apologies to the Bard, "Henry V, " St. Crispen's Day and the English language, try this tin-eared tribute to those who aspire to become Kings of Kong:

"We few, we happy few, we band of gamers:
For he today that sheds his coins with Wiebe
Shall be his brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his obsession,
And gentlemen with Xboxes now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not at Funspot,
And hold their eye-hand coordination cheap whiles any speaks
That tried to keep up with Wiebe at a quarter a play."

Hey, I apologized in advance, didn't I?

Bob Denerstein spent 27 years reviewing movies for The Rocky Mountain News in Denver. He recently took a buyout from the paper and has moved on to other writing challenges. You can follow his musings at Denerstein Unleashed.

While not totally finalized, Todd Hollenshead confirmed with me today rumors that id Software has indeed licensed the film rights to an adaptation of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and that Roger Avary will both be writing and directing the movie.

"We are super excited to have Roger Avary attached to the project," Hollenshead told me. "I met personally with Avary and he has an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the project. That makes us incredibly excited. Movie projects are tough unless you have a really good writer and we want this to be great."

When I mentioned the mixed reaction to the Doom film, Hollenshead first said he loved the movie but then went on to say that they always want to take their previous experiences and "learn to do things better."

Before penning the deal, id folks met with the studio to agree to some "creative guidelines" for the upcoming picture.

"We want to make sure things like BJ is the hero, it's set in World War II and the Nazis are the bad guys," he said. "But a movie does need to be different than the game, so there is going to be some changes made."

He added that id will stay involved in the project as the movie is being made and technically, the deal is still in the works. id just wanted to get the word out there during their annual Quake Con.

To call it art or not to call it art?

That's the question that seems to stir passions and make lips quiver with rage when talk turns to video games.

Begin furrowing your brow now. The whole art vs. non-art discussion is complex, difficult and possibly beyond resolution, but those who exalt the virtues of movies over video games often fail to take into account some of the strange variations in the way movies are made, relevant factors when it comes to deciding whether films deserve to be placed on an art pedestal.

With much trepidation, I'm dipping a toe into these treacherous waters because a) I'm too foolish to refrain and b) because there are elements within the film community - and I'm a 27-year veteran of film criticism - that insist that video games can't be art.

Roger Ebert, perhaps the world's most famous film critic and also one of its best, recently recanted his original position. Video games could be art, Ebert wrote, although not "high art." I know lots of critics who wouldn't hesitate to turn a big thumbs down on the notion that video games can be art, and many of their arguments revolve around intention and singularity of vision.

But when we're talking movies, intentions remain elusive. A very capable screenwriter once told me that he hated the vaunted auteur theory - the one that identifies directors as the guiding force behind movies. Writers generally feel slighted by directors, but this writer's animosity derived from first-hand observation. No theory applies to every film, or even to a majority of them, he said.

He further explained that every movie has its own peculiar origins. A movie might begin with a screenwriter and his script. It might begin with a producer who's trying to read commercial tealeaves. It just as easily could originate with a big-name actor who has enough clout to get a project green lit. Maybe it's the work of some aspiring indie whiz kid with a trust fund and too many credit cards.

In the history of movies, few directors have been able totally to call their own shots and even those have often faced limits. The most sympathetic producer can't always raise sufficient money to bring a project to perfection. The ideal actor isn't always available to play a part.

But wait, goes yet another anti-game argument: Games have winners and losers. Scores are kept. Outcomes vary. Such factors rule out the possibility of art.

Really? I'm not a gamer, but I certainly can imagine games that speak to the mind and heart just as easily as I can imagine movies that don't. On second thought, I don't have to imagine such movies. I've seen thousands of them. And I know that some video games trump some movies in both the skill and imagination departments.

I also can see how a game, if created by a master, might begin to reveal the subtleties of its structure, a certain elegance that not only creates the fun of the game, but also begins to disclose the intricacies of the mind that created it.

And if art needs to be rooted in creative decision, what should we make of movies that are test screened so that studio executives can decide which of several possible endings should be used? Does this bizarre multiple-choice game preclude art? Under such circumstances, who's the artist? The director, the audience or the studio?

Here's a story to keep in mind. The great Chinese director Zhang Yimou ("Raise the Red Lantern") directed a movie called "The House of Flying Daggers." A couple of years ago, I interviewed one of the movie's stars, the lovely Zhang Ziyi. I rattled on enthusiastically about a final battle scene staged in a snowstorm. Zhang told me that the director hadn't planned to shoot in the snow, but the weather changed suddenly, and he decided not to wait for a "better" day.

I felt a little silly, but maybe I was right in the first place. Perhaps Zhang - the highly skilled creator of several masterworks - instinctively knew that nature had provided him with a happy accident. The point is that after all the decisions by committee, the second-guessing and the necessary compromises, art still can emerge, beauty wrenched from apparent chaos.

So in the end, how much does this debate matter?

Not much, I'd say. Movies and games should be appraised on two levels: to determine whether they work well, of course, but also to see what they reveal about the society they depict and the fantasies they promulgate. We should ask if games, like movies, speak to something vital in the human condition, a shorthand term that covers our common triumphs and woes.

Perhaps the effort to separate art from non-art does little more than send us on a wild goose chase.

So if there's a battle raging, count me out. I'm not about to climb any barricades to defend the sanctity of art. If I visit a museum that's displaying video games, as some evidently already have, I'm not about to turn up my nose. I'm going to marvel at the elasticity of a changing culture, and I'm going to remember that even a mild wind sometimes blows away lines drawn firmly in the sand.

Bob Denerstein spent 27 years reviewing movies for The Rocky Mountain News in Denver. He recently took a buyout from the paper and has moved on to other writing challenges. You can follow his musings at Denerstein Unleashed.

The Lost video game will be shipping for the Xbox 360, PC and Playstation 3 in the first quarter of next year, Ubisoft announced today at Comic Con.

The game will put you in the shoes of a surviving passenger of Oceanic flight 815 working to unravel the mysteries of the island and confront your own dark past. The game will include locations and characters from the show and include puzzles, battles and "other challenges."

Ubi plans to unveil the first official trailer for the game during the 5 p.m. Lost Season 4 panel at Comic-Con today. Hit the jump for the release.

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES FIRST DETAILS FOR THE LOST VIDEO GAME

Ubisoft to unveil the first official video game trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con International Thursday, July 26th at the Lost Season 4 panel from 5:00pm - 6:00pm.

SAN FRANCISCO - JULY 26, 2007 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, in collaboration with ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios, announced the Lost video game will be shipping first quarter of 2008 for the Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC CD-ROM. Based on the award-winning television series, the Lost video game will allow players to experience an untold adventure of "Lost" in an immersive, interactive world. The Lost video game is being developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio.

"Ubisoft is thrilled to be collaborating with ABC to develop this phenomenal television series into an interactive experience," said Helene Juguet, senior director of marketing for Ubisoft. "Ubisoft has worked closely with ABC Studios and the show's producers to create a compelling storyline that has the same mystery, adventure and intensity fans of the show have come to expect from the 'Lost' brand."

"We're very excited to be working with Ubisoft to develop a game that captures the same surprise and intrigue as 'Lost,'" said Bruce Gersh, senior vice president, business development, ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios. "The series has such a loyal audience, and we're happy to bring fans an additional way to interact and engage with their favorite characters."

"The sense of adventure and suspense that we strive for in the show is also captured in the Lost video game," said Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, executive producers of the 'Lost' television series. "Ubisoft has done a fantastic job and come up with a game that is visually amazing and imaginative both on its own and as an extension of the world of the show."

Ubisoft will unveil the first official video game trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con International Thursday, July 26th at Lost's Season 4 panel from 5:00pm - 6:00pm.

About the Game
As a passenger of Oceanic flight 815, you survived the crash and find yourself on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. As you begin to unravel mysteries of the island, you begin to discover secrets of your own. You will have to understand your past mistakes in order to survive and find your way home...
• Play as a survivor of Oceanic Flight 815: Confront your dark past, seek your redemption, and ultimately find a way home.
• Authentic 'Lost' experience: Explore familiar locations, unravel mysteries, and interact with the main characters from the show.
• Survive the challenges that the island throws at you: Solve puzzles, outsmart enemies, battle the smoke monster, and overcome many other challenges to survive the island and come out alive.

About 'Lost'
After Oceanic Air flight 815 tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a Pacific island, its survivors were forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive. But they discovered that the island holds many secrets, including a mysterious smoke monster, polar bears, a strange French woman and another group of island residents known as the Others. The survivors have also found signs of those who came to the island before them, including a 19th century sailing ship called The Black Rock, the remains of an ancient statue, as well as bunkers belonging to The Dharma Initiative — a group of scientific researchers who inhabited the island in the recent past.

The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must continue to work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain if they want to stay alive. But as they have discovered during their 90-plus days on the island, danger and mystery loom behind every corner, and those they thought could be trusted may turn against them. Even heroes have secrets.

"Lost" stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet and Terry O'Quinn as Locke.

"Lost" was created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof. Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender and Carlton Cuse serve as executive producers. "Lost," which is filmed entirely on location in Hawaii, is from ABC Studios.

About ABC Studios
ABC Studios has emerged as a leader in television development and production. The studio's current slate of programs includes the international franchise hits "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives;" this year's Golden Globe winning drama and comedy "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty;" the Emmy-nominated comedy "Scrubs" on NBC; and sophomore hits "Ghost Whisperer" and "Criminal Minds" for CBS. For cable television, the studio produces ABC Family's best-performing original series of all time, "Kyle XY," as well as "Dirt" on FX and "Army Wives" on Lifetime. The studio also produces ABC's late-night talker "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and is a distributor for "The Amazing Race" on CBS. ABC Studios is part of Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company.

About Ubisoft
Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft has offices in 21 countries and sales in more than 50 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. Ubisoft generated sales of 680 million Euros for the 2006-07 fiscal year. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2007 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft, Ubi.com, and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. Under license by © Touchstone Television. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. "PlayStation", "PLAYSTATION", and "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

I've been hearing about, even checking out, Beowulf for months now. The game based on the movie based on the epic poem. Normally, that sort of media skipping would be like fingernails down a chalkboard for me, but so far I remain highly impressed with the tact that Ubisoft is taking in turning the tale of a blood-soaked Danish king to the console.

Most important to me is that the developers will be using material from the entire poem to create their own epic, instead of focusing in on the oft-quoted-in-high-school Grendal bits. The game will have you play through 30 years of Beowulf's life, a deeper look than even the Zemeckis film will take.

Most important to you, likely, is that the game (xbox 360, PS3, PC and PSP) was built using the YETI technology used to create Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. Which means it looks like hot sex and controls like a dream.

In the game you will take control of an evolving thane army, ordering the thanes you rescue and recruit to help Beowulf progress through the game. The fighting system uses combos, parries and the ability to upgrade skill sets. You also have these thing called Carnal Power which can be used to top off attacks and weapons. The game even has a little Assassin's Creed in it, letting Beowulf hold onto walls and climb as well as fight up-close-and-personal with enemies and giant monsters (No crabs are reported in this game.)

Hit the jump for the official press release and the first ever video (18 or older) showing in-game play. I love me some jaw breaking.

EPIC TALE OF VENGEANCE, POWER AND GLORY COMES TO LIFE IN UBISOFT'S BEOWULF™ VIDEO GAME

Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's Feature-Length Film Becomes an Interactive Gaming Experience

SAN FRANCISCO - July 26, 2007 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's leading video game publishers, announced that Beowulf™, an action combat video game based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's Beowulf, the upcoming feature film from Academy Award®-winning director Robert, is currently in development for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and Windows® PC. The Beowulf™ video game is being developed by the award-winning team that created the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® in Ubisoft's Tiwak studio. The Beowulf™ video game is scheduled for worldwide release in conjunction with the movie's opening in November 2007.

The Beowulf™ video game takes players deep into groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis' vision of the classic saga, Beowulf. Gamers live the life of Beowulf, the legendary Norse warrior with the strength of 30 men who is torn between the nobility and brutality within him. Arrogant, self-serving and lustful for gold and glory, Beowulf will journey to Denmark to destroy a bloodthirsty beast wreaking havoc on a frigid land. But evil persists, and Beowulf succumbs to its lure of even greater fame, quietly maneuvering to claim the Danish throne. As King, Beowulf must face the consequences of ambition, even as war descends on the realm. As Beowulf, players lead their men, called thanes, into battle, slay the Titans of a dying age and crush the enemies that threaten to annihilate both their kingdom and people. Only then, when Beowulf looks Destiny in the eye, will he know what kind of hero he has truly become.

"Ubisoft, Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La Entertainment have been working extremely close in developing Beowulf," said Gilles Matouba, creative director at Ubisoft. "From the very beginning, we have had an unprecedented level of access to information and assets from the movie. This access, coupled with the creative and technological abilities of our team, has allowed us to capture aspects of the film and translate them perfectly into compelling gameplay elements such as the visceral hand-to-hand combat, dynamic swordplay and amazing visuals, while giving us the creative liberty to go even further by creating exclusive content for the game that is unexplored by the film and even the classic tale."

Key features:
• Delve even deeper into the adventure as gamers will play through 30 years of the Beowulf story not seen in the movie to experience more of Beowulf's life and mold their own legacy.
• The mystical world of Beowulf comes to life in stunning fashion. Powered by the next evolution of the award-winning YETI technology used to create the critically acclaimed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter® 2, Beowulf™ delivers an unrivalled graphical experience.
• Army of up to 12 thanes to unlock as players increase their heroic experience (by saving thanes, killing giant monsters, etc.).
• Players use the thane army to their advantage by giving orders, assigning positions, tailoring weapons to the situation or enemy and by triggering in-game mechanisms.
• The thane army evolves with upgradeable weapons (swords, mace and spears), skills and abilities.
• Use legacy experience points to gain thanes, replace weapons and upgrade Carnal abilities.
• Carnal Power allows the use of stronger attacks and special weapons. Carnal upgrades include less daze after use and prolonged use of Carnal Fury. But if used too much, there will be grave consequences.
• Dynamic combat system including combos, parries and increasing skills as the player progresses.
• Grab ability allows Beowulf to hold on to walls or climb, as well as fight up close with visceral hand-to-hand combat against enemies and giant monsters.

"The talented creators at Ubisoft are transforming our vision of the film into an interactive experience that extends the epic adventure far beyond its classic storyline," said Robert Zemeckis, director of Beowulf. "We've been thoroughly impressed with what we've seen from the game makers and are confident that gamers will find it to be an immersive and entertaining experience that goes far beyond the traditional movie-licensed game."

Groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis offers a vision of the Beowulf saga that has never been told before. In a time of heroes, the mighty warrior Beowulf slays the demon Grendel and incurs the wrath of its monstrous, yet seductive, mother in a conflict that transforms a king into a legend. Beowulf stars Ray Winstone in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as the corrupt King Hrothgar, as well as John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother. Paramount Pictures, in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, Presents an ImageMovers Production of a Robert Zemeckis film, Beowulf.

For more information about the Beowulf™ video game please visit www.playbeowulf.com.
For more information on the film please visit http://www.beowulfmovie.com

The second game (Spielberg is said to be working on three with Electronic Arts) is a PS3 and Xbox 360 game code-named LMNO which is described as "North by Northwest meets ET... if ET were female, grown up and hot.

You don't play as the girl, however. You're an ex-secret agent, and the bond that you forge while on the run with the computer-controlled woman—good, bad, indifferent—determines the nature of her special abilities and the ways in which she'll assist you. Says Spielberg: "The challenge is, can the game have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?" Based on the clever ways in which he and EA are extracting a genuine performance from their digital Eve—complete with eyes that widen, lips that curl and translucent skin that lights up in different colors to express her quicksilver moods—we think Spielberg's got yet another hit on his hands.

The real question I think is whether the third game will be code-named HIJK or TUVW and if he plans on going beyond those initial three games and completing the entire alphabet in secret code names.

Wii Can't Wait to Play [Newsweek, via Destrutoid]

It turns out that Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf will be entirely digital (as in Polar Express digital) meaning that the actual assets for the movie, not just some pictures but the actual digital content will be used to help create the video game.

"'Beowulf' is particularly well-suited for the video game format," adds Robert Zemeckis. "Not only does the film have a compelling story and strong visual style that will translate well into a game, but because the film is entirely digital, we are able to share our assets with Ubisoft. Audiences will be able to make a seamless transition between the film and the game."

Normally, I'd say that's just a bunch of crap coming from one more movie producer who doesn't really care what his film looks like when it hits a console, but I've got hope for this game. High hopes.

The film, and thus the game,will stars Ray Winstone in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as the corrupt King Hrothgar, as well as John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother.

Groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis offers a vision of the "Beowulf" saga that has never been told before. In a time of heroes, the mighty warrior Beowulf slays the demon Grendel and incurs the wrath of its monstrous, yet seductive, mother in a conflict that transforms a king into a legend.

I hope the game does a better job of digging into the source material then do most high school classes on the subject, which tend to focus entirely on that battle with Grendel and never seem to touch on the before or the after.

Both the movie and the game are expected to hit this November. Brian Crecente

SAN FRANCISCO - May 24, 2007 - Ubisoft, one of the world's leading video game publishers, announced that it will develop and publish the video game based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's "Beowulf," the upcoming feature film from Academy Award®-winning director Robert Zemeckis. Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary adapted the legend for the screen. The film is produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke. The executive producers are Martin Shafer, Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman.

"Ubisoft is excited to be partnering with Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La, and the creative teams at ImageMovers, to leverage the 'Beowulf' movie assets and storylines and extend them into the interactive video game universe," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft. "Ubisoft has quickly become an industry leader in creating high-quality movie-based video games that deliver a compelling experience to both casual and hardcore gamers alike."

Groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis offers a vision of the "Beowulf" saga that has never been told before. In a time of heroes, the mighty warrior Beowulf slays the demon Grendel and incurs the wrath of its monstrous, yet seductive, mother in a conflict that transforms a king into a legend. "Beowulf" stars Ray Winstone in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as the corrupt King Hrothgar, as well as John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother. Paramount Pictures, in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, Presents an ImageMovers Production of a Robert Zemeckis film, "Beowulf."

"'Beowulf' is particularly well-suited for the video game format," adds Robert Zemeckis. "Not only does the film have a compelling story and strong visual style that will translate well into a game, but because the film is entirely digital, we are able to share our assets with Ubisoft. Audiences will be able to make a seamless transition between the film and the game."

"Robert Zemeckis and Ubisoft represent creative leaders in their fields and we're thrilled to be collaborating with exceptional filmmakers and game development talent," said Sandi Isaacs, Senior Vice President, Interactive & Mobile at Paramount Digital Entertainment. "We are confident the epic story of 'Beowulf' will not only translate in to a phenomenal movie, but also a compelling video game experience."

The game is expected to release in conjunction with the movie's planned opening in November 2007. Visit http://www.beowulfmovie.com for more information on the film.

Ubisoft quietly announced that they have penned a deal with Paramount to work on a game based on the upcoming Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf movie expected to hit this holiday.

The movie, and thus the game, will be based on the epic poem of the same name and stars Angelina Jole and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom have signed on to appear in the game as well. Better still, much better, is the fact that the adaptation of the adaptation will be developed by the same French team who worked on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

Sounds like I'm going to have to dust of my Seamus Heaney copy of the book. I can't wait to play, not listen, to the lays of the victories of warriors. Brian Crecente

Our favorite kidnapping Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has given her newest son a "Nintendo Game Boy." While shopping in Vietnam for souvenirs, Jolie picked up 3 year-old Pax Thien. The actress even learned some Vietnamese phrases so the kid can understand what the hell his adopted mother blabbers at him. What prompted the gaming handheld? Says Jolie:

He has never had anything to call his own.

And when they won't shuddup, buy them crap. Works like a charm! Brian Ashcraft

Angelina Jolie's New Kid Gets A Toy [Metro via VGB]

By: Brian Ashcraft

Jeremy Roush let the game do the talking. Adam Sandler watched the plasma television as filmmaker Mike Binder looked on. They were demoing a video game for the Hollywood actor in hopes of convincing him to include it the upcoming Reign Over Me, co-starring Don Cheadle. In-game save posts were far from the action, and the graphics were last gen. If Sandler didn't bite, the game was out. "One of the hard things about showing Shadow of the Colossus is that if you are not a real game player, your first glimpse of it is that it's blocky," Roush, an avid Kotaku reader, tells me. "You don't see how much artistry that's behind it because it's not Pixar perfect." So he turned up the music, the aspect ratio narrowed, and Sandler saw the feet of a Colossus for the first time. The music started to crescendo, and Roush gripped the DualShock he brought from home as the game's hero Wander climbed the giant.

And promptly got tossed on his ass. "You can feel that tension, sitting there, trying to demo this in front of people," Roush recalls, laughing. "And you're climbing up this guy, and you get knocked off. It was really tough." Once again, the music began to crescendo, and this time he finally brought down the huge Colossus in a slow motion collapse. Adam Sandler was sold, asking Roush for the game's name and immediately calling up his staff to buy it. Next up, was convincing the developer to let them use it in the film. No problem, right? Reign Over Me was produced by Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, and Shadow of the Colossus was created by, well, Sony. But this PS2 game inclusion wasn't just clever product placement on Sony's part.

After Mike Binder finished early drafts of his scripts, he passes it along to people he trusts for feedback. Roush was in the director's inner circle — He had previously done a title scene for Upside of Anger and helped the filmmaker design and build his own Mac-based edit suite, which was used for Man About Town. Binder's latest script was called Reign Over Me, and Roush was slated to co-edit it along with Steve Edwards. It followed the story of Charlie, a New Yorker who lost his family during the 9/11 attacks. The character tries to avoid his problems and cover them up. Says Roush, "It had Charlie, Adam's character, playing a video game that was very much the typical fake game that you see in TV and film." The game was an arcade-type shooter with aliens. An avid gamer himself, the editor's first instinct was that Charlie should be playing an MMO. He could have a social life, but not have to interact with people. "That was in my first set of notes I didn't give to him," says Roush, "because that night it occurred to me that this was the same thing my own father was doing."

The Vietnam War left his father 100 percent mentally disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder. After getting treatment at a V.A. hospital for several years, his father was discharged. Unable to work, he spent the days and evenings watching sci-fi thriller Aliens over and over again until he actually had to buy a new VHS tape. "Aliens is a thinly veiled kind of Vietnam veteran kind of story," Roush explains, "and watching it is a way of thinking about it without telling yourself you are thinking about it." The movie was visceral therapy for his father. That's when it hit Roush. Refusing to accept the death of loved ones. Seeking out an escape from that truth. Giants falling in slow motion. "You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again," he says. Charlie's therapy was Shadow of the Colossus.

Roush took his slim-line PS2 and personal copy of Shadow of the Colossus to Binder's office. Binder's no gamer and coming from a different era. Childhood friends with Sam Raimi, Binder spent his free time deep in comic books — Perhaps explaining why Hollywood of late has had better success with comic books than with video games. According to Roush, it's merely a generation gap. "It's just how much exposure they've had to games as a kid," he says. But Binder was receptive — Not just to Roush's personal experiences with his father, but also his advice on including Shadow. As the game was demoed, the filmmaker saw how it worked thematically. And when Adam Sandler finally came on board, the script was changed so that it specifically mentioned the game's title and sent to Sony Computer Entertainment to get the game's lead designer, Fumito Ueda, to approve of Shadow's inclusion. Weeks later, his reply came through: Greenlight.

What if the Shadow of the Colossus was a Nintendo title? Or a Microsoft one? Sony connections or not, Roush says, "The job of people at Columbia is to make great film. And they've been given the freedom to do that." What's more, he adds, Sony had long moved onto the PS3, and Shadow is a PS2 game that just happened to directly parallel Reign Over Me. A timeline of all the Colossi was created. Roush recorded himself playing through the entire game, fighting each of the giants. From that footage, Binder then selected which Colossus he wanted on screen at particular moments. During the shoot, a mix of pre-recorded footage and live play was used, and Sony Computer Entertainment even sent a staffer to play up to each particular giant. Because of the game's save points, the crew had to wait until he arrived at the Colossus.

Stars Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle were Shadows experts by the time they arrived on set. In one scene, Sandler's character Charlie explains to Cheadle's character Alan how to play Shadow, giving a detailed description of the controls. "That scene wasn't in the script," says Roush. "If you needed to learn how to play the game, Adam could teach you." In order to capture the reality of the characters playing video games together, that's precisely what Sandler and Cheadle did: Played video games together. "Some of the moments where they failed, we used in the film," says Roush. "The failure, the frustration and the happiness are all a part of playing the game. It's hard to act in some ways."

Reign Over Me must be one of the first Hollywood films, if not the first, to deal with games thematically and intelligently. While other industry pundits try to figure out how to take the latest blockbuster game and turn it into a movie or vice versa, Reign Over Me already has an insightful leg up: Let the games speak for themselves. Characters bond through games and lose themselves in them, only to find themselves again. They enjoy the simple act of play. "We're starting to get people in Hollywood who have perspective of what the video game experience is like," says Roush, "what it can feel like. And all that gets integrated into Reign Over Me."

Some know him from CDs and countless mixtape appearances, where he's gone by aliases ranging from "Daddy Fat Sacks" to "General Patton." (Even if they're only half as clever as most of those currently making the rounds on Xbox Live: What up NuTBuST3R and AzzHat69?)
Others, courtesy of starring appearances in films Idlewild, ATL and Who's Your Caddy? Still more as: "Hey, aren't you that other guy from Outkast... can I get Andre's autograph?"

Call him what you will though: Chart-topping rapper/producer Big Boi, renowned for classic albums like ATLiens, Speakerboxx and Stankonia, isn't just one of hip-hop's most talented acts. He's also an avowed gamer keen on kicking blinged-out ass as a playable brawler in EA's upcoming rags-to-bitches rap industry brawler Def Jam: Icon. We recently caught up with the Dirty South legend so he could drop a little science on our lily-white asses, in-between flying elbows and spinning clotheslines:

Q: What's up with you and videogames: From cartoons to movies and self-run record labels, you don't have enough side projects going on already?

A: Yeah, man, I was asked to do the Def Jam: Icon game over a year ago. I had experience with the first two, and I was like yo, let's do it. So they came down and scanned me and I got my special moves, then came back and did my voice-overs for story mode. I've actually been playing the game all day today - it looks great.

Q: Seriously - you don't keep busy enough without this shit?

A: Yeah man, it's a lot we got on the plate. I'm just finishing up a movie - Who's Your Caddy? - and now working on a solo record, finishing song titles, laying down cuts and things for that. Def Jam: Icon's gonna be a good addition to the collection, and my kids are getting a real big kick out of it more than anybody.

Q: So you're a big videogame head, eh?

A: Oh yeah, most definitely. When you're out here on the road, on the tour bus, you know that's all you do: Just listen to music and play games. I've been gaming since I was like, you know, very young - Atari days.

Q: Atari, huh? That's pretty dope, grandpa! But given all the hype, what system are you feeling today: PlayStation 3, Wii or Xbox 360?

A: Well, actually I'm a PlayStation man. I played the hell out of PlayStation 2, and I'm looking for a PlayStation 3 right now. I ain't got a chance to play the Wii yet, but I ain't gonna lie, I got a 360 as well. I try not to play favorites too much cause they all got sick games for them...

Q: Oh, please. Stop being a pansy and call a spade a spade: You must have some sense of who's going to come out on top of the console wars...

A: Man, you really can't tell at this point - the Wii and PlayStation 3 ain't had enough time to establish themselves, they just came out. If I had to pick a personal favorite though, I'm going with PlayStation - I've been playing that since the jump.

Q: Any favorite titles you like to play in the off hours: Maybe Hello Kitty Roller Rescue, Snoopy vs. the Red Baron... hell, even some Pokemon?

A: Naw, mane... It's all about a little Madden 07. I'm the reigning champ - I'll put a little ass whoopin' down on anybody who want some.

Q: Speaking of ass whoopings, you put some serious ones down in Def Jam: Icon. Are you really that violent in real life?

A: Nah, unless I'm made to be that mean, you know. I'm a really cool guy, I'm all about positive vibrations. You don't fuck with me, I don't fuck with you. But when it's time to kick some ass, I won't lie - I'll bring that old whooping stick out.

Q: What do you think of your character in the game - he got some moves on him, or what?

A: Oh hell yeah, he's great. It looks just like me right down from the tattoos on my neck to some jeans, t-shirts and Nike boots. That's ass whooping material, and he just come out swinging, you know. He'll split your dome.

Q: There are a lot of rappers in the game who might be known for talking a little shit now and then. Anyone's ass you especially want to beat?

A: No, no, no... I got love for everybody, man. But all their asses is going down, you can count on that. I'm cool and all, but when it comes to gaming, I'm all about me - I gotta come out on top, you know?

Q: Mind sharing some advice on how people who pick your character can play you best or most authentically?

A: You just gotta come out fast and furious, you know, man? You can't come out half-steppin'. The game is, like, so detailed from every move to when a player gets struck, and their facial expressions change and how they look, you really just gotta smack first, ask questions later. My character's a tough cat, so you just gotta come wit it, hey-ey-yay!

Q: If you had to pick a few fellow rappers/fighters to back you up in the game, they'd be?

A: I'd probably get Ludacris, TI and Lil' Jon. We all from Atlanta, you know what I'm saying? We just trying to keep that Dirty South thing going.

Q: We hear ya - it's definitely been a good year for the region. Why's there been so much interest in the South lately anyway?

A: It's the sound right now, man, you know - people just want to hear something different and something new, and the South is providing that for the world right now. Just like we gonna flip shit up in this new Def Jam: It's a straight takeover. People can't hate on that: In games or on the charts, right now, we're the ones who've got the ball.

Q: Any other games besides Def Jam: Icon you'd love to give a shout out too?

A: Aw man, I gotta call out Bully. I loooove that game. I started playing it a couple weeks ago, and it's tight - you're a private school kid in this boarding school, gotta run jobs, make money and shit. It's like an adventure game kinda sorta, and I'm down with that. It's not what I'd usually play, but it's funny as hell, you know?

Q: Ever play any of the other hip-hop games that've come out before: 187, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, Getting Up or Saint's Row...?

A: Heh, I ain't want to, man, you heard? I stick with the best. I played that Def Jam game and that was it - I wasn't hearing anything else.

Q: Are you glad you're finally getting a shot at digital stardom?

A: Oh yeah, man, yeah. You know, my main thing has always been music, so when it's time to come and branch out and trying something new that'll get people's attention, I just try to come and do my best.

Q: Hip-hop and games go way back, long before the Def Jam titles though... what's up with that?

A: It's just a part of the culture. From having different soundtracks playing behind you when you jamming on NBA Live or them Grand Theft Autos to now integrating everything in Def Jam: Icon, it's just a natural evolution. In Def Jam: Icon, you have it to where the surroundings behind you are interactive: manhole covers, gas pumps, cop cars, helicopters... you can use those as weapons. It's just real fun, man, a way to escape that just make sense in the context.

Q: I hear the backgrounds bump to the beat as you fight?

A: Man, that shit is the dopest shit about the game, you know what I mean? You can hook your iPod up to it and the game moves to that, if you playing Anita Baker or Johnny Cash or whatever your preference is. They did a great job of designing that.

Q: Make any contributions to its musical repertoire?

A: Yeah, I got like three songs on there. I got Kryptonite, and another song called What's that Smell, and another song called DDT. DDT and What's that Smell are two original compositions too. The best part when you're making them is that it's for a fighting game, so you can say whatever you want to say, and beats hit hard, so you know the background's going to jump to the 808.

Q: Last, but not least, let's say somebody were to step to you in real life - are you going to bring the heat like you do here in this game, or let the bodyguards handle it?

A: Naw, if anybody mess with me, I'ma slap the shit out of him. For real... as long as he alone. My secret move is the backhanded bitch-slap, closed-fist...