Oh, and anyone doubting the legitimacy of these pics might be interested in going here, and reading Microsoft's angry "please stop" letter.

Exclusive: 2nd Halo Fall Of Reach Concept Art! [Latino Review]

I grew up with the ‘Street Fighter’ games. I don’t see them as cheesy or funny, but as serious characters that deserve to be explored in their own right.

Which explains, we guess, why the movie's based on the exploits of Chun Li and not the exploits of a large Russian man who wrestles bears in his underwear.

Justin Marks - Bringing Bionic Commando to Comics [Newsarama, via MTV]

You’re always going to be worried that in that first meeting they’re going to be, like, ‘OK, it’s Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey on a desert island hunting for pirate treasure,’ but it’s not going to go that way

My expectation at this time, from everything that I’ve heard, is that it will very much honour the dramatic and thematic elements of the game… They certainly understand the material and are able to provide a stamp of their own.

Thank goodness for that. But, now you mention it, that wouldn't be the worst Uncharted movie...

BioShock movie won’t be “Kate Hudson hunting for pirate treasure,” says Levine [VG247]

Sure, I raise my voice, get in people's faces... But I ramp up the humour, too. He's like a version of my character in The Departed - sly and cynical but also very funny. That's the kind of thing people like to see me doing.

We also like seeing him dance around in his undies and/or singing Transformers songs, but hopefully they won't also be in the movie. They're not really canon.

Payne is Wahlberg's "favourite role so far" [Total Film, via Eurogamer]

Exclusive: Halo Fall Of Reach Concept Art! [Latino Review]

Though I said Vampire Killer is gone from this script, Simon does wield what is described as a chain whip in two instances. However, it is nondescript and in one of the occasions is wielded as an off-hand weapon. So what is Simon armed with throughout the film? A fucking sword.

Oh dear. Nothing like setting off on the wrong foot with fans, is there?

Paul W. S. Anderson’s Castlevania [CC2K]

Capcom making Lost Planet movie [Variety]

He also writes "exposed breasts" which has us firing up the Netflix queue.

Also given a good eyeballing was Retro Game Master Episode 1: The Mystery of Atlantis, which you may remember as Game Center CX. If not, it's the Japanese television show that's based on the premise of having host/test subject "the Kacho" play hard video games. It has since been turned into its own video game of the same name.

We think Mr. Hawkins sums it up best — and makes the whole thing sound so appealing — with this:

The reason why the show is so beloved becomes almost immediately apparent; the Kacho is just a loveable, everyday kind of guy, who is just as good, and most importantly bad at video games like you. It's not just his choice of games, that being classics from yesterday, but his attitude towards them that makes it all so enjoyable; its not some young kind dealing with the more than peculiar logic of old games without question as we all did, the Kacho is an older dude who wonders why the hell things are the way they are, like we all do when we play something as an adult, with now all this confusion and reasoning.

Excellent stuff. Thanks for the heads up, Matt!

'Cinema Pixeldiso' – New York Asian Film Festival Part 1 [GameSetWatch]

I'm really fond of the Brainy Gamer, mostly because Michael Abbott's posts almost always live up to the title of the blog; this week, he tackled the question of 'genius' and auteurs, amongst a lot of MGS 4 talk (especially in reference to Citizen Kane). Abbott looks at the parallels between D.W. Griffith (director of Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, among a lot of others) and Kojima Hideo of Metal Gear fame. Leaving aside the question of whether Kojima 'is' a genius (at the very least, he is an auteur), Abbott draws parallels between the two, especially in terms of a 'blind spot':

His theater training may have impaired him in some ways, but Griffith always hired interesting, talented people. Lillian Gish almost single-handedly rescues several of Griffith's films from the ham-fisted performances of most of the other actors.

Similarly, Kojima's reliance on cutscenes can be tiresome, but he is a fine and gifted filmmaker. One can easily track his maturation from the original MGS. Unlike other so-called cinematic games like Mass Effect, the filmmaking in MGS4 is visually creative, high-caliber stuff. As with Lillian Gish, it's almost enough to make you forget the blind spots.

So how to account for it? Arrogance? Stubbornness? Or is it really just a blind spot? A certain inability to see the strangling grip of an old mode on a new one. An infatuation with the pretty girl who won't love you back. If the very thing that limits the artist is also the artist's primary mechanism for delivering content - as it is for both Griffith and Kojima - that blind spot is a very pernicious thing.

No one's perfect, of course — but Abbott's musings are thought provoking, especially considering the overabundance of film/game discussions.

The genius blind spot [The Brainy Gamer]

Max Payne Set Photos [/film]

Evil Avatar Radio Ep. Eleventy One - David Hayter [Evil Avatar]

Wiseman suits up for 'Gears of War' [Variety]

However, the best reference is also the most subtle. In the first five minutes of the movie, after Jason wakes up from his dream, you can see a Dreamcast on the left hand corner of the screen underneath his TV.

I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you...especially not to you. Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it."

...a few big games like "Bioshock" and "Assassin's Creed" are, I hear, on Hollywood's radar.

"We are really excited to be working with Film Roman to create an animated feature that will tell the portion of the Dead Space saga between the comic and game," said Glen Schofield, Executive Producer for Dead Space. "With the video game, comic book and now animated movie, Dead Space has become a true multimedia brand.

EA and Starz Media Join to Produce Animated Dead Space Movie

Feature Based on Highly Anticipated Video Game Is First Project Between Starz Media and Electronic Arts

BURBANK, Calif. & REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Starz Media announced today the development of an animated movie prequel to the highly anticipated sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space™. The companies also have animation projects in development for two other EA franchises. The relationship kicks off with this Dead Space prelude that will deliver new details on the horrifying tale the game will unleash this Halloween.

The script for the Dead Space animated feature picks up the plot where the original comic book series ends and leads up to the beginning of the Dead Space game. The story focuses on the events aboard a futuristic mining spaceship, the USG Ishimura, after it pulls a mysterious artifact from a remote dig site. The artifact triggers the sudden invasion of a long-dormant alien presence, and the Ishimura's crewmembers find themselves locked in a frantic struggle to survive. The animated feature is slated to premiere at the same time as the game is launched.

This project signals both companies' belief that mass-appeal games provide opportunities for new and exciting programming in a variety of different media. This announcement comes at a time when the video game industry is valued at more than $30 billion worldwide for packaged goods, wireless and online games in calendar year 2007 and game-inspired entertainment is pervasive in movie theaters, on TV and across online media.

Starz Media is currently in discussions with broadcasters worldwide that have already expressed interest in airing Dead Space, which is scheduled to be released via broadcast TV and then on DVD. The company will launch international sales of the animated feature at the upcoming MIP-TV market in Cannes, France. Starz Media will also market the movie through its home entertainment company Anchor Bay Entertainment, as well as via online and wireless distributors.

The deal with Starz Media and its animation unit Film Roman reflects EA's growing commitment to developing filmed entertainment projects based on the company's games. For Film Roman, the venerable animation company behind "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill" and the pre-school hit "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!," the booming video game business is fertile territory for developing new hit movies and series.

"Due to the richness and complexity of stories that have evolved for video games, they have become a type of entertainment that can span generations and provide fantastic inspiration for other forms of media; especially in the realm of animated features," Film Roman President and COO Scott Greenberg said. "We're particularly thrilled to be starting off with Dead Space."

"We are really excited to be working with Film Roman to create an animated feature that will tell the portion of the Dead Space saga between the comic and game," said Glen Schofield, Executive Producer for Dead Space. "With the video game, comic book and now animated movie, Dead Space has become a true multimedia brand. Each of these elements delivers the story to new audiences and tells it from different aspects and perspectives."

Film Roman is producing "Dead Space" in alliance with Digital Tetra Inc., in Korea. The Gotham Group of Los Angeles, a leading animation representation company, helped put the production arrangement together.

Under development at EA Redwood Shores, Dead Space is not yet rated by PEGI or ESRB. For more information about the game, go to the website at www.deadspacegame.com.

The audience is always behind Bourne. Bourne is always thinking two or three levels ahead. He's going to deliberately let himself get captured by holding his hands up, and when somebody gets close to him, he executes a quick reversal and kicks people out.

... So how do we do that with the player? For a long time, we wandered down these alleys, like, "Okay, we'll let the player do a mission plant. We'll sneak into the areas ahead of time, plant weapons, case the joint, and figure out where everything is." We just thought we'd end up with a watered-down version of Splinter Cell. It wouldn't be as good or as interesting as that game. So we decided to go up-tempo with the action.

How we tried to preserve the character's thoughtfulness and his improvisation is in the contextual interactions with the environment. What'll happen is when Bourne is fighting, he executes these takedown moves, and depending on what's in the environment, you get different outcomes. The controls are simple, but the outcomes are a surprising and complex.

The interview is a bit longish, but well worth a read through.

Designing Filmic Games: Paul O'Connor And The Bourne Conspiracy [Gamasutra]

I joke with people a lot that writing films and writing video games are very similar, except the video game people are nicer. I don't want to talk bad about anyone I've worked with in film, but in video games, it felt like I was part of the team.

And it's always felt like the writer was part of the team a little bit more .... They feel like your skillset is important, and that they expect that you have a different skillset than them, so that whatever you're saying deserves at least sort of a cursory glance or a cursory consideration.

That was also really refreshing, you know? I'm used to someone saying, "Write this. Here is what I want." And I just happen to do that, period, end of story. In this situation, it was really nice to say, "Hey, I have a suggestion," and someone actually listens.

It's a quick and interesting read and worth the time if you're interested in the nitty gritty of story design and how the writing fits into game design more broadly.

Musson Talks Writing For Movie-Based Games [Gamasutra]

Accordingly, independent games, in general, are - compared to independent films - even less to be understood as the 'radical other' in the face of an (imagined) mainstream culture - despite the heterogeneity and the hybridity of practices that the label independent incorporates in both cultural fields. (Ambitious) independent games may from time to time bear up against products of the dominant game industry when it comes to being innovative or creative and they may sometimes differ distinctly from the outward appearance of mainstream games - but this difference does not include an oppositional logic that is explicitly recognisable as negation or challenge of mainstream game forms.

The author sort of falls down in his analysis of why 'innovation' sets independent games apart. It's certainly true that the 'provocative and controversial vs. mainstream' paradigm doesn't work so well with games, since plenty of mainstream titles are likely to cause journalists and lawyers to foam at the mouth with their controversial and provocative subject matter. The whole issue has some interesting articles scattered about and is worth a page through.

Innovation NOT Opposition: The Logic of Distinction of Independent Games [Eludamos via
Water Cooler Games]

On the Indiana Jones weekend - May 23 - we will go out and destroy Indiana Jones in the Box Office! We all know that Harrison Ford is older as my grandpa and his time is up - would Michael Moore say!

But wait. He's not done! It's not enough to heap shit on 20th century cinema's most acclaimed entertainers, he's got to go heap shit on a third:

Spielberg gets sloppy. We saw that with War of the Worlds (why the fuck the older brother survived?) and also in parts of Jaws, E.T., Munich etc.! My performance in Postal as 'Nazi Theme Park Owner' outperforms easily Ben Kingsley in Schindler's List!

Paramount is very, very excited about the growth in the interactive entertainment market. I'm sure you're going to see an awful lot more from Paramount in this space.

Todays audience is a savvy, involved group so the film must be A plus plus in every area in order to capture the magic of the first film...The original Mortal Kombat game was born a child of many visual loves by the creators at midway so this latest version borrows heavily from that pioneering spirit and must be thought out and executed at the highest level in order for it succeed in today's market place.

When your game is backed by tens of millions of dollars, you can't use it as a testing ground for wild new mechanics and dynamics never tried before; however, when you're building a low-budget 2D platformer, even your successful experiments won't make an impact on the medium at large, the "big games" that get everyone talking. What we've got left is a huge gulf between popular, full-experience 3D action/adventure games that need to be financial blockbusters to survive, and marginalized casual/handheld/movie licensed games that don't register on the mass consciousness radar. We need our B films. We need that freedom to explore truly meaningful new avenues of interaction, quickly and nimbly, without the pressure of an eight-figure budget and multi-year dev schedule weighing down on the whole enterprise. Noir already scouted this territory for us.

It's a thought provoking piece on a subject that gets talked about a lot and well worth a read through.

Noir [Fullbright]

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.

It's not a videogame movie. It's a great story. If you had read the script, you would know that it wasn't a videogame. It's very exciting and it's immensely romantic and it's like Lost Horizon. It takes you to somewhere you've never been.

But In our research for a new book about the Atari VCS, Nick Montfort and I discovered that Death Race is in fact not the first film adaptation in games. That honor goes to none other than Shark Jaws, by Atari.

According to our sources, Nolan Bushnell tried to license Jaws for use in a videogame, but failed. Eager to take advantage of the shark fear hype after the release of Steven Spielberg's popular film, Atari decided to make the game anyway. As the flyer reads, "now you and your locations can cash in on the popularity, interest and profits associated with sharks."

The game is pretty simple. The player controls a diver trying to catch a fish while avoiding a shark. Graphics are raster, and black and white.

Like Death Race, this too was an unofficial game, and in that sense it's not quite right to use the word "license" — and Atari cleverly played up the illegitimate Jaws affiliation by making "JAWS" appear in huge letters on the cabinet, with "shark" in much smaller type beside it. In fact, Atari was so concerned about possible recourse that Bushnell created a whole other company, dubbed Horror Games, to market and sell the game. Ever the clever trickster, that Bushnell. And how times have changed.

Shark Jaws [Arcade Flyers]