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Microsoft cancels Gore Verbinski's 'Matter' for Kinect
Matter, a Kinect game expected to launch on Xbox Live Arcade in 2013, has been cancelled by Microsoft. It was to be the first game developed in partnership with film director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Rango) and Blind Wink Games."Microsoft Studios is no longer pursuing this title," says a company representative. "We have no further details to share at this time."Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, told Joystiq in June last year that Verbinski had pitched Matter as a means to instill and demonstrate emotion in typically motionless game players. A futuristic metal sphere, seen moving through a futuristic landscape in the game's E3 2012 trailer, represented an active control surface implemented through Kinect."To a lot of people who haven't played games for a long time, somebody standing completely stationary with a controller in their hands kind of seems emotionless, even though we know that we'll be sweating or twitching," Spencer said. "And [it was] his feeling, that with motion and movement, that the connection of the emotion that's happening on screen and how the player feels would be more natural."Blind Wink, which is attached to a film production company partnered with Universal Pictures, has not responded to requests for comment.
Gore Verbinski's 'Matter' coming to XBLA from Blind Wink Games
This E3 brought the announcement of Matter, a new Xbox-exclusive game from the mind of Gore Verbinski, the director of Rango, The Ring, and 75 percent of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Matter appends a title to the first project from Blind Wink Games, which was formed in partnership with Universal Studios. Phil Spencer, Corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, says Verbinski was the one to pitch the game in the first place. "He had been exposed to Kinect, and had this idea for a game. We heard the pitch and we were able to find a developer to plug in. So it was really born of his mind, and his idea."The idea, first shown by an abstract, Tron-esque trailer during Microsoft's E3 2012 press conference, came from Verbinski's desire to highlight an emotional connection between players and their movements on screen. "You should hear it from him, he does a much better job than I do in explaining it," Spencer says, "but the idea was that in your physical motion, your emotion actually comes through."To a lot of people who haven't played games for a long time, somebody standing completely stationary with a controller in their hands kind of seems emotionless, even though we know that we'll be sweating or twitching," Spencer adds. "And [it was] his feeling, that with motion and movement, that the connection of the emotion that's happening on screen and how the player feels would be more natural."We still don't know much of the Kinect game, but it sounds like it may be some kind of abstract puzzle game. According to Spencer, the shiny sphere in the teaser trailer is used as "a control surface for the game" (like rolling a Katamari with your hands, perhaps?), and the visual presentation is in line with a futuristic aesthetic that Verbinski wanted to explore in games.Matter is coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in 2013.
'Matter' for Kinect announced, coming in 2013, Gore Verbinski involved [update: trailer]
Gore Verbisnki's Xbox 360 title, Matter, was just announced during Microsoft's E3 2012 press conference. The trailer showed a personality sphere-like robotic eyeball orb navigating through a maze of shifting metal structures, like some kind of Tron Marble Madness. Matter will launch sometime in 2013.
Verbinski and co. trying to trim BioShock movie budget
Speaking of BioShock, the Gore Verbinski-produced film adaptation of the game is apparently still in the works, despite being halted for budgetary concerns more than a year ago. IGN got word straight from Verbinski: "The problem with BioShock was: R-rated movie, underwater, horror. It's a really expensive R-rated movie. So we're trying to figure out a way working with [director] Juan Carlos [Fresnadillo] to get the budget down and still keep so it's true to the core audience, you know? The thing is it has to be R, a hard R." So we now know three things: (1) nobody's going to spend a lot of money to make that, (2) it sounds like it would be really awesome if they did and (3) seriously, nobody's going to spend a lot of money to make that. ... But, again -- would be awesome.
Variety: 28 Weeks Later director considered for BioShock movie
Variety reports that Universal Pictures is in negotiations with 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo over the position of director for the BioShock adaptation. The project was originally to be directed by Gore Verbinski, who remains a producer on the title, and who set aside plans to direct a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie for BioShock. According to Variety, Verbinski opted out of BioShock due to the studio's decision to move production overseas. Take-Two still has the right to approve a director for the adaptation. While the company must have been pleased with a big name like Verbinski attached to the project, it may also be pleased with the undoubtedly lower cost of a non-Verbinski.
Verbinski doubtful about BioShock flick, wants to make games
We've been a little doubtful that the BioShock movie would actually get made after it was first announced, but director Gore Verbinski is starting to come around to our way of thinking. Verbinski told the LA Times that he thought the movie could still get made, but likely in a foreign country that offers tax breaks for movie makers. Verbinski also says he wants to get into the games business, which would be more troubling if the very first thing he'd said about it hadn't been, "It's a mistake for Hollywood to impose themselves on the gaming space. Not only is it arrogant, but it hasn't really worked." Music to our ears.
BioShock movie gets budget cut, 'in a holding pattern'
The bad economy just won't stop showing up in our news posts these days. First we get predictions of months of down sales, and now we get news that the Gore Verbinski directed BioShock film adaptation is stuck "in a holding pattern." Variety is reporting that Verbinski and production company Universal are looking at possibly moving the currently in pre-production film to outside the US to "take advantage of a tax credit," allegedly looking at moving production to London from its current Los Angeles locale. Additionally, according to Variety's sources, some of the pre-production staff has been let go while the budget restructuring takes place. The studio (and Verbinski himself) have vowed to not allow the BioShock movie to succumb to the same fate as the perpetually on-again, off-again Halo film. As BioShock is one of the few games we could actually see making a really interesting film, we're hoping they're not just pulling our chain. [Thanks, Aaron!]
Verbinski to turn WSJ article into a film
Just before we get started, it's probably worth mentioning that we're quite fond of Gore Verbinski's work to-date. This does not offset the creeping trepidation that we might feel about Verbinski and Universal having snagged the movie rights to a Wall Street Journal article about Second Life user Ric Hoogestraat. No, not rights to Hoogestraat's story, or that of his wife, or of his virtual spouse. Movie rights to a newspaper article. It isn't even really a terribly interesting story, as the stories of Second Life users generally go.
BioShock movie in development, Gore Verbinski directing
var digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/08/bioshock-movie-in-development-gore-verbinski-directing/'; Looks like the rumor we broke back in January that Hollywood was flirting with the BioShock license was dead-on. Variety reports that Universal has signed a deal to turn BioShock into a movie. Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) will head the project and Aviator writer John Logan may write the screenplay. Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick, who was in charge of Fox in the '90s, handled the deal for his company and says the project will actually get made ... unlike the Halo movie.There's also an interview with Verbinski on Variety's Cut Scene blog where he discusses the project. He believes the movie will be rated "R" and says, in terms of the Little Sisters, that he'll take the issue "right up to the edge," not wanting the core audience to feel "betrayed." Though no release date is currently targeted, Verbinski says he'll start pre-production when Logan's script is finished and approved.[Update: If there was any doubt as to the validity of this story, Take Two itself just issued confirmation that the movie adaptation of its undersea adventure is indeed in the works.] BioShock was made by 2K Boston and 2K Australia, studios in the Take Two family. Get edumucated, check out our Take-Two Family Album.
Blizzard discusses its methods for success at DICE '08
The D.I.C.E. Summit is a yearly gathering of the gaming industry's top talent, there to discuss everything from business practices to development methods to the latest in crazy game mechanics ideas. This year, not only did Gore Verbinski go a little nutty, but the Big Guns at Blizzard -- Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder; Rob Pardo, vice president of game design; and Frank Pearce, executive vice president of product development -- got on-stage to give a talk entitled "Blizzard: From Developer to Worldwide Publisher".The talk covered a great deal of ground in discussing how Blizzard has gotten to be the king of the hill in the gaming world. Key elements included retaining complete creative control, noninterference from parent companies, and building up layers of knowledge over the years that helped them take calculated risks with each successive title. "If we tried to do WoW from scratch, it would be a monumental effort. We already had the community for WoW. Even though they weren't MMO players, they were willing to try it out," said Pardo.Go check out the entire article at Gamespot here.
Pirates creator criticizes Disney's hesitance to jump into games
At the DICE summit in Las Vegas Wednesday night, Pirates of the Caribbean creator Gore Verbinski gave a chat to game creators about movies, gaming, and his perspective of the industry in general. Beyond his generally complementary comments towards gaming, one particularly interesting aside that perked our interest was the displeasure he expressed towards Disney for not adapting the Pirates universe for an MMO more quickly than they did. According to Verbinski, they didn't even think of starting the project until a few years after the release of the original movie, and did so without his input. Of course, as we all know, they did eventually release Pirates of the Caribbean Online this past year, but Verbinski's comments certainly make us wonder if the game is all that it could have been.As we reported earlier today, Disney has ramped up its efforts in the MMO space considerably, putting a significant capital investment into what they see as an extension of the brand immersion seen in their theme parks. This conflicts somewhat with Verbinski's perception that the studios see MMOs in the same way that they see plush toys. One has to imagine that Pirates of the Caribbean Online would have been met with considerably more fanfare if it had the Pirates of the Burning Sea gameplay under the hood, but at what point does this sort of discussion degenerate into armchair quarterbacking? In this case, while I don't doubt Verbinski's sincerity on this issue, it sure seems like was hamming it up for the crowd.
DICE 08: Pirates director urges creativity in keynote
While we're often quite protective of our medium – what does some big-shot Hollywood cat know anyways? – Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski delivered a heartfelt keynote speech at this year's D.I.C.E. Summit, asking game designers to "embrace madness" and "to make the suits sh*t themselves." Now, before you lash out and remind us all that this is the same guy who made not one, not two, but three blockbuster movies based on a theme-park ride about pirates, Verbinski was quite candid about his distaste for the conventions of Hollywood ("he noted that some of his Pirates movies actually had release dates before they got scripts"). Indeed, his speech seemed to be more of the "save yourself" variety, encouraging game designers to "pick up the baton" the film industry dropped some time ago.GameDaily relays: "He feels that games are an art form and have far more depth than cinema potentially." That we're in total agreement with. It's when he says "Games will eventually elicit emotional and visceral reactions" that we scratch our heads. Alright, unless you cried during Final Fantasy VII you may not have the traditional "emotional" reaction we presume he's imagining but what about fear? Or excitement? Certainly those are emotional reactions games excel at delivering. And "visceral reactions"? Has he ever played a "video game"?We know he's busy, and maybe that's why he specifically mentioned the first-person genre when bemoaning studios that "phone it in" in a year when first-person shooters excelled – but overall we can't help but get caught up in the excitement and trust that Verbinski has the right message. Now how about some game work, Verbinski? Those Spielberg and Lucas guys are all over it.
