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Nokia plants multimedia research laboratory in Hollywood, CA
We've always heard that innovating through recession is the best way to survive, and apparently the suits at Nokia got the same memo. Despite the zany economic situation, the handset maker has established a research hub in the epicenter of media: Hollywood, California. The predictably named Nokia Research Center Hollywood is being planted in order to give Nokia easy access to members of the media / entertainment industry along with nearby universities, and it's hoping to generate a storm of ideas including "mixed reality experiences," fresh user interfaces and the meshing of media in the mobile world. In all honesty, it'll be quite interesting to see what eventually comes out of this, particularly since it already knows that mobile TV and cellphone gaming are far from hot stuff right now.
Sony to ship real live Blu-ray Discs to China
While some studios are backing away from Asian countries due to rampant piracy, Sony's content with diving right in. According to a recent report from Variety, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will begin distributing 30 current and classic Blu-ray Discs to China on Friday, though they won't be exceptionally cheap. In fact, with titles costing around 205 yuan ($30), we'd bet those Chinese "BD" pirates may actually see a spike in sales. Funny how so much Blu-ray manufacturing is going on in China, yet it's just now about to get its first taste of authentic BD software sales. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world, we tell ya.[Via TechRadar]
Strike.tv brings new, original Hollywood produced shows streaming home in HD
Dissatisfied with what primetime television is offering? Maybe short form HD in the browser window is the answer. That's the possibility posed by Strike.tv, a new site that's teamed up with BitGravity to stream high definition videos written and produced by familiar Hollywood talent. With newly inexpensive HD cameras, CEO Peter Hyoguchi envisions an opportunity for content creators to get their vision out without long expensive development processes. You can watch the first fruits of their labor right now, and recognize faces from The Office, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and other programs among the forty web series available.
Hollywood hates fair use, sues over RealDVD
We knew Hollywood wouldn't let RealNetworks sell its RealDVD DVD-ripping-and-archiving software without a fight, and right on schedule, the six major studios have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent it from being sold. Of course, RealNetworks has been planning on hiding behind that Kaleidescape ruling all along, but straight CSS circumvention isn't really what's at the heart of the suit: according to the studio's request for a restraining order, consumers won't be able to contain themselves in the face of RealDVD's voodoo magic and will start ripping rental DVDs en masse -- seriously, the suit calls the incentive to do so "all but overwhelming." Here's a hint, guys: if you believe the temptation to do something is that strong, it probably means you can get people to pay to do it -- and you should probably be working out a business model that embraces consumers instead of funding new BMWs for your lawyers while actual piracy tears down the fragile house of cards your entire industry is built on. Or you know, whatever.
The Daily Grind: Movies based on MMOs
Word is that there will be a new Conan movie next year, and that Age of Conan will tie in with it. Of course, the movie isn't based on Age of Conan; both are independently based on Robert E. Howard's pulp fiction stories. Nevertheless, the Massively office is now full of ideas for MMO-based movies.There have been rumors of EverQuest and World of Warcraft films in the past. Some would say there's a fundamental problem with the idea though: there's no story to adapt! Let's face it: movies adapted from computer and video games have usually been pretty damned terrible. But if there is a disconnect between the two different styles of storytelling, then maybe MMOs are the perfect games to adapt to film. Since they only provide a setting, screenwriters, directors, and producers can create a medium-appropriate story of their own.Then again, isn't that what they do most of the time anyway? What do you think; could an MMO be adapted into a good movie? Why or why not? And if it can, which virtual would would you lke to see on the silver screen?
Rumor: Spy Hunter movie hits oil slick, crashes, burns
The Spy Hunter movie based on the Midway arcade hit that we talked about more than a year ago is hitting the skids, crashing through the guardrail, and plummeting off the cliff that is called "development hell" in Hollywood. Looks like director Paul Anderson (W.S., not Thomas) is being taken off the project, which will spin it out into limbo.You can also read Latino Review's review of the script right here. They seemed to like it, saying it was better than The Fast and the Furious 3 ... which ain't saying much. In fact, the best thing Spy Hunter has spawned as far as filmed entertainment goes is the Pontiac commercial above. If any of the game sequels had looked like that, we might still be playing them.Now, we ask you... is this such a bad thing? Sure it had Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson attached to it, and John Woo was supposed to direct it at one point. However, it's had a slew of different writers and now with two director replacements, do we really need a Spy Hunter movie? We hope no one hits "Continue" on the Spy Hunter movie, and that it just dies a merciful death. What say you?
Gears of War movie development soldiers on
Variety reports that Legendary Films has ponied up an undisclosed chunk of change to help New Line with the continued development of its Gears of War film adaptation. As the story points out, Legendary – which also helped finance The Dark Knight – isn't known for getting involved with flicks that are in development hell.As we've previously reported, the Gears movie is being helmed by Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman and has the game's designer, Cliff Bleszinski, serving as an executive producer. The film had originally been slated for release in 2009 by New Line before the studio became a part of Warner Bros. Its parent company hasn't offered an updated release timeframe since, but the partnership with Legendary suggests that it remains serious about getting Microsoft's second best selling franchise onto the silver screen.
C-list celebrities + Gamespot party = Awkward
The latest episode of Glitch in the System makes it horribly obvious that the "celebrities" attending Gamespot's E3 bash had no idea who was hosting the party. That street probably goes both ways because, straight up, we had to Google almost every single one of the "celebrities" that we saw in the video. Check out the cringe-inducing footage o the red carpet interviews after the break.PS: Thanks again to the 300+ people who attended -- or used astral projection to attend in spirit -- our Joystiq E3 meet-up. Watching something like this makes us appreciate you all even more.
EA inks talent agency deal, more game movies coming
In a season of Hollywood blockbusters, it's no wonder why Electronic Arts would want to sink its teeth into the movie industry's delicious celluloid pie. This morning the company announced that it signed with talent and literary agency, UTA, to help catapult its properties onto the silver screen. EA currently has a movie deal in the works for The Sims, as well as plans to bring an animated version of MySims to TV. In addition, earlier this year EA signed a deal with Starz Media to develop an animated prequel to Dead Space, as well as other unspecified franchises. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as EA notes that this new deal will "significantly ramp up" efforts to bring its IP to other forms of entertainment, such as movies and television, as well as online, print, and social networks. With some of these projects likely to surface this week in San Diego during Comic-Con, are there any EA properties you could see yourself sitting through with a bucket of popcorn in your lap?
Apple finally takes the UK out to the movies (Canada too)
Apple just announced that iTunes UK will finally make films available to British punters. Studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK. At kickoff, about 700 films will be available to purchase or rent. Films cost £6.99 for purchased library titles and £10.99 for new releases. Rentals start at £2.49 for library titles and £3.49 for new releases -- "HD" titles for £4.49 without with an Apple TV prerequisite, apparently.Update: Nope, after digging around the store it's clear that an Apple TV is still required for HD rentals. Picture proof after the break.Update 2: The Canadian iTunes store is sporting films now as well. Come on Apple, Canada's not worthy of a press release? What's that aboot?Update 3: Canadian press release now oot -- 1,200 films (not 700 in UK) now available for rent or purchase.[Thanks, Nate and Zayn K.]
ION 08: A five year forecast for MMOs
There's always a lot of discussion about what's going to be the next big thing in the MMOs industry. We all love to talk about the future and that's largely because it's a very interesting topic. So we just had to attend the "Online Games in 2013" panel at ION 08. This panel was actually introduced by Peter Freese, the ION Conference Director. It was easily one of the most packed panels I've been to thus far which is saying a lot since all the panels have been pretty well populated already.The panel consisted of Erik Bethke (GoPets Ltd), Scott Jennings (NCsoft), Bridiget Agabra (Metaverse Roadmap) and Damion Schubert (BioWare). With a group of people like this I was expecting some varied and compelling conversation on the topic of MMOs in 2013. In the end we got just that and a quite a bit more.%Gallery-22888%
ION 08: MMOs and the television content model (SGW)
Joseph Ybarra, SVP of strategic operations at Firesky, the publishing subsidiary of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, presented a session today at ION 08 about the Stargate Worlds production model that borrows heavily from Hollywood and TV models. The goal for SGW is to approach content updates for the game more like a production cycle for television, in which an episode takes a predictable amount of time to complete (14-16 weeks in the case of Stargate Atlantis). After some background on Firesky and CME, Ybarra showed the Stargate Worlds trailer and launched into a discussion of the strategy with SGW. The idea is to adopt a movie model for the development phase and a TV model for the post-launch "live" phase. They chose to use the BigWorld middleware platform and Unreal Engine technologies in an effort to use proven tools: "don't reinvent the wheel." This allows them to both minimize risk and focus on the content.
Upcoming MMO movies (and why they'll suck)
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Upcoming_MMO_movies_and_why_they_ll_suck'; Dorothy Parker once said "The only 'ism' Hollywood believes in is plagiarism." While not technically plagiarism, the practice of mining popular properties of other media is a time-honored mainstay of Hollywood's. Why invent a new franchise when you can adapt one that already exists? Well, if we're talking about translating videogames to cinema, there are at least 3 reasons against that we can think of right away: Street Fighter: The Movie, Double Dragon, and Doom. Oh, and the entire body of work of Uwe Boll.With such a history of failure, why does Hollywood keep banking on videogames as good sources of material? Because it's always desperate for the next big hit, and adaptation is seen as being easier than originality, even though by now it's apparent that it's not quite as simple as it seems. An even better question is: why exactly don't these translations work? What is it about games that makes for poor films? Let's see if we can answer this question and assess the potential success/failure of some upcoming MMO movies.
Producer De Luca eases our fears on MGS movie
Last time we talked about the now-officially-official Metal Gear Solid movie, we were a little concerned about producer Joe De Luca's interest in somewhat unproven writer/director Kurt Wimmer. Well, now that we've read an extremely long and somewhat rambling interview with De Luca over at Collider, we're a little less worried about the movie's prospects.In the interview, De Luca assures us that he knows the difference between what makes a good video game and a good movie. "You're immediately disadvantaged in the theatre because you're not feeling anything," he said, "you're not going to get the excitement or the adrenalin rush of doing it yourself, so we have to do it for you in a way that makes up for that."That said, De Luca thinks the deep Metal Gear Solid universe has silver screen potential that a game-movie like Mortal Kombat just doesn't. "I think we have a leg up already in that it's such a rich universe... what it says about war by proxy in this kind of future where war has been outsourced to private companies I think can be almost very topical and also kind of satirical in like a Robocop kind of way." As far as we're concerned, you can be as topical and satirical as you want as long as the movie is also entertaining in a Robocop kind of way.
Studio execs believe downloads are a "long way off" from replacing DVD
Who doesn't dream of the ability to watch whatever we want, whenever we want, in the highest quality we can get? We realize we have to wait for this home media utopia, but we would like to know, how long the wait is? A few of people in this world that have the ability to delay our dreams (Hollywood studio execs) were on a panel last week at the Content Delivery and Storage Assn. conference, and one of the few things all four panelist agreed on was that downloads and streaming was a long way off from supplanting DVDs. The panelist went on to explain that the reason was limited bandwidth available to most, but we'd beg to differ. Not that we expect them to admit the real reason, which is probably because they haven't figure out how to replace DVD revenues. The problem for Hollywood is that if you had the ability to watch any movie you wanted, whenever you wanted, for $3 or $4, then why would you ever buy another DVD for $20? So in other words, one of the main reasons why downloads and streaming hasn't been more successful is because of 30 day release windows and 24 hour viewing limits. This is where the business world and consumers don't see eye to eye, while we are looking for the next great thing in home media, they are looking for a way to increase profits -- not that we have a problem with that, just saying.
The Green Mile actor Barry Pepper to voice Prototype lead
New details have emerged surrounding Prototype, Radical Entertainment's sandbox-style successor to Hulk:Ultimate Destruction, specifically concerning whose voice we'll be hearing when the shape shifting protagonist Alex Mercer flaps 'genetically mutated' lips. Mercer will be voiced by Barry Pepper, who some may recognize for his role as Officer Dean Stanton in The Green Mile, or for his arguably most memorable work as Jake in one episode of Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. Other voices confirmed for Prototype include NYPD Blue's Gordon Clap and CSI's Paul Guilfoyle, both of which publisher Sierra note as being appropriate additions to the cast given the game's "uniquely mysterious and conspiracy-filled plot." Prototype is expected to change shape and smash New York City later this year for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.[Via press release]
LA Times: game narratives too 'weak' for movies, Uwe Boll agrees
Los Angeles Times Magazine spent some time breaking down the rules of Hollywood, schooling would-be fortune-seekers and laying down some hard truth: "Hollywood can't win at video games." Filmmakers are advised to avoid video games as source material because games' "weak narratives" haven't transitioned to the big screen as well as comics – a sentiment echoed by Uwe Boll during a recent Fox News interview; the infamous director declares, "A lot of video games have no story." (Yeah, especially light gun games.) But even something as intricately devised as the Halo universe doesn't seem to hold much promise in the eyes of Hollywood. Halo script re-writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence) complains that video games "have aimless cycles. You go to A, shoot some monsters, then go to B, then start over and do it again." Why argue?Historically, Hollywood has done a miserable job selecting games for film adaptation, while we've enjoyed plenty of strong narratives developed for and executed in games. We say: Why give Hollywood a chance to muck up the true gems? The game industry has nothing to prove to American cinema. Read - LA Times (subscription required; try: bugmenot)Watch - Uwe Boll on Fox News (warning: obnoxious)
Hackers get into Wii, hunt for Angelina Jolie begins
It would seem that the hacking community has finally cracked the Wii, as they've figured out a way to get code up and running on the console. It's a feat that hasn't been performed before and was accomplished after many Bothans people sacrificed time and energy to complete this task. See, inside of the Wii, the Hollywood chip doesn't just handle graphics, it's got a whole lot to do with authentication (you know, to make sure you've got a valid Wii or GC game disc in there). Well, these hackers have found out that upon booting up a GameCube game, this chip will turn off all of the cool Wii functionality (bluetooth, USB, etc.) and restricts the area of memory you're allowed to access. But, there isn't any kind of encryption dealing with the memory, so this is where the folks knew they should focus.Now, the next part gets too technical for us, but just know that they found a way to get these authentication codes from the memory and trick the Wii into believing it was loading a Wii game (in this case, Lego Star Wars). This then allowed them to load their own code into the Wii. Judging by the clapping in the video, it's a pretty big deal and means that homebrew on the Wii is that much closer to being a reality.Oh, and if you don't get the Angelina Jolie reference, head past the break.
Midway looks to Hollywood tie-ins in 2008
2007 was not exactly a banner year for Midway, with the company still doing its best Atari impression with its pocketbook alongside lowered financial forecasts, f*cked up development, and a string of delays. Like a good little soldier, however, the publisher has kept its eyes on the horizon, though we're inclined to chalk up its newly revealed plans to achieve financial security by investing in Hollywood tie-ins to too much holiday eggnog. Something tells us this was not what Pachter had in mind when he said Midway could be just one franchise away from financial freedom. The company has already announced new NBA Ballers and Blitz games for the new year, and also plans to helm the video game prequel to the Vin Diesel flick Wheelman, though Midway CEO David Zucker describes the firm's 2008 strategy as one of "fewer, bigger, better" releases. Honestly, if we were Midway we'd take just one of those three and count ourselves lucky.
DVD group approves restrictive download-to-burn scheme
At first glance, one may assume that being able to legally burn a DVD of a recent film download would be excellent progress in enabling consumers to better manage their media, but it comes as no surprise that the DVD Copy Control Association has laced the process in stipulations. Reportedly, the DVD CCA "hammered out an agreement with movie studios, electronics makers and computer makers and announced that it will license software to allow content to be burned onto one disc but not copied to others." Furthermore, the discs that you burn to will be "special" versions that have "preprinted codes in order to prevent copying." As if that wasn't enough, these unique DVDs will absolutely cost more due to royalties, users won't "be able to watch the downloaded version on a computer or portable video player," and many older DVD burners would have to be upgraded in order to use the process. Um, thanks?[Thanks, Matt G.]
