While game-to-movie adaptations are pretty routine these days, Ubisoft is upping the ante with regards to their game port of Avatar. That much was revealed by film director James Cameron during Microsoft's Advance 08 advertising conference. More details on this matter are available in the full article.

In an official announcement heralded via press wire, Ubisoft proudly touted their agreement with Twentieth Century Fox on developing a video game adaptation of James Cameron's "Avatar," a feature film that would realign the filmmaker firmly within the Hollywood blockbuster types.

 

Cameron, known for his renderings of "Titanic," "True Lies," "The Abyss," "Aliens," "The Terminator," and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," is now recreating a new, surreal world on the Earth-like paradise of Alpha Centauri. The stories plot places an ex-Marine between physical conflicts occurring among life forms, called the Na'Vi, and emotional conflicts stirring within himself, as he struggles to conform his human mind inside an alien body.

And with special effects veterans WETA Digital ("The Lord of the Rings," "King Kong") contracted by Cameron to create a captivating alien world complete with photo-realistic sceneries, life and cultural detail into the highly-anticipated motion picture, he is giving Ubisoft complete freedom to develop the game independent of the movie experience. Cameron himself stated:

I told the Ubisoft team I wanted them to be free to do their very best work, and not think of this as a movie-based game. They responded with a fully realized presentation which captured the soul of the world and the characters, while promising to be a knockout game on its own terms. Their passion inspired my confidence that they are going to do something transcendental.

With more than six months to go, Ubisoft plans to release the game simultaneously with the motion picture's premier on May 2009. But on which platform the game will be released has not been stated officially, beckoning us to reconsider a multi-platform release as with all other movie-based game releases. More on the genre and other details of the game as they roll in.

Hollywood Studio Digital Domain is planning to get some U.S. directors involved in the video gaming scene. How? They're planning to open an in-house games unit and "acquire" some game developing firms.

Digital Domain is a special effects studio by directors Michael Bay (co-chairman), James Cameron (Titanic), and others. You might have seen their work on the special effects in "The Day After Tomorrow" and the Gears of War TV commercial. Reportedly, Digital Domain - and Michael Bay in particular - plans to get directors involved in the video games industry. This is so they'll have the option of being at the helm of the game creation as well, as opposed to the usual practice of licensing franchises to third party game devs.

Digital Domain plans to release the four to five titles in the next two years.

As gamers and faithful fans to our video game heroes, we often shiver at the news of a movie adaptions of our favorite franchises (and/or movies turned into video games). We've been disappointed so many times that we've learned to pray for the best but expect the worse. We'll see how this goes in the long run and we'll keep you posted on what sort of titles Digital Domain and Michael Bay plans to make. Stay tuned.

There's a great deal of hype surrounding the upcoming James Cameron documentary which airs on the Discovery Channel. And why not? The date may mark your last day as a believer.

The documentary titled "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" seeks to establish that ossuaries excavated in Jerusalem belonged to a married Jesus, Mary Magdalene and quite possibly their "son", Judah. Some experts, however, are not convinced, calling the film "nonsense."

The Oscar-winning filmmaker Cameron and Canadian-Israeli journalist Simcha Jacobovici are the main forces behind the upcoming presentation. The documentary carries the same hype as "The Da Vinci Code" and both men are confident that their evidences will prove some points come March 4.

The excavation, contrary to popular assumptions, are not newly excavated. They were unearthed a decade ago in Jerusalem by Israeli archaeologist Amos Klooner and were discovered by Jacobovici only three years ago. Being the investigative reporter that he is, Jacobovici was captivated by the find and set out to do a deeper study.

The tomb allegedly contained bodies in ossuaries where the names "Jesus, Son of Joseph," Mary and "Judah son of Jesus" were inscribed. Jacobovici consulted a panel of experts to have some questions answered. He got DNA tests, statisticians, archaeologists and scholars on ancient texts to do the job. He came up with the following findings, which Cameron in turn described as "compelling."

1. DNA Tests - According to DNA experts consulted by Jacobovici, the bodies in the tomb of Jesus and Mary were not related by blood, eliminating the possibility that the Mary there is the mother of Jesus and leading to the notion that the two must have been married. There was no mention of findings on the tomb of Judah.
2. Ancient texts - the name "Mariamene" is inscribed in the ossuary of the woman, and according to the fifth-century script called "acts of Philip" the name was used interchangeably for Mary Magdalene.
3. Statistics- experts in the University of Toronto have calculated the possibility of the name combinations to coincide in the same grave. the result was 600:1.

All of these, claimed the journalist, are facts and said that the world needs to see this and called for a "scientific, academic, theological debate" to commence.

And commence it does over at Full Article. Head over there to see what the naysayers have to say in rebuttal.

Will Wright will be the recipient of the 2007 Vanguard Award from the 2007 Producers Guild Awards. The Vanguard Award is a recognition of outstanding achievement in new media and technology. Previous recipients of this award include George Lucas, James Cameron, and Jon Miller. The awarding would be on January 20 at the Century Plaza.

Just in case you have no idea who the heck Will Wright is, he just happens to be the brains behind simulation games SimCity, The Sims (PC, Wii), and the upcoming PC game Spore. Mr. Wright dabbled on a lot of things when he was in college, he took up architecture, then mechanical engineering, and then finally landed on computers and robotics. In the end, he became a statistic in the classic story of high tech business - after five years of college, he did not attain a degree.

But back to the Vanguard Award. PGA Awards co-chairs Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch said that "Will Wright is the icon of the gaming industry and one of the great producers of entertainment content. His creations have transcended into feature films and continue to entertain a global audience. We are proud to have him be the first Vanguard recipient from the gaming universe."

In return Mr. Wright said that "The PGA’s decision to honor a game designer is a big moment for game designers such as myself, and those who would like to follow in our footsteps. The PGA is signaling that games are an integral part of the entertainment industry, and an art form worthy of recognition. For that reason, I am incredibly honored to be the first game designer to receive the Vanguard award."

Congratulations to Will Wright! He deserves it.

So you're one big "Titanic" fan. And by "Titanic", I mean the movie by James Cameron with Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio and the big, big boat that unfortunately went *glurg glurg* (that's supposed to be the sound of a boat sinking).

Anyway, back to the "story". So you're a "Titanic" fan, and it has been your habit to check out the movie daily. Of course, playing a DVD over and over and over (ok, you get the point) will lead to disc scratches, rendering your prized disc unreadable by some DVD-playing gadgets.

Well, Ben Kuchera from Ars Technica has found out that while the Xbox 360 "chokes" on scratched discs, it seems that the PS3 doesn't. He tried out a Christmas DVD with his kid a couple of days ago, only to find out that the Xbox 360 has rejected it. Meanwhile, it played quite well on the PS3. He tested it with other scratched discs too, and they turned out fine. Cool, huh?

Jensen Ackles, co-star in the TV series Supernatural is in line for the lead role of Leon Kennedy in this to be the fourth Resident Evil film to hit Hollywood, although there are other actors being considered. Although the third film in the Resident Evil film series 'Extinction' is still in production, the fourth title currently known as 'afterlife' is being prepared, with filming expected to start early next year. The survival horror movie series which was born from the long-running videogame franchise has sprouted from its videogame roots, and although following the basic storyline of the game series, the Resident Evil which has been adapted for movie purposes is beginning to develop its own personality.

If you know your Sci-Fi, you'll probably be thinking that Ackles is perfect for the part, with previous roles such as playing Alec in the second season of James Cameron’s "Dark Angel," Jason Teague in the fourth season of "Smallville," and has lots of experience derived from his role in "Supernatural", which has quite a large horror aspect to it.

Critics are getting ready for Ackles' role in the fourth Resident Evil film to hit the big screen, liking his mannerisms to the game character of Leon Kennedy from the game. With mixed reviews, due to the original Resident Evil film, lets hope the films get progressively better, along with the games. Resident Evil titles are currently in development for the PS3 and the Wii - we wonder if it'll have any ties with the film?

What does Titanic, Dick Tracy, and MMOs have in common? Jon Landau and James Cameron. No, they're not going to be doing a Titanic MMO (almost everyone dies in the end anyway), they signed up to be the advisory board for Multiverse, a MMO game network. There are even rumors circulating about a film/MMO tie up, but no official word so far.

From Jon himself: "It turns out films and MMOs are not that different,. That shouldn't be too surprising, though. After all, what we do as filmmakers is create virtual worlds...Both our industries build experiences that have the same goals."

According to the article, doing games and creating movies is an inevitable intersection. A virtual movie set would let the director film an actor and see what special effects he'd like to see in the scene--just like a game. That way, the director would be able to add or delete parts of the expensive effects even before the camera starts rolling.

Combining existing technologies would allow them this degree of freedom and creativity. The article also says that it'll help both industries regarding resources, especially financial. Movies to game adaptations can be much easier. The movie people can share some of their movie clips and other animations in the movie.

Jon said that audiences these days have much more higher expectations when it comes to their movies or games. The film industry is challenged by how an MMO keep its audiences and make them want more. He added that the virtual world should influence the movie, let it feed back into the process and provide riches and depth. However, MMOs won't replace great directing or flimaking, but rather the ones who create those games may become the next generation of directors or writers.

Nine years since the release of his big-budget blockbuster film, Titanic, film director James Cameron is still working on his upcoming sci-fi epic, "Project 880" - right along with the MMO game tie-in. Gradually, some information has begun coming out about the plot and characters.

Over the past several months, there have been conflicting reports on the nature, as well as the title, of the upcoming project. Last year, Cameron said the movie/game crossover would be called Battle Angel, based on a Japanese manga series entitled Battle Angel Alita. The manga series is set on a post-apocalyptic planet in the near future.

Now, Hollywood scuttlebutt has it that "Project 880" is actually Avatar, a project that Cameron has been nurturing for the past ten years. Hollywood insiders who claim to have read anything describe it as a "wildly ambitious sci-fi epic about a love story set against an interplanetary war," between Terrans and inhabitants of a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri known as the "Na'vi."

The story apparently centers around Jake, an "angry but highly intelligent and creative twenty-something who is scarred emotionally and physically by a great tragedy." His life is changed when he becomes intimately involved with Neytiri, a "Na'vi female who looks like an exotic human female in her 20s and is lithe as a cat."

Excuse me...but haven't we seen this one already? No doubt, these roles were made for Leonardo and Kate...