Video game publishers Microsoft, Ubisoft invading Hollywood's turf

For decades, Hollywood's relationship with video games has come down to one word: licensing. Game publishers have been licensing and adapting movies all the way back to 1984's "E.T.", and studios started doing the opposite with 1993's "Super Mario Bros."

Both those projects were infamous flops, as were many of their follow-ups (remember such big-screen fiascos as "Wing Commander," "Doom" and "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li?"), but neither could long resist the easy name recognition and potential crossover audiences that came from the others' properties.

In the last few years, however, the licensing flow out of Hollywood has slowed as studios increasingly produce their own video games. Warner Bros.' recent $49-million purchase of Midway Games and the rapid growth of Disney Interactive Studios illustrate how two of the biggest movie companies are more interested in publishing their own games than having others do it for them.

As a story in Thursday's Times explains, some game companies are starting to flip the tables. Microsoft and Ubisoft both are unveiling at Comic-Con a series of short films based on their bestselling game series, Halo and Assassin's Creed. The article explains just why the anime "Halo Legends" and live action "Assassin's Creed II: Lineage" represent a major shift in the relationship between game publishers and movie studios.

Why not work with Hollywood, though? Doesn't everyone dream of seeing Paramount or Universal bring their ideas to the silver screen? To get a good answer, I checked with one of the guys behind a hugely popular video game series that pretty much every producer and studio executive has tried to get their hands on over the years, to no avail:

"We don’t believe that the Grand Theft Auto games, which are massive in scope and structurally complex, can be adequately compressed into a two-hour movie," said Dan Houser, vice president of creative at Rockstar Games.

"It seems obvious to us that maintaining the long-term integrity of any entertainment property has been dependent on not making substandard spin-off products to people whose primary interest is making a quick buck. If we ever decide to do a film, it will be because we have resolved our creative doubts, and while retaining enough control to ensure that if the movie is terrible, at least we will know we ruined the property ourselves."

Will Microsoft and Ubisoft ruin two of their biggest properties? Here's an expanded look at both short film series with details we couldn't fit in the paper:

Assassin's Creed II: Lineage

First announced at E3 with very little detail, Ubisoft has explained for the first time just what its trio of short films based on the upcoming Assassin's Creed II game are all about.

Directed by Yves Simoneau, "Lineage" is a prequel that focuses on the father of game-hero Ezio, an assassin in Renaissance Italy. The three movies, each about 10 to 15 minutes long, were shot over four weeks at the headquarters of Hybride Technologies, the special-effects firm Ubisoft acquired last year. The company previously created digital backgrounds for movies such as "300" and "Spy Kids" and is utilizing the same process for "Lineage." In this case, though, it's doing more inserting than producing sets. Seventy percent of them are taken directly from the game, according to Hybride Chief Executive Pierre Raymond. (An earlier version of this post misspelled Raymond's last name as Ramond.)

Hybride has a sizable staff working on "Lineage" -- about 20 actors, 100 people behind the scenes and 200 doing effects and post-production -- but developed it in close consultation with those producing the game.

"The film series is a part of the puzzle, and there's no way we could have achieved that without making sure the story at the center was made by the scriptwriter of the film and the game," said Yannis Mallat, who is overseeing both the game and the film as head of Ubisoft's Montreal studio.

Most of the actors were cast simultaneously for the movies and game, meaning they're not only performing on screen, but also doing voice-over work and motion capture.

"These are the game team's characters, so we did mutual casting where we tried to find actors who fit the shooting and can do motion capture and voice work," said Raymond. "In 80% of the cases, we realized somebody was perfect for it all."

After four months of preparation and a month of shooting, Hybride is now in the middle of post on "Lineage." Mallat declined to give specific plans but said the three films will be released separately leading up to the game -- most likely meaning through some digital means -- and suggested there will be a DVD compilation as well.

Halo Legends

Microsoft's new project, which it's announcing Thursday at Comic-Con for the first time, is a series of seven shorts set in the Halo universe and done in Japanese anime style.

Anime geeks will recognize the five production houses working on the films -- Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4[Degrees]C, and Toei Animation -- as well as the creative director helping to oversee production for Microsoft: Shinji Aramaki, director of "Appleseed" and "Appleseed Ex Machina."

Microsoft is financing and overseeing production through 343 Industries, its new internal division that's in charge of everything Halo. It's planning to preview them on the online gaming service Xbox Live this fall and has then enlisted Warner Bros. -- the game companies still need a little help from Hollywood -- to release them on DVD, Blu-ray and other digital platforms in early 2010.

Aramaki is directing his own short that tells the history of the Spartans, a warrior class in the game's fictional universe that main character Master Chief is part of. Though Halo isn't particularly popular in Japan -- most of its 27 million units sold have been in North America and Europe -- Aramaki said he's a player and was immediately interested in the possibility.

"I liked that this would be an anthology of human stories told from different characters' perspectives," he explained.

Frank O'Connor, creative director of 343, gave a peek at some of the other Halo Legend shorts. Studio4 C's project, tentatively called "Origins," is a two-parter that's about 30 minutes long in total and tells the entire 100,000 year history of the Halo universe. Another, from Toei, is the only one outside of the official canon and pokes fun at some of the game's characters.

Within the general anime style, the visual look of the projects differs widely.

"It's a wildly varied genre, but anime creators do things with weapons and vehicles and technology nobody else does, and that marries very well with Halo," he explained. "It's amazing to see some of the new stuff they're introducing and how neatly it maps to the visual aesthetics in the Halo universe."

Microsoft gave the production companies largely free reign in how the shorts looked, but O'Connor and others were heavily involved in developing the stories and making sure all the details were right.

"Depending on the studio, we did everything from writing the stories to feeding them with characters and scenarios they could explore," he said.

At first, he was a bit wary about revealing any details, but O'Connor quickly granted that when Microsoft releases a trailer for Halo Legends at its Comic-Con panel, fans are sure to pick apart every frame.

"I think the core 'Halo' fans will recognize key moments from the universe never shown in the game," he said. "They're moments where people wanted more depth. That's where this fits."

-- Ben Fritz

Related: Video game companies move onto Hollywood's turf

Photos: Shots from the set of "Assassin's Creed II: Lineage." Credit: Ubisoft. Images from "Halo Legends." Credit: Microsoft.

Comments

[Kane]

"Though Halo isn't particularly popular in Japan -- most of its 27 million units sold have been in North American and Europe"

Halo franchise isn't that popular in Europe either it's sold a few million (mostly UK) but the vast bulk of sales are from North America.

That isn't too surprising when Halo is basically team America kick alien ass, there's nothing wrong with that but it doesn't go down as well in other countries because the game is clearly not aimed at them.

A few examples;
* The UNSC - United Nations Space Command is in name only it is United States Space Command in every way and obvious to anyone who has experience with Halo.
* Almost everyone (human) in the Halo universe is American and largely white Americans too, and all tend to display American mannerisms (even animated into the games like fist bumps).
* The Halo3: ODST is set in an African city but all the videos shown so far have English language signs/text for everything and the local military forces are all white Americans. Black Africans are apparently nowhere to be seen in their own city (this was done in Halo2 as well).

Now this isn't some politically correct post (it's totally MS right if they want to focus on just one group) but if Microsoft want to broaden Halo's appeal then need to change it up a little bit and stop focusing so hard on selling to the USA consumer. The animes with probably go down well with Halo fans in general but its not going to bring any new fans to the table.

[Mechwarrior]

Considering the amount of surgery and genetic manipulation, the Spartans cant even be considered human, let alone European or Asian.

[Adam Zey]

@Kane: I wasn't aware that entertaining gameplay had anything to do with what accent people talked with. I'm not American, and I quite enjoyed the franchise. I've also enjoyed games made by Japanese developers, and any manner of different European developers (CryTek, Starbreeze, etc).

Heck, the character that you play in Crysis Warhead is British.

I don't think that the nationality of the characters in a game has much of anything to do with how enjoyable a game is.

[jeriko5]

Didn't Rooster Teeth make an anime for their Red vs Blue series?! The production blog of the American studio can be seen here: http://fatescrew.com

And the anime that was made last year:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-500142/red-vs-blue-animated-short/?hires=1

I hope 343 works with some American studios too like these Fates Crew guys, that Red Vs Blue anime was AWESOME.

[Aurelious Alston]

I hope they dont Mess it up these are 2 favoriots an i will be furious lol it good to see the guy who made the ghost in the shlel doin halo soo yaay halo wtf

[jinchuriki]

Yeah, the Red vs Blue anime was hilarious. The Rooster Teeth guys really know how to add a little humor to the Halo universe. It's like the Naruto of the Halo universe. The animation was great. I really hop they have some new Red vs. Blue anime on there!

[5guys bnF]

Oh yeah, it will awesome to have more Red vs Blue anime on this new DVD. Come on Microsoft, don't let us down! Although the trailer was released without any clips of the RvB style, so maybe it's not happening. :-( Halo is one of the great western games, and to only have Japanese studios working on this DVD is kinda short sided. Especially when RT and the Fates animation crew did it so well already.

[joe]

Oh yeah, it will awesome to have more Red vs Blue anime on this new DVD. Come on Microsoft, don't let us down! Although the trailer was released without any clips of the RvB style, so maybe it's not happening. :-( Halo is one of the great western games, and to only have Japanese studios working on this DVD is kinda short sided. Especially when RT and the Fates animation crew did it so well already.

[Porter]

I've heard a lot about Halo Legends, looks like it could be pretty cool. As for game developers staying away from Hollywood, smart move, they would most definitely ruin it. Great stories are incredibly hard to tell in 1.5 -2 hours, about time people realize that.

[Car Games]

I agreed with this rule. If any game developer is copying a theme from any Hollywood films so first of all he should having license of this and secondly should take the permission of film maker.
Great job!

[addicting games]

Really nice post thanks a lot for sharing

[Pick Up Japanese Girls]

Oh. who owned hollywood by the way?? Why can't MS can't get the piece of the action?

[girl games]

I think it's good that some games come to the big screen, but certainly not all of them. For instance: Hitman was lousy, but Max Payne on the other hand was pretty good.

[Drawing games]

In my opinion any game developer is copying a theme from any Hollywood films so first of all he should having license of this and secondly should take the permission of film maker

[car games]

Oh. who owned hollywood by the way?? Why can't MS can't get the piece of the action?

[Games]

paying $49 mil for Midway Games>? Seems a bit off to me. although I loved playing Mortal Combat fighting games on my PC :)

[blog tips]

yes this game can be preety nice in future

[bike games]

I agree above said the game is very nice in the future, it maybe drive some trends in the game fields.

[tinggi badan]

At first, he was a bit wary about revealing any details, but O'Connor quickly granted that when Microsoft releases a trailer for Halo Legends at its Comic-Con panel, fans are sure to pick apart every frame.

[hannah montana games]

love video games.

[Parking Games]

Really nice post thanks a lot for sharing, It's good that some games come to the big screen, but certainly not all of them.

[Sissy]

Good for them. Its about sometime someone could take a shot at the movie industry. Those guy have plenty of money anyways...they will survive :)

[nike air Jordan]

This is good post and your site is very useful am read of your site and i am very impressed. In fact the story is written in good manner and I indeed enjoy reading it.

[penis enlarger]

Studio4 C's project, tentatively called "Origins," is a two-parter that's about 30 minutes long in total and tells the entire 100,000 year history of the Halo universe. Another, from Toei, is the only one outside of the official canon and pokes fun at some of the game's characters.

[Jogos Gratis]

Now even on Brazil Ubisoft has an branch. Seems like a company from here was buyed from them.