14 DAY TRIAL // Way back in 2005, when Electronic Arts announced that it had recruited Steven Spielberg to create at least three videogames for the company, a lot of people were skeptical of the partnership. After all, videogames and movies never mixed well and there was no guarantee that such a high profile creator would be able to adapt to the medium of videogaming.
Boom Blox, the game which Spielberg helped create, was an interesting idea with a cool execution that, unfortunately, did not manage to become a huge box office hit. Most reviewers liked the game, but it lacked the promotion and the exposure to attract huge numbers of gamers. Now the film director is working on an unannounced PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 action adventure game on which nothing has surfaced.
Zack Snyder, who is best known for his 300 adaptation after Frank Miller's comic book, is the latest target of Electronic Arts. He signed an agreement which would see him “lead the creative direction of the games while working in partnership with the production team at EA Los Angeles”. It's probable that the games created by him will be under the supervision of EA Blueprint. Cruel & Unusual Films, which is Zack Snyder's production company, will have the rights to create movies based on the games he will be involved with.
Unfortunately, the Watchmen movie, which is directed by Snyder, is not part of the agreement. The movie is set to launch sometime in March 2009, if a pending lawsuit regarding it is resolved, as Deadline Games is set to release videogames based on the characters of the movie. It would have been interesting to see what EA could do with an intellectual property such as Watchmen and with a proper budget. And I'm eagerly expecting to see the results of the collaboration between big directors and big videogaming companies.