14 DAY TRIAL // Quantic Dream's cinematic adventure game Heavy Rain will become a movie, as the production company Unique Features has recently acquired the screen rights. Unique Features is led by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, former execs at New Line, a production outfit famous for Seven, a film with which Heavy Rain has often been compared.
Shaye and Lynne are reported to have used their own finances to secure the movie privileges so, once the deal is completed, it is expected that the film be on the forefront of the company's projects. A deal between Warner Brothers and Unique Features was in negotiations, but the two ex-New Line leads did not wait and decided to buy the rights anyway.
Heavy Rain was published exclusively for PlayStation 3 by Sony Computer Entertainment and achieved success selling around one million copies despite being quite an unusual gaming experience for the console medium. An adventure game that structures itself as a movie, Heavy Rain lets the players interact with the story and its characters by means of an interesting way of using the PS3's controller and, sometimes, through some complex quick time events. The title's narrative revolves around a serial murderer that calls himself the Origami Killer and that uses extended periods of rainfall to drown his victims.
David Cage, Quantic Dream's CEO, is the writer and director of the game. He was in charge of two other original productions, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, in 1999, and Fahrenheit, in 2005. Cage does not like to use the name “video games” in relation to his creations, his title of choice being “interactive narratives.” For the next project, the developer plans to focus on evoking emotions, but this time without serial killers. Also, the Quantic Dream exec plans to include 3D technology and motion control in his future game, as quoted by Eurogamer.