Sega of America">Mike McHale, Senior Producer at Sega of America, reported that the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provided the computer-generated model of the main protagonist for Sega's Iron Man video game (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, DS and PC). According to Mr. McHale, Sega of America has been working very closely with Jon Favreau, director of the Iron Man movie, the movie's production staff, and ILM in order to develop content for the video game version of the film.

McHale also mentioned that the storyline of the Iron Man video game will extend the movie's storyline and will feature the armored hero in skirmishes against classic comic book villains, terrorist organizations and even the military. In fact, Mr. McHale said that Sega expects some of the members of the film's cast to provide voices for various characters in the game, though he admitted that Sega wasn't ready to talk about details yet.

While Iron Man may potentially shape up to be an awesome title, fans are being understandably cautions, as translations of licensed titles usually haven't live up to fans' expectations. Will Iron Man be able to live up to the hype? Let's wait and see.

We all know there's a huge disparity between games based on movies and vice versa. A movie based on a game (or the other way round) inevitably falls short of expectations because it was only riding on the success of the first. In the last SIGGRAPH, this is the gap that LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are aiming to bridge.

In a panel between the two companies, the discussion held shows that there's been huge progress in that area.

Film and game collaboration is a commitment they have stuck to for years and has increased in speed ever since the two have moved into the same building in San Francisco two years ago.

The panel in SIGGRAPH discussed a number of things, including a huge advance in the tech they use for the collaboration between film and games. The programs stem back from years ago and have evolved to cater to the collaborative process, so it's exciting to see how this would affect The Force Unleashed.

They also emphasized a move on simulation-based gameplay. They have expressed that a number of future games will be based on NaturalMotion's engine "Euphoria," the same engine that powers the Rockstar Games. They also demonstrated Pixelux, a program that simulates the manipulation of objects according to the material it's made of, allowing for 3D effects even more faithful to its real-world counterpart.

We can expect a lot more from the collaboration of these two giants. We should see more solid proof of their progress once Star Wars: Force Unleashed (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS2, DS) comes out so watch out for that one.