Tick-tocking like cogs in a gear, the Gears of War movie is moving along smoothly. The film hasn't been casted yet, much less the production started on, however, we do get some promising updates at the very least. Screenwriter Chris Morgan give us a status update on New Line Cinema and Epic Games' joint project. They're already talking about budget and how potentially epic this feature length movie can get. "All the stuff you want to see, we put that in there and then we blow it out a little more, even," says he.

It's been months since we last heard about the planned big screen trip of Epic Games' Xbox 360 hit, Gears of War (also for PC). Today's update has producer Wyck Godfrey talks about the progress of the film, plus an ETA: 2010. Hold on to your popcorn, fellow gamers-slash-moviegoers, and click the full article link for more info.

Pyro Studios is now all fired up, now that they're tasked to develop games based on Planet 51, a yet-to-be-released animated film about an astronaut who unwittingly lands on an alien planet. Aside from working on secret Wii title, it looks like the game studio of Commandos fame is going to be a bit busy for a while. Details in the full article!

Sega and New Line Cinema are pulling all the stops in promoting their upcoming cooperative effort The Golden Compass which debuts in cinemas and game systems this December. The Japanese game publisher says that they're hoping to succeed to the degree that The Lord of the Rings franchise did in both the movie and video game markets. Based on the book Northern Lights, this film tells the story of a girl named Lyra who sets out on a journey with her Daemon Pentalaimon.

For movie companies, profit is profit. And Warner Bros. Pictures is no exception to the rule. Be it HD-DVD or Blu-ray, movie firms distribute their movies both ways and have increased their overall sales per picture by doing so. But news from the Los Angeles Times reports that Warner might lean more heavily to HD-DVD - "might" being the operative term here.

Talks of a "lucrative offer" being considered by Warner Bros. have streamed off to several entertainment sites, and even while it may seem like speculation, the news story quotes from several "Hollywood insiders." Paramount and Dreamworks were also approached with similarly interesting offers by the HD-DVD camp, which resulted in the two firms staying exclusive to HD-DVD.

It's not to say that Warner will be hopping off the fence to HD-DVD just yet. Official word has yet to be given, and Warner might not want to leave the profit edge it has just gained by sitting neutral between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. More developments on this as they roll in.

*Article's original title: Warner Bros. to dip into HD-DVD? originally posted on Sep 11, 2007 at 9 PM.

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Update: True to our beliefs, Warner Bros. isn't going to give up its unique position to distribute movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Perhaps in an effort to control rumor flames, the firm released a list of movies that were going to both formats.

Aside from the fact that Warner announced Blu-ray movie bundles (the same titles were claimed to also come out in HD-DVD), New Line Cinema (under Warner) would also an HD-DVD version of "Hairspray" right after the Blu-ray version is out. Matt Lasorsa, New Line EVP of marketing, told Home Media Magazine:

Clearly, there isn't a format winner at this point, so we’re going to adopt the strategy from Warner, our sister company, and mirror what they are doing. And by supporting both formats, we are giving consumers the ultimate choice.

Thanks to Quixand, DJ Natas, and bigshynepo for the additional information. Another load of credits goes to HighDefDigest for the facts.

The new Gears of War movie may already have won a director. It's been leaked that Len Wiseman is currently in talks with New Line to direct. Who is Len Wiseman? To get to know him better, it's best to dive into his works.

 

And you might be more familiar with the works than the man behind them. Len Wiseman wrote and directed "Underworld" and "Underworld: Evolution". He also married Kate Beckinsale, star of both films, after the first film's release. He was also involved in the movies "Stargate" and "Independence Day". He recently directed the fourth "Die Hard" film and has also directed some ads for the PlayStation.

That kind of background should set some minds at ease for the movie's production. Wiseman will also be directing the "Escape from New York" remake at the same time which will star "300"'s Gerard Butler.

The film's release date is still tentatively 2009. Updates on the film and whether or not "Mr. Beckinsale" will get to direct the film will be posted as soon as we get them.

Zach Shiff-Abrams, an executive of Michael De Luca Prods., has an observation: "Is it really socially acceptable to talk business at 2 a.m. on the phone? Of course not. But it's completely acceptable on Xbox Live."

And apparently, it's one of the fastest growing forms of "socialization", particularly among the young executives. It does make a lot of sense, actually. This generation of young professionals are the first witnesses to the boom of the gaming industry. Of course they'd know and appreciate online play, even finding a way to make it suitable to their current, more "mature" lifestyle.

But doing business over Xbox Live? That's interesting.

Business life on Xbox Live after the jump!

 

Sega of America has announced that it will be bringing a new action-adventure video game for the platforms of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, PC, and PlayStation 2.

The Golden Compass is based on Philip Pullman's best-selling novel, and is, in fact, also a major motion picture from New Line Cinema. But here in the game, you expand the experience as Lyra Belacqua, who is on a mission to rescue her uncle that's in prison, as well as her kidnapped best friend. To aid her in her quest are her friends Pan the spirit daemon, Iorek the armored bear, and of course, the Golden Compass -  that one source of truth that will help Lyra find the correct path.

The Golden Compass game guarantees that it will remain true to the movie, bringing to video gaming life the characters, locations, and scenes, as well as creating the characters in the movie actors' likeness, like Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Dakota Blue Richards.

The platforms PlayStation 3 and Wii will specifically utilize to the fullest their motion control capabilities, while the DS version will deliver unique and different gameplay mechanics, including a multiplayer mode.

For now, these are all the information we have on Sega's The Golden Compass, but not to worry. We do have some screenshots for you to view, and we do promise to keep you posted on more details as they come.

 

 

Now you all probably have heard that New Line Cinema acquired the rights to create a movie adaptation of the Epic Games' Xbox 360 hit Gears of War. Preparations for the movie seems to be well underway as this new development, an actual script, happened to pop up just in time to fuel the movie hype's fire.

Posted up on a script review site Latino Review, the alleged movie script written by Stuart Beattie (who also worked on scripts for "Splinter Cell" and "Spy Hunter," "Collateral" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End") may or may not reflect the movie adaptation of Epic Games' popular Gears of War - at least, that's what the disclaimer says.

But a site reader, known as GEARHEADS, was able to take a look at the 22 page script by Beattie and made a preview prefaced all in bold, just so you know that it's an eye-bleeder if you do read it. It may be more than 20 pages long, but it's not even final. In fact, you could call if a 22-page draft, if one ever existed.

Don't worry, though, we aren't going to do anything rash and suddenly spoil the plot for all of you fans of the franchise. But if you want to know, the script isn't even fully revealed at the site and it cuts off invariably at the end. We can't even speculate if it's 50% to 90% previewed at the site.

But for those of you who are brave enough to spoil everything for everybody, we've provided a "Read" link below.

The game Mortal Kombat has developed such a large following that a movie was made. Unlike some of the other games turned into movies, this had a certain pair of movie critics give it a "two thumbs up". Unfortunately, the second movie didn't receive as much acclaim as the first. The third movie hasn't even been started because of certain problems.

Threshold (the people who hold the rights to MK) had to wait for their contract with New Line Cinema to expire. They are apparently blaming New Line Cinema for the less than stellar performance of the second movie. Another reason for the delay has to do with the script.

The people at Threshold and the director have been constantly writing drafts which they send to Midway (the makers of the game). This is to ensure that Ed Boon (the creator of the game) can give his inputs on the draft. Only after all of those steps will the script be passed on to the studio. It's pretty understandable why the movie is taking long.

With all of the said people lavishing attention on this, we hope that it turns out more like the first movie and not the second. You can see the director's comments on the movie via the read link.