Too interactive?

In an interesting move for a multimedia power play, the X-Box franchise has decided to make a movie out of the multi-million hits Halo and Halo 2. The decision was made to assign Peter Jackson as the producer while Fox and Universal would fund the project. However, after the Microsoft franchise refused to lower the budget from $200 million to the previously projected $135 million both Fox and Universal withdrew support.

Now what is more interesting than the financial woes brought upon Microsoft with its two largest supporters falling out of line is the possibility of a reversal of the spawning route for videogames. The original paradigm goes from movie to videogame to possibly more movies and videogames. Take Bond films for example. First there was James Bond: Golden Eye the movie then 007: Golden Eye, the game(s). Producers sense a change in the average moviegoer and have pounced. No longer satisfied by inaccessible plots and repetitive characterizations the public desires something they can tap into and engage if not in the movie theatre, then outside it in the comfort of their own living space. Fully interactive media is no longer going to be reserved for those with a box and set of controllers but will begin to bleed into other forms of media as well. In the future we will be the creators of our own news, movies, music and television shows, but is it for the best?

John LaRue
DI columnist