Denzel as Master Chief? Spielberg directing WoW?

Put your hand up if you've seen the film 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'? Keep your hand in the air if you'd love to extract your own brand of justice on chuckleheads who spread rumours about films via the internet? Okay, you can put your hand down now - it's time to try and quash some of these ridiculous game-to-movie rumours floating around on the internet at the moment.

Rumour # 1: Tim Burton will be directing a Grim Fandango movie.

According to some obscure film blog called The Movie Center, director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride) is planning to direct a film version of the criminally underrated 1998 Lucas Arts game, Grim Fandango. Here's what "Tim Burton" had to say to The Movie Center:


Given the litany of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, the obscure nature of the source, and the fact that the majority of the "interview" was pieced together with quotes borrowed from other press outlets, I wouldn't put any faith in this rumour. With that said, Burton directing a Grim Fandango film in the style of The Corpse Bride or a The Nightmare Before Christmas would be absolutely incredible.



Rumour # 2: Stephen Spielberg directing the World of Warcraft movie.

Spielberg directing the World of Warcraft movie ... yeah, right. This rumour originated from a post on the Yahoo! Movies mailing list, and quickly circulated around the internet. It claimed that Variety magazine reported "Steven Spielberg sign[ed] to direct World of Warcraft," and that the film would be out in 2009. Spielberg's office was quick to deny the fictional Variety article through the website SpielbergFilms.com:


I'll take that as a 'no way in hell'. If you are interested in Spielberg's real upcoming projects, just have a read of the Future Projects Page on the website.



Rumour # 3: Denzel Washington is rumoured to be playing the Master Chief in Halo.

This rumour originated from a throw-away line on the Dark Horizons website, which simply read "Halo: Latest rumours have Denzel Washington as the favourite for Master Chief".

Now this is an interesting one. According to an article in the June 30 edition of New Zealand newspaper The Dominion Post, Denzel Washington flew to New Zealand to meet with director Peter Jackson to discuss his latest project. Given that Peter Jackson is the executive-producer on the Halo movie, one could imagine how the rumours got started; despite the fact Washington has made it clear that he will be directing this new project himself, and that Peter Jackson would be providing the special effects for it. The rumour seems highly unlikely: could you really imagine that Denzel Washington would want to play the Master Chief, a character that is stuck in a suit of power armour for the entire movie? With that said, Denzel would make a cool Sergent Johnson...

Rumour - a piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.

Hmm... have you heard about that CTU: Marine Sharpshooter movie being directed by Woody Allen?

FILSCA, an association of simulation racing leagues, has announced the upcoming GTR 2 World Championship 2006. The online competition will involve the racing sims GTR and GTR 2, developed by SimBin and published by 10tacle Studios.


Interested drivers can find information about registration on FILSCA's website. Applications are open until 29 July 2006. Details about when the actual event will be held are not yet available, since GTR 2 has not been released. In the meantime, you can discuss the championship on the dedicated forum.

Unfortunately, the competition requires drivers to have league racing experience with the GTR game, which restricts the championship to the hardcore only. On the plus side, it means only serious drivers will show up. For those with the right qualifications, it sounds like an exciting event.

Acclaim Games has announced that BOTS, their free MMO action game, has entered the open beta stage. Players do battle with custom built robots on a wide variety of colourful maps, seeking levels and loot. The current release supports solo, co-operative, PvP and "PvP Base" modes and has a level cap of 99.

Rather than charging monthly fees, or even selling the game client, Acclaim has committed to making BOTS free to play, with revenue being raised through advertising and the sale of special in-game items. These "Money items" are not yet available, and will not be activated until the game is officially released.

This marketing scheme where publishers sell in-game items to players is becoming increasingly popular, and has already been adapted by other online games such as Bang! Howdy and EverQuest II, though one could argue that Sony's financial situation is not comparable to Acclaim's.

The increasingly talkative Warren Spector has given a speech entitled "Gaming at the Margins" to students at Austin Community College. It covered many of the issues Spector's been vocal about since leaving Ion Storm (RIP) in late 2004.

Game financing, Hollywood, E3, innovation and some requisite doomsaying were all topics of conversation, but it wasn't all pessimistic. Part of the speech was a call to arms for the students in the audience to take charge of the medium:


Unfortunately, the Deus Ex designer still offered no clue about what Junction Point is up to, except to again confirm their game will be delivered over Valve's Steam platform. One thing's for sure: with all this talk about a lack of innovation in the industry, Spector's putting a lot of pressure on himself to ship a very special game.

Spector's opinions are covered in much more depth in his lengthy article for The Escapist online magazine: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Atari has announced the sale of the Driver franchise to Ubisoft for US$24 million, as well as most of the assets of Driver developer Reflections. Atari said the move was part of its plan to refocus its franchises and streamline its cost structure.

In other words, Driver wasn't making enough money, which is no surprise to anyone following review scores. While the series started off strongly, Driv3r was very badly received, and Driver: Parallel Lines had a lukewarm reception at best. Rather than try again, Atari has cut the series loose.

In a media release, Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell said the company was narrowing its focus.



Atari is certainly putting a lot of faith in the upcoming pseudo-MMO Test Drive Unlimited. In a recent New York Times article (registration required), Atari's VP for sales and marketing, Nique Fajors, revealed the game has been delayed four times to ensure a quality title. It was originally planned for release last November, but Fajors said Atari "will ship it when it's ready and not before, which is what is done for all the truly great products." It's a nice idea in theory.

As for Driver's future, that's in Ubisoft's hands now. Will they repair it or salvage the parts?