Zombie: Fox Atomic "immediately understood" our plans
Developer's CEO Mark Long explains the DNA of the Blacklight movie deal
Following on from yesterday's announcement that US developer Zombie had signed a deal with Fox Entertainment's Atomic label to create a movie based on its Blacklight project, CEO Mark Long has revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that the Fox team jumped on the idea before any other possible partners even had chance to respond.
"I have to say, we were really lucky in meeting Eric Lieb and Zak Kadison, the producers at Fox Atomic, when we did," he explained. "Eric in particular immediately understood what we wanted to do.
"They're all about transmedia and Eric is the editor-in-chief of their comic imprint. I was preaching to the choir. They jumped on it before any of the other production companies even got back to us."
He also explained how he was put in touch with Fox by friends at Union Entertainment, and how the company's work on comics was key in enabling the vision.
"Fox Atomic is unique in that they also have a comic imprint in house," said Long. "We've recently delved into comics ourselves with Shrapnel, a solar war trilogy that Radical Publishing picked up last summer. So I came in with plans for comics, games and it was Union that saw the potential for feature as well.
"We were considering a futuristic team tactical shooter at the same time I was producing Shrapnel, and creating a comic was kind of a creative reboot for me. So many times, as a producer, I'm concerned with keeping a lid schedule and budget.
"But with comics, if you can imagine it, it can be done. It really expanded my sense of potential settings and characters. And that led to the idea of expanding the Blacklight thruline to something more ambitious. The story now spans over fifty years, beginning today and ending in a surprising future."
There's no current release date announced for either the film or the game, although Long did hint that the game might be sooner, rather than later.
"The game is actually very far along," he said. "Epic and Unreal, always making us look good, I like to say."