Capcom plans further moves into movie business

Japanese publisher Capcom has announced that it is planning to forge ever closer ties with the movie business, with pre-production already underway on cinematic conversions of several of its key titles following the success of the Resident Evil movie.

Devil May Cry is the latest game franchise to be confirmed to be heading to the silver screen, and it joins properties including Onimusha, which is to come out as alive action movie in 2006, and Megaman (or rather, Rockman, to give it its Japanese title), which will spawn an animated feature shortly, having already been developed into an enormously successful anime TV show.

On the flipside, the company is also planning to engage with movie producers who are seeking original games based on their properties, with the firm hoping to create titles which continue the universes of popular films rather than simply creating licensed tie-ins.

A good example is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, which Capcom launched in Japan to a decent commercial response a couple of weeks ago, and which will arrive in the west in the near future.