'I'm a little bored of movies' - Peter Jackson
Last night, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson revealed that he was forming Wingnut Interactive - an off-shoot of his Wingnut Studios company - to explore partnerships with Microsoft Game Studios, including an original chapter of the Halo franchise
Last night, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson revealed that he was forming Wingnut Interactive - an off-shoot of his Wingnut Studios company - to explore partnerships with Microsoft Game Studios, including an original chapter of the Halo franchise with Bungie and a second, unnamed title for Xbox 360 and Live.
In a roundtable discussion with Peter Molyneux and Bioware's Dr Ray Muzyka this morning, Jackson expanded on his reasons, and said that his changing attitude to film led him to explore other options - of which games are one.
"I've got to the stage now where I just end up catching something on DVD and I'm more excited about games coming out in the next 2-3 months than films," he said.
"That created an awareness in me of the shift in entertainment options out there, and if I'm feeling that others are too." On his approach, he said that his ideas - stories, scenarios and so on - might not always be suitable for film, and that's what he intends to explore with Wingnut Interactive.
"We're not going to force a round peg in a square hole," he said.
On his choice of Xbox 360 as the platform, he told attendees at Microsoft's press conference last night that he saw Xbox 360 and Live as "an amazing living canvas ... which allows the storytellers of our time to express themselves in a new medium".
"From a movie-maker's point of view, it is clear to me that the Xbox 360 platform is the stage where storytellers can work their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books but taking it further with interactivity," he concluded.