About a year ago the trades reported that Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator director Paul W.S. Anderson will direct Spy-Hunter, the big budget adaptation of the popular Midway video game that revolves around a transforming supercar called the Interceptor.

At the time Anderson was suppose to be working with another writer to pen the project, which has already gone through several writers, including Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Zak Penn and Stuart Beattie. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has long been attached to play the secret agent behind the wheel of the vehicle. Back in 2004, John Woo was attached to helm the movie.

During Comic Con, Latino Review had the chance to sit down with Anderson to talk about his upcoming film Death Race, a redo of 1975's Death Race 2000, and managed to squeeze in a Spy-Hunter question. It looks like the bigscreen version of Spy-Hunter has taken a backseat because when asked about Spy Hunter and they way he answered the question to me at least, seems that he is not doing it anymore. He might write it but it sure looks like he will not be directing the project.

I’ve also been told from people who are close to the project is that Anderson is NOT doing the film and that he’s been off the project. I hope one way or another this project does happen already. Will the Rock still do the movie? Who knows. Will Universal Pictures still do the film? Who knows, maybe not. Will another studio pick up the project? Who knows.

Here is what he said when asked about Spy Hunter.

Does this (movie) prepare you to do another [car film] like Spy Hunter?

I had some what fun making this movie and I firmly believe this is the best, most spectacular car action I've ever seen in a film. I don't know if I'll ever do another car movie after this, because I really feel like we pushed it to the max and the only other car movie I’ll do is maybe a sequel to this, knock on wood, if this movie does well enough to deserve that. I really think we’ve kind of raised the bar when it comes to car action, we've done everything practical, we’ve done spectacular stunts, we’ve kept it R rated, really hard, we’ve had the actors do a lot of their own driving, so you know, I think we’ve really maxed our car movie, so I think we’ve laid down a challenge to any one else, I think we’re now the movie to beat.

Third Halo Concept Image
August 18, 2008

Check out the 3rd of five concept t art pieces for HALO: FALL OF REACH by concept artist Kasra Farahani.

Stuart Beattie’s proposed movie script is based on Halo: The Fall of Reach, a 2001 science fiction novel by Eric Nylund based on the Halo series of video games and acts as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series. It is set in the fictional Halo universe, taking place in the 26th century across several planets and locations. The novel details the events which led up to the game and explains the origins of the SPARTAN II super soldiers, narrating the story of the series protagonist, the Master Chief.

GamesToFilm: Spore
August 13, 2008

"With Spore, we're looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc. We're basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game," creator Will Wright said.

Spore begins in the primordial ooze, as players create a character from DNA that will grow, survive, and mate as it evolves from a single-celled organism to a fully-formed member of an establishing species. As more and more creatures inhabit the world, and as evolution forms the future, your species will join herds, clans, even civilizations. The more advanced the creatures of the planet grow, the more complex the strife of survival becomes.

While the player can continue gameplay in Spore at any level -- playing as a cell, as a wild creature, or as a civilized and organized society – players can also step even further out and play the game from the planetary or interstellar level, while also going online to connect worlds with other gamers.

Full Article:

Video game publishing giant Electronic Arts Inc (EA) wants to license television and movie rights to its soon-to-be released Spore game to boost sales, its creative guru Will Wright said on Wednesday. Struggling with tepid sales and flagging interest from gamers, loss-making EA is rethinking its traditional ways of developing and marketing games.

It is banking on an aggressive marketing campaign and a raft of other new titles, including Dead Space and Warhammer Online, to achieve its guidance for full-year net revenue of $5-$5.3 billion. Last month, the firm posted a narrower fiscal first-quarter loss as revenue doubled on strong sales of some video games, but the results fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

Spore, Wright's brainchild, is the industry's most hotly anticipated game. To be launched on September 7, it allows players to create empires and civilizations across galaxies, populated by creatures, buildings and spaceships. California-based EA, which publishes blockbusters such as the Sims and Need For Speed, is battling Activision and Blizzard for the title of the world's biggest video game maker. The company is in the midst of a hostile takeover bid for smaller rival Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

"With Spore, we're looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc. We're basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game," Wright told Reuters in an interview in Singapore during his Asian tour leading up to the game's launch.

Atlanta, Georgia-born Wright, who believes in aliens and has been fascinated by space travel since childhood, said Spore was inspired by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program in the United States. The computer game designer, who co-founded game development firm Maxis that was bought over by EA in 1997, is best-known for the Sims, where players can create their own home environments in which characters did mundane tasks like cooking meals and moving furniture.

"We're going to be much more intelligent about harvesting other market opportunities for Spore than we were with The Sims, which as big as it was in the game space, pretty much remains in the game space," said Wright. EA has sold over 100 million copies of The Sims video game franchise over its 8-year history.

"Longer term, I think the brand of Spore potentially has a wider net to cast than The Sims did," he added. Wright, whose favorite video game is the controversial Grand Theft Auto blockbuster series published by Take-Two, said personalized gaming would be the next big thing for the industry, after the focus on user-generated content.

"The computer could observe each player and capture a lot of metrics, which could be used to change the game so that it becomes personalized for him -- his game becomes a reflection of who he is internally. Computer gaming would be like having your own Spielberg, and his whole job in life would be to craft a personal entertainment experience just for you."

2nd Halo Concept Image
August 11, 2008

The first concept image can be viewed here or in the Gallery.

Gyllenhaal on the Prince of Persia Set
August 11, 2008

Gyllenhaal, with girlfriend Reese Witherspoon, was photographed in Morocco on Monday morning dressed as his character in Disney's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The fantasy adventure, based on Ubisoft's popular video game, is currently filming for a May 28, 2010 release.

Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, a young prince in sixth century Persia who must join forces with Tamina (Gemma Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley also co-star.