The Hollywood moguls behind such films as "The Dark Knight," "Watchmen" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" are looking for their next blockbuster in a new realm: video games.
An increasing number of big shots from the movie business are seeing new opportunities in the $50-billion global interactive entertainment industry. Power producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Thomas Tull, as well as hot directors such as Gore Verbinski and Zack Snyder, have all recently dived into the still-growing game market.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, June 03, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Video games: An article in Monday's Business section about movie moguls entering the video game industry said director George Lucas founded his game studio, LucasArts, in 1982. Lucas founded a game studio called Lucasfilm Games in 1982 and changed the name of that studio to LucasArts in 1990.
The hordes descending on Los Angeles this week for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show known as E3, testify to the industry's growing cultural and financial clout. The Hollywood players are diving into games for new creative challenges but also because consumers are continuing to snap them up during the recession even as they cut back on some other media such as movie DVDs.
"We're in the entertainment business," said Bruckheimer, producer of such action films as "Top Gun" and "National Treasure." "We will entertain you in the theaters, on TV and on your game platforms."
Some game-industry insiders may feel like they've seen this movie before, and it didn't end well.
Hollywood's love affair with games dates to the 1970s, when Warner Communications bought Pong-maker Atari Inc. In 1982, George Lucas, intrigued by the technical magic involved in making interactive entertainment, started a studio called LucasArts that creates games based on the "Star Wars" and Indiana Jones movie franchises.
Six years later, Walt Disney Co. began its own computer game division. Steven Spielberg declared his ardor for games in 1995, creating DreamWorks Interactive in Los Angeles. And media tycoon Sumner Redstone began in the late 1990s to amass shares in Midway Games Inc., the Chicago developer of Mortal Kombat.
Happy endings were elusive. Warner shed Atari in 1984 after it bled nearly half a billion dollars. Spielberg sold his studio to Electronic Arts Inc. in 1999. And in November, Redstone liquidated his 87% stake in Midway for a mere $100,000 and claimed $800 million in losses. It's now in bankruptcy.
Only Lucas' and Disney's game studios have survived.
But this new crop of Hollywood suitors is promising to treat game development right.
"Media companies that have gotten into games in the past were somewhat ignorant of the process," said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which awards the game industry's equivalent of the Oscars. "That's no longer the case."
