The Next Frontier: successful videogames like Halo 2 are the basis for a new crop of upcoming Hollywood movies. All Halo 2 images courtesy of Bungie Studios.

If the number of properties in development is any indication, console and PC videogames look to be the next frontier for Hollywood studios seeking stories and characters to translate into film. Leading videogame titles from Doom to Spy Hunter are being transferred to the big screen as the lines blur between videogames, films and other entertainment media.

A lot of people in Hollywood are looking at videogames as the next phenomenon,” says Reilly Brennan, director of media relations at Midway Games. “They have a built-in fan base and the fans are passionate about the franchise.” Gamers tend to go online and discuss upcoming game-based films during development and production, which drives word-of-mouth and boosts opening weekend box office.

The sheer size and loyalty of the videogame customer base makes these properties attractive to the entertainment industry. In 2004, consumers purchased $7.3 billion worth of console, PC and handheld videogame software, according to figures compiled by the NPD Group for the Entertainment Software Association. Halo 2, one of the best-selling games of that year, generated $125 million in retail sales on its first day of availability. That compares to $40.4 million in box office take for the hit film Spider-Man 2 on its first day in theaters.

Videogames have also become part of pop culture. MTV has a series called MTV Video Mods, where videogame characters star in music videos, lip synching to pop artists. Meanwhile, Playboy’s September 2004 issue featured a spread of female videogame characters in provocative poses. “They had a very big media-focused explosion around that issue,” says Liz Buckley, senior product manager at Majesco Entertainment, whose BloodRayne is being developed into a film and whose lead character appeared in both Playboy and MTV Video Mods. “That shows the mass-market appeal of videogame characters these days.”

BloodRayne’s appeal to both men and women gamers will hopefully translate to big box office at the end of the year when a feature film starring Kristanna Loken and Ben Kingsley is released. Courtesy of Majesco Ent.

Crossing the Lines
Many videogame companies are looking at their properties, from the start, as having cross-media potential. BloodRayne was one of Majesco’s first original intellectual properties. “We always planned it as a franchise with legs. Franchises resonate well with our target,” says Buckley. Fans look for sequels, she explains, and are interested in seeing their favorite characters in TV, comicbooks or films.

BloodRayne was published in 2002 and the sequel, BloodRayne 2, in 2004. A Sony PSP version is in development for later this year. Majesco is also looking at another of its proprietary properties, Advent Rising, a 2005 release with script by sci-fi novelist Orson Scott Card, for potential in other media.

Majesco’s work to extend BloodRayne into mass-market media paid off when it was approached by Uwe Boll, a German director known for his work on videogame-based films including Artisan Entertainment’s House of the Dead, based on a Sega property, and Atari’s Alone in the Dark. A distributor has just been signed for the BloodRayne movie, which will be released at the end of the year and stars Kristanna Loken, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Madsen.