Ben Kingsley will play the villain in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer's feature adaptation of the Ubisoft videogame PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, per VARIETY.

Kingsley will play Nizam in the fantasy action flick, who plots to kill his brother King Shahrman and blame it on Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) so he can take over the throne.

Gemma Arterton and Alfred Molina also are playing leads. The film, under direction from Mike Newell, starts filming in July in Morocco and England and will be released next year.

Summer movies mean big videogame tie-ins, and this week Janet Hetherington reports on how IRON MAN, SPEED RACER, LEGO INDIANA JONES, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN and others create their own unique adventures. Also, summer movies require extensive previs, and we have an inside look at some of the planning and problem solving that went into IRON MAN, SPEED RACER and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Plus, we additionally have Alain Bielik's interviews with Dean Wright and Wendy Rogers about raising the vfx bar on PRINCE CASPIAN.

Comics publisher Devil's Due and Capcom have signed a deal to turn some of Capcom's popular video games, starting with BIONIC COMMANDO and LOST PLANET, into graphic novels.

The first in the four-property deal will be BIONIC COMMANDO, VARIETY reports, with writer Justin Marks hired on for writing duties.

Marks has been busy recently spinning pop culture properties into pictures, including VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE, HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, GREEN ARROW: ESCAPE FROM SUPERMAX and Fox's upcoming STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LI.

Columbia Pictures has acquired from Scholastic Media the right to adapt Scholastic's bestselling GOOSEBUMPS book series into a theatrical feature. The film will be produced by Deborah Forte and Neal Moritz.

GOOSEBUMPS is one of the most popular series of books for children ever -- in fact, only the HARRY POTTER novels have surpassed GOOSEBUMPS in total sales.

Goosebumps has been published in 32 languages and sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

Tapping the talents of two of Hollywood's rising young stars, JoWooD and DreamCatcher Games with Resnick Interactive Development, announced that they have signed on teen media titans Jesse McCartney and Cody Linley to lend their talents as the voices of Frank and Joe Hardy in the forthcoming PC game, THE HARDY BOYS: THE HIDDEN THEFT.

2K Games announced today that it has reached an agreement with Universal Pictures to develop a feature film based on the hit videogame BIOSHOCK. Gore Verbinski, director of the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN trilogy, is slated to direct and produce. John Logan, Academy Award-nominated writer of GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR and SWEENEY TODD, is in talks to pen the screenplay. The expected release date and terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Sierra Ent., a division of Vivendi Games, today announced the development of THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, a videogame based on the Universal Pictures' production. The game, which will mirror the film, is being developed by Eurocom Studios for the Wii and PlayStation 2 and by A2M for Nintendo DS. THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR game was created through a licensing agreement with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group.

Legislators are using the whirlwind surrounding GRAND THEFT AUTO IV to present a bill that would require ID checks for the purchase of mature-rated videogames, reports VARIETY. House representatives Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah) presented the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act on May 7th.

SPEED RACER: THE VIDEOGAME, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Ent., hits stores across North America today on Wii and Nintendo DS.

Based on the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film directed by the Wachowskis, SPEED RACER: THE VIDEOGAME features the voices of Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer, Matthew Fox as Racer X and Christina Ricci as Trixie, who reprise their film roles as playable characters.

Martin Tremblay has been named President, Warner Bros. Interactive Ent., it was announced today by Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Ent. Group, to whom he will directly report.

In his new post, Tremblay will set the long-term direction of the studio’s worldwide interactive entertainment strategy. He will oversee publishing, marketing, sales and distribution, licensing and business development of the Studio’s interactive entertainment product. Tremblay will begin work at Warner Bros. in July 2008.

Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre will be featured as the cover athlete of MADDEN NFL 09, coming to stores across North America on August 12 from EA Sports.

MADDEN NFL 09 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed videogame franchises of all time, and the game will feature adaptable gameplay tailored to every type of gamer, online enhancements and a broadcast style presentation delivering an authentic NFL experience.

Darrell Rodriguez has been named president of LucasArts, the videogame division of Lucasfilm Ltd., it was announced today by Lucasfilm President Micheline Chau.

He replaces Jim Ward, who stepped down in February.

"Darrell is the ideal person to run LucasArts," Chau said. "Having worked at both Electronic Arts and Disney Imagineering he brings the perfect blend of production, operational, and creative expertise. For a games company such as LucasArts with its roots in film, this is an electric combination."

The official website for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, an intensely realistic third-person action video game soon to be available on all major video-game platforms in June 2008, is now live.

Check out the website at: http://incrediblehulkthegame.com.

Fueled with fury, SEGA's THE INCREDIBLE HULK features key moments from the film, as well as additional plotlines and characters from the character's rich comic-book universe. Players smash through New York City, battling gigantic enemies amidst soaring skyscrapers in a massive open world.

Two GDH titles, THE TOWER OF DRUAGA - THE AEGIS OF URUK and BLASSREITER, two new animated series produced by its main production subsidiary GONZO K.K. will be made available online for viewers overseas on the same day of TV broadcast in Japan.

Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, has closed an agreement with Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Clancy name.

The agreement is on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products.

The price of the all-cash acquisition was not currently disclosed.

Take-Two Interactive's board has refused to accept Electronic Arts' $2 billion acquisition offer, so EA is turning hostile, VARIETY reports.

The largest videogame publisher went directly to the Take-Two shareholders on Thursday, offering them $26 per share.

The move wasn't surprising as EA had already revealed its offer to the public last month, an amount Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick said was too low.

EA's bid now represents a 64 percent premium over the last day of trading before the offer was first made.

The 1970s-era sci-fi fantasy magazine HEAVY METAL will be the inspiration for a Paramount Pictures animated film, led by director David Fincher, according to VARIETY.

The magazine was known for erotic and violent storylines and images, and introduced the work of American artists and writers - including Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison and H.R. Giger.

Eight or nine different segments will be created for the film, each with a different director.

Toon Radio and Limelight Media announce the return of ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT after a three-year hiatus.

The Japanese anime and videogame music radio show has been on local terrestrial radio and has been recording new episodes since January 2008.

It will resume broadcasting on the Toon Radio internet radio station (www.toonradio.net) on March 15, 2008.

On the air since 1997, Anime in the Limelight is a 30 to 60 minute Japanese animation music and Japanese pop culture show.

To mark the launch of the inaugural GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS: GAMER'S EDITION 2008, some of the nation's best players of GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK convened in New York City for a mesmerizing record-breaking jam session.

When the dust settled, one of the best GUITAR HERO players in the world, Chris Chike, age 16 from Rochester, Minnesota, walked away with a new Guinness World Record for the "Highest Score for a Single Song on GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK"

Director Mike Newell will shoot action-adventure flick PRINCE OF PERSIA: SANDS OF TIME in Morocco, VARIETY reports.

The video-game based film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney from a script by THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff and game creator Jordan Mechner.

Disney hopes to create a new franchise a la PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN from the video game's six installments and numerous spin-offs.